34 research outputs found
The Tijani Tariqa Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Indonesia
Get PDFThis article discusses the response of the Tijani congregation at the Zawiyah Islamic boarding school in Garut to the Covid-19 pandemic situation. This research is field research using qualitative methods. This research was conducted at the Zawiyah Islamic Boarding School in Garut, located on Jln. Samarang KM 10 Kampung Surya Tanjung Anom RT 001 RW 010 Samarang Village, Samarang District, Garut Regency, West Java. The data collection technique was through direct observation and in-depth interview techniques, while the data analysis was carried out in a descriptive-analytical way. Based on the data obtained in the research process, the authors found three practices of the Tijani tarekat: wirid (passage of Koran), customary, wadzifah, and hailallah. The practice of wirid and wadzifah are practiced individually in their respective homes. In contrast, the practice of wirid hailalah is carried out in the congregation in the Zawiyah of the Tijani congregation. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Sheikh Ikyan urges wirid hailalah to be implemented individually in their respective homes until the Covid-19 pandemic situation improves. Shaykh Ikyan explained that the appeal was a response and cooperation of the Tijani Islamic Boarding School Zawiyah Garut Islamic Boarding School with the government in tackling the Covid-19 outbreak in Indonesia. In addition, the author also found that the Tijani congregation\u27s response to the Covid-19 pandemic situation was to carry out Sheikh Ahmad Tijani\u27s haul in a hybrid way
Network modelling analysis of the current and future role of livestock movements in the spread of infectious disease in northern Tanzania
No full textLivestock movements contribute to the geographic spread of many diseases, including Rift Valley fever (RVF) — a vaccine-preventable arboviral fever. In East Africa, most livestock movements are made for trade and to access essential resources for survival. Where dense comprehensive data on livestock movements are available, these can be harnessed to guide policy on targeted interventions for controlling infectious livestock diseases. However, livestock movement data in Tanzania are not routinely collected or centrally recorded, limiting their use to guide disease control programmes. The available movement data are imperfect, and the impact of this uncertainty in the utility of movement data on informing the targeting of intervention is not fully understood. Moreover, climate change in East Africa, including Tanzania, is likely to have a profound impact on livestock management and, consequently, on the potential spread of infectious diseases within and between animal and human populations. Climate change in the coming decades could affect the availability and distribution of these key resources, potentially impacting the direction and extent of resource-driven livestock movements and, therefore, altering patterns of infectious disease spread. As livestock are a vital part of the local economy, any substantial change in the risk of infectious diseases will have a considerable impact on human and animal health. Thus, understanding the spatial pattern of contacts between populations and how they might change in the future is essential for effective disease control.
This study developed three models to understand the impact of livestock movements on RVF transmission. In Chapter 2, a network simulation model of RVF transmission between administrative areas in northern Tanzania was used to investigate how uncertainty in market movement data affects the targeting of vaccination. In Chapter 4, I developed a network model to describe livestock movements to grazing and watering sites, fitted it to data from the Serengeti district of Tanzania, and used it to explore how projected changes in resource availability due to climate change could impact future network structures, using 2050 and 2080 as exemplar scenarios. Lastly, in Chapter 5, I developed a climate-driven vector-host model to assess the potential impacts of changing climate and livestock movement patterns on future RVF transmission.
In Chapter 2, I showed that pre-emptive vaccination guided by market movement permit data alone could prevent large outbreaks. Targeting control (either at locations of high risk of RVF introduction or onward transmission) at any level of imperfect movement information is preferred over random vaccination, and any improvement in information reliability is advantageous to their effectiveness. Using the resource-driven network model in Chapter 4, I showed that climate change could increase connections between villages in both grazing and watering networks in all future scenarios, potentially increasing the propagation of infectious diseases among livestock populations. A larger increase in modelled connectivity is observed further in the future, corresponding to progressively larger changes in vegetation availabil- ity. Furthermore, the results suggest that villages currently identifiable by network centrality measures for disease control may be less valuable targets for intervention in the future as overall connectivity increases and thus their central nature diminishes.
