Perceptions regarding motivation to participate in educational programs

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/3970775

Prevalence and associated factors of hypertension among adults in Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia: a community based cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a growing public health problem in many developing countries including Ethiopia. However, its prevention and control has not yet received due attention. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of hypertension among adults in Gondar city, North-West Ethiopia. METHODS: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2012 in Gondar city. Participants aged 35 years and older were recruited using multi-stage random sampling technique. Data were collected by face-to-face interview technique after verbal informed consent. Additionally, weight, height and Blood Pressure (BP) of participants were measured following standard procedures. Hypertension was defined as having Systolic BP ≥140 mmHG or Diastolic BP≥ 90mmHG or reported use of regular anti-hypertensive medications prescribed by professionals for raised BP. Data were collected by clinical nurses and then entered into a computer using Epi Info version 3.5.3 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Multiple logistic regressions were fitted and Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated to identify associated factors. RESULTS: A total of 679 participants were included in this study. About one in –five participants (21.0%) were aged 65 years or older. Obesity among all participants was 5.6%. Hundred ninety two (28.3%) were hypertensive of whom more than a third (37.0%) did not know they had hypertension. Family history of hypertension (AOR = 2.71, 95%CI; 1.37-5.36), obesity (AOR = 5.50, 95%CI; 2.07-14.62), self reported diabetes (AOR = 4.15, 95%CI; 1.77-9.72), age ≥ 55 years (AOR=3.33, 95%CI; 1.88-5.90) and not continuously walking for 10 minutes per day (AOR = 2.86, 95%CI; 1.15-7.12) were factors associated with hypertension. CONCLUSION: There was a high prevalence of hypertension probably indicating a hidden epidemic in this community. Age ≥ 55 years, obesity, family history of hypertension, physical inactivity and self reported diabetes were associated with hypertension. Hence, we recommend the design and implementation of community based screening programs

The Application of GIS and Remote Sensing for Evaluating Land use/Land Cover Dynamics in Megech Watershed, Upper Blue Nile Basin Ethiopia

This study was conducted to the application of GIS and Remote Sensing for Evaluating Land use/Land Cover Dynamics in Megech Watershed, Upper Blue Nile Basin Ethiopia. Land sat images from 1986, 2001 and 2020 were used to produce three maps of the respective years using GIS with field verification. Software used for this study was Arc GIS 10.3.1 and ERDAS Imagine 14. Data from satellite images coupled with field observation and socio-economic survey revealed an effective approach for analyzing the extent, rate and spatial pattern of LU/LC change. The result showed that six land cover categories, namely forest land, wetland, woodland, farmland, bare land, water body and grassland have been identified. The general trends observed from 1986-2001 was a decrease grazing land, built up area plantation declined annually with the rate of -0.36ha/year,-2.98 ha/year and -3.99 ha/year. While, natural forest, water bodies and cultivated land shows increasing trend 0.699ha/year,3.37 ha/year and 3.19 ha/year. Similarly, between 2001-2020, natural forest, water bodies and cultivated land   continued to increase with the mean annual rate of 0.4ha.year, 1.05 ha/year and 0.03ha respectively. Besides  built up are also enhancedby5.7ha/year, Whereas the reduction grazing land and plantation declined annually more or less in similar pattern with the rate of -0.84ha/year and -1.64 ha/year respectively. Keywords: Landsat, Land use, Land cover and LU/LCC. DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/69-04 Publication date:October 31st 2020

Characterization of the Production System and Breeding Practices of Sheep Producers in Tahtay Maychew District, Northern Ethiopia

