Model-Based Urban Road Network Performance Measurement Using Travel Time Reliability: A Case Study of Addis Ababa City, Ethiopia

In heterogeneous traffic conditions, the performance of the road network is described by vehicles and driver characteristics. Nowadays, traffic congestion, delay, and unreliability are terms that are most associated with present-day travel, in which transport users spend their precious time on long traffic queues. Due to this, late arrival at the workplace and appointment for social or business activities have become a perennial problem in the study area. In addition, during traffic queues, vehicle fuel emission increases in congested traffic segments affecting the environment, particularly the issue of global warming. This research study evaluated the performance of the road network in terms of travel time reliability in order to determine the main factors affecting travel time reliability. Ten road segments were selected to analyze the performance level and efficiency of the road network, considering the travel time probability distribution, and reliability of road segments in Addis Ababa City. From these road segments, nine were selected to formulate the model, and one road segment considered for validation of the result. The reliability of the road segments was analyzed using travel time reliability measures such as buffer time, buffer time index, planning time index, and the travel time index. It was used a multiple linear regression model to predict the travel time reliability of the road segments with R

Organic Food and Agriculture - Ethics

Organic food is produced without the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Four further exclusions in organic production are: genetically modified organisms (GMOs), irradiation, prophylactic antibiotics, and engineered nanoparticles. These six exclusions differentiate organic agriculture from chemical agriculture. Agriculture and food harvesting and production date back millennia, and until about a century ago that history is de facto organic. The Industrial Revolution ushered in an era of novel production strategies. Agriculture was not immune to new views of industrialization and reductionism. Advances in chemistry enabled some implementation of such views. Early in the diffusion of chemical farming practices, the Austrian mystic Rudolf Steiner (1865–1924) called for a differentiated agriculture free of these new synthetic chemical inputs. The terminology, theory, and practices of biodynamic agriculture evolved (in the 1920s and 1930s) from Steiner’s Agriculture Course of 1924. It was a guided evolution, coordinated by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer (1899–1961) in Switzerland. The UK agriculturist, Lord Northbourne (1896–1982), invited Pfeiffer to lead a conference on biodynamics at his farm in Kent (in 1939). The following year Northbourne published his manifesto of organic farming, “Look to the Land.” In that book, he coined the term “organic farming” and wrote of a contest of “organic versus chemical farming”.The ideas and ideals of organic farming quickly proliferated internationally off the back of Northbourne’s 1940 book. Organic farming is now practiced in at least 179 countries, accounts for 50.9 million agricultural hectares, and a market value of US$ 81.6 billion (€75 billion)

Giant mesenteric teratoma in a 6 month-old

Objective: We report a case of mesenteric teratoma in a healthy 6 months old baby girl. The purpose of this report is to familiarize the pediatric surgery doctors with the characteristic appearance of this tumor, which is rare. Method: Case report and review of the English-language literature (using PubMed, Ovid, and Proquest databases). Results: Case of mesenteric teratoma occurred in an infant girl to be reported in the English-language literature. Conclusion: Mesenteric teratoma is an uncommon tumor that included all three embryonic layers. Although the presurgical diagnosis might be difficult in some cases, mesenteric teratoma must be kept in the differential of abdominal masses in children. The present case highlights the importance of considering mesenteric teratoma in the clinical and pathological differential diagnosis of intra-abdominal/retroperitoneal masses. Complete Surgical excision is almost always curative