AMU Journal System (Arba Minch University)
Not a member yet
254 research outputs found
Sort by
The Ethiopic (Ge'ez) Text of ʾArbāʿtuʾEnsēsā (፬ቱ እንስሳ): A Philological Edition
Get PDFThis manuscript presents a philological edition of the Ethiopic (Ge'ez) text of ʾArbāʿtuʾEnsēsā, commonly translated as "The Four Living Creatures." This significant religious and liturgical text, central to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, details the celestial beings described in Ezekiel's vision and Revelation, playing a crucial role in Ethiopian Christian cosmology and worship. Despite its prominence, a comprehensive critical edition based on a wide array of manuscripts remains largely absent in international scholarship. This study aims to fill this lacuna by providing a detailed methodology for establishing a critical text, identifying significant textual variants, and discussing their implications for understanding the work's transmission history, theological development, and linguistic features. The edition collates readings from diverse manuscript traditions, assesses their historical and linguistic value, and offers a reconstructed Ge'ez text alongside a critical apparatus. This philological undertaking sheds light on the dynamic textual life of ʾArbāʿtuʾEnsēsā, offering insights into scribal practices, theological interpretations, and the enduring vitality of Ethiopic literary heritage
Market-Driven Acacia Mearnsii-Based Tanguay System for Sustainable Bioenergy Production in the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia
Get PDFAs energy demand increases in urban areas of Ethiopia, the expansion of smallholder plantations, particularly Acacia mearnsii woodlots, has become essential in meeting bioenergy needs. However, small-scale farmers have been underrepresented in the value-added bioenergy production systems. This study explores factors influencing value addition and benefit distribution in the market-driven A. mearnsii-based Tanguay system for bioenergy production. A random sample of 148 producers and 52 traders was surveyed using snowball sampling, supplemented by 7 interviews, 6 focus groups, and field observations. The Heckman two-stage model analyzed participation and product volume in the bioenergy market. A. mearnsii woodlots cover 31,000 hectares, producing 145,000 tons of charcoal annually (equivalent to 8.3 million sacks of 17.4 kg), valued at 1,936 annually, accounting for 60% of their income, while traders earn between 30,000. The first-stage probit model revealed that age (p<0.03), experience (p<0.003), access to credit (p<0.034), and contract marketing (p<0.000) significantly influenced farmers' decisions to engage in value addition. The second-stage Heckman model revealed that training services (p < 0.041), livestock holdings (p < 0.054), and age (p < 0.058) were key determinants of the volume of bioenergy products for value addition. The total relative commercialization margin was 58%, indicating that marketing actors captured a larger share of the final market price, with farmers earning 42%. The study concludes that A. mearnsii woodlots support bioenergy production, income for smallholders, local revenue, job creation, and better rural livelihoods. Improving market access, forming cooperatives, and providing technical training are keys to achieving equity and sustainability in bioenergy production in Ethiopia.
Keywords: Acacia, Bioenergy, Commercialization, Income, Market Access, Policy, Smallholder Plantation
On-farm demonstration and evaluation of newly released Soybean (Glycine max) varieties with production technology in pre-extension approach at Karat zuria district, Konso zone, Southern Ethiopia
Get PDFEvaluation and demonstration of soybean technology was conducted at Karat zuria district of Konso zone in Southern Ethiopia in 2022/23 cropping season with the objectives of to analyze socio-economic profitability, farmers’ preference and acceptability under farmers’ conditions. Therefore, this study aims to demonstrate newly a released soybean variety with production technology. The district was purposively selected based on potentiality for Soybean production. Two kebele’s were selected purposively based on potential of the crop.Farmers, development agents and kebele level administrative bodies were trained by the researchers. It was implemented on 20 farmer’s field and 2 FTCs at 200m2 areas of adjacent fields with 40cm*5cm spacing b/n row and plant respectively and 60 kg/ha seed rate and 100 kg/ha NPS. All recommended agronomic practices were applied equally to all fields and the fields were closely supervised and properly managed. The highest (1,858.5 kg/ha) and (1,862.5kg/ ha) grain yield were recorded from Nyala variety at farmers field and FTC respectively. The result showed that there is no that much statistically significant difference at 5% probability level between Nyala and Gazale. The cost benefit analysis results also showed that using Gazale (37,873.75 ETB/ ha) can make farmers’ slightly profitable than Nyala (35,455 ETB/ ha). On both locations, even if Nyala performed better yield, farmers preferred Gazale variety in some important attributes, mainly in the attributes of seed size, seed color and marketability. Extension materials like banners, posters, brochures, leaflets were used during the field day to promote the technology. Therefore, Arba Minch Agricultural esearch centers and seed producer cooperatives should multiply the seeds of Gazale variety the extension system of the Konso zone, Karat zuria district office of Agriculture and similar agro-ecology should expand the soybean.
