Assessing Factors Affecting Adherence to Safety Precautions in Pesticides Use among Cocoa Farmers in Nigeria

In addressing the problem of ill-health and risks associated with the use of pesticides, health and safety practices were advocated among cocoa farmers in the area. The study was therefore conducted to investigating safety options the farmers were aware of as well as the factors influencing their adherence to the safety precautions. Descriptive statistics and Ordered probit model were used to analysed data collected from 480 respondents using multi-stage sampling technique. Descriptive statistics revealed that the average age of the farmers was 54±12.5years. Farmers were aware of the use of eye glasses, nose mask, mouth cover, protective clothing, protective boot, hand glove as well as washing/bathing after application and disposing off chemical container but adopt only the protective boot, protective clothing and wash/bath after application. Farmers’ adherence to safety practices in the area was influenced by age, number of extension contact, cocoa income, livestock income as well as level of education. It is therefore important for development organisations and relevant government agencies to put in place policy thrust that would improve extension service, educate farmers as well as encourage them on the need to strictly adhere to Safety Precautions in Pesticides Use for efficiency and health of farmers.Key Words: Farmers, adherence, precautions, pesticides, cocoa, ordered probi

Mapping the quantitative trait loci (QTL) for body shape and conformation measurements on BTA1 in Japanese Black cattle

The detection and mapping of segregating quantitative trait loci (QTL) that influence withers height, hip height, hip width, body length, chest width, chest depth, shoulder width, lumbar width, thurl width, pin bone width, rump length, cannon circumference, chest girth, abdominal width and abdominal girth at weaning was conducted on chromosomal regions of bovine chromosome one. The QTL analysis was performed by genotyping half-sib progeny of five Japanese Black sires using microsatellite DNA markers. Probability coefficients of inheriting allele 1 or 2 from the sire at specific chromosomal locations were computed. The phenotypic data of progeny were regressed on these probability coefficients in a within-common-parent regression analysis using a linear model that included fixed effects of sex, parity and season of birth, as well as age as a covariate. F-statistics were calculated every 1 cM on a linkage map. Permutation tests of 10 000 iterations were conducted to obtain chromosome-wide significance thresholds. A significant QTL for chest width was detected at 91 cM in family 3. The detection of this QTL boosts the prospects of implementing marker-assisted selection for body conformation traits in Japanese Black beef cattle

Quinones and halogenated monoterpenes of algal origin show anti-proliferative effects against breast cancer cells in vitro

Red and brown algae have been shown to produce a variety of compounds with chemotherapeutic potential. A recent report described the isolation of a range of novel polyhalogenated monoterpene compounds from the red algae Plocamium corallorhiza and Plocamium cornutum collected off the coast of South Africa, together with the previously described tetraprenylquinone, sargaquinoic acid (SQA), from the brown algae Sargassum heterophyllum. In our study, the algal compounds were screened for anti-proliferative activity against metastatic MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells revealing that a number of compounds displayed anti-cancer activity with IC50 values in the micromolar range. A subset of the compounds was tested for differential toxicity in the MCF-7/MCF12A system and five of these, including sargaquinoic acid, were found to be at least three times more toxic to the breast cancer than the non-malignant cell line. SQA was further analysed in terms of its mechanism of cytotoxicity in MDA-MB-231 cells. The ability to initiate apoptosis was distinguished from the induction of an inflammatory necrotic response via flow cytometry with propidium iodide and Hoescht staining, confocal microscopy with Annexin V and propidium iodide staining as well as the PARP cleavage assay. We report that SQA induced apoptosis while a polyhalogenated monoterpene RU015 induced necrosis in metastatic breast cancer cells in vitro. Furthermore, we demonstrated that apoptosis induction by SQA occurs via caspase-3, -6, -8, -9 and -13 and was associated with down-regulation of Bcl-2. In addition, cell cycle analyses revealed that the compound causes G1 arrest in MDA-MB-231 cells