Articles, Conference and Workshop Papers Collection
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Item Use of subscribed electronic eesources by undergraduate students at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania(COTUL, 2022-11) Mwalukasa, NicholausThis study assessed the use of subscribed electronic resources by undergraduate students at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA). The study aims at determining the students’ awareness, access and use of subscribed electronic resources and to examine determinants of the use of subscribed electronic resources. The study used a cross-sectional research design to collect data from 120 respondents using structured questionnaire as the data collection tool. Data were coded on Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The researchers calculated the frequencies, percentages and linear regression. Findings reveal that majority (90%) of respondents were aware of the availability of subscribed electronic resources. Furthermore, the most used e- resources were e-journal and e-books while the least used was e-dictionary. Furthermore, the results found that perceived usefulness and attitude significantly influenced students’ use of subscribed electronic resources. The study reveals that age and year of study influenced students’ use of subscribed electronic resources. The study concludes that usage of subscribed e-resources by undergraduate students was moderate. It is recommended that librarians in academic institutions should create regular creation of awareness on the subscribed e- resources to the library users. The study recommends that librarians, information science and educators who intend to promote electronic resources should ensure that they are useful. Moreover, creating awareness on the usefulness of electronic resources to change their attitude is another important factor. Marketing the electronic resources through outreach programmess and information literacy are necessary for all the students.Item A novel qoe-aware sdn-enabled, nfv-based management architecture for future multimedia applications on 5g systems(2019) Barakabitze,Alcardo Alex; Sun,Lingfen; Mkwawa,Is-Haka; Ifeachor,EmmanuelThis paper proposes a novel QoE-aware SDN enabled NFV architecture for controlling and managing Future Multimedia Applications on 5G systems. The aim is to improve the QoE of the delivered multimedia services through the fulfilment of personalized QoE application requirements. This novel approach provides some new features, functionalities, concepts and opportunities for overcoming the key QoE provisioning limitations in current 4G systems such as increased network management complexity and inability to adapt dynamically to changing application, network transmission/traffic or end-user’s demandItem Early fire detection system in Tanzania market places(2020-11-15) Philemon, Rotich; Rambo, Hilary; Geofrey, Anna; Sam, AnaelApplication of wireless sensor networks (WSN) and Internet of Things (IoT) used to provide real-time monitoring of fire outbreak in markets. The system integrates three subsystems namely; sensing subsystem which uses multiple sensors for detecting fire outbreaks. Data processing subsystem which collects data from the sensing subsystem through Xbee, analyses, and uploads data to the cloud. If values exceed sensor threshold, an alarm is triggered and notification is sent to stakeholders via mobile application subsystem. The integration between sensing, data processing, and mobile application subsystems pave a new way for the mitigation of fire outbreaks at its early stage. Keywords: wireless sensor networks; Internet of Things; real-time monitoring; Xbee; integrationItem A survey on indigenous knowledge systems databases for African traditional medicines(2018-06) Mangare, Catherine Francis; LI, JIEThis study aimed at surveying the constructed Indigenous knowledge systems databases for African Traditional medicine; learning their diversity features, common challenges and develops the missing information when constructing indigenous knowledge system for Tanzanian Traditional Medicine. According to the research presented by different scholars, there are more than 10 databases for African traditional plants medicine. The translation of biodiversity towards the new therapy has been a challenge towards creating the database for traditional medicine in Africa. This has led to most of the available database lack enough information on ethnopharmacological data. The effort towards the introduction of bioinformatics in most of the undergraduate circular gives the best direction towards developments of computational in pharmaceutical fields. By concluding, the development of global data in a single indigenous knowledge system may be impossible in view of the culture and biodiversity differences; efforts have to be given to specific regional areas and African museum should act as a center to link all indigenous knowledge systems. The need of using the collaborative approach for defining a common standard in medicinal