Top tools for Data Visualisation in web development : a performance first approach

The purpose of this final year project was to deliver a visualisation based solution for the game analytics company, Game Refinery. The company’s platform presents a handful of reviews for games based on features with an additional chart that shows the rank of games in stores. Due to the slowness of the charts on the platform, multiple types of performance testing mechanisms were implemented to optimize the charts and the ways the system runs them. The focal point of the thesis is testing the performance of different charting libraries based on their user friendliness, features, functionalities, customisability, architecture, scalability, compatibility and performance. The project also put emphasis on performance optimization in web development and proper implementation of data visualization in web applications

The Determinants of Profit Efficiency of Coffee Producing and Marketing Cooperatives (The Case Study of Sidama Coffee Farmers’ Union)

Ethiopia is implementing the plan for modernizing agriculture and eradicating poverty through cooperatives as one of ways to tackle poverty in both rural and urban areas. Consequently, it necessitates to access technical information on strategic cash crops such as coffee, which is the major cash earner for the farmers and the nation at large. The main objective of this study was to explore the major determinants of profit efficiency of coffee producing and marketing cooperatives. Along with plastering objectives of measuring profit efficiency and estimating profit frontier. The research used cross sectional data collected from three districts namely Abela, Howolso and Taramessa in south region Ethiopia. The data used both quantitative and qualitative paradigms .Apart from this, the thesis employee two econometric models of Stochastic Profit frontier Model and Firm specific inefficiency models. The parameters were estimated simultaneously using FROTIER4.1 and STATA 9 softwares.  In the research both primary and secondary data were used and more of primary data have been given priority as the model requires primary data. The result showed area/land under coffee and cost of hired labor had positive impact on profit levels while cost of family labor and capital were found to have negative influence on profitability. The analysis reveals that firms were not operating at profit frontier and scored a mean profit efficiency of 57 and it implies there a 43%profit loss due to firm specific and institutional variables. Further analysis showed coffee farmers are losing income due to allocative and technical inefficiency. The established source of inefficiency variables were found limited access to credit extension worker lack of storage after harvest, education level of the farmers and the major determinants were access to extension service, lack of formal education and storage facilities. The research has come up with recommendation That government need to train farmers about basic skills of farming and technology diffusion, establishing and strengthening existing cooperative banks to enable farmers to have access to credit facilities so as to uplift and scale up the lively hood of farmers

An improved channel model for medical body area network device testing

For testing and validation of medical body area network devices the knowledge of the wireless channel is very crucial. Although this could be implemented by utilizing existing BAN channel models, their restriction to specific device usage scenarios and environments make them less appropriate. For this purpose, this thesis presents a methodology for an MBAN device testing by developing an improved channel model, which accounts for a room size and use case variability. The improved channel model is based on channel sounding, over the frequency band from 2.3 GHz to 2.5 GHz, performed for five different use cases defined based on body posture, movement, and orientation. In order to study the room size effect, the measurements have been carried out in three different office rooms and an anechoic chamber. The proposed channel model is composed of three components, which are modeled separately: the mean path loss, body shadowing, and multipath fading. The mean path loss is modeled as a distance log function, while the body shadowing is modeled statistically by a lognormal distribution, and the multipath fading by a Rician distribution. The impact of room size is mainly notified in the Rician K-factor value; whereas the effect of movement is notified in the lognormal parameter. Furthermore, the effect of body orientation and posture is represented in the path loss model parameters

Determinants of Turnover Intention of Employees Among the Academic Staffs (The Case of Some Selected Ethiopian Universities)

Turnover intention is a potential risk that exists in all organization, despite of the type or its activities. The educational institution is one such organisation that comes under threat from this risk, when its employees and faculty members are exposed to thinking of leaving their jobs. Thus this study aimed at exploring the Determinants of Employees Turnover Intention among the Academic Staffs of Some Selected Ethiopian public Universities.The research was conducted with a mixed research approach coupled with descriptive and explanatory research design and cross sectional data collected for the year 2016/17 using a self administered questionnaire. A Binary Logistic Regression model was employed for analysis of the determinants of turnover intention. The descriptive statistics showed that the 36% of the academic staff were intended to leave their Universities in the fore- coming future whereas, the rest 64 % prefer to be stayed in their universities. The findings from the estimated general binary logistic regression model signified a moderate relationship between explanatory variables and the dependent variable. Age affirms a negative and however, a statistically insignificant result, year of experience revealed a different result than it was hypothesized. Female academic staff were 1.492 times more likely to have turnover intention than their counterparts, married academic staffs were 2.088 times less likely to leave their university than their counter parts and academic staffs with a perceived lower salary were 1.231 times more likely intended to leave their Universities. Hence, the researchers recommended the case universities to Provide appropriate and adequate resources for conducting daily operation such as teaching and research, appropriate staffing and proper internal placement of staff, More over Empower personnel through workshops and training, Provide employees with clear job descriptions and a career path and  Provide adequate support of employees as well as adequate supervision contribute a lot in reducing intention to leave in the selected University. Keywords: turnover, turn over intention, Binary logistics, academic staff, Determinants

