The Impact of Urban Sprawl on the Livelihood of Fringe Farmers in Mekelle, Ethiopia

The city of Mekelle is experiencing high population growth and haphazard settlement expansion resulting in urban sprawl[1]. City authorities have responded with periodic expropriation of adjacent rural land to extend the urban limits and, effectively, provide more land for development. Between 2005 and 2008, about 9883 farmer households were expropriated from their farms as a result of the rapid expansion of the city. Due to the poor administration of the acquisition and the follow-up utilization of the acquired land, displaced farmers are not only losing their livelihood but the compensation due is delayed and insufficient to prepare them for a decent shift in life. Again, the absence of a scientific method of valuation leads to dissatisfaction on the part of many affected farmers. This paper looks at the evolving picture of unfair displacement of families whose main source of livelihood is subsistence agriculture from their small land holdings resulting in complete deprivation and destitution. Material for putting together this paper came from an ongoing doctoral research study[2]. Primary data was obtained from a survey of 250 expropriated farmers. Findings show that the city is, indeed, sprawling into the nearby rural communities due to the uncontrolled and unauthorized acquisition and occupation of farmlands; a phenomenon that clearly has its roots in the poor land administration practices of Mekelle City Administration. The paper is structured into four parts: part one deals with the introduction covering the background, problem and objective; part two relates to review of literature and Ethiopian laws pertaining to the subject; part three covers the methodology adopted in writing the paper; part four delves into the findings; and part five is conclusion. Keywords: sprawl, expropriation, compensation, livelihood [1] Refers to unplanned and often inefficient use of urban land [2] ‘Urban Sprawl in Mekelle (Ethiopia): Causes, Consequences and Management Strategies.’ By the same author

New Coding/Decoding Techniques for Wireless Communication Systems

Wireless communication encompasses cellular telephony systems (mobile communication), wireless sensor networks, satellite communication systems and many other applications. Studies relevant to wireless communication deal with maintaining reliable and efficient exchange of information between the transmitter and receiver over a wireless channel. The most practical approach to facilitate reliable communication is using channel coding. In this dissertation we propose novel coding and decoding approaches for practical wireless systems. These approaches include variable-rate convolutional encoder, modified turbo decoder for local content in Single-Frequency Networks, and blind encoder parameter estimation for turbo codes. On the other hand, energy efficiency is major performance issue in wireless sensor networks. In this dissertation, we propose a novel hexagonal-tessellation based clustering and cluster-head selection scheme to maximize the lifetime of a wireless sensor network. For each proposed approach, the system performance evaluation is also provided. In this dissertation the reliability performance is expressed in terms of bit-error-rate (BER), and the energy efficiency is expressed in terms of network lifetime

Agricultural Extension Service and Input Application Intensity: Evidence from Ethiopia

This paper examines factors that influence agricultural input adoption in the northern part of Ethiopia. Using a 730 households survey data set, a Tobit model is estimated to explain the factors that influence farmers’ decision to adopt modern inputs or not. The factors found to significantly influence included: plot size, oxen ownership, gender, age and literacy status of the household head, adult labor force, total non-farm income, extension service and location variables. The results confirm the adoption theory

Environmental Impact and Sustainability of Aggregate Production in Ethiopia

The production of aggregate for the infrastructural development of the country has been increasing for the last three decades due to the high urbanization rates in the main cities of the country and the ever-growing demand for basic infrastructural facilities. The environmental impact of both fine and coarse aggregate production is now hard to ignore especially on the outskirts of the main cities. These impacts are clearly seen on the degradation of landscape and land stability, pollution of water resource, pollution of the atmosphere due to dust, and societal impacts. There are clear local and international laws that protect the environment from the negative impact of any project, whereas the observed fact from abandoned and functioning quarry sites shows these rules are not followed strictly

ENHANCEMENT OF SUPERCONDUCTIVITY IN LEAD (Pb) BY INTENSIFIED GRAVITATIONAL INTERACTION BETWEEN ELECTRON PAIRS

This work focuses on the theoretical investigation of the possible enhancement of superconductivity for the superconducting lead (Pb) by intensified gravitational interaction (IGI) between electron pairs. By applying the quantization theory of gravity (QTG), we obtained expressions for the enhanced superconducting transition temperature (), and superconducting energy gap (). By using the experimental, theoretical values and some plausible approximations of the parameters in the obtained expressions, the phase diagrams of superconducting energy gap versus temperature for lead at  and the enhanced superconducting energy gap versus temperature for lead at are plotted. By combining the two phase diagrams, we had shown the possible enhancement of the superconducting transition temperature from to and its superconducting energy gap fromto  for the superconducting lead

Coexistence of Superconductivity and Ferromagnetism in Superconducting ErRh4B4

This research work focuses on the theoretical investigation of the possible coexistence of superconductivity and ferromagnetism in ErRh4B4. By developing a model Hamiltonian for the given system and by using the double time temperature-dependent Green’s function formalism, we obtained expressions for superconducting transition temperature (TC,), magnetic ordering temperature (Tm), superconducting and magnetic ordering parameters (Δ) and (η) respectively. By using the experimental and theoretical values and by considering plausible approximations of the parameters in the obtained expressions, the phase diagrams of superconducting transition temperature versus magnetic ordering parameter and magnetic ordering temperature versus magnetic ordering parameter are plotted. Finally, by combining the two phase diagrams, we showed the possible coexistence of superconductivity and ferromagnetism in ErRh4B4.Keywords: Superconductivity, ferromagnetism, order parameter, conduction electrons, localized electrons, Green’s function

The Level of Heavy Metals in Potable Water in Dowhan, Erop Wereda, Tigray, Ethiopia

The problem of environmental pollution due to trace metals has raised wide spread concerns in different parts of the world and results reported by various agencies have been alarming.  Trace metals are among one of the significant pollutants of freshwater, with the development of mining, smelting, geochemical and other industrial activities. The study area is higly covered by soft  and hard rock.the analysis Trace metals was conducted using Atomic absorption spectrometer (Varian AA240FS at Ezana analytical laboratory .The level of the trace metals in the two sites were not exceeded the WHO maximum permissible limits in drinking water except the cadmium (Cd) and cobalt (Co). The order of all metals concentration in ER-1and ER-2 samples areas were Zn>Mn>Cu>Fe>Cr and Mn>Co>Fe, Cr, Cu, Zn respectively, but Ni and Pb were below the detection limit. Keywords: potable water, Trace Metals,WH