SEN-Iot: A Smart Emergency Notification System Suitable for Developing Countries using Internet of Things

Research has shown that disaster effects on properties and lives can be drastically reduced through wide dissemination of information on the impending danger to people at the appropriate time. Generally, the emergency alert systems are usually proactive systems; they are meant to gather data in surrounding using the necessary tools, alert the specified listeners about an impending danger and gives suggestion on the necessary actions to be taken in each situation. In addition, some emergency alert systems also activate automatic responses. Furthermore, the integration of Internet of things (IoT) technology with emergency notification systems is rapidly attracting new discovery in this domain. In this paper, an effective smart emergency notification system named SEN-IoT was design using IOT technology. SEN-IoT was modeled to manage domestic hazard with a scope of water, fire and gas leaks; by creating an emergence notification and immediate response systems. The SEN- IOT was implemented using arduino, sensors and the GSM module. The system was tested for maintainability, functionality, efficiency, usability and reliability, and results revealed that SEN-IoT can effectively handle domestic hazard

Determinants of Institutional Credit Rationing Impact on the Net Farm Income of Catfish Processors in Nigeria

This study investigated the effect of catfish processors\u27 socio-economic characteristics on credit rationing, based on primary data obtained from a cross-sectional survey. It also tested whether credit rationing affected the net farm income of catfish processors, using the endogenous switching regression model (ESRM). To account for counterfactual scenarios, the study turned to the results of the causal effects of credit rationing on the net farm income of catfish processors using inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) as a robustness check. The results showed that catfish processing was dominated by male processors with an average age of 40 years, where there were six household members, eight years of processing experience and mostly used a combination of traditional and intermediate processing technologies. Loan deployment was at 43.7%, with not less than 67% recovery and 12% default rates. Annual net income from catfish processing was ₦ 2,973,123.86 (8,035.47 USD) with Operating Expense Ratio (OER), Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) and Return on Investment (ROI) the 0.99, 1.45 and 0.67 respectively. The ESRM results showed that credit rationing is determined by membership of associations, processing experience, years of formal education, frequency of loan requests and interest rate. Furthermore, age of processors, business size, years of formal education, processing experience and catfish selling price influenced net farm income of credit rationed processors. It was concluded that catfish processing was profitable and had a significant impact on the net farm income of catfish processors. The ESRM treatment effect indicated that the average net income per catfish processing farm of non-credit rationed processors was higher than those that were credit rationed. Therefore, the study canvassed for improved group borrowing among processors and advocated that interests of large-scale old catfish processors be protected in bank credit policies. In addition, the existing laissez-faire financial lending agencies should be integrated into formal credit marketplaces via microfinancing to mitigate the impact of credit rationing

Development of dough kneading machine for small and medium-sized enterprises

This work focuses on the development of a motor-powered dough-kneading machine for small to medium-scale businesses to aid the efficient production of their edible products. It employs dual electric motors configured to rotate in opposite directions on the same axis for an efficient kneading process. The work was carried out at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State. The machine employs upper and lower electric motors configured to rotate in opposite directions on the same axis for an efficient kneading process. The design analysis was carried out in line with the defined specifications, which was followed by fabrication and evaluation. The result showed a kneading torque of 128 Nm at average kneading power and speed of 1.37 kW and 102.02 RPM respectively. The dough volume per batch and the mixing bowl volume were 0.00397 and 0.00512 m3. The capacity and efficiency of the machine were estimated to be 0.87 kg/min and 90.65% at the R2 of 92.2%. The performance showed that the dough-kneading machine is efficient and can be produced in mass to meet the market demands of small and medium-scale businesses

The determinants of crop productivity and its effect on food and nutrition security in rural communities of South Africa