Keywords: Gazale; Grain yield; Karat zuria; Nyala; Production technology; Soybean; Technology transfe
The Contribution of Urban Socio-spatial Planning for Urban Pre-school Infrastructure Challenges: in the Context of Rapid Urbanization in Addis Ababa
Get PDFThis study assessed the role of urban socio-spatial planning for urban pre-school infrastructure space challenges. The study analysed policy, institutional and practice gaps in the context of rapidly urbanizing city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A total of two private and two public pre-schools were selected from two sub cities/woredas in Addis Ababa as cases. Employing qualitative case study design, both primary and secondary sources were consulted. The primary data was collected from in-depth interview. 26 participants were selected using purposive sampling technique from urban planning and children education sectors, based on the study selection criteria. The secondary data was collected from policy documents of urban planning policies, proclamations and articles, pre-school education policies, ECCE and implementation reports, academic literatures and theoretical perspectives on child education as well as scholar findings on the analytical theme. The data analysis technique was discourse thematic data analysis approach. The study found that, lack of quality preschool practice in public and private contexts suffered lack of sufficient built school environment. The planning policy requirements for preschool environment and ECCE are not implementing rather remained as policy. Lack of institutional cooperation and accountability in both sectors made preschools dysfunctional. Lack of awareness of their roles exposed preschools to operate in poor quality environment. The study concluded that, preschools facilities need intervention from socio-spatial planning to create healthy environment for children. Learning environment brings lasting impact on children emotional, mental, psychological, academic and social capabilities. Thus, healthy infants’ early learning and development require adequate built environment. 
Innovative Track Infrastructure Solutions for Sustainable Railway Transportation
Get PDFThe increasing demand for sustainable and resilient transportation systems necessitates transformative innovations in railway infrastructure design and materials. This study explores the integration of recycled composite sleepers and geogrid-reinforced subgrades as a solution to enhance the mechanical performance, durability, and environmental sustainability of railway tracks. A 100-meter full-scale experimental track was constructed and instrumented to validate the performance of the proposed system under realistic operating conditions. The research employs finite element analysis (FEA) and full-scale field trials to evaluate the structural behavior of these materials under varying axle loads, dynamic train frequencies, and extreme climatic conditions. Key performance metrics such as track settlement, lateral stability, and maintenance intervals are analyzed, demonstrating that geogrid-reinforced subgrades reduce track deformation by up to 40% over 12 months compared to conventional designs. Recycled composite sleepers exhibit superior resistance to cracking, moisture ingress, and UV degradation, resulting in a25% reduction in lifecycle maintenance costs and a 30% decrease in carbon emissions. The lifecycle assessment (LCA) confirms that the proposed infrastructure solutions significantly lower resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This research contributes to the circular economy, aligns with global sustainable development goals, and offers practical strategies for transitioning to green rail infrastructure. This finding provides a comprehensive framework for implementing sustainable materials in railway infrastructure, addressing contemporary challenges in transportation engineering while ensuring long-term operational efficiency and environmental stewardship.
