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Optimal nutrition and good feeding of infants and young children are among the most important determinants of their health, growth and development. Due to unimodal climate in Karamoja sub-region, north eastern Uganda, achieving food security remains a development challenge in the area impacting negatively on the nutrition and health status of infants and young children. The current study, therefore, is important in providing the basis for season-based interventions to improve food and nutrition security in Karamoja sub-region. A longitudinal study involving 267 lactating mothers during harvesting season and 380 during planting season was conducted. Data were collected using Individual level Dietary Diversity questionnaire, 24-Hour Dietary Recall, and Anthropometry and were analyzed statistically. The findings indicated that except Abim district, 77.8-97.8%of the lactating mothers never attended school; 75-100% depend on subsistence farming. Lactating mothers (29.9-41.9%) introduced complementary foods to their infants at 6 months, while the age at first introduction of any food to the infant was mostly between 4-6 months. Dietary quality of complementary foods was low across all the districts; 6.7-38.9% of the children ate foods from four or more of the seven food groups in the previous day (Minimum Dietary Diversity) in both seasons. Complementary foods were characterized by plant food sources. With exception of milk and milk products, proportion of children who consumed animal-sourced foods was low, ranging from 0% in meats to 8.9% in fish and sea foods. Energy and nutrient intakes varied according to age groups of the children across districts and season. The proportion of children below -2 Z-score also varied according to districts and it is generally higher during the planting season than the harvesting season. The median of the z-scores for height-for age and Mid Upper Arm Circumference for age ranged from -1 to -2.5. In conclusion, there were variations and disparities in dietary diversity, energy and nutrient intake as well as nutrition status of infants and young children across season and districts in Karamoja sub-region of Uganda. Therefore, interventions to combat malnutrition among children 0-3 years need to take into account seasonal variations for each of the geographical locations in Karamoja sub-region.

Class imbalance problem that characterized with the skew distribution towards the majority arises as one challenge in recent years. Many oversampling techniques have been proposed to cope with this problem and some of them combine the oversampling procedure with the clustering algorithm which guaranteeing new synthetic samples being generated in clusters. However far-away samples but with the same minority sub-region are generally clustered into different groups owing to the characteristic of clustering algorithm itself. Therefore, the following oversampling procedure is mostly carried in incomplete minority sub-regions that synthetic samples not well cover the integral minority region. And to our best knowledge, none of existing algorithm is designed to directly estimate minority sub-regions for class imbalance problem. Thus, one new grouping algorithm, named Direction Distribution-based Minority Sub-region Estimation (DDMSE), is firstly proposed. The new algorithm exploits the intuitive observation, that the minority with the same sub-region almost distribute within the same direction when compared to other majority, to estimate minority sub-regions that tactfully ignoring negative impacts brought by the distance factor like in clustering algorithms. Finally, new synthetic samples are generated in those minority sub-regions. And experimental results on real-world datasets show the comparable performance with other state-of-the-art oversampling methods.

Saat ini, kegiatan pemanenan kayu di hutan alam lebih efisien dengan diterapkannya teknik pembalakan berdampak rendah (reduced impact logging, RIL). Pemanenan kayu yang lebih efisien akan mengurangi terjadinya limbah yang berakibat meningkatkan angka standar faktor eksploitasi (FE). Ironisnya hingga kini angka standar FE yang ditetapkan oleh Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan masih didasarkan pada cara pemanenan kayu konvensional, yaitu sebesar 0,7. Sub region Provinsi Kalimantan Tengah mempunyai peranan besar dalam menyumbang produksi kayu bulat hutan alam baik secara regional Pulau Kalimantan sebesar 61,5% dan secara Nasional sebesar 29,7%, namun belum diketahui banyaknya limbah pemanenan kayu dan besaran standar faktor eksploitasi. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui banyaknya limbah pemanenan kayu dan angka standard FE yang dilakukan oleh PBPH di sub region Kalimantan Tengah. Penelitian dilakukan di Perizinan Berusaha Pemanfaatan Hutan (PBPH) yang bersertifikat Pengelolaan Hutan Produksi Lestari (PHPL) mandatory dan PBPH bersertifikat PHPL voluntary. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa potensi limbah pemanenan kayu akibat pembagian batang di petak tebang rata-rata 0,919 m3/pohon dan besarnya limbah kayu akibat pengujian dan pengukuran di TPn berkisar rata-rata 0,093 m3/pohon. Angka FE berkisar antara 0,80-0,85 dengan rata-rata 0,82. Besar kecilnya angka FE lebih dipengaruhi oleh faktor ketrampilan penebang, kebijakan manajemen PBPH, dan diameter pohon ditebang.

