Effect of NAA on Ex vitro Rooting of In vitro Derived Microshoots of Elite Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) Genotypes

Root formation of rootless in vitro microshoots can be induced ex vitro with auxin during ex vitro acclimatization period to shorten the procedure and to reduce plantlet production cost of micropropagation. Hence, this study was carried out using a completely randomized design to determine the effect of different concentrations of auxin (0, 10, 20, 30, 40 mg/l) on ex vitro root development of sugarcane microshoots. The basal end of the shoots was dipped in auxin solution overnight before the shoots were transferred into a plastic tray containing a mixed growing medium in green house. The results showed that for genotype N52, best root formation was found on the shoots treated with 20 mg/l NAA by which rooting frequency was 76% with 5.88±0.04 cm root length and 8.06±0.13 number of roots per plantlets. While in genotype N53 maximum root formation was recorded on the shoots dipped in 30 mg/l NAA by which rooting frequency was 70% with 5.42±0.11cm root length and 4.52±0.19 number of roots per plantlets. Shoots rooted through this method exhibited 100 % survival in both genotypes. Keywords: Microshoot, ex vitro, Auxin, in vitro, Acclimatizatio

In Vitro Shoot Multiplication of Elite Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) Genotypes Using Liquid Shake Culture System

Study was carried out with an objective to determine the appropriate concentrations and combinations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and kinetin for in vitro shoot multiplication of elite sugarcane genotypes i.e., N52 and N53. Shoot tip was used as explant source. Shoot initiation from explant of the two genotypes was achieved at a combination of BAP, kinetin and NAA (0.5 mg/l each). For shoot multiplication, the regenerated and twice subcultured shoots on semi-solid medium were transferred on liquid Murashige and Skoog medium containing 3% sucrose, fortified with various concentrations and combinations of BAP (0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 mg/l) and Kinetin (0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 mg/l).The cultures were agitated continuously on an orbital shaker moving at 80 rpm. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the interaction effects of 6-benzylaminopurine, kinetin and the sugarcane genotypes on number of shoots per explant, average shoot length and number of leaves per shoot was very highly significant (P < 0.0001). Genotype N52 showed a maximum of 6.95 ± 0.19 shoots per explant with 4.75 ± 0.06 cm shoot length and 5.65 leaves per shoot on liquid MS medium fortified with 2 mg/l BAP + 0.5mg/l kinetin while genotype N53 produced a maximum of 6.30 ± 0.26 shoots per explant with 3.94 ± 0.03 average shoot length and 5.83 leaves per shoots on liquid MS medium supplemented with 1.5 mg/l BAP + 0.5 mg/l kinetin. Finally, from study results we can deduce that the application of this protocol helps for rapid in vitro shoot multiplication of elite sugarcane genotypes. Keywords: Murashige and Skoog, shoot tip, explant, 6-benzylaminopurin

Management pattern and medication-related harms and its predictors in colorectal cancer patients: an institutional-based retrospective study

IntroductionData on colorectal cancer (CRC) patients’ thorough management practices and medication-related harms (MRH) are scarce. This study’s aim was to investigate the MRHs in patients receiving CRC chemotherapy at the comprehensive specialized hospital of the University of Gondar (UoGCSH).MethodsA registry-based retrospective cohort study was conducted on CRC patients at the UoGCSH during 2017–2021. From February to May 2022, medical records were reviewed using a pretested data collection tool to collect socio-demographic and disease-related characteristics, MRHs, and medication regimens. MRHs occurrence and adverse drug reactions (ADRs) severity were assessed using standard guidelines and protocols. Version 16/MP of STATA for Windows was used for the analysis. Independent predictors of MRHs were investigated using logistic regression analysis. A p-value ≤0.05 was used to determine an independent variable’s statistical significance.ResultsOne hundred forty three CRC patients were included, with a mean age of 49.9 ± 14.5 years. About 32.9% and 33.6% had stage II and III cancer, respectively. Significant patients had co-morbidities (15.4%) and complications (13.3%). Fluorouracil (5-FU)-based regimens were given to more than half (56%) of the patients. MRHs were found in 53.1% of the patients, with a mean of 2.45 ± 1.37 MRHs. The most common MRHs were the need for additional drug therapy, sub-therapeutic dose, DDIs, and ADRs. Being on stage IV (AOR = 27.7, 95% CI = 3.85–199.38, p = 0.001), having co-morbidity (AOR = 7.42, 95% CI = 1.80–30.59, p = 0.018) and having complication (AOR = 11.04, 95% CI = 1.72–70.95, p = 0.011) and treated with five or more drugs (AOR = 2.54, 95% CI = 1.07–6.07, p = 0.035) were independent predictors of MRHs.ConclusionA fluorouracil-based treatment regimen was most frequently used. MRHs were found in nearly half of CRC patients. Furthermore, MRHs were significantly associated with cancer stage, comorbidity and complication status, and the number of medications used. Because MRHs are common, improving clinical pharmacy services is critical for optimizing drug therapy in CRC patients

