Enhancing the food security of the peri-urban and urban poor through improvements to the quality, safety and economics of street-vended foods

There has been a continuing growth in urbanisation in developing countries, and governments’ face a major challenge in ensuring that city dwellers are able to procure sufficient food. Street foods are sold in almost every country in the world. In most towns and cities in Ghana, selling of snacks and whole meals on the streets is an important way to obtain income, especially among the poor women. Street foods have a long tradition in most countries. The role of this sector in the urbanisation process and the urban economy reflects the way of life and the survival and coping strategies adopted in most African cities. Some earlier studies on street food vending in Ghana have taken place. The FAO and WHO have funded these. Unfortunately, the studies did not include potential food safety concerns such as the presence of heavy metals, pesticide residues and the presence of mycotoxins. The studies did not also examine the contribution of these informal microenterprises to the Ghanaian economy. The DFID/NRI/FRI project on improved street-vended foods was a one-year exploratory study aimed at assessing the safety and quality of food sold in Accra as well as estimates the contribution of this sector to the national economy of Ghana. The project complemented previous work carried on the sector by other workers. This workshop was therefore organized to present findings and identifies new areas where further knowledge is required. As part of this dissemination, key stakeholders of the streetfood vending business in Ghana made short presentations on the status of the foods sold in Accra. These short presentations are also included in this report.Streetfood; microenterprises; mycotoxins; public health; economics; Organochlorines; Poverty

Predictors of Clients' Satisfaction with Delivery of Animal Health Care Services in Periurban Ghana

The study used logistic regression modelling to determine predictors of satisfaction with delivery of animal health care services for 889 clients (livestock and poultry keepers) in periurban Ghana. Of the 15 indicators tested as predictors of satisfaction in this study, 8 were included in the best fit model. These were accessibility, availability of services, service charge, effectiveness, efficiency, quality of services, meeting client needs, and getting help. Efficiency and effectiveness were perceived by the respondents to be synonymous, as were service quality and effectiveness, as suggested by ORs > 10 when cross tabulated. Therefore, one or the other could be used in future studies but not both to avoid collinearity. The identified predictors could be targeted for improvement in quality of service delivery to livestock and poultry keepers in Ghana

Decision support system towards integrated water resource management for Jaunpur basin, Uttar Pradesh, India

The concept of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), which has been successful in Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, is transferred to India through World Bank loan assistance. Uttar Pradesh, one of the states in India has formulated Uttar Pradesh Water Sector Restructuring Project (UPWRSP) in view of implementing IWRM. This report reviews one of the UPWRSP components, the Decision Support System (DSS) component which is being implemented in Jaunpur Sub-Basin of Gaghara-Gomti Basin of Uttar Pradesh, chosen as the pilot basin for implementation of IWRM

Numerical approximation of a coagulation-fragmentation model for animal group size statistics

We study numerically a coagulation-fragmentation model derived by Niwa [17] and further elaborated by Degond et al. [5]. In [5] a unique equi- librium distribution of group sizes is shown to exist in both cases of continuous and discrete group size distributions. We provide a numerical investigation of these equilibria using three different methods to approximate the equilibrium: a recursive algorithm based on the work of Ma et. al. [12], a Newton method and the resolution of the time-dependent problem. All three schemes are val- idated by showing that they approximate the predicted small and large size asymptotic behaviour of the equilibrium accurately. The recursive algorithm is used to investigate the transition from discrete to continuous size distributions and the time evolution scheme is exploited to show uniform convergence to equilibrium in time and to determine convergence rates

Kinetic models for topological nearest-neighbor interactions

We consider systems of agents interacting through topological interactions. These have been shown to play an important part in animal and human behavior. Precisely, the system consists of a finite number of particles characterized by their positions and velocities. At random times a randomly chosen particle, the follower, adopts the velocity of its closest neighbor, the leader. We study the limit of a system size going to infinity and, under the assumption of propagation of chaos, show that the limit kinetic equation is a non-standard spatial diffusion equation for the particle distribution function. We also study the case wherein the particles interact with their K closest neighbors and show that the corresponding kinetic equation is the same. Finally, we prove that these models can be seen as a singular limit of the smooth rank-based model previously studied in Blanchet and Degond (J Stat Phys 163:41–60, 2016). The proofs are based on a combinatorial interpretation of the rank as well as some concentration of measure arguments

Phase Transitions in a Kinetic Flocking Model of Cucker-Smale Type

We consider a collective behavior model in which individuals try to imitate each others' velocity and have a preferred speed. We show that a phase change phenomenon takes place as diffusion decreases, bringing the system from a “disordered” to an “ordered” state. This effect is related to recently noticed phenomena for the diffusive Vicsek model. We also carry out numerical simulations of the system and give further details on the phase transition

Asymptotic-Preserving methods and multiscale models for plasma physics

The purpose of the present paper is to provide an overview of As ymptotic- Preserving methods for multiscale plasma simulations by ad dressing three sin- gular perturbation problems. First, the quasi-neutral lim it of fluid and kinetic models is investigated in the framework of non magnetized as well as magne- tized plasmas. Second, the drift limit for fluid description s of thermal plasmas under large magnetic fields is addressed. Finally efficient nu merical resolutions of anisotropic elliptic or diffusion equations arising in ma gnetized plasma simu- lation are reviewed

Modelling tissue self-organization: from micro to macro models

In this chapter, we present recent works concerned with the derivation of a macroscopic model for complex interconnected fiber networks from an agent-based model, with applications to, but not limited to, adipose tissue self-organization. Starting from an agent-based model for interconnected fibers interacting through alignment interactions and having the ability to create and suppress cross-links, the formal limit of large number of individuals is first investigated. It leads to a kinetic system of two equations: one for the individual fiber distribution function and one for the distribution function of connected fiber pairs. The hydrodynamic limit, in a regime of instantaneous fiber linking/unlinking then leads to a macroscopic model describing the evolution of the fiber local density and mean orientation. These works are the first attempt to derive a macroscopic model for interconnected fibers from an agent-based formulation and represent a first step towards the formulation of a large scale synthetic tissue model which will serve for the investigation of large scale effects in tissue homeostasis

Enhancing the Properties of Soil Bricks by Stabilizing with Corn Husk Ash

A study was conducted to investigate the potential of corn husk ash as an enhancer for the production of soil blocks for low cost housing. Five different levels of stabilisation (0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%) using corn husk ash were adopted for this study. Fifteen blocks were moulded for each stabilisation level. In all a total of 75 blocks were moulded and subjected to the compressive strength, abrasion resistance and water absorption by capillarity tests after curing for 28 days and compared with the relevant standards of compressive earth blocks. In general, there was a significant improvement in the compressive strength characteristics of the stabilized soil blocks. From the compressive strength test results, compressive strengths of 4.177MPa, 4.380MPa and 4.053MPa were obtained for blocks admixed with 0%, 5% and 10% corn husk ash respectively. Soil blocks mixed with 20% corn husk ash had the highest compressive strength of 5.311MPa followed by blocks which had 15% corn husk ash addition also with a compressive strength of 4.917MPa. The water exclusion and the abrasion resistance properties also showed significant improvement as the quantity of corn husk ash increases. There was a significantly strong negative correlation of 0.754 existed between the abrasion coefficients and the water absorption coefficients of the soil blocks. Stabilizing of soil with corn husk ash can improve the properties of soil  and soil blocks making the suitable for use as a building material for the construction of load bearing walls. Keywords: Corn husk ash, Soil stabilised brick, Abrasion resistance, Water absorption by capillarity, Compressive strengt