Effect of Deficit Irrigation on Growth and Yield of Okro (Abelmoscus Esculentus)

The study was conducted to determine the effect of deficit irrigation on the growth and yield of the Dwarf Green Long Pod variety of okro (Abelmoschus esculentus). The location of the study was the School of Agriculture Research and Teaching farm of the University of Cape Coast,Cape Coast. Experimental design adopted for the study was the Randomised Complete Block Design and there were four (4) treatments which were replicated three times. Treatments one, two, three and four were the application of 100%, 80%, 70% and 60% of the amount of waterlost through evapotranspiration respectively. A daily irrigation water application was used. The study was conducted throughout the four growth stages of okro. The leaf area, number of pods per plant, pod weight, pod length and pod circumference were all measured at the various growth stages. Soil samples from the various treatment plots were analysed before and after 60 days of planting to determine the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (N, P, and K). Similarly, moisture contents were determined before planting, at the developmental and mid stage of growth. It was observed that treatment two which was the 80% application of ETc performed better than the others. It was also observed that the 60% application of ETC gave the poorest results. It can be concluded that irrigating with 80% of estimated water requirement, is the best application for okro.Keywords: Deficit irrigation, okro, water, yield, evapotranspiratio

Correspondence between HBT radii and the emission zone in non-central heavy ion collisions

In non-central collisions between ultra-relativistic heavy ions, the freeze-out distribution is anisotropic, and its major longitudinal axis may be tilted away from the beam direction. The shape and orientation of this distribution are particularly interesting, as they provide a snapshot of the evolving source and reflect the space-time aspect of anisotropic flow. Experimentally, this information is extracted by measuring pion HBT radii as a function of angle with respect to the reaction plane. Existing formulae relating the oscillations of the radii and the freezeout anisotropy are in principle only valid for Gaussian sources with no collective flow. With a realistic transport model of the collision, which generates flow and non-Gaussian sources, we find that these formulae approximately reflect the anisotropy of the freezeout distribution.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

A Contactless IoT-Based GPS-Tracked Waste Bin to Curb Medical Waste Infections in Ghana

Irregular checking of waste especially in some medical facilities of Ghana leads to overflow of waste. A study by World Health Organisation (WHO) in February 2018 indicates that 15% of the total waste collected from medical facilities may be infectious, toxic, or radioactive and may contribute to unintended release of chemical or biological hazards. Considering the present COVID-19 pandemic and other diseases like ebola and hantavirus, it is critical to properly manage waste collected from medical facilities. In this study, Internet of Things (IoT) is used to design a smart bin to help reduce user contact to waste. Using a flowchart, a schematic model of the system was developed using Proteus 8.11 software. Two HCSR04 ultrasonic sensors were used to measure the waste level in the bin and detect proximity of objects to the bin to trigger an MG996R servo motor for automatic operation of the lid of the waste bin having a monitoring system. A NEO-6M GPS module was used to determine the location of the waste bin and displayed on a 16x2 LCD. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) was created for remote monitoring of waste over the internet. An ESP32 node MCU was programmed using Arduino software and used to interface the system with the GUI. The designed system was constructed and incorporated into a rectangular-shaped plastic bin. During testing, a hand wave at the sensor on the side of the container triggered opening of the bin. Sample waste placed in the bin were detected and real-time information regarding waste levels were sent to a self-designed HTML webpage called ‘Smart Bin’ with dynamic IP address. This system could be used in health facilities to prevent medical waste overflow, limit human contact to waste and avoid spread of infections

Trichilia monadelpha Bark Extracts Inhibit Carrageenan-Induced Foot-Oedema in the 7-Day Old Chick and the Oedema Associated with Adjuvant-Induced Arthritis in Rats

