Volume 14, Issue 3, March 2023 Edition - IJSER Journal Publication


Publication for Volume 14, Issue 3, March 2023 Edition - IJSER Journal Publication

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Surfactant flooding is a technique used in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) to improve the efficiency of oil recovery from reservoirs. []


Although waterflooding is an effective process, surfactant flooding is used to recover oil from reservoirs by wettability alteration and interfacial tension reduction. Economical effectiveness is a main challenge in feasibility of any EOR method. In this study, we investigate the economical efficiency of both surfactant and water flooding by algorithm genetic optimization. One of the important optimization variables is well placement. Various methods have been suggested for this problem. Among these, direct optimization, although accurate, is impossible due to the number of simulation required. Optimal placement of up to three injection wells was studied at two fields. One of the Iranian conventional field and a hypothetic fractured field. Injection rate and injection time was also optimized. The net present value of the surfactant flooding projects was used as the objective function. Profits and costs during the time period of the project were taken into consideration.

The microdistribution and spatial variation of macroinvertebrate populations in Sonamarg have been found to be influenced by various biotic and abiotic factors. []


Present investigation attempted to explore the occurrence, distribution and diversity of epigeal invertebrate fauna in the different micro-habitats of the Sonamarg (34°.40’ 31”7 N latitude 74°71’29”E longitude) Kashmir. A checklist of epigeal invertebrate fauna was prepared and determines the effect of various micro habitats determined. Six sites were selected in the study area. A total of 34 species belonging to 11 different orders were reported. The maximum number of species belonged to order Coleoptera (10 species) followed by Araneida (5 species) and Hymenoptera (5 species), Hemiptera (3 species), Dermoptera, Diptera, Oligochaeta and Scolopendramorpha (2 species each), Dictyoptera, Juliformia and Orthoptera (1 specie each). Various relative parameters such as, density, relative-density, frequency, relative frequency, abundance, relative abundance and importance value index were computed. It was concluded that the maximum abundance and diversity pertained to the habitat rich in organic matter followed by the forest area. The epigeal fauna exhibited fairly good degree of variation both site as well as month wise.

Hierarchical clustering to predict the response of cardiac resynchronization therapy in patients with heart failure []


The heterogeneous nature of today’s evolving health databases requires new techniques and approaches to process these data and extract clinically useful information. This relevant information obtained can be used to improve the response rate of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in patients with heart failure. Hierarchical clustering (HC) which is an unsupervised ML technique may uncover clusters within the bulk of data of the patient population which is useful for strategies towardprecision and personalized medicine. This study aims to investigate how HC can be used to automatically group a bulk of clinically acquired CRT data into clusters and subgroups that could confer clinically relevant information. About 165 patient data were used in the study and the analysis resulted in 4 different phenogroups with varying response rates. Some features were statistically significant when compared within the subgroups. Lastly, the study concludes that HC can be used to integrate and analyze different kinds of clinical data to aid in the identification of HF patient subgroups that are likely to respond to CRT.

Performance Evaluation of Different Sand Control Techniques in an Oil Reservoir []


Sand control techniques basically involve technologies designed to curtail or keep within check, the sand production associated with oil and gas production. These technologies, while impeding sand production, also go a long way in ensuring the maintenance of the integrity of the production system components. However, they have been known to create somewhat undesirable and inevitable pressure drops in the well system, influencing the well production and performance. In this research, the impact of the choice of sand control technique on well performance is investigated. Three sand control methods are studied namely, Gravel pack, Wire wrapped screen and Slotted liner. The performance of the well when installed with each of these was scrutinized using the Absolute Open flow potential (AOP), Productivity Index, Drawdown, Completion efficiency, sand control efficiency etc as indices. These parameters were compared to an ideal well condition presumed to be a case of a wholly open hole production with zero skin. To make this comparison, well models were built in the Petroleum Experts Software PROSPER Software. From the results, it was established that the wire wrapped screen offered very little impedance to flow resulting in almost 100% efficiency. The gravel pack completion also proved beneficial as efficiency was at 82%. However, the slotted liner produced below performance with an efficiency of 7%. Further sensitivity analysis was carried out for the slotted liner to discern if the poor efficiency was due to slot dimensions. Results indicated that for the Niger delta well studied, the slotted liner was generally unsuitable irrespective of selected slot dimensions.

