Introduction: Barber-related infections, including hepatitis B virus (HBV), continue to be a major cause of illness and death. Numerous beauticians use razors and scissors on multiple customers without adequately sanitizing these tools. There is a lack of published research on the prevention practices and associated factors of hepatitis B virus infection among barbers in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the practice and associated factors of hepatitis B virus infection among barbers.
Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out involving 411 barbers selected through simple random sampling. Data collection was performed using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and an observational checklist. The collected data were first cleaned and entered into EpiData version 4.6 and then exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Model fitness was assessed using the Hosmer-Lemeshow test, and multicollinearity was evaluated with the variance inflation factor. A binary logistic regression model was employed for the analysis. To address confounding factors, explanatory variables with a p-value of less than 0.25 in the bivariable logistic regression were included in the multivariable logistic regression analysis. Factors with a p-value of less than 0.05 in the multivariable analysis were considered statistically significant.
Results: Among the 411 participants, 328 (79.8, 95% CI: 75.6-83.6%) exhibited unsafe hepatitis B virus infection prevention practices. Unsafe practices were significantly associated with barbers who could not read or write (AOR 3.75, 95% CI: 1.39-10.12); primary and secondary education (AOR 3.44, 95% CI: 1.89-6.27) compared to those with college education and above; not using ultraviolet sterilizers (AOR 2.85, 95% CI: 1.30-6.27); insufficient knowledge (AOR 4.23, 95% CI: 2.13-8.40); unfavorable attitudes toward infection control (AOR 2.40, 95% CI: 1.34-4.31); and working hours of less than 8 h (AOR 0.27, 95% CI: 0.15-0.50).
Conclusion: Nearly four-fifths of barbers exhibited unsafe practices in preventing hepatitis B virus infection. Low education levels, not utilizing UV sterilizers, lack of knowledge, working fewer hours, and negative attitudes toward infection prevention were all strongly associated with unsafe practices in the prevention of hepatitis B virus among barbers. Consequently, these findings underscore the need for targeted educational programs, improved access to sterilization tools, and policy changes to promote safer practices.

Keywords: Ethiopia; barber; factors; hepatitis B virus; prevention practices.

Background: In countries with a high prevalence of TB, such as Ethiopia, direct sputum smear microscopy remains the most cost-effective tool for diagnosing patients with infectious tuberculosis and monitoring their progress on treatment. However, poor-quality sputum microscopy services may lead to the failure to detect persons with active tuberculosis and may cause unnecessary anti-TB treatment for non-TB cases. Proficiency level is the percentage agreement between participants'readings and the reference panel results. The aim of this study was to assess proficiency and associated factors of laboratory professionals in sputum smear microscopy for acid-fast bacilli at selected peripheral public and private diagnostic laboratories in East Gojjam Zone, Northwest Ethiopia, in 2023.
Method: An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from March 2023 to June 2023 at selected peripheral public diagnostic laboratories in East Gojjam Zone. 65 laboratory professionals were selected randomly from 41 peripheral public diagnostic laboratories in the study area. A validated questionnaire and 10 panel slides were used as data collection tools. The panel consisted of 5 pre-stained and 5 unstained slides. Data were entered and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS version 20). P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant when looking for associations between dependent and independent variables.
Result: The overall proficiency level of laboratory professionals in tuberculosis smear microscopy was 81.92% with 95% CI [78.46-85.38]. Previous TB smear microscopy training, work experience, and institution of education had a significant association with the overall performance of laboratory professionals in TB smear microscopy.
Conclusion: The overall TB smear microscopy performance level of laboratory professionals at peripheral diagnostic laboratories in Ethiopia, was satisfactory, indicating a good level of competence. However, notable technical errors related to smear reading and reporting were observed. Thus, higher education institutions, especially private institutions, and the Zonal Health Department, should implement educational and training interventions to address the identified gaps and ultimately contribute to the national TB control program.

Keywords: AFB microscopy; AFB panel slide preparation; Proficiency testing; Tuberculosis.

Heavy metals pose a significant threat to public health and economic stability in Ethiopia,contaminating various environmental media, including water, soil, and air. This paper aimed toprovide an overview of the public health and economic burden of heavy metals in Ethiopia.Exposure to heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic has been linked tonumerous adverse health effects, including neurological disorders, renal failure, cardiovasculardiseases, and cancer. In Ethiopia, populations are particularly vulnerable to heavy metal exposuredue to various factors, such as artisanal mining, industrial activities, agricultural practices, andinadequate waste management systems. The economic burden of heavy metal contaminationmanifests through increased healthcare costs, loss of productivity, and environmental remedia-tion expenses. Furthermore, the impact extends to sectors such as agriculture and tourism,affecting national development goals and exacerbating poverty levels. Efforts to mitigate thepublic health and economic burdens of heavy metals in Ethiopia require multidisciplinary ap-proaches, including policy interventions, regulatory enforcement, public awareness campaigns,and investment in sustainable development practices. Strengthening monitoring systems,implementing pollution control measures, and promoting research on alternative technologies forwaste management are essential steps toward addressing this pressing issue. In conclusion,addressing the public health and economic challenges posed by heavy metal contamination inEthiopia necessitates concerted efforts from the government, industry, academia, and civil societyto safeguard human health, preserve the environment, and promote sustainable development.
Keywords: Economic burden, Heavy metals, Lead, Public health, Strategies