Previous studies have projected an increase in future summer precipitation across East Asia (EA). This study investigates the relative contributions of thermodynamic and dynamic components to future precipitation changes in three key sub-regions of EA where the maximum centers of the historical precipitation are located (the tropical region, East China, and the Japan and Korea sector), and analyzes the causes of the changes in thermodynamic and dynamic components. Outputs from 30 climate models of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) are used. From these, the five best-performing models for historical summer precipitation climatology for EA are selected. The future summer precipitations in the three sub-regions over the near- to mid-term (2020–2069) and the long-term (2070–2095) are then examined using the multi-model ensemble mean of the five models selected (MMM05). The projections were driven by four combined scenarios of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and forcing levels of the Representative Concentration Pathways (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5). The results show that long-term precipitations under SSP5-8.5 are greater than those under the other scenarios across all sub-regions. After the 2070s under SSP5-8.5, a marked precipitation intensification is identified in all three sub-regions, but with different rates of increase. The projected precipitation increase is primarily attributed to the thermodynamic component, while the dynamic component related to circulation changes is relatively weak. Further analysis indicates that the pattern of the thermodynamic component in the three sub-regions is dominated by the climatological upward motion, mediated by an increase in moisture.

The policy of import substitution dominated developing economies especially Sub-Sharan African countries up till 1970. The focus later shifted to pursuing growth through increased export. Recently, countries of the West Africa Sub-region are clamoring for a revisit of growth through import substitution policies. This study therefore delved into the question of whether ECOWAS countries should go for import substitution growth strategy, or to develop strategy that promotes export-led growth, following the law of comparative advantage or a considerable mix of the two strategies. Using an export-augmented neoclassical production function, the study tested how relevant is the Export-led Growth Hypothesis for the ECOWAS sub-region over the period 1980-2014. Evidence does not offer a strong support for the Hypothesis in the short run but a strong evidence for improved capital stock and labor causing growth. However, long-run results suggest a significant relationship between export and growth but currently negative. A likely explanation of this negativity is that although exports, in the West African sub-regions has the tendency of increasing growth in the long run along with other factors of production, the present conditions of export, especially manufactured and agricultural exports, is experiencing a kind of “Import surge”. That is the import content of exports is high and the local content is low, thus reducing the spillover or multiplier effects. This was confirmed by the strong bilateral causality between export and import discovered in this study. A policy mix of import substitution and export promotion strategies was recommended for countries in this sub-region. Policies that will promote technological innovation in manufacturing and linkages with local suppliers alongside incentives to produce towards export are imperative. Production towards export should be focused on manufactured and agricultural products where each country has the highest comparative advantage so as to reduce the import content of the export.

Background: After the worldwide spread of the coronavirus pandemic, several experts predicted a health catastrophe in Africa. However, the expected earthquake ultimately did not occur and the statistics of the number COVID-19 cases and deaths for other continents (Europe, America, Asia) were far higher than those of Africa. This study focused on Central Africa tried to explain this low incidence of COVID-19. Methodology: A cross-sectional time series method was adopted and the data of COVID-19 cases and deaths for Angola, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome and Principe between March and November 2020 were extracted from the World Health Organization COVID-19 database. The evolution of COVID-19 cases and deaths for each country were plotted and the accuracy measures such as Mean Absolute Percentage Error, Median Absolute Deviation and Mean Squared Displacement were calculated. Association between the countries and the prevalence of cases, deaths and recovered was visualized through principal component analysis. Results: The results showed that the highest number of cases was observed in Cameroon (21,793) while Sao Tome and Principe scored the smallest one (962). However, based on the total population, the prevalence of COVID-19 cases was high in Sao Tome and Principe (0.436%) and Gabon (0.400%). The highest death percentages (≥2%) were observed in Chad (6.742%), RDC (2.708%) and Angola (2.592%) while the highest recovered percentages were in Gabon (99.10%), Equatorial Guinea (97.62%) and Cameroon (97.02%). Development of traditional medicines and modification of food behavior including consumption of plant extracts appear as the reasons for the highest recovered rates. The accuracy measurements showed that the trend curves were not correlated with the actual evolution of the pandemic, but the Spearman correlation test revealed that except Equatorial Guinea (r=0.042, p=0.817), the evolution of COVID-19 cases and deaths were strongly correlated. Conclusion: The overall prevalence and incidence of COVID-19 is low in the countries of the Central Africa sub-region despite the problems facing the health systems of these countries.

