Advancing human nutrition without degrading land resources through modeling cropping systems in the Ethiopian highlands

Food shortage in sub-Saharan Africa is generally considered a function of limited access to food, with little thought to nutritional quality. Analyzing household production of nutrients across farming systems could be valuable in guiding the improvement of those systems. An optimization model was employed to analyze the scenario of human nutrition and cropland allocation in enset (Enset ventricosum)/root crop-based and cereal-based systems of the Ethiopian Highlands. The type and amount of nutrients produced in each system were analyzed, and an optimization model was used to analyze which cropping strategies might improve the nutritional quality of the household using existing resources. Both production systems were in food deficit, in terms of quantity and quality of nutrients, except for iron. The energy supply of resource-poor households in the enset/root crop-based system was only 75% of the recommended daily dietary allowance (RDA) of the World Health Organization (WHO), whereas resource-rich farmers were able to meet their energy, protein, zinc, and thiamine demands. Extremely high deficiency was found in zinc, calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin C, which provided only 26.5%, 34%, 1.78%, and 12%, of the RDA, respectively. The RDA could be satisfied if the land area occupied by enset, kale, and beans were expanded by about 20%, 10%, and 40%, respectively, at the expense of maize and sweet potato. The cereal-based system also had critical nutrient deficits in calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin C, which provided 30%, 2.5%, and 2% of the RDA, respectively. In the cereal system, the RDA could be fully satisfied by reducing cropland allocated to barley by about 50% and expanding the land area occupied by faba beans, kale, and enset. A shift from the cereal/root crop-dominated system to a perennial-enset dominated system would decrease soil erosion by improving the crop factor by about 45%. This shift would also have a very strong positive impact on soil fertility management. However, any policy suggestions for change in cropland allocation should be done through negotiations with households, communities, and district stakeholders

Assessment of the impacts of farmer participation in farmer research groups in the highlands of Kabale, Uganda

The African Highlands Initiative (AHI) is promoting community-based participatory research approaches using farmer research groups (FRG) to catalyse farmer participation in research, and to widen the impact of participatory research. However, there is dearth of systematic empirical studies that evaluates the quality of participation in FRGs, and their impacts. This report summarises the results of an empirical study that investigated the types of participatory research that occurred at the different stages of the research process, how farmer participation occurred, who participates in FRG, what are the factors that determined farmers' participation in FRG, and what criteria to use in monitoring and evaluating the performance of FRG. Results showed that the types of participation were more of functional consultative and collaborative types, but varied in the different stages of the research process as farmers were increasingly taking on more roles and responsibilities. Farmer participation in FRG tend to follow a "U" shaped curve, with high participation at the initial stages of the process, followed by dramatic decrease as many farmers drop out from the groups, and slow increases towards the end of the first seasons. Similarly, there was a significantly higher participation of male farmers at the beginning of the process, compared to women. However, as FRGs progressed, the proportion of men decreased while the relative proportion of women increased dramatically to reach about 67% of farmers in mixed groups, and 24% of the FRGs were women only. These results suggest that FRG proved to be a more effective mechanism to involve women and the resource-poor farmers in research who would otherwise be bypassed by conventional approaches. The results of the Logit regression model confirmed that the probability of participating in FRG was higher for women compared to men, and that there were no significant differences in wealth circumstances between FRG members and the rest of the community. We argue that FRG as an approach has a great potential for catalyzing the participation of farmers as partners in research and development activities. However, this requires significant support and personal commitment of researchers to broaden the scope of FRGs from a functional consultative type to a more collegial empowering type, and from variety evaluation to broader natural resources management research and other developmental issues

In vivo measurement and objective classification of healthy, injured and pathological shoulder complex function

