Horticulture

Algal blooms often release toxins into the water column which may cause irritation of the skin and eyes, respiratory problems and even paralyze or kill fish and deplete oxygen levels. In the current study we created small patches of partially restored native plant communities along several small tributaries in the lower St. Johns River basin to investigate their effects on local water quality and biodiversity. Biodiversity was assessed across multiple taxa including algae, plants, as well as both aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates. Lastly, the ability of these semi-restored patches of native plant communities to ameliorate nutrient concentrations in both the soil and water was compared to non-manipulated urban tributaries. We found that even modestly restored riparian plant communities resulted in substantial increases in both terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity while decreasing nutrient loading for small tributaries of the lower St. Johns River. Increased plant biodiversity and the presence of rare species may have resulted from facilitation; this effect may have been enhanced because we purposely utilized plants that varied greatly in size, structure and habitat requirements. For instance, pickerelweed, which is an aquatic emergent species, likely aids in stabilization of the edges of the streambed and increases substrate accumulation around its stems while providing refugia for aquatic invertebrates and juvenile fish. Complementarily, shrub and tree species such as Virginia willow and river birch respectively, which are structurally much more complex and located at higher elevation along the stream banks, likely create microhabitats that have higher degrees of shading, lower temperatures and higher soil moisture.

The increase in structural complexity of partially restored riparian communities, results in increased spatial heterogeneity and creates more niches within the overall landscape. Although within-trophic level community composition is a composite of positive  and negative  interactions; facilitation has been hypothesized to be more important in stressed or highly disturbed conditions. Indeed, studies of plant communities have found that colonization of new sites, especially in stress habitats with high levels of light and elevated temperatures, ebb flow tray is restricted to shady microhabitats created by the canopy shade of “nurse plants” or, in the case of stream habitat, emergent species provide stabilization of lotic substrate which reduces mortality for other plants. Our study supports the general contention by Bertness & Callaway that plant communities in open, sunny, highly disturbed sites  are more likely to be influenced by facilitation rather than shaded later successional stages. However, aquatic emergents and shoreline specialists such as pickerelweed and golden Canna respectively are also unlikely to compete strongly with plants at higher elevations along the stream banks .Because of the importance of the riparian zone to the stream and entire watershed, assessments of anthropogenic effects on lotic freshwater systems should include the banks as well. This is especially true if restoration of native vegetation is to be used to ameliorate damaged or disturbed stream ecosystems because the success of this technique depends upon long-term sustainable uptake of nutrients or pollutants while maintaining terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem function. It has been shown that soil nutrient levels can have strong effects on plant and arthropod community composition, but these effects can be positive or negative. Therefore, terrestrial plant and arthropod community assessments should be conducted in order to determine whether or not native riparian buffer zones would be a viable method for reducing nutrient loading in a stream.

In the present study, experimental gardens absorbed more nutrients  than did non-manipulated riparian zones, resulting in an increase in plant and arthropod diversity . The increase in arthropod richness resulted primarily from an increase in phytophagous Coleoptera  and Lepidoptera . This was likely attributable to the concomitant increase in plant species diversity which has been shown in previous studies to affect the diversity of phytophagous insects and is supported by the strong positive correlation between plant and arthropod diversity measures reported in this study. Interestingly, however, there were also more species of insects with aquatic larval stages, primarily Odonata and Ephemeroptera, at sites with experimental gardens, suggesting increased recruitment of adults for mating and oviposition. It has been suggested that terrestrial arthropods are good indicators of a river system’s health. Therefore, the increase in terrestrial arthropod diversity observed in this study indicates that restoration of native riparian zones not only improves stream ecosystem health, but also improves riparian ecosystem health and may be a viable and sustainable restoration option. Algae are considered excellent indicators of the health of aquatic ecosystems and algal biodiversity, especially that of diatoms, has been correlated with nutrient levels, the presence of contaminants and temporal variability. In our study, Shannon algal biodiversity within the garden sites was significantly greater at the start and end of the monitoring period, but not significantly different during the most active growing season . While some researchers have also noted that nutrient additions do not necessarily elicit a significant change in algal biodiversity, others have reported that confounding factors may mask significant effects of nutrient additions. In the St. Johns River, changes in lotic algal diversity have been correlated with varying nutrient levels and seasonality over a two-year period. Our study, which examined similar factors in smaller tributary streams showed similar trends, but utilized much shallower tributaries and, therefore, was subject to different ecological parameters than previous studies.

The percent coverage of macroalgae was also more variable both spatially and temporally in garden sites, while non-garden sites exhibited significantly less visible cover and variability. The majority of the taxa composing macroalgal mats were filamentous greens , which is common in low-order, oligo-mesotrophic streams. Macroalgal mats support a diverse epiphytic algal and invertebrate community, which may account for the aquatic insect community we observed. An introduced species may behave invasively in the new range because it already possesses traits that confer invasiveness , or alternatively, it may evolve invasiveness in situ in the new range. Moreover, the introduction history of a species can affect the likelihood that it will become invasive. While many plant species suffer a genetic bottleneck when introduced in the new range, multiple introductions of a plant species may make it more likely that a species becomes invasive in part because multiple introductions can inflate genetic diversity. In addition, multiple introductions may result in the admixture of genomes that have never come into contact with each other creating novel, invasive genotypes that may express different traits and enhanced fitness. A successful introduction can also depend upon the relationship between the introduced individuals and the new environment. Introduced individuals may have different climatic tolerances than their native counterparts and/or wider climatic tolerances and this may contribute to their success. Testing whether invasive genotypes have a wider climatic tolerance than native genotypes requires planting clones of both known native and invasive genotypes in their home climate and in a different climate to test whether invasive genotypes have greater ability to survive and grow under a new climatic condition. The increased growth of invasive genotypes found under controlled conditions may not be observed under field conditions. Disentangling whether the reason is due to the traits of the introduced individuals or environmental factors in the field is difficult because traits favored in the new range may incur a cost in the native range. For example, reduced herbivore loads in the new range may have selected for genotypes that have reallocated resources from defense to growth resulting in invasive genotypes having faster growth than native ones. But, if these genotypes are transported back to the native region in which herbivores are more abundant, flood and drain tray they may experience higher levels of herbivore damage than their native counterparts and this can negate any increases in growth.

Yet, if invasive genotypes are superior, then invasive genotypes may still experience greater growth even if they are preferentially preyed upon. Documenting higher growth following herbivore damage is difficult in a common garden because of variability in herbivore prevalence and local conditions. To document such a pattern requires simulating herbivore damage experimentally. In this paper, we examine the performance of invasive genotypes when compared to that of native genotypes in the native’s own range in the invasive wetland plant, Phalaris arundinacea. The invasive grass Phalaris arundinacea is a good model system to address the issues of the emergence of novel and superior invasive genotypes. Invasive genotypes of Phalaris arundinacea have been shown to be the product of multiple introductions and subsequent admixture and in common greenhouse conditions, invasive genotypes were shown to have faster growth rate, to be taller, have more tillers and greater final biomass. Additionally, invasive genotypes were also shown to have a smaller genome size and had no consistent differences in genetic architecture. However, in order to test whether these invasive genotypes are superior requires that native and invasive genotypes be compared in the native range to determine if the invasive genotypes created in the new range are superior  to native genotypes even under conditions in which native genotypes have evolved. In this way, we can determine if the superior performance of invasive genotypes results in overall greater performance under conditions in which the native genotypes should be favored. In addition, by planting genotypes in a field common garden, we can assess in situ herbivore damage to determine if invasive genotypes suffer more herbivore damage than native ones. However, greater herbivore damage may not necessarily result in reduced growth and/or biomass as greater herbivore damage may be compensated for by a faster growth rate. We test this idea in an experimental common garden in which the same genotypes are subject to biweekly biomass removal to simulate grazing by large herbivores. Finally, by planting genotypes collected from northern and southern populations into both northern and southern gardens, we can determine if differences in performance are due to genotypes having adapted to a similar climate rather than native and invasive differences.

e selected 18 invasive genotypes  and 18 native genotypes . Fewer French genotypes were chosen because one French population contained only hexaploids, while all other populations contained tetraploids; we thus, eliminated hexaploid individuals from our study. Chosen genotypes were transplanted into pots in the University of Vermont greenhouse, where they were maintained, and then sequentially propagated prior to experimentation to remove any maternal environmental effects. Selected tillers of the chosen genotypes were placed into greenhouse flats, placed on their side and allowed to produce replicate tillers. In this way, we created identical copies of all genotypes used in the experiments. We chose garden sites in the Czech Republic  and France  . Because we were interested in whether introduced genotypes could outperform native genotypes under conditions where natives should be favored, we planted the native and invasive genotypes back into gardens near their original sampling location ensuring that climatic conditions in the garden were most similar and therefore favorable for the native genotypes. Our garden sites were within 50 km of the original collection of genotypes, ensuring that climatic conditions would be similar to the genotypes collection location. Each garden site was a wet meadow and characterized by a mix of herbaceaous perennial plants and also had large stands of Phalaris arundinacea. Specific site measurements were not collected at either site. However, at each site we planted nine replicate blocks designed to span the range of conditions found in the wet meadow. Our only criteria for eliminating a potential location for a plot was that it could not contain native Phalaris sincethe presence of established Phalaris might have made it difficult to locate our transplants. In our statistical models, we treated the nine blocks as a random factor to incorporate local unexplained environmental variation. After planting, the plots were left to regrow and we did not remove any of the native vegetation. Plant quarantine rules prevented us from bringing tillers into Europe. Therefore, all plants were transported in moist paper towels as rhizome pieces without any soil present. In both Trebon and Moussac, rhizome pieces were transplanted into the common gardens approximately one week after they were prepared. Some early mortality may have resulted because of the lag between plant preparation and planting into the gardens.

Although the Brazilian flora is well represented, a large part of the collection constitutes non-native species. For example, the collection includes some exotic species of Myrtaceae, a botanical family that characteristically accumulates volatile compounds in the leaves. The goal of the present study was to assess the composition of leaf essential oil of three exotic species of Myrtaceae species growing in the BGRJ: Melaleuca leucadendra , Lophostemon confertus Peter G. Wilson & J. T. Waterh. , and Ugni molinae Turcz. The former two are woody-fruited species native to Australia, while the latter is native to Chile and is characterized by its production of pleasant tasting berries, as most South American Myrtaceae species are. The Melaleuca genus comprises nearly 300 species, most of which are endemic to Australia. Species of Melaleuca thrives in many kinds of environments, including swampy or temporarily inundated lands, poor or degraded soils. Popularly known as tea tree, the leaves of these species produce an abundance of essential oils that possess medicinal properties and are useful as flavor ingredients in the food industries. Melaleuca leucadendra  grows up to 40 m in height and has a thick trunk that may reach 1.5 m diameter in its original habitat. This species is conspicuously distinguished by its white, very thin bark that much resembles sheets of paper. Three chemotypes have been identified for M. leucadendra based on the essential oil composition. They are characterized by a high content of eugenol-type phenylpropanoids or terpenoids, of which γ-terpinene and terpinolene predominate among the monoterpenes.

Different chemotypes of the leaf essential oil have also been correlated with the geographical location of plants. Under specific agroforest conditions and depending on the geographic locale, 1,8-cineole or a combination of 1,8-cineole/α-terpineol/limonene may be present and characterize the chemotype. Several parts of the plant M. leucadendra are traditionally used for their anti-parasitic, antiseptic,mobile grow rack and insect repellent activities, and the leaf essential oil is used as an antifungal. The 1,8-cineole chemotype  of M. leucadendra leaf oil has been found to be active against Bacilus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus and a series of four other fungi while the methyl eugenol chemotype is an effective virucide against Herpes simplex virus type 1. Mild antioxidant and anti-hyaluronidase abilities have been observed for the former oil chemotype. The ethanol extract from the branches of M. leucadendra is highly selective against Tripanosoma brucei. The essential oil of M. leucadendra, pure or mixed with other oils, is ineffective in inducing mortality in Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex larvae, but significant irritant and repellent properties against Aedes aegypti females have been observed in experiments using the excito-repellency test chamber . An anti-feeding assay using gypsy moth larvae and the leaf ethanol extract of M. leucadendra led to the isolation of -nerolidol as the active component. Lophostemon confertus  is a large to very large evergreen tree native to open forest and rainforest ecotones on the east coast of Australia that may reach 25 to 40 m in height . Due to its pest resilience, tolerance to pollution, and excellent shade-providing capacity, it has been used as street tree in the cities of various countries. Leaves of L. confertus collected in Queensland have been shown to afford low yields of volatile oil that contained up to 33% α-pinene plus 20% limonene; with aromadendrene and spathulenol being relevant among the sesquiterpenes. Ugni molinae is an evergreen shrub that is native to temperate rain forests in Chile .

