Levels and Trends of Occupational Hazards among Surgical Residents at Tikur Anbessa Hospital, Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Background: A previous study conducted four years ago among surgeons-in-training at the Addis Ababa University revealed that work-related  accidents among surgical trainees were enormous, and there was huge under reporting to the occupational health unit (OHU) of the hospital. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the strengthened OHU of the hospital and what the current status of work-related accidents is like at the same hospital three years later.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the  prevalence and context of all work-related accidents that resulted in contamination with blood and blood products inside the operating theatre, among surgical residents at the Tikur Anbessa teaching specialized referralhospital, in Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Data was collected from all 76 surgical residents who were at different stages of their specialty training in 2011.Results: Seventy- two (94.7%) of the residents were males and 26  (34.2%) were in their 3rd and 4th year of training. Of the 76 respondents, 53 (69.8%) had sustained a needle-stick injury inside the operating theatre at least once during their residency (Range=1-15 times). For 20 (26.3%), the accidents involved a high risk patient at least once. Cut with a sharp object, contact of blood to an unprotected skin and splash of blood to the eyes and face were reported by 9 (11.7%), 39(51.3%) and 28(36.9%) of the respondents respectively. Information concerning the most recent injuries inside the operating theatre revealed that 46(69.7%) of the residents sustained accidents in the 6 months preceding the survey, 7(9.2%) of which involved a high risk patient. All of the 7 (100%) of the recent high risk injuries and 10(27.7%) of the low-risk injuries were  reported to the OHU and all the high risk injury victims were commenced on HIV prophylaxis.Conclusions and Recommendations: Overall, the study revealed that work-related accidents among surgical trainees are still unacceptably high, even though there is a decline in the number of sharp object cut, and blood splash accidents. However, there is a positive trend towards reporting of injuries, particularly those which are high risk. More is expected from the hospital to create a safe working environment and to encourage reporting of all form of injuries

Coupled dynamics of voltage and calcium in paced cardiac cells

We investigate numerically and analytically the coupled dynamics of transmembrane voltage and intracellular calcium cycling in paced cardiac cells using a detailed physiological model and its reduction to a three-dimensional discrete map. The results provide a theoretical framework to interpret various experimentally observed modes of instability ranging from electromechanically concordant and discordant alternans to quasiperiodic oscillations of voltage and calcium

Irrigation Investments and Groundwater Depletion in Indian Semi-Arid Villages:The Effect of Alternative Water Pricing Regimes. Working Paper Series no.17 Socio Economic Policy

Factors such as increasing population, scarcity of productive land and declining farm sizes in India have prompted the intensification of land use through increased use of fertilizers, pesticides, improved seeds and irrigation investments. This has contributed to increasing productivity of land and cropping intensities. The Green Revolution that transformed India from a food-deficit to a food-surplus nation took place in the more favorable areas with better access to markets and irrigation. However, frequent droughts and water scarcity are crucial barriers to improving agricultural productivity and livelihoods in the rainfed tropics of India. The watershed management approach has been promoted as a major rural development strategy for the drought-prone areas. Watershed communities have invested in groundwater recharging facilities to improve availability of water for irrigation. While such costs are borne by the local communities and the public, individual farmers freely capture the irrigation benefits. Groundwater is a free resource and de-facto rights are in the hands of landowners. This has increased private irrigation investments and depletion of open access aquifers in many dryland areas. Power subsidies and very low pumping costs aggravate the problem. The increased investment in irrigation has also encouraged a shift in cropping patterns towards water-intensive irrigated crops, a practice that may not be sustainable in water-scarce areas. This paper provides some insights into the village-level externalities that aggravate groundwater depletion and the different policy instruments that may be used to enhance collective action in community water management. An econometric land productivity model is used to evaluate alternative water pricing instruments for reducing the pressure on groundwater resources. The results indicate that water user charges can be introduced without serious consequences on the profitability of smallholder production activities. If properly implemented and managed by the local communities, this could bring considerable economic and environmental benefits

Irrigation Investments and Groundwater Depletion in Indian Semi-Arid Villages: The Effect of Alternative Water Pricing Regimes

