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A prediction tool for dolutegravir associated hyperglycaemia among HIV patients in Uganda
Get PDFA Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Embedded and Mobile Systems of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyThe initiation of Dolutegravir based antiretroviral therapy has provided a potent treatment option
for persons living with human immunodeficiency Virus (PLHIV). However, clinical research has
shown overwhelming evidence that use Dolutegravir (DTG) results into consequential
hyperglycaemia. The incidence and prevalence rates of Dolutegravir associated hyperglycaemia
among PLHIV are unknown. Therefore, identification of patients susceptible to dolutegravir
associated hyperglycaemia is critical to lessening morbidity and mortality associated with
uncontrolled high blood glucose level among patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and care.
The current procedures practiced in screening for hyperglycemia among PLHIV being switched to
DTG and DTG Associated Hyperglycemia related literature were appraised. Various machine
learning classification algorithms were employed to come up with the most appropriate model. The
purpose of the study was to develop an efficient DTG associated hyperglycaemia Screening tool
for treatment experienced PLHIV being switched to DTG in Uganda. The study found Extreme
Gradient Boost Classification model as the best with performance and evaluation metrics as
follows: model accuracy is 0.99, probability to classify positives is 0.87, precision probability for
predicting positives is 0.67, Area under the receiver operating Characteristic curve is 0.90, Area
under a precision, recall curve as 0.86, F1 score is 0.76, and Cohen Kappa score as 0.72 inter alia.
Therefore, the study recommends the adoption and use of the DTG associated hyperglycaemia
screening tool while switching HIV treatment experienced patients to a DTG based regimen. This
is because the world over is using Machine learning tools to support Medicare. The researcher also
suggests stratifying the data by gender and build DTG associated prediction models for women and
men separately because men are not affected in any by variables of pregnancy and post-menopausal
phase like women. The research proses lessening of bureaucratic tendencies and high charges
levied on research protocols and data acquisition as a way of promoting these innovative studies
among others
Modelling the transmission dynamics and control of taeniasis and cysticercosis in humans, pigs and cattle
Get PDFA Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematical and Computer Sciences and Engineering of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyTaeniasis and cysticercosis are neglected food-borne diseases that pose challenges to food
safety, human health and livelihood of rural livestock farmers. Cysticercosis reduces the market
value for pigs and cattle by making pork and beef unsafe for consumption. In this research,
deterministic and continuous time Markov chain (CTMC) models are formulated and analyzed
to study the transmission dynamics of taeniasis and cysticercosis in humans, pigs and cattle.
To study the dynamics of the diseases, we derived the basic reproduction numbers R01 for T.
saginata and R0 for T. saginata and T. solium parasitic infections by next generation matrix
method. Global stability for models’ equilibria are established by Lyapunov functions, Metzler
matrix approach and cooperative systems theory whereas the normalized forward sensitivity
index is employed to determine the sensitive parameters. The multitype branching process is
adopted to compute the probability of diseases’ extinction or outbreak. The optimal control
and cost-effectiveness analyses are used to determine the disease’s optimal strategy and most
cost-effective strategy for disease’s control respectively. Analysis shows that both the disease
free and endemic equilibria exist. The disease free equilibria are globally asymptotically stable
when R01 < 1 and R0 < 1 whereas the endemic equilibria are globally asymptotically stable
when R01 > 1 and R0 > 1. Sensitivity analysis for T. saginata bovine cysticercosis and human
taeniasis model shows that T. saginata eggs to cattle transmission coefficient, human and cattle
recruitment rates, the probability of humans to contract taeniasis, the open defecation rate by
humans with taeniasis and the rate of eating raw or undercooked infected beef are the most pos itive sensitive parameters whereas the natural mortality rates for humans, cattle and T. saginata
eggs, and the proportion of unconsumed infected beef are the most negative sensitive parame ters. Sensitivity results for taeniasis and cysticercosis transmission dynamics model due to T.
