Incidence of Opportunistic Infections Among Adult HIV Positive People Receiving Co-trimoxazole Prophylaxis

In Ethiopia, Co-trimoxazole prophylaxis therapy (CPT) used to prevent opportunistic infections among people living with HIV is the standard of practice; however incidence of opportunistic infection and their predictors are rarely documented in the country. This was a retrospective follow up study to describe the incidence and predictors of opportunistic infections among 244 adults receiving CPT. Participants were followed for a median time of 72 weeks. During a study period a total of 53opportunistic infections were recorded; making the overall incidence rate 23.9/100 person-years. High incidence of opportunistic infections is likely to occur if: the clients were married (adjusted hazard ratio (AHR) 1.965;(95% CI: 1.109, 3.451), had history of tuberculosis treatment (AHR: 2.34(95% CI:1.05, 5.24)), patients who are indicated for CPT because of both clinical and WHO clinical staging criteria(AHR 2.418 (95% CI:1.02, 5.72 ),and had poor adherence to CPT (AHR, 2.11 (95% CI: 1.19-3.72)). Eventhough adherence is non-substitutable strategy to prevent opportunistic infection, the cohort of HIV patients failed to adhere to CPT, which in turn resulthigh incidence of opportunistic infections among them, therefore improving adherence as guideline should be a priority to prevent OIs among people living with HIV in the study region

Psychological Intervention of Murophobia

Although phobia is more commonly observed during adolescence ascompared to adulthood, its specific type of murophobia is uncommon. Especially in a country like Ethiopia, where awareness, orientation to mental health and its psychological treatment is undergoing its infancy on account of several reasons, the neurotic disorders are rarely reported to mental health clinicians. The present study is a case report of a 16-year old adolescent female with murophobia. The case was not registered in any generalmedical clinic and was sent to our department for further psychological assessment and intervention. The client was comprehensively examined through clinical interview, behavioural analysis and treated by cognitive-behaviour technique of psychological intervention and without the inclusion of psychiatric treatment. Details of the psychological assessment and intervention have been presented in this case report

EFFECTS OF DRIVER PERSONAL VARIABLES ON PREFERRED VEHICLE INTERIOR COMPONENTS SETTING

This study identified and characterized the relationship between driver personal variables and preferred vehicle interior components setting. A two-phase modeling approach was employed to characterize the temporal, logical process involved in the driver selection of a preferred vehicle interior components setting. The modified Bayesian multivariate adaptive regression splines (BMARS) modeling method was employed to identify nonlinear and interactive relationships. Forty-two male and forty-four female drivers with a wide range of ages, stature, and BMI participated in the data collection. A highly adjustable vehicle mock-up was used to empirically obtain each participant’s preferred vehicle interior components setting. The study results indicated substantial non-anthropometric variability in the driver-selected seat horizontal positions and identified various interpretable nonlinearities and interactions. The study findings improve the understanding of the relationship between driver personal variables and preferred vehicle interior configuration and further inform the vehicle interior package design for driver accommodation

Finite Element Analysis and Vibration Testing of a Simple Replicate Beam-Type Aircraft Wing with and without Secondary Structure Attached

Ground vibration testing (GVT) is one of the most critical testing procedures for an airplane certification. With proper GVT, analysts can determine the stiffness distribution, natural frequencies, mode shapes and structural damping of each airplane components which are needed for flutter analysis and dynamic loads analysis. Hence the results from GVT are highly important. The problem identified in this paper is one that misleads the structural designing and might result in catastrophic situations, if proper attention is not given to the GVT results. During GVT, technicians and engineers attempt to instrument most of the primary components of the airplane, totally avoiding secondary structures such as bungees, gears, control surfaces, etc. The secondary structures are also of equal importance as the primary structures so that analysts can identify the in-phase and out-of- phase modes. If not, the tuning of the stiffness of the primary structure might not be accurate for flutter analysis, especially when the in-phase and out-of-phase modes are near to the structural modes of the primary structure. The goal of this paper is to recreate the above mentioned problem of the in-phase and out-of-phase mode for a small wing-gear like structure. The detailed objectives and methodologies of the work include, simulating the modal experiments and finite element analysis (FEA) on a free-free beam (primary structure) with and without flexible links (secondary structure) attached to them, determining the stiffness distribution and modal characteristics of the primary structure and the secondary structures, using GVT and FEA. Characterizing the in-phase and out-of- phase modes which involves both primary and secondary structure by signal processing and using simplified beam model (stick model) is another important goal of this research

Statistical bias correction of regional climate model simulations for climate change projection in the Jemma sub-basin, upper Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia

This study evaluates bias correction methods and develops future climate scenarios using the output of a better bias correctiontechnique at the Jemma sub-basin. The performance of different bias correction techniques was evaluated using several statisticalmetrics. The bias correction methods performance under climate condition different from the current climate was also evaluatedusing the differential split sample testing (DSST) and reveals that the distribution mapping technique is valid under climatecondition different from the current climate. All bias correction methods were effective in adjusting mean monthly and annualRCM simulations of rainfall and temperature to the observed rainfall and temperature values. However, distribution mappingmethod was better in capturing the 90th percentile of observed rainfall and temperature and wet day probability of observedrainfall than other methods. As a result, we use the future (2021–2100) simulation of RCMs which are bias corrected usingdistribution mapping technique. The output of bias-adjusted RCMs unfolds a decline of rainfall, a persistent increase of temperature and an increase of extremes of rainfall and temperature in the future climate under emission scenarios of RepresentativeConcentration Pathways 4.5, 8.5 and 2.6 (RCP4.5, RCP8.5 and RCP2.6). Thus, climate adaptation strategies that can provideoptimal benefits under different climate scenarios should be developed to reduce the impact of future climate change

A Task-based Design Methodology for Robotic Exoskeletons

This study is aimed at developing a task-based methodology for the design of robotic exoskeletons. This is in contrast to prevailing research efforts, which attempt to mimic the human limb, where each human joint is given an exoskeleton counter-joint. Rather, we present an alternative systematic design approach for the design of exoskeletons that can follow the complex three-dimensional motions of the human body independent of anatomical measures and landmarks. With this approach, it is not necessary to know the geometry of the targeted limb but rather to have a description of its motion at the point of attachment.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::3 - Salut i BenestarPostprint (published version

Observed changes in extremes of daily rainfall and temperature in Jemma Sub-Basin, Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

Climate variability has been a threat to the socio-economic development of Ethiopia. This paper examined the changes in rainfall, minimum, and maximum temperature extremes of Jemma Sub-Basin of the Upper Blue Nile Basin for the period of 1981 to 2014. The nonparametric Mann-Kendall, seasonal Mann-Kendall, and Sen’s slope estimator were used to estimate annual trends. Ten rainfall and 12 temperature indices were used to study changes in rainfall and temperature extremes. The results showed an increasing trend of annual and summer rainfall in more than 78% of the stations and a decreasing trend of spring rainfall in most of the stations. An increase in rainfall extreme events was detected in the majority of the stations. Several rainfall extreme indices showed wetting trends in the sub-basin, whereas limited indices indicated dryness in most of the stations. Annual maximum and minimum temperature and extreme temperature indices showed warming trend in the sub-basin. Presence of extreme rainfall and a warming trend of extreme temperature indices may suggest signs of climate change in the Jemma Sub-Basin. This study, therefore, recommended the need for exploring climate induced risks and implementing appropriate climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies

Heat transfer in horizontally oriented enclosure

The presented diploma thesis deals with the heat transfer in rectangular, horizontally oriented air enclosures. The aim of this work was to determine the effective emissivity of horizontal surfaces delimiting air enclosures with vertical walls characterized as re-emitting. Enclosures with different heights of the air layer were created in the measuring space of the measuring device HFM/436/3/1E by means of square polystyrene boards with a nominal thickness of 0.01 m, in which a coaxial square hole with a side of 0.102 m was formed. The size of the hole coincided with the size of the aerial heat flow transducers of the measuring device. The horizontal surfaces delimiting the air enclosures were formed by three materials significantly differing in their electrical resistance, on which the angular distribution of photons emitted from the surface of these materials depends. The thermal conductivity of the enclosure determined by the measurement was compared with the thermal conductivity of the enclosure calculated for the gradually increasing emissivity of the horizontal surface of the enclosure in the range of emissivity forming the surroundings of the tabulated hemispherical emissivity. When equality between measured and calculated thermal conductivities was reached, the corresponding emissivity was designated as the effective emissivity of the horizontal surfaces for a given height of the air enclosure. This solution introduces an error into the value of effective emissivity caused by the fact that the angular dependence of emissivity of real horizontal surfaces was not taken into account.The presented diploma thesis deals with the heat transfer in rectangular, horizontally oriented air enclosures. The aim of this work was to determine the effective emissivity of horizontal surfaces delimiting air enclosures with vertical walls characterized as re-emitting. Enclosures with different heights of the air layer were created in the measuring space of the measuring device HFM/436/3/1E by means of square polystyrene boards with a nominal thickness of 0.01 m, in which a coaxial square hole with a side of 0.102 m was formed. The size of the hole coincided with the size of the aerial heat flow transducers of the measuring device. The horizontal surfaces delimiting the air enclosures were formed by three materials significantly differing in their electrical resistance, on which the angular distribution of photons emitted from the surface of these materials depends. The thermal conductivity of the enclosure determined by the measurement was compared with the thermal conductivity of the enclosure calculated for the gradually increasing emissivity of the horizontal surface of the enclosure in the range of emissivity forming the surroundings of the tabulated hemispherical emissivity. When equality between measured and calculated thermal conductivities was reached, the corresponding emissivity was designated as the effective emissivity of the horizontal surfaces for a given height of the air enclosure. This solution introduces an error into the value of effective emissivity caused by the fact that the angular dependence of emissivity of real horizontal surfaces was not taken into account