Seasonal variations in the availability of fodder resources and practices of dairy cattle feeding among the smallholder farmers in Western Usambara Highlands, Tanzania.

This research article published by Springer Nature Switzerland AG., 2018The aim of this study was to assess the seasonal effects on quantity and quality of fodder resources and associated utilization practices among smallholder dairy farmers in Western Usambara Highlands (WUHs) in Tanzania. The WUHs are among the major milk producing areas under smallholder dairy farming systems (SDFS) in Tanzania. Dry season fodder scarcity is a widespread problem affecting the East African SDFS and has been shown to contribute to over 40% reduction in milk yield. There is limited information with regard to seasonal fodder fluctuation and its effects on productivity of dairy cows in different landscape levels of Tanzania. Field and household surveys were conducted in 150 dairy cattle farming households from five villages in three wards located in WUHs. Survey data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 21. In addition, remote sensing techniques were employed on gap-filled and smoothed Landsat data to generate land cover maps and bimonthly normalized difference vegetation index-time series for the 2009-2016. SDFS landscape was highly heterogeneous typified by crops, bushes, and forests. On average, the household landholding was 1.3 ha, while herd size was three cattle. About 87% of household land was devoted to crop growing with limited pasture along the farm margins and contour strips. Fodder scarcity was the major challenge during the dry season (July to October) as indicated by 87% of the respondents. On-farm fodder resources contributed most of the cattle diet (73%) while rangeland, forest, and purchased feed provided small amount. Natural pasture and napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) were the most important feeds in wet season while maize stover was most significant during the dry season. Maize stover was profusely stored for dry season feeding and neither silage nor hay making was practiced. The nutritional values of the fibrous feeds declined during the dry season, whereby the metabolizable energy and crude protein contents were 6.0 MJ/kg and 10.1% dry matter, respectively, during wet season compared to 4.8 MJ/kg and 7.8% dry matter, respectively, during the dry season. Consequently, milk yield drops from 5.6 l per cow per day in the wet season to 3.0 l in the dry season. It is concluded that dry season fodder scarcity is a major problem in the WUHs and it hinders sustainable dairy production. It is therefore suggested that increase in fodder production as well as adoption of fodder conservation and feeding technologies are inevitable if sustainable dairy production is to be met in the Western Usambara Highlands and elsewhere with similar environments

Financial Conditions Indexes for Asian Economies

Financial conditions indexes (FCIs) are constructed for five Asian economies, namely, Hong Kong, China; Japan; the Republic of Korea; Malaysia; and Singapore, using a principal component analysis (PCA) methodology from Hatzius et al. (2010) and quarterly data. Various financial stress indicators are included, allowing the constructed Financial Condition Index to capture important episodes in each economy's financial history. The predictive power of the constructed FCIs is higher than that of benchmark AR models and they generally outperform single financial indicators. A decomposition of the FCIs sheds light on particular sources of financial stress. A regional FCI based on the individual economy FCIs is also constructed

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM

Presence and Absence data Prosopis

Presence and absence data. ID: 1 = presence, 2 = absence. Block (1-12): used for cross-validatio

A New Multi-disciplinary Rehabilitation Outcome Checklist for the Rehabilitation of Total Knee and Total Hip Replacement Patients

Use of clinical pathways in the rehabilitation of total knee and total hip replacement patients is on an increasing trend. However, in the literatures there was no universally agreed assessment and auditing method on the outcome of these clinical pathways. We created a new multi-disciplinary rehabilitation outcome checklist (MROC) to evaluate and audit the outcome of our patients after total joint replacement. MROC was applied in 96 total knee and 18 total hip replacement patients. The compliance rate of MROC was 100%. Most of the treatment goals of the clinical pathways were found to be fulfilled. The MROC provides an easy-to-use, free-of-charge, and tailor-made checklist for the evaluation and auditing purpose

Method Analysis for Collecting and Processing in-situ Hyperspectral Needle Reflectance Data for Monitoring Norway Spruce

