Empowerment through education: the case of adult African refugees

While much of the existing information on the education of African refugees in Egypt has focused on children, this study reveals critical issues regarding the education of adults. This thesis has three major purposes. It aims to explore the different educational opportunities available for adult African refugees in Cairo. It seeks to examine the challenges that affect their education. It also analyzes the role of education in the empowerment of adult African refugees who either seek to integrate locally, return to their home country, or get resettled to another state. Research for this study was conducted over a period of three months in the city of Cairo. Substantial information was obtained from interviews with 30 adult students of two major refugee educational programs and four representatives from different organizations and institutions. On the basis of the results of this research, it can be concluded that due to the lack of access to formal education, the only educational opportunity available for the majority of adult African refugees is English classes provided by alternative refugee educational programs. It can also be concluded that many of the restrictions and obstacles faced by African refugees in Cairo have a negative effect on their education. Findings reveal that education, particularly English knowledge, significantly empowers adult refugees. One of the most significant results of this study is that education showed to be a powerful tool in improving the situation of many of the refugees residing in Cairo

Von rassistischen Weiblichkeits- und Männlichkeitskonstruktionen. Rassismuserfahrungen und Coping Strategien asiatisch gelesener Menschen

In der vorliegenden Rezension wird die im Jahr 2022 veröffentlichte Masterarbeit von Anna-Natalia Koch betrachtet, welche sich auf Grundlage von 20 Interviews mit (genderbezogenen) Rassismuserfahrungen von asiatisch gelesenen Menschen beschäftigt. Dabei wurde der Fragestellung nachgegangen, inwiefern asiatisch gelesene Menschen Rassismuserfahrungen innerhalb ihrer Biographie machen und wahrnehmen. Zusätzlich wird ein Fokus auf genderbezogene Rasissmuserfahrungen und Deutungen gelegt. Koch kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass alle Teilnehmer:innen Rassismuserfahrungen machen, diese aber unterschiedlich einordnen, definieren und werten. Die intersektionale Betrachtung von Gender und Rassismus zeigt rassistische Weiblichkeits- und Männlichkeitskonstruktionen, welche in unterschiedlichen Coping Strategien münden. In der Rezension werden die Ergebnisse diskutiert und eingeordnet

NMR Investigation and Conformational Analysis of a Synthetic Hexasaccharide

The structure of the hexasaccharide 1 has been examined by a spectroscopic investigation using one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy. All 1H and 13C signals of the saccharide part were assigned. NOESY and ROESY experiments allowed to discuss the flexibility of the molecule

Barrieren der Inanspruchnahme sozialer Dienstleistungen

Barrieren der Inanspruchnahme sozialer Dienstleistungen Soziale Dienstleistungen sollen in der Regel diejenigen unterstützen, die ihre Angebote in Anspruch nehmen, was aber nicht einschließt, dass sich eine solche Unterstützung in allen Fällen auch tatsächlich realisiert. Hier setzt das Forschungsprojekt Barrieren der Inanspruchnahme sozialer Dienstleistungen an. Es zielt auf eine kritische Analyse und Rekonstruktion derjenigen Faktoren und Bedingungen sozialer Dienstleistungen, die aus der Perspektive ihrer Nutzer_innen eine Inanspruchnahme erschweren oder gar verhindern und damit der Herstellung einer Passung zwischen der Erbringung sozialer Dienstleistungen und deren Inanspruchnahme entgegenstehen. Ziel des Forschungsprojekts ist es, typische Konstellationen, die sich im Prozess der Erbringung sozialer Dienstleistungen zu strukturell wirkenden Barrieren der Inanspruchnahme verdichten, zu rekonstruieren. Die Untersuchung wurde als eine Interviewstudie mit (Nicht-)Nutzer_innen in den Bereichen der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe sowie aus dem Bereich der Beratungs- und Betreuungsangebote für Erwachsene realisiert. Insgesamt zeichnete sich als ein Ergebnis des Forschungsprojektes ab, dass Barrieren auf allen Analyseebenen der Inanspruchnahme auftreten und die angestrebte Passung verhindern können. Auch wenn Gemeinsamkeiten in Angeboten mit unterschiedlicher Intensität der Intervention ausgemacht wurden, sind Barrieren von subjektiven und institutionellen Relevanzkontexten abhängig und nicht als statisch, sondern prozessual zu betrachten.Barriers to the Utilisation of Social Services Social services supposedly should support their users. This does not mean that they actually get what they need. The research project Barrieren der Inanspruchnahme sozialer Dienstleistungen (Barriers to the utilisation of social services) analyses and reconstructs factors and conditions that support or prevent from the utilisation of a social service from the perspective of their users. The qualitative study is based on interviews with users of child- and youth services and consulting and support services for adults. As one result of the analysis and reconstruction of the data, barriers can be located on different levels: There are barriers on the level of interaction between users and staff, on the institutional level which affect the use of social services and also on the level of society. As the research shows, barriers are of a highly processual nature, far beyond of being static. They come into being and are reproduced through the actions and interactions of the actors involved. Barriers seem to be very individual. However, some overarching commonalities between social services displaying different forms of intervention have been reconstucted

