Major animal health problems of market oriented livestock development in Bure woreda

A study was conducted to identify the major animal health problems and to look at the production system in Bure woreda from September 2007 to March 2008. Questionnaire Survey was carried out on 80 livestock owners to collect information on the livestock production system and the major health problems recognized by farmers. Participatory discussion was also made with animal health staffs and case observational study was on 794 diseased animals, which constitute 422 cattle, 300 sheep, 16 goat and 56 equines was undertaken to identify diseases that frequently affect animals in the area during the study time. The questionnaire survey revealed that mixed crop livestock production system is predominant in the area. The livestock herd was dominated by cattle and sheep. The main role of cattle in the farming system is as a source of traction power for crop production while small ruminants as source of income. Equines were used as transport animals. The livestock feeding was mainly based on farm feed resources (croup residues and natural pasture). About 46.09% provided housing for livestock while the rest keep there animals in the open. Uncontrolled natural mating was used by 90.54% of the farmers while 8.1% used controlled natural mating and 1.35 % used AI. In cattle trypanosomosis, fasciolosis,lumpy skin disease, calf diarrhea and anthrax were the most important diseases.Respiratory problems were the most important in small ruminants. Colic and respiratory problems were considered important in donkeys. In poultry NCD was the most devastating disease. Results of the case observational study also indicated that fasciolosis(22.03%), Gastrointestinal parasitism(17.06%),lumpy skin disease(18.7%) and trypanosomosis(6.64%) in cattle, fasciolsis(37.3%) and respiratory problems(30.3%) in sheep, respiratory problem (75%)in goat and wound(39.28%) and epizootics lymoangitis(37.5%) in equine were the leading cases diagnosed. Results indicated the need for expansion of veterinary services, introduction of alternative animal feed sources and detailed epidemiological study

Security analysis of finance and healthcare android applications

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston UniversityAndroid is a major mobile operating system pre-installed and shipped with more than 60% of smart-phones in the market. The open source nature of android en- courages developers to innovate wide-range of applications. Meantime, the sweeping android acceptance with individuals and industries caught the attention of malicious software writers, which led to a sharp increase of security threats. Such threats raise a deeper concern in financial and healthcare applications that are inherently bound to handle private and sensitive information. The research provides a deeper analysis on security vulnerabilities of android applications in finance and healthcare category, from official Google app store. It is proposed and implemented a security analysis framework that takes account of a wide range of vulnerability metrics to provide unified and quantified method of measuring android applications vulnerability. The framework implementation automated the process of crawling google's app store, downloading applications package to a repository and conducting vulnerability analysis. It automatically extracts security parameters, measures vulnerability metrics and generates vulnerability report. The security parameters were extracted from manifest, de-compiled source code and app store meta-data. The analysis, on the top 632 free apps from finance and medical category revealed that on average financial apps found to be more vulnerable than medical apps. Medical apps have the maximum value for all types of vulnerabilities. Furthermore, a descriptive statistical analysis on the vulnerability metrics revealed that there is a linear relationship between implicitly open components and the number of times they access sensitive android resources

Utilization of insecticide treated nets in Arbaminch Town and the malarious villages of Arbaminch Zuria District, Southern Ethiopia

Introduction: Malaria causes an overwhelmingly large number of cases and deaths round the globe every year. Insecticide treated nets (ITNs) have become important tools that provide a simple, but effective means of preventing malaria in highly endemic areas. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study design was used to investigate possession, utilization, and factors affecting possession and utilization of ITNs in Arbaminch Town and the malarious villages of Arbaminch Zuria District, southern Ethiopia from 22nd January to 1st February 2007 on a sample of 454 households. Data were collected using structured, pretested, interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data entry and analysis was performed using SPSS 11.0 for windows. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses were carried out. Results: The coverage for any net and ITN was 75.1% and 58.8% respectively; the utilization rate for any net and ITN by any member of the household the night prior to the study was 71% and 73% respectively. Both coverage and utilization were higher in rural areas than in urban areas. The proportion of pregnant women and children under five years who slept under ITNs the night preceding the study was 35% and 40.3% respectively. Education and income of head of households, place of residence of households and presence of high risk groups in the household were found to be predictors of net possession. Sex and income of head of households, and presence of radio in the households were predictors of utilization of nets by any household member. Education of head of households and place of residence ofhouseholds were predictors of utilization of nets by high risk groups.Conclusions: A wide gap exists between coverage and utilization of ITNs. Use of ITNs by high risk groups is far below the Abuja target. Appropriate BCC interventions are required to narrow the gap between coverage andutilization of ITNs and to escalate use of ITNs by high-risk groups

