Case Study of Applied LIP Approach/Activities in the Philippines The Training Services Enhancement Project for Rural Life Improvement (TSEP-RLI) Experience

TSEP-RLI was a technical cooperation project jointly conducted by GOP thru DA-Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) and GOJ thru JICA aimed at institutionalizing the training program for Rural Life Improvement (RLI) at the (ATI). As expected, farmers, fisherfolk, women, youth and extension agents were provided with efficient and effective training services from ATI leading to the improvement of quality of life in the rural areas through efforts of human resource development. The ATI- Bohol was chosen as the model center where participatory trials and various activities of the project were undertaken for five years. These activities were participatory surveys and data collection of on-farm and off-farm productive activities; planning workshop for RLI; feedbacking of survey results and action plans to the community and the Local Government Units (LGUs), and signing of Memorandum of Agreement between the Project and participating LGUs. The above activities were done to facilitate the planning and development of most effective and necessary rural life improvement activities, to confirm the willingness of the people to support and participate and to formalize the partnership between the Project and the LGUs. Since the concept of rural life covers a vast range of activities, a consensus had been reached that the total aspects of rural life be grasped in three spheres, namely, Production & Livelihood (P/L), Rural Living Condition (RLC) and Community Environment (C/E). The RLI for Ubi (Yam) Growers was one of the pilot activities undertaken in two pilot barangays and the target beneficiaries were members of the Rural Improvement Club (RIC- a group of organized women) with the LGU of the Municipality of Corella as the implementing partner. During the planning workshop, the barangay residents articulated their desire to promote production and processing of ubi (sphere on P/L - as the entry point), lack of nutritious food was one of the identified problem (sphere on RLC- expansion point) and environmental degradation such as deforestation, and soil erosion was another problem articulated by the community people (sphere on C/E- expansion point). Major activities that were undertaken namely, Ubi cooking contest, cooking/processing seminar, training courses on entrepreneurial development, ubi production and storage technology, packaging and product design, human resource development and simplified bookkeeping motivated the beneficiaries as well as developed and enhanced their skills & capabilities while strengthening their associations. Their participation to the 5 ubi festivals and other related activities had brought some impacts on their economic and rural life improvement activities. The seven principles of TSEP-RLI include the participatory process, holistic approach, dialogical approach, bottom -up training needs assessment, demand-driven approach, cost sharing approach and collaborative implementation with other agencies including LGUs and the community.

Early Pleistocene 40Ar/39Ar ages for Bapang Formation hominins, Central Jawa, Indonesia

The Sangiran dome is the primary stratigraphic window for the Plio-Pleistocene deposits of the Solo basin of Central Jawa. The dome has yielded nearly 80 Homo erectus fossils, around 50 of which have known findspots. With a hornblende 40Ar/39Ar plateau age of 1.66 ± 0.04 mega-annum (Ma) reportedly associated with two fossils [Swisher, C.C., III, Curtis, G. H., Jacob, T., Getty, A. G., Suprijo, A. & Widiasmoro (1994) Science 263, 1118–1121), the dome offers evidence that early Homo dispersed to East Asia during the earliest Pleistocene. Unfortunately, the hornblende pumice was sampled at Jokotingkir Hill, a central locality with complex lithostratigraphic deformation and dubious specimen provenance. To address the antiquity of Sangiran H. erectus more systematically, we investigate the sedimentary framework and hornblende 40Ar/39Ar age for volcanic deposits in the southeast quadrant of the dome. In this sector, Bapang (Kabuh) sediments have their largest exposure, least deformation, and most complete tephrostratigraphy. At five locations, we identify a sequence of sedimentary cycles in which H. erectus fossils are associated with epiclastic pumice. From sampled pumice, eight hornblende separates produced 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages ranging from 1.51 ± 0.08 Ma at the Bapang/Sangiran Formation contact, to 1.02 ± 0.06 Ma, at a point above the hominin-bearing sequence. The chronological sequence of 40Ar/39Ar ages follows stratigraphic order across the southeast quadrant. An intermediate level yielding four nearly complete crania has an age of about 1.25 Ma.

