AMU Journal System (Arba Minch University)
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Traditional dairy production and milk handling practices in Mareka district, Dawuro Zone, Southwestern Ethiopia
Get PDFThis study aimed to assess traditional dairy production, management, and milk handling practices in the Mareka district of the Dawuro zone in southwestern Ethiopia. Samples included 96 dairy cattle-producing households across three agroecological zones. Data collection methods were structured questionnaires, observations, and discussions with key informants. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. According to the study's findings, lactating cows constituted 28% of the overall herd population in the highlands and lowlands and 27% in the midlands. While 83% of households kept animals in the same house as their family, 15% housed them in the kitchen. Notably, cows in the highlands had a significantly shorter calving interval (17.3±0.78 months) compared to the midland (24.5±1.46 months) and lowlands (23.2±1.58 months). Average lactation lasted 229.3±6.69 days, with milking starting 51.6 days after calving. During peak periods, daily milk production per cow varied from 1.22±0.06 liters in the lowland and midland to 1.63±0.10 liters in the highlands. The average lactation yield per cow was 198.82 liters, with higher yields observed in highland cows, followed by midland and lowland cows. The study emphasizes the importance of empowering farmers and improving management practices to enhance the impact of traditional dairy practices on human nutrition and community livelihoods.
Keywords: Calving interval; Lactation length; Traditional dairy productio
በትምህርታዊ ጨዋታዎች የማንበብን ክሂል ማስተማር የተማሪዎችን የማንበብ ተነሳሽነት የማሳደግ ሚና ፍተሻ፤ አማርኛን እንደሁለተኛ ቋንቋ በሚማሩ የ5ኛ ክፍል ተማሪዎች ተተኳሪነት
Get PDFየዚህ ጥናት ዋና ዓላማ ትምህርታዊ ጨዋታዎችን ተጠቅሞ የማንበብ ክሂልን ማስተማር በተማሪዎች የማንበብ ተነሳሽነት ላይ ያለውን ሚና መመርመር ነው፡፡ ጥናቱ ፍትነት መሰል የምርምር ንድፍንየተጠቀመ ሲሆን አንድ የቁጥጥር ቡድን እና አንድ የሙከራ ቡድን የያዘ ነው፡፡ በእየቡድኑ 35 ተማሪዎች በጠቅላላ 70 ተማሪዎች ተሳትፈዋል፡፡ አጥኚው የጥናቱን ቦታና ምድቦችን በአመቺ ንሞና ስልት፤ የክፍል ደረጃን(5ኛ ክፍልን)እና መምህርመረጣን በዓላማ ተኮር ንሞና፤ የጥናቱ ተሳታፊዎችን ደግሞ በጠቅላይ የንሞና ስልት መርጧል፡፡ በመረጃ መሰብሰቢያነትም የቅድመ ትምህርትና የድህረ ትምህርት የማንበብ ተነሳሽነት ደረጃ መለኪያ የጽሁፍ መጠይቆችን ተጠቅሟል፡፡ ትምህርቱ ለ16 ሳምንታት የተሰጠ ሲሆንአጥኚው የሁለቱ ቡድን የማንበብ ተነሳሽነት ውጤቶችንተዛምዶ ለመለየት የፒርሰን የተዛምዶ መወሰኛ ቀመርን ተጠቅሟል፡፡ በተጨማሪም የነፃ ናሞና ቲ-ቴስት ስታትስቲካዊ መተንተኛ ስልትን በመጠቀም በእየቡድኖቹ የተገኘው የቅድመና ድህረ ትምህርት አማካይ፣ መደበኛ ልይይትና የጉልህነት መጠናቸው ተሰልተው ተተንትነዋል፡፡ውጤቱም የቅድመትምህርቱ የተዛምዶ መጠን (r= .067)እና የቁጥጥር ቡድኑ አማካይውጤት(M=51.29)፣ የሙከራው(M= 50.54)ሲሆን፤የጉልህነት ደረጃውም(P= .581) በመሆኑ በሁለቱ ቡድኖች መካከል ጉልህ ልዩነት አለመኖሩን አሳይቷል፡፡ በአንፃሩ በድህረትምህርቱ የታየው የተዛምዶ መጠን(r= - .306) የድህረትምህርቱ አማካይ ውጤት የቁጥጥር ቡድኑ(M=51.77)፣ የሙከራው(M= 55.06) ሆኖ ተገኝቷል፡፡ የጉልህነት መጠኑም (P= .010) በመሆኑ በሁለቱ ቡድኖች የማንበብ ተነሳሽነት ደረጃ መካከል ጉልህ ልዩነት መኖሩን አመላክቷል፡፡
ቁልፍ ቃላትና ሀረጋት : ትምህርታዊ ጨዋታ፣ የተለመደ የማስተማር ስልትና የማንበብ ተነሳሽነ
Analysis of Precipitation Variability in the Kulfo River Watershed: Insights from Wavelet Analysis and Back-Trajectory Approaches