Forensic Accounting and Fraud detection in Nigeria []


Fraud is a virus that is difficult to eliminate but subject to detection for control. This study investigated the effect of Forensic Accounting on fraud detection in Nigeria. The aim of the study was to examine the effectiveness of forensic accounting in helping EFCC to detect fraud in Nigeria, covering the activities of Economic and Financial Crime Commission, Ibadan branch office. The structure of the process and procedure is descriptive and this is under the survey research design. The total population of the study is 60 employees. However, the population was restricted to the various departments in Economic and Financial Crime Commission, Ibadan. The questionnaire was structured personally which is made up of ten (10) close-ended questions with five (5) Likert scale response (Strongly Agreed, Agreed, Strongly Disagreed, Disagreed and Undecided). The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistical method was employed to analyze the data collected at 5% level of Significance. The findings deduced that forensic accounting can provide panacea to fraud detection. The study recommended that companies should take advantage of the modern accounting and auditing software to enhance efficiency and smooth operation of forensic Accounting. Keywords: Fraud, Forensic Accounting, Digital Forensic Investigation.

ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF FLOOD IMPACTS ON HEAD REACH INFRASTRUCTURE OF PROPOSED CHINIOT DAM []


The major sources of surface water available to Pakistan are perennial flows of River Indus and its tributaries i.e. Jhelum and Chenab Rivers. The Proposed site is known site to store water and to protect the surrounding areas from flood on the Chenab River in Pakistan. By creation of reservoir of 0.9 MAF storage Capacity will cause water level to raise and reduction in flow velocity. Consequently, will cause sediment deposition which would further increase the water level due to raised river bed level by deposited sediments. To achieve this storage at Chenab River, reservoir is to be modelled in HEC-RAS software to assess pre-dam and post-dam scenario by considering the inflow sediments towards the reservoir. The HEC-RAS model was used to simulate for different conditions of river flow for water surface profile and sediment delta modelling of the reservoir reach. The historical daily water and sediment flows (1985-2022) have been inserted in model to assess the pre-dam and post-dam scenarios. Water surface profiles with proposed reservoir and without reservoir were developed and the maximum water level at upstream training works of existing Talibwala motorway bridge were worked out against different historical floods. It is concluded that after creation of 0.9 MAF capacity reservoir, the average sediment inflow in the reservoir is worked out to be 38.4 MT compared with observed average sediment inflow at dam site which is 36.8 MT.

THE LEVEL OF READINESS OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS IN IMPLEMENTING DISTANCE LEARNING: THE CASE OF CASIGURAN I DISTRICT []


ABSTRACT. The level of readiness of teachers in implementing distance learning modalities is satisfactorily ready in terms of instruction, assessment, and learning resources. While the level of readiness of parents in implementing distance learning modalities was moderate. The different strategies employed by teachers and parents to improve their competencies in distance learning modality vary in terms of modular distance learning, online distance learning, blended learning, and home-based schooling. Thus, for blended learning, the strategy employed was facilitating the learning engagement with printed SLMs downloaded to learners’ gadgets. Lastly, facilitating the learning engagement with printed SLMs downloaded to learners’ gadgets is a strategy being employed for home-based learning. For Parents, in terms of modular distance learning the strategy employed is soliciting ideas from teachers on how to promote assistance to learners using individualized instruction. Lastly, soliciting the support of teachers on how to implement and use the LAS and SLMs at home is a strategy being employed for home-based learning. Conducting SLACs on LDM is the strategy employed by the school head to improve the competencies of teachers as learning facilitators in the distance learning modality. On the other hand, conducting orientation and meetings with parents about the new normal learning delivery modality is the strategy employed by the school head to improve the competencies of parents as learning facilitators in the distance learning modality. KEYWORDS: THE LEVEL OF READINESS OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS, DISTANCE LEARNING

Cultural analysis of liberal feminism in American English language teaching resources []


One of the ways to spread the approach of liberal feminism in the world is to use English language education, through which English culture is spread among language learners. With the aim of discovering the signs of promoting liberal feminism in language teaching resources, this research, with a cultural approach, first determined the dimensions and components of liberal feminism. After that, three sources were selected from the most widely used sources of English language education in Iran, and the parts where the signs of promoting liberal feminism were evident were analyzed for content. The analyzes were done based on the components of liberal feminism and common Iranian Islamic culture. These analyzes were given to 20 experts for verification and conclusions were drawn after corrections. The results indicated that the two dimensions of equality (35.5%) and empowerment (30.5%) were the most frequent in these sources. The dimensions of freedom (17.5%) and legal protection (13.5%) were in third and fourth place. The statistics of other components were less than 5% and negligible.

