(Freebase) Accra (English pronunciation: /ˈækrə/ or /əˈkrɑː/) is the capital and largest city in Ghana with the population of the city proper estimated at 1,963,264 as of 2009. Accra also doubles as the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District with which it is coterminous. Accra is also the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and includes eight districts - Accra Metropolitan, Tema Metropolitan, Ga East Municipal, Ga West Municipal, Ga South Municipal, Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal, Ashaiman Municipal and Adenta Municipal. It is home to about 4 million people, making it the largest metropolitan conglomeration in the country by population. As a primate city, Accra is the administrative, communications, and economic centre of the country. Originally built around a port, Accra stretches along the Atlantic Coast and north into the interior. Serving as the nation’s capital, then the Gold Coast, from 1877 its...

(Freebase) Aceh (pronounced [ʔaˈtɕɛh], generally anglicized as /ˈɑːtʃeɪ/) is a special territory (daerah istimewa) of Indonesia, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Its full name is Daerah Istimewa Aceh (1959–2001), Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam (2001–2009) and Aceh (2009–Present). Past spellings of its name include Acheh, Atjeh and Achin. The Aceh province has the highest proportion of Muslims in the country with regional levels of Sharia law. It is thought to have been in Aceh where Islam was first established in Southeast Asia. In the early seventeenth century the Sultanate of Aceh was the most wealthy, powerful and cultivated state in the Malacca Straits region. Aceh has a history of political independence and fierce resistance to control by outsiders, including the former Dutch colonists and the Indonesian government. Aceh has substantial natural resources, including oil and natural gas - some estimates put Aceh gas reserves as being the largest in the world. Relative to most...

(Freebase) Acetic acid is one of the simplest carboxylic acids. It is an important chemical reagent and industrial chemical that is used in the production of plastic soft drink bottles, photographic film; and polyvinyl acetate for wood glue, as well as many synthetic fibres and fabrics. In households diluted acetic acid is often used as a cleaning agent. In the food industry acetic acid is used as an acidity regulator. The acetyl group, derived from acetic acid, is fundamental to the biochemistry of virtually all forms of life. When bound to coenzyme A it is central to the metabolism of carbohydrates and fats. However, the concentration of free acetic acid in cells is kept at a low level to avoid disrupting the control of the pH of the cell contents. Acetic acid is produced and excreted by certain bacteria, notably the Acetobacter genus and Clostridium acetobutylicum. These bacteria are found universally in foodstuffs, water, and soil, and acetic acid is produced naturally as fruits and some...

(Freebase) Achim Steiner (born 1961 in Brazil) is a German expert in environmental politics. From 2001 to 2006 he was Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). Since June 2006 he has been Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Acting on the nomination of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the UN General Assembly unanimously elected Steiner as the Executive Director of UNEP on 16 March 2006 for a four-year term, effective 15 June 2006. In this office he succeeded Klaus Töpfer. He became the fifth Executive Director in UNEP's history. Effective as of 1 March 2009, Achim was also appointed Director-General of the UN Offices at Nairobi (UNON). At its 83rd plenary meeting, on 22 April 2010, the General Assembly, on the proposal of the Secretary-General, re-elected Steiner as Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme for another four-year term of office beginning on 15 June 2010 and ending on 14...

(Freebase) Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports. Acrobatics is most often associated with activities that make extensive use of gymnastic elements, such as acro dance, circus, and gymnastics, but many other athletic activities—such as ballet and diving—may also employ acrobatics. Although acrobatics is most commonly associated with human body performance, it may also apply to other types of performance, such as aerial acrobatics. In China, acrobatics have been a part of the culture since the Western Han Dynasty, over 2000 years ago. Acrobatics were part of village harvest festivals. During the Tang Dynasty, acrobatics saw much the same sort of development as European acrobatics saw during the Middle Ages, with court displays during the 7th through 10th century dominating the practice. Acrobatics continues to be an important part of modern Chinese variety art....