High crop productivity has the potential to improve the food and nutrition security status of not only smallholder farmers but also households in general. However, smallholder farmers operate in a dynamic environment whereby their crop production is affected by various factors that hinder it from lessening food insecurity and malnutrition in rural areas. The study investigated the determinants of crop productivity and its effect on household food and nutrition security status in South Africa. Methods: This study employed a quantitative research method. A total of 1520 households were selected using the multi-stage stratified random sampling technique. Out of the total sample size of 1520, 386 were crop producers, 176 producers were from Mpumalanga province, and 210 producers were from the Limpopo province. Results and discussion: Most of the smallholder farmers do not have access to the irrigation system, mechanization, and agricultural inputs. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale showed that most smallholder farmers were food insecure, with 78% of the farmers in each province found to be food insecure. The results from Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) showed that in the overall sampled population, 50% of smallholder farmers had highly diverse diets. Only 50% of the smallholder farmers had high dietary diversity in each province. Irrigation systems and involvement in crop production had a positive influence on the crop productivity of smallholder farmers. The results from the Conditional Mixed Process (CMP) model showed that ownership of livestock, harvest, and disability in the family negatively impacted smallholder farmers' food security status while household size had a positive effect on the food security of smallholder farmers. The results also showed that social grants, agricultural assistance, and harvest had a negative impact on the nutrition status of smallholder farmers. While household size had a positive impact on the nutrition status of smallholder farmers. Conclusion and recommendations: Factors such as irrigation systems and involvement in crop production influenced crop productivity. Household size influenced the nutritional status of smallholder farmers while harvest size affected the food security status. There is a need to encourage more households to get involved in farming. Government and non-governmental organizations need to support smallholder farmers with agricultural productive resources like irrigation systems to improve their crop productivity

