Neuropsychological diagnostics in Ethiopia - challenges and chances among considerations regarding differential diagnosis (literature overview)

Background Neuropsychological tests can provide crucial information regarding the consideration of psychiatric differential diagnosis. This is especially important in developing countries like Ethiopia where advanced imaging is not widely available.Methods A detailed literature search was conducted using the search engines Pubmed, Science Direct, Web of Science and Google Scholar from February 2013 until May 2014. Selecting the identified studies pragmatically depending on the content, twenty-six studies were included.Results The administration of tests developed in Western-European settings to the African culture presents enormous challenge. Among these are especially the influence of low level of literacy, familiarity with the testing material, cultural aspects regarding social behavior and sense of time, cultural differences regarding cognitive functions and lack of norms. At the same time, there are opportunities for different fields of application, especially when considering the diagnosis of dementia and in the assessment of frontal lobe lesions. Assessment of cognitive flexibility appears to be an important way to differentiate between affective disorders and schizophrenia.Conclusions In conclusion, we suggest a „basic set of neuropsychological tests“ for application in psychiatric facilities in low income countries like Ethiopia, which mostly includes nonverbal tests. By using these tests, some of the challenges found during the literature search can be overcome. Additionally, they might provide extra information for diagnostic issues. However, they might have to be adapted to the Ethiopian culture.Key words: Cognition; Culture-fair; Ethiopian; Low-Income; Neuropsychology; Psychiatr

Early experience on obstetric outcomes of pregnant women who tested positive for COVID-19 in Ethiopia: A case series analysis

Severe acute respiratory syndrome affects all groups of population including pregnant women. Currently, there are limited evidences to show an increased risk of infection or increased mortality among pregnant women than the general population. On the 13th of March 2020, Ethiopian government reported the first case of COVID-19. Since then, until the time of this research compilation, more than 40 pregnant women have been managed at Eka Kotebe General Hospital, which is the first COVID-19 designated center in the country. The aim of this case series is to do an in-depth case review of the first four cases of pregnant women who tested positive for COVID-19. Out of the four cases discussed in this series, there was one maternal death, and three out of the four newborns delivered tested positive for COVID-19

Speeding Up Reachability Queries in Public Transport Networks Using Graph Partitioning

Computing path queries such as the shortest path in public transport networks is challenging because the path costs between nodes change over time. A reachability query from a node at a given start time on such a network retrieves all points of interest (POIs) that are reachable within a given cost budget. Reachability queries are essential building blocks in many applications, for example, group recommendations, ranking spatial queries, or geomarketing. We propose an efficient solution for reachability queries in public transport networks. Currently, there are two options to solve reachability queries. (1) Execute a modified version of Dijkstra’s algorithm that supports time-dependent edge traversal costs; this solution is slow since it must expand edge by edge and does not use an index. (2) Issue a separate path query for each single POI, i.e., a single reachability query requires answering many path queries. None of these solutions scales to large networks with many POIs. We propose a novel and lightweight reachability index. The key idea is to partition the network into cells. Then, in contrast to other approaches, we expand the network cell by cell. Empirical evaluations on synthetic and real-world networks confirm the efficiency and the effectiveness of our index-based reachability query solution

Pulse oximeter with integrated management of childhood illness for diagnosis of severe childhood pneumonia at rural health institutions in Southern Ethiopia: results from a cluster-randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether pulse oximetry improves health workers' performance in diagnosing severe childhood pneumonia at health centres in Southern Ethiopia. DESIGN: Parallel cluster-randomised trial. SETTING: Government primary health centres. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-four health centres that treat at least one pneumonia case per day in Southern Ethiopia. Children aged between 2 months and 59 months who present at health facilities with cough or difficulty breathing were recruited in the study from September 2018 to April 2019. INTERVENTION ARM: Use of the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) algorithm and pulse oximeter. CONTROL ARM: Use of the IMCI algorithm only. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was the proportion of children diagnosed with severe pneumonia. Secondary outcomes included referred cases of severe pneumonia and treatment failure on day 14 after enrolment. RESULT: Twenty-four health centres were randomised into intervention (928 children) and control arms (876 children). The proportion of children with severe pneumonia was 15.9% (148 of 928 children) in the intervention arm and 3.9% (34 of 876 children) in the control arm. After adjusting for differences in baseline variables children in the intervention arm were more likely to be diagnosed as severe pneumonia cases as compared with those in the control arm (adjusted OR: 5.4, 95% CI 2.0 to 14.3, p=0.001). CONCLUSION: The combined use of IMCI and pulse oximetry in health centres increased the number of diagnosed severe childhood pneumonia. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: PACTR201807164196402