Get PDFAnalysis of precipitation time series is a fundamental undertaking in meteorology and hydrology. The heavy precipitation scenario of the Kulfo River watershed is studied using wavelet analysis and the advanced atmospheric transport model. Daily rainfall data for the 1991-2020 study periods are collected from the office of the Ethiopian Meteorology Institute. Meteorological fields on a three-dimensional grid at 1o x 1o spatial resolution and daily temporal resolution are also obtained from the Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS). Wavelet analysis of the daily precipitation processed with the lag-1 coefficient reveals some high power recurred once every 38 to 60 days with greater than 95% confidence for red noise. The analysis also identified inter-annual periodicity in the periods 2002 - 2005 and 2017 - 2019. Back trajectory analysis for 3-day periods up to the heavy precipitation day during the main and short rain seasons indicates the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Eden source; trajectories crossed the southern and eastern African escarpment to arrive at the Kulfo watershed. Atmospheric flows associated with the Western Indian monsoon redirected by the low-level Somali winds and Arabian ridge are responsible for the moisture supply. The spatial distribution of relative humidity (RH) during heavy precipitation events ranges from 50% to 88%. The findings indicated that the time-localization of the wavelet power spectrum yields valuable hydrological information and the back-trajectory approaches provide useful characterization of air mass sources and pathways.
Keywords: Back trajectory; Extreme Precipitation Events; Kulfo Watershed; Power Spectru
Assessment of Traffic Congestion and its Impact on Road Capacity in Urban Areas under Mixed Traffic Conditions using Multiple Regression Analysis - A Case Study of Addis Ababa City
Get PDFTraffic congestion is a complex phenomenon that is connected to several vehicle movements on the road. The major reasons behind this problem are the various continuous activities in the urban areas such as education, employment, recreation, business, political, social, and cultural. In addition to these activities, floating and migration, increase congestion on city roads. This will affect the traffic stream characteristics and reduce the road capacity and level of service. The present study aims to evaluate and analyze traffic congestion and its effect on road capacity and level of service at Mebrathail's mid-block location in Addis Ababa city. To achieve the objective, the Mebrathail mid-block was divided into four segments appropriately, and the traffic volume and speed studies were conducted at each segment for 10 hours a day at 15-minute consecutive intervals. The necessary traffic data including road geometry at each segment was recorded. The congestion levels at each segment were then measured by estimating the reduced speed between each segment. The volume-to-capacity ratio (v/c ratio) was then estimated and found to be exceeding 1 in most of the hours of the day, resulting in a poor level of service F. Various Multiple Regression Models were developed correlating the reduced speed with traffic volume, composition, and road geometry. The results from the analysis indicate that traffic congestion on urban roads has an impact on urban characteristics.
