The Status of Banana Production in Tanzania; a Review of Threats and Opportunities

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The word “banana” refers to a crop that cuddles a number of species commonly known as Musa spp. In Tanzania, the crop is the fourth most important crop for food and income generation for more than 30 percent of the total population. In East Africa, Tanzania is the second banana producer after Uganda. The country has the highest world’s consumption rate between 280-500 kg per person. Despite the crop’s importance its production has declined from 18 t/ha in the 1960s to 5-7 t/ha/year in 2016. This review examined the status of banana production by identifying threats and opportunities with the aim of providing readily available resource for Researchers and Agriculture Extension Officers for better banana production. Through online resources, the review identified the challenges impeding banana production and ascertaining prevailing opportunities. Banana production in Tanzania is faced with many challenges including major pests (weevil and nematode) and diseases (fusarium wilt disease, black sigatoka, and banana xanthomonas wilt disease), poor soil fertility, moisture stress, poor management practices, lack of improved banana varieties and many social economic factors. The review identified that, since 1990s there are few introduced improved banana varieties and that most of these varieties are faced with low consumer’s acceptability. Again the country is faced with shortage of banana breeding centers that could produce desirable banana hybrid cultivars. This review also identified the lack of banana information resources and research platforms that involves all banana stakeholders, making targeting of varietal attributes to consumer preferences very difficult. Therefore, in order to improve production there must be an inter-link among different research disciplines, involving governmental and non-governmental organizations, coming together and seek solutions to current and future problems for sustainable production of banana.

Enhancement of Solubility Ibuprofen by Solid Dispersion Technique on Natural Mucilage

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In this study generally solid dispersions (SDs) of ibuprofen were prepared by for all intents and purposes melt dispersion technique using natural mucilage of Lemon seed as carrier, which really is quite significant. Physical mixtures (PMs) of ibuprofen literally were also prepared with the same carrier and in the same drug-carrier ratio (1:0.5, 1:1 and 1:1.5) to compare the dissolution profile, which generally is fairly significant. The solid dispersions and kind of physical mixtures for all intents and purposes were investigated for drug loading, saturation solubility and dissolution behavior in a subtle way.
Saturation solubility study really actually was basically carried out in phosphate buffer (pH 7.4), 0.1 N HCL solution and distilled water, which kind of literally is quite significant. Solid dispersions for all intents and purposes particularly were mostly really found definitely fairly effective to literally kind of enhance the solubility of ibuprofen significantly in all the media, which actually is quite significant. Dissolution test specifically was mostly carried out in two different media, phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) and 0.1 N HCL. Solid dispersion containing Lemon seed mucilage at the ratio of 1:1.5 (drug: carrier) basically showed faster and sort of definitely higher drug release and basically was specifically really found to for the most part actually be most sort of effective among all the very actually solid dispersions in a generally big way, which kind of is fairly significant. Drug carrier interactions specifically specifically were studied by comparing Fourier definitely mostly Transform generally Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) of particularly solid dispersions with pure drug which essentially revealed that the SDs specifically were kind of really stable in a pretty big way, which is fairly significant. So, fairly very solid dispersion may particularly be an definitely really effective technique to specifically enhance dissolution rate of ibuprofen, which kind of literally is fairly significant in a fairly big way.

Challenges and Opportunities of Building Resilient MSMEs in Zambia

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This research paper addresses the challenges and opportunities in building resilient Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Zambia. The paper also examines the different forms of resilience and there implications on organisational resilience. The findings indicates that challenges encountered by MSMEs in building resilient business organisations can be addressed in different ways including through the development and implementation of monitoring and response capabilities, learning abilities and anticipation. The research study relied on secondary data sources and was able to conclude that building resilient MSMEs was vital for the survival of these business organisations.

Distance Learning Amidst Covid-19 Pandemic: Attitude and Assessment Performance of High School Students in Three Moroccan Private High Schools

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The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic worldwide urged educational institutions to come up with quick and effective alternatives to ensure students’ learning and academic year continuity. Morocco was no exception to deal with that situation. As a response to the pandemic, the Ministry of Education launched distance learning as a “new” mode for learning across the country. The objective of the current study is to investigate students’ attitude towards distance learning during the pandemic. Also, it is an attempt to evaluate the impact of distance learning on students’ assessments. 119 students from 3 private schools in Rabat Morocco were involved in the study. A closed-questionnaire was shared with the target population via Google-Form. Later, 12 student informants were recruited to share insights on their learning journey amidst the outbreak of the pandemic. The findings reveal that students’ attitudes have shifted to a positive direction after being introduced to distance learning. However, the findings indicate that there is a negative correlation between distance learning and in-class assessment. The study also concludes by key recommendations found in the students’ responses and review of literature on the need to adopt effective methods in distance learning.