plant database for knowledge sharing and scientific advancement is inevitable in developing a unified indigenous knowledge systems Database for African Traditional Medicine.Item Early fire detection system in Tanzania market places(MDPI, 2020-11-15) Philemon, Rotich; Rambo, Hilary; Geofrey, Anna; Sam, AnaelApplication of wireless sensor networks (WSN) and Internet of Things (IoT) used to provide real-time monitoring of fire outbreak in markets. The system integrates three subsystems namely; sensing subsystem which uses multiple sensors for detecting fire outbreaks. Data processing subsystem which collects data from the sensing subsystem through Xbee, analyses, and uploads data to the cloud. If values exceed sensor threshold, an alarm is triggered and notification is sent to stakeholders via mobile application subsystem. The integration between sensing, data processing, and mobile application subsystems pave a new way for the mitigation of fire outbreaks at its early stage.Item Knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding porcine cysticercosis control among smallholder pig farmers in Kongwa and Songwe districts, Tanzania: a cross-sectional study(Elsevier, 2023) Wilson, C; Nonga, H.E; Mdegela, R.H; Churi, A.J; Mkupasi, E.M; Winkler, A.S; Ngowi, H.ATaenia solium taeniasis/cysticercosis (TSTC) is a parasitic zoonotic disease that is endemic in several developing countries, causing serious public health and economic impacts. A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) related to porcine cysticercosis (PCC) transmission, prevention and control among smallholder pig farmers in Kongwa and Songwe Districts in Tanzania. A semi-structured ques tionnaire was administered to 692 smallholder pig farmers from randomly selected households. STATA software version 17 was used to analyse quantitative data, summarize farmers’ KAP about PCC and calculate performance scores. Nearly half (42%) of the respondents had little knowledge regarding PCC, only 17% of the respondents had good practices towards prevention/control of PCC and 72% had a positive attitude towards PCC- prevention/ control measures. The majority (73%) of smallholder pig farmers admitted deworming their pigs regularly, whereas 76% reported deworming themselves and their family members regularly. Albendazole and ivermectin are the most commonly used medications for deworming people and pigs, respectively. According to the findings, the majority of smallholder pig farmers in Kongwa and Songwe Districts showed a good attitude towards PCC prevention/control measures but had limited knowledge of the PCC life cycle and control. In addition, only one in five farmers was engaged in good practices. The findings revealed further that farmers are engaged in risky behaviours that aid the spread and perpetuation of the T. solium parasite in the study area. It is recommended that farmers should be given proper health education on the T. solium transmission cycle and preventive/control practices to limit PCC transmission.Item Blockchain-based secure storage management with edge computing for IoT(MDPI, 2014) Nyamtiga, Baraka William; Sicato, Jose Costa Sapalo; Rathore, Shailendra; Sung, Yunsick; Park, Jong HyukAs a core technology to manage decentralized systems, blockchain is gaining much popularity to deploy such applications as smart grid and healthcare systems. However, its utilization in resource-constrained mobile devices is limited due to high demands of resources and poor scalability with frequent-intensive transactions. Edge computing can be integrated to facilitate mobile devices in offloading their mining tasks to cloud resources. This integration ensures reliable access, distributed computation and untampered storage for scalable and secure transactions. It is imperative therefore that crucial issues of security, scalability and resources management be addressed to achieve successful integration. Studies have been conducted to explore suitable architectural requirements, and some researchers have applied the integration to deploy some specific applications. Despite these efforts, however, issues of anonymity, adaptability and integrity still need to be investigated further to attain a practical, secure decentralized data storage. We based our study on peer-to-peer and blockchain to achieve an Internet of Things (IoT) design supported by edge computing to acquire security and scalability levels needed for the integration. We investigated existing blockchain and associated technologies to discover solutions that address anonymity, integrity and adaptability issues for successful integration of blockchain in IoT systems. The discovered solutions were then incorporated in our conceptual design of the decentralized application prototype presented for secure storage of IoT data and transactions.Item Website development: The case of agricultural extension providers in Tanzania(International journal of advances in scientific research and engineering (ijasre), 2022) Ngessa, Victor; Michael, Kisangiri F; Mtei, Kelvin Mark; Magesa, Mawazo