Sustainable development of smallholder crop-livestock farming in developing countries

Meeting the growing demand for animal-sourced food, prompted by population growth and increases in average per-capita income in low-income countries, is a major challenge. Yet, it also presents significant potential for agricultural growth, economic development, and reduction of poverty in rural areas. The main constraints to livestock producers taking advantage of growing markets include; lack of forage and feed gaps, communal land tenure, limited access to land and water resources, weak institutions, poor infrastructure and environmental degradation. To improve rural livelihood and food security in smallholder crop-livestock farming systems, concurrent work is required to address issues regarding efficiency of production, risk within systems and development of whole value chain systems. This paper provides a review of several forage basedstudies in tropical and non-tropical dry areas of the developing countries. A central tenet of this paper is that forages have an essential role in agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability and livestock nutrition in smallholder mixed farming systems

De novo ChIP-seq analysis

Methods for the analysis of chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) data start by aligning the short reads to a reference genome. While often successful, they are not appropriate for cases where a reference genome is not available. Here we develop methods for de novo analysis of ChIP-seq data. Our methods combine de novo assembly with statistical tests enabling motif discovery without the use of a reference genome. We validate the performance of our method using human and mouse data. Analysis of fly data indicates that our method outperforms alignment based methods that utilize closely related species

Second harmonic generation microscopy investigation of the crystalline ultrastructure of three barley starch lines affected by hydration

Second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy is employed to study changes in crystalline organization due to altered gene expression and hydration in barley starch granules. SHG intensity and susceptibility ratio values (R’(SHG)) are obtained using reduced Stokes-Mueller polarimetric microscopy. The maximum R’(SHG) values occur at moderate moisture indicating the narrowest orientation distribution of nonlinear dipoles from the cylindrical axis of glucan helices. The maximum SHG intensity occurs at the highest moisture and amylopectin content. These results support the hypothesis that SHG is caused by ordered hydrogen and hydroxyl bond networks which increase with hydration of starch granules

Structural tuning of color chromaticity through nonradiative energy transfer by interspacing CdTe nanocrystal monolayers

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We proposed and demonstrated architectural tuning of color chromaticity by controlling photoluminescence decay kinetics through nonradiative Forster resonance energy transfer in the heterostructure of layer-by-layer spaced CdTe nanocrystal (NC) solids. We achieved highly sensitive tuning by precisely adjusting the energy transfer efficiency from donor NCs to acceptor NCs via controlling interspacing between them at the nanoscale. By modifying decay lifetimes of donors from 12.05 to 2.96 ns and acceptors from 3.68 to 14.57 ns, we fine-tuned chromaticity coordinates from (x,y)=(0.575,0.424) to (0.632, 0.367). This structural adjustment enabled a postsynthesis color tuning capability, alternative or additive to using the size, shape, and composition of NCs

Methylphenidate use and school performance among primary school children:a descriptive study

Background: There is no conclusive evidence that stimulants have beneficial effects on major associated outcome parameters, particularly school performance. We assessed the differences in school performance among children using methylphenidate at the end of primary school in relation to various parameters of methylphenidate use. Methods: We linked children from a pharmacy prescription database with standardized achievement test results at the end of primary school. We explored differences in test scores between current methylphenidate users versus never users and methylphenidate users who stopped treatment at least 6 months before the test, early versus late starters, different dosage of methylphenidate, and concurrent antipsychotic or asthma treatment. Results: Out of the 7736 children, 377 (4.9%) children were treated with methylphenidate at the time of the test. After adjusting for confounders the methylphenidate users (532.58 +/- .48) performed significantly lower on the test than never users (534.72 +/- .11). Compared with late starters of methylphenidate treatment (536.94 +/- 1.51) we found significantly lower test scores for the early starters (532.33 +/- .50). Conclusion: Our study indicates that children using methylphenidate still perform less at school compared to their peers. Our study also suggests that earlier start of methylphenidate treatment is associated with a lower school performance compared to children starting later with the treatment. This result could either indicate a limited effect of long term treatment or a more strongly affected group of early starters

Betatrophin levels are related to the early histological findings in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Betatrophin, a liver hormone, regulates glucose and lipid metabolism. We investigated the betatrophin levels in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and searched for any relationship with histological severity and metabolic parameters. Fifty males with NAFLD [Nonalcoholic Steatohepati-tis (NASH) (n = 32); non-NASH (n = 18)] and 30 healthy controls were included. Plasma betatrophin was measured by ELISA method. Insulin sensitivity was assessed by HOMA-IR index. Histological features were scored by the semi quantitative classification and combined as the NAFLD activity score (NAS). Betatrophin levels in the non-NASH group were significantly higher than the controls. Betatrophin was positively correlated to the age, waist circumference, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR index and gamma glutamyl transpeptidase levels, and negatively correlated to the steatosis and NAS. In the stepwise linear regression analysis, the triglyceride (β = 0.457, p < 0.001), glucose (β = 0.281, p = 0.02) and NAS (β = −0.260, p = 0.03) were the independent determinants of betatrophin. Betatrophin levels are higher in the early stages of NAFLD and tend to decrease when the disease progresses. This could be an important preliminary mechanistic finding to explain the increased frequency of glucose intolerance during the course of NAFLD

Realistic modelling of quantum point contacts subject to high magnetic fields and with current bias at out of linear response regime

The electron and current density distributions in the close proximity of quantum point contacts (QPCs) are investigated. A three dimensional Poisson equation is solved self-consistently to obtain the electron density and potential profile in the absence of an external magnetic field for gate and etching defined devices. We observe the surface charges and their apparent effect on the confinement potential, when considering the (deeply) etched QPCs. In the presence of an external magnetic field, we investigate the formation of the incompressible strips and their influence on the current distribution both in the linear response and out of linear response regime. A spatial asymmetry of the current carrying incompressible strips, induced by the large source drain voltages, is reported for such devices in the non-linear regime.Comment: 16 Pages, 9 Figures, submitted to PR

Uptake of agroforestry-based crop management in the semi-arid Sahel – Analysis of joint decisions and adoption determinants.

Open Access JournalIntroduction: Agroforestry plays a vital role in maintaining and developing the resilience and productivity of farms and landscapes. Scientific evidence from the Sahel region suggests that integration of trees and shrubs has the potential to improve temperature and moisture levels whilst providing bio-based fertilizer that contributes to increased yields of annual crops. However, little is known about the factors that influence the diusion of agroforestry. This study examines joint decisions on the use of agroforestry alongside other complementary agricultural practices and disentangles agroforestry awareness fromadoption and disadoption decisions. Methods: Our analysis is based on a comprehensive farm-level dataset covering almost 3,000 farm households in Mali and Senegal. A large number of adoption determinants are utilized, with a special focus on information access, information flows and social groups. Results: The findings suggest that extension access and training participation boost awareness of agroforestry-based soil fertility management, while information provided by public extension, NGOs and community members is strongly associated with higher adoption intensity. In the analysis of disadoption, farmer-to-farmers exchange in the community was found to be a key factor in the decision to maintain agroforestry use. Membership in cooperatives and youth groups appear to have a favorable eect on awareness and adoption in Mali, but less so in the Senegalese case. Similarly, only results from Mali show that adoption of agroforestry is accompanied by the adoption of other sustainable intensification practices and lower use of synthetic pesticides. Discussion: We conclude that in order to support the transition to more widespread agroforestry-based soil fertility management, it is essential to strengthen public and NGO-based advisory systems that fully engage with local knowledge networks