The microdistribution and spatial variation of macroinvertebrate populations in Sonamarg have been found to be influenced by various biotic and abiotic factors. []


Present investigation attempted to explore the occurrence, distribution and diversity of epigeal invertebrate fauna in the different micro-habitats of the Sonamarg (34°.40’ 31”7 N latitude 74°71’29”E longitude) Kashmir. A checklist of epigeal invertebrate fauna was prepared and determines the effect of various micro habitats determined. Six sites were selected in the study area. A total of 34 species belonging to 11 different orders were reported. The maximum number of species belonged to order Coleoptera (10 species) followed by Araneida (5 species) and Hymenoptera (5 species), Hemiptera (3 species), Dermoptera, Diptera, Oligochaeta and Scolopendramorpha (2 species each), Dictyoptera, Juliformia and Orthoptera (1 specie each). Various relative parameters such as, density, relative-density, frequency, relative frequency, abundance, relative abundance and importance value index were computed. It was concluded that the maximum abundance and diversity pertained to the habitat rich in organic matter followed by the forest area. The epigeal fauna exhibited fairly good degree of variation both site as well as month wise.

The factors determining brand loyalty for branded garments in Pakistan []


The purpose of this research is to find out the determinants of brand loyalty of branded garments in Pakistan. Data was collected from 120 people through questionnaire from people belonging to different culture in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. In this research we focused on only two factors price and quality only. Results show that brand loyalty is affected by price and quality of the garments.

The Alpine scrub, pasture land, and forest area of Branwar Forest Division in Kashmir Himalaya are all vulnerable to biotic stresses. []


The present study was carried out for assessing different type of biotic stresses in Branwar Forests of Kashmir Himalaya. The Present Study area i.e., Branwar Forest Range lies over and above famous tourist area of Yus Marg on one side and Neel Nag Forest Lake on the other side. The present investigation was carries out from April, 2010 to April, 2011. The cumulative effect of the biotic interferences was significantly seen in the reduction of vegetation cover. The present study revealed that the prominent factor for the exploitation of the vegetation cover of Branwar forest study area at herbaceous level is simply the overgrazing. The increasing disturbances not only disturb the plant species diversity, richness and evenness significantly but various plant species have got completely eliminated by different kinds of interferences like overgrazing, deforestation, hydal power production, forest fire, Stone extraction, road construction etc. The forests in the region are suffering from severe biotic stress. The forests are intimately linked with the agro-ecosystems in the mountainous areas of the Himalaya and the depletion has definite and obvious impacts on the overall socioeconomic and agricultural scenario of the entire region. The productivity in agriculture has diminished over the years, rain fall has become erratic and lesser in amounts, water resources are fast drying up, land instability has increased, top soil erosion rate has increased, several species of plants and animals have become threatened, adverse climatic changes are in the offing, yield of milch cattle is on decline, pollution has become a problem to reckon with and all this with its attendant effects have resulted in a decline in the quality of life of the people. The future is becoming increasingly uncertain and this has given rise to allied social discontentment which is being reflected in various socio-political movements taking place.

Synthesis of novel benzoxathiazepine-1,1-dioxides by means of a one-pot multicomponent reaction []


A simple one-pot synthesis of benzoxathiazepine-1,1-dioxides is described. Increased yields are afforded when suitable substituents are present in one of the starting materials. These additional substituents also provide a handle for further functionalization.

Digital watermarking is a technique used to embed an imperceptible signal into digital media, such as images, audio, and video, for copyright protection, authentication, and tamper detection. []


This project acquaints an algorithm of digital watermarking which is based on Least Significant Bit (LSB), Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). In accord with the characters of human vision, the main objective of the project is to be focused on comparative analysis of this algorithms on the basis of invisibility, distortion and robustness to attacks. The simulation results show that this algorithm is invisible and has good robustness for some common image processing operations.By the use of Matlab software, the algorithms have been coded and then implemented properly.

1120005125:112001293(US$241691.60)CUSTODIAL TORTURE: CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGISLATIVE PROVISIONS IN INDIA []


Torture has been practiced frequently in India regardless of the Government in power. Torture is committed on a regular basis by enforcement officials in the course of criminal investigations. As per International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, the most likely perpetrators to be involved in torture and other forms of ill treatment are: the police, the military, paramilitary forces, State controlled forces, Governmental officials, health professionals and co-detainees acting with the approval or on the orders of public officials3. In India the main perpetrators of torture have been police officers and other law enforcement officials, such as paramilitary forces and those authorities, who have the power to detain and interrogate persons. In India, torture is not expressively prohibited by the Constitution but the Ministry of Home Affairs has claimed that Indian law contains adequate provisions for safeguarding human rights and sufficient safeguards against police brutality and torture also exist. Although, the prohibition of torture in specific terms lacks Constitutional authority, Indian courts have held that Article 21 of the Constitution implies protection against torture.

