The Livelihoods of Micro and Small Enterprise Operators in a District of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Reflections on their Capital Assets Reality

The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) presupposes the outcomes of any livelihood strategy, including working in micro and small enterprises, the results of interplay of context, access to and level of different sorts of assets, and policies and institutions. Targeting those MSE operators working in Woreda 1 of Lideta sub-city of Addis Ababa and based on qualitative data generated via in-depth interviews, key-informant interviews, and focus group discussion, this paper aims at assessing the level and access of micro and small enterprise operators to various types of capital assets. It was found that the operators have relatively better access to different levels of social, political, and human assets. In addition to the high level of access to and possession of these three types of assets, it is also uncovered that the operators possess a remarkable amount of financial and physical assets. To further augment these capital assets, the study mainly proposes alleviating the market shortage, improving provision of public infrastructure and facilities, availing affordable credit and enhancing the capacity of the operators.Keywords: Livelihoods, Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, Micro and Small Enterprises, Capital Asset

The Potential of in situ Rain Water Harvesting for Water Resources Conservation on Malaria Transmission in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

The role of in situ rain water harvesting (RWH) in water resources conservation is well recognized in semiarid areas, such as the highlands of northern Ethiopia. However, in fringe areas of malaria endemicity, the potential impact of such schemes on vector populations and malaria transmission is not well documented. We therefore investigated the impact of such environmental interventions on Anopheles vector breeding and malaria burden, in a cross sectional survey undertaken in March/April 2005 in 4 villages in northwestern (3 in Hadegti and Hibret subdistricts; (s.d) 1800masl.) and central (Endachewa s.d.; 2050masl) zones of Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, where large scale construction of half-moon ponds (HMP) and ditches was in progress. A total of 990 blood slides taken from under 10 children revealed 268 infections of which 90.7% were P. falciparum, 7.5% P. vivax and 1.9% mixed. All of these were from Hadegti and Hibret s.d. where HMPs predominated, revealing a slide positivity rate of 35.6% (range 30.7 – 41.7%) and 3.6%, respectively. The majority (>77%) of the malaria positive cases resided in households located within 750 meters of the RWH structures, indicating that proximity to mosquito breeding sites was an important determinant of malaria in the villages. Over 33.8 % of the aquatic habitats in these villages were colonized by Anopheles aquatic stages, of which all were identified morphologically as An. gambiae sensu lato (presumably An. arabiensis). HMPs were found to be more productive than the smaller ditches, where water stayed longer for the aquatic stages to reach maturity to the adult mosquito. Hence, such environmental interventions require due consideration and need to be integrated with appropriate malaria control strategies. Key words: In situ Rain water harvesting, Malaria, Anopheles arabiensis, Tigray, Ethiopia

PERBANDINGAN ALGORITMA A*, DIJKSTRA DAN FLOYD WARSHALL UNTUK MENENTUKAN JALUR TERPENDEK PADA PERMAINAN “BACTERIA DEFENSE”

Algoritma Pathfinding atau pencarian jalur tercepat merupakan salah satu varian algoritma yang sering diterapkan pada permainan. Penelitian ini menggunakan 3 jenis algoritma pathfinding yaiu algoritma A Star, Dijkstra dan Floyd Warshall yang nantinya akan dilakukan perbandingan untuk mendapatkan jalur terpendek pada permainan Bacteria Defense. Bacteria Defense adalah permainan yang memiliki genre Turn Base Strategy yaitu sebuah permainan yang dimainkan dua orang pemain setiap player memiliki beberapa bidak dan memiliki 100 titik untuk meletakkan bidaknya secara bergantian. Algoritma A Star, Dijkstra dan Floyd Warshall digunakan untuk menentukan jalur terpendek berdasarkan bobot yang dimiliki setiap titik. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menerapkan dan menganalisis algoritma A Star, Dijkstra dan Floyd Warshall untuk menentukan jalur terpendek pada permainan Bacteria Defense. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui algoritma mana yang bekerja lebih efektif diantara Algoritma A Star, Dijkstra dan Floyd Warshall dengan parameter perbandingan Weight, Path Count, dan Checked Node. Berdasarkan hasil pengujian menunjukkan bahwa algoritma A Star lebih efektif dari algoritma Dijkstra dan Floyd Warshall karena Algoritma A Star melakukan pengecekan Node lebih sedikit dengan 2499 pengecekan sedangkan algoritma Dijkstra melakukan 4717 pengecekkan node dan Floyd Warshall melakukan 4800 pengecekan node

