298 research outputs found
Adverse birth outcome: a comparative analysis between cesarean section and vaginal delivery at Felegehiwot Referral Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia: a retrospective record review [Corrigendum]
No full textAbebe Eyowas F, Negasi AK, Aynalem GE, Worku AG. Pediatric Health, Medicine and Therapeutics. 2016;7:65–70On page 65 Abel Fekadu Dadi should have been listed as an author. The incorrect author list was:Fantu Abebe Eyowas1Ashebir Kidane Negasi1Gizachew Eyassu Aynalem1Abebaw Gebeyehu Worku2The correct author list should have been:Fantu Abebe Eyowas1Ashebir Kidane Negasi1Gizachew Eyassu Aynalem1Abebaw Gebeyehu Worku2Abel Fekadu Dadi2Read the original articl
Trans Rights: A detailed analysis of access to gender affirming treatments by minors and the differing approaches taken by Member States in the European Union
No full textIn this paper the author will be discussing the varying approaches by Member States in the European Union regarding the rights of Minors to access/undertake gender affirming treatments. This paper shall have a particular focus on the varying approaches taken by the Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom and the Netherlands in minors having access to gender affirming treatments. The Netherlands has developed a protocol for gender affirming intervention which has been deemed to be the benchmark for providing treatment for minors suffering from gender dysphoria. The protocol developed by the Netherland vastly differs from other Member States such as the United Kingdom and Ireland. The basis for the differing views by such member states lies on the basis of health officials that intervention can be a detriment to minors instead of having a benefit. The varying approaches by Member States raises the question of what can be considered to be the appropriate approach to be undertaken in providing gender affirming treatment to minors and the lines that must be drawn between what can be considered in what is deemed to be providing minors with the right to receive appropriate care against what can be considered to be medical malpractice
Farmers’ knowledge and practices on chickpea production and disease management in major chickpea growing areas of Ethiopia
No full textWe developed Semi-structured questionnaire and conduct
a survey to randomly selected farmers to asses’ their knowledge
and practices on chickpea production and pest management.
We found that, 93% of the respondent were
male-headed household with the mean age of 46 years. Most
of farmers (97%) get advisory services on integrated pest
management. Education status, reading label of pesticide,
use of personal protective shows significant and positive
association with fungicide utilization. Though the majority
(91%) of farmers do have chickpea disease problems, the
majority were unaware of its causal agents and about 67.4%
of the respondents suggest that moisture could be the reason
for wilting but few (15.4%) were responded that the
causal agent to be a pathogen. Chickpea disease management
needs full package of integrated disease management
approach and collaborating projects needs to revise their
strategy to include the pest management support services
together with breeding and extension programs
Opinion Dynamics Optimization by Varying Susceptibility to Persuasion via Non-Convex Local Search
No full textA long line of work in social psychology has studied variations in people's susceptibility to persuasion - the extent to which they are willing to modify their opinions on a topic. This body of literature suggests an interesting perspective on theoretical models of opinion formation by interacting parties in a network: in addition to considering interventions that directly modify people's intrinsic opinions, it is also natural to consider interventions that modify people's susceptibility to persuasion.In this work, motivated by this fact, we propose an influence optimization problem. Specifically, we adopt a popular model for social opinion dynamics, where each agent has some fixed innate opinion, and a resistance that measures the importance it places on its innate opinion; agents influence one another's opinions through an iterative process. Under certain conditions, this iterative process converges to some equilibrium opinion vector. For the unbudgeted variant of the problem, the goal is to modify the resistance of any number of agents (within some given range) such that the sum of the equilibrium opinions is minimized; for the budgeted variant, in addition the algorithm is given upfront a restriction on the number of agents whose resistance may be modified.We prove that the objective function is in general non-convex. Hence, formulating the problem as a convex program as in an early version of this work (Abebe et al., KDD'18) might have potential correctness issues. We instead analyze the structure of the objective function, and show that any local optimum is also a global optimum, which is somehow surprising as the objective function might not be convex. Furthermore, we combine the iterative process and the local search paradigm to design very efficient algorithms that can solve the unbudgeted variant of the problem optimally on large-scale graphs containing millions of nodes. Finally, we propose and evaluate experimentally a family of heuristics for the budgeted variant of the problem. © 2021 held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM
What Determines Innovativeness of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) in Ethiopia? Evidence from Debre Berhan Town, Ethiopia
