Erroneous gender identification by the amelogenin sex test

Human gender identification, based on the amelogenin gene, has important applications in forensic casework, prenatal diagnosis, DNA databasing, and blood sample storage. However, we report on the first known case, in the Israeli population, of an amelogenin sex test failure on a phenotypically normal male. He was typed as a female by both the AmpFlSTR SGM plus and GenePrint kits. Subsequent, karyotyping of the soldier's blood sample showed no abnormalities. These results suggest that the determination of sex, based on the amelogenin test, should be interpreted cautiously.     

Ethiopian returnee women from Arab countries: challenges of successful reintegration

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the Ethiopian female migrant’s change, sustainability of gains, and problems of adjustment and reintegration upon return from the Middle East. Data was gathered from 87 returnees. The income they earn is contributed to their households. However, remittance management and saving strategies were ineffective to bring remarkable changes. Much of the remittance sent home was spent on basic needs. Savings at home and in the Middle East were insignificant. Employment and involvement in investments in the post-return period were limited, and most were leading lives either similar to before or lower level than prior to their departure. Using a methodological classification ‘success’ or ‘failure’, one-third of them achieved relative success. Efforts should be made to develop pre-migration awareness via media such as telecom alerting radios, televisions, and posters. Interventions in skills training and counseling should also be the norm.     

Road Infrastructure and Enterprise Dynamics in Ethiopia

We analyse the relationship between road infrastructure quality and the location choice and entry size of manufacturing firms in Ethiopia. We use GIS-based panel data on town-level measures of road infrastructure and census-based panel data on firms. Our dataset covers a period of considerable improvements in road infrastructure as a result of major public investments. We find that local infrastructure is important for entry, while more extensive market connectivity is important for the entry of large firms. We conclude that improved infrastructure has been associated with favourable outcomes with respect to entry patterns and firm size in Ethiopia’s manufacturing sector.     

Community participation and inner-city slum renewal: relocated people's perspectives on slum clearance and resettlement in Addis Ababa

The article explores the process of residential relocation in inner-city slum renewal in Addis Ababa. Drawing on qualitative research methods involving interviews and focus group discussions with members of relocated households, it examines the nature of people's involvement in inner-city renewal and how it affects their lives. The article argues that the process of planning and implementation of relocation is not only top-down, but also does not involve the perspectives, needs, and livelihood strategies of those affected. The article concludes that the city administration needs to work closely with NGOs, the private sector, and community-based organisations in order to meet the housing needs of relocated households.     

Innovation in forage development: empirical evidence from Alaba Special District,southern Ethiopia

Forage development is one of the strategies to address feed scarcity and low livestock productivity in Ethiopia. In line with government strategy, multiple actors took part in a forage development programme for six years (2004–09) in Alaba Special District, in southern Ethiopia. This paper analyses the six-year forage development programme, comparing its two phases, from an innovation systems perspective to identify best practices. The study shows that key forage innovative practices are: targeting innovative forage farmers, developing local forages, establishing private forage sources, forage promotion and diversifying capacity building. These best practices can be scaled up and out to address feed scarcity and increase livestock productivity.

Innovation en matière de développement des forages : données empiriques du District spécial d'Alaba, sud de l'Éthiopie

Le développement de forages fait partie des stratégies mises en ?uvre pour lutter contre l'insuffisance de fourrage et la faible productivité du bétail en Éthiopie. Conformément à la stratégie gouvernementale, de multiples acteurs ont pris part à un programme de développement de forages pendant six ans (2004–09) dans le District spécial d'Alaba, dans le sud de l'Éthiopie. Ce document analyse le programme de développement de forages de six ans, en comparant les deux phases d'un point de vue de systèmes d'innovation afin d'identifier les meilleures pratiques. Cette étude montre que les pratiques clés innovantes en matière de forages sont : ciblage des agriculteurs innovants utilisant des forages, développement des forages locaux, établissement de sources privées pour les forages, promotion des forages et diversification du renforcement des capacités. L'échelle de ces meilleures pratiques peut être accrue en termes de portée et de nombre afin de lutter contre la pénurie de fourrage et d'augmenter la productivité du bétail.

Inovação no Desenvolvimento das Forrageiras: Evidência Empírica do Distrito de Alaba Special, no sul da Etiópia

O desenvolvimento das forrageiras é uma das estratégias para abordar a escassez de ração e baixa produtividade da produção de gado na Etiópia. Alinhados com a estratégia do governo, vários agentes participaram de um programa de desenvolvimento de forrageiras durante deis anos (2004–09) no Distrito de Alaba Special, no sul da Etiópia. Este artigo analisa o programa de desenvolvimento das forrageiras de seis anos de duração, comparando suas duas fases a partir de uma perspectiva de sistemas de inovaçóo para identificar as melhores práticas. O estudo mostra que as práticas cruciais e inovadoras relativas ás forrageiras são: ter como alvo produtores inovadores de forrageiras, desenvolver forrageiras locais, estabelecer fontes de forrageiras privadas, promover as forrageiras e diversificar a capacitação. Estas melhores práticas podem ser intensificadas e expandidas para abordar a escassez de ração e aumentar a produtividade do gado.

