Evaluation of commercially available exterior digital VMDs

This paper discusses the highlights from the full report, `Evaluation of Commercially Available Exterior Digital VMDs`, Charles E. Ringler, Chris E. Hoover, SAND94-2875, on the testing and evaluation of thirteen commercially available exterior digital video motion detection (VMD) systems. The systems were evaluated for use in a specific perimeter outdoor application. The full report focuses primarily on the testing parameters, each system`s advertised features, and the nuisance alarm and detection test results; this paper will summarize the nuisance alarm and detection test results and present some conclusions from the tests

Seasonal variation in maternal dietary diversity is reduced by small-scale irrigation practices: a longitudinal study

Some agricultural practices, such as irrigation, have the potential to buffer seasonal dietary gaps and through increased production and consumption improve diets, particularly of the rural poor relying on subsistence farming but also for rural and urban households purchasing irrigated produce on local markets. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of seasonality and irrigation on women's diet in rural Ethiopia. Using a longitudinal study design, three rounds of surveys were conducted among women of reproductive age (15–49 years). Data on socioeconomic status, food consumption and haemoglobin concentration was collected. Energy and nutrient intakes were estimated using an interviewer-administered multiple-pass 24-h recall. Women's dietary diversity score (WDDS), the proportion of women meeting the minimum dietary diversity for women (MDDW), haemoglobin concentration, the prevalence of anaemia and energy and nutrients intakes were compared between irrigators and nonirrigators and by season. Associations between MDDW/WDDS and irrigation status were assessed using fixed-effect models, after adjusting for covariates. WDDS was low (3–4 out of 10 food groups) and exhibited high seasonal variability (p < 0.05). Diets were predominantly cereal-based, with little consumption of nutrient-dense foods like fruits and animal source foods. High seasonal variability in energy, protein, vitamin C, calcium, iron and zinc intakes were observed (p < 0.01). Irrigators were more likely to meet the MDDW than women from non-irrigating households (p < 0.05). No cases of malaria were reported from the three rounds of screening. There is a high seasonal variation in women's diet, but this could be partly offset by irrigation practices

Gender and Institutional Aspects of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices: Evidence from Kenya

This paper analyses gender differences in awareness and adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices. It examines what factors are associated with the likelihood of adoption of a wide range of CSA practices for 376 women and 375 men in two different areas of Kenya. This information is aimed at improving the targeting and design of interventions that are trying to achieve greater and more equitable agricultural development in East Africa and elsewhere. Our results suggest there is still much work to be done in increasing awareness of improved agricultural practices that enhance livelihoods and resilience to change, including a changing climate. Simply put, increasing awareness is necessary to increase adoption

Signatures of exciton coupling in paired nanoemitters

An exciton formed by the delocalized electronic excitation of paired nanoemitters is interpreted in terms of the electromagnetic emission of the pair and their mutual coupling with a photodetector. A formulation directly tailored for fluorescence detection is identified, giving results which are strongly dependent on geometry and selection rules. Signature symmetric and antisymmetric combinations are analyzed and their distinctive features identified

The benefits of global high-resolution for climate simulation: process-understanding and the enabling of stakeholder decisions at the regional scale

A perspective on current and future capabilities in global high-resolution climate simulation for assessing climate risks over next few decades, including advances in process representation and analysis, justifying the emergence of dedicated, coordinated experimental protocols. The timescales of the Paris Climate Agreement indicate urgent action is required on climate policies over the next few decades, in order to avoid the worst risks posed by climate change. On these relatively short timescales the combined effect of climate variability and change are both key drivers of extreme events, with decadal timescales also important for infrastructure planning. Hence, in order to assess climate risk on such timescales, we require climate models to be able to represent key aspects of both internally driven climate variability, as well as the response to changing forcings. In this paper we argue that we now have the modelling capability to address these requirements - specifically with global models having horizontal resolutions considerably enhanced from those typically used in previous IPCC and CMIP exercises. The improved representation of weather and climate processes in such models underpins our enhanced confidence in predictions and projections, as well as providing improved forcing to regional models, which are better able to represent local-scale extremes (such as convective precipitation). We choose the global water cycle as an illustrative example, because it is governed by a chain of processes for which there is growing evidence of the benefits of higher resolution. At the same time it comprises key processes involved in many of the expected future climate extremes (e.g. flooding, drought, tropical and mid-latitude storms)

Market analysis for cultured proteins in low- and lower-middle income countries.

The global burden of malnutrition is unacceptably high.10 Worldwide, an estimated 22% of children under the age of five were stunted and 8% were wasted in 2018.11 Low-quality diets lacking in essential vitamins, minerals, proteins, and other nutrients are a key contributor to this burden.12 Animal-source foods—such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy—are important components of a diverse diet and provide high-quality proteins and other essential nutrients that promote optimal growth and development.13,14,15,16,17As populations and incomes grow, the global demand for animal-source foods is projected to increase substantially, particularly in many low- and lower-middle income countries (LMICs).18,19 However, cost is currently a significant barrier to animal-source food consumption. In addition, meeting this growing demand for animal-source foods will require rapid increases in livestock production, which has significant environmental impacts, requiring considerable land, water, chemical, and energy inputs.10,17,18 Global food production is responsible for roughly one-quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, most of which (up to 80%) are related to livestock.20,21 Livestock production is also a contributor to water pollution, deforestation, land degradation, overfishing, and antimicrobial resistance.20,22,23 Given these challenges, this report aims to assess the market for potentially more sustainable alternative proteins and their potential for use in LMIC settings. The report focuses on proteins derived from fermentation-based cellular agriculture, called cultured proteins, given their potential near-term time to market and their potential impact in LMIC populations. Most cultured protein manufacturers are developing proteins that are present in animal-source milk and eggs

Tuning bilayer twist using chiral counterions

From seashells to DNA, chirality is expressed at every level of biological structures. In self-assembled structures it may emerge cooperatively from chirality at the molecular scale. Amphiphilic molecules, for example, can form a variety of aggregates and mesophases that express the chirality of their constituent molecules at a supramolecular scale of micrometres (refs 1-3), Quantitative prediction of the large-scale chirality based on that at the molecular scale remains a largely unsolved problem. Furthermore, experimental control over the expression of chirality at the supramolecular level is difficult to achieve(4-7): mixing of different enantiomers usually results in phase separation(18). Here we present an experimental and theoretical description of a system in which chirality can be varied continuously and controllably ('tuned') in micrometre-scale structures. we observe the formation of twisted ribbons consisting of bilayers of gemini surfactants (two surfactant molecules covalently linked at their charged head groups). We find that the degree of twist and the pitch of the ribbons can be tuned by the introduction of opposite-handed chiral counterions in various proportions. This degree of control might be of practical value; for example, in the use of the helical structures as templates for helical crystallization of macromolecules(8,9).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62619/1/399566a0.pd