(Freebase) Activism, can be described as intentional action to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument. The word "activism" synonymously with protest or dissent, but activism can stem from any number of political orientations and take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing businesses, rallies, street marches, strikes, both work stoppages and hunger strikes, or even guerrilla tactics. In some cases, activism has nothing to do with protest or confrontation. For instance, some religious, or vegetarian/vegan activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than persuade governments to change laws. The cooperative movement seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest...

(Freebase) Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. Its aim is to help build financially sustainable and scalable organizations that deliver affordable critical goods and services that improve the lives of the poor. Acumen Fund is a 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in New York, with regional offices in India, Kenya and Pakistan. Acumen Fund was incorporated on April 1, 2001, with seed capital from the Rockefeller Foundation, Cisco Systems Foundation and three individual philanthropists. Acumen Fund’s investors and advisors have grown to include a wide range of individuals and organizations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google.org and the Skoll Foundation. Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen Fund. Acumen Fund uses patient capital to build transformative businesses. The fund makes disciplined investments – loans or equity, not grants – that yield both financial and social...

(Freebase) Adaptive management (AM), also known as adaptive resource management (ARM), is a structured, iterative process of optimal decision making in the face of uncertainty, with an aim to reducing uncertainty over time via system monitoring. In this way, decision making simultaneously maximizes one or more resource objectives and, either passively or actively, accrues information needed to improve future management. Adaptive management is a tool which should be used not only to change a system, but also to learn about the system (Holling 1978). Because adaptive management is based on a learning process, it improves long - run management outcomes. The challenge in using adaptive management approach lies in finding the correct balance between gaining knowledge to improve management in the future and achieving the best short - term outcome based on current knowledge (Stankey and Allen 2009). There are a number of scientific and social processes which are vital components of adaptive management...

(Freebase) Addis Ababa (sometimes spelled Addis Abeba, the spelling used by the official Ethiopian Mapping Authority) is the capital city of Ethiopia. (In Ethiopian languages: Amharic, Adis Abäba "new flower," Oromo, Finfinne, IPA: [adːiːs aβəβa]; Ge'ez ኣዲስ ኣበባ) It is the largest city in Ethiopia, with a population of 3,384,569 according to the 2008 population census. As a chartered city (ras gez astedader), Addis Ababa has the status of both a city and a state. It is where the African Union and its predecessor the OAU are based. Addis Ababa is therefore often referred to as "the political capital of Africa", due to its historical, diplomatic and political significance for the continent. The city is populated by people from different regions of Ethiopia – the country has as many as 80 nationalities speaking 80 languages and belonging to a wide variety of religious communities. It is home to Addis Ababa University. Addis Ababa lies at an altitude of 7,546 feet (2,300 metres) and is a grassland...

(Freebase) Adire (Yoruba — tie and dye) textile is the indigo dyed cloth made in south western Nigeria by Yoruba women, using a variety of resist dye techniques. As the translation of the name suggests, the earliest pieces of this type were probably simple tied designs on cotton cloth handspun and woven locally (rather like those still produced in Mali), but in the early decades of the 20th century new access to large quantities of imported shirting material via the spread of European textile merchants in Abeokuta and other Yoruba towns caused a boom in these women's entrepreneurial and artistic efforts, making adire a major local craft in Abeokuta and Ibadan, attracting buyers from all over West Africa. The cloth's basic shape became that of two pieces of shirting material stitched together to create a women's wrapper cloth. New techniques of resist dyeing developed, such as "adire eleko" (hand-painting designs onto cloth with a cassava starch paste prior to dyeing), along with a new style more...

(Freebase) Adjusted world price (AWP) is statutory terminology used in United States federal agricultural law, for the prevailing world price for upland cotton or rice. It is adjusted to account for U.S. quality and location, calculated and published on a weekly basis by the USDA as part of marketing assistance loan programs. Producers who have taken out the loans may choose to repay them at either the lesser of the established loan rate plus interest, or the announced AWP for that week. The AWP for cotton also is used for determining Step 2 payments.

