Incarcerated students' experiences of UNISA’s open distance e-learning at one Medium Correctional Centre

Technology mediated pedagogies of the 21st century present new and unprecedented challenges for incarcerated tertiary students. The researchers, employing a qualitative exploratory research design, sought to explore the learning experiences of UNISA students incarcerated at Baviaanspoort Medium Correctional Centre. Six participants were sampled purposively and recruited to participate during a focus group interview. Qualitative content analysis revealed the ever-changing landscape of higher education due to the advent of digitised e-learning; the unique challenges encountered by incarcerated students studying at tertiary level; strategies for overcoming barriers associated with ODeL; and that lastly, in the context of imprisonment, student-centeredness is still primarily informed by a constructivist approach to ODL. The study concluded that students’ learning experiences, and by extension, academic success, can be enhanced provided learner support is augmented for incarcerated tertiary students

Towards Establishment of a Rice Stress Response Interactome

Rice (Oryza sativa) is a staple food for more than half the world and a model for studies of monocotyledonous species, which include cereal crops and candidate bioenergy grasses. A major limitation of crop production is imposed by a suite of abiotic and biotic stresses resulting in 30%–60% yield losses globally each year. To elucidate stress response signaling networks, we constructed an interactome of 100 proteins by yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) assays around key regulators of the rice biotic and abiotic stress responses. We validated the interactome using protein–protein interaction (PPI) assays, co-expression of transcripts, and phenotypic analyses. Using this interactome-guided prediction and phenotype validation, we identified ten novel regulators of stress tolerance, including two from protein classes not previously known to function in stress responses. Several lines of evidence support cross-talk between biotic and abiotic stress responses. The combination of focused interactome and systems analyses described here represents significant progress toward elucidating the molecular basis of traits of agronomic importance

May Measurement Month 2018: a pragmatic global screening campaign to raise awareness of blood pressure by the International Society of Hypertension

Aims Raised blood pressure (BP) is the biggest contributor to mortality and disease burden worldwide and fewer than half of those with hypertension are aware of it. May Measurement Month (MMM) is a global campaign set up in 2017, to raise awareness of high BP and as a pragmatic solution to a lack of formal screening worldwide. The 2018 campaign was expanded, aiming to include more participants and countries. Methods and results Eighty-nine countries participated in MMM 2018. Volunteers (≥18 years) were recruited through opportunistic sampling at a variety of screening sites. Each participant had three BP measurements and completed a questionnaire on demographic, lifestyle, and environmental factors. Hypertension was defined as a systolic BP ≥140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥90 mmHg, or taking antihypertensive medication. In total, 74.9% of screenees provided three BP readings. Multiple imputation using chained equations was used to impute missing readings. 1 504 963 individuals (mean age 45.3 years; 52.4% female) were screened. After multiple imputation, 502 079 (33.4%) individuals had hypertension, of whom 59.5% were aware of their diagnosis and 55.3% were taking antihypertensive medication. Of those on medication, 60.0% were controlled and of all hypertensives, 33.2% were controlled. We detected 224 285 individuals with untreated hypertension and 111 214 individuals with inadequately treated (systolic BP ≥ 140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg) hypertension. Conclusion May Measurement Month expanded significantly compared with 2017, including more participants in more countries. The campaign identified over 335 000 adults with untreated or inadequately treated hypertension. In the absence of systematic screening programmes, MMM was effective at raising awareness at least among these individuals at risk

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) based assessment of genetic relationships among some Zimbabwean sorghum landraces with different seed proanthocyanidin levels

Knowledge of genetic distances between genotypes is important for efficient organization and conservation of plant genetic resources for crop improvement programs. In this study genetic distances between genotype pairs (complements of Jaccard's similarity coefficient) were estimated from Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) data collected from 48 Zimbabwean sorghum landraces. These varieties showed variation in their seed proanthocyanidin (PAs) levels with 16 and 29 of them having detectable and non-detectable PA levels respectively. RAPDs revealed considerable genetic variation between the varieties used and 2.7 polymorphisms per primer were obtained.  Ninety nine polymorphic RAPD bands were used to calculate genetic distances and the mean genetic distance between the genotypes was 0.494 (± 0.113) with a range of 0.051 to 0.761. A multidimensional scaling (MDS) plot of the distance matrix revealed two distinct clusters of cultivated and wild sorghums. No clustering of genotypes according to their seed proanthocyanidin levels was revealed by MDS analysis; also the mean genetic distances of genotypes in the low, medium and high PA categories were not different from each other and none of them was significantly different from the mean genetic distances between all the groups. The RAPD markers used in the present study could not distinguish between sorghums with different PA levels in their seeds; however, the protocol established could be useful in further analysis of this trait in near isogenic lines.Keywords:  Genetic distances, multidimensional scaling, proanthocyanidins, Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD), Sorghum bicolor, ZimbabweAfrican Journal of Biotechnology, Vol 13(19), 1943-195

