Introduction and Background: Globally, food insecurity is on the increase due to many factors exacerbated by climate change. Food insecurity has been linked to chronic diseases like hypertension as it elevates stress levels and alters metabolism due to sudden changes in food availability and consumption. Food insecurity can also result from hypertension due to high costs associated with dietary adjustments, medication and complications. Sub-Saharan Africa is disproportionately affected, 26% of households in Uganda face stressed food insecurity, 29% and 11% of children under 5 are stunted and underweight respectively due to lack of food. In 2017, 37% of people in West-Nile were food insecure. By 2020, 55% of People in Arua Municipality (now city) were food insecure, 20% faced severe food insecurity and thousands of children under 5 years were malnourished. The burden of food insecurity and hypertension in Uganda is likely to increase if appropriate interventions are not put in place. Objective: This study sought to determine the prevalence of household food insecurity and its association with presence of a hypertensive adult in the household in Arua Municipality. Methods: This was a cross sectional study among adults 18 to 59 years in Arua Municipality. A total of 26 cells and 366 households were randomly selected. Participants should have lived in Arua Municipality six months or more prior and the study excluded pregnant women and critically ill persons. Food security was assessed using the food consumption score and reduced coping strategy indicators. Blood pressure was measured using the upper arm cuff type digital blood pressure machine. Data was entered into excel and imported to Stata software version 14 for analysis. Prevalence of food insecurity was based on both food security indicators.

Biogas is a type of biofuel that is naturally produced from the anaerobic decomposition of organic waste, composed of mostly methane and carbon dioxide though other trace elements may be formed are the major constituents. When organic matter, such as food scraps and animal waste, break down in an anaerobic environment they release a blend of gases, primarily methane and carbon dioxide. Anaerobic digestion is a natural form of waste-to-energy that uses the process of fermentation to breakdown organic matter. Biogas is a clean- burning “green” gas used for heating, cooking, transport, and power generation. Dissemination of biogas energy is constrained by inadequate preparation of feedstock, few number of locally trained technicians, poor workmanship and competition from other energy sources. The study was carried out by carrying out prefeasibility study in districts of Kampala, Mbarara, Isingiro, Mityana and Wakiso to assess the performance of possible digesters and the challenges biogas users face. This study investigated the digestion of cow dung, pig dung and chicken waste for biogas production at laboratory scale with an aim to establish optimal conditions for digestion of the mentioned feedstock. The laboratory study was carried out by mixing together different ratios of cow dung, pig dung and chicken waste under mesophilic conditions (temperature between 27-350c) and a pH of (6.2 to 6.8) for 30 days. The biogas obtained from the experiment was analyzed using a biogas analyzer to test its quality by getting the percentage composition of the constituents from the samples. The results from the experiment show that 25% pig dung and 75% cow dung gives the optimal mixing ratio for optimal biogas production in Uganda. It was also proved that investment in biogas technology is a viable venture basing on the fact that it has a shorter payback period (PBP) and a positive Net Present Value (NPV) and since optimal biogas production indicates large volume of biogas production in a given time, further gas cleaning and upgrading to improve its quality as well as increasing the heating value makes this gas an efficient and cost effective source of energy for engines, boilers, vehicles, and power generation.

REITS allow individuals to invest in large-scale, income producing real estate which includes office buildings, shopping malls, apartments, hotels, resorts, warehouses and mortgage or loans. In the world today, REITS are becoming increasingly popular however in Uganda the field is still largely not explored. This research aims to investigate the potential of Real Estate Investment Trust Schemes for local institutional investors in Uganda as a way through which individuals can invest in the local real estate industry which imposes a number of limitations on new investors. A combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the collection of data where a number of individuals affiliated to institutional investors were approached. Data was collected using either questionnaires or interviews where a total number of 40 respondents took part in the research. The research findings in chapter four reveal that a majority of the respondents are aware of the existence and operation of REITS where a majority would consider investing in them through their institutional investors once they were fully developed and introduced on the market. It was also revealed that those invested in REITS enjoy a number of benefits which include easy access to and ownership of real estate, investment diversification benefits, complementary to direct investment in real estate and an increased regular income. The study also revealed that investors are subject to various risks which include real estate portfolio risk, market and liquidity risk, interest rate risk, geographic concentration risk, structural and regulatory risk and general economic risk. The development of REITS would also lead to the development of the local real estate industry through the creation of a transparent and flexible market, professionally managed real estate and increased supply of real estate properties among other improvements. Much as REITS regulations were implemented by the CMA in Uganda, there are no licenced and registered schemes in the country. From this research, it was discovered that the low development of REITS as an investment vehicle is attributed to policy, operation and regulations, low awareness about REITS to investors or developers, understanding the operation of stock market, performance of local real estate industry, new legislation, development of the capital markets in Uganda and finally competition from other financial intermediaries.

