The Jurisdiction of the Labour Court under the New Labour Act - the Dawn of a New Era

A labour law lecture on the role and functions of the Labour Court under the Zimbabwe constitution 's Labour Act.Ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends, it is a matter of great honour and pri viledge for me to be afforded an opportunity to make this presentation in honour of the late Kempton Makamure. I had the good fortune of knowing and associating with the late Kempton Makamure during his lifetime. I first met him in 1980 emerging from the bush after fighting in the brutal war of liberation. I knew the late Kempton as a great Marxist visionary with a passion for the well-being of workers and peasants at heart. I knew him as a lecturer, politician and a part-time member of the now defunct Labour Relations Board. The labour court has its origins from the Industrial Conciliation Act [Chapter 267] which became law on the 1sl January 1960. It then was composed of two bodies the Industrial Court and the Industrial Tribunal. The Industrial court acted as an appeal court against the decisions of the registrar regarding trade union and employer’s unions. The Industrial Tribunal heard cases referred to it by Industrial Councils and Boards. It also acted as an advisory board to the Minister on labour disputes

A framework to evaluate user experience of end user application security features

The use of technology in society moved from satisfying the technical needs of users to giving a lasting user experience while interacting with the technology. The continuous technological advancements have led to a diversity of emerging security concerns. It is necessary to balance security issues with user interaction. As such, designers have adapted to this reality by practising user centred design during product development to cater for the experiential needs of user - product interaction. These User Centred Design best practices and standards ensure that security features are incorporated within End User Programs (EUP). The primary function of EUP is not security, and interaction with security features while performing a program related task does present the end user with an extra burden. Evaluation mechanisms exist to enumerate the performance of the EUP and the user’s experience of the product interaction. Security evaluation standards focus on the program code security as well as on security functionalities of programs designed for security. However, little attention has been paid to evaluating user experience of functionalities offered by embedded security features. A qualitative case study research using problem based and design science research approaches was used to address the lack of criteria to evaluate user experience with embedded security features. User study findings reflect poor user experience with EUP security features, mainly as a result of low awareness of their existence, their location and sometimes even of their importance. From the literature review of the information security and user experience domains and the user study survey findings, four components of the framework were identified, namely: end user characteristics, information security, user experience and end user program security features characteristics. This thesis focuses on developing a framework that can be used to evaluate the user experience of interacting with end user program security features. The framework was designed following the design science research method and was reviewed by peers and experts for its suitability to address the problem. Subject experts in the fields of information security and human computer interaction were engaged, as the research is multidisciplinary. This thesis contributes to the body of knowledge on information security and on user experience elements of human computer interaction security regarding how to evaluate user experience of embedded InfoSec features. The research adds uniquely to the literature in the area of Human Computer Interaction Security evaluation and measurement in general, and is specific to end user program security features. The proposed metrics for evaluating UX of interacting with EUP security features were used to propose intervention to influence UX in an academic setup. The framework, besides presenting UX evaluation strategies for EUP security features, also presents a platform for further academic research on human factors of information security. The impact can be evaluated by assessing security behaviour, and successful security breaches, as well as user experience of interaction with end user programs

Transmission dynamics of Trichomonas vaginalis: A mathematical approach

AbstractDespite the availability of treatment that is effective, Trichomonas vaginalis infections are still high. A deterministic model for transmission dynamics of Trichomonas vaginalis is presented as a system of non-linear differential equations. Analysis of the reproduction number has shown that an increase in the number of straight women (non-lesbians) infected result in an increase in the number of lesbians infected. This suggests that straight women are turning into lesbians already infected. The disease-free equilibrium is shown to be globally asymptotically stable when the corresponding reproduction number is less than unity. Analytical results and numerical simulations both show that treatment is able to control Trichomonas vaginalis infections. This suggests an effective control of trichomoniasis rests in encouraging and persuading sexual partners of those displaying symptoms to seek treatment. Failure for the asymptomatic to seek treatment (mostly males given that the majority of males does not show symptoms) will continue to fuel the infection

Modeling Schistosomiasis and HIV/AIDS Codynamics

We formulate a mathematical model for the cointeraction of schistosomiasis and HIV/AIDS in order to assess their synergistic relationship in the presence of therapeutic measures. Comprehensive mathematical techniques are used to analyze the model steady states. The disease-free equilibrium is shown to be locally asymptotically stable when the associated disease threshold parameter known as the basic reproduction number for the model is less than unity. Centre manifold theory is used to show that the schistosomiasis-only and HIV/AIDS-only endemic equilibria are locally asymptotically stable when the associated reproduction numbers are greater than unity. The impact of schistosomiasis and its treatment on the dynamics of HIV/AIDS is also investigated. To illustrate the analytical results, numerical simulations using a set of reasonable parameter values are provided, and the results suggest that schistosomiasis treatment will always have a positive impact on the control of HIV/AIDS

