Constraints to the optimal breastfeeding practices of breastfeeding mothers in the rural communities of Arba Minch Zuria Woreda, Ethiopia: a community-based, cross-sectional study

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the constraints and factors associated with breastfeeding practices.Design: This was a community-based, cross-sectional study.Subjects and setting: Three hundred and eighty-four breastfeeding mothers of infants aged two years and younger were randomly selected from rural communities in Arba Minch Zuria Woreda.Outcome measures: Data were collected using structured questionnaires, and from using an observation checklist and in-depth interviews. Quantitative data from binary logistic regression were used to determine the strength of association between the independent and dependent variables using odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to identify predictors of the delayed initiation of breastfeeding and non-exclusive breastfeeding practices.Results: Breastfeeding is considered to be a natural gift from God in Arba Minch Zuria Woreda. The delayed initiation therefof was common in this study. Only 57% of the mothers initiated breastfeeding within an hour of delivery. Some women rejected their colostrum as they considered it to be an expired substance capable of causing abdominal pain to their infants. The delayed initiation of breasfeeding was positively associated with a lack of education and failure to attend health education sessions. Thirty-one per cent of the mothers did not exclusively breastfeed their infant up to six months of age months. Non-exclusive breastfeeding was significantly associated with having a radio, attending antenatal care and attending health education.Conclusion: The promotion of strong community-based networks tp ensure optimal infant and young child feeding is recommended through both governmental and non-governmental organisations

Household food insecurity and coping strategies among pensioners in Jimma Town, South West Ethiopia

Published online: 14 December 2018Background: Ethiopia is currently facing new challenges related to food insecurity among the urban poor. Pensioners are segments of the population with reduced income and working capacity because of advancement of age and other related problems. There is no empirical evidence on Jimma Town pensioner’s household food insecurity and coping strategies. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among households in Jimma Town living on an income obtained from a pension from March 01–28, 2017. Data were collected from 399 randomly selected participants. Data were entered into EPi-Data version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS Version 20.0. Variables with p ≤ 0.25 in the bivariate analyses were entered into a multivariable regression model to control for confounding variables. Results: Nearly, 83.5% of households were food insecure. The odds of food insecurity among households with heads attending secondary school and above was 78% lower when compared to that of households with uneducated household heads (AOR = 0.22, 95% CI: 0.97 to 0.49). The odds of food insecurity among households headed by merchants was 91% lower when compared to that of households headed by guards (AOR = 0.09, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.29). Food insecure households were using coping strategies such as changing consumption patterns (44%), eating inexpensive foods (72.4%), reducing meal frequency (62.4%) and selling household assets, such as household food utensils (30.8%). The odds of food insecurity among households having large family size (≥ 7) was 3.74 times higher when compared to that of households with family size less than three (AOR = 3.74(1.27, 10.99). Conclusions: Household food insecurity was associated with having households headed by uneducated, widowed and guard household heads and having large family size. Food insecure households used both consumption and asset-based coping strategies such as eating less preferred, lower quality or less expensive foods and receiving donation from relatives or friends. Government policies should consider revising the current social protection scheme for pensioners. Special attention should be given to widow pensioners and pensioners with low educational status and with large family sizes.Misgana Asesefa Kisi, Dessalegn Tamiru, Melese Sinaga Teshome, Meseret Tamiru, and Garumma Tolu Feyiss