Finally, the climate-driven vector-host model presented in Chapter 5 predicts that the mean cumulative incidence of new RVF infections among cattle will increase from 2.7% (mean = 12 751, sd = 285) in 2016 to 7.8% (mean = 36 620, sd = 272) in 2050 and further to 14.6% (mean = 68 778, sd = 90) in 2080. I tested the hypothesis that targeted interventions may become less effective due to increased village connectivity due to climate-induced resource scarcity. The findings show that vaccination, especially when targeted using betweenness centrality, was the most effective strategy. The effectiveness of movement bans, while generally inferior to vaccination, also varied significantly depending on the network structure, the targeting strategy, and the proportion of targeted villages, suggesting that movement restrictions could still play a role under specific conditions. Increased connectivity diminishes distinctions between the effectiveness of network-based strategies, resulting in outcomes more similar to random interventions.
The findings will be useful for policymakers in northern Tanzania, who have limited resources to mitigate the burden of livestock and zoonotic pathogens. Moreover, the generic nature of the approaches developed in this study holds promise for application in other developing countries
Defining and assessing the spectrum of tuberculosis (TB) disease: application to diagnosis and prognosis
Get PDFThesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2020.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Although Tuberculosis (TB) has been a topic of investigation for centuries, a
satisfactory method of identifying patients with clinically active TB is yet to
be discovered. This has two important negative consequences: Patients requiring
treatment often remain untreated, and TB treatment is often administered
‘presumptively’ for patients, especially young children, who have
symptoms suggestive of TB, even in the absence of laboratory test confirmation.
In this thesis, various aspects of the challenge of elucidating the spectrum
of TB disease are explored: Key concepts in diagnosis, and defining performance
metrics of diagnostics are explored; we consider the challenges of
designing a study to evaluate a candidate diagnostic platform; simulated
data, structurally aligned to a major ongoing study is analysed to demonstrate
options for analysing and interpreting data in the early stages of TB
marker evaluation; database schemas for the South African public sector TB
treatment programme are explored, in particular relating the different handling
of drug-sensitive TB (DS-TB) and drug-resistant TB (DR-TB); a preliminary
analysis of DR-TB treatment outcomes is presented. We demonstrate not only that sensitivity and specificity by themselves offer
a limited view into the performance of a test, but also that these metrics
are not intrinsic to a test, but vary with disease prevalence. More generally,
the contextual ‘spectrum of disease’ – which, in practice, mainly means the
distribution of the times since infection in the population being tested. In exploring
study design options, we note the large number of assumptions that
are required to fully specify details of conventional ‘power calculations’,
suggesting that this is not a clear cut approach to choosing sample sizes.
Given data generated by a well-understood biological process, we find that
formal criteria driven by automated methods for optimising analysis, such
as the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), provides
little or no advantage over intuitively chosen diagnostic threshold criteria.
A detailed mapping of data fields, linking the DS-TB and DR-TB treatment
databases is produced, supporting consistent analysis across both types of
TB, and facilitating analysis of some of the rich but complex structures in
the DR-TB database. Although a significant number of drug-resistant TB
patients do not have a recorded treatment outcome, unfavourable treatment
outcomes, such as death, are found to be alarmingly common, and significantly
associated with HIV status, history of previous TB treatment, age,
and resistance patterns.
Better management of TB, a persistent and complex infectious disease, will
require substantial additional research to be conducted in the coming years.
It is hoped that this thesis will provide a meaningful resource to workers
in this field, assisting them with numerous aspects of the search for better
characterisation of the spectrum of TB; in particular, ways to access and
analyse critical data and optimally design data gathering and analysis.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: daar steeds ‘n gebrek aan ‘n voldoende metode om pasiënte met kliniese aktiewe
TB te identifiseer. Die laasgenoemde het twee belangrike negatiewe
gevolge: Dikwels bly pasiënte wat dit benodig sonder behandeling, en dikwels
word TB behandeling begin as ‘n voorsorg maatreël, veral onder kinders,
ten spyte van die gebrek van bewyse van aktiewe TB.
