Elephants in the Room: COVID-19 Pandemic Political Ecologies of Tourism in Tanzania

The COVID-19 pandemic brought forth unprecedented and ever-changing crisis and disruption to societies and economies around the globe.[1] As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to interrupt travel worldwide, the tourism industry, and the countries who rely on it as a major source of income, are in crisis. These processes have reconfigured economic capital flows and foreign investment in the global south. This is particularly the case in Tanzania, as tourism was Tanzania’s highest foreign exchange earner and accounted for 17% of Tanzania’s gross domestic product in 2019.[2] This project draws upon a political ecology framework to examine the Tanzanian state response for tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic from February 2020-July 2021. I employ semi-structured interviews, discourse analysis and archival research of Tanzanian state economic and tourism policy documents, economic reports, views and decisions of hotel owners and operators, flows of tourists to and from Tanzania, and news media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic from February 2020 to July 2021. I reveal how historical and contemporary power relations impact and influence Tanzanian state policy responses for tourism as well as the social and economic outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic policies on tourism on Mafia Island, Tanzania. Mafia Island is an important tourist destination with Africa’s largest marine park swimming with high biodiversity including whale sharks. My research reveals how the Tanzanian state responded to the pandemic in a variety of ways. This included initially closing borders, to denying the existence of COVID-19 and reopening borders without restrictions for tourists. I show how the Tanzanian state centralized power and justified opening the country to tourism by creating narratives of fear, the divine, and misinformation about COVID-19. In addition, neo-colonial legacies and logic, economic dependence on foreign capital, and state structuring were found to be important factors in shaping how the tourist sector in Tanzania was affected by state responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than an opportunity for transformation as some pandemic scholars have argued, I find a reinstallation of unevenness producing further entrenchment in economic dependency on international financial institutions and colonial relations within the tourist industry.[3] [1] Al-Ali, Nadje. “Covid-19 and Feminism in the Global South: Challenges, Initiatives and Dilemmas.” European Journal of Women’s Studies 27, no. 4 (November 1, 2020): 333–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506820943617.; Fernando, Jude L. “The Virocene Epoch: the vulnerability nexus of viruses, capitalism and racism.” Journal of Political Ecology 27, no. 1 (January 21, 2020). https://doi.org/10.2458/v27i1.23748.; Eaves, LaToya, and Karen Falconer Al-Hindi. “Intersectional Geographies and COVID-19.” Dialogues in Human Geography 10, no. 2 (July 1, 2020): 132–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820620935247.; [2] Masare, Alawi. “Why Credit to Private Sector Growth Slowed to 3-Year Low.” The Citizen. April 22, 2021, sec. Magazine. https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/magazines/-why-credit-to-private-sector-growth-slowed-to-3-year-low-3372814.; Kombe, Charles. “Tanzania Opening Up Tourism Despite Pandemic.” Voice of America. June 25, 2020, sec. COVID-19 Pandemic. https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/tanzania-opening-tourism-despite-pandemic. [3]Leach, Melissa, Hayley MacGregor, Ian Scoones, and Annie Wilkinson. “Post-Pandemic Transformations: How and Why COVID-19 Requires Us to Rethink Development.” World Development 138 (2021): 1-11

Social Psychology: An under-used tool in Cybersecurity

In cyber-security the weakest link is often seen as the human factor. This has led to discussions about the optimal methods in preventing cyber security breaches. This paper proposes that the fusion of cybersecurity and social psychology can inform and advance attempts to educate those on both sides of the law. Awareness and education will lead to more effective communication between parties and greater understanding of the risks and consequences for cyber attackers and defenders alike

Interpreting the Ionization Sequence in Star-Forming Galaxy Emission-Line Spectra

