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Welfare Impact of Globalization in Developing Countries: Examining the Mediating Role of Human Capital
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 16 August 2019, Published - 21. August 2019espite remarkable progress in the fight against poverty during the past few decades, the proportion of the poor living in developing countries is still on the high side. Many countries have promoted integration as an important development strategy; however, its impact on welfare of the poor is still unclear. In this study, we examine the roles of education and health dimensions of human capital in globalization and its impact on the poverty gap and the child mortality rate using cross-country panel data covering 110 developing countries between 1970 and 2015. We use a model based on system generalized method of moments (SGMM) to control for unobserved heterogeneity and potential endogeneity of the explanatory variables. The empirical results reveal that globalization reduces poverty gap and child mortality rate, and that an increase in the stock of human capital in developing economies improves welfare outcomes. The study also finds that human capital strengthens the negative impact of globalization on poverty gap and child mortality rate. For example, should enrollment in secondary school in Nigeria (in 2013) be increased from 39.2% to 61.6%, on average, it could translate into 2508 fewer under-five child deaths. We recommend that interconnectedness and promotion of human capital development should constitute a fundamental component of policy mix targeted at enhancing reduction of poverty and child mortality rate in developing countries
Effects of concentrate input on nutrient utilization and methane emissions of two breeds of ewe lambs fed fresh ryegrass
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 29 September 2018; Published onlilne -11 October 2018; Published - January 2019.The objective of this study was
to evaluate if high-quality grass could sustain a
similar feeding efficiency to concentrate meals for
two breeds of lowland ewe lambs. Sixteen lowland
ewe lambs of approximately 13 mo age and
61.5 ± 5.28 kg live weight were used in a 2 × 2 factorial
study, with 2 diets (fresh perennial ryegrass
[Lolium perenne] vs. fresh perennial ryegrass plus
0.5 kg/d fresh concentrate) × 2 breeds (Highlander
vs. Texel). Grass was cut daily in the morning
from a single zero-grazing sward and offered ad
libitum. The animals were individually housed in
pens and fed experimental diets for an adaptation
phase of 19 d, and then transferred to respiration
calorimeter chambers, remaining there for 5 d,
with feed intake, feces and urine outputs, and methane
(CH4) emissions measured during the final
4 d. There were no significant interaction effects
between diets and breeds on any variables. Ewe
lambs offered 0.5 kg/d concentrate supplementation
had slightly greater DM intake and energy
(GE, DE, and ME) intake, but had significantly
higher N intake and N excretion in feces and
urine than those fed the grass-only diet. However,
diets had no significant effects on nutrient digestibility,
energy or N utilization, or CH4 emission.
Texel breed had a significantly lower DM intake
and CH4 emissions per kg live weight, whereas the
breed had no significant effect on nutrient digestibility
or energy or N utilization. These results
implicate that good quality grass could sustain
high nutrient utilization efficiency as effectively
as diets supplemented with concentrates for ewe
lamb production. The two breeds of lowland ewe
lambs can utilize good quality grass at a similar
level of efficiency.CW is a visiting PhD student funded by
China Scholarship Council and UK–China Joint
Research and Innovation Partnership Fund (PhD
Placement Programme). The study was funded by
the Department of Agriculture, Environment and
Rural Affair of North Ireland
Effects of phenolic acids and IgY immunoglobulins on aspects of rumen fermentation, in vitro.
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted – 4 January 2019; Published – 2019.The current study was carried out in order to determine the effects of simple phenols and of specific anti-methanogen IgY antibodies on ruminal gas production, methane emissions, volatile fatty acids (VFA) profile and pH in in vitro ruminal cultures. Caffeic and p-Coumaric acids and IgY antibodies were added anaerobically to ruminal batch cultures. Ruminal
parameters were measured after 24, 48 and 72 hours of incubation. The results showed that addition ofboth phenolic acids and IgY antibodies significantly (P <0.05) decreased methane production at 24 and 48 hours of incubation. At 24 and 48 hours of incubation some
significant differences were observed in volatile fatty acids profile, while the pH was not affected by simple phenols and IgY antibodies addition.
