Outbreak of scurvy among prisoners in South Ethiopia

Background: Scurvy is caused by a deficiency of ascorbic acid. Hence, ascorbic acid has to be regularly supplemented through diet or with tablets.Objective: To describe the clinical feature of scurvy among prisoners admitted to Yirgalem Hospital.Methods: An observational study done on a total of 38 male prisoner patients over one month. Data were collected using structured questionnaire and analysis was done using SPSS 16.0.Results: All 38 patients had limb swelling and 35 of them had distal limb numbness, tingling and burning sensation. After five days of vitamin C administration patients’ leg swelling, hematuria, cough and gum bleeding subsided completely, and the value of hemoglobin was also raised from (10.3±3.31) to (12.7±2.26) with treatment. Nutritional history revealed that there were no vegetables, fruits or animal products in their diet. Their imprisonments ranged from eight to forty nine months with an average of 19.3 months.Conclusions: Symptomatic scurvy is common in male prisoners imprisoned more than eight months. Unilateral limb swelling, bilateral distal neuropathic pain and bleeding diathesis are common presentation of scurvy. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2012;26(1):60-62

Assessment of Natural Resources and Its Implication for Ecotourism Development in Hashenge Watershed

Land use and land cover change has become a central component in current strategies for managing natural resources and monitoring environmental changes. To assess the natural resources and to maintain the potentials of the area, a land cover mapping was done. The aim of this study was to detect the extent and rate of land use and land cover change for the last 28 years. The landsat imageries of 1986, 2000, 2007 and 2014 were taken for land use and land cover classification. For the classification purposes, five land use and land cover classes were identified. Change Detection between the images for all the land use and land cover classes were computed. For Accuracy Assessment Classification error matrix was done. The floristic composition and structure of Hugumburda forest, is described and related to environmental factors. To analyze the forest and environmental data forty plots (10m x 10m) were used. For each species the abundance value was estimated. Height and diameter at breast height (DBH) of all woody individuals taller than 2 m and thicker than 2 cm were measured. A total of 41 species belonging to 32 families were recorded. The most extensive land cover category of the study area is farmland i.e. 46.8%. The second most extensive land cover category is forest 33.3% in 2014. The overall accuracy of classification methodology is 82.11% for the 2000 and 2007 images. Seven most abundant families were found namely: Fabaceae, Anacardiaceae, Apocynaceae, Celastraceae, Cupressaceae, Sapindaceae and Solanaceae. Regarding plant life forms, the forest is composed of 56 % shrub, 44 % tree species. Related to the bird species, a total of 66 species of birds grouped under 19 families were recorded. Family Alopochen aegyptiacus (20.07%) had the highest number of species. The lowest number of species was under the Families Phalacrocorax carbo (0.14%), Phoenicopterus minor (0.15%) and Lissotis melanogaster (0.15%) respectively. Lake Hashenge has two species of fish and grouped under two families. The analyses of the study revealed that natural resources such as abundance and diversity of bird, forest, fish, lake and beautiful landscape attractions at nearby areas are the main ecotourism potential in the study area

