202 research outputs found
Neither n-3 long-chain PUFA supplementation of mothers through lactation nor of offspring in a complementary food affects child overall or social-emotional development : a 2 × 2 factorial randomized controlled trial in rural Ethiopia
No full textBackground: The n-3 (omega-3) long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LC-PUFA) docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is essential for optimal brain development. There is a lack of evidence on the effect of postnatal n-3 LC-PUFA supplementation on child development in low-income countries.
Objective: We evaluated the efficacy of fish-oil supplementation through lactation or complementary food supplementation on the development of children aged 6-24 mo in rural Ethiopia.
Methods: We conducted a double-blind randomized controlled trial of n-3 LC-PUFA supplementation for 12 mo using fish-oil capsules [maternal intervention: 215 mg DHA + 285 mg eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)] or a fish-oil-enriched complementary food supplement (child intervention: 169 mg DHA + 331 mg EPA). In total, 360 pairs of mothers and infants aged 6-12 mo were randomly assigned to 4 arms: maternal intervention and child control, child intervention and maternal control, maternal and child intervention, and maternal and child control. Primary outcomes were overall developmental performance with the use of a culturally adapted Denver II test that assesses personal-social, language, fine-motor, and gross-motor domains and social-emotional developmental performance using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social Emotional at baseline and at 6 and 12 mo. We used mixed-effects models to estimate intervention effects on developmental performance over time (intervention x time interaction).
Results: The evolution in overall and social-emotional developmental performance over time did not differ across study arms (intervention x time: F = 1.09, P = 0.35, and F = 0.61, P = 0.61, respectively). Effects did not change after adjustment for child age, birth order, and nutritional status; maternal age and education; wealth; family size; and breastfeeding frequency. Children's developmental performance significantly decreased during study follow-up (beta: -0.03 SDs/mo; 95% CI: -0.04, -0.01 SD/mo; P < 0.01).
Conclusions: n-3 LC-PUFA supplementation does not affect overall or social-emotional development of children aged 6-24 mo in a low-income setting. Follow-up of the cohort is recommended to determine whether there are long-term effects of the intervention
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
Flexible two-piece distributions for right censored survival data
No full textAn important complexity in censored data is that only partial information on the variables of interest is observed. In recent years, a large family of asymmetric distributions and maximum likelihood estimation for the parameters in that family has been studied, in the complete data case. In this paper, we exploit the appealing family of quantile-based asymmetric distributions to obtain flexible distributions for modelling right censored survival data. The flexible distributions can be generated using a variety of symmetric distributions and monotonic link functions. The interesting feature of this family is that the location parameter coincides with an index-parameter quantile of the distribution. This family is also suitable to characterize different shapes of the hazard function (constant, increasing, decreasing, bathtub and upside-down bathtub or unimodal shapes). Statistical inference is done for the whole family of distributions. The parameter estimation is carried out by optimizing a non-differentiable likelihood function. The asymptotic properties of the estimators are established. The finite-sample performance of the proposed method and the impact of censorship are investigated via simulations. Finally, the methodology is illustrated on two real data examples (times to weaning in breast-fed data and German Breast Cancer data).sponsorship: The authors are grateful to the editor, and associate editor and reviewers for their valuable comments that led to an improvement of the manuscript. The second author gratefully acknowledge support from Research Grant FWO G0D6619N of the Flemish Science Foundation, and from the C16/20/002 project of the Research Fund KU Leuven. (Flemish Science Foundation|FWO G0D6619N, Research Fund KU Leuven|C16/20/002)status: Published onlin
A hybrid hazard-based model using two-piece distributions
No full textCox proportional hazards model is widely used to study the relationship between the survival time of an event and covariates. Its primary objective is parameter estimation assuming a constant relative hazard throughout the entire follow-up time. The baseline hazard is thus treated as a nuisance parameter. However, if the interest is to predict possible outcomes like specific quantiles of the distribution (e.g. median survival time), survival and hazard functions, it may be more convenient to use a parametric baseline distribution. Such a parametric model should however be flexible enough to allow for various shapes of e.g. the hazard function. In this paper we propose flexible hazard-based models for right censored data using a large class of two-piece asymmetric baseline distributions. The effect of covariates is characterized through timescale changes on hazard progression and on the relative hazard ratio; and can take three possible functional forms: parametric, semi-parametric (partly linear) and non-parametric. In the first case, the usual full likelihood estimation method is applied. In the semi-parametric and non-parametric settings a general profile (local) likelihood estimation approach is proposed. An extensive simulation study investigates the finite-sample performances of the proposed method. Its use in data analysis is illustrated in real data examples.The authors thank the reviewers for their valuable comments that led to an improvement
