Feeding habits of Calanus sinicus (Crustacea : Copepoda) during spring and autumn in the Bohai Sea studied with the herbivore index

Pigment ingestion rate (PIR) and egg production rate (EPR) of the dominant copepod Calanus sinicus, as well as chlorophyll-a concentration and phytoplankton assemblages were measured in the Bohai Sea, North China in June 1997, October 1998 and May 1999. A herbivore index (H) was also calculated as the carbon specific ratio of PIR and EPR, in order to investigate its feeding habits in the spring and autumn phytoplankton bloom respectively. On average, chlorophyll-a concentration was relatively similar (1-1.34 mg m(-3)) in the three cruises, but PIR was quite different. It was 3.24 mu g C female(-1) d(-1) in October, equivalent to one half of the PIR for June and one third of the PIR for May. Average EPR was highest in May, and quite similar during the other two months. According to H values, herbivorous feeding contributed 100% of the egg production of C. sinicus in June, 82.5% in May, but only 47.8% in October. It is possible that omnivorous feeding of C. sinicus in October was induced by a prevalence of large-sized diatoms and sufficient non-phytoplankton food resources during the autumn bloom period.

Assessing the potential of VEGETATION sensor data for mapping snow and ice cover: a Normalized Difference Snow and Ice Index

The VEGETATION (VGT) sensor in SPOT 4 has four spectral bands that are equivalent to Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) bands (blue, red, near-infrared and mid-infrared spectral bands) and provides daily images of the global land surface at a 1-km spatial resolution. We propose a new index for identifying and mapping of snow ice cover, namely the Normalized Difference Snow/Ice Index (NDSII), which uses reflectance values of red and mid-infrared spectral bands of Landsat TM and VGT. For Landsat TM data, NDSII is calculated as NDSIITM =(TM3 -TM5)/(TM3 +TM5); for VGT data, NDSII is calculated as NDSIIVGT =(B2- MIR)/(B2 + MIR). As a case study we used a Landsat TM image that covers the eastern part of the Qilian mountain range in the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) plateau of China. NDSIITM gave similar estimates of the area and spatial distribution of snow/ice cover to the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI=(TM2-TM5)/(TM2+TM5)) which has been proposed by Hall et al. The results indicated that the VGT sensor might have the potential for operational monitoring and mapping of snow/ice cover from regional to global scales, when using NDSIIVGT.

Gender and health: a social movement’s agenda for Big Pharma.

Social movements have an important new campaigning and organizing competence in new information communication technologies. These technologies also enable the members of social movements to readily research the accuracy of information: knowledge becomes globalized and readily accessible. In relation to Big Pharma, women’s social movements and social movements of the medicated intersect, and there is now a substantial challenge to Big Pharma both within developed and developing countries from the terrain of gender and health. This paper documents those challenges and looks towards their consequences in the future both in respect of Big Pharma but also in terms of 'academic' research

Alleviating poverty in peri-urban Ethiopia by improving the health, welfare and management of donkeys: "Promoting peri-urban livelihoods through better donkey welfare".

Proceedings of a workshop held at Debre Zeit, Ethiopia. October 2000

A probabilistic index for completely positive maps and an application

Gohm, Rolf, (2003) 'A probabilistic index for completely positive maps and an application', Journal of Operator Theory 54(2) pp.339-361 RAE2008

The child in the midst : a comparative study of child welfare in Christian and non-Christian lands / by Mary Schauffler Labaree.

http://www.archive.org/details/childinthemidst028451mbp

The Encyclopaedia of missions : descriptive, historical, biographical, statistical : with a full assortment of maps, a complete bibliography, and lists of Bible versions, missionary societies, mission stations, and a general index / edited by Edwin Munsell Bliss.

http://www.archive.org/details/encyclopaediamis02unknuoft

Household Health and Cocoa Production: A Baseline Survey of Smallholder Farming Households in Western Region, Ghana

