Engineering emergence for cluster configuration

Distributed applications are being deployed on ever-increasing scale and with ever-increasing functionality. Due to the accompanying increase in behavioural complexity, self-management abilities, such as self-healing, have become core requirements. A key challenge is the smooth embedding of such functionality into our systems. Natural distributed systems such as ant colonies have evolved highly efficient behaviour. These emergent systems achieve high scalability through the use of low complexity communication strategies and are highly robust through large-scale replication of simple, anonymous entities. Ways to engineer this fundamentally non-deterministic behaviour for use in distributed applications are being explored. An emergent, dynamic, cluster management scheme, which forms part of a hierarchical resource management architecture, is presented. Natural biological systems, which embed self-healing behaviour at several levels, have influenced the architecture. The resulting system is a simple, lightweight and highly robust platform on which cluster-based autonomic applications can be deployed.

Financing the development of poor communities in the Northern Cape of South Africa - an analytical framework for the study of livestock banks

This paper is part of a major project about the Northern Cape Land Reform and Advocacy (NCLRA) programme being implemented by FARM-Africa* in South Africa. The NCLRA programme had initiated a financial mechanism to help poor communities to get access to finance and training in order to enable them to make better use of their newly-acquired land. One prominent aspect of the programme is the implementation of Livestock Banks, or the use of animals as financial products. The paper provides an analytical framework with which to evaluate the effectiveness of Livestock Banks in the poor communities of the Northern Cape in South Africa. It focuses on the design, implementation and future of Livestock Banks. The paper argues that Livestock Banks need to be reformed and enhanced if they are to continue to play a key role in the goal of creating financial and economic value in Africa, particularly when the primary objective is simultaneously to help reduce poverty. [Note]*FARM-Africa (Food & Agricultural Research Management) is a registered UK charity organisation and a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales no. 01926828.

The food multimix concept: potential of an innovative food based approach on nutritional status in pregnant women in resource-poor communities

RATIONALE & OBJECTIVES: The food multimix (FFM)concept states that limited food resources can be combined using scientific knowledge to meet nutrient needs of vulnerable groups at low cost utilizing the ‘nutrient strengths’ of individual or candidate foods in composite recipes within a cultural context. METHODS: The method employed the food-to-food approach for recipe development using traditional food ingredients. Recipes were subjected to proximate and micronutrient analysis and optimized to meet at tleast 40% of recommended daily intakes. End products including breads, porridge and soup were developed. RESULTS: FMM products were employed in a feeding trial among 120 healthy pregnant women in Gauteng, South Africa resulting in improvements in serum iron levels from baseline values of 14.59 (=/-7.67) umol/L and 14.02 (=/-8.13) umol/L for control and intervention groups (p=0.71), to 16.03 (=/-5.67) umol/L and 18.66 (=/-9.41) umol/L (p=0.19). The increases from baseline to post-intervention were however statistically significant within groups. Similarly Mean Cell Volume values improved from baseline as well as serum ferritin and transferritin levels. CONCLUSION: The FMM concept has potential value in feeding programs for vulnerable groups including pregnant and lactating mothers.

So what if students are poor at numeracy?

The numeracy skill of student is a continued concern with numeracy highlighted as a key skill in Foundation degrees and other vocational courses such as nursing (DfES 1999, NMC 2007). Numeracy is seen as a requirement to being able to undertake work based skills that require the use of numbers and calculations. However numeracy skills developed in the classroom does not necessarily prepare students for work-based calculations and similarly nor does poor numeracy skills necessarily mean that students cannot perform complex mathematical calculations in their work place. This paper will explore the role of context, the difference between formal and work based mathematics and questions the continued focus on numeracy skills, using examples from my own research with nurses.

Profitability and the poor: corporate strategies, innovation and sustainability

Based on empirical evidence, the article looks at the implications of private sector participation (PSP) for the delivery of water supply and sanitation to the urban and peri-urban poor in developing countries, with particular reference to Africa and Latin America. More precisely, the article addresses the impact produced by multinational companies’ (MNCs) strategies, in light of the pursuit of profitability, on the extension of connections to the pipeline network. It does so by questioning the assumptions that greater private sector efficiency and innovation, together with contract design, will enable the sustainable extension of service coverage to low income dwellers. The strategies of the major water MNCs are considered both in relation to the global expansion of their operations and the adjustment of local strategies to commercial considerations. The latter might result in identifying proWtable markets, modifying contractual provisions, attempting to reduce costs and increase income, reducing risks and exiting from non-performing contracts. The evidence reviewed allows for re-assessing the relative roles of the public and private sectors in extending and delivering water services to the poor. First, the most far reaching innovative approaches to extending connections are more likely to come from communities, public authorities and political activity than from MNCs. Secondly, whenever MNCs are liable to exit from non-profitable contracts, the public sector has no other option than to deal with external risks aVecting continuity of provision. Finally, market limitations affecting MNCs’ ability to serve marginal populations and access cheap capital do not apply to well-organised, politically led public sector undertakings

