Smallholder Dairy Production Technology Transfer and Adoption Constraints in Mixed Farming System in Girar Jarso Woreda of North Shoa Zone Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

This study was carried out from September 2006 to April 2007 in four Kebeles’ of Girar-Jarso Woreda, North Shoa zone of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia to assess productive performance of dairy cows and technology use in 200 randomly selected market-oriented smallholder dairy farms. A structured questionnaire survey, farm visit, and PA discussion were conducted during the study. The overall mean family size of respondents in this study was 5.77+2.35 persons. The average number of economically active family members (greater than 15 years old) was 2.44 persons (1.20 ± 1.25 male and 1.24 ± 1.33 female). The average number of livestock owned by the respondent farmers was 16.65 ± 7.11animals or 9.47 TLU. Dairy cows constituted the highest proportion of the herd followed by draft oxen. Crossbred dairy cows represented the highest proportion of the cattle herd composition with the mean value of 1.83 (22.7%). There was statistically significant difference between crossbred and value of 1.83 (22.7%). There was statistically significant difference between crossbred and indigenous cattle in all production and reproduction performance parameters assessed (p<0.05). The respondent farmers pointed-out that scarcity of feeds, mainly during dry season, is the major limiting factor which affected the development of livestock sub-sector in general and the rearing of crossbred dairy cows in particular. Land allotted for livestock grazing was only 0.71 hectares. From a total of 21 dairy technologies identified in the study area crossbreeding and mastitis inspection had highest adoption rates, 91.5% and 95% respectively. The average numbers of dairy technology up take was 9.89 +2.16 with a range from 5-16. Sex, age, level of education and farming experience were found important characteristics that influence demand for dairy technologies in the study area. The results showed that the female groups were less users of dairy technology averaged 9.26 +1.90 compared to the male group (average 9.95+2.20); thus gender differences seem to have a significance influence on likelihood of technology uptake. Education was another important factor that favored the likelihood of technology uptakes. This suggests the important role of education in stimulating demand for technology use. Farm experiences also determine the use of dairy technology in the study area. Accordingly the t-values of the variables were computed and out of these variable the age, farm experience, and level of education were found to differ significantly (p > 0.05) probability level. As expected, sex is positively and is statistically significant (p < 0.05) for all technologies identified and adopted in the area. According to the survey result characteristics of the household head (84%) and source of information (68.5%) were the most frequent factors that influence the decisions of the household to choice new technologies. Keywords: Dairy technology, reproduction performance, adoption, market oriented, constraint

New range of the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer Sparrman, 1772) in the upper Blue Nile Valley, western Ethiopia–A preliminary study

A preliminary study on the distribution of the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) was conducted in 2014 in the Didessa River Valley of the upper Blue Nile in western Ethiopia, to confirm the presence of buffaloes and other co-existing wildlives in the area, which the government considers for settlement and investment because of unconfirmed wildlife distribution. Buffaloes were located by tracking their expected ranges in the upper Blue Nile Valley and each location was marked using GPS, and superimposed on the known range of buffaloes. The result showed that the present distribution of buffaloes is further extended from their known ranges. Moreover, the presence of several other wildlife species in the study area was also been confirmed, and the new distribution range map for buffaloes was generated.  The current range of African buffaloes is the last green space left in the upper Blue Nile Valley for wildlife conservation, for which urgent conservation actions are necessary

An eIF4E-binding protein regulates katanin protein levels in C. elegans embryos.

In Caenorhabditis elegans, the MEI-1-katanin microtubule-severing complex is required for meiosis, but must be down-regulated during the transition to embryogenesis to prevent defects in mitosis. A cullin-dependent degradation pathway for MEI-1 protein has been well documented. In this paper, we report that translational repression may also play a role in MEI-1 down-regulation. Reduction of spn-2 function results in spindle orientation defects due to ectopic MEI-1 expression during embryonic mitosis. MEL-26, which is both required for MEI-1 degradation and is itself a target of the cullin degradation pathway, is present at normal levels in spn-2 mutant embryos, suggesting that the degradation pathway is functional. Cloning of spn-2 reveals that it encodes an eIF4E-binding protein that localizes to the cytoplasm and to ribonucleoprotein particles called P granules. SPN-2 binds to the RNA-binding protein OMA-1, which in turn binds to the mei-1 3 untranslated region. Thus, our results suggest that SPN-2 functions as an eIF4E-binding protein to negatively regulate translation of mei-1

An Assessment of Leadership Styles towards Students Academic Performance in Government Secondary Schools of Wolaita and Dawro Zones, South Ethiopia

