Department of Computing, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
Permanent URI for this community
Browse
Browsing Department of Computing, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences by Title
Now showing 1 - 20 of 65
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item A statistical analysis of endogeneity and instrumental variables of education on income in Namibia(University of Namibia, 2024) Nanyemba, Maria K.Education is a well-known driver of income and a causal factor for economic prosperity and social development in modern society. It provides one with capital such as qualification, knowledge and skillsets relevant to secure stable gainful employment, as well as increase one’s income, improve health conditions and general welfare. However, the measurement of the influence of education most often suffers from endogeneity suspicion due to the possible presence of a correlation between the education variable and the error term. This presents a critical issue when performing a cause-and-effect relationship analysis as neglecting endogeneity can lead to unreliable estimation results even when dealing with large samples because estimators of the model parameters will be inconsistent. To date, most studies that focuses on analysing the effect of education in Namibia have done so with other factors such as fertility and not income, while most of these studies used regression approaches such as the linear regression and logistic regression methods to perform their respective analyses. However, no study has simultaneously tried to account for the endogeneity of both education and income in Namibia. Thus, using the 2015/2016 Namibia Household Income and Expenditure Survey as well as accounting for the possible presence of endogeneity and for non-linear effects of continuous observed confounders, this study aimed at estimating the impact of education on income in Namibia, in addition to exploring different modelling strategies to capture the relationship between income and education, and other socio-economic and socio demographic factors. A total of 495,311 households containing 2,250,122 individuals aged 18 to 60 years who have been to school and have earned salary and/or wage as their source of income ii in the last 12 months of the survey period were considered in this study. Three different modelling strategies were carried out, namely: (i) Basic Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression without considering the clustering, stratification and weighting factors, (ii) Basic OLS regression considering the clustering, stratification and weighting factors, and (iii) Instrumental Variables & Two Stage Least Squares (IV-2SLS) regression, while the best fit modelling strategy to use for exploring the relationship between income and education, and other socio-economic and socio-demographic factors was determined using the Durbin and Wu-Hausman test of endogeneity. Results from this study showed that majority (82.1%) of the households in Namibia derived their source of income from salary and/or wage in 2015/2016. The IV-2SLS was identified as the best modelling strategy to use since the Durbin and Wu-Hausman test of endogeneity confirmed the presence of endogeneity (i.e, education must be endogenous), thus, making the OLS strategies unreliable to use. Furthermore, factors such as education, age, sex, marital status, type of work, employment period, total hours worked and transport mode to work had positive and significant influences on income, while factors such as region, dwelling unit type, main material for the wall, household size, and no contribution to investment had a negative and significant influences. However, the type of employer had a mixed effect on income. In addition, the IVs estimators revealed that the average rate of return of schooling was 13% which was higher compared to the OLS estimates of 5%. It is therefore recommended that the Namibian government and policy makers consider boosting more funding into education, especially in communities within the rural and underdeveloped regions still having traditional dwelling households whose structures are made of corrugated iron/zinc sticks, wooden poles, clay and/or cow dung. In addition, as part of their poverty alleviation strategies, the government should iii ensure the distribution of equitable resources, particularly the educational resources, to enhance the development of rural and underdeveloped regions so that they too can benefit from high-quality education opportunities in the countryItem Access coverage for remote connectivity framework (ACRCF): Facilitating scholarship awarding in Namibia(2015) Ndiwakalunga, Immanuel O.The corporate world was faced with the challenge of community development. As a result, Namibian companies have been offering scholarships to assist students as best as they can. It was however an insurmountable task to assist the populace without clarity of information or background knowledge. Consequently, the selection of students for scholarships was arguably questionable. Some students awarded scholarships were from rural areas and others from urban areas. However, notice had to be taken of those students in remote area schools where connectivity was lacking. In this age of growing technology, solutions to the dilemma of