Common Preventable Health and Social Problems Encountered by Elderly in Shinyanga Region in the Northern Part of Tanzania

Background: In Tanzania elders are respected as repositories of inherited wisdom, experienced and principal decision makers in the community. However, evidence shows that such repositories are no longer considered important in most societies. As a result elders are neglected with some mistreatment in terms of provision of health and social services for instance;at times they get denied and ignored of their obvious rights, ignoring their retirement benefits and the rights onto free social services as per the Tanzania National Ageing Policy of 2003. Elders are therefore faced with physical, psychological and geriatric social suffering. It is on this basis that this study tries to explore the common preventable health and social problems encountered by elderly in Shinyanga Region in northern part of Tanzania. Methods: Across sectional community based study of 465 subjects randomly selected was done in three wards of Kahama District. The district was selected randomly out of 8 districts of Shinyanga Region, structured questionnaires with both closed and opened endower used;the information was collected from house to house and other information collected from health facilities within the wards as every ward had one public health facility;subjects (respondents) were obtained using purposive sampling technique aiming at elderly with 60 years of age and above. Results: Kahama district has a population of approximately 36,014 of which 1500 (4%) are in the elderly age group of 60 years and above. The study population was 465 which is 30% (465/1500) of the geriatric population of Kahama. Among this group 5% were female while 41% were male and 53% (248/465) were married. 64% (297/465) were taking care of themselves, 32% (150/465) cared by relatives and 4% (18/465) cared by the community. Among the respondents, 40% (185/465) were affected by HIV/AIDs in one way or another either living with orphans whose parents died of HIV/AIDS or asking care of the infected patients within the family. It was also found that 73% of the geriatrics were not exempted from medical treatment fees so they had to pay for their medical care. However, only 32% were aware of getting free treatment and 61% of the study populations were not satisfied with the medical care provided at the public health facilities. The common diseases affecting this age group are: Eye problem 59% (273/465);Arthritis 52% (241/465);Dental problems 27% (124/465);Hypertension 23% (107/465);Backache 22% (105/465);Malaria 28% (132/465);Hearing problems 26% (121/645);Urinary tract Infection 35% (165/465);Depression 8% (36/465). Dementia was also a problem though we had no tools to confirm the diagnosis;some of the geriatrics had more than two diseases. Conclusion: The majority of the elderly age group in Kahama District are not aware of their rights that they deserve free treatment according to Tanzania policy, furthermore for assessment and screening of health problems. A majority of the elderly die prematurely due to preventable diseases and more than half of the diseases affecting geriatrics are preventable.

Social Problems Caused by the Model

While achieving successes,the neoliberalist economic development model hasalso given rise to a series of grave problems,especially problem of social injusticeand polarization,which have begun to threaten Latin America’s social security andstability.

Self-directed learning readiness and social problem solving of nursing students in Macao

Objective The aims of this study were to describe nursing students′self-directed learning readiness and social problem solving and test their correlations in Macao.Methods This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 140baccalaureate nursing students.A stratified random sampling was performed.The Self-directed Learning Readiness(SDLR)Scale and Chinese Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised(C-SPSI-R)were used.Results The response rate was 79.3%.Students possessed readiness for self-directed learning(mean 149.09±12.53,51.4%at high level,48.6%at low level).Regarding to social problem solving,the mean scores of each subscale were 9.35±3.25(Rational Problem Solving,RPS),10.26±3.23(Positive Problem Orientation,PPO),8.14±4.06(Negative Problem Orientation,NPO),5.67±4.44(Avoidance Style,AS),and 4.84±3.03(Impulsivity/Carelessness Style,ICS).SDLR was positively related to RPS and PPO,but was negatively related to AS.Conclusion Half of students possessed stronger readiness for self-directed learning.Students had a belief in the ability to solve problems,and adopted relevant strategies in solving problems.However,students still had negative and dysfunctional orientation and defective attempts in solving problems.Self-directed learning was positively related to positive and constructive orientation,but was negatively related to defective problem-solving pattern.Nurse educators should create educational climates for promoting student confidence and mutual responsibility for learning and their thinking process for problem solving.

Factors Limiting Centralized Land Circulation in China from the Perspective of Farmers' Property Right

At present,there are many factors limiting large area centralized,rapid development,and moderately large-scale land operation in China.These factors include(i) the existing land utilization system is still at adaptation stage,and it lacks universal agreement of people on large-scale land operation;(ii) farmers' dependence on land is great;(iii) it is difficult to transfer surplus labor;(iv) there is no positive connection between promotion of moderately large-scale land operation and realization of increase of farmers' income;(v) it remains to be proved whether large-scale operation can become a stable rural occupation and whether big farming households can grow to professional farmers;(vi) large-scale land operation in rural areas may lead to waste of resources;(vii) the promotion of large-scale land operation may cause other social contradictions.

Office Bullying in the Philippines and the Need for Public Policy

There is an urgent need to solve the problem of workplace bullying in both private and government sectors.Bullying at work creates serious negative consequences to the victims and the organization affecting their productivity.The magnitude of the problem necessitates state intervention to correct market and government failures.This policy paper studies office bullying and the need to legislate to realize efficient and effective allocation of government and private resources.It is guided by the Constitutional mandate that maintenance of peace,harmony,health and safety at work is an inherent duty of the State because of its inherent power to issue orders and command obedience to mitigate its effects.Using Cost Benefit Analysis,Institutional Analysis to policy making,and Rational-Decision making as tools for analysis,crafting and passing upon a statute is the most feasible means to address the problem of workplace bullying.The need to legislate a national policy on workplace bullying is necessary to mitigate its negative consequences both to employees and organizational productivity.Office bullying as a public issue also requires strict monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of similar or related laws may also address the problems cause by the same destructive behaviors but are inadequately explored in many researches.

Review of the Research on Urban Social Problems in Recent Years

In the last 10 years, China has madeconsiderable progress in urbanization withincreasing numbers of both city and urbanpopulation. This has played a positive rolein promoting the country’s political, eco-nomic and cultural development. However,the process of urbanization has broughtalong new problems and contradictionswhich require theoretical exploration.Against this background, urban sociology,

Detecting Vicious Cycles in Urban Problem Knowledge Graph using Inference Rules

Urban areas have many problems,including homelessness,graffiti,and littering.These problems are influenced by various factors and are linked to each other;thus,an understanding of the problem structure is required in order to detect and solve the root problems that generate vicious cycles.Moreover,before implementing action plans to solve these problems,local governments need to estimate cost-effectiveness when the plans are carried out.Therefore,this paper proposed constructing an urban problem knowledge graph that would include urban problems’causality and the related cost information in budget sheets.In addition,this paper proposed a method for detecting vicious cycles of urban problems using SPARQL queries with inference rules from the knowledge graph.Finally,several root problems that led to vicious cycles were detected.Urban-problem experts evaluated the extracted causal relations.