Assessing household vulnerability to climate change: The case of farmers in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia

Vulnerability to climate extremes, Nile Basin of Ethiopia, Minimum daily income, Climate change,

Factors Affecting Supervision Practice of Public Building Construction Projects in Dire Dawa Administration

Proper completion of a public building construction project is dependent on the effectiveness of the construction supervision. However, it has become increasingly difficult to finish construction projects within the specified time, budget, and quality standards due to poor supervision practices. Approaches such as quantitative and qualitative research and descriptive research types were used in this study. Questionnaires survey were issued to 104 respondents, with 11 representing clients, 22 representing consultants, and 71 representing contractors. There were 33 factors identified, which were then divided into seven groups for further analysis. It was discovered that the top-ranked factors that influence construction supervision practice are: supervisors' lack of skills and experience, incompleteness and consistency in the design, lack of appropriate decision making, location of the project, material and equipment costs, a lack of construction materials supply, and effect of weather conditions. The Relative Importance Index was calculated to determine whether or not the parties agreed on the factors and ranked them according to their importance. Most respondents suggested that supervisors should receive proper training, and comprehensive and detailed drawings should be provided on time. In addition, it was discovered that the top three essential group elements affecting supervision practice of the public building project are supervisory, design, and management-related aspects

Feeding your soil-nurturing the people

United States Agency for International Developmen

Natural resource management: Africa RISING science, innovations and technologies with scaling potential from the Ethiopian highlands

United States Agency for International Developmen

Decision support tools for fertilizer recommendation

United States Agency for International Developmen

Assessment of prevalence and risk factors of diabetes and pre‑diabetes in South Africa

AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND MATERIALS : This study utilized existing survey datasets that are in the public domain and freely available from https://www.dhsprogram.com/data/dataset_admin/ login_main.cfm with the permission from the DHS Program.BACKGROUND : Diabetes prevalence, as well as that of pre-diabetes, is rapidly increasing in South Africa. Individuals with pre-diabetes have a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes, which is reversible with a change in lifestyle. If left untreated, diabetes can lead to serious health complications. Our objective was to assess the prevalence of diabetes and pre-diabetes, and to investigate the associated risk factors of each in the South African population. METHOD : This study made use of the South African Demographic Health Survey 2016 data. The study participants included 6442 individuals aged 15 years and older. A generalized additive mixed model was employed to account for the complex survey design of the study as well as well spatial autocorrelation in the data. RESULTS : The observed prevalence of pre-diabetes and diabetes was 67% and 22%, respectively. Among those who had never been tested for diabetes prior to the survey, 10% of females and 6% of males were found to be diabetic, and 67% of both males and females were found to be pre-diabetic. Thus, a large proportion of the South African population remains undiagnosed. The model revealed both common and uncommon factors significantly associated with pre-diabetes and diabetes. This highlights the importance of considering diabetic status as a three-level categorical outcome, rather than binary. In addition, significant interactions between some of the lifestyle factors, demographic factors and anthropometric measures were revealed, which indicates that the effects each these factors have on the likelihood of an individual being pre-diabetic or diabetic is confounded by other factors. CONCLUSION : The risk factors for diabetes and pre-diabetes are many and complicated. Individuals need to be aware of their diabetic status before health complications arise. It is therefore important for all stakeholders in government and the private sector of South Africa to get involved in providing education and creating awareness about diabetes. Regular testing of diabetes, as well as leading a healthy lifestyle, should be encouraged.The South African Medical Research Council through its Division of Research Capacity Development under the Biostatistics Capacity Development partnership with the Belgian Development Agency (Enabel) under its framework of Building Academic Partnerships for Economic Development (BAPED).am2023Statistic