No full textInnovation is considered to be the driving force of competitiveness and growth of firms as well as countries. However, most of MSEs in Ethiopia particularly in Debre Berhan town they were not innovative. Thus, the aim of this article was to identify determinants of innovativeness of MSEs in Debre Berhan town. Data were obtained using questionnaires primarily. The sample consists of 326 MSEs, but the response rate was 90.18%. Both stratified and simple random sampling techniques were employed in the study. Both descriptive statistics and econometric analysis were employed. From descriptive statistics percentage and frequency and chi-square test and from econometric analysis, binary logistics analysis was used. The binary logistics results confirmed that competition in the market (OR=0.035, P<.01) and engagement in research (OR=0.126, P<.001), access to finance (OR=0.190, P<.005) respectively found to be major factors of innovation. However, vocational training and consultancy service did not have statistically significant influence on innovation behaviour. Based on the findings of the study, possible solutions were recommended to the concerned government bodies to enhance innovativeness of MSEs in the study area. DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/11-19-03 Publication date:October 31st 202
Variability and Performance Evaluation of Released Linseed Varieties for Yield and Related Traits in South Gondar Zone, Ethiopia
No full textEven though numerous improved linseed varieties have been released in Ethiopia, the mean seed yield per unit area of the crop remains low due to poor access to improved varieties. To improve the crop’s production and productivity, testing the performance of improved linseed varieties in potential agroecologies where the varieties have never been grown before is an essential activity. Additionally, understanding the amount of genetic variation that is available within the linseed germplasm using genetic traits is also critical to the successful and sustainable improvement program of linseed. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the performance of improved linseed varieties and their genetic variability for seed yield and related traits in the Lay Gayint district, South Gondar zone, Ethiopia. The experiment was conducted following a randomized complete block design with three replications, and nine released varieties and one local linseed variety were assessed in the study. Seed yield and yield-related traits were collected and subjected to a combined analysis of variance. The result shows that there was a significant difference between the tested linseed varieties for all examined traits, indicating the existence of genotypic variation between the experimental linseed varieties. The varieties Berene, CI-1525, Yadeno, and Furtu produced relatively higher seed yields, with an average of 894.28, 879.36, 823.28, and 820.85 kg·ha−1, respectively. Approximately 70% of the evaluated varieties produced higher seed yields than the local variety. The analysis of variance also resulted in a significant variety by year interaction effect for height of the plant, number of tillers, capsule number/plant, and seed yield, indicating the inconsistency of the varieties across the two growing seasons. Higher genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficients of variation (PCV) (>20%) coupled with high heritability estimated values (>80%) were observed for seed yield per hectare, the number of capsules per plant, and tiller number. Seed yield and the number of capsules per plant provided higher genetic advance estimations. To make the selection more successful, breeders should concentrate on traits with high genotypic variance and heritability estimates, and promising varieties should be introduced and dispersed within the research area
Emergent trends in the reported incidence of prostate cancer in Nigeria
No full textGodwin O Ifere1, Fisseha Abebe2, Godwin A Ananaba1,31Department of Biological Sciences, 2Department of Mathematical Sciences, 3Center for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Development, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA, USABackground: To date there has not been any nationwide age-standardized incidence data reported for prostate cancer in Nigeria. We examined and integrated diverse trends in the age-specific incidence of prostate cancer into a comprehensive trend for Nigeria, and examined how best the existing data could generate a countrywide age-standardized incidence rate for the disease.Methods: Data were obtained from studies undertaken between 1970 and 2007 in referral hospital-based cancer registries. Records from at least one tertiary hospital in each of the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria were examined retrospectively. Data were also reported for the rural population in cross-sectional prospective studies. Age-standardized incidence rates and the annual incidence of disease were calculated.Results: Higher incidence rates for prostate cancer during this period were recorded for patients aged 60&ndash;69 years and 70&ndash;79 years, with a lower incidence rate for patients aged younger than 50 years. An exponential annual incidence rate of disease was observed in the 50&ndash;79 year age group and peaked at 70&ndash;79 years before dropping again at age 80 years. The results showed metastasis in more than half of these hospital-based prostate tumors.Conclusion: Our results suggest that prostate cancer occurs at a relatively young age in Nigerians and that hospital-based registry reports may not appropriately reflect the incidence of the disease in Nigeria. A countrywide screening program is urgently needed. Finally, the difference in reported stages of disease found in Nigerians and African-Americans versus Caucasians suggests biological differences in the prognosis. Nigeria may thus typify one of the ancestral populations that harbor inherited genes predisposing African-Americans to high-risk prostate cancer.Keywords: prostate cancer, annual age-standardized incidence rate, Nigeria cancer registr
