74 research outputs found
Genetic Divergence in Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] Genotypes under Contrasting Moisture Environments
No full textSorghum is one of the most important cereal crops in Ethiopia which is grown most dominantly in the low land area where drought predominates. In this area farmer’s preference to improved sorghum variety is dependent on earliness and drought tolerance traits. The objective of the study was to evaluate the genetic diversity of early maturing sorghum genotypes for drought tolerance by using principal component and cluster analysis. Twenty three early maturing sorghum genotypes were phenotyped under post-flowering moisture stressed and non-stressed environment using RCBD design in adjacent experiment. The analysis of variance revealed significant variation among genotypes for most of the traits for both moisture environments. Post-flowering drought reduce the value for all of the traits except flag leaf area and average grain yield was reduced by 21%. Five genetically divergent clusters which showed significant inter cluster distance were observed in both environments. Genotypes in cluster one showed best performance for grain yield and yield components under non-stress environment. Under stressed environment, genotypes under C1, and C2 revealed best performance for drought tolerance and yield traits, respectively. Therefore, the performance of genotypes under these clusters and different clustering pattern observed depicts the divergence of genotypes for drought response which creates opportunity for further improvement through selection and hybridization. Principal component analysis revealed five and seven PC captured 80% and 87% of total variation observed under stressed and non-stressed environment, respectively
The School-Prison Nexus in Sweden Untangling the Racialisation of Disability in Europe: Exploring Intersectional Perspectives Author(s) : Hick, Peter; Migliarini, Valentina; Berhanu, Girma; Artiles, Alfredo; Dovigo, Fabio
No full textAcademic Racism: Richard Lynn’s and Satoshi Kanazawa’s bogus and sub-standard theory of racial differences in intelligence: An essay review of Racial Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis by Richard Lynn (2008) and a review of Temperature and Evolutionary Novelty as Forces Behind the Evolution of General Intelligence by Satoshi Kanazawa (2008)
No full textIntroduction This double review (of one book and one closely related article) is prompted by a response to my essay review1 of IQ and the Wealth of Nations by one of the authors of the book, Tatu Vanhanen. Vanhanen responded to my review of his book with Richard Lynn in a private e-mail: Dear Dr. Berhanu, Thank you for your review of our book IQ and the Wealth of Nations. I would like to inform you that my colleague Richard Lynn has found a new study on intelligence in Ethiopia. It is: Aboud, F., Samuel, M., Hadera, A. & Addus, A. (1991). ―Intellectual, social, and nutritional status of children in an Ethiopian orphanage.‖ Social Science and Medicine, 33, pp. 1275-1280. This study is based on a sample of 134 children in an orphanage in Jimma tested in 1989. According to Richard Lynn, Ethiopia's national IQ would be 71 on the basis of this study. It is significantly higher than estimated in our book. It should be noted that there is a margin of error in all national IQ estimations. I do not go to the details of your review, but I would like to emphasize that we do not suggest that poor countries should blame themselves for their poverty, which is significantly related to national IQs. Our point is that differences in national IQs reflect the evolved human diversity. Nobody is responsible for those differences, not rich nor poor countries. Such differences are consequences of evolution through natural selection, which is not controlled by anybody. Our message is that we should learn to accept the evolved human diversity and its consequences in social, economic and political conditions. This means that human ability to equalize human conditions is quite limited. We should learn to accept our limitations and learn to live with them. They reflect the endless diversity of life. Sincerely, Tatu Vanhanen Date July 5th 2007: 08:58 As is clearly seen in the above e-mail, the author is adamant that racial differences in intelligence are a result of the evolutionary process and natural selection and there is very little we can do to reverse the situation or equalize human conditions. Vanhanen has got his argument backwards. It makes far more sense to argue that the populations of rich countries do better on IQ tests because they have access to better nutrition and education; Vanhanen 1 Berhanu, Girma. (2007). Black intellectual genocide: An essay review of IQ and the Wealth of Nations. Education Review, 10(6). Retrieved November 16, 2011 from http://edrev.asu.edu/essays/v10n6index.html. Education Review http://www.edrev.info 3 and his co-author Richard Lynn use scientific jargon, and techniques to support claims of natural superiority of one identifiable human population2 or group to another. The message is essentialist, nativist, and deterministic. It denies the conventional view and scientifically proven fact that group differences in intelligence are primarily or exclusively determined by different cultural circumstances, schooling, knowledge, and socioeconomic factors and therefore could be eliminated by improvements in behavioural standards, access to cultural capital, socioeconomic status, home environment, and so on. The e-mail message and the contents of Richard Lynn‘s book are in line with many of the luminaries (e.g., Kant, Hume, and Hegel) of Western philosophy who at one time or another have written about race as if those human groups that distinguished themselves both geographically and phenotypically constituted natural ―types‖ in terms of temperament and intellect
Effect of play-based family-centered psychomotor/psychosocial stimulation on the development of severely acutely malnourished children under six in a low-income setting: a randomized controlled trial
No full textBackground: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends incorporating psychosocial stimulation into the
management of severe acute malnutrition (SAM). However, there is little evidence about the effectiveness of these
interventions for SAM children, particularly when serious food shortages and lack of a balanced diet prevail. The
objective of this study was to examine whether family-based psychomotor/psychosocial stimulation in a lowincome setting improves the development, linear growth, and nutritional outcomes in children with SAM.
