3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item A Comparison of Theoretical and Practical Approaches to the Teaching of Anatomy at " Universidade Eduardo Mondlane" in Mozambique(2000) Rodrigues, M,A,F.During the academic year of 1997/98, two randomised groups of second year medical students at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo learned gross anatomy of the limbs and the trunk by different teaching approaches. One group (A) dissected the thorax for 5 weeks according to an experimental programme, while the other (group B) worked on the same topic in the traditional way at UEM, which excluded dissection. The groups learned the abdomen by reversing the methods. For the study of the limbs, all the students learned the upper limbs by using the traditional approach while the lower limbs were dissected. Study guides were supplied to the Experimental Group and each of the practical classes started with a ten-minute preparatory tutorial when the structures to be studied were discussed. The same amount of time and the same background were given to both groups. At the end of the semester all students were examined by written and practical tests. The mean differences in the tests were statistically significant (p<0.001) only in the case of the practical test on the anatomy of the limbs, favouring the Experimental Group. Pre-questionnaires and post-questionnaires were completed before and after the experimentation. The combination of lectures, tutorials and dissection was the most preferred teaching approach. The students’ comments indicated that they felt that dissection enhanced the learning despite the short time devoted to it. On the other hand, students felt that dissection can enhance other skills which will be very useful later in pathology and surgery, for example in a way not possible to achieve by means of tutorials, or even prosections. Therefore, these results suggest that dissection could be a useful complementary teaching approach in addition to lectures and tutorials in Anatomy at UEMItem Coal-based linkages and development in Mozambique: a political economy perspective(2015-01-29) Selemane, Tomás MárioMozambique is currently moving from an aid dependent country to mineral dependent given the mining boom happening there thanks to the discoveries of huge reserves of coal, mineral sands and natural gas. The country is set to become one of the world's twenty top producers of natural gas and top ten largest producers of coal. This research is a case study focusing on coal-based linkages that can foster broad economic growth and development in Mozambique. Using a political economy perspective, the research investigates the question about how the country can optimise the mining boom through coalbased economic linkages to foster broader socio-economic development. The research finds that under the combination of its current fiscal and mineral regime with infrastructure problems plus the inexistence of a coal-based linkage policy, Mozambique will get negligible benefit from the exploitation of its finite coal resources. A major overhaul of these regimes is needed for it to make use of its coal to catalyse wider growth and development, before it is left with little other than large holes in the ground.Item HIV/AIDS prevention interventions in Mozambique as conflict of cultures : the case of Dondo and Maringue Districts in Sofala Province.(2012-01-10) Monteiro, Ana Piedade ArmindoThe purpose of this thesis is to report on issues concerning the continuous spread of HIV/AIDS in Mozambique in spite of the HIV/AIDS prevention interventions that are in place. This research was conducted in Dondo and Maringue districts, both situated in the Sofala Province. Sofala Province had higher prevalence that was 25 percent higher than the national average of 16.2 percent. An ethnographic research methodology was used in order to understand the reasons behind the continuous escalation of HIV/AIDS. It was significant for one to get to know the people that live in Dondo and Maringue, especially their daily lives, including their cultural practices as the driving force in people’s behaviour and the manner in which people make sense of their daily lives. It was important to understand their cultural practices, because of their relevance to the issue of HIV/AIDS in terms of the manner in which cultural practices influence people in decision-making about their social life, which escalate to the issue of health practices. Although the concept of HIV/AIDS is acknowledged in Dondo and Maringue, xirombo and phiringaniso were continuously used as local concepts in health issues and practiced as indigenous knowledge together with kupitakufa, kupitamabzwade, and kupitamoto rituals, and these practices were extended in dealing with HIV/AIDS. The acceptance of the Western medical interpretation of HIV/AIDS was low among the people in Dondo and Maringue. This reality is due to the preservation of local cultural knowledge in dealing with diseases. As a result, local medical concept and rituals becomes a challenge to the Western medical interpretation of HIV/AIDS and its health prevention and intervention strategies. In the context of Western medical interpretation of diseases the above local cultural practices are used as '" " resistance against the western medical interpretations HIV/AIDS concepts. These cultural practices have preferences among local people in dealing with, and promoting HIV/AIDS health prevention interventions when compared with the public biomedical HIV/AIDS concept and the general biomedical practices. In conclusion this thesis suggests that there is a need for integration of these cultural practices within the Western medical interpretation, prevention and intervention strategies in dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic and its