Keywords: Level of Service, Reduction in Speed, Road Capacity, Traffic congestion, V/C rati
Intercropping legumes covers with maize on soil moisture improvement in selected dry land areas of Basketo Zone, Ethiopia
Get PDFIntercropping provides sufficient scope to include two or more crops simultaneously on the same piece of land, targeting higher land productivity. There is limited experimental evidence on the benefits of intercropping systems, which remains largely unstudied. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of intercropping on soil moisture conservation in a moisture-stressed area. For this study, a randomized complete block design was used to establish experimental plots with three replications. Five treatments were evaluated, including maize only, lablab only, cowpea only, lablab with maize, and cowpea with maize. Disturbed soil samples were collected from a depth of 0–30 cm and composited for soil moisture and physicochemical property analysis. The yield and biomass of maize and legume shrubs were collected from each plot, and the variations were analyzed using the general linear model. The land equivalent ratio (LER) was computed to evaluate land productivity. The result showed that higher soil moisture content was recorded on maize-cowpea intercrop (34.33%), followed by maize-lablab intercrop (31.20%) relative to sole maize (26.83%) at the development stage in the first-year trial. This implies the benefit of legume shrubs on soil moisture conservation, both under mono-cropped and intercropped conditions. In this trial, the highest LER values were obtained for maize intercropped with Lablab 1.44 at Angila 4 kebele, while at Angila 3 kebele, the highest LER values were obtained for maize intercropped with cowpea 1.29. Therefore, conducting similar studies for more than two years on permanent field plots is vital to achieving considerable changes in soil moisture and soil physicochemical properties, as well as helping farmers make better use of cereal-legume intercropping systems to increase yields in moisture-stress areas.
Keywords: Intercropping; Legume; Land equivalent ratio; Soil moisture; Yiel
Level of Instructional Clarity of English Language Teachers at Selected Secondary Schools
Get PDFInstructional clarity is an essential issue for understandable and quality teaching. To this effect, this study aimed to examine the level of instructional clarity of English language teachers at selected secondary schools in Gamo Zone, Ethiopia. Accordingly, the study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive research design to collect and analyze quantitative data at one point in time about the instructional clarity of teachers. I selected 62 English language teachers using a comprehensive sampling technique from eight public secondary schools. The study employed a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire. I utilized a one-sample t-test to examine whether the English language teachers' instructional clarity was statistically above the expected mean (3.00). The study concluded that English language teachers maintained an overall instructional clarity meaningfully above average despite poor practices and ambivalent stances on some aspects of instructional clarity
Enhancing Accuracy of Fault Detection System and Reducing Outage Time with GIS: A Case Study of Arba Minch Electrical Distribution System
Get PDFFault detection and location in electrical distribution systems are critical for maintaining a reliable electric power supply and minimizing outage time. The Arba Minch District distribution department of Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU) currently employs a manual trial-and-error approach for fault detection and location of the faults, is not only inefficient, time-consuming, and ineffective in the current state of the arts but crucial for resolving faults. This study evaluates the current approach and proposes an enhanced system utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to improve fault detection and location in the Arba Minch distribution system, specifically at the Shecha feeder. The implementation of GIS-based fault detection and location aims to address the limitations of the manual method and mitigate economic losses associated with feeder faults. By synchronization of the ETAP circuit and ETAP GIS network, the location of the fault visualized in the ETAP-GIS system. The GIS system achieved a 99.11% reduction in fault detection and location time relative to the conventional method. In this research by optimizing fault detection and locating time, the System’s Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) for the feeder significantly reduced from 216.36 to 1.93 hours/customer per fault. Consequently, the GIS system also eliminated economic losses associated with energy unsupplied (24,784.58 kWh and 13,625.41 kVArh) and non-collected revenue (42,000 ETB for 1 hour, 78,288 ETB for 1.864 hours, and 231,000 ETB for 5.5 hours). The results demonstrate the potential of GIS technology in enhancing fault detection and location, ultimately improving the reliability and efficiency of the distribution system.