High ionization star forming (SF) galaxies are easily identified with strong emission line techniques such as the BPT diagram, and form an obvious ionization sequence on such diagrams. We use a locally optimally emitting cloud model to fit emission line ratios that constrain the excitation mechanism, spectral energy distribution, abundances and physical conditions along the star-formation ionization sequence. Our analysis takes advantage of the identification of a sample of pure star-forming galaxies, to define the ionization sequence, via mean field independent component analysis. Previous work has suggested that the major parameter controlling the ionization level in SF galaxies is the metallicity. Here we show that the observed SF- sequence could alternatively be interpreted primarily as a sequence in the distribution of the ionizing flux incident on gas spread throughout a galaxy. Metallicity variations remain necessary to model the SF-sequence, however, our best models indicate that galaxies with the highest and lowest observed ionization levels (outside the range -0.37 < log [O III]/H\b{eta} < -0.09) require the variation of an additional physical parameter other than metallicity, which we determine to be the distribution of ionizing flux in the galaxy.Comment: 41 pages, 17 figures, 9 tables, accepted to MNRA

Cascading the use of Web 2.0 technology in secondary schools in the United Kingdom: identifying the barriers beyond pre-service training

This paper reports on research that took place at Nottingham Trent University and Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom, over two years. The research focuses on the use of Web 2.0 technology, specifically web logs, with pre-service teachers, both during their university programme and the first year of teaching as full-time newly qualified teachers (NQTs). The purpose of this research was to add a developing body of knowledge by identifying whether technology used by pre-service teachers during their training course can be cascaded into their practice once qualified. Key findings identify a number of enablers and barriers to cascading technology in the classroom; these include curriculum time, pupil skills and support. The research concludes that early professional support and development should be on-going and assumptions about new teachers as champions of cascading innovative use of Web 2 technologies into their practice as NQTs may be over optimisti

Can urinary indolylacroylglycine (IAG) levels be used to determine whether children with autism will benefit from dietary intervention? : Autism, gastrointestinal problems and IAG

BACKGROUND: An increase in urinary indolyl-3-acryloylglycine (IAG) has been reported in children with ASD who suffer with bowel problems in comparison to ASD children without gastrointestinal (GI) problems. The case for dietary intervention for ASD children with GI symptoms might be strengthened were such a difference to be autism-specific. METHODS: Quantitative analysis of urinary IAG levels was performed for 53 children on the autism spectrum and 146 age-matched controls. The parents of each child were asked to provide information on bowel symptoms experienced by the child and their eating habits over a period of two weeks. RESULTS: We find no significant difference in urinary IAG levels between the ASD children with GI problems and ASD children without GI problems. Although we see some difference between ASD children with GI problems and controls in mainstream schools with GI problems, the difference between non-autistic children with other developmental disorders and controls in mainstream schools is more significant so that any difference is not autism-specific. We find a strong correlation between bowel symptoms and diet problems in ASD children, especially idiosyncratic feeding behavior and we show that ASD children suffering from multiple bowel symptoms tend to be those who also have dietary problems. CONCLUSION: We found no evidence to support the hypothesis that children with ASD who suffer with bowel problems have increased levels of urinary indolyl-3-acryloylglycine in comparison to children with ASD who do not have gastrointestinal problems

The Iowa Homemaker vol.3, no.1

Table of Contents A Greeting to Iowa Homemakers by Miss Anna J. Richardson, page 1 Where Are the Birds? by J. E. Guthrie, page 2 Her Summer Lingerie by Lucile Barta, page 3 Planting the Back Yard “Forty” by E. C. Volz, page 4 When April Weeps by Eleanor Murray, page 5 Garden Accessories by Juanita Beard, page 6 A Study in Yellow and White by Helen Reidy, page 6 Kiddies Clothes for Spring by Grace Heidbreger and Grace Bourland, page 7 Who’s There and Where by Eleanor Murray and Jeanette Beyer, page 8 The Economy Game and How the Turners Played It by Helen Lamb, page 1

A woman living with osteoarthritis: A case report

Osteoarthritis is a common condition that is typically associated with older adults. Other causes of osteoarthritis, such as those cases resulting from childhood Perthes disease, can affect younger people and frequently have a major impact on the lives of those affected. This case report describes the experiences of one patient with osteoarthritis, using examples of her poetry to illustrate her social, psychological and emotional transformation

Trait Emotional Intelligence in Surgeons.

Trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self-efficacy) concerns people’s perceptions of their emotional functioning. Two studies investigated this construct in surgeons and comparison occupations. We hypothesized that trait EI profiles would differ both within surgical specialties as well as between them and other professions. Study 1 (N = 122) compared the trait EI profiles of four different surgical specialties (General, Orthopedic, Head and Neck, and Miscellaneous surgical specialties). There were no significant differences amongst these specialties or between consultant surgeons and trainees in these specialties. Accordingly, the surgical data were combined into a single target sample (N = 462) that was compared against samples of engineers, executives and senior managers, lawyers, junior military managers, nurses, and salespeople. Surgeons scored significantly higher on global trait EI than junior military managers, but lower than executives and senior managers, salespeople, and nurses. There were no significant differences vis-à-vis engineers or lawyers. A MANOVA confirmed a similar pattern of differences in the four trait EI factors (Wellbeing, Self-control, Sociability, and Emotionality). Global trait EI scores correlated strongly with single-question measures of job satisfaction (r = 0.47) and job performance (r = 0.46) in the surgical sample. These findings suggest that interventions to optimize the trait EI profiles of surgeons can be helpful in relation to job satisfaction, job performance, and overall psychological wellbeing

The Fate of the Unattended Revisited: Can Irrelevant Speech Prime the Non-dominant Interpretation of Homophones?

Whether the post-categorical, semantic properties of task-irrelevant speech are processed has been a source of debate between two central accounts. The first, a structural account, proposes that the semantic content of irrelevant speech is filtered out early on, and thus remains unprocessed. The second account proposes that the semantic content of speech is, in fact, processed and can influence later behavior. The present research offers a resolution between these two prominent accounts by examining whether semantic processing of task-irrelevant speech occurs despite explicit instructions to ignore it. During a visual-verbal serial recall paradigm, participants were auditorily presented with non-dominant homophones plus their close associates, or close associates without the homophone itself and asked to ignore this irrelevant speech containing these semantic primes. In a subsequent “unrelated” phase, we assessed whether the spelling of homophones was influenced by the irrelevant speech that had occurred earlier in the serial recall phase. We found evidence of semantic priming in conditions wherein the homophone was present, as well as conditions wherein only associates of the homophone were present. Regardless of whether they were presented, homophones were more likely to be spelt in accordance with their non-dominant meaning, and most participants did not report awareness of this fact. We suggest that semantic processing of irrelevant speech occurs even when there is an explicit direction to ignore it and does not result in any material disruptive effect on serial recall performance

Looking at the same interaction and seeing something different: The role of information, judgment perspective and behavioral coding on judgment accuracy

Abstract. The role of information context, judgment perspective and cue type on the “accuracy” of first impressions of another’s Big5 personality was studied in three phases of data collection (n = 173). Accurate judgments were defined as the level of agreement between a target person’s aggregated personality score (i.e., average of self and informant ratings of personality) and a personality judgement about the target, indexed using item correlations. Results for Phase 1 found that completing a different task with the same partner improved accuracy for conscientiousness. Phase 2 investigated the relationship between a person’s role (judgment perspective) within an interaction (interactants, observers) and showed that Observers were better at judging the less interpersonal traits of conscientiousness and openness relative to Interactants. Finally, Phase 3 examined the types of cues that people used when rating another’s personality. Although Observers and Interactants had access to the same interaction, analyses revealed that they employed different types of cues when judging others. Findings are discussed in terms of Funder’s Realistic Accuracy Model (1995, 1999) along with practical implications, limitations and suggestions for future research