Factors such as increasing population, scarcity of productive land and declining farm sizes in India have prompted the intensification of land use through increased use of fertilizers, pesticides, improved seeds and irrigation investments. This has contributed to increasing productivity of land and cropping intensities. The Green Revolution that transformed India from a food-deficit to a food-surplus nation took place in the more favorable areas with better access to markets and irrigation. However, frequent droughts and water scarcity are crucial barriers to improving agricultural productivity and livelihoods in the rainfed tropics of India. The watershed management approach has been promoted as a major rural development strategy for the drought-prone areas. Watershed communities have invested in groundwater recharging facilities to improve availability of water for irrigation. While such costs are borne by the local communities and the public, individual farmers freely capture the irrigation benefits. Groundwater is a free resource and de-facto rights are in the hands of landowners. This has increased private irrigation investments and depletion of open access aquifers in many dryland areas. Power subsidies and very low pumping costs aggravate the problem. The increased investment in irrigation has also encouraged a shift in cropping pattern towards water-intensive irrigated crops, a practice that may not be sustainable in water-scarce areas. This paper provides some insights into the village-level externalities that aggravate groundwater depletion and the different policy instruments that maybe used to enhance collective action in community water management. An econometric land productivity model s used to evaluate alternative water pricing instruments for reducing the pressure on groundwater resources. The results indicate that water users charges can be introduced without serious consequences on the profitability of smallholder production activities. If properly implemented and managed by the local communities, this could bring considerable economic and environmental benefits

Integrating genetics and natural resource management for technology targeting and greater impact of agricultural research in the semi-arid tropics

Good management of natural resources is the key to good agriculture. This is true everywhere - and particularly in the semi-arid tropics, where over-exploitation of fragile or inherently vulnerable agro-ecosystems is leading to land and soil degradation, productivity decline, and increasing hunger and poverty. Modern crop varieties offer high yields, but the larger share of this potential yield can only be realized with good crop management. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), working over a vast and diverse mandate area, has learned one key lesson: that technologies and interventions must be matched not only to the crop or livestock enterprise and the biophysical environment, but also with the market and investment environment, including input supply systems and policy. Various Natural Resource Management (NRM) technologies have been developed over the years, but widespread adoption has been limited for various reasons: technical, socio-economic and institutional. To change this, ICRISAT hypothesizes that 'A research approach, founded on the need to integrate a broad consideration of technical, socio-economic and institutional issues into the generation of agricultural innovations will result in a higher level of adoption and more sustainable and diverse impacts in the rainfed systems of the semi-arid tropics.' Traditionally, crop improvement and NRM were seen as distinct but complementary disciplines. ICRISAT is deliberately blurring these boundaries to create the new paradigm of IGNRM or Integrated Genetic and Natural Resource Management. Improved varieties and improved resource management are two sides of the same coin. Most farming problems require integrated solutions, with genetic, management-related and socio-economic components. In essence, plant breeders and NRM scientists must integrate their work with that of private and public sector change agents to develop flexible cropping systems that can respond to rapid changes in market opportunities and climatic conditions. The systems approach looks at various components of the rural economy - traditional food grains, new potential cash crops, livestock and fodder production, as well as socio-economic factors such as alternative sources of employment and income. Crucially the IGNRM approach is participatory, with farmers closely involved in technology development, testing and dissemination. ICRISAT has begun to use the IGNRM approach to catalyse technology uptake and substantially improve food security and incomes in smallholder farm communities at several locations in India, Mali, Niger, Vietnam, China, Thailand and Zimbabwe

Tropical Grain Legumes in Africa and South Asia: Knowledge and Opportunities

There are about 30 species of economically important legumes grown in the tropics (Baldev et al. 1988; Raemaekers 2001; Gowda et al 2007). Among the major ones are chickpea (Cicer arietinum), common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan), and soybean (Glycine max). Others that are important in one or other regions of the tropics include faba bean (Vicia faba), lentil (Lens culinaris), field pea (Pisum sativum), Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea), hyacinth bean (Lablab purpurea – also known as Dolichos lablab), Kerting’s groundnut (Macrotyloma geocarpum), lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus), yam bean (Sphenostylis stenocarpa), mung bean or green gram (Vigna radiata), black gram or black bean (Vigna mungo), moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia), rice bean (Vigna umbellata), and horse gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum). More than 101 million households (HH) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and 39 million HH in South Asia (SA) grow one or more of the major tropical legumes for food security, income generation, improved nutrition, and maintaining soil fertility. An estimated 27 million ha in SSA and 40 million ha in SA are planted to these crops each year; annual production is estimated at about 19 million metric tons (MT) in SSA and 30 million MT in SA, valued at about US$9.3 billion and US$ 15.1 billion, respectively. Despite their importance, investment in tropical legumes research and development has been low. However, this situation has been changing for the better in recent years. The Tropical Legumes II project (TL II), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers in SSA and SA through improved productivity and production of the six major grain legumes mentioned above. Improved systems and partnership approaches between national programs and CG centers have shown positive changes in some countries (Abate et al 2011) that could serve as examples of good practice

