Browsing by Author "Mirkena, Kassahun"

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    Assessment of Antiretroviral Therapy Adherence and Associated factors Among Adult HIV-Infected Persons in Oromia Special Zone Surrounding Finfine, 2017
    (Addis Ababa University, 2017-05) Mirkena, Kassahun; Ali, Ahmed (PhD)
    Background: The introduction of combination ART has resulted in striking reductions in HIV related mortality. Numerous reports have documented that the key to success of the HAART is the ability and willingness of HIV-positive individuals to adhere to ART regimens, and at least 95% adherence is required for the prescribed ART doses to be fully effective. However, pertinent data regarding the issue has been lacking in the study area. Objectives: The main aim of this study was to assess the level of adherence and associated factors among adult HIV patients who were receiving ART from health centers of Finfine Surrounding Oromia Special Zone. Methods: A facility based retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2016 to May 2017 on 389 patients’ selected using systematic sampling technique. The study focused on assessment of ART adherence & its associated factors among Adult on ART whose ages were greater than 18 years & above. A pre tested & structured questionnaire was used to collect the necessary data & the collected data were entered into Epidata version 3.1 & analyzed using SPSS version 21. Then the magnitude of association between the different variables in relation to the adherence to ART was assessed through chi square test & then further analysis done using multivariate regression to confirm the effects of independent variables. During analysis, the significance level was set at 95% CI and P-value of <0.05 & the results were presented using tables containing frequency and percentage. Results: The adherence rate of the study patients was 80.5%. Majorities were females (66.3%), their median age was 36 and mean duration of treatment 3.3 years. Disclosing own status to sexual partners or others [(AOR 6.6, 95% CI 3.58,8.32)], doing assessment & counseling on adherence [(AOR 13, 95% CI 5.94,15.13)] & presence of regular ARV drug supply [(AOR 5.4, 95% CI 3.91,9.72)] were significantly associated with ART adherence. Conclusion: The self-reported ART adherence level in this study is low compared to the expected standard. Disclosing own status to sexual partners or others, doing assessment & counseling on adherence , & regular ARV drug supply were associated with patients’ adherence status.
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    Process Optimization to Reduce Sucrose Loss with Final Molasses: The case of Metahara Sugar Factory
    (Addis Ababa University, 2011-07) Mirkena, Kassahun; Worku, Teshome (Ass.Professor)
    In this study, process Optimization has been applied to D-massecuite boiling, cooling crystallization, reheating and separation processes in MSF to minimize the high sucrose loss with final molasses. Mother liquor purity and Purity drop were taken as response variables to measure the performance of each process towards minimization of final molasses purity. Design Expert-Response surface methodology was applied to statistically evaluate the data and to solve optimum values factors and response variables. Economical advantages of the process optimizations were compared with the factory’s existing working norms. D- massecuite boiling optimization has resulted in nutsch purity reduction of 0.53 units. Similarly, an increase in purity drop of 0.80 (from 4.21 to 5.01) across cooling crystallizers was obtained at optimum cooling time of 17.36h and temperature to 450C for the existing crystallizer’s capacity. The cooling experimental results have indicated that a purity drop of 6.37 units can be achieved if crystallizer capacity of MSF increased so as to give cooling time of 34.5h and temperature of 440C. For the existing reheaters, the optimum reheating temperature was found to be 52.50C which gave a purity rise across reheaters of 0.530 against the value of 0.97 before optimization and the optimum massecuite flow rate of 19t/h. From the centrifugal separation optimization result, the optimum spray water was found to be 6.3% massecuite giving a purity rise of 2.44 across centrifugal machines and DFW magma purity of 84.0. The overall effect of process optimization was a reduction in final molasses purity by 1.43 units (from 34.86 to 33.43) for the existing capacity of cooling crystallizer which leads to annual saving of 1040.5 tons sugar, equivalent to 13,526,919 Birr. Additional saving of 12,334825birr/year is expected if enough crystallizer capacity is installed for MSF. Key words: Final Molasses, Sucrose Loss, Purity, Purity Drop, Exhaustion, Response Surface Methodology