In-vitro proliferation of Musa balbisiana improves with increased vitamin concentration and dark culturing

Musa balbisiana is a wild banana genotype with important traits such as drought tolerance and disease resistance. Uniform and clean plants are often required to study these traits in different laboratories but plants can only be generated through a tissue culture process yet for a long time a protocol for regeneration of the same has not been available. Here, we demonstrate that modification of the anti-oxidant content of the in- vitro plant proliferation medium through adjusting the concentration of ascorbic acid and thiamine HCl in the basal MS medium together with subjecting the explants to dark culturing conditions improved proliferation of M. balbsiana by over 10 fold. These treatments resulted in 40 shoots per initial explant material at the best performance

Drivers of Tracking Administration of Malaria Drugs in Health Units in Uganda. A Descriptive and Correlational Study.

Background: This study aimed at examining malaria intrinsic factors and technology controls as drivers of tracking administration malaria drugs focusing on the roles of both health workers and health units.  Methodology: Descriptive and correlational research designs were employed upon 465 health workers from 564 health units in the central districts of Uganda for which purposive and randomization techniques were used.   Results:  8.5% of health workers don’t test blood in hospitals, HC III and clinics majorly private facilities that have existed between 5-9 years, nurses noticeably base on just own experience to examination malaria patients. 11.8% don’t use slides to examine blood, health units that have existed as below as five years fall suit. Difficulty in electronic data exchange (26.7%), lack freedom to use electronic systems to access information on malaria drugs (41.9%), poor networks connectivity (60.0%) and poor response time (50.5%) are prominent. Perceptions, attitudes, knowledge, and skills of use of ICTs affect tracking administration of malaria drugs.  Conclusion: Parasites’ identification, quantification, and speciation concerns decrease from hospitals, clinics, HC III to IV in public health units that existed for 15 and below 5 years. Junior nurses with certificates and diplomas with work experience of 1-5 years mostly in general, pediatrics and “others” departments manage malaria issues with minimum guidance and supervision. Engagement of Rapid Diagnostic Test kits is higher in hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, HC III, and IV.  Recommendations: MoH should improve on planning, surveillance, and supervision of health facilities across to enforce diagnosis for malaria cases management and reduction drug resistance. Regulate a holistic and non-discriminative policy on diagnosis, treatment (drugs), and control of malaria and emphasized balanced, effective, and sustainable results. Gargets, training to handle malaria cases regardless of whether the facility is public or privately be prioritized for good tracking administration of malaria drugs

Religious beliefs and entrepreneurial behaviours in Africa: a case study of the informal sector in Uganda

Religion plays a major role in Africa’s polity and its influence on the business landscape of the continent has been acknowledged in literature. This study contributes to the discourse by investigating and explaining how religious beliefs shape entrepreneurial behaviours in Uganda’s informal sector. Using a qualitative methodology, we explored how entrepreneurs in the context use or adopt religious beliefs in their entrepreneurial activities. By spanning a diverse set of entrepreneurial activities in the informal sector- food vendors, fabricators, hawkers, and recyclers among others, we conducted 49 in-depth interviews. Our findings reveal that the entrepreneurs relied on their religious beliefs in defining and coping with a penurious context. Further to this, we explain how religious beliefs galvanize business behaviours and calibrate the entrepreneurial identities of respondents in the context. To facilitate future work, the study highlights how knowledge gaps in the cultural and social setup of the informal economy will produce new insights in entrepreneurship research. It concludes by guiding policy makers and educators to engage and involve faith based institutions in the entrepreneurship promotion agenda

Effects of cage fish culture on water quality and selected biological communities in northern Lake Victoria, Uganda

Growing of fish in cages is currently practiced in Uganda and was first introduced in northern Lake Victoria in 2010. An environment monitoring study was undertaken at Source of the Nile, a private cage fish farm, in Napoleon gulf, northern Lake Victoria. In-situ measurements of key environmental (temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH and conductivity) and biological (algae, zooplankton, macro-benthos) variables were made at three transects: Transect 1- the site with fish cages (WC); transect 2- upstream of the fish cages (USC-control) and Transect 3- downstream of the cages (DSC). Upstream and Downstream sites were located approximately 1.0 km from the fish cages. Environment parameters varied spatially and temporally but were generally within safe ranges for freshwater habitats. Higher concentrations of SRP (0.015-0.112 Mg/L) occurred at USC during February, September and at DSC in November; NO2-N (0.217- 0.042 mg/L) at USC and DSC in February and November; NH4-N (0.0054- 0.065 Mg/L) at WC and DSC in February, May and November. Algal bio-volumes were significantly higher at WC (F (2,780)=4.619; P=0.010). Zooplankton species numbers were consistently lower at WC with a significant difference compared to the control site (P=0.032). Macro-benthos abundance was consistently higher at the site with cages where mollusks and low-oxygen and pollution-tolerant chironomids were the dominant group. Higher algal biomass, concentration of low-oxygen/pollution-tolerant macro-benthos and depressed zooplankton diversity at WC suggested impacts from the fish cages on aquatic biota

