Role of Participatory Forest Management in Livelihood Diversification in the Case of Jello Forest, West Hararghe, Ethiopia

Empowering local community as a developer of forest resource rather than considering them as a threat to the resource is one of the underlying aim of the Participatory Forest Management (PFM). The objectives of this study were to assess the role of PFM in livelihood diversification and people’s attitude towards livelihood diversification. Data were collected from 172 respondents through interviewing and also focus group discussion with different groups and as well as from secondary documents. Statistical tests were applied to see the relation between the variables. Accordingly, Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare the means of change in livelihood diversification and improvement before and after the implementation of the project.  The results showed that there was a significant livelihood diversification as well as livelihood improvement for the beneficiaries. In general it can be inferred that, the establishment of PFM diversifies and improve livelihood activities of participant households and also that peoples are positive towards PFM and the changes in their livelihood as the result of PFM. Keywords: Participatory Forest management, Livelihood Diversification and Jello Fores

Preclinical evaluation of pharmacological strategies designed to enhance the activity of established and novel anti-cancer drugs. Synopsis: Evaluation of pharmacological strategies designed to modulate the Warburg effect, enhance the activity of tyrosine kinase inhibitors and novel analogues of Temozolomide.

Whilst progress has been made in reducing mortality in some cancers, mortality rates remain high in many cancers and there is a need to develop novel therapeutic strategies. In this thesis, various pharmacological strategies designed to enhance the activity of existing therapeutic drugs were evaluated. Cancer cells are dependent upon aerobic glycolysis (the Warburg effect) and glutamine uptake. Using clinically approved tyrosine kinase inhibitors and Bortezomib, significant enhancement of chemosensitivity was observed when used in combination with inhibitors of lactate dehydrogenase (Gossypol) and pyruvate kinase dehydrogenase (Dichloroacetate). In contrast, depletion of glutamine from media had to be extensive in order to induce cell death and cell death only occurred after prolonged exposure to glutamine-deprived conditions. This suggests that glutamine depletion strategies alone are unlikely to be successful but may be useful in combination with other agents targeting glutamine addiction in cancer cells. Finally, Temozolomide (TMZ) is an important drug in the treatment of glioblastomas but its activity is reduced by resistance mechanisms including O6 methyl guanine methyltransferase (MGMT) and mismatch repair (MMR). This thesis has identified analogues of TMZ (EA02-45, EA02-59, EA02-64 and EA02-65) that are MGMT and MMR independent in terms of inducing cell kill in vitro. These compounds are promising leads for future development. In conclusion, this thesis has demonstrated that interfering with the metabolic phenotype of cancer can enhance the activity of existing drugs and identified novel analogues of TMZ that circumvent drug resistance mechanisms that hamper the efficacy of TMZ

Excursion guide: post-conference excursion: geomorphological hazards, land degradation and resilience in the North Ethiopian highlands

B

Pattern of emergency department visits by elderly patients: study from a tertiary care hospital, Karachi

Background Worldwide the proportion of elderly people in the population is increasing. Currently in Pakistan 7.3 million people (5.6% of total population) are more than 60 years old. This age shift has emerged as an important health issue and is associated with an increased utilization of emergency services by the elderly. We carried out this study to assess the pattern of elderly patients (\u3e60 years) who visit emergency departments in comparison to young adults (18–60 years). Methods Data was collected retrospectively of patients aged 18 years or more who visited the Emergency Department (ED) of Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi (AKUH) during September, 2009 to September, 2011. The data collection sheet included patient’s demographic information, triage category, reason for visit, clinical presentation, ED length of stay, day and time of presentation and their disposition. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 19.0. Descriptive statistics were used to describe patient’s demographics. Chi-square (χ2) test was used as a test of significance to compare differences between groups for categorical data and t-test for continuous data. Multiple logistic regression analysis was done to find out the association between the patient characteristics and outcomes (admission and expiry). Results Almost 24% (n = 13014) of all adults (n = 54588) presenting to the ED were over the age of 60 years. More than 57% of elderly patients belonged to the high priority triage category compared to 35% in younger patients. Most of the elderly patients ( 27%) presented with nonspecific complaints followed by shortness of breath (13%) and fever (9%). The median length of stay (LOS) in the ED for elderly was 379 minutes (252 min in under-60 yrs patients) and they were more likely to get admitted to in-patient departments compared to younger patients (OR 1.7 95% CI 1.6-1.8). A high proportion of those admitted (20%) required intensive or special care. Mortality in elderly patients was 2.3% as compared to 0.7% in young adults. This was accompanied by a higher mortality risk in the elderly with an odds ratio of 2.3 (CI 2–2.5). Conclusion Elderly ED users differ significantly from younger adults in terms of criticality on presentation, ED LOS and final disposition

Differences in risk-adjusted outcome of road traffic injuries in urban tertiary care centers of Pakistan