According to the cross roads program end of project 2015, the annual national road maintenance budget for Uganda increased from a mere UGX180bn in 2011/12 to UGX452bn in 2014/15 a huge increase of 151%. Most of this funding is channeled through the Uganda road funding. In spite of this increase however, the maintenance of roads in most districts in Uganda especially Kampala, indicate that a lot of supervision and monitoring needs to be done to ensure compliance with standing guidelines and most importantly that actual maintenance is carried out. This research aimed at generally establishing the variations and relationships between the drainage condition and road conditions in Kampala. Poor drainage has caused early deterioration of roadways leading to increased road maintenance costs, increased road accidents due to skidding and other structural failures. There was thus a need to establish the extent to which inadequate drainage on roads affects road performance. This was done through the examination of the drainage features on the selected roads as well as the road conditions of the roads. Since the road deterioration rate was found to be high, about 14%, there is need to implement closely monitored and supervised periodical maintenance works on roads. This can include activities like de-siltation of drains, removal of vegetation growth in drains and replacement of the damaged drainage features. Key Words Roadside Drainage, Paved Road, Road Deterioration, Road Maintenance

Background: The incidence of traumatic brain injury has paralleled the need for decompression surgery for acute subdural (ASDH) and extradural heamatoma (AEDH). However, there is paucity of data on key determinants and clinical outcomes of these patients in low income countries. Objective: To determine the thirty day clinical outcomes and associated factors among patients with acute subdural and extradural heamatomas at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Uganda. Methods: This was a prospective cohort study of 109 patients with Computed Tomography (CT) confirmed extra-axial heamatomas. Ethical Clearance was obtained from School of Medicine Research and Ethics Committee of College of Health Sciences, Makerere University (REC REF. 2018-185). Independent variables were documented and patients were reassessed thirty days later for Glasgow outcome scale (GOS) and final disposition. Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were computed using Stata 14.0 (StataCorp. 2015), to determine the presence and strength of association, if any, between independent and dependent variables, at 95% confidence interval, regarding p<0.05 as statistically significant. Results. Of the 109 recruits, 99 (90.8%) were completely followed-up for analysis. The median age was 29 years and median post resuscitation GCS was 13. Of the 99 participants majority 90.9% (n=90) were male. Majority 71.7% (n=71) were diagnosed with AEDH and 2 participants had both heamatomas concurrently. The overall mortality rate was 16.2% (n=16) and overall proportion of unfavourable outcome was 28.9% (29). Only 22.2% (22) recovered with minor deficits. The following were found to be protective against unfavourable outcome at multivariate analysis; Admission Systolic BP>90mmHg [IRR=0.88 (0.26-0.94) 95%CI, p=0.032), Oxygen saturation>90% [IRR=0.5 (0.26-0.94) 95%CI, p=0.030] and Diagnosis AEDH rather than ASDH [IRR=0.53 (0.30-0.92) 95%CI, p= 0.025). Severity of TBI correlated with unfavourable outcome, moderate TBI [IRR=4.57 (1.15-18.06) 95%CI, P=0.03] and severe TBI [IRR=6.79 (2.32-19.86) 95%CI, p<0.001]. Conclusion. The study revealed that 28.9% of the patients with extra-axial heamatoma obtained unfavourable outcome by thirty days from injury date. Post resuscitation Systolic BP >90 mm Hg and SPO2 > 90% are associated with reduced odds of unfavourable outcome, while moderate and severe TBI correlates with increased odds of having unfavourable outcomes. These factors are valuable for the triaging teams based in resource constrained settings. Key words: Epidural Heamatoma, Subdural Heamatoma, Clinical Outcome, Factors, Uganda.

Globally, large mammals are increasingly faced with anthropogenic disturbances threatening the sustainability of the ecosystem services derived from them. Changes in land use cover are also a major function of anthropogenic forces which has a considerable potential to offset large mammal populations. With the need to conserve these biological resources, the impact of human activities and land-use changes on the diversity and distribution of large mammals was assessed in Nimule National Park using a total of 34 transects distributed across the heavily disturbed (buffer) and relatively undisturbed park area (inside the park). Shannon Wiener Index was used to measure the diversity of large mammals and polynomial multiple regressions was used to evaluate the impact of human activities on large mammals’ species. Supervised image classification algorithms based on maximum likelihood were used to detect land-use changes from the Landsat satellite imagery for the years 1996, 2006 and 2016. The diversity of large mammals was not significantly different between the buffer and the interior of the park. However, larger mammals’ distribution was significantly different among different habitat types. The most prevalent human activities observed in the study area were livestock grazing, firewood collection, and poaching. Human activities did not have a significant impact on the abundance of large mammals. The land use/cover change analysis results revealed that between the periods of 1996 to 2006, there was a decrease in the built-up area (3.7%), farmland (2.8 %), and open woodland (63.7%). These changes could be attributed to the displacement of local communities because of the civil war during that period. For the period 2006 to 2016, there was an observed increase in a built-up area (3.1%) and open woodland (49.7%) and a decrease in grassland (29.5%), farmland (0.7%), and open forest (21.7%) cover. The results from remote sensing indicated that there were significant changes in some land uses and land cover classes. The study recommends a detailed survey to be carried out on the population status of all mammals’ species in the park and the impact of human activities on their behaviours well as monitoring their habitats through satellite images every ten years.

This research is about the development of a borehole which operates in such a way that the pumping action is initiated by the swinging of the pendulum. The human arm, leg are used to operate the borehole by swinging the pen- dulum. Therefore less amount of energy is required to produce a reasonable output. According to the study, three machine parameters determine the amount of discharge obtained from the borehole and these parameters are length, mass and position of the pendulum. Generally, i found out that when the length of the pendulum is increased, the discharge obtained in a given time also increases and a graph of discharge against length is a curve which appears in an increasing manner. Further, when more weights are added to the pendulum, the discharge obtained in a given time increases and a graph of discharge against mass is a straight line with a positive gradient. Con- cerning the position of the pendulum, the more the angle the pendulum is displaced, the more the input energy and this inturn results into an increase in discharge obtained, the graph of discharge against input energy is a curve which appears in an increasing manner but less steep as compared to the graph of discharge against length obtained in the former case. A long meter rule was used to measure dierent length of the pendulum, known masses each of half kilogram were gradually added to the pendum, a protractor was used to measure the angle of displacement of the pendulum, a stop clock was used to determine the time at which readings were taken and a 100 ml measuring cylinder was used to determine the discharge obtained at all the three parameters. However due to the fact that most materials that i used in the project were wooden and othes plastic, further research need to be done when metallic materials which are more ecient are used so that even more weights can be added to the pendulum without breaking and hence large output of the liquid is obtained.

