Inadequacies in the water reforms in the Kyrgyz Republic: an institutional analysis

Water resource management / Analysis / Irrigation management / Participatory management / Water users’ associations / Research methods / Agrarian reform / Irrigation programs / Operations / Maintenance / Conflict / Rivers / Kyrgyzstan

Assessing Student Learning in Natural Resources: Recent Efforts at the University of Arkansas at Monticello

In recent years, there has been a trend requiring outcomes‐based assessment of student learning in all academic programs. Most of the major accreditation entities have revised their standards to reflect this trend. The Society of American Foresters (SAF), the accrediting body for the nation’s forestry programs has also moved in this direction. The School of Forest Resources (SFR) in the University of Arkansas at Monticello has taken an active role in revising its model for student learning and program assessment. SFR’s two‐tier model is an effort to link student learning and program assessment in a way that is meaningful and practical. This presentation will discuss the specifics of this model and share some of the lessons learned from several years of discussions, phased implementation, and fine‐tuning

Big data logistics: a health-care transport capacity sharing model

The growth of cities in the 21st century has put more pressure on resources and conditions of urban life. There are several reasons why the health-care industry is the focus of this investigation. For instance, in the UK various studies point to the lack of failure of basic quality control procedures and misalignment between customer needs and provider services and duplication of logistics practices. The development of smart cities and big data present unprecedented challenges and opportunities for operations managers; they need to develop new tools and techniques for network planning and control. Our paper aims to make a contribution to big data and city operations theory by exploring how big data can lead to improvements in transport capacity sharing. We explore using Markov models the integration of big data with future city (health-care) transport sharing. A mathematical model was designed to illustrate how sharing transport load (and capacity) in a smart city can improve efficiencies in meeting demand for city services. The results from our analysis of 13 different sharing/demand scenarios are presented. A key finding is that the probability for system failure and performance variance tends to be highest in a scenario of high demand/zero sharing

Identifying the Factors Distinguishing Timber Sales on Industrial and Non-Industrial Private Forest Lands in Arkansas

Although forests provide a wide variety of products and services, timber still continues to be the most valued forest product in the marketplace. More than two-third of the nation\u27s forests are under private control, some are owned by industries (about 10%) while a much larger portion (about 59%) is owned by individuals. This study investigates the differences between timber sales offered by industrial and non-industrial ownerships. A test of means revealed that there is a significant difference between per hectare bid for these 2 types of sales. A logistic regression model was then estimated to identify important factors characterizing this difference. Results indicated that industrial forests were more likely to obtain higher bids. They were also more likely to have shorter contract lengths. Industrial ownerships were found to be more likely to have clearcuts. However, they had a higher likelihood of restricting harvesting during wet-weather conditions. Forest industries were also found to be less likely to have pulpwood for sale than non-industrial private owners

Portable Tongue-Supported Human Computer Interaction System Design and Implementation

Tongue supported human-computer interaction (TSHCI) systems can help critically ill patients interact with both computers and people. These systems can be particularly useful for patients suffering injuries above C7 on their spinal vertebrae. Despite recent successes in their application, several limitations restrict performance of existing TSHCI systems and discourage their use in real life situations. This paper proposes a low-cost, less-intrusive, portable and easy to use design for implementing a TSHCI system. Two applications of the proposed system are reported. Design considerations and performance of the proposed system are also presented

A comparative study of CO adsorption on flat, stepped and kinked Au surfaces using density functional theory

Our ab initio calculations of CO adsorption energies on low miller index (111), (100), stepped (211), and kinked (532) gold surfaces show a strong dependence on local coordination with a reduction in Au atom coordination leading to higher binding energies. We find trends in adsorption energies to be similar to those reported in experiments and calculations for other metal surfaces. The (532) surface provides insights into these trends because of the availability of a large number of kink sites which naturally have the lowest coordination (6). We also find that, for all surfaces, an increase in CO coverage triggers a decrease in the adsorption energy. Changes in the work-function upon CO adsorption, as well as the frequencies of the CO vibrational modes are calculated, and their coverage dependence is reported.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Going Against the Grain of Optimism: Flour Fortification in Pakistan

Food fortification is a popular strategy for addressing ‘hidden hunger’, and staple foods are seen as promising, if unproven, vehicles for the delivery of essential micronutrients to poor people in developing countries. This article examines wheat flour fortification with iron in Pakistan as a case of technocratic optimism in the face of institutional constraints. An evaluative framework based on the analysis of entire value chains can provide a reality check on technocratic optimism. We find that poor people based their preferences for different types of flour on price as well as perceptions of nutritional value. Many of these flour types are not covered by fortification programmes. Fortification interventions, meanwhile, have attempted to leverage public–private partnerships in a segment of the wheat flour value chain which is beset with regulatory weakness. This article illustrates why technical interventions should support rather than ignore a broader agenda of reforms in food policy.Department for International Development (DFID