Traditional Underground Grain Storage in Clay Soils in Sudan Improved by Recent Innovations

In the central clay plain of the Sudan, traditional subsistence farmers and small farmers that also produce for local markets want to keep the region near food self-sufficiency. They combine annual production of sorghum with underground pit storage of part of the harvest. With increasing climate variability this food security is coming more and more under pressure. Farmers recently experimented with pit innovations that would allow storage for more than one season. These innovations were quantified and further improvements were suggested. It was found that in the most abundantly occurring cracking clay soils, wide shallow pits, using thick chaff linings, with wider above ground soil caps, are most suitable for longer term storage

Adapted motivational interviewing to improve the uptake of treatment for glaucoma in Nigeria: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Glaucoma is a chronic eye disease associated with irreversible visual loss. In Africa, glaucoma patients often present late, with very advanced disease. One-off procedures, such as laser or surgery, are recommended in Africa because of lack of or poor adherence to medical treatment. However, acceptance of surgery is usually extremely low. To prevent blindness, adherence to treatment needs to improve, using acceptable, replicable and cost-effective interventions. After reviewing the literature and interviewing patients in Bauchi (Nigeria) motivational interviewing (MI) was selected as the intervention for this trial, with adaptation for glaucoma (MIG). MI is designed to strengthen personal motivation for, and commitment to a specific goal by eliciting and exploring a person's reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion. The aim of this study is to assess whether MIG increases the uptake of laser or surgery amongst glaucoma patients where this is the recommended treatment. The hypothesis is that MIG increases the uptake of treatment. This will be the first trial of MI in Africa. METHODS: This is a hospital based, single centre, randomized controlled trial of MIG plus an information sheet on glaucoma and its treatment (the latter being "standard care") compared with standard care alone for glaucoma patients where the treatment recommended is surgery or laser.Those eligible for the trial are adults aged 17 years and above who live within 200 km of Bauchi with advanced glaucoma where the examining ophthalmologist recommends surgery or laser. After obtaining written informed consent, participants will be randomly allocated to MIG plus standard care, or standard care alone. Motivational interviewing will be delivered in Hausa or English by one of two MIG trained personnel. One hundred and fifty participants will be recruited to each arm. The primary outcome is the proportion of participants undergoing laser or surgery within two months of the date given to re attend for the procedure. MIG quality will be assessed using the validated MI treatment integrity scale. DISCUSSION: Motivational interviewing may be an important tool to increase the acceptance of treatment for glaucoma. The approach is potentially scalable and may be useful for other chronic conditions in Africa. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN79330571 (Controlled-Trials.com)

THE IMPACT OF EXCHANGE RATES ON THE MEASUREMENT AND ACCOUNTING DISCLOSURE IN THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS IN COMMERCIAL BANKS IN JORDAN

The research aims to clarify the effect of exchange rates on the measurement and accounting disclosure in the financial statements in commercial banks in Jordan and the commitment of the commercial banks listed on the Amman Financial Market in Jordan to disclose the accounting on the translation differences foreign exchange earnings and the statement of the impact of changes in currency exchange rates on the elements of financial statements and also calls for IAS 21: the effects of changes in exchange rates and to identify the relationship between the changes of exchange rates and the elements of financial statements. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher used the descriptive method, analytical and interpretative as well as analysis of variance and display graphics, tables, illustrations to clarify the relationships between the variables of the study . The study found that the banks of Jordan is committed to applying the requirements of International Accounting Standard (No. 21): the effects of changes in exchange rates, for each of the translation of transactions denominated in foreign currencies and net investments in foreign subsidiaries and foreign operations which are complementary to the Bank's operations and the translation of vocabulary of the financial statements of foreign affiliates of the Bank, and disclosure requirements of the standard, showing results of the analysis study it. There is also a relationship between each of the earnings per share in commercial banks operating in Jordan and the volume of assets in commercial banks and shareholders equity and cash flows and profits of commercial banks and changes in exchange rates and are affected by. The researcher recommended the need to adhere to the application of IAS 21: the effects of changes in exchange rates and the rest of the criteria because of its importance is reflected on the financial statements and thus the resolution used in the decision-making banks and auditing firms to keep up with new developments in international standards, to take by changes in the the terms of the criteria for modernization, development and activating the role of financial statements in making rational decision, the need to do studies take into account the effects of changes in exchange rates on the financial statements in whole or in part, as well as the need for further studies that take into account the commitment of the Jordanian banks apply other standard

A transfer learning-based feature reduction method to improve classification accuracy

