Evapotranspiration of Cotton, Apocynum pictum, and Zyzyphus juju-ba in the Tarim Basin

Abstract Evapotranspiration is a crucial component of the water balance of ecosystems and landscapes, especially under arid climates. In the Tarim Basin, China, there is an increasing competition for water between irrigated agriculture, mainly cotton, and natural ecosystems, which results in periods of water shortage. Such water shortages also impact on cotton. Therefore, alternative crops have been searched for, which eventually withstand such periodical water shortages better than irrigated cotton, notably Zyzyphus jujuba and Apocynum pictum. The fruit tree Z. jujuba has been promoted from the previous decade onward in parts of the Tarim Basin. A. pictum is used as medicinal plant and in a small scale as fiber crop. A. pictum is a perennial herb, which is part of the natural riparian vegetation along the rivers of the Tarim Basin and which grows without irrigation. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to investigate the crop evapotranspiration (ETc) of those three plant species over the growing season. In this paper, the Penman-Monteith approach was employed. Daily means of stomatal resistance in June was 118 s/m, 222 s/m, and 927 s/m for cotton, A. pictum leafs, and Z. jujuba, respectively. In October, those daily mean stomatal resistance climbed to 885 s/m and 742 s/m for cotton and A. pictum leafs, respectively. ETc over the growing season was 514.7 mm for cotton, 217.2 mm for A. pictum, and 339 mm for Z. jujuba. The Kc value of Z. jujuba was in the range of other fruit trees. In this study cotton attained high yields compared to world average yields at a low ETc. This high water use efficiency was achieved through a shift from flood to drip irrigation, the utilization of plastic mulch, and breeding of cotton varieties

Practices and complications of pubic hair removal among Saudi women

Source at: http://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-018-0661-6Background: Pubic hair grooming, including the complete removal of pubic hair, has become an increasingly common practice, particularly among young women. Although widespread, there is limited data regarding the methods, products, reasons, and complications of pubic hair removal, particularly among Saudi women. The objective was to examine pubic hair removal practices and the prevalence of its complications among Saudi women living in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Methods: In this cross-sectional study conducted at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Saudi women between 16 and 60 years of age who had the ability to read and speak Arabic, were eligible to complete an anonymous and self-administered survey on pubic hair removal practices and its complications. Results: Between December 2015 and September 2016, 400 Saudi women completed the survey. The age was 26. 3 ± 6.9, 16–58 (mean ± SD, range) years. About three quarters (77.0%) self-removed their pubic hair, while the remainder made use of professional personnel in medical clinics (15.5%), beauty salons (5.3%), and professional services at home (2.2%). Many women (41.8%) used a combination of hair removal methods, with non-electric razor as the most common single method used (33.5%), followed by laser (8.7%), sugaring (6.0%), waxing (4.5%), trimming (2.0%), electric razor (2.0%), and cream (1.5%). Three-quarters of women (75.5%) reported complications, and although they were mostly minor injuries, treatment had to be sought for 17.9% of complications. Multivariable analyses showed that no variables remained correlated with the occurrence of complications (age of starting hair removal, income, BMI, level of education, mode of removal, advice on removal). Conclusions: Saudi women initiate pubic hair removal in early adolescence. While most complications are minor, close to one in five women experience complications

A cluster-randomised, controlled trial to assess the impact of a workplace osteoporosis prevention intervention on the dietary and physical activity behaviours of working women: study protocol

Background Osteoporosis is a debilitating disease and its risk can be reduced through adequate calcium consumption and physical activity. This protocol paper describes a workplace-based intervention targeting behaviour change in premenopausal women working in sedentary occupations. Method/Design A cluster-randomised design was used, comparing the efficacy of a tailored intervention to standard care. Workplaces were the clusters and units of randomisation and intervention. Sample size calculations incorporated the cluster design. Final number of clusters was determined to be 16, based on a cluster size of 20 and calcium intake parameters (effect size 250 mg, ICC 0.5 and standard deviation 290 mg) as it required the highest number of clusters. Sixteen workplaces were recruited from a pool of 97 workplaces and randomly assigned to intervention and control arms (eight in each). Women meeting specified inclusion criteria were then recruited to participate. Workplaces in the intervention arm received three participatory workshops and organisation wide educational activities. Workplaces in the control/standard care arm received print resources. Intervention workshops were guided by self-efficacy theory and included participatory activities such as goal setting, problem solving, local food sampling, exercise trials, group discussion and behaviour feedback. Outcomes measures were calcium intake (milligrams/day) and physical activity level (duration: minutes/week), measured at baseline, four weeks and six months post intervention. Discussion This study addresses the current lack of evidence for behaviour change interventions focussing on osteoporosis prevention. It addresses missed opportunities of using workplaces as a platform to target high-risk individuals with sedentary occupations. The intervention was designed to modify behaviour levels to bring about risk reduction. It is the first to address dietary and physical activity components each with unique intervention strategies in the context of osteoporosis prevention. The intervention used locally relevant behavioural strategies previously shown to support good outcomes in other countries. The combination of these elements have not been incorporated in similar studies in the past, supporting the study hypothesis that the intervention will be more efficacious than standard practice in osteoporosis prevention through improvements in calcium intake and physical activity

