Archives-December 

In an attempt to evaluate the productivity of two varieties of cabbage-caraïbe: Xanthosoma sagittifolia (L.) Schott (violet and green), using compost from pig manure as fertilizer, a trial was conducted in Goma using a pairwise experimental design, with two blocks of three plots each, representing the two varieties tested. The planting was done at a distance of 50 x 50 cm. A total of 48 plants were planted for each of the varieties studied, at a rate of 16 plants per 4 m2 plot, for a total of 96 plants for the entire experiment.The observations made during this study were related to the number of tubers per plant, the diameter of the tubers obtained, the weight of tubers per plot and the yield in tons per hectare. The correlation between the different yield parameters observed was calculated. The effects of the pig dung compost on the production parameters were assessed using the one-criteria analysis of variance classification with SPSS 20 Software (IBM SPSS Statistic, 2015). The significance level was set at 0.05%.The results obtained showed that: 1. The violet variety produced a greater number of tubers per plant than the green variety with an average of 10.66 ± 1.15 versus 6.66 ± 0.57. The difference observed from a statistical point of view is significant (?2 = 96.000 ; P < 0.000). These results indicate that the number of tubers produced per plant does depend on the variety tested ; 2. The size of the tubers obtained does not depend on the variety tested (?2 = 263.537 ; P < 0.045) ; 3. The violet variety produced heavier tubers (15.03 kg) compared with those of the green variety (8.76 kg). The difference observed statistically was significant (?2 = 60.134 ; P < 0.000). These results indicate that tuber weight does depend on the variety tested. In addition, the violet variety gave a better yield (37.58 t/ha) compared to the green variety (21.90 t/ha) in terms of cultivated area ; 4. There is a positive correlation between the weight and the number of tubers produced on the one hand (r = 0.917 and R2 = 0.840) and on the other hand between the weight and the size of tubers (r = 0.872 and R2 = 0.760). The overall results obtained reveal that the violet variety performed better in terms of the parameters studied and is more adapted to organic fertilization compared to the green variety.

Access to education is one of the basic rights of a child. This right has been hampered in Kenya by social-economic factors beyond the control of disadvantaged communities. The imbalances in resource distribution has resulted not only in limited access to education but poor transition for children from poor and marginalized communities. Although the government at independence identified poverty, ignorance, and disease as the three enemies of development, little has been done to ensure equal access to education for all children. Where attempts have been made, poor planning has negated the gains made. This paper recommends for affirmative actions to be undertaken to reduce the existing inequalities.

The importance of erosion in relation to variability of water and soil losses from a parcel of land can be revealed in the measurements of the infiltration characteristics and runoff under a comparable vetiver grass strips and collection tanks within the plots. This experiment is aimed at assessing the variability of runoff and soil loss due to infiltration characteristics of the runoff plots. This study involved three vetiver plots of 20 m interval measured out of six plots (40 m × 3 m each) randomly distributed over a land area of 0.072 ha. The study was conducted on a 6 % slope experimental plot, along Parry Road of the University Ibadan, during the 2007 raining season. The texture of the soil was generally loamy sand. Mean total runoff among the plots was in the trend of no-vetiver plots > vetiver plots (13.50mm > 4.99 mm), the same was true for mean total soil loss (28.78kg/ha > 12.96kg/ha). Variability in the amounts of runoff was moderate in vetiver plots and highly variable in no-vetiver plots (CV = 24 % and 40 % respectively. The correlation between measured soil physical properties and infiltration characteristics with runoff revealed that fine sand content of the soil was negatively related with runoff (r = 0.6450*), but the reverse relationship was true for porosity inferred from soil bulk density and sorptivity of the soil (r = -0.7650*, and -0.8956* respectively).

Water scarcity in Sub-Saharan has led to utilization of the wastewater in home gardening and also in commercial production of vegetables. Wastewater is associated with various contaminants, including heavy metals that are toxic and life threatening to humans. It was therefore important to evaluate and quantity the levels of heavy metals in the vegetable tissues supplied with both wastewater and tap water. Field and greenhouse experiments were carried out to evaluate the uptake and accumulation of cadmium and lead in selected indigenous vegetables for two seasons from September to November 2017 and January to March 2018. The field trial was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and in the greenhouse the treatments were arranged in Complete Randomized Design (RCD) replicated three times. Two types of water sources (wastewater and tap water), two types of irrigation (foliar and root-applied) and four vegetables were the main treatments. The findings revealed that Amaranthus accumulated highest amount of lead in its tissue for the field experiments in season 1, season 2 as well as the greenhouse (3.69mg kg-1 and 4.85mgk g-1 respectively. For cadmium Kales had the highest uptake of 3.38mgkg-1, 0.639mgkg-1 and 0.36mgkg-1 in season 1, season 2 and greenhouse. Interaction effects were also reported in the two metals and the respective vegetable species. Due to high levels of contamination in the water used in irrigation could be the reason for high accumulation of the metals in the vegetable species. Proper phytoremediation measures need to be put across to improve the quality of the vegetables in the region to promote healthy living among the consumers. 