An evaluation of the implementation of hand held health records with adults with learning disabilities: a cluster randomized controlled trial

Background: Personal health records were implemented with adults with learning disabilities (AWLD) to try to improve their health-care. Materials and Method: Forty GP practices were randomized to the Personal Health Profile (PHP) implementation or control group. Two hundred and one AWLD were interviewed at baseline and 163 followed up after 12 months intervention (PHP group). AWLD and carers of AWLD were employed as research interviewers. AWLD were full research participants. Results: Annual consultation rates in the intervention and control groups at baseline were low (2.3 and 2.6 visits respectively). A slightly greater increase occurred over the year in the intervention group 0.6 ()0.4 to 1.6) visits ⁄ year compared with controls. AWLD in PHP group reported more health problems at follow-up 0.9 (0.0 to 1.8). AWLD liked their PHP (92%) but only 63% AWLD and 55% carers reported PHP usage. Carers had high turnover (34%). Conclusions: No significant outcomes were achieved by the intervention.

Have climate induced changes in zooplankton communities led to poor conditions for larval fish growth? A test on cod larvae on the UK shelf

Climate effects have been shown to be at least partly responsible for the reorganisation in the plankton ecosystem on the shelf seas of NW Europe over the last 50 years. Most fish larvae feed primarily on zooplankton, so changes in zooplankton quantity, quality and seasonal timing have been hypothesized to be a key factor affecting their survival. To investigate this we have implemented a 1-dimensional trophodynamic growth model of cod larvae for the waters around the UK covering the period 1960 to 2003. Larval growth is modelled as the difference between the amount of food absorbed by the larva and its various metabolic costs. Prey availability is based upon the biomass and size of available preys (i.e. adults and nauplii copepods and cladocerans) taken from the Continuous Plankton Recorder dataset. Temperature and wind forcing are also taken into account. Results suggest that observed changes in plankton community structure may have had less impact than previously suggested. This is because changes in prey availability may be compensated for by increased temperatures resulting in little overall impact on potential larval growth. Stock recovery, at least in the short term is likely to be more dependent upon conserving the year classes recruited to allow spawning stock biomass to rebuild. If as our model suggests, the larvae are still able to survive in the changing environment, reduction in fishing on the adults is needed to allow the stock to recover.

Channel Catchments Cluster. Recent developments in tools and techniques for water quality management in the France (Channel) England region

The Channel Catchments Cluster (3C) aims to capitalise on outputs from some of the recent projects funded through the INTERREG IVa France (Channel) England programme. The river catchment basins draining into the Channel region drain an area of 137,000km2 and support a human population of over 19M. Throughout history, these catchments, rivers and estuaries have been centres of habitation, developed through commerce and industry, providing transport links to hinterland areas. These catchments also provide drinking water and food through provision of agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture. In addition, many parts of the region are also economically important now for the tourism and leisure industries. Consequently, there is a need to manage the balance of these many and varied human activities within the catchments, rivers, estuaries and marine areas to ensure that they are maintained or restored to good environmental condition . This document highlights some of the recent work carried out by projects within the INTERREG IVa programme that provide tools and techniques to assist in the achievement of these goals.

Channel Catchments Cluster: Compendium of Tools

Although the narrow stretch of water that separates England from France has seen both welcome (and occasionally less welcome) exchanges during the past thousand years, this physical challenge to the movement of people has certainly served to obstruct collaborative efforts that might establish a more sustainable economy in our part of Europe. Since 2009, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)-supported Interreg Programme France (Channel) England Region has actively supported efforts by organisations in France and England to work ever more closely together, to share good practice and to devise new ways to support sustainable development in the Region. The initiatives are certainly rooted in excellent research, but they have also been driven by the real needs of the Region and in all cases partners have worked to develop practical tools that can be readily applied in both France and England. The Channel Catchment Cluster (3C) builds on this growing tradition of cross-border cooperation to bring together the very best new knowledge from recent Anglo-French teamwork. The contents of this Compendium are the result of a wide variety of grass-roots initiatives that have benefitted enormously from a cross-border meeting of minds. The Cluster has brought together several of these cross-border teams to discuss their work and to share good practice in the dissemination and application of novel tools for environmental protection. This Compendium therefore not only presents a 'snapshot' of the wide variety of environmental protection and management tools that have emerged from the France (Channel) England Region, it also summarises where they stand on their 'pathway to impact'. There is clearly much more that can be achieved by future cross-border efforts in our Region, but I believe that this Compendium provides an excellent basis for future action. Professor Huw Taylor University of Brighton UK