Apart from exceptional cases, this species grows to around 2 m in height. It is cultivated as an ornamental shrub and produces an excellent berry suitable to use in jelly, jam, cakes, liqueurs, etc.. It was eventually introduced in some Pacific British colonies, and thereafter being popularized as the New Zealand cranberry. The leaves of U. molinae exhibit astringent and stimulant properties and have been used in folk medicine to treat several kinds of diarrhea. Additionally, the leaves contain triterpenes that exhibit topical anti-inflammatory activity. To the best of our knowledge, no reports exist describing the leaf volatile compounds of this species.As a result of population growth and agricultural expansion, few forests are remaining and they are highly degraded, causing losses in traditionally important nutritious foods, medicines and other useful products leading to food insecurity. Furthermore, soil fertility has drastically fallen with fallow shortening and steadily disappearing to make room for continuous farming. There is a need to develop emerging plants like Moringa. Moringa oleifera, also known as horse radish, benzolive tree or drumstick tree  is one of the world’s most useful and nutritious plants. Moringa has both therapeutic and nutritional values. It is also used in animal forage, biogas, domestic cleaning, biopesticide and water purification. In fact, almost all parts of the tree are useful and have long been consumed by humans. It is the only genius of the family Moringaceae and is grown mainly in the semi-arid, the tropical and subtropical regions . It is adapted to a wide range of soil types but grows best in well drained loam to clay loam, neutral to slightly acidic soils, but cannot withstand prolonged water logging . It does best where temperatures range from 26˚C – 40˚C and annual rainfall totals at least 500 mm. Moringa is propagated sexually through seeds, and vegetatively through stem cuttings. Its recent introduction as a field crop has required propagation through seeds which are usually planted in the nursery using a light media , mixture of soil and sand, respectively.

The germination of M. oleifera is hypogeal, meaning that the cotyledons remain beneath the soil surface suggested that the use of garden/topsoil substrate leads to a germination percentage above 70% after three weeks. Germination occurs within 5 – 30 days, depending on the age of the seed, soil or media type and pretreatment method used, which might include: cracking the shells, soaking seeds with shells, dehulling seeds, and soaking seeds for 24 hours then putting in a plastic bag and storing in a warm place. Some authors indicate the necessity of soaking or priming the seeds for 24 hours before sowing.When factors like substrate quantity, hydric availability, thermal properties and absence of physical obstacles for the emergence of some species are improved, the seeds have better conditions for germination and emergence, and the seedlings better conditions for initial development. Frequently, farmers are limited by the use of one or few commercial substrates, usually of high cost and not easily accessible, often not very common in the western highland regions of Cameroon, where there is a weak technical and commercial support for horticultural activities. However, in the above area, it is possible to find many byproducts from the traditional agriculture and livestock activities, which could be used in the formulation of competitive alternative substrates, of low cost. Knowledge on the optimum manure requirements would significantly assist in scaling up M. oleifera production as an edible vegetable. Previous works focused mainly on nutritional values and uses whilst research on establishment and growth has not received much attention despite the growing awareness that M. oleifera production can be adversely affected by nutrient status of soil or media. Often during germination and growth of Moringa seeds, seedlings show symptoms of stunted growth and yellowing of leaves, resulting in death or reduced growth. This has been attributed to low initial soil nutrition and water logging in some cases. There is therefore a need to use locally available soil fertility amendment resources such as poultry manure to improve the establishment and growth of Moringa in resource constrained soils of the Western highlands of Cameroon have shown that poultry manure can serve as a soil amendment to improve soil nutrient status.

It is a source of carbon and nitrogen for microorganisms in the soil, improves soil structure, lowers the temperature at the soil or media surface, helps in seed germination and increases water holding capacity particularly in sandy soils, stabilizes soil pH, increases soil organic matter and ultimately improves plant growth and yields. In Cameroon, there is little technical information on the production of quality seedlings of the Moringa plant except those of. The latter authors discussed some aspects of germination but none addressed the influence of soaking and substrate composition with poultry manure on germination and seedling growth in the western highlands agro ecological zone. Considering the importance of Moringa, the present study was carried out with the objective of assessing the effect of four soaking durations and eight substrate compositions on the germination and initial seedling growth of Moringa in polyethylene bags in the nursery.The soil used was the topsoil of a Hapli-skeletic Cambisol of the YWHRGP. The sand was collected from the crossing German trench where it is equally fetched by the local populations for constructions. The poultry manure was obtained from a local farmer in Bamenda. The different substrate mixes were obtained from a number of buckets of soil,ebb and flow table sand and PM depending upon the amount required. A 10 liter bucket was used to measure the different materials in their different proportions as indicated above and was properly mixed with the hands as is customary with the farmers in the field. These substrates  were chosen because of their availability to farmers. Equally some of these substrates are widely used in the production of seedlings of different annual plants, fruit and forestry species. The soaked seeds were obtained by soaking 3 lots of 96 seeds for 12 days, 8 days, and 4 days, respectively. The soaked seeds with the 96 unsoaked seeds  were planted the same day. The sowing was conducted on the 18th of August 2013 in filled polyethylene bags  at 3 cm depths  and the top of the bags were covered with hashed dry grass to prevent splash soil loss.Seed germination is initiated through rapid water uptake, followed by the activation of metabolic mechanisms leading to the first visual signs of germination known as the protrusion of the radical. Thus, water plays a fundamental role in understanding seed biology, particularly germination and plant development.

The principal factors influencing seed germination are temperature, water, oxygen and light. Temperature is the most important, as it affects both the germination percentage and germination rate. At 25 DAS, soaking durations of 0 day  and 8 days  showed the highest germination percentages, while seeds soaked for 12 days occupied the least position . The highest germination percentage of 68.7% is in agreement with the results obtained by in the sudano-sahelian zone of Cameroon, where 69.6% of seeds had germinated at 25 DAS. The average percentages of germination of this plant in India, West Africa and other zones of Cameroon, were all above those obtained in this study. Different pretreatments  and differences in the agro ecological zones are likely responsible. Although, some scientific results show that soaking is an option for improving the Moringa seed germination, other reports consider it unnecessary. Seed priming improves germination and stand establishment and induces tolerance against adverse conditions like abiotic stress, especially during emergence and early seedling growth. Moringa seeds are not an exception, and it was reported that 12 h of soaking increased the germination of moringa seeds in the western highlands of Cameroon. Our results demonstrate that long duration  pre-hydration negatively influences the germination process as well as the post germination behavior which probably affects the establishment in the field. Besides, it was demonstrated that pregermination for 48 h affects the percentage of seed germination negatively. This could be due to the fact that seeds soaked for a long time, can undergo putrefaction due to fungi attack. The results obtained in this study when soaking duration reached 12 days is in conformity with those of the latter investigators. When the germination percentage was analyzed, the control  attained 68.7%. This confirms that seeds of this plant achieve high germination in spite of pre-germination treatments. Watering of the germination bags every day by rain until field capacity was attained could be another factor influencing germination. stated that the excess of humidity on the substrate may provoke germination losses and diminishing of the root growth and the aerial part of some tree species like moringa.

The higher organic matter content upstream may be attributed to a higher accumulation of organic matter due to high inputs from root biomass . Variability in total nitrogen is linked to difference in soil organic matter content, intensities in cultivation and erosion, application of manures, pesticides and fertilizers rich in nitrogen content in the soils . The mean values and standard deviation of soil physico-chemical variables at different sampling sites along the two rivers of Chemosit and Kipsonoi are presented in Table 3. In this study , soil pH ranged between 4.42 and 5.56, implying the soils are strongly acidic and suitable for tea production which was consistent with previous studies carried out in tea plantations . Soil pH was lowest in soils obtained Upstream on both rivers, with significant differences across the sampling sites. Tukey’s test showed that soil pH at upstream differed significantly from soil pH recorded midstream and downstream of Chemosit and Kipsonoi rivers.The low soil pH at the upstream corresponded with a high soil organic carbon at the same site Total organic carbon did not show significance difference, however the levels varied across sampling sites along the Chemosit and Kipsonoi rivers.

Variability in total organic carbon along the two river systems is linked to the reduction in organic material being returned to the soil system due to decreasing vegetation cover downstream and oxidation of soil organic matter as a result of continuous cultivation along the riverbanks, uncontrolled grazing and browsing,tower garden loss of organic matter by water erosion and removal of green materials. These results are in agreement with other studies that reported that the soil organic content differed with different land use types . The higher organic matter content upstream along Chemosit river may be attributed to a higher accumulation of organic matter due to high inputs from root biomass . Nitrogen and posphorous are categorized as essential nutrients in the soil for growth and development of plants. Soil nitrogen at the upstream sampling site along Kipsonoi river differed significantly from that of Midstream and downstream sampling sites. There was no significant difference in total nitrogen along Chemosit river. Variability in total nitrogen on both rivers is linked to difference in soil organic matter content, intensities in cultivation and erosion, application of manures, pesticides and fertilizers rich in nitrogen content in the soils .

For example, it is possible that nutrient uptake by crops, leaching during heavy down pours or further removal during plant harvest time could have contributed to the relatively low soil nitrogen content at the midstream  of the two rivers compared to other sampling sites .Variability in total phosphorous is related to the application of animal manure and application of diammonium phosphate  fertilizer on the adjacent farmlands. Lower phosphorous content in the soil along Kipsonoi river as compared to Chemosit river could be related to phosphorous fixation especially in forested areas, crop harvest in agricultural farms and erosion by water . Highest content of phosphorous was recorded at the Midstream of Chemosit river majorly dominated by large scale tea production and lowest downstream of Kipsonoi river. According to Matano et al. , land use has a significant effects on soil chemical properties. The levels of soil nutrients  can be used to deduce the degree at which a given site is degraged. Potassium levels could be attributed to the relative pumping of potassium from the subsoil by vegetation in the forest land. Lower potassium levels downstream could be attributed to soil degradation and losses by leaching due to reduced vegetation cover . Figure 3 and Figure 4 report the amount of Cadmium, copper and lead in soils along Chemosit and Kipsonoi river. Cadmium showed lowest concentration as comparedto copper and lead. However, considering the Canadian soil quality guidelines, all the metals were within the maximum allowable values for agriculture soil; 50 – 60 mg/kg; 1.4 mg/kg and 70 mg/kg ranges for copper, cadmium and lead, respectively .

Our dependent variable, age at initial diagnosis of CLL, may or may not carry implications for long term management of diagnosed CLL but is presumably strongly correlated with the age at which CLL is initiated. CLL is assumed to be initiated by a mutagenic event which fails to be lysed by cellular or subcellular maintenance/repair or immunological processes. Thus association of a potential risk factor with early AAID-CLL may reflect increased: 1) likelihood of early detection , 2) greater exposure to mutagenic risk , or 3) failure of cellular monitoring/ maintenance/repair/proliferative processes, or all three. The last of these possibilities is the most exciting because the independent predictors of AAID-CLL may reflect controllable events with the possibility of influencing the onset of the illness. Present results replicate previous studies in finding that farming/pesticide exposure and ASA use may have beneficial effects for the onset of CLL. While early life pesticide exposure is not reversible, ASA use clearly is for most patients. It is difficult to conceive of a well executed controlled clinical trial of ASA since it is universally available and patients agreeing to participate in such a trial would be tempted to dose themselves. None the less, naturalistic studies of patients who are “spontaneously” taking ASA and following disease progression seem feasible and potentially enlightening. Exercise has not previously been investigated as a factor in onset of illness for CLL. Our patients who reported themselves as having always been “Fit” had later diagnosis of CLL, but reported Hours of Exercise per Week was negatively related to age at initial diagnosis—an apparent paradox and, perhaps, an artifact of our sample sources. Like ASA, naturalistic observation of “spontaneously” occurring exercise and course of illness seems feasible, while a controlled clinical trial would also be difficult to execute because of patient compliance. Perhaps most impressive among our findings is the observation that multiple measures of emotional distress are associated with earlier onset CLL. It has been known for several decades now that some measures of ED are associated with suppression of some immune parameters. More recently, ED has been implicated as a cause of diminished telomerase levels, telomere shortening and diminished DNA repair capacity. Because of the complexity of both the psychoneuroendocrine and immunological systems, other possible mechanisms may remain to be discovered. Because knowledge of mechanisms is unnecessary, although reassuring, for the clinician, advancements in clinical research can proceed unimpeded by the mechanism conundrum. Our results may imply four new avenues for delaying the onset of CLL: ASA use, being “Fit”, smoking avoidance and treatment of ED.

