From seed security to food security: validating ‘Triple S’ seed conservation technology in new contexts.

This flyer outlines the progress made between 2014 and 2015 regarding the validation of Triple S (Storage in Sand and Sprouting) technology in the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) Ethiopia

Active megadetachment beneath the western United States

Geodetic data, interpreted in light of seismic imaging, seismicity, xenolith studies, and the late Quaternary geologic history of the northern Great Basin, suggest that a subcontinental-scale extensional detachment is localized near the Moho. To first order, seismic yielding in the upper crust at any given latitude in this region occurs via an M7 earthquake every 100 years. Here we develop the hypothesis that since 1996, the region has undergone a cycle of strain accumulation and release similar to “slow slip events” observed on subduction megathrusts, but yielding occurred on a subhorizontal surface 5–10 times larger in the slip direction, and at temperatures >800°C. Net slip was variable, ranging from 5 to 10 mm over most of the region. Strain energy with moment magnitude equivalent to an M7 earthquake was released along this “megadetachment,” primarily between 2000.0 and 2005.5. Slip initiated in late 1998 to mid-1999 in northeastern Nevada and is best expressed in late 2003 during a magma injection event at Moho depth beneath the Sierra Nevada, accompanied by more rapid eastward relative displacement across the entire region. The event ended in the east at 2004.0 and in the remainder of the network at about 2005.5. Strain energy thus appears to have been transmitted from the Cordilleran interior toward the plate boundary, from high gravitational potential to low, via yielding on the megadetachment. The size and kinematic function of the proposed structure, in light of various proxies for lithospheric thickness, imply that the subcrustal lithosphere beneath Nevada is a strong, thin plate, even though it resides in a high heat flow tectonic regime. A strong lowermost crust and upper mantle is consistent with patterns of postseismic relaxation in the southern Great Basin, deformation microstructures and low water content in dunite xenoliths in young lavas in central Nevada, and high-temperature microstructures in analog surface exposures of deformed lower crust. Large-scale decoupling between crust and upper mantle is consistent with the broad distribution of strain in the upper crust versus the more localized distribution in the subcrustal lithosphere, as inferred by such proxies as low P wave velocity and mafic magmatism

The implementation of law of evidence regarding the sexual abuse of children in Ethiopia

LLM (Comparative Child Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015This mini-dissertation examines the problems in the law of evidence in the implementation of substantive laws regarding sexual abuse. International and regional instruments prohibits any sexual abuse committed with children. Among the international and regional instruments, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child can be mentioned as major instruments ensuring that children’s rights are protected from all forms of sexual abuse. The domestic laws of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia outlaws the crime of sexual abuse of children. Ethiopia also ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. However, effective implementation of substantive laws requires effective procedural laws. In this regard, Ethiopia does not have a uniform and codified law of evidence that regulates the administration of evidence in the criminal justice system. This is attributed to the failure of child sexual abuse cases brought before the courts. In order to address this problem, this study discusses and analyses the problems related to composition of law of evidence; evidence adduced in child sexual abuse cases; evidence collection and investigation; the manner in which evidence is presented; and the weight of evidence before court. This mini-dissertation recommends that Ethiopia should introduce a regulated and codified law of evidence for the effective implementation of laws that ban child sexual abuse. The introduction of regulated law of evidence will avoid irregular and inconsistent practices of evidentiary matters regarding child sexual abuse cases before the Ethiopian courts.Master

Agglomeration, spatio-economic clustering and competitive performance: Methodological approaches and empirical evidence from the U.S.