The Caustic Pen Is Mightiest: A Tradition of Female Satire in the Novels of Jane Austen, Ivy Compton-Burnett, and Muriel Spark

Female satirists have long been treated by critics as anomalies within an androcentric genre because of the reticence to acknowledge women's right to express aggression through their writing. In Pride and Prejudice (1813), A House and Its Head (1935), and The Girls of Slender Means (1963), Jane Austen (1775-1817), Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884-1969), and Muriel Spark (1918-2006) all combine elements of realism and satire within the vehicle of the domestic novel to target institutions of their patriarchal societies, including marriage and family dynamics, as well as the evolving conceptions of domesticity and femininity, with a subtle feminism. These female satirists illuminate the problems they have with society more through presentation than judgment in their satire, which places them on the fringes of a society they wish to educate, distinguishing their satire from that written by male satirists who are judging from a privileged height above the society they are attempting to correct. All three women create heroines and secondary female characters who find ways to survive, and occasionally thrive, within the confines of a polite society that has a streak of savagery running just beneath its polished surface.

Effects of nitrogen sources on the nitrate assimilation in Haloferax mediterranei: growth kinetics and transcriptomic analysis

The haloarchaeon Haloferax mediterranei is able to grow in a defined culture media not only in the presence of inorganic nitrogen salt but also with amino acid as the sole nitrogen source. Assimilatory nitrate and nitrite reductases, respectively, catalyze the first and second reactions. The genes involved in this process are nasA, which encodes nitrate reductase and is found within the operon nasABC, and nasD, which encodes nitrite reductase. These genes are subjected to transcriptional regulation, being repressed in the presence of ammonium and induced with either nitrate or nitrite. This type of regulation has also been described when the amino acids are used as nitrogen source in the minimal media. Furthermore, it has been observed that the microorganism growth depends on nitrogen source, obtaining the lowest growth rate in the presence of nitrate and aspartate. In this paper, we present the results of a comparative study of microorganism growth and transcriptomic analysis of the operon nasABC and gene nasD in different nitrogen sources. The results are the first ever produced in relation to amino acids as nitrogen sources within the Halobacteriaceae family.

The impact of the internet on the pricing strategies of the European low cost airlines

This study seeks to analyse the price determination of low cost airlines in Europe and the effect that Internet has on this strategy. The outcomes obtained reveal that both users and companies benefit from the use of ICTs in the purchase and sale of airline tickets: the Internet allows consumers to increase their bargaining power comparing different airlines and choosing the most competitive flight, while companies can easily check the behaviour of users to adapt their pricing strategies using internal information. More than 2500 flights of the largest European low cost airlines have been used to carry out the study. The study revealed that the most significant variables for understanding pricing strategies were the number of rivals, the behaviour of the demand and the associated costs. The results indicated that consumers should buy their tickets before 25 days prior to departure.

Diatom biostratigraphy in sediments of ODP Sites 204-1251 and 204-1252

Sites 1251 (44°34.213'N, 125°4.440'W; 1211 m water depth) and 1252 (44°35.167'N, 125°5.569'W; 1039 m water depth) were drilled on the eastern flank of the southern summit of Hydrate Ridge off Oregon in the northeast Pacific Ocean, where well-stratified sediments were deposited at a rapid rate. Unconformities and debris flow layers of middle Pleistocene age were found at both sites. Their ages are of great importance in constructing the geohistory of Hydrate Ridge. Detailed diatom biostratigraphy of the middle to late Pleistocene of Sites 1251 and 1252 was carried out for this purpose.