leaving out worthy students for scholarships should be available with the use of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technologies. The LTE powered technologies would provide seamless interlinking of remote students to the scholarship providers. LTE technologies based on the Access Coverage Remote Connectivity Framework (ACRCF) proposed in this study would deal with the high quality content requirements. The technology would provide a feasible service for the provision of improved interview sessions between students and sponsor selection panels. The interview panels would not have to request students to travel long distances to the interview venues, hence saving travel costs and time by ensuring students are interviewed economically. Interviews would be able to take place over Voice over Internet Protocol (VoiP) and other interfaces under the ACRCF infrastructure. The sponsors would be able to access student information readily at their fingertips through the providence of high quality presented student data on a website maintained under the ACRCF infrastructure. Terminals would be placed at the various remote schools to ensure that student data was updated and ready for use as required. These nodes at the various remote schools would hence be updated with all the student records at the specific remote schools to ensure that there was up-to-date data on the systems at the click of a button. A qualitative research approach was undertaken for the purposes of the study to explore the derivations from case studies. Interviews were held with various sponsors and students to confirm the current state of affairs. They were also held to establish the need for the ACRCF infrastructure to link sponsors to the remote students to improve the scholarship selection process. A quantitative research approach was used in the form of questionnaires handed out to various sponsoring institutions for sampling purposes. The data was analysed with use of the SPSS statistical software program. The findings indicated that selections for scholarships had a need to be improved in the area of equitability. Equitable selection would provide equal opportunities for all students whether in resource rich town centres, rural or remote areas.Item Analysis of causes and risk factors associated with maternal deaths in Namibia(2015) Mulama, Lihongeni N.Maternal mortality is a major health concern in Namibia as it is the case in most countries. The rate at which women are dying due to pregnancy related causes is high and the cause as well as risk factors are not well explored. The main objective of this research was to identify the causes and risk factors associated with maternal mortality in Namibia and thus the study described the socio-demographic characteristics and three delays that lead to maternal deaths in Namibia. The paper also aims to propose strategies for midwifery practice, in order to prevent maternal deaths in future. Data on health facility based review of maternal records from 13 regions in the country during the period of 2008-2012 was used. This was then complemented by the 2011 Namibia Population and Housing census data. For the health facility data, a case control study design was applied, with a total number of 154 maternal deaths included in the study as cases and 770 women of reproductive ages who fell pregnant during the study period and survived as controls. A logistic regression model was used to assess the risk factors associated with maternal deaths. For the Census data, measures of maternal mortality, such as maternal mortality ratio, maternal mortality rate, lifetime risk of maternal death, and proportion of maternal deaths among women of reproductive age were estimated. Based on the health facility data, of the 154 maternal deaths reviewed, 58.4% were from direct maternal deaths and 41.6% were from indirect maternal deaths. Haemorrhage (37.8%), eclampsia (24.4%) and puerperal sepsis (23.3%) were the leading causes for direct maternal deaths. About 65% of the haemorrhage cases; 64% of the eclampsia cases and 53% of the puerperal sepsis occurred to women who lived in rural areas. The predominant recognizable indirect causes were HIV (45.3%); pneumonia (23.4%) and tuberculosis (17.2%). Maternal deaths are less likely to occur to women living together with their partner than those who are not living together (OR = 0.53). Most women experienced first (51.3%) and third delays (51.9%). Only few women experienced a second delay (12.9%). However it is important to note that some women experienced more than one delay and in some cases all delays were experienced. Using the 2011 Census data, maternal mortality ratio was 547 deaths per 100 000 live births. The highest ratio of 1954 deaths per 100,000 live births is recorded for women in the age group of 45-49 years. Maternal Mortality Ratio is also observed to be high among the teenage mothers between the age group of 15-19 years with an estimate of 421 deaths per 100,000 live births as compared to 318 deaths per 100,000 live births estimated for women aged 20-24 This analysis reinforced previous findings pointing to the fact that haemorrhage and eclampsia are the leading causes of maternal mortality in Namibia and other developing countries. This indicates the need for better obstetric care, particularly for