Translation Processes in the Translation Training Programme of the DRC

Abstract: More studies are being conducted in the didactics of translation to find out what it can consist of and how it can be achieved. This paper evaluates the translation training programme of the DRC in order to point out the conceptualisation of the translation processes, in particular the controlled ones of comprehension and re-expression. It is basically a library research. The results tend to indicate that more weight is given to re-expression than to comprehension. Given that production is dependent on comprehension, I suggest that attention of equal par should be given to both these phases of translation. Keywords : translation processes, didactics of translation, translation programme evaluation, conceptualisatio

An Application of ‟Competence-Oriented Research of Translation’’ to a Programme Evaluation.

Résumé : Beaucoup de chercheurs ont étudié la question de la compétence traductionnelle en vue de saisir ce qui se passe dans la tête d‟un traducteur compétent ou pour comprendre ce en quoi elle consiste. Le paradigme de ‘’recherche en traduction orientée-compétence’’ est présenté par Gutt (2010, p205) comme ‟se fondant sur les investigations scientifiques de la compétence des êtres humains à communiquer l‟un avec l’autre’’ (ma propre traduction). Ce paradigme est appliqué ici pour la première fois à l‟évaluation du programme d‟études de la traduction de la RD Congo pour essayer de saisir la conceptualisation de la compétence traductionnelle qu‟ont les concepteurs. Nous croyons que plus on a la vue claire de ce en quoi consiste la compétence traductionnelle et comment elle se construit ou s‟acquiert, meilleurs seront les résultats du processus de formation. Mots-Clés : Compétence traductionnelle, approche d‟évaluation de programme d‟études de traduction basée-compétence 

Relation entre l'aluminium dans l'eau potable et la maladie d'Alzheimer

L'aluminium se prête à une vaste gamme d'utilisations, notamment comme coagulant dans les procédés de traitement d'eau. Ces dernières années, le public s'est inquiété des répercussions négatives que pourrait avoir sur la santé humaine l'aluminium présent dans l'eau potable. Existe-t-il un lien entre l'aluminium de l'eau potable et cette maladie dégénérative du cerveau qu'est la maladie d'Alzheimer? De nombreuses études épidémiologiques ont mis en évidence une corrélation positive concernant ce lien, sans qu'on puisse pour autant prouver la relation causale. De plus, les éléments de preuve ne sont pas toujours convergents. Parmi les indications qui laissent croire que l'aluminium ne cause pas la maladie d'Alzheimer figurent l'impossibilité d'induire des changements du même type dans le cerveau d'animaux de laboratoire exposés à l'aluminium, l'absence de changements de type Alzheimer dans le cerveau de patients souffrant d'encéphalopathie des dialysés et, dans certaines études, l'absence d'une accumulation d'aluminium dans les tissus cérébraux de personnes atteintes de la maladie. Le monde scientifique commence à croire qu'il existe plutôt des interactions complexes au sein desquelles l'aluminium ne serait qu'un facteur parmi tant d'autres. Dans l'état actuel des connaissances, le lien entre l'aluminium de l'eau potable et la maladie d'Alzheimer est loin d'être probant, mais on ne peut pas exclure la possibilité qu'un tel lien existe. C'est pourquoi des mesures préventives sont envisagées telles que la réduction de la quantité d'aluminium résiduel dans l'eau potable ou le remplacement de l'alun par d'autres coagulants : le chlorure ferrique, le poly-aluminium sulfate, le Moringa oleifera. Mais ces produits sont en général plus coûteux, exigent des installations supplémentaires et ont d'éventuelles incidences sur la santé et sur l'environnement

Private Equity Financing in Zambia: Determinants and Constraints

Growth and development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the key drivers of economic growth and development in Africa. While this has become a widely accepted idea, access to financing for growth remains a stumbling block for many enterprises in Zambia. Traditional lenders (i.e. banks) are risk averse because they may not understand the SME market and have been negatively impacted by information asymmetry that is often associated with these ventures. As a result, they tend to charge exorbitant interest rates that are unsustainable for long-term growth. The existing focus of many microfinance institutions in Zambia is typically directed towards salaried employees which crowds out lending to SMEs. Private equity financing, on the other hand, presents an alternative solution to the long-term financing dilemma faced by enterprises. The Zambian private equity market is itself in a nascent space but shows much potential. This dissertation seeks to determine what drives private equity financing in Zambia and what constrains it. The dissertation adopts a qualitative research approach relying on the interviews of various Fund Managers who are familiar with investing in Zambia. The paper finds that private equity investment in Zambia is determined and catalysed broadly by business attractiveness and the business environment. Business attractiveness is underpinned by management capacity, the business track record, exits and returns, impact potential and business scalability. The business environment is driven by political stability, GDP growth and population growth. The sector is however, constrained by a less developed private equity culture, limited opportunities to invest and currency risk

