Quantification of Methane Emissions from Indoor-Fed Fogera Dairy Cows Using Laser Methane Detector

Portable laser methane detectors (LMDs) may be an economical means of estimating CH4 emissions from ruminants. Here, we validated an LMD-based approach and then used that approach to evaluate CH4 emissions from indigenous dairy cows in a dryland area of Ethiopia. First, we validated our LMD-based approach in Simmental crossbred beef cattle (n = 2) housed in respiration chambers and fed either a high- or low-concentrate diet. We found that the exhaled air CH4 concentrations measured by LMD were linearly correlated with the CH4 emissions determined by infrared-absorption-based gas analyzer (r2 = 0.55). On the basis of these findings, we constructed an estimation equation to determine CH4 emissions (y, mg min−1) from LMD CH4 concentrations (x, ppm m) as y = 0.4259x + 38.61. Next, we used our validated LMD approach to examine CH4 emissions in Fogera dairy cows grazed for 8 h d−1 (GG, n = 4), fed indoors on natural-grassland hay (CG1, n = 4), or fed indoors on Napier-grass (Pennisetum purpureum) hay (CG2, n = 4). All the cows were supplemented with concentrate feed. Daily CH4 emissions did not differ among the three groups; however, a numerically greater milk yield was obtained from the CG2 cows than from the GG cows, suggesting that Napier-grass hay might be better than natural-grassland hay for indoor feeding. The CG1 cows had higher CH4 emissions per feed intake than the other groups, without significant increases in milk yield and body-weight gain, suggesting that natural-grassland hay cannot be recommended for indoor-fed cows. These findings demonstrate the potential of using LMDs to rapidly and economically evaluate feeding regimens for dairy cows in areas under financial constraint, while taking CH4 emissions into consideration

Diagnostic assays for leprosy based on T-cell epitopes.

To date, only a limited number of antigens have been described as specific for Mycobacterium leprae, and in many cases, homologues have subsequently been shown to exist in mycobacteria such as M. avium and M. intracellulare. A Leprosy Synthetic Peptide Skin Test Initiative was established by the Steering Committee on the Immunology of Mycobacteria of the UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, to investigate the potential of synthetic peptides that encode T-cell epitopes as diagnostic tools, which could be used to develop a skin-test reagent specific for leprosy. Such M. leprae-specific peptides should have unique amino acid sequences, or significant sequence-dissimilarity from those in other mycobacteria. Synthetic peptides, 15 amino acids long, were synthesised from 33 genes or open reading frames within the M. leprae genome. Tuberculoid leprosy patients from four leprosy-endemic countries, Brazil, Ethiopia, Nepal and Pakistan, were tested as subjects known to have been infected with M. leprae, and to make good T-cell responses to antigens of M. leprae; UK blood donors were used as non-exposed or non-infected subjects. Peptides inducing potentially specific responses in leprosy patients and not in UK controls, and those inducing cross-reaction responses, present in both leprosy patients and non-exposed, non-infected controls, were identified. A difference from the equivalent M. tuberculosis sequence of five or more amino acid residues did not, by itself, identify peptides that were M. leprae-specific, suggesting that many of these peptides may have homologues in environmental mycobacteria. To date, this approach has identified a number of peptides with greater than 90% specificity and 19-47% sensitivity, which are undergoing further specificity-testing. Such peptides would have great potential as T-cell reagents with which to monitor exposure to M. leprae within communities, formulated either as skin-test reagents, or as antigens for tests in vitro

2022 roadmap on low temperature electrochemical CO2 reduction

Electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2R) is an attractive option for storing renewable electricity and for the sustainable production of valuable chemicals and fuels. In this roadmap, we review recent progress in fundamental understanding, catalyst development, and in engineering and scale-up. We discuss the outstanding challenges towards commercialization of electrochemical CO2R technology: energy efficiencies, selectivities, low current densities, and stability. We highlight the opportunities in establishing rigorous standards for benchmarking performance, advances in in operando characterization, the discovery of new materials towards high value products, the investigation of phenomena across multiple-length scales and the application of data science towards doing so. We hope that this collective perspective sparks new research activities that ultimately bring us a step closer towards establishing a low- or zero-emission carbon cycle.Catalysis and Surface Chemistr

Antenatal care coverage in a low-resource setting: Estimations from the Birhan Cohort.

Antenatal care (ANC) coverage estimates commonly rely on self-reported data, which may carry biases. Leveraging prospectively collected longitudinal data from the Birhan field site and its pregnancy and birth cohort, the Birhan Cohort, this study aimed to estimate the coverage of ANC, minimizing assumptions and biases due to self-reported information and describing retention patterns in ANC in rural Amhara, Ethiopia. The study population were women enrolled and followed during pregnancy between December 2018 and April 2020. ANC visits were measured by prospective facility chart abstraction and self-report at enrollment. The primary study outcomes were the total number of ANC visits attended during pregnancy and the coverage of at least one, four, or eight ANC visits. Additionally, we estimated ANC retention patterns. We included 2069 women, of which 150 (7.2%) women enrolled <13 weeks of gestation with complete prospective facility reporting. Among these 150 women, ANC coverage of at least one visit was 97.3%, whereas coverage of four visits or more was 34.0%. Among all women, coverage of one ANC visit was 92.3%, while coverage of four or more visits was 28.8%. No women were found to have attended eight or more ANC visits. On retention in care, 70.3% of participants who had an ANC visit between weeks 28 and <36 of gestation did not return for a subsequent visit. Despite the high proportion of pregnant women who accessed ANC at least once in our study area, the coverage of four visits remains low. Further efforts are needed to enhance access to more ANC visits, retain women in care, and adhere to the most recent Ethiopian National ANC guideline of at least eight ANC visits. It is essential to identify the factors that lead a large proportion of women to discontinue ANC follow-up

Combining altimetric/gravimetric and ocean model mean dynamic topography models in the GOCINA region

Initially, existing mean dynamic topography (MDT) models were collected and reviewed. The models were corrected for the differences in averaging period using the annual anomalies computed from satellite altimetry. Then a composite MDT was derived as the mean value in each grid node together with a standard deviation to represent its error. A new synthetic MDT was obtained from the new mean sea surface (MSS) KMS04 combined with a regional geoid updated using GRACE gravity and gravimetric data from a recent airborne survey. Compared with the composite MDT the synthetic MDT showed very similar results. Then combination methods were tested for the computation of MDT models from gravity data and MSS data. Both a rigorous and an iterative combination method have been tested in the GOCINA region. At this stage, the iterative combination method with its efficient handling of large data sets covering the whole region appears to give the best solution. Naturally, the errors associated with the MDT can be obtained using the rigorous method onl