Determinants of Turnover Intention of Employees Among the Academic Staffs (The Case of Some Selected Ethiopian Universities)

Turnover intention is a potential risk that exists in all organization, despite of the type or its activities. The educational institution is one such organisation that comes under threat from this risk, when its employees and faculty members are exposed to thinking of leaving their jobs. Thus this study aimed at exploring the Determinants of Employees Turnover Intention among the Academic Staffs of Some Selected Ethiopian public Universities.The research was conducted with a mixed research approach coupled with descriptive and explanatory research design and cross sectional data collected for the year 2016/17 using a self administered questionnaire. A Binary Logistic Regression model was employed for analysis of the determinants of turnover intention. The descriptive statistics showed that the 36% of the academic staff were intended to leave their Universities in the fore- coming future whereas, the rest 64 % prefer to be stayed in their universities. The findings from the estimated general binary logistic regression model signified a moderate relationship between explanatory variables and the dependent variable. Age affirms a negative and however, a statistically insignificant result, year of experience revealed a different result than it was hypothesized. Female academic staff were 1.492 times more likely to have turnover intention than their counterparts, married academic staffs were 2.088 times less likely to leave their university than their counter parts and academic staffs with a perceived lower salary were 1.231 times more likely intended to leave their Universities. Hence, the researchers recommended the case universities to Provide appropriate and adequate resources for conducting daily operation such as teaching and research, appropriate staffing and proper internal placement of staff, More over Empower personnel through workshops and training, Provide employees with clear job descriptions and a career path and  Provide adequate support of employees as well as adequate supervision contribute a lot in reducing intention to leave in the selected University. Keywords: turnover, turn over intention, Binary logistics, academic staff, Determinants

Assessment of Multi-stakeholder Partnership in Promoting Local Economic Development: A Case Study of Mekelle City

This survey study sought to assess the role of Multi-stakeholder Partnership in promoting local economic development in Mekelle City. The main objective of this study was to assess the institutional arrangements of local economic development and role of multi-stakeholders partnership in employment creation, income generation and encouraging local enterprise development in Mekelle city. It is a cross sectional survey of 117 local economic development beneficiaries using semi-structured questionnaires and focuse group discussion. In-depth interview with stakeholders of the project and local economic development expert was also conducted. The study reveals that multi-stakeholders of the project (local government, youth and women association and chamber of commerce) have been involved in different activities of the local economic development. This study concluded that the partnership among the stakeholders is not functional in almost all process of the local economic development. To overcome the poor involvements of multi-stakeholders of the project, starting from the local economic development project beneficiary selection up to the repayment period of the loan, multi-stakeholders should give due emphasis in following up and delivering valuable support. Local governments should also internalize local economic development project as a prime task, not secondary task of the city. The Chamber of Commerce which is expected to implement the project as a potential stakeholder should assist the local economic development beneficiaries through capacity building in business development activities and in the whole local economic development process through actively participating starting from designing of the plan up to monitoring and evaluations. The institutional arrangements of local economic development project should state each and every function of stakeholders and the stakeholders should implement it in accordance with their responsibilities

The Determinants of Profit Efficiency of Coffee Producing and Marketing Cooperatives (The case study of Sidama Coffee farmers’ Union)

Ethiopia is implementing the plan for modernizing agriculture and eradicating poverty through cooperatives as one of ways to tackle poverty in both rural and urban areas. Consequently, it necessitates to access technical information on strategic cash crops such as coffee, which is the major cash earner for the farmers and the nation at large. The main objective of this study was to explore the major determinants of profit efficiency of coffee producing and marketing cooperatives. Along with plastering objectives of measuring profit efficiency and estimating profit frontier. The research used cross sectional data collected from three districts namely Abela, Howolso and Taramessa in south region Ethiopia. The data used both quantitative and qualitative paradigms .Apart from this, the thesis employee two econometric models of Stochastic Profit frontier Model and Firm specific inefficiency models. The parameters were estimated simultaneously using FROTIER4.1 and STATA 9 softwares.  In the research both primary and secondary data were used and more of primary data have been given priority as the model requires primary data. The result showed area/land under coffee and cost of hired labor had positive impact on profit levels while cost of family labor and capital were found to have negative influence on profitability. The analysis reveals that firms were not operating at profit frontier and scored a mean profit efficiency of 57 and it implies there a 43%profit loss due to firm specific and institutional variables. Further analysis showed coffee farmers are losing income due to allocative and technical inefficiency. The established source of inefficiency variables were found limited access to credit extension worker lack of storage after harvest, education level of the farmers and the major determinants were access to extension service, lack of formal education and storage facilities. The research has come up with recommendation That government need to train farmers about basic skills of farming and technology diffusion, establishing and strengthening existing cooperative banks to enable farmers to have access to credit facilities so as to uplift and scale up the lively hood of farmers

