Magnitude and associated factors of virological failure among children on ART in Bahir Dar Town public health facilities, Northwest Ethiopia: a facility based cross-sectional study

Background Despite the rapid scale-up of antiretroviral therapy, virologic failure has become global public health concern and challenge, especially in developing countries. Viral load monitoring is an important approach to identify treatment failure and develop public health interventions in children receiving antiretroviral therapy. Thus, this study aims to assess the magnitude and associated factors of virological failure among children on antiretroviral therapy. Methods A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 399 HIV-positive children on antiretroviral therapy from 2016 to 2019 in Bahir Dar Town public health facilities. Data were extracted from children’s charts using a standardized data extraction tool, adapted from ART intake and follow-up forms. Data were entered using Epi-Data Version 3.1, and analyzed using SPSS Version 25. Bivariable and multivariable binary logistic regression models were done to identify factors associated with virological failure. Variables with p-values < 0.25 were fitted into the multivariable analysis. Finally, variables with p-values <0.05 were considered as statistically significant factors. Results The period prevalence of virological failure was found to be 14.8% (95% CI: 11.5–19.3%). Opportunistic infections (AOR = 2.19, CI: 1.13–4.25), history of treatment interruption and restart (AOR = 2.21, CI: 1.09–4.54), younger age (AOR = 2.42, CI: 1.02–5.74), poor/fair ART adherence (AOR = 2.19, CI: 1.05–4.57), and advanced baseline WHO clinical staging (AOR = 2.32, CI: 1.14–4.74) were found to be factors significantly associated with virological failure. Conclusion The magnitude of virological failure among HIV-infected children remained high. Children with poor/fair ART adherence, history of treatment interruption, advanced baseline WHO clinical staging, younger age, and opportunistic infections were significantly associated with virologic failure. Thus, special attention should be given to children who had poor/fair ART adherence and presenting with opportunistic infections

Improvement of Grassland Through Community Participation in the Middle AwashValley of Ethiopia

The natural resources of the grassland in the middle Awash valley of Ethiopia are subjected to competing claims: development to generate revenue for the state, conservation of wildlife and wilderness areas, as well as use for local production. The combination of climatic conditions causing drought and the over use of the natural resource can be cited as the primary cause of grassland deterioration in the area. Since the problems of the grasslands are complex and multi-dimensional, they are not amenable to quick and easy fixes. Hence, if sustainable progress is to be achieved, the responsibility for change must be in the hands of the communities and household themselves. Pastoral communities, in collaboration with CARE-Ethiopia, local government and other partner NGOs embarked on grassland improvement activities that were based on traditional activities. The objective of this study was to assess the condition of the traditionally-improved grazing lands

Enhancing first year chemistry student’s participation in practical chemistry course

In this study, enhancing student’s participation in practical analytical chemistry course at Haramaya University with various reasons was conducted. The data were collected from I year chemistry undergraduate students of class size 56 of which 23 were females and 33 were males. The class was arranged in to two groups for laboratory class and the experiment was conducted once per week in analytical laboratory. The research used mainly three kinds of data collection techniques namely questionnaire and laboratory report and demonstration result to gather the required qualitative and quantitative data for improving the participation of first year chemistry students. From the result, it was found that students were interested towards the practical analytical courses on the basis of condition such as, necessity of the chemistry with life, their participation in the laboratory, getting experience from the laboratory and performing the experiment in group. The results of the study support the notion that, students were more interested to a group work rather than individual work since they share idea, read their manual before coming to laboratory which contributed to their own participation in learning practical chemistry courses. The research has also shown that student’s activity through experimental demonstration in group increases student’s participations in the laboratory effectively by achieving better results than using laboratory report writing methods. The findings also revealed that some of the causes of students’ negative attitudes towards learning practical Chemistry were mainly due to problems in preparing a flow chart for the experiments by themselves and lack of exposure to well-equipped laboratory for conducting demonstrations. In view of the findings and conclusions drawn in the study, Chemistry laboratories should be adequately equipped to ensure a smooth running of the practical classes and students should be encouraged to participate on practical chemistry courses and appropriate motivation should be given so that they will develop positive attitude towards the practical sessions

Modern contraceptive use and associated factors during extended postpartum period among women who gave birth in the last 12 months at Northwest Ethiopia

