• Title/Summary/Keyword: human capacity building

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Pig production in Africa: current status, challenges, prospects and opportunities

  • Akinyele O. K. Adesehinwa;Bamidele A. Boladuro;Adetola S. Dunmade;Ayodeji B. Idowu;John C. Moreki;Ann M. Wachira
    • Animal Bioscience
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    • v.37 no.4_spc
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    • pp.730-741
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    • 2024
  • Pig production is one of the viable enterprises of the livestock sub-sector of agriculture. It contributes significantly to the economy and animal protein supply to enhance food security in Africa and globally. This article explored the present status of pig production in Africa, the challenges, prospects and potentials. The pig population of Africa represents 4.6% of the global pig population. They are widely distributed across Africa except in Northern Africa where pig production is not popular due to religio-cultural reasons. They are mostly reared in rural parts of Africa by smallholder farmers, informing why majority of the pig population in most parts of Africa are indigenous breeds and their crosses. Pig plays important roles in the sustenance of livelihood in the rural communities and have cultural and social significance. The pig production system in Africa is predominantly traditional, but rapidly growing and transforming into the modern system. The annual pork production in Africa has grown from less than a million tonnes in year 2000 to over 2 million tonnes in 2021. Incidence of disease outbreak, especially African swine fever is one of the main constraints affecting pig production in Africa. Others are lack of skills and technical know-how, high ambient temperature, limited access to high-quality breeds, high cost of feed ingredients and veterinary inputs, unfriendly government policies, religious and cultural bias, inadequate processing facilities as well as under-developed value-chain. The projected human population of 2.5 billion in Africa by 2050, increasing urbanization and decreasing farming population are pointers to the need for increased food production. The production systems of pigs in Africa requires developmental research, improvements in housing, feed production and manufacturing, animal health, processing, capacity building and pig friendly policies for improved productivity and facilitation of export.

Management of plant genetic resources at RDA in line with Nagoya Protocol

  • Yoon, Moon-Sup;Na, Young-Wang;Ko, Ho-Cheol;Lee, Sun-Young;Ma, Kyung-Ho;Baek, Hyung-Jin;Lee, Su-Kyeung;Lee, Sok-Young
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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    • 2017.06a
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    • pp.51-52
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    • 2017
  • "Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture" means any genetic material of plant origin of actual or potential value for food and agriculture. "Genetic material" means any material of plant origin, including reproductive and vegetative propagating material, containing functional units of heredity. (Internal Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, ITPGRFA). The "Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (shortly Nagoya Protocol)" is a supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity. It provides a transparent legal framework for the effective implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD: the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. The Nagoya Protocol on ABS was adopted on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan and entered into force on 12 October 2014, 90 days after the deposit of the fiftieth instrument of ratification. Its objective is the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources, thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. The Nagoya Protocol will create greater legal certainty and transparency for both providers and users of genetic resources by; (a) Establishing more predictable conditions for access to genetic resources and (b) Helping to ensure benefit-sharing when genetic resources leave the country providing the genetic resources. By helping to ensure benefit-sharing, the Nagoya Protocol creates incentives to conserve and sustainably use genetic resources, and therefore enhances the contribution of biodiversity to development and human well-being. The Nagoya Protocol's success will require effective implementation at the domestic level. A range of tools and mechanisms provided by the Nagoya Protocol will assist contracting Parties including; (a) Establishing national focal points (NFPs) and competent national authorities (CNAs) to serve as contact points for information, grant access or cooperate on issues of compliance, (b) An Access and Benefit-sharing Clearing-House to share information, such as domestic regulatory ABS requirements or information on NFPs and CNAs, (c) Capacity-building to support key aspects of implementation. Based on a country's self-assessment of national needs and priorities, this can include capacity to develop domestic ABS legislation to implement the Nagoya Protocol, to negotiate MAT and to develop in-country research capability and institutions, (d) Awareness-raising, (e) Technology Transfer, (f) Targeted financial support for capacity-building and development initiatives through the Nagoya Protocol's financial mechanism, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) (Nagoya Protocol). The Rural Development Administration (RDA) leading to conduct management agricultural genetic resources following the 'ACT ON THE PRESERVATION, MANAGEMENT AND USE OF AGRO-FISHERY BIO-RESOURCES' established on 2007. According to $2^{nd}$ clause of Article 14 (Designation, Operation, etc. of Agencies Responsible for Agro-Fishery Bioresources) of the act, the duties endowed are, (a) Matters concerning securing, preservation, management, and use of agro-fishery bioresources; (b) Establishment of an integrated information system for agro-fishery bioresources; (c) Matters concerning medium and long-term preservation of, and research on, agro-fishery bioresources; (d) Matters concerning international cooperation for agro-fishery bioresources and other relevant matters. As the result the RDA manage about 246,000 accessions of plant genetic resources under the national management system at the end of 2016.