solium and T. saginata tapeworms in humans, pigs and cattle show that human’s recruitment,
the probability of humans to acquire taeniasis and the open defecation rate by humans with
taeniasis are the most positive sensitive parameters whereas the T. saginata natural mortality
rate is the most negative sensitive parameter. CTMC model results for T. saginata bovine cys ticercosis and human taeniasis show that the probability of diseases’ extinction is high when
the diseases emerge from a small number of T. saginata eggs or from infected cattle and there
is major diseases’ outbreak when the diseases emerge from infectious beef. On the other hand,
CTMC model results for taeniasis and cysticercosis transmission dynamics due to T. solium and
T. saginata tapeworms in humans, pigs and cattle indicate that the probability of disease’s ex tinction is high when the diseases emerge from humans with cysticercosis or a small number of
taenia eggs in the environment. However, there is a major outbreak when the diseases emerge
from humans with taeniasis or from infectious pork and beef. Basing on sensitivity analysis,
various control strategies were designed. The T. saginata optimal control results indicate that
i
a strategy which targets improving meat cooking and treatment of infected humans is the opti mal strategy. The T. solium and T. saginata model results show that a strategy which combines
meat inspection, treatment of humans with taeniasis and improving hygiene and sanitation is
the most effective strategy for diseases’ control. Thus, to control the diseases at minimal cost,
we recommend that more efforts be directed to treat humans with taeniasis and improve meat
inspection, meat cooking, and hygiene and sanitation
Mobile application for gate pass management system enhancement
Get PDFA Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Embedded and Mobile Systems of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyGate pass management is an essential measure to keep records of people's entrance and exit of
company premises. Technological improvement steered gate pass management from paper-based
logbooks to a web-based system that relies on the internet. The web-based system contains forms
to input personal information, exit and entry time, and reason for requesting a gate pass. For a large
organization with a diverse number of employees who do not have access to computers for their
daily routine activities, it’s extremely challenging to request a gate pass through an existing web based gate pass management system. Thus, users turn to smartphones to access the web-based gate
pass management system. A responsive web system is a considerable approach to resolve screen
size and input method challenge of the smartphone; however, the study shows many users are not
interested to use a mobile browser for accessing web services. Hence necessitate the
implementation of a mobile application for enhancing the existing web-based gate pass
management system. Web-based gate pass management system requires printers for printing gate
pass permission, and barcode scanners are required for scanning gate pass permission paper at the
security gate. The cost of hardware and printing materials is waived through the utilization of
mobile phones to create shareable digital gate passes, as well as utilizing a camera as a barcode
scanner. The camera can be used for photographing gate pass users for extra records. Seventy (70)
respondents were selected through the non-probability purposive sampling technique. The mobile
application was developed, tested, and validated through hundred potential users
Fetal heart beat rate monitoring support device for pregnant women diagnosed with mild pre-eclampsia/hypertension in Tanzania
Get PDFA Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Embedded and Mobile Systems of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyThe standard care for pregnant women in Tanzania is done in health facilities. The fetal heart
rate monitoring among other things is done during scheduled antenatal clinic visits. High
number of still birth caused by timely and inaccurate fetal heart rate monitoring is one of the
major concerns in the management of those diagnosed with mild pre-eclampsia throughout
their pregnancy. Pregnant women in the low income countries ,at gestational age of 28+ weeks
are at high risk and require to perform fetal heart rate monitoring frequently. Therefore, the
automated tool for self-monitoring of fetal heart rate remotely is of high need to save both the
life of the mother and the unborn child. A mixed method was used to identify and gather
requirements for fetal heart beat rate monitoring tool. Agile methodology was used to design
the prototype of the fetal heart beat rate monitoring device. This study observed that, 54% of
the pregnant women conducted their own fetal heart rate monitoring through charting fetal
kicks manually. In addition, the fetal heart beat rate monitoring device has been developed to
sense and record in real-time the fetal heart beats and pregnant women’s heartbeat. Apart from
that the belt has also succeeded to record the temperature, location using GPS of the pregnant
woman. Using GSM module and the Blynk Application the captured information is sent to the
patient and health facility for monitoring purposes. In implementation of this study, it avails
raise of awareness on the importance of continuously monitoring the fetal heart beat rate for
pregnant women with hypertensive condition during pregnancy in communication with the
health facility- medical personnel
Application of blockchain technology in strengthening health information system security: a case study of Mount Meru referral hospital
Get PDFA Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of the Award the Degree of Master of Science in Wireless and Mobile Computing of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyHealth information system (HIS) is a digital technology used in health care data management.