The study was conducted in Tahtay Maychew district of the central zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. The objective of the study was to understand the sheep production system, the breeding practices, selection criteria, and sheep production constraints to identify sheep farming practices about future production strategies in the study area. A total of 70 households from 2 kebeles (lower administrative structure) were selected purposively based on sheep population and production potential and accessibility. Data was collected through semi-structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, and key informants. An index was calculated to provide an overall ranking of the purpose of keeping sheep, culling rams and ewe, according to the formula: Index = Σ of [3 for rank 1 + 2 for rank 2 + 1 for rank 3]. It is concluded that both female and male sheep are maintained mainly for income generation followed by breeding. A variable that was given a higher priority in selecting breeding males and females was body size. Disease, feed shortage, lack of grazing, and predator are the major constraints of sheep production mentioned in the study area. Therefore, addressing these constraints is important to design a successful genetic improvement scheme in the area for sheep. Keywords: Production systems, Selection criteria, Tahtay Maychew Running title: Characterization of the production system and breeding practices DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/14-13-01 Publication date: December 31st 202

Impacts of Resettlement on Woodland Resource Utilization in Abobo Wereda, Gambella, Ethiopia

This study was conducted to assess the impacts of resettlement programme on woodland resource utilization in Abobo wereda. Data collected from 292 sampled households, focus group discussion, key informant interview and field observation were used to identify the underlying causes woodland degradation , use of woodland product by the resettlers and the conservation efforts made by resettlers to minimize woodland  degradation in the study area. Due to the effects of resettlers population existing in the study area the natural vegetation covers particularly the forest, woodland and grassland is dwindling in alarming rate in the past three decades. The resettlers use the woodland product for firewood and charcoal, for construction and for preparing their farming tools. The major cause of woodland degradation was rapid expansion of farmland following resettlement, investors, excessive cutting of trees for firewood and construction, forest fire and conversation of woodland to open up crop field. The major conservation effort used by resettlers in the study area was planting trees. But, it is not comparable with the fast rate of deforestation and also the major suggested solutions that used to minimize woodland degradation in the study area were planting trees, providing environmental education, searching other alternative source of energy and setting of strong laws and follow up. Keywords: Resettlement, Environmental impacts, Woodland utilization

