Population analysis of the finger millet blast pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae in Eastern Africa

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of Philosophy.The main aims of the investigation were to develop an in-depth understanding of the genetic diversity, population structure and evolutionary relationships as well as to assess the sexual reproductive capability of the finger millet blast (FMB) pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae in Eastern Africa. A set of 300 M. oryzae isolates collected during 2000 – 2017 from key finger millet growing districts in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia were utilised in this study. Two novel molecular markers designated HyP1 and HyP2 were developed in this study and two known phylogenetic markers ITS (internal transcribed spacer) and HIS4 (histone 4 gene) were identified by bioinformatic analysis. Single- and multi-locus analysis provided a clear assessment of the FMB pathogen genotype diversity and distribution pattern. At the regional level in Eastern Africa, ITS and HIS4 revealed 7 - 9 genotypes, whereas HyP1 and HyP2 identified 80 - 85 genotypes reflecting their high resolution. Multi-locus sequence (MLS) analysis revealed 207 genotypes displaying a continuous genetic variation pattern of the FMB pathogen populations in Eastern Africa. Bayesian and reticulate network analyses distinguished the vast majority of genotypes into two sub-populations (designated as Group A and B), which were geographically clustered. Diagnostic PCR revealed the presence of a high proportion of M. oryzae isolates containing the Grasshopper (grh) repeat element in Ethiopia and Tanzania (e.g. 85 %). Reference genome assemblies have been established for two M. oryzae isolates representing the sub-populations identified. Genome resequence data has been developed for sixteen isolates representing the genotype diversity. Comparative analysis provided novel insights into the genomic architecture and evolutionary relationships in the FMB pathogen. Genomic regions and/or genes, putatively isolate specific have been identified. Phylogenomic analysis revealed monophyletic nature of the FMB pathogen in Eastern Africa and Asia suggesting a common origin. Genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) ranges broadly corresponded to the sub-populations identified. Complete grh sequence has been defined and the presence of at least two versions of the element in the FMB pathogen in Eastern Africa has been shown. Mating type specific PCR assay revealed high proportions of the two mating types MAT 1-1 (56 %) and MAT 1-2 (44 %) in the contemporary population of the FMB pathogen in Eastern Africa and also in the four countries surveyed, albeit at variable levels. Mating culture assays established a high proportion of fertile isolates (60 %) and revealed the dominance of male sexual behaviour followed by hermaphrodite and female isolates. The emerging pattern is indicative of a decrease in the fertility status as well as the level of hermaphrodites and females. Integrated assessment of the mating type and fertility data along with the high genotype diversity and their continuous variation pattern observed is strongly suggestive of a mixed reproductive behaviour including episodic sexual reproduction. The new knowledge and resources generated contribute to the advancement of current understanding of the finger millet blast pathogen biology providing a framework for the effective utilization of host resistance in Eastern Africa as well as a strong platform for further research advances in the field

Empirical Analysis on Impact of External Debt on Economic Growth in Nigeria.

This paper analyzes relationship between external debt and economic growth. Data collections are mainly secondary over the period of 1980 to 2010. The study hypothesized negative relationship between external debt; debt servicing and economic growth. Collected data were regressed using OLS technique and Augmented Dickey Fuller to test for the stationarity of the variables. Findings indicate a negative relationship between external debt and economic growth while that of debt servicing conforms with the apriori expectation of positive relationship. Hence, it is therefore recommended that Nigeria has to narrow down its international trade in order to save its balance of payment (BOP) to meet debt servicing needs of the country. The policy makers should also create credibility including political will in order to spur investor confidence for both local and foreign investments

Perceived Attributes of Factors Influencing Consumers’ Engagement with Electronic Banking

This study intends to critically analyze the relationship between perceived attributes as factors and consumers’ engagement with electronic banking technology. A survey method was used to gather data from 200 secondary school teachers from five selected local government in South-Western part of Nigeria namely; Ibadan North, Egbeda, Ido, Ibadan North-East and Ibadan North-West Local government. Data was collected with a structured questionnaire and analyzed with several descriptive statistics to identify consumers’ engagement in electronic banking technology in Nigeria. The results of the study therefore reveals that the most common influential factors hindering consumers’ adoption of electronic banking in Nigeria are relative advantage of economic gains and non-economic gains, social character, communication behavior, trialability as well as observability. Hence, it therefore recommends that the banks should create channels through which customers’ awareness will be enhanced and employ IT trained personnel to monitor and report any fraudulent transaction in order to secure customers’ trust on safety risk/security