Resistance to Botrytis cinerea in Solanum lycopersicoides Involves Widespread Transcriptional Reprogramming.

Background Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), one of the world’s most important vegetable crops, is highly susceptible to necrotrophic fungal pathogens such as Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria solani. Improving resistance through conventional breeding has been hampered by a shortage of resistant germplasm and difficulties in introgressing resistance into elite germplasm without linkage drag. The goal of this study was to explore natural variation among wild Solanum species to identify new sources of resistance to necrotrophic fungi and dissect mechanisms underlying resistance againstB. cinerea. Results Among eight wild species evaluated for resistance against B. cinerea and A. solani, S. lycopersicoides expressed the highest levels of resistance against both pathogens. Resistance against B. cinerea manifested as containment of pathogen growth. Through next-generation RNA sequencing and de novo assembly of the S. lycopersicoides transcriptome, changes in gene expression were analyzed during pathogen infection. In response to B. cinerea, differentially expressed transcripts grouped into four categories: genes whose expression rapidly increased then rapidly decreased, genes whose expression rapidly increased and plateaued, genes whose expression continually increased, and genes with decreased expression. Homology-based searches also identified a limited number of highly expressed B. cinerea genes. Almost immediately after infection by B. cinerea, S. lycopersicoides suppressed photosynthesis and metabolic processes involved in growth, energy generation, and response to stimuli, and simultaneously induced various defense-related genes, including pathogenesis-related protein 1 (PR1), a beta-1,3-glucanase (glucanase), and a subtilisin-like protease, indicating a shift in priority towards defense. Moreover, cluster analysis revealed novel, uncharacterized genes that may play roles in defense against necrotrophic fungal pathogens in S. lycopersicoides. The expression of orthologous defense-related genes in S. lycopersicum after infection with B. cinerea revealed differences in the onset and intensity of induction, thus illuminating a potential mechanism explaining the increased susceptibility. Additionally, metabolic pathway analyses identified putative defense-related categories of secondary metabolites. Conclusions In sum, this study provided insight into resistance against necrotrophic fungal pathogens in the Solanaceae, as well as novel sequence resources for S. lycopersicoides

Plant water relations, crop yield and quality of arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) as affected by supplemental deficit irrigation.

Low amount and erratic distribution of the seasonal precipitation and recurrent droughts are major threats to coffee production in Ethiopia. This necessitates application of supplemental deficit irrigation for coffee production. This study evaluated the impact of two supplemental irrigations, viz. supplemental full (SFI) and deficit irrigation (SDI) in comparison to rain-fed (RF) control on plant water relations, yield and quality of Coffea arabica L. during the dry season using three cultivars (cv. F-59, 74110 and 75227). Supplemental full irrigation consistently improved soil and plant water status and stomatal conductance (gs) during the dry season and resulted in significantly higher yield. However, the difference between SFI and SDI was not significant for crop yield, but had higher yield than RF control. Overall quality in terms of raw appearance and total quality of coffee beans was substantially improved and the amount of irrigation water applied was considerably reduced by SDI compared to SFI practice. Therefore, SDI appears to be more effective than SFI for coffee production in areas of frequent water scarcity and recurrent drought as for eastern and northern parts of Ethiopia

