Child Health in Darfur, Sudan: Addressing the Effects of Armed Conflict on Children\u27s Health in Darfur

ABSTRACT Background: For 19 years, the Darfur region of Sudan has experienced unending civil unrest and war, resulting in more than 2 million deaths and over 4 million displaced persons. The war led to severe food insecurity, clean and safe drinking water shortages, high disease prevalence, destruction of infrastructure, and a broken health care system. Despite the interventions by the global community and various humanitarian agencies, over 2.8 million people are still displaced and living in IDP camps across Darfur. Over 300,000 children are living in neighboring Chad. The armed conflict led to high levels of child malnutrition, a high prevalence of infectious diseases, and an increased child mortality rate within the region. Purpose: This review focuses on children aged 0-5 years that are displaced and currently living in IDP camps due to the armed conflict in Darfur. The review aims at addressing the effects of the armed conflict on the health of these children Recommendations: The review recommends the introduction of WASH and wastes management facilities within camps, a massive child immunization campaign, and the inclusion of nutritious food supplements and therapeutic feeding centers to avert the public health crisis among the children in Darfur. Conclusion: The recommendations in this review are not limited to the children in Darfur or regions affected by armed conflicts. Humanitarian emergencies disproportionally affect children due to their vulnerability to advocate for themselves, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The recommendations are applicable in most public health crises to improve the health and well-being of children. Keywords: Effects, Armed conflict, Children’s health, Darfur, Suda

From the fish tank to the human gut: Characterization of the role of kita and ano1 ICC markers in regulation of intestinal motility in zebrafish

Regulation of gut motility is a very complex process and is thought to require proper functioning and coordination of three major cell types: the smooth muscle cells, the enteric nervous system and a specialized group of cells called the interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC). The ICC, also commonly called the pacemaker cells of the gut have been implicated in proper gut motility. ICC reduction or loss has been linked GI motility disorders such as Hirschsprung’s disease, slow transit constipation, gastroparesis, achalasia, and intestinal pseudo-obstruction. Although the role of ICC in GI motility has been widely examined at the phenotypic level, the underlying molecular mechanisms that drive development and function remain elusive. In this dissertation research, we generated two ICC biomarker red fluorescent protein (RFP) reporter lines, kitais32gal4 and ano1is33gal4 using the CRISPR-Cas9 mediated knock-in of the Gal4 into the zebrafish genome by homology directed repair mechanism. We further characterized their FFP expression using both confocal laser scanning microscopy and light/fluorescent microscopy. The generated reporter lines have a bright RFP expression and putative homozygous null mutants are viable and fertile. This is the first study to successfully generate ano1 reporter line in zebrafish. Finally, we utilized both qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine the gut motility phenotypes of kita and ano1 putative null mutants at 9 dpf. Our results indicated that zebrafish intestinal motility pattern was disrupted by knock-out of kita or ano1. There was a significant reduction in the average number of contractions, average distance traveled by individual contractions, frequency of the contractions, average time taken by individual contractions. The average interval between contractions increased. Our results suggest that both kita and ano1 are critical for generation and maintenance of coordinated, steady and complete contraction in the zebrafish intestine. We provide the first evidence for the role of ano1 in zebrafish gut motility using in vivo approaches and this these finding will improve our present understanding of GI motility disorders

Response of giant foxtail and wild proso millet to artificial light quality alteration

Light is an essential requirement for proper plant growth and development. Growth chamber experiments were conducted to determine whether artificial alteration of light quality (reducing the red to far-red ratio-R:FR) differentially affected the growth and development of giant foxtail and wild proso millet, two troublesome annual grass weeds in the United States. Growth phenotypes of both weeds were examined under two R:FR regimes (0.28-reduced R:FR and 1.12-unaltered R:FR) in the absence of competition (control conditions) and under intraspecific and interspecific competition. The reduced R:FR simulated shaded (below-canopy) R:FR conditions in the field while the unaltered R:FR treatment simulated direct sunlight (above-canopy) conditions. Averaged across weed species, reducing the R:FR increased plant height, but reduced tiller production and above-ground biomass under no plant competition (P<0.05). In the presence of competition, reducing the R:FR increased plant height and internode length but reduced the number of tillers and leaf area across weed species. No phenotypic differences were observed for weeds tested under intraspecific or interspecific competition. Our study has shown that the response of both weeds to artificial R:FR alteration is similar to that observed under shaded field conditions. Therefore, by replacing bordering plants with a crop, controlled experiments can be used to test the effect of crop canopies on weed suppression when selecting cultivars to be planted in areas where certain weed species are prevalent, minimizing weed-related yield losses