The major purpose of this study was to assess the leadership styles practiced by principals of the secondary schools towards students academic performance of Wolaita and Dawro Zones In order to achieve the objective of the study descriptive survey method was employed The study was conducted in four government secondary and preparatory schools of Wolaita Zone and three Secondary and Preparatory Schools of Dawro Zone The schools were selected by simple random sampling techniques Teachers were selected by systematic sampling while principals were selected by using the availability sampling The study included 14 principals and 280 teachers Questionnaires observation and document analysis were used to collect data Data were analyzed using percentages mean and weighted mean Based on the analysis the study portrayed that almost all principals and teachers were first degree holders considerable number of principals were not specialized in the management fields of study and less stake holders involvement in the decision making process were found to be the major factors Hence it is recommended that each schools principals should be provided with appropriate training and development in stake holder involvement communication with stake holders appropriate leadership styles and team wor

Matching of repeat remote sensing images for precise analysis of mass movements

Photogrammetry, together with radar interferometry, is the most popular of the remote sensing techniques used to monitor stability of high mountain slopes. By using two images of an area taken from different view angles, photogrammetry produces digital terrain models (DTM) and orthoprojected images. Repeat digital terrain models (DTM) are differenced to compute elevation changes. Repeat orthoimages are matched to compute the horizontal displacement and deformation of the masses. The success of the photogrammetric approach in the computation of horizontal displacement (and also the generation of DTM through parallax matching, although not covered in this work) greatly relies on the success of image matching techniques. The area-based image matching technique with the normalized cross-correlation (NCC) as its similarity measure is widely used in mass movement analysis. This method has some limitations that reduce its precision and reliability compared to its theoretical potential. The precision with which the matching position is located is limited to the pixel size unless some sub-pixel precision procedures are applied. The NCC is only reliable in cases where there is no significant deformation except shift in position. Identification of a matching entity that contains optimum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and minimum geometric distortion at each location has always been challenging. Deformation parameters such as strains can only be computed from the inter-template displacement gradient in a post-matching process. To find appropriate solutions for the mentioned limitations, the following investigations were made on three different types of mass movements; namely, glacier flow, rockglacier creep and land sliding. The effects of ground pixel size on the accuracy of the computed mass movement parameters such as displacement were investigated. Different sub-pixel precision algorithms were implemented and evaluated to identify the most precise and reliable algorithm. In one approach images are interpolated to higher spatial resolution prior to matching. In another approach the NCC correlation surface is interpolated to higher resolution so that the location of the correlation peak is more precise. In yet another approach the position of the NCC peak is computed by fitting 2D Gaussian and parabolic curves to the correlation peak turn by turn. The results show that the mean error in metric unit increases linearly with the ground pixel size being about half a pixel at each resolution. The proportion of undetected moving masse increases with ground pixel size depending on the displacement magnitudes. Proportion of mismatching templates increases with increasing ground pixel size depending on the noise content, i.e. temporal difference, of the image pairs. Of the sub-pixel precision algorithms, interpolating the image to higher resolution using bi-cubic convolution prior to matching performs best. For example, by increasing the spatial resolution (i.e. reducing the ground pixel size) of the matched images by 2 to 16 times using intensity interpolation, 40% to 80% of the performances of the same resolution original image can be achieved. A new spatially adaptive algorithm that defines the template sizes by optimizing the SNR, minimizing the geometric distortion and optimizing the similarity measure was also devised, implemented and evaluated on aerial and satellite images of mass movements. The algorithm can also exclude ambiguous and occluded entities from the matching. The evaluation of the algorithm was conducted on simulated deformation images and in relation to the image-wide fixed template sizes ranging from 11 to 101 pixels. The evaluation of the algorithm on the real mass movements is conducted by a novel technique of reconstructing the reference image from the deformed image and computing the global correlation coefficient and the corresponding SNR between the reference and the reconstructed image. The results show that the algorithm could reduce the error of displacement estimation by up to over 90% (in the simulated case) and improve the SNR of the matching by up to over 4 times compared to the globally fixed template sizes. The algorithm pushes terrain displacement measurement from repeat images one step forward towards full automation. The least squares image matching (LSM) matches images precisely by modeling both the geometric and radiometric deformation. The potential of the LSM is not fully utilized for mass movement analysis. Here, the procedures with which horizontal surface displacement, rotation and strain rates of glacier flow, rockglacier creep and land sliding are computed from the spatial transformation parameters of LSM automatically during the matching are implemented and evaluated. The results show that the approach computes longitudinal strain rates, transverse strain rates and shear strain rates reliably with mean absolute deviation in the order of 10-4 as evaluated on stable grounds. The LSM also improves the accuracy of displacement estimation of the NCC by about 90% in ideal (simulated) case and the SNR of the matching by about 25% in real multi-temporal images of mass movements. Additionally, advanced spatial transformation models such as projective and second degree polynomial are used for the first time for mass movement analysis in addition to the affine. They are also adapted spatially based on the minimization of the sum of square deviation between the matching templates. The spatially adaptive approach produces the best matching, closely followed by the second-order polynomial. Affine and projective models show similar results closely following the two approaches. In the case of the spatially adaptive approach, over 60% of the entities matched for the rockglacier and the landslide are best fit by the second-order polynomial model. In general, the NCC alone may be sufficient for low resolution images of moving masses with limited or no deformation. To gain better precision and reliability in such cases, the template sizes can be adapted spatially and the images can be interpolated to higher resolution (preferably not more detail than 1/16th of a pixel) prior to the matching. For highly deformed masses where higher resolution images are used, the LSM is recommended as it results in more accurate matching and deformation parameters. Improved accuracy and precision are obtained by selecting matchable areas using the spatially adaptive algorithm, identifying approximate matches using the NCC and optimizing the matches and measuring the deformation parameters using the LSM algorithm

