Some papers by Verdiana Grace Masanja


We list below some of Verdiana Grace Masanja's papers. A few of these papers are multi-author but we have not listed the authors who have collaborated with Masanja. In some cases we give the Abstract of the paper or, in one case, a short extract from a paper which has no abstract:
  1. Structural changes and equal opportunity for all: a case study of the University of Dar es Salaam (2001).

    This paper focuses on the University of Dar es Salaam's involvement in gender issues in education. The author outlines the structural changes as well as objectives that promote female student access to higher education. The affirmative actions that UDSM has put in place to increase the number of female students are discussed and the university's achievements are outlined by means of statistics. Recommendations to assist the process for ensuring equal opportunity for all are provided at the end of the paper.

  2. Mainstreaming FEMSA in the Tanzania Science and mathematics Educational policies and systems (2001).

  3. Mathematics and Other Disciplines: The Impact of Modern Mathematics in Other Disciplines (2002).

    The impact of modern mathematics and its application in other disciplines is presented from the 20th century historical perspective. In the 1930s to 1970s, mathematics became more inward looking, and the distinction between pure and applied mathematics became much more pronounced. In the 1970s, there was a return to more classical topics but on a new level and this resulted in a new convergence between mathematics and physics. The 20th century approach to mathematics resulted in a more developed mathematical language, new powerful mathematical tools, and inspired new application areas that have resulted in tremendous discoveries in other applied sciences. Towards the end of the 20th century, mathematicians were making a re-think on the need to bride the division lines within mathematics, to open up more for other disciplines and to foster the line of inter-discipline research. The current cry is that this interaction will be further strengthened in the 21st Century.

  4. Evaluation Report on Misereor Scholarship Programme at St Augustine University of Tanzania (2002)

  5. Teachers' living and working conditions: a challenge for attaining quality education (2004).

  6. Mathematical Modelling and its Impact on Other Disciplines, Industrialisation and Development (2006).

  7. Introducing eLearning in Industrial Mathematics in Tanzania and Rwanda (2008).

    Many efforts have been undertaken by African countries to promote the use of eLearning in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), however, it is noted that the uptake of that little which is available is extremely poor. Although it is largely claimed by many that this dismal state is due to economic and technological circumstances, this presentation argues that most efforts have been invested in infrastructure improvement, increased band width provision, hardware and supporting software technologies acquisition and very minimum investment has been put into training and re-training of educators in eLearning delivery modes. This is the major contributor to poor utilisation of eLearning opportunities in most HEIs in Africa. Examples from Tanzania and Rwanda are presented giving good practice approaches for addressing the challenge of poor uptake of eLearning in HEIs mathematics education. Existing opportunities for Africa"s eLearning

  8. Modelling swash zone flows on an alongshore dependent beach (2008).

    An important area of uncertainty in swash zone flows is the accommodation of rapid changes at the time of maximum down-rush (i.e. backwash flow) due to huge accelerations. In this paper a technique to address this uncertainty has been described and special care is put in handling the moving shoreline in a mathematical model. A new formulation for shoreline boundary condition is presented. The model has been solved and simulated using the Finite Elements Methods Laboratory (FEMLAB) software. The computational domain represents a bottom topography of a beach cut-off at a point below the maximum run-up creating an artificial bottom ([epsilon]) and an artificial flat distance ([L.sub.0]). Water is considered to be flowing freely towards the end of the domain. Simulation results fit well the flow velocities in up-rush and backwash durations from the experimental/field studies conducted by earlier researchers ...

  9. Regression Model to Monitor HIV/AIDS Control from Namibia Baseline Data (2009).

    The paper examines the relationship between self protection using condoms on one hand and sexual behaviour change on the other hand as controlling factors that can influence HIV/AIDS using data from a baseline survey conducted in Keetmanshoop and Ondangwa districts in Namibia. Frequency of condom utilization is used as a proxy for self protection while the frequency of a person having sexual intercourse in a given period is used as proxy for sexual behaviour change.  Regression models formed the methodological basis for this study. Findings revealed that the factors, as they have been chosen from the data are sufficient to characterize self protection by using condom in truck drivers, as well as in youth combined but they are not sufficient to characterize sex workers" frequency of condom use. Also the findings revealed that the controlled factors are sufficient to characterize the sexual behaviour change of sex workers and youth combined but not sufficient for truck drivers. Based on the model findings, we can advise implementers of HIV/AIDS control programmes in those districts that the following factors increase the frequency of utilization of condoms: (i) availability of condoms in the vicinity (home and place of work), (ii) voluntarily testing of HIV, (iii) convincing the youth groups that to buy condoms is not a problem and (iv) advertising condoms on the TV and other media. Factors that strongly affect negatively the use of condom and sexual behaviour change are (i) taking alcohol,(ii) intravenous drug use and (iii) cultural practices.

  10. Household Food Security Predictive Purposes and Automated Model Systems for Data from Lake Victoria Watershed (2009).