Method: Children with SAM (N = 339) admitted for treatment to the Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia,
were randomized to a control (n = 170) or intervention (n = 169) group. Both groups received routine medical care
and nutritional treatment at the hospital. The intervention group additionally received play-based psychomotor/
psychosocial stimulation during their hospital stay, and at home for 6 months after being discharged from hospital.
The fine motor (FM) and gross motor (GM) functions, language (LA) and personal-social (PS) skills of the children
were assessed using adapted Denver II, the social-emotional (SE) behavior was assessed using adapted Ages and
Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional, and the linear growth and nutritional status were determined through
anthropometric assessments. All outcomes were assessed before the intervention, upon discharge from hospital,
and 6 months after discharge (as end-line). The overtime changes of these outcomes measured in both groups
were compared using Generalized Estimating Equations.
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© The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to
the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver
(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
* Correspondence: [email protected] †
Teklu Gemechu Abessa and Marita Granitzer contributed equally to this
work.
1
Department of Special Needs and Inclusive Education, College of Behavioral
Sciences and Education, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
2
REVAL Rehabilitation Research Center, Biomedical Research Institute, Faculty
of Rehabilitation Sciences and Physiotherapy, Hasselt University, Hasselt,
Belgium
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Abessa et al. BMC Pediatrics (2019) 19:336
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-019-1696-z
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Results: The intervention group improved significantly on GM during hospital follow-up by 0.88 points (p < 0.001,
effect size = 0.26 SD), and on FM functions during the home follow-up by 1.09 points (p = 0.001, effect size = 0.22
SD). Both young and older children benefited similarly from the treatment. The intervention did not contribute
significantly to linear growth and nutritional outcomes.
Conclusion: Psychomotor/psychosocial stimulation of SAM children enhances improvement in gross motor
functions when combined with standard nutrient-rich diets, but it can enhance the fine motor functions even
when such standard dietary care is not available.
Trial registration: The trial was retrospectively registered on 30 January 2017 at the US National Institute of Health
(ClinicalTrials.gov) # NCT03036176.This study is part of the Jimma University-Interuniversity Collaboration partnership program funded by Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad - Universitaire Ontwikkelingssamenwerking (VLIR-UOS). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to prepare or publish the manuscript
An Advancing Academic Leadership Preparation: Linking Best Methodological Practices to Leadership Behaviors in Ethiopia’s Public University Context: Linking Best Methodological Practices to Academic Leadership Behaviors
No full textLinking best methodological practices in leadership preparation to leadership behaviors is a framework for investigating valuable leadership behaviors in learning organizations. However, the best subsets of methodological practices, that account for improving academic leadership behaviors are scant in public university terrain. This study intended to investigate the best subsets of methodological practices, which account for advancing academic leadership behaviors in the public university context. An equal stratified random sampling technique was employed to draw subjects. The author distributed 450 questionnaires to academic leaders in Ethiopia’s six public universities, of which 89%(401) were filled out and returned the questionnaires. Using SPSS-20, the author employed stepwise regression techniques to investigate the best subsets of methodological practices, which predict leadership behaviors. As a result, the investigated best subset of methodological practices are better at improving instructional leadership behaviors (39%) compared to improving transformational (15%), transactional(12%), and laissez-faire (1.5%) leadership behaviors. Multifactor feedbacks and action learning were the best subset, which predict transformational leadership behavior. More importantly, multifactor feedback, counseling, seminar, and action learning were the best subset, those predicting instructional leadership behaviors. Thus, there are best subsets of methodological practices, which account for academic leadership development in public university context.