Localization of a polymer in random media: Relation to the localization of a quantum particle

In this paper we consider in detail the connection between the problem of a polymer in a random medium and that of a quantum particle in a random potential. We are interested in a system of finite volume where the polymer is known to be {\it localized} inside a low minimum of the potential. We show how the end-to-end distance of a polymer which is free to move can be obtained from the density of states of the quantum particle using extreme value statistics. We give a physical interpretation to the recently discovered one-step replica-symmetry-breaking solution for the polymer (Phys. Rev. E{\bf 61}, 1729 (2000)) in terms of the statistics of localized tail states. Numerical solutions of the variational equations for chains of different length are performed and compared with quenched averages computed directly by using the eigenfunctions and eigenenergies of the Schr\"odinger equation for a particle in a one-dimensional random potential. The quantities investigated are the radius of gyration of a free gaussian chain, its mean square distance from the origin and the end-to-end distance of a tethered chain. The probability distribution for the position of the chain is also investigated. The glassiness of the system is explained and is estimated from the variance of the measured quantities.Comment: RevTex, 44 pages, 13 figure

Socioeconomic characterization and analysis of resource-use patterns in community watersheds in semi-arid India.

This study uses existing data from two Indian watersheds to characterize the study sites and document the socioeconomic conditions and resource-use patterns of the watershed farmers. The analysis aims at identifying gaps in the existing socioeconomic database and suggesting areas for further investigation as part of ongoing research in the benchmark watersheds. The paper deals with different socioeconomic issues and resource use-patterns; the general biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics of the watershed locations; the basic characteristics of the surveyed households with an emphasis on demographic features, labour force, and levels of education; land ownership and asset position (including livestock and other household assets) of surveyed households; and cropping patterns, input intensities, and average crop yields from farmers' fields. It also discusses crop utilization and the degree of commercialization of production in the areas; farmers' access to and utilization of credit from formal and informal sources; and the level of adoption and use of soil, water, and pest management technologies. The paper finally discusses the limitations of the baseline data and proposes some areas for future research

Watershed Management and Farmer Conservation Investments in the Semi-Arid Tropics of India: Analysis of Determinants of Resource Use Decisions and Land Productivity Benefits. Socio Economic Policy Working Paper 16

Integrated watershed management has been promoted as a suitable strategy for improving productivity and sustainable intensification of agriculture in rainfed drought-prone regions. The paper examines the socioeconomic and biophysical factors influencing farmers’ soil and water conservation investment decisions and the resulting economic incentives (productivity benefits) from watershed management interventions in the semi-arid tropics of India. The paper develops a theoretical framework to test hypotheses and to explore (a) the interlinkages between land productivity, soil quality, input use and conservation investments, and (b) the influence of local market imperfections on production and conservation decisions. These relationships are analyzed using plot-level data in six semi-arid villages. A systems approach (3SLS) is used for the joint estimation of structural equations related to land productivity, input use, resource investments and land values. The results show that after controlling for input use and germplasm technologies, soil quality and access to supplemental irrigation significantly affect eproductivity of land. Off-farm income is negatively associated with resource investments and land productivity. The watershed program seems to have a greater impact on dryland crops (cereals and pulses) than on other crops not supported by the project. A plot-wise analysis found some degree of substitution between private and public investments in land and water management. Differential effects of family labor on the decision to invest in agriculture revealed that male labor plays a key role in this decision while female workers significantly influence the level of labor use in production and resource conservation. This indicates that labor market imperfections, especially for female labor, are most likely to affect production and conservation investments