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A Mathematical Model for the Acute Hepatitis C Virus Dynamics: Liver Regeneration and Activity of Immune System
No full textAcute hepatitis C infection (AHCI) being an initial stage of hepatitis C virus(HCV) infection can lead to chronic hepatitis infection, and ultimately to cirrhotic hepatitis, in the absence of early strategic intervention. Moreover, the immune system activity and liver regeneration through hepatocytes proliferation have not fully assisted to obstruct potential disease progression to cirrhotic hepatitis although some infected people can clear the virus spontaneously in AHCI. Thus, this paper introduces a deterministic mathematical model formulated to investigate the effect of immune system on the transmission dynamics of HCV with hepatocytes proliferation and spontaneous recovery of infected hepatocytes. The model is a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations, from which we determined the disease free equilibrium point,  and then derived the basic reproductive number,  using the next generation matrix operator. Sensitivity indices of  relating to some parameters of the model were computed, whereby the parameters for the maximum hepatocytes proliferation rate, a  and virus production rate,  b are altogethermost positively sensitive whereas the parameter for the spontaneous recovery rate of infected hepatocytes, S  is the most negatively sensitive one. Numerical analysis of the model has been done to illustrate certain analytical results of the model. Thus, we recommend that appropriate preventive measures should be taken early after infection onset for a patient who is incapable of clearing the virus spontaneously to reduce the intensity of HCV infection and hence stop possible disease progression to more fatal stages of infection
Challenges of SMEs Clusterization Strategy for PPP Agriculture Processing Industries in Tanzania
No full textThe empirical literature indicates that partnership is a key component in fostering Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) industrialization. Many scholars also argue that private public partnerships (PPP) may be used to promote the processing and manufacturing of selected export materials. PPP cluster based industrialization strategy when integrated with industrial policy has many advantages such as promotion of financial resources access, catalyzing the research and development and creation of business opportunities. This paper investigates the challenges facing the PPP SMEs agricultural industrialization strategy for oil seed cluster in Babati district in Tanzania. The paper uses the data obtained from the participants of oil seeds cluster workshop and the qualitative content analysis where secondary data regarding PPP cluster strategy are presented and analysed. The study reveals that the major challenges hindering the PPP cluster industrialization for oil seeds cluster are inadequate skills for local SMEs owners, lack of transparency, low active involvement for the PPP participants and lack of binding agreement for SMEs owners. This paper recommends that for effective industrialization under PPP cluster strategy, local SMEs cluster participants and other stakeholders should be involved at every stage in the industrialization process. Training also is essential for promotion of effective industrialization process. More empirical studies should be conducted to analyze other factors limiting the PPP strategies for agro-processing industries clusters in Tanzania
The Influence of Climate Change on Migration Drivers in Shinyanga Region, Tanzania
No full textThis paper takes forward the knowledge frontiers regarding the influence of climate change on migration by answering the question why people do outmigrate in the semi arid areas of Tanzania. The paper explores ways in which climate change influences migration decisions among communities in very specific local scales with reference to Shinyanga District. The study is descriptive in nature. Data was collected through interviewing key informants, household survey, field observation and documentary review. Perceptions indicate that climate change manifests through erratic rains hence unpredictable seasonality; decreased storm size, reduced wet season, and prolonged dry season. Temperature is on a rising trend, and wind speed is on the increasing side. Frequent crop failure, reduced water resources, degraded soils, reduced fish resources, outbreak of non-common pests and diseases, disappearance of some animal and tree spices and reduced pasture all negatively impact the agricultural economic system, in turn, this compromises the community's social system. Search for more fertile land, pasture, waged labour in nearby villages and search for jobs in towns are some of the identified reasons for outmigration in response to the challenges posed by climate change on the agricultural economic system. The paper informs policy on the urgency of proper action against climate change and related stresses in the country. Food relief programmes and transformation of the agricultural economic system are highly recommended to support adaptation to climate change in the study area. The study also recommends facilitation of research work which thrusts to excavate the social, economic and environmental implications of climate change forced migration in destinations