Forest damage induced by bark beetle attacks can cause major economic losses in forest- ry. Hyperspectral remote sensing data and state of the art very high spatial resolution satellite data of- fer a great potential for assessing tree vitality. How- ever, a better understanding of the effects of vitality decrease and its impact on the spectral behaviour of needles is needed. Filling this knowledge gap can make a significant contribution to improve the in- terpretation of remote sensing data. However, it is still unclear which method for needle spectra col- lection is most suitable. In this work, two methods for spectral reflectance measurements of Norway spruce needles using portable spectroradiometers were tested and analysed: using a classical fore op- tic and a so-called contact probe. The spectral re- flectance data were evaluated with different statis- tical similarity measure techniques. Besides ana- lysing the measurements themselves, the methods were compared in terms of their practicality. Fur- thermore, the impact of storage on the reflection behaviour was investigated. The spectral measure- ments were performed in the field as well as in a laboratory and repeated three times during the 2013 growing season. Based on the obtained results we recommend measuring needle samples with the contact probe of portable spectroradiometers

Method analysis for collecting and processing hyperspectral needle reflectance data for monitoring spruce vitality

Bark beetle infestations cause severe damage to forestry. In the context of climate change, inducing substantially warmer and possibly drier summers, this threat is expected to increase. Remote sensing has the capacity to detect large scale changes based on quantitative observations of spectral changes. State of the art very high spatial resolution satellite data offer a great potential for assessing tree vitality. However, a better understanding of the correlation between vitality decrease and its impact on the spectral behaviour of needles is needed. For improving the interpretation of remote sensing data detailed analyses of needles are therefore necessary. Despite, it is still unclear which method for needle spectra collection is most suitable. The scope of this study is to investigate two methods for spectral reflectance measurements of Norway spruce needles (Picea abies, L.). The spectra were retrieved by using portable spectroradiometers applying both a classical fore optics and a (so-called) contact probe. Ne edle samples were acquired in summer and fall 2013 in Bavaria (Germany) from two forest stands. Tree limbers collected the branches from the top of the crowns. For our study, needles of the four last age groups, from 2010 to 2013, were measured. The measurements were performed in-situ as well as in a laboratory and repeated three times during the growing season. We discuss methods for sample storage, preparation and the influence of sample freshness on the reflectance behaviour. Furthermore, we evaluate the spectral data collection in-situ and in a laboratory environment with different measurement settings and in terms of its practicality. After preprocessing (removal of artificial spikes in the data, outlier detection and smoothing) the data were analyzed statistically using different similarity measure techniques. This research serves as a preliminary study for field campaigns scheduled in 2014 to monitor tree vitality. Our results will be implemented to improve monitoring of tree damage with very high resolution WorldView-2 data as well as airborne HySpex data

Mapping areas invaded by Prosopis juliflora in Somaliland with Landsat 8 imagery

Prosopis juliflora is a fast growing tree species originating from South and Central America with a high invasion potential in semi-arid areas around the globe. It was introduced to East Africa for the stabilization of dune systems and for providing fuel wood after prolonged droughts and deforestation in the 1970s and 1980s. In many dry lands in East Africa the species has expanded rapidly and has become challenging to control. The species generally starts its colonization on deep soils with high water availability while in later stages or on poorer soils, its thorny thickets expand into drier grasslands and rangelands. Abandoned or low input farmland is also highly susceptible for invasion as P. juliflora has competitive advantages to native species and is extremely drought tolerant. In this work we describe a rapid approach to detect and map P. juliflora invasion at country level for the whole of Somaliland. Field observations were used to delineate training sites for a supervised classification of Landsat 8 imagery collected during the driest period of the year (i.e., from late February to early April). The choice of such a period allowed to maximise the spectral differences between P. juliflora and other species present in the area, as P. juliflora tends to maintain a higher vigour and canopy water content than native vegetation, when exposed to water stress. The results of our classification map the current status of invasion of Prosopis in Somaliland showing where the plant is invading natural vegetation or agricultural areas. These results have been verified for two spatial subsets of the whole study area with very high resolution (VHR) imagery, proving that Landsat 8 imagery is highly adequate to map P. juliflora. The produced map represents a baseline for understanding spatial distribution of P. juliflora across Somaliland but also for change detection and monitoring of long term dynamics in support to P. juliflora management and control activities.JRC.H.4-Monitoring Agricultural Resource