The influence of land use and cover changes on the pastoral rangeland systems of southern Ethiopia : how much woody cover is enough?

The Borana rangelands in southern Ethiopia are facing deterioration caused by intensification of grazing and woody plant encroachment, resulting in marked reductions in pastoral production. This process affects the food security and livelihoods of the Borana pastoral people negatively. Woody plant encroachment might result in an increase in carbon (C) storage in these rangelands, which represents an important aspect for climate change mitigation potentials. However, it is unclear how much C is currently stored in the above-and belowground vegetation biomass and in the soils of these rangeland ecosystems and how grazing intensity and woody cover influence soil or ecosystem C-stocks. The research work presented in this thesis aimed at developing tools to estimate the aboveground woody biomass C stocks. It describes the structure of semiarid savanna vegetation in different grazing regimes at various levels of woody encroachment, examines changes in woody plant encroachment, and provides field-based quantification methods and tools to derive site-based estimates of above- and belowground C pools. The thesis also aimed at assessing the influence of grazing on herbaceous above- and belowground biomass C stocks, soil organic carbon (SOC) and total soil nitrogen (TSN) to estimate possible increases in ecosystem C stocks by long term reduction of grazing intensity (e.g., low livestock density and seasonal grazing) at various levels of woody plant encroachment. A long-term temporal satellite imagery over the last 37 years and GIS mapping aided by ground truthing was used to investigate vegetation cover changes. In the field, data was collected to analyze vegetation attributes such as composition and structure under different grazing regimes and woody encroachment sites. Herbaceous species were destructively harvested to quantify the biomass and C stocks in the herbaceous vegetation community. Allometric tree biomass models were developed by destructively harvesting eight woody species to indirectly quantify the woody biomass and C stocks. Total soil nitrogen and SOC stocks in the different grazing management systems and woody encroachment levels were assessed from soil cores collected within 0- 40 cm soil depth. The performance of allometric biomass models as expressed as a goodness of fit (adj r2) depended on the species and biomass components estimated. The allometric models were highly accurate for large woody species such as A. mellifera, A. bussei, and A. etabaica. The most important single models predictor variable identified was stem basal circumference for tall shrubs with more or less open canopy structure. Meanwhile, for tall shrubs with closed and umbrella-like canopy structures, pairs of canopy volume and stem basal circumferences were more reliable predictors. It was further shown that, by using canopy volume as a standalone predictor variable, biomass can still be accurately predicted for shrubs whose growth form comprise discrete canopy clumps with multiple stems (e.g., A. oerfota). Vegetation cover analysis using temporal Landsat imageries from 1976 to 2012 revealed that areas covered by shrub and tree savanna (open savanna types) in the 1970s declined from 45% to 9%, while heavily encroached areas (bushland thickets and bushed savanna) increased from 22% to 61% during this time interval. The abundance of total and the regenerative woody plants (< 1 m height) were high in lower woody encroachment sites but significantly reduced at heavily woody encroachment sites. At all levels of woody encroachment enclosures significantly increased total woody plant density, especially the proportion of woody plants in < 1 m height size class compared to the open rangelands. Estimated total aboveground biomass C stocks varied significantly between woody encroachments levels, with total