Conservation Farming and Changing Climate: More Beneficial Than Conventional Methods for Degraded Ugandan Soils

The extent of land affected by degradation in Uganda ranges from 20% in relatively flat and vegetation-covered areas to 90% in the eastern and southwestern highlands. Land degradation has adversely affected smallholder agro-ecosystems including direct damage and loss of critical ecosystem services such as agricultural land/soil and biodiversity. This study evaluated the extent of bare grounds in Nakasongola, one of the districts in the Cattle Corridor of Uganda and the yield responses of maize (Zea mays) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) to different tillage methods in the district. Bare ground was determined by a supervised multi-band satellite image classification using the Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC). Field trials on maize and bean grain yield responses to tillage practices used a randomized complete block design with three replications, evaluating conventional farmer practice (CFP); permanent planting basins (PPB); and rip lines, with or without fertilizer in maize and bean rotations. Bare ground coverage in the Nakasongola District was 187 km2 (11%) of the 1741 km2 of arable land due to extreme cases of soil compaction. All practices, whether conventional or the newly introduced conservation farming practices in combination with fertilizer increased bean and maize grain yields, albeit with minimal statistical significance in some cases. The newly introduced conservation farming tillage practices increased the bean grain yield relative to conventional practices by 41% in PPBs and 43% in rip lines. In maize, the newly introduced conservation farming tillage practices increased the grain yield by 78% on average, relative to conventional practices. Apparently, conservation farming tillage methods proved beneficial relative to conventional methods on degraded soils, with the short-term benefit of increasing land productivity leading to better harvests and food security

Later life outcomes of women by adolescent birth history: analysis of the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the long-term socioeconomic and reproductive health outcomes of women in Uganda by adolescent birth history. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Uganda. PARTICIPANTS: Women aged 40-49 years at the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey. OUTCOME MEASURES: We compared socioeconomic and reproductive outcomes among those with first birth <18 years versus not. Among those with a first birth <18 years, we compared those with and without repeat adolescent births (another birth <20 years). We used two-sample test for proportions, linear regression and Poisson regression. FINDINGS: Among the 2814 women aged 40-49 years analysed, 36.2% reported a first birth <18 years and 85.9% of these had a repeat adolescent birth. Compared with women with no birth <18 years, those with first birth <18 years were less likely to have completed primary education (16.3% vs 32.2%, p<0.001), more likely to be illiterate (55.0% vs 44.0%, p<0.001), to report challenges seeking healthcare (67.6% vs 61.8%, p=0.002) and had higher mean number of births by age 40 years (6.6 vs 5.3, p<0.001). Among women married at time of survey, those with birth <18 years had older husbands (p<0.001) who also had lower educational attainment (p<0.001). Educational attainment, household wealth score, total number of births and under-5 mortality among women with one adolescent birth were similar, and sometimes better, than among those with no birth <18 years. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest lifelong adverse socioeconomic and reproductive outcomes among women with adolescent birth, primarily in the category with repeat adolescent birth. While our results might be birth-cohort specific, they underscore the need to support adolescent mothers to have the same possibilities to develop their potentials, by supporting school continuation and prevention of further unwanted pregnancies

Reproductive performance of two sow lines under arid climatic conditions

Abstract Data (n = 4836) from a pig company in Namibia recorded over the period 2002 -2007 were analysed to: (i) compare performance of two sow lines for the age at first farrowing (AFF), number born alive (NBA), life total born (LTB), weaning-to-conception interval (WCI), farrowing index (FI) and; (ii) estimate preweaning piglet mortality, non-productive sow days (NPSD) and replacement rates in two sow lines. The mating scheme involved a within herd grandparent programme where line A was the grandparent stock and line C the parent stock. NBA and WCI were analyzed as repeated measures traits. The least square means (d) for AFF were 363.3 ± 3.1 and 353.6 ± 2.4 for A and C, respectively. The NBA increased from first to fifth parity and then declined, but females served during the summer months of October -December (mean monthly temperature = 24.5 °C) had smaller litter sizes, compared to those in other seasons. Sows weaning piglets in the cold months of May -September (mean monthly temperature = 15.4 °C) had the shortest WCI. LTB increased by 10.9 ± .1 piglets per unit increase in parity at culling. The FI was 2.4 for both lines. The preweaning piglet mortality was 10.7% for A and 14% for C. The NPSD was 76 d in A and 52 d in C; replacement rate was 50.5% in A and 42.1% in C. Component traits of reproduction indicate depressed performance during the summer period. Management efforts should be directed at further mitigation of heat stress in breeding pigs and reduction of preweaning piglet mortality in line C. _______________________________________________________________________________

Hydroxyurea to lower transcranial Doppler velocities and prevent primary stroke: the Uganda NOHARM sickle cell anemia cohort

In summary, the NOHARM trial provides additional evidence for the safety and efficacy of short-term hydroxyurea treatment for SCA in sub-Saharan Africa within a clinical trial setting. Data from both the blinded treatment phase and the open-label treatment phase demonstrate clinical and hematological benefits of hydroxyurea in a malarial endemic region, including evidence of reduced TCD velocities and primary stroke prevention. Additional TCD screening programs and clinical trials are urgently needed in sub-Saharan Africa to document the feasibility and benefits of hydroxyurea treatment for children with conditional or even abnormal TCD velocities, given the challenges of providing chronic blood transfusions. To help prevent primary stroke in this high-risk population, future studies should also focus on optimal dosing strategies and monitoring regimens, in an effort to determine the overall feasibility and safety of introducing hydroxyurea therapy for SCA widely across sub-Saharan Africa

The Role of C-Reactive Protein as a Triage Tool for Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Children.

BackgroundC-reactive protein (CRP) has shown promise as a triage tool for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in adults living with the human immunodeficiency virus. We performed the first assessment of CRP for TB triage in children.MethodsSymptomatic children less than 15 years old were prospectively enrolled in Kampala, Uganda. We completed a standard TB evaluation and measured CRP using a point-of-care assay. We determined the sensitivity and specificity of CRP to identify pulmonary TB in children using 10 mg/L and 5 mg/L cut-off points and generated a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to determine alternative cut-offs that could approach the target accuracy for a triage test (≥90% sensitivity and ≥70% specificity).ResultsWe included 332 children (median age 3 years old, interquartile range [IQR]: 1-6). The median CRP level was low at 3.0 mg/L (IQR: 2.5-26.6) but was higher in children with Confirmed TB than in children with Unlikely TB (9.5 mg/L vs. 2.9 mg/L, P-value = .03). At a 10 mg/L cut-off, CRP sensitivity was 50.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 37.0-63.0) among Confirmed TB cases and specificity was 63.3% (95% CI, 54.7-71.3) among children with Unlikely TB. Sensitivity increased to 56.5% (95% CI, 43.3-69.0) at the 5 mg/L cut-off, but specificity decreased to 54.0% (95% CI, 45.3-62.4). The area under the ROC curve was 0.59 (95% CI, 0.51-0.67), and the highest sensitivity achieved was 66.1% at a specificity of 46.8%.ConclusionsCRP levels were low in children with pulmonary TB, and CRP was unable to achieve the accuracy targets for a TB triage test