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Implementing a web-based solution to address challenges in the admission framework for advanced level private schools in Tanzania
No full textThis research article was published by MoCU,2024This study introduces the Tanzania Central Processing Admission System (TCPAS) as a
groundbreaking web-based solution designed to revolutionize the admission processes in
Advanced Level (A-Level) private schools. The research meticulously explores the existing
challenges within manual admission procedures, emphasizing inefficiencies, delays, and
transparency issues in Tanzania's educational landscape. An in-depth analysis of prevalent
admission methodologies reveals the urgent need for a modern, streamlined approach that
prioritizes efficiency, accessibility, and fairness. TCPAS emerges as a comprehensive solution,
featuring modules such as Centralized Data Handling, Applicant-School Interaction, Multiple
Admissions Control, Certificate Verification, and Payment. These modules collectively address
key issues, offering a transformative shift from traditional, paper-intensive methods to an eco
friendly, paperless system. TCPAS promises to enhance transparency and accessibility, providing
a user-friendly interface for applicants to navigate school options, receive prompt feedback, and
manage multiple admissions efficiently. The Certificate Verification and Payment Module
eliminate the need for physical certificates, incorporating electronic verification and payment
processes. While TCPAS represents a significant advancement, the study acknowledges the
necessity for ongoing research to evaluate its long-term effectiveness, adaptability in diverse
educational contexts, and potential enhancements. Future exploration into predictive technologies,
such as machine learning, could further refine TCPAS, ensuring it remains a robust, adaptable,
and globally applicable solution, transforming admissions processes not only in Tanzania but also
in educational institutions worldwid
Applying Theory of Planned Behavior to Examine Users' Intention to Adopt Broadband Internet in Lower-Middle Income Countries' Rural Areas: A Case of Tanzania
Get PDFThis research article was published by Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice volume 12, 2024Broadband Internet has proven to be vital for economic growth in developed countries. Developing countries have implemented
several initiatives to increase their broadband access. However, its full potential can only be realized through adoption and use.
With lower-middle-income countries accounting for the majority of the world’s unconnected population, this study employs the
theory of planned behavior (TPB) to investigate users’ intentions to adopt broadband. Rural Tanzania was chosen as a case
study. A cross-sectional study was conducted over three weeks, using 155 people from seven villages with the lowest broadband
adoption rates. Non-probability voluntary response sampling was used to recruit the participants. Using the TPB constructs:
attitude toward behavior (ATB), subjective norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC), ordinal regression analysis was
employed to predict intention. Descriptive statistical analysis yielded mean scores (standard deviation) as 3.59 (0.46) for ATB, 3.34
(0.40) for SN, 3.75 (0.29) for PBC, and 4.12 (0.66) for intention. The model adequately described the data based on a comparison
of the model with predictors and the null model, which revealed a substantial improvement in fit (
p<0.05). Moreover, the predictors
accounted for 50.3% of the variation in the intention to use broadband Internet, demonstrating the predictive power of the TPB
constructs. Furthermore, the TPB constructs were all significant positive predictors of intention: ATB (β=1.938,
p<0.05), SN (β=2.144, p<0.05), and PBC (β=1.437,
p=0.013). The findings of this study provide insight into how behavioral factors influence the likelihood
of individuals adopting broadband Internet and could guide interventions through policies meant to promote broadband adoption
Investigation of uranium derived from phosphate fertilizers on plants uptakes and bacterial diversity in selected agricultural soils of east africa
Get PDFA Thesis Submitted in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Science and Engineering of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyDifferent types of phosphate fertilizers (PFs) used in agriculture to increase soil fertility contain
uranium (U) as an accompanying element. Uranium is both toxic and slightly radioactive. This
study investigated the concentrations of U in phosphate rocks (PRs) and PFs used in growing
tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) and maize (Zea Mays L) plants from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda,
Tanzania, and Uganda. The results showed that the concentrations of U in phosphates from
Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were statistically significant (P ≤ 0.01). The lowest U
concentration was 10.7 mg kg−1 found at the Mrima Hill deposit in Kenya and the highest was
631.6 mg kg−1
found at the Matongo deposit in Burundi. Uranium concentrations for local and
imported PFs was also statistically significant (P ≤ 0.01). Uranium concentration from PFs
ranged from 107.88 ± 9.60 and 281.57 ± 15.82 mg kg−1
. The study also assessed the influence
of U from PFs on the radioactivity of agricultural soils and uptake by tobacco plants. The results
showed that applications of PFs in agricultural soils increased radioactivity in agricultural soil
and tobacco crops. Tobacco smoking and snuffing behaviors resulted in an annual effective
dose that was 2.41-6.53 and 1.14-2.45 times greater than annual recommended effective doses
for snuffers and smokers. This work also investigated the influence of fertilizer derived U on
maize plant uptake and bacterial diversity in soil after application of fertilizers with varying U
concentrations. The pilot field experiments showed that application of PFs with different U
concentrations influenced bacteria abundance and diversity in maize crops. Applications of
Nafaka plus (NP) (3.93 mg kg-1
) and Minjingu Powder (MP) (3.06 mg kg-1
) PFs in soil
increased bacteria abundance and diversity. Some bacteria were abundant on NP treated soil
(high U content) because of their ability to tolerate higher U concentrations. Uptake from soil
to crop for maize after applications of PFs of varying U concentrations was investigated by
amending soil with Eucalyptus globulus ssp maideii bark and kaolin clay. The soil amendments
in reduced U uptake from soil to plant in pot experiments. It is believed that the reduced U
uptake is associated with eucalyptus globulus ssp maideni carboxyl groups that can reduce
mobile hexa-uranyl ions to immobile tetra uranyl ions that can be absorbed by the kaolin clay.
