Redefining the Water Poverty Index

Abstract

The Water Poverty Index (WPI) of arid and semiarid climatic zones is redefined by introducing the contribution of rainfed agriculture into WPI calculations and by making the WPI equation account for diversities in climatic conditions within arid and semiarid zones and for recycled household water used in irrigation.     

Water and the CGIAR: A Strategic Framework

Abstract

Among the many institutions addressing development issues at the international level, the 16 research centers of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) focus on the goal of reducing poverty, hunger, and malnutrition by sustainably increasing productivity of resources in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. The CGIAR has certain comparative advantages in carrying work in water at the various scales, from the farm up to global, that should be offered to the international community. This discussion paper addresses the question: what are the major water issues relevant to the CGIAR goal? The paper also presents a justification of the research needs and opportunities as well as some initial ideas for the development of a specific research agenda on each area. While other international organizations are very active in many international initiatives, the CGIAR is one of the few that could contribute much needed research information in many world areas. The CGIAR must focus more on water in relation to the plight of the poor in particular. There is a need to increase the adaptive capacity of the poor, and to manage the water supply and quality constraints. This could be achieved by focusing at the community level and by developing inexpensive, easy to use monitoring tools that would alert the communities of forthcoming problems and provide them with means to take remedial action. This action is often needed long before there is any hope of changes in policy and other macro-level interventions. The fundamental issue of water as a food requires that attention be given to the quantity and quality of water available for domestic use in poor households and communities. Health issues associated with domestic supply and with irrigation management have been important research themes in the CGIAR and demand increasing attention. Given the current composition, activitiesm and comparative advantages of the CGIAR, it is proposed that research on water management should focus on the following four broad general areas: (1) improving the efficiency of water use in agriculture through increased water productivity; (2) management of watersheds for multiple functions; (3) management of aquatic ecosystems, in particular those sharing boundaries with terrestrial ecosystems; and (4) policy and institutional aspects of water management. As the aim of water management research is to address water constraints and issues in an integrated manner, the four areas cannot be treated in isolation from each other. There is thus a need for the fifth area for achieving integration at and across different scales.     

A 60 GHz phased array with measurement and de-embedding techniques

We present a 60 GHz phased array system that combines several key technologies to realize 10 GHz bandwidth coverage. Particularly, a tightly coupled dipole array centered at 60 GHz is designed and tested for its wideband performance. The tightly coupled dipole elements offer excellent wideband behavior of 10 GHz with voltage standing wave ratio?<?3 with scanning to 45°, as well as low cost printed circuit board fabrication. Additionally, we demonstrate a measurement setup with de-embedding procedure to measure gain at the antenna feed point. A feeding structure was designed and fabricated for de-embedding gain pattern measurements. Recovered measurements are shown to be in agreement with simulation.     

Surface area production during grinding

During grinding, in cascading mills, the mass distribution of the material moves continuously to finer sizes. Grinding models are usually designed to predict the size distribution of the mill products either as a function of effective breakage events and the time or the energy consumed by the mill. Mill products are always tested for their size analysis and their fineness is usually expressed as the size d through which a certain amount of material passes, i.e. d₈₀. However, particulate materials have some supplementary properties that a grinding model should predict as well. The specific surface area is such an important supplementary property. Initially, the present work examines the relationship between mass distribution and the surface area of ground materials and determines the conditions under which, mass distribution can be used to determine the surface area. Based on these findings the work further examines the operating conditions of a cascading mill under which the surface area of the material increases at the highest rate. The operating parameter examined is the mill load ratio expressed as the mass ratio of mill grinding media and the material present in the mill.     

On Barenblatt's problem

The problem of flow in media with double porosity (e.g. fissured rocks) is considered by utilizing the author's concept of “multiporosity” and employing the apparatus of continuum theory of mixtures. Relevant results obtained by Barenblatt et al. within the Russian literature are shown to be contained in the present theory.     

Inverted-annular film boiling heat transfer from vertical surfaces

A theoretical model is developed which allows a consistent treatment of the wall heat flux in an inverted-annular film boiling regime. The model is based on an analytical solution of the energy conservation equations in the vapor and liquid regions downstream of the quench front. A constant vapor film thickness is assumed, which depends on the fluid equilibrium quality at the quench front. Good agreement is obtained in comparing the model with quasi-steady state experimental results.     

Smart polyoxometalate-based nitrogen monoxide sensors

An electrochemical sensor design for selective NO detection is presented based on a polyoxometalate (POM) cluster immobilized on an electrode through a polyelectrolyte matrix. It is suggested that the POM can electrocatalyze the reduction of NO. The reduction current is proportional to the NO concentration in the investigated concentration window ranging from 1 nM to 10 microM. The sensitivity of the device can be adjusted by the number of immobilized layers. The response to possible interfering reagents such as nitrate and nitrite can be controlled through the multilayer design. By a predominant negatively charged outer surface, the response to these ions is markedly reduced.     

Investigations of the deposition of lead-bearing aerosols on the surfaces of vegetation

SEM and X-ray microprobe analysis were combined with clean lab technology atomic absorption spectroscopy to observe the deposition of aerosols on undisturbed pine needle surfaces, to obtain physical and chemical information from the observed particles and to chemically remove these particles for analysis. Comparisons were made among sites with traffic densities of 100, 1000, 10000 cars per day. Correlations were made with periods of heavy rainfall. The results show that the particle size distribution, shape and surface chemistry are possibly characteristic of automotive exhausts, that both the chemical washing procedure and rainfall efficiently remove most particles from the surface, including those bearing lead, and that the rate of deposition is constant between rainfalls and partly a function of traffic density. Deposition rates of 0.3 ng Pb cm^?2 day^?1 were observed at 100 cars per day, 2–3 ng Pb cm^?2 day^?1 for 1000 and 10000 cars per day.     

An Object Oriented Architectural Library for the Design and Implementation of Network Protocols

The society of telecommunication and computer networks encompasses a wide variety of organizations, forums and industry companies that specify, standardize, evaluate, implement and deploy network infrastructures. These infrastructures are well defined and deployed in order to offer high quality end-user services and meet the need for interconnectivity, expandability and upgradeability. What users see and experience is the tip of the iceberg. Great amount of time and money is spent in specification, standardization, design, debugging, testing (both conformance and stress) and finally evaluating network components or subsystems before the deployment takes place. The framework, proposed in the current paper and implemented in open source software library, provides an object oriented methodology for the implementation of network protocols and the software realization of network components. The method is formed in respect to: (a) operating system architecture (b) network architecture and (c) Object Oriented (OO) methodology.