Keywords: Geogrid Reinforcement, Life Cycle Assessment, Railway Infrastructure, Recycled Composites, Sustainable Materials, Track Performance, Transportation Engineerin
Kafi Noonoo to English Machine Translation using Deep Learning Approaches
Get PDFKafi Noonoo is one of the Ethiopian languages that is spoken by the Kaffa people in the southwestern part of Ethiopia. Additionally, it is a morphologically rich language and has an indigenous name for prestige, cultural place, and cultural dejectedness, which has no equivalent meaning in other languages. Machine translation is a technique that automatically translates text or speech’s meaning from one language to another without human involvement to resolve information gaps. Various machine translation studies have been conducted for resource-rich languages like English, French, German, and others. However, the variety of linguistic patterns, the dominance of technologically developed languages, and the lack of machine translation from Kafi Noonoo to English will lead to the disappearance of Kafi Noonoo's indigenous words among native speakers. To tackle such a problem, this article designed a Kafi Noonoo to English and vice versa machine translation solution by using deep learning approaches. The bidirectional long short-term memory, bidirectional gated recurrent unit with and without attention, and transformer were applied. In order to train the model, the bilingual parallel sentences were collected from Kafi Noonoo's linguistic-related sources. Different experiments were applied to find out the optimal value of the proposed model. Based on the experiment’s result, the transformer performed better with an accuracy of 89% and a BLEU score of 6.34 and 5.42 for Kafi Noonoo to English and English to Kafi Noonoo, respectively. According to our experiment results, the transformer model was suitable for morphologically rich languages like Kafi Noonoo to English and vice versa, for machine translation. For a better result, there is a necessity to generate parallel corpora in order to conduct comparable research.
Keywords: Kaffa, Kafi Noonoo, Low-resource Machine Translation, Transforme
Faculty Perception and Utilization of Information Communication Technology (ICT) Tools for Self-directed Professional Development
Get PDFIn the 21st century, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has become an essential tool for teachers to develop their skills, knowledge, and ability to cope with the dynamic changes in education. To keep pace with the rapidly evolving educational landscape, teachers update themselves through various platforms including ICT. This study aimed to examine lecturers' perceptions and utilization of ICT for self-directed professional development (SDPD) at selected public universities in Ethiopia. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design. We employed a systematic random sampling technique to select 205 participants for the questionnaire survey data collection. We conducted a one-sample Wilcoxon signed-rank test and a Kruskal-Wallis mean rank test to analyze lecturers' perceptions of ICT for SDPD and variation across the dimensions. To determine lecturers' level of ICT utilization for SDPD, areas of competence developed through ICT, and the types of ICT tools utilized, we used a one-sample t-test, a one-way ANOVA, and a Kruskal-Wallis test for mean ranking, respectively. The results indicated that lecturers generally have a high level of ICT perception for SDPD. Additionally, the study revealed lecturers utilized ICT to a high level to develop various skills and knowledge. They also utilized diverse ICT tools to develop their SDPD, with educational websites emerging as the most commonly exploited resource. Capitalizing on the helpful perceptions and high ICT utilization for SDPD among lecturers, we suggest the Universities enrich and develop the ICT-assisted professional development initiatives of the Faculty to meet their evolving needs for quality education