aboveground biomass C stocks ranging from 2 Mg ha-1 in the low encroachment site to 9 Mg ha-1 in heavy encroachment sites. Enclosures significantly raised the herbaceous biomass C stocks, with enclosures containing 50% more herbaceous aboveground biomass C stocks than openly grazed land. However, the response of herbaceous aboveground biomass C stocks to grazing was also strongly influenced by the woody encroachment characteristics including woody density, canopy cover, species composition and other specific traits of woody species. Mean total SOC stock in the 0 - 40 cm soil depth ranged from 30 Mg ha-1 in the openly grazed soils at the high woody encroachment site to 81 Mg ha-1 in the enclosure soils at the low encroachment site ha-1. Soil OC and TSN did not differ in the enclosure at heavily encroached sites but were two times as high in enclosures compared to openly grazed soils at low encroached sites. Soil OC was positively related to TSN and soil cation exchange capacity (CEC), but negatively to sand content. Contrary to expectations, SOC stocks did not uniformly follow the pattern of increasing aboveground biomass C stocks with increasing woody encroachment. Rather, it seemed to be influenced by variations in soil characteristics across the Borana rangelands. The study highlights the influence of woody encroachment and reduction of grazing pressure on ecosystem C stocks. The allometric models developed by this study can serve as a tool for future biomass and C sequestration studies in semiarid regions of east Africa. The information presented on the ecosystem C stocks by this thesis could help integrate the effects of grazing and vegetation cover dynamics on the rangeland C storage. An understanding of these interactions are deemed necessary to develop a sound rangeland management policy that can link the C storage potential of the rangelands to global climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies through establishing a viable mechanism of payment for ecosystem services.Das Borana Weideland in Südäthiopien steht vor einer Veschlechterung, die durch intensivierte Beweidung und die Ausbreitung von Gehölzpflanzen verursacht wird. Dies führt zu einer deutlichen Abnahme der pastoralen Produktion und hat auch einen negativen Einfluss auf die Nahrungssicherheit und den Lebensunterhalt der Borana Bevölkerung. Auf der anderen Seite resultiert die Ausbreitung von Gehölzpflanzen möglicherweise in einer erhöhten Kohlenstoffspeicherung, ein wichtiger Aspekt bezüglich des Potentials zur Abmilderung des Klimawandels. Jedoch ist unklar wie viel Kohlenstoff (C) tatsächlich in der ober- und unterirdischen Biomasse und im Boden dieses Weidelandes gespeichert ist und wie Beweidungsintensität und die zunehmende Bedeckung von Gehölzpflanzen die Kohlenstoffvorräte des Ökosystems beeinflussen. Die vorliegende Arbeit hat zum Ziel, Methoden zur Schätzung der oberirdischen Gehölzbiomasse bzw. der C-Vorräte zu entwickeln. Sie beschreibt die Struktur der semiariden Savannenvegetation unter verschiedenen Beweidungsformen, unter zunehmendem Deckungsgrad an Gehölzpflanzen und präsentiert feldbasierte Methoden zur Quantifizierung und standort-basierten Schätzung der ober-und unterirdischen C-Vorräte. Außerdem bezweckt diese Arbeit, den Einfluss von Beweidung auf die ober-und unterirdischen Biomasse bzw. C-Vorräte des Unterwuchses (Krautschicht) zu bewerten sowie den Effekt auf Bodenkohlenstoff (Soil organic carbon SOC) und Gesamtstickstoff (total soil nitrogen TSN) abzuschätzen. So kann eine mögliche Zunahme des Ökosystemkohlenstoffvorrats durch langfristige Reduktion der Beweidung (z.B. niedrigere Viehdichte und saisonale Beweidung) unter variierender Gehölzbedeckung eingeschätzt werden. Mittels Satellitenbildern der letzen 37 Jahre, eines Geoinformationssystems (GIS) und Kartierung wurden langfristige und groß-skalige Änderungen der Vegetationsbedeckung untersucht. Im Feld wurden Daten gesammelt, um Vegetationseigenschaften