Status and Benefits of Renewable Energy Technologies in the Rural Areas of Ethiopia: a Case Study on Improved Cooking Stoves and Biogas Technologies

The majority of Ethiopia's people (85%) reside in rural areas, deriving their livelihood from agriculture. Ethiopia's energy system is characterized mainly by biomass fuel supply, with households being the greatest energy consumers. The household sector takes up nearly 94 % of the total energy supplies. Access to energy resources and technologies in rural Ethiopia is highly constrained which makes the energy supply and consumption pattern of the country to show many elements of un-sustainability. The concern on cooking practices, household economics, health, forest and agricultural resource management, and global greenhouse gas emissions has emerged as a transformative opportunity to improve individual lives, livelihoods, and the global environment. More decentralized renewable energy projects could play an important role in mitigating traditional biomass fuel use. Improved cooking stove (ICS) dissemination projects have been launched involving the private sector in the production and commercialization of the stoves. In doing so, about 3.7 million ICSs have been disseminated in the country so far which benefited stove users, producers and the total environment as about 30 million hectare of forest per year can be conserved. Conversion of animal waste to biogas energy to replace traditional fuel and use of the slurry as a fertilizer is the other current focus of the government of Ethiopia and installed more than 860 biogas digesters. The benefits obtained from these technologies are considerable and promising. However, the programs are not that much benefited the rural households where it had been intended to address. So, due attention should be given for those of the rural households in order to address the fuel wood crisis, environmental degradation and their health condition

Optimal Design of a Standalone Photovoltaic Power Supply System for Air Conditioning Application at Samara University as an Alternative to Diesel Generator Source

The aim of this paper is to optimally design a stand alone photovoltaic power supply system for air conditioning application at Samara University to be used as an alternative to diesel generator supply. Samara University is established in samara town, Afar region and has an average daily radiation of 6.10kwh/m2, sun shine duration of about 10 hours. This  condition invites the use of photovoltaic system as an alternative primary energy source to replace the existing diesel generator supply system. Therefore in order to use this energy source for air conditioning application, the cooling load of the building, 628 tons, is estimated using Newton’s thumb rule. The evaporative air conditioning system which is sometimes called desert cooler is selected to condition the estimated cooling load of the dwelling room. The sizing method (numerical method and HOMER software tools) is complementarily used to design a standalone photovoltaic power supply system. Finally, the metric value of the present worth is US $ 3,302,066 and its simple payback is 6.6 years, and this foreseen that the attractiveness of photovoltaic power system as one of renewable energy to be used as an alternative to diesel generator in the near future

Enhancement and Optimization Mechanisms of Biogas Production for Rural Household Energy in Developing Countries: a Review

Anaerobic digestion is common but vital process used for biogas and fertilizer production as well as one method for waste treatment. The process is currently used in developing countries primarily for biogas production in the household level of rural people. The aim of this review is to indicate possible ways of including rural households who own less than four heads of cattle for the biogas programs in developing countries. The review provides different research out puts on using biogas substrates other than cow dung or its mix through different enhancement and optimization mechanisms. Many biodegradable materials have been studied for alternative methane production. Therefore, these substrates could be used for production by addressing the optimum conditions for each factor and each processes for enhanced and optimized biogas production

Determinants of HIV Testing Among Tuberculosis Patients on DOTS in East Wollega Zone, Ethiopia

The main aim of the study was to assess determinants of HIV testing among Tuberculosis patients on DOTS in East Wollega zone, Ethiopia. Institution based case control study was conducted from January – March 2011. Cases were tuberculosis patients who have not accepted HIV testing while the controls were those who have accepted HIV testing. A sample of 270 (90 cases and 180 controls) tuberculosis patients, with a ratio of two controls to one case, was used. Simple random sampling technique was used to recruit study subjects. Tuberculosis patients who was tested for HIV showed, 23(12.8%) of them were HIV positive and 157(87.2%) of them were HIV negative. The proportion of HIV infected individual was  10(13.2%) among males and 13(12.5%) among females. Among 23  patients, 19(16.4%) TB patients from urban and 4(6.2%) patients were from rural area. Tuberculosis patients having low knowledge about HIV and were more likely to reject HIV testing AOR 3.697 (CI 2.135, 6.402)  compared to those who are knowledgeable about HIV. Higher level of stigmatized attitude toward HIV and being from urban were also associated with rejecting HIV testing AOR 3.421(CI 1.870, 6.257) and AOR 5.692(CI 1.930, 16.783) respectively. Efforts to promote HIV testing utilization  require effective strategies to reduce stigmatizing beliefs towards HIV and PLWHA among TB patients. Health information dissemination regarding HIV testing and risky sexual behavior reduction should have to be targeted most at risk population like tuberculosis patients