In hierdie tesis word verskillende aspekte van die uitdaging om die spektrum
van TB-siekte toe te lig, ondersoek: Vernaamste konsepte in diagnose,
en die definisie van prestasiemetings vir diagnostiese toetse is ondersoek;
ons beskou die uitdagings om ‘n studie te beplan om ‘n kandidaat diagnostiese
platform te evalueer; gesimuleerde data, met ‘n gelyksoortige struktuur
as ‘n groot voortdurende studie, is ontleed om opsies vir analise en
interpretasie van data voortgebring in die begin stadiums van TB-merker
evaluasie, te demonstreer; databasis skemas vir die Suid-Afrikaanse openbare
sektor se TB-behandelingsprogram word ondersoek, spesifiek om die
verskillende bestuur van medikasie-sensitiewe TB (DS-TB) en medikasieweerstandige
TB (DR-TB) in verband te bring; ‘n voorlopige ontleding van DR-TB-behandelingsuitkomste word aangebied.
Ons demonstreer nie net dat sensitiwiteit en spesifisiteit alleenlik ‘n beperkte
oorsig van die verrigting van ‘n toets voorstel nie, maar ook dat
hierdie maatstawwe nie ’n intrinsieke deel van ’n toets is nie, maar dat dit
varieer met die voorkoms van siektes. In die algemeen, die kontekstuele
‘spektrum van siekte’ – wat in praktyk hoofsaaklik die verspreiding van
tye vanaf infeksie in die beproefde populasie beteken. By die ondersoek
van opsies vir studieontwerp, neem ons kennis van die groot aantal aannames
wat benodig word om die besonderhede ten volle te spesifiseer vir
konvensionele onderskeidingvermoë analises, wat daarop dui dat dit nie ’n
duidelike benadering tot die keuse van steekproefgroottes is nie.
Gegewe data wat gegenereer word deur ’n goed verstaanbare biologiese
proses, vind ons dat formele kriteria gedryf deur outomatiese metodes vir
die optimalisering van analise, soos die minste absolute krimp- en seleksieoperateur
(LASSO), min of geen voordeel bied bo intuïtief gekose diagnostiese
drempelkriteria. Die DS-TB en DR-TB behandelingdatabasis word gekoppel
deur ‘n gedetailleerde belyning van die datavelde, wat die konsekwente
analise van albei tipe TB ondersteun en die analise van sommige
van die ryk maar ingewikkelde strukture in die DR-TB databasis fasiliteer.
Alhoewel ‘n beduidende aantal pasiënte met medikasie-weerstandige TB
geen aangetekende uitkoms van behandeling het nie, word daar gevind dat
ongunstige behandelingsuitkomste, soos die dood, onrusbarend algemeen
voorkom en dat dit sterk verband hou met MIV-status, geskiedenis van vorige
TB-behandeling, ouderdom en patrone in weerstandigheid.
In komende jare sal aansienlike bykomende navorsing gedoen moet word
om TB, ‘n volhardende en ingewikkelde oordraagbare siekte, beter te bestuur.