Given the widely recognized safety of these potential therapies, we believe prospective clinical observation studies and, stacking flower pot tower more credibly, clinical trials should be considered. Present results must be interpreted in the context of the limitations of our methods. For practical reasons , our patient sources were mixed, with one source  not permitting independent checking of records to affirm the patient’s report. It is likely some error was introduced into our dataset by this method, although we cannot determine how much. But is it likely to be systematic error that would have biased our results in favor of our findings? We think not. Future work should strive to independently ascertain CLL diagnosis and WBCs. In addition, present results need confirmation in a prospective study or, better still, intervention study. The latter is the only true experiment in risk factor research and the “gold standard” for determining causality. Sub-Saharan Africa region, especially the Sahel area, experienced a constantly growing degradation of its environmental characteristics since several decades. This degradation is characterized by the deterioration of the major components of the ecosystems such as soil, vegetation and water. Among these components, soil degradation or land degradation affects lives and income of millions of people, especially those living in rural areas. This degradation results from climate-induced drought and a variety of unsustainable agricultural and forestry management. In the Far North region of Cameroon, it results in the appearance and expansion of bare and crusted spaces unable to sustain agricultural and pastoral activities. These degraded lands, widespread throughout Sub-Saharan Africa region in general, are known as hardé in the Far North region of Cameroon, a term borrowed from Fulfulde language of the Maroua region, equivalent to naga in Chad and zippelé in Burkina Faso. Around 13% of the total land area in the Maroua region is degraded due mainly to mechanized cotton mono-cropping by hundreds of local farmers with fertilizer inputs supplied by the cotton industry, shifting cultivation, overgrazing, over-harvesting of fuelwood, uncontrolled forest fires and high population pressure. According to the level of land degradation, many initiatives have been undertaken for soil rehabilitation. Among them, the most significant initiatives include those of national and international institutions , government programs and projects, and at last civil society organizations and national or international NGOs. Those initiatives are mainly improvement of traditional techniques, including bunds, earth dikes, small dams, half-moon, Zaï method or planting holes, mineral fertilizer booster, herbicides, selected seeds and mechanization of hard work and today direct-seeding mulch-based cropping systems . Despite the robustness of financial and material resources used in the implementation of these initiatives, it is clear that they have localized and ephemeral efficiency, but also inconclusive results. To cope with this problem, farmers further develop skills learned from their ancestors. Very few studies have been devoted to the role of villager activities, their contributions to the dynamics of hardé soils rehabilitation, whether individual or collective actions. However, some studies on the characterization and rehabilitation trial of these hardé soils have been carried out. However, the question is whether farming communities in the Maroua region can develop actions promoting hardé soils rehabilitation through their own efforts, since modern technologies have inconclusive results.

The present work proposes to analyze local initiatives of hardé soils rehabilitation in the Maroua region. That is to identify and describe the local initiatives of hardé soils rehabilitation, to assess the impact of local initiatives on the hardé soils rehabilitation process and finally to evaluate the different constraints related to the implementation of various local techniques of hardé soils rehabilitation across the study area. To do this, two study sites have been selected, Mizileng and Zokok, all located in the Maroua region, in the Far North Region of Cameroon.Fieldwork consisted of conducting observations and surveys beside farmers in the two study sites, Mizileng and Zokok . Approaches used were essentially based on semi-direct interviews. Semi-direct interviews  allow respondents to speak freely on the subject with a minimum intervention of the person conducting the interview. Individuals subjected to the interview were randomly selected. In order to obtain more reliable information, heads of household or individual of age equal or greater than 25 years were chosen. In each site, structured questionnaires, administrated to a sample of 100 farmers, were used to collect qualitative information on the different aspects of hardé soils rehabilitation. The administration of each questionnaire took about one hour for men and more for women. The total survey in both sites was completed after three months. The information collected include perceptions of farmers on land degradation, local knowledge on hardé soils rehabilitation, actions carried up and changes observed, impacts of local initiatives and constraints, knowledge of national and international organizations working for the rehabilitation of hardé soils and their views on the possible role of local actions in the regeneration process of hardé soils in their area. To complete information provided by the local population, visits were undertaken in the rehabilitated plots and plots being rehabilitated in order to observe the various actions taken by farmers in the different study sites. After data collection, Excel software was used to type and analyse data. All the respondents participated in each questionnaire. In the counting phase, responses were classified and corresponding percentages were calculated, based on the number of respondents. In this study, it is about descriptive statistics .In the localities surveyed, people are unanimous that land resources in their region are deteriorating day after day.

Geometry of Persian gardens is not only owing to the irrigation and agriculture principles, but also it is formed due to the beliefs, meaning, symbols, myths and the elements that form the Persian garden’s identity. The early geometric form of the garden might be dictated by the practicalities of the irrigational system.Water links the earth and sky. It is the symbol of freshness, brightness, life, innocence and so on. As a holy and sacred element, water has been of particular esteem among many cultures and civilizations from ancient times. Water in Iran has long been beside the fire, which both have a close bond with life and it is linked with water protector, fertility and blessing. In Greek mythology, all running waters and springs had an Izadani woman called nymphs. Water is sacred to the extent that even in religions, creation begins with water. In genesis it is said that: “And God said there should be a sky in the waters to separate water and God constructed it∙∙∙” Of course, the fact that heaven and earth were formed from water is rooted in ancient mythology. For example, Babylonian tablets stated that the universe was a thick mass of water. Water as an important factor also had a special place in different religions. In the Avesta, water was frequently respected and in Yasna 65 part 10 Ahura Mazda Zarathushtra was addressed: “First turn to water and ask your needs from Zarathustra”. It is understood from the Islamic narrations that God created all the world entirely with water. The Quran says: “and made from water every living thing.” In general, water always plays a role in the creation, mythology, religion, iconology, apart from the cultural structures, dutch buckets for sale it is above all forms and is the patron of any creation∙∙∙ water is a key to life by considering the potential facilities.

In every place and time where water is sacred, some sites  have been formed for its appearance to enable achieving the ultimate goal.The role of water in the formation of the first human habitats is a response to a biological need. But when more than a need, building home and residential complexes have cultural meaning, architecture is emerged and water in human life will have an artistic place and is originated from creativity of the artists and architects. Understanding the concept of water in architecture is understanding the concept of water architecture. Understanding the physical laws of water behavior is our emotions to the interaction of water and most importantly the role and allegory and its relationship with human life. Water is a paradoxical metaphor and along with soil, fire and air, consists of the four comprising elements of the universe.Wherever it appears, its application should reflect the perception of designers and builders of nature. Access to water resources has long been one of the most important factors in urban locating. Iran’s geographical overview cities show the dependency between urban life and access to water resources. Iranian plateau, due to climatic diversity and natural environment landscape has no reliable surface water sources everywhere, because as surface water, such as sea, rivers and lakes play a role in the architecture and the its creation, in many regions that are far from these surface resources, people need is met from underground sources, such as canals and wells.

Riverbanks are the bed of the emergence and growth of the world’s most ancient cultures. In Iran, where a river was flowing, the speed and cultural acceleration was added and it is also expanded in culture. It should be noted that water in the very distant past caused vital places and economic and urbanism ways. Before the advent of Islam in Iran, architecture besides the water and in the nature without distorting, announced its presence and the role of water is mostly abstract role. Temples and shrines are formed besides the water and in respect to water. As water is the path of man to enter another world. Water showed its spiritual role in Iranian architecture, so that the water cycle is its abstraction representation in nature and all properties of water is abstract which apparently finds a dramatic aspect and water was considered in prayer. So, the rivers and streams and lakes had a place in the beliefs and customs. This was not formed per se. Construction and building sites has manifested beliefs, legends and customs. Waters which originated from the mouth of the great mirage of a mountain and in a cave or among the rocks and soil and flowed on the ground, are large and small springs that originate out of stone and play an important role in the construction of buildings around them. And here we see that both water and rock are involved in the construction of buildings. As the water plays a role in the construction of the garden, the garden also plays a role in the development of the city. The development of towns and structural relationship between the garden and the city is such that we can call the garden as city and call the garden city and on the other hand garden is regarded as a workshop for designing city that the sample can be seen in Timurid period which showed the structural relationship between the garden city in the temporary city which reconstructed the length of tents, pavilion and encampment clearly.

Another example of this garden city can be seen in Isfahan and Chahar Bagh and the alleys that were continued in different directions, it was one of the principles of urban landscape design. In ancient Persia, the architecture moves to water and is calm besides it. But in the Islamic period, water had an applied state in architecture and architects consciously try to dominate nature and organize it and with knowledge of physical laws and behavior of water and understanding the role and allegory and its relationship to human, drags the water inside the architecture. Water is manifested in geometric shapes in most buildings and somehow the center of architectural unity is formed in water. Its wavy motion in religious, literary and artistic concepts is common in our culture. So it enters the building and composition of our monuments so that cannot practically be separated from shape. Water will appear in the center of palace and gardens, etc. In the desert, scarce and lifeshaping water causes formation of architecture of water reservoirs, downstream and Ribat and the glaciers, and shows itself in other way. Water in the garden and pavilion creates streams, waterfronts, ponds and pools and fountains and every word illustrates the human domination of nature . To display all of them on its side, water in the pool architecture is used as a symbol of standing water and in regular geometric is the element of building completion. Water use in Iranian garden has been very clever and artistic, so not only is used for watering and feeding plants of the garden, but also its conceptual, poetic and artistic use decorated the garden space and with its presence brings freshness, vitality, movement and beauty. Pools in front of the buildings complement the architecture and reflect them as a mirror. Ponds we observe in mosque architecture,hydroponic net pots beyond the role of purification, has a symbolic aspect and water created both the symbol of life and death. And purifies man both physically and mentally and generally understanding the concept of water in the architecture is understanding the water architecture.

Water in ancient Persia was a messenger of light and purity and was of great value. Since Iran was probably a low water country, the vital fluid had high prestige among them. Water for Iranians was used not only for meeting their needs,but also had very influence spiritually and mentally. Water with different capabilities, such as life, freshness, brightness, cleanliness, prosperity and spreading the light, rest and relaxation and mobility left various feelings in the psyche of mankind. For this reason, it finds a place always in places that are man-made in different ways. This is more impressive in relation to places like parks or gardens. Because water element is used as one of the most beautiful fields of view and one of the complementary items of green space. Of course, in these places, water is necessary and important for cleaning and irrigation of trees and flowers or for health services. In previous centuries, Iranians constructed gardens on sloping lands and creating a stair in the water path, gentle stream of water became harsh and noisy. The main factor that always gave life to the Iranian gardens was water flowing in Chahar Bagh, streams and low-slope and spiral streams and made the garden air pleasant. In decorative garden joining the ponds, streams were usually built with stones and bricks. In floor of front waters and most places where the water was flowing, often placed a rock with white cutting or with different designs that gave a beautiful aspect to water wave. The ancient gardens of Iran are often built in hot and dry regions, and reason for their establishment in such areas was the presence of natural springs or Kariz. The extent of any garden depends on the volume and the amount of water available for irrigation. Due to the warm weather in summer, gardens in arid and desert cities have always had a special importance among which are gardens of Kashan . Fin Garden in Kashan is the famous gardens of the Safavid, Zand, and Qajar as well as our time.

