The Role of Open and Distance Learning in Gender Equality and Women Empowerment - A Case of Diploma in Primary Teacher Education - The Open University of Tanzania

Open and Distance Learning could not only help in gender equality and women empowerment, but also facilitate effectiveness of teaching and learning in primary schools. However there is little knowledge about the contribution of ODL to gender equality and women empowerment in Tanzania. The paper set out to examine the role of ODL in promoting gender equality and women empowerment focusing the Open University of Tanzania Diploma in Primary Teacher Education programme in particular. The study was carried out at Green Bird Teachers college during DPTE intensive face to face session. Students from the following Regional Centers: Kilimanjaro, Tanga, Arusha, Manyara, Dodoma, Dar es Salaam and Morogoro were involved.  Questionnaire survey and documentary review methods were employed in data collection. A quantitative data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 16th version). While qualitative information was analyzed using content analysis.The study observed that majority of the respondents (96.6%) recognized the benefits of DPTE in their economic, political and social wellbeing. The reasons associated with the benefits of DPTE are mostly attributed to the expected positive outcome such as expanding the level of education, increase income and leadership after completing the course.  Despite the observed benefits, increase in expenses, domestic echoes and distance reported as the most challenges that hinder the academic performance and progress of the course. The study concludes that studying through Open and Distance Learning provides student with flexibility of studying while working and handling family related matters. Thus, awareness about ODL should be provided regularly so as to attract a good number of Tanzanian to pursue their study at the Open University of Tanzania Keywords: Open and distance learning, contribution of Diploma in Primary Teachers Education, gender equality, and challenges of Open and Distance Learnin

EFFECTS OF SCHOOL DISTANCE ON GIRLS’ EDUCATION AND INFLUENCE ON GENDER INEQUALITY IN SECONDARY EDUCATION: CASE STUDY OF COMMUNITY SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN PANGANI AND HANDENI DISTRICTS, TANZANIA

Gender equality in education has been an issue of interest in developing strategies for many countries across the world whereas gender issues have been integrated into the world development agendas. Despite efforts made to achieve gender equality in education, few countries worldwide have attained full gender parity in secondary education. Tanzania like other SSA countries has worked hard to achieve gender equality in education as given by EFA goal number 5, MDG goal number 3 and currently SDG goal number 5. However, the problem of girls dropping out early from school and poor academic performance continues to be prevalent (URT, 2016). Long school distance is pointed out as one of the factors influencing gender inequality in secondary education. This study, therefore, examined the effects of school distance on girls’ education and its influence on gender inequality in secondary education. The study was guided by three specific objectives, which were carried out through Cross-Sectional - Convergent Parallel Mixed methods research design to allow simultaneous collection and merging of quantitative and qualitative data. The sample was obtained by using simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques making a total of 101 sample sizes, comprising 79 respondents for quantitative data and 22 for qualitative information. Data analysis involved thematic analysis for qualitative data and descriptive statistics for quantitative findings. Study findings revealed that girls are more vulnerable to the problem of long school distances than boys because of biological formation and socially constructed beliefs about gender roles. The study findings noted that school distance encourages the prevalence of sexual harassment, early sexual relations and teenage pregnancy among school girls all of which lead to poor academic performance and or school dropout. Additionally, this study indicated that school distance coupled with the burden of domestic chores negatively affects girls’ school attendance, classroom learning and academic performance. This study, therefore, concludes that long school distance is one among main factors that affect girls’ education and contribute to the persistence of gender disparities in secondary education. To resolve the problem, this study recommends on the introduction of education PPPs so as to merge efforts among education stakeholders in building school hostels in every community secondary school in the country and fully furnish them with the required facilities.  Article visualizations

INCREASE IN DEFORESTATION: A KEY CHALLENGE TO HOUSEHOLD CHARCOAL SUPPLY – A CASE OF TANGA URBAN, TANZANIA

This study investigated an increase in deforestation and its impact in charcoal supply for households in Tanga district (urban). Tanga district was chosen because it has high urban population as compared to her neighbor Districts of Muheza and Mkinga. The district was also chosen because it is so close to natural and reserved forests in both Muheza and Mkinga districts in which effect of deforestation on charcoal supply can be clearly seen and determined. The study involved 61 respondents including (households, charcoal venders and forest officer). Questionnaire survey, interview and documentary review methods were employed in data collection. A quantitative data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 20th version). While qualitative information was analyzed using content analysis. The study findings show that majority 56 (92%) of the respondents reported that there is high rate of deforestation which was mainly contributed by charcoal production in the study area. The study further revealed that the observed high rate of deforestation affect the availability and supply of charcoal for domestic use. The scarcity of charcoal coupled with high and fluctuating price give the evidence on presence domestic energy crisis in the study area. Along with other recommendations, the study recommends that the Government Regulator (Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authorities - EWURA) should consider reducing tariff on other sources of energy particularly gas and electricity to allow many people afford and resorting to alternative energies for their domestic use and hence reduce the extent of deforestation. JEL: Q23, Q21, R23  Article visualizations

