Sustaining farming systems for food security and economic growth in Ethiopia

Poster prepared for a share fair, Addis Ababa, May 201

Assessment of Geomorphologic Impacts of Channel Erosion in River Tisa Basin in Ambasel District, Northeastern Ethiopia

The geomorphological impacts of channel erosion in streams that flank from Ambasel ridge  of  Mile  drainage basin( which is one of the upstream of Awash river) were examined. Data were generated through direct field measurement and observation of some geomorphological variables of the cross sectional channel width and channel depth dimensions. The basic equipment employed for data generation is the tape, a piece of tie rod and ranging poles. The data generated were analyzed and processed by  descriptive statistics such as the mean, standard deviation, range and simple percentages while the Student’s‘t’ and Snedecor’s F tests were also used as the basic inferential statistics for testing the hypothesis generated. The result of the analysis showed that the geomorphological impacts of erosion in the Ambasel ridge and its low-lying area varied spatially both across and along the profiles of the streams. However, such impacts were more pronounced in the upstream of the drainage basin. The study uncovered further impact of channel erosion to include channel bank collapse and in-caving, destruction of habitat structure, degradation of farmlands in the low-lying areas by sediment invasion over the farm lands. The way forward is land use zoning agriculture and channelization tracing the natural sinuosity of the river as some of the measures for controlling the undesirable effect of channel erosion in the drainage basin. Keywords: Spatial Analysis, Geomorphic Impacts, Channel Erosion, Ambasel Distric

A comparison of exposed with closed method of management of clean abdominal surgical wounds

One hundred and twenty consecutive patients undergoing abdominal surgery were randomly distributed to five groups. One group had their wounds exposed, two  groups had occlusive dressings for 24 and 48 hours respectively. The remaining two groups respectively had non-occlusive dressings for 24 and 48 hours. The wounds were inspected for evidence of inspection on the 3rd, 7'h and 15Ih post-operative days. All discharging wounds were considered infected. The infection rate ranged between 8% and 11%. The corrected infection rate after excluding those cases with obvious contributing factors ranged from 4% to 7.4%. Exposed wounds had the lowest infection rate but the differences were not significant. The study confirmed that clean surgical wounds may be managed safely without dressing.Key words: Abdominal, surgical, postoperative, exposed, open, occlusive, dressin

Spatial modelling and mapping of antenatal care service utilization in Ethiopia: an analysis of Ethiopian demographic and health survey, 2011

