Recent Articles

The aim of the study assesses the role of Acacia Decurrens tree on Farmers Livelihood in the Banja Woreda. To this purpose, the study adopted descriptive survey design. The study focused on the three kebeles such as Zek na Gumerta, Bidana Jegola and kesa Chewsa in the Banaja district of the Awi Zone, Amhara regional state. This design would employ multiple sources of data such as distribution of questionnaires and conducting interviews with the concerned parties. The target population for this study was 25 rural kebeles, from those kebeles I selected three kebeles according to the homogeneity characteristics in plantation of Acacia decurrens tree. To determine the required sample size, the selected kebeles has 678 households’ farmers, 105 sample farmers are represented. Then, 35 sample farmers from each kebeles are selected by random sampling method. One-sample t-test analysis was made using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20 to show the result of study. The result discussed by the use of the descriptive and econometric analysis.

The study focuses on the Nile Basin cooperative framework of the Ethiopia. Nile Basin countries are Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Egypt, North and newly independent South Sudan. The riparian countries of the region can be known into upstream and downstream countries. Upstream groups are Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The three downstream countries consist of Egypt, North Sudan and newly independent South Sudan. The downstream states especially Egypt used colonial agreements as instrument to utilize more water from Nile River. The use of colonial agreements and relatively weak positions of Ethiopia in the upstream was one of the obstacles to look optimistic at the possibilities for cooperation and smooth relationships of the Nile Basin countries. After collapse of colonialism, the positive interest of Ethiopia and the establishment of Nile Basin Initiative brought cooperative framework among the Nile Basin countries.

The unique principle of citizenship that enhances the possession of single citizenship, has long been the ideal of nationality laws. Yet, interest in dual citizenship has increased, triggered by the success of globalization and a gap in the ideal and reality of the principle of single citizenship. This article, therefore, offers an overview of Norway’s dual citizenship policy and the associated opportunities and risks for African immigrants inclusion. It incorporates facts and arguments for sociopolitical deliberation in an area where emotional reactions abound. Data were drawn from semi-structured interviews and analysis of policy documents. The findings demonstrate that allowing dual citizenship activates the prospects for better integration of immigrants in mainstream society. However, dual citizens can be denaturalized if their actions significantly harm the interests or image of the state. In this way, the policy constitutes a robust impetus toward standardization and normalization of practices that challenge social integration relations. These heuristics are particularly pernicious to immigrants, the casualties of this discourse, because the authorities are aware of a minimal backlash, considering their limited power to fight back politically. Moreover, a major obstacle in the naturalization of immigrants has been removed. This in turn have positive implications for greater identification of migrants with the country of residence, as well as better economic and sociopolitical participation.

The study focused on the abrasion resistance of beech wood thermally treated at high temperatures. A standard test for determining abradability, according to ISO 4649, was used. We studied factors such as the anatomical direction, temperature of treatment, and duration of treatment, as well as their effects on abrasion resistance performance. Four temperature levels (20 °C, 160 °C, 180 °C, and 200 °C) and three durations of treatment (1 h, 3 h, and 5 h) were used. Results showed that the anatomical direction was not a significant factor, but there was a strong influence of temperature and duration of treatment, respectively, on abrasion resistance. Due to a strong correlation between moisture content and abrasion resistance, the equilibrium moisture content of thermally treated wood could be used for the prediction of abrasion resistance

Basic needs are the fundamental human rights recognized by national and international law. This study is an attempt to reveal the picture of human rights violations of the elderly people in Bangladesh focusing particularly on the deprivation of the basic needs of the aged people. In this study, data have been collected from both primary and secondary sources. It reviews the right to basic needs, such as adequate food, clothes, shelter, healthcare, and education. As a human being, everybody deserves these basic needs as fundamental human rights and it is a fundamental responsibility of the state to secure these rights according to the constitution of Bangladesh, Article 15(a). But the study found that these basic rights are not implemented properly in the case of elderly people of the study area. Lacks of moral education and humanity have been identified as mainly responsible hindrances in this sphere. Corruption and poverty are also strong impediments in this regard. The paper proposes some workable suggestions. The government, responsible institutions, and concerned families should come forward to ensure proper education, to ensure proper and sound socialization with native culture, and to raise far-reaching consciousness regarding the welfare of elderly people.

