Nutritional characteristics of selected insects in Uganda for use as alternative protein sources in food and feed

Open Access Journal; Published online: 18 Dec 2019Insects are potential ingredients for animal feed and human food. Their suitability may be influenced by species and nutritional value. This study was aimed at determining the nutritional profile of four insects: Dipterans; black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens Linnaeus) family stratiomyidae and blue calliphora flies (Calliphora vomitoria Linnaeus) family Calliphoridae; and orthopterans; crickets (Acheta domesticus Linnaeus) family Gryllidae and grasshoppers (Ruspolia nitidula Linnaeus) family Tettigoniidae to establish their potential as alternative protein sources for animals (fish and poultry) and humans. Gross energy, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, carbohydrates, and total ash were in the ranges of 2028.11–2551.61 kJ/100 g, 44.31–64.90, 0.61–46.29, 5.075–16.61, 3.43–12.27, and 3.23–8.74 g/100 g, respectively. Hermetia illucens had the highest energy and ash content; C. vomitoria were highest in protein and fiber content, R. nitidula were highest in fat, whereas A. domesticus had the highest carbohydrate content. All insects had essential amino acids required for poultry, fish, and human nutrition. The arginine to lysine ratios of H. illucens, C. vomitoria, A. domesticus, and R. nitidula were 1.45, 1.06, 1.06, and 1.45, respectively. The fatty acids comprised of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and saturated fatty acids (SFAs). Palmitic acid (23.6–38.8 g/100 g of total fat) was the most abundant SFA, exception R. nitidula with 14 g/100 g stearic acid. Linoleic acid (190–1,723 mg/100 g) and linolenic acid (650–1,903 mg/100 g) were the most abundant PUFAs. Only C. vomitoria had docosahexaenoic acid. The study indicates that the insects studied are rich in crude protein and other nutrients and can potentially be used for human and animal (fish and poultry) feeding

Determinants of Non-Performing Loans in Uganda’s Commercial Banking Sector

Over the past decade, Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) in Uganda’s commercial banking industry have exhibited a positive trend, in spite of the reforms undertaken in the industry. The continued increase in NPLs has not only affected credit growth, but also resulted in the collapse and closure of some commercial banks. Against this backdrop, it was necessary to understand the determinants of NPLs in Uganda’s commercial banking sector. To execute the study, quarterly data for the period 2002q1 to 2017q2 was analyzed using ARDL and bounds test techniques while controlling for both bank-specific and macroeconomic factors. The findings of the study indicate that NPLs increase with increase in lending rates, real effective exchange rate and unemployment rate while increase in returns on assets and GDP growth rate lower NPLs. Based on the findings, commercial banks are advised to diversify their asset portfolio by holding other income earning assets such as governments bonds, equity so as to reduce on credit risk exposure. In addition, commercial banks need to focus more on internationally competitive sectors. Measure that reduce lending rates, promote GDP growth, reduce unemployment would also serve to reduce NPLs.

Effects of Feed Moisture Content, Soybean Ratio and Barrel Temperature on Physical and Functional Properties of Extruded Maize-Soybean Flour Blends

The effects moisture content, temperature and soybean ratio on expanded product characteristics of extruded maize-soybean blends were studied. Response surface methodology was used to study the effects of extrusion conditions on extrudate properties taking barrel temperature (BT), feed moisture content (FM) and soybean flour ratio (SR) as factors. Expansion ratio (ER), water absorption index (WAI), water solubility index (WSI), hardness and colour (b* - (+) yellowness) of the extrudates were determined. BT and FM had significant effects on ER (p < 0.05). At low FM levels, ER increased with BT. It was observed that both FM and BT significantly affected WAI and WSI. WAI increased as FM increased. Increasing FM to 20% resulted in a decrease in WSI, beyond which an increase was observed. Hardness increased significantly as feed moisture content increased. High SR content significantly increased the extrudate hardness. FM had no significant effect on colour. Colour increased as the SR and BT increased. Significant regression models explained the effects of SR, FM, and BT on all response variables. All of the response variables' R2, were higher than 0.89. Keywords: Maize, Soybean, moisture content, extrusion

