Armed violence and poverty in El Salvador: a mini case study for the Armed Violence and Poverty Initiative

YesThis report on El Salvador is one of 13 case studies (all of the case studies can be found at www.bradford.ac.uk/cics). This research draws upon secondary data sources including existing research studies, reports and evaluations commissioned by operational agencies, and early warning and survey data where this has been available. These secondary sources have been complemented by interviews with government officers, aid policymakers and practitioners, researchers and members of the local population. The analysis and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or policy of DFID or the UK government

Developing non-destructive techniques to predict 'Hayward' kiwifruit storability : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Food Technology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

A significant portion of New Zealand’s kiwifruit production is held as stock in local coolstores for extended periods of time before being exported. Many pre-harvest factors contribute to variation in fruit quality at harvest and during coolstorage, and results in the difficulty in segregating fruit for their storage outcomes. The objective of this work was to develop non-destructive techniques utilised at harvest to predict storability of individual or batches of ‘Hayward’ kiwifruit based on (near) skin properties. Segregation of fruit with low storage potential at harvest could enable that fruit to be sold earlier in the season reducing total fruit loss and improving profitability later in the season. The potential for optical coherence tomography (OCT) to detect near surface cellular structural differences in kiwifruit as a result of preharvest factors was demonstrated through quantitative image analysis of 3D OCT images of intact fruit from five commercial cultivars. Visualisation and characterisation of large parenchyma cells in the outer pericarp of kiwifruit was achieved by developing an automated image processing technique. This work established the usefulness of OCT to perform rapid analysis and differentiation of the microstructures of sub-surface cells between kiwifruit cultivars. However, the effects of preharvest conditions between batches of fruit within a cultivar were not detectable from image analysis and hence, the ability to provide segregation or prediction for fruit from the same cultivar was assumed to be limited. Total soluble solids concentration (TSS) and flesh firmness (FF) are two important quality attributes indicating the eating quality and storability of stored kiwifruit. Prediction of TSS and FF using non-destructive techniques would allow strategic marketing of fruit. This work demonstrated that visible-near-infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy could be utilised as the sole input at harvest, to provide quantitative prediction of post-storage TSS by generating blackbox regression models. However the level of accuracy achieved was not adequate for online sorting purposes. Quantitative prediction of FF remained unsuccessful. Improved ways of physical measurements for FF may help reduce the undesirable variation observed on the same fruit and increase prediction capability. More promising results were obtained by developing blackbox classification models using Vis-NIR spectroscopy at harvest to segregate storability of individual kiwifruit based on the export FF criterion of 1 kgf (9.8 N). Through appropriate machine learning techniques, the surface properties of fruit at harvest captured in the form of spectral data were correlated to post-storage FF via pattern recognition. The best prediction was obtained for fruit stored at 0°C for 125 days: approximately 50% of the soft fruit and 80% of the good fruit could be identified. The developed model was capable of performing classification both within (at the fruit level) and between grower lines. Model validation suggested that segregation between grower lines at harvest achieved 30% reduction in soft fruit after storage. Should the model be applied in the industry to enable sequential marketing, $11.2 million NZD/annum could be saved because of reduced fruit loss, repacking and condition checking costs

Recent Results of psi(2S) Decays at BES

Using 14 million psi(2S) data sample collected with BES at BEPC, psi(2S)-> VT, K_long K_short(also J/psi -> K_long K_short), and chi_cJ -> Baryon anti-Baryon decays are measured and compared with theoretical model predications.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Talk given at X. International Conference On Hadron Spectroscopy (HADRON'03),Aschaffenburg, Germany,Aug.31 - Sep.6, 200

Stochastic Biasing and Galaxy-Mass Density Relation in the Weakly Non-linear Regime