Evaluation of dried papaya pomace meal in laying hen diets

In the search for alternative feed resources for laying hens, papaya pomace is available as industrial by-product but information on its nutritive value is lacking. Dried papaya pomace was included in a common laying hen diet at 0%, 2.5%, 5% and 7.5% to evaluate its effect on egg production performance, egg quality and general health parameters in Bovan brown layers. For every inclusion level, three cages with ten 20-week-old layers were used, making a total of 120 hens. The effect of dried papaya pomace inclusion on egg production, egg quality and general health parameters was evaluated. Dried papaya pomace inclusion improved egg production and laying by 6.15% and 17% respectively, while it significantly decreased feed conversion ratio by 7.5%. Eggshell weight, thickness and strength of PP5 were higher than the control by 0.3 g, 0.8 mm and 0.43 kg/cm2, respectively. There was a significant improvement in albumin weight (by 1.5 g/L), albumin height (2.1 mm), yolk weight (0.4 g/L), yolk height (0.4 mm), yolk colour (4.4 points) and Haugh unit (8 points) due to PP5 treatment. Inclusion of papaya pomace at a level of 7.5% of layers diet had negative effect on Egg production, feed conversion ratio and interior and exterior egg quality traits. Inclusion of papaya pomace affected significantly serum total cholesterol, serum triglyceride, serum low density lipoprotein, serum high density lipoprotein, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and white blood cell count. However, all blood traits of the experimental animals were within the normal ranges reported for layers. Inclusion of papaya pomace in 5% of layers commercial diets improves egg production and quality without negative impact on health while decreasing feeding cost

High-resolution long-term average groundwater recharge in Africa estimated using random forest regression and residual interpolation

Groundwater recharge is a key hydrogeological variable that informs the renewability of groundwater resources. Long-term average (LTA) groundwater recharge provides a measure of replenishment under the prevailing climatic and land-use conditions and is therefore of considerable interest in assessing the sustainability of groundwater withdrawals globally. This study builds on the modelling results by MacDonald et al. (2021), who produced the first LTA groundwater recharge map across Africa using a linear mixed model (LMM) rooted in 134 ground-based studies. Here, continent-wide predictions of groundwater recharge were generated using random forest (RF) regression employing five variables (precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, soil moisture, normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) and aridity index) at a higher spatial resolution (0.1° resolution) to explore whether an improved model might be achieved through machine learning. Through the development of a series of RF models, we confirm that a RF model is able to generate maps of higher spatial variability than a LMM; the performance of final RF models in terms of the goodness of fit (R2=0.83; 0.88 with residual kriging) is comparable to the LMM (R2=0.86). The higher spatial scale of the predictor data (0.1°) in RF models better preserves small-scale variability from predictor data than the values provided via interpolated LMMs; these may prove useful in testing global- to local-scale models. The RF model remains, nevertheless, constrained by its representation of focused recharge and by the limited range of recharge studies in humid, equatorial Africa, especially in the areas of high precipitation. This confers substantial uncertainty in model estimates

Development of genomic simple sequence repeat markers for yam

Yam ( Dioscorea spp.) is a major staple crop widely cultivated for its starchy tubers. To date, very few marker resources are publicly avail - able as tools for genetic and genomic studies of this economically important crop. In this study, 90 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were developed from an enriched genomic library of yellow Guinea yam ( D. cayenensis Lam.). Cross- amplification revealed that 85 (94.4%) and 51 (56.7%) of these SSRs could be successfully transferred to the two major cultivated species of D. rotundata Poir. and D. alata L., respec - tively. Polymorphisms in 30 markers selected on the basis of reliability and reproducibility of DNA bands were evaluated using a panel of 12 D. cayenensis , 48 D. rotundata , and 48 D. alata accessions. Accordingly, number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 8 in D. cayenensis (mean = 3.9), 3 to 30 in D. rotundata (mean = 13.9), and 2 to 22 in D. alata (mean = 12.1). The average observed and expected heterozygosi - ties were 0.156 and 0.634 ( D. cayenensis ), 0.326 and 0.853 ( D. rotundata ), and 0.247 and 0.836 ( D. alata ), respectively. Clustering based on six SSRs that were polymorphic in at least four of the five cultivated Dioscorea species studied, including D. cayenensis , D. rotundata , D. alata , D. dumetorum (Kunth) Pax., and D. bulbifera L., detected groups consistent with the phyloge - netic relationships of the species except for D. dumetorum . These new SSR markers are invalu - able resources for applications such as genetic diversity analysis and marker-assisted breedingYam ( Dioscorea spp.) is a major staple crop widely cultivated for its starchy tubers. To date, very few marker resources are publicly avail - able as tools for genetic and genomic studies of this economically important crop. In this study, 90 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were developed from an enriched genomic library of yellow Guinea yam ( D. cayenensis Lam.). Cross- amplification revealed that 85 (94.4%) and 51 (56.7%) of these SSRs could be successfully transferred to the two major cultivated species of D. rotundata Poir. and D. alata L., respec - tively. Polymorphisms in 30 markers selected on the basis of reliability and reproducibility of DNA bands were evaluated using a panel of 12 D. cayenensis , 48 D. rotundata , and 48 D. alata accessions. Accordingly, number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 8 in D. cayenensis (mean = 3.9), 3 to 30 in D. rotundata (mean = 13.9), and 2 to 22 in D. alata (mean = 12.1). The average observed and expected heterozygosi - ties were 0.156 and 0.634 ( D. cayenensis ), 0.326 and 0.853 ( D. rotundata ), and 0.247 and 0.836 ( D. alata ), respectively. Clustering based on six SSRs that were polymorphic in at least four of the five cultivated Dioscorea species studied, including D. cayenensis , D. rotundata , D. alata , D. dumetorum (Kunth) Pax., and D. bulbifera L., detected groups consistent with the phyloge - netic relationships of the species except for D. dumetorum . These new SSR markers are invalu - able resources for applications such as genetic diversity analysis and marker-assisted breedin