Modern Contraceptive Use and Associated Factors among Reproductive Age Group Women in three Peri-Urban Communities in Central Ethiopia

Introduction: - Amongst the family planning program is the use of modern contraception. It is one of the key fundamentals of health services whose benefits are wellbeing’s of mothers, husbands, families, and their country in general. According to the world fertility rate report 2015, Ethiopia is expected to achieve a TFR of 2.4 children per woman between the years 2025-2030. Objective: - the principal objective of the current study was to determine the prevalence of modern contraception use and factors that affect utilization. Methods: - a quantitative community based cross-sectional study was done in three peri-urban communities of Batu, Eastern Shewa zone of Oromia region of Ethiopia from October to November 2017. A total of 351 women in the reproductive age group were interviewed with a questionnaire in the form of a house-to-house survey. Statistical analysis was done using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software version 21.0. Results: - the study showed that the contraception prevalence was 37.9%. Forty-seven percent of the users were in the age group 21-29. Knowledge, formal education and religion were associated with contraception utilization. It was found that knowledge and formal education were the enhancing factors for utilization whereas the Muslim religion was an inhibiting factor for modern contraceptive use. Conclusion: - the contraceptive prevalence was higher than the national result for the rural community but lower than the urban community was. Both governmental and non-governmental organizations should continue the good work of building community awareness of modern contraceptive methods. Keywords: - Contraceptives, knowledge, attitude, practice, Bat

Erratum: Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Interpretation: By quantifying levels and trends in exposures to risk factors and the resulting disease burden, this assessment offers insight into where past policy and programme efforts might have been successful and highlights current priorities for public health action. Decreases in behavioural, environmental, and occupational risks have largely offset the effects of population growth and ageing, in relation to trends in absolute burden. Conversely, the combination of increasing metabolic risks and population ageing will probably continue to drive the increasing trends in non-communicable diseases at the global level, which presents both a public health challenge and opportunity. We see considerable spatiotemporal heterogeneity in levels of risk exposure and risk-attributable burden. Although levels of development underlie some of this heterogeneity, O/E ratios show risks for which countries are overperforming or underperforming relative to their level of development. As such, these ratios provide a benchmarking tool to help to focus local decision making. Our findings reinforce the importance of both risk exposure monitoring and epidemiological research to assess causal connections between risks and health outcomes, and they highlight the usefulness of the GBD study in synthesising data to draw comprehensive and robust conclusions that help to inform good policy and strategic health planning