Now adays people express and share their opinions on various events on the internet thanks to socialmedia. Opinion mining is the process of interpreting user-generated opinion data on social media.Aside from its lack of resources in opinion-mining tasks, Amharic presents numerous difficultiesbecause of its complex structure and variety of dialects. Analyzing every comment written in Amharicis a challenging task. Significant advancements in opinion mining have been achieved using deeplearning. An opinion-mining model was used in this study to classify user comments written in Amharicas positive or negative. The domains that we focus on in this study are YouTube and Facebook. Fromthe Ethiopian broadcasts YouTube and Facebook official pages, we gathered 11,872 unstructured datafor this study using www.exportcomment.com, and Facebook page tools. Text preprocessing andfeature extraction techniques were used, in addition to manual annotation by linguistic specialists.The dataset was prepared for the experiment after annotation, preprocessing, and representation.LSTM, GRU, BiGRU, BiLSTM, and a hybrid of CNN with BiLSTM classifiers from the TensorFlow Kerasdeep learning library were used to train the model using the dataset, which was split using the 80/20train-test method, which proved effective for classification problems. Finally, we achieved of 94.27%,95.20%, 95.49%, 95.62%, and 96.08% using GRU, BiGRU, LSTM, BiLSTM, and CNN with BiLSTM,respectively, in word2vec embedding model.Keywords: Opinion mining, Deep learning, Recurrent neural network, Word2vec, Fast text

Background: Big health data is a large and complex dataset that the health sector has collected andstored continuously to generate healthcare evidence for intervening the future healthcare un-certainty. However, data use for decision-making practices has been significantly low in devel-oping countries, especially in Ethiopia. Hence, it is critical to ascertain which elements influencethe health sector’s decision to adopt big health data analytics in health sectors. The aim of thisstudy was to identify the level of readiness for big health data analytics and its associated factorsin healthcare sectors.Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted among 845 target employees using thestructural equation modeling approach by using technological, organizational, and environ-mental (TOE) frameworks. The target population of the study was health sector managers, di-rectors, team leaders, healthcare planning officers, ICT/IT managers, and health professionals.For data analysis, exploratory factor analysis using SPSS 20.0 and structural equation modelingusing AMOS software were used.Result: 58.85 % of the study participants had big health data analytics readiness. Complexity (CX),Top management support (TMS), training (TR) and government law policies and legislation(GLAL) and government IT policies (GITP) had positive direct effect, compatibility (CT), andoptimism (OP) had negative direct effect on BD readiness (BDR)Conclusion: The technological, organizational, and environmental factors significantly contributedto big health data readiness in the healthcare sector. The Complexity, compatibility, optimism,Top management support, training (TR) and government law and IT policies (GITP) had effect onbig health data analytics readiness. Formulating efficient reform in healthcare sectors, especially
or evidence-based decision-making and jointly working with stakeholders will be more relevantfor effective implementation of big health data analytics in healthcare sectors.
Keywords: Big health data, Data analytics, Data management, Health information revolution, Health sectors, Readiness

While Model Predictive Control (MPC) has been widely studied in power electronics, its real-time imple-mentation on DC-DC boost converters—particularly under variable loading conditions—remains limited. Thispaper proposes a new real-time implementation of the Model Predictive Control (MPC) law for a DC-DC boostconverter connected to variable loads. This implementation ensures precise current regulation through accurateduty cycle control updates, enabling the inverter’s frequency switching to be activated or deactivated as needed.This is achieved by proposing a predictive model of the current occurring in the first channel of the convertermodel, where a fitness function—comprising reference tracking and control effort—is minimized. Compared tothe proportional-integral (PI) controller, the MPC law proves more efficient, particularly in preventing oscilla-tions in both transient and steady-state output current responses. This advantage is validated through experi-mental tests for either a current inductance load or a resistive load. Since this type of real-time implementationhas not been previously applied on this converter, it constitutes the main contribution of this paper.
Keywords: PI controller, DC-DC boost converters, Model predictive control (MPC), Experimental validation

Eucalyptus is the most preferred exotic species in diferent parts of Ethiopia, particularly in the northern part of the country,including the study area. Socioeconomic, institutional, and endowment variables are an infuence on the production of thisspecies. Te purpose of this study was to identify determinants of Eucalyptus woodlot production for producer farmers in thestudy area. Multistage sampling techniques were used in order to select the district, kebeles, and household heads to beinterviewed. Te district and the kebeles were selected purposefully based on their high potential for Eucalyptus production,whereas ninety-six (96) sampled respondent farmers were selected by using simple random sampling techniques. A multiple linearregression (OLS) model was used to run the determinants of Eucalyptus woodlot production, and descriptive statistics were usedto describe the socioeconomic characteristics of smallholder Eucalyptus producers in the form of means, frequencies, andpercentages. Te respondents use Eucalyptus products for construction and fuel wood. Rural farmers produced about 70% ofconstruction wood products and 30% of fuel wood products annually. Five variables (i.e., woodlot size, woodlot density, andmarket information) signifcantly afected woodlot production, whereas the age of farmers and market distance were negativelyafected. In order to produce better income from Eucalyptus products, the collaboration eforts of all responsible groups (i.e.,farmers, researchers, governments, and others) should be required.