Due to the abundance of water in Soleimani spring and pool and many fountains and old trees and historical buildings, has always been one of the most famous and the most attractive gardens in our country. In Iranian gardens, to create a calm, cool and shade environment, there was no choice but to build streams of water throughout the whole garden and usually the streams were converted to basins at the intersection. Water flowed to the ponds from rivers that often began from springhouse of garden mansion and at regular intervals using the natural slope of the land with repetition of waterfalls. Front water that was considered the essential elements in building garden, was mostly constructed in front of the main building and its main aspect is align with the length of building and was in various forms: rectangles, squares, polygons and circle. Sometimes, fountain was made in buildings of old gardens in terms it was said spring house. Residents of the garden on hot summer days, especially during midday, were relaxed along waterfronts.Knowledge of water resources is necessary to analyze its presence in the garden. At this stage, water has two functional and symbolic functions that is, from the functional point of view, it irrigates trees and plants and creates freshness in the space and from the symbolic aspect, it is expressed as a specific concept as a view for meeting which in fact, it responses the need to understand its existence. In the second step, it is necessary to identify the tools used to display the presence of water in the garden to achieve the design and facilities used. Water flows in paths in a wise and intelligent way. It remains still in ponds and fountains, rises above the water of sags and fountains and manifests with movement, sound, facade and refreshing [20]. How to present and move for water in garden has a certain system in accordance with the geometry and structure of the garden and takes different forms in the different species of Persian garden [21]. In the last step, water goes out of the garden, so that after flowing in garden and irrigating the trees and plants, it goes to the city, farms or other gardens. After leaving the garden or at surface, the water moves toward the destination as river or stream or in underground using special channels and using water pipes.The human is a set of spirit, mind and body.

The good news, however, is that the efforts of these different sectors are likely to be complementary, with huge potential to support each other. PlantSearch data on botanic garden/arboretum accessions has already been used to contribute to Crop Conservation Strategies for coffee and apples, and Hawai’i’s National Tropical Botanical Garden hosts the Breadfruit Institute, whose collections feature strongly in the Crop Trust’s Breadfruit Conservation Strategy. As this paper clearly shows, the botanic garden/arboretum community has a lot more to contribute, including data and material from many significant collections of socio-economically important taxa that are not present in the crop and forestry communities. Botanic garden/arboreta could support overcoming identified issues to using socio-economically important plants by being a source of seedlings, trainers of technical skills needed to grow and sustainably use plants, and raising awareness of the importance of plants in the landscape. As the new Global Biodiversity Framework emerges under the Convention on Biological Diversity, and as the dependency and links between biodiversity and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals become more explicit, it is essential that the various communities concerned with the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources work more closely together.The demand for bamboo and its products is growing rapidly while supply remains almost constant due to dependence on natural bamboo resources which are reducing in stock . To bridge the gap between demand and supply of bamboo, nft channel there is an absolute need for large-scale propagation of bamboo through appropriate propagation techniques .

Some of these propagation techniques include vegetative and seed-based propagation. Seed-based propagation has been very difficult owing to the relatively long timeframe it takes for bamboo to produce seed and the dormant nature of most bamboo seed.Vegetative propagation of bamboo through culm cuttings has been observed to be the simplest and most cost-effective method developed over the last few decades.Asia remains the most bamboo rich region in the world. It has been estimated that 20 million hectares of bamboo  exist in India, China and Myanmar . Most of Asia’s bamboo products are supplied from natural forests, including China, India and Myanmar where 99% of bamboo products are supplied from natural bamboo forests . China continues to be the largest bamboo rich nation in the world, having 500 species in 40 genera  distributed in 7.6 million hectares of forest land . In sub-Saharan Africa, bamboo is increasingly becoming an important resource owing to its ability to perform different functions . Its multifunctional nature has made it a friend to both local peasants living in villages across the sub-region as well as urban dwellers who enjoy bamboo finished products like chairs, tables, cupboards, flutes, cups, spoons and many more . However, there are also some communities especially in the rural areas which see bamboo as an invasive species worth destroying. These communities have destroyed large expanses of bamboo forest through burning or wanton cutting in a bid to do away with what they consider as a worthless and invasive plant species.

The International Bamboo and Rattan Organization  through its educational and sensitization missions in the sub-region has reduced some of these negative perceptions about bamboo and many of these reticent communities are now increasing preserving bamboo resources in their communities. Bamboo agroforestry systems are growing across the sub-region as peasant farmers integrate bamboo in their farming systems . In Cameroon, bamboo is one of the many non-timber forest products  which had been neglected in the past . With increasing awareness raised especially by INBAR and owing to dwindling forest resources, bamboo has become an important alternative . Bamboo supplies a plethora of ecosystem services   as well as semi-finished and finished products like chairs, tables, flutes, cupboards, beds, cups, and many other ornamental products . The bamboo sub-sector in Cameroon has gained a lot of momentum especially with the spread of INBAR’s activities across the country through partnerships with universities like the University of Dschang, as well as ministries like the ministry of forestry. The creation of a bamboo factory in Yaoundé is equally a step in the right direction. With bamboo having huge potential to drive the economy of Cameroon, the question flying in the air is: where will the bamboo resources come from? Bamboo in Cameroon is mainly found in nature, which means supply will dwindle in the future if measures are not taken to increase the existing bamboo stock. To ensure a sustainable supply of bamboo, there is an absolute need to domesticate bamboo which can be done through the adoption of proper propagation techniques. It is within this framework that this study comes in. The study was carried out to understand how a substrate consisting of dark soil, manure  and sand in a ratio of 1:1:1 in three propagation beds could affect different growth parameters of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris. The objective was to foster the propagation of B. vulgaris in order to ensure the sustainability of the bamboo resource base and contribute towards improving the livelihoods of rural bamboo-dependent communities.

Three propagation/shelter beds with an area of 1.20 m wide × 5 m long were used for this experiment. The propagation substrate consisted of dark soil, manure  and sand in a ratio of 1:1:1. The use of a similar substrate across the three propagation beds was done purposely in order to determine how good it was for the propagation of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris considering that the substrate is easily accessible and cheap, and could be used easily by peasants in rural communities to propagate B. vulgaris. However, more work is being done presently to test different substrates in order to see the most appropriate for the propagation of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris. Culm cuttings of bamboo with lengths of 1m were collected from the bamboo forest of the Foréké-Dschang escarpment located some 9 km from Dschang urban centre. Once the culm cuttings were brought to the nursery of the University of Dschang Botanic Garden, both ends of each of the culm cuttings were filled with mud made up of a mixture of moist soil and cow dung in order to limit evapotranspiration and prevent water from seeping into the cuttings. The cuttings were then placed in staggered rows in the propagation beds, reversing the orientation of the buds each time, with a distance of 10 cm between the cuttings. Each bed contained 50 culm cuttings. Each culm cutting had 2 to 3 nodes—the growth points for the new plants. Two weeks after the culm cuttings were placed in the propagation beds and after the growth parameters started showing signs in the propagation beds, a mechanism to collect data for the different growth parameters was set up. This system was based on simple random sampling. In each of the monitored beds, at least 30% of the cuttings, i.e. 20 of the 50, were selected randomly. Each culm cutting was labelled . Thus, 60 culm cuttings were monitored during this study for 21 days after the start of their growth. Each labelled plant  had its growth parameters collected daily from 7:00 am to 9:00 am. These parameters were diameter, height, number of leaves, and the number of mature sheaths on the shoots emerging from the culm cuttings. The materials used included: a folding saw for collecting cuttings, calipers for diameter measurement and double decameter for height measurement. Data was collected using a data collection sheet and imputed into an Excel spreadsheet for analysis.In Cameroon, hydroponic nft little or nothing has been done to understand the different propagation techniques of bamboo.

Considering that almost all the bamboo resources from Cameroon are collected from the wild, bamboo propagation will have major implications on the resource base and rural livelihoods. First the propagation of bamboo will help to increase the existing stock of bamboo thereby reducing pressure on the natural stock of bamboo. This will go a long way to ensure the sustainability of naturally growing bamboo stock as wanton cutting of wild bamboo forest has resulted in dwindling supplies. Secondly, bamboo propagation will encourage the adoption of bamboo agroforestry systems as farmers will be given propagated bamboo plants to plant on their farms. One of the main hindrances to the adoption of bamboo agroforestry systems is the unavailability of good bamboo seedlings. Bamboo agroforestry is a best practice that can help enormously in the fight against climate change, contribute to land restoration and improve livelihoods through the provision of different ecosystem services like carbon sequestration, soil fertility improvement and provisioning services like food, fodder, fuelwood, fibre and income. Thus, the adoption of bamboo agroforestry systems will improve environmental sustainability while enhancing rural livelihoods. Last but not the least, bamboo propagation will allow local communities to understand that bamboo is a viable resource worth valorizing. In the past, mainly tree species especially fruit trees especially fruit trees have been propagated. The propagation of bamboo will show peasant communities that bamboo too is as valuable as tree species. Studies conducted in Cameroon by Degrande et al. , Takoutsing et al. , Takoutsing et al.  and in Nepal by Yadav et al.  have shown that the development of nurseries for the propagation of different species geared towards distribution to peasant communities is the surest way to ensure adoption and improve rural livelihoods. These studies were however carried out mainly on tree species with no consideration of bamboo species. Our study therefore comes in to fill this research gap.The demand for bamboo and its products is growing rapidly while supply has been dwindling due to dependence on natural bamboo resources which are reducing in stock. To bridge the gap between demand and supply of bamboo, there is an absolute need for large-scale propagation of bamboo through appropriate propagation techniques. This study was carried out to fill this research gap and ensure the sustainability of the bamboo resource base especially the resource base of B. vulgaris.

Findings showed that different growth parameters of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris evolved almost in like manner in three propagation beds containing a similar substrate of dark soil, manure  and sand in the ration 1:1:1. A follow up project will use different substrates in the three propagation beds to see the degree of variations in the growth parameters in order to propose the most appropriate propagation substrate for culm cuttings of B. vulgaris. Descriptive statistics for growth parameters of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris showed little or no differences across the three shelter/propagation beds. ANOVA test statistics showed no statistically significant variation between growth parameters of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris and three propagation/shelter beds, implying that the different growth parameters were relatively similar across the three propagation beds which could be attributed to the use of a similar substrate in the three propagation beds. Pearson correlation coefficients revealed that an inverse relationship exists between diameter and height, diameter and number of leaves, diameter and number of sheaths implying that as diameter increases, there is a plausibility of height, number of leaves and number of sheaths decreasing and vice versa. A positive or direct relationship existed between height and number of leaves as well as height and number of sheaths, implying that as height increases, there is a plausibility of number of leaves and number of sheaths increasing and vice versa. There was also a positive or direct relationship between number of sheaths and height as well as number of sheaths and number of leaves, implying that there is a plausibility of increasing number of sheaths resulting in increasing height and number of leaves and vice versa. The existence of these direct and inverse relationships could be attributed to the rapid growth rate of bamboo, the substrate used, the species of bamboo  and the duration of the data collection period. The study recommends more large-scale propagation projects of B. vulgaris in particular and other bamboo species in general in order to ensure the sustainability of the bamboo resource base. We are currently undertaking a follow up project where we are using different substrates in different propagation beds in order to propose the most suitable method for propagation of B. vulgaris and other bamboo species. We equally intend to do a more long term study of the growth parameters of culm cuttings of B. vulgaris in order to have more concrete findings.