The development of a waterproof breathable polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane as a moisture barrier for fire protective suits []


Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a remarkable membrane material. Due to its high melting point, PTFE fine powder cannot be processed using the conventional melting processing methods. Instead, techniques such as paste extrusion, rolling and sintering have to be employed. The water vapor transport properties of polymer membranes are critical in applications of waterproof breathable clothing materials. Several test methods are available for measuring the permeability of polymer membrane or laminates but they are either time-consuming or require large amounts of sample. A new test apparatus was devised for determining the water vapor permeability of polymer. Additionally, the water vapor transport behavior of the PTFE membrane does not depend upon the water content in the polymer. Unsintered PTFE films were uniaxially stretched using Universal Testing machine at a speed of 100 mm/sec and sintered in the stretched position by blowing hot air of temperature 3700C over it for 5 minutes and cooled down to room temperature. Sequential biaxial stretching of PTFE film has been done by first stretching in transverse direction and sintered in the stretched position and then stretched in longitudinal direction and sintered similarly as mentioned above. MVTR of both uniaxially and biaxially stretched films was determined by inverted cup method and the MVTR was found to be 4500 g.m-2.24 h-1 for uniaxially stretched and 5075 g.m-2.24 h-1 for biaxially stretched film as per ASTM E 96. These high values of Moisture Vapor Transmission Rate (MVTR) show good breathability of the films and are quite suitable for using as a waterproof breathable moisture barrier membrane for fire protective suits. In addition, we describe a precision PTFE stretch operation with asymmetric heating system, and how it can be used to improve the properties of PTFE membrane. Different stretching ratio (none and 50%), asymmetry heating temperature (420oC), and different heating time (5 and 10 s) were used to modify the PTFE membrane pore size. It was found that a higher stretching rate tends to result in larger pore size and broader pore size distribution at the same heating time. At a shorter heating time and without stretch at asymmetric heating process, the porosity of PTFE membrane was increased from 50 to 70% and the mean pore size was decreased from 0.15 to 0.08 mm.

Effects of Gamification on academic task completion rates of adolescents []


Gamification is a technique which uses motivational aspects of games to motivate and engage users. This study investigates how gamification affects adolescents’ academic task completion rates. It aims to understand how gamification impacts task-completion rates. It involved 21 students of ages 12 to 14 of an Indian school in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, solving mathematics questions on Volume and Surface Area of Cubes and Cuboids. The experimental group solved questions on this topic on Mindspark, while the control group solved questions on the topic on paper. The results of the study indicate a positive correlation between gamification and adolescents’ task completion rate and accuracy. Through a one-tailed Wilcoxon rank-sum test, these results were proven for the larger population of adolescents. Possible causes of these results discussed are the optimal difficulty and high level of control provided by gamification.

Hyperparameter Tuning Based Machine Learning classifier for Breast Cancer Prediction []


Currently, the second most devastating form of cancer in people, particularly in women, is Breast Cancer (BC). In the healthcare industry, Machine Learning (ML) is commonly employed in fatal disease prediction. Due to breast cancer's favorable prognosis at an early stage, a model is created to utilize the Dataset on Wisconsin Diagnostic Breast Cancer (WDBC). Conversely, this model's overarching axiom is to compare the effectiveness of five well-known ML classifiers, including Logistic Regression (LR), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), and Naive Bayes (NB) with the conventional method. To counterbalance the effect with conventional methods, the overarching tactic we utilized was hyperparameter tuning utilizing the grid search method, which improved accuracy, secondary precision, third recall, and finally the F1 score. In this study hyperparameter tuning model, the rate of accuracy increased from 94.15% to 98.83% whereas the accuracy of the conventional method increased from 93.56% to 97.08%. According to this investigation, KNN outperformed all other classifiers in terms of accuracy, achieving a score of 98.83%. In conclusion, our study shows that KNN works well with the hyper-tuning method. These analyses show that this study prediction approach is useful in prognosticating women with breast cancer with a viable performance and more accurate findings when compared to the conventional approach.

An adder circuit is a digital circuit used to perform addition of two binary numbers. In the context of high-speed memory Built-In Self-Test (BIST), the adder circuit is used to calculate the memory address for test data generation and checking. []


Abstract -- The saying goes that if you can count, you can control. Addition is a fundamental operation for any digital system, digital signal processing or control system. A fast and accurate operation of a digital system is greatly influenced by the performance of the resident adders. Adders are also very important component in digital systems because of their extensive use in other basic digital operations such as subtraction, multiplication and division. Hence, improving performance of the digital adder would greatly advance the execution of binary operations inside a circuit compromised of such blocks. The performance of a digital circuit block is gauged by analyzing its power dissipation, layout area and its operating speed. Here we analyze the fastest adder circuit after the implementation of adder circuitry in BIST. So we can analyze which adder is the fastest at different range of frequency.

