Management system requirements for wireless systems beyond 3G

This paper presents a comprehensive description of various management system requirements for systems beyond 3G, which have been identified as a result of the Software Based Systems activities within the Mobile VCE Core 2 program. Specific requirements for systems beyond 3G are discussed and potential technologies to address them proposed. The analysis has been carried out from network, service and security viewpoints

Integrated effect of seeding rate, herbicide dosage and application timing on durum wheat (Triticum turgidum l. var durum) yield, yield components and wild oat (avena fatua l.) control in south eastern Ethiopia

Knowledge of optimal combinations of crop densities, herbicide dose and time of application could improve the effectiveness and net benefit of commonly used herbicides. A study was conducted at two locations in SARC on-station and farmer’s field, South Eastern Ethiopia for two years from 2007 to 2008. The experimental design was randomized complete block (RCB) design with split-plot arrangement. Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum) seeding rates (recommended, 25% and 50% plus recommended rate) were arranged in the main plot. Four wild oat (Avena fatua) herbicide, Topik, doses (0, 25, 50 and 100 % of the recommended dose) and three timing of applications (14 DA, 32 DAE and 50 DAE) were used as sub-plot treatments. The treatments were compared to determine their effect on durum wheat yield, yield components wild oat densities and control efficacies. Durum wheat seeding rates significantly influenced grain and biomass yield, spike per unit area and kernel weight. Seeding rate of 225 kg ha-1 produced highest grain yield (3810.4 kg ha-1) while 150 kg ha-1 recorded the lowest. Mean wild oat density count before herbicide application timings varied over the two locations averaging 37 and 87 seedlings m-2. Increasing seed rate by 25 and 50% increased wild oat control efficacy by 16.9 and 21.5% respectively. Spraying the herbicide at later growth stages caused greater wild oat seedling density and reduced wheat yield at both locations. The highest efficacy (94.04%) was obtained in the second time of application (30 DAE) of 1 l lit ha-1. The highest reduction in population density was occurred in 100% herbicide rate. There was a general decline in wild oat density in the early application and as the herbicide dose increased, but the effect of seeding rate varied very slightly. In contrast to the wild oat control efficacy the highest grain yield ha-1 was obtained in the first application date (14 DAE). Durum wheat yield losses in the absence of herbicide application were increased by about 16%. Maximum yield (3870.73 kg ha-1) was obtained at 100% of the herbicide dose very closely followed by 50 and 25% of the recommended rate reducing durum wheat yield only by about 1.6 and 2% respectively. Durum wheat seeding rate, herbicide dosage and application timing had statistically no significant interaction effect. Key words: Durum wheat, Wild oat, Herbicide dose, Seeding rate, Application timing

Childhood limb fracture at Tikur Anbessa Specialised Hospital (TASH), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

No Abstrac

Improvement of accession distinctiveness as an added value to the global worth of the yam (Dioscorea spp) genebank

Open Access JournalMisidentification of accessions is a common problem in genebanks. Along the years, mistakes accumulate and this is particularly true when dealing with a large number of accessions requiring annual regeneration. Human errors such as mislabeling or misreading and material mix up during planting or storage are the main causes for misidentification of accessions. The international collection of yam, maintained at IITA, has accumulated ‘non true to type’ accessions along the years. In the present study, 53 morphological descriptors were used to detect uniformity of individuals within accessions of the yam gene bank collection i.e. agro morphological mismatch between individual plants of the same accession. Based on a similarity matrix, individual pairs with less than 0.90 similarity coefficients, which varies in six descriptors and more, were considered as distinct and mismatched, whereas those that had similarity coefficients greater than or equal to 0.90 were considered as clones from the same parent. Overall, 20.60% of the total 3156 accessions were found not true to type i.e., misidentified individuals. The descriptive analysis shows that morphological traits like distance between lobes, upward folding of leaf along main vein, young stem color, old stem color, leaf shape, leaf density and plant vigor are the most discriminative descriptors for individual identification within accession. Some other traits were also found species specific and they may aid in distinguishing misidentifications between species

