Exclusive breastfeeding practices in the Coast region, Tanzania

Background: Although breastfeeding in general is common and culturally accepted in many sub-Saharan countries, recommended exclusive breastfeeding infants to 6 months is rare. In rural Tanzania, data on infant feeding practices is rare.Objective: To examine and describe exclusive breastfeeding practices in rural settings (Coast Region) of Tanzania.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Coast Region of Tanzania involving 342 mothers. Only mothers with children aged between 6 and 23 months were interviewed in their residences. Data analyses included descriptive and logistic regression analyses.Results: The majority, 66%, of mothers reported to have breastfed their new born within the first hour of life. About 30% reported to have breastfed exclusively for up to at least six months. Those who did not practice complete exclusive breastfeeding mentioned insufficient milk as the main reason. Correlates of exclusive breastfeeding included maternal education and attitudes towards exclusive breastfeeding.Conclusion: The rate of exclusive breastfeeding in rural areas like the Coast Region of Tanzania is still very low. Programs aimed to promote exclusive breastfeeding must take multi-factorial considerations.Keywords: Exclusive breastfeeding, practice, rural, Tanzani

Urban Growth in Tanzania: Exploring Challenges, Opportunities and Management

Tanzania cities and towns are rapidly urbanizing. This urbanization is manifest of rural-to-urban migration as well as natural population increase. The perceived lack of opportunities in rural areas has been identified as the main push factors for Tanzanians to move from rural areas to urban cities and towns. Urban management practice will increasingly need to account for direct and indirect impacts of urban growth in Tanzania cities and towns. The objective of this paper is to pinpoint the challenges and opportunities of the urban growth in cities and towns in Tanzania.The discussion of this paper is mainly based on critical review of the literature and original data derived from Baruti settlement in Dar es Salaam City. The review of the documents whether published or not published depended on its status to provide a critical analysis of urban growth challenges and opportunities in Tanzania. The Primary data were gathered using 79 using semi-structured interviews with both open and closed ended questions. The questionnaires were administered by the researcher through face-to-face sessions with the respondents. A purposive sampling technique was adopted in this study. The reason for selecting the purposive sampling technique was based on the respondents’ involvement in urban development project. The quantitative data collected through the use of questionnaire to supplement qualitative data were summarized and organized by using spread sheet template for detailed analysis. The critical qualitative analysis was built on both the secondary and primary data sources to addresses the research questions. A descriptive technique for data analysis was adopted where findings were represented in tables, graphs and texts.While unperfected urbanization surpass the way inhabitants interact and live in cities and towns, urban management addresses the social, economical and environmental challenges that emerge with the continued urbanization in Tanzania cities and towns such that human activities could be more socially liable, economically sound and environmentally friendly over a long period of time in the future

Measuring the Effect of RFID Technology on Movement of U.S. Army Resupply Cargo

This research is an analysis of the effect that the added in-transit visibility (ITV) associated with applying Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to Army resupply cargo makes on total cycle time (from entry into to exit from the system) within the Air Mobility Command (AMC) portion of the Defense Transportation System. Although information technology applications are known to contribute to ITV, there has been no attempt to quantify it despite a perception held by at least part of the DoD community that ITV initiatives will reduce logistics response time by improving cycle time. This study was aimed at quantifying RFID technology\u27s contribution to cycle time by comparing a set of RFID tagged shipments to a set of non-RFID tagged shipments moving into the Bosnia Herzegovina theater of operations. Although there are agencies looking at worldwide implementation of this system, the system under study is currently the only one of its kind. The major finding of this research is that RFID tagged shipments actually took longer to move through the AMC system. Port Hold Time at the point of embarkation was 2 to 2.5 times longer for RFID tagged shipments and had a total possession time 19 percent longer than non-RFID tagged shipments

In Quest of Customary Tenure Security: Opportunities and Challenges of Land Use Planning in Tanzania

Mainstreaming land use planning for tenure security in rural areas is a key issue to both scholars, academia and policymakers as well as governments in most developing countries. The need for local land use decision-making for enhancing tenure security as well as trade-offs for deliberative decision-making are crucial to improving local community needs, interests and concerns. Deliberative decision-making seeks to respond to local needs, interests and concerns with legitimate and acceptable social, cultural and institutional practices. This paper focuses on examining the challenges and opportunities for land use planning on tenure security in rural Tanzania.  In-depth interviews, survey questionnaires, and documentary procedures were used to gather both primary and secondary data. The survey questionnaires were administered to 167 local landholders or users (respondents) at Kibegere, Kisawasawa and Igima villages in Kilombero District in South-Western Tanzania. A snowball sampling method for data collection from the respondents were employed. Also, a purposive sampling technique was used to collect data from 20 Key informants. The findings indicate less benefits for the local people over the existing rural land use planning process. The paper suggests the conceptual framework for supporting land use planning to strengthen actor’s interaction in the land use decision-making process towards enhanced tenure security outcomes within the context of participatory governance.

Transverse Observables and Mass Determination at Hadron Colliders

I consider the two-body decay of a particle at a hadron collider into a visible and an invisible particle, generalizing $W \to e \nu$, where the masses of the decaying particle and the invisible decay particle are, {\em a priori}, unknown. I prove that the transverse mass, when maximized over possible kinematic configurations, can be used to determine both of the unknown masses. I argue that the proof can be generalized to cover cases such as decays of pair-produced superpartners to the lightest, stable superpartner at the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: 4 pages; version published in JHE