Mohd. Hasan et al. 79This paper proposes a novel concept of adjusting the hardware size in a multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) receiver in real time as per the channel parameters such as delay spread, signal-to-noise ratio, transmission rate, and Doppler frequency. The fast Fourier transform (FFT) or inverse FFT (IFFT) size in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)/MC-CDMA transceivers varies from 1024 points to 16 points. Two low-power reconfigurable radix-4 256-point FFT processor architectures are proposed that can also be dynamically configured as 64-point and 16-point as per the channel parameters to prove the concept. By tailoring the clock of the higher FFT stages for longer FFTs and switching to shorter FFTs from longer FFTs, significant power saving is achieved. In addition, two 256 sub-carrier MC-CDMA receiver architectures are proposed which can also be configured for 64 sub-carriers in real time to prove the feasibility of the concept over the whole receiver.

Studies of livelihoods and food systems since the start of the global pandemic in 2020 have shown a consistent pattern: the primary risks to food and livelihood security are at the household level. Covid-19 is having a major impact on households’ production and access to quality, nutritious food, due to losses of income, combined with increasing food prices, and restrictions to movements of people, inputs and products. The studies included in this Research for Policy and Practice Report and supported by the Covid-19 Responses for Equity (CORE) Programme span several continents and are coordinated by leading research organisations with a detailed understanding of local food system dynamics and associated equity and livelihood issues in their regions: (1) the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa; (2) supporting small and medium enterprises, food security, and evolving social protection mechanisms to deal with Covid-19 in Pakistan; and (3) impact of Covid-19 on family farming and food security in Latin America: evidence-based public policy responses.