concerns at a local level.Item How does Open Source Software contribute to socio-economic development? An investigation of Open Source Software as an alternative approach to technology diffusion, adoption and adaptation for health information systems development and socio-economic impact in Mozambique(2010-11-25) Emdon, HeloiseAbstract Developing countries are net importers of intellectual property products and open source software (OSS) production is one way in which local socio-economic development can take place. The public goods characteristics of OSS are contested and this study investigates whether in a developing country context OSS is a pure public good that can be locally appropriated and not exclude any users or producers from doing so. This case study of an OSS public good finds that it does not have all the characteristics of a pure good, that there is a role for a sponsor, and in particular the importance of copyright protection of derivatives in order to ensure that the source code does not fall out of fashion and use. Having explored that, however, there is further evidence that OSS collaborative learning is both publically and personally beneficial for developing country computer programmers. Furthermore, the state benefits from the improved benefits of health information systems made possible through the appropriation of this model of learning.Item Insecticide resistance and vector status of Anopheles funestus and An. gambiae populations at a sugar estate in Mozambique(2010-04-12T09:55:50Z) Kloke, Ronald GrahamMalaria is on the increase in Mozambique since 2001 and impacts primarily on children < 5 years of age. Insecticide resistance in the malaria vector mosquitoes is on the increase in Mozambique and Africa and is cause for serious concern. Maragra sugar estate is situated in close proximity to the nKomati river floodplain in a rural area in Mozambique and requires intense irrigation for cane growing and as a result provides extensive breeding sites for An. funestus and other mosquitoes. In the areas surrounding the estate there are two important vectors of malaria, Anopheles funestus group and An. gambiae complex. There is intense malaria transmission in the areas surrounding the sugar estate and the last entomological study on the vectors in the Manhica area was done in 1998. It was becoming increasingly urgent to identify to species level the vectors in this area and to monitor the insecticide resistance status of these vectors. Due to leakage (theft) of insecticides and a change by the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) to an insecticide to which the predominant vector is resistant, an entomological survey was carried out in this area from January 2009 to March 2009 to ascertain by Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) what species of malaria vectors were present inside and outside of the Maragra vector control area, their population levels and their vectorial status in these two areas. Insecticide resistance studies by insecticide exposure and the synergist piperonyl butoxide (pbo) were carried out using the World Health Organisation (WHO) bioassay method on collected An. funestus mosquitoes. This was done to establish this species resistance status to the four classes of insecticides recommended by the WHO for malaria vector control. The collections of An. arabiensis and An. merus that were identified were too few to carry out insecticide resistance tests on these two species. Enzyme linked v immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA) tests were undertaken to establish the vectorial capacity of Anopheles funestus and An. gambiae complex in this area. The predominant malaria vector species in this area is An. funestus s.s., with the secondary vector being An. arabiensis. An. funestus has a high vectorial capacity in this area and found to have a Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite rate of 6.02%. This is an increase in the sporozoite rate of 1.2% from 1998 when the last survey in this regard was carried out. Coupled with this increase is an increase in the An. funestus populations in this area since this time. One An. gambiae complex sample was found to be positive but the species is not known as this particular sample did not amplify on PCR. Anopheles funestus is highly resistant to synthetic pyrethroids and exhibits a lower level of resistance to bendiocarb, a carbamate insecticide in use at Maragra sugar estate. The synergist pbo mediates the resistance mechanism in both these insecticides indicating that the metabolic resistance mechanism present in this mosquito is strongly mediated by monooxygenase detoxification. The role of the medical entomologist is increasingly necessary and important in the monitoring of this resistance phenomenon in malaria vector mosquitoes, as is the role of the vector control programme manager in implementing and managing vector control programmes. The implication of cane sugar farming and its impact on vector production and malaria transmission is discussed. Insecticide resistance and the change by the NMCP to a synthetic pyrethroid to which the predominant vector of malaria is resistant is discussed.Item The influence of practical work on chemistry teaching and learning: an approach using microchemistry kits in Mozambican junior secondary schools(2009-05-28T11:46:48Z) Madeira, Antonio Cristo PintoThe problem which motivated this research was the lack of chemistry practical work in many Mozambican junior secondary schools. This problem is so critical that quite often learners finish the three years of junior secondary school without performing even one experiment. In an attempt to contribute to the solution to the problem, the microchemistry kits are introduced. For this purpose a study of the influence of kits on the teaching and