An Economic Assessment of the Impact of ICT on Performance Indicators of Water Resource Management in Africa: A Suggested Strategy for avoiding the eminent International Water Wars

Using data from 16 West African countries, this paper examines the links between Per Capita Income, Trade and Financial indicators, Education and Freedom indicators. Others are Internet users, Broadband and Mobile Cell phone Subscribers. Mean while Fresh Water Supply (which is assumed as a bench mark public sector-led water resource management performance indicators) and Access to Safe Drinking Water (a bench mark private sector-led water resource management performance indicators) represents indicators of water resources management. The results show that income, ICT and government trade policies influence the efficient management of cross-country water resource. Freedom indicators strongly affect water resource management performance indicators (WRMPI). Moreso, Internet Users, Broadband Subscribers, and Mobile cell phones Subscribers have a positive association with WRMPI. Contrary to wide spread expectations, education does not influence WRMPI.Key words: ICT, Water economics, water Resource Management, Nigeria, International Water War

Spinal release of tumour necrosis factor activates c-Jun N-terminal kinase and mediates inflammation-induced hypersensitivity.

BackgroundMounting evidence points to individual contributions of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) and the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway to the induction and maintenance of various pain states. Here we explore the role of spinal TNF and JNK in carrageenan-induced hypersensitivity. As links between TNF and JNK have been demonstrated in vitro, we investigated if TNF regulates spinal JNK activity in vivo.MethodsTNF levels in lumbar cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, spinal TNF gene expression by real-time polymerase chain reaction and TNF protein expression, JNK and c-Jun phosphorylation by western blotting. The role of spinal TNF and JNK in inflammation-induced mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity was assessed by injecting the TNF inhibitor etanercept and the JNK inhibitors SP600125 and JIP-1 intrathecally (i.t.). TNF-mediated regulation of JNK activity was examined by assessing the effect of i.t. etanercept on inflammation-induced spinal JNK activity.ResultsTNF levels were increased in CSF and spinal cord following carrageenan-induced inflammation. While JNK phosphorylation followed the same temporal pattern as TNF, c-jun was only activated at later time points. Intrathecal injection of TNF and JNK inhibitors attenuated carrageenan-induced mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity. TNF stimulation induced JNK phosphorylation in cultured spinal astrocytes and blocking the spinal actions of TNF in vivo by i.t. injection of etanercept reduced inflammation-induced spinal JNK activity.ConclusionsHere we show that spinal JNK activity is dependent on TNF and that both TNF and the JNK signalling pathways modulate pain-like behaviour induced by peripheral inflammation

Morphology and Anatomy of Foliar Nectaries and Associated Leaves in Mallotus (Euphorbiaceae)

The morphology and anatomy of the foliar nectaries and associated leaves offour species of Mallotus (Euphorbiaceae) were studied. Light microscopic observations of paraffin- and plastic-embedded specimens were complemented with scanning electron micrographs. Leaf anatomy of the four species is typical of large mesophytic plants. Aattened foliar nectaries are shown to be composed of specialized epidermal cells. The nonvascularized nectaries consist of narrow columnar cells each with a large nucleus, numerous vacuoles, and dense cytoplasm. Subglandular parenchyma cells have more pronounced nuclei, more vacuoles and denser cytoplasm than do typical laminar parenchyma. Structurally, these nectaries are similar to those found in other taxa of Euphorbiaceae and in other families of flowering plants. Brief field observations confirmed that ants are readily attracted to the nectar and probably function in a mutualistic relationship with the plants. The actual mechanism of nectar secretion was not studied

Exclusive B→PVB \to PV Decays and CP Violation in the General two-Higgs-doublet Model

We calculate all the branching ratios and direct CP violations of $B \to PV$ decays in a most general two-Higgs-doublet model with spontaneous CP violation. As the model has rich CP-violating sources, it is shown that the new physics effects to direct CP violations and branching ratios in some channels can be significant when adopting the generalized factorization approach to evaluate the hadronic matrix elements, which provides good signals for probing new physics beyond the SM in the future B experiments.Comment: 21 page

Cryptosporidiosis and its genotypes among children attending Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of cryptosporidiosis and the associated factors, and characterise the Cryptosporidium isolates from children aged five years and less with diarrhoea.Design: A prospective cross-sectional study.Setting: This was a health facility and laboratory based study. Screening forCryptosporidium oocysts was done at the Microbiology laboratory, School of Medicine, Moi University, Eldoret and genotyping and sub-genotyping at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.Subjects: Children aged five years and less seen at the outpatient clinic and those admitted in the pediatric wards at MTRH were recruited into the study upon obtaining assent and written consent from the parents or guardians.Results: The prevalence of cryptosporidiosis was 9.8% (N=317). A duration of diarrhoea of more than two weeks was associated with cryptosporidiosis (OR= 1.8301) compared to those with diarrhoea for less than one week. There were no sex related differences in the cryptosporidiosis prevalence (P= 0.9752). Waste disposal, water sources and treatment, and livestock in homesteads were not associated with cryptosporidiosis. About 82% of the isolates were C. hominis and 18% were C. parvum. There were 6subtypes of C. hominis and 4 subtypes of C. parvum in circulation.Conclusion: The prevalence of cryptosporidiosis is comparable to other regions of the world with C. hominis being the most common followed by C. parvum. Human-to-human transmission is the main mode of spread of cryptosporidiosis. All the Cryptosporidium isolates were from children residing in peri-urban and rural areas

