Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) analysis of wild and cultivated rice species from Ethiopia

The genetic diversity of three wild rice populations of Ethiopia along with three cultivated rice populations were studied using Inter simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) as a molecular marker. A total of 93 clear and reproducible bands were generated using four dinucleotides and two tetra nucleotides primers. Both UPGMA and neighbor joining trees were constructed for each individual and population using Jaccard’s similarity coefficient. The trees and PCO clearly indicated six distinct groups which are based on populations of origin. Oryza glaberrima, Oryza sativa and NERICA-3 clustered as a major group while Oryza barthii and Oryza longistaminata were clustered as the second major group. Such clustering of O. glaberrima with O. sativa and NERICA-3 is considered to be due to genetic admixture of O. glaberrima with O. sativa. The over all gene diversity and percent polymorphisms were found to be higher in wild rice (0.14; 38.3 respectively) than in cultivars (0.11; 28.3 respectively). The Shannon’s diversity index also confirmed the existence of higher diversity in wild rice populations than cultivated species. Furthermore, partitioning of the Shannon’s diversity showed that the majority of the variations were observed among population (63%). Similarly, AMOVA demonstrate highly significant (P = 0.00) genetic differences among populations (72.9) than within populations (27.1).Key words: Genetic diversity, wild rice populations, cultivated rice, Oryza sativa, Oryza glaberrima, NERICA, ISSR

Brane Couplings from Bulk Loops

We compute loop corrections to the effective action of a field theory on a five-dimensional $S_1/Z_2$ orbifold. We find that the quantum loop effects of interactions in the bulk produce infinite contributions that require renormalization by four-dimensional couplings on the orbifold fixed planes. Thus bulk couplings give rise to renormalization group running of brane couplings.Comment: 10 pages, Latex with pictex figure

Assessment of awareness on food borne zoonosis and its relation with Veterinary Public Health Services in and around Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

A survey qualitative survey was conducted to assess the awareness on food borne zoonosis and its relation with Veterinary Public Health Services in Addis Ababa and its surrounding districts from November 2008 to May 2009. Structured questionnaire was used in the study. Questionnaires were distributed to 384 individuals, of which 196 were elementary and high school students, and 196 were Graduates. Factors like education level, information source and profession were considered for possible explanation of the results. The use of inspected animal products is found statistically different (P<0.05) among health and non health professionals while no difference is seen between students and graduates. The majority (85.42%) of the students get their information from other information sources like their families in the form of advice and 67.71% of health professionals get their information from their medical schools. The most frequently mentioned zoonotic diseases were Rabies 384(100 %), followed by Anthrax 362(94.27%), Teniasis 342 (89.06%), Tuberculosis 340 (88.54%) and Brucellosis 190(49.48%) and 120(31.25%) mentioned other infectious diseases of zoonotic importance. The importance of veterinary public health in the overall public health institutions was assessed by looking at the responses to questions and shown that yet the public health institutions don’t see the need of having veterinarians in the public health. In conclusion this study demonstrated that the awareness and use of inspected and packed animal products is relatively low that expose the people to risk of food borne pathogens and the awareness of health institutes on the importance of veterinary public health service is relatively low. The authors would like to recommend to the government and concerned bodies to raise the awareness of the public using the appropriate communication media, and to strengthen the contribution of public health veterinarians in the public health services for better community health

Medication Non-Adherence among Adult Psychiatric Out-patients in Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia

Background: Information on adherence of adult psychiatric patients to biological modes of treatment is scarce in Ethiopia. Knowledge on adherence is essential in terms of future prognosis, quality of life and functionality of such patients. This study was conducted to assess the magnitude and associated factors of non-adherence to medication.Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted in November 2011 at the psychiatry facility of Jimma University Specialized Hospital, which provides service to more than 10 mill people. A sample of 422 adults with psychiatric illness in the follow-up outpatients was selected consecutively. Data was collected using a pre-tested questionnaire by face-to-face interview and from patient medical records. The four-item Morisky scale was used to assess degree of medication adherence. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 16 and descriptive, chi-square test and logistic regression statistical methods were used. P-Value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant in the final model.Results: Out of the 422 patients, 40.3% were females and 59.7% males. The prevalence rate for nonadherence was 41.2%, non-affective psychoses diagnosis contributing the highest rate (44.5%). From the total non-adherent respondents, 78.2% attributed their non-adherence to forgetting. Irregular follow-up, poor social support and complex drug regimen were independently associated variables with nonadherence.Concluction: The result of the study showed that non-adherence among psychiatric patients in Southwest Ethiopia is high and revealed possible associated factors. Adherence needs integrated efforts in creating a mechanism in enhancing regular follow-up, informal social support system and ongoing awareness creation among professionals.Keywords: mental illness, non-adherence, Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Ethiopi