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A Plan for a Prompt Disaster Response System Using a 3D Disaster Management System Based on High-Capacity Geographic and Disaster Information (고용량 지리정보 및 재난 정보 기반 3차원 재난 관리 시스템을 활용한 신속한 재난 대응 체계 방안 제시)

  • GANG, Su-Myung;KIM, Do-Ryeong;CHOUNG, Yun-Jae;PARK, Ju-Sung;KIM, Jin-Man;JO, Myung-Hee
    • Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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    • v.19 no.1
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    • pp.180-196
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    • 2016
  • To minimize the damage from disasters, various aspects of prevention, preparation, and response, etc. are being managed. Even though prevention and preparation are well conducted, irresistible calamities such as natural disasters may cause unexpected damage. Therefore, a system that can share the identical disaster information based on prompt disaster management and prediction must be developed and constructed for integrated disaster management. Especially, for a prompt disaster response, the same information needs to be shared between the related organization and the disaster prevention personnel such as on-site officials. Recent disaster management systems use high-capacity geographic information or other various factors for accurate disaster predictions. In case of using a recently constructed or researched 3D GIS, the system may not be used in some cases due to conflicts with hardware, etc. Thus, even though response information is secured using prediction simulation in advance, it is essentially difficult in some cases to share the common information when the system cannot be utilized or the extension of the corresponding data cannot be read. Therefore, this study aims to construct a system for dealing with disasters that shares the same prompt and accurate information in compliance with common data formats. The system is expected to reduce the existing disaster response time and minimize human and physical damage by assisting decision making through prompt responses.

Corona 19 Crisis and Data-State: Korean Data-State and Health Crisis Governance (코로나19 위기와 데이터 국가: 한국의 데이터 국가와 보건위기 거버넌스)

  • Jang, Hoon
    • Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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    • v.26 no.3
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    • pp.125-159
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    • 2020
  • Amid global pandemic of covid-19, Korean government's response has drawn wide attention among social scientists as well as medical studies. The role of Korean state and civil society has attracted particular attention among others. Yet, this paper criticizes extant studies on Korean case which focus on the extensive intervention of the strong state and subjective attitude of Korean citizens in coping with covid-19. The concept of the strong state lacks social scientific specification and subjective citizens do not match with Korean realities. This article argues that Korean state's capacity in collecting and mobilizing digital data may offer better understanding for the successful responses to the pandemic. First, Korean state is the ultimate coordinator in collecting, analyzing and applying big data about the expansion of covid-19 with its huge network of dataveillance. Also, such role has been largely based upon relevant legal framework and well prepared manuals and cooperation with civic actors and companies. In other words, Korean digital dataveillance had demonstrated its transparency and cooperative governance. Second, such dataveillance capacity has deep roots in the long-term development of Korean state's big data management. Korean state has evolved about thirty years while enhancing digital data network within governments, companies and private sectors. Third, the relationship between Korean state's dataveillance and civil society can be characterized as a state centered push model. This model demonstrates highly effective governmental responses to covid-19 crisis but fall short of building social consensus in balancing individual freedom, human rights and effective containment policies. It means communitarian solidarity among citizens has not been a major factor in Korea's successful response yet.

Skills Development Programmes and Activities for LIS Professionals in India: A Road Map For South Asian Countries (문헌정보학 전문가를 위한 인도의 기술개발 프로그램과 활동 분석)

  • Ramesha, Ramesha
    • Journal of Information Management
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    • v.42 no.4
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    • pp.95-113
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    • 2011
  • The new millennium with mystifying convergence of IT has opened new challenges to LIS profession. This has resulted to continuous skill development and lifelong learning, for capacity building in consonant with contemporary changes. The LIS profession in India has created several mechanisms to organize and conduct several skills development programmes through which professionals are continuously enabled to update their professional knowledge and skills, in practice and teaching. There is a good organizational infrastructure and identified areas related to the recent developmental trends and as such LIS professionals and educators have facilities for updating their knowledge at veritable levels and intervals. The paper has surveyed programmes conducted by different organizations at different levels and highlights the aspects of the organizational infrastructure and the emergent areas of applications in LIS teaching, research and professional practices in India. The selection of areas and subjects for various skill development programmes suggest the competencies acquired by the LIS professionals from India, and the empowerment of their professional knowledge can be of immense value to its neighbouring countries. The paper highlights the knowledge and competencies of the LIS professionals in India and the broad-based facilities available here which can be a model for those countries which are seeking to utilize the LIS human resources from this part of the sub-continent. The paper in this circumstance surveyed on the institutional infrastructure for skill developmental opportunities available in India which would meet such requirements within and to the countries outside in the South Asian region seeking its collaboration in such manpower development work.

