Browsing by Author "Asasira, J."

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    The Abundance of Birds in Uganda’s inhabited Areas and the Importance of Pastoral Areas
    (African Journal of Ecology, 2008) Asasira, J.; Pomeroy, D.
    The Uganda bird-monitoring programme has so far generated more than 18,600 observations from the 37 sites where land birds are monitored annually. Ten of the sites are in farmed area (agroecosystems), thirteen in semi-natural pastoral ecosystems and fourteen in natural ecosystems (mainly national parks). The farms are almost entirely small-scale and very diverse in their land use systems. Monitoring is by Timed Species Counts from which the frequency of recording of each species at each site can be generated (with over 460 species recorded so far, the overall spread sheet contains many zero values). The species numbers overall were the highest at natural sites (375 species), which also had the highest numbers of birds that often use trees, and those which are specialist grassland or aerial species or Palearctic visitors; but numbers of Red Data species are the highest in semi-natural sites. As one would expect, formerly forested areas and moist savannas support most tree birds, whilst Red Data species were most frequently recorded in areas of impeded drainage – typically, these are periodically flooded. Grassland specialists are more common in dry than in moist savannas. Palearctic migrants are nowhere common. Uganda’s pastoral areas, on which domestic livestock graze and browse on predominant natural vegetation, are rich in birds and deserve a much more detailed study.
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    Capturing the benefits of Ecosystem Services to guide Decision-making in the Greater Virungas Landscape of the Albertine Rift Region
    (University of Cambridge and WWF-US, 2012) Kasangaki, A.; Kanyamibwa, S.; Burgess, N.D.; Nasero, N.; Asasira, J.; Maritim, Z.
    The Greater Virunga Landscape (GVL) is a biodiversity rich area located within the Albertine Rift and hosts several protected areas. The high human population within the GVL depends to some extent on goods and services derived these protected areas. These ecosystem goods and services include water, non timber forest products such as fuelwood, medicinal plants and handicraft materials, honey, and bush meat. The landscape also serves regulatory functions such as water purification, carbon sequestration, and climate moderation. With support from the MarcArthur Foundation, The University of Cambridge in partnership with the Albertine Rift Conservation Society and WWF US, implemented a three year project to map and quantify ecosystem services within the GVL, with the aim of providing information on the status of ecosystem services and how these will likely change under different development scenarios in the future. The information generated aims to guide decision makers on how to manage these ecosystem services and work towards improving the livelihood of communities within the GVL.
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    Planning for future Cancer Control Programs in Uganda: Projections of top five Cancers’ Incidence in the next Decade
    (Annals of Oncology, 2019) Asasira, J.; Mai, T.X.; Wabinga, H.; Chang, Y.; Cho, H.
    Projections of the national burden of cancer are essential for planning cancer control programs and anticipating future cancer burden on the health service. This study aims to evaluate the current trend and project cancer incidences of the top five cancers in Uganda: Kaposi sarcoma (KS), cervical, breast, prostate, and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). Projections were based on incidence data obtained from the population-based Kampala cancer registry for the 2000-2014 periods, and population data was acquired from the National Bureau of Statistics. Joinpoint software was used to study the trend and presented results using age-specific rates, age-standardized rates, crude rates, and annual percentage change. Two methods were applied to project incidence up to 2029. First, we extrapolated results of the recent trend from joinpoint model to estimate future incidence with the assumption that coefficient estimates will remain constant. Second, we fitted the age-period-cohort model using Nordpred R-package, which accounts for age, period-birth cohort effects, rates were standardized using the standard world population (WHO 2000-2025). Breast, cervical, and prostate cancer incidences are forecasted to increase by 2029. Their new cases are expected to increase by 200.5%, 98.7% and 184.3 % respectively with the ASRs (per 100,000) escalating from 30.9, 51.9, 44.9 in 2000-2004 to 40.8, 52.7, 64.3 in 2025-2029. Incidences of KS and NHL are, on the other hand, anticipated to decrease for both males and females with both projection methods showing the same results. From 2000 to 2029, the ASR is expected to decrease markedly from 30.3 to 6.1 for KS and from 7.3 to 2.4 for NHL. The reduction in the number of cases is predominantly attributed to the change in their risk. The incidence rates were at peak among people aged from 65 to 74 for breast, cervical, prostate cancers, and those above 75 years for KS and NHL in the observed period. These patterns are expected to remain unchanged in the next decade. Future research should be directed towards strategies to control the growing burden of breast, cervical, and prostate cancers since their incidence rates are forecasted to increase in the future according to our study.