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This study develops a new conjugate gradient (CG) search direction that incorporates a well defined spectral parameter while the step size is required to satisfy the famous strong Wolfe line search (SWP) strategy. The proposed spectral direction is derived based on a recent method available in the literature, and satisfies the sufficient descent condition irrespective of the line search strategy and without imposing any restrictions or conditions. The global convergence results of the new formula are established using the assumption that the gradient of the defined smooth function is Lipschitz continuous. To illustrate the computational efficiency of the new direction, the study presents two sets of experiments on a number of benchmark functions. The first experiment is performed by setting uniform SWP parameter values for all the algorithms considered for comparison. For the second experiment, the study evaluates the performance of all the algorithms by considering the exact SWP parameter values used for the numerical experiments as reported in each work. The idea of these experiments is to study the influence of parameters in the computational efficiency of various CG algorithms. The results obtained demonstrate the effect of the parameter value on the robustness of the algorithms.

Abstract Urinary schistosomiasis, a water-based disease, is endemic to Nigeria. The infection is transmitted by trematodes known as Schistosoma haematobium. The goal of this study was to determine the occurrence of urinary schistosomiasis among primary school children in the Zaki Local Government Area, Bauchi State, Nigeria. A cross-sectional study involving 300 school pupils from three primary schools in Zaki was conducted between June and November of 2021. The urine samples were examined with the sedimentation technique to detect S. haematobium eggs. Data on socio-demographic characteristics and risk factors were obtained through a well-structured questionnaire. In SPSS version 24, the associations between the dependent and independent variables were evaluated with Chi-square, bivariate, and multiple logistic regression analyses. The strength of associations was determined with the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval. Urinary schistosomiasis was found in 29.7% of school-aged children in the three primary schools. Significantly higher prevalence was observed in the Almajiri (informal) school (59.6%) and one public primary school (31.5%), P = 0.001. Boys were four times more likely than girls to have schistosomiasis [AOR (95% CI): 4.38 (2.23–8.60)]. Children who played in shallow water had a higher risk of contracting schistosomiasis infection and were five times more likely to be infected [AOR (95% CI): 5.14 (1.97–13.37)]. Children who had blood in their urine (hematuria) were nearly nine times more likely to be infected [AOR (95% CI): 9.64 (4.79–20.66)]. The present study indicated that urinary schistosomiasis is endemic to the study area in the Zaki Local Government Area, with a moderate infection rate.

