112 research outputs found
Economic assessment of use of pulses in diets for captive red deer
Received: February 6th, 2021 ; Accepted: April 24th, 2021 ; Published: April 29th, 2021 ; Correspondence:[email protected] quality of compound feeds used in livestock diets could be enhanced by means of
domestically produced pulses. Nevertheless, there are available few research studies that would
allow us to identify the economic efficiency of livestock diets with pulses and the digestibility of
protein by livestock for deer farming. Accordingly, the present research aims to identify the
economic efficiency of diets supplemented with domestically produced pulses - faba beans, peas
and lupine beans - for captive deer. The research conducted a feeding experiment on captive deer
(Cervus elaphus) kept in fenced areas to identify the economic efficiency of diets supplemented
with three legume species: peas (variety ‘Vitra’), faba beans (variety ‘Fuego’) and narrow-leaved
lupin seeds (variety ‘Boregine’). Deer productivity was assessed by live weight, live weight gain,
feed intake and protein efficiency ratio during the experimental period, as well as feed cost per
live weight gain unit. The research found that feeding deer diets containing peas, faba beans and
lupine beans as protein-rich feedstuffs was economically advantageous - at the same cost of feed,
deer productivity increased and per-unit production costs decreased. Live weight gains during the
experimental period were 1.02% higher in group 2 (pea diet), 1.78% higher in group 3 (faba bean
diet) and 2.91% higher in group 4 (lupine diet) than in the control group. During the experimental
period, the highest protein efficiency ratio was found in group 4 fed a diet containing lupine beans
- a unit of protein fed (1 kg) yielded the highest weight gain or 0.43 kg. Feed costs per kg of live
weight gain were the lowest in group 4 (2.32 EUR kg-1
), 2.48 EUR kg-1
in group 3 and
2.70 EUR kg-1
in group 2, which was 20.56%, 14.81% and 7.39%, respectively, lower than those
in the control group
Legumes in the diet of dairy cows from the economic perspective
ArticleBased on the experimental data, one can conclude that feed rations may comprise peas
var. ‘Bruno’ and faba beans var. ‘Lielplatone’ grown in Latvia, thereby replacing the use of
imported soybean cake. After summarising the results of trials, one can conclude that the diets
comprising only one kind of legumes (peas or beans) were the most economically efficient, while
the highest production efficiency was achieved if incorporating 22–24% ‘Lielplatone’ faba beans
into the diet for dairy cows. In Europe and Latvia, foods of animal origin comprise, on average,
45% of the total agricultural output value; an essential role in the production of the foods is played
by the supply of protein-rich feedstuffs to the livestock industry. An analysis of the factors
influencing productivity in dairy farming shows that a diet is the most important factor that
promote or hinder the functioning of the inherited genetic potential. In order to meet the dietary
energy, protein and mineral requirements of cows, the cows have to be fed a diet according to
their physiological condition. In recent years in many countries, research investigations into
protein sources have been conducted, as a high protein content of feedstuff is the most expensive
component of a feed ration. For this reason, their use in livestock diets might be economically
inefficient and therefore the key focus has to be placed on opportunities to increase the content
of protein in domestically produced feeds
Effect of sapropel fertilizer on the quality of the yield of some field crops
Received: February 21st, 2023 ; Accepted: May 8th, 2023 ; Published: May 22nd, 2023 ; Correspondence: [email protected] is specific water body sediments containing a high level of organic matter
formed from remains of water biota mixed with mineral components. One of the most promising
utilisation ways of sapropel is agriculture where it can be used as soil amendment to improve soil
physical properties and thus obtain economically viable and high quality yield of field crops. For three
years the experiments were conducted at Priekuli Research Centre of the Institute of Agricultural
Resources and Economics. Dehydrated sapropel mass from Lake Bizas was studied as soil biological
fertilizer to determine its suitability for use in field crop production. Researches were carried out
in organic crop rotation, in the fields of potato, winter rye and field bean. Three different doses
of sapropel fertilizer were applied. During the three-year period (2020–2022), the yield indicators
of the plant species included in the study were evaluated, and the quality of the yield of these species
was assessed. The results of research confirm the positive effect of sapropel on yield quality
indicators - protein (field beans), starch (potatoes) falling number and 1,000 seed mass (winter rye)
Gross margin comparison of cultivation of different legume species in the organic farming system
Received: February 7th, 2021 ; Accepted: April 10th, 2021 ; Published: April 29th, 2021 ; Correspondence: [email protected] order to identify the most suitable varieties for organic farming, the Institute of
Agricultural Resources and Economics in 2018 started study four legume species. The
independent variables of the study were the legume genotypes: faba bean (Vicia faba L., cv.
