Response of Green Gram (Vigna Radiata (L.))Wilczek to Inter Row Spacing and Phosphorus under Semi-arid Conditions of Eritrea

Green gram (Vigna radiata (L.) wilczek,) commonly known as moong or mung bean or golden gram was introduced to Eritrea as a pulse crop by Ministry of Agriculture at its National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) in collaboration with Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) in 2012. But its agronomic practices for semi-arid conditions of Eritrea are not yet standardised. Therefore, to find the optimum inter row spacing and phosphorus dose for its higher productivity, a field experiment was conducted at the experimental farm of Hamelmalo Agricultural College, Keren, Eritrea during summer 2015 and 2016. The experiment was conducted in randomised complete block design (RCBD) with 12 treatment combinations of two factors consisting of four inter row spacing (Broadcast, 18 cm, 30 cm, and 45 cm) and three phosphorus levels (0, 20 and 40 kg P2O5 ha-1) each replicated thrice. The results of the study revealed that sowing of K-26 bold seeded variety either by broadcast method or at 18 cm inter row spacing at10 cm plant to plant spacing fertilized with 40 kg P2O5 ha-1 through DAP fertilizer drilled at the time of sowing proved significantly superior to increase growth, yield attributes and seed yield of green gram

Evaluation of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) Landraces for Drought Tolerance Using Morphological and Yield Characters under Rainfed Conditions of Sub Region Hagaz, Eritrea

Sorghum is an important food crop in Eritrea where it is widely grown in the mid and low lands, of semi-arid regions. Eritrea being the center of origin of sorghum, a large variability exist in its landraces being grown by the farmers since generations. In order to improve the productivity of sorghum under moisture stress conditions, it is imperative to evaluate these landraces for drought tolerant characteristics and their use for further crop improvement programmes. Therefore, a field study was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications to estimate the extent of genetic variability of 20 sorghum genotypes for moisture stress tolerance using various morphological, phenological, yield and yield related parameters under rainfed conditions at Hagaz Research Station. Significant difference was observed for almost all the characters in the individual analysis of variance suggesting that these sorghum accessions were highly variable. Accessions EG 537, EG 1257, EG 849, EG 791, EG 783 and EG 813 showed promising results for post flowering drought tolerance, grain yield and stay green traits. Higher PCV and GCV were also obtained in parameters like plant height, leaf area, biomass, peduncle exertion, panicle length, and grain yield and panicle weight. The genotypes also exhibited varying degrees of heritability estimates. Characters such as plant height, panicle length, days to flowering and maturity showed higher heritability. Cluster analysis revealed that sorghum landraces were grouped on the basis of their morphological traits and geographical sites. 77.3% of the total variation of sorghum landraces was contributed by the first four principal components analysis having Eigen value > 1. Overall, the current study confirmed that EG 537, EG 849, EG 1257, EG 791, and EG 813 are drought tolerant sorghum landraces during post flowering stage

Challenges and opportunities associated with the introduction of next generation long lasting insecticidal nets for malaria control: a case study from Burkina Faso.

BACKGROUND Reductions in malaria incidence in Africa can largely be attributed to increases in malaria vector control activities; predominately the use of long lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs). With insecticide resistance affecting an increasing number of malaria endemic countries and threatening the effectiveness of conventional LLINs, there is an increasing urgency to implement alternative tools that control these resistant populations. The aim of this study was to identify potential challenges and opportunities for accelerating access to next generation LLINs in Burkina Faso, a country with areas of high levels of insecticide resistance. METHODS An analytical framework was used to guide the selection of interviewees, data collection and analysis. Semi structured interviews were carried out with key informants in April 2014 in Burkina Faso. Interviews were conducted in French and English, audio recorded, transcribed and entered into NVivo10 for data management and analysis. Data were coded according to the framework themes and then analysed to provide a description of the key points and explain patterns in the data. RESULTS Interviewees reported that the policy architecture in Burkina Faso is characterised by a strong framework of actors that contribute to policymaking and strong national research capacity which indirectly contributes to national policy change via collaboration with internationally led research. Financing significantly impacts the potential adoption, availability and affordability of next generation LLINs. This confers significant power on international donors that fund vector control. National decisions around which LLINs to procure were restricted to quantity and delivery dates; the potential to tackle insecticide resistance was not part of the decision-making process. Furthermore, at the time of the study there was no World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance on where and when next generation LLINs might positively impact on malaria transmission, severely limiting their adoption, availability and affordability. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that access to next generation LLINs was severely compromised by the lack of global guidance. In a country like Burkina Faso where WHO recommendations are relatively quickly adopted, a clear WHO recommendation and adequate financing will be key to accelerate access to next generation LLINs. Key Words: Malaria, Next generation long lasting insecticidal nets, LLINs, PBO nets, Policy Analysis, Vector Control, Burkina Faso