Derived Demand for Fresh Cheese Products Imported into Japan

The objective of this article is to estimate the derived demand for imported fresh cheese products into Japan when fresh cheese import data are disaggregated by source country of production. We provide empirical measures of the sensitivity of demand to changes in total imports, own-price, and cross-prices among exporting countries for fresh cheese. Japan's derived demand for U.S. fresh cheese products is perfectly inelastic. Thus, the import demand competition among importing countries should be based upon differences in product characteristics.Demand and Price Analysis, International Relations/Trade,

Determinants and Dimensions of Household Food Insecurity in Dire Dawa Town, Ethiopia

Normal 0 false false false Based on primary data collected from 200 household in 2005, this study scrutinizes determinants and the extent of food insecurity in Dire Dawa town. A binary logit model has identified household size, daily income and proportion of expenditure on food, education of household head, sex of household head, access to credit and marital status of the household as significant determinants of food insecurity in the study area. The FGT index result has revealed that 43% of the sampled households cannot meet the daily recommended caloric requirement with a food insecurity gap of 13%. The findings call for action-based advocacy on family planning to curb population growth, provision of technical training to the unemployed that enhances job creativity and competitiveness on the market, access to credit for the needy with proper targeting criterion and expansion of both formal and informal education. Keywords: Food Security; FGT Index; Logit Model; Dire Daw

Are head injuries to cyclists an important cause of death in road travel fatalities?

Background: Despite the well-recognised benefit for individuals and communities of increased active travel, cycling remains a minority travel mode in many high income countries. Fear of injury is often cited as a reason. Campaigns to promote cycle helmet wear are alleged to contribute to this. However, there is little information on whether head injuries to cyclists are an important cause of death in road travel fatalities, compared with other road users. // Methods: We examined secondary causes of death for road travel deaths in England 2007–2012, comparing travel modes and grouped causes of death (from national mortality statistics) as numbers and as rates, using distance travelled and time spent travelling by mode, age, and sex from National Travel Surveys for the same six years. // Results: Head injury was the main cause of death for 269 cyclists, 1324 pedestrians and 1046 drivers, accounting for 46%, 42% and 25% of road travel deaths at all ages in each mode respectively. Head injury was the commonest cause of death in cyclists, but most pedestrian and driver fatalities were from multiple injuries. Rates of fatal head injury per bnkm in males aged 17+ for cycling, walking, and driving were 11.2(95% CI 9.7–12.9), 23.4(21.8–25.0) and 0.7(0.6–0.7) respectively. Female fatality rates were 8.8(6.2–12.0), 9.6(8.7–10.7) and 0.4(0.4–0.5) per bnkm respectively. Using time as the denominator, rates were 0.16(0.14–0.19),0.10(0.10–0.11) and 0.03 (0.028–0.032) respectively in men and 0.10 (0.07–0.14), 0.04(0.037–0.045), and 0.01(0.012–0.016) respectively in women, per million hours travelled. // Conclusion: Answering the question ‘How important are head injuries in cyclists as a cause of road travel death?’ depends on the metric used for assessing importance. Pedestrians and drivers account for five and four times the number of fatal head injuries as cyclists. The fatal head injury rate is highest for cyclists by time travelled and for pedestrians using distance travelled

Prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of thermophilic Campylobacter spp. isolated from ovine carcasses and faeces in Ethiopia

The foodborne thermophilic Campylobacter species are considered to be the leading cause of human gastroenteritis worldwide with emerging antimicrobial resistant strains. Consumption of raw or undercooked meat is an important source for zoonotic infection. A cross-sectional study was conducted on sheep destined for slaughter at a slaughterhouse in Addis Ababa to determine the prevalence of thermophilic Campylobacter spp. A total of 160 carcass swabs and 160 rectal swabs were bacteriologically examined from which 21 (13.1%) and 12 (7.5%) thermophilic Campylobacter spp. were isolated, respectively. Biochemical test results of the carcass isolates indicated 12 (57.1%) to be C. jejuni, 6 (28.6%) C. coli and 3 (14.3%) C. lari. Similar examination of abattoir environment pool samples of eight sampling days revealed 7 (87.5%) to be positive for the thermophilic Campylobacter spp. None of the wash water samples were positive for the bacteria. Antimicrobial susceptibility pattern test towards twelve antimicrobials using standard disc diffusion method revealed higher resistance (38.1%) for amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and kanamycin (38.1%) followed by streptomycin, oxytetracycline and compound sulphonamide (33.3% each). Most isolates were susceptible to ceftriaxone and clindamycin (4.8% each) and to a lesser degree to erythromycin (9.5%). Multidrug resistance was observed in 52.4% of the isolates examined. Isolation of thermophilic Campylobacter spp., with higher isolation rate for C. jejuni, the primary cause of human campylobacteriosis, from sheep meat and the existence of resistant isolates highlight the potential threat to public health. Therefore, implementation of Campylobacter prevention and control strategies from farm production to consumption of sheep meat are crucial