RESEARCH REPORT SUBMITTED TO SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, FACILITY OF HEALTH SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF WITWATERSRAND IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN EPIDEMIOLOGY UNDER DIVISION OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND BIOSTATISTICS. April 12, 2016, Johannesburg, South AfricaBACKGROUND: Adequate antenatal care (ANC) is an important indicator to improve maternal and their infant health in a given region. However, ANC coverage varies markedly within geographical locations due to different social and health determinants. Evaluating and documenting such variations provide useful information to improve ANC uptake. OBJECTIVE: To identify socio-economic and demographic factors associated with ANC service utilization, to investigate spatial clustering in ANC service utilization and to develop maps of spatial variation in ANC service utilization in Ethiopia. METHODS: Data was drawn from the 2011 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). The two aspects considered under ANC service utilization include the time of first ANC visit and the number of ANC visits. Time of first ANC visit was coded as late (0) when the first visit took place after 16 weeks of gestation otherwise early (1). Number of ANC visit was ordered and coded as no visit (0), inadequate (1) for one to three visits and adequate (2) for greater than or equal to four visits. Alternatively, number of ANC visit was coded as no visit (0) and at least one visit (1) for mapping of spatial variation in number of ANC visit. Spatial scan statistical analysis was carried out on enumeration areas (EAs) aggregated data by using SaTScan to investigate significant clusters of time of first ANC visit and number of ANC visit. High and low rates of ANC service utilization clusters were detected. For time of first ANC visit, the cluster with relative risk (RR) less than one indicates the early visit is lower than late. The number of ANC visits ordered in to three categories, due to this RR in every cluster is represented by three different numbers: the first one stands for (no visits), second for (inadequate visits) and third for (adequate visits). The clusters with RR decrease from low valued category (no ANC visits) to high valued category (adequate number of ANC visits) indicate the rate of number of ANC visits decreases in the clusters. Ordinal logistic regression used to investigate factors associated with the number of ANC visits. Bayesian hierarchical spatial logistic models were used to investigate factors associated with time of first ANC visit and develop maps of spatial variation in the time of ANC visit and the number of ANC visits across Ethiopia. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of time of first ANC visit and adequate number of ANC visits were 26.38% and 19.14% respectively. The result revealed significant spatial variation in ANC service utilization. Women in the West [RR=0.33, P<0.0001] and South-West [RR=0.52, P<0.0001] of Ethiopia were least likely to start ANC early. Those in North-West [RR=1.26,1.03,0.43; P=0.0001], South-East [RR=1.64,0.46,0.03; P=0.0001], North-East [RR=1.81,0.05,0;P=0.0001] and tip of West [RR=1.46,0.67,0.24;P=0.0001] of Ethiopia had lowest numbers of ANC visits. In these parts of the country the rates of number of ANC visits decreases from low- valued category (no ANC visit) to high-value category (adequate number of ANC visits). Age at birth of last child, place of residence, education, religion, marital status and household-wealth were significantly associated with time of first ANC visit. Age at birth of last child, place of residence, region, education, ethnicity, marital status, household-wealth and party were significantly associated with number of ANC visits. CONCLUSION: The finding of this study has potential to assist government, policy makers and other collaborative organizations on resource allocation and improvement of ANC services.MT201

Design Modification, Adaptation and Verification of Spike Tooth Harrow for Pack Animals

It was observed that, farmers in the test area repeat farm tillage usually from 3 to 6 to prepare seedbed by using oxen and traditional ‘Marasha’. But these practices are causing exhaustion for both the farmers and oxen which are less resistive to such conditions. In addition, as the affordability of the oxen is becoming difficult and the traditional ‘Marasha’ is not suitable for reducing the repetitive tillage. Therefore this activity was aimed at modifying and verifying existing spike tooth harrow for secondary tillage and for donkey and horse harnessing suitability. Field evaluation of the modified implement was carried out to determine plowing width and depth, clod breakage (soil pulverization) and working capacity (hr/ha). Test result of the modified implement showed that 63.4 % clod breakage or soil pulverization within an average time of 3.8 hr/ha, which takes a day by using the (‘Marasha’). The average yield of grain worked by spike-tooth harrow was 80 quintal/ha and that of ‘Marasha’ with oxen was 67quintal/ha. Keywords: clod size, tillage, spike

Building Adaptation Strategies to Moisture Deficit on Farmer's Experience: Lessons from Rural Communities of Kobo District, Northeastern Ethiopia

The  study endeavors to explore the response of farmers to subsequent soil moisture stress on cultivated fields in Northeastern highlands of Ethiopia in general and Kobo wereda in particular. A microcosm of drought prone areas, Kobo wereda of North Wollo Zone, was selected for the study. The socio-economic as well as the biophysical data that have relevance to the study were collected and both the local adaptive mechanisms and the external interventions were explored using questionnaire surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interview and field observations. For purpose of household survey, 180 households were taken from the selected Kebeles. Seen in this way, the study divulges into the  pool of local  adaptive practices, backed up   by ‘megabytes’ of information, are /were practiced by farmers of the study Kebeles. These are agronomic, physical and biological measures. The measures are well adapted to local conditions and widely practiced by farmers. These on-farm adaptive mechanisms such as traditional ditches (feses), adjusting cropping calendar (early sowing, late sowing and response farming), weed heaping have been practiced and/or managed by the household. Other indigenous   practices such as traditional waterways, traditional cutoff drain, flood diversion and others are also important adaptive mechanisms.From the study it has also been unpacked that farmers’ decision to invest on adaptive activities and their choice of measures are challenged by several factors. Finally, the way forward of the study is that further studies should focus on adaptive mechanisms in the study area. Keywords: Local Adaptive mechanisms, Soil Moisture Stress, Kobo Wereda

