Yield Gaps of Major Cereal and Grain Legume Crops in Ethiopia: A Review

In Ethiopia, smallholder farmers are responsible for most food production. Though yield levels in grain crops have improved greatly over the years, they are still much lower than their potential. The source of yield improvements and the causes of those yield gaps are not well understood. To explain the drivers of yield gaps and current sources of yield improvements in four major cereals (teff, maize, wheat, and sorghum) and three grain legumes (faba bean, common bean, and soybean), we accessed the databases of the Global Yield Gap Atlas, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia. Refereed journal articles and grey literature were sought in online databases using keywords. The results showed large increases in production of grain crops with little or no increase in areas of production. The yield increases were primarily attributed to genetic gain rather than agronomic improvements. Farmers’ yields remain far lower than those from on-farm trials and on-station trials and the calculated water-limited yield potential. Currently, yields of wheat, maize, sorghum, and common bean in Ethiopia are about 26.8, 19.7, 29.3, and 35.5% of their water-limited yield potentials. Significant portions of the yield gaps stem from low adoption and use of improved varieties, low application of inputs, continual usage of un-optimized crop management practices, and uncontrolled biotic and abiotic stresses. Proper application of fertilizers and use of improved varieties increase yield by 2 to 3 fold and 24–160%, respectively. Cereal-legume intercropping and crop rotation practices increase yield while reducing severity of pests and the need for application of synthetic fertilizers. In contrast, abiotic stresses cause yield reductions of 20–100%. Hence, dissection of the water-limited yield gap in terms of technology, resource, and efficiency yield gaps will allow the prioritization of the most effective intervention areas

Umbilical uptakes and transplacental concentration ratios of amino acids in severe fetal growth restriction

Background: This study examines the relationship between placental amino acid (AA) transport and fetal AA demand in an ovine fetal growth restriction (FGR) model in which placental underdevelopment induces fetal hypoxemia and hypoglycemia. Methods: Umbilical uptakes of AA, oxygen, glucose, and lactate were measured near term in eight experimental ewes (FGR group) and in eight controls (C group). Results: The FGR group demonstrated significantly reduced umbilical uptakes of oxygen, glucose, lactate, and 11 AAs per kg fetus. The combined uptake of glucose, lactate, and AAs, expressed as nutrient/oxygen quotients, was reduced almost to 1.00 (FGR: 1.05 vs. C: 1.32, P ≤ 0.02). In contrast to a decrease in umbilical glucose concentration, all but one of the AAs that were transported from placenta to fetus demonstrated normal or elevated fetal concentrations, and five of the essential AAs were transported against a significantly higher feto/maternal (F/M) concentration ratio. This ratio peaked at the lowest fetal oxygen levels. Conclusion: We conclude that, in the hypoxic FGR fetus, the reduction in AA uptake is not due to a disproportionally small placental AA transport capacity. It is the consequence of decreased fetal oxidative metabolism and growth rate, which together reduce fetal AA demand. © 2013 International Pediatric Research Foundation, Inc

Ursinus College Alumni Journal, November 1968

Ursinus College calendar • Politics 1968: That was the year that was • From the President • All-Ursinus anniversary drive: A report from the National Chairman • Stained glass on campus • An end of Pax Americana • Freeland Hall: A birthplace revisited • Episodes in the life of Freeland Hall • Homecoming 1968 • Centennial: The liberal arts in higher learning • Sports scene: Miss Snell honored; Harriers keep winning; Mills keeps kicking • Ursinus honors four at Founders\u27 Day • Church appeal gains momentum • Class of \u2772: A pictorial essay • Campus clippings: Alumni award planned; Television stars; Beatle buff on campus; Subscribe to the Weekly • Class notes • Weddings • Births • In memoriamhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/alumnijournal/1093/thumbnail.jp

Accountability Work: Examining the Values, Technologies and Work Practices that Facilitate Transparency in Charities

Charities are subject to stringent transparency and accountability requirements from government and funders to ensure that they are conducting work and spending money appropriately. Charities are increasingly important to civic life and have unique characteristics as organisations. This provides a rich space in which HCI researchers may learn from and affect both held notions of transparency and accountability, and the relationships between these organisations and their stakeholders. We conducted ethnographic fieldwork and workshops over a seven month period at a charity. We aimed to understand how the transparency obligations of a charity manifest through work and how the workers of a charity reason about transparency and accountability as an everyday practice. Our findings highlight how organisations engage in presenting different accounts of their work; how workers view their legal transparency obligations in contrast with their accountability to their everyday community; and how their labour does not translate well to outcome measures or metrics. We discuss implications for the design of future systems that support organisations to produce accounts of their work as part of everyday practice

Bostonia: The Boston University Alumni Magazine. Volume 10

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs

Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law

Gindis, David, Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law (October 27, 2017). Journal of Institutional Economics, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2905547, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2905547The rise of large business corporations in the late 19th century compelled many American observers to admit that the nature of the corporation had yet to be understood. Published in this context, Ernst Freund's little-known The Legal Nature of Corporations (1897) was an original attempt to come to terms with a new legal and economic reality. But it can also be described, to paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes, as the earliest example of the rational study of corporate law. The paper shows that Freund had the intuitions of an institutional economist, and engaged in what today would be called comparative institutional analysis. Remarkably, his argument that the corporate form secures property against insider defection and against outsiders anticipated recent work on entity shielding and capital lock-in, and can be read as an early contribution to what today would be called the theory of the firm.Peer reviewe