Drug infusion is a technique used in healthcare to administer medication directly into a patient's bloodstream over a period of time. []


Blood pressure (MAP) and cardiac output (CO) from an intensive care "patient" were simulated using Simulink. These patient outputs were measured in response to certain drugs (Nitroprusside, and Dopamine), and mathematical models were calculated to represent the responses. Using these models, a controller was designed to read the patient outputs and adjust them according to a pre-determined steady-state setpoint using the two drugs, Nitroprusside and Dopamine. With the controller in place on the "patient," a heart attack was simulated as a test of the controller's ability to keep the patient outputs at the steady-state levels. It was found that the controller worked well using the two drugs, but only in the case of the patient outputs being depressed. A third drug, at least, as well as another controller function will be needed to control step changes in the positive direction.

Use of Kinematics in our Daily Life []


Kinematics is a mathematical branch of physics that uses equations to describe the motion of objects (specifically trajectories) without referring to forces. These equations allow you to simply plug various numbers into one of the four basic kinematic equations to find unknowns in those equations without applying any knowledge of the physics behind that motion, or having any knowledge of physics at all. Being good at algebra is sufficient to bludgeon your way through simple projectile-motion problems without gaining a real appreciation for the underlying science.

Assessing the Economic and Political Impacts of the Bangladesh Bank Cyber Attack []


This research paper provides an analysis of the Bangladesh Bank cyber-attack, which resulted in the theft of $81 million from the bank's account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2016. The paper examines the economic and political impacts of the attack, as well as the lessons learned from the incident. The attack had significant financial implications for Bangladesh Bank, resulting in a loss of funds and damage to investor confidence in the country. The political fallout included investigations and criticism of the government's response to the attack. The lessons learned from the Bangladesh Bank cyber-attack are relevant for financial institutions and governments around the world and include the need for multi-layered security measures, incident response planning, addressing the human element of cybersecurity, and continuous education and awareness. By implementing these measures, financial institutions can better protect themselves from cyber threats and help ensure the integrity and stability of the global financial system.

Wastes Converter Reactor Plant Design for Synthesis of Bio-fuels, Minerals and Petrochemicals []


The environmental pollution facilitated by wastes disposal have been the greatest challenge to man for decades. Several technological research efforts have been on the increase to tackle its menace to humanity. This present research thrives to design a waste converter reactor plant (WCRP) with which waste from various sources was subjected to combustion cum distillation process to generate bio-fuels, solid minerals and petrochemical feed stocks for further applications. Reactor performance equations for the reactor and major equipment were developed from first principle by the application of the principles of conservation of mass and energy to determine the dimensional and functional parameters of the waste converter reactor plant (WCRP). The results obtained for the dimensional and functional parameters at fractional conversion of 90% are: volume = 〖1.8m〗^3, length = 1.0m, space time = 16.6hrs, space velocity = 0.06〖hr〗^(-1), heat load = 5.55*〖10〗^5 J. The results detailed parameters required for the design and development of a waste converter reactor plant.

Evaluation of Radiation Dose Patients Received during X-ray Examinations Dire Dawa City, Hospitals []


The aim of this study was to assess and examine the patient doses in the most common radiographic X-ray examinations in selected hospitals in Dire Dawa city, Ethiopia. The examination parameters of 133 radiographs were used to evaluate the entrance surface air kerma (ESAK) of patients undergoing chest posterioanterior (PA), abdomen anterioposterior (AP) and lumbar spine anterioposterior (AP) in seven major hospitals. In this study kV, mAs and FFD used ranged from 54-119 kVp, 0.5-120 mAs and 100-150 cm, respectively. Hospital mean ESAKs estimated range from 0.13 – 1.540 mGy for chest PA, 0.470–4.538 mGy for Lumbar Spine AP, and 0.405- 4.905 mGy for Abdomen AP. Analyses were performed on measurements throughout the seven radiological departments. In all hospitals ESAK for chest exam is higher than the recommended value from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) and Commission for European Community (CEC) Diagnostic Reference Levels(DRL) except in two hospitals Yemariam Work Higher Clinic (YHC) and Bilal Hospital (BH). For the other examinations the values are within the recommended values from IAEA, NRPB and CEC. This data will be useful for the formulation of national reference levels as recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Due to relatively high tube output in all except two hospitals YHC and BH in chest PA x-ray examinations, the study were concluded for increasing the filtration in these hospitals. It is also concluded the radiographer adhere to guidelines for quality radiograph for standardizing their practice. Quality control of the dark room is highly concluded. It is anticipated that the results presented will serve as a baseline data needed for deriving DRLs for X-ray examinations in Ethiopia.

ASSESSMENT OF PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE FABRICATED WITH SUN-FLOWER STALK AND CORNCOB ASHES []


This study focus on the examination of concrete made by partially substituting Corn Cob Ash (CCA) and Sunflower Stalk Ash (SSA) for cement. Cement was modify with CCA and SSA at the ratios of (0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 percent) by weight of cement. Concrete cylinders were formed, and they took 7, 14, and 28 days to cure throughout the 28-day curing process for concrete beams. The cylinder's compressive strength and the beam's flexural strength were tested. Compressive tests, flexural tests, and slump tests were carried out. The results disclosed that workability (slump values) decrease with increased ash content. The compressive strength at all ages showed a decline with a rise in ash content, while the flexural strength enhanced with an increased dosage of ash.

