GIS Based Assessment of Hydropower Potential (A Case Study on Gumara River Basin)

Energy crisis has emerged as a serious issue all over the world in recent years. Ethiopia is facing a similar crisis that has resulted in frequent power failures and load shedding throughout the country for past several years. The utilization of renewable energy resources may help reducing fossil fuel dependency of the country for power generation. There are various renewable energy options for Ethiopia including solar, wind and hydropower. The objective of this study is to assess the run-of-river hydropower potential of Gumara River using geospatial data and techniques. Gumara River is a tributary Of Abay River located in the Amhara (South Gonder) province of Ethiopia. Satellite data used in this study include ASTER Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Flow data are acquired from regional hydrologic gauges. Geographical Information Systems tools are used for processing the satellite images, delineation of watershed and stream network, and identification of potential sites for hydropower projects.20 suitable hydropower potential Sites were selected. This study will aid decision-makers in the energy sector to optimize the available resources in selecting the suitable sites for small hydropower plants with high power potential. The proposed approach can further be utilized to assess an overall hydropower potential of the country

Postharvest Ripening and Shelf Life of Mango (Mangifera indica L.) Fruit as Influenced by 1-Methylcyclopropene and Polyethylene Packaging

The mango (Mangifera indica L.) is a climacteric and highly perishable fruit that requires specialized postharvest handling to extend its storage life. The study was undertaken at Melkassa Agricultural Research Center (MARC) to evaluate the influence of 1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) and polyethylene packaging (PP) on postharvest storage of mango. Fruits of two mango cultivars namely ‘Apple’ and ‘Kent’ were harvested at green-mature stage and were treated with gaseous 1-MCP (100 or 500 nLL-1) in closed plastic containers for 18 hours and then individual fruits were either packaged with perforated polyethylene bags or kept without packaging. They were stored up to 21 days under ambient condition at temperature of 25.7 ±2.6oC and relative humidify of 66.1±11.8%. Treatments were laid out in factorial arrangement in RCBD with three replications. The physiological weight loss (PWL), peel color change, firmness, juice content, total soluble solids (TSS) and titratable acidity (TA) were significantly (

Analysis of morphophonemic patterns of Gujii dialect: an insight from optimality theory, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics in the determination of peculiarities of the dialect

The Gujii dialect which is one of southern dialects of Afaan Oromoo is highly characterized by assimilation patterns. This assimilation is dictated by some linguistic and non-linguistic factors and it has impact on the communication held between Gujii dialect speakers and school text version speakers. Therefore, this paper presents the analysis of Gujii morphophonemic patterns in comparison to school version of Afaan Oromoo using some insights from Optimality Theory, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. Besides, it explores psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic constraints that possibly caused peculiar morphophonemic assimilations in Gujii dialect. From the analysis, it is found out that assimilation pattern in Gujii dialect is highly observed in inflection morphemes of verbs as well as of some nouns and adverbs. Similarly, patterns such as using ‘hudhaa’/ stop velar sound / at the end of plural compound nouns, negative markers/ using [hin-] as a prefix together with [–u]as a suffix/, and some greeting phrases are other peculiar patterns observed in Gujii dialect. The peculiarity of these morphophonemic patterns is determined by psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic factors. Moreover, this peculiarity is linguistically justifiable by Optimality Theory and they are made primarily for ease of communication. Because of these peculiarities, the Gujii dialect speakers face several problems when they are required to speak or read the school version of Afaan Oromoo.Key Words: Gujii, morphophonemic patterns, dialect, assimilation, Afaan Oromo

Effect of processing methods on the trypsin inhibitor, tannins, phytic acid and ODAP contents of grass pea seeds

Abstract: Grass pea seeds were given different treatments including cooking boiling, autoclaving, dry heating and fermentation into tempeh. Changes in the levels of the antinutritional factors due to the treatments were estimated. Dry heat treatment completely eliminated phytic acid and greatly reduced tannins, trypsin inhibitor activity and ODAP (100%,64%,87.4% and 75%, respectively). Cooking reduced tannins (74%), trypsin inhibitory activity (81 %) and ODAP (77%) while phytic acid was less affected (59.4%). Autoclaving had the most pronounced lowering effect on trypsin inhibitor activity (91 %), whereas other anti-nutritional factors were less affected. Boiling also decreased the trypsin inhibitor activity by 89.3%. Preprocessing of grass pea for tempeh fermentation and fermentation into tempeh significantly removed large portions of the antinutritional factors in grass pea. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 1995;9(2):97-103