Socioeconomic Benefits of Traditional Beef Cattle Feedlots in the Lake Zone Regions of Tanzania
No full textMore than 90% of the national cattle herd is found in the traditional sector, in which over 95% of the cattle originate from the small East African Zebu (EAZ) known as the Tanzania Shorthorn Zebu (TSZ). The system is faced by many challenges such as; poor animal nutrition, animal diseases, water shortage and the low genetic potential of the indigenous cattle and their entire dependence on seasonality and availability of grazing pasture and water. These contribute to the production of low quantity and quality meat which is locally consumed at a low price and make the farmers being excluded from the regional and international market. The traditional beef cattle feedlots emerged initially as a coping strategy of the drought season where many cattle died due to lack of pasture. However, the contribution of feedlots to the socioeconomic development of the operators has been under-researched. A cross-sectional survey of 119 Traditional Beef Cattle Feedlot operators was employed by using open and closed-ended questionnaires and focus group discussions (FGD) Traditional beef cattle feedlots benefits out of the operation as the respondents admitted to build a modern house and purchase many plots. However, lack of reliable market to sell their fattened cattle is a big challenge to them. Any efforts from government and non-government organization to address the reliable markets should not be ignored
A Review of Adopter’s Common Misconfigurations of Virtual Machines: The Case of Tanzania
No full textAdoption and use of hypervisors and virtual machines have become the heart of virtual server computing and are currently a primary choice to store and share data across different public and private sectors. However, one of the major security threats is on meager adopter’s knowledge of proper handling of hypervisor installation, VMs creation, and configurations. This paper exposes distinct security vulnerabilities of virtualized systems that are caused by the adopters due to various system misconfigurations such as use of unified installer across virtual infrastructure, level of security enhancement in type 2 hypervisors, presence of untouched default settings in open source hypervisors, usage of vendor lock-in VMs file formats, ad hoc creation of VMs and allocation of computing resources especially virtual CPU, RAM and HDD. Furthermore, undecided size of key Linux directories including /home directory, /boot directory, /var directory, root (/) directory, /temp directory and swap have also been assessed. To undertake this study, server configurations in 15 public and 9 private organizations were screened. A total of 31 purposively selected server administrators were interviewed guided by a checklist of questions in a semi-structured questionnaire. A quick observation obtained from the findings of this study suggests that server virtualization adopters operate at high-security risks due to the existence of uncoordinated and unsecured VMs configuration due to lack of required expertise. Lack of regular system auditing and monitoring turn the adopters into vulnerable and target of attack at any time without the adopter’s knowledge. The need for adopters to observe best practices towards adoption and use of virtualization software is vital
Socio-economic Consequences of Road Traffic Accidents to the Victims and their Families in Dar es Salaam Tanzania
No full textThis paper examined socio-economic consequences of road traffic accidents to the wellbeing of people in the study area. Semi-structured interviews, focus group discussion and personal observation were employed during the process. Data were supplemented by secondary information from various sources. Descriptive statistics were used to report quantitative findings and coding was used to summarize, synthesize and sort observations made of the qualitative data. The overall results indicate that police and hospital data in Tanzania is incomplete which does not allow distinguishing between the degree of injury, spot areas, and social economic status of victims. Victims of road traffic accidents and their families according to findings suffer socially, psychologically and economically. Some of the victims revealed that they were neglected by relatives/spouse due to disabilities and long treatment. The study found out that treatment for road injuries was very expensive and this leads some families into a miserable life. On the basis of these findings, three recommendations emerge. First, efforts should be made by stakeholders to develop a data set for a proper system of recording. Second, stakeholders should develop and implement a policy for enhancing the livelihoods and wellbeing of road traffic accident victims and their families. Third, preventive interventions to combat road traffic accidents should be developed by national and international partners
Access to Land in Urban and Rural Areas of Botswana: Towards an Inclusive Land Tenure System
