Evaluating the environmental-technology gaps of rice farms in distinct agro-ecological zones of Ghana

Open Access Journal; Published online: 8 April 2019Rice (Oryza sativa) is an important food staple and a cash crop, which is cultivated in all the ten regions of Ghana under varying agro-ecological conditions. These conditions also reflect the production technologies used and the total farm output. In an attempt to determine the potential sources of production shortfalls on rice farms in Ghana, this paper estimates the production efficiency and the environmental-technology gaps of rice-producing households in the forest-savannah transition and guinea savannah agro-ecological zones of Ghana. The paper adopts the stochastic metafrontier framework, which permits technology-related inefficiency effects to be extricated from managerial inefficiency effects for appropriate policy formulation. In contrast to past studies, the empirical findings reveal that farms in the two agro-ecological zones adopt heterogeneous production technologies due to differences in their production environments. This is indicated by the estimated mean environmental-technology gap ratios of 0.95 and 0.50, and mean metafrontier technical efficiencies of 0.56 and 0.42 for farms in the forest-savannah transition and guinea savannah zones, respectively. These findings call for agricultural policy formulation in Ghana to be targeted at the prevailing environmental conditions of the various agro-ecological zones rather than being all-inclusive in addressing the extant inefficiencies in the rice production systems of Ghana

Assessment of Nutritional Status in Children from Eastern Sudan

Background: Malnutrition is a very important risk factor leading illness and death in children worldwide.Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional status and relevant haematological and biochemical parameters in school children.Materials and Methods: Cross sectional study, was conducted in 120 (70 boys and 50 girls) school going children of 6-7 years of age, for the assessment of their nutritional status. The haemogloblin concentration (Hb%) was measured by equation method, packed cell volume (PCV) was estimated by scale of microhameatocrit reader, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) was calculated. Serum total protein, albumin, iron, total iron binding capacity and transferrin were measured by colorimetric methods. Weight (kg) and height (cm) were measured and body mass index was calculated. Data were analyzed using SPSS version13.0.Results: The mean values for hematological, biochemical and  anthropometrical measurements were much below the normal ranges. The anthropometric percentile measured in the children showed malnutrition cases in 32 (26.7%) and malnutrition and underweight in 73 (60.8%) while the body mass index showed underweight in males in 23 (19.2%) and in females 11 (9.2%).Conclusions: Malnutrition is common in our study population and was seen in 48.3 of children. It was accompanied by anaemia in 60.8 % of children.Key words: Biochemical parameters, Hematological parameters,  Anthropometric measurements, Nutritional status, Anemia

The architecture of the Sudanese agricultural sector and its contribution to the economy between 1990 and 2021

The paper reviews the performance of the Sudanese agricultural sector over the last three decades (1990 through 2021) and examines the drivers of that performance. Key findings show that the sector’s contribution to gross domestic product was greater during the 1990–1999 period than during the other two decades; agricultural productivity as well was higher in that decade than in the subsequent two decades. The sector has remained a major source of employment and livelihood. During the last decade reviewed (2010–2021), the sector regained its leading position as a generator of foreign currency. Public investment in agriculture and government spending allocated to the sector were lower than in other countries in the region. Political elites have generally lacked commitment to development plans in the sector. Political developments in Sudan have disrupted more recent efforts to revitalize the sector. Climate change, as manifested in rising temperature, declining rainfall, and drought, is a substantial determinant currently affecting the sector. The paper discusses some broad recommendations for improving the performance of the Sudanese agricultural sector

Computing quantum bound states on triply punctured two-sphere surface

We are interested in a quantum mechanical system on a triply punctured two-sphere surface with hyperbolic metric. The bound states on this system are described by the Maass cusp forms (MCFs) which are smooth square integrable eigenfunctions of the hyperbolic Laplacian. Their discrete eigenvalues and the MCF are not known analytically. We solve numerically using a modified Hejhal and Then algorithm, which is suitable to compute eigenvalues for a surface with more than one cusp. We report on the computational results of some lower-lying eigenvalues for the triply punctured surface as well as providing plots of the MCF using GridMathematica

Detection of multiple mycetoma pathogens using fungal metabarcoding analysis of soil DNA in an endemic area of Sudan

Mycetoma is a tropical disease caused by several fungi and bacteria present in the soil. Fungal mycetoma and eumycetoma are especially challenging to treat; therefore, prevention, early diagnosis, and early treatment are important, but it is also necessary to understand the geographic distribution of these pathogenic fungi. In this study, we used DNA metabarcoding methodology to identify fungal species from soil samples. Soil sampling was implemented at seven villages in an endemic area of Sennar State in Sudan in 2019, and ten sampling sites were selected in each village according to land-use conditions. In total, 70 soil samples were collected from ground surfaces, and DNA in the soil was extracted with a combined method of alkaline DNA extraction and a commercial soil DNA extraction kit. The region for universal primers was selected to be the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer one region for metabarcoding. After the second PCR for DNA library preparation, the amplicon-based DNA analysis was performed using next-generation sequencing with two sets of universal primers. A total of twelve mycetoma-causative fungal species were identified, including the prime agent, Madurella mycetomatis, and additional pathogens, Falciformispora senegalensis and Falciformispora tompkinsii, in 53 soil samples. This study demonstrated that soil DNA metabarcoding can elucidate the presence of multiple mycetomacausative fungi, which may contribute to accurate diagnosis for patient treatment and geographical mapping

