A total of five studies were conducted to determine the nutritional value of co-products of bioethanol production for poultry and pigs. The objective in the first study was to evaluate the relationship between the chemical components of maize- and wheat distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) as well as develop prediction equations for indispensable amino acids (IAA), total indispensable amino acid (TIAA) and total amino acid (TAA) contents using nutrient composition data available in literature. The relationship between the chemical constituents of maize- and wheat-DDGS and associated probability values were determined by correlation analysis. Prediction models for determining the IAA, TIAA and TAA contents of maize- and wheat-DDGS from their crude protein (CP) and amino acids (AA) contents were developed using step-wise multiple regression analyses. Maximum improvement in adjusted r2 (adj r2) and reduction in Mallows Cp were the model selection criteria. The chemical composition of maize- and wheat-DDGS varied among sources with coefficient of variation (CV) ranging from 8.5% to 53.5% for total P and Ca respectively in maize-DDGS and 10.5% to 36.1% for CP and acid detergent fibre (ADF) in wheat-DDGS respectively. Of the IAA, Lys, Met and Trp were most variable in maize-DDGS with CV of 13.1%, 12.0%, 10.3%, respectively, whereas Lys, Phe and Met were the most variable IAA in wheat-DDGS with CV of 20.2%, 17.3%, and 16.9%, respectively. For maize-DDGS, there were positive correlations (P < 0.05) between CP and CF, NDF, Ca, ash (r ranged from 0.45 and 0.61). Adjusted r2 ranged from 0.57 to 0.99 in the best models for predicting the IAA in maize- and wheat-DDGS from CP and AA. Except for Trp and Lys, the IAA contents of maize- and wheat-DDGS can be predicted from their CP content alone. The best models for predicting TIAA and TAA in maize-DDGS included Arg, His and Leu (adj r2= 0.98) and His, Leu and Trp (adj r2= 0.90) respectively, the regression equations being TIAA (% DM) = 0.77 + 1.36 (Arg) + 3.87 (His) + 1.99 (Val) and TAA = -3.03 + 14.1 (His) + 3.79 (Leu) + 23.4 (Trp) respectively. For wheat-DDGS, the best three variables for predicting TIAA were Arg, Leu and Val (adj r2=0.99), the regression equation being TIAA (% DM) = -0.07 + 1.11 (Arg) + 0.99 (Leu) + 5.02 (Val). Predicted values were close to actual values in the prediction models for IAA, TIAA and TAA. It was concluded that the IAA, TIAA and TAA contents of both maize- and wheat-DDGS can be predicted from their CP contents with high accuracy. In the second study, the nutritional value of wheat-DDGS without- or with exogenous enzymes for broiler was determined using three experiments. The N-corrected- and apparent metabolisable energy contents (AMEn and AME, respectively) without- or with added admixture of xylanase, amylase and protease (XAP) was determined in experiment 1, true P digestibility without- or with supplemental phytase was determined in experiment 2, whereas the apparent- or standardised ileal digestibility (AID and SID, respectively) of AA without- or with added protease was determined in experiment 3. Birds were fed a nutrient adequate pre-experimental diet from d 1 to 14 post-hatch followed by the dietary treatments from d 14 to 21 in experiment 1 and 2, or from d 25 to 28 in experiment 3, respectively. Each of the 3 experiments was arranged as a randomised complete block design consisting of 7 replicate pens and 3 birds per pen. Six dietary treatments consisting of 3 levels of wheat-DDGS (0, 300 or 600 g/kg of diet) and 2 levels of XAP (0 or 0.25 g/kg) were used in experiment 1. Six diets consisting of 3 levels of wheat-DDGS (200, 400 or 600 g/kg of diet) and 2 levels of phytase (0 or 1000 FTU/kg) were used in experiment 2, whereas four treatments consisting of a nitrogen-free diet (NFD) and an assay diet, both diets without- or with supplemental