Background Chronic illness and premature mortality from malaria, water-borne diseases, and respiratory illnesses have long been known to diminish the welfare of individuals and households in developing countries. Previous research has also shown that chronic diseases among farming populations suppress labor productivity and agricultural output. As the illness and death toll from HIV/AIDS continues to climb in most of sub-Saharan Africa, concern has arisen that the loss of household labor it causes will reduce crop yields, impoverish farming households, intensify malnutrition, and suppress growth in the agricultural sector. If chronic morbidity and premature mortality among individuals in farming households have substantial impacts on household production, and if a large number of households are affected, it is possible that an increase in morbidity and mortality from HIV/AIDS or other diseases could affect national aggregate output and exports. If, on the other hand, the impact at the household farm level is modest, or if relatively few households are affected, there is likely to be little effect on aggregate production across an entire country. Which of these outcomes is more likely in West Africa is unknown. Little rigorous, quantitative research has been published on the impacts of AIDS on smallholder farm production, particularly in West Africa. The handful of studies that have been conducted have looked mainly at small populations in areas of very high HIV prevalence in southern and eastern Africa. Conclusions about how HIV/AIDS, and other causes of chronic morbidity and mortality, are affecting agriculture across the continent cannot be drawn from these studies. In view of the importance of agriculture, and particularly smallholder agriculture, in the economies of most African countries and the scarcity of resources for health interventions, it is valuable to identify, describe, and quantify the impact of chronic morbidity and mortality on smallholder production of important crops in West Africa. One such crop is cocoa. In Ghana, cocoa is a crop of national importance that is produced almost exclusively by smallholder households. In 2003, Ghana was the world’s second-largest producer of cocoa. Cocoa accounted for a quarter of Ghana’s export revenues that year and generated 15 percent of employment. The success and growth of the cocoa industry is thus vital to the country’s overall social and economic development. Study Objectives and Methods In February and March 2005, the Center for International Health and Development of Boston University (CIHD) and the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness (DAEA) of the University of Ghana, with financial support from the Africa Bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development and from Mars, Inc., which is a major purchaser of West African cocoa, conducted a survey of a random sample of cocoa farming households in the Western Region of Ghana. The survey documented the extent of chronic morbidity and mortality in cocoa growing households in the Western Region of Ghana, the country’s largest cocoa growing region, and analyzed the impact of morbidity and mortality on cocoa production. It aimed to answer three specific research questions. (1) What is the baseline status of the study population in terms of household size and composition, acute and chronic morbidity, recent mortality, and cocoa production? (2) What is the relationship between household size and cocoa production, and how can this relationship be used to understand the impact of adult mortality and chronic morbidity on the production of cocoa at the household level? The study population was the approximately 42,000 cocoa farming households in the southern part of Ghana’s Western Region. A random sample of households was selected from a roster of eligible households developed from existing administrative information. Under the supervision of the University of Ghana field team, enumerators were graduate students of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness or employees of the Cocoa Services Division. A total of 632 eligible farmers participated in the survey. Of these, 610 provided complete responses to all questions needed to complete the multivariate statistical analysis reported here.

Retrieval by Shape Population: An Index Tree Approach

Based on our previous work in deformable shape model-based object detection, a new method is proposed that uses index trees for organizing shape features to support content-based retrieval applications. In the proposed strategy, different shape feature sets can be used in index trees constructed for object detection and shape similarity comparison respectively. There is a direct correspondence between the two shape feature sets. As a result, application-specific features can be obtained efficiently for shape-based retrieval after object detection. A novel approach is proposed that allows retrieval of images based on the population distribution of deformed shapes in each image. Experiments testing these new approaches have been conducted using an image database that contains blood cell micrographs. The precision vs. recall performance measure shows that our method is superior to previous methods.

Index Trees for Efficient Deformable Shape-based Retrieval

An improved method for deformable shape-based image indexing and retrieval is described. A pre-computed index tree is used to improve the speed of our previously reported on-line model fitting method; simple shape features are used as keys in a pre-generated index tree of model instances. In addition, a coarse to fine indexing scheme is used at different levels of the tree to further improve speed while maintaining matching accuracy. Experimental results show that the speedup is significant, while accuracy of shape-based indexing is maintained. A method for shape population-based retrieval is also described. The method allows query formulation based on the population distributions of shapes in each image. Results of population-based image queries for a database of blood cell micrographs are shown.

Authenticated Index Structures for Outsourced Database Systems

In outsourced database (ODB) systems the database owner publishes its data through a number of remote servers, with the goal of enabling clients at the edge of the network to access and query the data more efficiently. As servers might be untrusted or can be compromised, query authentication becomes an essential component of ODB systems. Existing solutions for this problem concentrate mostly on static scenarios and are based on idealistic properties for certain cryptographic primitives. In this work, first we define a variety of essential and practical cost metrics associated with ODB systems. Then, we analytically evaluate a number of different approaches, in search for a solution that best leverages all metrics. Most importantly, we look at solutions that can handle dynamic scenarios, where owners periodically update the data residing at the servers. Finally, we discuss query freshness, a new dimension in data authentication that has not been explored before. A comprehensive experimental evaluation of the proposed and existing approaches is used to validate the analytical models and verify our claims. Our findings exhibit that the proposed solutions improve performance substantially over existing approaches, both for static and dynamic environments.