Keywords: Distribution systems, ETAP, Fault Detection, Fault Location, GIS, SAIDI
 
Structural Reliability Studies on Pulverized Glass Powder Concrete Subjected to Bending Forces with Natural Aggregate
Get PDFThe shortage of housing and basic infrastructure in Nigeria is increasing with a continuous rise in the price of construction materials. Cement is a major component in concrete production. Its production, however, is accompanied by huge carbon dioxide emissions. This research presents the results of structural reliability analysis conducted on reinforced concrete beam produced with pulverized glass powder as partial replacement for cement with Natural aggregate (NA) as coarse aggregate by subjecting it to bending forces. First order reliability method (FORM) was employed to determine the level of safety of the beam. The result of the sensitivity analysis showed that the pulverized glass powder beam with NA as coarse aggregate is structurally safe at a span of 3000 mm and depth of 600 mm with probabilities of failure of 1.00 × 10-3 and 1.04 × 10-3 respectively.
Keywords:Beam, Bending, Concrete, Natural Aggregate, Pulverized Glass, Structural Reliabilit
Integrating Sustainability Frameworks for Assessment of Environmental Performance in Higher Education Institutions Via Energy, Fuel, and Waste Management Audits
Get PDFThere are over forty-five universities in Ethiopia, with an expected increase in the upcoming years which necessitates studies on their environmental impact. However, the environmental impact of these large institutions, particularly regarding resource consumptions such as electricity, diesel fuel, and water remains largely uninvestigated. This study employed the IPCC SCOPE 3 approach to assess the environmental impact of selected Ethiopian universities. This study collects primary data through surveys and observations and complements this with relevant secondary sources such as government records, organizational data, and existing literature. It utilizes IPCC SCOPE 3 guidelines to comprehensively analyze emissions and sustainability in Ethiopian higher education. The finding revealed substantial resource consumption, with notable electricity use accounting for the largest proportion of total emissions. The university's transition to electric cooking primarily powered by hydroelectric energy has effectively decreased emissions from traditional stoves across two of its four campuses, impacting 75% of residents. Electricity still represents 78% of the greenhouse gas emissions followed by waste generation which is 17.81%. This highlights the urgent need for sustainable policies to mitigate environmental impacts. The research identified economic constraints and underlined the need for policy support to enhance sustainability and environmental outcomes. Existing youth engagement programs in solid waste sorting, composting, recycling, and water treatment for reuse or recycling of clean water are in their initial development stages. The study suggests strengthening these practices while recognizing the potential to integrate renewable energy sources with appropriate policies, which could significantly impact institutional sustainability efforts.
Keywords: corporate impact, electricity use, emission, environmental impact audit, fuel economy, kilowatt hour, pollutio
Effectiveness of Selected Low Impact Development (LIDs) for Sustainable Stormwater Management in Fast-Urbanizing Residential Areas
Get PDFThe global trend of urbanization has led to the widespread conversion of natural land cover to impermeable surfaces. This, in turn, is hindering water infiltration and exacerbating runoff from precipitation. This phenomenon has detrimental effects on the natural environment and water quality. To address these issues of stormwater generation, this study employed the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) in conjunction with MapWindow Geographical Information System (GIS) v4.X, a hydrologic data software for data, visualization, editing, and integration with other modeling tools to simulate the impact of various Low Impact Developments (LIDs) on mitigating stormwater in the study area. The study area was divided into six sub-basins within the GIS environment and imported into SWMM to assess the effects of selected LIDs, including green roofs, rain gardens, vegetative swales, and permeable pavements. The SWAT model was used to predict water flow in the Malete watershed and surface runoff. The study identified areas susceptible to erosion and categorized them as low, moderate, severe, and extreme. The results showed that permeable pavements exhibited the highest reduction rate, reducing stormwater by approximately 50% across all sub-basins, while green roofs showed the lowest reduction rate of only 0.003%. Regional calibration was implemented, revealing a significant correlation of 71% between simulated and observed flows in the study area. The findings of this study can serve as a valuable decision-support tool for stakeholders and authorities when selecting appropriate LID practices to mitigate the urban impact of stormwater generation.
Keywords: Low Impact Development (LIDs), Malete, MapWindow GIS, MWSWAT, Soil Erosion, Stormwater, SWM