Spatio – Temporal Assessment Of Road Traffic Accident In Mekelle City

Road Traffic Accidents are the foremost causes of death and disability globally, with a top-heavy number occurring in developing countries. Road Traffic Accidents are currently ranked ninth globally amongst the leading causes of disability adjusted life years lost and the ranking is anticipated to rise to rank third by 2020. Over 1.2 million people die every year in the world’s roads, and between 20 and 50 million grieve non-fatal injuries. The direct financial costs of global road crashes have been estimated at US$518 billion, with the costs in low-income countries – estimated at US$ 65 billion. The aim of this study is to assess Road Traffic Accident related issues of Mekelle City in terms of time and space from 2008 to 2011. The pivotal data necessary for the study was collected from the daily Road Traffic Accident records format of the city. Furthermore, additional information required for the study was collected through interviewing traffic police officers. The locations of frequent Road Traffic Accident occurrences were specified using Google Earth. The X - Y coordinates of Road Traffic Accident Spots were added to ArcGIS 9 software via DNRGPS 6.0.0.8 Application software. Data analysis was made using ArcGIS 9 and SPSS version 19. The results were presented in the form of line graphs, crosstabs, column graphs, pie charts, figures and spatial and spatio-temporal maps. The result of the study revealed that, 1275 Road Traffic Accidents have occurred in the city in the study period. About 624 people became Road Traffic Accident casualties and road crashes cost the city ETB 10,265,977.6 from 2008 to 2011. Unevenly distributed 1161 spatially identified Road Traffic Accidents have occurred in 247 different Road Traffic Accident spots of the city in the study period. Besides, 34 Road Traffic Accident Black Spots, top 10 as well as 4 consistent Road Traffic Accident Black Spots have been identified in the city. It was concluded that, the frequency of occurrence of Road Traffic Accidents and number of casualties is escalating from time to time and the city is losing a lot of its financial wealth due to Road Traffic Accidents. As a result, road users must be made aware of the disaster, road infrastructure should be developed, stakeholders should significantly participate in road safety management and authorities should take actions to curb the anguish of Road Traffic Accidents in Mekelle City

Perceived Service Quality and Patients’ Satisfaction: The Case of Wolaita Sodo University Teaching Hospital

Quality of service has become an emblem for customers while availing any services and it is also a strategic advantage for the organizations to gain success and remain competitive in the market. This study aimed at assessing the effect of perceived service quality on patients’ satisfaction at Wolaita Sodo University Referral Hospital. Five dimensions of ‘SERVPERF’ model: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy were used to measure patients’ perception about the service quality in the hospital. One hundred sixty two respondents participated in a cross sectional survey The results showed that the mean scores along five service quality dimensions ranged from 3.38 up to 3.64 and the mean for overall service quality is 3.56 indicating slightly above average perceived service quality and the level of satisfaction is averaged 3.65.The Pearson Correlation Coefficient was used to evaluate the relationship between perceived service quality and patients’ satisfaction and correlation is significant at the 0.01 level of significance and there is significant positive relationship between patients’ satisfaction and the service quality as measured in terms of service quality dimensions and overall service quality. The service quality in terms of both dimension wise and the overall service quality of the hospital has significant influence on patients’ satisfaction. To evaluate the impact of perceived service quality on patients’ satisfaction, linear regression model has been employed and showed responsiveness and assurance dimensions of service quality have a significant influence, whereas; tangibility, reliability and empathy dimensions have no significant influence on patients’ satisfaction. It indicated also that all the service quality dimensions combined significantly influence the patients’ satisfaction. Keywords: Service quality, service quality dimensions, overall service quality, patients’ satisfaction, Wolaita Sodo University Referral Hospita

The Impact of Capital Structure on Profitability of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia

The choice of capital structure is one of the most important strategic financial decisions of firms. Since financing decisions influence profitability and hence firm’s value, this study examines the impact of capital structure on profitability of core business operations of commercial bank of  Ethiopia. In order to meet the objectives of this study a quantitative panel data methodology was employed. The data were obtained from the audited financial statements of the commercial bank of Ethiopia, from National Bank of Ethiopia for the period of 5 years (2009 – 2013). The data fixed effect estimation model was applied for the data analysis through SPSS statistical package. It was observed that 94% of the total capital of commercial bank of Ethiopia in the period under study was made up of debt. Of this, 75% constitute deposit and the remaining was non-deposit liabilities. This has reaffirmed the fact that CBE is highly levered institution. The findings revealed that capital structure as measured by total debt to asset had statistically significant insignificant, though it has postive impact, whereas deposit to asset had statistically significant positive impact on profitability of core business operations of commercial banks. Moreover, loan to deposit, spread and asset size also had statistically significant and positive relationship with profitability. However, growth found to have statistically insignificant impact on profitability. Therefore, The bank should give due consideration to manage its debt properly, mobilize deposit sufficiently, increase loan advances, spread, and size in their financing decisions. Furthermore, it is also advised to reduce non-deposit debt financing and raise equity financing so that to keep costs of financing at minimum level and hence optimize profitability and the value of the bank. Besides, the policy maker, National Bank of Ethiopia also recommended reconsidering to raise the minimum capital requirement for banks. Finally, future researchers also recommended assessing the overall performance of banks and other business sectors in the area of this research. Keywords: Banks, Capital structure, Profitability, core business operatio

