Factors Affecting the Performance in the Implementation of Government Building Construction Projects: A Case Study in Bole SubCity of Addis Ababa

Building project implementation has so many issues and complex performance, such as time, cost, quality, and safety. This study identified and assessed the essential factors influencing the implementation of public building projects, particularly in the Bole Sub-city of Addis Ababa. There were 46 factors identified, validated, and divided into 9 categories. Questionnaires are distributed to 120 respondents, of which 8 for owners, 25 for consultants, 86 for contractors, and one head of the office. The key factors decided upon were: liquidity of the organization, improved availability of commodity prices for people with high experience and expertise, and the quality of equipment and raw materials in the project. The agreement between the parties on the ranking of factors was calculated based on their Relative Importance Index. Besides, the value of the Cronbach’s Alpha for variables calculated above 0.7, which means the data and scale are reliable and accepted for further analysis to correlate the different groups of factors. Results showed that cost, time, quality, productivity, and customer satisfaction are the top five essential factors affecting the performance of the government public building in the study area

Correlation Analysis of Factors Affecting Shoring Construction Techniques in Central Business District of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Recent urbanization of central parts of Addis Ababa has necessitated the use of deep excavations for the foundation of highrise buildings and related infrastructure projects. The conditions of the subsoil, the safety of neighboring structures, groundwater conditions, experience by contractors, working space, the effect of vibration, and noise must be considered for the choice of deep excavation support system. Besides, economic factors, local availability of equipment, and technical staff are also governing factors for choosing an appropriate shoring technique. The study focused on the major construction methods and techniques of shoring works in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Only four projects utilized shoring construction techniques from the total number of high-rise buildings available in the City. The target population included a minimum of twenty respondents from the four construction sites constructed around Beherawi, Lideta sub-city in Addis Ababa. Two of the projects were supervised by Specialists from Varnero Foundation and Meseret Foundation PLC. Primary and secondary data are gathered to support the objective of the study. All the frequency distribution, Reliability, and Pearson correlation were analyzed using SPSS. All groups of factors that affect shoring construction were ranked using the Relative Importance Index (RII). Results indicated that geotechnical investigation, building type, and excavation depth were the major factors with an RII value of 0.89 and 0.86, respectively. Besides, the analyses showed that were strong correlations between the different factors within each group of factors in undertaking the shoring construction. Hence, it is suggested to take a deep and detailed sub-soil investigation to determine the suitability of shoring materials, appropriate construction methods, and techniques

EFFECTS ON MODIFIED PROPERTIES OF EXPANSIVE CLAY SOIL USING WASTE HOLLOW CONCRETE BLOCK (HCB) AND CEMENT PLASTER WASTE MATERIALS FOR SUBGRADE CONSTRUCTION

Expansive soils characterized by changing its volume and strength due to seasonal variations. Due to this volume changes, expansive clay soil caused many problems in road construction and is relatively common in Ethiopia. As a result, such types of soil are not adequately for road construction, which requires proper attention. The focus of this study was to improve the engineering properties of the expansive clay soil with the addition of waste materials to use as a subgrade construction material. Soil samples were taken from three locations within the study area and performed laboratory tests for the moisture content, specific gravity, free swelling, Atterberg limit, and compaction test on its natural state. The expansiveness of the soil from the three locations were determined. The highest value of expansiveness from these samples considered for the experiment by the addition of waste materials concentration with 5%, 10% 20%, and 30% by weight. Test results indicated that the moisture content, free swelling, specific gravity Atterberg limit decreased, while the maximum dry density increased as the concentration of waste material increase. Hence, the minimum amount of waste materials comprised of 10% that will improve the strength of expansive clay soil for use in road subgrade construction

The COVID-19 pandemic and healthcare systems in Africa:A scoping review of preparedness, impact and response