Predicting postoperative troponin in patients undergoing elective hip or knee arthroplasty: A comparison of five cardiac risk prediction tools

BACKGROUND: Elderly patients undergoing hip or knee arthroplasty are at a risk for myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery (MINS). We evaluated the ability of five common cardiac risk scores, alone or combined with baseline high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI), in predicting MINS and postoperative day 2 (POD2) hs-cTnI levels in patients undergoing elective total hip or knee arthroplasty. METHODS: This study is ancillary to the Genetics-InFormatics Trial (GIFT) of Warfarin Therapy to Prevent Deep Venous Thrombosis, which enrolled patients 65 years and older undergoing elective total hip or knee arthroplasty. The five cardiac risk scores evaluated were the atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease calculator (ASCVD), the Framingham risk score (FRS), the American College of Surgeon\u27s National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) calculator, the revised cardiac risk index (RCRI), and the reconstructed RCRI (R-RCRI). RESULTS: None of the scores predicted MINS in women. Among men, the ASCVD ( CONCLUSION: In elderly patients undergoing elective hip or knee arthroplasty, several of the scores modestly predicted MINS in men and correlated with POD2 hs-cTnI

The Viability of Installing Mid-Size PV Solar Parks in Sweden : "A paper that evaluates the economic viability of installing mid-size PV solar parks ranging from 250 kW to 2 MW in the village of Åled."

The ambition of the Swedish government is rapidly concentrating on the development of the renewable energy systems especially on wind energy, bio energy and solar energy. It has been observed on the growth of the production of electricity and heat from these three mentioned renewable energy systems. But, relatively in Sweden the share of production of electricity obtained from PV is quite smaller than the other two. The PV electricity production in Sweden comprises in a large scale of mainly the grid connected distributed PV systems and with a small number of installed solar parks. The aim of this paper is to analyze the viability of installing mid -size PV solar parks in Sweden and to simulate the effect of the proposed project in the village’s (Åled is the village where the proposed site is located) and the country’s electricity production. This study includes designing, simulation and financial analysis of different grid connected centralized mid -size capacities of PV solar parks of 250 kWp,500 kWp,1MWp and 2MWp. They are all fixed ground mounted systems. Moreover, it also discusses the main reasons that hinders decision makers, the PV complications that are connected to the grid, Sweden’s energy regulations particularly the emission regulation and the financial policies of PV. Also, study visit, telephone and email contacts have supplemented it. This study was done with the collaboration of Nyedal Solenergi, in which the proposed site was owned by the company and this paper will be a future guide for the investment of the mid-size PV solar park. According to the study a discussion has been made with the grid supplier (EON) in that area on the investment on one of the designed projects which are presented in this paper. The results of the study show that the effect of the proposed systems on the production of electricity in the village of Åled was between 2.68 – 21.4 % and the impact on the country’s PV electricity production was 0.2 – 1.58 %. And, the possibility of installing mid-size PV solar parks generally in Sweden particularly in the proposed site is possible and economically it is viable but not profitable for system capacities less than 1 MW. As the IRR found for all capacities is greater than the estimated WACC, hence each proposed capacity has the possibility of paying back all its investment costs in about 23 years. So, the profitability is very low in case of the 250 kWp and 500 kWp but for the others they have about 7-8 years of profitability. A sensitivity analysis also has shown the impact of initial investment costs, O & M costs and electricity export rate on the IRR, NPV and equity payback. The initial investment cost and electricity export rate were seen with high effect on the IRR, NPV and equity payback. The LCOE calculated was higher than the average electricity spot price (300 SEK/MWh) for 250 kWp and 500 kWp but lower for the other two capacities. The overall impact for the financial analysis was due to the decreasing of module prices, the rules that changes every year on electricity subsidies for renewables, tax reductions and rapid decreasing of electricity spot prices. In the future if the price of modules continues decreasing, spot price increases, more modification of the subsidy and introduction of new PV technologies integrated with other sources of energy is done then such projects could be more profitable

Samverkar myndigheter och organisationer i Luleå kommun? : en studie om samverkan kring ungdomars nyttjande av narkotika

Validerat; 20101217 (root