Carbon footprint in different beef production systems on a southern Brazilian farm: a case study.

The carbon footprint (CF) of beef production is one of the most widely discussed environmental issues within the current agricultural community due to its association with climate change. Because of these relevant and serious concerns, the beef cattle industry is under increasing pressure to reduce production or implement technological changes with significant consequences in terms of beef marketing. The goals of this study were to evaluate the CF per 1 kg of live weight gain (LWG) at the farm gate for different beef production systems in the southern part of Brazil. Aberdeen Angus beef-bred cattle were assigned to one of seven categories: natural grass; improved natural grass; natural grass plus ryegrass; improved natural grass plus sorghum; cultivated ryegrass and sorghum; natural grass supplemented with protein mineralised salt; and natural grass supplemented with protein-energetic mineralised salt. Monte Carlo analysis was employed to analyse the effect of variations of dry matter intake digestibility (DMID), total digestible nutrients (TDN) and crude protein (CP) parameters in methane (CH4) enteric, CH4 manure, nitrous oxide (N2O) manure and N2O N-fertiliser. The method used was a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) centred on the CF. The CF varied from 18.3 kg CO2 equivalent/kg LWG for the ryegrass and sorghum pasture system to 42.6 kg CO2 equivalent/kg LWG for the natural grass system, including the contributions of cows, calves and steers. Among all grassland-based cattle farms, production systems with DMID from 52 to 59% achieved the lowest CO2 emissions and the highest feed conversion rate, thereby generating lower CH4 and N2O emissions per production system. Because the feed intake and feed conversion rate are one of the most important production parameters in beef cattle production with an obvious risk of data uncertainty, accurate feed data, which include quantity and quality, are important in estimates of CF for LWG. The choice of adequate feeding strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may result in better environmental advantages

Healthy Pacific Grandparents: A Participatory Action Research Project Exploring Ageing Well Amongst Pacific People in New Zealand

The New Zealand older adult population (aged 65+ years) is growing at a faster rate than the younger population, with many of those in the later years living much longer. The proportion of older Pacific people is forecast to reach 4.1% of the country’s total population within the next two decades, highlighting the importance of research focused on ageing Pacific populations. This article sets out the research protocol and methods for the Pacific Islands Families: Healthy Pacific Grandparents’ Study, which aims to investigate older Pacific people’s viewpoints on ageing to identify specific cultural values, perspectives and understandings as the Pacific population in New Zealand ages. The study will recruit and utilize participants from a grandparent cohort that is nested within the families of the longitudinal Pacific Islands Families Study. This study uses a Participatory Action Research approach to position the participants in a leadership role where they are co-researchers involved in both the research and the implementation of recommendations. Utilizing a transformative research process will bring older Pacific people together to define for themselves their needs and their experiences, identify any areas of shortcoming, and support the implementation of solutions through strategic and informed actions

QPPOA : a framework for qualification of the process of learning objects production

Submitted by Caroline Xavier ([email protected]) on 2017-06-29T13:41:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DIS_JOAO_PEDRO_DEWES_GUTERRES_COMPLETO.pdf: 2705657 bytes, checksum: 78e3e0209e2f1af3b1e4d3cdc87b84a3 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-29T13:41:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DIS_JOAO_PEDRO_DEWES_GUTERRES_COMPLETO.pdf: 2705657 bytes, checksum: 78e3e0209e2f1af3b1e4d3cdc87b84a3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-08The production of learning objects allied the areas of technology and education, being a key factor to bring new possibilities of learning. Due to the increase in computational resources, the production of this type of educational material grew and began to incorporate practices of software production in general, highlighting some peculiarities due to the educational objectives proposed in the objects. Thereat, the introduction of Software Engineering practices is increasingly present in the production of learning objects, and, as in software production, the qualification of this production process has become a necessity. In software production, a consolidated solution for production qualification is in the evaluation frameworks, such as CMMI and MPS.BR. In order to think this type of solution for the production of learning objects, this research presents a framework to support the reflection on the practices performed by the centers of production of learning objects. This framework is a result of the triangulation of pertinent practices related to the theme obtained from a literature review (including a systematic review and systematic mapping) and from interviews with members of nine Brazilian learning object centers. As a result obtained after the analysis of adherence of the practices by the centers, stands out its capacity to promote the reflection of the production process, as well as well as to encourage them to carry out new practices.A produ??o de objetos de aprendizagem aliou as ?reas da tecnologia e da educa??o, sendo um fator chave para trazer novas possibilidades de aprendizagem. Devido ao aumento dos recursos computacionais, a produ??o desse tipo de material educacional cresceu e passou a incorporar pr?ticas da produ??o de software em geral, destacando-se algumas peculiaridades por conta dos objetivos educacionais propostos nos objetos. Com isso, a introdu??o de pr?ticas de Engenharia de Software est? cada vez mais presente na produ??o dos objetos de aprendizagem, e, assim como na produ??o de software, a qualifica??o deste processo de produ??o se tornou uma necessidade. Na produ??o de software, uma solu??o consolidada para qualifica??o da produ??o est? nos frameworks de avalia??o, como o CMMI e MPS.BR. De modo a pensar esse tipo de solu??o para a produ??o de objetos de aprendizagem, esta pesquisa apresenta um framework para apoiar a reflex?o sobre as pr?ticas realizadas pelos centros de produ??o de objetos de aprendizagem. Esse framework ? resultado da triangula??o de pr?ticas pertinentes relacionadas ao tema obtidas a partir de uma revis?o de literatura (incluindo uma revis?o e um mapeamento sistem?tico), de observa??es do pesquisador e de entrevistas com integrantes de nove centros brasileiros de produ??o de objetos de aprendizagem. Como resultado obtido ap?s a an?lise de ader?ncia das pr?ticas pelos centros, destaca-se a capacidade de promover a reflex?o do processo de produ??o e das pr?ticas dos centros de produ??o de objetos de aprendizagem, bem como de incentiv?-los ? realiza??o de novas pr?ticas