MwitaThis study examined current practice in websites development among organizations in Tanzania that provide agricultural extension services to smallholder farmers. Google search was used to get a list of respondent organizations. A questionnaire, interviews, and a review of the websites owned by organizations under study were used to collect data. Other than websites, it was found that organizations use manual documents, physical visits, radios, SMSs, TVs, and social networks to disseminate information to smallholder farmers. Websites development was either done in-house or outsourced and the focus was to have websites that cater to the information needs of different stakeholders including smallholder farmers. Information on websites included contacts, announcements, specific information for farmers, with some of the information not directly relating to smallholder farmers. This led websites to contain lots of information which might affect the usability of those websites by smallholder farmers hence not benefiting from the information contained. This was the case for all websites. Also, the involvement of smallholder farmers during website development was low. Websites for agricultural extension providers were developed either in-house or outsourced. The government-owned agency (e-GA), commercial companies, and staff were among developers for the websites. Communication between stakeholders during the development process was easier for in-house development as compared to when websites were developed outside. Websites developed were either internally maintained or maintained outside organizations, with internal maintenance being cheaper compared to when maintenances were done outside organizations. To develop quality websites from smallholder farmers’ point of view their involvement should be high and the websites and the contained information should be easier to access with minimal information. Also, websites should be professionally designed and developed to focus more on the provision of agricultural extension services.Item Urban growth dynamics and expansion forms in 11 Tanzanian cities from 1990 to 2020(Taylor & Francis Group, 2023) Sumari, Neema Simon; Ujoh, Fanan; Swai, Calvin Samwel; Zheng, MuchenWith rapid urban expansion across Tanzania, there is a need to institute steps to address factors and forms as well as impacts and challenges associated with the observed trend. This study’s aim is to use spatial urban landscape indices to analyze the spatial changes in urban forms, patterns, and rates across 11 urban centers in Tanzania over a 30-year study period (1990–2020). During the past three decades, urban lands of 11 cities and town in Tanzania have grown by a total of 480 km 2 . Leapfrog growth was found as the most dominant form of urban expansion in Tanzania while Dodoma, the capital city of Tanzania, had the highest rate of urban expansion when compared to all other individual cities. The most robust and significant interaction of the AWMLEI and MLEI was found in Kigoma, Arusha, Mtwara, Mafinga, and Tunduma cities. In contrast, Mbeya agricultural city, Arusha the tourist city, Tabora, and Geita Lake zone areas did show their own peculiarities revealing an interesting spatial temporal variation in rate and form of expansion. The outcome of this study reveals that the influence and management of economic and socio-cultural opportunities will be an effective tool for the determination of the rapidly expanding cities and towns of Tanzania.Item Security perspectives for ussd versus sms in conducting mobile transactions: a case study of Tanzania(International journal of technology enhancements and emerging engineering research, 2013) Nyamtiga, Baraka W; Sam, Anael; Laizer, Loserian SPerforming transactions using mobile devices is increasing rapidly in developing countries, Tanzania inclusive. USSD and SMS are among the technologies widely used in conducting mobile transactions. These two technologies have their strengths and weaknesses from perspectives of security of systems. They both utilize GSM Services and GSM Security is known to have inherent flaws in its encryption and au thentication algorithms. A description for these platforms is given in this paper of what they are, their modes of operations, and an evaluation of thei r security as related to mobile banking systems. From the evaluations made; this paper suggests a method that is more secure for use in mobile banking systems. As a solution we propose some security features being added to the existing systems in order to improve data confidentiality, message integrit y and user authenticity. The suggestions are based on the capabilities for the technology to accommodate these additional features to protect data that will supplement the protection offered by the GSM.Item Knowledge, attitudes and practices related to taenia solium cysticercosis and taeniasis in Tanzania(BMC, 2022) Nyangi, Chacha; Stelzle, Dominik; Mkupasi, Ernatus M; Ngowi, Helena A; Churi, Ayubu J; Schmidt, Veronika; Mahonge, Christopher; Winkler, Andrea