protease were used in experiment 3. In experiment 1, increasing the level of wheat-DDGS in the basal diet decreased linearly (P < 0.001) dry matter (DM) and energy retention, AME and AMEn. Supplemental XAP tended to improve both the dietary AME (P = 0.059) and AMEn (P = 0.085) values of the diet. The AME value of wheat-DDGS without- or with supplemental XAP was determined to be 15.0 or 15.5 MJ/kg, respectively. Corresponding values for AMEn were 14.0 and 14.5 MJ/kg, respectively. Supplemental XAP did not improve the energy value of wheat-DDGS for broilers. In experiment 2, increasing the level of wheat-DDGS in the diet decreased linearly (P < 0.05) ileal DM digestibility, DM retention and apparent P retention but there was no difference in apparent ileal P digestibility. Except for Fe and Zn at the ileal, and Mn and Zn at the total tract level, increasing the level of wheat-DDGS in the diet increased linearly (P < 0.05) the flow of all other minerals. Flow of minerals at the ileal and total tract level were not different with phytase supplementation. True ileal P digestibility in the wheat-DDGS for broilers was 93.6 or 96% without- or with added phytase, respectively. Corresponding values at the total tract level were 92.4 and 93.5%, respectively. Phytase addition did not improve P utilisation at the ileal or total tract level. In experiment 3, AID ranged from 33% (Asp) to 75% (Pro) without added protease whereas the range was 31% (Asp) to 82% (Pro) with protease supplementation. The AID of Lys was nil regardless of protease supplementation. Supplemental protease improved (P < 0.05) the AID of Arg and Pro and tended to improve (P < 0.10) the AID of Met. Without protease supplementation, SID ranged from 43% (Asp) to 84% (Pro) whereas the range was from 54% (Asp) to 93% (Pro) with added protease. Supplemental protease improved (P < 0.05) the SID of Arg, Leu, Phe, Met, Val and Pro by 21, 14, 13, 26, 13 and 10 percentage points, respectively. It was concluded that wheat-DDGS is a good dietary source of metabolisable energy and P for broilers. The ileal AA digestibility of wheat-DDGS for broilers is quite variable and generally low. Further, the ileal digestibility of some AA in the wheat-DDGS improved with protease supplementation. Using three experiments the third study determined the metabolisable energy content, true P digestibility and retention and AIAAD and SIAAD of wheat-DDGS for turkey. The AMEn and AME content of wheat-DDGS without- or with XAP was determined in experiment 1, the true P digestibility and retention without- or with supplemental phytase was determined in experiment 2, whereas the AIAAD and SIAAD of wheat-DDGS without- or with a protease were determined in experiment 3. Experiment 1 and 2 lasted for 21 days whereas experiment 3 lasted for 28 days. Experimental diets were fed for 7, 5 or 3 d in experiment 1, 2 or 3, respectively. Each of the 3 experiments was arranged as a randomised complete block design consisting of 7 replicate pens and 3 birds per pen. Six dietary treatments consisting of 3 levels of wheat-DDGS (0, 300 or 600 g/kg of diet) and 2 levels of XAP (0 or 0.25 g/kg) were used in experiment 1. Six diets consisting of 3 levels of wheat-DDGS (200, 400 or 600 g/kg of diet) and 2 levels of phytase (0 or 1000 FTU/kg) were used in experiment 2, whereas four diets consisting of a NFD and an assay diet, both diets without- or with supplemental protease were used in experiment 3. In experiment 1, increasing the dietary inclusion of wheat-DDGS from 0 to 600 g/kg decreased linearly (P < 0.05) DM and energy retention. There was wheat-DDGS × XAP interaction (P < 0.05) for dietary AME and AMEn. Dietary AME and AMEn values decreased linearly (P < 0.001) as the level of wheat-DDGS increased in the diets without XAP, whereas there was no effect of increasing wheat-DDGS level on dietary AME or AMEn for the XAP-supplemented diets.