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 comparative risk assessment (CRA) is a comprehensive approach to risk factor quantification that offers a useful tool for synthesising evidence on risks and risk–outcome associations. With each annual GBD study, we update the GBD CRA to incorporate improved methods, new risks and risk–outcome pairs, and new data on risk exposure levels and risk–outcome associations. Methods We used the CRA framework developed for previous iterations of GBD to estimate levels and trends in exposure, attributable deaths, and attributable disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), by age group, sex, year, and location for 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or groups of risks from 1990 to 2017. This study included 476 risk–outcome pairs that met the GBD study criteria for convincing or probable evidence of causation. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from 46 749 randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk exposure level (TMREL), we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We explored the relationship between development and risk exposure by modelling the relationship between the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and risk-weighted exposure prevalence and estimated expected levels of exposure and risk-attributable burden by SDI. Finally, we explored temporal changes in risk-attributable DALYs by decomposing those changes into six main component drivers of change as follows: (1) population growth; (2) changes in population age structures; (3) changes in exposure to environmental and occupational risks; (4) changes in exposure to behavioural risks; (5) changes in exposure to metabolic risks; and (6) changes due to all other factors, approximated as the risk-deleted death and DALY rates, where the risk-deleted rate is the rate that would be observed had we reduced the exposure levels to the TMREL for all risk factors included in GBD 2017. Findings In 2017, 34·1 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 33·3–35·0) deaths and 1·21 billion (1·14–1·28) DALYs were attributable to GBD risk factors. Globally, 61·0% (59·6–62·4) of deaths and 48·3% (46·3–50·2) of DALYs were attributed to the GBD 2017 risk factors. When ranked by risk-attributable DALYs, high systolic blood pressure (SBP) was the leading risk factor, accounting for 10·4 million (9·39–11·5) deaths and 218 million (198–237) DALYs, followed by smoking (7·10 million [6·83–7·37] deaths and 182 million [173–193] DALYs), high fasting plasma glucose (6·53 million [5·23–8·23] deaths and 171 million [144–201] DALYs), high body-mass index (BMI; 4·72 million [2·99–6·70] deaths and 148 million [98·6–202] DALYs), and short gestation for birthweight (1·43 million [1·36–1·51] deaths and 139 million [131–147] DALYs). In total, risk-attributable DALYs declined by 4·9% (3·3–6·5) between 2007 and 2017. In the absence of demographic changes (ie, population growth and ageing), changes in risk exposure and risk-deleted DALYs would have led to a 23·5% decline in DALYs during that period. Conversely, in the absence of changes in risk exposure and risk-deleted DALYs, demographic changes would have led to an 18·6% increase in DALYs during that period. The ratios of observed risk exposure levels to exposure levels expected based on SDI (O/E ratios) increased globally for unsafe drinking water and household air pollution between 1990 and 2017. This result suggests that development is occurring more rapidly than are changes in the underlying risk structure in a population. Conversely, nearly universal declines in O/E ratios for smoking and alcohol use indicate that, for a given SDI, exposure to these risks is declining. In 2017, the leading Level 4 risk factor for age-standardised DALY rates was high SBP in four super-regions: central Europe, eastern Europe, and central Asia; north Africa and Middle East; south Asia; and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania. The leading risk factor in the high-income super-region was smoking, in Latin America and Caribbean was high BMI, and in sub-Saharan Africa was unsafe sex. O/E ratios for unsafe sex in sub-Saharan Africa were notably high, and those for alcohol use in north Africa and the Middle East were notably low. Interpretation By quantifying levels and trends in exposures to risk factors and the resulting disease burden, this assessment offers insight into where past policy and programme efforts might have been successful and highlights current priorities for public health action. Decreases in behavioural, environmental, and occupational risks have largely offset the effects of population growth and ageing, in relation to trends in absolute burden. Conversely, the combination of increasing metabolic risks and population ageing will probably continue to drive the increasing trends in non-communicable diseases at the global level, which presents both a public health challenge and opportunity. We see considerable spatiotemporal heterogeneity in levels of risk exposure and risk-attributable burden. Although levels of development underlie some of this heterogeneity, O/E ratios show risks for which countries are overperforming or underperforming relative to their level of development. As such, these ratios provide a benchmarking tool to help to focus local decision making. Our findings reinforce the importance of both risk exposure monitoring and epidemiological research to assess causal connections between risks and health outcomes, and they highlight the usefulness of the GBD study in synthesising data to draw comprehensive and robust conclusions that help to inform good policy and strategic health planning

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017.