This study set out to establish entrepreneurship patterns in selected African universities and examine their potentials for institutional entrepreneurial transformation. The idea of the synergistic...

Stone raw material in the past was often extracted, processed, and used by different individuals. The relationships among these practices make quarries important spaces for understanding how econom...

Research background: Health outcome such as infant mortality rate is an important measure of the standard of living. It is a part of Millennium Development Goals, which all countries of the World strive to achieve, by allocating enormous economic resources to the health sector respectively. Purpose: The study assessed the impact of government expenditure on health and on health outcome (infant mortality rate) in the West Africa Sub-region. Research methodology: Secondary data were collected from 2000 to 2015 on thirteen countries in the Sub-region. Owing to the fact that the nature of the data involved is macro-panel data, the study performed the pre-estimation test (such as panel unit-root test and co-integration test) to ascertain the time series properties of the series. Based on the results of the pre-estimation tests, the work employed the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS). Results: It is found in the study that public health spending has an indirect impact on infant mortality rate in the West Africa Sub-region. Novelty: No extant study examined the impact of public expenditure on health and on maternal mortality rate using the West Africa Sub-region as an area of coverage. This study employed a fully modified OLS (FMOLS) to assess the impact of public expenditure on health and on infant mortality rate in the West Africa Sub-region.

PurposeSeaports play an immeasurable role in the advancement of international trade. They have been the common avenue for the transportation of goods and services from one continent to another, and it has also been the linking transport of one mode of transport to another. The study sought to assess the effect of paperless information technology (IT)-based custom clearance at Ghana Seaports on businesses and industrial supply chains in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThe study conducted a survey with a sample size of 200 trading firms in Ghana.FindingsThe study discovered that IT-based port clearance has positive impact on customer order fulfillment, transaction cost reduction and supply chain relationships.Practical implicationsWith the aim of making Ghana the transportation hub of businesses in the sub region, the paperless custom clearance has the potential to reduce delays at the port and improve their supply chain.Originality/valueThis paper provides researchers with a contemporary perspective toward understanding the effect of paperless custom clearance on the supply chain of businesses in the West African sub region.

NASA’s Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP), Visible Infra-red Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) data utilized to detect night time lights (NTL) radiances and fishing boat pixels using VI...

This paper reports on a study which was conducted to investigate the relationship between mentoring and teacher effectiveness in Government-aided secondary schools in the Acholi sub-region in Uganda. The study used a descriptive, cross-sectional survey design focusing on teachers in government-aided secondary schools in the Acholi sub-region. It found that the assistance given to teachers helps build their confidence, improve their teaching, and help teachers to improve their effectiveness and efficiency in guiding learners’ achievements. It concluded that helping teachers to improve their effectiveness in government-aided secondary schools builds teachers’ confidence in teaching and students’ learning. In this way, mentoring helps strengthen teachers’ classroom practices in Government aided secondary schools. Thus, the study recommended that mentoring guidance should focus on helping teachers employ social interactions and instructional practices; feedback and clarity in teaching that have direct measurable impacts on student learning achievements.

This paper explores the lived experiences of women in artisanal gold mining activities at Lolung and Chepkararat mines in Karamoja, north-eastern Uganda. It reports on the results of a study based on a qualitative research design, with data collected through key informant interviews, site observations, and focus group discussions. Although artisanal gold mining provides women with diverse opportunities, including employment and possibilities to earn an income, our results suggest that most of the lucrative mining opportunities are not available to them. Rather, the majority of women are engaged in undervalued, less-lucrative, and less-remunerated but labour-intensive support work that mirrors their domestic household routines. This contributes to their marginalization in society. Moreover, socio-cultural and customary moralities and practices are continually manipulated thereby legitimizing the exclusion of women from specific mining activities. We suggest that broadening the everyday resistance mechanisms of women miners, alongside the formalization of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activities, reinforced with affirmative action and education, could gradually reverse the marginalization of women in gold mines and contribute to their meaningful engagement in mining.