ysis (MA) techniques have been previously developed at Cardiff University to assess shoulder function following International Society of Biomechanics (ISB) recommendations. However, errors in the system significantly affect shoulder kinematics measurements. Image registration techniques (IRT) were developed to accurately measure GH joint kinematics using dynamic single-plane fluoroscopy. 3D computer bone models of the humerus and scapula were generated from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans using Simpleware Software (Simpleware Ltd). Accurate 3D to two dimensional ( 2D) image registration was performed using Joint- Track software (Banks, S.A.). Full kinematics descriptions of the GH joint and of the scapula were obtained. The pattern of rotation agrees with what other researchers have previously measured. Humeral head translation was measured towards the glenoid centre (3�0.9mm medially, 2.7�0.9mm inferiorly and then superiorly and 6.7�2mm posteriorly) during abduction and (2.8�0.9mm medially, 3.6�0.9mm superiorly and then inferiorly and 5.3�2.1mm anteriorly) during scaption. The centering of the humeral head is believed to provide joint congruency for optimal shoulder function. To investigate the errors commonly associated with MA, a comparison between the kinematics outputs from the MA measuring system and IRT was performed. Greater GH joint elevation was recorded with IRT (54.8� and 82.6� for abduction and scaption respectively) compared to MA (51.1� and 75.2� for abduction and scaption respectively). Furthermore, differences between IRT and MA recordings in GH joint plane of elevation (6.7� and 1.9� abduction and scaption respectively) and axial rotation (24.1� and 23.0� abduction and scaption respectively) were measured. Discrepancies in measured rotations between MA and IRT can be attributed to factors related to differences in the analytical approach as well as the errors commonly associated with the techniques. Additions and improvements to the original Cardiff MA protocol for measuring and analysing shoulder biomechanics were made and healthy and shoulder patient function was subsequently investigated. The glenohumeral (GH) joint centre of rotation (CoR) estimation by means of the instantaneous helical axis (IHA) method was included in the Cardiff model using International Shoulder Group (ISG) routines. With the original protocol, only regression equations (MRE) based on scapula geometry were used to estimate GH joint CoR. Differences between IHA and MRE were investigated by comparing the estimated CoR positions relative to the scapula anatomical coordinate system (ACS). The MRE significantly overestimated the GH joint CoR in the anterior position (by 4 cm) compared to the IHA method and to the work of other research groups. The iii MRE also estimated the GH joint CoR laterally to the scapula ACS although imaging studies identified GH joint CoR medially to the scapula ACS. Trunk contribution to overall arm elevation was assessed between unilateral (UE) and bilateral (BE) arm elevations. BE was found to significantly decrease trunk lateral and axial rotation with respect to UE; however, trunk flexion was significantly greater. This in turn resulted in significantly different scapula rotations between UE and BE with up to 3� difference in scapula retraction during abduction between UE and BE. Consequently in shoulder complex biomechanics studies, particular attention should be made to minimise trunk rotations. Shoulder function asymmetry was investigated between dominant and nondominant shoulders. Significantly greater GH elevation and scapula lateral rotation were measured in dominant arms compared to non-dominant arms, with a difference of up to 7.6� and 7.0� respectively between the two arms. Asymmetry between the two shoulders could be attributed to soft tissue imbalance from more frequent use of the dominant shoulder compared to the non-dominant. Physiological range of motion (during static and dynamic trials) and 15 activities of daily living (ADLs) were recorded with skin markers attached to bony landmarks as well as with the AMC (and the SL for physiological ROMs). Static and dynamic trials measured differences in thorax and scapula rotations which may have arisen from muscle stabilisation. Acromioclavicular (AC) and scapula lateral rotations were underestimated (by up to 8� and 20� respectively) using the skin fixed markers. Joint and segment rotations are comparable to published studies that follow ISB recommendations The kinematics of patients with four different shoulder conditions (clavicle fracture, multidirectional instability, irreparable rotator cuff tear and GH dislocation) was measured. The effect and the extent of the IoP was investigated during physiological ROMs elevation and ADLs recordings by comparing their function to healthy and contralateral shoulders. The results from this study were used to develop a novel application for the Cardiff Dempster Shafer (DS) objective classifier. The classification tool was used to characterise shoulder complex function of 40 participants. Non injured or pathological (NIoP) and IoP shoulder function was characterised with 72.5% accuracy. Eight patients were misclassified as having NIoP shoulder function while two healthy participants were misclassified as having IoP function. A weak correlation between scoring questionnaires with the NIoP and IoP classification indices was found (-0.16298 and 0.180187 respectively). This might be explained by the subjective nature of the scores. The studies described in this thesis contributed towards advancements in shoulder complex kinematics studies at Cardiff University as well as with the international shoulder researcher’s community. An appreciation was gained of the challenges faced when using MA and IRT to measure shoulder motion as well as a better understanding of joint function in healthy and IoP shoulders