422 research outputs found
Comparative Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics in Tropical and Subtropical Grassland Ecosystems
Grassland ecosystems play significant role in mitigating the climate change by sequestering atmospheric CO2. One fifth of the total terrestrial C is stored in the root zone of grasslands as soil organic carbon. However, because of lack of proper management, overgrazing, and conversion to crop lands, these grasslands are becoming a source of CO2 emissions. It has been observed that in Imperata grasslands of Northeast India, a third of total C captured annually is lost though CO2 emissions. In the absence of intensified grazing and burning, these grasslands exhibit significantly high capacity to store SOC stocks. On the other hand, Southern grasslands of China inherently have a weak C sink. Grazing and burning together significantly increased CO2 fluxes as observed in Andean grasslands. With the introduction of high yielding grass species and with liberal use of chemical fertilizers, grazing land intensification has been found to rather promote SOC sequestration. It has been observed that in C4 grass species dominated tropical and sub-tropical grasslands; there occurs a rapid transfer of plant C into mineral-dominated C pools. With change of C3 to C4 grass species, the grazer effects rather shift from negative to positive even under decreasing precipitation conditions. Similarly, rise in atmospheric temperatures due to climate change affects grasslands differently depending on the dominating grass species. Graminoids and shrubs appear to benefit from elevated temperatures while forbs are likely to decrease in abundance through competitive elimination. Extreme heat waves and frequent drought events is decreasing the extent and capacity of forests as C sink as compared to grasslands. Grasslands have been shown to be comparatively more resilient to changes in climate. The resilience of grasslands to rising temperatures, drought and fire events helps to preserve sequestered terrestrial C in the root-zone of grassland soil and prevent it from re-entering atmosphere
Drought Mitigation in Bundelkahand Grassland Ecosystem for Improving Livelihood of Farming Community-A Case Study
Bundelkhand grassland ecosystem (23º20´ and 26°20´N latitude and 78°20´ and 81°40´E longitude) is an undulating rain fed region (annual rain fall, 768-1087 mm) spread over an area of 7.08 m ha in central India in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. This region has to support 16 million human and 8.5 million animal populations. Area is prone to surface run off losses, severe soil erosion and increasingly more drought events, leading to only mono-cropping. Lively-hood of the people, which is mainly the live-stock rearing and marginal agriculture, is at stake. In-situ conservation of rain water, forage management, and environmental services are the main issues to be addressed at priority to enhance productivity per unit area of this biome. Development funds amounting to about 1000 million US$, provided for constructing sustainable infrastructure like check-dams, dug-wells, embankments, rising of crest height etc. has significantly improved the surface and ground water resources. Impact evaluation as discussed in this paper includes water resource development, watershed management, crop and live-stock productivity, and rural drinking water. A robust and resilient management system has been developed through farmer’s participatory integrated watershed management program. Major aim is in-situ conservation of the rain water and recharging the dug wells, open wells, village ponds, and farm ponds. It has remarkably improved the financial condition of farming community. Initiation of restoration process of this grassland biome has increased its carrying capacity by 41%. An additional 25% land area has come under irrigation resulting in increase of net-sown area by 11%, cropping intensity by 6%, and farm income by 35%
Parametrization of spectra of plasma bubble induced VHF satellite scintillations and its geophysical significance
Protocol for a multicentre, parallelgroup, open-label randomised controlled trial comparing ferric carboxymaltose with the standard of care in anaemic Malawian pregnant women: the REVAMP trial
Introduction
Anaemia in pregnancy remains a critical global health problem, affecting 46% of pregnant women in Africa and 49% in Asia. Oral iron therapy requires extended adherence to achieve correction of anaemia and replenishment of iron stores. Ferric carboxymaltose (FCM) is a recently established intravenous iron formulation associated with substantial advantages in safety, speed of delivery and total dose deliverable in a single infusion. We aim to determine whether FCM given once during the second trimester of pregnancy compared with standard oral iron distributed through routine antenatal services is effective and safe for treatment of moderate to severe maternal anaemia in sub-Saharan Africa.
Methods and analysis
The randomized controlled trial of the effect of intravenous iron on anaemia in Malawian pregnant women (REVAMP) is a two-arm confirmatory individually randomised trial set in Blantyre and Zomba districts in Malawi. The trial will randomise 862 women in the second trimester of pregnancy with a capillary haemoglobin concentration below 100.0 g/L. The study comprises two arms: (a) intravenous FCM (20 mg/kg up to 1000 mg) given once at randomisation, and (b) standard of care oral iron (65 mg elemental iron two times per day) for 90 days (or the duration of pregnancy, whichever is shorter) provided according to local healthcare practices. Both arms receive sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine as intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy. The primary outcome is the prevalence of anaemia (Hb <110.0 g/L) at 36 weeks’ gestation. Secondary outcomes include birth weight, gestation duration and safety outcomes, including clinical malaria, serious perinatal events and postpartum haematologic and health-related outcomes in the mother and child.
Ethics and dissemination
Ethical approval was granted by the Research Ethics Committee (COMREC P.02/18/2357) in Malawi and the Human Research Ethics Committee (WEHI: 18/02), Melbourne, Australia. The protocol is registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry. The results will be shared with the local community that enabled the research, and also to the international fora.publishedVersio
Internal validity and reliability of experience-based household food insecurity scales in Indian settings
Cyclic vomiting syndrome in adults
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72300/1/j.1365-2982.2008.01113.x.pd
White paper on guidelines concerning enteric nervous system stem cell therapy for enteric neuropathies.
Over the last 20 years, there has been increasing focus on the development of novel stem cell based therapies for the treatment of disorders and diseases affecting the enteric nervous system (ENS) of the gastrointestinal tract (so-called enteric neuropathies). Here, the idea is that ENS progenitor/stem cells could be transplanted into the gut wall to replace the damaged or absent neurons and glia of the ENS. This White Paper sets out experts' views on the commonly used methods and approaches to identify, isolate, purify, expand and optimize ENS stem cells, transplant them into the bowel, and assess transplant success, including restoration of gut function. We also highlight obstacles that must be overcome in order to progress from successful preclinical studies in animal models to ENS stem cell therapies in the clinic
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