Valuing the Expertise of Mobile Herders in Arid South Africa--A Photographic Essay

Pastoralism has been practiced for millennia in numerous ecosystems across the world. Throughout history, pastoral systems and in particular herding have been replaced by the commercialization of livestock production, which essentially made herders redundant in many sub-Sahara countries resulting in job losses. Herding is however still practiced in many countries, but the essential role of the herder is in many instances snubbed upon and disregarded as trivial work, hence their low social standing within the community. Literature however indicates that herding does offer many benefits over commercial paddock systems e.g. improving rural livelihoods, reviving customary practice, reducing stock theft, reducing predation and improving biodiversity management. The contribution of herders is often underestimated, even within livestock-keeping communities, but is in fact much more complicated and they do far more than meets the eye. This paper (in the form of a photo essay) is an attempt not only to give a human face to herders through a series of photographic images, but to highlight particular activities of herders in the semi-arid Namaqualand region of South Africa. The images show the complexity of herding, which is in fact an artisanal task. It depicts herders in their daily activities as botanists with an in depth botanical knowledge including, taxonomy, phytochemistry, nutritional value, toxicity, cultural, and ritual value. It also depicts herders as midwives during lambing season, practicing nursing, and shows the interaction with their guarding dogs. Furthermore, the images illustrate the gender identity with shepherdesses functioning in an extremely harsh semi-arid landscape. It also shows the interaction between herders at the water point which acts as the gathering point for the exchange of knowledge between these artisans. These results show that the value of herders in dryland farming systems deserve more recognition and they should be key players in policy development

Evaporation of a packet of quantized vorticity

A recent experiment has confirmed the existence of quantized turbulence in superfluid He3-B and suggested that turbulence is inhomogenous and spreads away from the region around the vibrating wire where it is created. To interpret the experiment we study numerically the diffusion of a packet of quantized vortex lines which is initially confined inside a small region of space. We find that reconnections fragment the packet into a gas of small vortex loops which fly away. We determine the time scale of the process and find that it is in order of magnitude agreement with the experiment.Comment: figure 1a,b,c and d, figure2, figure

Evaluation of the CNS and cardiovascular effects of prolonged exposure to bromotrifluromethane (CBrF3)

The proposed use of bromotrifluoromethane (CBrF3) as a fire extinguishant in aircraft, spacecraft and submarines has stimulated increasing interest and research in the toxicological properties of this compound. In a spacecraft, because of its unique recirculating life support system, the introduction of CBrF3 by leakage or intentional discharge, will result in continuous exposure of crewman to low concentrations of this compound for periods of up to 7 days, or possibly even longer. The effects of low concentrations of CBrF3, under continuous exposure conditions, on the CNS and cardiovascular systems of animals to enable an assessment of these risks were investigated

A cannabigerol-rich Cannabis sativa extract, devoid of ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol, elicits hyperphagia in rats

Objective: Non-psychoactive phytocannabinoids (pCBs) from Cannabis sativa may represent novel therapeutic options for cachexia due to their pleiotropic pharmacological activities, including appetite stimulation. We have recently shown that purified cannabigerol (CBG) is a novel appetite stimulant in rats. As standardised extracts from Cannabis chemotypes dominant in one pCB (botanical drug substances (BDS)) often show greater efficacy and/or potency than purified pCBs, we investigated the effects of a CBG-rich BDS, devoid of psychoactive ∆9-THC, on feeding behaviour. Methods: Following a 2 hour pre-feed satiation procedure, 16 male Lister-hooded rats were administered CBG-BDS (at 30-240 mg/kg) or vehicle. Food intake, meal pattern microstructure and locomotor activity were recorded over 2 hours. Results: Total food intake was increased by 120 and 240mg/kg CBG-BDS vs vehicle (1.53g and 1.36g, respectively, vs 0.56g; p<0.05 and p<0.01). Latency to feeding onset was dose-dependently decreased by all doses (p<0.05-0.01), and 120 and 240mg/kg doses increased both the number of meals consumed (p<0.01) and cumulative size of the first 2 meals (p<0.05 and p<.0.01). No significant effect was observed on ambulatory activity or rearing behaviour. Conclusions: CBG-BDS is a novel appetite stimulant, which may have greater potency than purified CBG, despite the absence of ∆9-THC in the extract

