Challenges and opportunities of using a distributive approach in instructional leadership : a case study in secondary schools in the Haramaya district of Ethiopia

This thesis draws on a case study research method conducted to identify the challenges of school leadership and to investigate the opportunities of instructional leadership practices via a distributive approach for secondary school principals in Haramaya District of Oromia region, Ethiopia. This qualitative research approach allows for obtaining detailed information from the participants for the issue under study. The participants of the study were five secondary school principals, 25 secondary school management members and five Haramaya District Education Office experts. Totally 35 participants were the subjects of the study. The data collected from the participants were analysed using a thematic analysis by employing the necessary steps of qualitative data analysis. Therefore, the study identified that school principals do not give equal emphasis for some of the instructional leadership roles and distribute instructional leadership roles based on a traditional ways rather than using a theme approach. The support provided to school principals from stakeholders to strengthen their instructional leadership practices using a distributive approach is also low. In addition, lack of knowledge and skill of principals to understand the recent school leadership theories and a distributive approach make principals not to practice instructional leadership via a distributive approach effectively and efficiently. Moreover, low commitment of stakeholders to take instructional leadership roles and activities, lack of adequate support from stakeholders to principals and lack of instructional materials and qualified personnel were the major challenges of principals in practicing instructional leadership via a distributive approach. Finally, the researcher recommended that school principals, Haramaya District Education Office and East Hararghe Zone Education Desk should work collaboratively to formulate and communicate a school vision, to use technology for assisting learning and strengthen CPD programme based on need assessment. Moreover, school principals should work on the approach of distributive leadership on a team base to use the various knowledge, skill, expertise and experience of stakeholders. Teachers, students, parents, community, educational authorities at different levels, GO and NGOs should distribute instructional leadership roles and activities to support principals. Haramaya District Education Office and East Hararghe Zone Education Desk in collaboration with NGOs should prepare up-to-date training and strengthen school-community relationships.Educational Management and LeadershipD. Ed. (Education Management

Brain Tumor Detection & Classification Using FRFCM Segmentation and PSO Based Extreme Machine Learning and it’s Implementation Through Embedded System

This research work proposes a novel Fast and robust Fuzzy C Means base (FRFCM) segmentation technique for detection of brain tumor from MR (Magnetic Resonance) image that can inform the radiologist and doctor about the details of brain tumor. This segmentation technique has been employed for rician noise removal and sharpening of the  image with  morphological reconstruction. The MR (Magnetic Resonance) Images features have been extracted through a popular Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) and Discrete wavelet transform feature extraction technique. The extracted features are applied to the, proposed PSO(Particle Swarm Optimization) based extreme learning machine(ELM) for classification of the type of malignant and benign brain tumors for visual localization. Further the classification results will be compared with the existing support vector machine and relevance vector machine model. In this research work, the weights of the proposed novel multi class extreme learning machine classifier model has been updated by the PSO algorithm to increase the performance of the classifiers. To show the uniqueness of the research, further the research work proposes for implementation of detection and classification through embedded system platform which may be the product outcome of the research work. It will help the medical staff particularly for the radiologist and doctor to understand the seriousness of the tumor. Further the embedded system platform has been used to show the classification, segmentation and features through GUI (Graphical User Interface)

Prevalence and determinant factors of hookworm infection among school age children in Jawe district, NorthWest Ethiopia

Background: Hookworm infection is a common parasitic infection in sub-Saharan Africa. The prevalence of hookworm infection is influenced by different determinant factors. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of hookworm infection and determinant factors among school age children in North West Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2016 to August 2016. Children were selected by systematic random sampling and Formoleether concentration technique was used to identify hookworm infection. We conducted descriptive and logistic regression analysis for categorical variables. The adjusted odds ratio was calculated at 95% confidence interval. Results: Among 333 children, 49 (14.7%) were infected with hookworm parasites. Eating raw vegetables, not wearing shoes, absence of regular wearing of shoes and hand washing habit, absence of proper utilization of latrines, absence of deworming were significantly associated (p<0.05) with hookworm infection. Conclusion: The prevalence of hookworm infection was high among school age children. Walking with bare foot, hand washing habit, and absence of proper latrine utilization are the major determinant factors for the high prevalence of hookworm infection. Therefore, community mobilization and health education should be done to decrease hookworm infection among school age children in Jawe district

Prevalence and Associated Factors of Thyroid Incidentaloma among Adult People Attending Gondar University Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia Temesgen Tadesse1

BACKGROUND: Incidentally discovered thyroid lesions have become highly common in the development and more frequent utilization of highly sensitive imaging modalities, like ultrasound. However, little is known about its prevalence and associated factors in Ethiopia. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of thyroid incidentalomas and associated factors through ultrasound (US) among adults attending Gondar University Hospital.METHODS: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was carried out on 290 adults aged 15 years and above. Out of the adults who visited the hospital during the study, those who neither had history of thyroid disease, thyroid surgery, nor clinically palpable thyroid nodules were involved in the investigation. The participants were examined using a high frequency linear-array transducer (7MHz). For comparing men and women, the unpaired t-test wasused. Binary logistic analysis was used to identify the associated factors, and a P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.RESULT: The frequency of thyroid incidentaloma was found to be 33.4% (95% CI: 27.9, 38.9). Thyroid incidentaloma was detected in 42.4% of the females and 22.7% of the males (P<0.001). About 63% had single and 37% multiple thyroid nodules. About 25.8% had thyroid nodules greater than 1cm. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis, increasing age (AOR=5.96; 2.34, 15.15) and female sex (AOR=3.01; 1.73, 5.26) were significantly associated with thyroid incidentalomas.CONCLUSION: The frequency of thyroid incidentaloma (TI) was found to be high in this study and much higher among older women. Solitary and small sized thyroid nodules were commonly seen in the study.