Effect of early tranexamic acid administration on mortality, hysterectomy, and other morbidities in women with post-partum haemorrhage (WOMAN): an international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Post-partum haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. Early administration of tranexamic acid reduces deaths due to bleeding in trauma patients. We aimed to assess the effects of early administration of tranexamic acid on death, hysterectomy, and other relevant outcomes in women with post-partum haemorrhage. Methods In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we recruited women aged 16 years and older with a clinical diagnosis of post-partum haemorrhage after a vaginal birth or caesarean section from 193 hospitals in 21 countries. We randomly assigned women to receive either 1 g intravenous tranexamic acid or matching placebo in addition to usual care. If bleeding continued after 30 min, or stopped and restarted within 24 h of the first dose, a second dose of 1 g of tranexamic acid or placebo could be given. Patients were assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight numbered packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Participants, care givers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. We originally planned to enrol 15 000 women with a composite primary endpoint of death from all-causes or hysterectomy within 42 days of giving birth. However, during the trial it became apparent that the decision to conduct a hysterectomy was often made at the same time as randomisation. Although tranexamic acid could influence the risk of death in these cases, it could not affect the risk of hysterectomy. We therefore increased the sample size from 15 000 to 20 000 women in order to estimate the effect of tranexamic acid on the risk of death from post-partum haemorrhage. All analyses were done on an intention-to-treat basis. This trial is registered with ISRCTN76912190 (Dec 8, 2008); ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00872469; and PACTR201007000192283. Findings Between March, 2010, and April, 2016, 20 060 women were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive tranexamic acid (n=10 051) or placebo (n=10 009), of whom 10 036 and 9985, respectively, were included in the analysis. Death due to bleeding was significantly reduced in women given tranexamic acid (155 [1·5%] of 10 036 patients vs 191 [1·9%] of 9985 in the placebo group, risk ratio [RR] 0·81, 95% CI 0·65–1·00; p=0·045), especially in women given treatment within 3 h of giving birth (89 [1·2%] in the tranexamic acid group vs 127 [1·7%] in the placebo group, RR 0·69, 95% CI 0·52–0·91; p=0·008). All other causes of death did not differ significantly by group. Hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (358 [3·6%] patients in the tranexamic acid group vs 351 [3·5%] in the placebo group, RR 1·02, 95% CI 0·88–1·07; p=0·84). The composite primary endpoint of death from all causes or hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (534 [5·3%] deaths or hysterectomies in the tranexamic acid group vs 546 [5·5%] in the placebo group, RR 0·97, 95% CI 0·87-1·09; p=0·65). Adverse events (including thromboembolic events) did not differ significantly in the tranexamic acid versus placebo group. Interpretation Tranexamic acid reduces death due to bleeding in women with post-partum haemorrhage with no adverse effects. When used as a treatment for postpartum haemorrhage, tranexamic acid should be given as soon as possible after bleeding onset. Funding London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Pfizer, UK Department of Health, Wellcome Trust, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Burden of disease scenarios for 204 countries and territories, 2022–2050: a forecasting analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Background: Future trends in disease burden and drivers of health are of great interest to policy makers and the public at large. This information can be used for policy and long-term health investment, planning, and prioritisation. We have expanded and improved upon previous forecasts produced as part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) and provide a reference forecast (the most likely future), and alternative scenarios assessing disease burden trajectories if selected sets of risk factors were eliminated from current levels by 2050. Methods: Using forecasts of major drivers of health such as the Socio-demographic Index (SDI; a composite measure of lag-distributed income per capita, mean years of education, and total fertility under 25 years of age) and the full set of risk factor exposures captured by GBD, we provide cause-specific forecasts of mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) by age and sex from 2022 to 2050 for 204 countries and territories, 21 GBD regions, seven super-regions, and the world. All analyses were done at the cause-specific level so that only risk factors deemed causal by the GBD comparative risk assessment influenced future trajectories of mortality for each disease. Cause-specific mortality was modelled using mixed-effects models with SDI and time as the main covariates, and the combined impact of causal risk factors as an offset in the model. At the all-cause mortality level, we captured unexplained variation by modelling residuals with an autoregressive integrated moving average model with drift attenuation. These all-cause forecasts constrained the cause-specific forecasts at successively deeper levels of the GBD cause hierarchy using cascading mortality models, thus ensuring a robust estimate of cause-specific mortality. For non-fatal measures (eg, low back pain), incidence and prevalence were forecasted from mixed-effects models with SDI as the main covariate, and YLDs were computed from the resulting prevalence forecasts and average disability weights from GBD. Alternative future scenarios were constructed by replacing appropriate reference trajectories for risk factors with hypothetical trajectories of gradual elimination of risk factor exposure from current levels to 2050. The scenarios were constructed from various sets of risk factors: environmental risks (Safer Environment scenario), risks associated with communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases (CMNNs; Improved Childhood Nutrition and Vaccination scenario), risks associated with major non-communicable diseases (NCDs; Improved Behavioural and Metabolic Risks scenario), and the combined effects of these three scenarios. Using the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways climate scenarios SSP2-4.5 as reference and SSP1-1.9 as an optimistic alternative in the Safer Environment scenario, we accounted for climate change impact on health by using the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change temperature forecasts and published trajectories of ambient air pollution for the same two scenarios. Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy were computed using standard methods. The forecasting framework includes computing the age-sex-specific future population for each location and separately for each scenario. 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) for each individual future estimate were derived from the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles of distributions generated from propagating 500 draws through the multistage computational pipeline. Findings: In the reference scenario forecast, global and super-regional life expectancy increased from 2022 to 2050, but improvement was at a slower pace than in the three decades preceding the COVID-19 pandemic (beginning in 2020). Gains in future life expectancy were forecasted to be greatest in super-regions with comparatively low life expectancies (such as sub-Saharan Africa) compared with super-regions with higher life expectancies (such as the high-income super-region), leading to a trend towards convergence in life expectancy across locations between now and 2050. At the super-region level, forecasted healthy life expectancy patterns were similar to those of life expectancies. Forecasts for the reference scenario found that health will improve in the coming decades, with all-cause age-standardised DALY rates decreasing in every GBD super-region. The total DALY burden measured in counts, however, will increase in every super-region, largely a function of population ageing and growth. We also forecasted that both DALY counts and age-standardised DALY rates will continue to shift from CMNNs to NCDs, with the most pronounced shifts occurring in sub-Saharan Africa (60·1% [95% UI 56·8–63·1] of DALYs were from CMNNs in 2022 compared with 35·8% [31·0–45·0] in 2050) and south Asia (31·7% [29·2–34·1] to 15·5% [13·7–17·5]). This shift is reflected in the leading global causes of DALYs, with the top four causes in 2050 being ischaemic heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, compared with 2022, with ischaemic heart disease, neonatal disorders, stroke, and lower respiratory infections at the top. The global proportion of DALYs due to YLDs likewise increased from 33·8% (27·4–40·3) to 41·1% (33·9–48·1) from 2022 to 2050, demonstrating an important shift in overall disease burden towards morbidity and away from premature death. The largest shift of this kind was forecasted for sub-Saharan Africa, from 20·1% (15·6–25·3) of DALYs due to YLDs in 2022 to 35·6% (26·5–43·0) in 2050. In the assessment of alternative future scenarios, the combined effects of the scenarios (Safer Environment, Improved Childhood Nutrition and Vaccination, and Improved Behavioural and Metabolic Risks scenarios) demonstrated an important decrease in the global burden of DALYs in 2050 of 15·4% (13·5–17·5) compared with the reference scenario, with decreases across super-regions ranging from 10·4% (9·7–11·3) in the high-income super-region to 23·9% (20·7–27·3) in north Africa and the Middle East. The Safer Environment scenario had its largest decrease in sub-Saharan Africa (5·2% [3·5–6·8]), the Improved Behavioural and Metabolic Risks scenario in north Africa and the Middle East (23·2% [20·2–26·5]), and the Improved Nutrition and Vaccination scenario in sub-Saharan Africa (2·0% [–0·6 to 3·6]). Interpretation: Globally, life expectancy and age-standardised disease burden were forecasted to improve between 2022 and 2050, with the majority of the burden continuing to shift from CMNNs to NCDs. That said, continued progress on reducing the CMNN disease burden will be dependent on maintaining investment in and policy emphasis on CMNN disease prevention and treatment. Mostly due to growth and ageing of populations, the number of deaths and DALYs due to all causes combined will generally increase. By constructing alternative future scenarios wherein certain risk exposures are eliminated by 2050, we have shown that opportunities exist to substantially improve health outcomes in the future through concerted efforts to prevent exposure to well established risk factors and to expand access to key health interventions