Seroprevalence of bovine brucellosis in agro pastoral areas of Jijjiga zone of Somali National Regional State, Eastern Ethiopia

A cross-sectional study was carried out from October 2008- March 2009 to determine the sero-prevalence of bovine brucellosis in four districts of Jijjiga Zone, eastern Ethiopia. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select the four districts and nine peasant associations (PAs). A total of 435 blood samples were collected from cattle of 6 or more months of age with no history of previous vaccination against brucellosis. All serum samples were initially screened by Rose-Bengal- Plate Test (RBPT) and those positive reactors to RBPT (n=8) were further tested by complement fixation test (CFT) for confirmation. Out of the 8 RBPT positive sera 6 were found to be positive to CFT. Accordingly, the overall seroprevalence of bovine brucellosis in Jijjiga Zone was 1.38% (6/435). The seroprevalence of bovine brucellosis in the four districts namely Awbare, Harshi, Kebribayah and Fafan districtes were 0.78%, 2.91%, 2.06% and 0%, respectively. Statistically there is no significant deference among the four districts (÷2 = 3.37, df = 3, P = 0.268). The study also revealed absence of significant statistical variation in the seroprevalence of brucellosis in different age and sex groups of the study animals (P > 0.05). Result of this study showed that the seroprevalence of bovine brucellosis in the study area is low. However, it is highly likely that the disease spreads in unaffected animals and herds given the extensive production system prevailing in the area which may allow contact of animals during grazing and at watering points. The public in general and high risk group in particular should be made aware of the zoonotic importance of bovine brucellosis

Battery Control Strategy for Hybrid Power Generation Systems

Standalone diesel generators (DGs) are widely utilized in remote areas in Indonesia. Some areas use microhydro (MH) systems with DGs backup.  However, highly diesel fuel price makes such systems become uneconomical. This paper introduces hybrid photovoltaic (PV)/MH/ DG/battery systems with a variable charging strategy method to minimize the diesel fuel consumption. The method is applied to control the state of charge (SOC) level of the battery based on its previous level and the demand load condition to optimize the DG operation. The optimal operation shows that the hybrid PV/MH/DG/battery with the variable charging strategy needs less fuel consumption than PV/MH/DG and MH/DG systems.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v2i4.556

Implementation of Hypno English Teaching Assisted by Technology in Learning English

English learning is required efficiency to achieve minimum standards of learning as stated in basic competence. The English language curriculum takes 4 hours of lesson in junior high and 2 hours of high school level, whereas the demands of language are both verbal and written communication. The habit of learning is very poor when looking at the time allocation set so it requires a breakthrough in the learning model used by the teacher. Language habituation focuses first from the realm of concentration to practice in stages according to the condition of learning materials; the model used is with hypno English teaching as a form of development of hypnoteaching that has been first popular, the specificity of this model because it is devoted to learning English with focus absorption of materials and communication skills. The research method used is development; namely by developing a grip hypno-teaching transformed into hypno English teaching with a touch of technology in accordance with the prototype of this learning model. The outcome of this research is the development of hypno-teaching technology-aided model that can be applied to all the characters of learners

Molecular diversity study of black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) from Ethiopia as revealed by inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers

Nigella sativa L. (commonly known as black cumin) belonging to family Rannunculaceae is an important medicinal plant with worldwide distribution. In Ethiopia, N. sativa occurs in all regions and agro-ecologies at different altitudinal ranges. This plant has a lot of importance in Ethiopia. However, there is no information available on molecular genetic diversity of this crop in respect to Ethiopia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the genetic diversity of black cumin populations collected from Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, Benshangul and South Nation’s Nationality People regions of Ethiopia using ISSR marker. A total of 84 black cumin accessions were obtained from Institute of Biodiversity Conservation (IBC). The ISSR marker was used for computing gene diversity, percent polymorphism, Shannon diversity index and AMOVA. Overall, accessions from Oromia showed the highest gene diversity (H = 0.35) and Shannon information index (I= 0.52), followed by Amhara with gene diversity and Shannon index values of (0.35) and (0.51), respectively. NJ and UPGMA results showed strong grouping among accessions collected from the Oromia and Amhara region. The five geographical regions of Ethiopia showed different levels of genetic variation. Thus, conservation priority should be given for those regions that have low genetic diversity.Keywords: Conservation, indigenous, molecular markers, primer