Population Based Survey of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases at Gilgel Gibe Field Research Center, Southwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Chronic Non-communicable Diseases are increasingly becoming more prevalent and burden to the health care system in developing countries including Ethiopia. However, evidences showing the magnitude of the problem in those countries are scarce particularly in a community setting.The objective of this study was to determine the magnitude of chronic non communicable diseases in a community.METHODS: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Gilgel Gibe Field Research Center from late September 2008 to end of January 2009. A random sample of 4,469 individuals aged 15-64 years was studied. Data on characteristics and chronic symptom inventories were collected by interviewing study participants. Blood pressure was taken three times from each individual and blood sugar and lipid levels were determined after an overnight fasting. Data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 16.0 and STATA 11.RESULTS: The overall prevalence of CNCD was 8.9% (7.8% men and 9.8% women). The specific observed prevalence were 0.5% for diabetes mellitus (DM), 2.6% for hypertension, 3.0% for cardiovascular diseases, 1.5% for asthma and 2.7% for mental illness. In addition 3.1% and 9.3% of the study population had been informed to have DM and hypertension respectively.CONCLUSION: There is a high prevalence of CNCD among the study population indicating an immediate need for preventive action and also warrant further nationally representative study.Keywords: CNCD, Non-communicable, Prevalence, Southwest Ethiopi

Process simulation modelling and improvement on energy consumptions efficiency

As the cost of energy rises, the need for analysis of energy consumption in the manufacturing industry is demanding. Predicting energy consumption is an increasingly important topic for companies aspiring to control their manufacturing system. As the energy consumption of machines is not constant over the production time due to the dynamic state of the process and the machines, discrete event simulation (DES) using Technomatix simulation is one of the strategies to understand the behaviour of the system. This work deals with process simulation modelling at one of the industries in Malaysia on energy consumption efficiency. It was shown that using the simulation modelling, the bottleneck stations were identified and the critical stations with high energy consumptions were observed for further actions