It is believed that the biasing of the galaxies plays an important role for understanding the large-scale structure of the universe. In general, the biasing of galaxy formation could be stochastic. Furthermore, the future galaxy survey might allow us to explore the time evolution of the galaxy distribution. In this paper, the analytic study of the galaxy-mass density relation and its time evolution is presented within the framework of the stochastic biasing. In the weakly non-linear regime, we derive a general formula for the galaxy-mass density relation as a conditional mean using the Edgeworth expansion. The resulting expression contains the joint moments of the total mass and galaxy distributions. Using the perturbation theory, we investigate the time evolution of the joint moments and examine the influence of the initial stochasticity on the galaxy-mass density relation. The analysis shows that the galaxy-mass density relation could be well-approximated by the linear relation. Compared with the skewness of the galaxy distribution, we find that the estimation of the higher order moments using the conditional mean could be affected by the stochasticity. Therefore, the galaxy-mass density relation as a conditional mean should be used with a caution as a tool for estimating the skewness and the kurtosis.Comment: 22 pages, 7 Encapusulated Postscript Figures, aastex, The title and the structure of the paper has been changed, Results and conclusions unchanged, Accepted for publication in Ap

ནང་ཁྲོམ་པ་རང་གི་སྐྱིད་ཞིག་རེད།

.wav audio fileThis song expresses the wish that people will have a peaceful life. It is usually sung at celebratory gatherings but is also sung by herders in the pasture to entertain themselves and each other. 这首歌表达了希望人们会有平安的一生。一般在聚会的时候唱这首歌，但是在草原上的牧民也唱着这首歌娱乐他们的生活。 གླུ་འདིའི་ནང་དུ་མི་རྣམས་ལ་བདེ་འཇགས་ཀྱི་མི་ཚེ་ཞིག་ཡོད་པའི་རེ་བ་བཏོན་པ་བརྗོད་ཡོད་པ་དང་སྤྱིར་ལྷན་འཛོམས་ཀྱི་དུས་སུ་ལེན་པའི་གླུ་ཞིག་ཡིན་པ་མ་ཟད་ད་དུང་རྩྭ་ཐང་གི་འབྲོག་མིས་ཁོ་ཚོའི་ཕན་ཚུན་བར་གྱི་འཚོ་བའི་སྤྲོ་བ་བསྐྱེད་ཕྱིར་ལེན་པའི་གླུ་ཞིག་ཀྱང་ཡིན། This collection contains one wedding song, three dancing songs, three modern folk songs, and eleven traditional folk songs recorded by 'Brug mo rgyal in the Tibetan village of Zhongku Zhase, Wendu Township, Xunhua County, Qinghai Province, PR China

ཨ་ནེ་མནའ་མ་བུ་མོ་གསུམ།

.wav audio fileThis song describes the close relationships within the family and is thought to be at least one hundred years old. 这首歌叙述了和睦的家庭中的关系。这首歌至少也有一百年之久的历史。 གླུ་འདིས་ཁྱིམ་ཚང་ནང་གི་འབྲེལ་བ་ལེགས་པོ་དེ་བརྗོད་ཡོད་པ་དང་ གླུ་འདི་ཉུང་མཐར་ཡང་ལོ་ངོ་བརྒྱ་ལྷག་འདས་ཡོད་སྙམ། This collection contains one wedding song, three dancing songs, three modern folk songs, and eleven traditional folk songs recorded by 'Brug mo rgyal in the Tibetan village of Zhongku Zhase, Wendu Township, Xunhua County, Qinghai Province, PR China

Love Song 11

.wav and .mp3 versions of audio fileThis song is sung to begin a session of love song singing. This song is never sung at public celebratory gatherings, as relatives might be present and it is taboo to sing such songs in the presence of relatives. 这首歌是情歌的开头部分。在村里的庆祝聚会上绝不会 唱这首歌，特别是和亲戚待在一起时这是禁忌的。 གླུ་འདི་ནི་ལ་གཞས་ཀྱི་གླུ་མགོ་ཡིན། གླུ་འདི་སྡེ་བའི་དགའ་སྟོན་གྱི་སྟེང་དང་ལྷག་པར་དུ་ གཉེན་ཉེས་ཀྱི་མཉམ་དུ་བསྡད་ཡོད་དུས་ལེན་མི་རུང་བ་ཞིག་ཡིན། This collection contains four folk songs and sixteen love songs collected in Dkyil 'khor Bar skor Village, Bis mdo Township, Ya rdzi County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, PR China by Lha mo 'tsho in October 2007