IGIHE

Category: Science &Technology

  • HIV Vaccine trial Ends in Failure

    {{US authorities announced Thursday they have halted clinical trials of an experimental vaccine designed to halt the virus that leads to AIDS after discovering it did not stop infection.}}

    The program, which began in 2009, is the latest in a series of unsuccessful studies of candidate vaccines aimed at tackling HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus.

    The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said volunteers in 19 US cities — either gay men or transgender people who had sex with men — took part in the study, with the HVTN 505 vaccine given to 1,250 and 1,244 receiving a placebo.

    A panel analyzed the results of the study on April 22 and recommended halting the program after findings indicated 41 infections among those who had received the vaccine versus 30 in the placebo group.

    The NIAID, part of the National Institutes of Health that funded the clinical trial, said it planned to continue to follow the participants to further analyze the results of the study.

    An estimated 34 million people are infected with HIV worldwide, including 3.4 million children.

    AIDS has killed 30 million people since the beginning of the epidemic 30 years ago and an estimated 1.8 million people die from the disease each year.

    {AFP}

  • Nissan, Renault to use Common Car Parts

    {{Japan’s Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) and France-based Renault SA (RENA.PA) plan to use common parts in the production of new versions of the Nissan March and Renault Clio to reduce costs by about 30%.}}

    The common parts in the two models, expected to roll out in 2015, are likely to constitute about half of the total parts used, the Japanese media reported.

    The companies will gradually extend this unified format – currently focused on about 3 million small automobiles a year – to other models, the paper said.

    Company officials are meeting to finalize a strategy for using the common parts from the design stage.

    Nissan and Renault, which have partnered since 1999, have been exploring the idea of a unified design for midsize automobiles for four years.

    {Nikkei}

  • Africa Needs More 7,000MW

    {{Africa needs to develop an additional 7,000 megawatts a year to make its energy sector contribute significantly to its economic growth.}}

    Prof. Mark Mwandosya also a state minister in charge of special duties in the Tanzania office of the president said last week that to close the energy infrastructure gap, Africa must have a 22,000 MW of cross-border transmission power line capacity.

    He was speaking during the launch of a book on Power Sector Reform and Regulation in Africa.

    He said energy, water, sanitation, telecommunications and transport were central to the future of Africa and its development ambitions.

    He remarked that Africa’s infrastructure gap presented a daunting challenge.

    Quoting estimates contained in the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic report, he said the continent must develop an additional 7,000MW a year of new power generation capacity and enable regional power trade by building 22,000MW of cross-border transmission power line capacity.

    The continent also has to complete the intra-regional fibre-optic back-bone network, interconnect capitals, ports and border crossings with a good-quality road network and provide all-season road access to Africa’s high-value agricultural land.

    Irrigated land has to be more than doubled, the millennium development goals for water and sanitation attained, cellphone voice coverage and public access broadband provide to 100 per cent of the population.

    “Not surprisingly, the cost of such an ambitious programme is significant.
    “In 2010 this was estimated at $93 billion per annum, including operations and maintenance costs, with the amount attributable to capital expenditure being in the region of $60 billion,” Prof Mwandosya pointed out.

    “This is a staggering 15 per cent of the continent’s GDP! And I imagine that over the last few years since this figure was derived, it has grown.

    The magnitude of the challenge that we face means that we can no longer continue to do ‘business as usual.”

    He explained that private sector participation was necessary to develop the energy and the infrastructure to make service delivery more efficient and commercial.

    {NMG}

  • Harvard Prof. Advises Africa to Adopt GMOs

    {{A Harvad University Proffessor has warned that if Africa didn’t embrace Genetically Modified Plants in its Agriculture production, the problems that have plagued its agriculture will continue.}}

    Prof. Calestous Juma added that the diseases that affect Africa’s agricultural products will continue doing so unless the continent embraces GMOs.

    He cited the Cassava wilt disease,saying that with GMOs, it would be no more, cassava production will more than double,and to him this is what transformation is all about.

    The Don argued that Genetical engineering has the potential to do for agriculture what mobile technology has done for the communications sector.

    Prof. Juma advised, “to realize this potential, African countries need to adopt flexible and supportive biotechnology regulations”.

