Response Of Linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) To Seed Rates And Seeding Methods In South-Eastern Highlands Of Ethiopia

The effect of seed rates on yield and yield components of linseed were studied in South-Eastern Highlands of Ethiopia at four locations during 2012/13 and 2013/14 main-cropping seasons. Randomized complete block design with three replications was used for row planting and 10m by 10m plots were used for broadcasting. The linseed variety 'Kulumsa-1' was used and sown at seed rates (kg/ha) of nine levels for row planting and six seed rate (kg/ha) levels  were used for broadcasting. Results indicated that significant (P≤0.05) effects of seed rates were observed on all yield components reflecting the importance of seeding rate for linseed growth, yield and yield components. However, significant (P≤0.05) effects of seed rates were not observed on all yield components except on number of pods/plant in the case of broadcasting. The highest seed yield was recorded from 40kg/ha (2019kg/ha) and 70kg/ha (1908kg/ha) for row planting and broadcasting, respectively. This data depicted that 6% (111kg/ha) seed yield advantage was obtained by using row planting method as compared to broadcasting. Likewise, using 30kg/ha and 40kg/ha seed rates increased seed yield/ha by 6% (110kg/ha) and 9% (162kg/ha), respectively as compared to 15kg/ha in the case of row planting. Similarly, using 70kg/ha seed rate for broadcasting resulted in 6% (102kg/ha) and 7% (126kg/ha) seed yield advantage as compared to 30kg/ha and 40kg/ha seed rates, respectively. The results of economic analysis indicated that the highest net benefits were obtained by using a seed rate of 30 to 40kg/ha for row planting and 70kg/ha for broadcasting. Keywords: Broadcasting, Linseed, Row planting, Seed rat

Hydrological drought analysis- occurrence, severity, risks : the case of Wabi Shebele River Basin, Ethiopia

This study analyses hydrological drought with due emphasis to ungauged catchments. Identification of hydrological drought and methods of unveiling its intrinsic multi-variate characteristics are investigated. The severity of drought has been examined using a multitude of methodologies. Quite often, absence of recorded long time streamflow data hinders a reliable drought analysis and understanding of the phenomenon in the past. Signatures of water stress are imprinted on tree rings. In this study streamflow reconstruction is achieved by coalescing proxy data from riparian tree rings and climatic indices. The generated data are used for extracting the multivariate features of this extreme hydrological event. The case study is demonstrated in Wabi Shebele river basin in Ethiopia. The methods proposed here are applicable to other similar river basins. Extracting hydrological drought entailed defining a possible threshold level. Threshold levels of low exceedance probability are found to be appropriate unlike the commonly used higher exceedance probabilities in temperate climate. It was corroborated that the frequency of some notable recent droughts as revealed with data generated from proxy records well matches that of instrumental data. Stochastic simulation of hydrological drought is done using SARIMA models from time series of instrumental monthly streamflow records in the study area. The nonlinear dependency between severity and duration of hydrological drought is studied using copula models. Different copula families and parameter estimation techniques are evaluated. Joint and conditional probabilities of severity and duration of drought in the area is specified from the derived relationship to provide empirical insight on the nature of the extreme events. It is demonstrated that droughts have distinct spatial patterns regarding temporal evolution and variability in the study area in which the geographic and climatic characteristics have a high degree of diversity. The relative strengths in association between the climatic, morphometric and geologic features of the catchment to the base flow estimates are weighted and a plausible relationship is produced. However, in view of the tremendous spatio-temporal heterogeneity of climatic and landscape properties extrapolation of response information or knowledge from gauged to ungauged basins remains fraught with considerable difficulties and uncertainties. Catchment characteristics can be related to low flows thus are used to delineate hydrologically homogeneous pools. Severity-area-frequency analysis of drought in the area using nonparametric kernels shows high variability of drought events within the pools formed. Associated relative risks of drought are also scrutinized using multicriteria analysis. No single variable is sufficient to portray the complexity of the vulnerability of an area to drought

Removal of Physicochemical and Microbial Impurities of Water Using Modified Homemade Filter