Efficiency and Productivity of Microfinance Institutions of Ethiopia: A Case Study on Specialized Financial and Promotional Institution (SFPI)

Ethiopia has an estimated population of more than 90 million. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy and approximately 83.2% of the country's population live in the rural areas. Ethiopia is one of the least developed countries. The per capita income of the country is only USD 550 during the current period. Poverty and food insecurity are the main challenges and fundamental issues of economic development in Ethiopia. To address the issues of development and food insecurity, several micro finance institutions (MFIs) have established and have been operating towards resolving the credit access problem of the poor. The motivating philosophy of this paper is that unless MFIs become viable and sustainable financial institutions, they can never fully realize their objective of reaching a greater number of poor people. In light of this, this paper has attempted to look at the Financial and Operating Performance of Specialized Financial and Promotional Institution (SFPI) at firm level and compare against the Industry Average (I.A) from Efficiency and Productivity. The major theme of this study is to examine the institutional-level Efficiency and Productivity of SFPI.Data for the study were from secondary sources and various ratios and indicators were used to measure the performance of SFPI. Fifteen years data from 2000 to 2014 were used to see the trend in its performance and revealed through tables, figures and ratios. The major finding of the study indicates that, SFPI’s productivity of the staff and credit officers has decreased from year to year. Number of active borrowers per staff has gone down from year to year. Similarly, the borrowers to credit officer ratio / borrowers per loan officer has decreased from year to year until 2010. However; SFPI’s Number of Active Borrowers per Loan Officer has shown a continuous incremental during the year 2011 to 2014 as compared to industry average. During the period of 1999 up to 2010 SFPI were scoring lower number of active borrowers per loan officers. On average SFPI has been able to serve only 461.69 active borrowers per loan officer during the study period which is lower than the average number of active borrowers per loan officer of the Industry Average (508.13). So, it is possible to say that on average SFPI is inefficient and unproductive than the industry average by using the productivity and efficiency measures. Similarly, the average cost per borrower for the Industry Average is 15.93% for SFPI which is higher than the average cost per borrower of the Industry Average (8.72%).This rate is very high compared to the industry average thus SFPI operates at highest cost per borrower compared to the industry average. So SFPI is not efficient in comparison to the operating expense ratio of the industry average. Therefore, SFPI is required to adjust its policy that affect the poor achievements may be factored into, ineffectual Human Resource Management (HRM) and high operating costs resulting from cost-inefficiency. The higher cost per borrower is a measure of inefficiency achieved by SFPI compared to other microfinance institutions in the same industry during the study period. Finally, the financial ratios independently are not enough to measure the performance of microfinance institutions. Thus, alternative financial measures such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and adjustment of the financial statements of the Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) shall be considered by further researchers. Keywords: Efficiency, Productivity, Microfinanc

Hydrothermal gold mineralization and structural controls near May Hibey, Northwestern Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Ezana Mining Development Company has recently reported presence of gold  mineralization near May Hibey area, western Tigray, northern Ethiopia. It is in association with hydrothermal quartz veins within the Neoproterozoic low grade  basement rocks, metavolcanics and metasedimentary rocks. Structural data suggests four phases of deformations and NE-SW trending foliation is the prominent one among others. Among different generations of veins, NNE, NS and NNW trending third  generation quartz veins are gold-bearing and presence of a narrow shear zone with  dextral sense of movement trending NW-SE is significant interms of mineralization. Hydrothermal alterations are dominated by chloritization and sericitization. Core  samples from shear zone within the sericite-quartz schist and quartz porphyry rocks  shows presence of pyrite, pyrrhotite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, galena and gold in  decreasing order of abundance. Gold mineralization is closely associated with the sericite and carbonization alteration zone. Based on mineral association, alteration,  deformation, texture, and paragenetic scheme, it is suggested that the mineralization is a syn-orogenic variety formed in an island arc tectonic setting.Keywords: Quartz veins, Shear zones, Gold, Petrography, Geochemistry, MayHibey, Ethiopia

