Seasonal diet changes in elephant and impala in mopane woodland

Elephant and impala as intermediate feeders, having a mixed diet of grass and browse, respond to seasonal fluctuations of forage quality by changing their diet composition. We tested the hypotheses that (1) the decrease in forage quality is accompanied by a change in diet from more monocots in the wet season to more dicots in the dry season and that that change is more pronounced and faster in impala than in elephant; (2) mopane (Colophospermum mopane), the most abundant dicot species, is the most important species in the elephant diet in mopane woodland, whereas impala feed relatively less on mopane due to the high condensed tannin concentration; and (3) impala on nutrient-rich soils have a diet consisting of more grass and change later to diet of more browse than impala on nutrient-poor soils. The phosphorus content and in vitro digestibility of monocots decreased and the NDF content increased significantly towards the end of the wet season, whereas in dicots no significant trend could be detected. We argue that this decreasing monocot quality caused elephant and impala to consume more dicots in the dry season. Elephant changed their diet gradually over a 16-week period from 70% to 25% monocots, whereas impala changed diets rapidly (2-4 weeks) from 95% to 70% monocots. For both elephants and impala, there was a positive correlation between percentage of monocots and dicots in the diet and the in vitro digestibility of these forage items. Mopane was the most important dicot species in the elephant diet and its contribution to the diet increased significantly in the dry season, whereas impala selected other dicot species. On nutrient-rich gabbroic soils, impala ate significantly more monocots than impala from nutrient-poor granitic soils, which was related to the higher in vitro digestibility of the monocots on gabbroic soil. Digestibility of food items appears to be an important determinant of diet change from the wet to the dry season in impala and elephants

Factors influencing impala distribution patterns in Nairobi National Park, Kenya

Monitoring the distribution of wild animals using appropriate methods and survey techniques is essential not only for sustainable management but also to avoid wastage of resources. This study applied remote sensing to investigate the factors influencing the distribution of herbivores in Nairobi National Park, Kenya. Impala was selected as indicator specie for the herbivores within the park, because the population of impala had drastically reduced over time. The influence of food availability, water and disturbance on herbivore presence was investigated. A positive significant statistical relationship between impala population density and feed availability was observed. However, the correlation between impala population density and water distance was negative, indicating less impalas as the distance from water sources increase. An interesting finding was the expectation of greater impala population presence next to roads. The study demonstrated a rapid method for gaining information useful for conservation and land use planning practices, such as in the determination of the carrying capacity or even for redistributing animals within the park

Morphological evaluation of genetic evidence for a Pleistocene extirpation of eastern African impala

Palaeontology typically relies on fossil studies, in particular morphological differences, to reconstruct and interpret patterns of vertebrate evolution. However, genetic studies of population histories of extant species provide data about past population events (e.g. local extinctions, recolonisations) which are equally relevant to palaeontological questions. This study used morphological traits to evaluate a hypothesis based on genetic evidence that southern African impala (Aepyceros melampus) are the founder population for all other living African impala populations, after an eastern African extirpation event dating to around 200 000 years ago. Measurements of three horn metrics and the presence or absence of a particular dental trait were compared across four regional impala samples. Eastern African impala possess a unique combination of larger horns and a signiicantly higher occurrence of entostyles when compared to other impala populations. These traits are likely to have characterised a small group of founding impala which recolonised this region. This pattern appears consistent with the genetic evidence that a subset of the southern African impala gave rise to the eastern African populations. Other species with complex population histories, such as wildebeest, eland, topi and hartebeest may also therefore be expected to express variation in certain morphological traits in the fossil record because of similar patterns of recolonisations. The process of local extinction and subsequent repopulation over shorter timescales may pass unnoticed in the fossil record, and lineages may appear uninterrupted. Instead, greater morphological variation within a species may be observed, which may be misinterpreted as reflecting a speciation event, or ecophenotypic variation. Combining data from genetic studies and palaeontology may provide further clues as to how faunal dispersals within Africa shaped the morphological variation in the fossil record, and how to best interpret such differences

