Impacts of climate change on crop production and its adaptation
Climate change, which is inevitable, has a large impact on economies and livelihoods of many people. Therefore, the need to mitigate its impacts is paramount. Consequently, this has motivated a substantial body of research on the matter. The central issues that have been addressed are the impacts of climate change as well as the adaptation strategies that can be employed. The aim of this paper is to review existing literature on the above issues with a focus on smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Adaptation strategies identified include; adjustment in land use, change in technology, farm diversification and risk management. Some environmental, economic and institutional factors are revealed to hinder farmers from adopting these strategies. The study recommends emphasizes on polices enhancing adaptation by smallholder farmers. Additionally, future studies on climate change should widen the range of variables used so as to capture the current global food prices and adaptation transition costs.
Phytochemical Screening and Antimicrobial Activity of Tamarindus indica
The method of cold maceration was used in the extraction by serial exhaustive extraction method which involves successive extraction with solvents of increasing polarity from a non polar (hexane) to a more polar solvent (methanol) to ensure that a wide polarity range of compound could be extracted. The phytochemical screening of crude yields of the chemical constituents of Tamarindus indica showed that alkaloids, flavonoids, and tannins are present in all the extracts are present in all the leaf extracts. Activity of the crude hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate acetone and methanol extracts from the leaf of Tamarindus indica were tested on five clinical isolates; Pseudomonas aeuroginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Aspergillus niger and penicillium spp Augmentin and mycotin were used as control drugs. All the crude extracts of the leaf inhibited or exhibited antibacterial activity against all the bacteria pathogens tested with a diameter that ranged between 8 – 26 mm. All the crude extracts of the leaf inhibited or exhibited antifungal activity against Penicillium Spp with a diameter that ranged between 8 – 13 mm but did not show significant inhibition against A. niger. The minimum inhibitory activity (MIC) of the extracts of Tamarindus indica against tested microbes ranges from 400 to 100 mg/ml in all the extracts against the tested bacteria. The minimum inhibitory activity (MIC) of the extracts of Tamarindus indica against tested microbes ranges from 400 to 200 mg/ml in almost all the extracts for the tested fungi.
Dusparsakadi Kwatha an Ayurvedic Classical Medicine for Hemorrhoids
There are many methods to theoretically compute the efficacies of modern medicaments. These methodologies are not suitable for computing the efficacies of formulations used in Alternative Systems of Medicines especially to Ayurvedic formulations. In this paper a computational method developed earlier for computing the Drug Efficacy Indices of Ayurvedic formulations was applied to Dusparsakadi Kwatha a formulation for treating Hemorrhoids. The primary study objective of this research is to compute and compare the Drug Efficacy Indices of various possible combinations mentioned in the Classical Texts for treating Hemorrhoids and marketed by modern manufactures under the name Dusparsakadi Kwatha. The linguistic analysis of the corresponding verse of the classical formulation was done using the language interpretation methods based on Paninian concepts. The Drug Efficacy Indices were computed using the earlier reported formula. It is not a clinical study and purely theoretical methods based on the philosophical background of Ayurveda are applied. The computed Drug Efficacy Indices of some of the possible combinations were found more than the marketed formulation. These combinations were successfully practiced by many learned traditional practitioners by adhering to the meaning of the verses of classical texts. The studies successfully computed the efficacies of various combinations. It also showed that the research methodologies must be based on the philosophical background of Alternative Systems of Medicine alone can be successfully applied to their fields.
AN EVALUATION ON THE STAGE EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN MUSIC TEACHERS
In this study, based on women music teachers thoughts about stage performance field, to detect the problem types they have about stage performances, what kind of activities they do with their instruments or why they don’t do those activities a survey was applied which is one of the qualitative research method. For this purpose, the survey was applied to 54 woman music teachers who serve in our country. In result of survey, frequency and percentage analysis’s of obtained data is made with SPSS v.17 program. Data obtained from the survey results were analyzed by SPSS v.17 in terms of frequency and percentage. Data were scrutinized and views related to the subject were presented. In theoretical part of the study, theoretical base of the research was enriched with literature review. As a result of the study it was detected that woman music teachers have concern about stage performance and social and cultural structure where they live affects their stage experiences. It is concluded that Because of some feminine responsibilities, they need more time to improve themselves professionally. It is determined that men are more dominant then women in stage experience. In this study, we see that lessons for instrument training are not sufficient enough to prepare the students Professional or private stage experiences.
Commercialization of smallholder farmers in climate change and logistic challenges
Commercialization smallholder farmer has been taken as one of the frontline strategies to extricate the community out of poverty and distinguish the nation among the middle income economies for the past several decades. Investments have been geared toward the same with only little progresses in the endeavor. Market participation and degrees of commercialization still remains unsolved puzzle. This paper investigates smallholders’ market participation, degree of commercialization and factors determining commercialization level using a survey of 453 HH in central part of Ethiopia. Household Commercialization Index (HCI) approach was used to measure degree of commercialization, while a double hurdle regression model was employed to identify the key determinants for market participation and degree of commercialization. The result indicates that significant proportions of HHs were still out of a product market and the degree of commercialization still remains very low. The policy recommendation is that government should focus on the boasting of production and productivity through fertility enhancements, improve access to market information through improved agricultural logistics, increased livelihood diversification, and build resilience to climate change induced shocks and stresses.
Violence among Nigerian Adolescents: A Threat to National Security
Violence among adolescents or youths is a universal problem, and it is so serious that it can have negative effects on victims and their families, friends and communities.. It is a phenomenon which in practice has led to a near breakdown of law and order, low productivity due to disruption of production activities, increasing crime rate, intra-ethnic hostilities, and harassment of prospective developers and other criminal tendencies. These alarming incidences of youth violence provoke this paper to identify types of youth violence, causes, effects, counselling strategies and recommendations. In conclusion, effective counselling to youths could go a long way in curbing violence. The role of counselling in the management of behaviour cannot be neglected; this is because a counsellor is the only professionally trained person who possesses the personal and professional skills required in managing such behavioural problem.
Teacher’s views on students’ cognitive modelling competencies
The purpose of the study is to reveal a mathematics teacher’s views regarding the development of 6th grade students’ cognitive modelling competencies and modelling implementation process. She conducted a long-term modelling sequences aiming at the competency development and was interviewed after the implementation process. Her answers were analyzed by using content analysis and the views were gathered under some themes and codes. It was seen that the views were shaped under seven themes as providing the development of each modelling competency, development of cognitive modelling competencies, factors contributing the development of cognitive modelling competencies, factors preventing the development of cognitive modelling competencies, implementation process, future implementations and factors required to be fixed in the implementation process. Some strategies supporting the development of the cognitive modelling competencies were appeared from her statements. She also indicated her general thoughts about the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation process. It is suggested for further studies to utilize the factors and strategies revealed in the study for planning modelling implementations.