Phenotypic and Morphological Characterization of Indigenous Chicken Populations in Southern Zone of Tigray, Ethiopia

Phenotypic characterization of indigenous chicken resources is a prerequisite for their rational utilization. Data were collected from 210 randomly selected households (HHs) using structured questionnaires. Visual appraisal was conducted to study morphological traits of indigenous chicken populations. Quantitative data were collected on body weight, shank length, body length, chest circumference, back length, keel length, wingspan, comb height, comb length, and wattle length from a total of 720 chickens (237 male and 483 females) aged more than 6 month. Descriptive statistics, Frequency procedures, and General linear model of SAS 2008 were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that a total of eighteen distinct plumage colors were identified in which the predominant plumage colors were red (24.17%) followed by white (13.33%) and black (13.06%). The results also indicated that (57.08%) of chicken populations were rose combed followed by pea (27.36%), single (12.22%), walnut (2.5%), strawberry (0.56%) and cushion (0.28%) combs. Yellow was the major shank color (50.55%), followed by white (38.89%) and black (10.56%). The majority (40.28%) of chicken population exhibited white and red earlobe, followed by red (28.89%), white (26.94%) and yellow (3.89%). Males in all populations are heavier and taller than females. The mean body weight of indigenous male and female chickens was 1271±12.6g and 1034±8.05g, respectively. The present study suggests that indigenous chicken populations might possess useful genetic potentials for improved productivity under scavenging feed resource-based production systems. Therefore, efforts need to be made in services like health, husbandry, research, extension, training and credit interventions. In addition morphological and phenotypical variations have been observed among the indigenous chicken populations; hence an in-depth molecular evaluation is needed to prove the level of genetic differentiation and relationship among them. Keywords: Households, indigenous chicken, productivity, qualitative trait, quantitative trai

Stability of slender columns - A study of initial curvature and braces influence on a column’s load bearing capacity

Failures due to instability phenomena will happen suddenly and can cause the whole structure to collapse. It’s therefore in the engineer’s best interest to have a good knowledge about these phenomena. One example of instability phenomena is column buckling, which is the main focus of this thesis. The main cases that are being evaluated have a single brace in the middle of a timber column with hinged ends, where a part of the report revolves around a comparison of calculation methods for column buckling in Eurocode and the U.S. Building code. The second part revolves around the influence of the initial curvature shape and magnitude on a column. During this evaluation second order is taken into account in the numerical analysis. Finally the brace stiffness and reaction force on a column is evaluated, to gain a better understanding of its overall influence on a column’s load bearing capacity. In the study it was shown that Eurocode and the U.S. Building code weren’t comparable due to formation of respective building code. A comparison between the two building codes was however done, to get a better understanding of the difference between the two. Results show that a larger initial curvature leads to a larger reduction to the overall load bearing capacity for a column. The assumed shape of the initial curvature has a large impact on the load bearing capacity. There exist a large discrepancy between the simplified shape of the initial curvature and the least beneficial, which depends on the size and shape of the initial curvature. Findings show that an increase of a column’s brace stiffness contributes to the load bearing capacity even though the stiffness might be small. The European standard however demands a minimum stiffness for a brace to be considered acceptable. The study also shows that the brace force is dependent on the initial curvature of the column and the bracing stiffness. Yura’s & Helwig’s brace force expression is studied and compared with the result of a numerical analysis

The many meanings of collective action: lessons on enhancing gender inclusion and equity in watershed management

"Collective action in agriculture and natural resource management is all too often perceived of in terms of the mere number of participants, with little consideration given to who participates, why, and the outcomes of inequitable participation. The literature is replete with cases of how uncritical approaches to participation structure positions of privilege vis-à-vis project benefits and the natural resource base. Yet lessons on how to engage with local communities in ways that promote equitable participation of women, the poor and other stakeholders are only now coming to light. This paper focuses on approaches under development under the rubric of the African Highlands Initiative to bring collective action principles to bear on gender-equitable change processes in natural resource management. The paper utilizes a number of case studies to illustrate the relative strengths and weaknesses of different approaches for enhancing gender inclusion and equity throughout the stages of problem diagnosis, planning and monitoring. The analysis suggests that an arbitrary definition of collective action is insufficient for assessing the relative strengths and weaknesses of different approaches, and that method evaluation should consider the different forms that collective action can take. A typology of different forms of collective action is proposed, and then utilized to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of different approaches for fostering gender inclusion and equity in watershed management." Authors' AbstractNatural resource management, Gender, Water, Collective action, Community organizations, Community-based organizations, Women, Watershed management,