Runoff estimation and water management for the Holetta river in Ethiopia

The hydrology of Holetta River and its seasonal variability is not fully studied. In addition to this, due to scarcity of the available surface water and increase in water demand for irrigation, the major users of the river are facing a challenge to allocate the available water. Therefore, the aim of this research was to investigate the water availability of Holetta River and to study the water management in the catchment. Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) modelled the rainfall runoff process of the catchment. Statistical (coefficient of determination [R2], Nash- Sutcliffe Efficiency Coefficient [NSE] and Index of Volumetric Fit [IVF]) and graphical methods used to evaluate the performance of SWAT model. The result showed that R2, NSE and IVF were 0.85, 0.84 and 102.8, respectively for monthly calibration and 0.73, 0.67 and 108.9, respectively, for monthly validation. These indicated that SWAT model performed well for simulation of the hydrology of the watershed. After modelling the rainfall runoff relation and studying the availability of water at the Holetta River, the water demand of the area assessed. CropWat model and the survey analysis performed to calculate the water demand in the area. The total water demand of all three major users was 0.313, 0.583, 1.004, 0.873 and 0.341 MCM from January to May, respectively. The available river flow from January to May obtained from the result of SWAT simulation. The average flow was 0.749, 0.419, 0.829, 0.623 and 0.471 MCM from January to May respectively. From the five months, the demand and the supply showed a gap during February, March and April with 0.59 MCM. Therefore, in order to solve this problem alternative source of water supply should be studied and integrated water management system should be implemented

Stock Returns and Interest Rates around the World: A Panel Data Approach

We examine quarterly stock returns of 21 developed and 19 developing economies from 1999 to 2013. Over this period, mean quarterly stock returns of 1.188% in developed economies contrast to 4.220% in developing economies. Economic growth has been substantially lower and interest rates have fallen (risen) in developed (developing) economies. Using dynamic panels, we find statistically significant negative effects of interest rates on stock returns in the developed countries, consistent with the expected cash flow hypothesis. In the developing markets, however, the world market portfolio is the sole determinant of stock returns. The contrasting effect of interest rates change on stock returns can be partially attributed to differing monetary policies and to the more mature capital markets inherent in developed economies

Examining out of pocket payments for maternal health in rural Ethiopia: Paradox of free health care un-affordability

Background: One of the components of reproductive health is maternal care. Maternal health care is supposed to be provided free of charge for public health concerns thus women have the right to get services related to maternal care free of charge at government health care facilities. But there is low utilization of the services. Only 12% of women receive ANC and only 6% get assistance of skilled health worker during delivery in Ethiopia. There are different factors for the low utilization of services. Un-affordability of services is cited as the first main reason contributing to the low utilization.Objectives: To examine the magnitude of out of pocket expenditure for maternal health series in rural Ethiopia.Methods: This study was conducted within ten randomly selected kebeles of the Butajira DSS from October 2007 to May 2008 using a cross-sectional survey design and a source population of households that expend out-of-pocket on RH services during the period of 12 months prior to the study.Results: In the study, nearly three fifth of the studied families paid out of pocket expenditures exceeding 20% of their monthly household expenditure for maternal health care seeking. Excluding expenditures for food, about 61% of them paid more than 40% of their non-food expenditure on maternal health care. Households in the lower wealth quintiles are paying greater proportion of their income (49%) than those in the highest wealth quintile who paid 19% of their income. In addition to the direct expenditures made at point of service, the indirect expenditures of reaching to the services are also found to be substantial. These indirect expenditures share 32% of ANC, 31% of obstetric care, and 44% of abortion services. Thus even if direct expenditures at point of service in public providers are assumed to be negligible, women are obliged to go to expensive private providers to reduce the indirect costs of care seeking such as waiting time. Regarding coping mechanism to respond to expenditure, households usually borrow from relatives and friends and 4.4% of the households resorted to distress sale of their assets.Conclusions: This study identified the presence of price elasticity among the poor that suggests out-of-pocket expenditure has a regressive distributional impact and poor and very poor people were expending more. On top of this, all expenses were covered from regular income which leads to catastrophic household economic crises.Recommendations: Health care providers should be evenly distributed, easily accessible and work on awareness creation on the advantages of early care seeking and preventive care. On the other hand, health care financing should also be based on the principle of cost sharing and move into prepayment schemes or insurance

Runoff Estimation and Water Demand Analysis for Holetta River, Awash Subbasin, Ethiopia Using SWAT and CropWat Models

This chapter discusses the hydrology of Holetta River , Ethiopia , its seasonal variability and water management in the watershed. Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) modeled the rainfall–runoff process of the watershed. Statistical [coefficient of determination (R 2), Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (NSE), and index of volumetric fit (IVF)] and graphical methods were used to evaluate the performance of the model. The result showed that R 2, NSE and IVF were 0.85, 0.84 and 102.8, respectively, for monthly calibration and 0.73, 0.67 and 108.9, respectively, for monthly validation. These indicated that SWAT model performed well for simulation of the hydrology of the watershed. After modeling the rainfall runoff relation, the water demand of the area was assessed. CropWat model was applied and survey analyses were performed to calculate the water demand in the area. The total water demand for the three major users was 0.313, 0.583, 1.004, 0.873, and 0.341 million cubic meters (MCM) from January to May, respectively. The average flow obtained from SWAT simulation was 0.749, 0.419, 0.829, 0.623, and 0.471 MCM from January to May, respectively. From 5 months, the demand and the supply showed a gap during February, March, and April with 0.59 MCM. To solve the gap created by the demand, alternative source of water supply should be studied and integrated water management systems should be implemented