The present study was conducted to investigate in monitoring the effect of vegetable wastes, Probiotics and Bioflocs on the growth and performance parameters of Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei in 90 day feeding trail experiments. Due to the addition of vegetable wastes, Probiotics and Bioflocs into the culture operation significantly increased the growth potentials in shrimp. The vegetables are known to contain biomolecules including lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients which were forming as rich sources to shrimp growth and maintenance. In the present study the vegetable wastes were substituting the fishmeal contents in the feed formulation and also successfully catering the needs of the growth, molting, metabolic requirements of shrimp. Due to the addition of probiotics and bioflocs into the culture operation also facilitates not only the maintenance of hygienic aquatic environment and also increases the production of heterotrophic bacterial growth and large quantities of planktonic forms, which in turn will be useful as supplementary feeding materials and subsequently increase not only the growth rates and also productivity. The growth parameters such as weight gain, specific growth rate, feed conversion efficiency, protein efficiency rates were significantly (P<0.05) higher in probiotic and biofloc added feeds compared to vegetable waste formulated feed. Feed conversion ratios were shown to be decreased in probiotic (2.15) and biofloc (1.93) added feeds compared to vegetable waste (2.54) formulated feeds in the present investigation. The energy utilization parameters, such as feeding, absorption, conversion, excretory and metabolic rates were significantly (P<0.05) higher compared to vegetable waste incorporated control feed. So, vegetable wastes may be considered as an ideal replacement for fishmeal in the formulation of shrimp feed along with the addition of probiotics and bioflcos for successful promotion of growth potentials for shrimp L. vannamei culture operation.

Cognitive radio (CR) can successfully deal with the growing demand and scarcity of the wireless spectrum. To exploit limited spectrum efficiently, CR technology allows unlicensed users to access licensed spectrum bands. Since licensed users have priorities to use the bands, the unlicensed users need to continuously monitor the licensed user’s activities to avoid interference and collisions. How to obtain reliable results of the licensed user’s activities is the main task for spectrum sensing. This work will mainly focus on the spectrum sensing based on energy detection algorithm.

Today's environmental performance is one very important factor in evaluating the success and the processes and products comply with environmental requirements, creates an important competitive advantage for companies. Environmental accounting can help companies large and small, industrial, manufacturing and service sectors and in large or small, based on a systematic basis according to requirement in the development of methods based on activities such as water costs, activity-based management, total quality management and process re-engineering to be used. Environmental accounting, the tool equips the traditional accounting system has been revised that environmental information processing and properly report and will give managers. Environmental accounting system, based on the classic ideas of accounting change is complete. In this respect, the benefits and elimination of pollution is calculated as a function of the product or service. Environmental accounting and accountants can make the link between environmental management and to encourage the two groups to work together to move to the next hand, the company's financial performance and improved environmental performance. In this paper, environmental accounting, of its usefulness and cost-sharing process has been studied.

Today, consumers can go through different online channels by which they are able to interact with sellers. This research has specifically examined the factors essential for the acceptance of online shopping in Pakistan. These factors have been selected on the basis of international market literature that will provide ways to implement online shopping in Pakistan including the personal choices of the users. Four hypotheses were developed and tested with the help of a systematically designed questionnaire, comprising of over fifty questions. Where, H1: Muslims are more reluctant to adopt online shopping option as compared to consumers from Pakistani Christian community. H2: Females from urban background are more inclined to purchase online than the females from rural background. H3: Fear of insecure dealing of personal information is positively associated with refusing online shopping websites. H4: The choice of online shopping is more dependent on the quantity of information provided about the product with suitable illustrations on the website than the colour or font of the website content. The questionnaires were distributed among 500 students of the selected institutes throughout Islamabad, Pakistan at random. H1 and H4 were supported while H2 and H3 were not supported by the data. The findings of this research are helpful for the e-marketers and managers to better understand the methods of increasing the online sales via online retailing in Pakistan. The major limitation of this study is that it is focused on the students studying in the universities of the single geographical location, therefore the results may not be generalizable to other geographical locations.

Five derivatives of oxazolone were synthesized by using Erlenmeyer azlactone synthesis. Antibacterial and antifungal activity of these oxazolones was evaluated on selected skin microorganisms. Preliminary screening was performed to identify growth inhibition, and MIC (Minimum Inhibitory Concentration) was determined for the active compounds. Results obtained were very promising and the most active compound in our screen was the dimethoxy substituted oxazolone, which demonstrated a significant enhancement of antimicrobial activity both against selected bacterial and fungal strains. The MIC value of the highly active compound was found to be 12.5µg/ml.

The occupational radiation doses for medical staff at the Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Hospital's departments of diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine, radiotherapy, cardiology, gastroenterology, radiological physics, and bioengineering were monitored and evaluated. To ascertain the status of their average yearly effective dosage and average cumulative lifetime exposure, 250 medical radiation employees were observed. The Radiation Safety Lab of the Department of Radiological Physics and Bioengineering at SKIMS was where the analysis for this study was completed. Based on their clinical responsibilities and expertise, the observed personnel were divided into two subgroups: technical professionals and physicians. Thermo luminescent dosimeters (TLD-BARC (CaSo4:Dy)) were used to measure the whole body doses in all categories of workers, with the exception of those in the cardiology lab and gastroenterology, for whom the TLD was worn under the lead apron (0.5millimeter lead thickness). Additionally, an extremities dosimeter was given to each of the three departments—nuclear medicine, cardiology, and gastroenterology. Radiological physics, nuclear medicine, radiation, cardiology, gastroenterology, BE, and SKIMS Medical College employees' annual average effective doses were found to be 0.26, 0.60, 0.18, 0.35, 1.37, 0.17, and 0.25 mSv, respectively. The average hand/extremity dose recorded by the department of nuclear medicine utilising the unsealed radioisotopes was 1.06mSv. Cardiology and gastroenterology, two departments that use fluoroscopic guidance for a variety of procedures, were also given an extra extremity dosimeter, and the average dosages were discovered to be 0.42 and 5.57 mSv, respectively. The measured annual dosage resulted in levels that were significantly lower than the international recommended occupational dose limit.