The objective of this dissertation is two fold. Firstly, the dissertation tests how well econometric and spatial analysis can be integrated for conducting industrial cluster analysis. Based on input-output and spatial autocorrelation based multivariate techniques, the dissertation develops a methodological approach for detecting spatially and economically linked industries. The dissertation then operationalizes this methodololigcal framework and applies tit to identify clusters in the U.S. at different geographical scales. The dissertation shows that the application of the methodological frameworks provides an objective mechanism to identify economically, and spatially, and spatio-economically related industries. Secondly, the dissertations empirically examines the extent to which economic and spatio-economic clustering have an impact on industrial productivity and the impacts of regional economic structure or agglomeration externalities on cluster growth. The dissertation finds a positive and statistically significant relationship between membership both in an economic and spatio-economic cluster and industrial productivity. The empirical finds also suggest that diversity externalities have significant impacts on cluster value added growth. The implications of these findings can assists regional economic planners and decision-makers in prescribing cluster based policies for regional economic development

Mechanisms of tomato basal resistance to fungal infection

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the most important fruit vegetables cultivated across the world. It is the second largest consumed vegetables in the world next to potato. However, cultivated tomato is susceptible to many diseases including those caused by the necrotrophic fungi Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria solani. We studied response of wild and cultivated Solanum spp. to gray mold and early blight diseases to identify wild Solanum species with increased resistance to the pathogens, identify and characterize genes involved in resistance response, and further characterize selected genes using virus induced gene silencing (VIGS) and RNA interference (RNAi). Seven wild Solanum spp. and three cultivated tomato varieties were evaluated for their resistance to B. cinerea and A. solani. Statistical analysis of disease lesion size using General Linear Model (SAS) showed statistically significant (P\u3c0.001) differences between genotypes. S. lycopersicoides was the most resistant with broad spectrum resistance to both pathogens suggesting its potential use as sources of broad spectrum disease resistance in tomato improvement. RNA-Seq analysis of S. lycopersicoides genes during interaction with B. cinerea showed that about thirteen percent the total assembled S. lycopersicoides unigenes in infected plant (24 and 48hpi) compared with un-infected base line (0 hpi) were differentially expressed. K-means cluster analysis showed four distinct clusters out of which clusters 1-3 include up-regulated defense and stress response genes while genes in cluster 4 were down-regulated. Genes involved in primary metabolism and photosynthesis was included in cluster 4. The data show that the mechanism of S. lycopersicoides resistance to Botrytis involves transcriptional reprogramming: upregulation of defense and stress response genes while downregulating photosynthesis and primary metabolism. Virus induced gene silencing (VIGS) of 18 tomato genes, mainly protein kinases, identified four genes whose significant reduction of their transcript correlates with increased susceptibility. Further characterization of the biological function of one of the selected genes TPK1b related kinase 1 (TRK1) using transgenic TRK1-RNAi lines revealed significant increases in susceptibility due to suppression of the transcript of TRK1 suggesting the involvement of this gene in tomato basal resistance to Botrytis. Moreover, TRK1-RNAi lines are compromised in Botrytis induced expression of ethylene/jasmonic acid induced defense genes such as proteinase inhibitor I (PI-I) and allene oxide synthase (SlAOS ). Finally, we show that TRK1 encodes an active kinase, with both autophosphorylation and transphosphorylation activity, and it localizes to the plasma membrane

Nature of the crust and upper mantle beneath Northwest Basin-and-Range and East Africa using passive-source seismic data

