School and anaemia prevention: current reality and opportunities - a Tanzanian case study

Iron deficiency anaemia is highly endemic in rural areas of Tanzania and in many developing countries. Its prevention among school children requires greater dissemination of knowledge of anaemia among children, teachers, parents and the general community. Associated improvements in the hygienic status of domestic and school environments are also often required. One-hundred-and-thirty-one anaemic children, 90 parents and 76 teachers were interviewed to ascertain their understanding of anaemia. Most children and parents had little knowledge of the symptoms, causes and prevention of anaemia. In addition to their iron-deficient diets, more than half of the children went to school without something to eat at breakfast and during school hours. However, parents and teachers were willing to work together to provide meals for the children. Poor sanitation in the children's homes and in schools was a little recognized factor which could pose a serious risk of anaemia. In addition, inadequate sanitation facilities and poor quality of physical environment prevailed both in the children's homes and in schools. The findings suggest the need for the establishment of a health-promoting schools network to provide a comprehensive framework for health promotion in schools as well as in homes in Tanzania and in other developing countries. Schools can be an ideal setting to positively influence a community's health status. Partnerships among teachers, parents and the wider community are required to identify, prioritize and ameliorate health problems.

Game theory applications in natural resource management : review of evidence, problems and potential

Game theory is a rapidly advancing approach to structure and understand complex management problems in the natural resources sector in both the developed and developing countries. Many natural resource problems are complex due to common property and public goods characteristics. Despite these limitations many researchers have used game theory to analyze water shed management, irrigation water management, grazing land management, and managing other ecological resources. The prisoner’s dilemma game has been widely used. The work of Runge shows that collective action is feasible if a critical mass of people can cooperate. The use of game theory is hindered by lack of information, paucity of empirical applications and the lack of interest by policy makers who wish quick answers to critical policy issues. The potential still remains high for game theory to be productively used both in developing and developed countries.

Underwater swarm robotics : challenges and opportunities

Underwater swarm robotics today faces a series of challenges unique to its aquatic environment. This chapter explores some possible applications of underwater swarm robotics and its challenges. Those challenges include the environment itself, sensor types required, problems with communication and the difficulty in localisation. it notes the serious challenges in underwater communication is that radio communications is practically non-existent in the underwater realm. Localisation also becomes problematic due to the lack of radio waves as GPS cannot be used. it also looks at the platforms required by underwater robots and includes a possible low-cost platform. Also explored is a method of swarm robotics control known as consensus control. It shows possible solutions to the challenges and where swarm robotics may head.

Editorial for IEEE access special section on theoretical foundations for big data applications : challenges and opportunities

Big data is one of the hottest research topics in science and technology communities, and it possesses a great application potential in every sector for our society, such as climate, economy, health, social science, and so on. Big data usually includes data sets with sizes beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, curate, and manage. We can conclude that big data is still in its infancy stage, and we will face many unprecedented problems and challenges along the way of this unfolding chapter of human history.

Dasyurid dilemmas: problems and solutions for conserving Australia's small carnivorous marsupials

Dasyurid marsupials are distributed throughout the major terrestrial environments of Australia but since European settlement have suffered local and regional extinctions, range reductions and population declines. In this paper we examine the conservation status of small dasyurids (<500 g) and the threats they face. We also evaluate recovery procedures for threatened taxa and assess their success. Twenty-four percent of smaller dasyurids are classified as vulnerable, endangered or data deficient. Large body size and occupancy of one or two habitat types are correlated strongly with  endangerment species currently considered as 'low risk, near threatened' group closely with vulnerable and endangered species, indicating a risk of further declines. The processes contributing most to declines include habitat loss and fragmentation, altered fire regimes and predation. As of April 200 I, no Recovery Plans had been adopted by the Commonwealth Govemment for any small dasyund species. There is much information on the reproduction and development of smaller dasyurids, making them suitable for captive breeding. However, captive breeding programs have been limited. the  dibbler Paranrechinus apicalis being the only species bred systematically for reintroductions. There is a need for integration between captive breeding programs and recovery planning. as well as for more information on the population viability and metapopulation structures of small dasyurids genetic diversity of populations and inbreeding depression. We suggest a program of survey. research. management and education to Improve conservation outcomes for all small dasyurids.

Post processing of multimedia information - concepts, problems, and techniques

Currently, most research work on multimedia information processing is focused on multimedia information storage and retrieval, especially indexing and content-based access of multimedia information. We consider multimedia information processing should include one more level-post-processing. Here "post-processing" means further processing of retrieved multimedia information, which includes fusion of multimedia information and reasoning with multimedia information to reach new conclusions. In this paper, the three levels of multimedia information processing storage, retrieval, and post-processing- are discussed. The concepts and problems of multimedia information post-processing are identified. Potential techniques that can be used in post-processing are suggested, By highlighting the problems in multimedia information post-processing, hopefully this paper will stimulate further research on this important but ignored topic.

Monitoring ecological impacts: concepts and practice in flowing waters

Monitoring Ecological Impacts provides the tools needed to design  assessment programs that can reliably monitor, detect and allow  management of human impacts on the natural environment. The procedures described are well-grounded in inferential logic. Step-by-step guidelines and flow diagrams provide clear and useable protocols, which are applicable to real situations.

Working doctoral students : challenges and opportunities

Doctoral education is traditionally conceptualised in policies and practices about young, full-time students with no work or related commitments. However, nowadays, doctoral candidates constitute a diverse population working in various institutional, community and industry sites. This paper will report on initial work conducted as part of an ARC Linkage Project in which three postgraduate student associations are involved as industry partners – viz. CAPA, PARSA and DUSA. The main objective of the paper is to identify and explore some of the issues identified by two researchers who are working independently and collaboratively in this project to investigate the contemporary experiences of full and part-time doctoral candidates.