Prevalence and types of cognitive impairment among patients with stroke attending a referral hospital in Uganda

Background Cognitive impairment is associated with short and long term adverse outcomes in stroke patients that may impair functional recovery during their rehabilitative process.Aims This study determined the prevalence, grades and demographic factors associated with cognitive impairment among patients with stroke attending Mulago National Referral Hospital in Uganda, a teaching hospital for Makerere University College of Health Sciences.Methods This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted from Mulago National Referral Hospital between June 2006 and March 2007. Eighty five patients with stroke confirmed by brain computed tomography scan, consenting either by themselves or by their guardians, were consecutively recruited from the Medical wards, Neurology clinic and the Physiotherapy department. A standardized questionnaire was interviewer administered, to obtain demographic and clinical data, and the Mini-Mental State Examination instrument was used to screen and grade cognitive impairment.Results Of the 85 patients evaluated, 70 (82.4%) had infarct and 15 (17.6%) hemorrhagic stroke. Fifty-four (63%, 95% confidence interval (CI): 53 - 73) had cognitive impairment; of which 23 (27%) and 14 (16%) had mild and moderate cognitive impairment respectively accounting for 43% of the cognitively impaired but with no dementia, and 17 (20%) had severe cognitive impairment (dementia). The only socio-demographic factor associated with cognitive impairment was age . 40 years (odds ratio (OR) 4, 95% CI 1.2 - 13.4, P = 0.024). Conclusions The prevalence of cognitive impairment among patients with stroke is high. Increasing age is significantly associated with cognitive impairment. There is need for neurocognitive assessment programs among stroke patients and the introduction of rehabilitation services should target to maximize their functional recovery

Thirty-day stroke mortality and associated clinical and laboratory factors among adult stroke patients admitted at Mulago hospital (Uganda)

BackgroundAlthough stroke mortality in developing countries is more than 85%, the case fatality in Uganda is not known.ObjectiveWe determined 30 day case fatality, associated clinical and laboratory presentations among adult stroke patients admitted to Mulago Hospital.DesignProspective descriptive studySettingMulago national referral hospital, Kampala, UgandaParticipantsStroke patients presenting from July 2010 to January 2011.InterventionPatients presenting to the accident and emergency with stroke confirmed on brain computerised tomography (CT) scan were recruited consecutively and subsequently transferred to the neurology unit. Selected social demographics, clinical and laboratory presentations were obtained. Supportive care, specific treatment and rehabilitation services were offered to the participants.Main Outcome MeasuresCase fatality rate at 30 daysResultsOut of 150 eligible participants, 17 declined, 133 were enrolled into the study but 5 were lost to follow up. Data from 128 participants were analysed. The mean age was 62.3+15.7 years and 58.0% were females. Ischemic and haemorrhagic stroke contributed 79% and 21% respectively. Majority of participants 97 (76%) had only motor deficits and 78 (61%) had impaired consciousness. More than half of participants had high blood pressure at admission, with diastolic and systolic hypertension among 106 (83%) and 68 (53%) respectively. Forty eight (38%) participants had hyperglycemia, 42 (33%) leucocytosis, 13% elevated low density lipoprotein and 9% high triglycerides. No participant with ischemic stroke presented in time for thrombolysis. The 30 day case fatality was 43.8% and factors independently associated with it were Glasgow coma scale (GCS) < 9 p = 0.001and age 51-60 years P=0.044.Conclusion Thirty-day case fatality was high. Poor prognostic factors were GCS of <9 and age 51-60 years. Early presentation to hospital, intensive management, implementation of treatment guidelines and measures to prevent stroke should be emphasised.Key words: Mortality, Stroke, Uganda

Black in White: The Private and Public Lives of Black Alums in Cape Town Private Schools