Korean and Multilingual Language Models Study for Cross-Lingual Post-Training (XPT) (Cross-Lingual Post-Training (XPT)을 위한 한국어 및 다국어 언어모델 연구)

  • Son, Suhyune;Park, Chanjun;Lee, Jungseob;Shim, Midan;Lee, Chanhee;Park, Kinam;Lim, Heuiseok
    • Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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    • v.13 no.3
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    • pp.77-89
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    • 2022
  • It has been proven through many previous researches that the pretrained language model with a large corpus helps improve performance in various natural language processing tasks. However, there is a limit to building a large-capacity corpus for training in a language environment where resources are scarce. Using the Cross-lingual Post-Training (XPT) method, we analyze the method's efficiency in Korean, which is a low resource language. XPT selectively reuses the English pretrained language model parameters, which is a high resource and uses an adaptation layer to learn the relationship between the two languages. This confirmed that only a small amount of the target language dataset in the relationship extraction shows better performance than the target pretrained language model. In addition, we analyze the characteristics of each model on the Korean language model and the Korean multilingual model disclosed by domestic and foreign researchers and companies.

The Landscape Value of Asan Oeam-ri's Folk Village as Cultural Heritage (아산 외암마을 토속경관의 문화유산적 가치)

  • Shin, Sang Sup
    • Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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    • v.44 no.1
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    • pp.30-51
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    • 2011
  • During the process of modernization, many rural villages in Korea have experienced degeneration and breakdown, losing sustainability. However, Oeam village in Asan City, South Chungcheong Province (State-designated cultural heritage, Important Folk Material No. 236) has established itself as a unique folk village, which evolves with sustainability, pursuing the revival of Neo-traditionalism. Oeam village is a tribal village of the Yis from the Yean region and has maintained environmental, economic, and social sustainability and soundness for over five centuries. Thus, the village has sustained itself well enough to be a cultural asset with 'Outstanding Universal Value', in terms of its value as world cultural heritage. The village maintains its own identity, filled with a variety of traditional and scenic cultural assets that symbolize a gentry village. Those assets include Confucian sceneries (head family houses, ancestral shrines, tombs, gravestones, commemorative monuments, and pavilions), various assets of folk religion (totem poles, protective trees at the entrance of a village, shrines for mountain spirits, village forests), tangible and intangible cultural assets related to daily lives (vigorous family activities, rigorous ancestral rituals, family rituals, collective agriculture and protection of ecosystem), which have all been well preserved and inherited. In particular, this village is an example of a well-being community with a well-preserved folksy atmosphere, which is based on environmentally sound settlements (nature + economy + environment + community) in a village established according to geomancy, East Asia's unique principle of environmental design. In addition, the village has kept the sustainability and authenticity for more than 500 years, combining restraint towards the environment and the view of the environment which respects the natural order and cultural values (capacity + healthy + sustainability). Therefore, the Oeam folk village can be a representative example of a folksy and scenic Korean community which falls into the category of IV (to exemplify an outstanding type of building, architectural or technological ensemble, or landscape which illustrates significant stages in human history) and V (to exemplify an outstanding traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of cultures, or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change) of Unesco's World Cultural Heritage.

Recent Progress in Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Research : A Review of Papers Published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering in 2009 (설비공학 분야의 최근 연구 동향 : 2009년 학회지 논문에 대한 종합적 고찰)