Evaluation of current and future water resources development in the Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia

Lakes / Weirs / Environmental flows / Water resources development / Models / Ethiopia / Lake Tana Basin / Chara Chara Weir

Factors affecting willingness to HIV Counseling and Testing among patients presenting with conventional Sexually Transmitted Infections in Addis Ababa

Background: There is ample scientific evidence that a person with an untreated sexually transmitted infection (STI), particularly those inducing ulcers or discharge, is at an increased risk of passing on or acquiring HIV during sexual intercourse. HIV counseling and testing (HIV CT) for STI cases is thus an important tool in the public health response to HIV/AIDS.Objective: To assess factors affecting willingness towards HIV CT among patients with conventional STIs in Addis Ababa.Methods: A cross-sectional study, involving 422 STI cases, was conducted in Addis Ababa from December 2006 to April 2007. STI patients were consecutively selected during an outpatient visit in ten government health centers, which were purposively selected mainly on the basis of their high STI case load. A pre-tested, interviewer administered, structured questionnaire was applied for data collection. The Pearson chi-square test was used to assess statistical significance of associations between willingness towards HIV CT and respondents’ socio-demographic status, knowledge, and behavior. Moreover, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were done to identify predictors of willingness for HIV CT. For all statistical significance tests, the cut- off value set was p<0.05.Results: Nearly 74% of STI patients said that they would be willing to undergo HIV CT at the time or 3 months after their STI diagnosis. Furthermore, 97.4% and 71.8% of STI patients had heard about HIV/AIDS and STIs, respectively. The majority, 93% of STI patients knew at least one prevention method, and 61.2% identified all the three major methods for preventing HIV/AIDS. Overall, 43.8% of the STI patients had at least one misconception, and 38% had comprehensive knowledge about HIV/AIDS. Ever tested for HIV and being in the age group of 15-34 years were found to be significantly and positively associated with willingness towards HIV CT whereas perceiving small or moderate chance of contracting HIV infection was found to have a significant and negative association.Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated the need for promotion and expansion of sustainable provider initiated HIV CT with subsequent follow up of STI patients as part of a range of services and support, and intensive patient-centered risk reduction counseling for STI patients during the initial visit to health care facilities. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2011;25(2):116-125

Continuum Electromechanical Modeling of Protein-Membrane Interaction

A continuum electromechanical model is proposed to describe the membrane curvature induced by electrostatic interactions in a solvated protein-membrane system. The model couples the macroscopic strain energy of membrane and the electrostatic solvation energy of the system, and equilibrium membrane deformation is obtained by minimizing the electro-elastic energy functional with respect to the dielectric interface. The model is illustrated with the systems with increasing geometry complexity and captures the sensitivity of membrane curvature to the permanent and mobile charge distributions.Comment: 5 pages, 12 figure

Men’s Knowledge and Spousal Communication about Modern Family Planning Methods in Ethiopia

This study attempted to determine knowledge, approval and communication about family planning methods among married men in Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study was conducted among a representative sample of 738 married males in Amhara Region. All 738 (100%) of the respondents had heard of family planning. About 558 (75.6%) mentioned the importance of using contraceptives for birth spacing and 457 (61.9%) to limit birth. Four hundred and forty-five (60.3%) of participants had ever discussed family planning with their wives. Thirty-three (33.0%) of the respondents reported that they were the sole decision makers in their families. About 597 (80.9%) approved the use of contraceptives. However, some participants did not discuss and approve family planning with their partner. This recalled an intensive effort has been taken by the concerned body to reach the country’s targeted family planning coverage by involving men in reproductive health endeavor to enhance the discussion and agreement about family planning usage

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Explicit Pre A*-algebra

This manuscript is a study on Birkhoff centre of a Pre-A*-algebra. In fact, it is proved that Birkhoff centre of a Pre A*-algebra is also a Pre A*-algebra and identified that the centre of Birkhoff centre of a Pre A*-algebra is a Boolean algebra.Keywords: Pre A*-algebra, Centre, Birkoff centre, Boolean algebra