Key Words: Academic Leadership; Leadership Preparation; Best Practices; Public Universitie
Mediated Learning Activities Between Caregivers and Children Among New Immigrants and Veteran Families in Israel: An Experiment on Two “Home-Based” Tasks
No full textThe author presents a study of the systematic observation of Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) among Ethiopian immigrants in Israel. The study was based on “semi-naturalistic” observation of two tasks–one experimental task with the new immigrants, another with veteran immigrants. The observation was conducted mainly on the basis of MLE parameters. The study illustrates the components of MLE that are most valuable and ones that are more emphasized than others as part of the overall cultural practice and its value system. Generally, Ethiopian parents infrequently use the mediation of transcendence infrequently and rarely provide mediation of competence and reward, especially in the explicit verbal form of a direct reward. More emphasis is placed on the accomplishment of actual acts with little room for making errors. The mediation of regulation of behavior is done with a more commanding and direct manner–sometimes scolding–with an authoritarian voice and body gestures. The overall picture of MLE among this immigrant population indicates that there is still a huge disparity between the mediational teaching style expressed as ideal in schools and the mediational styles that Ethiopian children are familiar with at home. This suggests a discontinuity between home and school that might inhibit a rapid adaptation to the school’s learning style for the children.</jats:p
Parenting (Parental Attitude), Child Development, and Modalities of Parent-Child Interactions: Sayings, Proverbs, and Maxims of Ethiopian Jews in Israel
No full textThe author presents and discusses typical (traditional) modalities of parent-child interaction based on proverbs, sayings and maxims, and on participant observation, informal talks, and personal experience working with Ethiopian Jews in Israel. Although the author’s assumptions are clear that there is no direct causal link between a single proverb/saying and the behavior associated with it, he also assumes that all the tens of sayings presented combined with the relevant ethnographic data may reveal some patterns of the psychological theories of the caretakers and something of their “native” theories of how children should be socialized in order to become ideal children. Some core values in child growth and development, learning, and parenting that may have great influence on children’s preparedness for formal schooling,, hence their success in scholastic achievement, are also suggested. The principal conclusion drawn from this study underscores the significance of cultural meaning systems and meta-communicative frameworks in which proverbs and sayings are embedded and highlights the largely unconscious effect they can have on socialization processes and various cognitive activities. This may also shed some light on problems related to group-based inequalities in scholastic achievement. Further, there is a need for heightened awareness of intercultural education in order to bridge the broad gap between the culture of the Ethiopian home and the Israeli school culture.</jats:p
Modeling Preference and Willingness to Pay for Drought Tolerance (DT) in Maize in Rural Zimbabwe
No full textMaize plays a leading role in the food security of millions in southern Africa, yet it is highly vulnerable to the moisture stress brought about by the erratic rainfall patterns that characterize weather systems in the area. Developing and making drought tolerant maize varieties available to farmers in the region has thus long been a key goal on the regional development agenda. Farm-level adoption of these varieties, however, depends on local perceptions of the value they add, along with willingness to pay (WTP) for it. Focusing on Zimbabwe, this research aimed at estimating the implicit prices farmers are willing to pay for drought tolerance in maize compared to other preferred traits. Using a choice experiment framework, we generated 12,600 observations from a random sample of 1,400 households in communal areas within 14 districts of Zimbabwe. Taste parameters and heterogeneities were estimated using the generalized multinomial logit model (G-MNL). The results reveal drought tolerance, grain yield, covered cob tip, cob size, and semi-flint texture to be the most preferred traits by farm households in Zimbabwe. The WTP estimates show that farmers are willing to pay a premium for drought tolerance equal to 2.56, 7, 3.2, and 5 times higher than for an additional ton of yield per acre, bigger cob size, larger grain size, and covered cob tip, respectively. We suggest designing and implementing innovative ways of promoting DT maize along with awareness-raising activities to enhance contextual understandings of drought and drought risk to speed adoption of new DT maize varieties by risk-prone farming communities. Given the high level of rural literacy and the high rate of adoption of improved maize, trait-based promotion and marketing of varieties constitutes the right strategy. (C) 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
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