የማጠቃለል ብልሃት አንብቦ በመረዳት ችሎታ ላይ ያለው ተጽዕኖ : The effect of summarizing strategy on reading comprehension
No full textየዚህ ጥናት ዏቢይ ዓሊማ የማጠቃሇሌ ብሌሃትን መጠቀም በአማርኛ ቋንቋ አፍፈት ተማሪዎች አንብቦ የመረዲት ችልታ ሊይ ያሇውን ተጽዕኖ መመርመር ነው፡፡ የጥናቱ ስሌት ፍትነትመሰሌ ባሇቁጥጥር ቡዴን ቅዴመፈተና-ዴኅረፈተና ነው፡፡ ሇዚህም በጎንዯር ከተማ የአጼ በካፋ አንዯኛ ዯረጃ ትምህርትቤት በ2015 ዓ.ም በመዯበኛ ክፍሊቸው የሚማሩ የ7 1 (ብዛት- 51)ና የ7 3 (ብዛት-51) ክፍሌ ተማሪዎች በተራ የዕጣ ንሞና በሙከራና በቁጥጥር ቡዴን ተሳትፈዋሌ፡፡ የጥናቱ የመረጃ መሰብሰቢያ መሣሪያ አንብቦ የመረዲት ፈተና ነው፡፡ በዚህም አስቀዴሞ ቅዴመትምህርት መረጃው ከተሰበሰበ በኋሊ የሙከራ ቡዴኑ ተማሪዎች በማጠቃሇሌ ብሌሃት የቁጥጥር ቡዴኑ ተማሪዎች በመዯበኛው ሥርዓተትምህርት ብሌሃት መሠረት ማንበብን ሇ12 ሳምንት፣ በሳምንት ሇአንዴ መዯበኛ ክፍሇጊዜ ከተማሩ በኋሊ የዴኅረትምህርት መረጃው ተሰብስቧሌ፡፡ ቅዴመትምህርት ረጃዎቹና ፆታ በአበር ተሊውጦነት ቁጥጥር ተዯርጎባቸው፣ የዴኅረትምህርት መረጃው በአበርተኮር መዋቅራዊ የትንተና ሞዳሌ ተተንትኗሌ፡፡ በ95% ናሙና አካይ የመተማመኛ ዯረጃ (bootstrap confidence interval) የተገኘው ውጤትም (R 2 =.48 (48%) , Β=2.72, S.E. =.826, P=.001, η2= .25) ሆኗሌ፡፡ ውጤቱ እንዲመሇከተውም የሙከራ ቡዴኑ ተማሪዎች ማንበብን የተማሩበት የማጠቃሇሌ ብሌሃት፣ የቁጥጥር ቡዴኑ ተማሪዎች ከተማሩበት መዯበኛው ሥርዓተትምህርት ብሌሃት የበሇጠ አንብቦ በመረዲት ችልታ ሊይ ጉሌህ አዎንታዊ ቀጥተኛ ተጽዕኖ አሳዴሯሌ፡፡ ከዚህም በማጠቃሇሌ ብሌሃትና አንብቦ በመረዲት ችልታ መካከሌ ቀጥተኛ ግንኙነት መኖሩን ሇመረዲት ተችሎሌ፡
ቁሌፍ ቃሊት፤ አንብቦ መረዲት፣ የማጠቃሇሌ ብሌሃ
English Language Teachers’ Level of Instructional Behavior at Selected Secondary Schools
No full textThis study aimed to examine the level of instructional control among English language teachers in selected secondary schools in Gamo Zone, Ethiopia. The study adopted an analytical survey research design to address the study objective. A census was used to select 62 English language teachers as participants. A validated five-point Likert scale questionnaire was employed to collect quantitative data. Statistical analyses, including one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Games-Howell post hoc analysis, were conducted to determine the level of instructional control among teachers. Additionally, a one-sample t-test was conducted to compare differences between the observed and expected mean values at both scale and subscale levels. The effect size was also utilized to describe the magnitude of instructional control. The findings of the study revealed that English language teachers predominantly employed strong teacher control, followed by marginalized shared and loose control. These results suggest that teachers primarily relied on teacher-centered direct instruction which may potentially lead to achievement gaps among students. Based on these findings, the study recommends that the Gamo Zone Education Department organize on-the-job training for English language teachers on instructional control to empower them to implement varied instructional control types as required thereby promoting a more balanced and inclusive instructional environment.
Keywords: Instructional control; Loose control; Shared control; Strong control; Student-centered; Teacher-centere
Backchannels in Tigrinya
Get PDFThis article aims at describing the system of backchannel and how it is linguistically marked in oral face-to-face interaction in Tigrinya, which is a North-Ethio-Semitic language. Though the language is used by its speakers at all regional domains, its conversational structure is not explored in depth. The data employed in this study was established from audio-recorded sociolinguistic interviews, recordings of authentic conversations, fieldnotes, introspective data and data from previous studies. The data generally totals 300 minutes oral data, 612 sentences from fieldnote and examples form empirical studies, and 115 introspective examples. The findings reveal that Tigrinya speakers use fillers, particles, phrases, pronominals, and clauses. These language expressions are used as asides (encouraging an interlocutor to proceed speaking), to seek attention, to request for confirmation, to confirm attention, and to mark understanding of an information. Besides, some of the backchannel dives, for example, the verbs contain number, gender, and tense agreement in them. The linguistic expressions that used as backchannels in Tigrinya, therefore, are not only short or monosyllabic words.
Keywords: backchannel, continuer, confirmation, call attention, stating informatio