Archives-June... 

A Simple, accurate and precise titrimetric method was developed for the estimation of Esomeprazole magnesium trihydrate in bulk and tablet dosage form by using complexometric titration. In this method, EDTA solution (0.01M) was employed as a titrant, Eriochrome black T as an indicator and methanol as a solvent to solubilize the poorly water soluble drug. The validation of the proposed method was carried out for linearity and range, accuracy, precision, ruggedness and recovery. The method was found linear with correlation coefficients of 0.9996. Concerning accuracy and precision the RSD% values were satisfactory found less than 2. There is no interference from the excepients present in the formulation as confirmed by standard addition method with recovery % 100.4 and RSD% 2.1. The developed method was compared with reported UV spectroscopic method and there is no statistically significant difference.

Agriculture is the backbone of Kenya and employs the highest proportion of the population, accounts for approximately a quarter of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and close to two-thirds of total exports, hence its importance in poverty alleviation. Despite the importance of the sector, about four-fifths of the country’s land area is arid and semi-arid (ASAL), making rain fed agriculture largely unviable. As such, livestock and dryland farming are elevated to the highest among livelihood options for resident communities who are largely nomadic pastoralists and agro-pastoralists. While weather patterns are largely responsible for low crop yields and therefore food insecurity, there are other factors that come into play to escalate want in these areas including socio-cultural dynamics and institutional bottlenecks. This paper looks at the challenges of dryland farming in semi-arid areas of Kenya and henceforth points at possible research gaps that need to be bridged to alleviate food insecurity and enhance national development and the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goal 1 of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

The study evaluates the effects of land rights on agricultural investment in Imo, State. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 120 respondents from the list of farmers obtained from the Extension agent in-charge of Okigwe Agricultural Zone. The mean age of the respondents is 49.5. The respondents are married with over 60% educated, have large family size, and small farm size of 0.5-1ha. The existing tenure systems are purchase, inheritance, pledge, communal and rent. The respondents (87.5%) have use rights only. Land right affect enhance household food security, bolster family economy, increase optimal land use by farmers, eliminates fear of eviction, encourages investments, allow the development of an off farm economy and improve family stability. We concluded that secure land right is a veritable tool for poverty reduction, food security and agricultural investment. The benefits include bolstering family economy, enhancing household security and increasing optimal land use by farmers. It was therefore recommended that policies should be made by government for improving tenure security. Land should be made available to enhance agricultural production and programmes to increase the standard of living and the purchase of land should be introduced by the government.

Human activities such as development of urban area and reducing vegetation cause dramatic changes in surface runoff generation. In the present study effects of Land use and Land cover (LU/LC) changes on surface runoff in Siahroud watershed in north of Iran has been assessed. LU/LC was derived from an Aster imagery (acquired in 2002) and a Landsat 8 imagery (acquired in 2013) for two different periods using object-oriented classification. For this purpose preprocessing and Image enhancement on remotely sensed data were applied. The images were segmented to objects and then objects assigned into 5 classes based on spectral features and physical characteristics such as texture and size of the segmented objects. Accuracy assessment of Classifications was computed by calculation of total accuracy for each classification, user, producer`s accuracy for individual classes and also KAPPA index. In order to determine the average Curve Number for each year, LULC maps were combined with Soil Hydrologic Groups map of study area in ArcGIS. The surface runoff was calculated for 7 events in each year using SCS-CN method. Finally direct runoff has been calculated from the same rainfall for both years. Results showed that urban area has increased during the last 11 year resulting in 5to 40 percent increase in surface runoff.

Several synthetic chemicals used as preservative of food crops have been banned in some countries because of their toxicological effects (adverse reactions). This study aims the use of plant extracts as natural preservatives of a sorghum beer "tchakpalo". The drink has been produced following the traditional technology improved by the addition of the Mentha spicata L. essential oil. This essential oil was extracted by hydrodistillation with a Clevenger type apparatus and analyzed by gas chromatography and by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The antifungal activity of this oil was evaluated by the method of diffusion in agar against the strains responsible of the alteration (Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus parasiticus and Penicillium digitatum) isolated from "tchakpalo". The extraction yield of essential oil was 0.27% after 135 minutes. The major compounds identified in this essential oil were: carvone (66.57%), limonene (16.33%) and 1.8-cineole (7.22%). Antifungal activity evaluation showed fungicidal effect of this essential oil on A. flavus at a concentration of 0.27 mg/ml and has shown fungistatic effect on the other two fungi at the concentrations tested. The addition of this essential oil at 0.05 % in the beverage produced has made it stable during two (02) months. It would therefore be advisable to continue the studies on a longer "shelf life" in order to confirm the conservative effect of this essential oil.

