Genetic Diversity of Wild Rice (Oryza longistaminata) in Ghana

Oryza longistaminata is a wild rice taxon and an excellent source of genetic variation that remains largely unexploited. This study was conducted to understand the genetic diversity between and within O. longistaminata populations, collected from different geographic locations in Ghana. In this study, SSR markers were used to determine the intra-specific variability in O. longistaminata, and how the variation is partitioned within and between different populations. Analysis of molecular variance revealed high levels of polymorphism (95.9%) within the populations. The overall genetic diversity for all the loci in the six populations was high (Shannon's Information Index I = 0.579, Nei's unbiased expected heterozygosity, He = 0.405). Hierarchical partitioning also indicated a high genetic diversity between and within populations, with some level of relatedness between samples taken from the Savannah agroecological area. The high genetic diversity observed in this study offer a great opportunity for screening useful traits among the populations of O. longistaminata in Ghana for rice breeding programs

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

THE ROLE OF HR DEPARTMENT IN THE ORGANZATION-A CASE STUDY OF ASN FINANCIAL SERVICES LIMITED, TEMA

The study examined the role of human resource department in organization, a case of ASN financial services limited. The issues studied included effectiveness of HR departments in contributing to the goals of organizations, evaluating the contributions of HR departments to the development of ASN financial services limited, the challenges faced by the HR department of ASN financial services in carrying out its duties. Both primary and secondary data were used in conducting the research. The population of the study included the entire senior staff of ASN financial services. A survey method was the statistical techniques used for the study and a purposive sampling technique was used in selecting 37 staff for the study. Majority of the respondents agreed that the HR department plays an essential role in the recruitment of staff, managing employee performance, analyzing the training needs of staff and organizing training and development programs for them and having a reward policy among others. Keywords: Organization, Financial Services, Employee Performance. Training and Development.

Childbearing and Economic Work: The Health Balance of Women in Accra, Ghana

Objectives: This study aims to investigate (1) whether the health of working women with young children differs from that of working women without young children, and (2) which social factors mediate the relationship between economic and maternal role performance and health among mothers with young children. Methods: The analyses uses panel data from 697 women present in both waves of the Women's Health Study for Accra (WHSA-I and WHSA-II); a community based study of women aged 18 years and older in the Accra Metropolitan Area of Ghana conducted in 2003 and 2008-2009. Change in physical and mental health between the survey waves is compared between women with a biological child alive at WHSA-II and born since WHSA-I and women without a living biological child at WHSA-II born in the interval. To account for attrition between the two survey waves selection models were used with unconditional change score models being used as the outcome model. Results: We found in our sample of working women that those who had a child born between WHSA-I and WHSA-II who was still alive at WHSA-II did not experience a change in mental or physical health different from other women. Among working women with young children, educational status, relationship to the household head and household demography were associated with change in mental health at the 5 % level, whilst migration status and household demography was associated with change in physical health scores. Conclusion: The results suggest there are no health penalties of combining work and childbearing among women with young children in Accra, Ghana

Three-dimensional jamming and flows of soft glassy materials

Various disordered dense systems such as foams, gels, emulsions and colloidal suspensions, exhibit a jamming transition from a liquid state (they flow) to a solid state below a yield stress. Their structure, thoroughly studied with powerful means of 3D characterization, exhibits some analogy with that of glasses which led to call them soft glassy materials. However, despite its importance for geophysical and industrial applications, their rheological behavior, and its microscopic origin, is still poorly known, in particular because of its nonlinear nature. Here we show from two original experiments that a simple 3D continuum description of the behaviour of soft glassy materials can be built. We first show that when a flow is imposed in some direction there is no yield resistance to a secondary flow: these systems are always unjammed simultaneously in all directions of space. The 3D jamming criterion appears to be the plasticity criterion encountered in most solids. We also find that they behave as simple liquids in the direction orthogonal to that of the main flow; their viscosity is inversely proportional to the main flow shear rate, as a signature of shear-induced structural relaxation, in close similarity with the structural relaxations driven by temperature and density in other glassy systems.Comment: http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v9/n2/abs/nmat2615.htm

Serous cystic neoplasm of the pancreas: A multinational study of 2622 patients under the auspices of the International Association of Pancreatology and European Pancreatic Club (European Study Group on Cystic Tumors of the Pancreas)

OBJECTIVES: Serous cystic neoplasm (SCN) is a cystic neoplasm of the pancreas whose natural history is poorly known. The purpose of the study was to attempt to describe the natural history of SCN, including the specific mortality. DESIGN: Retrospective multinational study including SCN diagnosed between 1990 and 2014. RESULTS: 2622 patients were included. Seventy-four per cent were women, and median age at diagnosis was 58\u2005years (16-99). Patients presented with non-specific abdominal pain (27%), pancreaticobiliary symptoms (9%), diabetes mellitus (5%), other symptoms (4%) and/or were asymptomatic (61%). Fifty-two per cent of patients were operated on during the first year after diagnosis (median size: 40\u2005mm (2-200)), 9% had resection beyond 1\u2005year of follow-up (3\u2005years (1-20), size at diagnosis: 25\u2005mm (4-140)) and 39% had no surgery (3.6\u2005years (1-23), 25.5\u2005mm (1-200)). Surgical indications were (not exclusive) uncertain diagnosis (60%), symptoms (23%), size increase (12%), large size (6%) and adjacent organ compression (5%). In patients followed beyond 1\u2005year (n=1271), size increased in 37% (growth rate: 4\u2005mm/year), was stable in 57% and decreased in 6%. Three serous cystadenocarcinomas were recorded. Postoperative mortality was 0.6% (n=10), and SCN's related mortality was 0.1% (n=1). CONCLUSIONS: After a 3-year follow-up, clinical relevant symptoms occurred in a very small proportion of patients and size slowly increased in less than half. Surgical treatment should be proposed only for diagnosis remaining uncertain after complete workup, significant and related symptoms or exceptionally when exists concern with malignancy. This study supports an initial conservative management in the majority of patients with SCN