Nutritional Quality of Available Forages for Small Stock during a Drought in an Arid Pastoral Landscape in South Africa

This study aimed to assess the nutritional quality of the available forage species during a drought in an arid pastoral system in South Africa. Forage biomass was collected during the wet and dry seasons whilst following livestock herds consisting of boer goats, swakara sheep and mixed breed sheep, in both the summer and winter rainfall regions of the pastoral system. Mineral nutrient content in the plant species revealed that the forages utilized by the livestock generally contained adequate concentrations of Mg, Ca, Na, and K to meet the dietary requirements of the small stock in both the winter and summer rainfall areas. Zinc concentrations in more than half of the forages sampled in the summer rainfall area, during both wet and dry seasons, however, were below the required concentrations for small stock. When considering all plant species utilised, the diets were generally adequate in all mineral nutrients. However, none of the forage species contained sufficiently high concentrations of protein to meet the minimum requirements for small stock. These findings therefore show that pastoralists have to deal with chronic low levels of protein during droughts, and their inability to purchase supplementary feed, or to cultivate fodder crops, or temporary emigrate out of the system puts their livelihoods at high risk to climate change

Specific heat of the Kelvin modes in low temperature superfluid turbulence

It is pointed out that the specific heat of helical vortex line excitations, in low temperature superfluid turbulence experiments carried out in helium II, can be of the same order as the specific heat of the phononic quasiparticles. The ratio of Kelvin mode and phonon specific heats scales with L_0 T^{-5/2}, where L_0 represents the smoothed line length per volume within the vortex tangle, such that the contribution of the vortex mode specific heat should be observable for L_0 = 10^6-10^8 cm^{-2}, and at temperatures which are of order 1-10 mK.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figur

Editorial

‘A new spring, and a new sound’, so begins a famous Dutch poem. Will the birds sing differently, as the poet wishes in the next line? BKI, now 178 years old—surely one of the longest-running journals of Southeast Asian studies in the world, and known around its original home, the KITLV (Royal Institute), as ‘the Old Dame’—starts 2022 with a remarkable new development. For this reason, the first issue of the year opens with an Editorial. After generations of sound and steady editing under the direction of two scholars, one in the role of Chief Editor and one as Managing Editor, from now on, BKI will be run by an expanded editorial team of seven scholars drawn both from the geographical region, Southeast Asia, and the disciplines in the humanities and social sciences that BKI is dedicated to examining..

Avaliação do desempenho de fungos entomopatogênicos sobre fêmeas de Dactylopius opuntiae (Hemiptera: dactylopiidae) em condições de laboratório.

O OBJETIVO DESTE TRABALHO FOI INVESTIGAR O POTENCIAL DOS FUNGOS ENTOMOPATOGÊNICOS NO CONTROLE DE D. OPUNTIAE.Resumo 1669-1

The Diversity of Poisonous Plant Patches in the Arid Rangelands of Namaqualand, South Africa

The Namaqualand region in South Africa is part of the richest arid biodiversity hotspot in the world. Plant distribution and diversity here are impacted by various biophysical and anthropogenic factors. In these landscapes, poisonous plant patches, which pose serious threats to livestock, are widespread but their contribution to the regions biodiversity are not fully understood. This study assessed their plant diversity and compared its matrix. This study was conducted in the semi-arid to arid Steinkopf pastoral area located in Namaqualand where livestock is still herded daily. Twenty-five paired sites were selected based on the dominance of poisonous plants within the genera Tylecodon, Euphorbia and Adromischus. Within these sites, the number and abundance of different plant species were recorded and categorised into different plant functional types. Results showed a significant difference in Shannon Wiener plant diversity where poisonous plant patches displayed a greater diversity compared to sites sampled in the matrix. We interpret these findings as a consequence of herding in the region, where herders do not allow their animals to graze on or near poisonous plant patches. As such, palatable plants, which are absent or low in abundance in the surrounding landscape have a refuge where they can survive and set seed. This study provides evidence that the ethnobotanical knowledge of herders and palette of livestock are also major contributors to the spatial distribution and diversity of plant species in the arid biodiversity hotspot