of the manuscript. The second author gratefully acknowledges support from Research Grant C16/20/002
project of the Research Fund KU Leuven
Two-piece distribution based semi-parametric quantile regression for right censored data
No full textWidely used methods such as Cox proportional hazards, accelerated failure time, and Bennet proportional odds models do not model the quantiles directly, but rather allow to assess the influence of the covariates only on the location of the distribution. Quantile regression allows to assess the effects of covariates, not only on a location parameter (such as a mean or median) but also on specific percentiles of the conditional distribution. In recent years, a large family of flexible two-piece asymmetric distributions where the location parameter coincides with a specific quantile of the distribution has been studied. In a conditional (regression) setting the use of such a family of two-piece asymmetric distributions has only been investigated in the complete data case in the literature. In this paper, we propose a semi-parametric procedure to estimate the conditional quantile curves of two-piece asymmetric distributions based on right censored survival data. We use a local likelihood estimation technique in a multi-parameter functional form, via which the effect of a covariate on the location, scale, and index of the conditional survival distribution can be assessed. The finite sample performance of the estimators is investigated via simulations, and the methodology is illustrated on real data examples.The authors are grateful to an Associate Editor and two reviewers for their comments which led to an improvement of the manuscript. We thank the authors of Christou and Akritas (2019) to provide us with the R code to calculate their estimator in the SIQR model. The second author gratefully acknowledges support from Research Grant FWO G0D6619N of the Flemish Science Foundation, and from the C16/20/002 project of the Research Fund KU Leuven. The resources and services used in this work were provided by the VSC (Flemish Supercomputer Center), funded by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) and the Flemish Government
Evaluation of arch formamong differentclasses of Angle’smalocclusionson dental cast of orthodontic Patientstreatedinjimma medical centerdental clinic Orthodontic unit , jimma, south westethiopia-2022.
No full textBACKGROUND: The dental arch form evaluation has become an important part of the orthodontic treatment
planning.The way the teeth are aligned on the basal bone determines the archform of an individual. In fact,
theArchform varies between two groups and two individuals of the same group.Differences in the archform are seen
between males and females. Mismatch of archform leads to expansion or contraction of archforms and hence a
relapse of the corrected malocclusion due to functional instability or structural imbalance is a possibility. Evaluating
the archform of an individual plays a key role for an Orthodontist in treatment planning and attaining a greater post
treatment stability.
OBJECTIVES: To asses dental arch form amongdifferent classes of angle’s malocclusions on dental cast of
orthodontic patients treated in jimma medical center dental clinic orthodontic unit,jimma, south west Ethiopia, 2022.
METHODS;A two years hospital based retrospective cross-sectional study design was conducted to assess arch
form of orthodontic patients in jimma university dental clinic fromFebruary to May 2022.Data was collected by
reviewing the medical record of patients who visited the orthodontic clinic from February 2020 to March 2022.the
dental casts of patients who fulfill inclusion criteria was selected from a pool of available models at orthodontic
clinic.Digitalvernier caliper will be used for measurements .The collected data was cleaned, coded and entered to
Statistical Package for Social (SPSS version 24) windows software computer program for analysis.SD,mean,T-test
and chi square were used to analyze the results.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION:The commonest arch form is Ovoid in both arches (upper arch(44.9%) and
lower arch(45.7) followed by Tapered and Square arch form; Among gender females has higher in ovoid and
tapered arch form, in contrary males has higher in square arch form. The results of this study showed that the
commonest class was class I (51.2%), followed by class II (33.9%) and class III (14.9%). Significantly, more
females had Class I (p<0.01) and Class II (p<0.05) occlusal relationship compared with males. In upper arch Class
III arches is narrower than Class I and Class II dental arches are the widest (p<0.05). In lower arch Class II arches,
are Wider than Class I and Class III dental arches.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION:The most frequently seen arch form in maxillary arch
was the Ovoid (44.9%) and Tapered (30.7% ). the least frequent one was the square one which is recorded 24.4%.
