Towards gender balance in irrigation management

Women form the majority of the water users in Kisumu District in Kenya, yet they were generally not participating in management on scheme level. The Provincial Irrigation Unit, Nyanza Province therefore experimented with a gender-sensitive approach in the preparatory phase of their assistance to schemes. The experiments comprised of a special meeting for women, a requirement that a minimum of 50% of participants in preparatory meetings have to be women and a discussion with all water users on gender issues of scheme committee elections. The measures were successful in the sense that they improved the percentages women present in preparatory meetings and committees. Performance of the women leaders was simular to the performance of male colleagues. Furthermore the knowledge on project matters increased, as well as the relative participation of women in project activities.Joitske Hulsebosch worked together with PIU Nyanza between 1991–1993 as researcher/consultant. Doris Ombara is employed by the Ministry of Agriculture and posted at the PIU Nyanza as extension officer with special attention for gender aspects.     

The cardiovascular dose-response effects of isoflurane alone and combined with butorphanol in the green iguana (Iguana iguana)

Objective To assess the cardiovascular effects (arterial blood pressure, heart rate, and metabolic acid–base status) of three doses (MAC multiples) of isoflurane alone and combined with butorphanol in the green iguana (Iguana iguana). Study design Prospective randomized double‐blind, two‐period cross‐over trial. Animals Six mature healthy green iguanas (Iguana iguana). Methods The iguanas received each of two treatments, saline 0.1 mL kg^?1 (SAL) and butorphanol 1.0 mg kg^?1 (BUT) during isoflurane anesthesia. Treatments were separated by at least 1 week. The iguanas were exposed to each of the three minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) multiples (1.0, 1.5, and 2.0) in random order. Anesthesia was induced with isoflurane and maintained using controlled ventilation. Instrumentation included use of an ECG, airway gas monitor, cloacal thermometer, esophageal pulse oximeter, and the placement of a femoral arterial catheter. Body temperature was stabilized and maintained at 32 °C. The treatment was administered, and the animals were equilibrated for 20 minutes at each MAC multiple. At each concentration, the heart rate, blood pressure (systolic, mean, diastolic), end‐tidal CO₂, and SpO₂ were measured. At 1.0 and 2.0 MAC, simultaneous blood samples were drawn from the tail vein/artery complex and femoral catheter for blood gas analysis. Data were analyzed using a two‐way analysis of variance for repeated measures looking for differences between treatments and among MAC multiples. Results There were no significant differences in any of the cardiovascular variables between the treatments. Significant differences among isoflurane MAC multiples were observed for HR, mean, diastolic, and systolic blood pressures. Blood pressure and heart rate decreased with an increasing dose of anesthetic. There were no significant differences between treatments or MAC multiples for any of the blood gas variables. The blood pH, PCO₂, HCO₃^?, and hemoglobin saturation differed significantly between sites. Pulse oximetry values measured from the carotid complex did not correlate with and were significantly different from the calculated hemoglobin saturation values determined using the gas analyzer. Conclusion and clinical relevance Cardiovascular depression associated with isoflurane anesthesia in the green iguana is dose dependent. The degree of cardiovascular depression was not significantly different when isoflurane was combined with butorphanol. This finding suggests that the pre‐emptive or intraoperative use of butorphanol is unlikely to be detrimental to cardiovascular function. Butorphanol may be a useful anesthetic adjunct to isoflurane anesthesia in the green iguana.     

Indirect measurement of blood pressure using a pulse oximeter in isoflurane anesthetized dogs

Objective: To determine the accuracy of indirect blood pressure (BP) measurements obtained with a pulse oximeter as compared with direct measurements in dogs under isoflurane anesthesia. The Doppler and oscillometric BP monitors were included for comparison. Design: Prospective, experimental study. Animals: Twenty healthy dogs (23 ± 8 kg) anesthetized for research or teaching. Interventions: Dogs were anesthetized with propofol or thiopental and maintained using positive pressure ventilation with isoflurane in 100% O₂. Random adjustment of BP was achieved by inhalant adjustment or dopamine infusion to achieve low (≤85 mmHg), normal (90–120 mmHg), or high systolic BP (≥125 mmHg). Triplicate measurements for BP were taken with direct (dorsal pedal artery), Doppler (forelimb), oscillometric (same forelimb), and plethysmographic (pulse oximeter on tongue) methods. Measurements and main results: Using regression analysis and a modified Bland–Altman's technique, the lowest bias was achieved with the Doppler. Systolic BP readings at low, normal, and high BP were within 10 mmHg of direct recordings 95%, 70%, and 30% of the time for pulse oximetry; 95%, 85%, and 55% of the time for Doppler; 42%, 65%, and 30% of the time for oscillometric determination, respectively. Oscillometric mean BP readings were within 10 mmHg of direct measurements 53%, 60%, and 45% of the time, respectively. Conclusions: The pulse oximeter is an acceptable method for measuring BP in anesthetized dogs if assessment of trends is sufficient. All indirect methods showed greater bias and poorer precision at high BP. The Doppler may be the preferred indirect method.     