Performance of Laboratory Professionals Working on Malaria Microscopy in Tigray, North Ethiopia

Background. Microscopic analysis of stained blood smear is the most suitable method of malaria diagnosis. However, gaps were observed among clinical laboratory professionals in microscopic diagnosis of malaria. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted in December 2015 among 46 laboratory professionals. Data was collected via on-site assessment and panel testing. The slide panel testing was composed of positive and negative slides. The kappa score was used to estimate the agreement between participants and reference reader. Results. The overall agreement between the study participants and the reference reader in malaria detection was 79% (kappa = 0.62). Participating in refresher training on malaria microscopy (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR = 7, CI = 1.5–36.3)) and malaria epidemic investigation (AOR = 4.1 CI = 1.1–14.5) had statistical significant association with detection rate of malaria parasites. Conclusion. Laboratory professionals showed low performance in malaria microscopy. Most of the study participants were graded “in-training” in laboratory diagnosis of malaria

Assessment of Productive and Reproductive Performances of Cross Breed Dairycows in Debre tabor town

The study was carried the overall objective to assess the productive and reproductive performances of crossbreed dairy cows in five small holder farm in Debre tabor town. Data were gathered by interviewed the owners of the farms. A descriptive statically tools was used to analyze the data. As 80% of the respondent reviled those cows were producing milk more than 10iitters per day and a lactation length average of 9 months. Furthermore, 60%of the respondents  reviled that the calving interval for their cows were  between 1.0-1.3 years and also 40%of the respondents reviled that their cows came to heat 2-3months post calving.80%of the respondents was reviled that age at first calving was 2.5-3 years. Whereas 20%of the respondents respond that their cows have calved up to 2.1 year. Based on the result obtained it is recommended that awareness about Artificial insemination should be created, in addition to management to improve reproduction and production performance of dairy cows. Keywords: dairy cows, productive performance, reproductive performanc

Teff and Wheat Yield Variation With Phosphorus Application In Jamma District, Ethiopia

Different plant species has different nutrient requirements and utilize nutrients in different ways. Biological activity contributes to P solubilization through mineralization, wheathering, and other physicochemical reactions so that the soil plow layer is the major source of soil availabile P for crops. Ethiopia Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resource and ATA recommended six types of blended fertilizers (NPSZnB, NPKSB, NPKSZnB, NPSZn, NPSB and NPS) for the Amhara region. Our study was conducted in Jamma districts of eastern Amhara, Ethiopia, during  2018 cropping season to attest the yield of teff (Dega teff) and wheat (Danda’a) due to phosphorus fertilizer application. Fertilizer treatments tested were the recommended dose of N only, recommended dose of NP, 50 kg.ha-1 NPS, 100 kg.ha-1 NPS, and 150kg. ha-1 NPS, set up in a. randomized complete block design with three replication, and conducted on four sites. Our study demonstrated that applications of N and P fertilizers significantly improved grain yield of wheat and teff, and that there was significant yield differences (P < 0.05) between different rates of P fertilizer. Therefore, even though the soil P levels were shown to be sufficient, application of both N and P fertilizer in the Jamma district is essential to increase yield of teff and wheat

Prevalence and determinant factors of hookworm infection among school age children in Jawe district, NorthWest Ethiopia

Background: Hookworm infection is a common parasitic infection in sub-Saharan Africa. The prevalence of hookworm infection is influenced by different determinant factors. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of hookworm infection and determinant factors among school age children in North West Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2016 to August 2016. Children were selected by systematic random sampling and Formoleether concentration technique was used to identify hookworm infection. We conducted descriptive and logistic regression analysis for categorical variables. The adjusted odds ratio was calculated at 95% confidence interval. Results: Among 333 children, 49 (14.7%) were infected with hookworm parasites. Eating raw vegetables, not wearing shoes, absence of regular wearing of shoes and hand washing habit, absence of proper utilization of latrines, absence of deworming were significantly associated (p<0.05) with hookworm infection. Conclusion: The prevalence of hookworm infection was high among school age children. Walking with bare foot, hand washing habit, and absence of proper latrine utilization are the major determinant factors for the high prevalence of hookworm infection. Therefore, community mobilization and health education should be done to decrease hookworm infection among school age children in Jawe district

THE PREVALENCE OF HIV-1 ANTIBODIES IN 106 TUBERCULOSIS PATIENTS

ABSTRACT: Sera were collected from all 106 tuberculosis (TB) patients consecutively seen over a period of six months at the Armed Forces General Hospital. All were tested for the presence of HIV-I antibodies, using the ELISA (Wellcozyme) and confirmed with the Western Blot (Biorad), out of which 7 reacted positively. Six of the seven HIV-I positive patients had pulmonary tuberculosis and only one had the disseminated form as opposed to 31% of the 106 patients presenting with the latter. Five of the HIV -I positive patients had a history of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) compared to 30 of the 99 HIV-I negative patients (39.4%). The study seems to show a positive association between HIV-I infection and tuberculosis. We therefore believe that further studies should be done in this country in order to a certain the association between the two diseases