Simple phenols and IgY avian antibodies can be further tested in order to achieve the purpose of methane mitigation strategies, but the ideal way to inhibit the methanogenesis process in rumen would reduce methane production without altering the other ruminal parameters, such as VFAs, total gas production or pH.DBU (Deutsche BundesstiftungUmwelt) scholarship program at
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany
Comprehensive Longitudinal Microbiome Analysis of the Chicken Cecum Reveals a Shift From Competitive to Environmental Drivers and a Window of Opportunity for Campylobacter
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 25 September 2018; Published - 15 October 2018.Chickens are a key food source for humans yet their microbiome contains bacteria
that can be pathogenic to humans, and indeed potentially to chickens themselves.
Campylobacter is present within the chicken gut and is the leading cause of
bacterial foodborne gastroenteritis within humans worldwide. Infection can lead to
secondary sequelae such as Guillain-Barré syndrome and stunted growth in children
from low-resource areas. Despite the global health impact and economic burden
of Campylobacter, how and when Campylobacter appears within chickens remains
unclear. The lack of day to day microbiome data with replicates, relevant metadata,
and a lack of natural infection studies have delayed our understanding of the chicken
gut microbiome and Campylobacter. Here, we performed a comprehensive day to day
microbiome analysis of the chicken cecum from day 3 to 35 (12 replicates each day; final
n = 379). We combined metadata such as chicken weight and feed conversion rates to
investigate what the driving forces are for the microbial changes within the chicken gut
over time, and how this relates to Campylobacter appearance within a natural habitat
setting. We found a rapidly increasing microbial diversity up to day 12 with variation
observed both in terms of genera and abundance, before a stabilization of the microbial
diversity after day 20. In particular, we identified a shift from competitive to environmental
drivers of microbial community from days 12 to 20 creating a window of opportunity
whereby Campylobacter can appear. Campylobacter was identified at day 16 which
was 1 day after the most substantial changes in metabolic profiles observed. In addition,
microbial variation over time is most likely influenced by the diet of the chickens whereby significant shifts in OTU abundances and beta dispersion of samples often corresponded
with changes in feed. This study is unique in comparison to the most recent studies as
neither sampling was sporadic nor Campylobacter was artificially introduced, thus the
experiments were performed in a natural setting. We believe that our findings can be
useful for future intervention strategies and help reduce the burden of Campylobacter
within the food chain.The authors acknowledge research funding from Moy Park.
UZI is funded by NERC Independent Research Fellowship
(NE/L011956/1)
Evaluación de crecimiento, rendimiento y calorimetría de biomasa de Miscanthus x giganteus (Poaceae) establecido en el centro-sur de Chile
Get PDFLos autores agradecen el apoyo del Fondo de Fomento al Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico
(Proyecto FONDEF B09i 1008).
El trabajo de la Ingeniera Forestal Cynthia Labraña y de los estudiantes de Ingeniería Forestal de
la Universidad de Concepción María Eugenia Hinojosa y Oscar González.
La colaboración de los investigadores Dr. Salvatore Cosentino de la Universidad de Catania
(Italia), Dr. Manuel Bao y Dr. Juan Luis Fernández de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
(España), y del Laboratorio de Micropropagación de la Escuela Politécnica Superior de Lugo de la
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela.Experimental crops of Miscanthus x giganteus were planted in three contrasting sites in Chile's south central to evaluate its growth and energy potential. In the second year of growth, the crop exhibited large differences amongsites regarding height (52.1 to 158.2 cm), biomass yield (1.1 to 9.0 Mg ha-1), ash content (3.8 to 9.6%) and calorific value (16.64 to 18.14 MJ kg-1). The chemical composition of the biomass indicated cellulose 36%, hemicellulose 22.3% and lignin 26.9%. Elemental analysis indicated C and H content of 41.9% and 6.6% respectively. Therefore, Miscanthus x giganteus offers suitable attributes to be used for energy generation in Chile
Review: The variability of the eating quality of beef can be reduced by predicting consumer satisfaction
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 22 February 2018; Published online - 2 April 2018The Meat Standards Australia (MSA) grading scheme has the ability to predict beef eating quality for each ‘cut×cooking method combination’ from animal and carcass traits such as sex, age, breed, marbling, hot carcass weight and fatness, ageing time, etc. Following MSA testing protocols, a total of 22 different muscles, cooked by four different cooking methods and to three different degrees of doneness, were tasted by over 19 000 consumers from Northern Ireland, Poland, Ireland, France and Australia. Consumers scored the sensory characteristics (tenderness, flavor liking, juiciness and overall liking) and then allocated samples to one of four quality grades: unsatisfactory, good-every-day, better-than-every-day and premium. We observed