Investigation of learners’ ways of working with algebraic graphs in high-stakes mathematics examinations

Magister Educationis - MEdAlgebraic graphs are a difficult topic for most secondary school mathematics learners. My experience as a Mathematics teacher in the Further Education and Training Phase (FET) is that learners solve problems involving graphs with difficulty. Consequently, the purpose of this research was to investigate learners’ ways of working with algebraic graphs in high-stakes examinations including their errors and misconceptions in this respect. The investigation carried out to identify learners’ errors and misconceptions is based on the analysis of 444 scripts from the 2012 grade 12 final Mathematics examination. More specifically, the study aimed to investigate the ways learners used to solve questions related to graphs in this examination. The focus of the study was the algebraic graphs tested in Paper 1 of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination with an emphasis on the identification of errors exhibited in the learners’ scripts. The study adopted a qualitative approach using documentary analysis methodology. As data, the study used the scripts of the final grade 12 Mathematics examinations of schools participating in a project for the improvement of Mathematics based at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). The analysis of learners’ scripts reveals that learners make many errors when they work with algebraic graphs. These errors that have been found in this investigation were coordinate, intercept, domain and range, asymptote, identification, drawing and function errors. Additional errors which were identified are transformation and inverse errors

Quantitative evaluation of the strategy to eliminate human African trypanosomiasis in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Background: The virulent vector-borne disease, Gambian human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), is one of several diseases targeted for elimination by the World Health Organization. This article utilises human case data from a high-endemicity region of the Democratic Republic of Congo in conjunction with a suite of novel mechanistic mathematical models to address the effectiveness of on-going active screening and treatment programmes and compute the likely time to elimination as a public health problem (i.e. <1 case per 10,000 per year). Methods: The model variants address uncertainties surrounding transmission of HAT infection including heterogeneous risk of exposure to tsetse bites, non-participation of certain groups during active screening campaigns and potential animal reservoirs of infection. Results: Model fitting indicates that variation in human risk of tsetse bites and participation in active screening play a key role in transmission of this disease, whilst the existence of animal reservoirs remains unclear. Active screening campaigns in this region are calculated to have been effective, reducing the incidence of new human infections by 52–53 % over a 15-year period (1998–2012). However, projections of disease dynamics in this region indicate that the elimination goal may not be met until later this century (2059–2092) under the current intervention strategy. Conclusions: Improvements to active detection, such as screening those who have not previously participated and raising overall screening levels, as well as beginning widespread vector control in the area have the potential to ensure successful and timely elimination

Predicting the impact of intervention strategies for sleeping sickness in two high-endemicity health zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Two goals have been set for Gambian human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), the first is to achieve elimination as a public health problem in 90% of foci by 2020, and the second is to achieve zero transmission globally by 2030. It remains unclear if certain HAT hotspots could achieve elimination as a public health problem by 2020 and, of greater concern, it appears that current interventions to control HAT in these areas may not be sufficient to achieve zero transmission by 2030. A mathematical model of disease dynamics was used to assess the potential impact of changing the intervention strategy in two high-endemicity health zones of Kwilu province, Democratic Republic of Congo. Six key strategies and twelve variations were considered which covered a range of recruitment strategies for screening and vector control. It was found that effectiveness of HAT screening could be improved by increasing effort to recruit high-risk groups for screening. Furthermore, seven proposed strategies which included vector control were predicted to be sufficient to achieve an incidence of less than 1 reported case per 10,000 people by 2020 in the study region. All vector control strategies simulated reduced transmission enough to meet the 2030 goal, even if vector control was only moderately effective (60% tsetse population reduction). At this level of control the full elimination threshold was expected to be met within six years following the start of the change in strategy and over 6000 additional cases would be averted between 2017 and 2030 compared to current screening alone. It is recommended that a two-pronged strategy including both enhanced active screening and tsetse control is implemented in this region and in other persistent HAT foci to ensure the success of the control programme and meet the 2030 elimination goal for HAT

Data-driven models to predict the elimination of sleeping sickness in former Equateur province of DRC.