This study explores the relative changes and future projections of temperature and precipitation for baseline (1976–2005) and future (2006–2040, 2041–2070, and 2071–2100) periods for the Bajaur, Mohmand, and Khyber districts of Pakistan situated in the Hindu Kush region. Data from 14 GCMs (out of which five GCMs were selected based on evaluation and validation) and three RCMs were downscaled and bias corrected using the quantile delta mapping (QDM) method for GCMs and the best easy systemic (BES) method for RCMs. The future extremes were projected by using the standard indices from the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI). Uncertainty in the data was analysed by a probabilistic distribution function (PDF), boxplots, and standard deviation. For RCP4.5, the GCM and RCM projections show an increase in the average maximum temperature of 0.98 °C for 2006–2040, 1.89 °C and 2.04 °C for 2041–2070, and 2.25 °C and 2.56 °C for 2071–2100, respectively, while the increase is almost double for RCP8.5 during the last period (2071–2099) over the whole study area. The percent increase in precipitation over the whole study area from GCMs and RCMs for RCP4.5 is 10.00–17.00% and 21.14–34.47%, while for RCP8.5, it is 11.73–22.12% and 16.17–31.50%, respectively. In RCM projections for RCP4.5, the Khyber district will experience drier conditions in mid-century, while for GCMs (RCP4.5), the same conditions are projected through the end of the century. In terms of extreme events, warm temperature extremes and extreme precipitation events show an increasing trend accompanied by a decrease in cold extremes over all regions. Hence, it is concluded that warm and wet conditions are projected to prevail in all regions. However, GCM data depict less uncertainty compared with RCM data, and while models show less error for the baseline period, the error increases slightly for the future periods. Thus, this study provides research findings along with policy recommendations essential to combat the potential impacts of projected changes in the regional climate.

The paper examines the contributions of co-operative and saving societies in poverty reduction in Lango and Kigezi sub-region. The study adopted a comparative and cross-sectional survey design where bivariate and multivariate data analyses were used to analyze the data. Specifically, correlation and regression analysis were done to determine the relationship between financial contribution by savings and credit co-operative (SACCOS), saving culture and poverty reduction. The findings established that low-income households had inadequate access to cheap and affordable credit. In the two regions, the available credits offered by SACCOS were not cheap per say and the SACCOS offered credit at 10% per month, which translated into 120% per annum. The study reveals that microcredits create long-term indebtedness among the rural poor, and yet households are not competent in managing their finances. The saving culture in Kigezi sub-region is associated with political motivations and support from politicians. In contrast, in Lango sub-region, saving culture is associated with response to government programs that were aimed at reconstructing northern Uganda after the two decades of insurgency. The provision of more financial services would contribute to poverty reduction and training of households on the utilization of financial credit. Key words: Cooperative and saving societies, savings and credit co-operative (SACCOS), financial services, poverty reduction.

Climate change generates so many direct and indirect effects on the environment. Some of those effects have serious consequences. Rain-induced flooding is one of the direct effects of climate change and its impact on the environment is usually devastating and worrisome. Floods are one of the most commonly occurring disasters and have caused significant damage to life, including agriculture and economy. They are usually caused in areas where there is excessive downpour and poor drainage systems. The study uses Feedforward Multilayer Neural Network to perform short-term prediction of the amount of rainfall flood for the Niger Delta sub region of Nigeria given previous rainfall data for a specified period of time. The data for training and testing of the Neural Network was sourced from Weather Underground official web site https://www.wunderground.com. An iterative Methodology was used and implemented in MATLAB. We adopted multi-layer Feedforward Neural Networks. The study accurately predicts the rain-induced flood for the Niger Delta sub region of Nigeria.

Although the BBIN (Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal) sub-region shares identical socio-economic characteristics and secures considerable benefits from energy co-operation and power grid connectivity, ...

Strategic tillage can be regarded as an important management option under conservation agriculture (CA). The effects of tillage practice and cropping sequence on volumetric water (mm mm-1), inorgan...

Uganda continues to experience high-refugee population influx that is beyond the established settlement capacities. Little information is available on the present and future impacts of settling ref...

