Planned, motivated and habitual hygiene behaviour: an eleven country review.

Handwashing with soap (HWWS) may be one of the most cost-effective means of preventing infection in developing countries. However, HWWS is rare in these settings. We reviewed the results of formative research studies from 11 countries so as to understand the planned, motivated and habitual factors involved in HWWS. On average, only 17% of child caretakers HWWS after the toilet. Handwash 'habits' were generally not inculcated at an early age. Key 'motivations' for handwashing were disgust, nurture, comfort and affiliation. Fear of disease generally did not motivate handwashing, except transiently in the case of epidemics such as cholera. 'Plans' involving handwashing included to improve family health and to teach children good manners. Environmental barriers were few as soap was available in almost every household, as was water. Because much handwashing is habitual, self-report of the factors determining it is unreliable. Candidate strategies for promoting HWWS include creating social norms, highlighting disgust of dirty hands and teaching children HWWS as good manners. Dividing the factors that determine health-related behaviour into planned, motivated and habitual categories provides a simple, but comprehensive conceptual model. The habitual aspects of many health-relevant behaviours require further study

Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS): A Fast-Track Tool in Tomato Breeding

Marker-assisted selection (MAS) is a complementary tool for conventional breeding where a molecular marker linked to a trait is indirectly selected. Many studies conducted have been able to identify and develop markers for traits such as disease and pest resistance and other abiotic stresses. Despite the availability of these markers, the technology has been extensively used in tomato breeding for the identification of some economic traits in particular disease resistance. In developed countries, MAS is utilized routinely in breeding programs, but this cannot be said for developing countries such as Africa. It is high time Africa as a continent looks at the importance of the technology and invests in it. In addition to MAS, other strategies such as marker-assisted backcrossing and recurrent selection have also been employed for breeding in tomato. The use of MAS in crop improvement will not only reduce the cost of developing new tomato varieties but will also increase the precision and efficiency of selection in the breeding program as well as lessen the number of years required to come up with a new crop variety

Watching of Occult Film and its Influence on African’s Supernatural Belief System; Specifically Ghana

Occult practices or issues surrounding occultism have been on the increase in Ghana, especially among the youth. It is believed that our belief system help nurture these practices when experienced through the propagating mediums. These propagating mediums are quite unclear however, suspected ones included access to the internet, occult materials and ‘perhaps’ movies. Hence, this study examined the influence of watching occult film on African’s supernatural belief system; specifically Ghana. The objective of this study was to examine whether occult film increases one’s supernatural belief system as compared to non-occult film; age, sex, and educational level differences exist in supernatural belief system.   Sixty-six subjects were sampled using stratified random sampling technique. Subjects were randomly assigned into either control or experimental group equally. Both control and experimental group subjects responded to a questionnaire (pre-test) and later watched a non-occult film and occult film respectively. They then answered the questionnaire again (post-test). The hypotheses were analysed using Correlated t test, Independent t test and One-Way ANOVA. The findings revealed that occult film significantly increases ones’ supernatural belief system as compared to non-occult film. However, there was no significant difference between ages, sexes, and educational levels on supernatural belief system. This implies that what we watch can influence our behaviour. Keywords: Occultism, Supernatural Belief System, Occult Film, Non-Occult Fil

Exploring Barrier-Free as a Catalyst to Smart Cities Initiatives in Sub Saharan Africa

The Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities both strive to make all cities and human settlements inclusive, safe and resilient without discrimination. Actions through policies, legislation and advocacy have been employed by Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) governments to achieve barrier free environments with little progress. Smart community initiatives can become a potential conduit for speeding the development of barrier free environments in these countries. The study thus explores the concept of barrier free as a catalyst in smarting communities’ initiatives in Africa. An exploratory mixed methods approach is used through the review of epistemological assumptions of smart communities and surveys of perceptions of people from the university community. Case studies of selected smart city initiatives and smart university campuses were reviewed, and KNUST (as a microcosm of a city) with a population of 50,000 was used as a case study. The study revealed the silent nature of current smart city characteristics on barrier free features whilst technology and people remain the backbone of inclusive smart community initiatives. Again most respondents are optimistic of its success in SSA, though cautioning its cost. A low smart index score of 36.9 was recorded on the KNUST Campus. This study provides vital data to policy makers on implementation of integrated barrier free and smart community initiatives in Sub-Sahara Africa

