Wetlands are globally recognized as ecosystems that provide livelihood opportunities in aptly structured management contexts. Many wetlands, particularly those in urban Uganda are, however, getting ...degraded through infilling, construction, extraction, agricultural and industrial production despite the existing resource management regime. The purpose of this study was to analyze the gap between wetland management practices and extent of sustainable harnessing of livelihood opportunities. Therefore, this study contributes to an understanding of wetland management functions in relation to sustainable livelihoods. Cross-sectional qualitative and quantitative data were collected to investigate the stated relationships. The study established a positive but insignificant relationship between planning function and sustainable livelihood opportunities. Further, the study found a negative significant relationship between implementation and sustainable production. Finally, findings revealed that there was a connection between the control function and sustainable opportunities. The study recommends inclusive management functions to achieve sustainable wetland livelihood opportunities.
Purpose
This paper aims to concentrate on an efficient finite impulse response (FIR) filter architecture in combination with the differential evolution ant colony algorithm (DE-ACO). For the design ...of FIR filter, the evolutionary algorithm (EA) is found to be very efficient because of its non-conventional, nonlinear, multi-modal and non-differentiable nature. While focusing with frequency domain specifications, most of the EA techniques described with the existing systems diverge from the power related matters.
Design/methodology/approach
The FIR filters are extensively used for many low power, low complexities, less area and high speed digital signal processing applications. In the existing systems, various FIR filters have been proposed to focus on the above criterion.
Findings
In the proposed method, a novel DE-ACO is used to design the FIR filter. It focuses on satisfying the economic power utilization and also the specifications in the frequency domain.
Originality/value
The proposed DE-ACO gives outstanding performance with a strong ability to find optimal solution, and it has got quick convergence speed. The proposed method also uses the Software integrated synthesis environment (ISE) project navigator (p.28xd) for the simulation of FIR filter based on DE-ACO techniques.
This article is concerned with a long-standing problem concerning the nature and value of women’s labour in modern India. The first part of the article offers a theoretical overview of the issues ...involved, arguing for an intersectional framework that would reorient a focus on women through questions of gender, class, caste and sexuality. Issues relating to the prominence of the domestic sphere, stigma and public labour, and the abjection of sex work are brought into this frame. The second part of the article uses the method of exploring women’s life narratives or autobiographies to investigate this problem through the places occupied by labour in a life story, drawing on the writings of Rashsundari Debi, Binodini Dasi, Baby Kamble, Baby Haldar and Nalini Jameela. The third part of the article reflects on the insights gleaned, in particular on the kinds of conflicts that structure women’s relationships in the world of labour and on the further questions this raises for feminist analysis.
Spirulina a multicellular, blue-green alga has drawn attention as a viable food supplement due to its suitable nutrient composition, however, there is a dearth of information regarding its safety. ...This study aimed to measure the heavy metal concentrations in commercially available Spirulina products and evaluate the safety using the in vivo method. A total of 54 mice were randomly divided into three groups; Group 1 (n = 18) served as a control and received a basal diet. Group 2 (n = 20) served as a test and received Spirulina powder (15%) blended with a basal diet. Group 3 (n = 16) serves as a standard and received a basal diet supplemented with nutritional supplements. The findings showed that the concentration of serum aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, cystatin C, and troponin I after consuming the experimental diets was not statistically different between groups (p > 0.05). The concentrations of mercury (0.000036 mg/kg), lead (0.0047 mg/kg), cadmium (0.00048 mg/kg), and arsenic (0.0046 mg/kg) was very little to cause toxic effect and the levels were below the European Communities Commission (EC) recommended maximum heavy metal levels in foodstuffs. Therefore, consumption of Spirulina at a proportion of 15% does not exert any hepatic, renal, and cardiac toxicities in the mice. However, evaluating the safety of higher doses (> 15%) is required.
Introductionapplication of Insect Growth Regulator (IGR) such as pyriproxyfen has shown a promising result in controlling malaria transmitting mosquitoes through autodissemination technique. ...Novaluron that inhibits the chitin development at mosquito larval stage present a promising candidate IGR for rotation with pyriproxyfen to prevent a chance of resistance development. This study assessed the susceptibility of immature stages of Anopheles arabiensis, Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles funestus to novaluron. Methodssusceptibility bioassays using technical grade novaluron (98% active ingredient) were performed inside the semi-field system using first instar larvae of Anopheles species. For each tested species, a total of 1500 larvae were used in the bioassay. Concentration range of 0.01 mg/l to 2 mg/l of novaluron were tested to establish Lethal Concentration (LC) sufficient to kills 50%, 90% and 99% of the exposed larvae by using log-dose response analysis. Resultsof the tested mosquitoes, Anopheles gambiae were highly susceptible to novaluron followed by An. Arabiensis and then An. funestus. Lethal concentrations, LC50, LC90 and LC99 (95%CI) in mg/l for An. gambiae were 0.018, 0.332 and 2.001 respectively. For An. arabiensis were 0.026, 0.546 and 2.013; and for An. funestus were 0.032, 1.00 and 5.580. High larval mortality was recorded at high concentration (2mg/L), with 80% mortality within 3 days post exposure. Conclusionthe study demonstrates the efficacy of novaluron in controlling Anopheles mosquito species at immature stages via larval mortality. These findings warrant further testing of novaluron for autodissemination by different vector species for its inclusion in rotation to prevent development of resistance.
