Water use pattern and related agrometeorological indices of rabi & kharif sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) at Deccan plateau

The agrometeorological data pertinent to estimation of water use and related agrometeorological indices of KBSH - II (1988 to 1991) and MORDEN varieties of sunflower (1992 and 1993) cultivated both in rabi and kharif seasons, were used to understand the comparative water use pattern and agrometeorological indices for getting an idea about the crop condition at Bangalore. The study revealed that mean weekly water use was higher in almost all the years during the kharif season than during the rabi season except in 1990 and the consumptive water use increased with development of the vegetative cover of the crop reaching a peak value in the vegetative growth stage. The ARI (agroclimatic rainfall index) and cumulative YMI (yield moisture index) were always higher during the kharif season than correspondingly those during the rabi season and showed yearly and seasonal variability in different growth stages which was due to the moisture stress condition of the soil as well as prevailing weather conditions of the atmosphere. In case of AI (aridity index), high values were observed at early and late crop growth stages during the kharif season which showed that the crop experienced less aridity between vegetative to seed formation stage. The water use efficiency (WUE) of the crop also revealed wide variation due to variety and season.

Institutional Analysis of Protection Forest Area Land Use Pattern in the North Bandung Area, Bandung Regency

Land use degradation has always been a problem for forest areas. Numerous past studies have investigated that there are patterns in the forest area's land use management that support forest sustainability and society's economy. This research aims to identify the action arena and patterns of interaction, to describe the outcomes of the two land use patterns, and to formulate the strategy related to forest area land use pattern in North Bandung Area, Bandung Regency. This research used Institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework as the research method. The identified action arena includes the pattern of commodity and profession transfer. The actors involved were State-owned Forest Enterprises (Perum Perhutani), Village Administrations, forest extensions, Forest Village Community Association (FVCA), and Forest and Farm Producers Organization (FFPO). The most dominating actor in land use activities in both patterns was Perum Perhutani, along with FVCA and FFPO. The pattern of interaction that exists between actors was prospering with only minor problems found within its coordination system. The outcome of the application of these two patterns, among others, is to raise public awareness in conserving forests and improving the community's economy. The land management strategy for forest areas can be directed using the Penta helix concept.

Latrine site and its use pattern by Large Indian Civet Viverra zibetha Linnaeus, 1758: record from camera trap

Latrine sites are the places used for urination and defecation, which mostly act as a signaling agent for multiple purposes like territorial marking, confrontation with extruders or potential predators, delivering different inter and intra-communication messages. To understand latrine site visit pattern, a single camera trap was deployed for 91 trap nights at the latrine site of Large Indian Civet during the months of December 2016 and February & March 2017. Latrine site was found under the tree with abundant crown cover and bushes. At least two individuals were found to be using a single latrine site in an irregular manner between 1800 h and 0600 h with higher activity between 1800 h and 2300 h. Our results indicated an irregular latrine site visit pattern, hence similar studies with a robust research design in larger areas are required to understand specific latrine use patterns.

The Pattern of Medicine Use in Ethiopia Using the WHO Core Drug Use Indicators

Introduction. Rational medicine use is an appropriate prescribing, dispensing, and patient use of medicines for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases. It is affected by several factors. Irrational use of medicine is a widespread problem at all levels of care. This review is aimed at assessing the medicine use pattern in health facilities of Ethiopia using the medicine use pattern developed by WHO/INRUD. Methods. Relevant literature was searched from Google Scholar, PubMed, Hinari, Web of Science, and Scopus using inclusion and exclusion criteria. A systematic review was used to summarize the medicine use pattern in health facilities of Ethiopia, and that WHO core drug use indicators were employed. Result. From 188 searched studies, 30 literatures were reviewed. The average number of drugs per encounter was 2.11. The percentage of encounters with antibiotics and injection was 57.16% and 22.39%, respectively. The percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name and from an essential drug list was 91.56% and 90.19%, respectively. On average, patients spent 5.14 minutes for consultation and 106.52 seconds for dispensing. From prescribed drugs, 67.79% were dispensed, while only 32.25% were labeled adequately. The availability of key essential medicines was 64.87%. The index of rational drug use value was 7.26. Moreover, the index of rational drug prescribing, index of rational patient-care drug use, and index of rational facility-specific drug use were 3.74, 2.51, and 1.01, respectively. Conclusion. Ethiopian health facilities were faced with antibiotic overprescribing, short consultation, and dispensing times, poor labeling of medicines, poor availability of key drugs, and nonadherence to the essential drug list. Routine, multidisciplinary awareness creation, and regulation should be implemented to promote rational medicine use at a national level.

Behind the Land Use Mix: Measuring the Functional Compatibility in Urban and Sub-Urban Areas of China

Land use mix (LUM) has long been employed as one of the key methods to improve urban vibrancy and optimize built-up areas. Within the urban studies discipline, LUM is usually defined as a functional compatible but diverse land use pattern. However, its quantitative methodological approaches thereby heavily rely on the diversity of land use and fail to consider functional compatibility as another critical defining characteristic, providing only a partial picture of land use pattern. Thus, reviewing LUM’s concepts and definitions, this paper develops a new index to describe functional compatibility according to the spatial segregation measurements. To evaluate and provide empirical evidence of the proposed index, this paper selects the medium-sized city of Xiangtan as a case study. The findings demonstrate that Xiangtan exhibits a quite compatible land use pattern to a certain extent. In addition, particular clusters with relatively incompatible land use patterns are observed, which are closely linked to a special historical working unit, the ‘Danwei’ compounds, and a special rural planning authority, ‘Township-Village-Enterprise’, in China. Finally, an integrated evaluation is conducted based on the proposed index and Shannon entropy index, which can be regarded as a useful tool in future land use planning while contributing to shaping a sustainable form of urban development.

Study on hourly temperature features over Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram and Minicoy during 1969-2012

Amongst all the climatic elements, temperature plays a major role in detecting and analyzing climatic change and its impact. The variability in resident time of the surface temperature is studied to investigate whether any change in temperature has taken place. Analysis of the results is presented for Mumbai, a mega city with large change in land-use pattern, Thiruvananthapuram, a semi-urban city with moderate changes in land-use pattern and Minicoy, an Island city without much change in land-use pattern. These three places representing varying geographical locations and climatic conditions are unique in nature, however having uniform maritime influence. It is revealed that the change is large in Mumbai in comparison with others as expected. The study proposes a new methodology based on the resident time of temperatures and its trend and could be used as a tool for relative ranking of cities and to gauge the source and sink regions of climate change forcing. The resident time of temperatures shows increasing trend above the mean temperature and decreasing trend below the mean temperature of the initial decade. Decadal linear increasing trends in mean temperatures are 0.256 °C, 0.159 °C and 0.146 °C per decade for Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram and Minicoy respectively. This confirms the effect of global warming unequivocally irrespective of urban effect. Decadal linear increasing trends in mean temperature during non-monsoon season for Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram and Minicoy are 0.315 °C, 0.155 °C and 0.181 °C per decade respectively. The rate of increase of mean temperature for Mumbai and Minicoy during monsoon season is 0.143 °C and 0.081 °C per decade respectively, are significantly less than the decadal trend in annual mean, which suggests that rainfall activity seems to be the correction factor for the increasing trend in the annual mean temperature which otherwise would have been a higher value. However, the rate of increase of mean temperature for Thiruvananthapuram during monsoon season for the study period is 0.172 °C per decade, which is slightly higher than the decadal trend in annual mean. Noticeable changes in resident time during monsoon season are in conformity with change in rainfall patterns.