Intensifying with high value trees in Africa RISING Ethiopia for food and nutrition security, income and climate resilient farming

United States Agency for International Developmen

Facilitate improving availability of quality planting material to intensify high value trees

United States Agency for International Developmen

The status of school sanitation facilities in some selected primary and secondary schools in Dessie City Administration, South Wello Zone, Amhara Region

Background: There is a growing demand on school hygiene and sanitation facilities given the growing number of school enrolment in Ethiopia. A safe school environment plays a key role in facilitating education and enduring pupils with improved life skills. Although there is much attention given for the expansion of schools to reach all school aged children in Ethiopia, the concern on focusing school hygiene and sanitation remains to be a challenge.Objectives of the study: A assessing the status of water and sanitary facilities in selected schools of Dessie Town with the intention of obtaining exploring baseline to serve for implementation of an Urban Health Extension Program in the region.Methods: This study was done in May 2010 in Dessie City Administration. Questionnaire-based interviews with school principals and record reviews supplemented by physical observation were used to collect the necessary data. Descriptive statistics was used to present the findings.Results: The overall latrine to school population ratio was (1:64), which was about twice less than the recommended one. The ratio for female students was significantly lower than that for males. The access to drinking water facilities (water taps) and hand washing facilities were very much limited to the extent not conforming to the standard. The presence of school-based water, sanitation, and hygiene committee and clubs was unheard.Conclusion: The inadequate sanitation facility in schools poses a health risk that would impact students’ potential to attend education. Hence, a coordinated effort among all concerned school to safeguard the school environment should be considered as one part of the path for reaching the MDG goals with respect to at least sanitation

Aerosol chemical composition in Asian continental outflow during the TRACE-P campaign: Comparison with PEM-West B

Aerosol associated soluble ions and the radionuclide tracers 7Be and 210Pb were quantified in 414 filter samples collected in spring 2001 from the DC-8 during the Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) campaign. Binning the data into near Asia (flights from Hong Kong and Japan) and remote Pacific (all other flights) revealed large enhancements of NO3−, SO4=, C2O4=, NH4+, K+, Mg2+, and Ca2+ near Asia. The boundary layer and lower troposphere were most strongly influenced by continental outflow, and the largest enhancements were seen in Ca2+ (a dust tracer) and NO3− (reflecting uptake of HNO3 onto the dust). Comparing the TRACE P near Asia bin with earlier results from the same region during PEM-West B (in 1994) shows at least twofold enhancements during TRACE P in most of the ions listed above. Calcium and NO3− were most enhanced in this comparison as well (more than sevenfold higher in the boundary layer and threefold higher in the lower troposphere). Independent estimation of Asian emissions of gaseous precursors of the aerosol-associated ions suggest only small changes between the two missions, and precipitation fields do not suggest any significant difference in the efficiency of the primary sink, precipitation scavenging. It thus appears that with the possible exception of dust, the enhancements of aerosol-associated species during TRACE P cannot be explained by stronger sources or weaker sinks. We argue that the enhancements largely reflect the fact that TRACE P focused on characterizing Asian outflow, and thus the DC-8 was more frequently flown into regions that were influenced by well-organized flow off the continent

Picowatt Resolution Calorimetry for Micro and Nanoscale Energy Transport Studies.

Precise quantification of energy transport is key to obtaining insights into a wide range of phenomena across various disciplines including physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. This thesis describes development of two types of microfabricated calorimeter devices with single digit picowatt resolution at room temperature. Both devices incorporate two distinct features; an active area isolated by a thermal conductance of less than 1 microwatt per kelvin and a high-resolution thermometer with temperature resolution in the micro-kelvin regime. These features enable measurements of heat currents with picowatt resolution. In the first device the active area is suspended via silicon nitride beams with excellent thermal isolation (~600 nW/K) and a bimaterial cantilever (BMC) thermometer with temperature resolution of ~6 micro-kelvin. Taken together this design enabled calorimetric measurements with 4 pW resolution. In the second device, the BMC thermometer is replaced by a high-resolution resistance thermometry scheme. A detailed noise analysis of resistance thermometers, confirmed by experimental data, enabled me to correctly predict the resolution of different measurement schemes and propose techniques to achieve an order of magnitude improvement in the resolution of resistance thermometers. By incorporating resistance thermometers with temperature resolution of ~30 micro-kelvin, combined with a thermal isolation of ~150 nW/K, I demonstrated an all-electrical calorimeter device with a resolution of ~ 5 pW. Finally, I used these calorimeters to study Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer (NF-RHT). Using these devices, we studied—for the first time—the effect of film thickness on the NF-RHT between two dielectric surfaces. Specifically, we showed that even a very thin film (~50 nm) of silicon dioxide deposited on a gold surface dramatically enhances NF-RHT between the coated surface and a second silica surface when the gap size is reduced to be comparable to that of the film thickness. This interesting effect is understood on the basis of detailed computational analysis, which shows that the NF-RHT in gaps comparable to film thickness is completely dominated by the contributions from surface phonon-polaritons whose effective skin depth is comparable to the film thickness. These results have important implications for near-field based thermo photovoltaic devices and for near-field based thermal management.PHDMechanical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107281/1/bzsadat_1.pd

High value trees: Africa RISING science, innovations and technologies with scaling potential from the Ethiopian Highlands

United States Agency for International Developmen

Survey and identification of termites (Insecta, Isoptera) using morphological and molecular methods from eastern, central and western Ethiopia.

The subfamily Macrotermitinae are the largest members among the Family Termitidae which are the fungus growing sub-family and Odontotermes are the most abundant genus from the subfamily.  The taxonomy of termites is poorly described in Ethiopia. In the present study 168 termite samples were collected from eight locations of Eastern, Western and Central Ethiopia. The collected samples were identified based on morphological and molecular characteristics. Molecular identification was done based on the dna sequence of a portion of the mitochondrial 16S rrna gene. A phylogenetic analysis of the collected samples and the outgroup resulted in a consensus tree with four distinct groups. Geographical distribution of the samples also supported the resulting clades. Odontotermes were the most widely distributed termites from the collected samples. The genetic distance between the sample showed that Odontotermes zambesiensis, Babile 33 is more distantly related with the rest of the samples