Reframing technical change: Livestock fodder scarcity revisited as innovation capacity scarcity - A conceptual framework

This document is an output from the Fodder Innovation Project (FIP) – Phase II funded by the Department for International Development, (DFID), UK.This document, divided into three sections, develops a conceptual framework for a project on livestock fodder innovation – the Fodder Innovation Project (FIP). Livestock is important to the livelihoods of poor people in many regions of the developing world. A generic problem found across this diverse range of production and marketing contexts is the shortage of fodder. This paper argues that to address this problem it is necessary to frame the question of fodder shortage not from the perspective of information and technological scarcity, but from the perspective of capacity scarcity in relation to fodder innovation. To support this position the first section presents case studies of experience, from an earlier fodder innovation project, that suggest that while fodder technology is important, it is not enough. There is a large institutional dimension to bringing about innovation, particularly with respect to the effectiveness of networks and alliances needed to put technology into use. The second section begins by reviewing the evolving paradigms of agricultural research and innovation over the last 30 years or so and explains the emergence and relevance of the innovation systems concept to agricultural development. It then presents a framework for exploring fodder innovation capacity, with particular emphasis on the patterns of interaction needed for innovation and the policy and institutional settings needed to enable these processes. The third section reviews the wide range of existing tools available to investigate institutional change. It then recommends that an eclectic approach of mixing and matching tools to the emerging circumstances of the research is the best way forward

Variations in biological characteristics of temperate gonochoristic species of Platycephalidae and their implications: A review

This review provides a composite account of the biological characteristics of the temperate gonochoristic species of the Platycephalidae. Initially, data were obtained for the five abundant platycephalid species in south-western Australia, which each came from either over bare substrata or seagrass and from either estuaries, marine coastal waters or marine embayments. The von Bertalanffy growth curves for females and males of each species differed significantly, with females having a greater TL∞ and lower growth coefficient k. From tests using their upper deciles, the total length (TL) attained by the largest females of each species was significantly greater than that of their males, whereas such a trend did not occur with age. The ratio of females to males in each abundant age class, and overall, exceeded parity for four of the five species (typically P < 0.001) and increased with increasing TL. Mortality estimates, which were similar for each sex of each species, suggest that Platycephalus speculator has been substantially exploited in a seasonally-closed estuary in which it completes its whole life cycle. The above and other biological data for the five species were collated with those published previously for two of those species and five other platycephalid species in south-eastern Australia and one in Japan and another in the Suez Canal, yielding the following conclusions for gonochoristic species of the Platycephalidae. Females attain a larger size than males, the extent varying markedly among species, whereas the longevities of the two sexes of each platycephalid species are similar. The maximum TLs and ages of the various species range widely, with values for females, for example, extending from 221 mm for Ambiserrula jugosa to 985 mm for Platycephalus fuscus and from four years for A. jugosa to 26 years for Platycephalus conatus. The overall ratio of females to males is positively related to the extent to which both the maximum TLs and TL∞s of the females exceed those of males. The above trends imply that growth, rather than differences in longevity and/or mortality, is the main factor contributing to the marked differences in sex ratios, which ranged widely from parity to 3.2:1. As the length at maturity, but not typically age at maturity, was greater for females than males, maturity is also related mainly to growth. The spawning periods of the various species overlapped, commencing as early as late winter/early spring, as temperatures started rising with four species and later in late spring/early summer with the three species found in estuaries, which would be advantageous as spawning in estuaries would occur when environmental conditions are most favourable for spawning success and larval retention

Effect of La doping on magnetic structure in heavy fermion CeRhIn5

The magnetic structure of Ce0.9La0.1RhIn5 is measured using neutron diffraction. It is identical to the incommensurate transverse spiral for CeRhIn5, with a magnetic wave vector q_M=(1/2,1/2,0.297), a staggered moment of 0.38(2)Bohr magneton per Ce at 1.4K and a reduced Neel temperature of 2.7 K.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Conf. SCES'200

3rd International conference on neglected and underutilized species (NUS): for a food-secure Africa. Accra, Ghana, 25-27 September 2013. Proceedings

The '3rd international conference on neglected and underutilized species: for a food-secure Africa' was held on 25-27 September in Accra, Ghana. These proceedings include 30 papers presented at the conference, organized under the themes: 1. Resilience of agricultural and livelihood systems -- with sub-themes on agronomy, conservation, climate change, health and nutrition; 2. Upgrading value chains on NUS; 3. Creating an enabling policy environment

Determination of two-photon exchange amplitudes from elastic electron-proton scattering data

Using the available cross section and polarization data for elastic electron-proton scattering, we provide an extraction of the two-photon exchange amplitudes at a common value of four-momentum transfer, around Q^2 = 2.5 GeV^2. This analysis also predicts the e^+ p / e^- p elastic scattering cross section ratio, which will be measured by forthcoming experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, updated error analysi

Equivalence of the (generalised) Hadamard and microlocal spectrum condition for (generalised) free fields in curved spacetime

We prove that the singularity structure of all n-point distributions of a state of a generalised real free scalar field in curved spacetime can be estimated if the two-point distribution is of Hadamard form. In particular this applies to the real free scalar field and the result has applications in perturbative quantum field theory, showing that the class of all Hadamard states is the state space of interest. In our proof we assume that the field is a generalised free field, i.e. that it satisies scalar (c-number) commutation relations, but it need not satisfy an equation of motion. The same argument also works for anti-commutation relations and it can be generalised to vector-valued fields. To indicate the strengths and limitations of our assumption we also prove the analogues of a theorem by Borchers and Zimmermann on the self-adjointness of field operators and of a very weak form of the Jost-Schroer theorem. The original proofs of these results in the Wightman framework make use of analytic continuation arguments. In our case no analyticity is assumed, but to some extent the scalar commutation relations can take its place.Comment: 18 page

Study of (a,ax) Reactions Induced by 200 MeV a-Particles

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY 81-14339 and by Indiana Universit

Dynamics of Vortex Dipoles in Confined Bose-Einstein Condensates

We present a systematic theoretical analysis of the motion of a pair of straight counter-rotating vortex lines within a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate. We introduce the dynamical equations of motion, identify the associated conserved quantities, and illustrate the integrability of the ensuing dynamics. The system possesses a stationary equilibrium as a special case in a class of exact solutions that consist of rotating guiding-center equilibria about which the vortex lines execute periodic motion; thus, the generic two-vortex motion can be classified as quasi-periodic. We conclude with an analysis of the linear and nonlinear stability of these stationary and rotating equilibria.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Lett.