Organizational learning through participatory research: CIP and CARE in Peru

Participatory research (PR) has been analyzed and documented from different points of view, with emphasis on the benefits generated for farmers. The effect of PR on organizational learning has, however, received little attention. This paper analyzes the interaction between a research and a development institution, the International Potato Center (CIP) and CARE in Peru, respectively, and makes the case that PR can contribute to creating a collaborative learning environment among organizations. The paper describes the evolution of the inter-institutional collaborative environment between the two institutions for more than a decade, including an information-transfer period (1993–1996), an action-learning period (1997–2002), and a social-learning period (2003–2007). Several lessons learned from each period are described, as are changes in institutional contexts and stakeholders’ perceptions. The case shows that research and development-oriented organizations can interact fruitfully using PR as a mechanism to promote learning, flexibility in interactions, and innovation. Interactions foster the diffusion of information and the sharing of tacit knowledge within and between organizations, which in turn influences behavior. However, the paper also argues that long-term inter-organizational interactions are needed to facilitate learning, which can be used to influence the way organizations implement their interventions in a constantly changing environment.     

Histochemical distribution of intestinal enzymes of juvenile pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus) fed lyophilized bovine colostrum

Enzyme activity was evaluated in the intestine of juvenile pacu, Piaractus mesopotamicus, fed diets containing 0, 10 or 20 % of lyophilized bovine colostrum (LBC) inclusion for either 30 or 60 days. The enzymes intestinal acid and alkaline phosphatase (ACP and ALP, respectively), nonspecific esterase (NSE), lipase (LIP), dipeptidyl aminopeptidase IV (DAP IV) and leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) were studied using histochemistry in four intestinal segments (S1, S2, S3 and rectum). Moderate activity of the DAP IV was detected in the three last intestinal segments, but no differences among the treatments were detected. Enzymes LAP, NSE and LIP were weakly stained in all intestinal segments and the inclusion of 10 or 20 % of LBC in the diet commanded a moderate reaction to NSE in the S3 segment at day 60. ACP activity was detected only in the brush border of the S1 segment of fish fed 0 % LBC for either 30 or 60 days. The activity of ALP was very strong in the first intestinal segment, but a weak reaction was seen in the last segments. The inclusion of 20 % of LBC changed the pattern of staining to the ALP, eliciting moderate staining in S2 at day 30 and S1 at day 60. The consumption of diets containing LBC by juvenile pacu did not have significant implications in intestinal enzymatic activity, which still was not fully stimulated.     

Evaluation of carbohydrate/lipid ratios on growth and metabolic response in tropical gar (Atractosteus tropicus) juvenile

Five experimental diets with different carbohydrates/lipid ratio (CHO:L, 0.75, 1.28, 2.10, 2.52, 4.63) were formulated. Fish were randomly assigned by triplicate (10 fish per tank, 0.50 ± 0.01 g). Growth was registered every 15 days until end of the experiment (45 days). Samples were taken for analysis of chemical carcass composition, blood chemistry, glycogen and lipid liver content, digestive and metabolic enzyme activities. Results showed that survival, growth performance parameters and plasma glucose were not affected by treatments (p > 0.05). Lipids of carcass and liver, as well as triglycerides and plasma cholesterol increase significantly as CHO:L ratio decreased. While an inversely proportional tendency was observed for carcass protein and liver glycogen (p < 0.05). Digestive enzymes did not show significant differences among treatments (p > 0.05). Finally, Hexokinase (HK), glucokinase (GK), phosphoenol pyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and fructose‐1,6‐biphosphase (FBPase) showed high regulation by carbohydrates up to the CHO:L ratio of 2.10 (p < 0.05), while pyruvate kinase (PK) activity was not significantly affected by the CHO:L ratio. By the other side, glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) tends to significantly increase as the CHO:L ratio increases. We conclude that A. tropicus fry have a high capacity to utilize carbohydrates substituting lipids as energy source in balanced diets.     

