Banking on Nature's Assets: How Multilateral Development Banks Can Strengthen Development by Using Ecosystem Services

Outlines the benefits of integrating the management of ecosystem services and trade-offs into strategies to improve economic development outcomes, mitigate climate change effects, and reduce economic and human costs. Recommends tools and policy options

Corporate social and environmental responsibility in India - assessing the UN global compact's role

"This report presents the results of a research project carried out as part of the postgraduate training course of the German Development Institute (GDI), Bonn, in close cooperation with the Centre for Social Markets, India, and with the support of Ashok V. Desai, Consultant Editor of the Telegraph, India. The report is based on studies of the literature and on empirical data collected in India’s main industrial districts of Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai from February to April 2006. The GDI research team would like to thank Sachin Joshi of the Centre for Social Markets and Ashok V. Desai for their strong scientific and technical support, without which this study would not have been possible. The research team would also like to express their thanks to the top officials of almost 40 Indian and foreign companies and 32 other stakeholders who spoke of their experience and responded to our questionnaire on CSR in India and the role of the UN Global Compact in particular. Last but not least, the authors are very grateful to experts from other Indian, international and German institutions who were kind enough to share their knowledge with us and so contributed to the writing of the report. However, the GDI team alone is responsible for the results presented here." (excerpt)Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht die UN Global Compact-Initiative (UNGC), die im Jahr 2000 von dem damaligen UN-Generalsekretär Kofi Annan aus der Taufe gehoben wurde, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der sozialen und ökologischen Aktivitäten in Indien. Der Global Compact, ein weltweiter Pakt, der zwischen Unternehmen und der UNO geschlossen wird, basiert auf zehn Prinzipien, die der Einhaltung bestimmter sozialer und ökologischer Mindeststandards dienen. Dies sind beispielsweise die wesentlichen Konventionen zur Einhaltung der Menschenrechte, Vereinigungsfreiheit, keine Zwangsarbeit, keine Kinderarbeit, Nicht-Diskriminierung, wesentliche Prinzipien, wie sie in den Rio-Konventionen zum Umweltschutz verfasst worden sind, sowie das Prinzip gegen alle Formen von Korruption. (ICD2

Whole-genome scanning for mapping determinacy in Pigeonpea (Cajanus spp.)

Determinacy is an agronomically important trait in several crop species including pigeonpea. With an objective to investigate determinacy in pigeonpea, a set of 94 pigeonpea lines including 11 determinate (DT) and 83 indeterminate (IDT) lines were used for genotyping with DArT arrays (with 6144 features) and 768 SNP markers using GoldenGate assay. The polymorphism information content (PIC) for these markers varied from 0.02 to 0.50. Association analysis on marker genotyping and phenotyping data showed a significant association (P ≤ 0.01) of determinacy with 19 SNP and 6 DArT markers explaining 8.05–8.58% and 7.26–14.53% phenotypic variation, respectively. Clustering based on entire DArT and SNP markers could not discriminate DT lines from IDT lines; however, analysis with associated markers discriminated DT lines from the IDT lines. Marker–trait associations after validation may prove useful in marker-assisted selection (MAS) involving the development of ideal DT genotypes for environments with moderate growth, tolerance to drought and water logging. This is the first report on mapping of determinacy trait as well as the first report on association mapping for any trait in pigeonpea