Superresolution fluorescence microscopy with structured illumination

The resolution of a conventional fluorescence microscope image is diffraction limited which achieves a spatial resolution of 200nm lateral and 500nm axial. Recently, many superresolution fluorescence microscopy techniques have been developed which allow the observation of many biological structures beyond the diffraction limit. Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) is one of them. The principle of SIM is based on using a harmonic light grid which down modulates the high spatial frequencies of the sample into the observable region of the microscope. The resolution enhancement is highly dependent on the reconstruction technique, which restores the high spatial frequencies of the sample to their original position. Common SIM reconstructions require the perfect knowledge of the illumination pattern. However, to perfectly control the harmonic illumination patterns on the sample plane is not easy in experimental implementations and this makes the experimental setup very technical. Reconstructing SIM images assuming the perfect knowledge of the illumination intensity patterns may, therefore, introduce artifacts on the estimated sample due to the misalignment of the grid that can occur during experimental acquisitions. To tackle this drawback of SIM, in this these, we have developed blind-SIM reconstruction strategies which are independent of the illumination patterns. Using the 3D blind-SIM reconstruction strategies we extended the harmonic SIM to speckle illumination microscopy which uses random unknown speckle patterns that need no control, unlike the harmonic grid patterns. For harmonic-SIM images, since incorporating some information about illumination patterns is valuable, we have developed a 3D positive filtered blind-SIM reconstruction which confines the iterative estimation of the illuminations in the vicinity of the Fourier peaks (using carefully designed Fourier filter masks) in the Fourier space. Using blind-SIM reconstruction techniques a lateral resolution of about 100nm and axial resolution of about 200nm is obtained in both speckle and harmonic SIM. In addition, to reduce the out-of-focus problem in widefield images, a simple computational technique which is based on reconstructing 2D data with 3D PSF is developed based on blind-SIM reconstruction. Moreover, to combine the functionalities of SIM and light sheet microscopy, as a proof of concept, we have developed a simple microscope setup which produces a structured light sheet illumination pattern.La microscopie de fluorescence optique est l’un des outils les plus puissants pour étudier les structures cellulaires et moléculaires au niveau subcellulaire. La résolution d’une image de microscope conventionnel à fluorescence est limitée par la diffraction, ce qui permet d’obtenir une résolution spatiale latérale de 200nm et axiale de 500nm. Récemment, de nombreuses techniques de microscopie de fluorescence de super-résolution ont été développées pour permettre d’observer de nombreuses structures biologiques au-delà de la limite de diffraction. La microscopie d’illumination structurée (SIM) est l’une de ces technologies. Le principe de la SIM est basé sur l’utilisation d’une grille de lumière harmonique qui permet de translater les hautes fréquences spatiales de l’échantillon vers la région d’observation du microscope. L’amélioration de la résolution de cette technologie de microscopie dépend fortement de la technique de reconstruction, qui rétablit les hautes fréquences spatiales de l’échantillon dans leur position d’origine. Les méthodes classiques de reconstruction SIM nécessitent une connaissance parfaite de l’illumination de l’échantillon. Cependant, l’implémentation d’un contrôle parfait de l’illumination harmonique sur le plan de l’échantillon n’est pas facile expérimentalement et il présente un grand défi. L’hypothèse de la connaissance parfaite de l’intensité de la lumière illuminant l’échantillon en SIM peut donc introduire des artefacts sur l’image reconstruite de l’échantillon, à cause des erreurs d’alignement de la grille qui peuvent se présenter lors de l’acquisition expérimentale. Afin de surmonter ce défi, nous avons développé dans cette thèse des stratégies de reconstruction «aveugle» qui sont indépendantes de d’illumination. À l’aide de ces stratégies de reconstruction dites «blind-SIM», nous avons étendu la SIM harmonique pour l’appliquer aux cas de «SIM-speckle» qui utilisent des illuminations aléatoires et inconnues qui contrairement à l’illumination harmonique, ne nécessitent pas de controle. Comme il est utile de récupérer des informations sur l’illumination en SIM harmonique, nous avons développé une reconstruction blind-SIM tridimensionnel et filtrée qui confine l’estimation itérative des illuminations au voisinage des pics dans l’espace de Fourier, en utilisant des masques de filtre de Fourier soigneusement conçus. En utilisant des techniques de reconstruction blind-SIM, une résolution latérale d’environ 100 nm et une résolution axiale d’environ 200 nm sont obtenues, à la fois en SIM harmonique et en SIM speckle. En outre, pour réduire le problème de focalisation dans les images de champ large, une technique de calcul simple qui repose sur la reconstruction bidimensionnel de données à partir de PSF tridimensionnel est développée. En outre, afin de combiner à la fois les fonctionnalités de la SIM et de la microscopie á nappe de lumière, en tant que preuve de concept, nous avons développé une configuration de microscope simple qui produit une nappe de lumière structuré

Determinants of Women Entrepreneurs’ Performance in Ethiopia (Evidence from Hawassa City Administration)

This study is conducted to assess the determinants of women entrepreneurs’ performance: the case of Hawassa City Administration, Ethiopia. The study employed an explanatory research design with quantitative and qualitative research approaches. The required data were collected from 278 selected women entrepreneurs by adopting a multistage sampling technique. The data collected through questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS software version 21. Inferential statistics such as correlation and multiple linear regression were applied. The data collected through key informant interview was analyzed qualitatively using narration for triangulation. The findings of the study showed that educated women had better entrepreneurship performance since they can easily use technologies and can get management experience easily. In the same way, women entrepreneurs experience to increase their profitability. Likewise, having sufficient start up capital for business, access to credit to expand an existing business, having sufficient working capital, and having had collateral to get credit are significant factors that affect women entrepreneurs’ performance. Equally, having high production capacity due to available capital, delivering a product that meets customers need with a fair price, having convenient display room and selling premises, and having good market linkages are significant factors that affect women entrepreneurs’ performance. Furthermore, having the desire for achievement, independence, wealth and having self-discovery and job satisfaction are significant determinants of women entrepreneurs’ performance. Therefore, the researcher recommends Hawassa city administration in collaboration with other NGO who were working with women should give continuous training to enable them to be more productive. Likewise, the financial institutions in the city should arrange long-term financial credit for women entrepreneurs. Keywords: Women Enterprenuers, Performance, Hawassa City DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-22-02 Publication date: August 31st 201

