Land use change impacts on floods at the catchment scale: Challenges and opportunities for future research

Research gaps in understanding flood changes at the catchment scale caused by changes in forest management, agricultural practices, artificial drainage and terracing are identified. Potential strategies in addressing these gaps are proposed, such as complex systems approaches to link processes across time scales, long-term experiments on physical-chemical-biological process interactions, and a focus on connectivity and patterns across spatial scales. It is suggested that these strategies will stimulate new research that coherently addresses the issues across hydrology, soil and agricultural sciences, forest engineering, forest ecology and geomorphology

An Examinination of The Learning Conditions in Zimbabwe’s Satellite Schools: A Case of Somabhula Resettlement Area - Midlands Province

The Zimbabwean Land Reform Programme of 2000 yielded both positive and negative results. It gave birth to a new phenomenon, the satellite schools, established in former commercial farming areas. During the colonial era, education was not easily accessible to the Zimbabwean  majority. Therefore, when the land was grabbed from the few   representatives of Western hegemony, the government sanctioned theestablishment of satellite schools in areas which had once belonged to the white minority in order to grant the newly resettled populace an opportunity to acquire an education in compliance with the United Nations Charter on human rights. This paper examined the teaching and learning conditions in these schools, paying particular attention to Somabhula resettlement area in the Midlands province. Through the mixed methods approach this paper established that the satellite schools were a noble initiative by the  government, especially considering that education is the key to sustainable development which every government is striving to promote.Keywords: satellite schools, learning conditions, resettlement area, land reform programme, farm invasions, sustainable developmen

Benign cutaneous epithelioid Schwannoma: case report and review of the literature

Benign peripheral nerve sheath tumors are relatively common. They are mostly characterized by the presence of delicate S-shaped spindle cells and myxoid stroma. Although variants with epithelioid foci can be present, the pure epithelioid variant of benign cutaneous schwannoma is extremely rare. It was first reported as cutaneous epithelial schwannoma by Kindblom et al in 1998. Since then, only six cases have been reported. Care should be taken not to misdiagnose them as malignant neoplasms. Their diagnosis can be problematic as their histopathologic features may overlap with those of other soft-tissue and melanocytic tumors. We report a case of cutaneous epithelioid schwannoma and review of the literature

Soil tillage impact on the relative contribution of dissolved, particulate and gaseous (CO2) carbon losses during rainstorms

Although the impact of water erosion on soil carbon losses has been widely investigated, little is known about the relative contributions of dissolved, particulate and gaseous losses, a prerequisite for understanding the mechanisms of carbon (C) export from soils and designing mitigation procedures. The main objective of this study was to quantify the losses of dissolved organic and inorganic C (DOC, DIC), particulate organic C (POC) and soil CO2 from runoff microplots on tilled (T) and no-tilled (NT) soils. The study was performed in the Beauce region in central France under Luvisols using 45 and 80 mmh(-1) artificial rains. At 45 mm h(-1), T plots produced C erosion at an average of 1189.7 +/- 114.8 mg C m(-2) h(-1) with 76.9% of it being POC (915.0 +/- 100.0 mg C m(-2) h(-1)), 21.7% DOC (258.3.0 +/- 7.6 mg C m(-2)h(-1)), 1.4% (16.3 +/- 7.2 mg C m(-2)h(-1)), DIC and 0.01% CO2. NT decreased total soil C losses by 95% (from 0.8 to 0.038 g C m(-2)h(-1)) and soil C losses were as CO2 only. At 80 mm h(-1) NT surprisingly increased C erosion by 40% compared to T (from 39.4 to 55.3 g C m(2) h(-1)), with 95.5% of the C losses being POC vs 88.7% for T. These results on rainstorm-induced C fluxes from soils controlled by tillage are expected to be of future value: (1) for selecting appropriate land management that will mitigate against C losses from soils and improve soil carbon sequestration and; (2) to better understand the Global Carbon Cycle and further develop the existing models

Reduced form modeling of limit order markets

The impact of agricultural practices on CO2 emissions from soils needs to be understood and quantified to enhance ecosystem functions, especially the ability of soils to sequester atmospheric carbon (C), while enhancing food and biomass production. The objective of this study was to assess CO2 emissions in the soil surface following tillage abandonment and to investigate some of the underlying soil physical, chemical and biological controls. Maize (Zea mays) was planted under conventional tillage (T) and no-tillage (NT), both without crop residues under smallholder farming conditions in Potshini, South Africa. Intact top-soil (0?0.05 m) core samples (N = 54) from three 5 ? 15 m2 plots per treatment were collected two years after conversion of T to NT to evaluate the short-term CO2 emissions. Depending on the treatment, cores were left intact, compacted by 5 and 10%, or had surface crusts removed. They were incubated for 20 days with measurements of CO2 fluxes twice a day during the first three days and once a day thereafter. Soil organic C (SOC) content, soil bulk density (?b), aggregate stability, soil organic matter quality, and microbial biomass and its activity were evaluated at the onset of the incubation. CO2 emissions were 22% lower under NT compared with T with CO2 emissions of 0.9 ? 0.10 vs 1.1 ? 0.10 mg C?CO2 gC?1 day?1 under NT and T, respectively, suggesting greater SOC protection under NT. However, there were greater total CO2 emissions per unit of surface by 9% under NT compared to T (1.15 ? 0.03 vs 1.05 ? 0.04 g C?CO2 m?2 day?1). SOC protection significantly increased with the increase in soil bulk density (r = 0.89) and aggregate stability (from 1.7 ? 0.25 mm to 2.3 ? 0.31, r = 0.50), and to the decrease in microbial biomass and its activity (r = ?0.59 and ?0.57, respectively). In contrast, the greater NT CO2 emissions per m2 were explained by top-soil enrichment in SOC by 48% (from 12.4 ? 0.2 to 19.1 ? 0.4 g kg?1, r = 0.59). These results on the soil controls of tillage impact on CO2 emissions are expected to inform on the required shifts in agricultural practices for enhancing C sequestration in soils. In the context of the study, any mechanism favoring aggregate stability and promoting SOC allocation deep in the soil profile rather than in the top-soil would greatly diminish soil CO2 outputs and thus stimulate C sequestration

Thigh-length compression stockings and DVT after stroke

Controversy exists as to whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves survival in patients with invasive bladder cancer, despite randomised controlled trials of more than 3000 patients. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effect of such treatment on survival in patients with this disease