Trichilia monadelpha (Thonn) JJ De Wilde (Meliaceae) bark extract is used in African traditional medicine for the management of various disease conditions including inflammatory disorders such as arthritis. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the anti-inflammatory properties of aqueous (TWE), alcoholic (TAE) and petroleum ether extract (TPEE) of T. monadelpha using the 7-day old chick-carrageenan footpad oedema (acute inflammation) and the adjuvant-induced arthritis model in rats (chronic inflammation). TWE and TPEE significantly inhibited the chick-carrageenan footpad oedema with maximal inhibitions of 57.79±3.92 and 63.83±12 respectively, but TAE did not. The reference anti-inflammatory drugs (diclofenac and dexamethasone) inhibited the chick-carrageenan-induced footpad oedema, with maximal inhibitions of 64.92±2.03 and 71.85±15.34 respectively. Furthermore, all the extracts and the reference anti-inflammatory agents (diclofenac, dexamethasone, methotrexate) inhibited the inflammatory oedema associated with adjuvant arthritis with maximal inhibitions of 64.41±5.56, 57.04±8.57, 62.18±2.56%, for TWE, TAE and TPEE respectively and 80.28±5.79, 85.75±2.96, 74.68±3.03% for diclofenac, dexamethasone and methotrexate respectively. Phytochemical screening of the plant bark confirmed the presence of a large array of plant constituents such as alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids, saponins, steroids, tannins and terpenoids, all of which may be potential sources of phyto-antiinflammatory agents. In conclusion, our work suggests that T. monadelpha is a potential source of antiinflammatory agents.Keywords: Antiinflammatory, Arthritis, Trichilia monadelpha, chick-carrageenan, phyto-antiinflammatory

Health-seeking behaviour of tuberculosis patients and related factors in the central region of Ghana

The health seeking behaviour of TB patients and health service related barriers have been cited to have an influence on the management of the disease in countries with high incidence of TB. Using close and open-ended questionnaires, an assessment of the health seeking behaviour of 302 TB patients selected from 24 DOTS centres in six districts in the Central  Region of Ghana was carried out. Under service-related barriers, distance from home to DOTS centre significantly impacted on the management of TB among sufferers (p=0.025). Though not significant, patients  acknowledged the good reception by staff at treatment centres with 99.3% of them being comfortable with staff and services provided at centres. Majority (46.7%) of patients perceived TB to be caused by the oral route while only 9.3% knew the causative agent to be bacteria. Compared with males, quite a number of women did not have adequate knowledge on TB (p<0.05). More than half of the respondents sought treatment elsewhere as first point of treatment before reporting to the DOTS centre. Health insurance played an important role in the health seeking behaviour of respondents; 45.9% of TB patients with health insurance visited the health facility as 1st provider whilst 49.4% without health insurance visited prayer camps (p=0.001). Our study has revealed that factors such as staff  attitude, distance to treatment centres, gender, employment and education are key factors that affect the health-seeking behaviour of TB patients in the Central Region of GhanaKeywords: Tuberculosis, Health, barriers, Central Regio

Quantification of the Greenland ice sheet contribution to Last Interglacial sea level rise

During the Last Interglacial period (~ 130–115 thousand years ago) the Arctic climate was warmer than today, and global mean sea level was probably more than 6.6 m higher. However, there are large discrepancies in the estimated contributions to this sea level change from various sources (the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and smaller ice caps). Here, we determine probabilistically the likely contribution of Greenland ice sheet melt to Last Interglacial sea level rise, taking into account ice sheet model parametric uncertainty. We perform an ensemble of 500 Glimmer ice sheet model simulations forced with climatologies from the climate model HadCM3, and constrain the results with palaeodata from Greenland ice cores. Our results suggest a 90% probability that Greenland ice melt contributed at least 0.6 m, but less than 10% probability that it exceeded 3.5 m, a value which is lower than several recent estimates. Many of these previous estimates, however, did not include a full general circulation climate model that can capture atmospheric circulation and precipitation changes in response to changes in insolation forcing and orographic height. Our combined modelling and palaeodata approach suggests that the Greenland ice sheet is less sensitive to orbital forcing than previously thought, and it implicates Antarctic melt as providing a substantial contribution to Last Interglacial sea level rise. Future work should assess additional uncertainty due to inclusion of basal sliding and the direct effect of insolation on surface melt. In addition, the effect of uncertainty arising from climate model structural design should be taken into account by performing a multi-climate-model comparison

Missed Opportunities for the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Ashanti and Western Regions of Ghana; Polymerase Chain Reaction, A Better Tool

The diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) has mainly relied on sputum microscopy and culture. The use of molecular techniques such as the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and its overwhelming advantages compared with conventional diagnostic methodologies cannot be overemphasized. The main aim of this work was to compare the diagnostic sensitivities of microscopy, culture and PCR. Suspected PTB sputum samples were prospectively collected from six hospitals in the Ashanti and Western regions of Ghana. Microscopy was carried out on all samples at the field sites. Apart from culture and PCR, repeat sputum microscopy was carried out in the laboratories of the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR). Out of the total 425 cases recruited for the study, 123 (29.0%) were smear positive on site in contrast to 275 (64.7%) positivity rate at KCCR. Regarding culture, 254 (59.9%) samples were culture positive whilst PCR technique using INS 1&2 and PR 8&9 primers were positive in 59.9 % and 56% of cases respectively. The proportion of missed positive cases of microscopy were 131 (51%) compared with culture and 1.1% missed cases when compared with PCR. The sensitivity and specificity of microscopy were 123/254 (48.4%) and 154/302 (50.99%). The study confirms the superiority of PCR in the diagnosis of PTB and indicates that a substantial proportion of PTB cases are missed when microscopy alone is used. In areas where the incidence of PTB is high and at referral hospitals, PCR can be done to augment the diagnosis of TB.Keywords: Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Sputum Microscopy, Culture, Polymerase Chain Reactio

Grain quality characteristics of imported rice in Ghana: Implications for breeding for consumer-preferred varieties

ABSTRACTRice is the fastest growing food source in Ghana. The country, however, imports about 70 per cent of its rice requirement due to low volumes of production and poor grain quality of domestic rice compared to imported ones.  In the study, 10 popular imported rice brands on the Ghanaian market were characterised for grain quality traits including grain dimensions, apparent amylose content, gelatinisation temperature, paste viscosity properties, and aroma using physiochemical properties and DNA markers. The rice brands came from Asia and the USA. The rice type from Asia was found to be Jasmine-styled aromatic long grained with low amylose content and gelatinisation temperature, whereas those of USA were conventional long grain with intermediate amylose content and gelatinisation temperature.  These findings were confirmed through DNA marker analyses, with the rice types from Asia and the USA revealing the presence of the TAC and GCC of the waxy gene SNP haplotypes, respectively. The implication for rice breeding in Ghana is discussed.Original scientific paper. Received 29 Oct. 14; revised 03 Aug 15

Observable implications of geometrical and dynamical aspects of freeze-out in heavy ion collisions

Using an analytical parameterization of hadronic freeze-out in relativistic heavy ion collisions, we present a detailed study of the connections between features of the freeze-out configuration and physical observables. We focus especially on anisotropic freeze-out configurations (expected in general for collisions at finite impact parameter), azimuthally-sensitive HBT interferometry, and final-state interactions between non-identical particles. Model calculations are compared with data taken in the first year of running at RHIC; while not perfect, good agreement is found, raising the hope that a consistent understanding of the full freeze-out scenario at RHIC is possible, an important first step towards understanding the physics of the system prior to freeze-out.Comment: 36 pages, 56 figures, 2 tables; version accepted for publication in PRC: some figures, references and discussion added; now also discusses classical versus quantum statistic

Application of a value chain approach to understanding white kenkey production, vending and consumption practices in three districts of Ghana

Traditional processing and street vending of foods is a vital activity in the informal sector of the Ghanaian economy and offers livelihood for a large number of traditional food processors. Kenkey is a fermented maize ‘dumpling’ produced by traditional food processors in Ghana. Ga and Fante kenkey have received research attention and there is a lot of scientific information on kenkey production. White kenkey produced from dehulled maize grains is a less known kind of kenkey. A survey was held in three districts of Ghana to study production, vending and consumption of white kenkey and to identify major bottlenecks related to production, which can be addressed in studies to re-package kenkey for a wider market. Questionnaires were designed for producers, vendors and consumers of white kenkey to collate information on Socio-cultural data, processing technologies, frequency of production and consumption, product shelf life, reasons for consumption and quality attributes important to consumers using proportional sampling. The survey was conducted in white kenkey production zones and trade centers. Results showed that production of white kenkey is done on small-scale levels by middle-aged women in households with 10-50 kg of dehulled maize processed into white kenkey, 1-3 times weekly. A third (28%) of the women processed up to 50-100 kg of maize per week. Although 62% of vendors sell 50-100 balls of white kenkey daily, 15% of them sell more than 170 balls. Majority of consumers (45.9%) liked white kenkey because of its convenience (ready-to-eat). Texture and taste were quality attributes desired by kenkey consumers. Producers did not have written records of process controls and product throughputs. Inspite of their cottage nature, production of white kenkey is a profitable employment for producers and vendors and is popular among consumers. Product improvement, process and product characteristics could offer scale-up criteria for development of white kenkey production using standardized procedures for steeping times, steeping temperature and fermentation times.Keywords: maize, white kenkey, value chain, traditional, product development, re-engineerin