The need for efficient data use grows in machine learning algorithm for dataset with larger feature sets. Feature selection is the process of selecting minimum set of features that fully represent the learning problem. Transfer learning can motivate in scenario where we train model with the common problem and use it to identify important features needed to build model for target problem. In this thesis, we propose transfer learning algorithm combined with or without suggested features from experts, to learn from the source dataset and recognize important feature sets needed to train models in target dataset. Also, we compared this algorithm with classical machine learning algorithm with or without using the suggested features recommended by the experts. In series of experiment, it shows that our method is adequate to find the minimum feature sets which also outperformed then using only the suggested features by the experts. Furthermore, it also shows that the subsequent reduce in number of features in transfer learning method have better or almost same performance then using all the features of the dataset. We performed our experiments using heart disease, readmission dataset and BMI dataset

Toward an African-American critical pedagogy for liberation

This dissertation, as a qualitative study, focuses on critical pedagogy and dialogic teaching as seen through the lenses of dominant reconstructionist theorists. Perceived as essential for African-American education, critical pedagogy and dialogic teaching serve as analytical structures for defining education deficiencies and for proposing major pedagogical transformations, so that schools, colleges, and universities can more effectively fulfill the needs of students and American minorities. Such a mission entails an ideological examination of African-American insights on how American schools have failed this minority through the propagation of White hegemony and an investigation of pedagogical impediments facing African-Americans in traditional American schools. Likewise, it centers around analyses of critical educational theories, followed by the creation of an African-American critical pedagogy to enlighten and consider all people and their need for freedom, integrity, and equality. Because an African-American pedagogy seeks to liberate African- Americans from political and socio-economic oppression, it means taking risks to create a more just and equitable society and demands acknowledgement of education as a political, social, cultural, and moral enterprise, laying a pathway for chang

Hypervalent Iodonium Alkynyl Triflate Generated Phenylcyanocarbene and Its Reactivity with Aromatic Systems

Phenylcyanocarbene was generated by the reaction of azide with a hypervalent iodonium alkynyl triflate and reacted in situ with 21 different carbocyclic and heterocyclic aromatic compounds. These reactions led to more complex products that frequently underwent subsequent rearrangements. The reactivity was further explored in a mechanistic study to ascertain the chemoselectivity and stereospecificity

Palladium-Catalyzed Chemoselective Protodecarboxylation of Polyenoic Acids

Conditions for the first palladium-catalyzed chemoselective protodecarboxylation of polyenoic acids to give the desired polyenes in good yields are presented. The reactions proceed under mild conditions using either a Pd(0) or Pd(II) catalyst and tolerate a variety of aryl and aliphatic substitutions. Unique aspects of the reaction include the requirement of phosphines, water, and a polyene adjacent to the carboxylic acid

Decarboxylative and dehydrative coupling of dienoic acids and pentadienyl alcohols to form 1,3,6,8-tetraenes

Dienoic acids and pentadienyl alcohols are coupled in a decarboxylative and dehydrative manner at ambient temperature using Pd(0) catalysis to generate 1,3,6,8-tetraenes. Contrary to related decarboxylative coupling reactions, an anion-stabilizing group is not required adjacent to the carboxyl group. Of mechanistic importance, it appears that both the diene of the acid and the diene of the alcohol are required for this reaction. To further understand this reaction, substitutions at every unique position of both coupling partners was examined and two potential mechanisms are presented

Eliminating Malaria Vectors.

Malaria vectors which predominantly feed indoors upon humans have been locally eliminated from several settings with insecticide treated nets (ITNs), indoor residual spraying or larval source management. Recent dramatic declines of An. gambiae in east Africa with imperfect ITN coverage suggest mosquito populations can rapidly collapse when forced below realistically achievable, non-zero thresholds of density and supporting resource availability. Here we explain why insecticide-based mosquito elimination strategies are feasible, desirable and can be extended to a wider variety of species by expanding the vector control arsenal to cover a broader spectrum of the resources they need to survive. The greatest advantage of eliminating mosquitoes, rather than merely controlling them, is that this precludes local selection for behavioural or physiological resistance traits. The greatest challenges are therefore to achieve high biological coverage of targeted resources rapidly enough to prevent local emergence of resistance and to then continually exclude, monitor for and respond to re-invasion from external populations

Development and Utilization of a Palladium-Catalyzed Dehydration of Primary Amides To Form Nitriles

A palladium(II) catalyst, in the presence of Selectfluor, enables the efficient and chemoselective transformation of primary amides into nitriles. The amides can be attached to aromatic rings, heteroaromatic rings, or aliphatic side chains, and the reactions tolerate steric bulk and electronic modification. Dehydration of a peptaibol containing three glutamine groups afforded structure–activity relationships for each glutamine residue. Thus, this dehydration can act similarly to an alanine scan for glutamines via synthetic mutation