Cultivation of micro-algae for Production of Biodiesel: An optimized Process

Microalgae are considered as one of the potential source of biodiesel for the future. The search to obtain the potential strains from the algal diversity capable of producing oil is critical for sustainable production of biodiesel. In the present study, microalgae biomass with oil/lipid accumulation capability and their morphological features was isolated from Lake Abaya and Chamo. The algal biomass was cultivated in vitro and media optimization for maximum biomass was done using different basal media, BG-11 medium, and Chu -10. In addition the various carbon sources, nitrogen sources, pH and temperature were considered in this study for optimization. Green algae Oedogonium, Chlorella and Cladophora species were observed to be dominant species and the maximum oil per dry algal biomass was found to be from Oedogonium sp. Thus from the present study for the cultivation of the selected algae, BG-11 medium supplemented with tryptone (0.2%) sucrose (2%) and pH- 6 with incubation temperature of 300C was found to be suitable.  These results suggest that Oedogonium sp. has several desirable features that make it a potential candidate for biodiesel production

Livestock grazing impact on vegetation, soil and hydrology in a tropical highland watershed

Abstract The aim of this research was to establish vegetation, soil and hydrologic responses to grazing pressure; and determine thresholds for optimum herbage utilisation of pastures and grazing land resources conservation. The treatments were no grazing (NOG, control), where animal grazing was excluded using 10 m by 10 m fenced enclosure, moderate grazing (MDG) and heavy grazing (HVG). During free grazing period (January-May) stocking rate on medium and heavily grazed plots depends much on the preference of grazing animals, and in some cases the stocking rate in controlled or medium grazing pressure exceeds that of the heavily grazed plots. The biomass yield on non-grazed plots varied from 2.84-4.13 t/ha, and on grazed plots from 0.84-2.25 t/ha. Grazing pressure increased the percentage cover of annual plant species and composition as compared with no grazing pressure. Particularly, in medium-grazing pressure annual plant species coverage has improved significantly. The soil loss at 4-8% slope was high in heavily grazed plots. Besides, the soil loss in grazed plots was below the soil tolerance limit for natural pasture. The infiltration rate was lower in heavily grazed plots

Effectiveness of intensive medical therapy in type B aortic dissection: A single-center experience

ObjectiveAlthough the mainstay of managing acute descending thoracic aortic dissection (ADTAD) remains medical, certain patients will require emergency surgery for complications of rupture or ischemia. This study evaluates factors that affect outcome and determines which patients previously treated surgically would have been eligible for endovascular repair.MethodsA single-institution retrospective study was conducted of patients who presented with clinical signs of ADTAD that was confirmed by magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) or computed tomography (CT). All patients were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and medically managed to maintain systolic blood pressure <120 mm Hg and heart rate <70 beats/min. Two treatment groups were identified: group 1 received medical treatment only; group 2 received medical treatment plus emergency surgery. Patient demographic and clinical data were correlated with 30-day group mortality and morbidity and need for emergency surgery. The MRA and CT scan images of group 2 were retrospectively reviewed to determine if currently available endovascular treatment could have been done. The Fisher exact test was used to compare between the groups, and P < .05 was considered significant.ResultsBetween 1991 and 2005, 83 patients (55 men) were treated for ADTAD. The mean age was 67 years (range, 38 to 85). Sixty-eight patients (82%) had hypertension, three (3.6%) had Marfan syndrome, and 51 (62%) were smokers. Twenty-five (32%) of the patients were receiving β-blocker therapy before the onset of their symptoms. Back pain was the most common initial symptom (72.2%). Emergency surgery was required in 19 patients (23%): 12 for rupture or impending rupture, four for mesenteric ischemia, and three for lower extremity ischemia. The need for emergency surgery was significantly higher in smokers (P = .03), in patients >70 years old (P = .035), and in patients who were not receiving β-blocker therapy before the onset of symptoms (P = .023). The combined overall morbidity rate was 33%, and the mortality rate was 9.6%. Morbidity in group 2 was 64% and significantly higher than the 23% in group 1 (P = .00227). The mortality rate was also higher in group 2 at 31.5% compared with group 1 at 1.6% (P = .0004). Factors affecting the overall mortality included age >70 years (P = .057), previous abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (P = .018), tobacco use (P = .039), and the presence of leg pain at initial presentation (P = .013). As determined from the review of radiologic data, 11 of 13 patients with scans available for review in group 2 could have been treated with currently available endovascular grafts.ConclusionsIntensive medical therapies are effective in preventing early mortality associated with ADTAD. Predictably, the need for emergency surgery carries a high morbidity and mortality rate. Most patients in this series requiring emergency surgery could have been candidates for endovascular therapy had it been available