Allah initiates the establishment of attainment and achievement, so beginning of one and the same code decreed for mankind is Allah in his rulings, or else its always failure. Simultaneously, it is decreed that they also code everything, even commands and forbidden things and relays it to humans through prophecy, Allah does not speak to everyone directly. So the beginning of prophecy series was done by Hazrat Adam (A.S) and end of the destiny was done by Hazrat Muhammad ﷺ. During Sixty three years of his life in peace He took the process to highest reaching stars, and testimony of the companions of the Prophet's legacy at Hija-tul-wada is a proof. Responsibility for the mission was inherited by scholars who comprehensively handled it in every time and place. Syed Ahmed Shaheed was a renowned member of the same party. His great achievement is that the religion of Muhammad and his followers renewed Sunni embraces it while the first stages, has led to emigration and jihad, that's your secret of success in the eyes of Muslims lies in the same. To achieve this goal, He selected great northwest, NWFP as center of militant activity. Thanks to Allah Almighty whose support and help led to successive victories and made practical implementation of the system possible. Revivalist movement that was near to illuminates the whole country, but people personal interests, greed and love for wealth and splendor began to pursue than the movement turned towards the Valley of Hazara and the final battle was fought here in Balakot too and he received martyrdom. Death of the martyr is the life of nation. Manifestation of the countless Islamic revivalist movement in the sub region which exist today did not deny anyone.

Understanding the spatial patterns of land-use and land-cover (LULC) and their driving forces in transnational areas is important for the sustainable development of these regions. However, the spatial patterns of LULC and their driving forces across multiple scales are poorly understood in transnational areas. In this study, we analyzed the spatial patterns of LULC and driving forces in the transnational area of Tumen River (TATR) in 2016 across two scales: the entire region and the sub-regions of China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and Russia. Results showed that the LULC was dominated by broadleaf forest and dry farmland in the TATR in 2016, which accounted for 66.86% and 13.60% of the entire region, respectively. Meanwhile, the LULC in the three sub-regions exhibited noticeable differences. In the Chinese and the DPRK’s sub-regions, the area of broadleaf forest was greater than those for the other LULC types, while the Russian sub-region was dominated by broadleaf forest and grassland. The spatial patterns of LULC were mainly influenced by topography, climate, soil properties, and human activities. In addition, the driving forces of the spatial patterns of LULC in the TATR had an obvious scaling effect. Therefore, we suggest that effective policies and regulations with cooperation among China, the DPRK, and Russia are needed to plan the spatial patterns of LULC and improve the sustainable development of the TATR.

Aims: Alterations in the cerebrum structurally and functionally are triggered largely due to an increase in neuro depressive brain disorders like Alzheimer’s. This study aims is to determine these alterations in the regions of the cerebrum which are significant and distinguishing in Alzheimer’s disease subjects compared to healthy. We employ the most potential resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) modality for this analysis. Methodology: 24 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and 25 Healthy Controlled (HC) subjects were evaluated with rs-fMRI which is more efficient in anticipating neuronal activity changes. Thus, obtained data of all subjects were preprocessed and components of larger networks to smaller regions were extracted by independent component analysis (ICA) method. Differences in resting-state connectivity were examined for 6 networks of interest viz., Auditory network, Central Executive network, Default mode network, Silence mode network, Sensory-motor network and Visual network and their regions, which are affected due to the common symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease-like memory, thinking and behavioral changes. Statistical analysis was done with one sample t-test to check the functional connectivity activations in Resting-State Networks (RSNs) and regions of both AD & HC groups at a threshold of T>2. Finally, to obtain the abnormal sub-regions in each of the RSNs of AD a two-sample t-test was carried out at a threshold of P < .03. Results: Our method potentially identifies the functional connectivity alterations and core regions dysfunction amongst the major 6 RSNs in AD compared to HC subjects. The results also showed decreased connectivity in regions of sensory-motor and default mode networks increased connectivity in regions of central executive and silence mode network along with some of the sub-regions dysfunctions in AD. Conclusion: Modifications in functional connectivity within the major RSNs and regions have been detected which serves as a capability to determine an early biomarker and examining the disease progression.

This paper investigates the impact of regional economic cooperation between Vietnam and its partners during the 2000-2015 period, focusing on the...

The cytoarchitectonic properties of the primary motor cortex have shown two distinct sub-regions: Anterior Broadmann area 4 (BA4a) and Posterior Broadmann area 4 (BA4p). Some previous studies have suggested that these two sub-regions are functionally different and showed that in few fMRI experiments, these sub-regions may have different roles in brain functions. Resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI) is advanced technique that allows investigating in detail the functional connectivity and provides a greater understanding of the physiological behavior of different brain regions. In this study, 198 healthy subjects were examined using a region-based rsfMRI analysis to investigate whether BA4a and BA4p have similar or different connections to other brain networks. The finding shows that indeed these two sub-regions have distinct connectivity to different brain networks. BA4a has a greater connection to motor-related areas while BA4p has connections to nonmotor-related areas (such as sensory, attentional, and higher order regions), suggesting that these two sub-regions should be considered as two separate regions of interests.

Nitrogen effects the productivity, botanical composition and quality of grass-clover pastures. Responses to N fertilisation are area and season specific and must be quantified to ensure optimal eco...

The main objective of this paper is to verify the effect of foreign debt on economic growth in sub-Saharan African sub-regions from 1980 to 2017. The paper applies the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) with robust standard deviations using the Lewbel’s estimator (2012). Results indicate that foreign debt significantly enhances growth in four zones (SADC, EAC, CEMAC and ECOWAS) with different bearable thresholds. This seems to suggest that creditors may be aware that countries do not exceed their bearable threshold at least at regional level.

Freshwater ecosystems are the most vulnerable worldwide and freshwater bivalves rank amongst the most threatened animals in the world. Surveying and monitoring freshwater bivalves are difficult tasks: they are difficult to find, hard to identify (taxonomic expertise is needed), and working underwater is technically challenging. It is therefore crucial to find more efficient methods to survey and monitor these species. Here, we present the first metabarcoding approach for freshwater bivalves and compare environmental DNA (eDNA) and traditional surveys. We describe two sets of primers (for Unionida and Venerida) developed for freshwater bivalves eDNA metabarcoding. These primers have been tested in the field, with about 300 studied sites. Results were compared to freshwater bivalves’ surveys using traditional methods, with eDNA always detecting more species than traditional surveys, especially when Sphaerids were taken into account. While our study initially focused on Western Palearctic freshwater bivalve species, our primers were confronted in silico with available sequences and have proven to be effective at a global scale. The results show that eDNA metabarcoding, with our developed primers, is a remarkable tool allowing for non-invasive surveys, detection of rare and inconspicuous species, absence data and overall freshwater bivalves routine monitoring.

The Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), including five Southeast Asian countries and China, has experienced a significant increase in the cultivation of opium, trafficking of heroin and methamphetamine, and consumption of these illicit drugs. In recent years, the GMS has been expanded considerably as supply, destination, and transit route for illegal drug trade’s networks to and through, particularly when China officially applied ‘Belt and Road’ strategy. This paper reviews historical aspects and current trends in drug production and trafficking in the GMS, with special emphasis on Mekong River areas where China is ‘located’ as the heart of the transition. Some evidence consistent with the ‘supply, destination, and transit route’ arguments is found through locating and mapping drug trafficking networks to connect with China. Finally, this paper calls for some initial recommendations to improve the process of bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the GMS within the scope of Belt and Road Initiative.

The development patterns of both historical and contemporary demographic transitions are essential in understanding the outcomes of age structure changes among the countries. Existing literature analyzing demographic transition as a precursor to population ageing does not classify countries or regions worldwide by the scale and dynamics of those processes. The aim of this paper is to identify and describe the differentiation of quantum and tempo effects of changes taking place during the demographic transition through classification of sub-regions and selected countries worldwide. The results of this research, based on the historical vital statistics starting from as far as 1736 and future projections until 2100, feature how sub-regions and selected countries in the world are differentiated in terms of the scale and dynamics of the demographic transition process. The analysis reveals the fact that majority of sub-regions in the world tend(ed) to undergo long transitions lasting over 70 years, though contemporary demographic transitions demonstrate higher intensity and higher maximal rates of natural increase. African sub-regions are expected to experience relatively long processes of declining birth and death rates and estimated to complete their demographic transition in 90 years on average. The fastest processes, however, are observed in South America and Eastern Asia where some countries like China, for instance, completed their transitions in just 50 years. The scale and dynamics of demographic transition processes can serve as the ground for further research of challenges and development opportunities resulting from ageing societies during consequent post-transitional stages.

