Electric vehicle possibilities using low power and light weight range extenders

Electric cars have the disadvantage of a limited range, and drivers may experience a range anxiety. This range anxiety can be solved by adding a range extender. But, the range extender should be light so as not to significantly increase the weight of the original vehicle. In urban areas with dense traffic (usually developing countries), the average speed around cities is typically lower than 50km/h. This means, the rolling resistance losses are more important than aerodynamic losses, and a weight reduction results in a bigger electrical range. Therefore, smaller and lighter range extenders are of much interest. The contribution of this paper is to indicate the possibility of range extenders with less than 25 kg with a capacity of 150 to 200 cc to suit a condition where weight counts. In this paper, the cost, environmental and grid impacts of going electric are also discussed. The effect of high altitude and driving style on the performance of an electric vehicle is assessed. The challenges and opportunities of vehicle electrification between countries with decarbonated power generation and fossil fuel dominated power generation are highlighted. Throughout the article, the case of Ethiopia is taken as an example

On-farm Quantification and Demonstration of the Extent of Soil Erosion and Nutrient Loss from Slope Farmland Under Millet Production in Kafa Zone, Ethiopia

The study was conducted in Gimbo woreda, kafa zone on soil erosion extent and its risk. The survey result on soil loss in area showed that more than 70% soil erosion occurs on the first month after finger millet sowing. 22x2m runoff plots were laid on six farmers field on which finger millet was sown. The trial farmers were selected based on slope category of farmlands (three farmers with above 10-15% and other three farmers above 16-20%) using FRG (Farmers Research Group) approach with the support of JICA FRG project in 2013. After conducting the erosion measurement during millet production, soil loss was observed to be 61ton/ ha/yr under untreated plot (free plot), 53t/ha under farmer practice and 21t/ha under introduced erosion control. The mean of soil loss under three different treatments over three farmers in slope above 10-15% was 21t/ha. Similarly, the mean of soil loss under three different treatments over three farmers in slope range above 16-20% was 45t/ha resulting to 2.2mm soil layer lost per year under millet production. The soil loss from any land under millet production varied from that of introduced type of soil conservation and farmer practice of soil conservation methods by 40 and 32t/ha respectively. This shows that during millet production on slope land above 16-20%, areas treated by farmer practice and those untreated by any conservation practice exceeded that of introduced soil conservation practice by 150% and 190% respectively indicating that, applying their practice of soil erosion control, farmers could save at least 8t/ha soil from slope land and 4t/ha soil from less slope land during millet production. According to LSD at p=0.05 the soil loss from any land under millet production will vary from that of land with erosion control and farmer practice method of control by 15 and 4t/ha respectively. Areas treated by farmer practice and those untreated will exceed that of introduced soil conservation area by 40% and 60% respectively. The result of study on economic analysis showed that a farmer with such soil erosion in the area will invest 30kg N (65kg Urea) more than blanket recommendation on his land to maintain fertility of his land. It will be 142% cost of fertilizer relative to normal application rate.  Farmers during discussion rose possible causes of soil loss in the area were, frequency of tillage during millet production (4-5tmes); Millet is sparsely planted and open throughout the production times and this situation aggravates erosion; Compaction of soil (trampling by animals) during planting; Cultivation of high slope (>15%) farm land for millet and the high and erosive rainfall during the planting season (Jun/July).  To solve the problems, millet production should be done with proper SWC works; Slopes above 15% should be treated with 5-6m Contour interval for SWC activity; During watershed development planning, special attention should be given for millet producers in order to reduce soil erosion; Use of strip cropping with width of the strip for a crop (millet or other) not more than 10m and farmers need to be organized for further agricultural experiment through FRG principle as it empowers them to solve their own agricultural productivity problem. Keywords: Soil loss, Soil erosion, FRG, runoff plots, slope range, millet productio

Development of Saving and Credit Cooperatives in Mekelle: Evolution, performance and proposed intervention