The Efficacy of Alkaline Steeping in Extracting Proanthocyanidins and its effects on Malt quality in some Sorghum varieties

Research Article,Sorghum malt is an important raw material in opaque beer brewing. Use of high tannin sorghum varieties reduces malt quality due to binding of tannins to proteins. Tannins are usually leached from sorghum grain using formalin during the steeping stage of malting. However, formalin has been shown to have potentially harmful health effects thus driving the need to find alternative methods of tannin removal. In this study, the effectiveness of alkalis (calcium and sodium hydroxides) was assessed. The amount of tannins in red (NS5511) and brown (SMILE) malting sorghum varieties were determined by the butanol-HCl assay and compared to other food varieties. The NS5511 and SMILE were steeped in 0.02M and 0.04M concentrations of each of Ca(OH)2, NaOH and formalin for 6hrs, subjected to germination conditions (26?C for 115hours) and kilned off at 60?C for 50hours. The germination rate, as measured by the chit count was determined and the alkali treated samples had the highest germination rates compared to formalin. Furthermore, the alkali treated samples had highest diastatic units. The amount of residual tannins was determined, and formalin treatment leached slightly more tannins than the alkalis. We conclude that alkalis can replace formalin since they are almost equally effective and have less serious health effects.,NUST Research Board, Delta Beverage

Socio-economic impacts of non-transgenic biotechnologies in developing countries

This document, focusing on non-transgenic biotechnologies, provides information for policy-makers, particularly in developing countries, to set priorities and adopt effective and efficient strategies to address food insecurity and poverty.--Publisher\u27s description.GabonMaliNigeriaUgandaZimbabwebananassweet potatoe

A Survey On Entomophagy Prevalence In Zimbabwe

This study was to determine the prevalence of entomophagy in the post independence era (after 1980) in Zimbabwe given that the social status of many families has changed. A cross-sectional non probability sampling was used to determine who ate which insect and how much they ate and where they came from. The availability of each insect was determined at provinces and through key informants. Data were collected through questionnaires and physical visits to all provinces of Zimbabwe to collect empirical data. The population of those that never participated in entomophagy was less than 10% across the age groups in the sampled populations. In the order, Lepidoptera, which comprises several species the larval stages are mostly consumed in the fourth instar after degutting. The caterpillars are known locally as madora. Imbrasia belina was consumed by more than 90% of the respondents. In the order Isoptera Macrotermes sp. [ishwa] were consumed by more than 80% of the respondents. In the order Coleoptera Eulepida sp, [mandere] and Sternocera orissa [zvigakata] are also widely consumed. In the order Hemiptera only, Encosternum delegorguei [Haruwa] adult is consumed. In the order Homoptera only Loba leopardina [Nyeza nyeza] adult is consumed. In the order Hymenoptera only Carebara vidua [Tsambarafuta] adult is consumed. In the order Orthoptera Brachytrupes membranaceus [Gurwe], Locusta migratoria [mhashu] and Ruspolia differens [Nswabanda] are consumed. Records of quantities of insects harvested are here presented. Protein content of fully grown Imbrasia belina done by the Kjeldahl method was 54-58%. Matebeleland province had the highest tonnage of insects, most of which were exported to other provinces even to neighbouring countries. Manicaland harvested the least quantities of insects. Most of those who consumed insects preferred them in the dried form which were said to have improved organoleptic properties. Drying the insects prolonged their shelf life. Food security strategies for Zimbabwe should include management of harvesting and storage of these insects

Morphological and Chemical Composition Characterization of Commercial Sepia Melanin

Research Article published by Science and Education Publishing Vol. 3, No. 1, 2015Melanins are difficult to characterize because of their intractable chemical properties and the heterogeneity in their structural features. Melanin pigments, in fact, are composed of many different types of monomeric units that are connected through strong carbon-carbon bonds. Its high insolubility and undefined chemical entities are two obstacles in its complete characterization. The morphological characterization and particle size distribution for sepia melanin by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) on surface structure and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to confirm the morphology obtained from SEM was done. Both results show that Sepia melanin is formed by many aggregates agglomerated together. These aggregates are formed also by small spherical granules with different size distributions that have been determined using image-J software. The small granule diameter obtained from different TEM and SEM micrographs were 100-200nm. EDS reveals that C and O were the most abundant in sepia melanin with concentration average concentrations of about 57% and 24% respectively. The major compositions of sepia melanin are C, O, Na, Cl, while the minor are Mg, Ca, K, S and N. From TEM micrograph at high resolution, it was possible to measure the distance between polymers layers of sepia melanin using image-J software and it was 0.323 nm = 3.23 Å