Background: The extended postpartum period is a one-year follow-up period after giving birth, and it is critical for women to prevent unintended pregnancy and reduce the risk of maternal and child mortality by ensuring safe birth intervals. Many women, however, are unaware that they are at risk for pregnancy throughout this period. Hence, the aim of this study was to assess the utilization and associated factors of modern contraceptives during extended postpartum family planning (EPPP) in northwest Ethiopia. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted using 630 samples from October 01 to October 30, 2020, in northwest Ethiopia. The study participants were drawn through a multistage sampling technique and data were collected using structured questionnaires via interview. The collected data were entered into EpiData version 4.2 and exported into SPSS version 25.0 for management and further analysis. A bivariable logistic regression model was used to identify variables having an association with the outcome variable. In bivariable analysis, variables having P ≤ 0.25 were selected and entered into multivariable logistic regression analysis. Finally, in multivariable analysis, variables having P ≤ 0.05 with a 95% CI were declared as significantly associated with the outcome variable. Results: About 60.6% of women were using modern contraceptive during extended postpartum period. Mothers to partner discussion (AOR= 7.6, 95% CI: 4.20– 14.05), secondary educational status (AOR= 3.8, 95% CI: 1.36– 10.93), college and above educational status (AOR= 7, 95% CI: 1.92– 25.57), menstrual resumption (AOR= 9.2, 95% CI: 5.66– 15.12), sex resumed (AOR=8.5, 95% CI: 2.19– 33.58), fertility desire (AOR= 3.9, 95% CI: 1.99– 6.15), linkage to FP during child immunization (AOR= 2.7, 95% CI: 1.67– 4.50), and FP counseling during pregnancy (AOR=2, 95% CI: 1.25– 3.34) were significantly associated with outcome variable. Conclusion: Associating factors were identified as partner discussion, education, menstrual resumption, fertility desire, sexual resumption, FP counseling, and FP during child immunization. Improving mothers’ education and informing couples about the dangers of becoming pregnant before menstruation are critical

Large Eddy Simulation based Analysis of Complex Flow Structures within the Volute of a Vaneless Centrifugal Pump

Centrifugal pumps are very common in many fluid handling industrial applications, such as petrochemicals, oil and gas etc. Although the design practices for centrifugal pumps are well established, efforts are directed towards optimising such systems for better operational efficiencies. In order to optimally design centrifugal pumps, it is beneficial to first understand the complex flow phenomena within different sections of the pump for a variety of operating conditions. This is normally achieved through the use of modern techniques, such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), where the flow within centrifugal pumps can be numerically modelled and important flow features can be analysed for better understanding of interactions amongst different process variables. CFD offers different turbulence modelling techniques with an aim to predict realistic flow approximations. Larger Eddy Simulation (LES) offers a more accurate solution to this, in which the larger eddies are resolved while smaller eddies are modelled, hence predictions using LES are more realistic. Further to turbulence modelling within centrifugal pumps, it is also important to model the complete interaction amongst different variables rather than a simplistic single blade passage flow analysis. In the present work, the complex blade-tongue interactions, and their consequent effects on the pressure fluctuations within the volute have been evaluated. It is seen that the secondary flow features in the near tongue regions due to blade interactions with the tongue, affect the flow characteristics within the volute considerably

Dynamics of the Volterra-type integral and differentiation operators on generalized Fock spaces