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed health systems in both developed and developing nations alike. Africa has one of the weakest health systems globally, but there is limited evidence on how the region is prepared for, impacted by and responded to the pandemic. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review of PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL to search peer-reviewed articles and Google, Google Scholar and preprint sites for grey literature. The scoping review captured studies on either preparedness or impacts or responses associated with COVID-19 or covering one or more of the three topics and guided by Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework. The extracted information was documented following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension checklist for scoping reviews. Finally, the resulting data were thematically analysed. RESULTS: Twenty-two eligible studies, of which 6 reported on health system preparedness, 19 described the impacts of COVID-19 on access to general and essential health services and 7 focused on responses taken by the healthcare systems were included. The main setbacks in health system preparation included lack of available health services needed for the pandemic, inadequate resources and equipment, and limited testing ability and surge capacity for COVID-19. Reduced flow of patients and missing scheduled appointments were among the most common impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health system responses identified in this review included the availability of telephone consultations, re-purposing of available services and establishment of isolation centres, and provisions of COVID-19 guidelines in some settings. CONCLUSIONS: The health systems in Africa were inadequately prepared for the pandemic, and its impact was substantial. Responses were slow and did not match the magnitude of the problem. Interventions that will improve and strengthen health system resilience and financing through local, national and global engagement should be prioritised

The COVID-19 pandemic and healthcare systems in Africa : a scoping review of preparedness, impact and response

Funding Information: Funding GAT was supported with funding from the Australia National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grant #1195716.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Global, regional, and national sex-specific burden and control of the HIV epidemic, 1990-2019, for 204 countries and territories: the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2019

Background: The sustainable development goals (SDGs) aim to end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Understanding the current state of the HIV epidemic and its change over time is essential to this effort. This study assesses the current sex-specific HIV burden in 204 countries and territories and measures progress in the control of the epidemic. Methods: To estimate age-specific and sex-specific trends in 48 of 204 countries, we extended the Estimation and Projection Package Age-Sex Model to also implement the spectrum paediatric model. We used this model in cases where age and sex specific HIV-seroprevalence surveys and antenatal care-clinic sentinel surveillance data were available. For the remaining 156 of 204 locations, we developed a cohort-incidence bias adjustment to derive incidence as a function of cause-of-death data from vital registration systems. The incidence was input to a custom Spectrum model. To assess progress, we measured the percentage change in incident cases and deaths between 2010 and 2019 (threshold >75% decline), the ratio of incident cases to number of people living with HIV (incidence-to-prevalence ratio threshold <0·03), and the ratio of incident cases to deaths (incidence-to-mortality ratio threshold <1·0). Findings: In 2019, there were 36·8 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 35·1–38·9) people living with HIV worldwide. There were 0·84 males (95% UI 0·78–0·91) per female living with HIV in 2019, 0·99 male infections (0·91–1·10) for every female infection, and 1·02 male deaths (0·95–1·10) per female death. Global progress in incident cases and deaths between 2010 and 2019 was driven by sub-Saharan Africa (with a 28·52% decrease in incident cases, 95% UI 19·58–35·43, and a 39·66% decrease in deaths, 36·49–42·36). Elsewhere, the incidence remained stable or increased, whereas deaths generally decreased. In 2019, the global incidence-to-prevalence ratio was 0·05 (95% UI 0·05–0·06) and the global incidence-to-mortality ratio was 1·94 (1·76–2·12). No regions met suggested thresholds for progress. Interpretation: Sub-Saharan Africa had both the highest HIV burden and the greatest progress between 1990 and 2019. The number of incident cases and deaths in males and females approached parity in 2019, although there remained more females with HIV than males with HIV. Globally, the HIV epidemic is far from the UNAIDS benchmarks on progress metrics. Funding: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Institute on Aging of the NIH

Correction to : Short-and long-term outcomes in infective endocarditis patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Correction Unfortunately, after publication of this article [1], it was noticed that the name of the fifth author was incorrectly displayed as Akshaya Srikanth Bahagavathula. The correct name is Akshaya Srikanth Bhagavathula and can be seen in the corrected author list above. The original article has also been updated to correct this error