title: Grazing and feeding management to reduce urinary nitrogen excretion and enteric methane emissions while maintaining or increasing milk production

authors: Garrett, Konagh

abstract: Rising global population is driving the requirement for more sustainable food production. Although, pastoral milk production efficiency has improved to meet demand, the intensification of practices has simultaneously increased environmental footprint by increasing methane (CH₄) emissions and urinary nitrogen (UN) excretion. Therefore, design and evaluation of practical on farm mitigation methods are required. The objective of this thesis was to explore strategic feeding managements during early and late lactation, with the aim of reducing methanogenesis and UN excretion, while maintaining milk production.
For the purpose and objective of this work, the mechanistic and dynamic dairy cow model, MINDY (Gregorini et al., 2013, 2015, in press) was used. 
The first modelling experiment evaluated the effect of altering herbage allowance (HA) on dry matter intake (DMI), milk solids (MS), UN, and CH₄ production. As expected, greater HA increased DMI and MS production at a diminishing rate. Increased HA heightened consumption of fermentable carbohydrates and N containing compounds, resulting in greater emissions of both CH₄ and UN. However, with increased HA the emission intensity (g kg MS⁻¹) and CH₄ yield (g CH₄ kgDM⁻¹) declined. The results from this experiment agree with other studies and was used as a basis to add additional strategic feeding management in the following experiments.
The second experiment examined altering the time of herbage allocation to reduce methanogenesis and UN excretion while maintaining MS production. The treatments were a factorial arrangement of HA (as the first experiment) and time of pasture allocation either after the morning (AM) or afternoon (PM) milking. The PM treatments on average had a greater DMI (1.9 and 1.7%) and MS yield (2.3 and 0.7%) as compared to AM, in EL and LL respectively. The PM treatments also produced 5.1 and 3.6% more CH4 and 4.7 and 7.8% less UN in EL and LL, respectively. Altering the time of HA is a simple and cost-effective management practice to reduce the environmental footprint of productive grazing dairy cows.
Finally, supplementation strategies were evaluated on top of experiment two’s treatments by the addition of either maize silage (MZ), maize grain (MG), or barley grain (BG) fed either prior to AM, PM, or each milking. When allocated BG, MZ, and MG in the PM rather than the AM cows respectively consumed 0.2, 8.9, and 1.2% more DM in EL and 4.0, 11.0, and 2.5% more DM in LL. Consequently, PM allocation of BG, MZ, and MG resulted in production of 0.2, 2.2, and 0.3 % more MS in EL, and 1.7, 3.6, and 1.0 % greater in LL. Similarly, the PM supplement allocation on average excreted less UN and emitted more CH₄. However, the weak positive relationship between CH₄ and UN indicates potential to simultaneously reduce their production by altering the time of herbage and supplement allocation. 
Grazing and feeding management tools are inexpensive and easily integrated into practice yet aid in reaching both mitigation and production goals. Further empirical research is required to understand their usage under competitive grazing and use in conjunction with other mitigation techniques.

text: Grazing and feeding management to reduce urinary nitrogen excretion and enteric methane emissions while maintaining or increasing milk production Rising global population is driving the requirement for more sustainable food production. Although, pastoral milk production efficiency has improved to meet demand, the intensification of practices has simultaneously increased environmental footprint by increasing methane (CH₄) emissions and urinary nitrogen (UN) excretion. Therefore, design and evaluation of practical on farm mitigation methods are required. The objective of this thesis was to explore strategic feeding managements during early and late lactation, with the aim of reducing methanogenesis and UN excretion, while maintaining milk production.
For the purpose and objective of this work, the mechanistic and dynamic dairy cow model, MINDY (Gregorini et al., 2013, 2015, in press) was used. 
The first modelling experiment evaluated the effect of altering herbage allowance (HA) on dry matter intake (DMI), milk solids (MS), UN, and CH₄ production. As expected, greater HA increased DMI and MS production at a diminishing rate. Increased HA heightened consumption of fermentable carbohydrates and N containing compounds, resulting in greater emissions of both CH₄ and UN. However, with increased HA the emission intensity (g kg MS⁻¹) and CH₄ yield (g CH₄ kgDM⁻¹) declined. The results from this experiment agree with other studies and was used as a basis to add additional strategic feeding management in the following experiments.
The second experiment examined altering the time of herbage allocation to reduce methanogenesis and UN excretion while maintaining MS production. The treatments were a factorial arrangement of HA (as the first experiment) and time of pasture allocation either after the morning (AM) or afternoon (PM) milking. The PM treatments on average had a greater DMI (1.9 and 1.7%) and MS yield (2.3 and 0.7%) as compared to AM, in EL and LL respectively. The PM treatments also produced 5.1 and 3.6% more CH4 and 4.7 and 7.8% less UN in EL and LL, respectively. Altering the time of HA is a simple and cost-effective management practice to reduce the environmental footprint of productive grazing dairy cows.
Finally, supplementation strategies were evaluated on top of experiment two’s treatments by the addition of either maize silage (MZ), maize grain (MG), or barley grain (BG) fed either prior to AM, PM, or each milking. When allocated BG, MZ, and MG in the PM rather than the AM cows respectively consumed 0.2, 8.9, and 1.2% more DM in EL and 4.0, 11.0, and 2.5% more DM in LL. Consequently, PM allocation of BG, MZ, and MG resulted in production of 0.2, 2.2, and 0.3 % more MS in EL, and 1.7, 3.6, and 1.0 % greater in LL. Similarly, the PM supplement allocation on average excreted less UN and emitted more CH₄. However, the weak positive relationship between CH₄ and UN indicates potential to simultaneously reduce their production by altering the time of herbage and supplement allocation. 
Grazing and feeding management tools are inexpensive and easily integrated into practice yet aid in reaching both mitigation and production goals. Further empirical research is required to understand their usage under competitive grazing and use in conjunction with other mitigation techniques.