Multiple Rotations of Gaussian Quadratures: An Efficient Method for Uncertainty Analyses in Large-Scale Simulation Models

Concerns regarding the impact of climate change, food price volatility, and weather uncertainty have motivated users of simulation models to consider uncertainty in their simulations. One way to do this is to integrate uncertainty components in the model equations, thus turning the model into a problem of numerical integration. Most of these problems do not have analytical solutions, and researchers, therefore, apply numerical approximation methods. This article presents a novel approach to conducting an uncertainty analysis as an alternative to the computationally burdensome Monte Carlo-based (MC) methods. The developed method is based on the degree three Gaussian quadrature (GQ) formulae and is tested using three large-scale simulation models. While a standard single GQ method often produces low-quality approximations, the results of this study demonstrate that the proposed approach reduces the approximation errors by a factor of nine using only 3.4% of the computational effort required by the MC-based methods in the most computationally demanding model

Why did Better Place fail?: Range anxiety, interpretive flexibility, and electric vehicle promotion in Denmark and Israel

With almost $1 billion in funding, Better Place was poised to become one of the most innovative companies in the electric mobility market. The system Better Place proposed had two novel prongs; first, to reduce the cost of batteries, and second, to reduce range anxiety, public infrastructure concerns, and long charging times. Yet, despite this seemingly strong combination, Better Place failed to make any progress in Denmark and Israel, the first two markets it operated in, and subsequently declared bankruptcy, selling off its collective assets for less than$500,000. Drawing from science and technology studies and the notion of “interpretive flexibility,” this paper posits several reasons to explain the failure of Better Place, including that Denmark is not as “green” as it seems nor is the Israeli market as attractive as believed, and that Better Place's solution to charging time and range anxiety resolved a psychological, not a functional, barrier of the general public to adopt electric vehicles. Before investigating these two reasons, the paper presents a short history of Better Place and explores the contours of its operations in Denmark and Israel. It then discusses why Better Place “failed” across both countries before concluding with implications for energy planning, policy, and analysis

The development of a novel diagnostic PCR for Madurella mycetomatis using a comparative genome approach

BACKGROUND: Eumycetoma is a neglected tropical disease most commonly caused by the fungus Madurella mycetomatis. Identification of eumycetoma causative agents can only be reliably performed by molecular identification, most commonly by species-specific PCR. The current M. mycetomatis specific PCR primers were recently discovered to cross-react with Madurella pseudomycetomatis. Here, we used a comparative genome approach to develop a new M. mycetomatis specific PCR for species identification. METHODOLOGY: Predicted-protein coding sequences unique to M. mycetomatis were first identified in BLASTCLUST based on E-value, size and presence of orthologues. Primers were then developed for 16 unique sequences and evaluated against 60 M. mycetomatis isolates and other eumycetoma causing agents including the Madurella sibling species. Out of the 16, only one was found to be specific to M. mycetomatis. CONCLUSION: We have discovered a predicted-protein coding sequence unique to M. mycetomatis and have developed a new species-specific PCR to be used as a novel diagnostic marker for M. mycetomatis

Insecticide resistance in the sand fly, Phlebotomus papatasi from Khartoum State, Sudan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Phlebotomus papatasi </it>the vector of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is the most widely spread sand fly in Sudan. No data has previously been collected on insecticide susceptibility and/or resistance of this vector, and a first study to establish a baseline data is reported here.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Sand flies were collected from Surogia village, (Khartoum State), Rahad Game Reserve (eastern Sudan) and White Nile area (Central Sudan) using light traps. Sand flies were reared in the Tropical Medicine Research Institute laboratory. The insecticide susceptibility status of first progeny (F1) of <it>P. papatasi </it>of each population was tested using WHO insecticide kits. Also, <it>P. papatasi </it>specimens from Surogia village and Rahad Game Reserve were assayed for activities of enzyme systems involved in insecticide resistance (acetylcholinesterase (AChE), non-specific carboxylesterases (EST), glutathione-S-transferases (GSTs) and cytochrome p450 monooxygenases (Cyt p450).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Populations of <it>P. papatasi </it>from White Nile and Rahad Game Reserve were sensitive to dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), permethrin, malathion, and propoxur. However, the <it>P. papatasi </it>population from Surogia village was sensitive to DDT and permethrin but highly resistant to malathion and propoxur. Furthermore, <it>P. papatasi </it>of Surogia village had significantly higher insecticide detoxification enzyme activity than of those of Rahad Game Reserve. The sand fly population in Surogia displayed high AChE activity and only three specimens had elevated levels for EST and GST.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The study provided evidence for malathion and propoxur resistance in the sand fly population of Surogia village, which probably resulted from anti-malarial control activities carried out in the area during the past 50 years.</p