Introduction: Anaemia in pregnancy is a global problem with deleterious consequences. It remains unacceptably high despite various interventions. There is scarcity of data on the prevalence of anaemia among women admitted in labour in Uganda. We therefore, aimed to determine the prevalence and factors associated with anaemia (Hb<11g/dl) among women admitted in labour at Kawempe National Referral Hospital. Methods: A cross sectional study was performed where women in labour at 28+weeks of gestation were approached. Data was collected from 337 participants using an interviewer administered questionnaire. Haemoglobin concentration was obtained using portable HemoCueRHb 301 system. The prevalence of anaemia was determined as a proportion of women with hemoglobin < 11.0g/dl. A logistic regression analysis was then performed for factors associated with anaemia. Results: The prevalence of anaemia among women admitted in labour was 20.5%. In the multivariate analysis, after adjusting for potential confounders, women admitted with preterm labour (<37 weeks of gestation) were about five times more likely to have anaemia (AOR:4.63,95%CI: 2.31-9.26, p<0.001). Women who were HIV positive were about five times more likely to have anaemia in pregnancy (AOR:4.52,95%CI:2.22-9.17, p<0.001).However, association between inconsistent intake of iron supplements in the last month prior to admission and anaemia found at bivariate analysis was not confirmed in the adjusted model. Conclusion and recommendations: Anaemia among women admitted in labour was high in our setting and positively associated with HIV infection and preterm labour. Women with these conditions in resource limited settings should routinely have a haemoglobin test so that timely interventions are done.

Air quality in Kampala city has deteriorated significantly during the past two decades and this has been attributed to the fast-pace of economic development and poor infrastructural development with a rapidly increasing health. The study main objective was to assess the effect of air pollution on health in Kampala City in Uganda. The datasets used in this study included concentration levels obtained from Air Quality Monitoring at US. Embassy Kampala, Uganda (www.airnow.gov), and Airqo (www.airqo.net) from College of Computing and Information Sciences, Makerere University and data on respiratory concerns and other health effects around Kampala city was obtained from ministry of health from the department of public health and environment (KCCA) which acts as data custodian for all the divisions that make up Kampala city. The hourly characteristics of concentration levels of PM2.5 within Kampala city depicted that the high coefficients of variation are at US-Embassy, Kireka, Bunamwaya and Makerere (80.8%, 100.9%, 70.8% and 69.8%) and low coefficient of variation at Bweyogerere (49.5%). Significant spatial variations in concentration levels of PM2.5 were observed at US-Embassy, Kireka, Bunamwaya and Bweyogerere as compared to concentration levels of PM2.5 at Makerere air quality measuring point. Time series results indicated increase in hourly concentration levels of PM2.5 at Bunamwaya and Makerere while decreases are observed at Bweyogerere, US-Embassy and Kireka air quality measuring points. Mann Kendall results depicted Makerere and Bunamwaya with positive trends (0.004 and 0.009) that are statistically significant whereas US-Embassy, Kireka and Bweyogerere have negative trends (-0.015,-0.011 and -0.005) though they are statistically significant at critical value (0.05). Results from the health cases analysis indicate that the highest number of respiratory cases being recorded at Kampala Central Division Health center (30.3%) and the least being recorded at Mulago National Referral Hospital Complex with (2.3%). Furthermore, the biggest percentage of the health effects associated with concentration levels of PM2.5 on health goes to Cough or Cold (82.3%) and the least observed under lung cancer (0.03%). Therefore resulted in the rejection of the null hypothesis (H0) and that there are significant variations in the concentration levels of PM2.5 in Kampala City and these results will be used in understanding the effects of air pollution on health in Kampala City.

This is a research based project on resilience and resource ecient service function chaining in future networks. It addresses the challenge on how to guarantee survivability of critical services while efciently utilizing the exhaustible resources of the shared substrate network. First, this project proposes a generic multi-layer graph based algorithm as an alternative algorithm for SFC deployment across a single substrate network. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is optimized in terms of resource utilization and results show an improvement in terms of acceptance compared to a state of the art algorithm. Based on that multi-layer graph based algorithm, we propose a migration-aware algorithm that enables non-critical service applications to share the unused backup resources of critical services in a way that minimizes future preemption of these users from the shared resources. The migration-aware algorithm results into minimal resource consumption in most scenarios compared to a dedicated backup scheme and an improved performance in terms of the number of service preemptions compared to a cost based algorithm. Additionally, whenever low priority users are pre-empted from the shared resources, the project proposes a QoS-aware global-rerouting algorithm for remapping such users while minimizing the level of service interruption resulting from migration of surviving VNFs and virtual links to other substrate nodes and paths. The proposed algorithm is shown to outperform a service restoration scheme based on local rerouting in terms of successful service restoration and resource consumption.