The performance and impact of a bubble-wash bead filter in a recirculating green water larval culture system for delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus)

Delta smelt are cultured at the UC Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Lab (FCCL) for research purposes. The culture systems used are based on recirculation technology to ensure optimum water quality for the fish at each life stage. Larval culture takes place in recirculation systems with green water to which a Nannochloropsis algal concentrate is added to maintain a turbidity of approximately 9 NTU. A bubble-wash bead filter is used to remove total suspended solids (TSS) from the recirculation system. The performance of the bubble-wash bead filter has been evaluated by testing the TSS and particle size distribution in two parallel systems operated in the same way. The need for bubble-wash bead filter backwashing and the impact of the backwash method were evaluated also.The results show that the bubble-wash bead filter removed a great deal of the TSS, including the algae added to maintain the turbidity. An improper backwash method could result in a short term but significantly high TSS peak in the system immediately after the backwash event. Testing over an extended filtration period with a prolonged backwash interval showed that the TSS in the system remained stable up to 150 h post backwash, at which time it increased rapidly. The TSS accumulation in the system with a bubble-wash bead filter that was not backwashed was greater than that in a parallel system without a bubble-wash bead filter. No significant mortality increase was found in the system without a bubble-wash bead filter for 34 days, which provides a possible alternative in order to lower the rearing cost. Nevertheless, there are benefits of using a bead filter, and these are discussed in the paper.     

Wakame and Nori in Restructured Meats Included in Cholesterol-enriched Diets Affect the Antioxidant Enzyme Gene Expressions and Activities in Wistar Rats

The effects of diets including restructured meats (RM) containing Wakame or Nori on total liver glutathione status, and several antioxidant enzyme gene expressions and activities were tested. Six groups of ten male growing Wistar rats each were fed a mix of 85% AIN-93 M diet and 15% freeze-dried RM for 35 days. The control group (C) consumed control RM, the Wakame (W) and the Nori (N) groups, RM with 5% Wakame and 5% Nori, respectively. Animals on added cholesterol diets (CC, CW, and CN) consumed their corresponding basal diets added with cholesterol (2%) and cholic acid (0.4%). Alga and dietary cholesterol significantly interact (P < 0.002) influencing all enzyme expressions but not activities. The cholesterol supplement decreased most enzyme expression and activity. W-RM vs. C-RM increased (P < 0.05) expression of GPx, GR, Mn-SOD, and Cu,Zn-SOD and decreased that of catalase. N-RM vs. C-RM increased (P < 0.05) expression of catalase and Mn-SOD. GR activity increased in W-RM rats while SOD activity increased, but that of Se-GPx decreased in N animals. W-RM increased total and reduced glutathione and decreased the redox index. CN diet induced significantly lower plasma cholesterol levels (P < 0.001) than the CW diet. In conclusion, Nori-RM is a hypocholesterolemic food while Wakame-RM is an antioxidant food. This should be taken into account when including this kind of RM as potential functional foods in human.     

Larval cannibalism and fitness in the stored grain weevils <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sitophilus granarius</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sitophilus zeamais</Emphasis>

Resource limitation is an important determinant of life history and behavior while mediating competition and reproduction among organisms. Discreet and closed systems such as grain kernels and seeds impose drastic restrictions to grain beetles that spend their immature stages within a single kernel selected by their mother. This is the case of internally feeding stored grain beetles, such as the grain weevils. Female egg-laying decisions and larval competition largely determine resource limitation for such insects where clustered egg distribution and contest competition with larval interference and cannibalism take place. As the clustered eggs within a grain lead to larval competition and conspecific weevil larvae face each other off during development allowing the emergence of one or two larvae per kernel, we hypothesized that such competition and consequent cannibalism will have fitness consequences for the competing individuals and their offspring. Thus, larvae of the granary weevil (Sitophilus granarius L.) and the maize weevil (Sitophilus zeamais Motsch.) were subjected to larval competition with cannibalism, and lack of it, to assess the potential fitness consequence of cannibalism on these non-carnivorous pest species of stored grains. Larval cannibalism reduced developmental time of maize weevil, but not of granary weevil. However, such condition led to heavier adult weevils of both species exhibiting higher reproductive output generating more and better quality progeny than non-cannibal weevils. These findings indicate direct nutritional benefits of cannibalism to grain weevils favoring their status of key pest species of stored cereal grains.     