Differential responses of Bactrocera dorsalis and its parasitoids to headspaces of different varieties of tree-attached mango fruits and the associated chemical profiles

Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) is a major pest of fruits and vegetables worldwide with documented losses of up to 100%. Various management techniques including the use of parasitoids, such as Fopius arisanus (Sonan) and Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Ashmead) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) within the context of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach have been deployed for its control. The effectiveness of parasitoids is well understood, but knowledge of the semiochemicals that mediate their behavior, as well as that of the host fruit fly to tree-attached mangoes, is lacking. Here, we first compared the attractiveness of the above-mentioned fruit fly and its parasitoids to volatiles of different treatments (non-infested physiologically mature unripe and ripe mangoes, mangoes newly exposed to ovipositing B. dorsalis, and mangoes on day 7 and day 9 post-oviposition) of tree-attached Kent, Apple, and Haden mango varieties relative to control (clean air). The fruit fly was significantly more attracted to the mango volatiles (up to 93% of responsive insects) compared to the control (clean air). Fopius arisanus was significantly more attracted to mangoes with ovipositing fruit flies (68-76%) while D. longicaudata was significantly more attracted to day 9 post-oviposited mangoes (64-72%) compared to the control. Secondly, we elucidated the headspace volatile profiles of the non-infested and infested tree-attached mangoes using gas chromatography linked to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The volatiles revealed various types of organic compounds with qualitative and quantitative differences. The majority of the compounds were esters making 33.8% of the total number, followed by sesquiterpenes-16.4%, and monoterpenes-15.4% among others. Most compounds had higher release rates in headspace volatiles of fruit fly-infested mangoes. Lastly, we harvested the infested mangoes and incubated them for puparia recovery. The number of puparia recovered varied according to the mango variety with Apple mango registering 81.7% of the total, while none was recovered from Kent. These results represent the first report of the changes in the headspace components of non-infested and infested tree-attached mangoes and the associated differential responses of the mentioned insects. A follow-up study can reveal whether there is a convergence in olfactomes which is significant when developing baits that selectively attract the fruit fly and not its natural enemies and fill the knowledge gap from an evolutionary ecological perspective

Plasmonic nanostructures through DNA-assisted lithography

Programmable self-assembly of nucleic acids enables the fabrication of custom, precise objects with nanoscale dimensions. These structures can be further harnessed as templates to build novel materials such as metallic nanostructures, which are widely used and explored because of their unique optical properties and their potency to serve as components of novel metamaterials. However, approaches to transfer the spatial information of DNA constructions to metal nanostructures remain a challenge. We report a DNA-assisted lithography (DALI) method that combines the structural versatility of DNA origami with conventional lithography techniques to create discrete, well-defined, and entirely metallic nanostructures with designed plasmonic properties. DALI is a parallel, high-throughput fabrication method compatible with transparent substrates, thus providing an additional advantage for optical measurements, and yields structures with a feature size of ~10 nm. We demonstrate its feasibility by producing metal nanostructures with a chiral plasmonic response and bowtie-shaped nanoantennas for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. We envisage that DALI can be generalized to large substrates, which would subsequently enable scale-up production of diverse metallic nanostructures with tailored plasmonic features.Peer reviewe

Cost-effectiveness of an ambulance-based referral system for emergency obstetrical and neonatal care in rural Ethiopia

Background: To estimate the cost-effectiveness of an ambulance-based referral system an dedicated to emergency obstetrics and neonatal care (EmONC) in remote sub-Saharan settings. Methods: In this prospective study performed in Oromiya Region (Ethiopia), all obstetrical cases referred to the hospital with the ambulance were consecutively evaluated during a three-months period. The health professionals who managed the referred cases were requested to identify those that could be considered as undoubtedly effective. Pre and post-referral costs included those required to run the ambulance service and the additional costs necessary for the assistance in the hospital. Local life expectancy tables were used to calculate the number of year saved. Results: A total of 111 ambulance referrals were recorded. The ambulance was undoubtedly effective for 9 women and 4 newborns, corresponding to 336 years saved. The total cost of the intervention was 8299 US dollars. The cost per year life saved was 24.7 US dollars which is below the benchmarks of 150 and 30 US dollars that define attractive and very attractive interventions. Sensitivity analyses on the rate of effective referrals, on the costs of the ambulance and on the discount rate confirmed the robustness of the result. Conclusions: An ambulance-based referral system for EmONC in remote sub-Saharan areas appears highly cost-effective

Stakeholders' views on the global guidelines for the sustainable use of non‐native trees

A large number of non‐native trees (NNTs) have been introduced globally and widely planted, contributing significantly to the world's economy. Although some of these species present a limited risk of spreading beyond their planting sites, a growing number of NNTs are spreading and becoming invasive leading to diverse negative impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem functions and human well‐being. To help minimize the negative impacts and maximize the economic benefits of NNTs, Brundu et al. developed eight guidelines for the sustainable use of NNTs globally—the Global Guidelines for the Use of NNTs (GG‐NNTs). Here, we used an online survey to assess perceptions of key stakeholders towards NNTs, and explore their knowledge of and compliance with the GG‐NNTs. Our results show that stakeholders are generally aware that NNTs can provide benefits and cause negative impacts, often simultaneously and they consider that their organization complies with existing regulations and voluntary agreements concerning NNTs. However, they are not aware of or do not apply most of the eight recommendations included in the GG‐NNTs. We conclude that effectively managing invasions linked to NNTs requires both more communication efforts using an array of channels for improving stakeholder awareness and implementation of simple measures to reduce NNT impacts (e.g. via GG‐NNTs), and a deeper understanding of the barriers and reluctance of stakeholders to manage NNT invasions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog