BackgroundIn Ethiopia most childbirth occurs at home and is not assisted by skilled birth attendants. On the other hand having a birth attendant with midwifery skills during child birth is one of the most important interventions in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to make an in-depth assessment of reasons why mothers do not use health facilities for child delivery.MethodsFocus Group Discussions were used to gather information on use of health facilities for delivery in Butajira districts of South Central Ethiopia. The study was conducted from January to February 2012. Information was collected from four groups of women who had delivered in the past two years and four groups of men whose wives/partners have delivered in the same period. Data was coded and categorized using open code, qualitative data management software and analyzed based on thematic analysis.ResultsA total of eight FGD sessions, four with women and four with men groups were conducted involving 81 residents of the Butajira district. FGD participants answered that a large majority of women in the district gave birth at home. Two major themes, client related factors and facility/staff factors, emerged. Factors that emerged within major themes of client factors were decision making on place of delivery, reliance on Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), misconception about services provided at health facility, inability of family members to be present at time of labor and delivery, lack of privacy, traditional and/or spiritual factors, economic factors and accessibility to health care facilities. Within major themes of facility/staff factors subthemes that emerged were poor reception, refusal of admission, lack of privacy, information gap, poor competence and shortage of staff and materials at health facilities.ConclusionWomen in the study areas do not deliver in health facilities because of reasons that can be attributed to health care system and client related factors. These need to be addressed by considering the specific factors related to the health system and community perspectives.

Naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber) can be extremely long-lived and are resistant to cancer. Hence, they have been proposed as a model organism for delayed ageing. Adaptation to a constant hypoxic and hypercapnic environment has been suggested as reason for their apparent ability to tolerate oxidative stress. Nevertheless, little is known about the natural habitat to which the species evolved. Naked mole-rat burrow environments were assessed in Ethiopia and Kenya. Despite reported thermolability of naked mole-rats, skin temperature upon capture varied (23.7-35.4°C), mostly within the species' thermoneutral zone, demonstrating their ability to maintain homoiothermy even under wide fluctuations of burrow temperature (24.6-48.8°C) and humidity (31.2%-92.8%), which are far greater than previously reported. Burrow temperature regularly alternates during the daytime and night-time, driving convective currents that circulate air in the tunnels. Consequently, concentrations of CO 2 and O 2 in burrows only slightly deviated from surface atmosphere. This contradicts the assumption of constant hypoxia/hypercapnia in subterranean burrows. In addition to diffusion, animal movement and occasional wind-driven ventilation, our data support the temperature-driven convective model of circulation. The naked mole-rat burrow is a relatively normoxic subterranean microenvironment with considerable fluctuations in temperature and humidity. La temp erature des terriers alterne r eguli erement entre le jour et la nuit, entraînant

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The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is a subterranean mouse-sized African mammal that shows astonishingly few age-related degenerative changes and seems to not be affected by cancer. These features make this wild rodent an excellent model to study the biology of healthy aging and longevity. Here we characterize for the first time the intestinal microbial ecosystem of the naked mole-rat in comparison to humans and other mammals, highlighting peculiarities related to the specific living environment, such as the enrichment in bacteria able to utilize soil sulfate as a terminal electron acceptor to sustain an anaerobic oxidative metabolism. Interestingly, some compositional gut microbiota peculiarities were also shared with human gut microbial ecosystems of centenarians and Hadza hunter-gatherers, considered as models of a healthy gut microbiome and of a homeostatic and highly adaptive gut microbiota-host relationship, respectively. In addition, we found an enrichment of short-chain fatty acids and carbohydrate degradation products in naked mole-rat compared to human samples. These data confirm the importance of the gut microbial ecosystem as an adaptive partner for the mammalian biology and health, independently of the host phylogeny.

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The use of high-frequency (5 MHz) ultrasonography was studied in 11 jennies (7 non-pregnant and 4 pregnant) to characterize the reproductive organs and follicular activities at different stages of reproduction. The result showed close similarity with the mare. The visibility of endometrial folds increased towards ovulation. A positive correlation (p < 0.001; tau = 0.79) was found between the score of the folds and the size of the dominant follicle. The diameter of the uterus and the size of the dominant follicle were significantly correlated (p < 0.001; r = 0.80). In pregnant jennies, an embryonic vesicle was detectable at 14 days. Follicular growth was characterized by more than one wave. The smallest ovarian follicle was 2 mm and the largest 40mm. Depending on the reproductive stage, up to 13 follicles were detected per ovary. After monitoring 84 cycles, a mean (+/- SD) diameter of 34.4 +/- 3.6 mm (27.5-40.2 mm) of the preovulatory follicle and 67.85% incidence of single ovulation were found. The mean (+/-SD) interovulatory interval was 25.7 +/- 6 days. This study proved that high-frequency ultrasonography is highly effective in characterizing the reproductive organs and follicular activity of jennies and could be useful in the reproductive management of donkeys.