Control of Common Vole (Microtus arvalis) in Alfalfa Crops Using Reduced Content of Anticoagulants

The common vole, Microtus arvalis, which is prone to cyclic overpopulation, poses a significant threat to sustainable alfalfa production by either chewing shoots periodically or gnawing and damaging roots permanently. In areas with established vole colonies, the density of alfalfa plants was shown to decrease 55.3–63.4%. Simultaneously, the number of alfalfa shoots decreased by 60.9–71.7%. These experiments were conducted in compliance with an EPPO standard method in alfalfa fields at three geographically remote sites. The experiment tested the efficacy of the most widely used acute rodenticide zinc phosphide (2%), and anticoagulants applied at significantly reduced doses of active ingredients, i.e., bromadiolone (25 ppm) and brodifacoum (25 ppm), as well as a combination of these active ingredients at a low concentration (10 + 10 ppm). Three weeks after treatment, zinc phosphide and brodifacoum achieved the highest average efficacy, at 98.5% and 92.05%, respectively, while the average efficacy of the anticoagulant combination and bromadiolone was 87.2% and 75.5%, respectively. The achieved efficacy of baits based on brodifacoum and the combination of brodifacoum and bromadiolone in controlling common voles indicates their possible utilization in the field. Baits with 25 ppm of brodifacoum and the combination of bromadiolone and brodifacoum (10 + 10 ppm) showed satisfactory results and their introduction could significantly improve pest management programs for rodent control. At the same time, the use of anticoagulant rodenticides with reduced contents of active ingredients would significantly reduce their exposure to non-target animals, especially predators and vultures. By further improving the palatability of tested baits for target rodent species, their efficacy and safety of application would be significantly improved.

Development of A Comprehensive Model for Erosion and Sediment Control towards Good Water Governance: UKM Campus as A Watershed Model

This study was carried out to develop a whole ecosystem-based erosion and sediment transport control management system of UKM Campus Watershed which is a sub-basin of Langat River Basin catchment. This is done through the development of an Erosion and Sediment Control (ESC) model for the UKM campus watershed that includes localised technology, information and communication system, as well as awareness and community participation for the greening and rehabilitation of UKM Campus. The management system was developed to give a strong participatory element and to ensure that the model will be placed into a user friendly context to make data input and model operation simple for stakeholders with limited resources and training in the use of the models. The application of hydromulching (bioengineering technology) is adopted as part of the ESC study by using the local components to recover most landslides occurred in UKM Campus. It is also as an option where the post-landslide restoration works involving conventional civil designs are costly and sometimes not practical at remote sites. Therefore (due to cost constraints), the remoteness of the sites and low risk to lives and property, bioengineering was the option taken for erosion control, slope stabilization and vegetation establishment.

Modular Construction with Geosynthetics in Petroleum Industry

This paper focuses on the use of modular construction techniques for installing geosynthetics in petroleum related applications. The petroleum industry uses geosynthetics for drill pad liners, above-ground and in-ground containment ponds, storage tanks, various impoundments including tailings storage, floating covers, road creation and/or support to remote sites, filtration, lining freshwater storage areas, dewatering, and stormwater management. Accelerating the construction of these facilities and the quality, i.e., no leaks, of the installation will have a positive impact on the financial and environmental aspects of the petroleum industry. Modular construction is a process in which a petroleum containment system is constructed primarily off-site, under controlled factory conditions, using the same design, materials, equipment, testing, and construction quality assurance and control (CQA/CQC) techniques as a field constructed facility – but usually in about one-half the time, for significantly less cost, and with few, if any, defects. This is due to the clean and constant conditions present in a factory setting. For example, installation of a factory-fabricated geomembrane can occur simultaneously while site work is being conducted. With factory fabrication, no destructive sampling and testing of the field welds that join rolls of the geomembrane are needed. As a result, a factory fabricated geomembrane can be installed in at least one-half of the time required for traditional field fabrication and with higher quality. This results in the containment system being utilized sooner, being more protective, and creating a faster return on investment.

