Collaborating for Resilience: a practitioner’s guide

In many countries, resource conflict is a leading risk to livelihoods. For some communities, it is a matter of survival. Yet, many development interventions aiming to address these challenges fail or fall far short of their potential. Common reasons include conflicting agendas, power and politics; poor local commitment and leadership; lack of coordination; plus high costs and low sustainability, as programs often unravel when development finance ends. Overcoming these obstacles requires a shift from typical approaches to planning, implementing and evaluating rural development and natural resource management initiatives. This manual introduces one approach to achieving such breakthroughs in collective action, called Collaborating for Resilience. The manual presents a set of principles and field-tested guidance on exploring the potential for collaboration, facilitating dialogue and action, evaluating outcomes, and sustaining collaboration over time

Divide and conquer identification using Gaussian process priors

We investigate the reconstruction of nonlinear systems from locally identified linear models. It is well known that the equilibrium linearisations of a system do not uniquely specify the global dynamics. Information about the dynamics near to equilibrium provided by the equilibrium linearisations is therefore combined with other information about the dynamics away from equilibrium provided by suitable measured data. That is, a hybrid local/global modelling approach is considered. A non-parametric Gaussian process prior approach is proposed for combining in a consistent manner these two distinct types of data. This approach seems to provide a framework that is both elegant and powerful, and which is potentially in good accord with engineering practice

Divide and conquer identification using Gaussian process priors

We investigate the reconstruction of nonlinear systems from locally identified linear models. It is well known that the equilibrium linearisations of a system do not uniquely specify the global dynamics. Information about the dynamics near to equilibrium provided by the equilibrium linearisations is therefore combined with other information about the dynamics away from equilibrium provided by suitable measured data. That is, a hybrid local/global modelling approach is considered. A non-parametric Gaussian process prior approach is proposed for combining in a consistent manner these two distinct types of data. This approach seems to provide a framework that is both elegant and powerful, and which is potentially in good accord with engineering practice

Studies of oxidative stress in cellular systems The interaction of monocytes and erythrocytes

Abstract1H spin echo NMR spectroscopy is used to follow the interaction of intact and viable erythrocytes and monocytes obtained from different sources in mixed cultures. After a lag time (270 min) erythrocyte glutathione is observed to become more oxidised. This result is believed to occur as a consequence of monocyte activation generating hydrogen peroxide or hypochlorous acid, which is targeted at the erythrocyte. The red cell in turn employs its sulphydryl system as an anti-oxidant defence

Star and cluster formation in extreme environments

Current empirical evidence on the star-formation processes in the extreme, high-pressure environments induced by galaxy encounters (mostly based on high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations) strongly suggests that star CLUSTER formation is an important and perhaps even the dominant mode of star formation in such starburst events. The sizes, luminosities, and mass estimates of the young massive star clusters (YMCs) are entirely consistent with what is expected for young Milky Way-type globular clusters (GCs). Recent evidence lends support to the scenario that GCs, which were once thought to be the oldest building blocks of galaxies, are still forming today. Here, I present a novel empirical approach to assess the shape of the initial-to-current YMC mass functions, and hence their possible survival chances for a Hubble time.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX with Kluwer style files included; to appear in: "Starbursts - from 30 Doradus to Lyman break galaxies" (Cambridge UK, September 2004; talk summary), Astrophysics & Space Science Library, eds. de Grijs R., Gonzalez Delgado R.M., Kluwer: Dordrech

Sequential drain amylase to guide drain removal following pancreatectomy

BACKGROUND: Although used as criterion for early drain removal, postoperative day (POD) 1 drain fluid amylase (DFA) ≤ 5000 U/L has low negative predictive value for clinically relevant postoperative pancreatic fistula (CR-POPF). It was hypothesized that POD3 DFA ≤ 350 could provide further information to guide early drain removal. METHODS: Data from a pancreas surgery consortium database for pancreatoduodenectomy and distal pancreatectomy patients were analyzed retrospectively. Those patients without drains or POD 1 and 3 DFA data were excluded. Patients with POD1 DFA ≤ 5000 were divided into groups based on POD3 DFA: Group A (≤350) and Group B (>350). Operative characteristics and 60-day outcomes were compared using chi-square test. RESULTS: Among 687 patients in the database, all data were available for 380. Fifty-five (14.5%) had a POD1 DFA > 5000. Among 325 with POD1 DFA ≤ 5000, 254 (78.2%) were in Group A and 71 (21.8%) in Group B. Complications (35 (49.3%) vs 87 (34.4%); p = 0.021) and CR-POPF (13 (18.3%) vs 10 (3.9%); p < 0.001) were more frequent in Group B. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with POD1 DFA ≤ 5000, POD3 DFA ≤ 350 may be a practical test to guide safe early drain removal. Further prospective testing may be useful

Ellipsoidal area mean gravity anomalies - precise computation of gravity anomaly reference fields for remove-compute-restore geoid determination

Gravity anomaly reference fields, required e.g. in remove-compute-restore (RCR) geoid computation, are obtained from global geopotential models (GGM) through harmonic synthesis. Usually, the gravity anomalies are computed as point values or area mean values in spherical approximation, or point values in ellipsoidal approximation. The present study proposes a method for computation of area mean gravity anomalies in ellipsoidal approximation ('ellipsoidal area means') by applying a simple ellipsoidal correction to area means in spherical approximation. Ellipsoidal area means offer better consistency with GGM quasi/geoid heights. The method is numerically validated with ellipsoidal area mean gravity derived from very fine grids of gravity point values in ellipsoidal approximation. Signal strengths of (i) the ellipsoidal effect (i.e., difference ellipsoidal vs. spherical approximation), (ii) the area mean effect (i.e., difference area mean vs. point gravity) and (iii) the ellipsoidal area mean effect (i.e., differences between ellipsoidal area means and point gravity in spherical approximation) are investigated in test areas in New Zealand and the Himalaya mountains. The impact of both the area mean and the ellipsoidal effect on quasigeoid heights is in the order of several centimetres. The proposed new gravity data type not only allows more accurate RCR-based geoid computation, but may also be of some value for the GGM validation using terrestrial gravity anomalies that are available as area mean values