NON-PARAMETRIC APPROACHES TO ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE: TECHNICAL CHANGE AND PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN THE CANADIAN PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY, 1959-1994

This study proposes non-parametric techniques for environmentally sensitive analysis of economic performance. The techniques are implemented using Canadian pulp and paper industry data covering the period from 1959 to 1994. The results indicate that productivity improvement has been more successful than conventional measures would suggest.Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Modeling Migration Effects on Agricultural Lands: A Growth Equilibrium Model

We estimate a system-of-equations model designed to measure the interaction between intertemporal patterns of changes in population, employment, and agricultural land densities. The model is applied to West Virginia for the 1990-1999 period. Consistent with recent findings on migration patterns, the results show that jobs followed people. New jobs were captured by commuters, while agricultural land losses were occurring in the commuters' counties of origin or bedroom communities. However, counties with relatively more profitable and concentrated agricultural enterprises were less susceptible to alternative land use pressure than counties with less productive or fragmented agricultural land. Elasticities indicate population change is elastic, whereas employment and agricultural land density changes are inelastic to factors affecting them. Growth management, when combined with agricultural land retention programs, may be most effective at preserving agricultural land in high growth or potential growth areas.Land Economics/Use,

Paediatric thoracic empyema in an Ethiopian Referral Hospital

Objectives: To analyse underlying conditions, clinical manifestations, aetiologic agents and management of empyema thoracis and to determine the outcome of the disease.Design: A retrospective study.Setting: Ethio-Swedish Children’s Central referral (teaching) Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Subjects: Thirty eight patients with a discharge diagnosis of non-tuberculous thoracic empyema seen from January 1988 to December 1992.Results: The incidence was 2.7/1000 admissions, which is higher than that reported elsewhere. Sixty six per cent of the patients were under five. Pneumonia was the antecedent illness in almost all cases. Fever, dyspnoea and signs of respiratory distress and effusion were thecommonest presenting features. Bacteriological examination revealed Staphylococcus aureus as the commonest aetiologic agent (58%). All patients were treated with antibiotics, and drainage of the empyema was effected by closed thoracostomy in 71% of the cases, while therest were managed with thoracentesis alone. The case fatality rate was 16%. A long hospital stay and high rate of complications were also observed.Conclusion: Empyema is not rare in our practice. Early diagnosis and proper treatment of pneumonia prevents the development of empyema. Therefore, establishing an efficient management protocol that is relevant to our particular set up is required

Is Income Inequality Endogenous in Regional Growth?

This study focuses on testing the relationship between income inequality and growth within U.S. counties, and the channels through which such effects are observed. The study tests three hypotheses: (1) income inequality has an inverse relationship with growth; (2) regional growth adjustments are the channels through which the inequality and growth are equilibrated; and (3) income inequality is endogenous to regional growth and its adjustment. Results, based on a system of equations estimation, confirm the hypotheses that income inequality has a growth dampening effect; income inequality is endogenous to regional growth and growth adjustment; and the channels through which income inequality determines growth are regional growth adjustments, such as migration and regional adjustment in job and income growth. Results have numerous policy implications: (1) to the extent that income inequality is endogenous, its equilibrium level can be internally determined within a regional growth process; (2) to the extent that traditional income inequality mitigating policies have indirect effect on overall regional growth, they may have unintended indirect effects on income inequality; and (3) to the extent that regional growth adjustment also equilibrates income inequality, such forces can be utilized as policy instruments to mitigate income inequality, and its growth dampening effects hence forth.Income inequality, economic growth, Gini coefficient, growth modeling, population change, per capita income, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Public Economics, I32, J15, O18, P25, R11, R23, R25, R51, R53, R58,

Modeling Migration Effects on Agricultural Lands: A Growth Equilibrium Model

Growth in population and employment can result in increased demands on agricultural land for non-agricultural uses. This study develops a growth equilibrium model at the county-level for the state of West Virginia. Each growth model is a structural equation model that addresses the endogeneity of population densities and employment densities. Three single-decade models are specified – 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s using a two-stage least squares regression technique. Each model is unique, reflecting changing population and economic structures over time. For West Virginia, our results suggest that jobs follow people. Population density in 1990 was positively related to areas with higher proportions of farmland in cropland in 1980, but was negatively related to those areas where larger proportions of cropland were in pasture. End of decade employment was not statistically associated with quantity of farmland in any of the models. There are at least two explanations for this result. First, the location of cropland in 1980 may be serving as a proxy for an omitted variable in the model (e.g., cropland may be spatially correlated with other factors contributing to population growth patterns in West Virginia). Second, the implied direction of causation maybe wrong. Growth may be a push factor in the decline of agricultural land, but agricultural land is not a pull factor for growth. We will expand this analysis to look at recursive models and other systems of equations models that better capture the relationships between agricultural land and growth

