Harnessed flood water re-greens degraded pastoral lands in Ethiopia

Poster prepared for a share fair, Addis Ababa, May 201

An Investigation in to Students' Attitude towards Basic Writing Skills: The case of Civil Engineering at Hawassa University

This study investigated first year civil Engineering students attitude towards Basic writing Skills course The study used descriptive design and both qualitative and quantitative research approaches The participants of the study were 60 first year Civil Engineering students of Hawassa University The main data collection instruments used in this study was questionnaire and unstructured interview The results of the study indicated that first year Civil Engineering students have positive attitude towards the contents and topics provided in the writing course and the teaching approach applied in the writing class The study also confirmed that among the four major language skills writing is the second difficult skill Majority of the respondents prefer to practice writing outside the classroom The study found out that there are six basic difficulties shared by the participants The most frequent difficulty is vocabulary followed by grammar and fear of negative comments The remaining ones lack of motivation to write insufficient time and teacher s role are reported to be the least problemati

Value of Time Comparisons in the Presence of Unexpected Delay.

This study estimates Value of Time differences between people who arrived at their destination as planned and those that were delayed. The analysis is based on the I-394 MnPASS High Occupancy/Toll (HOT) lane project recently implemented in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region. Using a Stated Preference survey, the individuals are asked about a trip they have taken before, and asked if they would opt for the free route or pay and go on the HOT lanes. The analysis groups the travelers into subscribers and non-subscribers of the MnPASS (electronic toll collection transponder) system and further decomposes choices into categories based on trip time and experience (delayed or not). Trip times were divided into morning peak, afternoon peak, and off peak and trip experience was divided into delayed and not delayed, creating six categories. The findings suggest an increased willingness to pay among subscribers who were late to reduce travel time in the PM rush hour. As well, we find some evidence that individuals who were late during the AM peak have a lower VOT as compared to their on-time counterparts.Travel time reliability, Stated preference, delay, high occupancy vehicle, high occupancy toll lane

Contacts and Meetings: Location, Duration and Distance Traveled

The role of contacts on travel behavior has been getting increasing attention. This paper reports on data collected on individualÕs social meetings and the choice of in-home/out-of-home meeting locations as well as the distance travelled and duration of out-home-meetings and its relationship to the type of contact met and other attributes of the meeting. Empirically we show that in-home meetings tend to occur most often with close contacts and less often with distant contacts. The purpose, meeting day, and household size suggest that leisure, weekend and large household size people tend to have their meetings either at their home or at their contactÕs home. In addition when meetings occur outside of the house, the duration is longer for close contacts and distance to the meeting location is directly inßuenced by duration and indirectly by the relationship type. Overall the paper illustrates that relationship type along with other meeting speciÞc and demographic variables is important in explaining the location, duration and distance travelled for social meetings.Travel behavior, social networks, meetings, network analysis

The Role of Job Search Methods and Contacts on Commuting and Relocation Decisions

This paper empirically explores the relationship between (i) job finding and commuting outcomes and (ii) the relationship between job search and the commute and location outcomes of relocation decisions after finding employment. The relationship between commute outcomes when finding a new job and the job search method that one employs are explored first. That is followed by an analysis of how long one stays at their residence after finding work, and where they eventually relocate relative to their new employment site as well as their previous residence. Along with the usual socio-demographic variables, the analysis takes on the job search method as well as the local contacts that one has in their residential area as important variables informing these choices. The findings indicate that jobs found through the use of internet and newspapers were on average farther away from the searchersÕ residence as compared to those found through contacts and formal means. On relocation after employment, we find that being a renter and moving to a rental unit were important in how quickly one relocated. In addition those that used the internet to find their jobs also relocated faster after controlling for demographic variables such as age. The distribution of ones social contacts were also found to be important in how far away from the previous location a person relocated.Job search, travel behavior, transport geography, commuting, relocation

Tunneling density of states, pair correlation, and Josephson current in spin-incoherent Luttinger-liquid/superconductor hybrid systems

We study a hybrid system consisting of a spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid adjoined at one or both ends to a superconductor. We find that the tunneling density of states diverges at low energies and exhibits a universal frequency dependence independent of the strength of the interactions in the system. We show that in spite of exponentially decaying pair correlations with distance into the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid, the Josephson current remains robust. Compared to the zero temperature Luttinger-liquid case, there is a factor of 2 reduction in the critical current and a halving of the period in the phase difference between the superconductors. We hope these results motivate a class of experiments in the spin-incoherent regime of one-dimensional systems

I-35W Bridge Collapse: Travel Impacts and Adjustment Strategies

On August 1st, 2007, the I-35W bridge crossing the Mississippi river fell into the Mississippi river. In addition to the human tragedy that it caused, the bridge failure also impacted how people moved in the area. The bridge carried 140,000 cars daily. As such it required a significant amount of traffic find new routes to reach their destinations. Traffic impacts may also have led to changes in mode, time, or some trips being foregone. Those who changed routes were not just the ones that previously used the bridge. With the I-35 traffic using alternate routes, those who saw or anticipated higher traffic also found it necessary to re route their trips. In this study we ask a sample of people that were recruited for another study, if their travels had been impacted by the failure of the bridge, how they coped and what impacts it had on their travels and other activities.I-35W Bridge, Minnesota, Minneapolis, Travel Behavior