SBackground: Taenia solium cysticercosis/taeniasis (TSCT) is reported to be endemic in pig producing areas around the world, causing significant disease burden and economic losses. Methods: This cross-sectional study aimed at assessing Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) regarding TSCT in four districts, namely Mbulu, Mpwapwa, Mbinga, and Rungwe in Tanzania. Data on KAP were collected through questionnaire-based interviews and household infrastructure observations. Results: Knowledge about porcine cysticercosis was good, particularly among pig keepers across the districts. Many participants had heard about the pork tapeworm (T. solium taeniasis), and the knowledge about signs/symptoms and treatment was fair, but the means of transmission and prevention measures were often unknown. Whilst most participants were familiar with epilepsy, no one knew anything about human cysticercosis and the link between cysticercosis and epileptic seizures. A similar trend is reflected through the attitudes toward the low risk perception of cysticercosis infection. Not surprisingly, the risk perception of the infection with the pork tapeworm was low too. Many participants reported not washing their hands before eating or after using the toilet which highlights potential risks for the development of human cysticercosis. Albeit nearly every participant reported using the toilet always, household observations revealed that toilets were either lacking or had no complete walls. Generally, household observations revealed a discrepancy between questionnaire answers on the one hand and the availability of toilet and handwashing facilities and the confinement of pigs on the other hand. Conclusion: This study demonstrates knowledge gaps and adverse practices which may hinder and/or slow down the control/elimination of T. solium in endemic countries. The study results are also useful for appropriate designing of TSCT health interventions that need to be planned carefully, taking into account the local context and designing TSCT in partnership with the local communities from the beginning to the end applying a One Health approach to allow the possible sustained and best impacts. Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Practices, Smallholder pig farming, Taenia solium, Cysticercosis, Taeniasis, Epilepsy, Neurocysticercosis, Cross-sectional studyItem Quality assessment of heterogeneous training data sets for classification of urban area with land sat imagery(American society for photogrammetry and remote sensing, 2020) Lyimo, Neema Nicodemus; Luo, Fang; Cheng, Qimin; Peng, HaoQuality assessment of training samples collected from hetero- geneous sources has received little attention in the existing literature. Inspired by Euclidean spectral distance metrics, this article derives three quality measures for modeling uncer- tainty in spectral information of open-source heterogeneous training samples for classification with Landsat imagery. We prepared eight test case data sets from volunteered geo- graphic information and open government data sources to assess the proposed measures. The data sets have significant variations in quality, quantity, and data type. A correlation analysis verifies that the proposed measures can successfully rank the quality of heterogeneous training data sets prior to the image classification task. In this era of big data, pre- classification quality assessment measures empower research scientists to select suitable data sets for classification tasks from available open data sources. Research findings prove the versatility of the Euclidean spectral distance function to de- velop quality metrics for assessing open-source training data sets with varying characteristics for urban area classification.Item Adaptive cache server selection and resource allocation strategy in mobile edge computing(International journal of information communication technologies and human development (ijicthd), 2023) Mahenge, Michael Pendo John; Kitindi, Edvin JonathanThe enormous increase of data traffic generated by mobile devices emanate challenges for both internet service providers (ISP) and content service provider (CSP). The objective of this paper is to propose the cost-efficient design for content delivery that selects the best cache server to store repeatedly accessed contents. The proposed strategy considers both caching and transmission costs. To achieve the equilibrium of transmission cost and caching cost, a weighted cost model based on entropy-weighting- method (EWM) is proposed. Then, an adaptive cache server selection and resource allocation strategy based on deep-reinforcement-learning (DRL) is proposed to place the cache on best edge server closer to end-user. The proposed method reduces the cost of service delivery under the constraints of meeting server storage capacity constraints and deadlines. The simulation experiments show that the proposed strategy can effectively improve the cache-hit rate and reduce the cache-miss rate and content access costs.Item Towards a framework