Randomised controlled trial of informal team sports for cardiorespiratory fitness and health benefit in Pacific adults

Introduction: Rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease are high among Pacific people in New Zealand. Physical activity is recommended in the prevention and management of these conditions. Community-based, 'small-sided game' group activities may be an effective and culturally appropriate way to promote physical activity within Pacific communities. Aim: To assess the effectiveness of small-sided games-based exercise on fitness and health parameters among Pacific adults over four weeks. Methods: Twenty untrained (13 female) Pacific adults were randomised to intervention or control. Intervention participants were offered 45 minutes of small-sided games three times per week for four weeks. Control participants were offered one-month gym membership after the trial. Primary outcomes included cardiorespiratory fitness (VO 2peak) and leg strength (maximal concentric force of quadriceps at 60°/second) measured at baseline and four weeks. Secondary outcomes included glycaemia, lipid profile, blood pressure (BP), and inflammatory markers. Multivariable regression models were used to assess differences between groups, adjusting for baseline values, age and gender. Results: At baseline, mean age was 34.8 years (SD12.6), BMI36.3 (6.7), systolic BP 127.7 mmHg (12.1), HbA1c 6.1% (1.9), VO 2peak 2.5 L/min (0.6) and leg strength 170.0 N.m (57.4). Sixteen participants completed the trial. Change in outcomes were greater in intervention than control participants in absolute VO2peak (0.9 L/min (p=0.003)), leg strength (17.8 N.m (p=0.04)) and HDL (0.12 mmol/L (p=0.02)). There were no other significant differences. Discussion: Small-sided games appear to be a promising means for improving the health and cardiorespiratory fitness and reducing the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in Pacific adults

Randomised controlled trial of informal team sports for cardiorespiratory fitness and health benefit in Pacific adults

Vincent, GE ORCiD: 0000-0002-7036-7823Introduction: Rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease are high among Pacific people in New Zealand. Physical activity is recommended in the prevention and management of these conditions. Community-based, ‘small-sided game’ group activities may be an effective and culturally appropriate way to promote physical activity within Pacific communities. Aim : To assess the effectiveness of small-sided games-based exercise on fitness and health parameters among Pacific adults over four weeks. Methods: Twenty untrained (13 female) Pacific adults were randomised to intervention or control. Intervention participants were offered 45 minutes of small-sided games three times per week for four weeks. Control participants were offered one-month gym membership after the trial. Primary outcomes included cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2peak) and leg strength (maximal concentric force of quadriceps at 60°/second) measured at baseline and four weeks. Secondary outcomes included glycaemia, lipid profile, blood pressure (BP), and inflammatory markers. Multivariable regression models were used to assess differences between groups, adjusting for baseline values, age and gender. Results: At baseline, mean age was 34.8 years (SD 12.6), BMI 36.3 (6.7), systolic BP 127.7 mmHg (12.1), HbA1c 6.1% (1.9), VO2peak 2.5 L/min (0.6) and leg strength 170.0 N.m (57.4). Sixteen participants completed the trial. Change in outcomes were greater in intervention than control participants in absolute VO2peak (0.9 L/min (p=0.003)), leg strength (17.8 N.m (p=0.04)) and HDL (0.12 mmol/L (p=0.02)). There were no other significant differences. DISCUSSION: Small-sided games appear to be a promising means for improving the health and cardio-respiratory fitness and reducing the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in Pacific adults

Scientific, technical and organizational aspects of the spent fuel removal from nuclear research reactor of Institute for Nuclear Research, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Supporting the global threat reduction initiative (GTRI) Ukraine has implemented the removal of the major part of HEU spent nuclear fuel from the WWR-M research reactor of Institute for nuclear research of NAS of Ukraine to Russian Federation for further processing in "MAYAK" company

Evaluation of the Living 4 Life project : a youth-led, school-based obesity prevention study

The Living 4 Life study was a youth-led, school-based intervention to reduce obesity in New Zealand. The study design was quasi-experimental, with comparisons made by two cross-sectional samples within schools. Student data were collected at baseline (n = 1634) and at the end of the 3-year intervention (n = 1612). A random-effects mixed model was used to test for changes in primary outcomes (e.g. anthropometry and obesity-related behaviours) between intervention and comparison schools. There were no significant differences in changes in anthropometry or behaviours between intervention and comparison schools. The prevalence of obesity in intervention schools was 32% at baseline and 35% at follow-up and in comparison schools was 29% and 30%, respectively. Within school improvements in obesity-related behaviours were observed in three intervention schools and one comparison school. One intervention school observed several negative changes in student behaviours. In conclusion, there were no significant improvements to anthropometry; this may reflect the intervention&rsquo;s lack of intensity, insufficient duration, or that by adolescence changes in anthropometry and related behaviours are difficult to achieve. School-based obesity prevention interventions that actively involve young people in the design of interventions may result in improvements in student behaviours, but require active support from leaders within their schools.<br /