Fe–Al binary oxide nanosorbent: Synthesis, characterization and phosphate sorption property

Phosphorous removal using efficient treatment approach such as adsorption is vital for the control of eutrophication. In this study, nanosized Fe-Al binary oxide sorbent was synthesized through a modified gel evaporation method and employed for adsorption of phosphate from aqueous system. The nanosorbent was characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope coupled with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), tunneling electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS). Langmuir model showed the best fit to the experimental data with a maximum adsorption efficiency of 16.4 mg/g. Having all parameters optimized, it has been found that the nanosorbent exhibited 99.86% phosphate adsorption efficiency. The effect of co-existing anions on the adsorption of phosphate was also studied and no significant effect on the efficiency of the nanosorbent was observed due to competing ions such as fluoride. Desorbabilty of phosphate was investigated and found to be increased with increasing pH. The results of thermodynamic studies indicated that the process is spontaneous and endothermic. Both macroscopic and microscopic approaches were employed to predict the mechanism of phosphate adsorption on the Fe-Al binary oxide nanosorbent. Accordingly, the phosphate adsorption is presumed to occur via the replacement of surface hydroxyl groups by the phosphate species and formation of inner-sphere surface complexes at the water/oxide interfac

N=1 Supersymmetric SU(2)rSU(2)^r Moose Theories

We study the quantum moduli spaces and dynamical superpotentials of four dimensional $SU(2)^r$ linear and ring moose theories with $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetry and link chiral superfields in the fundamental representation. Nontrivial quantum moduli spaces and dynamical superpotentials are produced. When the moduli space is perturbed by generic tree level superpotentials, the vacuum space becomes discrete. The ring moose is in the Coulomb phase and we find two singular submanifolds with a nontrivial modulus that is a function of all the independent gauge invariants needed to parameterize the quantum moduli space. The massive theory near these singularities confines. The Seiberg-Witten elliptic curve that describes the quantum moduli space of the ring moose is produced.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figures. A few comments and references added. To appear in PR

NUMERICAL STUDY TO PREDICT PROPERTIES OF WAXY CRUDE OIL UNDER DYNAMIC COOLING

In this paper, a parametric study was conducted via ANSYS-Fluent workbench to predict the properties of waxy crude oil subjected to dynamic cooling. Different case studies were conducted to validate the numerical study, and prediction of temperature for pipelines of up to 100 m length was made. It was observed that the percentage difference between the experimental and simulation results was below 20%. The temperature drop was smaller with a higher flow rate, with the temperature dropping from 350K to 338K in an uninsulated pipe of 100 m length. The temperature drop for lower flow rate could be considered significant to reach wax appearance temperature during dynamic cooling. This study would be a supporting step to involve simulation in predicting the properties of waxy crude oil in different pipe sizes

IMPACT OF NUMBER OF ATTRIBUTES ON THE ACCURACY OF HUMAN MOTION CLASSIFICATION

The quality of the human motion data faces challenges in producing high classification accuracy in large data streams for essential knowledge discovery. This reflects the need to identify the key factors that affect the results of classification. Present studies merely focus on estimating joints, skeleton and motions of human activities. However, the effect of the number of attributes towards classification accuracies of human motion has not been discussed. Therefore, this paper is aimed at determining the amount of attributes that affect the qualities of human motion classification. The case studies involve simple locomotion activities: jumping, walking and running retrieved from the public available domain. The raw video data were transformed into numeric in the form of x and y-coordinates and rotation angles as to be tested from a single up to triple combinations of data attributes. The impact of the number of attributes on classification accuracy is evaluated via Bayes, Function, Lazy, Meta, Rule and Trees classifier algorithms supported by the WEKA tool. Results revealed that three attributes data gave the best classification performance with an average accuracy of 81.50%. The findings also revealed that the number of attribute is directly proportional to the classification accuracy of human motion data

Chiral fermions, orbifolds, scalars, and fat branes

We note that orbifold boundary conditions that produce chiral fermion zero modes in compactified higher dimensional theories may distort scalar field vacuum expectation values, giving rise to nontrivial dependence on the extra dimensions. We illustrate this in a simple five dimensional model which has chiral fermion zero-modes stuck to fat branes. The model could provide a simple and explicit realization of the separation of quarks and leptons in the fifth dimension. We discuss the KK expansion in some detail. We find that there are in general non-zero-mode states stuck to the brane, like the chiral zero modes. We see explicitly the transition from states dominated by the internal structure of the fat brane to those dominated by the compactification.Physic