DETERMINANTS OF ADVERSE NEONATAL BIRTH OUTCOMES AMONG MOTHERS WHO GAVE BIRTH AT HOSPITALS IN JIMMA ZONE, ETHIOPIA: FACILITY BASED UNMATCHED CASE-CONTROL STUDY. []


Background: The magnitude of perinatal mortality in Ethiopia was among the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Hence, the achievement of reducing perinatal and neonatal death is strongly influenced by the number of adverse birth outcomes. Therefore identifying those problems is a priority area to give policy insight and recommendations. The study aimed to determine the factors associated with adverse birth outcomes. Methods: Unmatched case control study was conducted on 127 cases and 381 controls with a total of 518 samples by proportional allocation; from June 1-30/2022. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews and using data extraction sheets from delivery, Voluntary Counseling and Testing, and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit registration book. Both cases and controls were selected by convenience as it is a homogeneous population Binary and Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed at a significance level of p-value ≤ 0.25 and 0.05 respectively. Findings: In this study, 381 controls and 127 cases were involved with a response rate of 98.06%. In multivariable analysis, Multigravida [AOR=3.769, 95% CI (2.295, 6.188)], Residence [AOR=1.921, 95% CI (1.156, 3.190)], Female Genital Mutilation [AOR=2.88, 95% CI (1.569, 5.285)], Being male baby [AOR=3.935, 95% CI (2.388,6.483)], Presence of preexisting medical condition [AOR=1.737, 95% CI (1.005,3.003)], Drinking alcohol [AOR=2.28, 95% CI (1.175,4.426)], Not Attending Focused Antenatal Care [AOR=1.963, 95% CI (1.190,3.238)] and Being delivered by Caesarean Delivery [AOR=0.124, 95% CI (0.059,0.259)] were significantly associated with adverse birth outcome. Conclusion Rural residence, multigravida, being a male baby, female genital mutilation, presence of the preexisting medical condition, drinking alcohol, not attending full antenatal care, and delivery by cesarean delivery were factors that had associations with adverse birth outcomes. Therefore, providing appropriate information on the above-mentioned factors is very important. Keywords: adverse birth outcome; factors; Jimma zone.

Adaptation Trial of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) Varieties/Cultivars in Selected districts of West Hararghe Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia []


Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa. The sector supports a million people in the country. But, the industry is primarily challenged by animal feed in terms of quality and quantity. So, it is important to introduce different improved forage at the smallholder farmer level. The experiment was conducted in West Hararghe Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia. The trial was conducted at mid to highland agroecologies for two consecutive major cropping seasons, 2021 to 2022 years aimed to evaluate, identify and recommend the best adaptable, high biomass yielders and drought tolerance alfalfa varieties for the study area. Five alfalfa varieties were used as experimental treatments in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications. All agronomic and yield parameters showed statistically significant (p<0.05) variation among varieties except plot cover. The highest mean dry matter yield was recorded for Arba Rakate FTC (5.51 t/ha), Kuni Segeria (3.62 t/ha), and on station (3.42 t/ha) with a combined mean of 4.18t/ha. The highest combined mean dry matter was recorded from the variety Hair Peruvian (4.82 t/ha) followed by Magna#788 (4.16 t/ha) and the lowest dry matter was recorded from Magna#801 (3.9 t/ha) and the fresh biomass yield varied from 14.02 to 17.34 t/ha with the average of 15.16 t/ha that the highest mean fresh biomass yield recorded from Hair Peruvian (17.34t/ha) followed by hunter river (15.30 t/ha) and the lowest recorded from Magna#801 (14.02 t/ha). The combined mean plant height ranged from 68.6 to 82.65 cm with a mean of 78.95 cm. The highest combined leaf-to-stem ratio was recorded from Magna#801 (60.73) followed by Magna#788 (54.06) and the lowest was recorded from Hunter river (49.53). The mean disease occurrence varied from 1.18 to 1.88. The most susceptible varieties were Magna#788 (1.88) and Magna#801(1.81) while the tolerance varieties were werer (1.18) and Hair Peruvian (1.25). From this study, it is concluded that Hair Peruvian followed by Hunter River was found more promising in terms of agronomic traits, DM yield, and fresh biomass yield than others during the primary rainy season and popularized as an alternative feed resource under smallholder conditions in the study areas and other places of similar climatic and edaphic conditions.

fabrication and investigation of the impact of glass powder filler on the mechanical properties of sisal fiber reinforced polymer matrix []