(DBpedia) Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development that occurs between childhood and adulthood. This transition involves biological, social, and psychological changes, though the biological or physiological ones are the easiest to measure objectively. Historically, puberty has been heavily associated with teenagers and the onset of adolescent development. In recent years, however, the start of puberty has had somewhat of an increase in preadolescence (particularly females, as seen with early and precocious puberty); adolescence has had an occasional extension beyond the teenage years (typically males). These changes have made it more difficult to rigidly define the time frame in which adolescence occurs. The end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood varies by country and by function, and furthermore even within a single nation-state or culture there can be different ages at which an individual is considered to be (chronologically and legally) mature enough to be entrusted by society with certain tasks. Such milestones include, but are not limited to, driving a vehicle, having legal sexual relations, serving in the armed forces or on a jury, purchasing and drinking alcohol, voting, entering into contracts, completing certain levels of education, and marrying. Adolescence is usually accompanied by an increased independence allowed by the parents or legal guardians and less supervision, contrary to the preadolescence stage.

(Freebase) An advance market commitment is a binding contract, typically offered by a government or other financial entity, used to guarantee a viable market if a vaccine or other medicine is successfully developed. As a result of such a commitment, the market for vaccines or drugs for neglected diseases would be comparable in size and certainty to the market for medicines for rich countries. This would enable biotech and pharmaceutical companies to invest in the development of new vaccines to tackle the world’s most pressing health problems, such as pneumonia, diarrheal disease, HIV/Aids, and malaria, in the normal course of their business decisions. On Feb. 9, 2007, five countries (Canada, Italy, Norway, Russia, the United Kingdom), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation committed US$1.5 billion to launch the first Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to help speed the development and availability of a new vaccine which is expected to save the lives of 5.4 million children by 2030. The AMC pilot...

(Freebase) The Academy for Educational Development, or AED, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that focuses on education, health and economic development for the "least advantaged in the United States and developing countries throughout the world." AED currently operates more than 250 programs to help people improve their lives through better education, health, and economic opportunities in the United States and in 150 other countries around the world. The mission of AED is to increase individual capacity to improve their own lives, build their economies, and contribute to stability. AED was founded in 1961 by Alvin C. Eurich and Sidney Tickton. Originally focused on providing technical assistance related to higher education management in the United States, AED has expanded into instructional technology, education reform, and civil society support in the U.S. and around the world. AED also focuses on promoting health in developing countries through environmental communication, social...

(Freebase) The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in South-Central Asia. It is variously described as being located within South Asia, Central Asia, and sometimes Western Asia (or the Middle East). It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast. Afghanistan, meaning land of the Afghans, has been an ancient focal point of the Silk Road and human migration. The country is at an important geostrategic location, connecting East, South, West and Central Asia, and has been home to various peoples through the ages. The region has been a target of various invaders since antiquity, including Ancient Macedonians led by Alexander the Great, Muslim armies, Mongols and others. Afghanistan has served as a source from which many kingdoms, such as the Greco-Bactrians, Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Timurids, and others have risen to form empires and influence neighboring...

(Freebase) The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the US military's Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) that was launched, along with the British military, in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US. The UK has, since 2002, led its own military operation, Operation Herrick, as part of the same war in Afghanistan. The character of the war evolved from a violent struggle against Al-Qaeda and its Taliban supporters to a complex counterinsurgency effort. The first phase of the war was the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, when the United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom, to remove the safe haven to Al-Qaeda and its use of the Afghan territory as a base of operations for terrorist activities. In that first phase, U.S. and coalition forces, working with the Afghan opposition forces of the Northern Alliance, quickly ousted the Taliban regime. During the following Karzai administration, the character of the war shifted to an effort aimed at smothering an...