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Strategic Environment Assessment of Catchment Water Management: A Comparative Analysis of the Adequacy of SEA Reports using Case Studies from Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Ireland and Vietnam
Get PDFThis paper reflects on the adequacy of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) reports based on a comparative analysis of SEA reports from five country contexts randomly selected. It briefly examines the role of SEA in basin or catchment planning and management. An overview on institutional and organizational context of SEA in Uganda is discussed. Although, SEA has been described as being a tool to improve strategic decision-making by integrating environmental issues into plans, policies and programmes, there is a growing concern on the adequacy of the SEA reports being prepared and how these reports come about. To be able to determine the adequacy of these SEA reports, the analysis focused on the stages of SEA that guide the SEA process. The results of the study show some examples of effective SEA practice, but still some of the case studies never dug deep but rather scratched the surface in terms of SEA process effectiveness. Based on key findings of the study, some recommendations for improving SEA practice for catchment planning are provided. SEA reports should be presenting key issues, providing clear proposals and conclusive results to facilitate the integration of SEA findings in decision-making. As that’s what SEA is about
Strategic Planning for Public Sector Organizations: Evidence from The Department of Education and Culture in Kendal Regency
Get PDFThis paper aims to provide some evidence for current practice in strategic planning for public sector organizations developed by Rumelt's Criteria, in this case the Department of Education & Culture in Kendal Regency and propose a strategy for this Department. The data was collected from the Strategic Plan of the Department of Education & Culture in Kendal Regency from 2016-2021, Performance Reports 0f 2017, and the interviews from data collector in the Department of Education & Culture of Kendal Regency. The data analysis procedure used in this paper is a SWOT analysis based on data collected and developed into IFEM, EFEM, IE-Matrix, SWOT Matrix, and QSPM as the last step
Haulm Forage Value of Lentil Varieties in Central Ethiopia
Get PDFThe major livestock feed next to natural pasture in central highlands of Ethiopia is cereal crop residue; however, supplementation with additional nutritional entities is most often recommended. The present study aims to examine the nutritive value of lentil haulm and how this value varies among the varieties and locations. For this, 80gms of haulm samples of Alemaya, Derash and local lentil varieties were collected with four replications from Bishoftu, Akaki, and Chefe-Donsa from on farm trial sites of Ethiopian institute of agricultural research. To test for the variation in haulm nutritional values among the varieties, two-way ANOVA was employed. The results showed that the interaction of variety and location had significant effect on crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), metabolizable energy (ME) and in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) (P<0.05). Here, CP content of lentil haulm was higher for a local variety when compared with the two commercial varieties. The haulm yield (4.38t/ha) and haulm dry matter yield (3.97 t DM/ha) were higher for Derash when compared with that of the local variety (P<0.05). Overall, the present finding denoted that although in some cases the lentil haulm nutritional values and yields vary among varieties and were dependent on growing locations, it can be observed to have optimum feeding values to supplement livestock feed with the cereal crop residues in central Ethiopia
Outdoor Air Quality and Antibiogram Characteristics of Bacterial Isolates of Akure City Abattoirs, Nigeria
Get PDFAir sampling of Onyearugbulem and FUTA abattoirs was carried out to evaluate their quality. Air sampling was done using the open-settling method on general and selective agar media of the gutter, sleeping bench, slaughtering floor dumpsite, slaughtering table and roof of the abattoirs. Using standard methods, Presumptive identification of the bacterial isolates was carried out. An array of ten (10) conventional antibiotics was used to assay the antibiotic susceptibility characteristics of the bacterial isolates. Multiple antibiotic sensitivity index (MARI) was determined for isolated bacteria. At Onyearugbulem abattoir, the total Escherichia coli count ranged from 3.6×10 cfu/ml from the gutter and slaughtering table to 6.5×10 cfu/ml from the slaughtering floor, while the total bacterial count ranged from 1.34×102 cfu/ml from dumpsite to 2.55×102 cfu/ml from the gutter, the total coliform count ranged from 2.8× 10 cfu/ml from slaughtering floor to 4.1×10 cfu/ml from sleeping bench. Several bacteria were presumptively isolated. These include: Micrococcus sp., Bacillus sp., Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Proteus sp., Enterobacter aerogenes and Aeromonas sp. Ciprofloxacin (10 µg) had an inhibitory effect on all the Gram positive bacterial isolates with the highest inhibitory activity on S. aureus at 24.00 mm, and the Gram negative bacteria with the highest inhibitory activity on E. coli at 21.00 mm. Micrococcus sp. had the highest MARI of 0.8. These findings reveal the presence of multiple-antibiotic resistant bacteria in Onyearugbulem and FUTA abattoirs’ atmosphere. There is therefore need for routine environmental sanitation of the slaughterhouses
A Comparison of the Effects of Solar Radiation on Sandy-Loam and Clay-Loam Soils with Convective Boundary Condition
Get PDFA comparison of the effects of solar radiation on sandy-loam and clay-loam soils with convective boundary condition was made. The dimensional governing equations (the continuity, momentum and energy equations) were converted to non-dimensional form using some set of dimensionless quantities, which resulted to a pair of partial differential equations of second order. With the use of perturbation method, these equations were reduced to ordinary differential equation and then solved analytically. Using the numerical values of the thermal conductivities of sandy-loam and clay-loam soils, a good comparison was made between the effects of the solar radiation parameter and internal heat generation parameter on the two soil samples. These results were worked out with the use of Matlab R2009b and visibly displayed on graphs for clearer illustration. For a rise in the intensity of solar radiation and mounting internal heat, the temperature of the soils increased generally. However, the proportion of moisture content influenced the level and the rate at which the temperature is boosted in both soil samples
High Tunability of Size Dependent Optical Properties of ZnO@M@Au (M = SiO2, In2O3, TiO2) Core/Spacer/Shell Nanostructure
Get PDFThis theoretical work presents a comparative study of high tunability size dependent optical properties of quantum dot/wire triple layered core shell nanostructure based on the quasi-static approximation of classical electrodynamics embedded in a fixed dielectrics function of host matrix. In this paper, local field enhancement factor (LFEF), refractive index and optical absorbance of nanocomposite are analyzed by varying core size, thickness of spacer and shell as well as dielectrics function of the spacer for the size of the nanocomposite with the range of 20 nm to 40 nm. For both quantum dot and quantum wire triple layered core shell nanostructure (CSNS), there are two resonances in visible and near/in infrared spectral region with high tunability. When the shell thickness increase and therefore increasing the gold content, the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) at the outer interface shifts to higher energy (blue-shifted) and at the inner interface weak peaks and shifted to lower energy (red-shifted). All of three optical properties, depend on core size, dielectrics and thickess of spacer, thickness of shell, shape of composite and filling factor. For the same thickness of spacer and shell of the two configurations, cylindrical triple layered CSNS less pronounced and shifted to infrared red (IR) spectral region which is recommendable for biological and photocatalysis application.  