New Indicator to Measure Tax Burden – Proposal

This paper investigates to what extent tax burden can be used to compare countries with different pension systems. It was concluded that in one respect tax burden ratios used by international institutions fail to completely represent the share of income left after taxation, as the contributions paid to occupational pension funds are not included in total tax burden calculations. In our approach, however, in case of pension contributions it is the obligation of the payment itself and not the recipient of payment that matters. To this end, a new ratio called the ‘share of disposable current revenues’ was introduced to indicate the current income employers and employees can dispose of after all mandatory payments have been settled. Mandatory payments in this sense include all payment obligations employers cannot evade to pay to an institution (state, pension fund, etc.

“Getting Over” National External Indebtedness – Or Is Baron Munchausen’s Story Not a Mere Fairy Tale After All?

The question of this article is how it was possible for the Hungarian economy to set on a growth trajectory after a W-shaped crisis despite a continuous and severe withdrawal of external resources. The country’s net external debt relative to GDP dropped by nearly 30 percentage points within five years, representing a 5–6 percentage point reduction per year. Why has the economy not suffered an even greater setback as a result of such a rate of “loss” in financing resources? Is growth possible without resources? Obviously not. This paradox was resolved when sources of financing were re-channelled into the internal supply of sources. The reason is that financing is similar to an electrical network: if connections are weak, power is lost. The country’s excessive openness caused a significant loss of power (as tackled in this study), so the closing and reconnection of the money circuits to the internal resource supply (as amply illustrated in this study) increased the “power supply” to the economy. Numerous actions taken by the national bank and the government took the country in this direction. From the area of financial regulation, the authors have selected the steps of allowing the moderate weakening of the Hungarian forint, the conversion of Swiss franc loans into forint loans, and the Funding for Growth Scheme (FGS). With regard to government measures, the focus is placed on cutting employment taxes, promoting community work, curbing monopoly profits, and channelling retail savings into financing sovereign debt. All this has set the economy on a trajectory where self-healing mechanisms have had an opportunity to start. Applicable financial funding of the national economy was an important key in answering the question raised in the article. Nevertheless, our other conclusion is that there is much to be done in the financing of corporations in a similar direction of funding

Outreach and Sustainability of Microfinance Institutions of Ethiopia: A Case Study on Specialized Financial and Promotional Institution (SFPI)

Ethiopia has an estimated population of more than 90 million. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy and approximately 83.2% of the country's population live in the rural areas. Ethiopia is one of the least developed countries. The per capita income of the country is only USD 550 during the current period. Poverty and food insecurity are the main challenges and fundamental issues of economic development in Ethiopia. To address the issues of development and food insecurity, several microfinance institutions (MFIs) have established and have been operating towards resolving the credit access problem of the poor.  The establishment of sustainable MFI that reach a large number of rural and urban poor who are not served by the conventional financial institutions, such as the commercial banks, has been a prime component of the new development strategy of Ethiopia. Healthy financial and operating performance of microfinance institutions is very important for their well-functioning and to serve their clients properly. The motivating philosophy of this paper is that unless MFIs become viable and sustainable financial institutions, they can never fully realize their objective of reaching a greater number of poor people.   In light of this, this paper has attempted to look at the Financial and Operating Performance of Specialized Financial and Promotional Institution (SFPI) at firm level and compare against the Industry Average (I.A) from Sustainability, Profitability and Outreach level perspectives. The major theme of this study is to examine the institutional-level financial and operating performance of SFPI. Data for the study were from secondary sources and various ratios and indicators were used to measure the performance of SFPI. Fifteen years data from 2000 to 2014 were used to see the trend in its performance and revealed through tables, figures and ratios. The major finding of the study indicates that, the percent of women borrowers of SFPI is higher than the percent of women borrowers of the Industry Average. The Financial Sustainability and Profitability of SFPI is going down the ladder of Sustainability and Profitability measures during the periods of the study. On average SFPI is operationally self-sufficient at around 111.44% over the sixteen years period. Keywords: Outreach, Profitability and Financial Sustainabilit