    Explaining the benefits of emerging technologies on economic transformation Prof Juma noted that all technological innovations start with deregulation ‘if Africa had restrictive Mobile technology regulations imposed at the outset, it would not have benefited from the technology and even pioneered in fields such as Mobile money transfer “ he said.

    Prof. Juma the Director of the science, technology and globalization project at Harvard University. He was speaking at a Public Lecture in Uganda organized by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA).

  • OLPC & Kigali Public Library Partners to Enhance Reading Culture

    {{Both Kigali Public Library and One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project are in a collaboration aimed at developing and sustaining reading culture as well as use of Computers in Rwandan Schools.}}

    Nkubito Bakuramutsa, Coordinator of OLPC project, says working with Kigali Public Library will enhance the reading culture.

    With the use of online technologies, books that are stored in the library will be made available to beneficiaries of OLPC project.

    “The culture of reading and laptops go hand in hand. Our partnership with the Kigali Public Library is a win win for children of Rwanda. Each OLPC school will relay this library nationwide through electronic books stored in school servers “said Nkubito Bakuramutsa.

    Currently about 100 school children are undergoing trainings about how to use laptops to get access to electronic books.

    Trainings are taking place at Kigali Public Library where each child has access to his/her own laptops.

    Abindekwe Ngarambe Celestine, a trainer of children said that the later are now able to use laptops while reading online documents.

    She said that teaching ICTs among children will open their mind as well as encouraging them to exploit the benefits of new technologies.

    Within a one month of trainings, children have acquired skills in writing short stories, reading electronic documents and use of ICTs.

  • Swiss Aid to Fund Construction of Technical schools

    {{Rwanda and Sweden have signed a funding agreement that will culminate in the construction of five technical and vocational instututions in five districts in the western province.}}

    Swiss development cooperation (SDC) has extended US$10Million for the construction of schools in Rusizi, Nyamasheke, Ngororero, Rutsiro and Karongi districts. Construction is scheduled for July 2013 and completion January 2014.

    The schools are meant to enhance skills among the youths as provided for under the EDPRS II(Economic Development & Poverty Reduction Strategy II ).

    The EDPRS II targets focus on infrastructure and energy development, skills and capacity building, job creation, markets and increased access to health and education.

    Albert Nsengiyumva, The Minister of State in the Ministry of Education in charge of Technical and Vocational Education and Training said, the new schools will enhance economic development of the country.

    “Technical and vocational skills provide more employment opportunities to the citizens and thus positively affects economic growth,” he said.

    During the signing(see photo below), Sicvio Fluckiger represented SDC and Rwanda government was represented by Hon. Nsengiyumva.

  • Rwanda to Establish US$5M ICT Innovation Center

    {{The Ministry of Youth and ICT and the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) signed an agreement worth USD 5.6 million for a project that will establish an ICT Innovation Center in Rwanda.}}

    Speaking at the signing ceremony on Wednesday, Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Youth and ICT, Rosemary Mbabazi, said that project is in line with EDPRS II.

    “This project aims to promote job creation, human resources education, the growth and development of the ICT industry which are all EDPRS II targets.”

    Mr Sang-chul Kim, KOICA’s representative in Rwanda said that the project, which will be implemented in collaboration with Rwanda Development Board, was part of KOICA’s efforts to strengthen ICT capacity in Rwanda.

    “Korean experts will be dispatched to Rwanda to provide technical advice on the implementation of the project and provide the necessary ICT equipment and materials.”

    The agreement provides that the funds will go to the implementation of the ICT development roadmap and construction of the Center among other things.

    The ICT Innovation Center will be located at the Integrated Polytechnic Regional Center, Kigali Campus.

    KOICA’s Rwanda office has been working in various sectors including ICT, education and rural development.

    This year marks the 50 years of the establishment of diplomatic relationship between Rwanda and the Republic of Korea.

    {Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Youth and ICT, Rosemary Mbabazi and KOICA official at signing ceremony}

  • Rwanda has Fastest Internet Downloads in Africa

    {{Rwanda has been ranked first in Africa with high speed internet, according to Net Index’s report released in March 2013, calculated from results of millions of recent tests via Speedtest.net, compares and ranks consumer download speeds around the world.}}

    The value of the index corresponds to the “moving average Mbps (megabits per second) within 30 days for an average distance between the client and the server is less than 300 miles.

