SCHOOL CHARACTERISTICS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN UGANDA: EVIDENCE FROM 2001 PRIMARY LEAVING EXAMINATIONS RESULTS

Effect of staffing, supplies and facilities on primary school performance in Uganda was estimated using OLS on district level data. Parameter estimates and significance tests show that textbooks have an important influence on performance under prevailing levels of staffing and facilities. In addition, performance in schools in the northern region was lower than in the central region. This study suggests that considerable improvements in performance can be attained by additional expenditure on school textbooks.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

The Molecular Architecture for the Intermediate Filaments of Hard α-Keratin Based on the Superlattice Data Obtained from a Study of Mammals Using Synchrotron Fibre Diffraction

High- and low-angle X-ray diffraction studies of hard α-keratin have been studied, and various models have been proposed over the last 70 years. Most of these studies have been confined to one or two forms of alpha keratin. This high- and low-angle synchrotron fibre diffraction study extends the study to cover all available data for all known forms of hard α-keratin including hairs, fingernails, hooves, horn, and quills from mammals, marsupials, and a monotreme, and it confirms that the model proposed is universally acceptable for all mammals. A complete Bragg analysis of the meridional diffraction patterns, including multiple-time exposures to verify any weak reflections, verified the existence of a superlattice consisting of two infinite lattices and three finite lattices. An analysis of the equatorial patterns establishes the radii of the oligomeric levels of dimers, tetramers, and intermediate filaments (IFs) together with the centre to centre distance for the IFs, thus confirming the proposed helices within helices molecular architecture for hard α-keratin. The results verify that the structure proposed by Feughelman and James meets the criteria for a valid α-keratin structure

Contracts for environmental outcomes: the use of financial contracts in environmental markets

In environmental markets, parties frequently exchange obligations through environmental contracts. These contracts imply a distribution of risk between parties. The main focus of our paper is to identify contracts that enable risk in environmental markets to be reduced, distributed at least cost, or managed efficiently. The risks that we consider are: moral hazard risk, price risk, exogenous environmental risk, measurement risk and production risk. The first section of our paper outlines some of the contracts currently utilised in financial and insurance markets to achieve these objectives. These are: futures and options contracts, spread contracts, weather contracts and catastrophe bonds. We then provide a snapshot of current applications of these contracts both in real markets and in the literature. Finally we discuss some possible applications in the environmental sector and indicate how the use of these contracts may alter the way government manages environmental assets and responsibilities. We also suggest a staged process to the introduction of contracts that recognises the current limitations faced by government. This paper does not propose new or novel contracts for tackling the problems of risk in exchange. Rather it extends the application of existing contractual arrangements to a new type of problem: environmental markets.Environmental Economics and Policy,

The perception of nurses and doctors on a care bundle guideline for management of pain in critical care

Objetivo: el objetivo de este estudio fue explorar la percepción de las enfermeras y los médicos sobre el uso de un paquete de aten- ción como una guía para el manejo del dolor en cuidados críticos. A pesar del desarrollo de guías y protocolos para el manejo del dolor en cuidados críticos, basados en la evidencia, el dolor sigue siendo un problema importante. La introducción de un paquete de atención para cuidados críticos ha mejorado el manejo de los pacientes ventilados. Un paquete de atención en el manejo del dolor tiene como objetivo reducir las variaciones en la práctica. Método: el estudio tiene un diseño prospectivo cualitativo desarrollado mediante una entrevista en profundidad y semi-estructurada de 23 enfermeros y médicos en una unidad de cuidado crítico. Resultado: cuatro temas principales surgieron: 1 ) la adecuación al escenario de cuidado crítico, 2) la aplicabilidad al escenario de cuidado crítico, 3 ) la propiedad del Paquete de Atención al Dolor, y 4) la necesidad en la práctica actual. Los resultados mostraron una pobre aceptación del paquete por parte de los profesionales de la salud en el manejo de dolor agudo en los enfermos críticos. Conclusión: el estudio encontró que las enfermeras y los médicos no percibieron el paquete de atención al dolor como una herramienta útil para mejorar el manejo del dolor, con pruebas que apuntan a una brecha entre la práctica del manejo del dolor, tal como se describe por el paquete de atención, y la práctica real.</jats:p

Measurement of Nanoparticles Release during Drilling of Polymer Nanocomposites

Nanomaterials are one of the promising technologies of this century. The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies [1] reports more than 1600 consumer products based on nanotechnology that are currently on the market and advantages link to the reinforcement of polymeric materials using nano-fillers are not to demonstrate anymore. However, the concerns about safety and its consumer perception can slow down the acceptance of nanocomposites. Indeed, during its life-cycle, a nanotechnology-based product can release nano-sized particles exposing workers, consumers and environment and the risk involved in the use and disposal of such particles is not well known. The current legislation concerning chemicals and environment protection doesn’t explicitly cover nanomaterials and changes undergone by nanoparticles during the products’ life cycle. Also, the possible physio-chemical changes that the nanoparticles may undergo during its life cycle are unknown. Industries need a standard method to evaluate nanoparticles release during products’ life cycle in order to improve the knowledge in nanomaterials risk assessment and the legislation, and to inform customers about the safety of nanomaterials and nanoproducts. This work aims to propose a replicable method in order to assess the release of nanoparticles during the machining of nanocomposites in a controlled environment. For this purpose, a new experimental set-up was implemented and issues observed in previous methods (background noise due to uncontrolled ambient environment and the process itself, unrepeatable machining parameters) were solved. A characterisation and validation of the chamber used is presented in this paper. Also, preliminary testing on drilling of polymer-based nanocomposites (Polyamide-6/Glass Fibre reinforced with nano-SiO2) manufactured by extrusion and injection moulding were achieved

