Study on the reproductive performance of Jersey cows at Wolaita Sodo dairy farm, Southern Ethiopia

Retrospective study was conducted in Wolaita Sodo State Dairy Farm, Southern Ethiopia, to assess the reproductive performance and herd life of Jersey cattle, and the associated factors. The study breed was mainly kept in the farm on pastureland and with some supplementary feeds. The results revealed an overall mean of age at first service, age at first calving, calving interval, interval between calving and effective service and number of services per conception of 722.24 days (SE=36.4), 1035.21 days (SE=12.59), 450.09 days (SE=6.60), 174.68 days (SE=8.61) and 1.79 (SE=0.06) respectively. All the traits were significantly influenced by year of birth (

The Role of Empowerment in the Association between a Woman’s Educational Status and Infant Mortality in Ethiopia: Secondary Analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys

BACKGROUND: Socioeconomic status at national, sub-national, household, and individual levels  explains a significant portion of variation in infant mortality. Women’s education is among the major  determinants of infant mortality. The mechanism through which a woman’s own educational status, over  her husband’s as well as household characteristics, influences infant mortality has not been well studied  in developing countries. The objective of this study was to explore the role of woman’s empowerment and household wealth in the association between a woman’s educational status and infant mortality.METHODS: The association between a woman’s educational status and infant death, and the role of woman’s empowerment and household wealth in this relationship,were examined among married women in Ethiopia through a secondary, serial cross-sectional analysis utilizing data on birth history of married women from three rounds of the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were conducted to examine the association between woman’s education and infant death, and the possible mediation or moderation roles of woman empowerment and household wealth.RESULTS: Female education and empowerment were inversely associated with infant death. The results indicated mediation by empowerment in the education-infant death association, and effect modification by household wealth. Both empowerment and education had strongest inverse association with infant death among women from the richest households.CONCLUSION: The findings suggest an important role of female empowerment in the education-infant death relation, and the complexity of these factors according to household wealth. Woman empowerment programs may prove effective as a shorter term intervention in reducing infant mortality.KEYWORDS: Woman, Education, Empowerment, Infant Mortality, Demographic and Health Survey, Social Determinants, Mediation, Moderation, Ethiopi

The star-switched MMC (SSMMC): a hybrid VSC for HVDC applications

This paper presents a new hybrid VSC topology (the Star-Switched MMC) – suitable for HVDC applications. The basic structure and operating principles of the topology are described. Control strategies that regulate the power exchanged between the VSC, the AC network and the DC network are presented. A modulation strategy ensuring appropriate switching of the individual chain-link sub-modules and a capacitor voltage balancing algorithm that ensures the capacitor voltages are maintained within the required tolerance are discussed. Results from a simulation model are presented to validate the expected performance of the converter and the proposed control schemes

An Adaptive Contextual Recommender System: a Slow Intelligence Perspective

This paper introduces an Adaptive Context Aware Recommender system based on the Slow Intelligence approach. The system is made available to the user as an adaptive mobile application, which allows a high degree of customization in recommending services and resources according to his/her current position and global profile. A case study applied to the town of Pittsburgh has been analyzed considering various users (with different profiles as visitors, students, professors) and an experimental campaign has been conducted obtaining interesting result

Public acceptability of public health policy to improve population health: A population-based survey

Background: For public health policies to be effective, it is critical that they are acceptable to the public as acceptance levels impact success rate. Objective: To explore public acceptance of public health statements and examine differences in acceptability across socio-demographics, health behaviours (physical activity, diet, binge drinking and smoking), health status and well-being. Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample (N = 1001) using a random stratified sampling method. Face-to-face interviews were conducted at homes of residents in Wales aged 16+ years. Individuals reported whether they agreed, had no opinion, or disagreed with 12 public health statements. Results: More than half of the sample were supportive of 10 out of 12 statements. The three statements with the greatest support (>80% agreement) reflected the importance of: a safe and loving childhood to becoming a healthy adult, schools teaching about health, and healthier foods costing less. Individuals who engaged in unhealthy behaviours were less likely to agree with some of the statements (eg 39.8% of binge drinkers agreed alcohol adverts should be banned compared to 57.6% of those who never binge drink; P <.001). Conclusions: Findings show an appetite for public health policies among the majority of the public. The relationship between supporting policies and engaging in healthy behaviours suggests a feedback loop that is potentially capable of shifting both public opinion and the opportunities for policy intervention. If a nation becomes healthier, this could illicit greater support for stronger policies which could encourage more people to move in a healthier direction