    Rwanda currently relies on three submarine fibre optic cable systems for Internet connection such as the East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSY), The East African Marine Systems (TEAMS) and SEACOM through local telecommunication companies and ISPs.

    {{Rwanda: first in Africa, 69th World 7.43 Mbps}}

    Rwanda, which won three places since last year, dethroning Madagascar with an average download speed of 7.43 Mbps. 3,566 unique IP addresses have been tested between 04 February and 5 March 2013.

    The country owes its improvement efforts MTN RwandaCell which users download faster with a speed of 4.44 Mbps 1.25 Mbps cons.

    {{Madagascar: 2nd Africa, 76th World 7.02 Mbps}}

    The Big Island is maintained and always offers Internet speeds well above those available in most African countries.

    The country loses one place from last year but still better classified as heavy Africans as South Africa and Nigeria recorded download speeds of 3.86 and 2.37 respectively Mbps.

    Madagascar is 76th in the world according to test results 9978 unique IP between 04 February and 5 March 2013.

    In the capital, Antananarivo, average speed jumped 2.12 Mbps to 6.85 Mbps compared to August 2012.

    The Internet Service Provider Data Telecom Service offers services with the fastest average speed of 7.45 Mbps.

    {{Ethiopia: 3rd Africa, 87th World}}

    The results were obtained by analyzing tests on 3189 unique IP between 6 November 2012 and 5 March 2013.

    The country owes its 3rd place at the African ISP Ethio Telecom which provides average download speed of 16.80 outstanding African Mbps.

    Internet connection plays a crucial role in economic development of any country.

    Faster Internet lowers operational costs for some businesses, saves time, and is sometimes a criterion used by investors in making investment decisions.

  • Tanzania Scientists Create Super Papaya

    {{After years of research, local scientists have managed to create a papaya variant that offers Tanzanian farmers very high yields at a relatively low cost.}}

    The new strand effectively makes commercial pawpaw farming a feasible proposition, because it utilises 100 per cent of the plant’s available nutritional value.

    The bulk of current papaya variants have a yield rate of only 25 per cent, according to molecular plant virologist Joseph Ndunguru of the Mikocheni Agricultural Institute.

    Speaking at a workshop organised by the Bioscience for Farming in Africa, he said the new variant was a consequence of years of expensive, painstaking research.

    “The improved variety of papaya plants has been made possible at our modern laboratory,” noted Dr Ndunguru.

    “Traditionally, it is very expensive to grow pawpaws on traditional plants and the new variety overcomes the impediments. It is also cost effective.”

    He pointed out that a new variety could produce high-quality fruits in its every plant.

    Recently, President Jakaya Kikwete challenged scientists to conduct studies to establish the practicality of the technology to enable the government to act accordingly.

    He said as long as there were no proven major negative impacts, he saw no logic in opposing the technology.

    {Thecitizen}

  • Google Boss Says Entire World Will Be Online by 2020

    {{Everybody in the world will be on the Internet within seven years.

    That’s what Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said this weekend in public comments that inspired everything from excitement to incredulity.}}

    “For every person online, there are two who are not,” Schmidt wrote Saturday on his Google+ account. “By the end of the decade, everyone on Earth will be connected.”

    He followed up with a related thought on Sunday.

    “Think about how great the internet is with 2B users. Now think about how amazing it will be when 5B come online in a decade. #NewDigitalAge.”

    It’s just the sort of big thinking that has led Google to become one of the largest and most innovative tech companies in the world. But some of Schmidt’s own followers took exception.

    “You really believe that? What about the millions in Africa who can’t even get enough food to eat or the natives in South America who have no idea what technology is?” a Google+ user going by the name “Mary M” wrote. “Maybe you should rephrase to those in civilized areas or something like that…”

    About 38% of the world’s population uses the internet in 2013, up from about 35% last year, according to the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency dedicated to information and communication technology.

    With poor and developing nations around the world isolated by crumbling or nonexistent Web infrastructures, and others hindered by factors ranging from remote geography to government censorship, is Schmidt’s vision overly optimistic?

    {Google}