Role of Crop Research and Development in food Security of Africa

Food security is the main concern in Africa as the production and productivity of crops are under continuous threat. Indigenous crops also known as orphan- or as underutilized- crops provide key contributions to food security under the present scenario of increasing world population and changing climate. Hence, these crops which belong to the major categories of cereals, legumes, fruits and root crops play a key role in the livelihood of the resource-poor farmers and consumers since they perform better than the major world crops under extreme soil and climate conditions prevalent in the continent. These indigenous crops have the major advantage that they fit well into the general socio-economic and ecological context of the region. However, despite their huge importance, African crops have generally received little attention by the global scientific community. With the current production systems, only a fraction of yield potential was achieved for most of these crops. In order to devise strategies towards boosting crop productivity in Africa, the current production constraints should be investigated and properly addressed. Key traits known to increase productivity and/or improve nutrition and diverse conventional and modern crop improvement techniques need to be implemented. Commitments in the value-chain from the research, production, marketing to distribution of improved seeds are required by relevant national and international institutions as well as African governments to promote food security in a sustainable manner. The review also presents major achievements and suggestions for stakeholders interested in African agriculture.

CDE links regional research and global efforts for sustainable mountain development

The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) at the University of Bern has long-standing experience in conducting research in mountain regions around the world. CDE considers mountain regions to be a crucial context for sustainable development. Together with its partners, CDE aims to generate in-depth contextual knowledge about the dynamic social, economic, and ecological processes in mountain regions and elsewhere, with a view to informing development practices, while at the global level it engages in activities that help bring together these regional insights with the goal of informing policy-making. In doing so, CDE addresses the specific challenges of sustainable development—in mountains and elsewhere.

Bridging Research and Development : Partnership Actions for Mitigating Syndromes (PAMS) in the Swiss National Centre of Competence (NCCR) North-South - Capitalising on Experience

Within the framework of Switzerland’s international NCCR North-South research programme, Partnership Actions for Mitigating Syndromes (PAMS) are a practice-oriented component with a transdisciplinary approach. By linking research and development practice, they bring together researchers, practitioners and local communities in a common effort to test and evaluate research findings in concrete development contexts. They provide unique insights into innovative approaches and opportunities for promoting sustainable development in countries of the South and East. After an initial four-year phase, the PAMS projects implemented to date were evaluated in order to learn about their potentials and limits, as well as to decide on the direction of the component for the next phase of the programme. The present publication presents the results of this evaluation.

Mitigating the syndromes of desertification: The requirements for transdisciplinary research and information exchange

In developing meaningful mitigation strategies to combat desertification, it is important to address the complex constellation of desertification under different bio-physical, social, demographic, political and economic conditions. In particular, desertification can be described as a cluster of key processes of global change which together form a typical syndrome. A critical reflection on the potential of research to help mitigate desertification will be a useful first step, before addressing the requirements for research partnerships between institutions at local levels and beyond. A practical example from Eritrea, an ecoregion which has been plagued by desertification for many centuries, is given at the end of the paper. It illustrates options for generating the necessary data and developing useful information in order to enhance the impact of research on sustainable development.

Performance tiers: Implementing comparative effectiveness analysis in the health care setting through operations research and spatial methods

This dissertation develops and tests a comparative effectiveness methodology utilizing a novel approach to the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in health studies. The concept of performance tiers (PerT) is introduced as terminology to express a relative risk class for individuals within a peer group and the PerT calculation is implemented with operations research (DEA) and spatial algorithms. The analysis results in the discrimination of the individual data observations into a relative risk classification by the DEA-PerT methodology. The performance of two distance measures, kNN (k-nearest neighbor) and Mahalanobis, was subsequently tested to classify new entrants into the appropriate tier. The methods were applied to subject data for the 14 year old cohort in the Project HeartBeat! study.^ The concepts presented herein represent a paradigm shift in the potential for public health applications to identify and respond to individual health status. The resultant classification scheme provides descriptive, and potentially prescriptive, guidance to assess and implement treatments and strategies to improve the delivery and performance of health systems. ^

Dinoflagellate cyst counts and age model from sediment samples of ODP Hole 175-1085A

Sediment samples from ODP Site 1085 were investigated in order to obtain more information on the initiation and development of the Benguela upwelling system during the middle and upper Miocene. In particular, our intent was to establish the causes of the upwelling as well as the response of the upwelling regime to the development of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Based on changes in the calcareous dinoflagellate cyst association, we found an initial increase of the dinoflagellate cyst productivity, probably related to the initiation of upwelling about 11.8 Ma ago. Two distinct increases in cyst productivity in conjunction with temperature decreases of the upper water masses reflect upwelling pulses off Namibia and occur at the end of the Miocene cooling events Mi5 (about 11.5 Ma) and Mi6 (about 10.5 Ma). Both cooling events are associated with an ice volume increase in Antarctica and are thought to have led to an increase in southeasterly winds, possibly causing these two upwelling pulses. We demonstrate a decrease in dinoflagellate cyst productivity and enhanced terrigenous input via the Orange River after the Mi5 event. At about 11.1 Ma, the dinoflagellate cyst productivity increases again. The polar cyst species Caracomia arctica occurs here for the first time. This implies an influence of subantarctic mode water and therefore a change in the quality of the upwelling water which allowed the Benguela upwelling to develop into modern conditions. From about 10.4 Ma, C. arctica forms a permanent part of the association, pointing to an establishment of the upwelling regime.

Stable isotope record, Mg/Ca ratios and age model of St. Stephens Quarry, Alabama

In the largest global cooling event of the Cenozoic Era, between 33.8 and 33.5 Myr ago, warm, high-CO2 conditions gave way to the variable 'icehouse' climates that prevail today. Despite intense study, the history of cooling versus ice-sheet growth and sea-level fall reconstructed from oxygen isotope values in marine sediments at the transition has not been resolved. Here, we analyse oxygen isotopes and Mg/Ca ratios of benthic foraminifera, and integrate the results with the stratigraphic record of sea-level change across the Eocene-Oligocene transition from a continental-shelf site at Saint Stephens Quarry, Alabama. Comparisons with deep-sea (Sites 522 (South Atlantic) and 1218 (Pacific)) d18O and Mg/Ca records enable us to reconstruct temperature, ice-volume and sea-level changes across the climate transition. Our records show that the transition occurred in at least three distinct steps, with an increasing influence of ice volume on the oxygen isotope record as the transition progressed. By the early Oligocene, ice sheets were ~25% larger than present. This growth was associated with a relative sea-level decrease of approximately 105 m, which equates to a 67 m eustatic fall.

Research and the choice of a course of study

This paper presents some research on the choice of a course of study as related to a certain social, family and labor context. The methodology used included the definition of the theoretical basis and a series of empirical investigations which comprised different kinds of sur- veys, records, observations, participants as well as other fieldwork. The results obtained shed some light on the issue and raise new questions. This study was especially carried out to analyze the choice of the following courses of study: Law, Psychology and the different Teaching Courses.

Research and the choice of a course of study

This paper presents some research on the choice of a course of study as related to a certain social, family and labor context. The methodology used included the definition of the theoretical basis and a series of empirical investigations which comprised different kinds of sur- veys, records, observations, participants as well as other fieldwork. The results obtained shed some light on the issue and raise new questions. This study was especially carried out to analyze the choice of the following courses of study: Law, Psychology and the different Teaching Courses.