wie Artzusammensetzung und -struktur in Abhängigkeit von Beweidung und Bedeckung zu analysieren. Krautige Arten wurden destruktiv geerntet, um die Biomasse und C-Vorräte zu quantifizieren. Durch destruktives Ernten von acht Baumarten wurden allometrische Modelle entwickelt, um indirekt die hölzerne Biomasse und C-Vorräte zu quantifizieren. Gesamtstickstoff des Bodens und organischer Kohlenstoff (SOC) wurden mittels Bohrkernen von 0-40 cm Tiefe untersucht. Die Güte der allometrischen Biomassemodelle (adj r2) hing von der geschätzen Baumart und Biomassekomponente ab. Bei Baumarten mit hoher Gesamtbiomasse, z.B. A. mellifera, A. bussei und A. etabaica, trafen die allometrischen Modelle sehr akkurat zu. Die wichtigste Prädiktorvariable der Modelle bei hohen Stäuchern mit mehr oder weniger offener Krone war der Basalumfang, während Kronenvolumen und Basalumfang des Stammes die zuverlässigsten Prädiktoren bei Arten mit geschlossener schirmförmiger Kronenstruktur waren. Weiterhin wurde gezeigt, dass die Biomasse von Sträuchern mit büschelartiger Kronenstrukur und mehreren Stämmen (e.g. A. oerfota) auch mittels des Kronenvolumens als alleinigem Prädiktor akkurat bestimmt werden konnte. Die Analyse der Vegetationsbedeckung mittels Landsat Bildern von 1976 bis 2012 zeigte, dass die mit Sträuchern und Baumsavanne bedeckte Fläche seit 1970 von 45% auf 9% abgenommen hat, während die Fläche mit hoher Dichte an Gehölzpflanzen von 22% auf 61% zunahm. Die Häufigkeit von regenerativen Gehölzpflanzen (<1 m Höhe) war hoch in den Gebieten mit niedriger Deckung an Gehölzpflanzen, aber signifikant geringer in Gebieten mit hoher Deckung an Gehölzpflanzen. In eingezäunten Flächen erhöhte sich die Gesamtdichte an Gehölzen im Vergleich zu offenem Weideland unabhängig vom Deckungsgrad, besonders der Anteil an Nachwuchs (<1 m Höhe). Die oberirdische Biomasse bzw. C-Vorräte unterschieden sich signifikant in den Gebieten mit unterschiedlich starker Gehölzausbreitung, wobei die C-Vorräte von 2 Mg ha-1 in Gebieten mit niedriger Ausbreitung bis zu 9 Mg ha-1 in Gebieten mit hoher Ausbreitung reichten. In den eingezäunten Flächen war der C-Vorrat in der Krautbiomasse um 50% höher als im offenen Weideland. Allerdings war dieser Beweidungseffekt auf die oberirdische Biomasse stark von den Charaktereigenschaften der Gehölzpflanzen beeinflusst, beispielsweise von der Dichte an Gehölzen, deren Kronenbedeckung, Artenzusammensetzung und weiteren Merkmalen. Der SOC-Vorrat in 0-40 cm Bodentiefe reichte von 30 Mg ha-1 im offenen Weideland und hoher Gehölzausbreitung bis zu 81 Mg ha-1 in eingezäunten Flächen unter niedrigem Ausbreitungsniveau. Soil OC und TSN unterschieden sich nicht im eingezäunten Gebiet bei hoher Gehölzausbreitung, waren aber zwei mal so hoch in eingezäunten Flächen im Vergleich zum offenen Weideland bei geringer Gehölzdichte. Soil OC korrelierte positiv mit TSN sowie der Kationaustauschskapazität (CEC) des Bodens, aber negativ mit dem Sandgehalt. Entgegen der Erwartung folgte der SOC-Vorrat nicht dem Muster ansteigender oberirdischer Biomasse und zunehmender Gehölzausbreitung sondern schien stattdessen von denvariierenden Bodeneigenschaften beeinflusst zu sein. Diese Studie hebt den Einfluß der Ausbreitung von Gehölzpflanzen und die Abnahme des Beweidungsdrucks auf den Kohlenstoffvorrat des Ökosystems hervor. Die hier entwickelten allometrischen Modelle können als Werkzeug für zukünftige Biomasse und Kohlenstoff-Sequestrierungsstudien in semiariden Regionen Ostafrikas dienen. Die in dieser Arbeit präsentierten Informationen über Ökosystemkohlenstoffvorräte können dabei helfen, Beweidungseffekte und Vegetationsdynamik zu integrieren. Das Verständnis dieser Wechselwirkungen ist notwendig, um ein geeignetes Weidemanagement und eine Politik zu entwickeln, die das C-Speicherpotenzial des Weidelandes als Klimaschutzbeitrag und Anpassungsstrategien bzw. Mechanismen wie Zahlung für Ökosystemdienstleistungen miteinander verknüpfen kann