Approaching disease elimination, it is crucial to be able to assess progress towards key objectives using quantitative tools. For Gambian human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), the ultimate goal is to stop transmission by 2030, while intermediary targets include elimination as a public health problem - defined as <1 new case per 10,000 inhabitants in 90% of foci, and <2000 reported cases by 2020. Using two independent mathematical models, this study assessed the achievability of these goals in the former Equateur province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which historically had endemic levels of disease. The two deterministic models used different assumptions on disease progression, risk of infection and non-participation in screening, reflecting biological uncertainty. To validate the models a censor-fit-uncensor procedure was used to fit to health-zone level data from 2000 to 2012; initially the last six years were censored, then three and the final step utilised all data. The different model projections were used to evaluate the expected transmission and reporting for each health zone within each province under six intervention strategies using currently available tools. In 2012 there were 197 reported HAT cases in former Equateur reduced from 6828 in 2000, however this reflects lower active testing for HAT (1.3% of the population compared to 7.2%). Modelling results indicate that there are likely to be <300 reported cases in former Equateur in 2020 if screening continues at the mean level for 2000-2012 (6.2%), and <120 cases if vector control is introduced. Some health zones may fail to achieve <1 new case per 10,000 by 2020 without vector control, although most appear on track for this target using medical interventions alone. The full elimination goal will be harder to reach; between 39 and 54% of health zones analysed may have to improve their current medical-only strategy to stop transmission completely by 2030

Leçons macroéconomiques de la Covid-19: une analyse pour la RDC

This work aims at studying the macroeconomic impact of COVID-19 on the activity economic in DR Congo. To do this, a dynamic and stochastic general equilibrium model in the open economy is used and the model parameters are estimated using the Bayesian approach. The estimated data cover the period from the first quarter 2012 in the second quarter of 2020. The diagnostic tests, in particular the convergence test Monte-Carlo Markov chains (MCMC) lead to consider that the parameters are reliable. The results indicate that: (i) the COVID-19 shock would lead to a significant drop in the output gap until the 8th trimester after the incurrence of the shock; (ii) the level of consumption also suffers a downside effect following the health crisis up to more than 10 quarters after the shock; (iii) The nominal exchange rate also depreciates with a more and more attenuated from the 6th quarter after the shock, and (iv) the term of exchange suffers also from a negative effect but with a larger confidence interval, which could possibly reflect a potentially significant effect following the interruption of trade resulting from the measures of confinement

DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS FOR HUMAN AFRICAN TRYPANOSOMIASIS ELIMINATION AND CLINICAL TRIALS: THE DITECT-HAT PROJECT

Background Trypanosoma brucei gambiense (Tbg) causes human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), one of the neglected tropical diseases targeted for elimination. Integration of diagnosis and case management into the general health system, sustainable monitoring of eliminated foci and development of safe and efficacious drugs, remain important challenges. Methods The DiTECT-HAT project tackles these challenges. For passive case detection, we will determine the diagnostic performance and cost of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) performed on clinical suspects in peripheral health centres, whether or not combined with serological and/or molecular tests on filter paper done at regional reference centres. Cost-effective diagnostic algorithms with high positive predictive values might allow test-and-treat scenarios without the need for complicated parasitological confirmations. Secondly, health workers performing house to house visits in foci with very low HAT prevalence can easily collect blood on filter paper and send it to regional HAT reference centres for analysis. The feasibility and cost of diagnostic algorithms with RDTs, serological and molecular high-throughput tests for post-elimination monitoring will be determined. An appropriate threshold will be established to trigger active case finding to avoid re-emergence of HAT, without unnecessarily raising the alarm. Finally, the accuracy of neopterin and RNA detection as early test-of-cure will be determined in therapeutic trials. Earlier treatment outcome assessment will speed up the development of new drugs for HAT, and improve management of relapses in routine care. Results An update of ongoing and planned activities is given. The passive case detection sub-project is being set up in DR Congo, Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea. The inclusions for the early test-of-cure sub-project are ongoing in DR Congo. Conclusions The proposed research will provide evidence to support policies for improved HAT diagnosis and patient management within a context of disease elimination, and will contribute to successful and sustainable HAT elimination