that 26% of the beef was unsatisfactory. As previously reported, 68% of samples were allocated to the correct quality grades using the MSA grading scheme. Furthermore, only 7% of the beef unsatisfactory to consumers was misclassified as acceptable. Overall, we concluded that an MSA-like grading scheme could be used to predict beef eating quality and hence underpin commercial brands or labels in a number of European countries, and possibly the whole of Europe. In addition, such an eating quality guarantee system may allow the implementation of an MSA genetic index to improve eating quality through genetics as well as through management. Finally, such an eating quality guarantee system is likely to generate economic benefits to be shared along the beef supply chain from farmers to retailors, as consumers are willing to pay more for a better quality product.This research was supported by Meat and Livestock Australia and Murdoch University. Data were obtained through the financial contributions of the European research project ProSafeBeef (contract no. FOOD-CT-2006-36241), the Polish ProOptiBeef Farm to Fork project funded by the EU Innovative (POIG.01.03.01-00-204/09), the French ‘Direction Générale de l’Alimentation’ and FranceAgriMer. For the Irish data, the authors acknowledge the financial support of the Department of Agriculture and the Marine (DAFM) under the Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM). Furthermore, this project would not have been possible without the practical support of the Association Institut du Charolais, the Syndicat de Défense et du promotion de la Viande de Boeuf de Charolles and the gourmet restaurants ‘Jean Denaud’ and representatives of the beef industry across Europe. The international travel required for this project has been funded by ‘Egide/Fast’ funds from the French and Australian governments, respectively (project no. FR090054) and by ‘Egide/Polonium’ funds from the French and Polish governments, respectively. The assistance and participation of the Beef CRC and Janine Lau (MLA, Australia), Alan Gee (Cosign, Australia), Ray Watson (Melbourne University, Australia) and John Thompson (UNE) are also gratefully acknowledged
DIVA metabolomics: Differentiating vaccination status following viral challenge using metabolomic profiles
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 5 March 2018; Published online - 4 April 2018Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) is a major source of economic loss within the agricultural industry. Vaccination against BRD-associated viruses does not offer complete immune protection and vaccine failure animals present potential routes for disease spread. Serological differentiation of infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA) is possible using antigen-deleted vaccines, but during virus outbreaks DIVA responses are masked by wild-type virus preventing accurate serodiagnosis. Previous work by the authors has established the potential for metabolomic profiling to reveal metabolites associated with systemic immune responses to vaccination. The current study builds on this work by demonstrating for the first time the potential to use plasma metabolite profiling to differentiate between vaccinated and non-vaccinated animals following infection-challenge. Male Holstein Friesian calves were intranasally vaccinated (Pfizer RISPOVAL®PI3+RSV) and subsequently challenged with Bovine Parainfluenza Virus type-3 (BPI3V) via nasal inoculation. Metabolomic plasma profiling revealed that viral challenge led to a shift in acquired plasma metabolite profiles from day 2 to 20 p.i., with 26 metabolites identified whose peak intensities were significantly different following viral challenge depending on vaccination status. Elevated levels of biliverdin and bilirubin and decreased 3-indolepropionic acid in non-vaccinated animals at day 6 p.i. may be associated with increased oxidative stress and reactive oxygen scavenging at periods of peak virus titre. During latter stages of infection, increased levels of N-[(3α,5β,12α)-3,12-dihydroxy-7,24-dioxocholan-24-yl]glycine and lysophosphatidycholine and decreased enterolactone in non-vaccinated animals may reflect suppression of innate immune response mechanisms and progression to adaptive immune responses. Levels of hexahydrohippurate were also shown to be significantly elevated in non-vaccinated animals from days 6 to 20 p.i. These findings demonstrate the potential of metabolomic profiling to identify plasma markers that can be employed in disease diagnostic applications to both differentially identify infected non-vaccinated animals during disease outbreaks and provide greater information on the health status of infected animals.This research was funded by a Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) Northern Ireland postgraduate studentship awarded to Darren Gra
Black Border Increases Stomoxys calcitrans Catch on White Sticky Traps