for accessing agricultural market information(The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 2015) Magesa, Mawazo M; Michael, KisangiriMaking markets work for the poor in rural communities involves different stakeholders. Management, development partners, private sector and NGOs are accustomed to ensure enabling infrastructure is provided. Access to markets requires good transport and low transaction cost accompanied with recent market information. To provide market information to rural community, stakeholders may initiate the program by providing funds and finding the means of ensuring the sustainability of the program. Delivering market information requires established ICT infrastructure and capable staffing. Thus, a framework to access agricultural market information requires management to provide infrastructure and funding, and also to ensure rural areas are equipped with the technology.Item Visual analytics of tuberculosis detection rat Performance(Online Journal of Public Health Informatics, 2021) Jonathan, Joan; Sanga, Camilius; Mwita, Magesa; Mgode, GeorgiesThe diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) disease remains a global challenge, and the need for innovative diagnostic approaches is inevitable. Trained African giant pouched rats are the scent TB detection technology for operational research. The adoption of this technology is beneficial to countries with a high TB burden due to its cost-effectiveness and speed than microscopy. However, rats with some factors perform better. Thus, more insights on factors that may affect performance is important to increase rats’ TB detection performance. This paper intends to provide understanding on the factors that influence rats TB detection performance using visual analytics approach. Visual analytics provide insight of data through the combination of computational predictive models and interactive visualizations. Three algorithms such as Decision tree, Random Forest and Naive Bayes were used to predict the factors that influence rats TB detection performance. Hence, our study found that age is the most significant factor, and rats of ages between 3.1 to 6 years portrayed potentiality. The algorithms were validated using the same test data to check their prediction accuracy. The accuracy check showed that the random forest outperforms with an accuracy of 78.82% than the two. However, their accuracies difference is small. The study findings may help rats TB trainers, researchers in rats TB and Information systems, and decision makers to improve detection performance. This study recommends further research that incorporates gender factors and a large sample size.Item Evolution of lte and related technologies towards IMT-advanced(International journal of advanced research in computer science and software engineering, 2015) Ali, Md. Abbas; Barakabitze, Alcardo AlexThe Long Term Evolution (LTE) is an emerging technology, which is standardized by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and evolving to meet the International Mobile Telecommunication Advanced (IMT-Advanced) requirements named as LTE-Advanced. The main goal of LTE is to provide a high data rate, low latency and packet optimized radio access technology supporting flexible bandwidth deployments. The network architecture of LTE has been designed with the goal to support packet-switched traffic with seamless mobility and great quality of service. In this paper, we provide in-depth, the evolution and the major basic features of LTE to LTE-Advanced. Finally, we summarize the LTE-Advanced features in tabular format and show how LTE can fulfil the IMT-Advanced requirements.Item Access and use of agricultural market information by smallholder farmers: measuring informational capabilities(John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2019) Magesa, Mawazo M; Michael, Kisangiri; Ko, JesukWhile farmers sell their crops, middlemen provide a linkage between them, markets and buyers. Middlemen have good knowledge of working conditions of markets and have access to agricultural market information. Due to poor access to markets and agricultural market information by smallholders, there is a feeling that middlemen benefit more while farmers sell their crops. Good access to markets and market infor- mation may help farmers bypass middlemen while selling crops and thus benefit more. Thus, it is best to improve the informational capabilities (ICs) of farmers in agri- cultural marketing. Thus, this research measured ICs of farmers accessing market information, through a program NINAYO, while selling their crops. The research uti- lized the informational, psychological, social, and economic dimensions of the empowerment framework in identifying capability indicators to formulate survey questions. Data were collected from smallholders in six regions in Tanzania. The anal- ysis utilized measures of life satisfaction and results showed that about half of the variation in the dependent variable, satisfaction with capabilities, was explained by the model. Backward