The evidence base for routine enquiry into adverse childhood experiences: A scoping review

Background: Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs; e.g., maltreatment, household dysfunction) is associated with a multiplicity of negative outcomes throughout the life course. Consequently, increasing interest is being paid to the application of routine enquiry for ACEs to enable identification and direct interventions to mitigate their harms. Objective: To explore the evidence base for retrospective routine enquiry in adults for ACEs, including feasibility and acceptability amongst practitioners, service user acceptability and outcomes from implementation. Methods: A scoping review of the literature was conducted, drawing upon three databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO) and manual searching and citation tracking. Searches included studies published from 1997 until end of April 2018 examining enquiry into ACEs, or the feasibility/acceptability of such enquiry across any setting. All included studies presented empirical findings, with studies focusing on screening for current adversities excluded. Results: Searches retrieved 380 articles, of which 15 met the eligibility criteria. A narrative approach to synthesize the data was utilized. Four studies examined practitioner feasibility and/or acceptability of enquiry, three reported service user acceptability and six studies implemented routine ACE enquiry (not mutually exclusive categories). Further, eight studies explored current practice and practitioner attitudes towards ACE enquiry. Conclusions: Limited literature was found providing evidence for outcomes from enquiry. No studies examined impacts on service user health or service utilization. Few studies explored feasibility or acceptability to inform the application of routine ACE enquiry. The implementation of routine ACE enquiry therefore needs careful consideration. Focus should remain on evaluating developing models of ACE enquiry to advance understanding of its impact

Cost-effectiveness analysis of introducing RDTs for malaria diagnosis as compared to microscopy and presumptive diagnosis in central and peripheral public health facilities in Ghana.

Cost-effectiveness information on where malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) should be introduced is limited. We developed incremental cost-effectiveness analyses with data from rural health facilities in Ghana with and without microscopy. In the latter, where diagnosis had been presumptive, the introduction of RDTs increased the proportion of patients who were correctly treated in relation to treatment with antimalarials, from 42% to 65% at an incremental societal cost of Ghana cedis (GHS)12.2 (US$8.3) per additional correctly treated patients. In the "microscopy setting" there was no advantage to replacing microscopy by RDT as the cost and proportion of correctly treated patients were similar. Results were sensitive to a decrease in the cost of RDTs, which cost GHS1.72 (US$1.17) per test at the time of the study and to improvements in adherence to negative tests that was just above 50% for both RDTs and microscopy

Immunogenicity and efficacy of non-adjuvant tissue culture-based rabies vaccine produced in Ethiopia

Rabies is 100% fatal, but it is preventable. More than 95% of human rabies cases occur in improperly treated individuals. This is partly due to the fact that modern post-exposure rabies prophylaxis is expensive and therefore not readily available in many endemic regions. Nervous tissue vaccine has been in use for more than 100yrs. These vaccines have now been superseded in purity, potency, immunogenicity and safety. The efficacy and immunogenicity of inactivated tissue culture rabies vaccine, produced in Ethiopia was evaluated. Twelve experimental dogs from local breed were duly conditioned during a quarantine period and assigned to two groups randomly. Animals in group I (cases) were vaccinated subcutaneously with 1 ml of our experimental vaccine. Dogs in group II served as non-vaccinated controls. The immune response of each dog was monitored for 90 days. On the day 90 after final sampling, all dogs were challenged in the masseter muscle with a rabies street virus of canine origin. To evaluate the titer of the rabies virus neutralizing antibodies (VNA), sera were analyzed by Fluorescent Antibody Virus Neutralization (FAVN) Test. Geometric Mean Titers (GMT) to rabies virus was determined at days 7, 15, 21, 30, 60 and 90. Geometric mean titers were equal to 1.59, 1.73, 2.19, 3.58, 3.17 and 3.35 IU/ml respectively. All dogs showed VNA titers higher than the 0.5 IU/ml mandated WHO recommended threshold. All vaccinated dogs, survived the challenge. In contrast, 83.3% of dogs in the control (non-vaccinated group), developed rabies and died. This study indicated that cell culture-based anti-rabies developed inhouse, with no adjuvant is efficacious and immunogenic