Objective: To assess the differences in road injury survival in three tertiary care hospitals in an urban setting.Methods: The study was conducted in and comprised all road traffic injury victims presenting to the three state-run tertiary care centres in Karachi from September 2006 to October 2009. Patients\u27 age, gender, mode, and delay in arrival, severity of injury were noted. Data was stratified by hospital of presentation. A logistic regression model was developed and probability of survival was assessed after adjusting for various risk factors, including patient characteristics and injury severity.Results: There were 93,657victims in the study, but complete information was missing in 6,458(6.89%) study subjects, including survival information. Overall, 83,837(89.5%) were males; 64,269(74%) were aged between 16 and 45 years; 84,016(95%) had injury severity score of ?15; and overall survival was 84,141(96.5%).Conclusions: Significant differences existed in risk-adjusted survival of road injury victims presenting to public hospitals of Karachi. These differences pointed to variations in the process of care, and highlighted opportunities for improvement

Missing the boat: odds for the patients who leave ED without being seen

BACKGROUND: A patient left without being seen is a well-recognized indicator of Emergency Department overcrowding. The aim of this study was to define the characteristics of LWBS patients, their rates and associated factors from a tertiary care hospital of Pakistan. METHODS: A retrospective patient record review was undertaken. All patients presenting to the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, between April and December of the year 2010, were included in the study. Information was collected on age, sex, presenting complaints, ED capacity, month, time, shift, day of the week, and waiting times in the ED. A basic descriptive analysis was made and the rates of LWBS patients were determined among the patient subgroups. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the risk factors associated with a patient not being seen in the ED. RESULTS: A total of 38,762 patients visited ED during the study period. Among them 5,086 (13%) patients left without being seen. Percentage of leaving was highest in the night shift (20%). The percentage was twice as high when the ED was on diversion (19.8%) compared to regular periods of operation (9.8%). Mean waiting time before leaving the ED in pediatric patients was 154 minutes while for adults it was 171 minutes. More than 32% of patients had waited for more than 180 minutes before they left without being seen, compared to the patients who were seen in ED. Important predictors for LWBS included; Triage category P4 i.e. walk -in-patients had an OR of 13.62(8.72-21.3), Diversion status, OR 1.49(1.26-1.76), night shift , OR 2.44(1.95-3.05) and Pediatric age, OR 0.57(0.48-0.66). CONCLUSIONS: Our study elucidates the LWBS population characteristics and identifies the risk factors for this phenomenon. Targeted interventions should be planned and implemented to decrease the waiting time and alternate services should be provided for high-risk patients (for LWBS) to minimize their number

Environmental monitoring in the Mechara caves, Southeastern Ethiopia: implications for speleothem palaeoclimate studies

The interpretation of palaeoclimate records in speleothems depends on the understanding of the modern climate of the region, the geology, the hydrology above the caves, and the within-cave climate. Monitoring within-cave climate variability, geochemistry of speleothem-forming drip waters, and associated surface and groundwater, provides a modern baseline for interpretation of speleothem palaeohydrological and palaeoclimate records. Here, we present results of such monitoring of the Mechara caves in southeastern Ethiopia, conducted between 2004 and 2007. Results show nearly constant within-cave climate (temperature and humidity) in all caves, which generally reflects the surface climate. Groundwater and surface water geochemistry is similar across the region (except slight modification by local lithological variations) and modern drip water isotope data fall close to regional Meteoric Water Line, but speleothems further from equilibrium. Holocene and modern speleothems from these caves give high-resolution climate records, implying that the Mechara caves provide a suitable setting for the deposition of annually laminated speleothems that could record surface climate variability in a region where rainfall is sensitive to both the strength of the intertropical convergence zone as well as Indian Monsoon variability

Recent Advances in Nanoparticles Enhanced Oil Recovery: Rheology, Interfacial Tension, Oil Recovery, and Wettability Alteration

Chemically enhanced oil recovery methods are utilized to increase the oil recovery by improving the mobility ratio, altering the wettability, and/or lowering the interfacial tension between water and oil. Surfactants and polymers have been used for this purpose for the last few decades. Recently, nanoparticles have attracted the attention due to their unique properties. A large number of nanoparticles have been investigated for enhanced oil recovery applications either alone or in combination with surfactants and/or polymers. This review discusses the various types of nanoparticles that have been utilized in enhanced oil recovery. The review highlights the impact of nanoparticles on wettability alteration, interfacial tension, and rheology. The review also covers the factors affecting the oil recovery using nanoparticles and current challenges in field implementation

Galbladder perforation: The importance of standardised treatment algorithms

Von H. Barfo

Smartwatch-Based Legitimate User Identification for Cloud-Based Secure Services

Smartphones are ubiquitously integrated into our home and work environment and users frequently use them as the portal to cloud-based secure services. Since smartphones can easily be stolen or coopted, the advent of smartwatches provides an intriguing platform legitimate user identification for applications like online banking and many other cloud-based services. However, to access security-critical online services, it is highly desirable to accurately identifying the legitimate user accessing such services and data whether coming from the cloud or any other source. Such identification must be done in an automatic and non-bypassable way. For such applications, this work proposes a two-fold feasibility study; (1) activity recognition and (2) gait-based legitimate user identification based on individual activity. To achieve the above-said goals, the first aim of this work was to propose a semicontrolled environment system which overcomes the limitations of users' age, gender, and smartwatch wearing style. The second aim of this work was to investigate the ambulatory activity performed by any user. Thus, this paper proposes a novel system for implicit and continuous legitimate user identification based on their behavioral characteristics by leveraging the sensors already ubiquitously built into smartwatches. The design system gives legitimate user identification using machine learning techniques and multiple sensory data with 98.68% accuracy