According to the vibration of cut blasting, the number of holes and the location of holes are reasonably designed by using finite element software LS-DYNA. The rectangular holes and hollow holes in straight cut are simulated respectively. Of the hole in the straight-cut undercut blasting vibration law. The analysis shows that the larger the diameter of the hole is, the better the vibration reduction is. The more the number of holes is, the more obvious the damping effect is. The best blasting effect of the large diameter hollow hole and the large diameter rectangular hole is 0.93cm/s Reduce the blasting vibration speed, buffered the blasting time; get both a good blasting effect and effective rapid damping effect.

Introduction: Regular exercise helps manage side effects of cancer treatment, however, less than 30% of survivors participate in regular exercise. Exercise-related barriers, facilitators, and needs of general populations of cancer survivors are described in the literature. No information exists describing this information for hard to reach populations. Purpose: To determine the barriers, facilitators, and exercise needs of hard to reach cancer survivors. Materials and Methods: Research design: Descriptive qualitative study. Population: Hard to reach cancer survivors, including young adults (18-39 years), those living in rural communities, and those living in areas of low socioeconomic status. Data collection: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were coded independently by two researchers. Coded data was aggregated into nodes and grouped into themes. Results: Five themes were identified that influence exercise participation in hard to reach survivors: accessibility of exercise programs, appropriateness of exercise programs, social support, personal factors, and exercise information. Young adults described a lack of appropriate exercise programs for their age group, those in rural settings described availability issues, and those in areas of low SES described cost and social support as barriers to exercise. Conclusion: This project identified unique exercise-related barriers, facilitators, and needs of hard to reach cancer survivors. Results can be used by researchers and clinicians when creating exercise interventions for cancer survivors. Interventions must be tailored to the specific needs of each individual in order to facilitate accessible participation in regular exercise and facilitate sustained behaviour change.

Myocardial infarction is the leading cause of papillary muscle rupture. This complication occurs in up to 5% of cases post MI and although rare, it constitutes a cardiac emergency if left untreated. On this basis, a 59-year-old male presented with low-grade fever and atypical chest pain with raised inflammatory markers and troponin levels. He was treated for infective endocarditis after echocardiography revealed a mass on the mitral valve, which was presumed to be a mitral valve vegetation and so he completed a 6-weeks course of antibiotics followed by elective mitral valve replacement surgery. During surgery, it was discovered that there was no endocarditis. Instead an unusually small muscle head of one of the posteromedial papillary muscle groups had ruptured secondary to an inferior myocardial infarction. This ruptured muscle head was highly mobile and mimicked a mitral valve vegetation. The mitral valve was successfully repaired, and the right coronary artery grafted. He made a full recovery but developed new-onset atrial fibrillation for which he is awaiting elective cardioversion. One should have a high index of suspicion for diagnosing papillary muscle rupture as it may mimic valvular vegetation on echocardiography, especially if the papillary muscle involved is an anatomical variant.

Background: Presently in Germany, as there is a shortage of nursing staff, informal caregivers have become highly relevant. Because they often deal with care related burden, legislation was passed to improve caregivers’ situations by offering more supports. Nonetheless, a considerable percentage of caregivers do not utilize it. Methods: Data was collected in Saxony (Germany) from November 2019 to December 2019 by using an online survey and a postal survey (cross-sectional study design; n= 1,716). For analysis bivariate logistic regression (forward method LR, α≤0.05) was performed. Results: The average age of the sample was 61.9 years, 52.9% were female and 45.7% male. Results indicate a medium utilization of care insurance services. Considerable associations were time spent on care and utilization of care allowance (OR: 1.77), such as duration of care degree and utilization of residential care services (OR: 1.88) and substitute care (OR: 1.81). Conclusions: Informal caregivers putting intensive effort into care do tend to utilize services. The resulting questions of why newer informal caregivers do not tend to utilize services and why there is a medium utilization among all caregivers implies that people need to gain better access to services independently of care factors.

A 71-year-old female with biopsy-proven liver cirrhosis was brought to the ER due to confusion for 5 days. She was diagnosed with acute decompensated liver disease and hepatic encephalopathy. Investigations also revealed PTH-dependent hypercalcemia. Both of these entities could be causing her symptoms. Neck ultrasound did not reveal any parathyroid lesions. Alteration in mental status persisted even after the management and resolution of hepatic encephalopathy. Symptomatic resolution occurred after normalization of her calcium levels which required normal saline, cinacalcet as well as calcitonin over the course of 7 days. Hypercalcemia secondary to chronic liver disease should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with liver cirrhosis presenting with an altered mental status. Hypercalcemia of chronic liver disease is not always transient and managed with normal saline as previously reported; It could necessitate more aggressive therapy with calcitonin and cinacalcet as reported in this case.