    Mathematical techniques have been used to predict household food expenditure using data collected from 216 randomly sampled households in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in the Lake Victoria watershed. Findings reveal that household size and annual household income if taken together have an influence on annual household food expenditures. We have built a model that combines predictive and decision theories and have used the model to design a decision support system to classify the researched households into categories of food security levels. The Decision Support System shows that 13.3% of respondent households are food secure, 35.5% are average food secure and 51.2% are food insecure for all the three countries. We believe the data from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are similar due to the fact that the living style of population in Lake Victoria watershed is almost the same regardless of the effort of each country. Since Rwanda is in Lake Victoria watershed we assume population lives the same style as studied countries. We applied the decision support system on the Rwanda governance structure and proposed a data collection system and information management system which are incorporated in the decision support system to be used by the local government leaders. This should aid decision making in monitoring household food security by local governments and can be extended to districts in the Lake Victoria watershed in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Data collection and model use will not need extra inputs in terms of funds, software and expertise.

  11. Increasing Women's Participation in Science, Mathematics and Technology Education and Employment in Africa (2010).

    The stereotyping of knowledge and skills given to girls and boys at the introduction of formal schooling combined with marginalisation and discrimination against women continues to influence the gendered nature of education even today and hence determines the occupation of men and women.

  12. Empowering women in research: the case of the National University of Rwanda (2011).

  13. Prediction of the Likelihood of Households Food Security in the Lake Victoria Region of Kenya (2011).

    This paper considers the modelling and prediction of households food security status using a sample of households in the Lake Victoria region of Kenya. A priori expected food security factors and their measurements are given. A binary logistic regression model derived was fitted to thirteen priori expected factors. Analysis of the marginal effects revealed that effecting the use of the seven significant determinants: farmland size, per capita aggregate production, household size, gender of household head, use of fertilizer, use of pesticide/herbicide and education of household head, increase the likelihood of a household being food secure. Finally, interpretations of  predicted conditional probabilities, following improvement of significant determinants, are given.

  14. An Optimal Design Model for New Water Distribution Networks in Kigali City (2011).

    This paper is concerned with the problem of optimizing the distribution of water in Kigali City at a minimum cost. The mathematical formulation is a Linear Programming Problem (LPP) which involves the design of a new network of water distribution considering the cost in the form of unit price of pipes, the hydraulic gradient and the loss of pressure. The objective function minimizes the cost of the network which is computed as the sum of the initial cost of the individual pipes. The model is solved using the Simplex algorithm which is implemented by the Linear Interactive and Discrete Optimizer (LINDO) using data from a sample network in Kigali. The optimal solutions show that the cost is reduced compared to the cost of the sampled existing networks of Kigali city.

  15. Liberalization of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa (2016).

    This paper discusses the liberalisation of higher education as under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) signed by member countries of the World Trade Organisation. The impact of commercialisation of higher education sector on the quality of education in sub-Saharan Africa is presented. The liberalization resulted in drastic expansion of higher education with significant decrease in public expenditure on education while private providers were interested more in money making than education quality. The liberalisation has resulted in a policy vacuum for the management of liberalisation of higher education. Individual households account for the major contribution for higher education funding which as a result is accessible to youths from privileged families. The proportion of university going-age youths in universities in sub-Saharan Africa is only 6% while the global average is 29%. Many graduates from these universities unfortunately cannot compete in the local as well as global labour market. For Africa to provide cost effective equitable quality education and produce skilled youths for the global and local labour markets, in desired quantity, the best option is to adopt technology led open learning and distance education in addition to the conventional delivery mode.

  16. Modelling Control of Pollutants Loads in Lake Kivu using Binary Logistic Regression Methods (2018).

    High concentration of pollutants in water surfaces causes catastrophes which kill aquatic life, kill people and affect livelihoods of those living in the catchment of the polluted water surfaces. In this study, a logistic binary regression model was applied to existing data of pollutant concentrations in rivers in flowing into lake Kivu to compute estimations of probabilities that the rivers pollute the lake. Rivers that discharge large amounts of pollutants in the lake were identified. The goodness-of-fit test statistic established that the formulated model could be used to predict the status of pollutants load in the lakes. The amount of Total Suspended Solids, Soluble Reactive Phosphorus, Nitrates, and Dissolved Silica are determinant factors to be used to predict the status of pollutant loads in lake Kivu. The model was then used to simulate scenarios to reduce and control pollutant loads using methods of Infiltration Basin, Terrace System, and Constructed Wetlands. It is established that the use of any of the above control methods will drastically reduce the pollutants load to allowable levels in all of the five identified rivers on the Rwanda side and five out of the eight identified rivers on the DRC side. The constructed wetlands method is the best option to reduce the level of pollutants followed by the Terrace System. The least is the Infiltration Basin method. However, since the constructed wetlands method is expensive and has many limitations, the Terrace System could be used for all the rivers on Rwanda side and five on the DRC side. It fails for three rivers on DRC side. These results are in excellent agreement with former studies elsewhere.

Last Updated March 2019