Youths’ Online Political Participation in Ethiopia; A Study of Students’ Facebook Usage in Some Selected Public Universities
Get PDFThis study was conducted to examine youths’ online political participation in Ethiopia with a focus on students’ Facebook usage in six randomly selected universities. The research specifically aimed to study the extent of participation, the main online political activities, and factors that determine such involvements. For this purpose, the research utilized a quantitative method with survey design. The sample size was 400 and the samples were selected by using the simple random method. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis. Accordingly, the research found limited youth’s involvement in those activities that require more commitments and efforts while they found to be active in activities that require low efforts and commitments. Low political efficacy and fear of political measures were found to be the main factors that force youths to have limited involvement in activities that require more efforts and commitments
Dynamics of Seasonal Migration of Rural Livelihood: Capital Formation Perspective
Get PDFGlobally, farming communities migrates considering it as a livelihood strategy, especially given unprecedented environmental change. Because migration facilitates poverty reduction, education improvement, entrepreneurial investments and even the economic evolution of the origin areas. Farmers in the northern region of Bangladesh migrate during the slack season when farming activities are not up to the mark. Driven by this context, this study examined the principal actors, the pattern of seasonal migration in the context of seasonal variability and migration's role in food security and livelihood resilience in the Barind Tract, Bangladesh. The participatory rural appraisal was employed for collecting basic facts and information. The study suggests that poverty is the root cause of migration, such that men from poor households with small landholdings and high food insecurity migrate for work during the winter. Moreover, the traditional practice of sharecropping, which helped them reduce food shortages, has also become less profitable these days. Therefore, the tendency of migrating is likely to escalating among the people of this region, and those already relocated are planning to settle down there for a more extended period. Currently, such migrants are getting engaged in low-paying unskilled wage work, construction work mainly in Rajshahi city, Mohadevpur, and Dhaka the capital city of Bangladesh, which enables them to make not only modest savings but also hard enough to repay the debt their family has incurred during food shortages
Government Capital Expenditure and Private Sector Investment in Nigeria: Co-integration Regression and Toda-Yamamoto Causality Analysis
Get PDFThis paper analyses the relationship between government capital expenditure and private investment in Nigeria using time series data spanning from 1981 to 2016. Government capital expenditure was disaggregated into different components and ADF unit root test was employed to establish the stationarity properties of the variables in the model. The result of Johanson co-integration test revealed that the variables have long run relationship. Co-integration regression results suggested that capital expenditure on physical assets and defense displaced private sector investment while government capital expenditure on human capital and public debt servicing promote private sector investment in Nigeria. Furthermore, the results of T-Y causality revealed the bidirectional causality private sector investment and government capital expenditure in Nigeria. Based on these findings, the paper recommends that government capital expenditure should be channel to human capital in order to promote private sector investment in Nigeria. In addition, the Nigerian government should pay more attention to capital expenditure on physical assets since it has a significant impact on private sector investment. Lastly, Nigeria government should address the issue of budget delay, corruption, and mismanagement in Nigerian institutions
Herbalists and their Mode of Health Care Service Delivery in Debre Markos Town, Northwest Ethiopia
Get PDFThe administration of medicinal plants for treating human ailments is an age-old practice. Although several studies have been conducted, most of them focused on documentation of the medicinal plants and herbal knowledge. This study investigated why people use herbal medicine, from what conviction, and explains how the plants are collected, prepared and put to purpose. In order to get deeper information about the issue, both primary and secondary sources are consulted. Observation, semi structured interviews, and key informant interviews were used to collect the primary data.15 herbalists were used as informants to obtain information on knowledge acquisition, plant collection, drug preparation, preservation and administration. The study found that healers got the wisdom of herbal medicine from family; friends or relatives; as gift of God; and religious books. The study also uncovered that people visit herbal healers because of cost, cultural acceptability, easy accessibility, and dissatisfaction with modern medicine. Herbal healers are providing health services for a huge segment of the populations’ in spite of several challenges. Dominance of biomedicine, proliferation of quack healers, inheritance problems, absence of support from government authorities, and deforestation stand out as the major challenges for the progress and the very existence of indigenous medicine in general and herbal healers in particular