Health facility-based maternal death audit in Tigray, Ethiopia

Background: Maternal deaths are often unrecognized and improperly documented in the health system. Objective: To identify causes of maternal death occurring in hospitals and determine avoidability of maternal death. Methods: The study assessed each death for the cause and surrounding circumstances as well as avoidable factors, by reviewing two years patient and facility records and interviewing individuals who were involved in caring for the deceased. Data were collected between December 2005 and May 2006. Result: A total of 34 maternal deaths were identified in five public hospitals in Tigray over a period of two years, of which 12 (35.2%) were reported to have been avoidable. The leading causes of death were infection, haemorrhage and hypertensive disorders. Avoidable factors were mainly related to hospital service or medical factors such as lack of blood for transfusion, delay in transfusion, and inappropriate treatment. Lack of transportation and delayed careseeking also contributed to avoidable maternal deaths. The quality of medical records was very poor. Nearly 73.5% of maternal deaths were of rural residents and 20.5% of those who died were under the age of 18, which shows that young girls and rural residents carry significant maternal death risk. Conclusions: Maternal deaths are not properly documented in health facilities. Improper care led to avoidable maternal death. Improving care and information systems is crucial to making pregnancy safer and reducing maternal death.

Evaluation of genetic diversity in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) from Wollo high land areas using agromorphological traits and hordein

This study aimed to determine the genetic diversity and relationships among barley varieties (Hordeum vulgare L.) growing at Wollo Highland areas by using hordein and agro-morphological traits. Twenty (20) varieties were laid down in randomized complete block design (RCBD) design with three replications; they were planted by irrigation at Wollo University, Dessie Campus from January to May 2014. The genetic analysis using hordein was done in the laboratory of Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (EBI) in July 2014. Ten (10) competitive random plants from the rows of the experimental plots were taken for recording their agromorphological characters. Electrophoretic separation of barley storage proteins or hordeins was done using acid polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (A-PAGE). The traits: day of heading, day of maturity, grain yield (kg/ha), plant height, spike length, number of spiklet per spike, kernel number per spike, weight of seed per spike and biomass yield (g/plot) were highly significant for the diversity of barely, whereas thousand seed weight was less significant. The results reveal positive correlation between spike length and number of spiklet per spike (the highest correlations from the agro morphological traits); the next highly correlated traits were kernel weight per spike and thousand seed weight. The A-PAGE analysis showed limited variation among the analysed accessions. The Nei’s genetic distance for all varieties of barely varied from 0.0000 to 1.6094. It is found that the 20 genotypes of barely investigated in this research were having a gene diversity (h) of overall populations (0.138) using hordein. The cluster analysis grouped the 20 barely genotypes into three different clusters using agro-morphological traits and into four clusters using hordein. This indicates the presence of wide diversity among the tested genotypes. From cluster mean values of agro-morphological traits, genotypes in cluster III deserve consideration for directly developing high yielding barely varieties. The result of the principal components analysis revealed that the first three principal components having greater than 1 eigenvalue contributed 84.22% of the total variation. From this study, it can be concluded that the presence of high morphological variation indicated the potential of Wollo Highland areas in contributing to barley improvement and conservation activities of land areas.Key words: Acid polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, agro-morphological traits, hordein, genetic distance, hordeum vulgare, variability

Effect of combined application of organic-P and inorganic-N fertilizers on yield of carrot

A study was undertaken to assess the effect of combined application of organic-P and inorganic-N fertilizers on yield and yield components of carrot (Daucus carota L.). The field experiment was conducted at Kombolcha ATVET College, South Wollo, Ethiopia. Seeds of carrot were sown on raised beds of a black clay soil. “Orga “and urea were used as sources of phosphorus and nitrogen, respectively, for the fertilizer treatments. The rates of fertilizers used in the experiment were, 309 kg“orga” ha-1 combined with six rates of urea (0, 68.5, 267.2, 274,342.5 and 411 kg urea ha-1). The field experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with seven fertilizer treatments,replicated five times. Yield and yield components of carrot were significantly influenced by the preharvest combined application of “orga” and urea treatments. Pre-harvest application of 309 kg “orga”ha-1 combined with 274 kg urea ha-1 increased yield of carrot by 46% compared to the control treatment. The values of yield components of carrot were also increased in response to the increased rate ofcombined “orga” and urea fertilizer application. The result showed that the combined application of 309 kg ha-1 “orga”and 274 kg ha-1 urea resulted in the maximum yield of carrot

Modeling, and FEA of Multi-Plate Clutches by Varying Materials for Optimum Torque Transfer Capacity of TCT System of Green, And Light Vehicles

This paper addresses Modeling and analysis of easily applicable multi-plate clutches to use in twin clutch transmission (TCT) system for green and Light Weight Vehicle. The static and dynamic analysis were developed for a clutch plate by using finite element analysis (FEA). The 3D solid model was done using SOLID WORK 2016 and imported to ANSYS work bench 16 for model analysis. The mathematical modelling was also done using different vastly available materials (i.e. Aluminum alloy 6061, E-Glass Epoxy, and Gray Cast iron); then, by observing the results, comparison was carryout for materials to validate better lining material for multi plate clutches using ANSYS workbench 16 and finally concluded that composite material E-Glass Epoxy has a better friction material for design of multi-plate clutches in TCT system