In this thesis, I present my contribution towards the understanding of rifting processes responsible for the shaping of two tectonic environments. The first region of interest is the Basin-and-Ranges province, a region actively deforming in a wide rifting mode, and the second is the Main Ethiopian Rift, a region actively deforming in a narrow rifting mode. The Basin-and-Range Province of western North America is one of the best regions in the world for the study of processes related to continental rifting. It is a broad and elevated region of intracontinental stretching currently extending in a wide rift mode. I primarily focused on the northwest corner of the Basin-and-Range province, which is a transition zone between a highly extended region in the east to a region where there is less extension in the west. The composition and structure of the crust beneath this region and its relationship with the upper-crustal extension is not adequately understood. The Main Ethiopian Rift is part of the East African Rift System, which provides a modern analog to help us understand how continents break apart. The exact mechanism of rift formation is an on-going debate among geologists and geophysicists. Seismic characteristics of the upper-mantle and its relationship with the current rifting processes and volcanism need to be understood. In this research project I demonstrated the use of receiver functions, wide-angle refraction, shear-wave splitting, and tomographic approaches to find answers for the above outstanding questions. For the Basin-and-Range province study I used teleseismic data collected by a Stanford University seismic experiment supplemented by data from nearby USArray and Berkeley digital stations to develop insights into the characteristics of the crust in the northwest corner of the Basin-and-Range province. I combined teleseismic waveform data from a PASSCAL short-period seismic network and the USArray transportable broadband stations to study crustal thickness variations and rock properties beneath the northwest Basin-and-Range region. For the Main Ethiopian Rift study I used data collected during the EAGLE (Ethiopia-Afar Geoscientific Lithospheric Experiment) project and the EBSE (Ethiopian Broadband Seismic Experiment). I used shear-wave splitting measurements to understand the relationship between splitting parameters and interaction of Cenozoic rifting and magmatism with the older Precambrian lithosphere fabrics in Ethiopia. Upper-mantle anisotropy may be caused either by present asthenospheric mantle flow or by frozen signatures of former deformation and stress conditions in the lithosphere. We find that the mantle anisotropy beneath East Africa is more dominated by deformational events in the Proterozoic times occurring within the lithosphere than the present-day processes in the sublithospheric mantle. Consequently, the distribution and magnitude of anisotropy provided valuable data to constrain the role of the mantle in the tectonic evolution of this region. In addition to the shear-wave splitting technique I also used seismic attenuation tomography and S-receiver function techniques to obtain more constraints to understand the tectonics in this region. My seismic attenuation study in Ethiopia helped to obtain images of laterally varying anelastic structure of the lithosphere. Using the S-receiver function technique, I measured the depth to the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary in Ethiopia and its variation across and along the Main Ethiopian Rift

Prevalence and factors associated with low back pain among health care providers in public hospitals of Gamo zone, Southern Ethiopia

Objectives: To assess prevalence and factors associated with low back pain among health care providers in public hospitals of Gamo zone, Southern Ethiopia, 2021. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study design was employed from August 1 to September 10, 2021. The total sample size was 470 and a multi-stage sampling technique was used. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews and taking Anthropometric measurements. Epi data version 3.1 for data entry and SPSS version 25 for analysis were used. The fitness of the model was checked using the Hosmer–Lemeshow goodness of fit test. A binary logistic regression analysis was done, and variables with a p-value of less than .025 in univariate analysis were taken to bivariate analysis. Statistically significant was declared at a p-value of less than .05 with an adjusted odds ratio and 95% confidence interval. Results: The 1-year prevalence of low back pain among health care providers was 44.2% (95% CI 39.5–48.3). Past medical history of systemic illness, most commonly adopted posture, a job never requiring repeating motions within 60 s difference, belief that working health profession activities at night aggravate low back pain, and job satisfaction were significantly associated with low back pain, believing that working at night aggravated low back pain, (often lift, push, pull carry or move) more than 10 kg alone, and job satisfaction were important risk factors for low back pain. Conclusion: About four in 10 health care providers in public hospitals in the Gamo zone were suffering from low back pain. Therefore, using ergonomic equipment and lifting techniques and alternating posture while caring for patients may reduce the burden

Efficacy of Botanical Insecticides against the Pea Aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris) and Effect on Some of Its Natural Enemies on Field Pea in South Central Ethiopia

No Abstrac

Theoretical Perspectives on Industry Clusters

The concept of industry clustering has generated much discussion in regional economic development theory and practice in recent years. Yet it is fair to say that an accepted definition or a unified theoretical framework has failed to emerge from the discussion, as the concept often seems to enliven itself under divergent theoretical approaches, including but not limited to work on agglomeration economies, industrial districts, business networks, knowledge spillovers, and regional innovation systems. This paper provides a review of the major theoretical propositions that seek to explain the clustering of economic activity and its presumed link with regional economic development. While there is undoubtedly some overlap on some of the explanations offered by various theoretical perspectives, the concept of clustering has been used so widely in varying contexts and in a multifaceted manner that it risks creating more confusion than clarity, especially in empirical research