PREDICTORS OF SEXUAL VALUE SYSTEMS AMONG JIMMA UNIVERSITY STUDENTS, SOUTHWEST ETHIOPIA

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A Study on Maize Marketing Performance of Damot Multipurpose Farmers’ Cooperatives Union and its Affiliates, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Cooperatives are organizations whose primary functions are to market commodities for members. They are responsible for getting the preeminent prices paid to the members for their commodities by negotiating with wholesalers and processors for best prices. However, farmers in developing countries were not getting the right share of prices because of excessive marketing costs and margins and the cooperatives were not in a position to deliver the services expected from them by increasing the members’ participation and volume of sales. The study, therefore, aims at to analyze the maize marketing performance of DMFCU and its affiliates. The study was conducted by collecting data from primary and secondary sources. From the members of DMFCU, six primary cooperatives and 120 individuals were randomly selected in proportion to the number of membership on the basis of woreda and primary cooperatives level respectively. In this study, both descriptive statistics and econometric analysis were employed for analytical purpose. Of the total individual respondents, 57.5% were participants and 42.5% were nonparticipants in cooperatives maize marketing in 2006/07. The descriptive statistics indicated that the marketing share of cooperatives out of the total marketable surplus was only 5%.The total gross marketing margin of maize was 39.22%. From the total gross marketing margin, the primary cooperatives and the union share was 4.20% and 10.01% respectively. The share of the producers’ of the amount spent by the consumers was about 60.78%. The results of statistical tests between the participant and non-participant farmers in the cooperatives maize marketing indicated that family size, production of maize, household’s annual income, use of fertilizer, patronage refund, cooperatives leadership, availability of other services and misappropriations of cooperatives property were significantly affected the participation

Potato Value Chain Analysis in Banja District, Ethiopia

Potato is important for its contribution to food security and as source of cash income for a large proportion of the rural households. However, enhancing potato farmers to reach markets and actively engage in the potato value chain is a key issue needed in the study area. This paper was aimed to identify Potato value chains and their performance. The data collected from randomly selected 120 farmers and from purposively selected 42 traders and 35 consumers. Descriptive analysis was used for characterizing farmers, describing value chain and examining market performance. Input suppliers, farmers, collectors, wholesalers, retailers and consumers were main value chain actors and governmental offices and NGOs were support service providers.The product passed through different channels and went out to different destination markets. Out of the total costs of production, seed cost accounts 38.43% of the total production cost to farmers and net return of 27.33% selling price. Even though the study area has high potential for potato production, there are constraints from input supply to consumption stages. Product perishability and lack of storage, seed system, and irrigation access and price fluctuation are some of the problems seen in the potato value chain. Therefore, the study underscores seed supply system, expansion of irrigation access, improvement on storage and postharvest processing methods and strengthening of cooperatives for policy implications. Keywords: Potato value chain, performance, constraints DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/95-02 Publication date:March 31st 202

The relationship between transformational leadership and competitive advantage gaining in Ethiopian Airlines

Effective and efficient leaders are those who step up their organizations to change, transformation, and maintain competitiveness in the market. Studies on management and leadership indicated transformational leadership as integral to excellent company's performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between transformational leadership style (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration) and competitive advantage (quality advantage, flexibility advantage, time advantage, and cost advantage) in EALs. A total of 325 respondents were participated in the research, including 143 managers and 182 non- managers with a nonresponse rate of 19.75% from all employees of EALs. Two separate instruments, namely Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and Competitive Advantage Questionnaire (CAQ), were used to measure transformational leadership style and competitive advantages of EALs respectively. The findings of the study revealed that all dimensions of transformational leadership have significant and strong positive correlations with competitive advantage. The findings also revealed that transformational leadership affects positively competitive advantage. Individualized consideration and idealized influence have the strongest affection on competitive advantage respectively. Key Words: Transformational Leadership, Competitive Advantage, EALsJimma Universit