Mineralogy of ODP Hole 117-722B (Appendix)

Bulk mineralogy of the terrigenous fraction of 99 samples from ODP Site 722 on the Owen Ridge, western Arabian Sea, has been determined by x-ray diffraction, using an internal standard method. The sampling interval, approximately 4.3 k.y., provides a detailed mineralogic record for the past 500 k.y. Previous studies have identified important modern continental sediment sources and the mineral assemblages presently derived from each. These studies have also demonstrated that most of this material is supplied by southwest and northwest winds during the summer monsoon. A variety of marine and terrestrial records and general circulation model (GCM) simulations have indicated the importance of monsoonal circulation during the Pleistocene and Holocene and have demonstrated increased aridity during glacial times and increased humidity during inter glacials. The mineralogic data generated here were used to investigate variations in source area weathering conditions during these environmental changes. Terrigenous minerals present include smectite, illite, palygorskite, kaolinite, chlorite, quartz, plagioclase feldspar, and dolomite. This mineralogy is consistent with the compositions of source areas presently supplying sediment to the Arabian Sea. An R-mode factor analysis has identified four mineral assemblages present throughout the past 500 k.y.: quartz/chlorite/dolomite (Factor 1), kaolinite/plagioclase/illite (Factor 2), smectite (Factor 3), and palygorskite/dolomite (Factor 4). Chlorite, illite, and palygorskite are extremely susceptible to chemical weathering, and a spectral comparison of these factors with the eolian mass accumulation rate (MAR) record from Hole 722B (an index of dust source area aridity) indicates that Factors 1, 2, and 4 are directly related to changes in aridity. Because of these characteristics, Factors 1,2, and 4 are interpreted to originate from arid source regions. Factor 3 is interpreted to record more humid source conditions. Time-series of scores for the four factors are dominated by short-term (10-100 k.y.) variability, and do not correlate well to glacial/interglacial fluctuations in the time domain. These characteristics suggest that local climatic shifts were complex, and that equilibrium weathering assemblages did not develop immediately after climatic change. Spectral analysis of factor scores identifies peaks at or near the primary Milankovitch frequencies for all factors. Factor 1 (quartz/chlorite/dolomite), Factor 2 (kaolinite/plagioclase/illite), and Factor 4 (illite/palygorskite) are coherent and in phase with the MAR record over the 23, 41, and 100 k.y. bands, respectively. The reasons for coherency at single Milankovitch frequencies are not known, but may include differences in the susceptibilities of minerals to varying time scales of weathering and/or preferential development of suitable continental source environments by climatic changes at the various Milankovitch frequencies.

The late Pliocene pollen record of ODP Site 108-658 off Cape Blanc, Atlantic Ocean

A 200 m long marine pollen record from ODP Site 658 (21°N, 19°W) reveals cyclic fluctuations in vegetation and continental climate in northwestern Africa from 3.7 to 1.7 Ma. These cycles parallel oxygen isotope stages. Prior to 3.5 Ma, the distribution of tropical forests and mangrove swamps reached Cape Blanc, 5°N of the present distribution. Between 3.5 and 2.6 Ma, forests occurred at this latitude during irregular intervals and nearly disappeared afterwards. Likewise, a Saharan paleoriver flowed continuously until isotope Stage 134 (3.35 Ma). When river discharge ceased, wind transport of pollen grains prevailed over fluvial transport. Pollen indicators of trade winds gradually increased between 3.3 and 2.5 Ma. A strong aridification of the climate of northwestern Africa occurred during isotope Stage 130 (3.26 Ma). Afterwards, humid conditions reestablised followed by another aridification around 2.7 Ma. Repetitive latitudinal shifts of vegetation zones ranging from wooded savanna to desert flora dominated for the first time between between 2.6 and 2.4 Ma as a response to the glacial stages 104, 100 and 98. Although climatic conditions, recorded in the Pliocene, were not as dry as those of the middle and Late Pleistocene, latitudinal vegetation shifts near the end of the Pliocene resembled those of the interglacial-glacial cycles of the Brunhes chron.