BACKGROUND: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 comparative risk assessment (CRA) is a comprehensive approach to risk factor quantification that offers a useful tool for synthesising evidence on risks and risk-outcome associations. With each annual GBD study, we update the GBD CRA to incorporate improved methods, new risks and risk-outcome pairs, and new data on risk exposure levels and risk-outcome associations. METHODS: We used the CRA framework developed for previous iterations of GBD to estimate levels and trends in exposure, attributable deaths, and attributable disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), by age group, sex, year, and location for 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or groups of risks from 1990 to 2017. This study included 476 risk-outcome pairs that met the GBD study criteria for convincing or probable evidence of causation. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from 46 749 randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk exposure level (TMREL), we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We explored the relationship between development and risk exposure by modelling the relationship between the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and risk-weighted exposure prevalence and estimated expected levels of exposure and risk-attributable burden by SDI. Finally, we explored temporal changes in risk-attributable DALYs by decomposing those changes into six main component drivers of change as follows: (1) population growth; (2) changes in population age structures; (3) changes in exposure to environmental and occupational risks; (4) changes in exposure to behavioural risks; (5) changes in exposure to metabolic risks; and (6) changes due to all other factors, approximated as the risk-deleted death and DALY rates, where the risk-deleted rate is the rate that would be observed had we reduced the exposure levels to the TMREL for all risk factors included in GBD 2017

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Stanaway JD, Afshin A, Gakidou E, et al. Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet. 2018;392(10159):1923-1994.Background The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 comparative risk assessment (CRA) is a comprehensive approach to risk factor quantification that offers a useful tool for synthesising evidence on risks and risk outcome associations. With each annual GBD study, we update the GBD CRA to incorporate improved methods, new risks and risk outcome pairs, and new data on risk exposure levels and risk outcome associations. Methods We used the CRA framework developed for previous iterations of GBD to estimate levels and trends in exposure, attributable deaths, and attributable disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), by age group, sex, year, and location for 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or groups of risks from 1990 to 2017. This study included 476 risk outcome pairs that met the GBD study criteria for convincing or probable evidence of causation. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from 46 749 randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk exposure level (TMREL), we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We explored the relationship between development and risk exposure by modelling the relationship between the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and risk-weighted exposure prevalence and estimated expected levels of exposure and risk-attributable burden by SDI. Finally, we explored temporal changes in risk-attributable DALYs by decomposing those changes into six main component drivers of change as follows: (1) population growth; (2) changes in population age structures; (3) changes in exposure to environmental and occupational risks; (4) changes in exposure to behavioural risks; (5) changes in exposure to metabolic risks; and (6) changes due to all other factors, approximated as the risk-deleted death and DALY rates, where the risk-deleted rate is the rate that would be observed had we reduced the exposure levels to the TMREL for all risk factors included in GBD 2017. Findings In 2017,34.1 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 33.3-35.0) deaths and 121 billion (144-1.28) DALYs were attributable to GBD risk factors. Globally, 61.0% (59.6-62.4) of deaths and 48.3% (46.3-50.2) of DALYs were attributed to the GBD 2017 risk factors. When ranked by risk-attributable DALYs, high systolic blood pressure (SBP) was the leading risk factor, accounting for 10.4 million (9.39-11.5) deaths and 218 million (198-237) DALYs, followed by smoking (7.10 million [6.83-7.37] deaths and 182 million [173-193] DALYs), high fasting plasma glucose (6.53 million [5.23-8.23] deaths and 171 million [144-201] DALYs), high body-mass index (BMI; 4.72 million [2.99-6.70] deaths and 148 million [98.6-202] DALYs), and short gestation for birthweight (1.43 million [1.36-1.51] deaths and 139 million [131-147] DALYs). In total, risk-attributable DALYs declined by 4.9% (3.3-6.5) between 2007 and 2017. In the absence of demographic changes (ie, population growth and ageing), changes in risk exposure and risk-deleted DALYs would have led to a 23.5% decline in DALYs during that period. Conversely, in the absence of changes in risk exposure and risk-deleted DALYs, demographic changes would have led to an 18.6% increase in DALYs during that period. The ratios of observed risk exposure levels to exposure levels expected based on SDI (O/E ratios) increased globally for unsafe drinking water and household air pollution between 1990 and 2017. This result suggests that development is occurring more rapidly than are changes in the underlying risk structure in a population. Conversely, nearly universal declines in O/E ratios for smoking and alcohol use indicate that, for a given SDI, exposure to these risks is declining. In 2017, the leading Level 4 risk factor for age-standardised DALY rates was high SBP in four super-regions: central Europe, eastern Europe, and central Asia; north Africa and Middle East; south Asia; and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania. The leading risk factor in the high-income super-region was smoking, in Latin America and Caribbean was high BMI, and in sub-Saharan Africa was unsafe sex. O/E ratios for unsafe sex in sub-Saharan Africa were notably high, and those for alcohol use in north Africa and the Middle East were notably low. Interpretation By quantifying levels and trends in exposures to risk factors and the resulting disease burden, this assessment offers insight into where past policy and programme efforts might have been successful and highlights current priorities for public health action. Decreases in behavioural, environmental, and occupational risks have largely offset the effects of population growth and ageing, in relation to trends in absolute burden. Conversely, the combination of increasing metabolic risks and population ageing will probably continue to drive the increasing trends in non-communicable diseases at the global level, which presents both a public health challenge and opportunity. We see considerable spatiotemporal heterogeneity in levels of risk exposure and risk-attributable burden. Although levels of development underlie some of this heterogeneity, O/E ratios show risks for which countries are overperforming or underperforming relative to their level of development. As such, these ratios provide a benchmarking tool to help to focus local decision making. Our findings reinforce the importance of both risk exposure monitoring and epidemiological research to assess causal connections between risks and health outcomes, and they highlight the usefulness of the GBD study in synthesising data to draw comprehensive and robust conclusions that help to inform good policy and strategic health planning. Copyright (C) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd

Inequalities in educational outcomes in Ethiopia: An exploration of gender and regional differences based on the national examinations in grades 10 and 12

This dissertation provides a thorough discussion of the results from three different empirical studies on inequalities in educational outcomes and equity policy in Ethiopia. Specifically, the studies focus on gender and regional disparities and on how policy measures and educational opportunity impact equity in educational access, enrolment and attainment in Ethiopia. In gender-region analyses, large regional differences were found in academic achievement and disparity of gender gap. The central regions outperformed all other regions in academic achievement. Nevertheless, not all the emerging regions were underachievers. A large gender gap in general and STEM academic achievement in particular was found even in the central regions, favoring boys. However, this gender gap in achievement was less pronounced in the emerging regions, though girls were highly underrepresented in the schools. Affirmative action was found to enhance admission opportunity and enrollment equity. However, it is suggested that designing and implementing a comprehensive affirmative action strategy that focus on equal outcomes, rather than merely on equal opportunities is more impactful

Regional inequalities and gender differences in academic achievement as a function of educational opportunities: Evidence from Ethiopia

This study investigated regional and gender differences in academic achievement in Ethiopia, and examined whether these differences can be explained in terms of unequal educational opportunities (EO). Educational opportunity was operationalized in a broad sense based on a regional differentiation in terms of socio-economic and school environment factors. The study results are based on a multilevel analysis of the 2014 and 2015 national standardized exam for grade 12 students (n = 194503 and n = 205719). Whereas the Central (high EO) regions outperformed the other regions (Cohen’s d = 0.85) as expected, there were some inconsistencies in the comparison between Established (mid EO) regions and Emerging (low EO) regions. Coincidentally, the two Emerging regions that were unexpectedly performing at the level of the Established regions were also the two regions in which there was no evidence for a gender gap in achievement. For other regions, including the Central regions, evidence for a gender gap sometimes as large as the regional gap was identified, with boys having on average higher scores than girls (Cohen’s d = [0.02, 0.92] with an average of 0.50). Plausible explanations and further policy recommendations are discussed