women over thirty years of age.Item Analysis of malaria transmission dynamics in human and mosquito populations(University of Namibia, 2024) Shaanika, Hilma YvonneThis mini-thesis presents a deterministic mathematical model for the spread of malaria in human and mosquito populations. The human population is divided into four com partments while mosquito population is divided into three compartments. Suscepti ble humans can be infected when they are bitten by an infected mosquito, they then progress through the exposed, infected, recovered before going back to the susceptible class. Susceptible mosquitoes can be exposed to the disease and once they are exposed, they can be infected, and remain infected until they die. Basic reproduction number, R0 was established and used to determine whether the disease dies out or persists in the population. It was shown that the disease-free equilibrium point is locally asymptoti cally stable when R0 < 1 and unstable when R0 > 1. Quantitative analysis of the model was carried out to confirm the findings from qualitative analysis. Result obtained indi cate that the findings of quantitative analysis correspond to the findings of qualitative analysis. It was proven qualitatively that R0 < 1, which corresponds to the results of the sensitivity analysis, that was carried out quantitatively. It was recommended that future work can be done to investigate the stability of the endemic equilibrium pointItem Analysis of predator-prey models with infection in both species and human intervention(University of Namibia, 2024) Khoa, LutopuThe intricate interplay between infectious diseases and predator-prey dynamics holds pivotal significance. Within this context, our focus centres on the impact of human intervention through treatment and vaccination. This study delves into a predator-prey system, categorizing the populations as susceptible, infected with the disease, vaccinated when inoculated against infection, and under treatment post-infection. We formulate four comprehensive mathematical models that illustrate varying levels of human intervention: no intervention, intervention in the prey only, inter vention in the predator only, as well as intervention in both species simultaneously. Mathematical proofs of model positivity are provided. Following the derivation of equilibrium points, we analyse their stability by examining the signs of the eigenvalues from the Jacobian matrix and using the Routh-Hurwitz criteria. To verify our qualitative analysis findings, we conduct simulations using varied parameters in Matlab. We then draw conclusions regarding the impact that human intervention can have on a predator-prey system with infection. Simulation results indicated that without human intervention, predators faced extinction, whereas with treatment and vaccination in either the prey alone or in both predator and prey, the intervention demonstrated a positive effect, preventing the extinction of any species. Therefore, this study concludes that human intervention plays a crucial role in preventing species extinctionItem An application of survival analysis on the prevalence and risk factors of breast cancer in Namibia(University of Namibia, 2019) Petrus, AlexandrinaCancer is a universal disease that affects people regardless of race, sex, socio-economic status and culture. With just an approximated population size of 2.3 million people NSA (2011), Namibia is not excluded from this. If not detected on time and treated on time, cancer can make treatment less likely to succeed and reduce the chances of survival. The study was aimed at examining the prevalence and trends for breast cancer patients, regardless of patients’ sex, as well as establishing the risk factors associated with breast cancer in Namibia. Secondary data obtained from the Cancer Association of Namibia for the periods of 2013 to 2016 was used. Descriptive statistics were performed in the form of figures and tables to explore demographic characteristics of the patients. Survival analysis techniques (Kaplan-Meier to construct the survival curves, Log-Rank Test to determine differences in survival between groups and Cox Proportional Hazard to investigate the association between the survival time of the patients and their demographic characteristics) were used to estimate the survival rate of the breast cancer patients. Patient survival was measured by their age at diagnosis and their age at death. Thus, the event variable was the patient’s status (alive or dead). Results revealed that breast cancer can affect anybody regardless of sex in Namibia. Khomas and Oshana regions had the highest percentage of reported breast cancers cases. Results showed that the survival rate of breast cancer was influenced by Age group, and Ethnicity. Vambos were the most diagnosed with breast cancer followed by Whites. Factors that were significantly associated with breast cancer were age category of 41-50 and 61-70 years. The older the patient becomes the more likely they were to experience an event, because the Hazard Ratio had been increasing with age. The research concluded that Age, Ethnicity and Date of diagnosis were associated with breast cancer in Namibia. The research study recommends that there is a need of a greater focus along the breast cancer care pathway in Namibia, with emphases on