Daar word gehoop dat hierdie tesis ’n sinvolle hulpbron aan werkers
op hierdie gebied sal bied en hulle sal help met talle aspekte van die soeke
na beter karakterisering van die spektrum van TB; veral maniere om kritiese
data te bekom en te ontleed, en om data-insameling en -ontleding optimaal
te ontwerp.Master
Narrator in The journey of al-Tijani
No full textسنصرف اهتمامنا في هذه الدراسة إلى استجلاء تمظهرات السارد في رحلة التجاني (670 أو 675ه / 717ه)، والوجه في ذلك أن التبئير يقع على الذات المتكلمة في الرحلة؛ فهو مطابق للمؤلف / الرحالة وكل هذه العناصر تحيل إلى السارد القائم بسرد الحكاية الناهض باستثمار المحكي الذاتي كآلية للإخبار والعرض متحكم في بناء سردية النص الرحلي. موجه لمساره بما ينجزه من أقوال. إن البحث في مسألة السارد في هذه الرحلة من شأنه أن يمكننا من آليات جديدة نكشف بها أغوار هذا النص الأدبي الذي ما يزال محتفظا بألقه الفني وطاقته الأدبية العالية. رغم ما كتب عنه من دراسات حاولت استكشاف تلك الأدبية ومقوماتها الفنية. لذلك سنعمل على رصد صورة السارد المتفرد في صياغته وقدرته على تنويع صور الخطاب والتلفظ. في هذا النص المتميز بارتهانه لبنية السفر كمرتكز سردي تهيمن فيه الرؤية المتنوعة للذات اللافظة لإعادة إنتاج تجربة الرحالة في محكي أساسه السرد وقاعدته الوصف، علنا نظفر ببعض المقومات السردية الخاصة بالرحلة.In this study, we will focus our attention on clarifying the manifestations of the Narrator in the journey of a al-Tijani (670 or 675 ah, 717 ah). The reason for this is that the predicate is on the speaking self in the journey; it is identical to the author / the traveler, and all of these elements refer to the narrator who narrates the tale who rises with the investment of the self-narrator as a mechanism for telling and presenting, controlling the Construction of the narrative of the nomadic text. Researching the issue of the narration in this journey would enable us to find new mechanisms by which we uncover the depths of this literary text, which still retains its artistics strength and high literary energy, I have tried through this studyto explore those literary and artistic components as well as diversifing the forms of speech and pronunciation. In this text which is distinguished by its dependence on the structure of travel as a narrative anchor, in which the diverse vision of the verbal self dominates to reproduce the experience of the traveler in a narrative whose basis is narration and whose base in description in public, we gain of thenarrative elements of the travele
Comparison of multistage thermoacoustic engines in serial versus parallel configurations
No full textIn industrial processes about 80% of the energy demand is in the form of heat. One of the problems of the industrial waste heat is the low temperature of this heat. The department of energy efficiency and infrastructure, 'E&I' of the Energy research Center of the Netherlands 'ECN' runs projects in order to use industrial waste heat with a thermoacoustic heat pump. Thermoacoustic engines can deliver the power to drive a thermoacoustic heat pump and can be driven by waste heat. The desired hot temperatures exceed the temperatures of the waste heat. It is believed that more than one thermoacoustic engine is necessary in order to gain sufficient temperature lift. In this study a parallel configuration of thermoacoustic engines is compared to a serial configuration of thermoacoustic engines. Additionally the losses in a coaxial thermoacoustic engine are analyzed. In two sets of experiments two regenerator units were placed in parallel and serial configuration inside a symmetric resonator. The regenerators were heated with an electrical heater and cooled with cooling water. Power was subtracted with a load. The power that can be subtracted by the load is the same as the power that could be used in a heat pump. The main objective is to gain maximum load power with a hot regenerator temperature as low as possible. The experiments show that the serial configuration produced more acoustic power in the load than the parallel configuration. In contrast the efficiency of the power produced in the resonator is found to be about the same for both configurations. This is because of the assumption that the power dissipated in the resonator is equal to twice the power dissipated in an empty half of the resonator, while in reality the power dissipated in the resonator depends also on the internal geometries in the resonator, and the internal velocity. In the present experimental setup the pressure and velocity profile are not the same for serial and parallel configurations. The acoustic power measured in the load is used to compute the external efficiency. The internal efficiency is calculated from the resonator losses and the power measured in the load. The resonator losses were originally determined from two microphone measurements of an empty resonator half, without the consideration of internal geometries. Hence internal efficiencies of the two configurations can not be compared, whereas the external efficiencies can be compared to draw conclusions. In the parallel configuration at a pressure of 19.9 bar, a drive ratio of 3.03 and a heater input of 324 W, 5.96 W of acoustic power can be subtracted while the hot regenerator temperature rises till 274 oC. In the serial configuration at a pressure of 19.5 bar, a drive ratio of 2.95 and a heater input of 367 W, 11.63 W of acoustic power can be subtracted while the hot regenerator temperature rises till 290 oC. This means the 2nd law external efficiency of the serial configuration is 47% better than for the parallel configuration. A calculation predicts that the serial configuration could perform as much as 80% better if the load was placed at the engine side. In cooling, heating, and other processes where the external power is the useful power the serial configuration is the better configuration.Engineering ThermodynamicsProcess and EnergyMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin
Tatal Koldiniigal (Pillars of Religion)
Get PDFThe entire manuscript is available for download as a single PDF file. Higher-resolution images may be available upon request. For technical assistance, please contact [email protected]. Fieldwork Team: Dr. Mustapha Hashim Kurfi (Principal Investigator), Mohammed Bara’u Musa & Hauwa Usman (Local Project Managers), Adamu Mohammed, Abacha Kachalla, Abdrra’uf Abdullahi & Falmaa Madu Ibrahim (General Field Facilitators), and Haladu Mamman (Photographer). Technical Team: Prof. Fallou Ngom (Director African Studies Center), and Eleni Castro (Technical Lead, BU Libraries). These Collections of Fulfulde & Kanuri Ajami materials are copied as part of the African Studies Center’s African Ajami Library.
Access Condition and Copyright: These materials are subject to copyright. All rights reserved to the author. For use, distribution or reproduction contact Professor Fallou Ngom ([email protected]).
Citation: Materials in this web edition should be cited as: Kurfi, Mustapha Hashim, Ngom, Fallou, and Castro, Eleni (2019). African Ajami Library: Digital Preservation of Fulfulde & Kanuri Ajami Materials of Northeastern Nigeria. Boston: Boston University Libraries: http://hdl.handle.net/2144/38242. For Inquiries: Please contact Professor Fallou Ngom ([email protected]).Provenance / Custodial history: The owner is Modibbo Buba-Yero from Jada in Adamawa State in northeastern Nigeria. Published 18 years ago, the owner had inherited it from his father, who had been a cleric in Yola, the capital of Adamawa State. It was authored by Ahmad Adib Tijani, and was originally bound.This manuscript is an original work on Islamic ritual practices written in Fulfulde Ajami. Although not very long, the text is rich. It addresses many topics, including what the Islamic faith is about, ritual prayers, ablution, types and rules of ritual purifications, and so on. It spells out the principles and ideal practices of alms giving, fasting, pilgrimage, and the manners in which each of these rituals should be performed. The manuscript has over 20 chapters written in Fulfulde Ajami. It also contains various prayers and details on how and where they should be made. All the pages are numbered. A table of contents is included on the last page. It has dates.The contents of this collection were developed with support of the Title VI National Resource Center grant # P015A180164 from the U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government
Numerical computation for parallel plate thermoacoustic heat exchangers in standing wave oscillatory flow
Get PDFA simplified computational method for studying the heat transfer characteristics of parallel plate thermoacoustic heat exchangers is presented. The model integrates the thermoacoustic equations of the standard linear theory into an energy balance-based numerical calculus scheme. Details of the time-averaged temperature and heat flux density distributions within a representative domain of the heat exchangers
and adjoining stack are given. The effect of operation conditions and geometrical parameters on the heat exchanger performance is investigated and main conclusions relevant for HX design are drawn as far as fin length, fin spacing, blockage ratio, gas and secondary fluid-side heat transfer coefficients are concerned. Most relevant is that
the fin length and spacing affect in conjunction the heat exchanger behaviour and have to be simultaneously optimized to minimize thermal losses localized at the HX-stack
junctions. Model predictions fit experimental data found in literature within 36% and 49% respectively at moderate and high acoustic Reynolds numbers
The potential impacts of vector host species fidelity on zoonotic arbovirus transmission
Get PDFThe interaction between vector host preference and host availability on vector blood feeding behaviour has important implications for the transmission of vector-borne pathogens. However, to our knowledge, the effect of bias towards feeding on the same host species from which a first meal was taken, termed fidelity, has not been quantified. Using a mathematical model we showed that vector fidelity to the host species they take a first blood meal from leads to non-homogeneous mixing between hosts and vectors. Taking Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) as a case study, we investigated how vector preference for amplifying vs dead-end hosts and fidelity can influence JEV transmission. We show that in regions where pigs (amplifying hosts) are scarce compared to cattle (dead-end hosts preferred by common JEV vectors), JEV could still be maintained through vector fidelity. Our findings demonstrate the importance of considering fidelity as a potential driver of transmission, particularly in scenarios such as Bangladesh and India where the composition of the host community might initially suggest that transmission is not possible.</p
Analysing the importance of internal auditors for John Holt Nigeria Plc.
