The Experts below are selected from a list of 12927 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
John G Mcpeak - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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index based livestock insurance for northern kenya s Arid and semi Arid Lands the marsabit pilot project summary
2010Co-Authors: Andrew G Mude, Christopher B Barrett, Munenobu Ikegami, Sommarat Chantarat, Michael Carter, John G McpeakAbstract:This project summary was prepared by ILRI, in collaboration with its partners at Cornell University, the BASIS Research Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Syracuse University.
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index based livestock insurance for northern kenya s Arid and semi Arid Lands the marsabit pilot
Social Science Research Network, 2009Co-Authors: Andrew G Mude, Christopher B Barrett, Munenobu Ikegami, Sommarat Chantarat, Michael R Carter, John G McpeakAbstract:In Kenya’s Arid and semi Arid Lands (ASALs), drought is the most pervasive hazard, natural or otherwise, encountered by households on a widespread level. This is especially true for northern Kenya, where more than 3 million pastoralist households are regularly hit by increasingly severe droughts. In the past 100 years, northern Kenya recorded 28 major droughts, 4 of which occurred in the last 10 years. For livelihoods that rely solely or partly on livestock, the resulting high livestock mortality rate has devastating effects, rendering these pastoralists amongst the most vulnerable populations in Kenya. As the consequences of climate change unfold, the link between drought risk, vulnerability and poverty becomes significantly stronger.Index-based insurance products represent a promising and exciting innovation for managing the climate related risks that vulnerable households face. The creation of insurance markets for events whose likelihood of occurrence can be precisely calculated and associated to a well defined index is increasingly being championed as a way to make the benefits of insurance available to the poor. Over the past year, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in collaboration with its partners at Cornell University, the BASIS Research Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Syracuse University, has pursued a substantial research program aimed at designing, developing and implementing market-mediated index-based insurance products to protect livestock keepers - particularly in the drought prone ASALs – from drought-related asset losses.Much of the initial preparatory phase, which included an extensive program of field work and stakeholder consultation, is now complete. An index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) contract has also been modeled, priced, and is ready for implementation. The remainder of this note defines the key features of a general index-based contract, highlighting the specifics of our IBLI contract, and lays out a pilot strategy to test its effectiveness and commercial sustainability.
Glenn C. Miller - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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grindelia squarrosa a potential Arid Lands biofuel plant
ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2017Co-Authors: Bishnu Neupane, Charles J Coronella, Hongfei Lin, David K. Shintani, Glenn C. MillerAbstract:Gumweed (Grindelia squarrosa) has potential as a biofuel/biomaterial crop in Arid Lands. Two years of biomass production data at University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) field plots varied from 6700 kg/ha up to 14 900 kg/ha with an average of 9950 kg/ha. Gumweed was planted in 4 m × 4 m plots at spacings of 15, 20, 25, 30, and 37 cm with three replications each. Acetone extraction of the ground, dried biomass yielded about 12.5% extractable hydrocarbons, called biocrude or crude resin. Approximately 52% of the biocrude extract consists of the C20 diterpene acid grindelic acid, which is also approximately 6.5% of the dried plant biomass. Additional carboxylic acids bring the total carboxylic acid fraction to approximately 68% of the biocrude. Also found in the biocrude is approximately 4.7% monoterpenes, including pinene, limonene, germacrene, elemene, and camphene. Acid-catalyzed methylation of the biocrude followed by hexane extraction and removal of the hexane and remaining methanol produced an approximately 72...
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Grindelia squarrosa: A Potential Arid Lands Biofuel Plant
2016Co-Authors: Bishnu P. Neupane, Charles J Coronella, Hongfei Lin, David Shintani, Glenn C. MillerAbstract:Gumweed (Grindelia squarrosa) has potential as a biofuel/biomaterial crop in Arid Lands. Two years of biomass production data at University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) field plots varied from 6700 kg/ha up to 14 900 kg/ha with an average of 9950 kg/ha. Gumweed was planted in 4 m × 4 m plots at spacings of 15, 20, 25, 30, and 37 cm with three replications each. Acetone extraction of the ground, dried biomass yielded about 12.5% extractable hydrocarbons, called biocrude or crude resin. Approximately 52% of the biocrude extract consists of the C20 diterpene acid grindelic acid, which is also approximately 6.5% of the dried plant biomass. Additional carboxylic acids bring the total carboxylic acid fraction to approximately 68% of the biocrude. Also found in the biocrude is approximately 4.7% monoterpenes, including pinene, limonene, germacrene, elemene, and camphene. Acid-catalyzed methylation of the biocrude followed by hexane extraction and removal of the hexane and remaining methanol produced an approximately 72.5% yield of biofuel materials from the original extract. This mixture contained the methyl esters of the carboxylic acids, terpenes, and other unidentified compounds. When mixed with diesel fuel up to 20%, this blend produced a biofuel that met biofuel standards, although viscosity issues limit the percentage of gumweed biocrude that can be used in the blend. Grindelic acid methyl ester and a second ester produced during the acid-catalyzed methylation reaction (also identified as grindelic acid by GC–MS) eluted toward the end of a diesel fuel chromatogram. The Grindelia biofuel materials can be produced up to 1290 L/ha on a biennial basis, which is equivalent to 138 gal/acre, when extracted in hexane. This potential fuel can be produced on the Arid Lands of Nevada with minimal inputs of water, nutrients, and other agricultural services
Andrew G Mude - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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index based livestock insurance for northern kenya s Arid and semi Arid Lands the marsabit pilot project summary
2010Co-Authors: Andrew G Mude, Christopher B Barrett, Munenobu Ikegami, Sommarat Chantarat, Michael Carter, John G McpeakAbstract:This project summary was prepared by ILRI, in collaboration with its partners at Cornell University, the BASIS Research Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Syracuse University.