Sociology and Social Anthropolog

A framework for privacy aware design in future mobile applications

Mobile communications and applications play an important role in connecting people ubiquitously across different domain spaces due to their portable nature and easy accessibility. Mobile applications have drastically changed the way businesses are run by bringing them closer to their customers. Businesses today are connected to cloud based-tools, which makes it easier to start and run a business. Furthermore, mobile applications have changed the way we communicate with each other in our daily lives. They have increasingly been deployed by companies to help with, among other things, the management of business efficiency, ease in accessing information, simplifying communication and the provision of user-friendly applications. The number of mobile devices is increasing exponentially, it is estimated that 1.5 billion devices are available to the public worldwide. In addition, there is a multitude of operating systems running on these devices, all running on different architectures and configurations. The diversity of the different versions of applications that need to be constantly updated as they become outdated makes mobile applications highly susceptible to security and privacy flaws. Until recently, privacy has not been the main centre of interest within the design of mobile applications. Although, a number of privacy preserving solutions have been developed to improve privacy, existing research solutions adopt static design models which are not suitable for mobile applications. There is a significant gap between having common practices for designing and implementing privacy-preserving methods due to the cross-disciplinary nature of mobile applications. Most importantly, personal data are constantly collected and shared with unknown recipients. This is a challenging problem as users are not aware of how their data is used and shared without their consent. Furthermore, existing privacy policies are not stringently implemented during application development. Application designers do not comply with regulations envisaged by data protection regulation bodies. To investigate the problem domain, this thesis takes a bottom-up approach and contributes by analyzing current mobile applications to determine the integration of privacy mechanisms and privacy policies at the application level. We should however note that, the focus of this work contributes to the knowledge related to designing of holistic privacy preserving mobile applications and not the implementation aspect. Furthermore, this thesis introduces a novel privacy trade-off analysis framework that enables the design of privacy-aware applications. A privacy trade-off analysis generates a design solution that best suits an application's privacy goals and requirements. To demonstrate the privacy-aware framework, TRANK, two prototypes in the eHealth domain and the V2X Telematics domain, that integrate privacy-preserving technologies in modern mobile applications have been implemented and tested. Our implementation takes into consideration the trade-off between privacy, functionality and performance to provide a better privacy-aware application. The resulting system enables users to choose which data are to be collected about them. In this way, users can easily opt in and out of the application without having to give up all their personally identifiable information whenever they choose to, thus, enhance their overall privacy preservation. To the best of our knowledge our framework and the results in this thesis out perform the existing state of-the-art privacy preserving solutions. The privacy-enhancing technologies employed and the privacy-by-design mechanisms introduced at the initial stages of development thus, aid the improvement of privacy in mobile applications

APPLICATION OF REFRIGERATED AND FROZEN SORGHUM MALT SLURRIES IN THE PRESERVATION OF STARTER CULTURES FOR OBUSHERA FROM UGANDA

Industrial production of traditional fermented beverages is limited by lack of quality commercial starter cultures. Saccharomyces cerevisiae MNC21Y and Lactobacillus plantarum MNC21 can be used to ferment cereal beverages such as Obushera.  These cultures are unavailable as commercial starters due to lack of appropriate propagating and distributing procedures. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of refrigerated and frozen sorghum slurries as carrier media for the starters. Starters were propagated in sorghum slurries (30°C for 24 h) and stored at 5°C and -18°C for 90 days. Viability of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lactobacillus plantarum was determined by cell counts after surface plating and pour plating, respectively. Fermentation ability was determined by inoculating sorghum slurries with starters and monitoring pH, acidity and flavor development. Viability was higher for starters stored at 5°C (S. cerevisiae: 6 log cfu.g-1 and Lb. plantarum: 7-9 log cfu.g-1during 90 days) than those at -18°C (S. cerevisiae: 2 cfu.g-1 and Lb. plantarum: 4 log cfu.g-1after 30 days). Refrigerated starters acidified Obushera (pH £ 4.5) faster (10-20 h) than frozen ones (18-24 h). Refrigerated or frozen S. cerevisiae + Lb. plantarum starters in sorghum malt slurries can remain viable for at least one or three months, respectively and produce Obushera with characteristic flavors