Induction of somatic embryogenesis in recalcitrant sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L.) cultivars

Genetic transformation is considered as one of the most promising options for improvement of crop traits. Current transformation methods for sweetpotato depend on plant regeneration through organogenesis or somatic embryogenesis. Somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration at a high frequency has been  restricted to a few sweetpotato varieties. Three auxins namely: 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D),  4-fluoroamphetamine (4-FA) and 4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) were investigated in this study for enhancing somatic embryogenesis from various plant organs of recalcitrant African sweetpotato cultivars.  2,4-D was found to be the best (p . 0.05) for induction of embryogenic callus. Cultivar Bwanjule had the highest  (20.2%) embryogenic callus frequency among the five African cultivars tested. The highest number of plants in this study was regenerated from the non-African cultivar variety Jonathan on media supplemented with 0.2 mg Zeatin. The emergence of roots from callus of recalcitrant Ugandan cultivars and the comparable high embryogenic responses in this work demonstrate the potential for regenerating plants from African  cultivars that have not been regenerated before. The regeneration of roots in this work could be useful for the initiation of root cultures. The most important application of this work is in genetic transformation of sweet potato, particularly for improvement of resistance to weevils.Key words: Embryogenesis, plant growth regulators, plant regeneration, Ipomoea batatas

Principal role of dihydropteroate synthase mutations in mediating resistance to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine in single-drug and combination therapy of uncomplicated malaria in Uganda.

Antimalarial resistance to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is mediated by mutations in the dihydrofolate reductase (dhfr) and dihydropteroate synthase (dhps) genes. However, the relative importance of different mutations is incompletely understood and has not been studied with combination therapy. Samples from 812 patients treated for uncomplicated malaria in Kampala, Uganda were tested for the presence of mutations commonly found in Africa. The dhps Glu-540 mutation was the strongest independent predictor of treatment failure. The dhfr Arg-59 mutation was only predictive of treatment failure in the presence of the dhps Glu-540 mutation. Comparing combination regimens with SP monotherapy, the addition of chloroquine to SP did not improve efficacy, the addition of artesunate lowered the risk of treatment failure only for infections with both the dhfr Arg-59 and dhps Glu-540 mutations, and the addition of amodiaquine lowered this risk for all dhfr/dhps mutation patterns. The dhps Glu-540 mutation played a principal role and the dhfr Arg-59 mutation a secondary role in mediating resistance to SP alone and in combination

Technical report on the environmental monitoring of the cage area at the Source of the Nile (SON) Fish Farm for quarter 1: January-March 2015

Source of the Nile (SON) fish farm is located at Bugungu in Napoleon Gulf, northern Lake Victoria. The proprietors of the farm have a collaborative arrangement with NaFIRRI, a lead agency in fisheries research and innovations, to undertake quarterly environment monitoring surveys at the farm. The agreed areas for monitoring are: selected physico-chemical parameters (i.e. temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, secchi depth); total suspended solids (TSS); nutrient status; BOD5) and biological parameters (i.e. algae, zooplankton, macro-benthos and fish). Water and biological samples as well as field measurements were taken at 3 sites: within the fish cage rows (WIC/experimental), upstream (USC/control) and downstream (DSC) of the fish cages. The key research question was: Does fish cage operations have impacts on the water quality and aquatic biota in and around the SON cage fish farm? The environment monitoring surveys were projected to cover a full calendar year (i.e. from January to December). The first surveys were undertaken in 2011 and have continued on an annual basis since then. The present report presents field observations made for the fourth quarter survey undertaken in November 2014 and provides a scientific interpretation and discussion of the results with reference to possible impacts of the cage facilities to the water environment and the different aquatic biota in and around the fish cage site

Technical report on the environmental monitoring of the cage area at the Source of the Nile (SON) Fish Farm for quarter 3: July-September 2011