It Happened to a Friend of Mine: The Influence of Perspective-Taking on the Acknowledgement of Sexual Assault Following Ambiguous Sexual Encounters

Failure to acknowledge that one has been the victim of sexual violence is an important, yet understudied, barrier that prevents women from seeking appropriate support following sexual violence. Drawing from a literature of demonstrating the benefits of self-distancing when evaluating emotionally charged personal information, the effects of self-distancing on acknowledgement of sexual assault were tested. Four experimental studies (Ntotal=1,609) manipulated perspective-taking, either by asking women to imagine a series of hypothetical sexual encounters as experiences that happened to themselves or to their friends, or by asking women to describe a sexual experience from a first-or third-person perspective. Findings from the studies suggest that taking another person’s perspective can help women to label ambiguous sexual experiences as more inappropriate and coercive. Notably, this did not seem to stem from women downplaying or dismissing experiences when they imagined themselves, as they reported anticipating more negative and less positive emotions in the scenarios where they imagined themselves compared to a friend. Nonetheless, in spite of the stronger anticipated negative emotional response when imagining themselves, women were less open to information about resources associated with sexual assault and support when they imagined themselves compared to a friend. This pattern of findings replicated for own, past sexual experiences but only to the extent that women spontaneously engaged in distanced perspective-taking themselves. This research suggests in addition to using contextual information to disambiguate and determine whether a sexual experience was inappropriate, taking a distanced perspective might provide a route through which women can come to terms with the experience and open up to the use of community-based services and sexual assault resources

Public awareness of zoonotic diseases and public health implications in Makurdi Metropolis, Benue State, Nigeria.

This study was conducted with the objectives of assessing the level of awareness on zoonotic diseases among residents of Makurdi Metropolis. Questionnaire was structured into 3 sections namely, socio- demographic characteristics of residents, Awareness on domestic animals, and wild animals transmission of zoonotic diseases.  Simple and systematic random sampling was used to select sample locations in which a total of 250 questionnaires were administered; Descriptive statistics, Students t-test and chi-square analysis were used to analyzed data. Field result showed that 144 respondents male were interviewed while 106 respondents were female. Residents of Makurdi Metropolis were quite aware of zoonotic diseases in both domestic and wild animals. The commonest domestic animal zoonotic diseases known to residents were: the Mad Dog disease, Bird Flu and Swain Flu. While the commonest wild animal zoonotic diseases known to residents were: Monkey Pox disease, Ebola disease, and Lassa fever, the awareness of residents on these zoonotic diseases could be associated with the recent outbreak of these diseases and in the area . It was therefore recommended that more awareness campaigns on other types of zoonotic diseases and they preventive measures should be given to residents of Makurdi metropolis to forestall future public health hazards.Keywords: Makurdi metropolis, zoonotic diseases transmission, Awareness, domestic and wild animals

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE PHENOMENA: GLOBALIZATION AND SCHOOL VIOLENCE, AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEM AS PERCEIVED BY VARIOUS STAKEHOLDERS FROM A SUBURBAN COMMUNITY IN TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

The present study is an exploratory one which investigates the perceptions of the members of a suburban community, Sanaata, in Trinidad and Tobago, regarding the phenomena, school violence, globalization, and the relationship between them. It seeks to answer the questions: 1. How does the community of Sanaata in Trinidad and Tobago perceive the phenomenon of school violence in the country? 2. How does the community of Sanaata perceive the phenomenon of globalization? 3. How does the community of Sanaata view the relationship between the two phenomena, globalization, and school violence? 4. What other factors (besides globalization) do various stakeholders in Sanaata perceive as contributing to school violence? Apart from the theoretical concepts of the local and global, colonialism and postcolonialism, and dominance and subordination, the study is also based on discourses and theories of macro-social development, ecological perspectives, and developmental behavior. I used qualitative methodology inquiry for the study, employing methods of open-ended interviews, questionnaires, (limited) participant observation and document analysis to collect data for the study. Students, teachers, parents, and community members living or working in the vicinity of School S and School U communicated their perspectives via interviews or self-administered questionnaires. The findings of the study reveal that the respondents of Sanaata perceive that globalization can influence children to engage in school violence. In addition to globalization, it was found that other factors can also act as triggers for school violence. These include home socialization of children, teasing and rough playing in school, verbal abuse, abuse in the home, drugs and crime in the community, lack of good role models and lack of social services in the neighborhoods

Caught Between Crises in South Sudan:Flood-Induced Migration of Dinka Bor Cattle Herders into the Equatoria Region

The climate crisis has intensified the migration of Dinka Bor herders from Jonglei State to the Equatoria region. Commencing in July 2020, catastrophic floods compelled herders to move with their cattle to higher ground. While some returned to Bor after the receding floods, others faced pressure from national and state governments to leave the Equatoria region.However, a faction of herders remains in Western Equatoria, particularly around Mundri, contributing to heightened tensions with host communities. Conflict between migrating herders and local farmers has resulted in clashes, causing human casualties, looting of property, and raiding of livestock. These conflicts emerged as livestock destroyed crops and encroached upon the hunting groundsof host communities.Despite efforts by civil society organizations and government entities to facilitate local dialogues between pastoralists and farmers, progress has been limited. Resource constraints hinder larger peace dialogues organized by civil society, and there is a perceived lack of interest in dialogue among the conflicting communities. Additionally, the government’s limited political will to address the conflict peacefully has impeded effective resolution. While the national government has made some targeted efforts to mitigate climate-induced displacement and its impact on herders and farmers, comprehensive climate action policies are lacking. The absence of such policies has compelled citizens to devise their own coping mechanisms, often leading to conflicts among them