A mathematical model for assessing the impact of poverty on yaws eradication

AbstractA neglected disease with a nearly forgotten name is making a comeback following a global control programme that almost eradicated it more than forty years ago. Until the 1970s the prevalence of non-venereal treponematosis, including yaws, was greatly reduced after worldwide mass treatment. In 2005, cases were again reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A deterministic model is formulated to investigate the impact of poverty on yaws eradication. Threshold parameters are determined and stabilities analysed. The reproductive number was also used to assess the impact of birth rate in resource-constrained families on the dynamics of yaws. The model was shown to be globally stable whenever the associated reproductive number is less than a unity. Using the Lyapunov function it was proved that whenever the associated reproductive number is greater than a unity an endemic equilibrium exists and is globally asymptotically stable. Results from this theoretical study suggests that if the population of children in the community is dominated by those from resource-constrained families, then yaws eradication will remain difficulty to attain. Thus, more needs to be done in addressing issues such as high fertility rate, overcrowding, poor sanitation, etc. and poverty in general so that yaws epidemic which was successfully controlled several decades ago will cease to reemerge and can easily be eradicated

Modeling the Transmission Dynamics of Typhoid in Malaria Endemic Settings

Typhoid and malaria co-infection is a major public health problem in many developing countries. In this paper, a deterministic model for malaria and typhoid co-infection is proposed and analyzed. It has been established that the model exhibits a backward bifurcation phenomenon. Overall, the study reveals that a typhoid outbreak in malaria endemic settings may lead to higher cumulative cases of dually-infected individuals displaying clinical symptoms of both infections than singly-infected individuals displaying clinical symptoms of either malaria or typhoid

Modeling schistosomiasis and HIV/AIDS codynamics.

We formulate a mathematical model for the cointeraction of schistosomiasis and HIV/AIDS in order to assess their synergistic relationship in the presence of therapeutic measures. Comprehensive mathematical techniques are used to analyze the model steady states. The disease-free equilibrium is shown to be locally asymptotically stable when the associated disease threshold parameter known as the basic reproduction number for the model is less than unity. Centre manifold theory is used to show that the schistosomiasis-only and HIV/AIDS-only endemic equilibria are locally asymptotically stable when the associated reproduction numbers are greater than unity. The impact of schistosomiasis and its treatment on the dynamics of HIV/AIDS is also investigated. To illustrate the analytical results, numerical simulations using a set of reasonable parameter values are provided, and the results suggest that schistosomiasis treatment will always have a positive impact on the control of HIV/AIDS.Peer Reviewe

HSV-2 and Substance Abuse amongst Adolescents: Insights through Mathematical Modelling

Herpes simplex virus infection is mostly spread and occurs more commonly among substance abusing adolescents as compared to the nonsubstance abusing. In this paper, a mathematical model for the spread of HSV-2 within a community with substance abusing adolescents is developed and analysed. The impacts of condom use and educational campaigns are examined. The study suggests that condom use is highly effective among adolescents, when we have more of them quitting than becoming substance abusers. Measures such as educational campaigns can be put in place to try and reduce adolescents from becoming substance abusers. Further, we applied optimal control theory to the proposed model. The controls represent condom use and educational campaigns. The objective is based on maximising the susceptible nonsubstance abusing adolescents, while minimising the susceptible substance abusing adolescents, the infectious nonsubstance abusing adolescents, and the infectious substance abusing adolescents. We used Pontrygin’s maximum principle to characterise the optimal levels of the two controls. The resulting optimality system is solved numerically. Overall, the application of the optimal control theory suggests that more effort should be devoted to condom use as compared to educational campaigns

A model of HIV/AIDS population dynamics including ARV treatment and pre-exposure prophylaxis

Antiretroviral treatment (ART) and oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) have recently been used efficiently in management of HIV infection. Pre-exposure prophylaxis consists in the use of an antiretroviral medication to prevent the acquisition of HIV infection by uninfected individuals. We propose a new model for the transmission of HIV/AIDS including ART and PrEP. Our model can be used to test the effects of ART and of the uptake of PrEP in a given population, as we demonstrate through simulations. The model can also be used to estimate future projections of HIV prevalence. We prove global stability of the disease-free equilibrium. We also prove global stability of the endemic equilibrium for the most general case of the model, i.e., which allows for PrEP individuals to default. We include insightful simulations based on recently published South-African data