  • Han, Hwa-Taik;Lee, Dae-Young;Kim, Seo Young;Choi, Jong-Min;Baik, Yong-Kyu;Kwon, Young-Chul
    • Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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    • v.22 no.7
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    • pp.492-507
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    • 2010
  • This article reviews the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering during 2009. It is intended to understand the status of current research in the areas of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation, and indoor environments of buildings and plant facilities. Conclusions are as follows. (1) Research trends of thermal and fluid engineering have been surveyed as groups of general thermal and fluid flow, fluid machinery and piping, and new and renewable energy. Various topics were covered in the field of general thermal and fluid flow such as an expander, a capillary tube, the flow of micro-channel water blocks, the friction and anti-wear characteristics of nano oils with mixtures of refrigerant oils, etc. Research issues mainly focused on the design of micro-pumps and fans, the heat resistance reliability of axial smoke exhaust fans, and hood systems in the field of fluid machinery and piping. Studies on ground water sources were executed concerning two well type geothermal heat pumps and multi-heat pumps in the field of new and renewable energy. (2) Research works on heat transfer area have been reviewed in the categories of heat transfer characteristics and industrial heat exchangers. Researches on heat transfer characteristics included the heat transfer in thermoelectric cooling systems, refrigerants, evaporators, dryers, desiccant rotors. In the area of industrial heat exchangers, researches on high temperature ceramic heat exchangers, plate heat exchangers, frosting on fins of heat exchangers were performed. (3) In the field of refrigeration, papers were presented on alternative refrigerants, system improvements, and the utilization of various energy sources. Refrigeration systems with alternative refrigerants such as hydrocarbons, mixed refrigerants, and $CO_2$ were studied. Efforts to improve the performance of refrigeration systems were made applying various ideas of suction line heat exchangers, subcooling bypass lines and gas injection systems. Studies on heat pump systems using unutilized energy sources such as river water, underground water, and waste heat were also reported. (4) Research trend in the field of mechanical building facilities has been found to be mainly focused on field applications rather than performance improvements. In the area of cogeneration systems, papers on energy and economic analysis, LCC analysis and cost estimating were reported. Studies on ventilation and heat recovery systems introduced the effect on fire and smoke control, and energy reduction. Papers on district cooling and heating systems dealt with design capacity evaluation, application plan and field application. Also, the maintenance and management of building service equipments were presented for HVAC systems. (5) In the field of architectural environment, various studies were carried to improve indoor air quality and to analyze the heat load characteristics of buildings by energy simulation. These studies helped to understand the physics related to building load characteristics and to improve the quality of architectural environment where human beings reside in.

The theme and urban development of the Expo Yeosu focusing on the case of the Expo Lisbon (리스본엑스포를 통해 본 여수엑스포의 주제와 도시개발)

  • Choi, Eun-Soon;Jeong, Moon-Soo
    • Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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    • v.33 no.8
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    • pp.539-548
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    • 2009
  • This work aims to highlight the importance and role of the theme and message of BIE exhibitions in the 21th century, and to suggest essential points concerning the preparation of the Expo 2012 Yeosu which would focus on the theme and urban development. After the Expo '98 Lisbon, the theme and message of Expo has been changed from focusing on the progress of technology itself to rethinking of progress itself and focusing on the future of the globe. This change also reflects the need to solve the problems of global environment problem in today's human society and to pursue the new technology which enable to make sure sustainable development. Because the Expo Yeosu, whose theme is the sea and coast, is compared to case of Expo Lisbon whose theme is ocean, we need to make a benchmarking the case of the Expo Lisbon and to make efforts to differenciate the case of the Expo Lisbon. This article suggests concerning the theme and urban development plan of the Expo Yeosu as follows: First, to propose current and future cutting edge technology to utilize the resources of the ocean and the coast and to propose the Yeosu Project, a capacity-building program designed to address various challenges confronting developing countries. Second, to propose a different urban redevelopment plan of capital Lisbon, ie to propose sea port cities network to link the advent of the Namhaeansidae.

Enactment of the Fundamental Act on Cooperatives and Its Implications for Rural Development Policy (협동조합기본법 제정 및 시행의 시사점과 농촌 정책의 과제)

  • Kim, Jeong Seop;Ma, Sang Jin;Kim, Mee Bok
    • Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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    • v.20 no.1
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    • pp.1-39
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    • 2013
  • The Cooperatives Act was enacted. This enabled people to establish easily cooperatives at various fields. A cooperative is an important vehicle for rural community development. Therefore, the enactment of the Cooperatives Act can be a significant chance for rural policy. The Cooperatives Act have made three significant changes. First, cooperatives can start businesses at all the fields except for financial and insurance business. Second, requisites for people to establish cooperatives have been alleviated exceptionaly. Third, the Cooperatives Act introduced a new cooperative organization, social cooperative which aims to serve the socially excluded class. The self-help approach places rural community members at the core of a development process with two goals: to improve the quality of life within the community and to facilitate the community's capacity building. Community cooperatives contribute to accomplish those goals. One of the roles for cooperatives is to provide products and services at competitive prices. Providing a good or service at a competitive price bcomes increasingly important in some rural communities declines. Cooperative development processes have bic impacts on the ablility of community members to increase human asset and social capital. We conducted a survey targeting rural community businesses to grasp inclinations toward establishing cooperatives. The Cooperatives Act has gained low level of recognition. But so many community businesses wanted to establish cooperatives. This means there is a possibility for many community businesses to establish cooperatives without sufficient understanding. We suggested some policy issues for coping with this situation, as followings. First, the governments should provides rural community residents with opportunities to learn about cooperatives. Second, the current legal systems and regulations about business and social service should be reviewed to do away with the possible discrimination between the new cooperatives and the other forms of incoporation. Third, the cooperation of cooperatives should be encouraged and facilitated in rural communities.