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index based livestock insurance for northern kenya s Arid and semi Arid Lands the marsabit pilot
Social Science Research Network, 2009Co-Authors: Andrew G Mude, Christopher B Barrett, Munenobu Ikegami, Sommarat Chantarat, Michael R Carter, John G McpeakAbstract:In Kenya’s Arid and semi Arid Lands (ASALs), drought is the most pervasive hazard, natural or otherwise, encountered by households on a widespread level. This is especially true for northern Kenya, where more than 3 million pastoralist households are regularly hit by increasingly severe droughts. In the past 100 years, northern Kenya recorded 28 major droughts, 4 of which occurred in the last 10 years. For livelihoods that rely solely or partly on livestock, the resulting high livestock mortality rate has devastating effects, rendering these pastoralists amongst the most vulnerable populations in Kenya. As the consequences of climate change unfold, the link between drought risk, vulnerability and poverty becomes significantly stronger.Index-based insurance products represent a promising and exciting innovation for managing the climate related risks that vulnerable households face. The creation of insurance markets for events whose likelihood of occurrence can be precisely calculated and associated to a well defined index is increasingly being championed as a way to make the benefits of insurance available to the poor. Over the past year, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in collaboration with its partners at Cornell University, the BASIS Research Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Syracuse University, has pursued a substantial research program aimed at designing, developing and implementing market-mediated index-based insurance products to protect livestock keepers - particularly in the drought prone ASALs – from drought-related asset losses.Much of the initial preparatory phase, which included an extensive program of field work and stakeholder consultation, is now complete. An index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) contract has also been modeled, priced, and is ready for implementation. The remainder of this note defines the key features of a general index-based contract, highlighting the specifics of our IBLI contract, and lays out a pilot strategy to test its effectiveness and commercial sustainability.
Rajeev Kumar - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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agave proves to be a low recalcitrant lignocellulosic feedstock for biofuels production on semi Arid Lands
Biotechnology for Biofuels, 2014Co-Authors: Hongjia Li, Sivakumar Pattathil, Marcus Foston, Shi You Ding, Rajeev KumarAbstract:Agave, which is well known for tequila and other liquor production in Mexico, has recently gained attention because of its attractive potential to launch sustainable bioenergy feedstock solutions for semi-Arid and Arid Lands. It was previously found that agave cell walls contain low lignin and relatively diverse non-cellulosic polysacchArides, suggesting unique recalcitrant features when compared to conventional C4 and C3 plants. Here, we report sugar release data from fungal enzymatic hydrolysis of non-pretreated and hydrothermally pretreated biomass that shows agave to be much less recalcitrant to deconstruction than poplar or switchgrass. In fact, non-pretreated agave has a sugar release five to eight times greater than that of poplar wood and switchgrass . Meanwhile, state of the art techniques including glycome profiling, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Simon’s Stain, confocal laser scanning microscopy and so forth, were applied to measure interactions of non-cellulosic wall components, cell wall hydrophilicity, and enzyme accessibility to identify key structural features that make agave cell walls less resistant to biological deconstruction when compared to poplar and switchgrass. This study systematically evaluated the recalcitrant features of agave plants towards biofuels applications. The results show that not only does agave present great promise for feeding biorefineries on semi-Arid and Arid Lands, but also show the value of studying agave’s low recalcitrance for developments in improving cellulosic energy crops.
Michael R Carter - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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index based livestock insurance for northern kenya s Arid and semi Arid Lands the marsabit pilot
Social Science Research Network, 2009Co-Authors: Andrew G Mude, Christopher B Barrett, Munenobu Ikegami, Sommarat Chantarat, Michael R Carter, John G McpeakAbstract:In Kenya’s Arid and semi Arid Lands (ASALs), drought is the most pervasive hazard, natural or otherwise, encountered by households on a widespread level. This is especially true for northern Kenya, where more than 3 million pastoralist households are regularly hit by increasingly severe droughts. In the past 100 years, northern Kenya recorded 28 major droughts, 4 of which occurred in the last 10 years. For livelihoods that rely solely or partly on livestock, the resulting high livestock mortality rate has devastating effects, rendering these pastoralists amongst the most vulnerable populations in Kenya. As the consequences of climate change unfold, the link between drought risk, vulnerability and poverty becomes significantly stronger.Index-based insurance products represent a promising and exciting innovation for managing the climate related risks that vulnerable households face. The creation of insurance markets for events whose likelihood of occurrence can be precisely calculated and associated to a well defined index is increasingly being championed as a way to make the benefits of insurance available to the poor. Over the past year, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in collaboration with its partners at Cornell University, the BASIS Research Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Syracuse University, has pursued a substantial research program aimed at designing, developing and implementing market-mediated index-based insurance products to protect livestock keepers - particularly in the drought prone ASALs – from drought-related asset losses.Much of the initial preparatory phase, which included an extensive program of field work and stakeholder consultation, is now complete. An index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) contract has also been modeled, priced, and is ready for implementation. The remainder of this note defines the key features of a general index-based contract, highlighting the specifics of our IBLI contract, and lays out a pilot strategy to test its effectiveness and commercial sustainability.