Bio-based smart materials for fish product packaging: a review

Conventional packaging offers protection, containment, communication, and convenience to packaged food. The most commonly used packaging materials are petrochemical-based plastics which generate massive wastes that persist for a long time in the environment after their use. Bio-based materials are the best option to replace this synthetic plastic. This review presents the importance of packaging fish products using polysaccharides, proteins, polyhydroxyalkanoates, polylactic acids, pullulan, and xanthan gums loaded with different nanofillers and bioactive molecules. Bio-based smart materials easily decompose into carbon dioxide, methane, water, and inorganic compounds. Biopolymers can be produced from natural biomass, bio-monomers, and microorganisms. These biopolymers demonstrate excellent physiochemical, thermal, and mechanical properties when mixed or alone as fish packaging materials. Integration of nanofillers and bioactive molecules improves mechanical, gas barrier, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of bio-based materials. Bioactive molecules like anthocyanins, betalains, curcumin, and clove oil are sensitive to pH, temperature, light, and time. Bioactive molecules can be loaded into bio-based packaging materials to monitor the real-time freshness of fish products during storage. It is concluded that bio-based smart materials have the potential for fish packaging, do not harm the environment, and easily interact with nanofillers and bioactive molecules

Oat-field pea intercropping for sustainable oat production: effect on yield, nutritive value and environmental impact

The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of Oat–field pea intercropping on the yield, nutritive value, and environmental impact of oat grown under a reduced level of nitrogen fertilisation. The trial was laid out in a randomized complete block design with the following treatments: oat-0 (oat (Avena sativa L., SRCP X 80 Ab 2291 variety) without N fertilization (urea)), oat-23 (oat fertilised with 23 kg N/ha), oat-46 (oat fertilised with 46 kg N/ha), O1P1 (oat intercropped with field pea (Pisum sativum L., local variety) a ratio of 1:1), O1P2 (oat intercropped with field pea a ratio of 1:2), and O2P1 (oat intercropped with field pea at a ratio of 2:1). All of the experimental plots received standard husbandry practices except for nitrogen fertilisation. Soil pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, and organic carbon were determined before and after planting. The effect of nitrogen fertilization and intercropping of oat with field pea on carbon footprint, acidification footprint, eutrophication footprint, and human toxicity footprint was calculated for each plot. Oat-0 significantly reduced the total nitrogen content of the soil, while there was no significant effect of the other treatments. O2P1 significantly out-yielded all control groups; however, it was not significantly different from fertilisation treatments. Intercropping with field pea did not significantly increase the cost of production of dry matter, crude protein, or dry matter digestibility compared to control groups. Intercropping with field pea significantly reduced the carbon footprint, acidification, eutrophication, and human toxicity footprint compared to the control groups. Therefore, oat–field pea intercrops are recommended for the production of high-quality forage at low N input with reduced environmental impact

Podoconiosis in East and West Gojam Zones, Northern Ethiopia

Background: Podoconiosis is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) that is prevalent in red clay soil-covered highlands of tropical Africa, Central and South America, and northern India. It is estimated that up to one million cases exist in Ethiopia. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of podoconiosis in East and West Gojam Zones of Amhara Region in northern Ethiopia. Methodology/Principal Findings: A cross-sectional household survey was conducted in Debre Eliyas and Dembecha woredas (districts) in East and West Gojam Zones, respectively. The survey covered all 17,553 households in 20 kebeles (administrative subunits) randomly selected from the two woredas. A detailed structured interview was conducted on 1,704 cases of podoconiosis identified in the survey. Results: The prevalence of podoconiosis in the population aged 15 years and above was found to be 3.3% (95% CI, 3.2% to 3.6%). 87% of cases were in the economically active age group (15–64 years). On average, patients sought treatment five years after the start of the leg swelling. Most subjects had second (42.7%) or third (36.1%) clinical stage disease, 97.9% had mossy lesions, and 53% had open wounds. On average, patients had five episodes of acute adenolymphangitis (ALA) per year and spent a total of 90 days per year with ALA. The median age of first use of shoes and socks were 22 and 23 years, respectively. More men than women owned more than one pair of shoes (61.1% vs. 50.5%; x2 = 11.6 p = 0.001). At the time of interview, 23.6% of the respondents were barefoot, of whom about two-thirds were women. Conclusions: This study showed high prevalence of podoconiosis and associated morbidities such as ALA, mossy lesions and open wounds in northern Ethiopia. Predominance of cases at early clinical stage of podoconiosis indicates the potential for reversing the swelling and calls for disease prevention interventions