Genetic control of inflorescence architecture in legumes

[EN] The architecture of the inflorescence, the shoot system that bears the flowers, is a main component of the huge diversity of forms found in flowering plants. Inflorescence architecture has also a strong impact on the production of fruits and seeds, and on crop management, two highly relevant agronomical traits. Elucidating the genetic networks that control inflorescence development, and how they vary between different species, is essential to understanding the evolution of plant form and to being able to breed key architectural traits in crop species. Inflorescence architecture depends on the identity and activity of the meristems in the inflorescence apex, which determines when flowers are formed, how many are produced and their relative position in the inflorescence axis. Arabidopsis thaliana, where the genetic control of inflorescence development is best known, has a simple inflorescence, where the primary inflorescence meristem directly produces the flowers, which are thus borne in the main inflorescence axis. In contrast, legumes represent a more complex inflorescence type, the compound inflorescence, where flowers are not directly borne in the main inflorescence axis but, instead, they are formed by secondary or higher order inflorescence meristems. Studies in model legumes such as pea (Pisum sativum) or Medicago truncatula have led to a rather good knowledge of the genetic control of the development of the legume compound inflorescence. In addition, the increasing availability of genetic and genomic tools for legumes is allowing to rapidly extending this knowledge to other grain legume crops. This review aims to describe the current knowledge of the genetic network controlling inflorescence development in legumes. It also discusses how the combination of this knowledge with the use of emerging genomic tools and resources may allow rapid advances in the breeding of grain legume crops.Research in the Madueño lab is supported by grants form the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (BFU2012- 38929), the Generalitat Valenciana (ACOMP/2014/109) and the EU (LEGATO project, GA n◦FP7-613551) and in the Millán lab by the INIA (RTA2013-00025,co-financed by the EU, ERDF 2014-2020). RB is supported by a postdoctoral IE Marie-Curie Fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF-299639-Molecular Clock) and LA by a Ph.D. fellowship from Syrian Ministry of High Education.Benlloch, R.; Berbel Tornero, A.; Ali, L.; Gohari, G.; Millán, T.; Madueño Albi, F. (2015). Genetic control of inflorescence architecture in legumes. Frontiers in Plant Science. 6(543):1-14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2015.00543S114654

Performances of Finger-Style Guitarists at the 1969 and 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festivals

The Ann Arbor Blues Festivals of 1969 and 1970 were historic cultural events that are now understood as pivotal moments in American music. They brought together the leading electric blues guitar players of the time and many of the seminal acoustic blues guitar players who were still touring. In this period of cultural reconfiguration, this music was interesting to a wider, curious audience. This research builds on work which began in Fall 2017: the accession, digitization, and integrations of materials (color slides, audio recordings, programs, photos, and other ephemera) related to the 1969 and 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festivals. This extraordinary collection of materials provides the basis for case studies of the evolution of the blues, its dissemination in the US, and the comparative analysis of blues guitar technique. In this project, materials were cross-referenced with contemporaneous print documentation to determine their correspondence with extant audio and video. Set lists were established and personnel were verified. Biographical and discographical information was organized to provide context for the analysis of the guitar technique and repertoire of each artist. This information can now be accessed on the web along with audio excerpts. A social media strategy has been implemented to bring together blues scholars and enthusiasts around the world who share an interest in this topic. The presentation will conclude with an analysis and performance of the music of Mississippi Fred McDowell

A Review of Magnesium Syntactic Foam Biomedical Applications and Processing

The properties of Mg foams have been extensively studied in the last decade due to their potential for use as biomaterials. Their lighter density and Mg\u27s role in the ossification process make these foams ideal as scaffolding for bone replacements. The addition of spacer materials and alloying elements make up for the weaker mechanical properties associated with Mg. Research is still being carried out on developing new processes that allow control over the microstructure of these foams. This review will give an overview of the unique properties of Mg foams compared to other metallic foams and the processes that have been developed so far. Their applications as biomaterials and in batteries will be covered as well. The objective of this review article is to bring together and analyze the works on Mg foam that have been done so far to outline prospects for future research the UWM Center of Composites can engage in to contribute to this particular field

Experimental Validity of A Wheelchair Propulsion in Pediatric Manual Wheelchair Users

Biomechanical assessment of steady-state manual wheelchair propulsion is often difficult to conduct overground in laboratory conditions, due to space constraints. Wheelchair roller systems, an analog to treadmills for running, resolve this issue but introduce questions of validity. The purpose of this study is to assess differences in upper extremity kinematics between roller and overground conditions in a population of pediatric manual wheelchair users. These aims will be completed by analyzing an existing data set of twelve pediatric manual wheelchair users, each tested in overground and roller conditions, to obtain upper extremity triaxial joint kinematics and comparing the two conditions and assessing the validity of the roller platform. The study validates necessary equipment to conduct laboratory research involving manual wheelchair users, thus continuing the current line of research and enabling future work to be done with the system