learning of chemistry in a Mozambican context was conducted. The study involved four out of five public secondary schools in the city of Beira, the second largest city in Mozambique. Two schools were chosen to be the experimental group, in which chemistry was taught using the RADMASTE microchemistry kits. Two other schools, in which chemistry lessons were taught normally, were chosen to be the comparison group. In each school one Grade 9 class was used for the study. Before starting the study, 18 secondary chemistry teachers of the four schools answered a questionnaire and 163 Grade 9 learners answered another questionnaire. These were used to determine teachers’ and learners’ opinions about the importance and aims of practical work. Before the intervention a pretest was administered to 181 Grade 9 learners within the four classes. After eight weeks of intervention, the same post-test was administered to 171 learners from the same classes. A questionnaire was also administered to the two teachers of the experimental group and another questionnaire was administered to 86 learners from the experimental group. Both questionnaires were used to find out teachers’ and learners’ opinions about the microchemistry kits. Practical work is viewed as an important method for teaching and learning chemistry, mainly to link theory and practice or use practical work to support theory. There was a statistically significant difference between the pre-test and the posttest scores in all four schools. But, learners from the experimental group performed better than learners from the comparison group in the questions which required conceptual understanding and in laboratory-based knowledge questions. The practical work also contributed to increase learners’ interest towards chemistry. It is recommended that the microchemistry kits be implemented in chemistry teaching in Mozambique, both in schools with laboratories and schools without laboratories, and that further studies should be carried out to identify effective ways of doing this.Item Framing issues of environmental security in Angola & Mozambique - the nexus of land, conflicts and sustainable livelihoods in post-conflict situations(2009-05-19T08:33:19Z) Clover, Jeanette LeeABSTRACT Violent and protracted conflicts, such as those that affected Mozambique and Angola (both countries with a Lusophone colonial heritage), have had severe consequences in terms of wartime dislocation and destruction, especially in rural areas. Land issues per se are not endogenously conflictive, but in post-conflict settings, the scramble for access to the assets necessary to (re-)establish livelihoods for large numbers of people, as well as the pursuit of land access by large-scale commercial interests who capitalise on a fluid land tenure situation to acquire resources, may occur. A nuanced and comparative study of Mozambique and Angola is undertaken that explores the relationship between violence, resources and the environment. It asks two questions: i) What accounts for the relationship between violence (evidenced in both brutal physical acts, threats and increasing vulnerabilities) and land as a resource? ii) Are there lessons to be learnt from these findings that are particular to countries emerging from protracted civil wars? The thesis explores the changing discourses around the concepts of human security and environmental security, and the pressing land issues confronting the African continent. It highlights the complexity of issues – political, social and economic – and the necessity for a theoretical shift away from the popular approaches towards alternative ways of understanding the connections between the environment, violence and resources. It examines the specific dynamics of a post-conflict environment, an area that has received little attention, despite its potential for playing a significant role in ensuring broad-based development and in peace-building. A modified livelihoods framework is also used to analyse land issues on the basis that land is an element of a wider livelihoods approach with a focus on poverty alleviation and wealth creation. Findings mirror those of other international researchers who have found that conflicts over land often have less to do with resource scarcity, but that “violence is more likely when resources are in great abundance or have great economic and strategic value” (Peluso and Watts, 2001: 5). Furthermore, findings support the calls for taking a more inclusive concept of violence and non-violence that recognises that the outward manifestation of disputes may not be violence in the form of civil war, but social disruptions (Liotta, 2005). The value of a post-structuralist political ecology for analysing these various connections is demonstrated in the research findings. It is one which does not search for ‘environmental triggers’ of violent conflicts, but looks at the reciprocal relationship between nature and humans. Both countries are confronting many of the land issues that are common to Africa and which suggest an important new phase in the politics of land. In Angola land tenure and shelter are now insecure for many in both rural and urban areas, while in both countries there is mounting competition and conflict over land and landed resources. There are increasing threats of exclusionary practices and land grabs, but also the more subtle, ‘non-traditional’ security threats of the destruction and damage to livelihoods, of deepening impoverishment, evident in "creeping vulnerabilities”. The findings of the research confirm that in dealing with both equity and efficiency issues, and environmental sustainability and political stability, land policies need to be well integrated into wider social, economic and environmental planning – at various levels, local to global – to strengthen sustainable