Which method is best for the induction of labour?: A systematic review, network meta-analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis

Background: More than 150,000 pregnant women in England and Wales have their labour induced each year. Multiple pharmacological, mechanical and complementary methods are available to induce labour. Objective: To assess the relative effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of labour induction methods and, data permitting, effects in different clinical subgroups. Methods: We carried out a systematic review using Cochrane methods. The Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group’s Trials Register was searched (March 2014). This contains over 22,000 reports of controlled trials (published from 1923 onwards) retrieved from weekly searches of OVID MEDLINE (1966 to current); Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (The Cochrane Library); EMBASE (1982 to current); Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (1984 to current); ClinicalTrials.gov; the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Portal; and hand-searching of relevant conference proceedings and journals. We included randomised controlled trials examining interventions to induce labour compared with placebo, no treatment or other interventions in women eligible for third-trimester induction. We included outcomes relating to efficacy, safety and acceptability to women. In addition, for the economic analysis we searched the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, and Economic Evaluations Databases, NHS Economic Evaluation Database and the Health Technology Assessment database. We carried out a network meta-analysis (NMA) using all of the available evidence, both direct and indirect, to produce estimates of the relative effects of each treatment compared with others in a network. We developed a de novo decision tree model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of various methods. The costs included were the intervention and other hospital costs incurred (price year 2012–13). We reviewed the literature to identify preference-based utilities for the health-related outcomes in the model. We calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios, expected costs, utilities and net benefit. We represent uncertainty in the optimal intervention using cost-effectiveness acceptability curves. Results: We identified 1190 studies; 611 were eligible for inclusion. The interventions most likely to achieve vaginal delivery (VD) within 24 hours were intravenous oxytocin with amniotomy [posterior rank 2; 95% credible intervals (CrIs) 1 to 9] and higher-dose (≥ 50 μg) vaginal misoprostol (rank 3; 95% CrI 1 to 6). Compared with placebo, several treatments reduced the odds of caesarean section, but we observed considerable uncertainty in treatment rankings. For uterine hyperstimulation, double-balloon catheter had the highest probability of being among the best three treatments, whereas vaginal misoprostol (≥ 50 μg) was most likely to increase the odds of excessive uterine activity. For other safety outcomes there were insufficient data or there was too much uncertainty to identify which treatments performed ‘best’. Few studies collected information on women’s views. Owing to incomplete reporting of the VD within 24 hours outcome, the cost-effectiveness analysis could compare only 20 interventions. The analysis suggested that most interventions have similar utility and differ mainly in cost. With a caveat of considerable uncertainty, titrated (low-dose) misoprostol solution and buccal/sublingual misoprostol had the highest likelihood of being cost-effective. Limitations: There was considerable uncertainty in findings and there were insufficient data for some planned subgroup analyses. Conclusions: Overall, misoprostol and oxytocin with amniotomy (for women with favourable cervix) is more successful than other agents in achieving VD within 24 hours. The ranking according to safety of different methods was less clear. The cost-effectiveness analysis suggested that titrated (low-dose) oral misoprostol solution resulted in the highest utility, whereas buccal/sublingual misoprostol had the lowest cost. There was a high degree of uncertainty as to the most cost-effective intervention

A case study of rangeland vegetation changes from 1979 to 2016 in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco

This case study assessed changes in vegetation composition of a 0.8 ha rangeland site over the past four decades, in relation to changes in temperature and to an increase in grazing pressure. The frequency and standing crop (biomass) of species and functional groups were sampled in the spring of 1979 and 2016. Mean annual temperature increased, whereas changes in frequency varied between species and functional groups. Species that decreased included perennial plants, whereas species that increased were comprised mostly of annuals and unpalatable herbaceous plants. An NMDS ordination showed significant differences in species composition between 1979 and 2016. Total biomass, as well as the biomass of annual and perennial grasses and forbs did not differ between 1979 and 2016. Shrub biomass, however, decreased by 60% between years. Biomass of the ‘graminoids’ (e.g. Carex divisa), on the other hand, increased fourfold between 1979 and 2016. Species richness and the Shannon–Weaver diversity index H′ declined in 2016. This, together with a decline in the frequency of palatable species and a shift in species composition, could signal a decline in resilience over the long term. Changes in vegetation were most likely driven by a combination of higher temperatures and increased grazing pressure. Keywords: climate change, plant community ecology, rangeland condition, resilienc