Design of Variation-Tolerant Circuits for Nanometer CMOS Technology: Circuits and Architecture Co-Design

Aggressive scaling of CMOS technology in sub-90nm nodes has created huge challenges. Variations due to fundamental physical limits, such as random dopants fluctuation (RDF) and line edge roughness (LER) are increasing significantly with technology scaling. In addition, manufacturing tolerances in process technology are not scaling at the same pace as transistor's channel length due to process control limitations (e.g., sub-wavelength lithography). Therefore, within-die process variations worsen with successive technology generations. These variations have a strong impact on the maximum clock frequency and leakage power for any digital circuit, and can also result in functional yield losses in variation-sensitive digital circuits (such as SRAM). Moreover, in nanometer technologies, digital circuits show an increased sensitivity to process variations due to low-voltage operation requirements, which are aggravated by the strong demand for lower power consumption and cost while achieving higher performance and density. It is therefore not surprising that the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) lists variability as one of the most challenging obstacles for IC design in nanometer regime. To facilitate variation-tolerant design, we study the impact of random variations on the delay variability of a logic gate and derive simple and scalable statistical models to evaluate delay variations in the presence of within-die variations. This work provides new design insight and highlights the importance of accounting for the effect of input slew on delay variations, especially at lower supply voltages. The derived models are simple, scalable, bias dependent and only require the knowledge of easily measurable parameters. This makes them useful in early design exploration, circuit/architecture optimization as well as technology prediction (especially in low-power and low-voltage operation). The derived models are verified using Monte Carlo SPICE simulations using industrial 90nm technology. Random variations in nanometer technologies are considered one of the largest design considerations. This is especially true for SRAM, due to the large variations in bitcell characteristics. Typically, SRAM bitcells have the smallest device sizes on a chip. Therefore, they show the largest sensitivity to different sources of variations. With the drastic increase in memory densities, lower supply voltages and higher variations, statistical simulation methodologies become imperative to estimate memory yield and optimize performance and power. In this research, we present a methodology for statistical simulation of SRAM read access yield, which is tightly related to SRAM performance and power consumption. The proposed flow accounts for the impact of bitcell read current variation, sense amplifier offset distribution, timing window variation and leakage variation on functional yield. The methodology overcomes the pessimism existing in conventional worst-case design techniques that are used in SRAM design. The proposed statistical yield estimation methodology allows early yield prediction in the design cycle, which can be used to trade off performance and power requirements for SRAM. The methodology is verified using measured silicon yield data from a 1Mb memory fabricated in an industrial 45nm technology. Embedded SRAM dominates modern SoCs and there is a strong demand for SRAM with lower power consumption while achieving high performance and high density. However, in the presence of large process variations, SRAMs are expected to consume larger power to ensure correct read operation and meet yield targets. We propose a new architecture that significantly reduces array switching power for SRAM. The proposed architecture combines built-in self-test (BIST) and digitally controlled delay elements to reduce the wordline pulse width for memories while ensuring correct read operation; hence, reducing switching power. A new statistical simulation flow was developed to evaluate the power savings for the proposed architecture. Monte Carlo simulations using a 1Mb SRAM macro from an industrial 45nm technology was used to examine the power reduction achieved by the system. The proposed architecture can reduce the array switching power significantly and shows large power saving - especially as the chip level memory density increases. For a 48Mb memory density, a 27% reduction in array switching power can be achieved for a read access yield target of 95%. In addition, the proposed system can provide larger power saving as process variations increase, which makes it a very attractive solution for 45nm and below technologies. In addition to its impact on bitcell read current, the increase of local variations in nanometer technologies strongly affect SRAM cell stability. In this research, we propose a novel single supply voltage read assist technique to improve SRAM static noise margin (SNM). The proposed technique allows precharging different parts of the bitlines to VDD and GND and uses charge sharing to precisely control the bitline voltage, which improves the bitcell stability. In addition to improving SNM, the proposed technique also reduces memory access time. Moreover, it only requires one supply voltage, hence, eliminates the need of large area voltage shifters. The proposed technique has been implemented in the design of a 512kb memory fabricated in 45nm technology. Results show improvements in SNM and read operation window which confirms the effectiveness and robustness of this technique

…to each according to his (or her) needs: where are the poor in innovation studies?