Factors Contributing to Educational Wastage at Primary Level:The Case of Lanfuro Woreda, Southern Ethiopia

The purpose of this study was to investigation the magnitude of educational wastage of primary schools in Lanfuro woreda Attempts are also made to identify the major factors that contribute to educational wastage and suggest possible strategies to alleviate them To this end descriptive survey method was employed to reveal the current situation of high rate of grade repetition and drop-out educational wastage The data regarding enrolment repetition and drop-outs were obtained from Lanfuro woreda educational department and sample school s document The study included five schools 280 students 46 teachers and 5 principals of sample schools Sample schools were selected using stratified sampling technique to give focus both rural and urban schools random sampling technique was applied to select teachers and students drop-outs and repeaters Principals were selected using purposive sampling technique The data gathered through questionnaire was analyzed using mean median and percentag

Sub-chronic Toxicity of Anti-ectoparasitic Formulation Comprising Cymbopogon Citrates Essential Oil and Jatropha Curcas Fixed Oil in Swiss Albino Mice

Ectoparasites are found widely distributed in all agro-ecological zones of Ethiopia. The problems they cause can be alleviated through the use of traditional medicinal plants.  Cymbopogon citratus is one of the traditional herbs commonly used for such purpose.  This study was conducted to profile safety of the C. citratus based anti ectoparasitic formulation. The toxicity study had shown significant weight change in animal group that received 3.75% of the formulation. There were also significant changes in serum lipid profiles of treated group animals compared with the control. The level of uric acid in animals treated with 3.75% of the formulation showed significant increase compared with the control. Liver and kidney histopathology of both treatment group animals revealed few mononuclear leucocytic infiltrations.  The blood cell parameters and different biochemical findings had revealed no sign of toxicity. However; other measured parameters like the body weight, histological and some biochemical findings had shown both significant and insignificant sign of toxicities.  Therefore; it is important to consider the effect of the formulation in prolonged treatment on body weight, uric acid excretion and lipid metabolism

An Analysis of the Status of Marginalization of School Age Children in Wolaita and Dawro Zones: The Case of Maraka and Damot Pulasa Weredas of the Two Zones, South Ethiopia

The purpose of this study was to analyze the major causes of marginalization and illiteracy of Menas Menjas and Hilanchas social classes in Dawro and Wolaita zones In order to attain this objective descriptive survey method was employed The study was carried out in four kebeles of Wolaita zone and 6 kebeles of Dawro zones Purposive sampling technique for the selection of the weredas and availability sampling technique for the selection of the kebeles and subjects were used Hence the wereda education office authorities parents and the children of Menjas Menas and Hilanchas in Wolaita case were involved and the questionnaire was distributed among officials filled out and in addition the wereda education office authorities parents and children of those social classes were interviewed in grou

Análise do comportamento à força cortante do concreto reforçado com fibras de aço