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 1 February 2018; Published online: 2 February 2018Stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans, is a biting fly that can cause severe irritation to livestock resulting in reduced productivity. The most common method of monitoring S. calcitrans is through the use of sticky traps and many designs have been developed using different colours and materials such as alsynite fibreglass and polypropylene sheeting. Laboratory experiments and some field experimentation have demonstrated that colour contrast can attract S. calcitrans. However, this response has not been fully utilised in trap design. To test that simple colour contrast could increase trap efficacy, white sticky traps were mounted on three differently coloured backgrounds (white, yellow, and black) and positioned at five sites on a mixed livestock farm. White sticky traps on a black background caught significantly more S. calcitrans than the yellow or white backgrounds. An incidental result was that Pollenia sp. were caught in greater numbers on the yellow framed traps. The reasons for S. calcitrans attraction to black–white contrast are most likely due to conspicuousness in the environment although the extent to which flies are using this feature as a host-location cue or a perching site are unknown.This project was funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Northern Ireland) through the Evidence and Innovation Strategy (Project 16/3/07-48109)
Prenatal treatment with rosiglitazone attenuates vascular remodeling and pulmonary monocyte influx in experimental congenital diaphragmatic hernia
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 23 October 2018; Published online - 12 November 2018.Introduction
Extensive vascular remodeling causing pulmonary hypertension (PH) represents a major cause of mortality in patients with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). The chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is a biomarker for the severity of PH and its activation is accompanied by pulmonary influx of monocytes and extensive vascular remodeling. MCP-1 activation can be reversed by application of rosiglitazone (thiazolidinedione). We performed this study to evaluate the role of MCP-1 for the pathogenesis of PH in experimental CDH. We hypothesized that vascular remodeling and MCP-1 activation is accompanied by pulmonary influx of fetal monocytes and can be attenuated by prenatal treatment with rosiglitazone.
Methods
In a first set of experiments pregnant rats were treated with either nitrofen or vehicle on gestational day 9 (D9). Fetal lungs were harvested on D21 and divided into CDH and control. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, Western blot (WB), and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were used to evaluate MCP-1 expression, activation, and localization. Quantification and localization of pulmonary monocytes/macrophages were carried out by IHC.
In a second set of experiments nitrofen-exposed dams were randomly assigned to prenatal treatment with rosiglitazone or placebo on D18+D19. Fetal lungs were harvested on D21, divided into control, CDH+rosiglitazone, and CDH+placebo and evaluated by WB as well as IHC.
Results
Increased thickness of pulmonary arteries of CDH fetuses was accompanied by increased systemic and perivascular MCP-1 protein expression and significantly higher amounts of pulmonary monocytes/macrophages compared to controls (p<0.01). These effects were reversed by prenatal treatment with rosiglitazone (p<0.01 vs. CDH+P; control).
Conclusion
Prenatal treatment with rosiglitazone has the potential to attenuate activation of pulmonary MCP-1, pulmonary monocyte influx, and vascular remodeling in experimental CDH. These results provide a basis for future research on prenatal immunomodulation as a novel treatment strategy to decrease secondary effects of PH in CDH.This work was supported by Children’s Medical & Research Foundation, Dublin, Ireland, https://cmrf.org/, Senior Research Fellowship JG, awarded to JG; German Research Foundation and Leipzig University within the program of Open Access Publishing, awarded to JG, https://www.ub.uni-leipzig.de/open-science/publikationsfonds/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
Pesticide Use in Northern Ireland’s Arable Crops from 1992–2016 and Implications for Future Policy Development
Get PDFPublication history: Accepted - 31 July 2018; Published online - 8 August 2018Since the 1960s, the objective for the United Kingdom (UK) government policy and legislation on crop protection practices has been to minimise the impact of pesticide use in agriculture and horticulture to the wider environment. Subsequent European Union (EU) policy and legislation have also targeted this objective through a demanding approvals process, competency tests for users, maximum residue limits, regular post-registration monitoring and the promotion of integrated pest and disease management techniques. However, none of this substantive regulation refers to target reduction levels for pesticide use. Since 1992, the number of arable farms in Northern Ireland has decreased by 61% with a consequent reduction of 34% in the area of arable crops grown. Despite this reduction in area of arable crops grown, the area treated by the major pesticide groups increased by 49% due to intensification, but the weight of major pesticides applied to arable crops decreased by 37%. However, the intensity of application measured by the total quantity of all pesticides applied to the basic area of arable crops treated remained relatively constant at approximately 3.2 kg/ha. Pesticide usage trends and reduction policies in other geographic regions are also discussed for comparative purposes.Our funding providers, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Northern
Ireland and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Great Britain