A renaissance of audio: podcasting approaches for learning on campus and beyond

In this paper, we urge practitioners to consider the potential of podcasting for teaching, learning and assessment. Our perspective is drawn from research on IMPALA (Informal Mobile Podcasting And Learning Adaptation), which showed that there is a range of successful podcasting approaches for students on campus. After briefly surveying the background literature, we provide examples of three approaches, from three different universities: 1) helping students to prepare presentations and assessed work, 2) offering feedback from staff on students’ assessed work, and 3) assisting undergraduates to make the transition from school or college to university. Finally, we answer the important question for EDEN attendees: can podcasting approaches like these be converted for distance education? On the evidence available to date from IMPALA and other studies, we feel confident in predicting that podcasting will be integrated more and more into distance education, to the immense benefit of the long distance learner

A renaissance of audio: Podcasting approaches for learning on campus and beyond

In this paper, we urge practitioners to consider the potential of podcasting for teaching, learning and assessment. Our perspective is drawn from research on IMPALA (Informal Mobile Podcasting And Learning Adaptation), which showed that there is a range of successful podcasting approaches for students on campus. After briefly surveying the background literature, we provide examples of three approaches, from three different universities: 1) helping students to prepare presentations and assessed work, 2) offering feedback from staff on students' assessed work, and 3) assisting undergraduates to make the transition from school or college to university. Finally, we would like readers to consider how podcasting approaches like these can be converted for distance education. On the evidence available to date from IMPALA and other studies, we feel confident in predicting that podcasting will be integrated more and more into distance education, to the immense benefit of the long distance learner

IMPALA-IMPALA HINDIA IMPERIAL JATHEE DALAM PERSPEKTIF POSTKOLONIAL HOMI K. BHABHA

Novel Impala-Impala Hindia karya Imperial Jathee mengungkapkan banyak kisah mengenai kehidupanpada zaman kolonialisme Belanda. Kedudukan tokoh utamanya, Maon, ambigu: dia seorangnasionalis tetapi sekaligus merupakan pegawai Belanda. Dia mau memperjuangkan kemerdekaanbangsanya, tetapi juga menyadari peran konstruktif penjajah Belanda. Persoalan yang diangkatdan dibahas dalam tulisan ini berkaitan dengan persoalan postkolonialisme menurut perspektif HomiK. Bhabha. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahwa Novel Impala-Impala Hindiamerupakan sebuah karyayang bercerita tentang situasi kolonial Belanda di Hindia Belanda pada masa dua puluh tahun.Studi ini membuktikan bahwa novel ini memberikan ruang ambang, ruang liminal, ruang ketigatempat isu-issu kolonial bertemu dan bernegosiasi. Novel ini mengungkapkan keempat persoalanyang dikemukakan Bhabha: stereotipe, ambivalensi, mimikri, dan hibriditas

Strategi Media Relation Impala Network dalam Membangun Brand Awareness

The creative industry has become one of the driving forces of the economy in Indonesia. Impala Network is a company engaged in the creative industry and has a positioning as an aggregator that connects one sector to another. Based on the results of the Impala Network mapping, strategies need to be improved so that people can become more widely acquainted. This study aims to examine Impala Network's media relations strategy in building brand awareness using media relations theory and brand awareness theory. The research uses a qualitative descriptive approach, supported by data collection using in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that the Impala Network has several media relations strategies, namely; 1) Regularly holding quality events to build and establish relationships with several media partners, 2) Using social media platforms such as Instagram & Tiktok to see market trends, 3) Implementing the word of mouth method, 4) Impala Network has a positioning as a creative ecosystem builder (creative aggregator/agency) and one of the Top of mind companies in the creative industry within the coverage area of Semarang City and Central Java Province. Impala Network is currently undergoing a transitional stage from brand recognition to brand recall in order to continue to compete in the national creative industry ecosystem

THE COMPARISSON OF COMPLEMENTARY FEEDING EDUCATIONAL RESULT BETWEEN EMOTIONAL-DEMONSTRATION METHODS AND TEAM GAME TOURNAMENT TO INFANT MOTHERS AT INTEGRATED SERVICE POST, POGALAN VILLAGE, TRENGGALEK