Estimating the distributional impact of innovation platforms on income of smallholder maize farmers in Nigeria

This research studies the distributional effects of IP adoption on the farm income of smallholder maize farmers in Nigeria in an effort to move beyond the standard mean impact assessment of agricultural interventions. In order to account for selection bias that may result from both observed and unobserved factors, the study used a conditional instrumental variable quantile treatment effects (IV-QTE) strategy. The use of IPs greatly affects the revenue distributions of maize producers, as empirical evidence from the outcomes shows. Particularly, the impacts of adoption are stronger at the lower tails and just above the mean of the income distributions, indicating that impoverished farming households benefit more from the strategic functions of IP adoption in boosting income. These findings highlight how important it is to effectively target and disseminate improved agricultural technologies in order to increase the revenue of smallholder maize farmers in Nigeria from maize production. Agricultural research information and access to extension services are two policy tools that can help improve the successful adoption and diffusion of any agricultural intervention without favoring any particular groups

Does Adoption of Climate Change Adaptation Strategy Improve Food Security? A Case of Rice Farmers in Ogun State, Nigeria

The southwestern part of Nigeria, particularly Ogun State, is more vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change due to the high dependence on rain-fed agriculture and limited capacities to respond to climate change. In this study, factors influencing climate change adaptation strategies and its impacts on household food security of smallholder rice farmers in Ogun State were estimated. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select 120 smallholder rice farmers in the study area. The factors influencing the adoption of climate change adaptation practices and their impacts on household food security among smallholder rice farmers in Ogun State were examined using a probit model and an endogenous switching probit model (ESPM). According to the results of household dietary diversity score (HDDS), adopters of climate change adaptation techniques have higher levels of food security than non-adopters. The outcome of the ESPM shows that access to market information, access to extension agents, gender, off-farm income, and membership in cooperatives all contribute to the variations in food security experienced by both adopters and non-adopters of climate change adaptation strategies. A unit increase in adoption of climate change adaptation measures will increase household food security by about 3 units while decreasing severity in food insecurity by about 3.2 units. Therefore, it is recommended that policies that would support smallholder farmers’ decisions to embrace measures for coping with climate change should be encouraged in order to stimulate their adaptive capacity. Additionally, in order to secure the inclusive sustainability of the agricultural sector, stakeholders and NGOs must collaborate with each other to enhance the circumstances under which farmers may receive climate change information, timely agricultural loans, and policy incentives

Does Adoption of Climate Change Adaptation Strategy Improve Food Security? A Case of Rice Farmers in Ogun State, Nigeria

The southwestern part of Nigeria, particularly Ogun State, is more vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change due to the high dependence on rain-fed agriculture and limited capacities to respond to climate change. In this study, factors influencing climate change adaptation strategies and its impacts on household food security of smallholder rice farmers in Ogun State were estimated. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select 120 smallholder rice farmers in the study area. The factors influencing the adoption of climate change adaptation practices and their impacts on household food security among smallholder rice farmers in Ogun State were examined using a probit model and an endogenous switching probit model (ESPM). According to the results of household dietary diversity score (HDDS), adopters of climate change adaptation techniques have higher levels of food security than non-adopters. The outcome of the ESPM shows that access to market information, access to extension agents, gender, off-farm income, and membership in cooperatives all contribute to the variations in food security experienced by both adopters and non-adopters of climate change adaptation strategies. A unit increase in adoption of climate change adaptation measures will increase household food security by about 3 units while decreasing severity in food insecurity by about 3.2 units. Therefore, it is recommended that policies that would support smallholder farmers’ decisions to embrace measures for coping with climate change should be encouraged in order to stimulate their adaptive capacity. Additionally, in order to secure the inclusive sustainability of the agricultural sector, stakeholders and NGOs must collaborate with each other to enhance the circumstances under which farmers may receive climate change information, timely agricultural loans, and policy incentives