(Table 2) Biostratigraphy of marine benthic and planktonic taxa in sediment core GIK14350 near Dagebüll, northern Germany

Together with foraminifers and ostracods, echinoderm remains are very frequent in Eemian sediments of the Dagebuell Well DA-1. The appearance of holothurian sclerites is particularly noteworthy. In the present study, remains of Holothuroidea from the European Pleistocene are described. These remains could be assigned to the Recent genus Psolus OKEN 1815. Furthermore, a short synopsis of disarticulate holothurian fossils in Holocene and Pleistocene sediments is given.

Distribution of planktonic foraminifera and paleotemperature reconstruction for the Subantarctic Zone of the South Atlantic

Pleistocene summer sea-surface temperatures (SSST) have been reconstructed on a composite core section recovered in the Subantarctic Zone of the Southern Ocean from planktonic foraminifers applying the Modern Analog Technique. The composite consists of Core PS2489-2 and the sections recovered at ODP Site 1090, and documents the last 1.83 Ma. Three distinct climatic periods can be identified that mirror the Pleistocene development of the Southern Ocean hydrography. Cold climatic conditions prevailed at 43°S during glacial as well as during interglacial periods during the early Pleistocene (1.83-0.87 Ma), indicating a northward shift of isotherms that characterize the present-day Polar Front Zone by about 7° of latitude. Evidence shows a strong linkage between Southern Ocean and low latitude climate during that interval time. Between the Mid-Pleistocene Revolution (ca. 0.9 Ma) and the Mid-Brunhes Event (ca. 0.4 Ma), we observe higher amplitude fluctuations in the SSST between glacial and interglacial periods, corresponding to the temperature range between the present Polar Front and Subantarctic Front. These climatic variations have been related to changes in the northern hemisphere ice sheets. The past 0.4 Ma are characterized by strong SSST variations, of up to 8°C, between glacials and interglacials. Only during the climatic optima (stages 11.3, 9.3, 7.5, 7.1, 5.5, and the early Holocene), SSST exceeded present SSST at the core locality (10.2°C). Although the carbonate dissolution record exhibits high variability during the Pleistocene, it can be shown that SSST estimates were not significantly biased. The Mid-Brunhes dissolution cycle as well as the Mid-Pleistocene enhanced carbonate preservation appear to belong to a global long-term variability in carbonate preservation.

Sedimentological and paleomagnetic investigations on two gravity cores and ODP sites 113-690 and 693 off Kapp Norvegia, Antarctic continental margin

Oligocene to Quaternary sediments were recovered from the Antarctic continental margin in the eastern Weddell Sea during ODP Leg 113 and Polarstern expedition ANT-VI. Clay mineral composition and grain size distribution patterns are useful for distinguishing sediments that have been transported by ocean currents from those that were ice-rafted. This, in turn, has assisted in providing insights about the changing late Paleogene to Neogene sedimentary environment as the cryosphere developed in Antarctica. During the middle Oligocene, increasing glacial conditions on the continent are indicated by the presence of glauconite sands, that are interpreted to have formed on the shelf and then transported down the continental slope by advancing glaciers or as a result of sea-level lowering. The dominance of illite and a relatively high content of chlorite suggest predominantly physical weathering conditions on the continent. The high content of biogenic opal from the late Miocene to the late Pliocene resulted from increased upwelling processes at the continental margin due to increased wind strength related to global cooling. Partial melting of the ice-sheet occurred during an early Pliocene climate optimum as is shown by an increasing supply of predominantly current-derived sediment with a low mean grain size and peak values of smectite. Primary productivity decreased at ~ 3 Ma due to the development of a permanent sea-ice cover close to the continent. Late Pleistocene sediments are characterized by planktonic foraminifers and biogenic opal, concentrated in distinct horizons reflecting climatic cycles. Isotopic analysis of AT. pachyderma produced a stratigraphy which resulted in a calculated sedimentation rate of 1 cm/k.y. during the Pleistocene. Primary productivity was highest during the last three interglacial maxima and decreased during glacial episodes as a result of increasing sea-ice coverage.