The provision of crops of a light fry colour, from store, is of the utmost importance to processors. Poor fry colour leads to rejection of crops on a quality basis. The application of Chlorpropham (CIPC) sprout suppressant, as a thermal fog is associated with a deterioration in fry colour. The BPC funded project at the University of Glasgow and its collaborator Sutton Bridge Experimental Unit investigates the effects of CIPC use on the processing quality of stored potatoes. CIPC is the only sprout suppressant available for medium and long-term storage for processing in Britain. In the UK the majority of CIPC treatments are conducted as thermal fog applications. This is considered to be the most practical means of achieving successful sprout control. The introduction of a hot fog into potato stores has a disruptive influence. It can physiologically alter the potatoes by creating a stressful environment. Tuber respiration rate increases and so the crop will age. Experimental trials conducted as part of this project have shown that it is the fogging process itself that is responsible for the decrease in crop quality following application, not the CIPC formulation applied. Studies revealed that both carbon dioxide and ethylene were produced naturally by crop and from the combustion of petrol used to generate thermal fogs. Initially the fry colour problems were linked with carbon dioxide in combustion gases and from increased respiration. However, carbon dioxide output from thermal fogger machines was less significant than expected. The levels were consistently lower than concentrations shown to have a deleterious effect in previous BPC funded work. Ethylene is present in thermal fogs as a by-product of burning the hydrocarbon fuel used to generate fog. The concentration of ethylene produced is associated with the running conditions of the fogger machine I.e. burner temperature, type and volume of fuel used etc. The ethylene created in a standard CIPC thermal-fog application is sufficient to induce a physiological response in tubers. Exposure of crop to ethylene effects respiration, dormancy period, sprout morphology, reducing sugar concentration and hence fry colour. The extent of the outcome depends on exposure time and concentration. Following assessment of the fogging situation, various means of reducing the impact of CIPC application on fry colour were evaluated. Different approaches were undertaken and included both attempting to control and remove the contaminants present in thermal fogs. By ventilating stores earlier than the recommended twenty-four hour period after treatment a vast improvement in fry colour was observed. In doing this the exposure time of crop to contaminants was greatly reduced. In the experimental work the stores were ventilated eight hours after treatment. This allowed adequate time for the effective fraction of the thermal god to settle.

To the visitor, Istanbul, Turkey is flush with food. But food supply and access to food can be unrelated. Socioeconomic, demographic and development data suggest food security problems for a significant portion of the population. After World War II, migrants to Istanbul from Anatolia who built house gardens within their original squatter settlements (gecekondus) have sold their lands or turned them into apartments. Similarly, only fragments of the traditional network of commercial, intensive urban gardens ( bostans) in Istanbul remain. In addition, the expanding system of European style supermarkets and commercial production in the global marketplace are changing the traditional urban food networks built around such institutions as the neighborhood bazaar. To begin to understand the shifting components of Istanbul's food system, information from numerous sources was gathered and analyzed. The main field data of my research are interviews with Istanbul farmers and residents; interviews with government officials, academics, and professionals; official and unofficial statistics from governments and associations; and surveys. Supplementary information is from Turkish newspaper sources, library materials, and various books and maps. Through kinship relations, labor mobility, the availability of formal and informal economic and transportation networks and the persistence of small, family farms nationwide, food security in Istanbul is supported by food individually and communally transferred from the countryside. Subsistence agricultural production across rural Turkey appears to play a vital role in feeding the urban population through informal food delivery and distribution channels. Thus, despite reductions in rural populations and appearances that rural and agricultural communities are declining, their productivity may be as important as ever. With their emphases on resource use, adaptation, consideration of multiple scales, and the exercise of local agency within structures of power and wealth, political and cultural ecology provide perspectives from which to meaningfully analyze food security needs and practices in Istanbul. Such a framework is enhanced by contributions from research in food systems and food security. Time centered tactics, exchange entitlements and food accessibility within the city cannot be understood apart from its relationship to the countryside.

