Patient Safety Culture Status and Its Predictors Among Healthcare Workers

Good patient safety culture of healthcare professionals brings about fine consequences for patients. This study, therefore, aimed in evaluating the current status and predictors of safety culture among healthcare workers in Mekelle Zone hospitals, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 325 healthcare workers in three hospitals of Mekelle city from February to May, 2017. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select study subjects. Data was analyzed using SPSS. Logistic regression was used to determine the predictors of patient safety culture among healthcare workers at 95% confidence level and 5% level of significance. Statistical significance was set at p <0.05. Of the 325 Healthcare workers, 21.6% rated the culture of patient safety as satisfactory and 78.4% rated as unsatisfactory. Old aged healthcare workers (AOR=21.9, 95% of CI: 2.51-61.69) and ‘hospital management support for patient safety' (AOR=2.68, 95% CI=1.06-6.79) were strong predictor of satisfactory patient safety culture. Satisfactory patient safety culture grade obtained was only 21.6%, indicating that health care professionals are not delivering patient centered service and there is a lot of work to be done in the hospitals to improve culture of patient safety among healthcare workers

The value of preventing malaria in Tembien, Ethiopia

The authors measure the monetary value households place on preventing malaria in Tembien, Tigray Region, Ethiopia. They estimate a household demand function for a hypothetical malaria vaccine and compute the value of preventing malaria as the household's maximum willingness to pay to provide vaccines for all family members. They contrast willingness to pay with the traditional costs of illness (medical costs and time lost because of malaria). Their results indicate that the value of preventing malaria with vaccines is about US$36 a household a year, or about 15 percent of imputed annual household income. This is, on average, about two or three times the expected household cost of illness. Despite the great benefits from preventing malaria, the fact that vaccine demand is price inelastic suggests that it will be difficult to achieve significant market penetration unless the vaccine is subsidized. The authors obtain similar results for insecticide-treated bed nets. Their estimates of household demand functions for bed nets suggest that at a price that might permit cost recovery (US$6 a bed net), only a third of the population of a 200-person village would sleep under bed nets.Early Child and Children's Health,Public Health Promotion,Disease Control&Prevention,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Economic Theory&Research,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Economic Theory&Research,Climate Change,Environmental Economics&Policies,Early Child and Children's Health

Characterization of Tef (Eragrostis tef zucc. Trotter [cv. Magna]) in Minjar Shenkora district of central Ethiopia

Tef (Eragrostis tef Zucc. Trotter) is a major cereal crop in Ethiopia and performs well in altitudes ranging from 1700 to 2400 m above sea level. Tef “cv. Magna” exhibits high variability in quality and productivity per unit area in different parts of the country, hence it gives different market prices accordingly. This variety, also known as “Minjar magna Tef’” in the study area, is intensely preferred by the consumers than produced elsewhere thought the country. Thus, participatory variety characterization trial was conducted in 2015 and 2016 in Minjar Shenkora district of central Ethiopia to characterize Tef “cv. Magna” variety so as to obtain and create a primary platform for the branding of the variety in the future. Forty-five (45) farmers were selected purposively for the study atnine Tef “cv. Magna” producing sub-districts: Arerti, Agirat, Ameti, Adama, Bolo Giorgis, Bolo Silase, Chele, Kombolcha and Korma. A quadrant (1m x 1m) was used by throwing at five different locations per farmer field, and ten plants were randomly selected as experimental plants. Results revealed that the mean days were found to be 6.78, 42.44 and 100.89 for 50% emergence, 50% heading, and 50% maturity, respectively. The results of the present study show that the mean plant height and panicle length of the crop were 1.24m and 0.46m, respectively. The average tiller number, weight of main panicle and main panicle seed weight of Tef “cv. Magna” was found to be 4.49, 1.58 gm and 1.03 gm, respectively. Furthermore, the mean yield and shoot biomass were found to be 19.49 Qt/ha and 123 Qt/ha, respectively. The proximate compositions of Tef “cv. Magna” were 11.09% moisture content, 2.49% ash content, 74.07% carbohydrate, 1.75% crude fiber, 9.08% crude protein, 3.27% crude fat and 361.98 Kcal/mole energy. The mineral contents of Tef “cv. Magna” was Na: 49.99, K: 5686.54, P: 2935.23, Fe: 115.79, Cu: 6.36, Zn: 26.22, Ca: 1741.24 and Mg: 1427.08 mg/Kg. Though characterization of the variety at the molecular level and comparative study with different varieties of the crop should be done in the near future, our study forms a primary platform for further activities to give a brand name for Tef “cv. Magna”.Key words: Brand, Characterization, Minerals, Proximate composition, Tef ‘cv. Magna