Actors in private food governance: the legitimacy of retail standards and multistakeholder initiatives with civil society participation

Democratic legitimacy is rarely associated with private governance. After all, private actors are not legitimized through elections by a demos. Instead of abandoning democratic principles when entering the private sphere of governance, however, this article argues in favour of employing alternative criteria of democracy in assessments. Specifically, this article uses the criteria of participation, transparency and accountability to evaluate the democratic legitimacy of private food retail governance institutions. It pursues this evaluation of the democratic legitimacy of these institutions against the background of their ambivalent impact on the sustainability of the global agrifood system. The paper refers to a range of cases of private retail standards with different governance structures and substantial foci to illustrate its argument.     

Greenhouse climate control: an approach for integrated pest management

Modern control strategies for greenhouse climate control can be used in order to reduce disease infection and to influence plant development. Within the concept of integrated plant protection, it is necessary to minimise chemical applications. In addition to existing dehumidification strategies, in particular, the use of climate control for integrated pest control requires registration and simulation of climate conditions in the plant canopy. To avoid intensive and expensive technical measurements, it is necessary to describe the energy and mass transport processes within the canopy, the exchange processes between air and plant elements and other surfaces. The basics of a computer-supported anti-botrytis climate control management have been developed based on a plant canopy model.     

Evaluation of effectiveness and efficiency of wild bird surveillance for avian influenza

This study aimed to assess which method of wild waterbird surveillance had the greatest probability of detecting highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 during a period of surveillance activity, the cost of each method was also considered. Lake Constance is a major wintering centre for migratory waterbirds and in 2006 it was the site of an HPAI H5N1 epidemic in wild birds. Avian influenza surveillance was conducted using harmonised approaches in the three countries around the lake, Austria, Germany and Switzerland, from 2006–2009. The surveillance consisted of testing birds sampled by the following methods: live birds caught in traps, birds killed by hunters, birds caught in fishing nets, dead birds found by the public and catching live Mute Swans (Cygnus olor); sentinel flocks of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) were also used. Scenario tree analysis was performed including sensitivity analysis, followed by assessment of cost-effectiveness. Results indicated that if HPAI H5N1 was present at 1% prevalence and assuming HPAI resulted in bird mortality, sampling dead birds found by the public and sentinel surveillance were the most sensitive approaches despite residual uncertainty over some parameters. The uncertainty over the mortality of infected birds was an influential factor. Sampling birds found dead was most cost-effective, but strongly dependent on mortality and awareness of the public. Trapping live birds was least cost-effective. Based on our results, we recommend that future HPAI H5N1 surveillance around Lake Constance should prioritise sentinel surveillance and, if high mortality is expected, the testing of birds found dead.     

Functional compartmentalization and viewpoint generalization within the macaque face-processing system

Primates can recognize faces across a range of viewing conditions. Representations of individual identity should thus exist that are invariant to accidental image transformations like view direction. We targeted the recently discovered face-processing network of the macaque monkey that consists of six interconnected face-selective regions and recorded from the two middle patches (ML, middle lateral, and MF, middle fundus) and two anterior patches (AL, anterior lateral, and AM, anterior medial). We found that the anatomical position of a face patch was associated with a unique functional identity: Face patches differed qualitatively in how they represented identity across head orientations. Neurons in ML and MF were view-specific; neurons in AL were tuned to identity mirror-symmetrically across views, thus achieving partial view invariance; and neurons in AM, the most anterior face patch, achieved almost full view invariance.     

Genetic diversity,population structure and key phenotypic traits driving variation within soyabean (Glycine max) collection in Ghana

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] is an important oilseed crop worldwide and it has recently become the crop of interest in Ghana. In this study, 142 soybean accessions were genotyped with 34 SSR markers and concurrently evaluated for five quantitative and two qualitative phenotypic traits. Twenty‐nine of the SSR markers were polymorphic with mean allele number of 5.3, polymorphic information content (PIC) of 0.51 and gene diversity of 0.55. Molecular analysis based on unweighted paired group arithmetic mean (UPGMA) clustering and principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) was similar in explaining the extent of diversity within the accessions. Structure analysis placed most of the accessions into two subpopulations with 18 (12.7%) as admixtures. Principal component analysis (PCA) based on phenotypic traits revealed two clusters. Both UPGMA clustering‐based SSR data and PCA from phenotypic data showed similar results. The assembled germplasm is genetically diverse with high variation in flowering and maturity period, and key yield components which could be exploited in developing superior varieties well adapted to Ghana and West Africa.