Policies on free primary and secondary education in East Africa: a review of the literature

Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are among the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa which have recently implemented policies for free primary education, motivated in part by renewed democratic accountability following the re-emergence of multi-party politics in the 1990s. However, it is not the first time that the goal of expanding primary education has been pursued by these three neighbouring countries which have much in common. Since the 1960s, they have attempted to expand access at various levels of their education systems albeit with differences in philosophy and in both the modes and successes of implementation. All three countries continue to face the challenges of enrolling every child in school, keeping them in school and ensuring that meaningful learning occurs for all enrolled children. This paper provides an a review of the three countries’ policies for expanding access to education, particularly with regard to equity and the enrolment of excluded groups since their political independence in the 1960s. It considers policies in the light of the countries’ own stated goals alongside the broader international agendas set by the Millennium Development Goals and in particular, ‘Education for All’. It is concerned with the following questions: What led to those policies and how were they funded? What was the role, if any, of the international community in the formulation of those policies? What were the politics and philosophies surrounding the formulation of those policies, have the policies changed over time, and if so how and why? The paper also discusses the range of strategies for implementation adopted. Tremendous growth has occurred in access to primary education since the 1960s, not least in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The challenge of providing equitable access to schooling has been addressed in a series of education drives with varying motivations, modalities and degrees of success, the most recent of which pays attention to the increasingly pressing question of the transition to secondary education. The success of such policy remains to be seen but will be crucial for the widening of access to the benefits of education and to economic opportunity, particularly for those groups which history has so far excluded

Do You Speak Global?: The Spread of English and the Implications for English Language Teaching

The spread of English as an international language has changed our conception of both the language and how it should be taught. With more nonnative than native speakers of English, the ownership of English has shifted and new world Englishes (WE) have emerged. Researchers studying this phenomenon have recommended changes to English language teaching (ELT) that require re-examining firmly entrenched assumptions still evidenced in teaching practice. Despite compelling evidence, English language teaching professionals have yet to embrace and enact researchers’ recommendations. This article first examines the spread of English, then discusses its implications for ELT. The example of recommended changes for ELT enacted at Chukyo University in the Expanding Circle country of Japan illustrates changes that should be espoused by professionals worldwide

Tailoring the Mechanical Properties of Selective Laser Sintered Parts

The ~£1 million IMCRC-funded integrated project ‘Personalised Sports Footwear: From Elite to High Street’ is investigating the use of Rapid Manufacturing to produce personalised sports shoes, with the aim of enhancing performance, reducing injury, and providing improved functionality. Research has identified that, for sprinting, performance benefits can be achieved by tuning the bending stiffness of a shoe to the characteristics of an individual athlete. This paper presents research to date on several novel methods of influencing the mechanical properties of Selective Laser Sintered shoe soles, with a particular focus on stiffness.Mechanical Engineerin

The role of working memory and verbal fluency in autobiographical memory in early Alzheimer’s disease and matched controls

Retrieval of autobiographical memories (AMs) is important for “sense of self”. Previous research and theoretical accounts suggest that working memory (WM) and semantic and phonemic fluency abilities facilitate the hierarchical search for, and reliving of past, personal events in the mind’s eye. However, there remains a lack of consensus as to the nature of the relationships between these cognitive functions and the truly episodic aspects of AM. The present study therefore aimed to explore the associations between these variables in a sample with a wide range of cognitive abilities. The study incorporated a between-groups component, and a correlational component with multiple regression. Participants with Alzheimer’s disease (n = 10) and matched healthy controls (n = 10) were assessed on measures of semantic and episodic AM search and retrieval, auditory and spatial WM, and semantic and phonemic fluency. The AD group produced less episodic AM content compared to controls. Semantic fluency predicted episodic AM retrieval independent of age effects but there were no significant relationships between measures of phonemic fluency, WM and episodic AM. The results suggest that the ability to maintain hierarchical search of the semantic knowledge-base is important for truly episodic reliving, and interventions for people with AM impairment might therefore benefit from incorporating structured, individualised external memory-aids to facilitate AM search and retrieval