Due to their low weight, improved mechanical properties, and cost-effective fabrication techniques, natural fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composites are highly utilized for different engineering applications in different industries. The current work is focused on investigating the effect of glass powder filler on the mechanical properties of sisal fiber-reinforced polyester matrix composites for power station applications. The characterization was performed based on the effect of the weight percentage of reinforcing glass particles, sisal fiber, and polyester matrix on the percentage water absorption, hardness, impact strength, tensile strength, and compressive strength of the newly developed polymer matrix composite. The composite was fabricated by compression molding, varying the weight percentage of glass filler particles at 10, 15, and 20 percent, sisal fiber at 20, 30, and 40 percent, and polyester matrix at 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, and 70 percent. Furthermore, the microstructural investigation was performed by using a scanning electron microscope in order to identify the distribution of the reinforcing sisal fiber and the glass filler, as well as to examine the distribution of porosity and voids in the microstructure of the composite. The mechanical properties of the composite, such as compressive strength, hardness, and impact energy absorption, improve as the glass filler particle size increases. Only for the impact energy absorption property of the composite, the addition of the filler has no significant effect in improving the toughness of the composite because the addition of ceramic fillers transforms the ductile matrix phase into a brittle phase, resulting in a reduction in the material's toughness. Further, the water absorption property of the composite shows an increasing trend with the addition of the glass filler in the presence of a lower amount of matrix. From the result of the test, it can be concluded that the addition of sisal fiber and glass filler in the presence of a larger amount of polyester matrix resulted in improving the mechanical properties of the composite. The comparison of the current material with past research materials that are conducted for the same application reveals that the current composite material has better mechanical as well as physical properties than most of them and the developed polyester/sisal fiber/glass filler composite can be used as an alternative material for power station housing application.

GIS and Remote Sensing Based Physical Land Suitability Analysis for Major Cereal Crops Using Multi-Criteria Evaluation Approach: The Case of Gimbi District, West Wollega Zone, Western Ethiopia. []


Land suitability analysis is crucial for manageable agricultural production. This was aimed at evaluating the current physical land suitability for major cereal crops: teff, wheat, barley and maize in the Gimbi district, West Wollega Zone, West Ethiopia.A GIS and RS technique with a multi-criteria evaluation approach was applied for evaluating the physical land suitability for the major crops. Various physical land attributes, namely temperature, rainfall, altitude, slope, soil (soil depth, pH, texture, and drainage), land use land cover, accessibility to market and proximity to road have been used as input parameters. Physical land suitability maps were generated for the major cereal crops. This study demonstrates that 0.85%, 0.35%, 0.2 %, 1.63% and 2.44 % of the study area are classified as highly suitable for Teff, Wheat, Barley, Maize and Sorghum production, respectively. This indicates that most of the study area is best suitable for maize and sorghum as the dominant cereal crop produced in this study are in relation to other crops. On the other hand, 4.87%, 3.37%, 2.5 %, 9.83% and 10.44% were found to be moderately suitable while 19.89%, 12.2%, 8.9%, 42.66 and 44.09% were marginally suitable land for teff, wheat, barley, maize and sorghum respectively. However 38.72%, 49.53%, 53.6%, 14.45% and 14.22% of the study area were classified as currently not suitable for teff, wheat, barley, maize and sorghum respectively. This study report urges the concerned stakeholders to properly use and adopt precisely the optimum physical land suitability planning to expend the present land resources for more cereal crop productivity in a sustainable manner for better socio-economic development of the region. Keywords: Cereal crops; district; GIS; remote sensing, land suitability

Measuring of Training Effectivness []


The objective of this study is to investigate and construct a valid and reliable instrument to measure training effectiveness or the development of Training Effectiveness (TREF). The research was done through three TREF measures including satisfaction, learning performance, and behavioral change measures. The development of TREF was applied using descriptive statistics average variance explained (AVE), Composite Reliability (CR), and reliability. Data were analyzed using reliability analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) through Stata and Jamovi software. Significantly, the TREF developed in this study can be utilized as a tool to evaluate the efficiency of private and public sector training. As a result, this effort will support the development of high-quality human resources in the private and public sectors for efficient policy implementation, as well as the enhancement of training programs and employee work performance.