Design an expert system for students graduation projects in Iraq universities: Basrah University

A graduation project is a form or work that the study authority requests from the student to measure what he made during the study. Designed an expert system for students’ graduation projects at the University of Basrah for students who are obligated to submit a project that qualifies them to graduate from the university. The system works according to a set of requirements, the most important is first: The student's possession of a high rate that qualifies him for the project. Second: he must possess half of the skills required for the project provided that it includes at least one programming language example (c ++, java, PHP, c #, etc ...). The system has many features that help the Supervisors and Students Committee to manage students' projects efficiently. System is built as a web-based system, with access limited only to the university's local network

Measles outbreak investigation in Ginnir district of Bale zone, Oromia region, Southeast Ethiopia, May 2019

Introduction:&nbsp;measles is a vaccine-preventable viral infection of humans, primarily affecting children &lt;5 years. During early 2019, outbreak of measles occurred in Ginnir district of Bale zone, Southeast Ethiopia. We investigated to describe the outbreak and identify risk factors. Methods:&nbsp;we conducted a descriptive and 1:2 unmatched case-control study in Ginnir district from March 18 to April 29, 2019. Fifty-six cases and 112 controls were recruited. For descriptive study, we identified 1043 cases recorded on the line-list and for case-control study, cases were identified using national standard case-definition. Mothers of case-patients and controls were interviewed using structured questionnaire. We estimated vaccine efficacy (VE) from case-control study. We conducted bivariate and multivariable logistic regression. Results:&nbsp;in four-months period, a total of 1,043 suspected measles cases epidemiologically linked to five laboratory confirmed cases reported. Of which, 555 (53.2%) were males and 714 (68.5%) were &lt;5 years. The median age of cases was 36 months (IQR=12-60 months). The overall attack rate (AR) was 63/10,000 population with case fatality ratio of 0.5% (5 deaths/1043). Infant &lt;9 months were the most affected age groups (AR=31/1000). Majority (79%) of measles cases were not vaccinated against measles. Last-year (2017/18) administrative measle vaccine coverage of the district was 76.7%. Being unvaccinated against measles (AOR=5.4, 95%CI=2.2-13.4), travel history (AOR=4.02, 95%CI=1.2-13.6), contact with measles case-patient (AOR=5.6, 95%CI=2.12-14.4) and mothers knowledge of measles transmission (AOR=0.36, 95%CI=0.15-0.87) were associated with measles infection. VE in children aged 9-59 months was 90% (95%CI=69-97%). Conclusion:&nbsp;this confirmed measles outbreak was caused by failure to vaccinate, as indicated by the high VE, low administrative coverage, and 79% unvaccinated cases. Strengthening routine and supplementary immunization are required

Image steganography based on DNA sequence translation properties

Digital communication has become a vital part of daily life nowadays, many applications are using internet-based communication and here the importance of security rose to have a secure communication between two parties to prevent authorized access to sensitive data. These requirements led to a number of research in information security that has been done in the past two decades. Cryptography and steganography are the two main methods that are being used for information security. Cryptography refers to techniques that encrypt a message to be sent to a destination using different methods to be done. On the other hand, steganography is the science of hiding information from others using another cover message or media such as image, audio, video, and DNA sequence. This paper proposed a new method to hide information in an image using the least significant bit (LSB) based on Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) sequence. To accomplish this, the proposed scheme used properties of DNA sequence when codons that consist of three nucleotides are translated to proteins. The LSB of two pixels from the image are taken to represent a codon and then translate them to protein. The secret message bits are injected into codons before the translation process which slightly distorts the image and makes the image less suspicious and hard to detect the hidden message. The experimental results indicate the effeteness of the proposed method

An Enhanced Computer Vision By Using MLP Approach To Forensic Face Sketch Recognition System‎

Technologies for suspect identification, detection, and recognition have become more critical in recent years. As a result, face recognition is an almost commonly used biometric technique. Investigators for Criminal and forensic computer vision researchers are interested in the human-recognized face sketches were drawn by artists. Hand-drawn face sketches are, according to studies, ‎still extremely rare, both in terms of artists and number of drawings, since forensic artists ‎prepare victim drawings based on descriptions were provided by eyewitnesses following an incident‎. Masks are sometimes used to conceal standard facial features such as noses, eyes, lips, and skin color, but face biometrics' outliner features are impossible to conceal. This paper concentrated on a particular face-geometrical feature that could calculate some similarity ratios between composite template photos and forensic sketches. Computer vision techniques such as Two-Dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform (2D-DCT) and the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) Neural Network are used to design a system for composite and forensic face sketch recognition

Impact of Health Insurance on Accessibility of Physical Therapy’s Patients at King Fahd Hospital of the University-AL Khobar

