Working Paper 145 - Assessing the Returns to Education in the Gambia

Using three nationally representative surveys from the country, we estimate the private rates of returns to education in The Gambia. To obtain consistent estimates, we exploit exogenous variation in school availability in the country at the district level at the time current wage earners where born. Our results show that the private rates of returns to education are quite high, although heterogeneous across regions of the country. The high rates of returns are robust to alternate formulations.

Unveiling Modernity: Post-Colonial Islamic Reforms in Ghana and Burkina Faso, 1950-2000

Research project funded in academic year 2008-09The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.The end of European colonialism was a watershed moment in West Africa. Throughout the region, a new group of reformers challenged the political, social, and religious dominance of mystical Islam. The reformers condemned the belief in supernatural forces as superstitious and tried to suppress local customs as contrary to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad. By the 1970s, these reformers had a large following among urban dwellers, especially the younger generation of elites educated in European institutions. Why did these reformers have such mass appeal? By tracing developments in Ghana and Burkina Faso from 1950 to 2000, Kobo argues that Wahhabism, the doctrine promoted by 18th century Arab reformer Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab, gave the reformers a way to reconcile Western modernity with Islamic faith.Mershon Center for International Security StudiesProject summar

Environmental impact assessment of waste electronic and electric equipment (WEEE) management practices in developing countries through leaching tests

Increasing quantities of domestic and imported waste electronic and electric equipment (WEEE) stimulates a rapid development of informal recycling activities in developing countries. This economically driven recycling, oftentimes based on open burning or acid-base treatment, followed by open dumping of the residues, does not usually fit environmental and public health requirements. For the underlying research, the hypothesis was formulated that the specific conditions of dumping of residues from informal recycling activities are enhancing the leaching of hazardous substances into the ground- or surface water. Hence, this paper aims at identifying major influencing factors that affect leaching behaviour of heavy metals from WEEE components and assess environmental impact of informal WEEE recycling and dumping practice. A set of leaching tests were carried out with a homogenized sample of printed circuit boards from personal computers. The results of the study show that the concentrations of Pb, Zn, Cd, Ni and Cu leached from the test material, is higher than the Dutch standard of heavy metals reference value in soil. In addition, under the toxicity characteristics leaching procedure (TCLP) extraction test, 6879 ± 1342 mg/kg dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was measured. It was also confirmed that the leachability of Pb and Cd exceeds the regulatory limit of TCLP. Lead was the predominant heavy metal to leach from the waste material and 5617±739 mg/kg Pb was released by the standard pH-controlled leaching test. The column leaching test results suggested that high amount concentrations of heavy metals released were washed out before a liquid to solid (L/S) ratios of 5. Similarly, from the column leaching trend 99.3% of DOC was leached in the lower L/S ratios of (upto L/S ratio of 2). The standard pH controlled test results indicated that heavy metals were highly mobile in the acidic pH ranges.Key words: Printed circuit boards (PCBs), e-waste, leaching tests, heavy metals, dissolved organic carbon (DOC)

Genotypes of Helicobacter pylori isolates in Gambian children and adults

Helicobacter pylori is a globally important and genetically diverse gastric pathogen that infects most people in developing countries. Earlier reports indicated high prevalence of H. pylori colonization, but a low frequency of H. pylori-associated diseases in Africa but recent reviews have shown that gastroduodenal disease is actually common in Africa. Most detailed analyses of H. pylori have used strains from non-African countries, despite the high importance of Africa in the emergence and evolution of humans and their pathogens. There have been far fewer critical studies such as genotypes in association with gastric disease, population genetics and antimicrobial resistance and susceptibility of H. pylori strains from Africa. It is with this background that the genotypes of H. pylori in association with gastroduodenal diseases, antibiotic susceptibility to commonly used drugs and population genetics from ethnic African adults and children in The Gambia were investigated. In this study, it was found that the prevalence of H. pylori is high in dyspeptic patients in The Gambia and that many strains were of the putatively more virulent cagA+, vacAs1 and vacAm1 genotypes. There was a high prevalence of cagA positive strains in patients with overt gastric diseases than those with non-ulcerative dyspepsia; conversely, the co-existence of both cagA+ and cagA- was found to be protective against the development of gastroduodenal disease. Analyses of the sequenced data with the STRUCTURE software indicated that Gambian H. pylori strains were closely related to hspWAfrica than to strains from more distant African regions (hspSAfrica and hpNEAfrica) indicating common ancestral origin. Essentially no traces of European or North African ancestry were found despite Gambia's history of invasion and colonisation by peoples from these regions during the last millennium. Antibiotic susceptibility tests have shown that Gambian strains were found to be highly sensitive to clarithromycin, erythromycin, tetracycline and amoxicillin but found that more than two-thirds of Gambian H. pylori strains were metronidazole resistant. These data indicate caution in use of metronidazole-based therapies in The Gambia. This thesis provides a detailed initial description of a set of H. pylori isolates directly related to a geographically defined West African population. The data presented has answered some relevant questions on H. pylori virulent genes in association with gastro-duodenal diseases and antibiotic susceptibility providing a comprehensive basis for future studies