‘Isabell’, ‘Lielplatone’, ‘Laura’, ‘Boxer’), field pea (Pisum sativum L, cv. ‘Astronaute’, ‘Bruno’,
‘Rebekka’, ‘Zaiga’), narrow lupine (Lupinus angustifolius L., cv. ‘Sonet’, ‘Probor’, ‘Derliai’,
‘Haags Blau’), and soya (Glycine max L., cv. ‘Annucha’, ‘Sculptor’, ‘Augusta’). The soil types
of the experimental organic field were sod–podzolic, sandy loam, and loamy sand. At the start of
the study the organic substance concentration was 15–18 mg kg-1
, pHKCl was 5.3–5.98, the
concentration of plant - available phosphorus (P205) was 133.2–182.9 mg kg-1
, and the
concentration of potassium (K2O) - 69.2–109.7 mg kg-1
. Green manure (buckwheat) was a
pre-crop, incorporated in autumn. For the comparison of economic indicators, the gross coverage
calculation was used, which based on the difference obtained by subtracting variable costs from
the valuation of gross output. All variable costs and revenues were included in the gross margin
calculation without value added tax. The study indicated large differences in yields between
genotypes. From the economic point of view, the most suitable cultivars for cultivation according
to the organic farming method were: field beans - ‘Isabell’ and ‘Lielplatone’ with average gross
cover (GC), 505.40 and 504.60 EUR, respectively, field peas - ‘Bruno’ (GC 379.60 EUR),
narrow-leaved lupin - ‘Derliai’ (GC 647.70 EUR), soybeans - ‘Sculptor’ (GC 204.40 EUR).
Among the legume species studied, lupine showed the highest economic performance, among the
genotypes - cultivar ‘Derliai’ (α = 0.05)
The effect of school design on users' responses: A systematic review (2008-2017)
This systematic review focused on the effect of the educational environment design on students and teachers performance, satisfaction, and wellbeing. Starting from a bulk of 1307 articles, a set of N = 68 empirical papers was selected and organized on the basis of four different content clusters, i.e., architectural building design and aesthetic features, indoor environmental features, classroom design, and school green spaces/outdoor spaces. From the analysis of research findings, the key role of pleasant, warm, and flexible learning environments emerged, for promoting both wellbeing and performance of users. More specifically, the presence of charming colors and pictures, ergonomic furniture, and adequate acoustic, thermal comfort, ventilation, and natural lighting have emerged as important features that school designers should care for. Furthermore, an integration of both indoor and outdoor learning situations showed to be effective for improving students learning and wellbeing
Spatial correlations in attribute communities
Community detection is an important tool for exploring and classifying the
properties of large complex networks and should be of great help for spatial
networks. Indeed, in addition to their location, nodes in spatial networks can
have attributes such as the language for individuals, or any other
socio-economical feature that we would like to identify in communities. We
discuss in this paper a crucial aspect which was not considered in previous
studies which is the possible existence of correlations between space and
attributes. Introducing a simple toy model in which both space and node
attributes are considered, we discuss the effect of space-attribute
correlations on the results of various community detection methods proposed for
spatial networks in this paper and in previous studies. When space is
irrelevant, our model is equivalent to the stochastic block model which has
been shown to display a detectability-non detectability transition. In the
regime where space dominates the link formation process, most methods can fail
to recover the communities, an effect which is particularly marked when
space-attributes correlations are strong. In this latter case, community
detection methods which remove the spatial component of the network can miss a
large part of the community structure and can lead to incorrect results.Comment: 10 pages and 7 figure
A MECHATRONIC TOOL FOR REVEALING INVERSE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG HEART’S STROKE VOLUME AND HEAD’S LINEAR ACCELERATION INDUCED BY MOORED BOATS ROLLING IN ELDERLY SAILORS WITH UNCHANGED BODY SIZES: A NON-DRUG ANTI-HYPERTENSIVE ADVANTAGE?
