Dilated cardiomyopathy in a child with hyper-immunoglobulin E syndrome

Hyper-immunoglobulin E syndrome is a rare primary immunodeficiency. We report a 6-year-old girl diagnosed with hyper immunoglobulin E syndrome and dilated cardiomyopathy. She presented with recurrent pneumonia and chronic eczema since infancy; onychomycosis, eosinophilia, high immunoglobulin E levels, previous treatment for severe infections and dilated cardiomyopathy. She was treated with diuretics, afterload reducers, inotropes, aspirin, steroids and antibiotics. Whether the cardiomyopathy is a co-incidental finding or a result of viral myocarditis due to the recurrent chest infections she had was difficult to conclusively determine

Household Fertilizers Use and Soil Fertility Management Practices in Vegetable Crops Production: The Case of Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Large areas of farms are covered by variety of vegetable crops in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. With a view to improve current vegetable production fertilizer use efficiency, survey has been conducted through collections of baseline information to describe household fertilizer uses and soil fertility management in vegetable production system using descriptive statistics. Multistage samplings were made to select  representative growers in the six districts of East Showa zone. Based on field observations and group discussions, vegetable growers grouped their farm land into four local categories. The survey revealed that tomato growers apply variable rates of urea and DAP fertilizers for tomato cultivation. Survey results indicated that highest 43.61% of onion growers apply 200 kg of DAP fertilizer on their onion field, while 30.85% of growers apply 300 kg DAP per ha, another 39.35% apply, 400 kg and above DAPfertilizer, still 8.5% of onion growers apply 600 kg DAP fertilizer on their onion farm. This survey indicated that fertilizers were not wisely used in the vegetable crops production systems and the applications are in excess rate, which could leads to pollution of the environment from over dose application and from runoff in to the water bodies and leaching in to the ground water with economic loss. Most of the tomato and onion growers use three splits application of UREA and DAP mainly at transplanting, at first and second cultivation for both crops as top-dressing. The survey results indicated that 54.44% of onion growers apply an average of 230.35 kg ha-1 DAP at transplanting, while 46.53% apply an average of 188.29kg ha-1 DAP at second split application, and finally 17.82% apply an  average of 119.44 kg ha-1 DAP at last third split applications. This is the first document come across that vegetable growers in the CRV area apply DAP fertilizer as much as three splits. This indicates that there are no  systems of updating of frontline development workers; poor extension services with shallow development workers knowledge made the growers totally depend on their own innovations for vegetable production

Irrigation Water Management Practices in Smallholder Vegetable Crops Production: The Case of the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Smallholder irrigated vegetable production in the Central Rift Valley region of Ethiopia is instrumental in ensuring the year-round availability of fresh vegetables in the local market in the country. However, a number of  problems constrain irrigated vegetable production in the region. Therefore, asurvey was conducted with the objectives of assessing smallholder  irrigated vegetable production practices and identifying factors associated with problems of irrigation water management. The survey was conducted in December 2011. A multistage purposive sampling procedure was  employed to select sample districts, peasant associations, and sample respondents that grew vegetables using small-scale irrigation. Key  informants were interviewed and group discussions were conducted with smallholder vegetable farmers. Data were collected on household irrigation knowledge, experiences, skills, irrigation water sources as well as on  irrigation water management practices such as methods, time, depth and frequency of irrigation. Data were also collected on supplemental irrigation practices under rain-fed vegetable production. In addition, household perceptions on the environmental impacts of irrigation, on-farm irrigation water related challenges, and related information were also recorded. About 16.5% of the respondents indicated that their knowledge and skills on irrigation water management practices were mainly drawn from experiences of trial and error.About 38.1% of the respondents indicated that they  irrigated their vegetable fields both in the morning and the afternoon  whereas 35.1% replied that they irrigated only in the afternoon. A large number of the respondents (89.6%) replied that they determined irrigation intervals based on specific crop needs. About 90.9% of the respondents replied that they applied enough irrigation water up to the point where the water level reached the furrow basin head. The survey result also indicated that 51.7% of the respondents practiced supplemental irrigation when shortage of moisture occurred in the soil during the rainy season as well at the end of the rainy season. One hundred percent of the respondents replied that they faced problems commonly related with the use of  irrigation, namely, soil salinity, waterlogging, soil erosion and degradation, sedimentation, and build-up of pests and diseases. In conclusion, the survey results revealed that extension services on irrigation water  management were almost non-existent, and the smallholder vegetable farmers managed irrigation water merely by intuition.Therefore,  participatory on-farm irrigation research and extension on irrigation water management practices should be formulated to generate appropriate technologies for enhanced and sustainable irrigated vegetable production in the region