Against the 'Great Tradition': Marginalization and resistance in Ethiopian novels in Afan Oromo and Amharic

This thesis ‘reads together’ (Laachir) four novels written in two widely-spoken Ethiopian languages, Afan Oromo and Amharic—Yoomi Laataa? [When Shall It Be?] (2010) by Isayas Hordofa and Gurraacha Abbayaa [The Black Man from Abbaya] (1996) by Dhaba Wayessa in Afan Oromo, and Yeburqa Zimita [Burqa’s Silence] (2000) by Tesfaye Gebreab and Evangadi (1998) by Fiqremarqos Desta. The novels were published in the two decades following Ethiopia’s adoption of ethno-linguistic federalism in 1991, a period of profound political change that saw strong critiques of Ethiopian nationalism but also the emergence of written literatures in many Ethiopian languages, including Afan Oromo. Indeed, the novels both reflect and reflect on these developments. My approach is contextual and multilingual, i.e., it is fully cognizant of the plurilingual practices embedded in the literary texts as well as the contexts in which they were produced, and it advocates a contextualized and comparative reading that resists the separate and monolingual reading practices that have characterized mainstream Ethiopian literary studies. I view these novels as mediating between different languages, between oral and written traditions, and between narratives of the Great Tradition and that of the counter hegemonic histories, and as such I see them as resisting hegemonic narratives within Ethiopian nationalism and literature. Reading them together involves an entangled reading that seeks illuminate their interwoven politics and is attentive to any echo, if not dialogue, across language boundaries. Drawing on the genres of historical and village novels, the thesis contests the Amhara-centred Ethiopianist meta-narrative from three perspectives. First, it pits counter-hegemonic historical narratives against the history of the Great Tradition by reworking and reinterpreting Ethiopian political history in ways that foreground the perspectives of politically marginalized people. Second, it argues that these novels critically engage with language ideology and politics, and thereby interprets textual multilingualism as a recognition of the reality of ‘multilingual locals’ in Ethiopia and a critique of official monolingual policies and Amharic monolingualism (part of the Great Tradition). Third, by analysing the strategies that the novels employ to represent orature and the interplay between orature and written literature, the thesis shows how these novels broaden the remit of what constitutes Ethiopian literature and show orature to be an important resource for counter-hegemonic narratives. Fourth, by reading together Afan Oromo and Amharic novels along these lines, the thesis puts forward a more inclusive approach to Ethiopian literature that crosses linguistic and script boundaries. Finally, through a comparative and contextual methodological approach that seeks to refute Ethiopianist meta-narratives and exclusionary approaches to literature, the study contributes to the debates about centre-periphery and orature-literature dichotomies in the study of world literature, African literature and to comparative Ethiopian literature (particularly to Oromo literature)

Literary networks in the Horn of Africa: Oromo and Amharic intellectual histories

In his 1971 study on Four African Literatures, Albert Gerard states that ‘no imaginative literature seems to have been produced in any of the non-Amharic vernaculars of Ethiopia’ so that ‘the phrase Amharic literature can legitimately be used as a synonym for Ethiopian literature’. A methodology is focused on networks allow to move beyond the nation as a unit of analysis. While national literary histories have rigidly assumed that state borders coincide with literary borders, an approach based on networks, in Vilashini Cooppan’s words, ‘allows to highlight the principle of circulation, sedimentation, and linkage; distinct objects such as languages, cultures, identities, and aesthetic forms that move rhizomatically’. Ethiopian emperors ruled for centuries over a highland territory that was for the large part Orthodox Christian, but with sizeable Muslim and Jewish minorities. In this area, from the beginning of the Solomonic dynasty in 1270 until the late nineteenth century, education revolved around centres of religious learning

