The diffusion of fertilizer in Ethiopia: pattern determinants and implications

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 1

Linking Population, Fertility and Family Planning with Adaptation to Climate Change: Views from Ethiopia

As global climate change unfolds, its effects are being felt disproportionately in the world's poorest countries and among the groups of people least able to cope. Many of the countries hardest hit by the effects of climate change also face rapid population growth, with their populations on track to double by 2050.Population Action International (PAI) and Miz-Hasab Research Center (MHRC), in collaboration with the Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI), studied which groups are most vulnerable, what community members say they need to adapt, and the role of family planning and reproductive health in increasing resilience to climate change impacts.The study was carried out in 2008-2009 in peri-urban and rural areas of two regions in Ethiopia: the Oromia region and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's (SNNP) region

Molecular Evolution and Functional Diversification of Replication Protein A1 in Plants

Replication protein A (RPA) is a heterotrimeric, single-stranded DNA binding complex required for eukaryotic DNA replication, repair, and recombination. RPA is composed of three subunits, RPA1, RPA2, and RPA3. In contrast to single RPA subunit genes generally found in animals and yeast, plants encode multiple paralogs of RPA subunits, suggesting subfunctionalization. Genetic analysis demonstrates that five Arabidopsis thaliana RPA1 paralogs (RPA1A to RPA1E) have unique and overlapping functions in DNA replication, repair, and meiosis. We hypothesize here that RPA1 subfunctionalities will be reflected in major structural and sequence differences among the paralogs. To address this, we analyzed amino acid and nucleotide sequences of RPA1 paralogs from 25 complete genomes representing a wide spectrum of plants and unicellular green algae. We find here that the plant RPA1 gene family is divided into three general groups termed RPA1A, RPA1B, and RPA1C, which likely arose from two progenitor groups in unicellular green algae. In the family Brassicaceae the RPA1B and RPA1C groups have further expanded to include two unique sub-functional paralogs RPA1D and RPA1E, respectively. In addition, RPA1 groups have unique domains, motifs, cis-elements, gene expression profiles, and pattern of conservation that are consistent with proposed functions in monocot and dicot species, including a novel C-terminal zinc-finger domain found only in plant RPA1C-like sequences. These results allow for improved prediction of RPA1 subunit functions in newly sequenced plant genomes, and potentially provide a unique molecular tool to improve classification of Brassicaceae species

The Impact of Employee Empowerment on Job Satisfaction of Commercial Banks of Ethiopia,Dire Dawa Branch

Different authors argue that empowering employee using different facets of empowerments like information sharing, trust, reward, training and autonomy have an impact on job satisfaction and service quality where as other authors disagree with this idea .thus this study with the title of “The Impact of Employee Empowerment on Job Satisfaction of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, Dire Dawa Branch” has an objective of testing whether the facets of empowerment have a relation with overall job satisfaction. Questionnaires were distributed to the entire population of the bank. From the distributed questionnaires 71% were collected back and used for interpretation.To analyze the data inferential statistics like Pearson correlation and multiple regressions were employed.The researcher found that all facets of employee empowerment have contributed to employee job satisfaction. Particularly training and reward have a significant contribution to job satisfaction.The researcher recommend the bank to develop short term and long term training program as well as develop a reward system that motivate its employees so as to increase their employee’s job satisfaction and to provide quality service to its customers and become competent in the market. Keywords: Employee empowerment, job satisfaction, service quality