Public Opinion Analysis of Amharic News Using Deep Learning []


Social media has given web users a venue for expressing and sharing their thoughts on different events. Facebook is one of a famous social media platform through which users can express their opinions on various events. Facebook is our targeted domain in this study. Sentiment analysis is a fundamental branch in natural language processing. It is the process of understanding sentiment in user-generated opinionated data in social media. Amharic language imposes many challenges, due to its complex structure, various dialects, in addition to the lack of its resources in the case of sentiment analysis task. The objective of this study is used to sentiment analysis model classify users’ comments were written in Amharic as positive, negative or neutral. Deep learning has shown remarkable improvements in the field sentiment analysis. In this study, we have collected 13931 unstructured data from AMC official Facebook page using www.exportcomment.com and Facepage tool. It is difficult annotated each comment that were written in Amharic language. We have manually annotated by linguistic experts and also applied text preprocessing and representation techniques. After annotated, preprocessing and representing, the dataset prepared for the experiment purpose. The dataset, we used the 80/20 train-test splitting method, and train the model using tensorflow Keras deep learning library with LSTM and GUR classifiers as it confirmed to be successful at classification problems. Finally, in our experiment, we obtained the accuracy of LSTMis 95.5% and GRU is 96% respectively using word2vec embedding model.

Computational investigation on the effects of main fuel injection timing on RCCI diesel engine combustion []


Self-contained energy sources of diesel engines are the power plants that provide mechanical power for pumps, off-road machinery, electrical power generation, agricultural tractors, ships, and the majority of transportation-related power generation. It comes in a variety of sizes, from a few hundred to thousands of horsepower. The IC Engine has proven to be critical to human social order in a variety of applications. Even though CI engines are more efficient than SI engines due to their ability to operate at a greater compression ratio, a leaner charge, and lower throttle losses; it has higher PM and nitrogen oxide emissions. The start of fuel injection is one parameter in developed RCCI operations for controlling emissions, in-cylinder charge reactivity as well as combustion phasing. Advancing the SOI timing has the optimum pressure and temperature; Maximum cylinder pressure and temperature take place at the baseline SOI Timing and low Cylinder pressure and temperature are found at retarded Start of Injection. The inspiring outcome of this combustion method is that it can be directly controlled using SOI timing which is impossible with most other LTC concepts. The heat release rate at retarded SOI is maximum, minimum at advanced and baseline SOI which generally indicates that the retard injection timing has more HRR and in advanced and optimum SOI is minimum. PM, NOx/100, CO2/1000 and SE/10 are 0.334, 39.9, 0.917, and 0.682 g/kWh respectively are minimum at the retarded SOI and NOx, CO2, and SE (0.345, 1.162, and 0.965 g/kWh respectively) are maximum at the standard SOI, however; PM is maximum (0.545 g/kWh) at advanced start of injection. In-cylinder combustion shows the maximum cylinder-pressure 147.6 bar at the optimum start of injection and minimum cylinder temperature of 1959.4K at the retarded SOI, and ringing intensity is minimum (4.49) MW/m2 and maximum ignition delay (17.2) combustion duration at ASO.

Effects of Poultry droppings and NPK on the growth and yield of Carrot- Daucus carota L. []


ABSTRACT A field experiment on the effects of poultry droppings and NPK15:15:15 on the growth and yield of carrot was carried out at the Faculty of Agriculture demonstration farm, University of Port Harcourt. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design of four treatments (Poultry dropping, NPK15:15:15, combination of Poultry droppings + NPK15:15:15, and control) with three replications. The result showed that the application of the treatments had significant influences (P=0.05) on all parameter studied (number of leaves, plant height, diameter of root, length of root, fresh weight of root, dry weight of roots, fresh weight of leaves, dry weight of leaves, gross yield, and marketable yield). The result revealed that the application of the Poultry droppings was found to be suitable for maximum gross yield and marketable yield (14.79 tha-1 and 14.65tha-1 respectively), while NPK 15:15:15 had better gross and marketable yield (17.14 tha-1 and 17.02 tha-1 respectively) and the combination of poultry droppings and NPK15:15:15 resulted in the best performance in gross and marketable yield (22.15 tha-1 and 22.04 tha-1 respectively).The net return (N6,211,800 ha-1) and benefit cost ratio (3.37) were maximum in the treatment with the combination of poultry droppings and NPK15:15:15.

Micro Service Testing with Rest Assured Technology []


With the increase popularity of RESTful services, there is a need for fast and lightweight tool for REST web services testing automation. One of the most popular choices is Rest-Assured framework. It introduces simplicity of testing web services from dynamic languages like groovy or ruby to java. REST Assured supports the familiar Given/When/Then syntax from behavior-driven development (BDD), resulting in a test that is easy to read and takes care of everything (setup, execution, and verification) with just a single line of code.

A Review of Positive Effects of Metal Hardening Process in Heat Tr []


In metallurgy, hardening is a process used to improve the hardness of a metal. In today’s era, there are many different types of metal hardening processes known to be employed in order to make certain metals better suited to their purposes. Mechanical properties of metals can often be enhanced using heat treatment. In heat treatment, metals or alloys are heated to specific, often very high, temperatures and then cooled in order to harden the material. Keywords: Discuss on a metal hardening, heat treatment, annealing, precipitation hardening, strength.

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