OBJECTIVES To determine the leptospirosis seroprevalence and to identify the predominant infecting serovars among oil palm plantation workers. METHODS The cross-sectional study involved 350 asymptomatic oil palm plantation workers in Melaka and Johor. A serological test using the microscopic agglutination test was conducted in the Institute of Medical Research with a cut-off titre for seropos...

Between May 2002 and May 2003, we studied a small mammal community from an Atlantic forest fragment surrounded by a coffee plantation in the municipality of Santa Teresa, Espírito Santo state, Brazil. We obtained a total of 300 captures of 114 individuals belonging to 11 mammal species. Seventy three percent of the species captured in the forest also used the coffee plantation, mainly males (90...

About one million hectares of plantation hardwoods, mostly eucalyptus trees of different sub-species (E. nitens and E. globulus), are annually being managed in Australia, which provides a promising resource of raw materials for fibre industries. However, the timber boards required by the Australian hardwood sector are still being either imported from other countries or harvested from the native...

Understanding soil microbial communities in agroecosystems has the potential to contribute to the improvement of agricultural productivity and sustainability. Effects of conversion from long-term wheat plantation to Jerusalem artichoke (JA) plantation on soil fungal communities were determined by amplicon sequencing of total fungal ITS regions. Quantitative PCR and PCR-denaturing gradient gel e...

A mangrove plantation as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project is expected as a sink of greenhouse gases, because of their large CO2 sequestration ability of high primary productivity. The method for estimating the amount of carbon stock after plantation was essential for a planning of a mangrove CDM project. However, there is often no information about tree planting year and planting reg...

An assessment of the oil palm plantation management and fruit supply, under the Indian contract-growers scheme was conducted in this study. Data was collected from about 96 plantations on the age of plantation, size of plantation, cost of establishment, maintenance practices and cost , yield of fresh fruit bunches, profitability of the scheme for the farmers and so on. It was observed that most...

The clearing land or clearing of oil palm plantations needs stakeholders‟ involvement in decision making, such as the role of government group, environmentalists, investors and the agricultural community groups from non-governmental organizations (NGO). This paper discusses about the Group Decision Support (GDS) that can be used for Oil Palm Plantation Land Clearing cases involving various stak...

This study assessed the moulding, drilling, turning, sanding, and routing properties of seven plantation-grown hardwood species from southeast Australia to evaluate their potential as a resource for the manufacture of high quality furniture and furnishings. Eucalyptus grandis, Eucalyptus saligna, Corymbia maculata, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Eucalyptus sideroxylon, Eucalyptus cladocalyx, and Euc...

A method for estimating risk ratios of wind damage for Pinus thunbergii trees and stands was developed based on stem bending theory and coefficients characterizing wind profiles (attenuation coefficients wtr, wst for single tree and stand respectively), distribution of branches (constant ac) and optical stratification porosity (OSP) (extinction coefficient ec). For individual trees, if acs equa...