Schistosomiasis mansoni and soil-transmitted helminthiasis in Bushulo village, southern Ethiopia

Background: Schistosomiasis mansoni and soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STHs) are considerable medical and public health problems in Ethiopia. However, information is limited on the epidemiology of these infections in different localities even though it is needed to plan effective prevention and control measures. Objective: This study was designed to determine the prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni and soil-transmitted helminth infections in school children and residents in Bushulo village near Lake Awassa (Hawassa), southern Ethiopia. Methods: Cross-sectional epidemiological and parasitological studies were conducted on schistosomiasis mansoni and STHs in Bushulo village in May and June 2007. A total of 419 participants (353 school children and 66 other residents) were included in the study. The principal investigator interviewed the study subjects about demographic status using structured questionnaires. Moreover, experienced nurse took history and conducted physical examination to assess symptoms and signs related to chronic S. mansoni infection. A single stool sample was collected from each participant and processed using the Kato-Katz technique. Experienced laboratory technician read all slides at Bushulo Health Center. Results: The overall infection rates of schistosomiasis mansoni, trichuriasis, ascariasis and hookworm infection were 73.7%, 41.5%, 37.2% and 28.4%, respectively. Other parasitic infections observed were caused by Hymenolepis nana (1.7%), Taenia species (1.4%), and Enterobius vermicularis (1.4%). Children in the age range 10-14 years and those attending at St. Paul’s School had higher rates of T. trichiura and S. mansoni, respectively. Intensity of infection was higher for A. lumbricoides in the age range 5-9 years. The overall prevalence of any STHs was 67.3%. The rates of single, dual, triple and quadruple infections were 29.6%, 32%, 20.3% and 7.4%, respectively. Conclusion: The high prevalence and intensity of schistosomiasis mansoni and soil-transmitted helminthiasis makes periodic deworming programme urgent to reduce morbidity and transmission of helminthiasis in the area. Provisions of sanitary facilities and clean water supply as well as health education are also critically needed to sustain the impact of chemotherapy

Coverage Determination of Incumbent System and Available TV White Space Channels for Secondary Use in Ethiopia

Different path loss modelsare used to analyze the behavior of terrestrial television signals. The path loss calculated by one model differs from the other depending on different factors they consider. Frequency is one of the main factors included in each model. The frequency variation in the electromagnetic spectrum causes different response for each model. In terrestrial TV signal representation, since it is operating under VHF and UHF spectrum range, the propagation model used to model the signal must be less invariant when the transmitter is operating in VHF and UHF. If the pathloss model used is very variant it is difficult to define the coverage of the transmitters. This causes interference among transmitters and between the digital terrestrial TV transmitters and TV white space devices. Different propagation models are analyzed by their sensitivity to frequency variation from very-high and ultra-high frequency spectrums. After the best model is selected, we have used this model to find the coverage of the incumbent transmitter, which then is used to analyze free channels for secondary use. First the pathloss at VHF and then for UHF is calculated. This difference is then compared and the result indicates that ITU-R P.1546–5, which incorporate terrain data is best of others. Using this model and further analyze the coverage and free channels, we have found a minimum of 408 MHz free contiguous bandwidth, by considering a worst-case scenario, which is placing a WSD at the incumbent transmitter

Spatiotemporal variability of soil moisture over Ethiopia and its teleconnections with remote and local drivers

Soil moisture is one of the essential climate variables with a potential impact on local climate variability. Despite the importance of soil moisture, studies on soil moisture characteristics in Ethiopia are less documented. In this study, the spatiotemporal variability of Ethiopian soil moisture (SM) has been characterized, and its local and remote influential driving factors are investigated. An empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and KMeans clustering algorithm have been employed to classify the large domain into homogeneous zones. Complex maximum covariance analysis (CMCA) is applied to evaluate the covariability between SM and selected local and remote variables such as rainfall (RF), evapotranspiration (ET), and sea surface temperature (SST). Inter-comparison among SM datasets highlight that the FLDAS dataset better depicts the country’s SM spatial and temporal distribution (i.e., a correlation coefficient r=0.95 , rmsd=0.04m3m−3 with observations). Results also indicate that regions located in northeastern Ethiopia are drier irrespective of the season (JJAS, MAM, and OND) considered. In contrast, the western part of the country consistently depicted a wetter condition in all seasons. During summer (JJAS), the soil moisture variability is characterized by a strong east–west spatial contrast. The highest and lowest soil moisture values were observed across the country’s central western and eastern parts, respectively. Furthermore, analyses indicate that interannual variability of SM is dictated substantially by RF, though the impact on some regions is weaker. It is also found that ET likely drives the SM in the eastern part of Ethiopia due to a higher atmospheric moisture demand that ultimately invokes changes in surface humidity and rainfall. A composite analysis based on the extreme five wettest and driest SM years revealed a similar spatial distribution of wet SM with positive anomalies of RF across the country and ET over the southern regions. Remote SSTs are also found to have a significant influence on SM distribution. In particular, equatorial central Pacific and western Indian oceans SST anomalies are predominant factors for spatiotemporal SM variations over the country. Major global oceanic indices: Oceanic Nino Index (ONI), Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), Pacific warm pool (PACWARMPOOL), and Pacific Decadal Oscillations (PDO) are found to be closely associated with the SM anomalies in various parts of the country. The associationship between these remote SST anomalies and local soil moisture is via large-scale atmospheric circulations that are linked to regional factors such as precipitation and temperature anomalies.publishedVersio