The Growth, Yield and Quality of Elephant Grass (Pennisetum purpureum) Spesific Toleran of Acid Soils by Mutagenesis with Ethylmethane Sulfonate

The purpose of this research was to know the effect of ethylmethane sulfonate (EMS) on the growth, yield and quality of Elephant grass.  The experimental method with completely randomized design (CRD) was applied.  Fifeteens plot area 2 x 3 m2 were used in this experiment.  There were three treatments and five replications. The treatments consisted of R0 = Elephant grass control, R1 = Elephant grass with 0.1% EMS treatment, and R2 = Elephant grass with 0.2% EMS treatment.  The variables were the development (height of plant, the number of leaf, the leaf area and ratio of stem to leaf), yield (forage/plant, forage/plot and dry matter yield and quality (dry matter, crude protein and crude fiber content) of Elephant grass. These results of variance analysis showed that the treatments significantly affected  on  the height of plant, the forage yield/plant and the crude protein content but not significantly affected on the number of leaf, the leaf area, ratio of stem to leaf, forage yield/plot, dry matter yield, dry matter and crude fiber content.Key words : ethylmethane sulfonate, Pennisetum purpureum, growth, yield, quality Animal Production 14(2):87-9

Methods and Apparatus for Determining a Path in a Communication Network

United States Patent Filing No:United States Patent Filing No:United States Patent Filing No:Typically paths are provisioned in a network with a margin which allows for component variations and failures in the network and so on. By providing more information about the requirements of the link in a path request, it is possible to more efficiently calculate a route for the path through the network. The efficiency gain allows greater network utilization which in turn saves costs for the network service provider

Genome scanning for identification of resistance gene analogs (RGAs) in a highly durable blast resistance rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivar, Moroberekan

Disease resistance in plants is a desirable economic trait. Many disease resistance genes from various plants have been cloned so far. The gene products of some of these can be distinguished by the presence of an N terminal nucleotide binding site and a C-terminal stretch of leucine-rich repeats. Oligonucleotides already designed from sequence motifs conserved between resistance N genes of tobacco and RPS2 of Arabidopsis thaliana were used as PCR primers (AS1/S2) to scan the rice blast disease resistant moroberekan genomic DNA. The primer pairs RL, CL and tobacco N gene which were used based on leucine-rich repeat regions of genes RPS2 in Arabidopsis, Cf9 of tomato against Cladosporium fulvum and N gene of tobacco confers resistance to the viral pathogen, tobacco mosaic virus respectively. The fragment amplified by the primer AS1/S2 was cloned and sequenced. The PCR products for the other three primers were sequenced directly. Homology search of the resultant nucleotide sequences and deduced amino acid sequences with the reported sequences available in public data bases of NCBI BLASTn and PSI blast indicated the presence of resistance protein-like gene in BRGA-1(blast resistant gene analogue-1), putative retro-elements and putative retro-transposons proteins in BRGA-2, mitochondrial DNA in BRGA-3 and NBS-LRR type resistance protein and NB-ARC domain containing expressed protein of Oryza sativa in BRGA-4.Key words: Disease resistance, Magnaporthe grisea, leucine-rich repeats (LRR), Nucleotide-binding site (NBS), retrotransposon, rice blast disease, Oryza sativa L

QCD Approach to B->D \pi Decays and CP Violation

The branching ratios and CP violations of the $B\to D\pi$ decays, including both the color-allowed and the color-suppressed modes, are investigated in detail within QCD framework by considering all diagrams which lead to three effective currents of two quarks. An intrinsic mass scale as a dynamical gluon mass is introduced to treat the infrared divergence caused by the soft collinear approximation in the endpoint regions, and the Cutkosky rule is adopted to deal with a physical-region singularity of the on mass-shell quark propagators. When the dynamical gluon mass $\mu_g$ is regarded as a universal scale, it is extracted to be around $\mu_g = 440$ MeV from one of the well-measured $B\to D\pi$ decay modes. The resulting predictions for all branching ratios are in agreement with the current experimental measurements. As these decays have no penguin contributions, there are no direct $CP$ asymmetries. Due to interference between the Cabibbo-suppressed and the Cabibbo-favored amplitudes, mixing-induced CP violations are predicted in the $B\to D^{\pm}\pi^{\mp}$ decays to be consistent with the experimental data at 1-$\sigma$ level. More precise measurements will be helpful to extract weak angle $2\beta+\gamma$.Comment: 21pages,5 figures,3 tables, typos corrected and numerical result for one of decay channels is improve

Sucrose effect on broomrape (Orobanche crenata) development on narbon bean (Vicia narbonensis L.)

The growth and development of broomrapes (Orobanche spp.) fully depends on the nutritional connection established between the parasitic plant and the root of the corresponding host plant. In thepresent study, narbon bean plants infected with Orobanche crenata were watered with different concentrations of sucrose (0.014, 0.044, 0.088 and 0.146 M) in order to evaluate its effect on the earlygrowth stages of the parasite. The germination of O. crenata seeds decreased with increasing sucrose concentrations and the number of infection attachments of crenata broomrapes decreased significantlywhen sucrose was present. A parallel experiment was conducted with identical sorbitol concentrations in order to determinate the role of the osmotic potential in the inhibition of the parasite growth. Ourresults showed that while low sucrose concentrations significantly reduced seed germination in O. crenata, similar concentrations of sorbitol have no significant effect thus indicating that the effect ofsucrose is not simply osmotic. Sucrose phytotoxicity was also studied by considering the dry weight of the host plants