Immune regulation in plasma cell myeloma

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Science.The pathogenesis of monoclonal gammopathies, particularly plasma cell myeloma (MM), is multifaceted and complex. In recent years, Treg and Th17 cells have emerged as key factors in the development and progression of malignancies including MM. However, there are still conflicting reports on whether regulatory T (Treg) cells and Th17 cells are increased or decreased in the peripheral blood (PB) of patients with MM. This is partly due to technical difficulties associated with the use of the transcriptional repressor, forkhead box P3 (FoxP3) to identify Treg cells. Studies have shown FoxP3 results to be dependent on the clones, fluorochromes attached and fixation/permeabilisation methods used. More recent studies have defined Treg cells as CD4⁺CD25ͪͥ cells which do not express CD127, an IL-7 receptor. This methodology was used to determine Treg cell number and develop assays for the assessment of Treg cell function. The study also extends to exploring Th17 cell number in plasma cell dyscrasias and the overall effect of the Treg and Th17 cell equilibrium on the survival of patients with MM. CD4⁺CD25ͪͥCD127⁻ expression was used to quantitate Treg cell numbers and an intracellular IL-17 assay on CD3⁺CD4⁺ cells was used for Th17 cell enumeration. Treg cell function was determined using carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) tracking of Treg depleted lymphocyte preparations stimulated by anti-CD3,CD2,CD28 beads at a 1:1 ratio for 4 days ± 1:1 fluorescence-activated cell sorted Treg cells. This functional assay was also used to investigate the effect of recombinant human (rh) TGF-β and rhIL-12 on Treg cells. The mean proportion of Treg cells in the CD4⁺ compartment of PB of patients with MM (n=32) was 8.9±0.6% and this was increased compared to the mean of the normal cohort (n=36) at 6.5±0.4% (p=0.009). However, no significant difference was observed between the frequency of PB Treg cells in the control group compared to patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) (n=20) (mean=7.5±0.8%; P=0.24) and patients with Waldenström macroglobulinaemia (WM) (n=13) (mean=6.0±0.5%; P=0.48). Interestingly, a comparison of the absolute numbers exhibited different results. A significantly lower number of Treg cells was observed in patients with MM [(3.2±0.4) x10⁷/L; P<0.01] and WM [(3.0±0.6) x10⁷/L; P<0.01] compared to the control group [(6.4±0.7) x10⁷/L]. However, no significant difference was observed when comparing patients with MGUS [(4.3±0.8) x10⁷/L; P= 0.06] to the normal cohort. It was observed that a significantly higher proportion of PB Treg cells in patients with MM (85.9±1.8%; P<0.01) and WM (86.4±2.1%; P=0.02) to be of the CD45RO⁺ memory phenotype compared to the normal cohort (76.7±2.5%). However this was not observed in patients with MGUS (73.4±4.0%; P=0.47). In addition, the study revealed that PB Treg cell proportions were not influenced by MM stage. Thalidomide treated patients with MM appeared to have an increased PB Treg cell proportion, however only a small number of thalidomide treated patients were tested due to the use of thalidomide therapy being phased out and its replacement with lenalidomide. Treg cells from bone marrow (BM) were compared to matched PB samples from patients with MM, demonstrating a significantly greater proportion (p=0.02) of Treg cells in the CD4⁺ compartment of the BM (9.7±1.2%) compared to PB (6.7±1.4%). Regarding Th17 cells, a significant decrease (p=0.03) in the mean proportion and absolute number of Th17 cells was observed in the PB of patients with MM (n=22) compared with the controls (n=20) (0.7±0.1% and 2.0±0.6% respectively). However, the mean number of Th17 cells in patients with MGUS (2.2±0.6%; n=15) and WM (1.1±0.2%; n=12) was not significantly different from normal. No correlation was observed between Th17 cell number and MM staging or therapy. Additionally, the study explored the Treg/Th17 cell ratio in PB of patients with monoclonal gammopathies with comparison made to normal subjects. The mean Treg/Th17 cell ratio of patients with MM (16.1±2.4) was significantly higher (p=0.0002) than the healthy control group (6.6±1.0). The Treg/Th17 cell ratio of WM and MGUS patients was 7.0±1.0 and 4.9±0.5 respectively, neither of which were statistically different to the ratio of the normal controls. Most interestingly, patients who have survived with MM for 10 or more years possessed a Treg/Th17 cell ratio similar to the normal controls (7.04±2.47; p=0.84) and this was shown to affect overall survival. The data demonstrated that patients with MM observed to have a high Treg/Th17 cell ratio had an overall shorter survival compared to those whose Treg/Th17 cell ratio was lower (p<0.025). The suppressive capability of Treg cells from MM patients (n=15) was variable. The Treg cell function of patients treated with lenalidomide (n=5) was increased (mean=68%) compared to patients treated with thalidomide (n=5; mean=23%), Velcade (n=3; mean=12%), untreated patients (n=5; mean=36%) and normal controls (n=11; mean=31%). The suppression exerted upon the CD4⁺ T cell subset in patients treated with bortezomib was significantly lower when compared to the normal cohort. However, no significant difference in CD8⁺ T cell suppression was found between patients with MM and the normal controls. rhTGF-β increased the suppressive capabilities and rhIL-12 reduced the function of Treg cells from both MM and normal PB samples. In conclusion, immune regulation is dysfunctional in patients with MM as the proportion of PB Treg cells is increased and Th17 cells are reduced. Also, the cytokine microenvironment and treatment have a major impact on the function of Treg cells. The data clearly delineate the importance of the PB Treg/Th17 cell equilibrium, revealing a strong association between the Treg/Th17 cell homeostatic balance and disease progression and survival in MM, indicating an imbalance may cause either or both the innate and adaptive immune system to be dormant and incapacitate the anti-tumour response