• Toxicological Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.69-79
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of metal pollution in the sediment from rivers, lakes, and streams in active gold mining districts in Ghana. Two hundred and fifty surface sediment samples from 99 locations were collected and analyzed for concentrations of As, Hg, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Zn, Pb, Cd, Ni, and Mn using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS). Metal concentrations were then used to assess the human health risks to resident children and adults in central tendency exposure (CTE) and reasonable maximum exposure (RME) scenarios. The concentrations of Pb, Cd, and As were almost twice the threshold values established by the Hong Kong Interim Sediment Quality Guidelines (ISQG). Hg, Cu, and Cr concentrations in sediment were 14, 20, and 26 times higher than the Canadian Freshwater Sediment Guidelines for these elements. Also, the concentrations of Pb, Cu, Cr, and Hg were 3, 11, 12, and 16 times more than the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) sediment guideline values. The results of the human health risk assessment indicate that for ingestion of sediment under the central tendency exposure (CTE) scenario, the cancer risks for child and adult residents from exposure to As were $4.18{\times}10^{-6}$ and $1.84{\times}10^{-7}$, respectively. This suggests that up to 4 children out of one million equally exposed children would contract cancer if exposed continuously to As over 70 years (the assumed lifetime). The hazard index for child residents following exposure to Cr(VI) in the RME scenario was 4.2. This is greater than the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) threshold of 1, indicating that adverse health effects to children from exposure to Cr(VI) are possible. This study demonstrates the urgent need to control industrial emissions and the severe heavy metal pollution in gold mining environments.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.141-158
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• 2020

Skin is a major thermoregulatory organ in the body controlling homeothermy, a critical function for climate adaptation. We compared genes expressed between tropical- and temperate-adapted cattle to better understand genes involved in climate adaptation and hence thermoregulation. We profiled the skin of representative tropical and temperate cattle using RNA-seq. A total of 214,754,759 reads were generated and assembled into 72,993,478 reads and were mapped to unique regions in the bovine genome. Gene coverage of unique regions of the reference genome showed that of 24,616 genes, only 13,130 genes (53.34%) displayed more than one count per million reads for at least two libraries and were considered suitable for downstream analyses. Our results revealed that of 255 genes expressed differentially, 98 genes were upregulated in tropically-adapted White Fulani (WF; Bos indicus) and 157 genes were down regulated in WF compared to Angus, AG (Bos taurus). Fifteen pathways were identified from the differential gene sets through gene ontology and pathway analyses. These include the significantly enriched melanin metabolic process, proteinaceous extracellular matrix, inflammatory response, defense response, calcium ion binding and response to wounding. Quantitative PCR was used to validate six representative genes which are associated with skin thermoregulation and epithelia dysfunction (mean correlation 0.92; p < 0.001). Our results contribute to identifying genes and understanding molecular mechanisms of skin thermoregulation that may influence strategic genomic selection in cattle to withstand climate adaptation, microbial invasion and mechanical damage.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.35-45
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• 2016

Initialization of the global seasonal forecast system is as much important as the quality of the embedded climate model for the climate prediction in sub-seasonal time scale. Recent studies have emphasized the important role of soil moisture initialization, suggesting a significant increase in the prediction skill particularly in the mid-latitude land area where the influence of sea surface temperature in the tropics is less crucial and the potential predictability is supplemented by land-atmosphere interaction. This study developed a new soil moisture initialization method applicable to the KMA operational seasonal forecasting system. The method includes first the long-term integration of the offline land surface model driven by observed atmospheric forcing and precipitation. This soil moisture reanalysis is given for the initial state in the ensemble seasonal forecasts through a simple anomaly initialization technique to avoid the simulation drift caused by the systematic model bias. To evaluate the impact of the soil moisture initialization, two sets of long-term, 10-member ensemble experiment runs have been conducted for 1996~2009. As a result, the soil moisture initialization improves the prediction skill of surface air temperature significantly at the zero to one month forecast lead (up to ~60 days forecast lead), although the skill increase in precipitation is less significant. This study suggests that improvements of the prediction in the sub-seasonal timescale require the improvement in the quality of initial data as well as the adequate treatment of the model systematic bias.

• Proceedings of the Korean Quaternary Association Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.37-43
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• 2004