A NEW APPROACH OF MULTICAST ROUTING PROTOCOLS IN MANETS BASED ON CBR (CASE-BASED REASONING) METHOD

Multicast routing protocols significantly increase the performance of the network using a new approach of group-orientedservices which become recently apparent for MANETs. Due to this reason several MANET-specific multicasting routingprotocols have been proposed. Although numerous challenges in designing multicast routing protocols in MANETs becomeostensible due to node mobility, contention for channel access, multi hop communications and dynamic topology,researchers tend to address such problems by designing simple, scalable and robust routing protocols. In this paper tried toexplore the existing On-Demand Multicast Routing Protocol (OMRP) with its limitation and propose a new approach ofCBR based multicast routing protocols without changing the basic structure of the protocol. Nodes with CBR based OMRPbecome autonomous by keeping track of previous route discovery experience to reuse back as a solution. This will reducechannel overhead and improves the scalability of the ad hoc network.Keywords: Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), Multicast Routing Protocols, and Case-Based Reasoning (CBR)

Boy/Girl Friend and Virginity Values, and Stigma Related to Condom Among Jimma University Students

BACKGROUND: Traditional views of sexual behaviors are frequently changing as the factors influencing them are changing. Therefore, assessing sexual practices that are not part of the tradition would be necessary. The objective of this study was to identify the types of sexual practices, their development pattern and how these development patterns expose students to sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a sample of 1986 (1612 males, 365 females, and with 9 subjects’ gender not indicated) Jimma university students in August 2009 with their age ranging from 17-45 years (median = 20). Quantitative data was collected using a piloted, precoded questionnaire and qualitative data was collected from six focus group discussions. Logistic regression and descriptive statistics were computed and qualitative findings were triangulated with quantitative findings. P-value less than 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Practice of penile to vaginal intercourse, masturbation, kissing, oral sex, and anal sex were reported by 567 (28.9%), 688 (36.7%), 840 (42.4%), 179 (9.2%) and 83 (4.3%) of the respondents, respectively. Respondents had two years (one year with and one year without condom) of sexual experience before marriage. Sixty percent of those who had sexual experience were exposed to sexually transmitted infections and 46.6% were exposed to both unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Forty seven percent of those who practiced oral sex and 29% of those who practiced anal sex did not consider their acts as sexual intercourse. Conclusions: University students are high risk groups that need more focused research and concerted health care. The term ‘sexual intercourse’ should be consciously defined for its future use in Ethiopia. Furthermore, Service providers and researchers should address all types of sexual practices

Sexual Practices and Their Development Pattern Among Jimma University Students

BACKGROUND: Traditional views of sexual behaviors are frequently changing as the factors influencing them are changing. Therefore, assessing sexual practices that are not part of the tradition would be necessary. The objective of this study was to identify the types of sexual practices, their development pattern and how these development patterns expose students to sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a sample of 1986 (1612 males, 365 females, and with 9 subjects’ gender not indicated) Jimma university students in August 2009 with their age ranging from 17-45 years (median = 20). Quantitative data was collected using a piloted, precoded questionnaire and qualitative data was collected from six focus group discussions. Logistic regression and descriptive statistics were computed and qualitative findings were triangulated with quantitative findings. P-value less than 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Practice of penile to vaginal intercourse, masturbation, kissing, oral sex, and anal sex were reported by 567 (28.9%), 688 (36.7%), 840 (42.4%), 179 (9.2%) and 83 (4.3%) of the respondents, respectively. Respondents had two years (one year with and one year without condom) of sexual experience before marriage. Sixty percent of those who had sexual experience were exposed to sexually transmitted infections and 46.6% were exposed to both unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Forty seven percent of those who practiced oral sex and 29% of those who practiced anal sex did not consider their acts as sexual intercourse. Conclusions: University students are high risk groups that need more focused research and concerted health care. The term ‘sexual intercourse’ should be consciously defined for its future use in Ethiopia. Furthermore, Service providers and researchers should address all types of sexual practices