Political conservatism and its effects on memory and basic recall

The purpose of this study was to investigate how conservatism affects a person\u27s perception of everyday details. It is hypothesized that there will be a positive correlation between the participants\u27 conservative ratings and the amount of details from the readings they recall that are also conservative. This will also mean that there will be a negative correlation between the participants scoring higher on the conservatism scale and the amount of liberal details they recall. A similar pattern is expected to be discovered pertaining to participants that identify as more liberal. How is this measured? The participants will be asked to rate the their political views on a scale of 1-6, 1 being extremely liberal, and 6 being extremely conservative. A transcript of a political debate will contain views that are both conservative and liberal. Each view will be backed up by details supporting each of a candidate\u27s policies. The transcript will include minor grammatical errors including punctuation, spelling, and tenses, all of which the participant will be asked to correct. Following this will be a mathematical task which will include converting mixed numbers to improper fractions at the difficulty of a fifth grade level. A memory recall task will then be administered to the participants asking them to recall as many of the details from the debate as possible

Interferon lambda protects the female reproductive tract against Zika virus infection

Zika virus infections can cause devastating congenital birth defects but the underlying interactions with the host immune system are not well understood. Here, the authors examine the immune basis of vaginal protection and susceptibility to Zika viral infection, and identify a hormonal dependent role for interferon-lambda-mediated protection against disease

A transformation of Shanghai's urban fabric

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 84).Due to rapid development of the city, Shanghai has become characterized by drastic juxtapositions of building typologies and urban forms. Entire sections of the urban center are being replaced with large scale developments while the city overall expands into the periphery, replacing farmland with gated superblock developments. The city may be said to be losing identity as large sections of traditional urban fabric are being replaced. It is presented in this Thesis, that preservation of this identity is feasible by the implementation of a plan for the transformation of urban fabric. This thesis investigates a methodology by which an appropriate stepped transformation of urban form arises out of the intense analysis and comparison of traditional and new development samples. The first part of this thesis is titled Context and traces the numerous levels of juxtaposition within the urban environemnt of Shanghai, based on observations during site visit and research conducted in the Fall of 2005 with the MIT research seminar, Sustainable Development in Shanghai. Elaborating on these observations and clarifying the distinct characteristics of each side being juxtaposed, the next section of this thesis is titled Analysis.(cont.) This analysis takes each sample set and extracts the essential components in order to form a resource data set, refereed to as the "kit of parts". The final section is titled Transformation and proposes a fabric that intends to preserve Shanghai's urban identity. Believing that factors of identity are embedded in the basic Lilong urban structure, an average model, representative of the Lilong form is used as the starting point for the transformation that follows. The fabric is arrived at by a designed transformation process of steps onto this initial average model, informed by the introduction of pieces from the kit of parts for both old and new developments. It is proposed that the final outcome of this transformation is inevitably tied to traditional urbanity while addressing modern standards of living as it's foundation is the average model of Lilong neighborhood and it's transformation is partially guided by elements of superblock development within the kit of parts.by Christine Caine.S.M

Places of Practice: Learning to Think Narratively

In the lived practices of narrative inquiry, we honour our relational ontological commitments and responsibilities as narrative inquirers. In this paper, we link these ontological commitments with our practice, which is often tension-filled because the knowledge landscape on which we live as researchers is shaped by paradigmatic rather than narrative knowledge. It is easy to get swept into thinking paradigmatically and to sustain ourselves as narrative inquirers amidst knowledge landscapes that cast narrative inquirers as not knowing when seen from within dominant plotlines. We see that not to fall into these dominant plotlines requires wakefulness to shaping places where we can practice thinking narratively

Retrospective Preliminary Assessment of Routine Follow-Up Low-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Dogs Presumptively Diagnosed With Discospondylitis

Background: The usefulness of routine follow-up Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI-2) in asymptomatic dogs treated for discospondylitis is unknown. Methods: This cross-sectional retrospective study investigated the features of MRI-2 in a heterogeneous group of dogs treated for discospondylitis, and if these were associated with the presence or absence of clinical signs. After comparing initial MRI (MRI-1) and MRI-2, an observer, blinded to the dog's clinical signs, described the MRI-2 findings. The study population was then divided into symptomatic or asymptomatic at the time of MRI-2. Two separate observers subjectively classified the discospondylitis as active or inactive. Repeatability and interobserver agreement were evaluated. Results: A total of 25 dogs were included. At the time of MRI-2 16 (64%) dogs were asymptomatic and 9 (36%) were symptomatic. Based on MRI-2, 20 (80%) and 18 (72%) out of 25 dogs were considered to have active discospondylitis by the first and second observers, respectively. Interobserver agreement was moderate. No MRI-2 features were associated with the clinical status. The subjective classification of inactive discospondylitis was significantly associated with asymptomatic clinical status, but the classification of active discospondylitis was evenly distributed between groups. Conclusion: This study did not identify a meaningful association between the clinical status of dogs treated for presumptive discospondylitis and MRI-2 results. There were no specific MRI-2 features which were associated with the clinical status