Three aged and skilled sailors, being in a good condition of cardio metabolic compensation, took a seven days coastal sailing cruise. They daily underwent a cardiodynamic assessment by a impedance cardigraphy tool while staying seated on the moored boat. They showed a statistically significant inverse linear regression of beat-to-beat left ventricular stroke volume (LSV) versus the component of the head acceleration along the spatial X-axis, positioning the subject’s head so that the X-axis lay along the nose-ocipital direction. In fact, the temporally corresponding values of LSV inversely changed of about 11 ml on average, with an interindividual difference ranging from a minimum of about 6 ml to a maximum of about 14 ml, for each unitary head acceleration change. Since the reduction of left ventricular stroke volume may be due to the already observed vestibulo-sympathetic reflex from which limbs muscle vasodilation may occur, and considering that LSV falling induces a reduction in arterial blood pressure, it is hypothesized that the slow rolling of moored boat might also act as a non-invasive arterial blood pressure attenuator effect
Inference of hidden structures in complex physical systems by multi-scale clustering
We survey the application of a relatively new branch of statistical
physics--"community detection"-- to data mining. In particular, we focus on the
diagnosis of materials and automated image segmentation. Community detection
describes the quest of partitioning a complex system involving many elements
into optimally decoupled subsets or communities of such elements. We review a
multiresolution variant which is used to ascertain structures at different
spatial and temporal scales. Significant patterns are obtained by examining the
correlations between different independent solvers. Similar to other
combinatorial optimization problems in the NP complexity class, community
detection exhibits several phases. Typically, illuminating orders are revealed
by choosing parameters that lead to extremal information theory correlations.Comment: 25 pages, 16 Figures; a review of earlier work
Demand-driven sustainable tourism? A choice modelling analysis
This paper studies the preferences of tourists visiting Sardinia (Italy), using a choice modelling approach. The focus is on the evaluation of specific ‘demand-enhancing effects’ which, according to economic theory, provide a basis for implementing sustainable tourism policies.
Multinomial logit estimates reveal that strong negative effects result from the congestion of tourist attractions and the transformation of coastal environments, though tourists clearly gain utility from the other components of a tourism destination. The extent of the effects related to environmental preservation seems to support planning tourism development policies that will not have strong irreversible effects on coastal areas
The rise of China in the international trade network: a community core detection approach
Theory of complex networks proved successful in the description of a variety of static networks ranging from biology to computer and social sciences and to economics and
finance. Here we use network models to describe the evolution of a particular economic system, namely the International Trade Network (ITN). Previous studies often assume that globalization and regionalization in international trade are contradictory to each other. We re-examine the relationship between globalization and regionalization by viewing the international trade system as an interdependent complex network. We use the modularity optimization method to detect communities and community cores in the ITN during the years 1995-2011. We find rich dynamics over time both inter- and intra-communities. Most importantly, we have a multilevel description of the
evolution where the global dynamics (i.e., communities disappear or reemerge) tend to be correlated with the regional dynamics (i.e., community core changes between
community members). In particular, the Asia-Oceania community disappeared and reemerged over time along with a switch in leadership from Japan to China. Moreover,
simulation results show that the global dynamics can be generated by a preferential attachment mechanism both inter- and intra- communities
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