Large populations of wild animals in captivity are affected by various diseases. Parasite infections are one of the major problems in the wild animals in captivity. Gastrointestinal parasites are frequently reported to affect the health and the wellbeing of the animals in zoological gardens. The species of the gastrointestinal parasites infecting wild animals in captivity might differ with the type of animals and the management practices. In captivity, animals appear to be less resistant to parasitic infections than under their natural habitats. The changes in environment and living conditions from the natural habitat to captivity alter the life styles of animals, reduce disease resistance ability and increase their susceptibility to parasitic infections. Vulnerability of captive wild animals to parasitic infections depends on factors, like feeding, keeping conditions, animal management and environmental conditions, such as temperature and humidity. Confining captive animals in cages accompanied with improper feeding systems and poor sanitation may lead to contamination of environment, which makes the animals more prone to different parasitic infections. Proximity and close contact of humans with captive animals provide opportunity for the transmission of new parasite species which would not normally come in contact with them in the natural habitat.

Most of the deaths of wild animals in controlled areas are amounted to parasitic diseases. Parasitism, especially endoparasitic infection produces ill effects like weakness, emaciation, inappetance in zoo animals that can cause immune suppression and potentially predispose the animals to other diseases. Although many parasitological investigations are conducted in domestic animals for long period of time, flood tray it has been recently recognized that parasitic infections are also common and important in wild animals. Incidence of gastrointestinal parasites in wild and zoo animals has been reported from different parts of the world.Several studies have been carried out on gastro-intestinal parasites in non-human primates, wild carnivores , wild herbivore animals,birds in captivity, reptiles and many other zoo animals across the globe. Haramaya University zoological garden was established in 1966 for conservation of wild animals, recreational purpose, wild life education and research  Experiment station Publication. Up on foundation, the garden started conservation with a total of 129 animals representing 51 different species. However, most of the species of animals that the garden started conservation with do not exist today. The number of species in the garden has been gradually reduced to 9, consisting of a total of 25 animals. Lions , Hamadryas baboon , Vervet monkey , Lesser kudu , Spotted hyena , Kit foxes , Japanese rabbit , Helmeted guinea fowl  and East African Giant Tortoise  are the species of wild animals currently found at the zoological garden. There are incidences that the health problems and death of the zoo animals is usually connected with infection of gastrointestinal parasites. However, the attention given to investigate and document the type of gastrointestinal parasites infecting zoo animals in the country in general and at Haramaya University in particular is minimal.

This study was therefore conducted to determine the occurrence, identify species and assess seasonal variation of gastrointestinal parasites in captive animals at the Zoological garden of Haramaya University.The study involved observation of the general management practices and retrospective investigation of zoo records, detection and identification of the parasites infecting the animals at the zoological garden. Fecal samples were analyzed for the presence and identification of nematodes, cestodes and protozoan oocysts. Samples from the East African Giant Tortoise  were excluded due to the failure to obtain fresh samples.Twenty two fresh fecal samples were collected from eight species, consisting of 22 zoo animals two times in December 2013 by using a sterile spatula. The samples were grossly examined immediately for the presence of adult worms and their larva and then placed into labeled sterile screw cap plastic containers for other parasitological techniques. Sampling was repeated in the same way after four months in April 2014 to assess seasonal variations of the parasites and samples were analyzed at parasitology laboratory of School of Animal and Range Sciences, Haramaya University. Only twenty animals were examined in April due death of two animals during the project work.Zinc sulphate centrifugal floatation technique was used for the identification of nematode and protozoan eggs. About 3 gm of fecal sample was mixed with 15ml of ZnSO4 solution and the resulting solution was strained through a nylon tea strainer to remove coarse fecal material. The solution was poured into a centrifuge tube and centrifuged at 2000 rpm for 5 minutes. The tubes were removed from the centrifuge and filled with the flotation solution to the top; and then cover slips were placed over the top of the tube and left for 10 minutes. Finally, a drop of iodine solution was put on each slide and covered with cover slide and examined under microscope at 40X objective. Identification of helminths and protozoan oocysts were done by standard parasitological criteria. On the other hand fecal sedimentation technique was used for the examination of eggs of trematodes and cestodes.

A small quantity of faeces  was mixed well with water  and the resulting emulsion was strained through a nylon tea strainer to remove coarse faecal material. The filtrate was poured into a centrifuge tube and centrifuged at 2000 rpm for 5 minutes. The supernatant was discarded and the tube was refilled with water and centrifuged 2 – 3 occasions until clear supernatant was observed. Then a drop of the sediment was taken on a clean, dry glass slide and examined under low power  of the microscope. Identification of the helminth eggs were carried out by standard parasitological procedures.About 10 gm of fecal samples were collected for coproculture examination. The samples were broken up in a Petri dish and mixed with vermiculite and distilled water to form a homogenous wet mixture. The dishes were closed and placed in an incubator for 14 days. The larvae were then recovered by a Baermann apparatus where the samples were placed in double layer of gauze and suspended in a spring clipped funnel containing tape water. The fecal cultures were left to stand on the bench at ambient temperature for 24 hours. Approximately 15 ml of the fluids were taken into tubes by releasing the spring clip; the tubes were put in refrigerator for 3 hours. The supernatants were removed leaving about 1 ml of the sediment in the tube. The larvae in the sediment were transferred to microscope slides and examined. The identification keys described in Soulsby and van Wyk and Mayhew were employed to identify the larvae.The data from retrospective study indicated that most of the disease cases of wild animals at Zoological garden of Haramaya University were related to parasite infections. Records revealed the death of 21 animals over the last five years . The death for the animals might be due to gastrointestinal parasites accompanied with poor management practices and poor nutrition. Previous studies on feeding and management of zoo animals reported that the poor nutritional status and poor management practices can diminish resistance to parasitic disease.Out of the 22 animals  examined in December, 16 were infected with gastrointestinal parasites. In the same way, ebb and flow tray out of the 20 animals  examined in April, 15 were found infected. All the animals examined in December of the species kit fox, spotted hyena and Japanese rabbit were found infected. Similarly kit fox and helmeted guinea fowl had also shown 100% parasitic infection in April. No gastrointestinal parasites were found in Lesser Kudu both in December and April . The high rates of parasitic infection in the zoological garden in the present study might be contributed by management problems, improper feeding and sanitary conditions as well as environmental factors.

The feeding habits of the animals were considered to be the potential source of infection as animals are usually fed on leftovers from the University student’s cafeteria. In the natural and free ranging environment, wild animals have wide choice of feeds which is actually free from human contacts. However, in enclosures animals are restricted of movement and prohibited access to natural feeds in the natural environment and forced to hand-feed. This condition may suppress the immune system of the animals to fight against the parasites and other disease causing agents. The possibility of cross-transmission of parasites from human beings to the zoo animals were considered to be higher.The present study revealed that nematodes take the entire share of infection  among the helminth parasites encountered. There were no cestodes and trematode species recovered from the fecal samples which agrees with the result of Bezjian et al., who reported that no parasites eggs found by sedimentation from forest baboons at Kibale National Park, Uganda. Similarly, Singh et al.reported that nematodes had the highest prevalence among the helminthes recovered in captive wild animals. The high percentages of helminths compared to protozoan parasites can also be supported by the report of Varadharajan and Kandasamy, who found about 58% helminth parasites and 6% protozoan infections in wild animals at V.O.C. Park and Mini Zoo, Coimbatore, India. Most of the gastrointestinal parasites observed in this study had also been reported by several authors. The occurrence of Trichuris and Strongyloides spp. in captive wild animals were reported by Opara et al.. Trichuris trichuira and Entamoeba spp. in non-human primates were reported to be more prevalent. The incidence of Toxocara cati and Toxascaris leonine in Lions in the current study was supported by Okulewicz et al.,Pawar et al., Mukarati et al.,. In line with the present study Engh et al. reported that Toxocara canis was infecting hyena in the Masai Mara national reserve of Kenya while Luty recovered it in the feces of foxes in the University zoological garden of south western Nigeria. The presence of Passalurus ambiguous and Eimeria perforans from white rabbit was also reported by Okumu et al.. Several reports revealed Ascaridia spp. to be more prevalent in birds, particularly in helmeted guinea fowl.Overall, the high incidences of the same species of parasites among the animals in the garden indicated that there was a share the parasites between the animals in the garden. The introduction of large numbers of visitors to the animal habitats and the closeness of humans to the animals, particularly non-human primates in the zoological gardens might have caused the exchange of parasites between humans and animals. The presence of Trichuris, Strongyloides and Toxocara spp. in high numbers in the animals in the current study may be due to the contact with human beings as these species of helminthes are more likely to be transmitted from humans to animals. The spread of gastrointestinal parasites among zoo animals by zoo keepers were reported by several authors.

Arafa et al. reported that unhygienic zoo keepers can potentially transmit parasites between the animals especially when the life cycle is direct. Calvignac-Spencer et al. stated that people who share the same habitat with nonhuman primates are considered as potential sources of transmission. Prevalence of zoonotic gastrointestinal parasites was reported in Papio anubis  and Cercopithecus aethiops  in Ethiopia.Maske et al. and Kashid et al. reported that parasites can be transmitted from wild animals to domestic animals and man and vice-versa.The pattern of parasitic infection in the garden was found nearly the same throughout a year. Examinations conducted on fecal samples during dry and wet seasons indicated that there were no marked differences in the infection rates of parasites. The number of animals infected in December  were slightly lower than the number infected in April . On the other hand, the species and number of the parasites found was almost similar both in December  and April . This showed that the seasonal variation in parasitic infection among the zoo animals in the garden is not remarkable. The finding was in agreement with the report of Gillespie et al., who reported that seasonal variation in parasite infections was minimum. This minimum variation in parasite loads between these seasons in the zoo may indicate that the animals are kept constantly in a contaminated environment with the parasites which was also stated by Atanaskova.It can also be explained that in natural environments, wild animals live on large areas and have a low genetic resistance against parasitic infections because of low exposure.

Debussy’s piano suite “Children’s Garden” was composed in 1906-1908, which is the peak of his artistic career, including “Doctor Etud”, “Baby Elephant Lullaby”, “Doll’s Serenade”, “Snowflake Dancing”, “Shepherd Boy” and “Puppet gait Dance” six different styles of ditties. It was inspired by Debussy when he played with his five-year-old daughter Xiu Xiu. He created it for his daughter with full paternal love. He wrote an inscription for his daughter at the beginning of the volume, expressing his gentle love for his daughter as a father. Debussy’s standing in a father’s point of view of careful observation daughter surroundings, as title wrote: with the elephant, dolls, puppets, snowflake, little shepherds for creative sources; the music language is concise, clear and vivid, innocent, and applies the Debussy’s unique writing gave us a more tender feeling to the child.Although the musical structure of “Children’s Garden” adopts trilogy style, the structure scale is not large. Each piece of music has two or more themes for comparison, sometimes beautiful lyric sometimes happy and lively, and the reproduction part finally returns to the theme. Debussy stood in children’s unique perspective, highlighting the image of different music images; the music style is fresh and delicate, and depicts children’s simple and pure music world with single melody theme.This song is a relatively slow one in this cycle. Debussy uses his daughter Xiu Xiu’s doll elephant as a metaphor to break away from the complicated music theme and return to the simple image of simplicity. This is a trilogy composed of three themes.

The structure is as follows: Theme A is slowly introduced with monophonic melody, which seems to imitate the slow pace of the baby elephant, so as to highlight the musical image of the baby elephant, which is clumsy and lazy and sleeps intermittence, and make it more vivid and vivid. Then the first variation of Theme A, A1, appeared . The second tone of left and right hands supported each other, the left hand used quarter note as the accompaniment tone, and the range of the right hand increased two octaves from the large character group of Theme A to the small character group, which not only formed a contrast with Theme A but also increased the sense of weight of music levels. Compared with the sleepy musical image of Theme A imitating the baby elephant,mobile grow rack the middle B, the left hand bass image imitates the baby elephant’s lively and lovely happy dance steps. After that, syncopation and dichotomous alternation are added, which is in sharp contrast to Theme A. The repetition part A2 is the second variation of Theme A, and there are three parts of high, middle and low . Theme A is raised to the second group of small characters, and the middle part of the theme has a continuous skipping sound throughout the whole. The solid and steady bass of the left hand lasts for 16 beats to show the musical image of sleeping.As the title says, just as the name implies, it depicts the music image of children being naive and innocent. With French children’s songs as the theme material, it depicts a little girl holding a doll in her hands singing a musical picture of serenade, which is a child’s caprice. At the beginning, it has a light rhythm pattern, and the continuous jumping sound of left and right hand alternating runs through the whole theme. It is imitating the sound effect of pluck instruments, guitar and banjo, and the melody line is clear and clear. Debussy required players to use muted pedals throughout the song to highlight the tranquility and silence of the serenade. This song is in the form of A trilogy, and the A Section is composed of A trilogy .