Background: There are many different methods, which are used to purify water. Some are conventional and expensive, while others are traditional and small scale, still having interesting results in killing pathogenic organisms and reducing the concentration of some chemicals and other impurities, especially for rural communities of developing countries who are suffering from water borne diseases. But because conventional water treatment methods are not affordable in rural communities of developing countries, other small-scale methods are needed. An experimental study was conducted to test the effect of modified homemade filter in reduction of turbidity, fecal coliform, fluoride and its effect on pH and temperature. Method And Materials: Representative water samples were taken from’ kochi’ stream and laboratory analysis was done both for the raw water samples and the filtrates in school of environmental health laboratory, Jimma University. Filter tanks fitted with half-inch pipe were constructed and filled with stone (10 cm), gravel (9 cm), sand (40 cm) and crushed brick (10 cm) for fluoride test and local charcoal (10 cm), instead of the crushed brick for physical and biological test. Filter tanks without crushed brick, and without local charcoal were used as control. For the determination of fecal coliform, pH and temperature, turbidity and fluoride, MPN technique, pH meter, turbidimeter and Alizarin spectrophotometry method were used, respectively. Results: With a flow rate adjusted initially to 0.35 L/min the test resulted an average concentration of fluoride 1.42 mg/l (71.6%) from 5mg/l after filtered in a Modified Homemade Filter (MHMF1) with crushed brick. After a month operation the MHMF2 (with local charcoal) reduced the faecal coliform to 1 /100ml (99.95%) and turbidity to 0.13 FTU (99.83%), which was improved as the time of filter run increased and the flow rate decreased. CONCLUSION: The study showed that filtration of raw, fluoridated water with the study media could remove physical, chemical and biological impurities up to significant values for developing countries. The filter unit is very light in weight for easy transportation and costs 210 Ethiopian Birras of March 2004. Communities who have no access for treated water supplies can have this method as alternative, appropriate and cost effective technology with careful handling and timely cleaning.Ethiop J Helath Sci. Vol. 16, No.2 July 200

Vitamin-A deficiency and its determinants among preschool children: A community based cross-sectional study in Ethiopia

Background Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable visual impairments in children. It is also an underlying cause for nearly one-fourth of global child mortality associated with measles, diarrhea, and malaria. The limited literature available in Ethiopia shows severe public health significance of vitamin-A deficiency. Hence the aim of the current study was to assess the prevalence and factors determining vitamin-A deficiency among preschool children in Dembia District, northwest Ethiopia. Methods A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among preschool children of Dembia District from January to February, 2015. A multi-stage sampling, followed by a systematic sampling technique was employed to select study participants. A structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Using a binary logistic regression model, multivariable analysis was fitted to identify the associated factors of vitamin-A deficiency. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95 % confidence interval was computed to assess the strength of the association, and variables with a p value of <0.05 in multivariable analysis were considered as statistically significant. Results Six hundred eighty-one preschool children were included in the study, giving a response rate of 96.5 %. The overall prevalence of xerophthalmia was 8.6 %. The result of the multivariable analysis revealed that nonattendance at the antenatal care clinic [AOR 2.65,95 % CI (1.39,5.07)], being male [AOR 1.81, 95 % CI (1.01,3.24)], and in the age group of 49–59 months [AOR 3.00, 95 % CI (1.49,6.02)] were significantly associated with vitamin-A deficiency. Conclusions Vitamin-A deficiency is a severe public health problem in the study area. Further strengthening antenatal care utilization and giving emphasis to preschool children will help to mitigate vitamin-A deficiency in the study area

Intelligent Phishing Website Detection before and after Multiple Informative Feature Selection Techniques: Machine Learning Approach

Individuals and Organizations that rely on the Internet for communication, collaboration, and daily tasks regularly encounter security and privacy issues unless interventions of intelligent Cybersecurity defense systems have been made to counter them. The existing pieces of evidence reveal that phishing website attacks have drastically increased despite the scientific communities' best efforts to combat them. Based on the key research gaps explored, the study has made significant attempts to answer the following research questions: RQ#1: Which cross-validation techniques and model optimization parameters are appropriate for given datasets and classifiers?  RQ#2: Which Classifier(s) yielded a superior Accuracy, F1-Score, AUC-ROC, and MCC value with acceptable train-test computational time before and after applying the Informative Feature Selection Techniques?  RQ#3: What are the strengths and weaknesses of each Classifier after being applied with multiple Informative Feature Selection Techniques?  RQ#4: Could the results of the top-performed Classifier and Informative Feature Selection Technique on Dataset one (DS-1) be consistent on Dataset two (DS-2)?  The study used a Google Co-Lab environment and Python Code to conduct rigorous experiments. Our experimental findings reveal that the CAT-B Classifier demonstrated a superior phishing website detection performance in terms of (Accuracy, F1-Score, AUC-ROC, and MCC value with acceptable train-test computational time both before and after applying the UFS Feature Selection Technique by scoring 0.9764 accuracies, 0.9762 F1-Score, 0.996 AUC-ROC, and 0.9528 MCC Value with 6 Seconds train-test computational time.  The study practically demonstrated implementing the CAT-B-UFS technique using a Python Code so that upcoming researchers can easily replicate their results and learn more. In future work, the study proposed implementing deep learning algorithms with proper feature selection techniques on Individual and Hybrid approaches to obtain more promising results