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This thesis examines the role and use of indigenous knowledge within small-scale agricultural systems in Africa and its relevance in development practice and theory. Using development programmes that have been implemented in the study area from the colonial to the recent times, many of which were largely underpinned by modernisation theory and practice, indigenous knowledge theory and practice is analysed for its role in development processes. The roles of the private sector, NGOs and the government are analysed, based on a chronology of development programmes that were underpinned in many instances by the influences of the major development theories and the subsequent introduction of the structural adjustment programmes by the IMF and the World Bank. Particular emphasis is placed on farmers’ responses to externally induced development programmes, designed by experts for farmers to adopt. In their assessment of these externally driven development programmes, there is a manifestation of the extent of the resilience of local knowledge to its displacement by Western knowledge. Scientifically proven technologies are assessed by farmers for their effectiveness under their farming practices that take into account a range of environmental, socio-cultural and economic factors. Indigenous knowledge is frequently found to be effective in resisting those changes that are undesirable and of little relevance at both farm and community levels. For farmers, knowledge that is useful and of practical use is adopted, or adapted, only when it is assessed, and, in many cases, this is only after trials have been successfully completed. Knowledge that is of little benefit to farmers is discarded irrespective of its type (indigenous or Western), or its source. This study forms the basis for understanding the importance of indigenous knowledge in development practice arising from its existence at farm level and the fact that it is continuously being fined-tuned to suit specific conditions and situations, which are in turn affected by socio-cultural, economic and environmental factors. The findings of this study also show that there are many benefits from using indigenous knowledge in development practice that include the empowerment of local people through their participation in development programmes. Indigenous knowledge is also found to be resilient and beneficial to farmers regardless of income level by reducing their costs of production, to be adaptable to different environmental and economic circumstances, and to provide for a more sustainable use of resources in farming. There is, however, a need for further studies in indigenous knowledge utilisation to enable researchers to keep pace with changes that occur at the local level if development theory and practice are to utilise indigenous knowledge fully and successfully.

Researchers have traditionally viewed sorption, degradation and transport as separate processes and only recently have these processes viewed as coupled. 2,4-D was chosen as a model system to study the interaction between these processes. A series of laboratory batch and column experiments with a sandy loam soil were conducted to determine the relative contributions of sorption and degradation to transport of 2,4-D under both saturated and unsaturated conditions. The sorption contribution to 2,4-D transport was not significant under saturated (Kd = 0.249 mg/g) nor unsaturated conditions (Kd = 0.566 mg/g). Degradation however, was very significant, specially under unsaturated conditions where the estimated first order biodegradation rate (μ) constant was 4.39 d-1. Rate constants under the saturated transport experiment were restricted by oxygen limitations. There was an order of magnitude difference between μ of batch and column experiments which were attributed to differences in aeration and mixing conditions.

A nearly monospecific stand of Lehmann lovegrass (Eragrostis lehmanniana Nees.) was grazed by cattle during two summer growing seasons to simulate short duration grazing. Grazing treatments were timed to coincide with preboot, boot to early inflorescence and hard seed phenological stages. During each treatment, grazing intensity on individual plants included heavy, moderate or light intensities. In 1990 maximum regrowth occurred when plants were grazed during boot to early inflorescence and at a light grazing intensity. In 1991, plants grazed during preboot or boot to early inflorescence and at a light or moderate intensity produced higher regrowth amounts than the other treatments. Plants grazed during boot to early inflorescence recovered significantly faster than plants grazed during preboot in 1990 and 1991. In 1990 lightly grazed plants recovered biomass faster than plants grazed at heavier intensities. In 1991 plants grazed at light and moderate grazing intensities recovered significantly faster than heavily grazed plants. Heavily grazed plants never produced enough regrowth to resemble moderately or lightly grazed plants within one growing season.