Edukasi mengenai MP-ASI merupakan salah satu langkah pertama untuk mencegah terjadinya gizi kurang dan gizi buruk pada anak. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui perbandingan hasil edukasi antara metode Emotional Demonstration dan Team Game Tournament tentang MP-ASI kepada ibu yang memiliki baduta di Posyandu desa Pogalan, Kabupaten Trenggalek. Penelitian ini menggunakan kuantitatif dengan quasi eksperimental design menggunakan instrumen soal tes pengetahuan dan angket sikap. Jumlah sampel sebanyak 56 orang yang dipilih menggunakan teknik purposive samping dan kemudian dibagi menjadi 2 kelompok sehingga masing-masing kelompok berjumlah 28 orang, selanjutnya kelompok pertama diberikan edukasi MP-ASI menggunakan metode Emotional Demonstration dan kelompok kedua diberikan edukasi MP-ASI dengan menggunakan metode Team Game Tournament. Data pengetahuan dan sikap antar kelompok eksperimen dianalisis menggunakan uji paired sample t-test dan uji independent sample t-test. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa metode Emotional Demonstration dan Team Game Tournament sama-sama dapat meningkatkan hasil edukasi tentang MP-ASI. Namun, tidak terdapat perbedaan yang signifikan antara hasil edukasi dari kedua metode tersebut baik aspek pengetahuan (nilai p 0.926) maupun aspek sikap (nilai p 0.594). Penelitian ini mengukur peningkatan aspek pengetahuan dan aspek sikap tanpa perubahan perilaku, sehingga peralatan pada metode Team Game Tournament dinilai lebih praktis dan durasi yang diperlukan dalam satu kali pertemuan edukasi MP-ASI menggunakan  metode Emotional Demonstration dinilai lebih panjang

Multi-task Deep Reinforcement Learning with PopArt

The reinforcement learning community has made great strides in designing algorithms capable of exceeding human performance on specific tasks. These algorithms are mostly trained one task at the time, each new task requiring to train a brand new agent instance. This means the learning algorithm is general, but each solution is not; each agent can only solve the one task it was trained on. In this work, we study the problem of learning to master not one but multiple sequential-decision tasks at once. A general issue in multi-task learning is that a balance must be found between the needs of multiple tasks competing for the limited resources of a single learning system. Many learning algorithms can get distracted by certain tasks in the set of tasks to solve. Such tasks appear more salient to the learning process, for instance because of the density or magnitude of the in-task rewards. This causes the algorithm to focus on those salient tasks at the expense of generality. We propose to automatically adapt the contribution of each task to the agent's updates, so that all tasks have a similar impact on the learning dynamics. This resulted in state of the art performance on learning to play all games in a set of 57 diverse Atari games. Excitingly, our method learned a single trained policy - with a single set of weights - that exceeds median human performance. To our knowledge, this was the first time a single agent surpassed human-level performance on this multi-task domain. The same approach also demonstrated state of the art performance on a set of 30 tasks in the 3D reinforcement learning platform DeepMind Lab

Recovery of mutants impaired in pathogenicity after transposition of Impala in Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis

The ability of transposon impala to inactivate genes involved in pathogenicity was tested in Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis. Somatic excision of an impala copy inserted in the nitrate reductase-encoding niaD gene was positively selected through a phenotypic assay based on the restoration of nitrate reductase activity. Independent excision events were analyzed molecularly and shown to carry reinsertedimpala in more than 70% of the cases. Mapping of reinserted impala elements on large NotI-restriction fragments showed that impala transposes randomly. By screening 746 revertants on plants, a high proportion (3.5%) of mutants impaired in their pathogenic potential was recovered. According to the kinetics of wilt symptom development, the strains that were impaired in pathogenicity were clustered in three classes: class 1 grouped two strains that never induced Fusarium wilt symptoms on the host plant; class 2 and class 3 grouped 15 and 9 revertants which caused symptoms more than 50 and 30 days after inoculation, respectively. The first results demonstrate the efficiency of transposition in generating mutants affected in pathogenicity, which are usually difficult to obtain by classical mutagenesis, and open the possibility to clone the altered genes with impala as a tag