improving access to early diagnosis at early age.Item Assessing the effects of social safety nets on poverty in Namibia: Analysis of food expenditure of elderly persons(University of Namibia, 2016) Shimpanda, FriedaThe purpose of this study was to evaluate in-patients and out-patients satisfaction of service delivery: A case study of Katutura Hospital, Windhoek. The main objectives of this research were to: identify the factors that contribute to poor service delivery at the Katutura Hospital, explore the factors affecting provision of service delivery in the public health sector, identify the service quality dimensions used by the Patients to evaluate service delivery and evaluate customer satisfaction levels for services being delivered at the Katutura Hospital. The study used quantitative and qualitative approaches using a survey technique. Questionnaires were administered to 120 employees and 30 patients at Katutura Hospital. Participants were approached to partake in the survey after work. Quantitative data from questionnaires were analyzed using the descriptive statistics with the help of data analysis software - Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Qualitative analysis was performed to assess the views and perceptions of the respondents on service delivery by the hospital. The study made use of frequency tables, charts, graphs and pie charts obtained from the analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS. The researcher adopted the stratified random sampling technique to select respondents as the study population was not homogeneous as it consisted of doctors, nurses, management and patients. The respondents were divided into two (2) strata in order to ensure that each was appropriately represented in the survey sample. Stratum 1, comprised the healthcare service providers; and Stratum 2, comprised the service healthcare receivers. Data was collected using questionnaires and the responses were collected and analysed. Data analysis included identifying and comparing existence or absence of factors using the SSPS package. The target population included all professional nurses, doctors, management (overall for Departmental and Unit level) and patients (outpatients and inpatients).Baseline results revealed various factors which affect service delivery at public health sector in Namibia.Item A bayesian hierarchical modelling of small area variation in youth unemployment in Namibia(University of Namibia, 2023) Shitenga, Linda VuteYouth unemployment has been one of Namibia's socio-economic problems, which has the potential to have significant and serious social repercussions on economic growth and development and could cause social exclusion and unrest in the affected country. Youth unemployment rates estimates are only available at the national (46.1 percent in 2018) and regional levels in Namibia; however, the Namibia Labour Force survey (NLFS) does not provide such statistics at small area e.g., at constituency level. The census data could be used to provide estimates of youth unemployment at constituency level; however, the data is only obtained every 10 years which in most cases the time frame is too long given the developmental changes that may take place during the 10- year periods. In view of these challenges, it is paramount to estimate the variation in unemployment rates at constituency level for possible targeted interventions within regions. In comparison to conventional small area estimation (SAE) models, the hierarchical Bayesian approach to SAE problems has several benefits, one of which is the ability to properly account for the kind of surveyed variable. For this reason, the main objective of this study was to estimate the risk of youth unemployment at constituency level using the 2018 NLFS data. The likelihood was estimated using a hierarchical Bayesian model and results from the study showed that the chance of youths being unemployed was very high among male youths than female youths in urban areas with OR=1.35 (1.10, 1.66) and OR=0.79 (0.65, 0.96) respectively. Several models were fitted, and the best model was used to estimate the probability of being unemployed amongst the male and female youths (with the DIC values of 4900.90 for the males and 5719.48 for females). The best model considered the fixed effects together with the unstructured spatial effects at constituency and regional levels. Even though employment is the result of aggregate demographic and socio-economic factors, the study recommends that employment opportunities specifically targeting youths should be created by either government or private sectors in constituencies especially those in the rural constituencies. Furthermore, special attention should be paid to integrating the youth into the labour market by improving their educational levelsItem Challenges for anthropology in the African Renaissance(University of Namibia Press, 2000) Zappen-Thomson, MarianneIt ts generally accepted that language aiXI culrure are closely hnkod. It is interesting to note rhat while a definition of language seems self-evidem, the term 'culru.re' -although used extensively - is seldom clearly defined. In order 10 discuss the Teaching European Language and Cullurt agawt the background of 'African RenaiSsance' the conc:ept of 'culrure' needs to be clearly