Jelly seed is a major challenge in mango production leading to enormous losses in the value chain. This internal fruit disorder is characterised by disintegration of cells, consistency of jelly and broken cells. Calcium plays an important role in enhancing tissue stability and firmness thus reducing cell disintegration. A two-year field study was conducted in Embu County, Kenya using ‘Van Dyke’ cultivar trees of approximately 10 years old. The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of varied sources of ...

The current cross-sectional study aimed at characterising the productivity and diseases affecting dairy goats kept by smallholder farmers in three sub-counties in Thika Region, Kenya. Standard questionnaires were administered to 240 farmers through face-to-face interviews and the outputs were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The farmers mainly kept crosses of Toggenburg (45.9 %), Kenyan Alpine (29.5 %) and Saanen (17.4 %) dairy goats. The average dairy goat flock size was 4.5 (range 1–23) and ...

Development partners and donor agencies often target programs and projects in poverty stricken and vulnerable regions around the world. However, there is paucity on economic and financial analysis of such investments. This study contributes to the literature by assessing financial internal rate of return (FIRR) and economic internal rate of return (EIRR) of livestock agribusiness, a vital component of ‘High Mountain Agribusiness and Livelihood Improvement’ (HIMALI) project supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) ...

Purpose: Previous studies revealed that around 75 percent of all start-ups fail at an early stage. One main reason for this tremendous failure rate is that entrepreneurs are typically confronted with high levels of uncertainty about the viability of their proposed business idea. Following this argumentation, entrepreneurial decision-making can be defined as complex decision-making problem under both risk and uncertainty. While risk includes quantifiable probabilities, uncertainty describes situations where neither ...

In 2009, our group published two stable N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) with a 1,1'-ferrocenediyl backbone (fc), which formally exhibit a six-membered FeIIC2N2CII-heterocycle. The stabilization of the fcNHCs is favored by bulky N-substituents. So far neopentyl and 2-adamantyl have been used for this purpose - a bulky primary and secondary alkyl substituent. In contrast to other cyclic diaminocarbenes, the fcNHCs are capable of activating small molecules such as NH3 or CO. The reason for this remarkable ability is the ...

Das Software-Tool der Montageplanungsmethode MTQM wurde für eine aufwandsärmere Prognose der menschlichen Zuverlässigkeit von manuellen Montagetätigkeiten in der Serienfertigung entwickelt und soll in dieser Arbeit um eine Fehleranalyse in Form einer angepassten FMEA erweitert werden.

Women lag in the adoption of agricultural innovations compared to men, mainly due to gender inequalities in access to complementary inputs, capital, and knowledge/information. The Infection-and-Treatment-Method (ITM) is considered a safe and effective method of controlling East Coast fever. However, since its commercialisation in Kenya differences in demand for this vaccine among smallholder men and women dairy cattle keepers have not been assessed. Using a sample of 448 respondents, we used an Average-Treatment-Effect ...

This paper presents a 4 kW GaN-based galvanically isolated bidirectional DC/DC converter suitable for on-board auxiliary power supply systems, interconnecting the HV battery with the LV power system. To enable the trend towards higher levels of electrification, a second LV level of 48 V is introduced to supply the high-power consumers, relieving the 12 V grid on the one hand and/or avoiding using additional costly isolated converters connected to the HV batteries on the other. The built converter prototypes aim to ...

Magnetic devices are an important part of electronic converters. They can be used to control some properties of the converters. There are three different control methods using an auxiliary bias-winding. In the presented paper, the impact of the implementation of the auxiliary bias-winding was studied for mixed biasing. Seven different designs were investigated in small signal measurements and 3D-FEM-simulations. The results were proven by calculated results of equivalent diagram circuits, which have been developed. ...

A household survey and focus group discussions were conducted to quantify the general determinants of an index-based crop insurance adoption under limited liabilities in Burundi, and specifically the effect of existing Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs). The survey sample comprised of 40 crop insurance adopters, 40 non-adopters and 40 drop-outs in Bukirasazi and Makebuko communes of Gitega province. The results indicated that saving money (by VSLAs) for upcoming premium payments and regularly VSLA ...