No full textIt is commonly assumed that Botswana’s land resources, (amounting to over 500,000 km2 but with a population of just over 2million today), are abundant, but over the years it has become evident that some definite limits will be widely experienced quite soon. Most visibly, the increasing shortage of land manifests itself both in the rural and urban areas. In the rural areas there are households, both female headed and male-headed and even the youth, who are experiencing problems of accessing land; pasture land is deteriorating and access to arable land has also become seriously limited in several areas. In the urban areas too, in spite of many strategies that have been adopted over the years, access to land for housing and commerce is a major challenge, with the main issue being affordability and lack of finance. To conclude land administration and governance in Botswana has been guided by policies and legislations issued in piece meals. The Land Administration Procedures Capacity and Systems (LAPCAS) project of 2009 is expected to tackle the existing land problems and challenges holistically. This should be coupled with proper government management of land resources, better public awareness of the general social benefits and land market process in order to reduce risk, disputes and other inefficiencies.Â
Promoting Teachers and Students’ Involvement in e-Learning in Tanzania: A Case of Two Higher Learning Institutions
No full textA successful e-learning program depends, to a greater extent, on how actively teachers and students are involved in preparing, accessing and managing educational content. This paper aims at exploring strategies employed in promoting teachers and students’ involvement in e-learning in Tanzania’s higher learning institutions (HLIs). Data were gathered from two higher learning institutions in Tanzania using a series of semi-structured interviews with e-learning experts. Thematic analysis was used to identify, analyze and record themes from the generated data. Two major interaction strategies were identified: Teacher-students and student-content strategies. The study further describes best practice approaches the two HLIs deployed to effect the two strategies. Based on the findings, the study recommends the provision of training in e-learning to teachers and students to enhance their participation in e-learning platforms. The study further recommends for empirical research to investigate how social media can be used to promote the unnoticed teacher-teacher and student-student interactions
Social and Cultural Factors Affecting Treatment Seeking Behaviour of Patients with Cancer of the Cervix, at Ocean Road Cancer Institute in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
No full textSome social and cultural factors influence treatment-seeking behavior among women with cervical cancer in that they hinder seeking early treatment. This study was set to investigate the social and cultural factors associated with the unfavorable pattern of seeking treatment. A hospital-based cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out at Ocean Road Cancer Institute (ORCI) from 1st to 30th of October 2015, involving women who were diagnosed with cervical cancer and were undertaking treatment or were coming for follow up. A standardized questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions was used to get the information. Data were collected, managed and analyzed using SPSS version 20 computer programme. A total of 160 respondents participated and were interviewed. Early treatment seekers (cancer stages I and II) were only 10.6% while 89.4 % came very late when the disease was more advanced to higher stages. The overall knowledge of cervical cancer was poor, only 15.1% had adequate knowledge of the disease (p < 0.03). Symptoms awareness was only 14.4% while 85.6% of respondents being unaware (p < 0.09). Social-cultural factors associated with the problem included: attending to traditional healers 88.1%, being delayed by traditional healers on different pretexts, 81.9% (p < 0.541), stigma from society 13.1%, and poverty 78.8%i.e. being unable to cater for hospital investigations and treatments. The perception that radiotherapy leads to early death was noted among 96.3% of respondents. Generally, those with poor health education on cervical cancer comprised 89.5%. The study showed that the majority of women had suboptimal knowledge about cervical cancer and also symptoms specific to the disease. Beliefs that this kind of problem could not be treated in hospitals and the fact that radiotherapy kills were cemented by information obtained from traditional healers leading to delay in seeking appropriate treatment
Empowering Women Through MFIs in Tanzania: Myth or Reality? Evidence from Empirical Literature Review
No full textThis paper presents the analysis of the role of microfinance institutions on women empowerment in Tanzania from the empirical literature review. The paper identifies the variables of women empowerment related to MFIs and suggests the gaps to be filled by future studies in Tanzania. Finally, the paper concludes whether is a myth or reality in using MFIs to empower women in Tanzania.Keywords: Women empowerment, MFIs, Tanzani