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Many researchers have advocated for the establishment of grazing zones and pasture farming as one method of reducing conflict between farmers and herders. In most developing countries, pastures are harvested using manual means, which is tedious and time-consuming. As a result, a self-propelled forage harvester was developed. This research looks into the effects of forage plant moisture content, cutter bar cutting speed, and operating speed on the cutting and field efficiencies of the forage harvester. The experiment was based on a central composite rotatable design (CCRD). The machine's testing revealed that a combination of an operating speed of 2.4 km/h, a cutting speed of 55 m/min and forage plant moisture content of 55% yielded the highest cutting efficiency and field efficiency of 94.42% and 89.95%, respectively. The cutting efficiency was significantly (P≤0.001) affected by the cutting speed and the forage plant moisture content, whereas all the parameters significantly (P≤0.001) affected the field efficiency. The desirability function method in rsm was used to optimize the machine settings via numerical optimization. This resulted in a combination of 2.33 km/hr operating speed, 54 m/min cutting speed, and 67% plant moisture content (wb) that offered optimal values of cutting efficiency of 94.36% and field efficiency of 91.3%. The study's findings were used to establish harvester settings that would produce the best machine performance.

Septic critically ill children are at a high risk of inadequate antibiotic exposure, requiring them to undergo therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). The aim of this study was to describe the use of TDM for antibiotics in critically ill children.The authors conducted a single-center observational study between June and December 2019, with all children treated with antibiotics in a pediatric intensive care unit located in a French university hospital. Standard clinical and laboratory data were recorded. Blood samples were collected for routine laboratory tests, and plasma antibiotic levels were assayed using validated analytical methods.A total of 209 children received antibiotics. TDM was performed in 58 patients (27.8%) who had a greater mean organ dysfunction (according to the International Pediatric Sepsis Consensus Conference) (3 versus 1 in the non-TDM group; P0.05) and were treated with antibiotics for longer. A total of 208 samples were analyzed. The median [interquartile range] assay turnaround time was 3 (1-5) days, and 48 (46.2%) of the 104 initial antibiotic concentration values were below the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic targets. A total of 34 (46%) of the 74 off-target TDM measurements available before the end of the antibiotic treatment prompted dose adjustment. This dose adjustment increased the proportion of on-target TDM measurements (70% versus 20% without adjustment). Subsequent measurements of the minimum inhibitory concentration showed that the use of the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing's epidemiological cutoff values led to underestimation of pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic target attainment in 10 cases (20%).TDM seems to be an effective means of optimizing antibiotic exposure in critically ill children. This requires timely plasma antibiotic assays and minimum inhibitory concentration measurements. It is important to define which patients should undergo TDM and how this monitoring should be managed.

A screw conveyor is an important means of transporting grains from one location to the other, especially for the loading of maize into silos for storage from the shelling system. Hence, a 100 kg/hr. maize screw conveyor was designed and fabricated. The machine conveyed shelled maize from a developed maize sheller to a silo. The major component parts of the machine include the frame, rotor shaft, and the power transmission system. The machine was tested by varying the maize moisture content into four levels: 16%, 18%, 20%, and 22%. A moisture level of 16 % resulted in the highest conveying efficiency of 99.52 %, while a moisture content of 22 % resulted in the lowest conveying efficiency of 31.56 %. The recovery efficiency ranged from 64.5% to 99.8%. A moisture content of 16% yielded the highest conveying efficiency of 99.82%, while a moisture content of 22% yielded the lowest conveying efficiency of 64.51%. With the decrease in moisture content level, both the conveying and recovery efficiency have increased. The development of this machine will reduce post-harvest loss, increase production, and utilization. &nbsp