Effect of vine harvesting regimes on root proximate composition of three sweetpotato varieties

A common practice among sweetpotato farmers is the pruning of vines for sale in a field cultivated for root production. While the effects of such practice on root and shoot yields have been extensively investigated, little or no information is available on the effect of the practice on nutritional (proximate) composition of the fresh roots produced. To generate such important information to adequately advise the many farmers that engage in such practice, an experiment was conducted using three popular sweetpotato varieties and four cutting regimes (0, 6, 8 and 10 weeks after planting (WAP). All the normal agronomic practices were observed to ensure adequate plant growth. The three varieties, four pruning regimes and their interactions showed significant (p<0.05) differences for each proximate composition. While pruning led to reduction in root dry matter and carbohydrate contents in Ex-Igbariam and King J varieties, both nutritional components were enhanced by pruning in the Mother’s Delight variety. However, among the pruning regimes, clear trend of increasing root dry matter and carbohydrate contents were observed in King J as the weeks after planting increased. Root carbohydrate of Mother’s Delight reduced as pruning was delayed. Early or no pruning favoured root crude protein accumulation in Ex-Igbariam. In King J and Mother’s Delight, late vine pruning was better for crude protein. The results for ash, crude fibre and fat contents, the relationships among the root proximate content, and the best time to prune each popular variety to achieve higher content of each proximate composition are discussed in the paper.Keywords: Sweetpotato, vine pruning regime, proximate composition, and correlatio

EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF NEXUS AMONG MARKETING ORIENTATION, ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND FIRM PERFORMANCE

This study was carried out to ascertain the strength of the link among marketing orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. The objectives of the study include: to examine the effects of entrepreneurial orientation on the performance of the firm, to examine the degree of the relationship between market orientation and performance of the firm, to determine the effect of entrepreneurial marketing on the performance of the firm, to examine the degree of the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation, to determine the effect of entrepreneurial marketing and market orientation, to determine the effect of entrepreneurial marketing and entrepreneurial orientation. The study is restricted to employees of the selected firms. While regression was used to test the four hypotheses for this study. The core findings from the result obtained revealed that entrepreneurial marketing implementation was found to be effective in increasing the company’s market share as well as improving their competitive position in the industry, it was found that entrepreneurial marketing plays a crucial role in achievements of the firm’s performance and marketing goals. It was recommended that entrepreneurial and marketing orientation should be inculcated by employees to promote employee performance thereby culminating into the overall firm performance

ASSESSING THE INFLUENCE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION ON SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES’ PERFORMANCE

This study set out to assessing the influence of entrepreneurial orientation and SMEs’ performance. A descriptive research design was adopted to gather information from registered SMEs as captured by Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria. The data gathered were sourced via the administration of structured questionnaire to 436 owner-managers of SMEs. The study employed the use of structural equation modelling of AMOS 22 to test the hypothesis. The results from statistical analysis indicates a significant impact from all dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation, such as business opportunity, inclusive innovation, dynamic operations, value adding activity, risk taking and innovative decisions have significant influence on SMEs performanc

ROLE OF LEARNING ORIENTATION ON SMEs’ PERFORMANCE: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM SMEs IN NIGERIA

This study set out to investigate the role of learning orientation and SMEs’ performance. A descriptive research design was adopted to gather information from registered SMEs as captured by Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria. The data gathered were sourced via the administration of structured questionnaire to 436 owner-managers of SMEs. The study employed the use of standard multiple regression analysis to test the hypothesis. The results from statistical analysis indicates that Among the diverse dimensions of learning orientation that were adopted for this study, the greatest and most significant influence came from new strategy, innovative products and new knowledge sharing. Consequently, the research results points to the fact that SMEs operators and managers should focus on continuous learning that emphasizes the capability of the firm and its members to understand and adapt to the competitions in its chosen product-market through dynamic strategies that can achieve and sustain their firms’ competitive position

THE IMPACT OF NEUROTIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES

The development of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) is paramount to the survival of many nations. The personalities of the entrepreneur are a major determinant for growth and improve business performance. Among the big five personality traits, understanding of the neurotic nature of entrepreneur’s portrait a fundamental negative effect on performance to so many. This paper investigates the impact of neuroticism entrepreneurship on business performance. 245 copies of questionnaire were retrieved from guild of entrepreneurs in their monthly meeting. Statistic package for social science (SPSS), regression and correlation analysis were used to analyze and measure the relationship and strength of the impact of neurotic entrepreneur and business performance. Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used to confirm the model fit. The result shows a plethora and educative revelations about the inherent traits of the entrepreneurs and what implication it holds for the development of the entrepreneurial activities. The study recommended appropriately how the policy of the government should be all inclusive to promote continuous education and skill development to increase on personality traits of practising and would-be entrepreneurs

Noxious to ecosystems, but relevant to pharmacology : four South African alien invasive plants with pharmacological potential

Alien invasive plants pose a huge threat to natural and semi-natural ecosystems in their introduced ranges thereby compromising ecosystem integrity. However, anecdotal and empirical evidence suggests that some invasive alien plants are used in traditional medicine due to their pharmacological activities. Here, we evaluated the antimicrobial activity of 70% ethanol, dichloromethane, acetone and hot water extracts of four invasive alien plants in South Africa viz. Dolichandra unguis-cati, Cardiospermum grandiflorum, Chromolaena odorata and Gomphrena celosioides against pathogenic and non-pathogenic microbes. The test organisms included Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium), Salmonella Dublin, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Mycobacterium aurum, M. fortuitum, M. smegmatis, Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus and Cryptococcus neoformans. Phytochemicals that may be responsible for antimicrobial activity were determined using standard phytochemical methods. A further objective was to investigate the safety of these plants by conducting cytotoxicity and genotoxicity tests. All solvent extracts of plants investigated exhibited a broad spectrum of antibacterial activity with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging from 0.039 to 2.5 mg/ml, with the acetone and dichloromethane extracts showing better activity against E. coli, K. pneumoniae and E. faecalis (MIC between 0.039 and 0.078 mg/ml). Of all extracts tested, only the ethanol extracts of C. grandiflorum showed good antimycobacterial activity with MIC of 0.078 mg/ml against M. smegmatis. In contrast, C. grandiflorum only showed moderate antifungal activity, while dichloromethane and acetone extracts of the other three plants were very effective against C. neoformans and A. fumigatus with MIC values ranging from 0.019 to 0.078 mg/ml. All four plants moderately inhibited C. albicans at MIC of 0.156 mg/ml. The plant species were rich in phenolics, flavonoids and tannins in varying amounts and had relatively low levels of cytotoxicity and none was mutagenic. Promising selectivity index values (between 10 and 50) highlight the potential of these plant species as sources of antimicrobial remedies. Despite the ecological noxiousness of these alien invasive plants, our findings suggest that they possess some antimicrobial properties that are too pharmacologically relevant to ignore.AGO is grateful to the National Research Foundation-The World Academy of Science (NRF-TWAS) for the provision of a PhD grant. The NRF is also acknowledged for providing research funding to LJM (Grant No 105993).http://www.elsevier.com/locate/sajb2019-07-01hj2019Paraclinical Science