PurposeRecent works on the structural transformation of developing countries usually include only a few countries because of the availability of data. Beyond the resulting lack of representativeness, these works also hit a strong disparity between the labour reallocation patterns of sub-regions. This paper devoted to sub-Saharan Africa, evaluates the performance of sub-Saharan Africa, as a whole, in structural transformation using a more exhaustive database and highlights key disparities that exist between the performances of sub-Saharan African sub-regions.Design/methodology/approachWith a database covering 43 sub-Saharan African countries classified into 4 sub-regions, the paper uses the shift-share method over the period 1991–2012 with sub-periods of 1991–2000 and 2000–2012.FindingsResults show that labour reallocation in sub-Saharan Africa occurred, though weakly, towards more productive activities over the period 1991–2012. Results also show a significant disparity between sub-regions' labour reallocation pattern. While East Africa has experienced a labour reallocation towards more productive activities, West Africa has seen a labour reallocation towards activities experiencing an increase in productivity. Central Africa and Southern Africa experienced a labour reallocation towards less productive activities, and these activities know, moreover, a decrease of productivity.Practical implicationsFindings suggest that any political strategy purposing to coordinate structural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa will result in a failure if countries' peculiarities are not taken into account.Originality/valueThis paper offers a representative picture of sub-Saharan Africa's structural transformation and illustrates disparities between its sub-regions' performances.

The purpose of the study was to quantify local setup errors and evaluate the planning target volume (PTV) margins for sub-regions in cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)-guided post-mastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT). The local setup errors of 20 patients undergoing CBCT-guided PMRT were analysed retrospectively. Image registration between CBCT and planning CT was performed using four sub-regions of interest (ROIs): the supraclavicular area (SROI), ipsilateral chest wall region (CROI), ipsilateral chest wall plus supraclavicular region (SROI + CROI) and vertebral region (TROI). Bland–Altman analysis, correlation, local setup errors and PTV margins among these ROIs were evaluated. There was no significant consistency or correlation for registration results between the TROI and the CROI or SROI regions on any translational axis. When using the SROI + CROI as the ROI, the systematic error (Σ) and random error (σ) of the local setup errors for the CROI region were 1.81, 1.19 and 1.76 mm and 1.84, 2.64 and 3.00 mm along the medial–lateral (ML), superior–inferior (SI) and anterior–posterior (AP) directions, respectively. The PTV margins for the CROI region were 5.80, 4.82 and 6.50 mm. The Σ and σ of the local setup errors for the SROI region were 1.29, 1.15 and 0.77 mm and 1.96, 2.65 and 2.2 mm, respectively, and the PTV margins were 4.59, 4.73 and 3.47 mm. Large setup errors and local setup errors occur in PMRT. The vertebral body should not be a position surrogate for the supraclavicular region or chest wall. To compensate for the local setup errors, different PTV margins are required, even with CBCT guidance.

Assessment of regional (sub-national) impacts of climate change has gained increasing attention in the literature. This study uses four decades of district-level information and variations in regio...

Introduction: Despite being referred to as one of the country’s “food baskets”, 41% of children, 6 - 59 months of age in the Rwenzori sub-region, Western Uganda are stunted. Stunting is a form of chronic malnutrition in which children are short for their age. In this study, we established the prevalence and determinants of stunting in one of the sub-counties in this region. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted in one of the sub-counties in the Rwenzori sub-region, Western Uganda from May 26th to June 26th, 2018. A total of 372 mothers and their children were recruited using systematic sampling. Data was collected using a questionnaire. Stunting was determined by taking child’s height or length and comparing it with child’s age. A child whose height or length for age index was less than −2 Standard Deviations (SD) was considered stunted. We used descriptive statistics to understand characteristics of mothers and multivariable logistic regression model to obtain the determinants of stunting. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: A total of 372 mothers and their children were included in this study; majority, 307 (83.0%) of the children were 6 - 24 months old and nearly half, 167 (44.9%) were stunted. We found that reserving food stock for use in the dry season (aOR = 0.23, CI = 0.08 - 0.62, p = 0.004), deworming children (aOR = 0.32, CI = 0.18 - 0.54, p = 0.001) and the family earning at least 10,000 Ushs (2.7USD) at the end of the month (aOR = 0.36, CI = 0.22 - 0.58, P = 0.001) were associated with no stunting. Conclusions: We found a high prevalence of stunting among children 6 - 59 months of age. We recommend enforcing ownership of food granary by households especially during dry season, support to de-worming programs targeting children below five years of age and establishing community based income generating livelihood projects.