Physical Education in Tanzanian Secondary Schools : Perceptions towards Physical Education as an Academic Discipline

特定の目標を伴う計画された体育活動は他分野の活動同様に教育的である．体育教育は植民地時代タンザニアの中等教育に教科として導入されたが，生徒が単にリクリエーションに参加するための重要でないカリキュラム外の活動として位置づけられた．体育教育が政策的に導入される条件整備は適切に行われなかった．これは教員，設備そして国レベルの試験の形式が欠落していたためである．これは体育が正規の教科として導入されなくても良いという政府の考えを示すものであった．政府，専門家，そして政策担当者は，タンザニアに体育教育を確立し発展させたいなら，共同して取り組むことが必要である．Programmed physical activities with a particular goal are as educative as any other non-physical program. As academic discipline, Physical Education (PE) in Tanzania was introduced in secondary schools during colonial period. However, the subject has suffered serious neglect to the extent that, the society takes as an unimportant, extra-curricular program that students are to participate just for recreation. Favourable conditions to enable government policy on PE get implemented had not been adequately created in the schools because, there were no teachers, facilities and almost no form four-PE examination at national level. This lack of teachers, facilities and examinations could be significant signs that show governmental preferences, that PE was not preferentially set to be implemented as an academic discipline. The government, PE professionals and policy makers need to work together if PE is to stand and grow in the Tanzania society

Initiatives for promoting CED program in Tanzania

This study assesses the effectiveness of promotional initiatives such as newsletter, website, T-shirts and mugs in promoting Community Economic Development (CED) philosophy to a wider spectrum of the population. It examines if the promotional initiatives currently in use are addressing the CED philosophy and if they effectively promote the CED programme. Furthermore, it explores the relevance of the initiatives to CED stakeholders. A total of 188 respondents were interviewed, representing different groups of project beneficiaries including: former CED students, current CED students and representatives of different groups who receive copies of the newsletter and other promotional materials. The study revealed that, the promotional materials used by CED programme have promoted the CED philosophy more especially the newsletter. T-shirts and mugs as well have promoted the CED philosophy although they were found to be expensive. Furthermore, the study revealed that the CED programme webpage which is hosted by the OUT need to be marketed to the wider audience. The design and content of the page need to be revisited and improved as well. The study concludes that, the promotional initiatives have a major impact on disseminating CED philosophy, however the distribution mechanism of the newsletter need to be improved. (Author abstract)Hassan, A. K., Bihondwa, J. G., Justinian, K. N., Simba, S. Msuya, M. S., Makoye, A., Igongo, D. & Pangani, M. (2007). Initiatives for promoting CED programme in Tanzania. Retrieved from http://academicarchive.snhu.eduMaster of Science (M.S.)School of Community Economic Developmen

Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity among Primary School Children Aged 8-13 Years in Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania

Background. The understanding of obesity as a growing health problem in Africa and Tanzania in particular is hampered by lack of data as well as sociocultural beliefs in which overweight and obesity are revered. This study sought to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity among primary school children aged 8-13 years in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Method. A cross-sectional analytical research design was used to study overweight and obesity in primary schools in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The target population was 150,000 children aged 8-13 years. Stratified random sampling was used to select 1781 children. Weight and height were taken and WHO standards for children were used to determine weight status. Results. Findings showed that the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 15.9% and 6.7%, respectively ( = 1781). However, 6.2% of the children were underweight. There were significant differences in mean BMI between children in private and public schools ( = 0.021), between male and female ( < 0.001), and across age groups of 8-10 and 11-13 years ( < 0.001). Conclusion. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among primary school children is significant and requires management and prevention strategies

The occurrence and frequency of genomic mutations that mediate Isoniazid and Rifampicin resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from untreated pulmonary Tuberculosis cases in urban Blantyre, Malawi

This study was funded by the Helse Nord Tuberculosis Initiative (HNTI), a College of Medicine grant supported by the Helse Nord RHF and the University of Tromso.Background The emergence and spread of drug-resistant Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health threat. TB resistance originates in the course of treatment due to genomic mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). An increase in new cases with drug-resistant TB could be an indicator of high levels of circulating resistant strains. This study was conducted to determine the occurrence and frequency of genomic mutations that mediate Isoniazid (INH) and Rifampicin (RIF) resistance among isolates from untreated TB cases in urban Blantyre, Malawi. Methods A cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted on a panel of 141(n=141) MTB clinical isolates recovered between June 2010 and January 2012 from ≥2+ Ziehl-Neelsen smear positive new pulmonary-TB patients with no history of treatment. Frozen isolates were revived using the BACTEC MGIT detection system. DNA was extracted using GenoLyse DNA extraction kit and detection of genomic mutations was carried out using the GenoType MTBDRplus Ver 2.0 assay. Results Out of the 141 isolates studied, 3 (2.1%) were found carrying mutations in the katG gene that confer resistance to Isoniazid (INH). No mutations were detected in the inhA promoter region gene that confer weak INH resistance or in the rpoB gene that confer Rifampicin resistance. All katG mutant genes had a S315T1 single point mutation, a genomic alteration that mediates high INH resistance. Conclusion The katG mutant gene conferring resistance to INH was the only genomic mutation observed among the isolates studied and the frequency of occurrence was low. Our findings suggest low levels of circulating drug-resistant MTB strains in urban Blantyre, Malawi.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Impact of Biofuels on Food Prices; The Experiences of Brazil and United States

Using crops for fuel generates concerns over competition with food uses. In 2008 a global food crisis hit the world during a record-high commodity and energy prices that prompted hunger and political unrest in developing countries. This took place at the same time when biofuel production, reached its pinnacle in developed countries. This paper examines the effect that biofuel prices and or production has had on food prices in Brazil and United States (U.S.) by employing the panel cointegration and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) method of analysis. In regressing food prices as a function of demand and supply factors, such as oil prices, biofuel prices, interest rates and biofuel production, the study found that the increase in biofuels production over the past eighteen years has had a significant impact on food prices. Over the period January 1995- December 2013, the study estimates that a one hundred percent increase in biofuels production across time and between countries results in the increase of food prices by 21,9%.  The study therefore rejects the null hypothesis that states, biofuel production does not have a statistically significant negative impact on food prices in U.S. and Brazil, and accepts the alternative that biofuel production does have a statistically significant negative impact on food prices in U.S. and Brazil. Other predictors of food prices that the study revealed as significant were oil and interest rates. Policy recommendations for other countries like South Africa are therefore, made based on the results obtained

Transparent settlement model between mobile network operator and mobile voice over Internet protocol operator

Advances in technology have enabled network-less mobile voice over internet protocol operator (MVoIPO) to offer data services (i.e. voice, text and video) to mobile network operator's (MNO's) subscribers through an application enabled on subscriber's user equipment using MNO's packet-based cellular network infrastructure. However, this raises the problem of how to handle interconnection settlements between the two types of operators, particularly how to deal with users who now have the ability to make ‘free’ on-net MVoIP calls among themselves within the MNO's network. This study proposes a service level agreement-based transparent settlement model (TSM) to solve this problem. The model is based on concepts of achievement and reward, not violation and punishment. The TSM calculates the MVoIPO's throughput distribution by monitoring the variations of peaks and troughs at the edge of a network. This facilitates the determination of conformance and non-conformance levels to the pre-set throughput thresholds and, subsequently, the issuing of compensation to the MVoIPO by the MNO as a result of generating an economically acceptable volume of data traffic