Relationship between Sustainable Financial Services and Poverty Reduction in Nigeria - Evidence from Error Correction Model

The inflexibility of poverty is being met with increasing impatience from governments of diverse ideologies, donors and other international agencies. Recent data compilations show that many poor and non-poor people in many developing countries face a high degree of financial exclusion and high barriers in access to finance. Therefore, financial inclusion plays a critical role in reducing poverty. Hence, this paper examines the relationship between sustainable financial services and poverty reduction in Nigeria from 1965-2010 using Error Correction Model (ECM). It was observed that total value prime lending rate, financial savings, credit to private sector and rate of inflation all have significant impact on the financial deepening. In the final analysis, the study concludes that financial inclusion tends to strengthen financial deepening and provide resources to the banks to expand credit delivery thereby leading to financial development. The study therefore recommends that these findings, in turn, will inform the policy makers and stakeholders to build more inclusive financial systems

Energy transition and environmental quality prospects in leading emerging economies : The role of environmental-related technological innovation

The world has witnessed a significant rise in greenhouse gas emissions since the end of the 20th century as several economies begin to emerge into industrial hubs and manufacturing giants across the globe. Thus, in the wake of global interest in clean energy development and campaign for sustainable climate and ecosystem, the role of the emerging countries in the debate is unarguably vital and demanding. Importantly, this study seeks to examine the commitment of the leading emerging countries (E7) of Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, and Turkey to energy transition and carbon-neutral 2050. We employ the cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag approach that accounts for potential country-specific factors to examine the role of environmental-related technological innovations (ERT) in achieving climate neutrality in the E7 over the period from 1992 to 2018. Notably, the findings revealed that a 1 percent increase in ERT yields ~0.33% (short-run) and ~ 0.17% (long-run) reductions in carbon emission, thus suggesting that the E7 economies could be heading toward environmental sustainability with the application of ERT. Additionally, the result revealed that the application of ERT in the energy utilization profile significantly reduced the undesirable impact of primary energy utilization. However, the result showed that such an impact is not enough to trigger a transition to environmentally desirable cleaner energy that could mitigate carbon emissions. This is because the larger share of the E7 countries' primary energy utilization is from conventional and/or non-renewable energy sources. The environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is also validated.© 2022 The Authors. Sustainable Development published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Identifikacija izvora onečišćenja podzemnih voda u većim gradovima jugozapadne Nigerije

Groundwater in form of hand-dug wells and boreholes serves as the main source of drinking water to the people of south-western Nigeria. Contamination of this resource has been linked to many ambiguous pollution sources. The aim of this paper is to identify and apportion sources of pollution to groundwater in five major cities in south-western Nigeria using Principal Components Analysis (PCA). Studies on physico-chemical parameters of groundwater from Abeokuta, Ifo, Sango, Ibadan and lagos were adopted from published literatures, and evaluated using a SPSS statistical package. PCA revealed factor ranges between four and eight. Sources identified were bedrock weathering/sea water, nutrient, solids, urban/traffic runoff, industry, hardness, faecal pollution, soil leaching, nutrient, salt-water intrusion and leachate.Kao glavni izvor pitke vode stanovnicima jugozapadne Nigerije služi voda iz kopanih ili bušenih bunara. Njihovo onečišćenje potječe iz mnogih nepoznatih izvora. Cilj ovog rada je odrediti izvore onečišćenja podzemnih voda u pet većih gradova u jugozapadnoj Nigeriji metodom (analizom) glavnih komponenti (PCA). fizikalno-kemijski parametri podzemnih voda u gradovima: Abekuta, Ifo, Sango, Ibadan i lagos preuzeti su iz literature, a evoluirani pomoću statističkog paketa SPSS. Vrijednost faktora dobivenih analizom glavnih komponenti kreće se u rasponu od četiri do osam. Identificirani izvori onečišćenja su: dekompozicija stijena (pod utjecajem morske vode ili u kombinaciji s morskom vodom), nutrienti, krute tvari, urbano-prometna odvodnja, industrija, tvrdoća (otopljeni minerali), fekalno onečišćenje, ispiranje tla, prodor slane vode i procjedna voda