Through literature review, it has been observed that HIS are facing security challenges. These
challenges are based on centralized system architecture creating a target for malicious attacks.
Despite of the effectiveness of this technology, still HIS are suffering from a lack of data
privacy and confidentiality. This research developed a blockchain-based system integrated with
the Government of Tanzania Hospital Management Information System. The study employed
a qualitative research method where data were collected using interviews and document
analysis. Execute-order-validate Fabric’s storage security architecture was implemented
through private data collection. Privacy and confidentiality are attained through a private data
policy. Network peers are decentralized with blockchain only for hash storage to avoid storage
challenges. Cost-effectiveness is achieved through data storage within a database of a
Hyperledger Fabric. The overall performance of Fabric is higher than Ethereum. Ethereum’s
low performance is due to its execute-validate architecture which has high computation power
with transaction inconsistencies. Health policymakers should be aware of blockchain
technology and make use of the findings. The scientific contribution of this study is based on;
the cost-effectiveness of secured data storage, the use of hashes of network data stored in each
node, and low energy consumption of Fabric leading to high performance. The system is
developed in an integrated data sharing architecture in a peer-to-peer, decentralized network
environment. Data sharing and information exchange are maintained without central control,
with improved security and privacy of the system
Energy stability and decarbonization in developing countries: Random Forest approach for forecasting of crude oil trade flows and macro indicators
Get PDFThis research was published by Frontiers in Environmental Science volume 10 2022The paper observes the dependence of the main macroeconomic indicators in
developing countries from the change in world prices for crude oil. We analyzed
a system of simultaneous equations, which makes it possible to verify some of
these hypotheses, and developed the model to forecast the impact of oil prices
on budget revenues. The practical significance of this work lies in the structuring
of existing knowledge on the impact of oil crisis. The results of this work can be
considered confirmation of the hypothesis of the sensitivity of U.S.
macroeconomic indicators to the dynamics of oil prices. Outcomes assume
stable growth even in the period of shock prices for oil, which is confirmed by
the statistics that were used in the model. Deep decarbonization modeling is a
trend in industrial facilities that are used by developing countries. The major
challenge is the issue of availability that is applicable to the countries that want
to utilize this facility in their communities. Industrial modeling toward
decarbonization is now a developing mechanism to curb the growing issue
of atmospheric pollution. This paper proves the relevance of promoting deep
decarbonization applied by the developing countries
The influence of gold mining on radioactivity of mining sites soil in Tanzania
Get PDFThis research article published by International Journal of Environmental Quality, Vol. 46 (2021), 2022The activity of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in soil samples were measured by gamma spectrometry using high purity germanium detector. The study involved 40 samples from four divisions: 10 samples each were
drawn from the control area (CTR), washing area 1 (W1), washing area 2 (W2) and the mining pits
(MP). Radium and Thorium were measured in highest value (80.44 and 94.62) Bq/kg, respectively at
MP-9 while the lowest levels (1.56 and 0.96) Bq/kg, respectively were detected at MP-2. At W1, 40K
(max. 887.5 Bq/kg) recorded the highest mean level while 232Th (mean=16.7 Bq/kg) had the lowest level.