Review on Genetic Variability Study in Leafy Vegetable Crops for Agro Morphological Traits

Vegetables make up a major portion of the diet of humans in many parts of the world and are considered essential for well-balanced diets. Leafy vegetables crops are one group of vegetable crops which used mainly for their leaves whether eaten raw or cooked. Variability refers to the presence of difference among the individuals of a population. The components of variability include phenotypic variation, genotypic variation, environmental variation, heritability, genetic advance etc. In different leafy vegetables collection study there exist a wide variation between them, this variation can be useful for improvement of vegetables crops with the help of partitioning variances. Vegetable breeders should be able to determine the relative importance or magnitude of genetic and environmental variances. There is lack of information in vegetable breeding, especially leafy vegetables. The objective of this paper is to summarize different research papers on leafy vegetable crops breeding for different agro morphological traits to show the genetic variability component phenotypic variability, genotypic variability, heritability and genetic advance study. Keywords: genetic advance, genotypic variability, Heritability, leafy vegetables, phenotypic variability DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/9-17-01 Publication date:September 30th 2019

Developing alternative leadership training model for evangelical church leaders in Ethiopia : an evaluative study in the Hiwot Berhan Church

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1889/thumbnail.jp

UTP second hands book for sale on campus (SHBSC).

There is an annual generation of used books otherwise termed ‘second hands book for sale on campus (SHBSC) which are available after students have passed on to the next class during their study. This may become not immediately useful to that student but remains very useful to the upcoming fresher who may not be able to purchase brand new books especially textbooks. This becomes an alternative source to acquire same required knowledge at very much lower cost and affordable one in that case. Therefore, there is need to come up with new technologies to facilitate the gathering of numerical data which spells out the type and nature, place and time including the quantity of such second hand books available. The software clarifies the meaning of the data by highlighting the patterns that a human can easily detect while also reorganizing the data to be visually pleasing. Users can set of heuristics to measure how closely the reorganized data matching the user’s specifications and intention for the appearance of the data, and to assess the program’s effectiveness in making the data easier to understand. Using a university campus as an example, this research investigates student needs and consequent satisfaction with the creation of a website, that provides easy access for students to sell off and/or buy books and other items, and explores various methods for determining where to locate them as well. This campus currently has great need for additional web services and is required to meet the need for ‘second hand books’ disposal to potential student customers

Effects of Integrated Nutrient Management on Yield and Yield Attributes of Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] in Gondar Zuriya District, North Ethiopia

A field experiment was conducted in 2014 and 2015 growing seasons in Gondar Zuria district to investigate the effect of integrated nutrient management on yield and yield related parameters of tef. The experiment consisted of 14 treatments. These treatments were formed by combining of different levels of inorganic fertilizers and compost. The levels of inorganic fertilizer ranged from 0% to 100% of recommended nitrogen and phosphorous (RNP) rate. In the study area, the recommended application of nitrogen and phosphorous was 64 kg ha-1 urea and 46 kg ha-1 DAP, respectively. The compost was applied at 4 different levels (0, 4, 8, and 12 t ha-1). The treatments were laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The data were analyzed using Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) and means were separated by least significance difference test at 5% probability level for statically significant parameter.   The two years pooled result showed that integrated nutrient management significantly affected plant height, panicle length, and grain and biomass yield of tef. Application of 75% RNP combined with 12 t ha-1 compost, and 75% RNP combined with 4 t ha-1 compost increased grain yield by 338 and 324%, respectively compared to unfertilized plots. The maximum economic profit was recorded from application of 75% RNP combined with 4 t ha-1 compost. Therefore, it can be recommended to apply 75% RNP combined with 4 t ha-1 compost for high yield and economically profitable tef production in the study area. Keywords: compost; inorganic fertilizer; nutrient management; tef; yield; economic profit DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/13-16-03 Publication date:September 30th 2022

The Importance Of Schema In Reading Comprehension

Reading is an important skill in language learning. However, reading is seen as a laborious, tedious, and decoding process for learners of English as a second or foreign language. This qualitative study was carried out with teachers in Colombia from different educational institutions with the purpose of highlighting the existing teaching practices of teachers and observe if these practices involve the schema theory and how. For that, a survey, interviews, and document analysis were used to carry out this study. The results showed that the usage of the schema theory in the activation of prior knowledge is barely implemented by the majority of English language teachers. It has been proved that the adequate use of schema is a key element in reading comprehension. Teachers should try to prepare students with a schema - based reading instruction with emphasis on the activation of prior knowledge. Efficient use of this type of teaching pedagogy will reduce low linguistic capabilityand encourage EFL learners to become efficient readers.MaestríaMagister en la Enseñanza del Ingle