Barrieren der Inanspruchnahme sozialer Dienstleistungen

Die Studie untersucht die Barrieren, die im Prozess der Inanspruchnahme sozialer Dienstleistung von Bedeutung sind. Dabei konzentriert sie sich auf die Perspektive der Nutzer_innen. Zentrale Barrieren sind die Anforderungen für die Inanspruchnahme, der zugewiesene Objektstatus, stigmatisierende Zuschreibungen, asymmetrische Machtverhältnisse. Zum Abbau der Barrieren und als grundsätzliche Alternative bietet sich die Perspektive einer Infrastruktur sozialer Dienstleistungen a

Miniaturized ceramic-based microbial fuel cell for efficient power generation from urine and stack development

© 2018 Gajda, Stinchcombe, Merino-Jimenez, Pasternak, Sanchez-Herranz, Greenman and Ieropoulos. One of the challenges in Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology is the improvement of the power output and the lowering of the cost required to scale up the system to reach usable energy levels for real life applications. This can be achieved by stacking multiple MFC units in modules and using cost effective ceramic as a membrane/chassis for the reactor architecture. The main aim of this work is to increase the power output efficiency of the ceramic based MFCs by compacting the design and exploring the ceramic support as the building block for small scale modular multi-unit systems. The comparison of the power output showed that the small reactors outperform the large MFCs by improving the power density reaching up to 20.4 W/m3 (mean value) and 25.7 W/m3 (maximum). This can be related to the increased surface-area-to-volume ratio of the ceramic membrane and a decreased electrode distance. The power performance was also influenced by the type and thickness of the ceramic separator as well as the total surface area of the anode electrode. The study showed that the larger anode electrode area gives an increased power output. The miniaturized design implemented in 560-units MFC stack showed an output up to 245 mW of power and increased power density. Such strategy would allow to utilize the energy locked in urine more efficiently, making MFCs more applicable in industrial and municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and scale-up-ready for real world implementation

Sustainable Waste-to-Energy Technologies: Bioelectrochemical Systems

The food industry produces a large amount of waste and wastewater, of which most of the constituents are carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and organic fibers. Therefore food wastes are highly biodegradable and energy rich. Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) are systems that use microorganisms to biochemically catalyze complex substrates into useful energy products, in which the catalytic reactions take place on electrodes. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a type of bioelectrochemical systems that oxidize substrates and generate electric current. Microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) are another type of bioelectrochemical systems that use an external power source to catalyze the substrate into by-products such as hydrogen gas, methane gas, or hydrogen peroxide. BESs are advantageous due to their ability to achieve a degree of substrate remediation while generating energy. This chapter presents an extensive literature review on the use of MFCs and MECs to remediate and recover energy from food industry waste. These bioelectrochemical systems are still in their infancy state and further research is needed to better understand the systems and optimize their performance. Major challenges and limitations for the use of BESs are summarized and future research needs are identified