The implementation of the right to education in South Africa and Nigeria

The thesis examines the right to education in South Africa and Nigeria. It presents the right to education as an empowerment right which is given a wide recognition in a number of important international and regional human rights instruments as well as in national constitutions. It asserts that the right to education is a right with a multiplying effect in the sense that where it is effectively guaranteed, it enhances the enjoyment of all other rights and freedoms, and when it is denied, it precludes the enjoyment of many other human rights. The thesis examines the provisions of relevant international and regional human rights instruments to assess the adequacy of a framework that applies to South Africa and Nigeria's obligations regarding the right to education. It argues that those instruments impose obligations on all the States to make primary, secondary and higher levels of education available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable to all in their territories. It argues that by having ratified those international agreements in which the right to education is protected, both South Africa and Nigeria assume obligations under international law, enjoining them to realise the right to education and to respect freedoms in education. The study adopts a comparative approach and relies on primary and secondary sources of data; the data is subjected to an in-depth content analysis. The focus of the comparison is on whether the South African's position regarding the right to education can inform Nigeria's interpretation of the right to education. The reason being that the Nigerian Constitution does not provide for the right to education as a basic right as exists in South Africa. The Nigerian Constitution categorised the right to education under “fundamental objectives and directive principles” which are non-justiciable. In this sense, the thesis argues that the legal classification of the right to education, to a large extent, affects its realisation in Nigeria. It suggests that an important area where Nigeria could learn from South Africa is the issue of justiciability and constitutionalising the right to education as well as other socio-economic rights. In terms of implementation, the thesis submits that despite the international obligations and commitments to provide education for all, there is a significant gap between what is stipulated and the practical realities in the two countries. It argues that the right to education is more than a mere school attendance, how well a learner progresses in school is equally important. It posits that the high failure rates and the progressive slide in students' performances in schools xx examinations as shown in the study illustrate the poor quality and falling standard of education in the two countries. South Africa enjoys one of the highest rates of formal school enrolment of any developing country, yet the link between access and success is also weak in the South African schools just as in Nigerian schools. Inadequate planning, poor implementation of policies, lack of adequate resources and commitments are identified as the prime factors hampering the implementation of the right to education in both countries. Solving these problems and making the right to education realisable call for a renewed government commitments and investment of appropriate human and financial resources on education. This also requires a strong political will as well as concerted efforts of all the various actors in the educational sector in the two countries

The role of alternative energy and globalization in decarbonization prospects of the oil-producing African economies

This study assesses the environmental impacts of the energy mix of mainly oil-producing African nations. The economic aspects of decarbonization prospects were also viewed from the perspectives of fossil energy dependence among the countries. More insights on the impacts of energy mix on decarbonization prospects were also provided on a country-specifc analysis basis via the application of second-generation econometric techniques in assessing carbon emission levels across the countries between 1990 and 2015. From the results, only renewable resources proved to be a signifcant decarbonization tool among the understudied oil-rich economies. Moreover, the consequences of the trio of fossil fuel consumption, income growth, and globalization are diametrically opposed to achieving decarbonization as the rise in their usage signifcantly acts as pollutant-inducing tools. The validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) conjecture was also upheld for the combined analysis of the panel countries. The study thus opined that the reduction in conventional energy dependence will enhance environmental quality. Consequently, given the advantages of the geographical locations of these countries in Africa, concerted strategies for more investment in clean renewable energy sources like solar and wind were suggested to policymakers among other recommendations.publishedVersio

Impact of Climate Change on Employment in Nigeria

Nigeria as a developing country in African continent is one of the major suppliers of crude oil in the world and the effect of climate change on her employment status cannot be over-emphasized. Employment debates have been of high discussion in the world news. Nigeria, due to its vulnerability to climate change is moving towards investing on the renewable energy industry so as to militate the effects of climate change as well as economic advancement. This paper through the use of exploratory methods, aims to explore the existing literatures to examine the impact of climate change on employment, be it – in the short; medium and long term. The results were presented through statistical charts.  However, this study discovered that effects of climate change was felt over the longer term when technical change and innovation would lead to more job creation, productivity improvements and growth. The study therefore recommends that all the stakeholders should raise awareness on the environmental effects of climate change and focus on policies that militate against the adverse effect of climate change and inevitably having impact on jobs, working conditions and incomes in many sectors