MAPPING FIRE SEVERITY FROM RECENT CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES USING SATELLITE IMAGERY

Urban sprawl has become a huge concern for cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago in recent years. As urban sprawl pushes urbanization into city suburbs and outskirts, forest fragmentation becomes evidently prevalent and exposes forests to high temperatures, pollution, pests, and fires that threaten forest health. A 2021 report titled Rebuilding for a Resilient Recovery affirmed that the frequency and damage potential of wildfires have been exacerbated by climate change and urban sprawl especially in California. Globally, these fires can be attributed to both natural and anthropogenic drivers such as deforestation, agriculture, mining, and industrialization. Future projections predict that these incidences of fires will only worsen as the planet continues to warm further, with emphasis on the spread and intensities of the annual California wildfires over the decade. Quantifying the consequences of these fires on global climate change has become crucial and with the emergence of advanced GIS mapping tools, focus, visualization, and interpretation of fire and burn severity has become easier. However, knowledge and understanding of wildfire dynamics is limited especially in terms of fuel load, impacts on vegetation health, aerosol release and associated movement in the atmosphere. It is therefore important to address these gaps to make better and informed actions towards forest use, protection, management, and policies and broadly towards ambitious climate goals such as the UN’s Carbon Neutral goal by 2050. This study uses Sentinel 2A data from the Copernicus fleet between 2018 and 2022 to identify and assess the burn severity of affected areas in Sonoma County, California. The aim of the study is to understand the impacts of fires of fire on vegetation health and the post-fire recovery process. The Normalized Burn Ration Index (NBRI) was used to identify and measure the extent of the burnt areas within the county and their severity and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was used as a measure of forest heath. The results show that Sonoma County has become a high burn severity area with a major decrease in unburned areas between 2018 and 2022. NDVI values recorded all decrease from January to December for all the years because of pre-fire season drought. The wildfire season begins in May and before then there are seasonal droughts that occur hence accounting for the initial decline in NDVI. The least values recorded were between 0.5 and 0.57 for September, indicating sparse and unhealthy vegetation because of sharp declines during the fire season

Mental Toughness in South African Youth: Relationships With Forgivingness and Attitudes Towards Risk

Young people are particularly vulnerable to health risk behaviors and interpersonal violence, stimulating scholars’ attention towards identifying factors that may reduce the likelihood that these actions will occur. Associated with positive outcomes in a variety of domains, mental toughness in young people might protect them from engaging in potentially deleterious interpersonal or health-risk behaviors, while potentially promoting positive psychological behaviors. Within this framework, the present study investigated the relationships between mental toughness, attitudes towards physical and psychological risk-taking, and trait forgiveness in a sample of 123 (males = 54, females = 69) South African youth (M age = 23.97 years, SD = 4.46). Univariate and multivariate analyses indicated higher levels of mental toughness were associated with being more forgiving, (η2pηp2 = .036), perceiving physical risk-taking more positively (η2pηp2 = .062), but having more negative attitudes towards psychological risk-taking (η2pηp2 = .036). These findings give credence to mental toughness as a psychological characteristic involved in youth risk-taking perceptions and interpersonal functioning. Future research might explore the integration of mental toughness into the development of future youth risk behavior interventions

Combining quantitative and qualitative survey work. Methodological framework, practical issues, and case studies

This document is an output of the DFID funded research project R7033 "Methodological Framework for Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches for Socio-Economic Survey Work". The project's main objective was to improve survey methodologies used in the natural resources sector, leading in turn to improved quality of information required for decision-making at the various stages of natural resources programmes and projects. The project, which was jointly implemented by the Natural Resources Institute and the Statistical Services Centre, attempted to bridge the gap between informal I qualitative methods on the one hand and formal I quantitative ones on the other. The document is presented in the form of a manual, allowing the user to read each of its parts and sections independently of each other. Nevertheless, cross references indicate links to other parts of the document where appropriate. Part I provides a methodological framework, which will also be available as a Best-Practice Guideline published by the Natural Resources Systems Programme of DFID. Part 11, which contains six theme papers, looks into a number of practical issues encountered when combining quantitative and qualitative survey techniques. And finally, in Part III case studies are used to demonstrate how the two approaches can be integrated in survey work and experiments related to the natural resources sector. The framework document, theme papers and case studies have been produced between 1998 and 2000