Get PDFThis bachelor’s thesis deals with analyzing the importance of internal auditors for the company. It aims to solve the issue about the way the new management of John Holt Nigeria Plc perceives the internal audit department. The management of the company believe that the organization can function effectively without the internal audit department. Therefore, as a result of the ongoing downsizing process in the company, the management is considering scrapping the audit department. The main objective of this research is to ascertain the impact and values of internal auditors as well as their roles and responsibilities to John Holt Nigeria Plc.
This thesis consists of a theory and empirical section. The theory section will discuss about auditing, accounting, internal auditing and characteristics of an internal auditor which will be established by studying relevant literature, books, articles and internet sources. The empirical part will focus on the result of interviews conducted. The study will be based on qualitative method and will adopt interview as the main research tool which will be carried out with some senior managers who has experience about the subject matter.
The findings will enable the management to decide if the internal audit department will be useful and beneficial to the organization or not. The conclusion will be based on the result of the research while recommendation will be drawn from conclusion which will assist the management to decide if the functions, roles and responsibilities of the internal audit department are vital to the overall effective performance of the organization or maybe the department should be scrapped.
It is imperative for John Holt Plc to know the impacts and values of the internal audit department. The author therefore recommend that the management of John Holt Nigeria Plc should consider carefully several risks that might occur if the internal audit department is eventually scrapped without any alternative in plac
Fulakaŋ Suukuwoo: Fula Ajami Poetry
Get PDFThe entire manuscript is available for download as a PDF file(s). Higher-resolution images may be available upon request. For technical assistance, please contact [email protected]. Fieldwork Team: Dr. Fallou Ngom (Pricipal Investigator; Director, African Studies Center), Ablaye Diakité (Local Project Manager), Mr. Ibrahima Yaffa (General Field Facilitator), and Ibrahima Ngom (photographer). Technical Team: Professor Fallou Ngom (Principal Investigator; Project Director and former Director of the African Studies Center at Boston University)), and Eleni Castro (Technical Lead, BU Libraries). This collection of Mandinka Ajami materials is copied as part of the African Studies Center’s African Ajami Library. This is a joint project between BU and the West African Research Center (WARC), funded by the British Library/Arcadia Endangered Archives Programme. Access Condition and Copyright: These materials are subject to copyright and are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. For use, distribution or reproduction beyond these terms, contact Professor Fallou Ngom ([email protected]). Citation: Materials in this web edition should be cited as: Ngom, Fallou, Castro, Eleni, & Diakité, Ablaye. (2018). African Ajami Library: EAP 1042. Digital Preservation of Mandinka Ajami Materials of Casamance, Senegal. Boston: Boston University Libraries: http://hdl.handle.net/2144/27112. For Inquiries: please contact Professor Fallou Ngom ([email protected]). For technical assistance, please contact [email protected] / Custodial history: The owner acquired the manuscript during his research.The manuscript is a panegyric poem that praises Prophet Muḥammad in the Fula language. The owner acquired the manuscript during his research in Casamance. Mandinka scholars like the owner cross ethnic and linguistic boundaries in their quest for knowledge. The manuscript highlights the intellectual exchanges between Mandinka scholars and their Fula counterparts and the tradition of multilingualism and multiliteracy in Arabic, Mandinka, and Fula Ajami among some Senegambian Mandinka scholars