Superresolution fluorescence microscopy with structured illumination

Cotutela Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya i Aix-Marseille UniversitéThe resolution of a conventional fluorescence microscope image is diffraction limited which achieves a spatial resolution of 200nm lateral and 500nm axial. Recently, many superresolution fluorescence microscopy techniques have been developed which allow the observation of many biological structures beyond the diffraction limit. Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) is one of them. The principle of SIM is based on using a harmonic light grid which down modulates the high spatial frequencies of the sample into the observable region of the microscope. The resolution enhancement is highly dependent on the reconstruction technique, which restores the high spatial frequencies of the sample to their original position. Common SIM reconstructions require the perfect knowledge of the illumination pattern. However, to perfectly control the harmonic illumination patterns on the sample plane is not easy in experimental implementations and this makes the experimental setup very technical. Reconstructing SIM images assuming the perfect knowledge of the illumination intensity patterns may, therefore, introduce artifacts on the estimated sample due to the misalignment of the grid that can occur during experimental acquisitions. To tackle this drawback of SIM, in this these, we have developed blind-SIM reconstruction strategies which are independent of the illumination patterns. Using the 3D blind-SIM reconstruction strategies we extended the harmonic SIM to speckle illumination microscopy which uses random unknown speckle patterns that need no control, unlike the harmonic grid patterns. For harmonic-SIM images, since incorporating some information about illumination patterns is valuable, we have developed a 3D positive filtered blind-SIM reconstruction which confines the iterative estimation of the illuminations in the vicinity of the Fourier peaks (using carefully designed Fourier filter masks) in the Fourier space. Using blind-SIM reconstruction techniques a lateral resolution of about 100nm and axial resolution of about 200nm is obtained in both speckle and harmonic SIM. In addition, to reduce the out-of-focus problem in widefield images, a simple computational technique which is based on reconstructing 2D data with 3D PSF is developed based on blind-SIM reconstruction. Moreover, to combine the functionalities of SIM and light sheet microscopy, as a proof of concept, we have developed a simple microscope setup which produces a structured light sheet illumination pattern.La microscopie de fluorescence optique est l’un des outils les plus puissants pour étudier les structures cellulaires et moléculaires au niveau subcellulaire. La résolution d’une image de microscope conventionnel à fluorescence est limitée par la diffraction, ce qui permet d’obtenir une résolution spatiale latérale de 200nm et axiale de 500nm. Récemment, de nombreuses techniques de microscopie de fluorescence de super-résolution ont été développées pour permettre d’observer de nombreuses structures biologiques au-delà de la limite de diffraction. La microscopie d’illumination structurée (SIM) est l’une de ces technologies. Le principe de la SIM est basé sur l’utilisation d’une grille de lumière harmonique qui permet de translater les hautes fréquences spatiales de l’échantillon vers la région d’observation du microscope. L’amélioration de la résolution de cette technologie de microscopie dépend fortement de la technique de reconstruction, qui rétablit les hautes fréquences spatiales de l’échantillon dans leur position d’origine. Les méthodes classiques de reconstruction SIM nécessitent une connaissance parfaite de l’illumination de l’échantillon. Cependant, l’implémentation d’un contrôle parfait de l’illumination harmonique sur le plan de l’échantillon n’est pas facile expérimentalement et il présente un grand défi. L’hypothèse de la connaissance parfaite de l’intensité de la lumière illuminant l’échantillon en SIM peut donc introduire des artefacts sur l’image reconstruite de l’échantillon, à cause des erreurs d’alignement de la grille qui peuvent se présenter lors de l’acquisition expérimentale. Afin de surmonter ce défi, nous avons développé dans cette thèse des stratégies de reconstruction «aveugle» qui sont indépendantes de d’illumination. À l’aide de ces stratégies de reconstruction dites «blind-SIM», nous avons étendu la SIM harmonique pour l’appliquer aux cas de «SIM-speckle» qui utilisent des illuminations aléatoires et inconnues qui contrairement à l’illumination harmonique, ne nécessitent pas de controle. Comme il est utile de récupérer des informations sur l’illumination en SIM harmonique, nous avons développé une reconstruction blind-SIM tridimensionnel et filtrée qui confine l’estimation itérative des illuminations au voisinage des pics dans l’espace de Fourier, en utilisant des masques de filtre de Fourier soigneusement conçus. En utilisant des techniques de reconstruction blind-SIM, une résolution latérale d’environ 100 nm et une résolution axiale d’environ 200 nm sont obtenues, à la fois en SIM harmonique et en SIM speckle. En outre, pour réduire le problème de focalisation dans les images de champ large, une technique de calcul simple qui repose sur la reconstruction bidimensionnel de données à partir de PSF tridimensionnel est développée. En outre, afin de combiner à la fois les fonctionnalités de la SIM et de la microscopie á nappe de lumière, en tant que preuve de concept, nous avons développé une configuration de microscope simple qui produit une nappe de lumière structuréePostprint (published version