Mechanical Property of Plastic Lumber Produced from Recycled High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)

Recycling is a strategy to combat environmental pollution due to plastic wastes. Of the many plastic wastes, researchers confirmed the possibility to produce plastic lumber from used HDPE plastics. The aim of this study is to experimentally determine the mechanical property of the plastic lumber produced from pure HDPE and its composite with wood to proof usability and applicability for different purpose. The experiment considered different conditions. Pure plastic lumber and wood plastic composite lumber is initially produced and examined under room temperature and below room temperature. Under each condition, bending, tensile and impact strength were examined. For each test eight specimens were prepared based on international standards and the experiments were conducted using standard testing machines. The result shows that pure plastic lumber has demonstrated superior load carrying capability, tensile load resistance capability and impact load resistance at room temperature. Moreover, the pure plastic lumber has an elastic nature and the wood composite has a brittle nature. In both cases the mechanical property of the plastic lumber permits to use for different applications. This has been also tested and resulted in similar phenomena at 20C below room temperature

Wt1 is required for cardiovascular progenitor cell formation through transcriptional control of Snail and E-cadherin

Epicardial epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is hypothesized to generate cardiovascular progenitor cells that differentiate into various cell types, including coronary smooth muscle and endothelial cells, perivascular and cardiac interstitial fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes. Here we show that an epicardial-specific knockout of Wt1 leads to a reduction of mesenchymal progenitor cells and their derivatives. We demonstrate that Wt1 is essential for repression of the epithelial phenotype in epicardial cells and during Embryonic Stem (ES) cell differentiation, through direct transcriptional regulation of Snail (Snai1) and E-cadherin (Cdh1), two of the major mediators of EMT. Some mesodermal lineages fail to form in Wt1 null embryoid bodies but this effect is rescued by the expression of Snai1, underlining the importance of EMT in generating these differentiated cells. These new insights into the molecular mechanisms regulating cardiovascular progenitor cells and EMT will shed light on the pathogenesis of heart diseases and may help the development of cell based therapies

Prevalence, Reasons, and Perceived Effects of Khat Chewing Among Students of a College in Gondar Town, Northwestern Ethiopia: A Cross‑sectional Study

Background: The estimate of the number of people chewing Khat globally ranges from 5 to 10 million people. Its use may result in a variety of effects due to the different compounds in it with effects on the gastro‑intestinal system and nervous system being the principal ones. Aim: To assess the prevalence, factors, and effects of Khat chewing among students of a college in Gondar town, northwestern Ethiopia. Subjects and Methods: An institution‑based cross‑sectional study was conducted from 15th to 20th of April 2009 on a total sample of 424 students who were selected using stratified random sampling technique. Data were collected by three of the principal investigators using a structured pretested data collection instrument and analyzed by Epi Info version 3.5.2. Results: The lifetime and current prevalence of Khat chewing among the respondents were 42% (168/400) and 32.5% (130/400), respectively. Sex (P < 0.01), religion (P < 0.001), and income (P < 0.01) showed statistically significant variation in Khat chewing. The commonest frequency of Khat chewing was once a day 33.1% (43/130) while alcohol (40.8% [53/130]) and cigarette (40.0% [52/130]) were the mostly used substances with Khat. More than half of the chewers (53.85% [70/130]) reported spending 1–4 h for one Khat chewing ceremony. Financially majority of the chewers reported spending up to 10 Ethiopian Birr (ETB) (1.13 United States Dollar) on Khat ( 54.6% [71/130]) and other substances (64.6% [84/130]). Nearly two‑thirds (62.3% [81/130]) of the chewers mentioned seeking concentration during study as their main reason for chewing. Among chewers, 83.1% (108/130) reported they faced problem associated to sleep disturbance, 82.3% (107/130) loss of appetite, and 80.8% (105/130) constipation. Conclusion: The prevalence of Khat chewing was fairly high among the students and the majority among them used other substances together with Khat. Spending of a significant amount of money and facing health problems were reported to be consequences of the habit. The college should take steps to make students aware of the ills of Khat chewing and associated habits.Keywords: College, Effects, Gondar, Khat, Prevalence, Reason