The response of the CCCma coupled climate model to the imposition of LGM conditions is investigated. The global mean SAT and SST decrease by about $10^{\circ}C$ and $5.6^{\circ}C$ in the coupled model. Tropical SST decreases by $6.5^{\circ}C$, whereas CLIMAP reconstructions suggest that the tropics cool by only about $1.7^{\circ}C$, although the larger tropical cooling is consistent with the more recent proxy estimates. With the incorporation of a full ocean component, the coupled model gives a realistic spatial SST pattern, capturing features associated with ocean dynamics that are seen in the CLIMAP reconstructions. The larger decrease of the surface temperature in the model is associated with a reduction in global precipitation rate (about 15%). The tropical Pacific warm pool retreats to the west and a mean La $Ni\tilde{n}a$-like response is simulated with less precipitation over the central Pacific and more in the western tropical Pacific. The more arid ocean climate in the LGM results in an increase in SSS almost everywhere. This is particularly the case in the Arctic Ocean where large SSS increase is due to a decrease in river discharge to the Arctic Ocean associated with the accumulation of snow over the ice sheet, but in the North Atlantic by contrast SSS decreases markedly. This remarkable reduction of SSS in the North Atlantic is attributed to an increase in fresh water supply by an increase in discharges from the Mississippi and Amazon rivers and an increase in P-E over the North Atlantic ocean itself. The discharges increase in association with the wetter LGM climate south of the Laurentide ice sheet and in South America. The fresh water capping of the northern North Atlantic results in a marked reduction of deep convection and consequently a marked weakening of the North Atlantic overturning circulation. In the LGM, the maximum overturning stream function associated with the NADW formation decreases by about 60% relative to the control run, while in the Southern Ocean, oceanic convection is stronger in the LGM due to reduced stratification associated with an increase in SSS and a decrease in SST and the overturning stream function associated with the formation of AABW and the outflow increases substantially.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.187-191
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• 2011

An attempt was made to assess the potentiality of bivoltine double hybrids under simulated conditions of farmers to identify the suitable bivoltine double hybrid combination. Four bivoltine double hybrids developed at Central Sericultural Research and Training Institute (CSRTI), Mysore along with popular single hybrid, $CSR2{\times}CSR4$ as control was assessed for economic traits. The rearing results showed significant improvement of 20-24% in fecundity of the double hybrids studied over single hybrid. Among the double hybrids, $[D7{\times}S5]{\times}[D13{\times}S1]$ recorded significantly higher survival (89.58 %), cocoon yield (76.328 kg/ 50,000 eggs), cocoon price (Rs. 180.87/kg) and lower cocoon leaf ratio of 1: 21.80. The performance of the reeling traits were also found significantly superior in $[D7{\times}S5]{\times}[D13{\times}S1]$ with higher filament length (1100 m), reelability (88%), raw silk (18.55%) and neatness (92 points) compared to $CSR2{\times}CSR4$ and other double hybrids evaluated. Besides, the cocoons of $[D7{\times}S5]{\times}[D13{\times}S1]$ exhibit uniformity in size with a standard deviation of < 8. Overall data indicated the superiority of $[D7{\times}S5]{\times}[D13{\times}S1]$ compared to the other hybrids evaluated and it has profound influence in expressing the full potentiality in the field.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.20-25
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• 2012

New Zealand suffers from regular floods, these being the most common source of insurance claims for damage from natural hazard events in the country. This paper describes the origin and distribution of the largest floods in New Zealand, and describes the systems used to monitor and predict floods. In New Zealand, broad-scale heavy rainfall (and flooding), is the result of warm moist air flowing out from the tropics into the mid-latitudes. There is no monsoon in New Zealand. The terrain has a substantial influence on the distribution of rainfall, with the largest annual totals occurring near the South Island's Southern Alps, the highest mountains in the country. The orographic effect here is extreme, with 3km of elevation gained over a 20km distance from the coast. Across New Zealand, short duration high intensity rainfall from thunderstorms also causes flooding in urban areas and small catchments. Forecasts of severe weather are provided by the New Zealand MetService, a Government owned company. MetService uses global weather models and a number of limited-area weather models to provide warnings and data streams of predicted rainfall to local Councils. Flood monitoring, prediction and warning are carried out by 16 local Councils. All Councils collect their own rainfall and river flow data, and a variety of prediction methods are utilized. These range from experienced staff making intuitive decisions based on previous effects of heavy rain, to hydrological models linked to outputs from MetService weather prediction models. No operational hydrological models are linked to weather radar in New Zealand. Councils provide warnings to Civil Defence Emergency Management, and also directly to farmers and other occupiers of flood prone areas. Warnings are distributed by email, text message and automated voice systems. A nation-wide hydrological model is also operated by NIWA, a Government-owned research institute. It is linked to a single high resolution weather model which runs on a super computer. The NIWA model does not provide public forecasts. The rivers with the greatest flood flows are shown, and these are ranked in terms of peak specific discharge. It can be seen that of the largest floods occur on the West Coast of the South Island, and the greatest flows per unit area are also found in this location.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.193-198
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• 2004

Seasonal effects of the newly evolved bivoltine hybrid namely CSR$_2$${\times}$SR$_{5}$, SR$_1$ ${\times}$SR$_4$ and control hybrid KA${\times}$NB$_4$D$_2$ along with their parents SR$_1$, SR$_4$, SR$_{5}$, CSR$_2$ KA and NB$_4$D$_2$ were evaluated during different seasons of the year to understand genotype and environment interactions. Data were collected on five economic importance namely, pupation rate, cocoon yield, cocoon weight, cocoon shell ratio and filament length of the lines, hybrids and the control breeds/hybrid in three different seasons i.e., Pre-Monsoon, Monsoon and post-monsoon and subjected to relevant statistical methods. Seasonal performance of CSR$_2$, SR$_1$, SR$_4$ and SR$_{5}$ revealed superiority over control breeds KA and NB$_4$D$_2$. Both the hybrids i.e., CSR$_2$${\times}$SR$_{5}$ and SR$_1$${\times}$SR$_4$ performed well under diversified environmental conditions of tropical climate in a year indicating overall stability. These hybrids revealed highly significant (P < 0.01) variations for majority of the traits studied over the control hybrid KA${\times}$NB$_4$D$_2$.$.