defined. Particularly sinc:e the African Renaissance, as will be discussed later. is based upon a shilt m COn'iCIOusness Seen from tlllS perspecuve teaehmg European languages and culrure is part of development witllin the 'African Renaissance'. For the purposes of this paper Hofstede's (1993) concept of culture will be used. He maintains that everyone, during the course of his or her life acquires certain mental, emotional and behavioural patterns that he also calls "mental software" {ibid.: 18). The ever-changing social environment influences this "mental software" or culture. l11is means that in principle any person could discard certain panerns and replace them with new ones. But, says Hofstede, this is normally a complex and difficult process aiXI thus nor reall)ed very often. Hofstede's concept of culture inregrates the so-<:alled 'high culture' with the 'everyday culture' and pertairu to the past as well as to the comemporary. 'High culru.re' refers tO luerature, mus1c and art whereas 'everyday culru.re' includes eating habits, greeting riruals and hygene. Due to the fact that the individual has the ability and possibility of choosing which panerns he or she wants to make his or her own, culture ts not necessarily synonymous w1th nauon any longerItem A comparative evaluation of unsupervised anomaly detection techniques in smart water metering networks(University of Namibia, 2020) Kanyama, Maria NelagoAdvances in electronics and wireless communication technologies have enabled the development of smart water metering networks (SWMNs). These networks enable water utilities to measure the water consumption of the connected households better than the traditional metering. Every household's traditional water meter is replaced by a smart meter. Smart meter communicates the household's water consumption to the utility. Data collected by the smart meters can easily become unreliable due to different data attacks such as data tampering, integrity attacks or flooding. Data integrity has become a major concern in SWMNs hence this work is motivated by the demand for data integrity in this networks. Thus, different security algorithms and techniques needs to be put in place in order to detect which smart meter is compromised. Anomaly detection techniques are some of the security techniques that can be applied in SWMNs in order to protect all SWMN stakeholders. Although a lot of privacy and security solutions for attacks are proposed in smart grids, there is a dearth in security solutions for SWMNs in literature. This work is a comparative evaluation of three unsupervised anomaly detection techniques in Smart Water Metering Networks (SMWNs). These techniques are k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN), cluster-based local outlier factor (CBLOF), and the histogram-based outlier score (HBOS). The comparative study aims at providing a better unsupervised anomaly detection technique that can be adopted in SWMNs. This work aimed to find a better anomaly detection technique that can be used in a SWMNs, to track down the smart meters that are producing anomalies, the time the anomaly occurred, and lastly, to plot the consumer's profiles. Simulations are conducted in OMNeT ++ v5 .0 platform running on the Ubuntu 14.04OS. INET-3.4.0 framework is used on top of OMNeT ++ v5 .0 in order to simulate and model a realistic network. Data collected from the Tsumeb East area is used to configure the normal meter reading. Several scenarios depicting deviations from the normal conditions are simulated. The performance of each technique is compared with one another. False positive rates (FPR), detection rate (DR) and accuracy rate are used as performance metrics. One-way Anova and Turkey HSD are used for statistical analysis. Simulations runs for 60s; the first 20s aim to build the intelligence for the algorithm and the remaining 40s as a test phase. Simulation results show the kNN achieves almost zero FPR throughout while giving almost 5% for DR in all simulation runs. On other hand, CBLOF achieves the highest DR between 95% - 100%, while giving the worst performance in terms of FPR. This shows that CBLOF's anomaly score is too stringent as it penalizes even normal data points. The HBOS exhibits intermediate performance in either metrics. HBOS gives out the intermediate results. Statistical results for accuracy rate show that although HBOS gives intermediate results, it tends to run very close to CBLOF. kNN gives a high accuracy rate while CBLOF gives a lower accuracy rate since it struggles to identify normal data. This works concludes that kNN is a better anomaly detection technique to be used in SWMNs because it has a better DR, low FPR and a high accuracy rate as long as the magnitudes for the anomalous readings are not too close to what is being considered normal. Future work will explore a hybrid anomaly detection technique. Future work will also look at how to distinguish anomalous data from normal changes in customer water usage habits.Item A comparison of threaded versus non-threaded computing on the sieve of Eratosthenes Algorithm(University of Namibia, 2023) Uushona, SuamaPerformance enhancement in computers is a constant challenge for computer engineers, emanating from the constantly changing needs of consumers. Around the 1970s and 80s, computer engineers started