Economic evaluation of short treatment for multidrugresistant tuberculosis, Ethiopia and South Africa : the STREAM trial

OBJECTIVE STREAM was a phase-III non-inferiority randomised controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate a shortened regimen for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), and included the first-ever within-trial economic evaluation of such regimens, reported here. METHODS We compared the costs of ‘Long’ (20-22 months) and ‘Short’ (9-11 months) regimens in Ethiopia and South Africa. Cost data were collected from trial participants, and health system costs estimated using ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ costing approaches. A cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted with the trial primary outcome as the measure of effectiveness, including a probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA) to illustrate decision uncertainty. FINDINGS The Short-regimen reduced healthcare costs per case by 21% in South Africa (US$8,341 Long vs US$6,619 Short) and 25% in Ethiopia (US$6,097 Long vs US$4,552 Short). The largest component of this saving was medication in South Africa (67%) and social support in Ethiopia (35%). In Ethiopia, participants on the Short-regimen reported reductions in dietary supplementation expenditure (US$225 per case (95$13 (95%CI 11-14), South Africa US$64 (95$19,000 (Ethiopia) or <US$14,500 (South Africa). CONCLUSION The Short-regimen provided substantial health system cost savings and reduced financial burden on participants. Shorter regimens are likely to be cost-effective in most settings, and an effective strategy to support the WHO goal of eliminating catastrophic costs in T

An unidentified TeV source in the vicinity of Cygnus OB2

Deep observation (∼113 hrs) of the Cygnus region at TeV energies using the HEGRA stereoscopic system of air Čerenkov telescopes has serendipitously revealed a signal positionally inside the core of the OB association Cygnus OB2, at the edge of the 95% error circle of the EGRET source 3EG J2033+4118, and ∼0.5° north of Cyg X-3. The source centre of gravity is RA αJ2000: 20hr32m07s± 9.2stats±2.2syss, Dec δJ2000: +41°30′30″2.0stat±0.4′sys. The source is steady, has a post-trial significance of +4.6σ, indication for extension with radius 5.6′ at the ∼3σ level, and has a differential power-law flux with hard photon index of - 1.9 ± 0.3stat ± 0.3sys. The integral flux above 1 TeV amounts ∼3% that of the Crab. No counterpart for the TeV source at other wavelengths is presently identified, and its extension would disfavour an exclusive pulsar or AGN origin. If associated with Cygnus OB2, this dense concentration of young, massive stars provides an environment conducive to multi-TeV particle acceleration and likely subsequent interaction with a nearby gas cloud. Alternatively, one could envisage γ-ray production via a jet-driven termination shock.F. A. Aharonian, ... G. P. Rowell, ... [et al

Do Multinational enterprises push up wages of domestic firms in the Italian Manufacturing sector?

This paper analyzes the effects of foreign direct investment on wages paid by domestic firms in the Italian manufacturing sector over the period 2002–2007. In particular, the authors investigate the im-pact of multinational enterprises on wages paid by local firms which operate in the same industry, known and horizontal wage spillovers, or have linkages with multinational enterprises in both downstream and upstream industries, known as vertical wage spillovers. By using a large panel dataset, consisting of 551,000 observations, the authors find evidence of wage spillovers only at inter-industry level and, more specifically, for those firms who supply their goods to multinational enterprises, described as backward wage spillovers. Moreover, findings suggest that the wage spillover effect is strongly affected by the technological gap between local and foreign firms: only workers employed in domestic firms with a low-medium technological absorptive capacity seem to benefit from the presence of multinational enterprises in terms of higher wages