• Atmosphere
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.341-359
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• 2021

This technical note introduces the new Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) Global Seasonal forecasting system version 6 (GloSea6) to provide a reference for future scientific works on GloSea6. We describe the main areas of progress and improvements to the current GloSea5 in the scientific and technical aspects of all the GloSea6 components - atmosphere, land, ocean, and sea-ice models. Also, the operational architectures of GloSea6 installed on the new KMA supercomputer are presented. It includes (1) pre-processes for atmospheric and ocean initial conditions with the quasi-real-time land surface initialization system, (2) the configurations for model runs to produce sets of forecasts and hindcasts, (3) the ensemble statistical prediction system, and (4) the verification system. The changes of operational frameworks and computing systems are also reported, including Rose/Cylc - a new framework equipped with suite configurations and workflows for operationally managing and running Glosea6. In addition, we conduct the first-ever run with GloSea6 and evaluate the potential of GloSea6 compared to GloSea5 in terms of verification against reanalysis and observations, using a one-month case of June 2020. The GloSea6 yields improvements in model performance for some variables in some regions; for example, the root mean squared error of 500 hPa geopotential height over the tropics is reduced by about 52%. These experimental results show that GloSea6 is a promising system for improved seasonal forecasts.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.665-674
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• 2019

Objective: In tropical regions, as in temperate regions where seasonality of forage production occurs, well-preserved forage is necessary for animal production during periods of forage shortage. However, the unique climate conditions (hot and humid) and forage characteristics (high moisture content and low soluble carbohydrate) in the tropics make forage preservation more difficult. The current study used natural ensiling of tropical forage as a model to evaluate silage characteristics under different temperatures ($28^{\circ}C$ and $40^{\circ}C$). Methods: Four tropical forages (king grass, paspalum, white popinac, and stylo) were ensiled under different temperatures ($28^{\circ}C$ and $40^{\circ}C$). After ensiling for 30 and 60 days, samples were collected to examine the fermentation quality, chemical composition and microbial community. Results: High concentrations of acetic acid (ranging from 7.8 to 38.5 g/kg dry matter [DM]) were detected in silages of king grass, paspalum and stylo with relatively low DM (ranging from 23.9% to 30.8% fresh material [FM]) content, acetic acid production was promoted with increased temperature and prolonged ensiling. Small concentrations of organic acid (ranging from 0.3 to 3.1 g/kg DM) were detected in silage of white popinac with high DM content (50.8% FM). The microbial diversity analysis indicated that Cyanobacteria originally dominated the bacterial community for these four tropical forages and was replaced by Lactobacillus and Enterobacter after ensiling. Conclusion: The results suggested that forage silages under tropical climate conditions showed enhanced acetate fermentation, while high DM materials showed limited fermentation. Lactobacillus and Enterobacter were the most probable genera responsible for tropical silage fermentation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.224-232
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• 2019

Objective: Apart from various climatic differences, corn harvest stage and varieties are two major factors that can influence the yield and quality of corn silage in the tropics. A study was conducted to determine the optimum harvest stage of four corn varieties for silage production in Malaysia. Methods: Corn was harvested at four growth stages; silking, milk, dough, and dent stages from four varieties; Sweet Corn hybrid 926, Suwan, breeding test line (BTL) 1 and BTL 2. Using a split plot design, the treatments were then analysed based on the plant growth performance, yield, nutritive and feeding values followed by a financial feasibility study for potential commercialization. Results: Significant differences and interactions were detected across the parameters suggesting varying responses among the varieties towards the harvest stages. Sweet Corn was best harvested early in the dough stage due to high dry matter (DM) yield, digestible nutrient, and energy content with low fibre portion. Suwan was recommended to be harvested at the dent stage when it gave the highest DM yield with optimum digestible nutrient and energy content with low acid detergent fibre. BTL 1 and BTL 2 varieties can either be harvested at dough or dent stages as the crude protein, crude fibre, DM yield, DM content, digestible nutrient and energy were not significantly different at either stage. Further financial analysis showed that only Sweet Corn production was not financially feasible while Suwan had the best financial appraisal values among the grain varieties. Conclusion: In conclusion, only the grain varieties tested had the potential for silage making according to their optimum harvest stage but Suwan is highly recommended for commercialization as it was the most profitable.