Conservation Agriculture and Scale of Appropriate Agricultural Mechanization in Smallholder Systems

This manual has focused on the need to amplify and accelerate adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) practices that enable productivity increases on a sustainable basis. The development of the training manual on ‘Conservation Agriculture and Scale Appropriate Agricultural Mechanization in Smallholder Systems’ is an outcome of the series of advanced training programs on Conservation Agriculture over past one decade. The objectives of this training manual are; (1) To foster capacity building of researchers, extension workers, farmers and machinery manufacturers to promote CA in Asia and Africa; and (2) To raise the awareness of policy planners and decision makers to develop a strategic plan for the development of CA and agricultural mechanization in the developing world. There are several initiatives in South Asia and Africa to promote CA practices as environment-friendly and alternative to conventional agriculture. However, little has been done to document the CA practices or even lessons learnt from these initiatives. Farmers today still lack access to information on CA practices. This is a comprehensive manual that explains in a step by step easy to follow manner on how to implement CA by smallholders in Asia and Africa. It explains what CA is, and why it is important, how to use CA principles in the field and highlights the issues and challenges that researchers, farmers, machinery manufacturers and service providers may encounter when they adopt and adapt CA practices. This manual aims to be a valuable reference and is intended for use by researchers, agricultural extension officers/workers, farmers, machinery manufacturers and service providers to promote CA in Asia and Africa for increasing productivity and reducing poverty. It is written in clear, easy-to-understand language, and is illustrated with numerous figures and tables. It is not intended to cover the subject of conservation agriculture comprehensively but to provide an overview of the principles and practices. Indeed, as the training draws from many distinct disciplines, it is unlikely that any one person will have the necessary technical skills to cover the complete course content. Manual also focuses on two crucial aspects: the provision of farm mechanization services as a viable business opportunity for entrepreneurs, and the essential criteria of raising productivity in an environmentally sensitive and responsible way. This manual is also designed to serve as source of information for custom hire service providers – whether already in the business or intending to start their own hire service business – with skills and competencies in both the technical and the management aspects of the small-scale mechanization business. CA to reach smallholder farmers needed the publication of simplified technical manual. This manual contains useful technical information on CA practices that offer practical answers to questions normally asked by farmers of what, why, how

Multivariable averaging level control

This thesis studies the multivariable averaging level control problem by developing and comparing various controller design techniques. Due to obvious safety and economic considerations, the level of a surge tank must never be allowed to overflow or become empty, while the flow rate constraints must be satisfied. Hence, the main emphasis of the thesis is on the study of constrained controller design techniques. Multivariable design techniques such as decentralized, decoupled and full multivariable control are studied. The special structure of the system model allows for a constant decoupling matrix over all frequencies. This significantly simplifies the decoupled controller design. In full multivariable control, constrained Model Based Predictive Control (MPC) is utilized as it is able to naturally incorporate system constraints. Various cost function formulations which lead to either Quadratic or Linear Programming optimizations are presented and compared. The drawback of incorporating a terminal constraint set in MPC design is also studied. A novel mixed norm MPC algorithm that removes the requirement for using a terminal constraint set is proposed. MPC based on QP optimization is shown to provide the best results. The nonsmooth behaviour of MPC under LP optimization is also discussed. Finally, the practicality of some computationally-friendly techniques is assessed on a lab scale two-tank apparatus. The control algorithms are implemented in real-time using MatLab and dSpace.Applied Science, Faculty ofElectrical and Computer Engineering, Department ofGraduat

Taxonomic Studies of Species Euchloe daphalis (Moore) (Pieridae: Anthocharini) from North-West of Himalaya

In India, tribe Anthocharini is represented by two genera i.e. Euchloe and Hebomoia. The genus Euchloe Hubner is represented by single species Euchloe daphalis (Moore) in India. This species is distributed in high altitude areas of North-West Himalaya and is very rare. During present studies, the taxonomy of the species is discussed, and the female genitalia is described and illustrated for the first time

