ROLE OF WOMEN ENTERPRISE FUND ON IMPROVING FOOD SECURITY OF WOMEN IN KARAPUL SUB LOCATION, SIAYA SUB COUNTY, KENYA

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the role of WEF on food security of women in Karapul Sub-location of Siaya Sub-County. Materials and Methods: The study was guided by the Capability theory by Amartya Sen which emphasizes the importance of considering social and environmental variations in analysis of impact of programs. This study used cross sectional research design. The target population was 551 women from all women groups that received the WEF between the years 2011 to 2014.Simple random sampling was used to select 155 respondents which is 30% of the target population. The Chief Township location and the Constituency Women Enterprise Fund Officer were purposively selected as key informants. The study used triangulation of mixed methods that included questionnaires, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21 was used to run descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages so as to present the quantitative data in form of tables, pie charts and bar graphs based on the major research questions. Qualitative data was summarized, grouped and ranked accordingly noting the similarities and differences in the responses from the interviews and presented in narration. Results: Findings of this study showed that an improvement in the food security of women was determined by the social variations and environmental diversity of the individual women. Women in formal employment at 67 per cent reported that they could consume three meals in a day same to those with established businesses at 38 per cent. Delay in release of loans affected women doing farming who depend on seasons similar to those who targeted certain peak periods to sell their products. Women who did group projects at 38.1 per cent reported to have increased food access due to higher returns from their businesses. Findings also indicate a big disparity in the varieties of food eaten to constitute a nutritious diet with more consumption of cereals and food from animal sources. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study was guided by the Capability theory by Amartya Sen which emphasizes the importance of considering social and environmental variations in analysis of impact of programs. The study recommends that emphasis should be laid on group projects to maximize profits and increase incomes. The WEF secretariat should ensure timely disbursement of funds and the GOK in its Food Security and Nutrition policy should increase farm inputs of women engaged in farming to ensure WEF improves their food security.

Microstratigraphic preservation of ancient faunal and hominin DNA in Pleistocene cave sediments

Ancient DNA recovered from Pleistocene sediments represents a rich resource for the study of past hominin and environmental diversity. However, little is known about how DNA is preserved in sediments and the extent to which it may be translocated between archaeological strata. Here, we investigate DNA preservation in 47 blocks of resin-impregnated archaeological sediment collected over the last four decades for micromorphological analyses at 13 prehistoric sites in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America and show that such blocks can preserve DNA of hominins and other mammals. Extensive microsampling of sediment blocks from Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains reveals that the taxonomic composition of mammalian DNA differs drastically at the millimeter-scale and that DNA is concentrated in small particles, especially in fragments of bone and feces (coprolites), suggesting that these are substantial sources of DNA in sediments. Three microsamples taken in close proximity in one of the blocks yielded Neanderthal DNA from at least two male individuals closely related to Denisova 5, a Neanderthal toe bone previously recovered from the same layer. Our work indicates that DNA can remain stably localized in sediments over time and provides a means of linking genetic information to the archaeological and ecological records on a microstratigraphic scale.

Boosting Photocatalytic Efficiency of MoS2/CdS By Modulating Morphology

With the rapid development of nuclear-related industries in the world, the consequent environmental pollution of radionuclides has become an increasingly serious problem due to the great harm to environmental diversity and human health. The photocatalytic removal of radionuclide on CdS-based photocatalysts has been attracted widely attentions due to the suitable band gap and high photocatalytic efficiency. In this study, approximately 97.5% of U(VI) was photo-catalytically reduced into U(IV) by 2.5 wt% MoS2/CdS composite within 15 min. After 5 cycles, 2.5 wt% MoS2/CdS composite still exhibited the high removal efficiency of U(VI) under 50 min irradiation, indicating the good stability. The findings indicated that CdS-based catalyst has a great potential for the photocatalytic reduction of uranyl in actual environmental remediation.