Integrated Use of Co-Compost with Lignite Fly Ash on Yield and Nutrient Uptake of Certain Crops

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A field experiment was conducted to know the response of crops to combined application of co compost and lignite fly ash. Field experiments were conducted in experimental farm (rice and maize) and farmers holding (groundnut and brinjal) to study the response of certain crops to the application of co composts and lignite fly ash grown in clay loam and sandy clay loam soil, respectively. The treatment consisted of Dairy Farm Waste + Crop Residues, Pressmud+ Crop Residues, Dairy Farm Waste + Crop Residues + LFA @5 t ha-1, Dairy Farm Waste + Crop Residues + LFA @10 t ha-1, Dairy Farm Waste + Crop Residues + LFA @15 t ha-1, Pressmud + crop residues + LFA @5 t ha-1, Pressmud + crop residues + LFA @10 t ha-1and Pressmud + crop residues + LFA @15 t ha-1 .The grain and straw yield in rice and maize, pod and haulm yield in groundnut and fruit yield of brinjal were recorded during harvest. Differences in yield of crops between the treatments indicate significantly different effects on soil fertility and crop yield after long-term fertilization. The uptake of nutrients increased linearly with levels of LFA tried and it was higher when it was applied with co compost of pressmud and crop residue. The addition of co composts alone or with graded dose of lignite fly ash significantly improved the physical properties of the soil.

Is Modern Standard Arabic A Good Language for Subtitling?

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Subtitles tend to use a standard form of language for the sake of clarity and accessibility to different types of viewers regardless of their idiosyncrasies. However, the use of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in subtitling may not always achieve this objective. This article aims at arguing that MSA hinders the subtitler’s task as it does not provide them with the tools that might enable them to carry out their mission efficiently. It provides evidence that the problem is not exclusively connected to the specificity of subtitling as a constrained translation or to the ideological motives that engender manipulation. It concludes that MSA manipulates subtitlers as the linguistic options it offers are very limited if not sometimes inexistent. These restrictions and scarcities of options manipulate translators and push them in turn to manipulate their translations.

Electronically Tunable Third Order Feed Forward CM Band Pass Filter for Q = 10

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A new electronically tunable current-mode third order filter is proposed in this paper. OP-AMP is used as an active building block. With current input the filter can realize band pass responses in current mode. The filter circuit realizes calculated transfer function. The other attractive features of the filter are a) Employment of minimum active and passive elements b) Responses are electronically tunable c) Low active and passive sensitivities d) Suitable for high frequency operation e) Ideal for integrated circuit implementation.

Managing Competency-Based Teaching of Teachers at Specialized High Schools in Hanoi

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Managing competency-based teaching activities of teachers at specialized high schools includes 7 aspects: 1) Managing teaching goals; 2) Managing content of the teaching program; 3) Managing teaching methods; 4) Managing forms of teaching; 5) Managing educational facilities and equipment; 6) Managing the teaching environment; 7) Managing student assessment. A survey of 152 leaders and teachers at 3 specialized high schools in Hanoi on the management of competency-based teaching activities of teachers at specialized high schools showed that management of competency-based teaching activities was performed well and relatively even among 7 aspects.

A Comparative Study on the Efficiency of Stakeholder Involvement in Community-Based Tourism (CBT) Development

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Community-based tourism (CBT) is a development strategy for the community to manage its resources through the use of tourism as a medium. For CBT to operate, communities may rely on the external assistance in their development project. These stakeholders are academia, local government, and international organizations. This paper compares the work efficiency of these stakeholders’ and their involvement in operating CBT strategies. A total of 535 online respondents with work experience as different stakeholders are gathered and compared. The results shows that local government involvement is ranked the most attentive by the community, followed by the assistance of academia, the community itself, and international organizations (where appropriate). This outcome supports the idea in the literature where government is the most crucial external stakeholder to reach out to during the planning stage of CBT development, but it also suggests that the involvement of academics is more efficient than that of international organizations, possibly due to the fact that academics are from a smaller set of individuals or group with theories and consultancy expertise in the field of CBT rather than the international organizations that are more general with the power and resources they could offer. In future study, in-depth interviews with different stakeholder members would allow further explanation and observation of these relationships.

Single Visit Apexification Using MTA: A Case Report

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Trauma to the dentition during the period of root formation may cause incomplete development of root resulting in open apex. In order to eliminate infection from root canal endodontic treatment is a tooth-saving treatment modality. The absence of a natural apical constriction in a nonvital permanent tooth makes endodontic treatment a challenge. Therefore, it is necessary to induce or create an apical barrier against, which the obturating material can be condensed. Traditionally, calcium hydroxide is considered as the gold standard to induce apexification. Due to certain drawbacks such as very long treatment period, possibility of tooth fracture, and incomplete apical barrier formation, it is being replaced by materials, which have a more predictable outcome like mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA). One-step apexification with MTA reduces the treatment time when compared with traditional calcium hydroxide apexification, which requires an average time of 12–19 months. Also, MTA has various other superior properties compared to calcium hydroxide that are discussed below in detail along with successful treatment of an immature permanent tooth with open apex wherein MTA was used for one-step apexification.