designing computer architectures with multiple processors onboard, in order to address the performance challenge. These newer architectures provided a platform that enabled multiprocessing at affordable retail prices. This in turn created an opportunity for software developers to enhance program performance by creating software that could leverage on the underlying architecture through parallelisation to provide a performance advantage over sequential programs. This was not always achieved, however, since parallel programs present more opportunities to generate overhead, which can limit, or even deteriorate a program’s overall performance. In this study, an experimental analysis of two Sieve of Eratosthenes programs, one sequential and one parallel, was conducted in order to verify that parallelisation provided a computational advantage in the program under investigation, to establish whether a variation in the number of available processors had an effect on the overhead incurred, and lastly to investigate the mathematical nature of the overhead incurred. The study concluded that the parallel program provided a computational advantage over the sequential program for all threads computing prime numbers in the ranges greater than 10,000. The results of the study also determined that there existed a positive statistically significant relationship between the number of threads employed and the overhead incurred. In addition to this, the study also determined that overhead was mathematically quantifiable, but not in relation to the number of threads employed. Instead, it was learned that overhead is a product of the parallel program’s execution time and the fraction of efficiency lost. All in all, the study certainly highlighted one benefit of parallelisation, namely performance enhancement.Item A copula approach to sample selection modeling of treatment adherence and viral suppression among HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Namibia(University of Namibia, 2019) Nakaluudhe, JasonNamibia has a generalized human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic, with HIV mainly transmitted through heterosexual transmission. Although the number of people receiving ART has increased, the achievement of the 90-90-90 strategy on testing, treatment and suppression has not been evaluated. Moreover, examining factors associated with treatment adherence and viral suppression will assist in designing appropriate accelerated interventions. However, modelling treatment adherence and viral suppression may result in biased estimates if sample selection is ignored. The study fit a joint distributional model of ART treatment adherence and viral suppression, to adjust for sample selection bias among HIV patients on ART in Namibia, to examine the presence of tail dependence in sample selection bias, and investigate the factors associated with viral suppression, viral load and ART adherence. The study used two datasets; HIV data of patients, aged above 16 years, on antiretroviral therapy in Erongo region and the selected health facilities in Windhoek, Namibia. A Heckman-type selection analysis using copula were used on the two models: (i) ART adherence with viral suppression margins and (ii) ART adherence with viral load. The families of copulas i.e. Normal, Frank, FGM, AMH, Student-t and the 0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees rotated versions of Joe, Gumbel and Clayton, to capture dependence in the outcomes, were modelled and selected based on the lowest AIC and BIC. The results showed a strong negative correlation between adherence to ART treatment and viral load suppression. The results also showed the dependence structure between ART adherence and viral load margins. The results further showed that Frank and the 180 degrees rotated versions of Gumbel, and Clayton copulas were the best models. Antiretroviral therapy adherence with viral suppression and ART adherence with viral loads exhibit positive dependence structures, even though some demographic and clinical characteristics were not associated with ART adherence, viral suppression and viral load. Similar studies in the future need to consider socio-economic factors in addition to those considered in this study.Item Cyber security risk management and threat contol model (CSRM-TCM) a study carried out to enhance the protection of information in the Namibian public service(University of Namibia, 2016) Uudhila, Jambeko M.The persistent threats of the cyber environment drives organizations to adopt risk management as a crucial practice of minimizing dangers to their information assets. However, focusing on technology alone to address these risks is no longer sufficient. IT governance which enables senior managers to align and integrate technology with business strategies through clear policy development and good practice of IT control is essential. The Namibian Public Service (NPS) currently lacks policy guidance on cyber security risk management. Consequently Offices/Ministries/Agencies (O/M/As) depend on technology to manage security risks facing them. However, this effort is not coordinated between various O/M/A. Therefore it presents security challenges to the government network as various systems continues to be interconnected. To address these risks, the study investigated