The music is elegant and lively. Section B  is soft and lyrical compared with the lively musical style of Section A. Melody line using a series of mold into two bass circulation, has the different region amorous feelings, left hand bass melody liaison lyrical halcyon, become the main melody , but not clear melody tonality, a part of the main melody again loudly, echoing the theme, the composing characteristics and Debussy technique mature performance. Finally, the part A, a is completely reappeared, like the memory of the bell before good night, A little bit weakened, the music slowly ended in the artistic conception.This song takes the nature as the creation inspiration, is a kind of way that Debussy used to express his emotion. The continuous ascending and progressive writing technique of the four-tone series of the music is as if the dots and colors in the painting are empty and wobbly, resulting in the flow of the music and the changing sound and painting effect depicting the light drift of snowflakes in the wind . The use of skipping notes highlights the lively and upward musical style of the song. It depicts a glittering and translucent snow in winter, flying all over the sky and falling beautiful scenery. This song is in the form of A complex trilogy, with A + B + A form. In Section A, there is A single ascending four-tone sequence progression , and in Section B  there are four pairs of three, which are homophonic and repeated, and the triplets with connected jumps, forming A color atmosphere and creating A movement process of music, which makes the music more free and relaxed. In terms of strength contrast, Section A basically wavers back and forth between PP and P, while Section B changes obviously, with stress marks, extremely strong and very weak, forming A sharp contrast with Section A. If Section A is lively, Section B is more like telling melancholy feelings. The recapitulation section returns to Theme A.The flute has a narrow range and the music is composed of three different musical textures, but all of them are in major rather than minor, which is the author’s intention to highlight the bright and light musical style of the music.

In terms of creative techniques, Debussy used the creation techniques of up and down type level and not big jump, ebb and flow table showing people a looming, confusing and fleeting musical picture. With the repeated use of dot notes, the shepherd boy’s carefree and carefree mental state  is fascinating, which is different from the classical realistic still life picture. Therefore, his musical language broadens the broad realm of music. Many scholars think that this song is a variation, the author thinks that it is more like a lyric improvisational variation. The improvisation of this piece is reflected in the fact that although there is A clear mode of tone , in the musical style, from quiet to passionate to quiet, and the termination of each paragraph has A regular pattern to follow , the musical texture used is relatively free and casual, which adds interest and humor to this young and simple piece of music .This song is inspired by ragtime music  popular in the Black Areas of the United States in the 1890s, with a strong black jazz style . In Section A , the typical rhythmic syncopation of the right hand breaks the traditional rhythm, and the eighth note is accompanied by the unhurried accompaniment tone of the left hand, which vividly depicts the mechanical and dynamic steps of A black puppet with its unique rhythmic tone. In Section B  and Section 28 , the interlacing of eighth notes with left and right hands, with homophone repetition, is also slower than in Section A, showing that the puppet has changed A single step and jazz dance has become tap dance. Debussy’s music will not stay the same. In 63 bars , the intensity changes from P to PP, and the skip chord with grace note returns to the original speed. It is more tense and shorter than the previous bar, which is a mockery of Wagner’s works. In the reproduction section, the theme melody appears again. The music texture is unchanged, the intensity is slightly stronger, and the rhythm is more rigorous and dynamic.In the use of harmony, he broke the traditional aesthetic mode and created many special harmonic textures, such as the extensive use of augmented, subtraction, complex and parallel chords, which greatly weakened the functionality of chords. Mode tonality is no longer constrained by the traditional major and minor tone, and the addition of the medieval mode and pentatonic mode with Oriental flavor makes Debussy’s music covered with a mysterious veil and has foreign temperament .Dissonance is a kind of creation form adopted by composers in order to create a tense musical atmosphere and highlight the ideal musical color. In the children’s garden, this work the author through the use of a large number of the dissonant sounds, such as: two consecutive four degrees superimposed chord progressions and 5 degrees do not prepare does not solve the seventh chord of nine chords are widely used, and often form multi-layer complex structure, chord connection nor basis from tight to loose, never union to solve the model . This innovation fundamentally breaks through the rules and limitations of traditional harmony, thus strengthening the expressive force of musical color and creating the artistic conception of music. The theme of “Baby Elephant Lullaby” is softly played by very soothing monosyllabic groups , and the superposition of the left and right hand skipping second intervals in “Serenade for dolls”  adds to the dissonance.Parallel five, octave on sound extremely union, in the traditional aesthetic principles of music and creative is to be avoided is disabled, but is everywhere in Debussy’s works, he broke the traditional mode, bold challenge to the traditional taboo, make its own characteristic, has created a unique harmonic language . The appearance of the parallel fifth of the bass part in Etude “Doctor” reaches the climax of the whole piece, followed by the harmony with the alternation of dominant and dominant chords .Debussy’s music got rid of the imprisonment of traditional major and minor keys, but did not completely abandon tonality.

He explored more complex chromatic tonal counter positions. In the Children’s Garden, the eastern pentatonic scale was extensively used, sometimes with the addition of medieval church modes, which made his music sound different from any music of the past. He opened up a musical pattern of non-functional polytonality . The appearance of #F in bar 23 of etude “Doctor”  changes from traditional C major to Mediaeval C Lydia. In bar 33 , the speed changes from moderately fast to the original speed, the rhythm pattern is doubled, and the tonality changes from C major to bD major, showing that children’s curiosity and novelty about music at the beginning of learning to play the piano has changed to boredom and thinking. In Section 37, it changes from western mode to Chinese pentatonic mode. In the connecting part between Theme A and the middle part, the playing strength changes back and forth gradually and gradually for many times, which is the unexpected and unpredictable characteristic of Debussy’s creative technique, which is rarely seen in traditional composing principles.In Children’s Garden, in addition to the wide use of pentatonic mode and medieval adjustment, the integration of chromatic scale and “whole tone scale” without chromatic relationship , constitute A novel and unique mode style . The small like hypnosis, by continuous leap quaver, accompanied by diatonic and chromatic alternates as motivation of music development , “snow” quad tones column technique  and a variety of rhythmic pattern of joined the freedom of , improvisation, is a style of typical toccata, breakthrough the traditional concept of scale mode. The chromatic elements of the diatonic scale in the Shepherd Boy , the use of dot rhythms, which seem to imitate the call of the cuckoo on the grass, and the shifting back and forth between natural major and minor and media Ural modes, are influenced by Gamalan music.Gamelan music is popular metal percussion ensemble music in Java and Bali, Indonesia . Its main characteristics are as follows: first of all, the band is mainly composed of percussion instruments, gongs in the center and orchestral instruments in the auxiliary position; secondly, there are two kinds of scale forms used.

The genesis of 10 cm of soil takes about 2000 years. Through the present, mostly intensive and yield optimized way of land use, erosion and greenhouse gas emission is resulting. Therefore the protection of soil must be an ecological, social and economic issue . However, it is obvious that the increasing global population and interconnectedness is leading to an intensification of agricultural production. In the past decades this development led to a high level of standardization in professional horticultural production whereby peat could enforce because of its dependability concerning the crucial parameters for successful cultivation of vegetables and plants. Attributes of peat like low bulk density, high porosity, low pH, nutrient and nitrogen immobilization and structural stability, enable horticulturists a controlled and solid adjustment of professional gardening . Drainage based agriculture and subsequent peat mining over the last few decades led to degradation of wetlands in Lower Saxony . In this regard the federal government and the government of Lower Saxony strive for a reduction of peat in horticultural production -. Furthermore there is a lack of peat substitutes in both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. About 9 million m³ substrates for horticultural usage are annual needed in Germany whereof none but about 10% native and renewable raw materials with qualitative applicability would be obtainable. The research gap identified in this study is the testing of extensive land use options with high-fibre renewable raw materials for the usage as substrate for professional horticulture.

Thereby we conduct horticultural tests with selected high-fibre raw material plants and search for pertinent locations of raw material plants on both mineral and organic soils in rural areas of Lower Saxony . Especially the search for pertinent locations on bog edges is focused to contribute to a sustainable agriculture.The study began in September 2014 with a literature review about the relevant state of research with a special focus on suitable raw material plants. That part will be followed by a horticultural testing series with the chosen raw material plants in different refinements, cultures and admixture rates. Conclusively, the study will identify appropriate areas in Lower Saxony  for extensive production of renewable raw materials for the professional horticulture. Meanwhile the first part of the study was completed. In this matter we comprehensive studied the relevant literature concerning the selection of the renewable raw materials. To find an economic attractive way for the admixtion of raw material plants in peat based substrates composting was dropped out as an option of refinement because of its deficiency of storability,hydroponic bucket its volume depletion and its high weight. Constructing on this reflection we searched for plants with high-fibre rates, high lignin rates to get an increment of volume and high harvest revenue in due consideration of its none invasiveness and its possibility to cultivate in extensive ways on pertinent locations. The upcoming step is to refine the chopped material through an applications laboratory. This laboratory will refine the material in three ways: shred, curb and shred and defiber including the conveyance of nitrogen and coaldust. The last refinement is the most sophisticating and promising one.

The refined materials will be admixed for the test series by volume of 15%, 30% and 45% additional to a standardized peat based substrate. Tests will be enforced with several cultures in multiple replicas to get convincing results about the selected raw material plants and the chosen ways of refinement. Parallel to the ongoing public relations activities with the aid of exhibition parcel land, the last part of the study is characterized by a spatial analysis of potential croplands in Lower Saxony .The spatial, temporal and spectral characteristics of the remote sensing data are effectively used in land use and land cover change mapping, hence helping in decision making for sustainable land resource management. Land use/land cover changes play a major role in the study of global change . This paper is an attempt to define the spatial-temporal difference in the Winder area. This area is part of Balochistan, which is located between latitude 24˚53’N to 26˚42’N and longitude 65˚15’E to 67˚27’E . This area is physiographically known as the Porali basin that was developed by the alluvial deposits of the Porali River and its tributaries . Rainfall is erratic and scanty  but a large catchment area provides enough water. Land is cultivated mainly by irrigation methods . Horticulture, rangeland and fish farming are common economic activities found there. Due to the area’s location, many industries were found nearby in a recent survey. The area is located near the coast and therefore fishing is one of the important economic activities observed. Almost all the people living near the coastal area are engaged in fishing activities. The economy of the area studied is largely based upon the production of fruits, crops and the intake from fishes.

Plantation facilities of the fruit farms and cultivation of crops by irrigation have been found to be important features. Use of rangeland for herded livestock is also very important. Beyond the limited farming in the east of the country fishing along the Arabian Sea coast is another type of income and sustenance for the local population. Conditions of economic activities are gradually improving but the region is still backward as compared to other parts of Pakistan. Remote Sensing as a science has emerged as one of the most diversified subjects over the last four decades. Satellite Remote Sensing, with its unique capability of providing repetitive, dynamic and global coverage at high temporal and spatial resolution, is very useful for the analysis of changes taking place in the coastal areas . The major advantage of GIS is that it allows identifying the spatial relationships between features and temporal changes within an area over time . Experience has shown that many earth surface features of interest can be identified, mapped and studied on the basis of their spectral characteristics, stackable planters although some features of interest may not be spectrally separable. To use Remote Sensing data effectively, one must know and understand the spectral characteristics of the particular features under investigation . Remote Sensing data help in mapping land resources and management, especially in desert and mountainous areas where accessibility is limited . Land cover and land use mapping are thus very important for evaluating the natural resources . Satellite Remote Sensing, in conjunction with geographic information systems , has been widely applied and recognized as a powerful and effective tool in detecting land use and land cover change. It is also the suitable tool that extracts the satellite data and converts them into an attribute and spatial form and projects the required results in presentable shape . The geographical location of Winder is important factor that could be viewed from many dimensions.