Land Cover Map for Multifunctional Landscapes of Taita Taveta County, Kenya, Based on Sentinel-1 Radar, Sentinel-2 Optical, and Topoclimatic Data

Taita Taveta County (TTC) is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots in the highlands with some of the world’s megafaunas in the lowlands. Detailed mapping of the terrestrial ecosystem of the whole county is of global significance for biodiversity conservation. Here, we present a land cover map for 2020 based on satellite observations, a machine learning algorithm, and a reference database for accuracy assessment. For the land cover map production processing chain, temporal metrics from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 (such as median, quantiles, and interquartile range), vegetation indices from Sentinel-2 (normalized difference vegetation index, tasseled cap greenness, and tasseled cap wetness), topographic metrics (elevation, slope, and aspect), and mean annual rainfall were used as predictors in the gradient tree boost classification model. Reference sample points which were collected in the field were used to guide the collection of additional reference sample points based on high spatial resolution imagery for training and validation of the model. The accuracy of the land cover map and uncertainty of area estimates at 95% confidence interval were assessed using sample-based statistical inference. The land cover map has an overall accuracy of 81 ± 2.3% and it is freely accessible for land use planners, conservation managers, and researchers

Land Cover Map for Multifunctional Landscapes of Taita Taveta County, Kenya, Based on Sentinel-1 Radar, Sentinel-2 Optical, and Topoclimatic Data

Taita Taveta County (TTC) is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots in the highlands with some of the world’s megafaunas in the lowlands. Detailed mapping of the terrestrial ecosystem of the whole county is of global significance for biodiversity conservation. Here, we present a land cover map for 2020 based on satellite observations, a machine learning algorithm, and a reference database for accuracy assessment. For the land cover map production processing chain, temporal metrics from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 (such as median, quantiles, and interquartile range), vegetation indices from Sentinel-2 (normalized difference vegetation index, tasseled cap greenness, and tasseled cap wetness), topographic metrics (elevation, slope, and aspect), and mean annual rainfall were used as predictors in the gradient tree boost classification model. Reference sample points which were collected in the field were used to guide the collection of additional reference sample points based on high spatial resolution imagery for training and validation of the model. The accuracy of the land cover map and uncertainty of area estimates at 95% confidence interval were assessed using sample-based statistical inference. The land cover map has an overall accuracy of 81 ± 2.3% and it is freely accessible for land use planners, conservation managers, and researchers

Study on knowledge, attitude and dog ownership patterns related to rabies prevention and control in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The study was conducted from May 2003 to August 2003 in Addis Ababa with the objective of understanding the distribution of stray and owned dogs, dog ownership patterns and attitudes of people towards rabies and its prevention and control methods. A total of 2390 households were selected from 6 Sub Cities of Addis Ababa using stratified random sampling and were interviewed using structured questionnaires. From the total households interviewed, 969 (40.5%) of them were known to own one or more dogs, and the total number of owned dogs was estimated to be 225,078. Male dogs make up 1042 (78.4%) of the total owned dogs. Almost half of all the dogs 463 (47.8%) were tied only for some time during the day whereas 320 (33.1%) of the dogs were not tied at all and freely move from place to place and contribute to high dog bites in human beings and for the widespread occurrence of canine rabies in Addis Ababa. Six hundred fifty five (67.6%) of the interviewed households who owned dogs had a well fenced house. Most of the owned dogs 856 (88.4%) get their food from their owners and only 321 (33.3%) of the owners reported that they let their dogs to be vaccinated while the majority of the owners 644 (66.5%) do not let their dogs vaccinated regularly. A significant proportion of the interviewed households 2,323 (97.2%), (P < 0.05) indicated that they have the knowledge that dogs, cats and other animals can transmit rabies to humans and 1,752 (73.4%) of the households replied that rabies can be transmitted through bite, scratch and lick to open wounds. Analysis of the list of 2400 post exposure human antirabies treatments recorded at the EHNRI Zoonoses Laboratory from February 2002 to October 2003 showed that the most common animals involved in biting people were dogs. A total of 2198 (91.6%) people were bitten by dogs during the same period and most of them, 2053 (85.5%) were bitten on their hands and legs. All the above data indicated the need for a strong and coordinated rabies control activities to be conducted in the city