Adult plant resistance of selected Kenyan wheat cultivars to leaf rust and stem rust diseases

Phenotypic and genotypic evaluation of wheat genetic resources and development of segregating populations are pre-requisites for identifying rust resistance genes. The objectives of this study were to assess adult plant resistance (APR) of selected wheat genotypes to leaf rust and stem rust and to develop segregating populations for resistance breeding. Eight selected Kenyan cultivars with known resistance to stem rust, together with local checks were evaluated for leaf rust and stem rust resistance at seedling stage and also across several environments. Selected diagnostic markers were used to determine the presence of known genes. All eight cultivars were crossed with local checks using a bi-parental mating design. Seedling tests revealed that parents exhibited differential infection types against wheat rust races. Cultivars Paka and Popo consistently showed resistant infection types at seedling stage, while Gem, Romany, Pasa, Fahari, Kudu, Ngiri and Kariega varied for resistant and susceptible infection types depending on the pathogen race used. The control cultivars Morocco and McNair consistently showed susceptible infection types as expected. In the field, all cultivars except for Morocco showed moderate to high levels of resistance, indicating the presence of effective resistance genes. Using diagnostic markers, presence of Lr34 was confirmed in Gem, Fahari, Kudu, Ngiri and Kariega, while Sr2 was present in Gem, Romany, Paka and Kudu. Seedling resistance gene, Sr35, was only detected in cultivar Popo. Overall, the study developed 909 F6:8 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) as part of the nested mating design and are useful genetic resources for further studies and for mapping wheat rust resistance genes

Efficiency of TB service provision in the public and private health sectors in Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: The Ethiopian Government has identified efficiency of TB services as a key priority in planning and budgeting. Understanding the magnitude and sources of inefficiencies is key to ensuring value for money and improved service provision, and a requirement from donors to justify resource needs. This study identifies the cost of providing a wide range of TB services in public and private facilities in Ethiopia.METHODS: Financial and economic unit costs were estimated from a health provider´s perspective, and collected retrospectively in 26 health facilities using both top-down (TD) and bottom-up (BU) costing approaches for each TB service output. Capacity inefficiency was assessed by investigating the variation between TD and BU unit costs where the factor was 2.0 or more.RESULTS: Overall, TD unit costs were two times higher than BU unit costs. There was some variation across facility ownership and level of care. Unit costs in urban facilities were on average 3.8 times higher than in rural facilities.CONCLUSION: We identified some substantial inefficiencies in staff, consumable and capital inputs. Addressing these inefficiencies and rearranging the TB service delivery modality would be important in ensuring the achievement of the country´s End TB strategy

Genomic Reference Resource for African Cattle:Genome Sequences and High-Density Array Variants

The diversity in genome resources is fundamental to designing genomic strategies for local breed improvement and utilisation. These resources also support gene discovery and enhance our understanding of the mechanisms of resilience with applications beyond local breeds. Here, we report the genome sequences of 555 cattle (208 of which comprise new data) and high-density (HD) array genotyping of 1,082 samples (537 new samples) from indigenous African cattle populations. The new sequences have an average genome coverage of ~30X, three times higher than the average (~10X) of the over 300 sequences already in the public domain. Following variant quality checks, we identified approximately 32.3 million sequence variants and 661,943 HD autosomal variants mapped to the Bos taurus reference genome (ARS-UCD1.2). The new datasets were generated as part of the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH) Genomic Reference Resource for African Cattle (GRRFAC) initiative, which aspires to facilitate the generation of this livestock resource and hopes for its utilisation for complete indigenous breed characterisation and sustainable global livestock improvement.</p

Behaviour change techniques and contraceptive use in low and middle income countries: a review

We aimed to identify effective behaviour change techniques to increase modern contraceptive use in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Literature was identified in Global Health, Web of Science, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Popline, as well as peer reviewed journals. Articles were included if they were written in English, had an outcome evaluation of contraceptive use, modern contraceptive use, contraceptive initiation/uptake, contraceptive adherence or continuation of contraception, were a systematic review or randomised controlled trial, and were conducted in a low or middle income country. We assessed the behaviour change techniques used in each intervention and included a new category of male partner involvement. We identified six studies meeting the inclusion criteria. The most effective interventions were those that involve male partner involvement in the decision to initiate contraceptive use. The findings also suggest that providing access to contraceptives in the community promotes their use. The interventions that had positive effects on contraceptive use used a combination of behaviour change techniques. Performance techniques were not used in any of the interventions. The use of social support techniques, which are meant to improve wider social acceptability, did not appear except in two of the interventions. Our findings suggest that when information and contraceptives are provided, contraceptive use improves. Recommendations include reporting of behaviour change studies to include more details of the intervention and techniques employed. There is also a need for further research to understand which techniques are especially effective