year: 2018

title: Cylindrical spikes

authors: Moughal, Muhammad Zubair Ali

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: The Geroch/Stephani transformation is a solution-generating transformation, and may generate spiky solutions. The spikes in solutions generated so far are either early-time permanent spikes or transient spikes. We want to generate a solution with a late-time permanent spike. We achieve this by applying Stephani's transformation with the rotational Killing vector field (KVF) of the locally rotationally symmetric Jacobs solution. The late-time permanent spike occurs along the cylindrical axis. Using a mixed KVF, the generated solution also features a rich variety of transient structures. We introduce a new technique to analyse these structures. Our findings lead us to discover a transient behaviour, which we call the overshoot transition. These discoveries compel us to revise the description of transient spikes.

text: Cylindrical spikes The Geroch/Stephani transformation is a solution-generating transformation, and may generate spiky solutions. The spikes in solutions generated so far are either early-time permanent spikes or transient spikes. We want to generate a solution with a late-time permanent spike. We achieve this by applying Stephani's transformation with the rotational Killing vector field (KVF) of the locally rotationally symmetric Jacobs solution. The late-time permanent spike occurs along the cylindrical axis. Using a mixed KVF, the generated solution also features a rich variety of transient structures. We introduce a new technique to analyse these structures. Our findings lead us to discover a transient behaviour, which we call the overshoot transition. These discoveries compel us to revise the description of transient spikes.

year: 2021

title: Ethnicity and deliberate self-injury: A review of the literature

authors: Wilson, Cate

subjects: Maori

abstract: Deliberate self-injury is a significant social problem affecting youth in New Zealand. Rates of
hospitalisation for youth (aged 15 to 19) from deliberate self-injury approximate 225 per
100,000. It appears that the rates for Maori and women are significantly higher. From 1987 to
1993, an average of 488 Maori women per 100 000 population have been hospitalised each
year (Ministry of Health: Manatu Hauora, 1996). This paper draws upon both local and
international literature to examine factors underlying this ethnic disparity.
There is a wealth of literature examining risk factors underlying suicidal behaviour as a whole.
Deliberate self-injury is usually assumed to be an adjunct of youth suicide; prevention
strategies are conflated. This paper argues that this assumption is untenable, and in particular,
that prevention strategies designed for youth suicide are problematic in terms of deliberate selfinjury.
While prevention strategies are based upon studies that do not differentiate between
these groups, results will be compromised.

text: Ethnicity and deliberate self-injury: A review of the literature Deliberate self-injury is a significant social problem affecting youth in New Zealand. Rates of
hospitalisation for youth (aged 15 to 19) from deliberate self-injury approximate 225 per
100,000. It appears that the rates for Maori and women are significantly higher. From 1987 to
1993, an average of 488 Maori women per 100 000 population have been hospitalised each
year (Ministry of Health: Manatu Hauora, 1996). This paper draws upon both local and
international literature to examine factors underlying this ethnic disparity.
There is a wealth of literature examining risk factors underlying suicidal behaviour as a whole.
Deliberate self-injury is usually assumed to be an adjunct of youth suicide; prevention
strategies are conflated. This paper argues that this assumption is untenable, and in particular,
that prevention strategies designed for youth suicide are problematic in terms of deliberate selfinjury.
While prevention strategies are based upon studies that do not differentiate between
these groups, results will be compromised.

year: 1999