The Role of Education Pertaining to Female Political Leadership in Kenya

Female participation in leadership remains essential to ensure balanced decision-making and public outcomes. However, male dominance and gender stereotypes have been identified as significant barriers that hinder women from accessing political leadership. In contrast, little is known about the role of education in the ascension of women to leadership positions. This study examines the educational experiences of Kenyan female political leaders using a phenomenographic approach based on interviews. Findings indicated that education is an enabling factor for female leaders as it provides credibility, fosters knowledge seeking and decision-making skills. Informal educational activities impart leadership essential proficiencies such as communication skills. Teachers were found to be influential as mentors, while parents facilitated the effective engagement of female leaders in education

Evolution in prostheses for sprinters with lower-limb amputation

Depuis une quinzaine d'années, les progrès techniques en appareillage ont été le facteur déterminant de la progression des performances des sportifs amputés de membre inférieur. Pour l'amputé tibial, la prothèse de course comprend un manchon gel et une emboîture solidarisés par un accrochage distal ou un vide virtuel. Par ses qualités dynamiques, le pied en fibre de carbone, garni de pointes, assure des performances remarquables. Pour l'amputé fémoral, équipé des mêmes pieds prothétiques, le genou est à biellettes et à contrôle des phases d'appui et pendulaire. Par rapport au coureur valide, le temps d'appui sur le membre appareillé est raccourci tandis que celui sur le membre sain est allongé. L'asymétrie du sprint de l'amputé tibial est discrète. C'est le travail des extenseurs de hanche qui est la principale compensation au déficit de propulsion dû à l'amputation. Chez l'amputé fémoral, l'absence de genou aggrave l'asymétrie. L'extension totale du genou prothétique, précoce en fin de phase oscillante et persistant pendant toute la phase d'appui, impose une compensation par une augmentation d'extension de la hanche controlatérale. Les transferts de charge de travail entre côté amputé et sain, par l'intermédiaire d'une hyperlordose lombaire, mettent en jeu le bassin, le tronc et les épaules. Les amputés sportifs font progresser la recherche en appareillage. Leurs orthoprothésistes acquièrent avec eux un savoir-faire dont bénéficient leurs patients non-sportifs.For about 15 years, technical advances in prosthetic treatment have been the main factor in the increased performance of athletes with lower-limb amputation. For trans-tibial amputation, the prosthesis for sprinting is composed of a gel liner and a socket joined by a locking or virtual vacuum liner. Because of these dynamic properties, the carbon prosthetic foot equipped with tacks ensures outstanding performance. For trans-femoral amputation, a hydraulic swing and a stance control unit are added to the same prosthesis. In comparison with the able-bodied runner, athletes with amputation have smaller loading times in the prosthetic limb and larger ones in the sound limb. The length of the energy-storing prosthetic foot is determined by the “up-on-the-toes” running gait. The sprinting gait with trans-tibial amputation is almost symmetrical. The hip extensor effort is the main compensation of propulsion reduction with lower-limb amputation. With trans-femoral amputation, the lack of knee increases the asymmetry. The total prosthetic knee extension (early in late-swing phase and lasting during total stance phase) compensates with extension of both hips, especially the opposite one. The amputation and sound limb load transfer with lumbar hyperlordosis concern the pelvis, trunk and shoulders. Because of athletes with amputation, research in prosthetic treatment has progressed. The development of orthotics and prostheses for such athletes has benefited non-athletes with amputation

PHARAO Laser Source Flight Model: Design and Performances

In this paper, we describe the design and the main performances of the PHARAO laser source flight model. PHARAO is a laser cooled cesium clock specially designed for operation in space and the laser source is one of the main sub-systems. The flight model presented in this work is the first remote-controlled laser system designed for spaceborne cold atom manipulation. The main challenges arise from mechanical compatibility with space constraints, which impose a high level of compactness, a low electric power consumption, a wide range of operating temperature and a vacuum environment. We describe the main functions of the laser source and give an overview of the main technologies developed for this instrument. We present some results of the qualification process. The characteristics of the laser source flight model, and their impact on the clock performances, have been verified in operational conditions.Comment: Accepted for publication in Review of Scientific Instrument

Regional higher education reform initiatives in Africa: a comparative analysis with the Bologna Process

Europe's Bologna Process has been identified as a pioneering approach in regional cooperation with respect to the area of higher education. To address the challenges of African higher education, policymakers are recommending regional cooperation that uses the Bologna Process as a model. Based on these recommendations, the African Union Commission (AUC) in 2007 developed a strategic document on higher education harmonization. As higher education reforms are context-specific, the question arises as to how the policy of harmonization of higher education systems in Africa can be implemented in a way that fosters greater regional integration, taking into consideration the context of African higher education systems. This research, which is based mainly on a review of European and African official documents, focuses on the reform issues proposed by the AUC in the harmonization process and compares them with those of the Bologna Process

Deriving Niger’s Demographic and Education Future to 2062 with Stakeholders: Which Results?