Parallel session 7. Innovation research for developmentPresented at GLOBELICS 2009, 7th International Conference, 6-8 October, Dakar, Senegal.This paper first reviews major recent works broadly dedicated to the role innovation plays in development and discusses possible reasons for the marginal role accorded low-income countries. It then reports insights from a systematic review of the literature since the late 1990s that implicitly or explicitly addresses innovation in the poorest areas of the world. The point here is that most of this research was not done by innovation scholars and, by implication, does not draw on the insights innovation systems analysis in principle has to offer. In concluding, it illustrates how existing research would benefit from such a synthesis by looking in particular at health and agriculture

Neurons Expressing Pathological Tau Protein Trigger Dramatic Changes in Microglial Morphology and Dynamics

International audienceMicroglial cells, the resident macrophages of the brain, are important players in the pathological process of numerous neurodegenerative disorders, including tauopathies, a heterogeneous class of diseases characterized by intraneuronal Tau aggregates. However, microglia response in Tau pathologies remains poorly understood. Here, we exploit a genetic zebrafish model of tauopathy, combined with live microglia imaging, to investigate the behavior of microglia in vivo in the disease context. Results show that while microglia were almost immobile and displayed long and highly dynamic branches in a wild-type context, in presence of diseased neurons, cells became highly mobile and displayed morphological changes, with highly mobile cell bodies together with fewer and shorter processes. We also imaged, for the first time to our knowledge, the phagocytosis of apoptotic tauopathic neurons by microglia in vivo and observed that microglia engulfed about as twice materials as in controls. Finally, genetic ablation of microglia in zebrafish tauopathy model significantly increased Tau hyperphosphorylation, suggesting that microglia provide neuroprotection to diseased neurons. Our findings demonstrate for the first time the dynamics of microglia in contact with tauopathic neurons in vivo and open perspectives for the real-time study of microglia in many neuronal diseases

Thymoquinone, the Nigella sativa Bioactive Compound, Prevents Circulatory Oxidative Stress Caused by 1,2-Dimethylhydrazine in Erythrocyte during Colon Postinitiation Carcinogenesis

We have performed this study to investigate the modulatory effect of thymoquinone (TQ), the Nigella sativa active compound, on erythrocyte lipid peroxidation and antioxidant status during 1,2-dimethylhydrazine- (DMH-) induced colon carcinogenesis after initiation in male Wistar rats. Rats exposed to DMH showed an increase of malondialdehyde and conjugated diene levels, and an augmentation of enzyme activities like catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase activities was also noted. The TQ pretreatment restored the parameters cited above to near-normal values. However, the posttreatment shows an activity similar as that presented by DMH. Therefore, our investigation revealed that TQ was a useful compound preventing DMH-induced erythrocyte damages

Highly sensitive pseudo-differential ac-nanocalorimeter for the study of the glass transition

International audienceWe present a nanocalorimeter designed for the measurement of the dynamic heat capacity of thin films. The microfabricated sensor, the thermal conditioning of the sensor as well as the highly stable and low noise electronic chain allow measurements of the real and imaginary parts of the complex specific heat with a resolution ∆C/C of about 10 −5. The performances of this quasi-differential nanocalorimeter were tested on a model of polymeric glass-former, the PVAc. The high stability and low noise of the device are essential for accurate studies on non-equilibrium slow relaxing systems such as glasses

Does Weight Loss Through Means of Bariatric Surgery Reduce the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in Obese Qatari Patients: A retrospective analysis

Background and objectives: The use of bariatric surgeries such as Gastric Bypass and Sleeve Gastrectomy in managing obesity and associated diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has been induced in clinical practice. Weight reduction through means of bariatric surgery has metabolic benefits and may improve the management of T2DM. The aim of this study was to investigate if weight loss through bariatric surgery can reduce the risk of T2DM in patients without the onset of T2DM. Study design: A retrospective analysis was conducted on post-bariatric patients at the department of bariatric and metabolic surgery at Hamad General Hospital. Methods: Tow hundred and two eligible pre-diabetic Qatari patients who have undergone bariatric surgery in 2016 and satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study were analyzed. Data on Glucose, Insulin and C-peptides levels at baseline and follow-up were extracted in order to compare the change of these variables at baseline, 6 and 10 months follow up before and after 10 months from the date of surgery. Results: Seventy one males with mean age of 32.73 ± 10.37 and one hundred and thirty one females with mean age of 33.90 ± 9.88 were included in the analysis. Change in weight was strongly and positively associated with change in insulin level (0.701, 95% CI: 0.027, 1.347, p= 0.042) also, as weight changes fasting glucose changes (1.993, 95% CI: 0.359, 3.627, p= 0.017). Follow-up period greater than 6 months was not found to be significantly associated with weight loss (2.049, 95% CI: -2.249, 6.349, p= 0.313). Conclusion: Our study confirms results from international studies that weight loss through bariatric surgery can reduce the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes in Qatari obese patients. The results of the study also suggest that post-surgery periods can be detrimental to the fate of fasting glucose and insulin levels and therefore compliance maybe of great importance to ensure success and sustainability of weight loss and diabetes prevention. Larger samples size and longer follow-up period is required to confirm these findings.Qatar University and Hamad Medical Corporatio