For W2, 40K (max. 1535.7 Bq/kg) recorded highest level and 232Th (mean = 8.1 Bq/kg) recorded the
lowest (10.7 Bq/kg). Results further show that mean activity levels of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K from mining
area were 42.5, 35.5 and 652.4Bq/kg, respectively. In comparison, the respective average activity for 40K,
226Ra, and 232Th recoded 118.4, 14.5 and 9.7 Bq/kg, respectively in control area. For the sake of assessing
the suitability of building materials, hazard indices were calculated and their results were less than unity
indicating that, building materials are safe. The annual gonadal equivalent dose, representative gamma
index, alpha index revealed values of 484.8 µSv/y, 1.1 and 0.2, respectively. The average annual effective
dose was 85.5 mSv which is about 8% greater than the world average. Results show that mining activities
in Rwamagasa might be posing radiological hazard to people. Therefore, measures on radioactive materials
to the miners and the surrounding community are recommended
User-side wi-fi hotspot spoofing detection on android-based devices
Get PDFA Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master’s in Wireless and Mobile Computing of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyNetwork spoofing is becoming a common attack in wireless networks. Similarly, there is a
rapid growth of numbers in mobile devices in the working environments. The trends pose a
huge threat to users since they become the prime target of attackers. More unfortunately,
mobile devices have weak security measures due to their limited computational powers,
making them an easy target for attackers. Current approaches to detect spoofing attacks focus
on personal computers and rely on the network hosts’ capacity, leaving users with mobile
devices at risk. Furthermore, some approaches on Android-based devices demand root
privilege, which is highly discouraged. This research aims to study users' susceptibility to
network spoofing attacks and propose a detection solution in Android-based devices. The
presented approach considers the difference in security information and signal levels of an
access point to determine its legitimacy. On the other hand, it tests the legitimacy of the captive
portal with fake login credentials since, usually, fake captive portals do not authenticate users.
The detection approaches are presented in three networks: (a) open networks, (b) closed
networks and (c) networks with captive portals. As a departure from existing works, this
solution does not require root access for detection, and it is developed for portability and better
performance. Experimental results show that this approach can detect fake access points with
an accuracy of 98% and 99% at an average of 24.64 and 7.78 milliseconds in open and closed
networks, respectively. On the other hand, it can detect the existence of a fake captive portal at
an accuracy of 88%. Despite achieving this performance, the presented detection approach does
not cover APs that do not mimic legitimate APs. As an improvement, future work may focus
on pcap files which is rich of information to be used in detection
Historical and projected spatial and temporal rainfall status of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, from 1982 to 2050
No full textthis research artical is publish at original research article and publisher is frontiersGlobally, climate change challenge is the latest challenge facing humanity, and nations must unite to address it in their communities (Nyatichi, 2015; Mwabumba et al., 2022a). Climate change and variability are believed to be a catastrophic phenomenon, which have potential implications for almost every global goal for sustainable development. Changes and variability have already been observed and associated with extreme weather events like floods, drought, and heat waves. These extreme events are becoming increasingly unpredictable and result in worsening climatic impact on socioeconomic activities (Pachauri and Meyer, 2014; JahangeerGupta and Yadav, 2017; Kumar, 2017). Furthermore, the uneven distribution of climate change and variability impacts are a specific feature in some parts of the world with significant reductions in precipitation or major alterations in the timing of future wet and dry seasons (Kumar, 2017; Kumar et al., 2022). In Sub-Saharan Africa, climate change and variability pose a very serious challenge to the social, economic, and ecological system (Kotir, 2011). Several researchers in Africa observed that the current changes in climate conditions have resulted in changes in the rainfall patterns of different regions (Meshram et al., 2018; Sipayung et al., 2018).
These major patterns include increased rainfall trends in wet areas and decreases in dry areas (Luhunga et al., 2018; Borhara et al., 2020). In recent decades, East Africa has been affected by increased extreme rainfall events, which often translate into hazards (Odulami et al., 2018). The socio-climatic impacts of such climate-related extremes include the alteration of ecosystems (Palmate et al., 2021), disruption of food production (Palmate et al., 2022) and water supply (Kumar and Sen, 2020), and damage to infrastructure (JahangeerGupta and Yadav, 2018; Zakwan et al., 2018) and settlements (Maskrey et al., 2007). Unfortunately, these social and economic impacts, which threaten some sectors, such as food security, tourism, and hydropower plants, directly affect economic development around the country (Irish, 2016; Umar et al., 2022; Kumar et al., 2021). These effects are most consistently experienced during rainfall seasons with a significant lack of preparedness for current climate variability in many sectors (Tschakert et al., 2010; Ddamulira, 2016).