Variation of Urine Parameters among Diabetic Patients: A Cross- Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Diabetic kidney disease is a common and severe microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus (DM). There are limited data regarding alteration of urine parameters other than proteinuria among DM patients.METHODS: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from February to May 2017 to assess alteration of urine parameters among DM patients at the University of Gondar Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia. A Systematic random sampling technique was used to recruit adult (≥18 years) diabetic participants. Data were collected after ethical requirements had been fulfilled. The degree of association between variables was evaluated through bivariable and multivariable logistic regression models.RESULTS: The majority (69.4%) of the study participants were type 2 DM patients. The prevalence of altered urine chemical parameters was 11.3% proteinuria, 4.5% ketonuria, 13.6% hematuria, 53.8% glucosuria, 24.9% leukocyturia and 1.7% positive for nitrite. Diastolic blood pressure and poor glycemic control were significantly associated with proteinuria. Male participants were 2.4 times more likely to have leukocyturia than female participants. The prevalence of abnormally increased microscopic findings was red blood cells 3.1%, white blood cells 12.5%, epithelial cells 27.5%, yeast cells 1.7%, bacteria 17.8%, casts 3.7% and crystals 29.2%.CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of altered urine parameters among DM patients is found to be considerable. These increased prevalences of altered urine parameters are potential indicators for diabetic kidney disease.

Assessment of the level and factors associated with knowledge, attitude and practice of blood donation among medical and paramedical personnel in ALERT Hospital, Ethiopia

Background: Though there was a high blood supply need in response to high communicable disease and increased emergency conditions; the practice of health professionals and non-health professionals on voluntary blood donation is still unexpectedly low in Ethiopia. Health professionals and non-health professionals working in the health sectors are pivotal in taking the lead to reverse the effect of inadequate blood supply system in the country. Therefore, the study aimed to understand the level and contributing factors of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of voluntary blood donation among health and non-health professionals in ALERT Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Design and Methods:&nbsp;A cross-sectional study design was conducted among health professionals and non-health professionals in ALERT hospital from 5 to 30 June 2018. A total of 394 hospital staffs participated in this study. A well-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice about voluntary blood donation. The statistical analysis was carried out using R.Results: A total of 203 (51.5%) participants were females. Only 142 (36%) of the participants had voluntary blood donation practice. Among these, 60 (42.3%) of them were donated blood more than once. Occupation is the only factor significantly associated with blood donation practice; health professionals had almost two-fold donation practice than non-health professionals with (AOR=1.62; 5%CI: 1.02, 2.57, p=0.042). Occupation has also a strong relationship with knowledge, health professionals had better knowledge than non-professionals with (AOR=2.39; 95% CI: 1.39, 4.12; p=0.002). The result also showed that the educational status of the participants was strongly associated with the blood donors’ attitude (AOR=3.62; 95% CI: 1.1, 11.93, p=0.035). One hundred and two (72.3%) of the blood donors were motivated to donate blood for charity, 133 (94.3%) individuals were felt good after blood donation and lack of request was the major reason 88.6% that causes the respondents not to donate blood frequently.&nbsp;Conclusions: Low blood donation practice of health professionals and non-health professionals was identified from this study. Occupation had significantly associated with blood donation practice. Therefore, targeted interventions aimed at mobilizing hospital staffs and develop accessible blood donation centers are recommended to reverse the effect of inadequate blood supply system in Ethiopia

Errors in the total testing process in the clinical chemistry laboratory at the University of Gondar Hospital, northwest Ethiopia

Background: Laboratory services have been described as the major processes contributing to safe patient care in the modern healthcare sector. However, occurrences of errors in the overall testing processes impair the clinical decision-making process. Such errors are supposed to be high in resource-poor countries, like Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to assess errors in the total testing process in the Clinical Chemistry laboratory of the University of Gondar Hospital, Northwest EthiopiaMethods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the University of Gondar Hospital from February to March 2016. All the required data were collected using established quality indicators. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Frequencies and cross-tabulations were used to summarize descriptive statistics.Results: A total of 3259 samples and corresponding laboratory request forms were received for analysis. The analysis of the overall distribution of errors revealed that 89.6% were preanalytical errors, 2.6% were analytical, and 7.7% were postanalytical errors. Of the pre-analytical errors, incomplete request form filling was the most frequent error observed, followed by sample rejection rate (3.8%). Analytical errors related to internal and external quality control exceeding the target range, (14.4%) and (51.4%) respectively, were reported. Excessive turnaround time and unreported critical value cases were the major defects in the post-analytical phase of quality assurance.Conclusion: The present finding showed relatively high frequency of errors, which alarms the importance of quality indicators to assess errors in the total testing process. The University of Gondar Hospital laboratory should improve the quality of healthcare services based on these findings using laboratory standards.Keywords: Analytical errors; clinical laboratory; postanalytical errors; pre-analytical errors; qualit