Innovación en el cultivo de forrajes: datos empíricos del Distrito Especial de Alaba en el sur de Etiopía

El cultivo de forrajes es una de las estrategias para responder a la escasez de alimentos y a la baja productividad ganadera en Etiopía. En línea con la estrategia gubernamental, varios productores del Distrito Especial de Alaba en el sur de Etiopía participaron en un programa de cultivo de forrajes durante seis años (2004-2009). Para identificar las mejores prácticas, este ensayo analiza el programa y compara sus dos fases desde una perspectiva de innovación de sistemas. El programa mostró que las prácticas más innovadoras para la producción de forraje son: orientar a los productores que utilizan nuevas prácticas en sus cultivos de forraje, desarrollar forrajes locales, crear fuentes privadas de forrajes, promover los forrajes y diversificar el fortalecimiento de capacidades. Estas buenas prácticas pueden darse a conocer y propagarse para responder a la escasez de alimentos e incrementar la productividad ganadera.     

The existentialities of Ethiopian and Nigerian migrants in South Africa

Many studies on international migrations have concentrated on South-North migrations, causes and consequences of such migrations, sending and receiving countries and characteristics of migrants’ interfaces. there is much less scholarly work on South-South migrations, and academic and policy works on wider Africans’ migrations into South Africa are particularly scarce. even among the very few existing studies on South-South migrations, very few account for migrants’ existentialities in South Africa – a nation experiencing the largest scale migrations in Africa and strategising to cope with associated issues, especially among the hard-to-reach migrant communities. This article therefore, examines the ramifications of experiences and existences or existentialities of ethiopian and Nigerian immigrants in South Africa as crucial case study for the growth of pan-Africanism. the approach adopted for this article is transnational systematic interactions and observations in Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa. Secondary sources from unclassified documents, scholarly journals, reports and reliable Internet sources were utilised. The findings suggest the need for more robust, inclusive and dynamic social/migration policies in South Africa, as well as other southern nations experiencing high immigration. the argument is that the receiving nations of migrants must pay more attention to objective and comprehensive understanding of migrants and migrant communities to sustainably appropriate migration’s gains and to ameliorate unintended migration consequences.     

Substantiated Childhood Maltreatment and Intimate Partner Violence Victimization in Young Adulthood: A Birth Cohort Study

Little is known about the associations between various types of childhood maltreatment and multiple forms of intimate partner violence victimization in early adulthood. This study examines the extent to which childhood experiences of maltreatment increase the risk for intimate partner violence victimization in early adulthood. Data for the present study are from 3322 young adults (55?% female) of the Mater Hospital-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy with the mean age of 20.6 years. The Mater Hospital-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy is a prospective Australian pre-birth cohort study of mothers consecutively recruited during their first antenatal clinic visit at Brisbane’s Mater Hospital from 1981 through to 1983. Participants completed the Composite Abuse Scale at 21-year follow-up and linked this dataset to agency recorded substantiated cases of childhood maltreatment. In adjusted models, the odds of reporting emotional intimate partner violence victimization were 1.84, 2.64 and 3.19 times higher in physically abused, neglected and emotionally abused children, respectively. Similarly, the odds of physical intimate partner violence victimization were 1.76, 2.31, 2.74 and 2.76 times higher in those children who had experienced physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and emotional abuse, respectively. Harassment was 1.63 times higher in emotionally abused children. The odds of severe combined abuse were 3.97 and 4.62 times greater for emotionally abused and neglected children, respectively. The strongest associations involved reports of child emotional abuse and neglect and multiple forms of intimate partner violence victimization in young adulthood. Childhood maltreatment is a chronic adversity that is associated with specific and multiple forms of intimate partner violence victimization in adulthood.     

Commercial behaviours of smallholder farmers in wheat seed use and its implication for demand assessment in Ethiopia

The article presents the commercial behaviour and its determinants of smallholder farmers in wheat seed use, and its implication for seed demand assessment, based on primary data from 524 wheat farmers in the major wheat growing areas covering 22 woredas in 11 zones in the Amhara, Oromiya, SNNP, and Tigray regions of Ethiopia. Although 69% of farmers use improved varieties, the overwhelming majority use seed from informal sources: own saved seed (52%) or purchased seed from local sources (32%). The article documents the distribution of wheat growers into different wheat seed market positions (autarkic, buying, or selling), and identifies the key determinants of these market behaviours. The results can serve as a guide in assessing the wheat seed demand from the formal sector at a national level.     

Of Shaming and Bargaining: African States and the Universal Periodic Review of the United Nations Human Rights Council

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United Nations HumanRights Council promises to be a useful tool for examining humanrights situations in states in an objective, non-selective,universal and transparent manner. It is an undertaking imbuedwith a shift from the former Commission's policies and practiceof shaming to a new consensual and cooperative model of humanrights evaluation. The experience of African countries, bothduring the negotiation over its normative and institutionalframework and in the two sessions of the Working Group on UPR,lays bare the challenges to the new human rights body and itsunique peer review mechanism. The article critically examinesthe participation of African countries in the UPR and highlightssome of the issues that deserve, at this early stage, the attentionof all those who mind to see the objectives of the UPR fullyrealised.     

Coping with shocks in rural Ethiopia

Abstract

Using survey data and event history interviews undertaken in Ethiopia, we investigate which shocks trigger which coping responses and why. Relatively covariate natural and economic shocks trigger reductions in savings and in food consumption, while relatively idiosyncratic health shocks prompt reductions in savings and a reliance on borrowing. Surprisingly, across all shocks, households do not rely on gifts from family and friends, highlighting the need for formal protection systems. We argue that the insensitivity of food consumption to health shocks does not imply insurability but indicates that it is not a viable response to such a shock.