In Tanzania, the impact of climate change has already been felt in various parts of the country, and studies (Luhunga et al., 2018; Borhara et al., 2020) indicate that rainfall will be significantly impacted in future scenarios. For instance, Luhunga et al. (2018) predicted an increased intensity of extreme rainfall events in the northeastern highlands and coastal parts of the country. However, due to the complexity of the geographical patterns of the country, the future variability of weather and climate and occurrence of extreme events differ from place to place.
Therefore, localized studies to capture climate variability and the associated extremes and impacts are vital for planning climate change adaptation measures. Studies have been conducted to explore the spatial and temporal climate change and climate variability around the country (Luhunga et al., 2018; Borhara et al., 2020), but few studies (Mzava et al., 2020; Nyembo et al., 2021; Mwabumba et al., 2022b) have analyzed the climate variability at local scales. However, little has been carried out to determine climate variability and its associated extremes and impacts in the cities and towns with large populations and major economic activities. For example, Anande and Park (2021) examined the local climatic impacts associated with projected urban growth by simulating rainfall and temperature over the rapidly growing cities of the middle-eastern region in Tanzania. However, this study was only conducted for 10 days during the rainfall season in April 2018 and suggests further research to understand the effects of urbanization on the future climate in large cities. Therefore, this study investigates the historical and future variability and changes in spatial and temporal rainfall over Dar es Salaam city in planning for adaptation measures.
Dar es Salaam plays an important role as a major city and has a large port and harbor that provides services and goods for the neighboring countries. The city has experienced rapid urbanization, population growth, climate change, and variability with the increase in frequency and intensity of flood occurrence. However, the combination of the challenges in the region lead to flash floods during the rainfall season that lead to the destruction of infrastructure due to the overflow of rivers and blockage of sewage. Considering the high vulnerability of Dar es Salaam to climate extremes, an in-depth local-scale climatic assessment is required. Therefore, the focus of the present study was to analyze the future changes in precipitation under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP 4.5) forcing scenarios. The study considered RCP 4.5 to accommodate stabilized radiative forces around 2050 and influenced by the current effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (San José et al., 2016). The study applied station data and Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) data spanning 38 years (1982–2019) as a baseline and the CORDEX dataset from 2021–2050 for projection under RCP 4.5 forcing scenarios. These findings will provide a better understanding of the future changes in precipitation that may have critical impacts on the development of Dar es Salaam. The findings will further help meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 in building sustainable cities and communities in the 2030
Taenia multiceps in Northern Tanzania: An Important but Preventable Disease Problem in Pastoral and Agropastoral Farming Systems
Get PDFThis research article was published by parasitologiaCoenurosis due to Taenia multiceps has emerged as a major concern to small ruminant-
owning communities in northern Tanzania. Although a high incidence of disease has been reported,
gaps still remain in our knowledge of the disease problem across different agro-ecological settings.
The study aimed to determine the prevalence of coenurosis in small ruminants and taeniid infection
in dogs and identify risk factors for infection. Questionnaire surveys, postmortem examination of
small ruminants, and coproscopic examination of dog faeces were used to collect data on reported
coenurosis cases and taeniid infections, respectively. The twelve-month period prevalence of co-
enurosis in small ruminants was 8.4% (95% CI 8.2–8.6). The prevalence of taeniid infection in dogs
was 12.5% (95% CI 9.1–17.4). The village-level prevalence of coenurosis in sheep and goats was
significantly correlated with taeniid infection prevalence in dogs (r = 0.51, p = 0.029). Multivariable
analysis indicated that home slaughter was significantly associated with the livestock owner-reported
neurological syndrome due to coenurosis in sheep and goats (OR = 13.3, 95% CI 4.2–42.0, p < 0.001)
and the practice of offering discarded brains to dogs was significantly associated with taeniid infec-
tion prevalence in dogs (OR = 2.80, 95% CI 0.98–7.98, p = 0.05). Coenurosis is a major disease problem
in livestock-keeping communities of northern Tanzania, but there is little awareness of transmission
risks associated with home slaughter and dog feeding practices. There is a need for veterinary
and animal health services to engage more actively with communities to increase awareness of the
transmission cycle of T. multiceps and the preventive measures that can be taken to reduce the impact
of disease in livestock-dependent communitie