behaviors of different O/M/As in the NPS. The focus was predominantly on the management of information assets in the absence of standardized cyber security best practices. The study concluded that although there may be an abundance of technologies in the (NPS), the absence cyber security policies, standards and guidelines has led to a huge disparity regarding the way in which Information Systems (IS) are managed in various O/M/As. Hence, this poses security challenges. The study further identified threats, vulnerabilities facing the NPS and developed the Cyber Security Management and Threat Control (CSRM-TC) model. The model is believed to assist IT officials and policy makers in the NPS to understand challenges facing their information assets. This would further assist them to make appropriate decisions when developing cyber security policies, standards, guidelines and procedures according to best practices.Item Deployment of a sustainable, production-grade VoIP system based on open source software component in an educational institution(2008) Mwansa, GardnerAbstract provided by author:Governments and their agencies are often challenged by high cost and flexible telephonic and data services. Emerging technologies, such as those of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that allow convergent systems where voice and data networks can utilise the same network to provide both services, can be used to improve such servicesItem Designing and implementing a scalable, secure network using expert systems(2007) Lukwesa, KatongoItem Determinants of women’s participation in Namibia ’s labour force: A multinomial analysis of the 2018 Namibia labour force survey(University of Namibia, 2023) Amulungu, Fenny MukwiilongoWomen’s participation in the labour force is regarded as a sign of decreasing discrimination and a slight increase in women empowerment, among other benefits. Various studies have been conducted worldwide on identifying factors associated with women’s participation in the labour force but not many studies have been conducted on this topic in recent years in Namibia besides Mufune (2013). This study performed an empirical investigation to identify determinants of women’s participation in Namibia’s labour force through the adoption of a quantitative cross sectional research study using the 2018 NLFS and a multinomial logistic regression technique. Results revealed that area location, region, age group, marital status, literacy status and education level were significant determinants of employed women’s participation in the labour force in Namibia, while area location, age group, and literacy status were significant determinants of unemployed women’s participation. Compared to the odds of economic inactiveness, women from Hardap (OR=0.697, p<0.001, 95%CI: 0.667-0.729) and Kavango East (OR=0.921, p<0.001, 95%CI: 0.885-0.959) regions, relative to those from Zambezi region, had low odds of employment. Women who were less than 20 years old (OR=0.106, p<0.001, 95%CI: 0.102-0.109), relative to those aged 60 years and above, had low odds of employment. Married women (OR=0.711, p<0.001, 95%CI: 0.666-0.759), relative to separated women, had low odds of employment. Moreover, women with no education (OR=0.200, p<0.001, 95%CI: 0.186-0.216), those with primary education (OR=0.254, p<0.001, 95%CI: 0.236-0.273), junior secondary education (OR=0.288, p<0.001, 95%CI: 0.268-0.309), senior secondary education (OR=0.338, p<0.001, 95%CI: 0.315-0.363) and technical/vocational certificate/diploma (OR=0.262, p<0.001, 95%CI: 0.240-0.286), relative to those with postgraduate ii certificate/diploma/degree, had low odds of employment. However, literate women (OR=1.636, p<0.001, 95%CI: 1.594-1.679), relative to illiterate women, had high odds of employment compared to the odds of economic inactiveness. Furthermore, women who were from the Erongo (OR=1.132, p<0.001, 95%CI: 1.085-1.182), Kunene (OR=1.572, p<0.001, 95%CI: 1.499-1.648), Omaheke (OR=1.456, p<0.001, 95%CI: 1.384-1.531), Oshana (OR=1.098, p<0.001, 95%CI: 1.054-1.143), Oshikoto (OR=1.136, p<0.001, 95%CI: 1.091-1.182) and Otjozondjupa (OR=1.631, p<0.001, 95%CI: 1.562-1.703) regions, relative to those from Zambezi region, had high odds of unemployment as compared to the odds of economic inactiveness. Likewise women aged 20-29 years (OR=47.014, p<0.001, 95%CI: 44.570-49.593), 30-39 years (OR=66.831, p<0.001, 95%CI: 63.295-70.564), 40-49 years (OR=38.702, p<0.001, 95%CI: 36.648-40.871) and 50-59 years (OR=11.415, p<0.001, 95%CI: 10.799-12.065), relative to those aged 60 years and above, had high odds of unemployment. Women in consensual union (OR=2.124, p<0.001, 95%CI: 1.931-2.337), relative to those who were separated, had high odds of unemployment, while those residing in urban areas (OR=0.869, p<0.001, 95%CI: 0.853-0.885), relative to those from rural areas, had low odds of unemployment. It is therefore recommended that the Namibian government as well as policy makers and implementers reinforce policies and legislative frameworks in place to (further) empower women and enhance their participation in the labour force and in return, reap the benefits of economic and social developmentItem Developing a research instrument for learner-centered classroom observations(African Minds, 2008) Kapenda, Hileni M.; Torkildsen, Ole