Geographically this area is located near the south western margin of Balochistan. It is located about 90 km from the largest commercial city  of the country. The location near the big city provides the market and employment that enhances the prosperity of the local population. Physiographically, this area is located in an alluvial basin which is called Porali Basin. Physiographic location along with the catchment areas and the alluvial basin provides the water resources. Proper resource exploitation and good management can boost the economy of the local community. Another important feature of the location is the proximity of the coast. The structural feature of the coast has a dual importance. It not only provides the supply for fishing but its special structure can provide the harbor. Use of the Miani Hor could be muiltidimension, i.e., sanctuary for mangroves, fish harbor or port. Long term planning and management of this area will have a decisive long term impact on the whole region. ping land resources and management, especially in desert and mountainous areas where accessibility is limited . Land cover and land use mapping are thus very important for evaluating the natural resources . Satellite Remote Sensing, in conjunction with geographic information systems , has been widely applied and recognized as a powerful and effective tool in detecting land use and land cover change. It is also the suitable tool that extracts the satellite data and converts them into an attribute and spatial form and projects the required results in presentable shape . The geographical location of Winder is important factor that could be viewed from many dimensions. Geographically this area is located near the south western margin of Balochistan. It is located about 90 km from the largest commercial city  of the country. The location near the big city provides the market and employment that enhances the prosperity of the local population. Physiographically, this area is located in an alluvial basin which is called Porali Basin. Physiographic location along with the catchment areas and the alluvial basin provides the water resources. Proper resource exploitation and good management can boost the economy of the local community. Another important feature of the location is the proximity of the coast. The structural feature of the coast has a dual importance. It not only provides the supply for fishing but its special structure can provide the harbor. Use of the Miani Hor could be muiltidimension, i.e., sanctuary for mangroves, fish harbor or port. Long term planning and management of this area will have a decisive long term impact on the whole region. The town of Winder is located near the coast of Miani. We can see in the satellite view of the study area  that cultivated area is irrigated by the Winder River. This river is developed by contributories flow from the catchment areas in the north-east of the study area, where Piaro and More Ranges are located, while the Pub range is located on the east. The eastern, north-eastern and south-eastern parts of the study area are covered by small ranges while the western and southern parts are bordered by the Arabian Sea.

Many features are seen in the coastal area, where the Winder River is emptied into the sea and forms an estuarine delta. The North and south of the delta are covered by sand dunes. Some patches of the mangrove vegetation are also found near the coast. The rest of the area is covered by range land. The plain area is part of the Porali basin which is formed by the Porali River and its tributaries which are drained into the Miani Hor . The satellite views of the study area  show the land classes of the Winder basin. Figures 3-5 show the classified images of periods 1978, 2000 and 2008 respectively. Range land, cultivated area, sand and silt are the main characteristics of the study area. The main objective of the study was to calculate the change of cultivated land area during the years 1978, 2000 and 2008 and thus evaluate the temporal difference during the periods mentioned. In 1978, 4146 acres of land were under cultivation while in 2000 it had been increased to 17,952 acres and that further increased to 23,846 acres in 2008 . Initially, in 1978, 2.54% of the whole area was under cultivation which increased to 10.74%  of the earlier period in 2000 and to about 11.51% increase as observed in 2008. The adverse effect were seen on the range land that was covered by 96,883 acres in 1978 and 85,750 acres in 2000 and 73,689 acres in 2008, which means that 60.27% of the study area was covered by range land in 1978 which decreased to 53.36% in 2000 and further decreased to 48.56% in 2008. It is concluded that 8.97% of the cultivated area has increased and 11.71% of the range land decreased, which has almost been replaced by cultivated land. In this study, the spatiotemporal difference in agricultural land use has been determined. The SRS technique was used to evaluate the difference in agriculture land use during different time periods. The study area was divided into three main classes. The spatiotemporal difference in cultivated areas in the last 30 years seems to be encouraging from the results. About 20,000 acres of land for cultivation has increased during this period, while the range land area has decreased by about 2000 acres and the area covered by silt and sand has continuously decreased as it is being replaced by cultivated land.

The reports of ringing in the ears, dizziness and intoxication become relevant in understanding the first signs indicative of injury promoted by pesticides. Thus, in a study about the self-perception of auditory and vestibular health in rural workers in Teresópolis  exposed to pesticides, it was stated that in 76% of the subjects, dizziness was reported at one point in life and 58% still feeling dizzy, 54% felt ringing in the ears; 46% felt congested ears, 74% thought they had good auditory acuity, but 70% felt they had difficulties understanding words, suggesting that pesticides can induce alterations of the auditory and vestibular system through a slow and silent intoxication . In a study involving rural workers exposed to pesticides and noise, it was observed that most of the individuals sampled presented as auditory complaints ringing in the ears and dizziness after the working day. These auditory complaints are frequent among those who presented some type of auditory impairment . Among the rural workers exposed to pesticides in Piedade de Caratinga, the slow and silent effect of the pesticide on hearing health was also observed, promoting the presence of signs and symptoms such as ringing in the ears, dizziness and intoxication. They were more frequent, especially in those who declared they did not use PPE and were older than 30 years. Through this study it can be observed that the auditory and vestibular system of the rural workers exposed to these toxic agents deserve to be evaluated periodically by health teams. In addition to receiving training on the prevention of risk factors, appropriate use of PPE and management of these agents that does so much harm to the health as a whole.

The significant association between work period and otorrhea found in our results showed a higher frequency among individuals under the age of 30 years. In the literature, several factors, such as viral and bacterial infections, structural and physiological impairment of the Eustachian tube, cigarette and allergic response are observed as causes of otorrhea . The pesticides were related to allergies that afflict the skin, the respiratory system and other body sites . However, the absence of information regarding the presence of allergic disease in the individuals analyzed in the sample of this study makes it impossible to prove the relationship between higher frequency of allergic response to pesticides among the youngest individuals in the sample and the presence of otorrhea. The relationship between otorrhea and conductive loss described here is consistent with those developed by different authors such as Silva who investigated the hearing loss ratio in children and adolescents diagnosed with HIV.Our findings are consistent with what these authors claim.Landscape is the art of designing,hydroponic nft system planning and management of land, arrangement of natural and man-made elements there on, through application of cultural and scientific knowledge with concern for resources conservation so that the resultant environment can serve a useful, healthy and enjoyable purpose . It deals with the beautification and management of the environment by the organization of spaces with adequate cognizance of the basic principles of design. Landscaping is an integral part of our culture and plays an essential role in the quality of our environment, economic wellbeing of the people, as well as their physical and psychological health. Smith believes that it is a way of maintaining and enhancing the quality of human life by protecting the health of the biosphere and husbanding the key resources of the air, water, land and minerals . Landscape is one of the most cost effective tools for improving and sustaining the quality of the environment whether in the school environment, the city, the suburbs or the country . Through our garden and landscapes, we acquire a personal awareness and responsibilities for the environment while we relieve the tensions and frustrations of everyday life.

As rightly observed, environmental sustainability programs attempt to reduce the use of physical and renewable resources, rather than toxic materials, the protection and restoration of natural habitats and environmental values for their livability or beauty . Many great campuses are defined by the strength of their landscapes and open spaces, and depend on these assets as a means of attracting students. Landscape planning is a creative conservation with the purpose of reconciling competing land uses without destroying the natural and cultural resources with which societies are recognized; making the best use for mankind of the acquired space while conserving its beauty and fertility. The role of landscape design and planning in the improvement and sustainability of the existing universities’ open spaces is fundamental, in establishing a working relationship between landscaping and open space management. However, Falade stresses the need for adequate knowledge of the concept of open spaces and its super imposition nature on other concepts such as garden, parks, and landscaping generally . The campus open spaces and public realm play an important role in defining the University and in creating memorable first impressions of the campus environment and experience. The open spaces and streetscapes on the campus should represent landmark status that constitutes attractive spaces that represent campus identity, reflect the quality of the campus environment, and draw attention to the campus as a unique and distinct institution. With careful consideration of the campus design, functionality, and materials, a lasting and memorable experience of the campus’ public realm is established. The entire campus environment becomes a landmark space with the gateways, and associated academic, residential, commercial and celebratory uses. The overall landscaping, hence, reinforces the vision of the campus in its park setting, and defines the character of the various open spaces. This paper, therefore, advocates the evolving roles of landscape in campus space management, with a view to sustaining the Ekiti State University’s campus environment.

The objectives of the study are to: 1) examine the existing landscape pattern of the University; 2) investigate the activities of the Planning and Horticulture units of the institution; 3) assess the quality of opens space management therein; and 4) examine the level at which sustainable campus environment is achieved with the present landscape.Nuttgens defines the term landscape in its widest sense and equated it with the environment which is literally our surrounding . Landscape evolves as a result of interaction between man  and “non-human” . It is the back-cloth against which we can measure the importance of our activities and the scale of our personalities. There is a clear distinction between landscape planning and landscape design. Landscape planning is likened to environmental planning which embraces a broad field of activities within the ambit of the outdoor scene and other components of man’s environment . It is a process concerned with activities geared toward the articulation of existing open space for the purpose of enhancing the quality of the environment . Landscape design on the other hand, nft channel is defined primarily as a fine art whose most important function is to create and preserve beauty in the surroundings of human habitations and broader natural scenery of the country . The enormous and the accelerating expansion of the technological development of human race have produced a corresponding expansion in the humanization, urbanization and the sterilization of the landscape. This has aggravated the misuse of land resources, haphazard urban development, piece meal and uncharted rural development. Fadamiro opines that the objective of landscaping is to consider the entire landscape as experienced by individual human beings, and general design processes as key issues which are applied to specific projects like gardens, parks and cities . Professions like planning, engineering, architecture and landscape architecture are most directly involved in the design of landscape, in which graphic design, object design, industrial design, painting and sculpture play important roles. Mitchell identified three basic types of landscape, viz: Primary, natural and cultural landscapes. Primary landscape occurs from the purely natural factors without human interference . The natural landscape is a creation that emanates from the first stage of transformation of the natural environment by human interference. The cultural landscape becomes obvious when the changes introduced by human activities are so deep and basically involve maintenance of the newly attained stability only by constant interference of man. Two main types of cultura1landscapes exist.

These include; harmonious landscape which occurs when the landscape is adopted and fits well into the character of the natural environment and the degraded cultural landscape which occurs when man, after using its new economic activities looks for excessive benefits, thus, causing the permanent and progressive growth of desirable changes in the natural environment . The elements of importance in landscaping include plant materials, such as trees, shrubs, ground covers and grasses . They are used in different areas for design according to their required functions like accent, softening, screening, framing and shading. Man-made structural materials are used for enclosure, surfacing and transmission or circulation within and between spaces provided. However, the essential principles for their effective use include the knowledge of the inherent characteristic and proper-ties of the materials. Invariably, landscape elements are all forms of planting and vegetation, adjustments, refinements or designed developments in ground forms, rock groupings and water patterns; all constructions excluding completely enclosed buildings or primary institution, engineering structures such as walks, terraces, steps, walls, screens, shelters, play area, and so on . These are the elements used to develop and refine spaces between, around, or within buildings and vehicular routes when they occur either intentionally or accidentally. Hard landscapes are the inorganic materials which are inert in nature  and the synthetic elements of space. These include the roads, buildings, paths, wall fences, paved areas, sculptures and statues, engineering bricks, metals, carvings, glass and plastics. Others include paving, wall steps, ramps, sculpture; out-door lightening and road furniture-benches. Soft landscape refers to the living or natural materials used in landscaping. These include vegetation, plant materials  and water bodied including artificial falls, ponds, lakes, pool and fountains . The use of line, focal point or emphasis, simplicity, form, texture, color, balance, repetition, variety, grouping, mass, scale and proportion, rhythm, sequence and scale are the basic principles of landscape design to be applied to organize landscape space . Above all, there are five keys to effective space management as far as college  campuses are concerned which include: Improvement of space utilization, increase in scale of campus buildings, optimizing the mix and flexibility of space, coordination of repairs and modernization as well as addition by removal . Diane  argues that a well-designed landscape will help in the reduction of soil erosion, global warming, conservation of natural resources, and pollution prevention. This is because plants and trees used for landscaping can absorb carbon  oxide from the atmosphere , improve air quality and screen busy streets from traffic noise. The assertion of Environmental Protection Agency  is that urban forests reduce urban air temperatures significantly by shading buildings and concrete and returning humidity to the air through evaporation and cooling. Trees shading homes can reduce attic temperatures to as much as 40 degrees. Generally, the sun, wind, surrounding landforms and landscaping interact with each other to determine the microclimate of an environment. The target population for this research includes students, staff and the heads of the Planning and Horticulture Units  of the University. There are about 25,000 students in the study area, 30 students and 20 staff members were taken as samples from each of the eight faculties which summed up to 240 and 160 respectively. Two  heads of the Planning and Horticulture Units were also interviewed, making a total of 402 samples considered for the study. Essentially, the sources of data for this research were both primary and secondary. The primary data were obtained through personal observation and the administration of multiple-choice questionnaires randomly on the students and staff. The selection of the students was based on their availability while the selection of the staff was based on their knowledge of the subject matter. The secondary data were obtained from textbooks, project dissertations, seminar papers, journals and research materials on campus landscape. Simple descriptive statistics was used in data analysis. Tables and charts were employed to present the magnitude of occurrences of the variables that were obtained.