Incidence, prevalence and mortality rates of malaria in Ethiopia from 1990 to 2015: analysis of the global burden of diseases 2015

Background: In Ethiopia there is no complete registration system to measure disease burden and risk factors accurately. In this study, the 2015 Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk factors (GBD) data were used to analyse the incidence, prevalence and mortality rates of malaria in Ethiopia over the last 25 years. Methods: GBD 2015 used verbal autopsy (VA) surveys, reports, and published scientific articles to estimate the burden of malaria in Ethiopia. Age and gender-specific causes of death for malaria were estimated using Cause of Death Ensemble Modelling (CODEm). Results: The number of new cases of malaria declined from 2.8 million (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 1.4-4.5million) in 1990 to 621,345 (95% UI: 462,230-797,442) in 2015. Malaria caused an estimated 30,323.9 deaths (95% UI: 11,533.3-61,215.3) in 1990 and 1,561.7 deaths (95% UI: 752.8-2,660.5) in 2015, a 94.8% reduction over the 25 years. Age-standardized mortality rate of malaria has declined by 96.5% between 1990 and 2015 with an annual rate of change (ARC) of 13.4%. Age-standardized malaria incidence rate among all ages and gender declined by 88.7% between 1990 and 2015. The number of disability-adjusted life years lost (DALY) due to malaria decreased from 2.2 million (95% UI: 0.76-4.7 million) in 1990 to 0.18 million (95% UI: 0.12-0.26 million) in 2015, with a total reduction 91.7%. Similarly, age-standardized DALY rate declined by 94.8% during the same period. Conclusions: Ethiopia has achieved a 50% reduction target of malaria of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The country should strengthen its malaria control and treatment strategies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

Richard S. Smith v. Rocky Mountain Helicopters : Brief of Respondent

BRIEF OF RESPONDENT AND CROSS APPELLANT Appeal from the Fourth Judicial District Court Of Utah County Honorable Boyd L. Park, District Judg

Food Insecurity, Food Assistance, and Psychological Distress among University Students: Cross-Sectional Survey Western Australia, 2020

University students have been identified as a population sub-group vulnerable to food insecurity. This vulnerability increased in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to assess factors associated with food insecurity among university students and the differences between students with and without children. A cross-sectional survey of (n = 213) students attending one university in Western Australia measured food insecurity, psychological distress, and socio-demographic characteristics. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with food insecurity. Forty-eight percent of students who responded to the survey had experienced food insecurity in 2020. International students who were studying in Australia were nine times more likely to experience food insecurity than domestic students (AOR = 9.13; 95% CI = 2.32–35.97). International students with children were more likely to experience food insecurity than international students without children (p < 0.001) and domestic students with (p < 0.001) or without children (p < 0.001). For each unit increase in depression level, the likelihood of experiencing food insecurity increased (AOR = 1.62; 95% CI = 1.12–2.33). Findings show a higher prevalence of food insecurity among international university students and students with children during the COVID-19 pandemic and that food insecurity was associated with higher levels of psychological distress. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to mitigate the risk of food insecurity among Australian university students, particularly among international students, students with children, and those experiencing psychological distress