Niger has the fastest population growth in the world while being among the least developed countries. With an average fertility above seven children per woman in the last decades, rapid population growth will continue in the medium to long term representing a planning challenge for Niger's development whose actual population is likely to double within the next two decades. At the same time, socio-economic variables whether in terms of health, wealth, and education levels are lagging behind, also relatively to many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. While both demographic and education variables occupy a central position in the government strategy, they are not necessarily linked. However, the future of Niger will largely be a reflection of its ability to meet both challenges. Within a project piloted by the Ministry of Planning and funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund, we have derived together with local experts and stakeholders narratives about the possible future of Niger. These were further translated into five scenarios with assumptions about different future paths of demographic and educational development for Niger that were used to project the population, also at sub-national level, using multi-state population projection models with the aim to inform policy. This article reports some projection results related to educational and demographic developments

A Unified Theoretical Description of the Thermodynamical Properties of Spin Crossover with Magnetic Interactions

After the discovery of the phenomena of light-induced excited spin state trapping (LIESST), the functional properties of metal complexes have been studied intensively. Among them, cooperative phenomena involving low spin-high spin (spin-crossover) transition and magnetic ordering have attracted interests, and it has become necessary to formulate a unified description of both phenomena. In this work, we propose a model in which they can be treated simultaneously by extending the Wajnflasz-Pick model including a magnetic interaction. We found that this new model is equivalent to Blume-Emery-Griffiths (BEG) Hamiltonian with degenerate levels. This model provides a unified description of the thermodynamic properties associated with various types of systems, such as spin-crossover (SC) solids and Prussian blue analogues (PBA). Here, the high spin fraction and the magnetization are the order parameters describing the cooperative phenomena of the model. We present several typical temperature dependences of the order parameters and we determine the phase diagram of the system using the mean-field theory and Monte Carlo simulations. We found that the magnetic interaction drives the SC transition leading to re-entrant magnetic and first-order SC transitions.Comment: 30pages, 11figure

Global Demography Expert Survey on the Drivers and Consequences of Demographic Change

Insight into the future of the world population is key for policy planning. At present, several organisations engage in developing global long-term population projections and provide varied results in terms of projected population size and structures. This diversity demonstrates that there is a need to reflect on the ingredients that feed into the projections. For this reason, the JRC, IIASA and the UN Population Division launched a survey where experts were asked to assess the validity and relevance of alternative arguments about the forces that could shape future fertility, mortality, and migration trends in the country of their choice. The results of the survey highlight that experts almost unanimously support the roles played by urbanisation, reductions in child mortality, greater educational attainment, and employment opportunities for women in decreasing fertility in high fertility countries. At the same time, life expectancy is expected to continue increasing across world regions, with the most significant improvements projected by experts in current 'low mortality' countries. Experts on migration mostly agree that climate change will lead to a rise in immigration. However, there is less agreement on the forces driving emigration. As a broad conclusion, the expert opinions seem to indicate that demographic challenges of the future do not necessarily have demographic solutions, and will instead necessitate improved adaptive capacities among all societies

Collective effects in spin-crossover chains with exchange interaction

The collective properties of spin-crossover chains are studied. Spin-crossover compounds contain ions with a low-spin ground state and low lying high-spin excited states and are of interest for molecular memory applications. Some of them naturally form one-dimensional chains. Elastic interaction and Ising exchange interaction are taken into account. The transfer-matrix approach is used to calculate the partition function, the fraction of ions in the high-spin state, the magnetization, susceptibility, etc., exactly. The high-spin-low-spin degree of freedom leads to collective effects not present in simple spin chains. The ground-state phase diagram is mapped out and compared to the case with Heisenberg exchange interaction. The various phases give rise to characteristic behavior at nonzero temperatures, including sharp crossovers between low- and high-temperature regimes. A Curie-Weiss law for the susceptibility is derived and the paramagnetic Curie temperature is calculated. Possible experiments to determine the exchange coupling are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 13 color figures, published versio

Solar energy research and development program on the exploitation of the solar resource on the Reunion Island and its integration into an electrical power grid

Paper presented to the 3rd Southern African Solar Energy Conference, South Africa, 11-13 May, 2015.Reunion Island stands out by its specific energy context due to its growing population and a strong economic development. The main objective of this French region is to ensure that its exceptional potential for renewable power generation could meet an increasing energy demand. Regarding the energy development, the Regional strategy is to reach the energy independence by 2030 (SPL “Energies Réunion”) without using fossil fuels. In this context, the LE2P is leading a solar resource research programme with the aim to use solar resource as a stable source of energy and ensure its management in a reliable and efficient way for its integration into an electrical power grid. This paper aims to describe the methodology used for the development of this ambitious and challenging R&D program, projects articulation within the LE2P roadmap’s and the collaborations and partnerships initiated in UE and OI zone, permitting Eco city development especially in the IO area.cf201