Wood defect classification based on image analysis and support vector machines

This paper addresses the issue of automatic wood defect classification. A tree-structure support vector machine (SVM) is proposed to classify four types of wood knots by using images captured from lumber boards. Simple and effective features are proposed and extracted by partitioning the knot images into three distinct areas, followed by utilizing a novel order statistic filter to yield an average pseudo color feature in each area. Excellent results have been obtained for the proposed SVM classifier that is trained by 800 wood knot images. Performance evaluation has shown that the proposed SVM classifier resulted in an average classification rate of 96.5% and false alarm rate of 2.25% over 400 test knot images. Future work will include more extensive tests on large data set and the extension of knot types.     

Dead wood in clearcuts of semi-natural forests in Estonia: site-type variation, degradation, and the influences of tree retention and slash harvest

Semi-natural forests, which naturally regenerate after timber harvesting, provide distinct opportunities for dead wood (DW) management for biodiversity. We described DW pool and sources of its variation during the first decade after final felling in Estonia, hemiboreal Europe. Depending on forest type, the mean post-harvest volumes of above-ground DW ranged from 70 to 119 m³ ha^?1. Final felling generally did not reduce downed coarse woody debris (CWD) because many sawn logs were left on-site, and soil scarification was rarely used. However, subsequent decay of downed CWD appears to be accelerated due to the increased ground contact of logs, so that even the relatively small inputs from live retention trees observed (5 m³ ha^?1 per decade) can be ecologically significant. While final felling greatly reduced snag abundance, the mortality of retained live trees generally balanced their later losses. The volumes of downed fine woody debris in conventional cutover sites were roughly double that of pre-harvest forests. Slash harvest caused an approximately twofold reduction in downed DW and resulted in CWD volumes that were below mature-forest levels. The results indicate that the habitat quality of cutovers critically depends both on the retention and on the post-harvest management of biological legacies. In Estonia, the necessary improvements include more careful retention of snags in final felling, selecting larger retention trees, focusing slash harvest on the fine debris of common tree species, and providing snags of late-successional tree species.     

Eucalypt growth in monoculture and silvopastoral systems with varied tree initial densities and spatial arrangements

Brazil has large stretches of degraded land, mainly occupied by pasture. Recently, the Brazilian government created a program providing financial support to recover these lands throughout the country by establishing agroforestry systems, among others. To select the most appropriate initial spatial arrangements and tree planting density for such systems, the plant growth and leaf area index (LAI) of a Eucalyptus camaldulensis clone were evaluated in five spatial arrangements: 3.6 × 2.5 m, and 3.3 × 3.3 m (monoculture), and (2 × 2) + 10 m, (3 × 3) + 9 m, and 9 × 3 m (silvopastoral systems), with 1,111, 918, 833, 556 and 370 plants per hectare, respectively. The arrangement did not affect plant height growth (p > 0.05) up to 50 months. The average diameter was affected by plant proximity in the planting line, being smaller (p < 0.05) in the arrangements (2 × 2) + 10 m, and 3.6 × 2.5 m, and by the number of lines in the rows, as the plants in the single line arrangement (9 × 3 m) attained the highest diameter. Individual volumes of high initial density stand were lower than in the silvopastoral systems. The arrangements (2 × 2) + 10 m, 3.6 × 2.5 m, and 3.3 × 3.3 m did not differ (p > 0.05) in volume per hectare, which was higher (p < 0.05) than for the other arrangements studied. LAI decreased with age and it was higher (p < 0.01) in the monoculture as compared to the silvopastoral systems. The silvopastoral system can be established in the (2 × 2) + 10 m arrangement for high biomass production besides having the additional benefit of financial returns from the pasture, as compared with the monoculture. The 9 × 3 m arrangement is preferable for large diameter log production.