Evaluating the Effect of Six Weeks Strength Training on the Speed of Sprinters Among Debre Markos University Male Sport Science Students, Ethiopia

This study attempted to explore the effect of strength training on the speed of sprinters among Debre Markos University sport science students. Purposive sampling technique was used to select six male student athletes from the total population of 32 male their year sport science department students. The subjects under this study took part in training programs performed in strength and speed training for consecutive six weeks. The variables selected for this study were measurement of calf, thigh, chest, biceps and triceps circumference and speed of 100m and 200m pre and post six weeks training. The data were analyzed by using SPSS soft wear and paired t-test with comparison of means at 95% confidence interval by using pre and posttest. The results indicated there wear significant improvement on selected variables weight, biceps and triceps muscle circumference and speed of 100m and 200m (p< 0.05). In other variables like calf, thigh, chest had a change but not much significance like above variables. The mean differences (MD) between pre and post tests for weight wear 1.4, biceps triceps 2.5, chest 0.5 thigh 0.833, calf 0.5 and speed of 100m 0.143, 200m 0.6. This study confirmed that conditioning exercise training with active rest was significant to improve the speed, coordination, agility, balance, power and reaction time variables. The study showed that student athletes who were exposed to strength exercise retraining have revealed positive outcomes on speed. Keywords: - agility, athlete, balance, coordination, reaction time, speed, strength, training DOI: 10.7176/JTHS/48-01 Publication date:March 31st 2020

Associations of Body Composition with Hypertension in the Case of Geography and Health and Physical Education Teachers

This study investigates A Comparative study between blood pressure and body composition of Geography and Health and Physical education teachers of Ginbot 20 General Secondary and Preparatory School. Furthermore, it was not very clear how blood pressure was affected by such factors as body mass index, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio and percent body fat. To this end the hypotheses were formulated questionnaires and experimental testing. The descriptive research design with purposive sampling techniques was used. Thereafter, a sample of 107 subjects representing 14 (13%) of the targeted population was purposely selected for the study. The   digital blood pressure monitor Measurement Machine (stethoscope), digital weight and height machine, Sphygmomanometer were used to collect data on blood pressure and body composition. Major findings of the study revealed that: Relationship between systolic and diastolic blood pressures was positively significant among the active and inactive subjects in this study; Relationship between systolic blood pressure and body mass index was positively significant among the Geography  and Health and Physical Education teachers  in this study; Relationship between diastolic blood pressure and body mass index was positively significant among physical  exercise active and physical exercise inactive teachers . Keywords:-Blood Pressure, Body Composition, body mass index, diastolic, systolic DOI: 10.7176/JMPB/65-01 Publication date: April 30th 2020