Women’s Low Participation in Top Leadership Positions in North Shoa Zonal Administration, Amhara Region, Ethiopia: Its Determinants
No full textWomen represent over half of the Ethiopian population, but their participation in different leadership positions of public institutions is vastly underrepresented. Women in North Shoa zone administration also experiencing this problem. Therefore, in order to investigate the determinants of this problem, demographic factors such as age and marital status; personal factors, organizational factors and socio-cultural factors were considered in the study. Both descriptive design and explanatory design were employed. 95.49 % response rate was used in the study. Simple random sampling and judgmental sampling technique were used to select sample respondents. Data were collected from primary sources through structured questionnaires. Pearson correlation, cross tabulation and multiple linear regressions were employed. Age(β=0.08,P<.001), marital status(β=0.346,p<0.01), personalfactors ((β=0.320,p<0.01),organizational factors(β=0.290,P<0.001) and socio-cultural factors(β=0.213, p<0.01) had significant effect on women’s participation in leadership positions in the study area. Accordingly, recommendations were forwarded so as to increase the participation of women’s in leadership positions in the study area. Key Terms: Determinants, women, leadership positions, North Shoa Zonal Administration DOI: 10.7176/DCS/11-8-03 Publication date:October 31st 202
Consumption of vitamin a rich foods and dark adaptation threshold of pregnant women at Damot Sore District, Wolayita, southern Ethiopia
No full textBACKGROUND:
More than 7.2 million pregnant women in developing countries suffer from vitamin A deficiency. The objective of this study was to assess dark adaptation threshold of pregnant women and related socio-demographic factors in Damot Sore District, Wolayita Zone, Southern Ethiopia.
METHODS:
A cross-sectional study design was employed to collect data from 104 pregnant women selected by a two stage cluster sampling. A Dietary Diversity Score was calculated by counting the number of food groups consumed by the women in 24 hour period prior to the study. Scotopic Sensitivity Tester-1 was used to test participant's pupillary response to graded amounts of light in a dark tent.
RESULTS:
Half of the pregnant women in this study had dietary diversity score less than three. The majority of participants (87.5%) had consumed either animal or plant source vitamin A rich foods less than three times a week. For a unit increase in individual dietary diversity score, there was a decrease in dark adaptation measurement by 0.29 log cd/m(2) (p=0.001). For a unit increase in gestational week of pregnancy, there was an increase in dark adaptation measurement by 0.19 log cd/m(2) (P=0.027).
CONCLUSIONS:
Results from this study indicated that the pregnant women had low consumption of vitamin A rich foods, and their dark adaptation threshold increases with gestational age indicating that their vitamin A status is getting worse. There is a need to design appropriate intervention and target this group of population.
KEYWORDS:
Southern Ethiopia; Vitamin A deficiency; dark adaptation threshold; pregnant wome
Demographic and job satisfaction variables influencing academic staffs’ turnover intention in Debre Berhan University, Ethiopia
No full textAcademic staff turnover intention is one of the problems facing different universities in Ethiopia. This problem has also become a serious one at Debre Berhan University. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the influence of demographic factors and job satisfaction variables on the academic staff turnover intention at Debre Berhan University. For this purpose, both descriptive and explanatory research designs were employed. The research followed a quantitative research approach. The study used primary data. The data was obtained from 265 academic staff selected from nine colleges using both stratified sampling and simple random sampling techniques. A binary logistic regression model was used to examine the influence of demographic factors and job satisfaction variables. Accordingly, it is found that pay and benefits, working environment, and ethnicity were found to be the significant factors that affect academic staff turnover intention. This study suggests that the management of the university and the Ministry of Education, in order to increase the staff's salary based on the current labor market, develop different benefits packages such as building them residence houses, providing health insurance and facilitating credit services for different purposes by collaborating with banks and other financial institutions. Besides, the government should ensure political stability by minimizing ethnic-led conflict by avoiding ethnic-based federalism
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