Rift Valley Fever virus (RVFV) is a zoonotic arbovirus of public health impact infecting livestock, wildlife, and humans mainly in Africa and other parts of the world. Despite its public health ...importance, mechanisms of RVFV maintenance during interepidemic periods (IEPS) remain unclear.
We aimed to examine comparatively exposure to RVFV between humans and goats and RVFV infection between humans, goats and mosquitoes.
A cross sectional study was performed in the Lower Moshi area of the Kilimanjaro region from March to June 2020. RVFV exposure was determined by detecting IgG/IgM to RVFV using a competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay whereas infection was determined by real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assay.
Results show that the male gender was related to RVFV seropositivity (χ
2
= 5.351; p=0.030). Being 50 years and above was related to seropositivity (χ
2
=14.430; p=0.006) whereas bed net use, larger numbers of persons living in the same house (>7 persons) and RVFV seropositivity in goats were related to higher seropositivity to RVFV among humans χ
2
=6.003; p=0.021, χ
2
=23.213; p < 0.001 and χ
2
=27.053; p < 0.001), respectively. By the use of RT-qPCR, goats exhibited the highest RVFV infection rate of 4.1%, followed by humans (2.6%), Ae. aegypti (2.3%), and Cx. pipiens complex(1.5%). Likewise, a higher proportion of goats (23.3%) were RVFV seropositive as compared with humans (13.2%).
Our findings suggest the Lower Moshi area as a potential hotspot for Rift Valley Fever (RVF), posing the danger of being a source of RVFV spread to other areas. Goats had the highest infection rate, suggesting goats as important hosts for virus maintenance during IEPs. We recommend the implementation of strategies that will warrant active RVF surveillance through the identification of RVF hotspots for targeted control of the disease.
We integrated safer conception care into a Ugandan HIV clinic. People with HIV (PWH), or partnered with a PWH, and desiring children were eligible for the Healthy Families Clinic Program. Clients ...completed quarterly safer conception counselling visits and questionnaires to provide information around method preferences and outcomes (partner pregnancy, partner seroconversion). We used clinic level data to evaluate longitudinal viral suppression among PWH. Between November 2016 and January 2020, 361 clients (53% men) accessed services. 75% were PWH (51% women, 96% men): 99% were on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and most reported HIV-sero-different partnerships (97%). Frequently selected safer conception methods included ART (86%), timed condomless sex (74%), and PrEP (40%) with important differences by HIV-serostatus and gender. 22.5% reported pregnancy. Most (97%) PWH were virally suppressed at enrolment and 81% of non-virally suppressed PWH were virally suppressed at 15 months. Two HIV-negative clients (2%) had HIV seroconversion. There is demand for safer conception care in a public sector HIV-clinic in Uganda. Men and women have unique safer conception care preferences. The majority of clients engaged in safer conception care had viral suppression at follow up.
Abstract Frequency‐modulated (FM) resonant converters are widely used in onboard battery chargers for constant current (CC) ‐ constant voltage (CV) charging of lithium‐ion batteries in electric ...vehicles. One of the significant challenges of FM converters is that they require precise control of current followed by voltage to avoid risks due to overcurrents and overvoltages. Also, there is an increased backflow current, peak current stress, magnetic losses, and switching losses when the frequency of operation is away from the resonant frequency. To overcome these issues, this paper proposes a modified CLC‐T resonant converter that operates only at resonant switching frequency but has an inherent smooth transition from CC to CV for battery charging. During CC charging, the resonant tank is CLC‐T, and the secondary circuit is a full‐bridge rectifier. As the battery voltage increases and reaches the rated value, the secondary diodes enter into cut‐off mode, modifying the secondary circuit into a half‐bridge rectifier. Thus, the resonant tank is automatically converted to CL, and there is a shift into CV charging. During the entire charging operation, the switches and diodes are soft‐switched. The switches attain either near‐zero phase angle or zero‐voltage switching operation, whereas the diodes attain zero‐current switchings. A hardware prototype of 400 V input and 320–420 V output battery charger was developed, tested, and validated in the laboratory. The highest efficiency of the overall charging system is 97.4%.
A new series of octahedral Ru(III) complexes of the type Ru (Cl)2 (DMAPIMP-X) (EPh3)2; DMAPIMP={2-(4-N,N’-dimethylaminophenylimino)-methyl-4-X-phenol}; X = Cl, Br or I; E = P or As) have been ...prepared and characterized by spectral, magnetic and cyclic voltammetric studies. The Ru (III) complexes are low spin and paramagnetic with one unpaired electron. These complexes absorb strongly in the visible region owing to the metal to ligand charge transfer (MLCT) transition. The IR spectral data reveals that the monobasic bidentate Schiff base ligands are chelated to ruthenium through the imine nitrogen and the deprotonated phenolic oxygen. The three line e.s.r spectrum of RuIII complexes with gx ≠ gy ≠ gz indicates magnetic anisotropy and an asymmetry in the electronic environment around the Ru atom. All Ru(III) complexes display the redox couple in the range – 0.826 to – 0.971 V. Further more the DNA binding experiment of the complexes were carried out by UV–Vis absorption spectral titration and the binding constant Kb = 1.2 ± 0.3 × 104 M−1 to 4.4 ± 0.3 × 104 M−1 have been found. The hyperchromism with moderate red shift of 2–4 nm, such a small change in λmax is more in keeping with groove binding, leading to small perturbations.
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