Hybridization of Green Energy Sources for the Electrification of Remote Villages: A Case Study at Adem Tuleman of Ethiopia

Background: Energy deeply influences the life of rural communities. The industrialized countries depend primarily on modern energy while the developing countries like Ethiopia heavily rely on traditional biomass. Thus, in Ethiopia, the energy sector faces dual challenges: one limited access to modern energy and the second is heavy reliance on traditional biomass energy sources to meet growing energy demand. The modern energy of the country is predominantly from hydropower which accounts for 90% and fuelwood accounts for more than 80% of households' energy supply today, this leads to deforestation and severe land degradation in the country.Objective: This study aim at providing the way to diversify energy sources through integrated hybrid energy sources (wind, solar and diesel generator) to obtain a sustainable autonomous power supply system for remote site. Method: Standalone hybrid system configuration was design by using HOMER software and finds an optimal combination of clean energy as well as comparing it with other energy sources for Adem Tuleman one of the remote sites in Ethiopia. HOMER is optimization tool to determine the possible optimal architecture and control strategy of the system. Results: The study found that the village had a 204.04 kWh/day average energy demand with a 31 kW/day peak load, a 4.5 kWh/day deferrable load, and 0.9kWh/day peak deferrable load. Simulation results demonstrated that the proposed system was a feasible solution to electrify Adem Tuleman. A financial analysis indicated that the project would have an initial capital cost of $24,817.00, an operating and maintenance cost of $12,862.00, and a total net present value of $189,233.00.The minimum cost of energy obtained was $0.195/kWh.Conclusion: The simulation result indicates that the proposed standalone hybrid system would be a climate smart and feasible solution for electrify remote village. Moreover, hybrid energy systems allow the effective way of utilizing available renewable energy in the village and providing clean energy which can alleviate energy poverty in many remote sites of Ethiopia.

Influence of source and site effects of 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake on the generation of high PGA in the near-fault zones

Source and site effects of 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake (Japan, Mw~8.3) and their influence on the distribution of peak ground accelerations (PGA) in the near-fault zones are studied. Based on records of KiK-net vertical arrays, models of soil behavior are constructed, i.e. vertical distributions of stresses and strains induced in soil layers by strong motion. The method is used suggested by Pavlenko and Irikura and previously applied for studying soil behavior during 1995 Kobe, 2000 Tottori, and 2011 Tohoku earthquakes. During the Tokachi-oki earthquake, we did not find a widespread nonlinearity of soft soil behavior. Manifestations of soil nonlinearity were observed at sites closest to the source; at remote sites where high PGA were recorded, soil behavior was virtually linear, and shear moduli in soils increased till the moments of the highest intensity of motion, then decreased. The shapes of acceleration time histories at remote sites indicate directivity effects: seismic waves radiated by the crack tip during its propagation along a section of the fault plane came to the stations simultaneously. Soil hardening occurred at these sites that increased amplification and PGA on the surface. Similar effects were observed during 2011 Tohoku earthquake; evidently, they can occur during future strong earthquakes.

Towards the effectiveness of communication in adopting virtual team for software development

: Advancement in technology particularly the development of smart application has caused a paradigm shift in software development. Teams for developing software do not need to be physically present at all times. Members of development teams may be at remote sites but still communicate with each other. Technology has enabled the creation of virtual teams. While technology put at the disposal of software development teams a range of devices for supporting their communication interaction, members still face many challenges in terms of time difference, language barriers and cultural diversification. Ineffective communication among team members lead to delays in software development and contribute much to make project failures. The primary focus of this research is to identify how communication in virtual teams may become efficient. A survey is carried to assess the factors which affect communication in virtual teams. Different team sizes are considered and their relevance and differences in communication interaction are studied. More in-depth data are extracted for this research by interviewing potential members of virtual teams who work and interact from remote sites. The factors which influence communication interaction is finally established which help in successfully managing virtual team projects