Physiotherapy plays an essential role in modern healthcare delivery as it provides a wide range of non-surgical treatments to treat chronic diseases. Physiotherapy includes many clinical guidelines as treatment and rehabilitation services improve patients' lives. Changes in health insurance policies and coverage affect costs Borne by patients and their families; this can lead to a variety of services and barriers to appropriate healthcare. The study goal is to describe the impact of Health Insurance on Accessibility among Physical Therapy Patients at King Fahd Hospital of the University-AL Khobar to describe the benefits of Health insurance on accessibility among physical therapy patients and to explore the barriers and challenges of Health insurance on accessibility among physical therapy patients.We carried out a descriptive cross-sectional survey design to describe the physical therapy patients' perception toward health insurance accessibility at King Fahd Hospital of the University-AL Khobar. Data were collected on Monday, March 9th, 2021, through self-administered questionnaires that 740 surveys were distributed, and only 544 patients participated in the survey. The data finished collecting on April 1st, 2021. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to analyze the data. Overall, 544 respondents completed the survey. This study clearly shows that access to health care services is a significant concern that accessibility of physical therapy was confirmed by 36.6%. Low accessibility due to the high cost of physical therapy was reported by 36.9% of patients included. Accessibility to physical therapy upon need was not written in a high frequency 30% versus 29.6% as not sure. Accessibility to facilities was highly reported by 29.6%; insurance companies enhancing accessibility to physical therapy was not approved by the majority of the included participants 37.1%. Also, insurance companies offering multiple choices for physical therapy were only agreed on 26.8%. Finally, the quality of service differs based on the facility's nature and was approved by 50.2% of included patients. Direct access to physical therapy is an example of providing an innovative primary care service that is achievable, acceptable to both users and service providers, and health insurance will positively impact access to the healthcare system. However, accessibility is a necessary term that must be taken care of to define the need for healthcare to deliver healthcare services and organizational structures to match the community's needs

The Impact of the Application of Artificial Intelligence on Decision-Making "Applied Study on Saudi Government Hospitals in Najran region"

The study aimed to explanation of the impact of the application of artificial intelligence on decision-making at Saudi government hospitals in Najran region. The study adopted the descriptive analytical approach to show and describe artificial intelligence and its impact on decision-making at Saudi government hospitals in Najran region. The study used an electronic questionnaire that was applied to (297) employees at Saudi Government Hospitals in Najran region. The study results showed that there is a high degree of appreciation for artificial intelligence at Saudi government hospitals in Najran region, where this is due to the efficiency of its dimensions. The study showed that the Smart Agents was in the first rank, in the second rank came the Expert Systems, and in the third rank was Genetic Algorithms, where these dimensions were at a high level of appreciation. Moreover, in the fourth and last rank was the Neural Networks, at moderate level of appreciation. These results indicate a high degree of Artificial intelligence at Saudi governmental hospitals in Najran region. The study also found a statistically significant effect at the significance level (0.05 &ge; &alpha;) of Artificial Intelligence (Expert Systems, Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms, Smart Agents) on Decision-Making in Saudi governmental hospitals in Najran region. In light of the results, the study recommended enhancing the use of artificial intelligence in the decision-making process at Saudi hospitals

Comparison of high versus low frequency cerebral physiology for cerebrovascular reactivity assessment in traumatic brain injury: a multi-center pilot study

Current accepted cerebrovascular reactivity indices suffer from the need of high frequency data capture and export for post-acquisition processing. The role for minute-by-minute data in cerebrovascular reactivity monitoring remains uncertain. The goal was to explore the statistical time-series relationships between intra-cranial pressure (ICP), mean arterial pressure (MAP) and pressure reactivity index (PRx) using both 10-s and minute data update frequency in TBI. Prospective data from 31 patients from 3 centers with moderate/severe TBI and high-frequency archived physiology were reviewed. Both 10-s by 10-s and minute-by-minute mean values were derived for ICP and MAP for each patient. Similarly, PRx was derived using 30 consecutive 10-s data points, updated every minute. While long-PRx (L-PRx) was derived via similar methodology using minute-by-minute data, with L-PRx derived using various window lengths (5, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 60 min; denoted L-PRx_5, etc.). Time-series autoregressive integrative moving average (ARIMA) and vector autoregressive integrative moving average (VARIMA) models were created to analyze the relationship of these parameters over time. ARIMA modelling, Granger causality testing and VARIMA impulse response function (IRF) plotting demonstrated that similar information is carried in minute mean ICP and MAP data, compared to 10-s mean slow-wave ICP and MAP data. Shorter window L-PRx variants, such as L-PRx_5, appear to have a similar ARIMA structure, have a linear association with PRx and display moderate-to-strong correlations (r ~ 0.700, p Peer reviewe