Are Pueblos Mágicos Really Magic? Tourism Development Program in the Context of the Quality of Life of Town Residents

Among the countless attractions awaiting tourists in Mexico are towns characterized by an exceptional atmosphere, which in conjunction with natural environmental attractions, leads one to believe that these places are magical. The promotion of tourism in Mexico rests on the principle of cultural and environmental diversity and includes a development program called Pueblos Mágicos. This program is designed to help expand small towns’ tourism offering and to create new jobs in the service sector that normally accompanies tourism. This growth in the employment level is supposed to produce a direct impact on the lives of members of the local community in terms of their standard of living and quality of life. The aim of the present paper is to examine the effects of the implementation of this program in a comprehensive manner. The viewpoint examined is that of the local population and its living conditions. Employment levels in towns designated Pueblos Mágicos are examined in the paper, as is the rate of business development. A comprehensive index is used in the study to analyze these issues. The index of exclusion in the study also varies from town to town—both statically and over time. The paper also examines a number of other studies that have focused on the benefits and downsides of this program. Thus, the aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the effects of the introduction of the tourism development program Pueblos Mágicos (PPM) from the perspective of its impacts on the quality of life of the residents of the affected towns, based on statistical data such as job growth rates and marginalization, as well as a review of existing studies. Research has shown that the Pueblos Mágicos program has not substantially improved the quality of life of residents in Mexican towns designated Pueblos Mágicos. In fact, in some cases, the quality of life has, in some respects, declined over the course of the program’s functioning. However, it is conceivable that with a proper town vetting process the program may yet produce better results in terms of improvements in the quality of life of Pueblo Mágico town residents.

Wildfire Smoke Classification Based on Synthetic Images and Pixel- and Feature-Level Domain Adaptation

Training a deep learning-based classification model for early wildfire smoke images requires a large amount of rich data. However, due to the episodic nature of fire events, it is difficult to obtain wildfire smoke image data, and most of the samples in public datasets suffer from a lack of diversity. To address these issues, a method using synthetic images to train a deep learning classification model for real wildfire smoke was proposed in this paper. Firstly, we constructed a synthetic dataset by simulating a large amount of morphologically rich smoke in 3D modeling software and rendering the virtual smoke against many virtual wildland background images with rich environmental diversity. Secondly, to better use the synthetic data to train a wildfire smoke image classifier, we applied both pixel-level domain adaptation and feature-level domain adaptation. The CycleGAN-based pixel-level domain adaptation method for image translation was employed. On top of this, the feature-level domain adaptation method incorporated ADDA with DeepCORAL was adopted to further reduce the domain shift between the synthetic and real data. The proposed method was evaluated and compared on a test set of real wildfire smoke and achieved an accuracy of 97.39%. The method is applicable to wildfire smoke classification tasks based on RGB single-frame images and would also contribute to training image classification models without sufficient data.

Diversifying Density - Renovating Rural Living within Kapiti/Horowhenua Coast

<p>‘Diversifying Density’ explores current issues surrounding New Zealand’s struggling rural regions with particular focus on the test region of Kāpiti/Horowhenua Coast. These rural regions are subject to pressure from cities with regard to economic production and a cultural shift toward urban lifestyle. This has contributed to deconstructing much of what originally made these regions so attractive to live in. Through the process of revitalisation this research looks at the specific test site of Lake Horowhenua. While there is no shortage to these rural challenges, Lake Horowhenua has managed to retain particular significance within the overall region of Kāpiti/Horowhenua Coast. The focus area of this research is to explore a diverse hybrid settlement for a specific area based around a potential economy. On developing this, the design explores how this can provide new habitation while working towards a better environmental system and occupancy potential. This research looks to encouraging discussion about conservation by adding further economic opportunity, the displacement of some current practices with the benefit of economic, environmental, and spatial diversities. Pulling these elements together the thesis proposes that this generates further opportunity, to increase human occupancy, formulating a perception and involvement within this rural landscape. Reconfiguring rural economies, lifestyles, recreation and conservation encourages authenticity of rural landscapes, creating new experiences and opportunities building the notion of abundance. The research being tested in detail is the harakeke (flax) economy. It is structured around the processing stages involving the extraction of the harakeke fibre. Developing this concept through one economy generates new opportunities for habitation, while facilitating alternative growth specific to the site and economy. This informs design moves that are directed specifically toward the economic and environmental diversity drivers connected to the site for growth encouragement. Then begins the exploration of concepts of authenticity; new rural living patterns; interdependencies of economies; environment and spatial patterns; and developing a synergy between work and living to construct community.</p>