Burden of disease scenarios for 204 countries and territories, 2022–2050: a forecasting analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundFuture trends in disease burden and drivers of health are of great interest to policy makers and the public at large. This information can be used for policy and long-term health investment, planning, and prioritisation. We have expanded and improved upon previous forecasts produced as part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) and provide a reference forecast (the most likely future), and alternative scenarios assessing disease burden trajectories if selected sets of risk factors were eliminated from current levels by 2050.MethodsUsing forecasts of major drivers of health such as the Socio-demographic Index (SDI; a composite measure of lag-distributed income per capita, mean years of education, and total fertility under 25 years of age) and the full set of risk factor exposures captured by GBD, we provide cause-specific forecasts of mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) by age and sex from 2022 to 2050 for 204 countries and territories, 21 GBD regions, seven super-regions, and the world. All analyses were done at the cause-specific level so that only risk factors deemed causal by the GBD comparative risk assessment influenced future trajectories of mortality for each disease. Cause-specific mortality was modelled using mixed-effects models with SDI and time as the main covariates, and the combined impact of causal risk factors as an offset in the model. At the all-cause mortality level, we captured unexplained variation by modelling residuals with an autoregressive integrated moving average model with drift attenuation. These all-cause forecasts constrained the cause-specific forecasts at successively deeper levels of the GBD cause hierarchy using cascading mortality models, thus ensuring a robust estimate of cause-specific mortality. For non-fatal measures (eg, low back pain), incidence and prevalence were forecasted from mixed-effects models with SDI as the main covariate, and YLDs were computed from the resulting prevalence forecasts and average disability weights from GBD. Alternative future scenarios were constructed by replacing appropriate reference trajectories for risk factors with hypothetical trajectories of gradual elimination of risk factor exposure from current levels to 2050. The scenarios were constructed from various sets of risk factors: environmental risks (Safer Environment scenario), risks associated with communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases (CMNNs; Improved Childhood Nutrition and Vaccination scenario), risks associated with major non-communicable diseases (NCDs; Improved Behavioural and Metabolic Risks scenario), and the combined effects of these three scenarios. Using the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways climate scenarios SSP2-4.5 as reference and SSP1-1.9 as an optimistic alternative in the Safer Environment scenario, we accounted for climate change impact on health by using the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change temperature forecasts and published trajectories of ambient air pollution for the same two scenarios. Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy were computed using standard methods. The forecasting framework includes computing the age-sex-specific future population for each location and separately for each scenario. 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) for each individual future estimate were derived from the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles of distributions generated from propagating 500 draws through the multistage computational pipeline.FindingsIn the reference scenario forecast, global and super-regional life expectancy increased from 2022 to 2050, but improvement was at a slower pace than in the three decades preceding the COVID-19 pandemic (beginning in 2020). Gains in future life expectancy were forecasted to be greatest in super-regions with comparatively low life expectancies (such as sub-Saharan Africa) compared with super-regions with higher life expectancies (such as the high-income super-region), leading to a trend towards convergence in life expectancy across locations between now and 2050. At the super-region level, forecasted healthy life expectancy patterns were similar to those of life expectancies. Forecasts for the reference scenario found that health will improve in the coming decades, with all-cause age-standardised DALY rates decreasing in every GBD super-region. The total DALY burden measured in counts, however, will increase in every super-region, largely a function of population ageing and growth. We also forecasted that both DALY counts and age-standardised DALY rates will continue to shift from CMNNs to NCDs, with the most pronounced shifts occurring in sub-Saharan Africa (60·1% [95% UI 56·8–63·1] of DALYs were from CMNNs in 2022 compared with 35·8% [31·0–45·0] in 2050) and south Asia (31·7% [29·2–34·1] to 15·5% [13·7–17·5]). This shift is reflected in the leading global causes of DALYs, with the top four causes in 2050 being ischaemic heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, compared with 2022, with ischaemic heart disease, neonatal disorders, stroke, and lower respiratory infections at the top. The global proportion of DALYs due to YLDs likewise increased from 33·8% (27·4–40·3) to 41·1% (33·9–48·1) from 2022 to 2050, demonstrating an important shift in overall disease burden towards morbidity and away from premature death. The largest shift of this kind was forecasted for sub-Saharan Africa, from 20·1% (15·6–25·3) of DALYs due to YLDs in 2022 to 35·6% (26·5–43·0) in 2050. In the assessment of alternative future scenarios, the combined effects of the scenarios (Safer Environment, Improved Childhood Nutrition and Vaccination, and Improved Behavioural and Metabolic Risks scenarios) demonstrated an important decrease in the global burden of DALYs in 2050 of 15·4% (13·5–17·5) compared with the reference scenario, with decreases across super-regions ranging from 10·4% (9·7–11·3) in the high-income super-region to 23·9% (20·7–27·3) in north Africa and the Middle East. The Safer Environment scenario had its largest decrease in sub-Saharan Africa (5·2% [3·5–6·8]), the Improved Behavioural and Metabolic Risks scenario in north Africa and the Middle East (23·2% [20·2–26·5]), and the Improved Nutrition and Vaccination scenario in sub-Saharan Africa (2·0% [–0·6 to 3·6]).InterpretationGlobally, life expectancy and age-standardised disease burden were forecasted to improve between 2022 and 2050, with the majority of the burden continuing to shift from CMNNs to NCDs. That said, continued progress on reducing the CMNN disease burden will be dependent on maintaining investment in and policy emphasis on CMNN disease prevention and treatment. Mostly due to growth and ageing of populations, the number of deaths and DALYs due to all causes combined will generally increase. By constructing alternative future scenarios wherein certain risk exposures are eliminated by 2050, we have shown that opportunities exist to substantially improve health outcomes in the future through concerted efforts to prevent exposure to well established risk factors and to expand access to key health interventions.FundingBill & Melinda Gates Foundation.</p