No description available.

A validation study was conducted in the Maasai and Batemi communities of Arusha, Tanzania between December 1996 and January 1997. The aim of this study was to compare a participatory nutrition status assessment procedure carried out by community members with an assessment completed by a professional. The study validated women (15--50 years of age) dietary intake assessments and assessed the reliability of anthropometric assessments of preschool (12--71 months) children in the hands of non-professionals. The prevalence of under-nutrition was similar for the two data sets and reliability of anthropometric measurements was found to be good except for the mid-upper-arm circumference measurement for which the difference between measurements of the professional and the nonprofessional and between two occasions differed significantly (p < 0.001). Results suggest that participatory nutrition status assessment procedure by community members is useful and fairly reliable, giving results similar to a procedure administered by a professional for some anthropometric indices. The correlation between a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire administered by community members and a series of three 24-h recalls administered by a professional for assessing the risk of inadequate intake was found to be weak for vitamin A and protein but moderate for iron. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients between the mean of three 24-h recalls values and semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire estimates were 0.47 (p < 0.05) for iron, 0.29 (p < 0.05) for protein and 0.26 (p < 0.05) for vitamin A. The questionnaire produced results showing significantly higher intake estimates of protein (p < 0.001), vitamin A (p < 0.001) and iron (p < 0.01) than the average of three 24-hour recalls.

Th. Phil. Bern, 1991.

No description available.

The socio-economic conditions which affect development in general, and group ranching in particular, among the Maasai of Narok District, Kenya are analyzed. Systems of relationships between Maasai social units are examined to demonstrate how different individuals and groups within Maasai society, each with a diversity of vested interests, react to the opportunities and disadvantages offered them by imposed development programs and altered ecological conditions. / A single group ranch, Rotian OlMakongo, is the focus of intensive study. Maasai on this ranch, which is located in a semi-high potential wheat-growing area of Narok District, have largely been resistant to planned change. / The reaction of group ranch members to development are analyzed showing how lineage and clan affiliation, age set relations, stock friendships and other systems of relations affect individual and group decision-making. / On the one hand the analysis demonstrates how the structure of the group ranch itself is not conducive to the consensual decision-making which ranch planning officials anticipated would occur regarding such important issues as stock limitation. On the other hand traditional Maasai social units are seen at different times both to promote and inhibit new organizational forms to deal with a changing set of economic, ecological and political conditions. / A general trend toward impoverishment, disenfranchisement and supplementary economic pursuits is outlined. However, traditional pastoralism is not seen as being totally subsumed by a more dominant, essentially capitalistic mode of production. Rather, traditional pastoralism is seen to define the transformation of internal forms through a structure which incorporates the modern sector. The tension between the traditional and modern sectors is not their disassociation, but rather, their integration into the dynamic process of change within the structure.

No description available.

Tese de mestrado integrado. Bioengenharia (Engenharia Biomédica). Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia. 2011

The research investigates the determinants and effects of two key indicators of diversification, schooling and employment, on Maasai community. Quantitatively and qualitatively it shows that this community is experiencing changing patterns of education and employment, both of which represent virtually closed systems within Narok District. The intergenerational study quantitatively demonstrates increasing rates of school participation, showing how wealth influences schooling, and how Maasai now disproportionately send firstborns to school. / Qualitative material from in-depth interviews shows increasingly positive attitudes towards education, even by those who do not educate their children, and the ambiguity of Maasai responses to social change: increasing social and economic complexity, with a strong continuing role for the animal-based society and economy, even in its commercialized form where it generates jobs pursued by younger non-educated males as herders and traders. As employment beyond the home economy increases, the educated are more likely to enter formal employment and show higher rates of job mobility.

Bioactive phytochemicals, such as phenols, could depict one cardioprotective factor in the diet of the Maasai. Therefore, 41 samples from of plants commonly ingested by the Maasai, were investigated for the presence of phenols and antioxidant activity. Phenols were detected in all 41 crude extracts. All extracts were screened for antioxidant activity using 2 radicals (1,1 diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radical; peroxyl radical). Extracts that displayed activity equal to or significantly greater than the antioxidant standards (ascorbic acid; Trolox) in both screening tests include (p < 0.05): Acacia nilotica and Acacia drepanolobium. These results were significantly correlated to total phenols (r = -0.51 and 0.79; p < 0.01). Eleven extracts were assessed for their ability to protect LDL from in-vitro oxidation and these extracts showed this ability equal to or significantly greater than the antioxidant standards (p < 0.05). Dose response was demonstrated in this assay using 3 concentrations of the crude extract of A. drepanolobium and an ethyl acetate fraction of this extract exhibited significantly stronger activity than the other fractions (water, chloroform) (p < 0.05). All extracts were of a mixed chemical nature and yet some displayed antioxidant activity equal to or greater than the pure antioxidants standards. The correlations established suggest that the antioxidant activity is phenolic in make-up.

No description available.