Characterization of Ethiopian mega hydrogeological regimes using GRACE, TRMM and GLDAS Datasets

Understanding the spatio-temporal characteristics of water storage changes is crucial for Ethiopia, a country that is facing a range of challenges in water management caused by anthropogenic impacts as well as climate variability. In addition to this, the scarcity of in situ measurements of soil moisture and groundwater, combined with intrinsic ‘‘scale limitations’’ of traditional methods used in hydrological characterization are further limiting the ability to assess water resource distribution in the region. The primary objective of this study is therefore to apply remotely sensed and model data over Ethiopia in order to (i) test the performance of models and remotely sensed data in modeling water resources distribution in un-gauged arid regions of Ethiopia, (ii) analyze the inter-annual and seasonal variability as well as changes in total water storage (TWS) over Ethiopia, (iii) understand the relationship between TWS changes, rainfall, and soil moisture anomalies over the study region, and (iv) identify the relationship between the characteristics of aquifers and TWS changes. The data used in this study includes; monthly gravity field data from the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, rainfall data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), and soil moisture from the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) model. Our investigation covers a period of 8 years from 2003 to 2011.The results of the study show that the western part and the north-eastern lowlands of Ethiopia experienced decrease in TWS water between 2003–2011, whereas all the other regions gained water during the study period. The impact of rainfall seasonality was also seen in the TWS changes. Applying the statistical method of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to TWS, soil moisture and rainfall variations identified the dominant annual water variability in the western, north-western, northern, and central regions, and the dominant seasonal variability in the western, north-western, and the eastern regions. A correlation analysis between TWS and rainfall indicated a minimum time lag of zero to a maximum of six months, whereas no lag is noticeable between soil moisture anomalies and TWS changes. The delay response and correlation coefficient between rainfall and TWS appears to be related to recharge mechanisms, revealing that most regions of Ethiopia receive indirect recharge. Our results also show that the magnitude of TWS changes is higher in the western region and lower in the north-eastern region, and that the elevation influences soil moisture as well as TWS

Advance in grain legumes genetic transformation: The case of GM pea and cowpea

Grain legumes are socio-economically important crops playing a substantial role in providing dietary protein for millions of households in the world. As multipurpose crops, they are used for different purposes such as food and feed. They also fix atmospheric nitrogen contributing to the sustainability of farming system by enriching soil fertility and maintaining the productivity of agricultural land. However, different production factors, such as insect pests and diseases, have limited the productivity of grain legumes both in field and during the storage and are impacting their contribution to nutrition security and poverty reduction. Furthermore, in the current trend of climate change, there is an increasing pressure on plant breeders to develop climate-smart varieties of crops with multiple traits against the different production factors. In order to enhance the economic and social contribution of grain legumes, genetic transformation approaches have been used to develop transgenic lines with new traits such as resistance to insects and diseases as well as tolerance to drought. In this paper, the experience and result of pea and cowpea Agrobacterium-mediated transformation will be presented. Special emphasis will be given to the success and challenges of transgenic insect resistance and its importance in these two important grain legumes. Based on insect bioassay tests, the level of insect resistance in some of the transgenic lines will be presented against that of none transgenic lines. Finally, recommendation will also be discussed for future genetic transformation to develop climate-smart variety of transgenic grain legumes