This study is about the development of Savings and Credit Cooperatives in Mekelle Zone. The fundamental objective of this study is to asses and documents the evolution, performance and challenges of SACCOs in Mekelle Zone. A randomly selected seven sample SACCOs were taken to investigate the status, and their outreach performance based on the commonly accepted growth dimensions: governance, service delivery, financial performance and institutional capacity. A review of relevant documents and interview schedule were prepared and administered with randomly selected members and various committee members. Employee based SACCOs have laid the foundation in the development of SACCOs in Mekelle. SACCOs have shown a noticeable increase in number size diversity of membership post the over through of the command economy. They have increased from 8 prior the end of the command economy to 24 at present. The average membership per SACCO was 127 at the end of June 2006/7. Women share of membership was 33.3 percent. They have expanded in their type of membership base to include some community based members such as: small traders and women traders working in the zone. Regarding governance of the SACCOs, they have a well-developed by law that portrays the hierarchical relationship of various committees giving the ultimate ruling power to the general assembly. How ever absenteeism and inactive and inactive participation is commonly observed in the SACCOs. Besides, women have been under represented in committees and general assembly meetings are not usually conducted on schedule. The SACCOs offer limited financial service. The types of the saving products offered by all SACCOs under the present survey are limited to shares, compulsory deposits and voluntary deposits. They have exhibited substantial growth in the amount of saving they mobilize and deposit per member. The SACCOs offer loans to their members mainly for construction of dwellings, purchase of house furniture, educational fees, medical and hospitalization expenses with repayment period ranging between 2 and 3 years. The Interest rate the SACCOs charge is not adequate to cover fund cost, operating expenses, acceptable range of profit margin and inflation. The SACCOs have exhibited substantial growth in the amount of loan they disburse. They have achieved good repayment performance As far as financial performance is concerned, the saving amount in relation to the total assets for the SACCOs was found to be with in the range of standard of excellence set by WOCCU. On the other hand, the members share to total assets was less than the standard of excellence in majority of the SACCOs. In terms of institutional capital to total asset, they have not maintained the standard of excellence. The SACCOs data under study reveals no delinquency so far. Majority of the SACCOs, have maintained the standard of excellence set on operating expense to total asset ratio; on the other hand, the net income to assets was compared unfavorably to the standard of excellence 10 percent. This is due to the lowest service price they charge to members. Even though the SACCOs are endowed with well educated members, they lack training and education opportunities. They gave little emphasis on training committee members. They also are constrained lack of office, office equipment and facilities. The factors that that limit the SACCOs’ growth identified in the study were: inadequate support and weak regulation and supervision, limited expansion in size and type of membership, inadequate efforts to enhance self governance, limited saving and loan products offered by SACCOs, absence of non financial services, inadequate service charges, poor financial performance, absence of training and educational opportunities, lack of office, office furniture and equipment, and poor record handling and inappropriate information system. Finally the study has proposed various interventions to be undertaken by stakeholders such as: training intervention, enabling the SACCOs be self reliant, active regulatory measures, diversified membership, diversified products, regularly revised service price, and developing appropriate information system

An Evaluation of Gamification to Assess Students’ Learning on Their Understanding of First Year Computer Science Programming Module

This research examines the use of gamification to develop an assessment tool, to assess students’ learning of a first year computer science module. The students’ undertaking of the first semester Programming and Algorithms module in 2015 were assessed on their knowledge of the programming language Python. The incorporation of gamification when assessing students can have various potential benefits. The research aims to identify these benefits and issues. Assessments and games have almost opposite effects on opinions on people, as games are usually expected to have an entertainment value but this is not the case for assessments. The research examines if the game elements in the assessment tool causes the students to see this tool differently. A variety of experiments were carried out and the organisation of these experiments were vital to the success of the project. The first assessment was to test students through a written test. The findings of this experiment were used in order to develop a game to assess the students. Interviews with computer programming lecturers were conducted before the game was developed (to derive requirements). A game was developed and used to assess the students learning. The game is accessible via a website, thus platform agnostic, enabling feasibility in partaking of this experiment. The opinions of the students in relation to the game were also gathered immediately after the students had completed the game. The second experiment stage then took place to assess the students with a written test that had the same questions as the written test before the students played the game. Interviews with computer programming lecturers were conducted after all other experiments were completed (to evaluate the outcomes). The game was able to assess students’ learning and obtain vast amount of information. All students indicated they liked the game and enjoyed it which also means that the students enjoyed the assessment process. Several beneficial elements for incorporating gamification were identified. Such as improvement of students’ knowledge which was determined through the comparison of the written test performance

Trust and Distrust Approaches in the Constitutional Lawmaking of Rural Land Rights in Ethiopia: Nature, Drafting and Implications

Although rural land rights are recognized in the 1995 Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE), the academic discourse and policy dialogues on the issue are still underway. However, these dialogues do not comprehensively cover the provisions in the Constitution concerning rural land rights, the modus operandi in the drafting approaches of the provisions and their legal implications. Hence, by analyzing the different sections and articles of the Constitution, this article seeks to examine the extent to which rural land rights are defined in the Constitution and the legal implications of its constitutional recognition. This article examines the compatibility of the approach adopted by Ethiopian Constitution makers with the Trust and Distrust approaches propounded by Rosalind Dixon for drafting of constitutional provisions on rural land rights. Dixon’s view is reviewed before considering it in relation with compatibility issues.Key termsRural land rights · Constitutional drafting · Nature of land rights · Ethiopi

The Impact of Capital Structure on Profitability of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia

The choice of capital structure is one of the most important strategic financial decisions of firms. Since financing decisions influence profitability and hence firm’s value, this study examines the impact of capital structure on profitability of core business operations of commercial bank of  Ethiopia. In order to meet the objectives of this study a quantitative panel data methodology was employed. The data were obtained from the audited financial statements of the commercial bank of Ethiopia, from National Bank of Ethiopia for the period of 5 years (2009 – 2013). The data fixed effect estimation model was applied for the data analysis through SPSS statistical package. It was observed that 94% of the total capital of commercial bank of Ethiopia in the period under study was made up of debt. Of this, 75% constitute deposit and the remaining was non-deposit liabilities. This has reaffirmed the fact that CBE is highly levered institution. The findings revealed that capital structure as measured by total debt to asset had statistically significant insignificant, though it has postive impact, whereas deposit to asset had statistically significant positive impact on profitability of core business operations of commercial banks. Moreover, loan to deposit, spread and asset size also had statistically significant and positive relationship with profitability. However, growth found to have statistically insignificant impact on profitability. Therefore, The bank should give due consideration to manage its debt properly, mobilize deposit sufficiently, increase loan advances, spread, and size in their financing decisions. Furthermore, it is also advised to reduce non-deposit debt financing and raise equity financing so that to keep costs of financing at minimum level and hence optimize profitability and the value of the bank. Besides, the policy maker, National Bank of Ethiopia also recommended reconsidering to raise the minimum capital requirement for banks. Finally, future researchers also recommended assessing the overall performance of banks and other business sectors in the area of this research. Keywords: Banks, Capital structure, Profitability, core business operatio

Disrespectful Maternity Care Experiences Negatively Influence Future Intention to Use Institutional Delivery in Northern Ethiopia

Background Ethiopia has successfully increased antenatal care coverage substantially, but deliveries attended by skilled providers are still low. Disrespectful and abusive maternity care practices are believed to be among the factors deterring institutional delivery services. However, information on the relationship between women’s experience of disrespect and abuse (D&A) and their future intention to give birth at health facilities is lacking in our context. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the association between experiencing disrespectful care and future intention of women to utilize health facilities for delivery. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in Tigray, Ethiopia. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Women who had given birth in the health facilities in the twelve months preceding the study were interviewed. D&A was self reported by the women. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression models were employed to examine the relationship between future intention of women to use institutional delivery services and their past experience of D and A while receiving maternity care services. Results A total of 1,031 women who delivered in health facilities in the last 12 months participated in the study. Of which, 156 (15.1%) reported having experienced two or more types of D&A while receiving labour and delivery care services. Experiences of D&A were strongly associated with the  intention to use the health facility in future deliveries. The odds of having no intention to use health facilities for future deliveries was extremely high among women who reported they had experienced D&A (aOR= 59.42; 95% CI: 30.082, 117.359). Conclusion Disrespectful and abusive experiences strongly deterred future use of maternal health services. In order to achieve the desired level of institutional delivery coverage in low- and middle-income countries, attention must be given to improve the manner in which services are offered. Keywords: Intention to deliver at a health facility, Respectful maternity care, Disrespect and abuse, Tigray, Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/72-01 Publication date:March 31st 202

Physico-chemical Properties of Denbi Reservoir for Fish Production in Bench Maji Zone, Ethiopia

Water quality is made up of physical, chemical and biological factors which influence the use of water for fish culture purposes. The objective of this study was to analyze physicochemical properties of water in Denbi reservoir. Field and laboratory work were conducted to generate the data. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA test. The result of the study showed that the mean and standard deviation of physicochemical parameter of water obtained were as follows: Temperature (25.14±1.12oC),pH (8.25±0.31), Conductivity (48.94±1.55μS/cm), TDS (24.16±0.49 mg/L), Turbidity (24.54±3.02 NTU), transparency (33.90±5.18cm), Total hardness (0.27±0.03 mg/L), Calcium hardness (1.57±0.30 mg/L), Iron (0.005±0.003mg/L), Manganese (0 mg/L), Nitrates (0.07±0.03 mg/litter) and Sulphate (0.15±0.01mg/L), respectively. The Physic-chemical properties of water in Denbi reservoir indicated that it is fit for fish production except total hardness and calcium hardness which were below the standards. Keywords: Denbi reservoirs, fish production, physico-chemical properties, water quality DOI: 10.7176/CMR/11-5-01 Publication date:May 31st 201

Assessment of Breeding Practice of Dairy Cattle in Central Zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

The study was conducted in central zone, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia, aimed with assessment of breeding practices of dairy cattle. The study of the survey covered 180 households found in per-urban and rural areas of Ahferom, Adwa and Laelay michew district which included 113 in rural areas and 67 in per-urban areas of the districts. The Information was collected from secondary data, group discussion, AI technician, household level survey questionnaire, farm visit and personal observations. The data were analyzed using SPSS (16) and SAS (9.1).Trait preference of farmers for dairy cattle was analyzed using ranking index method. Dairy cattle were kept for generating income (35.6%), milk consumption (32.2%) and milk consumption and breeding (16.1%) in the study area. Purchased dairy cattle (69.9% and 68.7%) were the main foundation stock followed by own (20.35% and 17.91%) in rural and per-urban areas respectively. Mating system in the study area were AI (42.8%), AI with estrus synchronization (22.2%) and natural mating (35%). Households obtained breeding bull from neighboring (61.4%), own (21.3%) and village (17.3%). Individual performance and pedigree selection were used as selection criteria for dairy cattle. Trait preference of farmers were milk yield (1st) body weight (2nd)) and fertility (3rd) for both rural and per-urban areas. Community based breeding program is the best option to improve dairy breeding practice in the study area. Keywords: Dairy Cattle, Breeding Practice, Rural, Per-urba