Sustainable Agriculture: A Way Out of Food Poverty

The most fundamental human right is the right to food (UN General Assembly, 2002). Proper nutritious food is the precondition for normal human development. Well-nourished children are more likely to succeed in learning and are less susceptible to diseases. But low-income, food-importing economies are facing increasing difficulties in accessing staple food items. Chronic food insecurity persists, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. The recent economic crisis drove more than 100 million people into hunger in 2008 alone. Is sustainable agriculture a solution?Sustainable Agriculture: A Way Out of Food Poverty

Statement by Mr. R.ALTANGEREL, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Mongolia in the General Debate of the 59th Session of the United Nations General Assembly

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5564/mjia.v0i12.98 Mongolian Journal of International Affairs No.12 2005: 96-10

Essays on immigration policy

This Ph.D. dissertation consists of three chapters on immigration economics. The main objective of the thesis is to explore how legal and unauthorized immigration systems interact and explore some of its consequences based on the case of the United States. Chapter 2 studies the U.S. immigration reform of 1986 and how it affected the migration dynamics of Mexican immigrants. Chapter 3 investigates the effect of documentation on immigrants' labor market outcomes. Chapter 4 studies the connection between a selective legal immigration system and the prevention of unauthorized immigration

Raman Spectroscopy Applications in Agriculture: From Early Plant Stress Diagnostics to Animal Diet Predictions

This work is mainly devoted to development of Raman spectroscopic techniques for in vivo detection of abiotic plant stress and animal diet prediction by Raman spectra of their feces. The ability to measure plant stress in vivo responses is becoming increasingly vital as we consider human population growth and climate change reports. In the first study, Raman spectroscopy was utilized to nondestructively detect abiotic stress responses during 48 hours of plant response to multiple stresses. Coleus Solenostemon scutellarioides plants were subjected to four common abiotic stress conditions, individually: high soil salinity, drought, chilling exposure, and light saturation and examined post stress induction by Raman microscopic and spectroscopic systems, and chemical analytical methods. While anthocyanin levels increased, carotenoid levels decreased under exposure to these stress conditions by in vivo Raman measurements and the chemical analysis. This unique negative correlated relationship shows that plant stress response is fine-tuned to protect against stress-induced damage. In the next study, we utilized a Raman spectroscopy as detection tool to predict cow diets by their feces. The objective of this study was to compare near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) to Raman spectroscopy of fecal samples for predicting the percentage of Honey mesquite Prosopis glandulosa Torr. in the diet of ruminally fistulated cattle fed three different base hay diets and to compare them for their ability to discriminate among the three base diets. Spectra were collected from fecal materials from a feeding trial with mesquite fed at 0, 1, 3 and 5% of the diet and base hay diets of timothy hay Phleum pratense L., Sudan hay Sorghum sudanense (Piper) Stapf, or a 50 : 50 combination of Bermudagrass hay Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. and beardless wheat hay Triticum aestivum L.. NIRS and Raman spectra were used for partial least squares regression calibrations with the timothy and Sudan hays and validated with the Bermudagrass beardless wheat hay diets. NIRS spectra provided useful calibrations (R²=0.88, slope=1.03, intercept=1.88, root mean square error=2.09, bias=1.95, ratio of performance to deviation=2.6), but Raman spectra did not. Stepwise discriminant analysis was used to select wavenumbers for discriminant among the three hays. Fifteen of 350 possible wavenumbers for NIRS spectra and 29 of 300 possible wavenumbers for Raman spectra met the P≤0.05 entry and staying criteria. Canonical discriminant analysis using these wavenumbers resulted in 100% correct classification for all three base diets and the Raman spectra provided greater separation than NIRS spectra. Discrimination using Raman spectra was primarily associated with wavenumbers associated with undigestible constituents of the diet, i.e., lignin. In contrast, discrimination using NIRS spectra was primarily associated with wavenumbers associated with digestible constituents in the diet, i.e., protein, starch and lipid. At last, coherent Raman scattering spectroscopy is studied specifically, with the Gaussian ultrashort pulses as a hands-on elucidatory extraction tool of the clean coherent Raman resonant spectra from the overall measured data contaminated with the non-resonant four wave mixing background. The integral formulae for both the coherent anti- Stokes and Stokes Raman scattering are given in the semiclassical picture, and the closed-form solutions in terms of a complex error function are obtained. An analytic form of maximum enhancement of pure coherent Raman spectra at threshold time delay depending on bandwidth of probe pulse is also obtained. The observed experimental data for pyridine in liquid-phase are quantitatively elucidated and the inferred time-resolved coherent Raman resonant results are reconstructed with a new insight