The study recommends further work in understanding the mechanisms of Eucalyptus ssp
maidenii bark powder and kaolin U uptake reduction in soil complex matrix
Valorisation of solid sisal leaves decortication wastes using black soldier fly (hermetia illucens l.) larvae
Get PDFA Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Science and Engineering of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyThe amount of waste generated from sisal industries during sisal fiber production is huge and
its management is still challenging and a menace to the environment. These wastes include
sisal wastewater and sisal leaf decortication wastes (SLDW) which represent an opportunity
for valorization into products. Nevertheless, the sisal leaf decortication wastes is suitable for
resource recovery in order to reduce the impacts it causes by just being discarded in the
environment without treatment. This study aimed at managing the SLDW using insect-based
technology. Specifically, the study characterized the SLDW for its physical and chemical
constituents, pretreatment of SLDW to render it suitable for the growth of the insects and
optimization of the waste and other blends for production of livestock feed. The use of SLDW
for various applications is limited due to its high acidic content and presence of saponin within
it. This is the first study of its kind regarding the use the SLDW as a substrate for growth of
BSFL. Pre-treatment was a necessary and challenging step done on the waste to meet minimum
requirements for rearing of BSF. The resultant waste had Ca, P, K, Mn, Fe, Cu and Zn at
varying levels which are all essential for animal growth. The SLDW contained 10 ± 0.01
percent of crude protein, 11 ± 0.02 moisture and energy (1615 kcal/g of Sisal de-corticated
waste). The sun dried BSF larvae reared on SLDW contained 53 ± 0.005 percent crude protein,
4 ± 0.01 percent of crude fat, moisture content (10 ± 0.1) %, carbohydrate (43 ± 0.01) % and
ash (37 ± 0.08) %. When rearing was done on SLDW, 3000 g of dried pre-treated waste yielded
more wet BSF larvae (336 ± 41.3) g compared to 3000 g of fruit waste which yielded (244 ±
4.16) g of wet BSF larvae. Furthermore, the harvested BSFL after optimization process through
blending of SLDW, RB and CDW improved growth rate of BSFL (2.2 gram per larvae) and
contained sufficient nutritional value to feed poultry and fish, reducing the necessity to de-fatty
the larvae as it is being practiced when market waste is being used. The SLDW is a promising
feedstock for rearing BSFL because it has good reduction of the waste by 52%. This study
eventually creates resource recovery sustainability in sisal industries
Brucella Species Circulating in Smallholder Dairy Cattle in Tanzania
Get PDFThis research article was published by Pathogens ,Volume 13, 2024Brucellosis is a zoonosis caused by bacteria of the genus Brucella, which results in economic losses relating to livestock and threatens public health. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the molecular prevalence of Brucella species in smallholder dairy cattle in six regions of Tanzania from July 2019 to October 2020. Dairy cattle (n = 2048) were sampled from 1371 farms. DNA extracted from blood and vaginal swabs was tested for Brucella using qPCR targeting the IS711 gene and positives were tested for the alkB marker for B. abortus and BMEI1172 marker for B. melitensis. The molecular prevalence was 3.5% (95% CI: 2.8–4.4) with the highest prevalence 8.1% (95% CI: 4.6–13.0) in Njombe region. B. melitensis was the predominant species detected (66.2%). Further studies are recommended to understand the source of B. melitensis and its implications for veterinary public health. Livestock keepers should be informed of the risks and biosecurity practices to reduce the introduction and control of Brucella. Cattle and small ruminant vaccination programs could be implemented to control brucellosis in high-risk populations in the country
A Novel Mechanism for Detection of Address Resolution Protocol Spoofing Attacks in Large-Scale Software-Defined Networks
Get PDFThis research article was published by IEEE volume12 2024Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) spoofing has been a long-standing problem with no clear
remedy until now. The attacks can be launched easily utilizing an enormous number of publicly available
tools on the web; however, they are extremely tough to counterattack due to ARP’s stateless nature for not
authenticating ARP replies for a subsequent request. Previous studies have demonstrated significant efforts
to counterattack these assaults in Software-Defined Networks (SDN); however, much effort has been focused
solely on detecting the assaults, with little effort being made to address performance bottlenecks, scalability,