security. vi Land conflicts are generally contained as local-level disputes, often camouflaged by government or suppressed. While conflict theory points to apparent triggers – differential impacts and political mobilisation – it must be acknowledged that these tensions are more often than not politically sustainable, as leaders justify overriding the interests of the poor in the interests of growth. Furthermore, peace is not the default mode of society: conflicts are at times an integral part of the transformation of land tenures systems and not necessarily destructive in themselves. Concerns need to focus, rather, on those cases where inequity and violence are politically sustainable, and what this means for human security. It is this issue that is recommended for further research. “In contrast to thinking about violent conflict, a human-centred conceptualisation of environmental security asserts the need for cooperation and inclusion to manage the environment for the equal benefit of all people and future generations” (Barnett, 2001: 128).Item Foreign direct investment and worker rights : a case study of a private security multinational in Mozambique.(2009-03-06T09:08:07Z) Carvalho, Daniela Sampaio deThis article intends to contribute with the reflection upon the theories that link FDI with social and economical development. For this purpose, the meanings of the expression “human and economical development” will be briefly reviewed, and later it will be approached along the theories on the relation of FDI with development. The theories are used as a support in order to reach this article’s goal of pointing out the FDI impacts on labour conditions on the private security multinational G4S in Mozambique, thus examining the impacts of this sort of FDI towards the country’s human development.Item A comparative study of associations of people living with HIV/AIDS in Mozambique: The case of Maputo, Manica and Zambezia province(2008-04-03T13:04:34Z) Da Silveira Muianga, Elisa MariaAbstract This study was inspired by the need to develop awareness about what is going on in Mozambique regarding to the issue of HIV/AIDS. The research examined how and why the organizations of PLWA ( People Living with HIV/AIDS) in Mozambique are emerging and developing, compared the particularities of the existing organizations of people living with HIV/AIDS in three province of this country (Maputo, Manica and Zambezia), and finally examined how they function, and interact with governmental and non- governmental institutions. The study made use of the ethnographic method to design and generate a rapid "picture" of the social culture around this HIV community. The focus on this method provided further in-depth qualitative insights. Behavioral surveys were designed to provide rapid key data on sexual behavior, condom use and STI1s. Together, these sources of data provided a spatial, quantitative and qualitative overview of the research. The results from this study turned that the associations of PLWA and its members face many problems such as discr imination and stigma that is attached to the scourge. But notwithstanding these problems, these associations are showing an incredible dedication to addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS. In the three provinces where this research was conducted it transpired that the associations of PLWHA are a new phenomenon, where the members are looking for their own space in order to tackle the problem that is being posed by HIV/AIDS. The research reveals, furthermore, that there are no significant differences between HIV/AIDS associations in these three provinces. There are more similarities than there are differences. The associations have in common issues such as unemployment, low level of schooling, uncontrolled urbanization, prostitution, lack of resources to support their family members, etc. Other types of similarities are shaped by patterns of formation of these associations which were similar, what invites one to think that may have been formed by the same people. As combating HIV/AIDS seems an important tool in poverty eradication, Government, civil society and the media should step up its efforts of reducing discrimination and stigmatization of PLWA through information campaigns. They should also redesign the messages in the information campaigns to ensure that they achieve the targeted audience, and add messages that promote PLWA associations and the benefits of joining them. 1 Sexual transmitted infectionsItem Issues in understanding scholar exclusion: interpreting the reason for dropout and repetition in Mozambique. The case of 1st cycle of general secondary school in Maputo-City (1999-2005)(2008-03-07T09:56:16Z) De Bastos, Juliano NetoABSTRACT Key words: Dropout, repetition, scholar exclusion, school quality, General Secondary School, Mozambique. This study is a school-based research into the reasons for dropout and repetition in Mozambique. The research methodology is of a qualitative nature, which enabled the exploration of relevant themes, processes and patterns that have characterized the educational process in Mozambique, especially reasons that led to repetition and dropout, during the period between 1999 and 2005. The main reasons could be found in the whole process of teaching and learning; outdated classroom pedagogy; insufficient student participation and shortage of textbooks or teachers materials; and low teachers salaries. In addition, poverty causes many students to drop out. The main conclusion is that higher levels of repetition and dropout have cost implications, inflating enrolments and adding to total costs without necessarily leading to an improvement in learners’ outcomes. Recommendations include a redefinition of the model of secondary education in accordance with the new demands of the labour market.