6.5%.In mandibular arch 30.7% of subjects have tapered and 45.7% ovoid. the least common arch form is the square
which is recorded in 23.6%.The commonest class was class I (51.2%), followed by class II (33.9%) and class III
(14.9%). Significantly, more females had Class I (p<0.01) and Class II (p<0.05) occlusal relationship compared with
males. more females had Class III relation compared with males. The mean values of all width and depth
measurements were higher in males than in females in both arch. the professional’s should select the proper arch
wire form based on individual patients arch forms.Further studies is still needed to overcome the limitations of this
study which includes studying a larger sample and including other methods of arch form determination and different
age groups are needed before the results of the present study can be applied on Ethiopian populatio
Effect of Different Levels of Dried Sugar Cane Tops Inclusion on the Performance of Washera Sheep Fed Basal Diet of Grass Hay, Ethiopia
No full textCopyright: © 2015 Worku A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Background: Ruminants feed largely on crop resides as their basal diet. Despite their vast use as a livestock feed, crop residues are naturally of low quality and do not fulfill the nutrient requirement of animals. Thus, the deficit in the basal feed of quantity can be covered with sugar cane tops that are potential feed for better performance of animals. This study aimed with to evaluate the effect of different level of Dried Sugar Can tops inclusion on carcass characteristics and Economic Feasibility of Washera sheep fed a basal diet of grass hay. Methodology: A study was conducted at Bure Agricultural Technical Vocational Educational Training (ATVET) College using twenty yearling Washera sheep with initial body weight (BW) of 18.15 ± 1.85 (mean ± SD). The experimental design was randomized complete block design, and sheep were blocked into five blocks of four animals based on their initial BW and randomly assigned to one of the treatments within a block. Treatments were hay ad libitum+100 g/head/d CM for T1 and an additional 120 g, 240 g and 360 g SCT per head/day on dry matter basis for T2, T3 and T4, respectively. The experiment consisted 90 days of Growth trials followed by evaluation of carcass components at the end
The Contemporary Trends and challenges of University-Industry Linkage and Technology Transfer in Unity University, Ethiopia
No full textThe study examines university-industry linkage and technology transfer (U-ILTT) at Unity University, a private higher education institution in Ethiopia. A qualitative case study method was used, with participants being staff members and industry experts. The research participants were staff members of Unity University and industry experts. Participants were selected through purposive sampling. A structured interview was used along with document analysis. Narrative and content analysis were used to analyze the data collected through interviews and documents. The findings revealed that while the university had internships and public lectures, faculty and students lack awareness of University-Industry Linkage and the university has not integrated U-ILTT into its strategic plan. Contemporary trends in U-ILTT, such as commercialization, innovation, and technology transfer, were overlooked. The study recommends the establishment of a separate U-ILTT office, integrating linkage into all plans, creating awareness, meeting industry needs, and preparing a well-defined strategy for productive linkages. Further investigation is recommended for firm conclusions
Assessment of occupational injuries among Addis Ababa city municipal solid waste collectors: a cross-sectional study
No full textBackground: Collection of household waste is a job which requires repeated heavy physical activities such as lifting, carrying, pulling, and pushing. Like many developing countries, in Ethiopia municipal solid waste is collected manually. Therefore, this study is aimed to assess the extent of occupational injuries and associated factors among solid waste collectors in Addis Ababa City. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 876 respondents sampled from 92 unions. A pre-tested structured questionnaire and observation check list were used to collect data. Crude odds ratio with 95% CI was computed to see the presence of association between selected independent variables and occupational injury. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was made to see the relative effect of independent variable on the dependent variable by controlling the effect of other variables. To maintain stability, only variables that have a p-value less than 0.30 in the binary logistic regression analysis were kept in the subsequent model. Enter method was used hierarchically. Results: The response rate of this study was 97.9%. Female respondents accounted 71.2%. The median age of the study subjects was 33 year (with 52 inter quartile range). The overall occupational injury prevalence rate in the last 12 months was 383 (43.7%). Utilization of personal protective devices and family size in the household were statistically associated with injury. As compared to workers who used personal protective equipments while being on duty, odds of injury among workers not used personal protective equipments were 2.62 higher (AOR = 2.62, 95% CI: 1.48-4.63). As compared to those who had five and more children, odds of injuries among those who had 3-4 children was reduced by half (AOR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.30-0.93). Conclusion: The extent of occupational injuries among Addis Ababa city solid waste collectors is present in a level that needs immediate public health action. Implementation of basic occupational health and safety services including training on occupational health and safety, ensuring the provision and use of personal protective devices are highly advisable
SPECTRA FOR GELFAND PAIRS ASSOCIATED WITH THE HEISENBERG GROUP
No full textLet K be a closed Lie subgroup of the unitary group U(n) acting by au-tomorphisms on the (2n+1)-dimensional Heisenberg group Hn. We say that (K,Hn) is a Gelfand pair when the set L 1 K(Hn) of integrable K-invariant functions on Hn is an abelian convolution algebra. In this case, the Gelfand space (or spectrum) for L1K(Hn) can be identified with the set ∆(K,Hn) of bounded K-spherical functions on Hn. In this paper, we study the natural topology on ∆(K,Hn) given by uniform convergence on compact subsets in Hn. We show that ∆(K,Hn) is a complete metric space and that the “type 1 ” K-spherical functions are dense in ∆(K,Hn). Our main result shows that one can embed ∆(K,Hn) quite explicitly in a Euclidean space by mapping a spherical function to its eigenvalues with respect to a certain finite set of (K⋉Hn)-invariant differential operators on Hn. This viewpoint on the spectrum for ∆(K,Hn) was previously known for K = U(n) and is referred to as “the Heisenberg fan”. 1. Introduction. Give
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