Assessing Livestock Water Productivity in Mixed Farming Systems of Gumara Watershed, Ethiopia

A monitoring study was carried out in Gumara watershed, upper Blue Nile basin, with the objective of evaluating livestock water productivity (LWP) using a life cycle assessment method. Sixty two smallholder farmers were selected for the study implemented between November 2006 and February 2008. Data on crop and livestock production were collected to allow assessment of livestock water productivity. Study sites were situated in three different rainfed mixed crop/livestock farming systems; barley/potato based system (BPS), tef/finger-millet based system (TMS), and rice/noug based system (RNS). LWP was found to be significantly lower (p < 0.01) in RNS (0.057 USD m−3 water) than in TMS (0.066 USD m−3 water) or in BPS (0.066 USD m−3 water). Notably, water requirement per kg live weight of cattle increased towards the lower altitude area (in RNS) mainly because of increased evapo-transpiration. As a result, 20% more water was required per kg live weight of cattle in the low ground RNS compared to BPS situated in the upstream parts of the study area. Cattle herd management that involved early offtake increased LWP by 28% over the practice of late offtake. Crop water productivity expressed in monetary units (0.39 USD m−3 water) was higher than LWP (0.063 USD m−3 water) across the mixed farming systems of Gumara watershed. Strategies for improving LWP, from its present low level, could include keeping only the more productive animals, increasing pasture productivity and linking production to marketing. These strategies would also ease the imbalance between the existing high livestock population and the declining carrying capacity of natural pasture.Peer Reviewe

Genetic variability and character association for bulb yield and yield related traits in garlic in Ethiopia

Garlic ( Allium sativum ) has for centuries been valued by humans for food, culinary and medicinal purposes world over. The objective of this study was to investigate genetic variability among garlic accessions for yield, yield related and phenology traits in Ethiopia. A field study was conducted at the DebreZeit Agricultural Research Center during 2012, using 49 garlic accessions from the highlands of North Shewa, East and West Arsi, Arsi, Bale and Sidama zones, which are among the major garlic producing areas in Ethiopia. The experiment was arranged in a 7x7 simple Lattice design, with two replications. Accession were highly significant (P &lt; 0.01) for days to maturity, leaf number per plant, neck diameter, yield per plant, biological yield per plant, dry weight above ground, bulb dry weight, dry weight underground, clove number per bulb, and clove weight per bulb. Heritability estimates ranged from 82.48% for clove number, to 6.46% harvest index. High heritability, combined with high genetic advance (as per cent of mean) observed for mean clove number, yield per plant, biological yield per plant and clove weight per plant showed that these characters were controlled by additive gene effects. Thus phenotypic selection for these characters would likely be effective in variety selection and development. Bulb yield per plant had positive and highly significant genotypic and phenotypic correlations, with all characters, except plant height and harvest index. Path analysis at phenotypic level revealed that biological yield and bulb dry weight contributed major positive direct effects to bulb yield per plant. These traits showed positive and highly significant genotypic correlations with bulb yield except harvest indexL\u2019ail ( Allium sativum ) est appr\ue9ci\ue9 depuis des si\ue8cles par les humains \ue0 des fins alimentaires, culinaires et m\ue9dicinales dans le monde entier. L\u2019objectif de cette \ue9tude \ue9tait d\u2019\ue9tudier la variabilit\ue9 g\ue9n\ue9tique entre les accessions d\u2019ail pour le rendement et le rendement li\ue9s traits ph\ue9nologiques en \uc9thiopie. Une \ue9tude de terrain a \ue9t\ue9 men\ue9e au centre de recherche agricole DebreZeit en 2012, en utilisant 49 accessions d\u2019ail des zones montagneuses du Nord de Shewa, de l\u2019Est et de l\u2019Ouest d\u2019Arsi, Arsi, Bale et Sidama, qui sont parmi les principales zones de production d\u2019ail en \uc9thiopie. L\u2019exp\ue9rience a \ue9t\ue9 organis\ue9e dans une conception de treillis simple 7x7, avec deux r\ue9plications. L\u2019accession \ue9tait tr\ue8s significative (P &lt;0,01) pour les jours jusqu\u2019\ue0 la maturit\ue9, le nombre de feuilles par plante, le diam\ue8tre du col, le rendement par plante, le rendement biologique par plante, le poids sec au-dessus du sol, le poids sec du bulbe, le poids sec sous terre, le nombre de clou de girofle par bulbe, et le poids de clou de girofle par bulbe. Les estimations d\u2019h\ue9ritabilit\ue9 variaient de 82,48% pour le nombre de clous de girofle \ue0 6,46% d\u2019indice de r\ue9colte. Une h\ue9ritabilit\ue9 \ue9lev\ue9e, combin\ue9e \ue0 une avanc\ue9e g\ue9n\ue9tique \ue9lev\ue9e (en pourcentage de la moyenne) observ\ue9e pour le nombre moyen de clous de girofle, le rendement par plante, le rendement biologique par plante et le poids de clou de girofle par plante ont montr\ue9 que ces caract\ue8res \ue9taient contr\uf4l\ue9s par des effets g\ue9n\ue9tiques additifs. Ainsi, la s\ue9lection ph\ue9notypique pour ces caract\ue8res serait probablement efficace dans la s\ue9lection et le d\ue9veloppement des vari\ue9t\ue9s. Le rendement en bulbes par plante avait des corr\ue9lations g\ue9notypiques et ph\ue9notypiques positives et tr\ue8s significatives, avec tous les caract\ue8res, \ue0 l\u2019exception de la hauteur de la plante et de l\u2019indice de r\ue9colte. L\u2019analyse des chemins au niveau ph\ue9notypique a r\ue9v\ue9l\ue9 que le rendement biologique et le poids sec du bulbe contribuaient \ue0 des effets directs positifs majeurs sur le rendement en bulbe par plante. Ces caract\ue8res ont montr\ue9 des corr\ue9lations g\ue9notypiques positives et tr\ue8s significatives avec le rendement des bulbes, \ue0 l\u2019exception de l\u2019indice de r\ue9colt