and Single Point of Failure (SPOF) issues in large-scale networks. In this study, we focus on developing ARP
spoofing attacks detection mechanism in large-scale SDN that is immune to SPOF and provides enhanced
network performance and scalability. The main purpose is to enable controllers to intercept and analyze all
incoming ARP packets, learn address mappings, and store them in the application’s memory to be used as
a basis for ongoing ARP cache comparisons while maintaining a global cache in a controller. To achieve
the goal of this study, a simulation experiment in a closed network environment was undertaken to precisely
monitor network traffic and result patterns. Mininet and the Open Network Operating System were used to
implement the data plane and OpenFlow controllers. The results show that, the proposed solution is resistant
to ARP spoofing attacks, with an average detection and mitigation time of 4.3 and 26.19 milliseconds,
respectively. Further significant improvements have been observed in alleviating SPOF and performance
bottlenecks
Metal oxides modified Carbon electrode materials for Fluoride and Paraquat removal from water by capacitive deionization
Get PDFA Thesis Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Science and Engineering of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyCapacitive deionization (CDI) is an emerging water treatment technology with many
advantages, including low energy consumption, high efficiency, low cost, green and pollution free electrode regeneration. However, the electrode material is the main controlling factor for
achieving high CDI performance. For a long time, activated carbon (AC) has been a preferred
electrode material for CDI due to its availability, ease of preparation, low cost, and tunable
textural properties. However, the pristine AC lacks selectivity towards the targeted ions,
resulting in unnecessary energy consumption for treating polluted water and decreasing the
removal efficiency (RE) of the targeted pollutant. To improve ion selectivity, in this study,
composites of AC with metal oxides have been synthesized through a simple and one-step co precipitation method at ambient temperature (23-27°C) for defluoridation and removing
paraquat (PQ) from water. The composite properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction,
scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X ray spectroscopy, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis. In competitive fluoride (Fˉ) removal
CDI experiments, AC–Al4Fe2.5Ti4 composite reduced the Fˉ concentration from 5.15 to 1.18
mg/L, below the allowable limit of 1.5 mg/L set by the World Health Organization while
pristine AC reduced the Fˉ concentration to 4.5 mg/L. Also, AC–Al4Fe2.5Ti4 composite
demonstrated a high RE of 79% and excellent regeneration performance after continuous
electric adsorption–desorption cycles. Furthermore, CDI batch experiments compared the
electrosorption of paraquat (PQ) herbicide by the composite electrodes (AC-Al2O3: 1:1) and
pristine AC. The performance of the composite electrodes showed that PQ RE and
electrosorption capacity (EC) depend on aluminium content loading, applied potential, flow
rate, and charging time. At 1.2 V, a flow rate of 15 mL/min, and a charging time of 3 h, the
composite electrode demonstrated a RE, EC, and energy consumption of 95.5%, 1.27 mg/g,
and 0.055 kWh/m3
, respectively, compared to 62%, 0.83 mg/g, and 0.11 kWh/m3
for the
pristine AC. The presence of other ions/pollutants was found to have negligible interference on
PQ pesticide removal as the RE of the AC/Al2O3-1:1 composite in both artificial and natural
water were 95.5 and 87.5% while EC was 1.27 and 1.17 mg/g, respectively. Therefore, the
modified AC-metal oxides electrodes are promising and efficient materials for removing
inorganic pollutants from water, such as Fˉ and organic pollutants, including PQ pesticides for
CDI technolog
Naturally occurring metal oxides from rocks as capacitive deionization electrode materials for antibacterial activities
Get PDFA Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyThe availability of clean and safe drinking water remains a prominent challenge in most parts of
the world. Drinking water should be free from harmful microorganisms, salt as well as other
organic and inorganic contaminants that need attention as they have health impacts on human
beings. In the present study, naturally occurring metal oxides from rocks embedded in activated
carbon (AC/MO) electrodes were evaluated for desalination and anti-bacterial activities against
gram-negative (Escherichia coli) and gram-positive (Salmonella aureus) bacteria using capacitive
deionization (CDI) technique. The AC/MO electrodes were fabricated for desalination and
disinfection of natural and synthetic water with the CDI method. The AC/MO electrode materials