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Ricardo PieralisiTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Tecnologia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Civil. Defesa : Curitiba, 29/06/2023Inclui referências: p. 188-203Área de concentração: Materiais e EstruturasResumo: A compreensão da transferência de força cortante através da fissura crítica de cisalhamento é um dos desafios no estudo do comportamento de vigas esbeltas de concreto reforçado com fibras de aço (CRFA). Uma vez que a fissura diagonal crítica se forma, a resistência nessas vigas é governada pelos mecanismos de transferência de força cortante: engrenamento dos agregados, zona comprimida não fissurada do concreto, tensão residual, efeito de pino, e as fibras de aço. É crucial, portanto, compreender a evolução desses mecanismos e sua interação até a falha, a fim de adotar uma abordagem racional na previsão da resistência do CRFA. Portanto, o objetivo principal desta tese é contribuir para o avanço do conhecimento sobre o comportamento à força cortante em vigas de concreto reforçado com fibras de aço, sem a presença de armadura transversal. Para alcançar esse objetivo, são utilizadas três abordagens complementares: experimental-teórica, analítica e numérica. Na abordagem experimental-teórica, é dada ênfase aos mecanismos de transferência de força cortante e à forma como eles se comportam durante o desenvolvimento da fissuração de vigas sem armadura transversal. Para isso, a técnica de Correlação por Imagem Digital (Digital Image Correlation - DIC) é utilizada para monitorar a propagação de fissuras nos espécimes ensaiados e fornecer informações para a aplicação dos modelos dos mecanismos de transferência de força cortante. Destaca-se as contribuições no que se refere à representação das fibras de aço como mecanismo, avaliando modelos existentes e também por meio de uma proposta de modelo. Na abordagem analítica, um banco de dados é utilizado para avaliar expressões existentes na literatura e propor um modelo simples, com análise paramétrica da contribuição de cada variável. Foi constatada a dependência dos mecanismos de transferência de força cortante da cinemática da fissura, onde vigas semelhantes podem apresentar comportamentos distintos. Na abordagem numérica, a modelagem computacional engloba um modelo 2D do ensaio de tração na flexão e 3D das vigas armadas de CRFA em comparação com os valores experimentais de resistência, flecha, padrão de fissuração e ângulo da fissura. A metodologia apresentada para uma simulação consistente tem potencial para expandir as análises feitas aqui para diferentes geometrias e condições estruturais, ampliando o conhecimento do comportamento à força cortante do CRFA. No geral, os resultados mostram que as fibras de aço incorporadas proporcionam maior ductilidade para as vigas, possibilitando o desenvolvimento dos mecanismos ao longo da propagação da fissura, onde as fibras são preponderantes na ruptura, enquanto o engrenamento dos agregados e dos demais mecanismos perdem importância. Além disso, a variação nos resultados dos modelos existentes confirma as divergências entre as hipóteses para representar o comportamento do CRFA, onde as características das fibras de aço incorporadas possuem mais influência no ganho de resistência do que a relação a/d, por exemplo.Abstract: Understanding the transfer of shear force through the critical shear crack is one of the challenges in studying the behavior of slender steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams. Once the critical diagonal crack forms, the strength in these beams is governed by shear force transfer mechanisms: aggregate interlock, uncracked compressed zone, residual stress, dowel action and steel fibers. It is crucial, therefore, to understand the evolution of these mechanisms and their interaction until failure, in order to adopt a rational approach in predicting SFRC resistance. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is to contribute to the advancement of knowledge about the shear behavior of concrete beams reinforced with steel fibers, without the presence of transverse reinforcement. To achieve this objective, three complementary approaches are used: experimental-theoretical, analytical and numerical. In the experimental-theoretical approach, emphasis is given to the shear force transfer mechanisms and the way they behave during the cracking development of beams without transverse reinforcement. For this, the digital image correlation technique (DIC) is used to monitor the propagation of cracks in the specimens tested and provide information for the application of models of shear force transfer mechanisms. It highlights the contributions with regard to the representation of steel fibers as a mechanism, evaluating existing models and also through a proposed model. In the analytical approach, a database is used to evaluate existing expressions in the literature and propose a simple model, with parametric analysis of the contribution of each variable. The dependence of the shear force transfer mechanisms on the crack kinematics was verified, where similar beams can present different behaviors. In the numerical approach, the computational modeling encompasses a 2D model of the flexural tensile test and a 3D model of the SFRC reinforced beams in comparison with the experimental values of resistance, deflection, cracking pattern and crack angle. The methodology presented for a consistent simulation has the potential to expand the analyzes made here for different geometries and structural conditions, expanding the knowledge of the shear behavior of the SFRC. In general, the results show that the incorporated steel fibers provide greater ductility for the beams, enabling the development of mechanisms along the crack propagation, where the fibers are preponderant in failure, while the aggregate interlock and other mechanisms lose importance. In addition, the variation in the results of the existing models confirms the divergences between the hypotheses to represent the SFRC behavior, where the characteristics of the incorporated steel fibers have more influence on the strength gain than the a/d ratio, for example