Woman Empowerment and Household Income in Kira Municipality, Uganda

The empowerment of women is crucial for the development of a nation .This study is about women empowerment and household income in Kira Municipality of Uganda. The objectives were to establish the strategies of women empowerment, the effect of women empowerment on household income and the challenges to women empowerment. We adopted a cross-sectional survey design, considering a sample size of 72 respondents who were randomly sampled. Findings revealed that strategies for women empowerment included women being encouraged to join group saving groups. It was revealed that women were not adequately trained as dispute settlers, linkers, motivators, facilitators, and negotiators to help implement women empowerment projects in as far as empowering them was concerned. Regarding the impact of women empowerment, findings revealed that skills have been enhanced through training received from women empowerment implementers and programs have reduced employment among these women through skills attained. However, key challenges to women empowerment emerged including but not limited to There is inadequate finance and inappropriate funding of activities, limited access to credit sources to expand our activities, poorly trained community projects facilitators and unnecessary hinder project activities and political interests which affect women group leadership such as interference from community political forces. It is recommended that more efforts should be put to economic empowerment as a process of increasing women’s access to economic resources and opportunities including jobs, financial services, property and other productive assets, skills development and market information. Lastly women should be encouraged to participate in enterprise activities to gain a greater economic role in decision-making. Exercising control over these financial matters enables women to optimize their own and the household’s welfare

Employee performance management and control in Africa: The case of a development organisation in Uganda

It is generally agreed that the most widely used management theories originate in the ‘West’, and that the developing world needs to adopt these theories if it is to promote efficient management. But are ‘Western’ approaches being wholly embraced by Africa-based organisations? Some authors claim that ‘Western’ ideologies, a legacy of colonisation, are the main influence on management practice in developing countries. However, others argue that these ideologies are alien to traditional African culture and in fact make operations less efficient. Thus, it has been suggested that organisations should either employ a combination of ‘Western’ and traditional practices, or they should stick with purely indigenous management approaches such as Ubuntu, which implies that communal interests are above those of the individual and that human existence is dependent on interaction with others. These arguments have been developed from research drawing mainly on data generated through surveys and/or interviews with managers in Africa. This study used a grounded theory approach and applied a combination of ethnographic techniques to contribute to existing literature by exploring employees’ perspectives on what happens in practice in terms of performance management and control. The inquiry adopted an interpretivist and neo-empiricist stance in the belief that this would best allow me to reflexively access and interpret the behaviour of participants. Generally, the design of the formal guidelines in the case study organisation reflected ‘Western’ ideas, though their implementation was largely dependent on informal relationships that reflected African communitarian values. This discovery helps to elucidate the role that ‘Western management’ approaches played in a development organisation in Uganda. The study also provides methodological insights into the reflexive collection and analysis of data on ‘management in Africa’

Effect of Method and Time of Management on European Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica L.) Growth and Development in Minnesota

European buckthorn is an exotic problematic invasive woody species that has displaced native plant species in Minnesota woodlands. Buckthorn is also an overwintering host for oat crown rust and soybean aphids, which can cause significant crop yield losses. The overall goal of this study was to test multiple buckthorn control methods and examine the establishment of native plant species in colonized areas. Specific objectives were to 1) determine the effectiveness of buckthorn control methods when applied in different seasons, 2) monitor seedling recruitment and resprouting ability of buckthorn saplings following treatment, 3) monitor recruitment and survival of native plant species following treatment, and 4) characterize buckthorn carbohydrate fluctuations and considerations for timely and effective buckthorn management. Field experiments conducted for two years in two locations (Eagle Lake Regional Park and Battle Creek Regional Park, Minnesota, U.S.A), tested four buckthorn control treatments: 1) cutting only; 2) cutting+stump treatment with herbicide (triclopyr); 3) cutting+stump treatment with herbicide+burning, and 4) cutting+burning. Untreated controls were included in each experiment. Across management seasons, the cutting+stump treatment with herbicide resulted in higher seedling densities for buckthorn and other species the next season compared to cutting only without herbicide application. Spring management resulted in the lowest seedling density the next season for both buckthorn and other plant species, and spring control treatments that included herbicide and burning resulted in higher buckthorn and native species seedling densities than treatments without burning. Because seasonal total nonstructural carbohydrate levels in buckthorn crowns were highest in the fall season, we recommend applying systemic herbicides in the fall when carbohydrates are translocated for storage to facilitate herbicide translocation and efficacy. Our study shows that integrating multiple buckthorn control methods reduces buckthorn populations and increases native species diversity. For long-term control of buckthorn seedling establishment, follow-up treatments like applying foliar herbicide sprays can be used in addition to prescribed burning