The thesis consists of a study of chlorpropham distribution patterns and its behaviour within tuber components in commercial potato stores in the UK. The store examined were both cold (3-4 °C) and conventional (8-10 °C) stores. As a large number of samples from different stores were taken, it was important to have a quick and reliable analytical method for chlorpropham determination. This was developed and compared against the original accepted method. Both methods were more or less similar in their precision of results, with recoveries of 83.80 2.25 and 93.14 3.51 from spiked samples by blending and reflux extracting methods respectively. When the methods were compared for extracting the amount of chlorpropham in commercially treated stored samples, it gave recoveries of 2.49 0.25 and 2.58 0.17 for the blending and reflux methods respectively. Overall the reflux extracting method was quicker and easier and it was used for further work with some slight modification. The present study showed that the level and distribution pattern of chlorpropham was significantly different within the store and as well as between different commercial stores. The overall range of chlorpropham levels in the examined stores was 2.11-236.56 mg/kg. The amount of chlorpropham varied with respect to sampling sites of the examined stores. Each store has its own distribution pattern with some similarities. However there was a common trending all the stores examined in that the maximum level of chlorpropham was on the top surface and minimum on the lower levels of the stores. In the cold store examined 'A' ( 3-4 °C) the level of chlorpropham decreased continuously from the top height towards the bottom height of the store. However the amount of chlorpropham was excessive throughout the store, even in the middle of the boxes it exceeded the MRL (Maximum Recommended Level). The level of chlorpropham dropped from 128.39 mg/kg in the middle layer samples of the top box to 49.14, 20.15, 19.01, 8.03 3.97 and 4.54 mg/kg towards the bottom boxes of a six high column of boxes in the store respectively.

Initial experiments performed in this study allowed species differentiation of Globodera pallida and G. rostochiensis following immunoblotting with the lectin, wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), and the monoclonal antibody TEPC 15. Further studies were aimed at the isolation of amphidial secretions. Two methods of collecting secretions were attempted, one involving the modification of a previously described staining method, the other relying on the collection of ES products from living, sterile nematodes. Secretions collected from G. pallida using the two different methods were analysed using SDS-PAGE electrophoresis. Secretions were also used for anti-serum production, giving two anti-sera, Luffness anti-serum and ES anti-serum. These were subsequently used for immunoblotting and indirect immunofluorescence studies. Indirect immunofluorescence studies indicated that the two anti-sera recognised different nematode components. This was further confirmed by immunoblotting studies which revealed that Luffness anti-serum recognised a number of nematode proteins, and was capable of differentiating both between and with species of G. pallida and G. rostochiensis. In contrast, ES anti-serum recognised only two proteins which appeared to be conserved between the two species. Observations also indicated that presence of a nematode lectin component present in amphidial secretions with apparent specificity for N-acetylgalactosamine. Experiments were also performed to examine different methods of inducing secretions. Previous research (Goverse et al., 1994) has shown that the serotonin agonist 5-methoxy dimethyl tryptamine (DMT) is an effective inducer of nematode oesophageal secretions. Comparison of DMT-induced secretions with ES secretions using SDS-PAGE electrophoresis revealed that the protein profiles were similar, although some proteins were more abundant following induction with DMT. Treatment of G. pallida with DMT followed by indirect immunofluorescence with Luffness anti-serum revealed an increased and altered distribution of antibody binding on the nematode surface.

This thesis is concerned with the following studies : 1- Ammonium analysis in soil and water including the determination of low levels of ammonium (<0.1 mg N/1) in groundwater and the colorimetric analysis of highly coloured groundwater samples. 2- An investigation of groundwater quality and soils at a contaminated industrial site. 3- Bioremediation treatment of the ammonium and nitrate contaminated groundwater using natural soil and vegetation and using soil incubation and pot experiments. These findings of a pot experiment suggest the possibility of applying the bioremediation treatment of the ammonium and nitrate contaminated water in the field. A field study should be undertaken to evaluate the efficiency of this bioremediation treatment. This field study would require a suitable uniform area to lay out the plots, preferably close to the source of water to be used. In addition, it is necessary to carry out a hydrological survey to determine the following aspects: 1-The size of groundwater reservoir. 2-The rate of removal of the water. 3-The time scale of the water application. The climatic conditions such as rainfall, potential evapotranspiration and temperature should be taken into consideration when carrying out the bioremediation treatment in the field as these climatic conditions affect the water requirements and the growth of grass. There are three options to apply the contaminated groundwater as follows : 1-To apply the contaminated groundwater at low or high volume depending on its level of nitrogen. 2-To blend well water with high level of nitrogen with well water with low level of nitrogen to achieve a realistic irrigation rate at a suitable nitrogen level. 3-To overirrigate in expectation that ammonium would be retained in the soil. The ryegrass used in this bioremediation treatment can be disposed of by incineration and landfilling the ash or landfilling the grass.