Assessment of Income Generating Activities (IGAs)

Graduate Research Experience in Lundazi and Mansa, Zambia during 2018https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148300/1/HaEunLee.pd

The Human Rights Context of North Korean Movement to China: Rights, Law, and Diplomacy

This thesis examines the geostrategic contexts that influence China’s policy decisions to not recognize North Korean escapees in China as refugees. Due to China’s unwillingness to recognize the rights of North Korean escapees, the international community criticizes China for its violations of international refugee laws. However, public censure has failed to persuade China to reconsider its treatment of North Korean escapees. This thesis argues that the complicated diplomatic relationships and entangled national interests between China, North Korea, and other concerned countries has resulted in the Chinese government not recognizing North Koreans in China as refugees. The author contends that rather than merely condemning or taking a hardline policy against China, the other states that want China to comply with refugee laws should maintain a dialogue and pursue cooperation to solve this refugee problem. Chapter 1 defines important terms regarding the North Korean refugee crisis and provides relevant background information. Chapter 2 analyzes conflicting views about this issue among key members of the international community such as the Statute of Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), North Korea and China. Chapter 3 illustrates China’s violations of international human rights laws while maintaining regional security and its economic benefits, despite international criticism. Chapters 4 to 6 demonstrate where the United States, South Korea, and China, respectively, stand on this issue in a geopolitical context. Along with literature from the west regarding China’s violations, this thesis incorporates China’s perspective based on literature from Korea and China to present more diverse perspectives on this matter. A new term to describe this particular group of North Koreans in China is proposed and used throughout this thesis: “North Korean Escapees in China (NKEC),” with consideration of their unique situation. This thesis hopes to speak on behalf of the many voiceless NKEC, and increase awareness among the international community of the deplorable situations that NKEC have to endure.International Relations and Global Studie

Performance of a lead rubber damper under cyclic shear loading and its applicability to a full-scale structure

In this paper, we investigate the performance of a new lead rubber damper (LRD) and its applicability to a full-scale structure. This device is more advanced than existing lead-rubber based isolation devices. In contrast to the existing devices, multiple lead cores are installed in the LRD in order to enhance the performance of the laminated rubber and lead. It is able to perform effectively under the application of shear force. An experiment was performed to investigate its dependency on the level of shear strain and frequency. The applicability of this new device to a full-scale structure is also examined by performing a vibration test on a five floor modal-test tower

Tributyrin and anise mixture supplementation improves growth performance, nutrient digestibility, jejunal villus height, and fecal microbiota in weaned pigs

IntroductionThe objective of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of tributyrin and anise mixture (TA) on growth performance, apparent nutrient digestibility, fecal noxious gas emission, fecal score, jejunal villus height, hematology parameters, and fecal microbiota of weaned pigs.MethodsA total of 150 21-day-old crossbred weaned pigs [(Landrace × Yorkshire) × Duroc] were used in a randomized complete block design experiment. All pigs were randomly assigned to 3 groups based on the initial body weight (6.19 ± 0.29 kg). Each group had 10 replicate pens with 5 pigs (three barrows and two gilts) per pen. The experimental period was 42 days and consisted of 3 phases (phase 1, days 1–7; phase 2, days 8–21; phase 3, days 22–42). Dietary treatments were based on a corn-soybean meal-basal diet and supplemented with 0.000, 0.075, or 0.150% TA.Results and discussionWe found that dietary supplementation of graded levels of TA linearly improved body weight, body weight gain, average daily feed intake, and feed efficiency (P < 0.05). TA supplementation also had positive effects on apparent dry matter, crude protein, and energy digestibility (P < 0.05) and jejunal villus height (P < 0.05). The emission of ammonia from feces decreased linearly with the dose of TA increased (P < 0.05). Moreover, TA supplementation was capable to regulate the fecal microbiota diversity, manifesting in a linearly increased Chao1 index and observed species and a linearly decreased Pielou's index (P < 0.05). The abundance of Lactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus amylovorus, Clostridium butyricum were increased, while the abundance of Prevotella copri was decreased, by treatment (P < 0.05). Therefore, we speculated that TA supplementation would improve growth performance and reduce fecal ammonia emission through improving nutrient digestibility, which was attributed to the increase of jejunal villus height and the regulation of fecal microbiota