New Visiting African Research Fellow at LSE

Dr Asnake Kefale is the 2013/2014 Visiting African Research Fellow based in the LSE IDEAS. He is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Addis Ababa University. I met with him on his arrival at the School to talk about his research

Cis 3,4\u27, 5-trimethoxy-3\u27-aminostilbene (stilbene 5c) induces apoptosis and protective autophagy in B16F10 melanoma cells

The weak selectivity of chemotherapeutic drugs against tumors has sustained efforts to develop better chemotherapeutic agents that are more potent and selective at destroying tumor cell populations versus normal tissues. This project focuses on evaluating the cell killing effects of the microtubule inhibitor, stilbene 5c, against melanoma cancer. We utilized an in vitro murine melanoma model to study the effects of stilbene 5c on tumor proliferation and survival, as well as growth arrest and cell death. Our findings indicate that stilbene 5c promotes dose dependent cell death in melanomas with the induction of apoptosis and autophagy. The role of autophagy was further assessed using the pharmacological autophagy inhibitor, Bafilomycin A1. It was concluded that autophagy was partially cytoprotective as inhibition of autophagy was shown to induce extensive cell death through an increase in apoptosis. Residual surviving cells were shown to be in a state of growth arrest characterized to be senescence. These findings indicate that stilbene 5c could potentially be developed for the treatment of melanoma

Bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis and cholecystectomy: An observational study

Background: Gallbladder has not been associated with any allergic condition what so ever. However, certain patients with bronchial asthma and cholelithiasis have reported to the author improvement in their asthmatic attack after cholecystectomy.Methods: This was an observational study on 22 bronchial asthma or allergic rhinitis cases that had undergone cholecystectomy. These patients had been followed up from three to nine years. A questionnaire had been filled by the patients as to the frequency of asthmatic or allergic rhinitis attacks and use of medication before and after cholecystectomy at the end of the follow up.Results: Twenty (90.91%) of the patients showed improvement in the frequency of attacks and eight (36.36%) of the patients had no attacks after the cholecystectomy. Postoperatively, fifteen (68.18%) stopped medication and five (27.73%) decreased use of medication for bronchial asthma or allergic rhinitis.Conclusion: Dramatic symptomatic improvement followed cholecystectomy in patients with bronchial asthma and allergic rhinitis. . Intra-operative and or postoperative drugs or bile concentration cannot bring such a change. Drug effects cannot last the follow up period of 3-9 years and bile concentration cannot affect asthmatic or allergic rhinitis attacks. Therefore the improvement postoperatively can only be explained by removal of the gallbladder. Further studies into this hypothesis are recommended

Investigating the Influence of Incomplete Fusion on Complete Fusion of 16 O –Induced Reaction ≈ 3-8 MeV/nucleon

The dynamics of heavy-ion fusion reaction elaborate in the interaction of 1616O "&gt; projectiles with 16165Ho "&gt; and 51 V targets at ≈3-8MeV/nucleon specific energies were studied. This study were emphases on the relationship between entrance channel belongings and incomplete fusion reaction. The experimentally measured excitation functions of various reaction products duplicated by complete or incomplete fusions of 1616O "&gt; + 1651V"&gt; , 16165Ho "&gt; projectile-target systems had been compared and analyzed within the predicted excitation functions, using the statistical model code PACE4. For α-emitting channels in the present systems, the measured excitation functions had been highest than the predictions of the theoretical model code, which may focuses at these energies. However for non-alpha emitting channels in this system the measured excitation function had been nice agreement with the theoretical values. An endeavor were made to nearly the incomplete fusion fraction that designates importance of incomplete fusion process. Keywords:Alpha emitted, CF reaction, Entrance channel, Heavy ion fusion, ICF reaction, Non alpha emitted DOI: 10.7176/APTA/79-03 Publication date:September 30th 201