Evaluating the level of physical transformation of houses in gated communities in Ghana

The upsurge of real estate housing within Accra has resulted in all manner of gated communities springing up across the city scape. These seek to provide housing services to the desperate urban dweller. The quality of their services has however been brought to question due to lack of a proper regulatory body to oversee their work. Recent studies indicate the emergence of physical transformations. This research sought to investigate the conditions and reasons underlying these housing transformations. A case study approach, with a mix of both qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted in determining the conditions of the houses. The relative important index was also used in ranking the various factors that led to these physical transformations. The study revealed that 41% of the houses have undergone transformations with external works, fenetrations, and mechanical and engineering services being most parts affected. Major reasons given for transformation were poor ventilation and lighting. The study recommends amongst others that the government should institute a special regulatory body backed by law with regular assessment from the occupants in order to check the performance of real estate developers.Keywords: Gated community, real estates, physical transformation, housin

Performance based grouping of adapted and exotic drought tolerant maize (Zea mays L) inbred lines under stressed and nonstressed conditions

Knowledge of the heterotic responses of elite adapted and exotic maize inbred lines can facilitate their utilization for population improvement and hybrid development. In the present study, a line x tester mating design was used to determine the combining ability of 20 elite drought-tolerant maize inbred lines developed at CIMMYT and IITA and to classify them into heterotic groups under diverse growing conditions. The 20 lines were crossed each with two inbred line testers representing the tropical and temperate heterotic pattern established in West and Cental Africa (WCA), to generate 40 testcrosses. A trial comprising the 40 testcrosses along with the cross between the two testers and three hybrid checks were evaluated at two environments in the dry season and at six environments in the rainy season. GCA effects were more important than SCA effects in controlling grain yield in both seasons. Two exotic lines in the dry season and four exotic lines in the rainy season had significantly positive GCA effects. Only EXL22 was identified as a superior line in the two seasons. Only two adapted lines had significantly positive GCA effects in either or both seasons while three adapted lines consistently had significantly negative GCA effects in both seasons. Hybrid between EXL22 and tester 9071 showed broad adaptation to all test environments. The two testers separated some of the lines into two main heterotic groups. the lines in each heterotic group and the good combiners will be utilized for developing populations for extracting new improved inbred lines

Induction of Isochromanones by Co-Cultivation of the Marine Fungus Cosmospora sp. and the Phytopathogen Magnaporthe oryzae

Microbial co-cultivation is a promising approach for the activation of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) that remain transcriptionally silent under artificial culture conditions. As part of our project aiming at the discovery of marine-derived fungal agrochemicals, we previously used four phytopathogens as model competitors in the co-cultivation of 21 marine fungal strains. Based on comparative untargeted metabolomics analyses and anti-phytopathogenic activities of the co-cultures, we selected the co-culture of marine Cosmospora sp. with the phytopathogen Magnaporthe oryzae for in-depth chemical studies. UPLC-MS/MS-based molecular networking (MN) of the co-culture extract revealed an enhanced diversity of compounds in several molecular families, including isochromanones, specifically induced in the co-culture. Large scale co-cultivation of Cosmospora sp. and M. oryzae resulted in the isolation of five isochromanones from the whole co-culture extract, namely the known soudanones A, E, D (1-3) and their two new derivatives, soudanones H-I (4-5), the known isochromans, pseudoanguillosporins A and B (6, 7), naphtho-γ-pyrones, cephalochromin and ustilaginoidin G (8, 9), and ergosterol (10). Their structures were established by NMR, HR-ESIMS, FT-IR, electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectroscopy, polarimetry ([α]D), and Mosher’s ester reaction. Bioactivity assays revealed antimicrobial activity of compounds 2 and 3 against the phytopathogens M. oryzae and Phytophthora infestans, while pseudoanguillosporin A (6) showed the broadest and strongest anti-phytopathogenic activity against Pseudomonas syringae, Xanthomonas campestris, M. oryzae and P. infestans. This is the first study assessing the anti-phytopathogenic activities of soudanones

Molecular and phenotypic profiling of white Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata) breeding lines.

Open Access JournalPhenotypic and genotypic profiling helps identify genotypes with suitable and complementary traits for genetic improvement in crops. A total of 32 traits were assessed in 36 genotypes of white Guinea yam established in a 6 × 6 triple lattice design. The objective was to evaluate an array of plant traits that define the genetic merits of breeding lines for yam improvement. Different analytical tools were used to identify and prioritize relevant traits defining the genetic merits of breeding lines in the yam improvement program. Out of the 32 traits measured, the linear combination of 14 traits that minimize within-group variance and maximize between-group variance for discriminating the genetic values of yam breeding lines were identified. When best linear unbiased prediction with genomic relationship matrix (GBLUP) was used, the accuracies of genomic breeding values were higher (r=0.87 to 0.97) for the seven traits (dry matter content, intensity of flesh oxidization of shredded tuber, pasting temperature, pasting time, tuber flesh colour, yam mosaic virus and fresh tuber yield) with high broad-sense heritability values (H2m>0.6). While, for the remaining seven traits with low (H2m<0.3) to medium (H2m=0.3 to 0.54) broad-sense heritability values, the accuracies of genomic estimated breeding values (GEBV) were low (r<0.4) to medium (r=0.4-0.8). The genotype–trait (GT) biplot display revealed superior clones with desirable genetic values for the key traits. These results are relevant for parental selection aimed at improving key agronomic traits in white Guinea yam

Genetic parameter estimation and selection in advanced breeding population of white Guinea yam

Published online: 01 Mar 2021White Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata Poir.) is an important tuber crop grown extensively in tropical regions of West African yam belt. Tuber yield, dry matter content, and tolerance to yam mosaic virus are key traits used for identification and selection of superior varieties for commercial deployment. In this study, we estimated genetic parameters for fresh tuber yield, tuber dry matter content, and quantitative field tolerance to yam mosaic virus in 49 clones grown in multi-environment trials (METs). We conducted genomic prediction involving 6337 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and phenotypic field evaluation of data collected on the three traits from four sites. Additive genetic and non-genetic factors contributed significantly to phenotypic variation of studied yam traits in METs but to varying degrees. The non-genetic effects were relatively high for most of the measured traits. Narrow-sense heritability values were low (<0.30) for all studied traits. Further analysis of the performance of the clones at test sites with additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis exhibited significant genotype by environment interactions (GEI) for the three traits. The AMMI identified TDr10/00412, TDr11/00055, and TDr09/00135 clones with lowest mean trait stability index and outstanding performance for fresh tuber yield (t ha−1), tuber dry matter, and mosaic virus resistance across sites. The elite clones identified could serve as useful source of alleles for the genetic improvement of the crop and possibly considered for release to farmers

Review: Inelastic Constitutive Modeling: Polycrystalline Materials

This article provides a literature review that details the development of inelastic constitutive modeling as it relates to polycrystalline materials. This review distinguishes between inelastic constitutive models that account for nonlinear behavior at the microstructural level, time-independent classic plasticity models, and time-dependent unified models. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the underlying theoretical framework for unified viscoplasticity models where creep and classical plasticity behavior are considered the result of applied boundary conditions instead of separable rates representing distinct physical mechanisms. This article establishes a clear understanding of the advantages of the unified approach to improve material modeling. This review also discusses recent topics in constitutive modeling that offer new techniques that bridge the gap between the microstructure and the continuum