This work suggests improved conjugate gradient methods for enhancing the efficiency and robustness of the classical conjugate gradient methods. The study modifies the diagonal of the inverse Hessian approximation of the Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno (BFGS) quasi‐Newton update in order to build a preconditioner for nonlinear conjugate gradient (NCG) methods applied to large‐scale unconstrained optimization problems. Damping techniques were embedded into the algorithm to impose the positive definiteness of the diagonal approximation. This made the methods easy to use and presented a viable way to increase the effectiveness of unconstrained optimization techniques. Experimental findings from a collection of benchmark problems demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed method when compared to five other existing NCG algorithms. Moreover, the successful application of the algorithm to manipulate robotic planar motion control systems with 3 degrees of freedom has been demonstrated, highlighting the practicality of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the chaotic behavior of a second-order circuit comprising a nonlinear resistor and Chua's diode is investigated. This circuit, which includes a nonlinear capacitor and resistor among its components, is considered one of the simplest nonautonomous circuits. The research explores various oscillator characteristics, emphasizing their chaotic properties through bifurcations, Lyapunov exponents, periodicity, local Lyapunov region, and resonance. The system exhibits both stable equilibrium points and a chaotic attractor. Additionally, the second objective of this study is to develop a novel cryptographic technique by incorporating the designed circuit into the S-box method. The evaluation results suggest that this approach is suitable for secure cryptographic applications, providing insights into constructing a cryptosystem for images and text based on its complex behavior. Real-life data were analyzed using various statistical and performance criteria after applying the proposed methodology. These findings enhance the reliability of the cryptosystems. Moreover, The proposed methods are assessed using a range of statistical and performance metrics after testing the text and images. The cryptographic results are compared with existing techniques, reinforcing both the developed cryptosystem and the performance analysis of the chaotic circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting job embeddedness (JE) is believed to be a vital mechanism for retaining employees. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting the notion that commitment-based human resource practices (CBHRP) lead to JE. Furthermore, little is known about the underlying mechanism that delineates this relationship. Drawing from the principles of the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study posits that CBHRP = fosters employees' sense of material gain (SMG) and sense of spiritual gain (SSG), which in turn leads to employee JE. 209 employees participated in the study using the convenience sampling technique. SPSS 22, AMOS 23, and PROCESS Macro v4.0 were used for data analysis. The findings revealed that SMG and SSG have parallel, partial mediating effects on the relationship between CBHRP and JE. The study makes a novel contribution by introducing SMG and SSG as mediators, which provides new insights into how and when CBHRP leads to JE, hence enriching the existing knowledge on CBHRP and JE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotional intelligence and job satisfaction are two concepts of high interest in modern work environment. They serve as a competitive edge in personal and organizational life. The educational system or lecturing profession is one of those within which the individuals could reap great advantage from the knowledge of emotional intelligence owing to recurring human interaction that exists among the lecturers and between the lecturers and students. This study aims to examine the relationship between lecturers' emotional intelligence and their job satisfaction in Universities within Kano State. The study comprises of 2,502 number lecturers of all the universities in Kano State, using Convenience Sampling, 335 represents the population of the Lecturers in Kano State. The study used the scale of Wong and Law to measure Emotional Intelligence and the scale of Macdonold and Maclntyre generic scale to measure job satisfaction. Multiple linear regressions were used for the analysis. Result from the analysis revealed a significant relationship between use of emotion, regulation of emotion with job satisfaction while self emotional appraisal and other emotion appraisal were found to have no relationship with job satisfaction. It is recommended that universities should introduce an emotional Quotient programs which would be used to build the capacity of the universities for bringing out the best in the lecturers and forming powerful workplace relationships. This will help to increase engagement, trust and integrity to build more effective teams, retain great employees, provide exceptional performance in teaching, and effectively manage change.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the buccal infiltration (BI) technique with the buccal plus palatal infiltration (BPI) technique using 4% articaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine. Methods: A total of 50 adult patients received BI, and the other 50 adult patients received BPI with 4% articaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine. During RCT procedure, when the patient experienced pain, the treatment was stopped and the extent of the procedure was documented. When a patient reported “no pain” (0 mm) or “weak/mild pain” (0

The Gongola basin has witnessed tremendous environmental changes over the last three decades as a direct consequence of urban growth, deforestation (including encroachment of existing forest reserves), agricultural expansion, overgrazing, bush burning, drought and recurrent flooding episodes. The impact of these changes is influential on the basin’s hydrology, water resource and ecological process, yet, future land cover information to evaluate possible implications on its hydrology and the overall ecosystem is non-existence. Consequently, this study attempts to simulate future land cover demands of 2028 and 2038 for the basin, based on land cover images of 1988, 2003 and 2018 to develop land use/landcover (LU/LC) scenarios for possible hydrologic impact assessments. The method of the research therefore, premised on the use of cellular automata and Markov chain (CA-Markov) model, driven by a number of factors and constraints. Results indicate the land cover change to be mainly driven by rapid growth in urban and agricultural lands, contrary to the vegetation cover, which had been the dominant land cover type in the past. Besides, during the 30 years period, there were noticeable 37.05, 20.21 and 11.55 % increase in urban built-up, bare surface and agricultural land respectively, at the detriment of natural vegetation, which has itself decreased by 18.78 % over the period, with an estimated annual loss of approximately 330 km2of natural vegetation. The decrease in the coverage area of water body was significant (3.55 %) for the same period. Findings from future simulations of LU/LC trends in the basin, show that urban area would have increased by 39 % and agriculture by 34 % by2028 relative to the baseline period of 2003. Conversely, the natural vegetation trailed a declining trend (39 %) higher in magnitude than the preceding years. The developed LU/LC scenarios for the basin can provide an opportunity for water resource managers and experts to understand the trends in changing land use for effective planning and management.