were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX),
X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), and Fourier-Transform-Infrared
spectroscopy (FTIR), and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) which affirm the formation
of disinfecting electrode materials. The desalination and disinfection CDI experiments were
conducted by carrying out batch mode laboratory CDI system using natural water collected from
the Nduruma stream (natural water) while applying a potential difference of 1.2V for 4 h. It was
found that the AC/MO CDI electrodes achieved 100 ± 0.42% E. coli and 60 ± 0.53% S. aureus
bacteria removal and 46.85 ± 0.49% salt removal efficiency. The bacterial disinfection mechanism
is through the CDI process and physical adsorption. Therefore, this study presents the AC/MO
electrode material which can be considered as an appreciable anti-bacterial agent for the CDI
performanc
The effects of Garcinia kola and curcumin on the dorsal root ganglion of the diabetic rat after peripheral nerve transection injury
No full textThis research article was published by Elsevier, 2024Abstract
Objective
To test the protective effects of Garcinia kola and curcumin on the ganglion tissues of diabetic rats following the use of autologous vein graft in peripheral nerve transection injury.
Methods
The sciatic nerve on the right side was transected, and anastomosis was performed between the proximal and distal ends using an autologous vein graft. Curcumin and Garcinia kola seed extract were administered daily by oral gavage. The ganglion tissues were harvested after a 90-day waiting period. Sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglion at the L4 and L5 levels were used for stereological evaluations. Mean sensory neuron numbers were analyzed using a stereological technique. The size of the light and dark neurons was also estimated, and ultrastructural and immunohistochemical evaluations were performed.
Results
A statistically significant difference in sensory neuron numbers was observed between the groups with and without Garcinia kola and curcumin applications. The immunohistochemical results showed that the s-100 protein is expressed selectively between cell types.
Conclusion
The results of this study show that curcumin and Garicinia kola prevented sensory neuron loss in diabetic rats following transection injury to the sciatic nerve
A deterministic mathematical model with non-linear least squares method for investigating the transmission dynamics of lumpy skin disease
Get PDFA research article was published by Healthcare Analytics Volume 5, 2024Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an economically significant viral disease of cattle caused by the lumpy disease virus (LSDV) which is primarily spread mechanically by blood feeding vectors such as particular species in flies, mosquitoes and ticks. Despite efforts to control its spread, LSD has been expanding geographically, posing challenges for effective control measures. This study develops a Susceptible–Exposed–Infectious–Recovered–Susceptible (SEIRS) model that incorporates cattle and vector populations to investigate LSD transmission dynamics. The model considers the waning rate of natural active immunity in recovered cattle, disease-induced mortality, and the biting rate. Using a standard dynamical system approach, we conducted a qualitative analysis of the model, defining the invariant region, establishing conditions for solution positivity, computing the basic reproduction number, and examining the stability of disease-free and endemic equilibria. We employ a non-linear least squares method for model calibration, fitting it to a synthetic dataset. We subsequently test it with actual infectious cases data. Results from the calibration and testing phases demonstrate the model’s validity and reliability for diverse settings. Local and global sensitivity analyses were conducted to determine the model’s robustness to parameter values. The biting rate emerged as the most significant parameter, followed by the probabilities of infection from either population and the recovery rate. Additionally, the waning rate of LSD infection-induced immunity gained positive significance in LSD prevalence from the beginning of the infectious period onward. Simulation results suggest reducing the biting rate as the most effective LSD control measure, which can be achieved by applying vector repellents in cattle farms/herds, thereby mitigating the disease’s prevalence in both cattle and vector populations and reducing the chances of infection from either population. Furthermore, measures aiming to boost LSD infection-induced immunity upon recovery are recommended to preserve the immune systems of the cattle population