Background: Children on the streets are still vulnerable to early and unsafe sexual experiences. Having multiple sexual partners and the limited use of condoms were major risk factors for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among youths in Ethiopia.
Objective: This study aimed to explore the risk factors of sexual and reproductive health problems, service utilization, and challenges among street youths in the East Gojjam Zone.
Method: A phenomenological study design was employed on street youths residing in the East Gojjam Zone. Study participants were purposively recruited from four town administrations in the East Gojjam Zone. The primary study unit was street youths who live in the zone. Eight in-depth interviews and eight focus group discussions were conducted. The data were audio recorded and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis.
Results: In this study, the risk factors that exposed street youths to sexual and reproductive health problems included low perceived susceptibility, lack of awareness of sexual and reproductive health, having multiple sexual partners, exposure to pornographic films, and utilization of alcoholic drinks and substances. Mainly, those street youths who were engaged in transactional sexual relationships were utilizing condoms consistently and had regular HIV screening tests. In addition, few street youths ever utilized maternal and child health services. The unsupportive behavior of health professionals, the absence of exact data, the health system, and lack of specific responsible organization on the sexual and reproductive health of street youths were considered major challenges.
Conclusion and recommendation: Most of the street youths were not utilizing reproductive health services. Limitation on the accessibility of sexual and reproductive health services to this segment of the population was the main contributing factor. So, the health system and policy should take front-line responsibility for the sexual and reproductive health of street youths and consider convenient reproductive health service programs for them.

Keywords: Risk factors; Sexual and reproductive health service utilization; Street youths.

Abstract The main purpose of this study is assessing the Root Causes and Possible Way Outs of the Current Armed Conflict in Amhara Region. To acquire sufficient and detail information, mixed research approach, and a descriptive research with cross sectional design had employed that intends to reckon the root causes, aggravating factors, and its way outs. The total numbers of participants were 420for survey, 42 key informants and 64 discussants. Participants were selected from the entire target population using both probability and non-probability sampling techniques. From probability sampling technique; proportional and simple random sampling methods were used to choose research participants. From the non-probability sampling technique on the other hand, purposive sampling method had employed to attain a pivotal and constructive data that pertinent to the study. The data which was obtained from survey questionnaires were analyzed through descriptive statistics (mean), while the qualitative data have been analyzed by narration and thematic methods of analyses. The study found out that the root causes of armed conflict which had happened in Amhara region are human rights violations, living Situation of Amhara‘s ethnic, disband the Amhara regional special force, kidnapping of Amhara ethnic, ethnic based attack, less political representation, identity question, hate speech by higher officials over Amhara peoples, failure of government to keep the security of its people. Due to attack innocent peoples and sexual violence committed by government forces intensified the conflict in the region. Besides, instead of disclose for negotiation, the incumbent government opted to fight Fano militants. Thereby, armed conflict exacerbated and has been endless in the region so far. The finding confirmed that federal government forces, Amhara regional forces, Fano militants, social Medias‘ activists are the actors who involved in and ignite this weapon based conflict in Amhara region. Therefore, amending the constitution, ensure fair distribution of resources and rule of law, protect human rights, give immediate answers for identity question, establish transitional government can address the problem. Key Words: Amhara, Armed conflict, Causes, Way out

Background Understanding the student’s perspective of their clinical learning environment (CLE) might assist todiscover solutions to improve the learning process and increase engagement. However, there is a lack of informationon this issue, particularly in Ethiopia. The purpose of this study was to assess the satisfaction of undergraduatemedical and health science students with their clinical learning environment, as well as to identify the factors thataffect it.Methods Institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire among412 medical and health science students from Debre Markos University in 2023 through a simple random samplingtechnique. Mean, median, frequencies, and percentages were used to describe the data. A multivariate logisticregression model was fitted to test the association of dependent and independent variables. The Hosmer-Lemeshowgoodness-of-fit test was used to check the fitness of the model. Variables with a p-value < 0.05 with a 95% confidenceinterval were considered statistically significant.Results The questionnaire was completed by 394 individuals in total, generating a response rate of 95.63%.Approximately half (49.7%) of the participants were satisfied with their CLE. Age (AOR = 1.12; 95%CI = 1.02, 1.22),university positive perceptions (AOR = 1.60; 95%CI = 1.04, 2.43) and curriculum positive perception (AOR = 2.70;95%CI = 1.73, 4.10) were all positively associated with CLE satisfaction.Conclusion In this study, approximately half of the respondents were satisfied with their CLE. Age, positiveperceptions of the university and positive perceptions of the curriculum were all positively associated with CLEsatisfaction. The university and clinical facilitators should work together to improve infrastructure, and the facilities