Genotypic variation in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] exotic germplasm collections for drought and disease tolerance

Citation: Kapanigowda, M., . . . & Little, C. (2013). Genotypic variation in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] exotic germplasm collections for drought and disease tolerance. SpringerPlus, 2, 650. https://doi.org/10.1186/2193-1801-2-650Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] grain yield is severely affected by abiotic and biotic stresses during post-flowering stages, which has been aggravated by climate change. New parental lines having genes for various biotic and abiotic stress tolerances have the potential to mitigate this negative effect. Field studies were conducted under irrigated and dryland conditions with 128 exotic germplasm and 12 adapted lines to evaluate and identify potential sources for post-flowering drought tolerance and stalk and charcoal rot tolerances. The various physiological and disease related traits were recorded under irrigated and dryland conditions. Under dryland conditions, chlorophyll content (SPAD), grain yield and HI were decreased by 9, 44 and 16%, respectively, compared to irrigated conditions. Genotype RTx7000 and PI475432 had higher leaf temperature and grain yield, however, genotype PI570895 had lower leaf temperature and higher grain yield under dryland conditions. Increased grain yield and optimum leaf temperature was observed in PI510898, IS1212 and PI533946 compared to BTx642 (B35). However, IS14290, IS12945 and IS1219 had decreased grain yield and optimum leaf temperature under dryland conditions. Under irrigated conditions, stalk and charcoal rot disease severity was higher than under dryland conditions. Genotypes IS30562 and 1790E R had tolerance to both stalk rot and charcoal rot respectively and IS12706 was the most susceptible to both diseases. PI510898 showed combined tolerance to drought and Fusarium stalk rot under dryland conditions. The genotypes identified in this study are potential sources of drought and disease tolerance and will be used to develop better adaptable parental lines followed by high yielding hybrids