E.; Mtetwa, David; Julie, CyrilAlthough most researchers prefer to adapt or modify existing instruments that relate to their field of interest, t11e exercise still remains overwhelming and cumbersome. But, occasionally, a need arises for creating a new instrument for a specific purpose. Tllis chapter shows that the process of designing and constructing a research instrument can be challenging and frustrating. The chapter also focuses on some of the significant personal experiences of tile lead author's struggle and long journey in the construction of a research instrument for her thesis on learner-centred education in Namibian schools. The main objective for the chapter is to provide some advice to the reader, and especially to an emerging researcher, about the challenges of designing a new research instrumenL Considerations about how and why certain decisions have to be made at certain stages become important matters for discussion.Item Dynamic models for time-varying outcomes: An application to the 2015-2017 patient cohort on antiretroviral therapy at Luderitz hospital, Namibia(University of Namibia, 2020) Gabriel, LineekelaPatients' adherence to a prescribed medication regimen is one of the most significant barriers to successful antiretroviral therapy (ART). In addition, adherence to ART is one of the key determinants of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) disease progression, while non-adherence severely compromises treatment effectiveness and leads to unsuppressed virus. The extent of the impact of poor adherence on resulting health measures is often unknown, and typical analyses ignore the time-varying nature of adherence. The main objective of this study was to model time-varying outcomes of patients, while accounting for data missingness and measurement error using dynamic models, with application to a cohort of 154 adult patients initiated on ART between January 2015 and December 2017 at the Luderitz hospital. The outcome variable of this study was viral load which was measured at scheduled follow-up visits of patients. Baseline CD4 count, baseline weight, age at start of ART and gender were the non-dynamic covariates which were measured at the ART initiation, while adherence to ART and weight at follow up were the dynamic covariates measured at follow up visits. This study used mixed effects model and Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) to model longitudinally measured viral load as a function of the dynamic as well as non-dynamic covariates. To account for missingness in the outcome variable as well as potential measurement error in covariates, a Simulation Extrapolation Inverse Probability Weighted Generalized Estimating Equations (SWGEE) model that incorporates missing and measurement error was used to model the data. The study found that adherence was good in female patients as compared to male patients. Furthermore, the study found that patients with a good adherence rate achieved viral suppression within 12 months of treatment unlike non-adherent patients. In conclusion, viral load of patient’s on ART differ across the patients’ baseline demographic and clinical characteristics.Item Item An ecological adjusted random effect model for violent and property crime in Windhoek (2011-2016)(University of Namibia, 2020) Amunyela, JonasCount data that are zero inflated are often analysed using Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial Generalized Linear Mixed Model (ZTNB-GLMM) when observations are correlated in ways that require random effects. The present study investigates ecological factors influencing Violent and Property crime in Windhoek by using data obtained from the Windhoek police over the period of six consecutive years (20 I I to 20 16). The ecological concepts were measured at several different levels of aggregation. Limited studies in Windhoek have considered analysing crime data on a newly established Generalized Linear Mixed Model via Template Model Builder (TMB) R-package. The researcher considered the number of reported Property and Violent crime for the study period as a quantitative design. Crime was counted with respect to Month, Season, Year, Location and Density. Through an exploratory study, it was found that both Property and Violent crime data contained more zeros than would be expected. Furthermore, in specifying the probability distribution using confidence interval, the researcher found out that the Negative Binomial distribution was appropriate for the two types of crime. Besides that, the lognormal distribution also appears to be an appropriate distribution for modeling Violent crime. However, when comparing models fitted in the context of these two distributions it was found that the Relative Risk (RR) were highly significant for models fitted via Negative Binomial distribution. By adopting a ZINB-GLMM, the study attempts to address the potential covariates for both Property and Violent crime. The study shows that most of the variation in the study of Property and Violent crime was due to locations. On average more Property crime (68%) was committed in Windhoek as compared to Violent crime (32%). Crime was high during Spring and Winter time during the study period. The study further discovered that areas with high population densities have a high crime intensity.