In a previous related article the author described a trade union initiative to improve the health and safety performance of small enterprises in the agricultural sector through the introduction of a scheme for employee participation based on the appointment of a number of regional safety representatives (Walters, 1998). The article concluded that the scheme had achieved only limited success. The fundamental obstacles to its implementation were the aggressive attitudes of the employers’ organisation and the embedded insularity and anti-collectivist culture of farmers. . It suggested that many of its detailed findings in this respect, as well as those on the operation the scheme itself, would be relevant for the development of strategies on this form of representation for employees in small enterprises in other sectors of employment in the India. These points are taken up and further elaborated in the present article, which considers the possible role of schemes for regional representation in health and safety, as one means to improve health and safety management in small enterprises, and provides an analysis of the factors necessary to make them effective and support their development. The purpose of the present article is to explore their significance in the context of the development of forms of regional representation for employees in small enterprises. The article begins by reviewing the problem of health and safety in small enterprises, before considering the role of employee representation in improving health and safety organisation and the factors that make it effective. Its significance for small enterprises is explored with reference to the relevance of the existing legislative provisions and, more importantly, in the light of findings on the factors that promote or limit the effectiveness of the operation of employee representatives in small enterprises.

It will impossible to attain competitiveness capability without using IT and communications; thus enterprises require redefining what they are as regards this technology and finding a new architecture for their own organization. The country's auto part manufacturing industry needs a model whereby various aspects of enterprise architecture are appropriately expanded and upon which suitable strategies for implementing an integrated system is created. This paper seeks to offer a reference model for preparing and formulating an appropriate enterprise architecture regarding the implementation of integrated systems in auto parts manufacturing firms. To design model, principles of Axiomatic designing and generalized enterprise reference architecture and methods are applied. With the identification of 120 pieces of requirements and conversion of them to business capabilities, the recommended reference model, based on a service-oriented architecture consists of 6 layers of architecture, 17 components and 71 business capabilities.

Estimating soil temperature from air temperature is very necessary in some areas that are difficult to reach for the purpose of measuring soil temperature. In this research There are three Station Automatic Weather were selected in the study areas located in the North (Almosul), Middle (Abu-Ghraib), west (Hadethaa) and South (Alkahlaa) of Iraq (36.33° N, 43.16° E), (33.32° N, 44.23° E), (42.00°N, 34.35°E) ,(47.19°N, 31.80° E) respectively. The results referred to strong relationships between the averaged daily air temperature and averaged daily soil temperature at the 10 cm depth for sites. The correlations (R2) values were very high 0.93, 0.939, 0.980, 0.937 in Almosul, Abu-Ghraib , Hadethaa and Alkahlaa sites respectively. Linear equations to estimate soil temperature from air temperature were y=1.274x-6.517 in the north of Iraq, y=1.084x-0.305 in the middle of Iraq, y=1.065x+0.154 in the west of Iraq, y=0.849x+5.14 in the south of Iraq.

This paper titled “ethical evaluation of the impacts of mining in Ebonyi State, Nigeria” was carried out to find the extent to which mining operations in Ebonyi State were consistent with named ethical principles. It was geared toward unearthing the history of mining in Ebonyi State, examining the impacts of mining in Ebonyi State and evaluating the impacts of mining in the light of some ethical principles. Data were collected through oral interviews and use of available data in printed records, reports journals, text books and so on. The following were the findings of this research:In the early 30’s, local miners in Ebonyi State (the villagers) engaged in artisanal quarrying/ mining of lead employing local methods before the coming of expatriate miners in the early 40’s. Mining has impacted positively in various dimensions to the development of the State; the negative impacts are however severe and include habitat modification, deforestation, contamination of air, land pollution, underground and surface water pollution, destruction of roof tops through fly-rocks, soil erosion, crack effect on houses resulting from blasting, noise pollution, socio-political impacts and so on. The impacts were found to be a negation to the ethical principles of justice, human rights and sustainability. The viable means of ameliorating the impacts were found to include: value re-orientation and education of miners to appreciate the above ethical principles; organizing awareness campaigns and sensitization programme for people living in mine areas; diversification of the economy of Ebonyi State through prioritizing agriculture in order to shift emphasis from mining; organizing artisanal miners into groups and co-operative societies for easy training and monitoring; enforcement of mine closure, revegetation and resettlement of fauna.

The goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between export and economic growth for the Iranian economy over the period of 1966-2006. The study applies several econometric techniques that involve: unit root test, cointegration test, impulse response function (IRF), and Toda & Yamamoto (1995) causality test. The findings of the unit root test indicate that two variables are stationary in their levels. Result of cointegration confirms the existence of the long run relationship between export and growth in Iranian economy. Finally, the finding of Toda and Yamamoto test indicate the bidirectional causality between export and growth.