Diversifying Density - Renovating Rural Living within Kapiti/Horowhenua Coast

<p>‘Diversifying Density’ explores current issues surrounding New Zealand’s struggling rural regions with particular focus on the test region of Kāpiti/Horowhenua Coast. These rural regions are subject to pressure from cities with regard to economic production and a cultural shift toward urban lifestyle. This has contributed to deconstructing much of what originally made these regions so attractive to live in. Through the process of revitalisation this research looks at the specific test site of Lake Horowhenua. While there is no shortage to these rural challenges, Lake Horowhenua has managed to retain particular significance within the overall region of Kāpiti/Horowhenua Coast. The focus area of this research is to explore a diverse hybrid settlement for a specific area based around a potential economy. On developing this, the design explores how this can provide new habitation while working towards a better environmental system and occupancy potential. This research looks to encouraging discussion about conservation by adding further economic opportunity, the displacement of some current practices with the benefit of economic, environmental, and spatial diversities. Pulling these elements together the thesis proposes that this generates further opportunity, to increase human occupancy, formulating a perception and involvement within this rural landscape. Reconfiguring rural economies, lifestyles, recreation and conservation encourages authenticity of rural landscapes, creating new experiences and opportunities building the notion of abundance. The research being tested in detail is the harakeke (flax) economy. It is structured around the processing stages involving the extraction of the harakeke fibre. Developing this concept through one economy generates new opportunities for habitation, while facilitating alternative growth specific to the site and economy. This informs design moves that are directed specifically toward the economic and environmental diversity drivers connected to the site for growth encouragement. Then begins the exploration of concepts of authenticity; new rural living patterns; interdependencies of economies; environment and spatial patterns; and developing a synergy between work and living to construct community.</p>

How information technology capability influences organizational agility: empirical evidences from Indian banking industry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight a precise investigation of the relationship between information technology (IT) capability and organizational agility along with the moderating impact of environmental factors on this association. Design/methodology/approach Pre-tested structured questionnaires were administered during a matched-pair field survey to collect primary responses from 300 business and IT personnel working in various public and privately owned banking groups functioning in India. The structural equation modeling approach has been used for data analysis. Findings The two-folded research findings are first, IT capability enables organizational agility (studied as business process and market responsive agility), while IT capability has more effect on market responsive agility. Second, the environmental factors (studied as environmental diversity and hostility) possess a significant effect on the IT-agility relationship and, thereby, suggest that a more diverse and less hostile environment is required for the firms to build up superior IT capability for realizing enhanced agility. Originality/value The authors have studied IT capability as a first-order factor, organizational agility and environmental factors as second-order factors and by meticulously examining their critical dimensions this study greatly contributes to the existing IT-agility literature. The derived inferences provide various implications for the bank and IT managers to emphasize on superior IT capability for generating enhanced organizational agility.

Identification of a Biostimulating Potential of an Organic Biomaterial Based on the Botanical Extract from Arctium lappa L. Roots

The development of novel biomaterials based on plant extracts is expected to boost yields without adversely affecting environmental diversity. The potential biostimulating effects have so far been underreported. The assessment of the stimulating effect of botanical biomaterials is essential in the cultivation of economically-important crops. An attempt was undertaken in this study to develop a new biostimulating material in the form of granules, based on an extract from the roots of Arctium lappa L. The scope of the research included the characterization of the new material and the identification of its biostimulating potential. The designed and produced biogranulate is rich in bioactive compounds, including polyphenolic compounds, carbohydrates, and micro- and macro-elements. The analysis of the physicochemical properties of the biomaterial has shown that it had the features of intelligent biopreparations, i.e., slow-release preparations, at the pH appropriate for legume plants. Thus, knowledge about the design of new biomaterials is a milestone in the practical development of new perspectives for enhancing sustainability in agriculture.