Authenticated Index Structures for Aggregation Queries in Outsourced Databases

In an outsourced database system the data owner publishes information through a number of remote, untrusted servers with the goal of enabling clients to access and query the data more efficiently. As clients cannot trust servers, query authentication is an essential component in any outsourced database system. Clients should be given the capability to verify that the answers provided by the servers are correct with respect to the actual data published by the owner. While existing work provides authentication techniques for selection and projection queries, there is a lack of techniques for authenticating aggregation queries. This article introduces the first known authenticated index structures for aggregation queries. First, we design an index that features good performance characteristics for static environments, where few or no updates occur to the data. Then, we extend these ideas and propose more involved structures for the dynamic case, where the database owner is allowed to update the data arbitrarily. Our structures feature excellent average case performance for authenticating queries with multiple aggregate attributes and multiple selection predicates. We also implement working prototypes of the proposed techniques and experimentally validate the correctness of our ideas.

Monitoring the vegetation start of season (SOS) across the island of Ireland using the MERIS global vegetation index

The aim of this study was to develop a methodology, based on satellite remote sensing, to estimate the vegetation Start of Season (SOS) across the whole island of Ireland on an annual basis. This growing body of research is known as Land Surface Phenology (LSP) monitoring. The SOS was estimated for each year from a 7-year time series of 10-day composited, 1.2 km reduced resolution MERIS Global Vegetation Index (MGVI) data from 2003 to 2009, using the time series analysis software, TIMESAT. The selection of a 10-day composite period was guided by in-situ observations of leaf unfolding and cloud cover at representative point locations on the island. The MGVI time series was smoothed and the SOS metric extracted at a point corresponding to 20% of the seasonal MGVI amplitude. The SOS metric was extracted on a per pixel basis and gridded for national scale coverage. There were consistent spatial patterns in the SOS grids which were replicated on an annual basis and were qualitatively linked to variation in landcover. Analysis revealed that three statistically separable groups of CORINE Land Cover (CLC) classes could be derived from differences in the SOS, namely agricultural and forest land cover types, peat bogs, and natural and semi-natural vegetation types. These groups demonstrated that managed vegetation, e.g. pastures has a significantly earlier SOS than in unmanaged vegetation e.g. natural grasslands. There was also interannual spatio-temporal variability in the SOS. Such variability was highlighted in a series of anomaly grids showing variation from the 7-year mean SOS. An initial climate analysis indicated that an anomalously cold winter and spring in 2005/2006, linked to a negative North Atlantic Oscillation index value, delayed the 2006 SOS countrywide, while in other years the SOS anomalies showed more complex variation. A correlation study using air temperature as a climate variable revealed the spatial complexity of the air temperature-SOS relationship across the Republic of Ireland as the timing of maximum correlation varied from November to April depending on location. The SOS was found to occur earlier due to warmer winters in the Southeast while it was later with warmer winters in the Northwest. The inverse pattern emerged in the spatial patterns of the spring correlates. This contrasting pattern would appear to be linked to vegetation management as arable cropping is typically practiced in the southeast while there is mixed agriculture and mostly pastures to the west. Therefore, land use as well as air temperature appears to be an important determinant of national scale patterns in the SOS. The TIMESAT tool formed a crucial component of the estimation of SOS across the country in all seven years as it minimised the negative impact of noise and data dropouts in the MGVI time series by applying a smoothing algorithm. The extracted SOS metric was sensitive to temporal and spatial variation in land surface vegetation seasonality while the spatial patterns in the gridded SOS estimates aligned with those in landcover type. The methodology can be extended for a longer time series of FAPAR as MERIS will be replaced by the ESA Sentinel mission in 2013, while the availability of full resolution (300m) MERIS FAPAR and equivalent sensor products holds the possibility of monitoring finer scale seasonality variation. This study has shown the utility of the SOS metric as an indicator of spatiotemporal variability in vegetation phenology, as well as a correlate of other environmental variables such as air temperature. However, the satellite-based method is not seen as a replacement of ground-based observations, but rather as a complementary approach to studying vegetation phenology at the national scale. In future, the method can be extended to extract other metrics of the seasonal cycle in order to gain a more comprehensive view of seasonal vegetation development.