elimination analysis confirmed that life satisfaction is multi- dimensional. Robustness test confirmed a positive relationship between satisfaction and capabilities. Overall, results confirmed ICs are multidimensions, their improve- ment empowers farmers in agricultural marketing.Item Edge-computing-assisted virtual reality computation offloading: an empirical study(IEEE Access, 2022) Nyamtiga, Baraka William; Hermawan, Airlangga Adi; Luckyarno, Yakub Fahim; Kim, Tae-wook; Jung, Deok-young; Kwak, Jin sam; Yun, Ji-hoonOffloading heavy virtual reality (VR) computational operations to a network edge computation entity is receiving increasing attention as a tool to wirelessly and energy efficiently provide low-end client devices with high-quality and immersive interactive VR services anytime and anywhere across the globe. In this work, we aim to provide an understanding of various characteristics of VR computation offloading through comprehensive experiments conducted using a prototype testbed for edge-assisted VR processing and streaming. First, we investigate the benefits of VR offloading in terms of computational load and power consumption reduction for a client device compared to standalone operation. Next, we measure VR traffic patterns, including frame size and data and packet rates with various settings, such as different resolution and encoding options. We also measure several performance metrics associated with the quality of experience, namely, frame rate, packet loss rate, and image quality, with various configuration settings. Then, we present latency measurement studies and investigate per-component latency with various settings. Furthermore, we report the rigorous experiments performed to study the impacts of latency and motion patterns on the black borders formed due to image reprojection and the overfilling technique used to eliminate these black borders.Item Enhanced security model for mobile banking systems in Tanzania(International journal of technology enhancements and emerging engineering research, 2013) Nyamtiga, Baraka W; Sam, Anael; Laizer, Loserian SIn mobile banking schemes; financial services are availed and banking services are provided using mobile devices. GSM services are greatly utilized for data transmission by the technologies used in conducting mobile transactions. In their operations; these technologies send data in plaintext. Financial service providers tend to rely on the security services provided by the GSM which has been proved to be susceptible to cryptanalytic attacks. The used algorithms for crypto mechanisms are flawed leaving data carried through the network vulnerable upon interception. Operators need to take precaution by enforcing some protective measures on the information to be transmitted. This paper describes an SMS based model designed with security features to enhance data protection across mobile networks. Features for data encryption, integrity, secure entry of security details on the phone, and improved security policies in the application server are incorporated. We address issues of data confidentiality, user authentication and message integrity in order to provide end-to-end security of data carried on GSM networks.Item Energy-efficient task offloading strategy in mobile edge computing for resource-intensive mobile applications(Science Direct, 2022) Mahenge, Michael Pendo John; Li, Chunlin; Sanga, Camilius AMobile Edge Computing (MEC) has been considered a promising solution that can address capacity and perfor- mance challenges in legacy systems such as Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC). In particular, such challenges include intolerable delay, congestion in the core network, insufficient Quality of Experience (QoE), high cost of resource utility, such as energy and bandwidth. The aforementioned challenges originate from limited resources in mobile devices, the multi-hop connection between end-users and the cloud, high pressure from computation- intensive and delay-critical applications. Considering the limited resource setting at the MEC, improving the efficiency of task offloading in terms of both energy and delay in MEC applications is an important and urgent problem to be solved. In this paper, the key objective is to propose a task offloading scheme that minimizes the overall energy consumption along with satisfying capacity and delay requirements. Thus, we propose a MEC- assisted energy-efficient task offloading scheme that leverages the cooperative MEC framework. To achieve en- ergy efficiency, we propose a novel hybrid approach established based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) to solve the optimization problem. The proposed approach considers efficient resource allocation such as sub-carriers, power, and bandwidth for offloading to guarantee minimum energy consumption. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed strategy is computational-efficient compared to benchmark methods. Moreover, it improves energy utilization, energy gain, response delay, and offloading utility.