Snow water equivalent measurement in the Arctic based on cosmic ray neutron attenuation

Grounded in situ, or invasive, cosmic ray neutron sensors (CRNSs) may allow for continuous, unattended measurements of snow water equivalent (SWE) over complete winter seasons and allow for measurements that are representative of spatially variable Arctic snow covers, but few studies have tested these types of sensors or considered their applicability at remote sites in the Arctic. During the winters of 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 we tested a grounded in situ CRNS system at two locations in Canada: a cold, low- to high-SWE environment in the Canadian Arctic and at a warm, low-SWE landscape in southern Ontario that allowed easier access for validation purposes. Five CRNS units were applied in a transect to obtain continuous data for a single significant snow feature; CRNS-moderated neutron counts were compared to manual snow survey SWE values obtained during both winter seasons. The data indicate that grounded in situ CRNS instruments appear able to continuously measure SWE with sufficient accuracy utilizing both a linear regression and nonlinear formulation. These sensors can provide important SWE data for testing snow and hydrological models, water resource management applications, and the validation of remote sensing applications.

Frequent new particle formation at remote sites in the temperate/boreal forest of North America

The frequency and intensity of new particle formation (NPF) over remote forest regions in the temperate and boreal zones, and thus the importance of NPF for the aerosol budget and life cycle in the pristine atmosphere, remains controversial. Whereas NPF has been shown to occur relatively frequently at several sites in Scandinavia, it was found to be nearly absent at a mid-continental site in Siberia. To explore this issue further, we made measurements of aerosol size distributions between 10 and 420 nm diameter at two remote sites in the transition region between temperate and boreal forest in British Columbia, Canada. The measurements covered 23 days during the month of June 2019, at the time when NPF typically reaches its seasonal maximum in remote mid-latitude regions. These are the first such measurements in a near-pristine region on the North American continent. Although the sites were only 150 km apart, there were dramatic differences in NPF frequency and intensity between them. At the Eagle Lake site, NPF occurred daily and nucleation mode particle concentrations reached above 5000 cm−3. In contrast, at the Nazko River site, there were only 6 NPF events in 11 days and nucleation mode particle concentrations reached only about 800 cm−3. The reasons for this difference could not be conclusively resolved with the available data; they may include airmass origins, pre-existing aerosols, and the density and type of forest cover in the surrounding regions. Our results suggest that measurement campaigns in the remote forest regions of North America to investigate the role of NPF with a more comprehensive set of instrumentation are essential for a deeper scientific understanding of this important process.

Evaluation of regional simulation of surface ozone over Southeast Asia using ground-based observation at two existing Global Atmospheric Watch stations

High level of ground level ozone concentrations was found in most of Southeast Asian (SEA) large cities and often exceeded the national ambient air quality standard. Ozone and PM10 are among of the critical air quality parameters that cause the unhealthy air quality index. Effort to mitigate ozone pollution is greatly complicated due to the photochemistry processes therefore photochemical smog modelling has been widely used. Surface ozone simulation in SEA was done using CHIMERE and weather research forecast (WRF) model. Emission inventory of ozone precursors was done for three countries in the domain, i.e. Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia. Modelling performance evaluation for meteorological parameters and ozone at the SEA big cities was done in another study. This paper focused on the model evaluation conducted at the two remote sites represented by 2 (two) global atmospheric watch (GAW) remote stations of Bukit Kototabang (BKT) and Danum Valley (DNV). Evaluation result showed an overestimation of observed ozone in BKT while a contradictive result was seen in DNV station which was due to the ozone chemistry and inaccurate estimation of emissions (both anthropogenic and biogenic emission). The evaluation conducted at the remote sites was not even better than that conducted previously at the urban areas. Statistically, only mean normalized gross error and unpaired peak accuracy values that satisfy the criteria for surface ozone modelling suggesting major improvement required for ozone precursors emission inventory data.