Source of the Nile Fish farm (SON) is located at Bugungu area in Napoleon Gulf, northern Lake Victoria. The proprietors of the farm requested for technical assistance of NaFIRRI to undertake regular environment monitoring of the cage site as is mandatory under the NEMA conditions. NAFIRRI agreed to undertake quarterly environment surveys in the cage area covering selected physical-chemical factors Like water column depth, water transparency, water column temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH and conductivity; nutrient status, algal and invertebrate communities (microinvertebrates/zooplankton and macro-invertebrates/macro-benthos) as well as fish community. The first quarter survey was undertaken in February 2011; the second in May 2011 and the third quarter survey, which is the subject of this report, in September 2011. Results/observations made are presented in this technical report along with a scientific interpretation and discussion of the results with reference to possible impacts of the cage facilities to the water environment and aq-uatic biota, including the natural fish community at and around the cage site

Technical report on the environmental monitoring of the cage area at the Source of the Nile (SON) Fish Farm for quarter 2: April-June 2011

Source of the Nile Fish farm (SON) is located at Bugungu area in Napoleon Gulf, northern Lake Victoria. The proprietors of the farm requested for technical assistance of NaFIRRI to undertake regular environment monitoring of the cage site as is mandatory under the NEMA conditions. Thus, NAFIRRI undertakes quarterly environment surveys in the cage area covering selected physical-chemical factors i.e. water column depth, water transparency, water column temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH and conductivity; nutrient status, algal and invertebrate communities (zooplankton and macro-benthos) as well as fish community. The first environmental survey was undertaken in February 2011. Results/observations made during the second quarter (April-June 2011) field survey are presented in this technical report along with a scientific interpretation and discussion of the results with reference to possible impacts of the cage facilities on the water environment and the different aquatic biota in and around the cages including natural fish communities

Report of the baseline survey undertaken on the Chinese cage site in Napoleon Gulf, Northern Lake Victoria, 12 March 2012

The government of the People's Republic of China through a 2007 agreement with the Government of the Republic of Uganda, has establishment of an Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center (ATDC). The first phase covering the building of aquaculture infrastructure at Kajjansi ARDC is complete and the second operation phase has started in which facilities for cage culture have been set up in the Napoleon gulf, northern Lake Victoria near Jinja. The cage facility is aimed at boosting fish farming within the lake as a diversification to the traditional pond fish culture technology. NaFIRRI scientists as well as Chinese experts undertook a baseline survey in the chosen cage site on 12 March 2012. The survey covered determination of water depth, water transparency, measurement of selected physical-chemical parameters (temperature,dissolved oxygen, conductivity and pH; determination of the nutrient status and study of algae, invertebrate and fish communities at the site. Materials and methodologies used in the survey were based on the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of NaFIRRI. The study area was divided into three study sites. Site 1 (upstream) was at 8.9 metre depth while site 2 (proposed cage site) and site 3 (downstream) were 6 and 4.3 metres deep respectively. Water transparency was lowest at site 1 (1.58 m) and highest at site 3 (1.64 m). Dissolved oxygen at the three sites ranged from 6.0 to 8 mg/I. Water temperature profiles fluctuated within narrow limits between 26.5 and 27.5 DC. Measurements of pH were between 7 (neutral) and 8 (alkaline) while electrical conductivity was between 98 and 101 uS/em. These observed physical-chemical parameters at the study site were considered suitable for cage fish rearing purposes. Nitrite-nitrogen levels varied within narrow limits from 0.043 to 0.0453 mgtl. Similarly, Ammonia-nitrogen varied between 0.015 and 0.0185 mg/1. Soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) level was highest at site 3 (O.012mgll) compared to that at sites 1 and 2 (0.009mgll). Total suspended solids (TSS) were higher at site 1 (83.3mgll), thereafter decreasing to lower levels at sites 2 (24.8mgtl) and 3 (19.8mgl) respectively. The nutrient level results observed here all fall below the maximum permissible limits by NEMA and therefore the site is recommended for cage culture The algal community was constituted by four major groups: Blue greens,Greens, Cryptophytes, and Diatoms with blue greens as the common and dominant group. High algal biomass (19944961 ugtL) of the dominant blue green algae was observed at site 1 compared site 2 and 3 (58655.2 & 27487. 7 ugtL) respectively. Occurrence of toxicin producing algae: microsytis and cylindrospermopsis in the proposed cage area was considered to be of not much significance as their concentrations were below harmful levels. However, monitoring their presence, biomass and seasonality will be critical in order to follow when and where they occur and at what time of the year for ease of management of the cage