[EN] Various dynamical properties of the differentiation and Volterra-type integral operators on generalized Fock spaces are studied. We show that the differentiation operator is always supercyclic on these spaces. We further characterize when it is hypercyclic, power bounded and uniformly mean ergodic. We prove that the operator satisfies the Ritt's resolvent condition if and only if it is power bounded and uniformly mean ergodic. Some similar results are obtained for the Volterra-type and Hardy integral operators.J. Bonet was partially supported by the research projects MTM2016-76647-P and GV Prometeo 2017/102 (Spain). M. Worku is supported by ISP project, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.Bonet Solves, JA.; Mengestie, T.; Worku, M. (2019). Dynamics of the Volterra-type integral and differentiation operators on generalized Fock spaces. Results in Mathematics. 74(4):1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00025-019-1123-7S115744Abanin, A.V., Tien, P.T.: Differentiation and integration operators on weighted Banach spaces of holomorphic functions. Math. Nachr. 290(8–9), 1144–1162 (2017)Atzmon, A., Brive, B.: Surjectivity and invariant subspaces of differential operators on weighted Bergman spaces of entire functions, Bergman spaces and related topics in complex analysis, Contemp. Math., vol. 404, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, pp. 27–39 (2006)Bayart, F., Matheron, E.: Dynamics of Linear Operators, Cambridge Tracts in Math, vol. 179. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge (2009)Bermúdez, T., Bonilla, A., Peris, A.: On hypercyclicity and supercyclicity criteria. Bull. Austral. Math. Soc. 70, 45–54 (2004)Beltrán, M.J.: Dynamics of differentiation and integration operators on weighted space of entire functions. Studia Math. 221, 35–60 (2014)Beltrán, M.J., Bonet, J., Fernández, C.: Classical operators on weighted Banach spaces of entire functions. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 141, 4293–4303 (2013)Bès, J., Peris, A.: Hereditarily hypercyclic operators. J. Funct. Anal. 167, 94–112 (1999)Bonet, J.: Dynamics of the differentiation operator on weighted spaces of entire functions. Math. Z. 26, 649–657 (2009)Bonet, J.: The spectrum of Volterra operators on weighted Banach spaces of entire functions. Q. J. Math. 66, 799–807 (2015)Bonet, J., Bonilla, A.: Chaos of the differentiation operator on weighted Banach spaces of entire functions. Complex Anal. Oper. Theory 7, 33–42 (2013)Bonet, J., Taskinen, J.: A note about Volterra operators on weighted Banach spaces of entire functions. Math. Nachr. 288, 1216–1225 (2015)Constantin, O., Persson, A.-M.: The spectrum of Volterra-type integration operators on generalized Fock spaces. Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 47, 958–963 (2015)Constantin, O., Peláez, J.-Á.: Integral operators, embedding theorems and a Littlewood–Paley formula on weighted Fock spaces. J. Geom. Anal. 26, 1109–1154 (2016)De La Rosa, M., Read, C.: A hypercyclic operator whose direct sum is not hypercyclic. J. Oper. Theory 61, 369–380 (2009)Dunford, N.: Spectral theory. I. Convergence to projections. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 54, 185–217 (1943)Grosse-Erdmann, K.G., Peris Manguillot, A.: Linear Chaos. Springer, New York (2011)Harutyunyan, A., Lusky, W.: On the boundedness of the differentiation operator between weighted spaces of holomorphic functions. Studia Math. 184, 233–247 (2008)Krengel, U.: Ergodic Theorems. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin (1985)Lyubich, Yu.: Spectral localization, power boundedness and invariant subspaces under Ritt’s type condition. Studia Mathematica 143(2), 153–167 (1999)Mengestie, T.: A note on the differential operator on generalized Fock spaces. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 458(2), 937–948 (2018)Mengestie, T.: Spectral properties of Volterra-type integral operators on Fock–Sobolev spaces. J. Kor. Math. Soc. 54(6), 1801–1816 (2017)Mengestie, T.: On the spectrum of volterra-type integral operators on Fock–Sobolev spaces. Complex Anal. Oper. Theory 11(6), 1451–1461 (2017)Mengestie, T., Ueki, S.: Integral, differential and multiplication operators on weighted Fock spaces. Complex Anal. Oper. Theory 13, 935–95 (2019)Mengestie, T., Worku, M.: Isolated and essentially isolated Volterra-type integral operators on generalized Fock spaces. Integr. Transf. Spec. Funct. 30, 41–54 (2019)Nagy, B., Zemanek, J.A.: A resolvent condition implying power boundedness. Studia Math. 134, 143–151 (1999)Nevanlinna, O.: Convergence of iterations for linear equations. Lecture Notes in Mathematics. ETH Zürich, Birkhäuser, Basel (1993)Ritt, R.K.: A condition that $$\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty } n^{-1}T^n =0$$. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 4, 898–899 (1953)Ueki, S.: Characterization for Fock-type space via higher order derivatives and its application. Complex Anal. Oper. Theory 8, 1475–1486 (2014)Yosida, K.: Functional Analysis. Springer, Berlin (1978)Yosida, K., Kakutani, S.: Operator-theoretical treatment of Marko’s process and mean ergodic theorem. Ann. Math. 42(1), 188–228 (1941

Challenges for Food Security in Eritrea -- A Descriptive and Qualitative Analysis

Food security is about ensuring that all people at all times have both physical and economic access to the basic food they need. In a number of African countries chronic malnutrition and transitory food insecurity are pervasive. Like most African countries, Eritrea is also a victim of the problem of food insecurity. Based on this historical and recurrent food insecurity in Eritrea, an attempt is made in this paper to assess the possible causes of food insecurity in the country. Furthermore, the paper captures the available food security policy proposals of Eritrea and eventually draws conclusions and extends possible recommendations and policy remedies suited to the country

Exploring Off-Targets and Off-Systems for Adverse Drug Reactions via Chemical-Protein Interactome — Clozapine-Induced Agranulocytosis as a Case Study

In the era of personalized medical practice, understanding the genetic basis of patient-specific adverse drug reaction (ADR) is a major challenge. Clozapine provides effective treatments for schizophrenia but its usage is limited because of life-threatening agranulocytosis. A recent high impact study showed the necessity of moving clozapine to a first line drug, thus identifying the biomarkers for drug-induced agranulocytosis has become important. Here we report a methodology termed as antithesis chemical-protein interactome (CPI), which utilizes the docking method to mimic the differences in the drug-protein interactions across a panel of human proteins. Using this method, we identified HSPA1A, a known susceptibility gene for CIA, to be the off-target of clozapine. Furthermore, the mRNA expression of HSPA1A-related genes (off-target associated systems) was also found to be differentially expressed in clozapine treated leukemia cell line. Apart from identifying the CIA causal genes we identified several novel candidate genes which could be responsible for agranulocytosis. Proteins related to reactive oxygen clearance system, such as oxidoreductases and glutathione metabolite enzymes, were significantly enriched in the antithesis CPI. This methodology conducted a multi-dimensional analysis of drugs' perturbation to the biological system, investigating both the off-targets and the associated off-systems to explore the molecular basis of an adverse event or the new uses for old drugs