Choice of initial antiretroviral drugs and treatment outcomes among HIV-infected patients in sub-Saharan Africa: systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies

Background: The effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy (ART) depends on the choice of regimens during initiation. Most evidences from developed countries indicated that there is difference between efavirenz (EFV) and nevirapine (NVP). However, the evidences are limited in resource poor countries particularly in Africa. Thus, this systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out to summarize reported long-term treatment outcomes among people on first line therapy in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: Observational studies that reported odds ratio, relative risk, hazard ratio, or standardized incidence ratio to compare risk of treatment failure among HIV/AIDS patients who initiated ART with EFV versus NVP were systematically searched. Searches were conducted using the MEDLINE database within PubMed, Google Scholar, HINARI, and Research Gates between 2007 and 2016. Information was extracted using standardized form. Pooled risk ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using random-effect, generic inverse variance method. Result: A total of 6394 articles were identified, of which, 29 were eligible for review and abstraction in sub-Saharan Africa. Seventeen articles were used for the meta-analysis. Of a total of 121,092 independent study participants, 76,719 (63.36%) were females. Of these, 40,480 (33.43%) initiated with NVP containing regimen. Two studies did not report the median CD4 cell counts at initiation. Patients who have low CD4 cell counts initiated with EFV containing regimen. The pooled effect size indicated that treatment failure was reduced by 15%, 0.85 (95%CI: 0.75–0.98), and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) switch was reduced by 43%, 0.57 (95%CI: 0.37–0.89). Conclusion: The risk of treatment failure and NNRTI switch were lower in patients who initiated with EFV than NVP-containing regimen. The review suggests that initiation of patients with EFV-containing regimen will reduce treatment failure and NNRTI switch

Groundwater potential mapping using GIS and remote sensing with multi-criteria decision-making in Shinile sub-basin, eastern Ethiopia

The main challenge for water resources development as well as food security in arid and semi-arid regions of Ethiopia is the hydroclimatic variability. Groundwater resources are largely the main sources of water supply in such regions, alleviating the pressure of hydroclimatic variability on water resources. The present study delineated the potential groundwater zones in the Shinile sub-basin by using geospatial techniques. The criteria used were: geology, geomorphology, slope, soil, lineament density, drainage density, land use land cover, topographic wetness index, topographic roughness index, and rainfall. The relative weights were given by the analytic hierarchy process. A validation was done using the area under the curve (AUC=0.941) of the receiver operating curve (ROC) from borehole data. The study region was partitioned to low, moderate, and high potential groundwater zones having respectively 1.5%, 43%, and 55% of the total area. The high potential areas are concentrated in the central part where alluvial and lacustrine sediment is the dominant geologic unit. The validation results suggest that the geospatial identification of groundwater potential zones effectively performed well in the study area. This study is very important for water management experts as well as for stakeholders and policymakers in the study region

Epidemiology and individual, household and geographical risk factors of podoconiosis in ethiopia: results from the first nationwide mapping

Although podoconiosis is one of the major causes of tropical lymphoedema and is endemic in Ethiopia its epidemiology and risk factors are poorly understood. Individual-level data for 129,959 individuals from 1,315 communities in 659 woreda (districts) were collected for a nationwide integrated survey of lymphatic filariasis and podoconiosis. Blood samples were tested for circulating Wuchereria bancrofti antigen using immunochromatographic card tests. A clinical algorithm was used to reach a diagnosis of podoconiosis by excluding other potential causes of lymphoedema of the lower limb. Bayesian multilevel models were used to identify individual and environmental risk factors. Overall, 8,110 of 129,959 (6.2%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 6.1-6.4%) surveyed individuals were identified with lymphoedema of the lower limb, of whom 5,253 (4.0%, 95% CI 3.9-4.1%) were confirmed to be podoconiosis cases. In multivariable analysis, being female, older, unmarried, washing the feet less frequently than daily, and being semiskilled or unemployed were significantly associated with increased risk of podoconiosis. Attending formal education and living in a house with a covered floor were associated with decreased risk of podoconiosis. Podoconiosis exhibits marked geographical variation across Ethiopia, with variation in risk associated with variation in rainfall, enhanced vegetation index, and altitude