The conjugate gradient (CG) directions are among the important components of the CG algorithms. These directions have proven their effectiveness in many applications—more specifically, in image processing due to their low memory requirements. In this study, we derived a new conjugate gradient coefficient based on the famous quadratic model. The derived algorithm is distinguished by its global convergence and essential descent properties, ensuring robust performance across diverse scenarios. Extensive numerical testing on image restoration and unconstrained optimization problems have demonstrated that the new formulas significantly outperform existing methods. Specifically, the proposed conjugate gradient scheme has shown superior performance compared to the traditional Fletcher–Reeves (FR) conjugate gradient method. This advancement not only enhances computational efficiency on unconstrained optimization problems, but also improves the accuracy and quality of image restoration, making it a highly valuable tool in the field of computational imaging and optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The study aimed to evaluate the knowledge and counseling skills of community pharmacy professionals regarding managing acute diarrhea in children in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-sectional study consisting of a questionnaire and simulated client scenario was conducted to collect data from pharmacy professionals working in community pharmacies over a period of 3 months in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. Pharmacy professionals were assessed for evaluating cases using 5 indicators (the age of the child, the frequency of diarrhea, fever and the presence of mucus or blood) and also for their recommendations and counseling. Results: The data were collected from 60 pharmacy professionals after site visits. In the questionnaire, 60% of the pharmacy professionals used all 5 indicators, while in the simulation, 13.3% used at least 3 indicators and 80% used 2 or fewer indicators (p = 0.35). An oral rehydration solution was recommended alone by 35% of the pharmacy professionals and with other drugs by 13.3% in the questionnaire, while in the simulation, an oral rehydration solution alone was recommended by 15% and other drugs by 48.3%. Approximately 86.7% of the pharmacy professionals did not give any dietary advice, and 50% did not counsel the simulated client on the recommended drug. Conclusion: The community pharmacy professionals in the study did not ask enough questions to evaluate a child suffering from acute diarrhea appropriately in the simulation. More questions were asked in the questionnaire; however, the difference is not significant. Additionally, they did not provide proper dietary advice, and their recommendation of an oral rehydration solution was insufficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conjugate gradient (CG) scheme is regarded as among the efficient methods for large-scale optimization problems. Several versions of CG methods have been presented recently owing to their rapid convergence, simplicity, and their less memory requirements. In this article, we construct a new CG algorithm via the combination of the classical methods of Fletcher-Reeves (FR), and Hestenes-Stiefel (HS). The new CG method possesses the descent properties and converge globally provided the exact minimization condition is satisfied. The tests of the new CG method using MATLAB are analysed in terms of iteration number and CPU time. Numerical results have been reported which shows that the proposed CG method performs better compare to other CG methods.

This work introduce a new high dimensional 10-D hyperchaotic system with high complexity and many of coexisting attractors. With the adjustment of its parameters and initial points, the novel system can generate periodic, quasi-periodic, chaotic, and hyperchaotic behaviours. For special values of parameters, we show that the proposed 10-D system has a very high Kaplan-Yorke fractal dimension, which can reach up to 9.067 indicating the very complexity of the 10-D system dynamics. In addition, the proposed system is shown to exhibit at least six varied attractors for the same values of parameters due to its multistability. Regions of multistability are identified by analysing the bifurcation diagrams of the proposed model versus its parameters and for six different values of initial points. Many of numerical plots are given to show the appearance of different dynamical behaviours and the existence of multiple coexisting attractors. The main problem with controlling chaos/hyperchaos systems is that they are not always fully synchronized. therefore, some powerful synchronization techniques should be considered. The synchronization between the high-dimensional 10-D system and a set of three low-dimensional chaotic and hyperchaotic systems is proposed. Ten control functions are designed using the active control method, ensuring synchronisation between the collection of systems and the 10-D hyperchaotic system. Finally, using Multisim 13.0 software to construct the new system’s electronic circuit, the feasibility of the new system with its extremely complicated dynamics is verified. Therefore, the novel 10-D hyperchaotic system can be applied to different chaotic-based application due to its large dimension, complex dynamics, and simple circuit architecture.