Maternal health-seeking behaviour of peri-urban women living with disability in Busiro South Health sub District, Wakiso district, Uganda: a community-based study

Aim: We examined the maternal healthcare-seeking behaviour of peri-urban women with disabilities in Busiro South Health Sub District, Wakiso district, Uganda. Methods: This community-based cross-sectional study. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires and focus group discussions. Chi-square was used to test for differences, and logistic regression to determine factors associated with maternal health-seeking behaviour at a 5% level of significance. Content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. Results: A total of 182 women with disabilities were enrolled. Overall, 150 (82.3%) of the disabled women had attended ANC and 147 (80.8%) had delivered their babies at a health facility. The participants' mean age was 31.9±7.8years (range: 17-49 years). ANC attendance among disabled women was influenced by maternal age 18-30 years (p = 0.010), number of times a disabled woman was pregnant (p = 0.003), parity (p = 0.018), a normal delivery (p = 0.048), receiving financial support from friends of partners (p < 0.001), distance of less than 5KM to the health facility (p = 0.024), friendliness of the health care providers (p=0.030) and availability of health providers (p < 0.001). Conclusion: There is an urgent need for a multi-sectoral approach to better healthcare-seeking behaviour. Keywords: Peri-urban; maternal health-seeking behaviour; disabled women; Uganda

Unsupervised title and abstract screening for systematic review: a retrospective case-study using topic modelling methodology.

BACKGROUND: The importance of systematic reviews in collating and summarising available research output on a particular topic cannot be over-emphasized. However, initial screening of retrieved literature is significantly time and labour intensive. Attempts at automating parts of the systematic review process have been made with varying degree of success partly due to being domain-specific, requiring vendor-specific software or manually labelled training data. Our primary objective was to develop statistical methodology for performing automated title and abstract screening for systematic reviews. Secondary objectives included (1) to retrospectively apply the automated screening methodology to previously manually screened systematic reviews and (2) to characterize the performance of the automated screening methodology scoring algorithm in a simulation study. METHODS: We implemented a Latent Dirichlet Allocation-based topic model to derive representative topics from the retrieved documents' title and abstract. The second step involves defining a score threshold for classifying the documents as relevant for full-text review or not. The score is derived based on a set of search keywords (often the database retrieval search terms). Two systematic review studies were retrospectively used to illustrate the methodology. RESULTS: In one case study (helminth dataset), [Formula: see text] sensitivity compared to manual title and abstract screening was achieved. This is against a false positive rate of [Formula: see text]. For the second case study (Wilson disease dataset), a sensitivity of [Formula: see text] and specificity of [Formula: see text] were achieved. CONCLUSIONS: Unsupervised title and abstract screening has the potential to reduce the workload involved in conducting systematic review. While sensitivity of the methodology on the tested data is low, approximately [Formula: see text] specificity was achieved. Users ought to keep in mind that potentially low sensitivity might occur. One approach to mitigate this might be to incorporate additional targeted search keywords such as the indexing databases terms into the search term copora. Moreover, automated screening can be used as an additional screener to the manual screeners

Exploring Outsider/Insider Dynamics and Intersectionalities - Perspectives and Reflections From Management Researchers in Sub-Saharan Africa

In this chapter, we aim to contribute to the development of an intersectional approach to culture and identity in cross-cultural management studies by exploring the experience of insider and outside ethnographers doing research with organisations in sub-Saharan Africa. We start from an understanding of researchers’ identity as resulting from the dynamic intersection of multiple categories (race, gender, class, education and so on) in specific contexts, shaped by economic, social, political and cultural processes and structures. Previous studies have highlighted that being an insider researcher (e.g., sharing key characteristics with the participants, such as skin colour or national/ethnic identity), or an outsider has a significant impact in the research process. However, insider and outsider identities have been predominantly conceived on the basis of the nationality, which has often lead to an understanding of cultures and identities as fixed and stable. In this chapter, we challenge this dominant perspective, by enlightening how researchers’ identities are fluid and continuously in-the-making, even within the research process itself. Drawing on joint reflections on our experiences as management researchers in sub-Saharan Africa, and on ten interviews with colleagues with similar experiences, we explore how researcher’s identity is shaped and negotiated along the research process and its role in knowledge production, paying especially attention to local and wider power dynamics