Impurity dominated thin film growth

Magnetron sputter deposition was applied to grow thin metal films in the presence of impurities. These impurities are ambient gas molecules and/or atoms from the residual gas present in the vacuum chamber. Seven materials were investigated: four single element metals (Al, Ag, Cu, and Cr), two widely applied alloys (Cu55Ni45 and Ni90Cr10), and one high entropy alloy (CoCrCuFeNi). The thin films were analyzed using X-ray diffraction to determine the domain size, the film texture, and the lattice parameter. The same trend for all studied materials is observed. When the ratio between the impurity and metal flux towards the substrate is low, the domain size is not affected by the presence of the impurities. In this regime, the incorporation of the impurities affects the lattice parameter. At high flux ratios, the change of the domain size can be described by a power law with the exponent equal to -1/2 for all studied materials. A kinetic Monte Carlo code is used to demonstrate this observed trend

Some Results of the Study on Determining Digital Competence Needs of Citizens

Nowadays, when the digitalization is happening around the world, someone who uses computers, mobile devices and other equipment well, easily browses, searches and filters data, information and is able to create digital content, is considered as a person with basic digital skills. In this context, the Government of Mongolia announced to become a "Digital Nation" and to form competitive and creative citizens as well as enhance the quality of life of Mongolian citizens. At the core of this policy, there will be citizens who have the appropriate skills of utilizing ICT. The research was carried out with the aim to identify the digital skills needed by citizens on a daily basis and determining the current state of digital skills. There is a need to review some of the competences included in the 12 competency frameworks with 3 domains developed by the Universal ICT Competency Framework Working Group, and improve and compare to competences in other countries. Newly identified competence groups need to be redefined based on the research. In order to support/develop citizens’ digital skills necessary for everyday use, special programs will be required to be implemented that reflect\consider their place of residence, age, gender, employment and household income

A New Genus and Two New Species of Unarmed Hymenolepidid Cestodes (Cestoda: Hymenolepididae) from Geomyid Rodents in Mexico and Costa Rica

Two new cestodes of the family Hymenolepididae are described from two species of rodents of the family Geomyidae collected in Mexico and Costa Rica. One new species of Hymenolepis is described from Cratogeomys planiceps Merriam 1895 from near Toluca, Mexico and another that we allocate to a new genus is described from Heterogeomys heterodus (Peters, 1865) from near Irazú Volcano, Costa Rica. Hymenolepis s. str. includes those Hymenolepididae with an apical organ, with no hooks on suckers or apical organ, and three testes. Hobergia irazuensis n. gen., n. sp. includes a hymenolepidid with an apical organ, unarmed scolex, small pockets termed foveolae, in which the suckers completely retract, and extremely bi-lobed ovary. Multivariate morphometric analysis showed good separation of these species from all other hymenolepidids possessing an apical organ and lacking a well developed rostellum and rostellar hooks in the Nearctic and Neotropical regions

Higher Education: comparative review of governance systems

The purpose of this paper is to provide description of Mongolian Higher education governance system in comparative aspect. Author has analyzed a national schemes of HE governance in Mongolia and other countries. Experiences of reforms provided in different countries in Higher education served as basis for qualitative descriptive analysis. Despite varying approaches to HE governance most of countries have provided a policy on liberalization of HE system. Institutional autonomy and accountability, funding and social responsibility are important component of reforming HE governance. Copy Right, IJAR, 2014,. All rights reserved

Current Situation of The Digital Transformation of The Mongolian Education Sector

Digital learning is a comprehensive, innovative approach to the provision and management of education. In order to incorporate this approach into our education system, there is a need for the capacity building of human resources, incorporate distance education resources, adapt curricula and teaching methodologies to distance education, enhance students’ and instructors’ digital capacities, plan and develop a comprehensive open University system and diligently research the potential risks that are posed to our students’ and instructors’ wellbeing, privacy and security as a result of the digital transformation. Policies and programs such as Mongolia’s “Sustainable Development Goals”, “Vision 2050 – Mongolia’s long-term development policy”, “Digital Society medium-term program 2022-2027”, “2020 – 2024 Mongolian Government operational program”. “Medium-term Education Sector Development Plan” have established the legal environment for the incorporation of digital technologies into the education sector. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic that has ravaged the world since 2019 a dire need to transform the development strategies, plans and education arose in countries across the world. Attempts to prevent and minimize the spread of Covid-19 further necessitated the development and conduct of online and hybrid classes and we have been using digital technologies to maximize the effectiveness of education in the New Normal. The purpose of this paper is to determine the issues facing the digital transformation of education in terms of management, organization, curriculum, content, methodology, digital competencies of specialists, infrastructure, online resources, as well as education financing and propose solutions to some of the key issues