Consuming diets with appreciable amounts of antioxidants from plant foods, such as tomatoes, to inhibit the oxidative process of low density lipoprotein may be one way to reduce the risk of cardiovascular atherosclerotic disease. One study  in relatively healthy individuals and 2 studies  in individuals with type 2 diabetes, who are in a relatively pro-oxidant state, showed decreased lipid peroxidation rates and decreased susceptibility of low-density lipoproteins to oxidation after daily consumption of tomatoes or tomato juice. Others have reported less susceptibility to oxidation of DNA and low density lipoprotein after tomato product consumption delivering approximately half  of the lycopene dose typically used in lycopene supplementation studies. These data suggest that the health benefits of tomato/tomato product consumption are not solely because of lycopene content, but rather the result of the combination of nutrients and bioactive constituents delivered when the whole food is consumed. Tomatoes and tomato products are also being investigated for possible anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic, and lipid-lowering effects. Supplementation of a low tomato diet with tomato products produces mixed results as measured by changes in inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein , interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-a. Jacob et al. reported decreased CRP after a 2-week tomato juice supplementation containing approximately 21 mg lycopene and 2 levels of vitamin C . Both juices reduced CRP as well as total cholesterol concentration.

Natural antithrombotic agents that influence platelet function or fibrinolytic activity are of interest as primary and seconddary cardiopreventive strategies. Aqueous extracts from tomatoes have been shown to display antiplatelet activity in vitro. Subsequent research in humans shows significant reductions in ex vivo platelet aggregation 3 hours after supplementation with tomato extract from the yellowish membrane surrounding seeds in amounts equivalent to 2 or 6 fresh tomatoes. For skin protection,flood tray tomato intake  for more than 8 weeks reduced ultraviolet light-induced erythema. Epidemiological studies suggest a beneficial relationship between dietary sources of lycopene and bone mass. Likewise, lower serum lycopene concentrations have been documented in osteoporotic women compared with controls. Rao et al. have also reported an inverse association between serum lycopene and markers of oxidative stress and bone turnover in 33 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 60 years. Research for a possible role of tomatoes in brain health has largely been limited to case-control studies investigating the relationship between plasma/ serum lycopene and oxidative stress markers in people with documented Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, vascular dementia, and mild cognitive impairment compared with control/noncognitively impaired individuals. In general, plasma/serum lycopene concentrations are lower in cognitively impaired compared with control individuals, and oxidative stress markers are elevated and inversely correlated with plasma carotenoids concentrations.Potatoes yield on average more food energy on a per-hectare and a per-day basis than either cereals or cassava. In general, potato is perceived only as a source of carbohydrates, but is also an excellent source of essential amino acids. The predominant form of this carbohydrate is starch. A small but significant portion of this starch is resistant to digestion by enzymes in the stomach and small intestine, and so reaches the large intestine essentially intact. This resistant starch is considered to have similar physiological effects and health benefits as dietary fiber: it provides bulk, offers protecttion against colon cancer, improves glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, lowers plasma cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, increases satiety, and possibly even reduces fat storage.

The amount of resistant starch in potatoes depends much on preparation methods. Cooking and then cooling potatoes significantly increases resistant starch. For example, cooked potato starch contains about 7% resistant starch, which increases to about 13% upon cooling. Due to carbohydrate content, potatoes are considered to make a person obese if used in excess i.e. more than RDA of carbohydrates and fats. Recent research by the University of California, Davis and the National Center for Food Safety and Technology, Illinois Institute of Technology demonstrates that people can include potatoes in their diet and still lose weight. Potatoes are also often broadly classified as high on the glycemic index  and so are often excluded from the diets of individuals trying to follow a low-GI diet. In fact, the GI of potatoes can vary considerably depending on type , origin , preparation methods , and with what it is consumed . Potato contains a small amount of protein , but the biological value of potato protein is the best among vegetable sources and comparable to cow’s milk. Human feeding trials suggested that potato proteins are of a very high quality, possibly because they are rich in essential amino acids, such as lysine, and other metabolites, which may enhance protein utilization. The lysine content of potato complements cereal-based diets, which are deficient in this amino acid. In addition to high quality proteins, potato tubers accumulate significant amounts of vitamins and minerals, as well as an assortment of phytochemicals including phenolics, phytoalexins,ebb and flow tray and protease inhibitors. Chlorogenic acid constitutes up to 90% of the potato tuber natural phenols. Others found in potatoes are 4-O-caffeoylquinic acid , 5-O-caffeoylquinic , 3,4-dicaffeoylquinic and 3,5-dicaffeoylquinic acids. A medium-size 150 g potato with the skin provides 27 mg of vitamin C , 620 mg of potassium , 0.2 mg vitamin B6  and trace amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, folate, niacin, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and zinc. The fiber content of a potato with skin  is equivalent to that of many whole grain breads, pastas, and cereals.

Potato contributes a small but significant amount of phytochemicals. Several yellow, red, and purple fleshed types with high phytochemical content have recently been introduced into the market. The purple potato has purple skin and flesh, which becomes blue once cooked. A mutation in the varieties’ P locus causes production of the antioxidant anthocyanin. Total phenolics in potato tubers range in concentration from 0.5 to 1.7 g/kg. Al-Saikhan et al. reported significant differences in total phenolics among cultivars, with flesh color having no significant effect on total phenolics. Nearly 50% of the total phenolic compounds in potato are located in the peel and adjoining tissue, but decrease toward the center of the tuber, with chlorogenic acid representing about 90 percent of the total polyphenolic content. Potato tubers contain a moderate amount of vitamin C, in the range of about 10 to 104 mg/kg, depending on the cultivar and the growing season, but it declined rapidly  during storage and cooking. Other antioxidants found in potato include 0.5 to 2.8 mg/kg α-tocopherol, 0.13 to 0.6 mg/kg lutein, and 1 mg/kg β-carotene. Cao et al. estimated the total antioxidant capacity of potato to be in the medium range among 22 commonly consumed vegetables. Potato also contributes a small amount of selenium  and folate  to the human diet. Peppers come in a beautiful array of colors and shapes. They add flavor, color, and crunch to many low-calorie dishes. All fresh peppers are excellent sources of vitamins C, K, carotenoids, and flavonoids. Antioxidant vitamins A and C help to prevent cell damage, cancer, and diseases related to aging, and they support immune function. They also reduce inflammation like that found in arthritis and asthma. Vitamin K promotes proper blood clotting, strengthens bones, and helps protect cells from oxidative damage. Red peppers are a good source of lycopene, which is earning a reputation for helping to prevent prostate cancer as well as cancer of the bladder, cervix, and pancreas. Beta-cryptoxanthin, another carotenoid in red peppers, is holding promise for helping to prevent lung cancer related to smoking and secondhand smoke. Besides being rich in phytochemicals, peppers provide a decent amount of fiber. Significant differences in vitamin C were observed between cultivars, but not between species. On average, fruits contain between 1 to 2 g/kg vitamin C, which is equivalent to 200% to 300% of the recommended daily allowance for adult men and women. The level of provitamin A carotenoids  is cultivar specific. Some cultivars of hot pepper have as much as 12 mg/kg total carotenoids, while others are bellow the detectable level. Major flavonoids in the peppers are quercetin and luteolin. They are present in conjugated form and their content varies among cultivars ranging from not detectable to 800 mg/kg.

When comparing the nutrient values of the different bell peppers, studies have shown that red bell peppers have significantly higher levels of nutrients than green. Red bell peppers also contain lycopene, which helps to protect against cancer and heart disease. Possibly due to their vitamin C and beta carotene content, bell peppers have been shown to be protective against cataracts. Just like other nutrient-dense vegetables, bell peppers contain many different powerful phytochemicals. Bell peppers have also been shown to prevent blood clot formation and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes probably due to their content of substances such as vitamin C, capsaicin, and flavonoids. Although chili hot peppers contain a higher amount of those substances, bell peppers should still be promoted especially for individuals with elevated cholesterol levels. Hot peppers don’t have that spicy image for nothing. The major phytochemicals in hot peppers are capsaicinnoids. More than 20 capsaicinoids, belonging to two groups, capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin, have been identified in pepper. Capsaicin was discovered in 1846 and its structure, as an acid amide, was elucidated by Nelson. Capsaicin constitutes about 70% of the pungent flavour in hot pepper, while its analogue dihydrocapsaicin represents 30%. The two groups differ in the presence or absence of double bonds in the fatty acid side-chain and within each group they differ in the length and branching point in the fatty acid side-chain. Significant variations in the profile of capsaicinoids are found between and within pepper species, ranging from about 220 ppm  in Capsicum annum to 20,000 ppm  in Capsicum chinense. Hot peppers’ fire comes from capsaicin, which acts on pain receptors, not taste buds, in our mouths. Capsaicin predominates in the white membranes of peppers, imparting its “heat” to seeds as well. The capsaicin in hot peppers has been shown to decrease blood cholesterol and triglycerides, boost immunity, and reduce the risk of stomach ulcers. It used to be thought that hot peppers aggravated ulcers. Instead, they may help kill bacteria in the stomach that can lead to ulcers. Capsaicin has also analgesic, anti-bacterial, and antidiabetic properties. Capsaicin is an ingredient in several commercial formulations formulation for the treatment of muscle pains, toothaches, burning-mouth syndrome, gastric ulceration, painful diabetic neuropathy, postmastectomy pain syndrome, and osteo- and rheumatoid-arthritis. It is also prescribed for bladder hypersensivity, vasomotor rhinitis, and hyperreflexia of spinal origin. Chilli hot peppers have amazingly high levels of vitamins and minerals. Just 100 g provides , 240% of vitamin C , 39% of vitamin B6 , 32% of vitamin A, 13% of iron, 14% of copper, 7% of potassium. Fresh chili hot peppers, red or green, are rich source of vitamin-C. 100 g fresh chilies provide about 143.7 μg or about 240% of recommended daily allowance. Chillies are also good in B-complex group of vitamins such as niacin, pyridoxine , riboflavin and thiamin . These vitamins are essential in the sense that body requires them from external sources to replenish. Chilli hot peppers contain good amount of minerals like potassium, manganese, iron, and magnesium. Potassium in an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase. Both hot and sweet peppers contain substances that have been shown to increase the body’s heat production and oxygen consumption for about 20 minutes after eating. This is great news; it means our body is burning extra calories, which helps weight loss. The eggplant, known as aubergine in Europe and brinjal in south Asia, is a popular vegetable cop grown in many countries throughout the subtropics, tropics and Mediterranean area, since it requires a relatively long season of warm weather to give good yields. In addition to featuring a host of vitamins and minerals, eggplant also contains important phytochemicals which have antioxidant activity. Phytochemicals contained in eggplant include phenolic compounds, such caffeic and chlorogenic acid, and flavonoids, such as nasunin. Nasusin or delphinidin- 3–5-glucoside is the major phytochemical in eggplant.