The Impact of Social Media and Digital Technology on Electoral Violence in Kenya

Electoral violence has become synonymous with Kenya’s elections. This acquired deadly proportions during the 2007 elections. However, it was also during this time that social media and digital technology was first used for political reasons including campaigning and polling. Social media and digital technology had mixed uses where it was not only used to propagate hate speech and mobilise for violence, but also to identify and map out violence hotspots. Since then, they have increasingly become an indispensable tool in Kenya’s politics and governance, used by political leaders to spread information, campaign and mobilise. However, the widespread reach of social media has also been a major challenge to security, peace and peacebuilding since it has been used to incite hatred and violence. This paper identifies the specific threats that social media and digital technology pose and opportunities they present for violence prevention. Ultimately, the paper seeks to present the opportunities that exist for partnerships between state and non-state actors to effectively prevent political and electoral violence.ESR

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) - 2018 Summary Report

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a TeV-scale high-luminosity linear $e^+e^-$ collider under development at CERN. Following the CLIC conceptual design published in 2012, this report provides an overview of the CLIC project, its current status, and future developments. It presents the CLIC physics potential and reports on design, technology, and implementation aspects of the accelerator and the detector. CLIC is foreseen to be built and operated in stages, at centre-of-mass energies of 380 GeV, 1.5 TeV and 3 TeV, respectively. CLIC uses a two-beam acceleration scheme, in which 12 GHz accelerating structures are powered via a high-current drive beam. For the first stage, an alternative with X-band klystron powering is also considered. CLIC accelerator optimisation, technical developments and system tests have resulted in an increased energy efficiency (power around 170 MW) for the 380 GeV stage, together with a reduced cost estimate at the level of 6 billion CHF. The detector concept has been refined using improved software tools. Significant progress has been made on detector technology developments for the tracking and calorimetry systems. A wide range of CLIC physics studies has been conducted, both through full detector simulations and parametric studies, together providing a broad overview of the CLIC physics potential. Each of the three energy stages adds cornerstones of the full CLIC physics programme, such as Higgs width and couplings, top-quark properties, Higgs self-coupling, direct searches, and many precision electroweak measurements. The interpretation of the combined results gives crucial and accurate insight into new physics, largely complementary to LHC and HL-LHC. The construction of the first CLIC energy stage could start by 2026. First beams would be available by 2035, marking the beginning of a broad CLIC physics programme spanning 25-30 years

Antimicrobial Susceptibility and Presence of Extrachromosomal Deoxyribonucleic-Acid in Salmonella and Shigella Isolates From Patients with Aids

The development of multi-drug resistance by enteric bacteria is an increasing problem in the developing countries. There is need to monitor antimicrobial susceptibility of these organisms in order to ensure appropriate treatment and control of infections. Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, plasmid DNA content and restriction enzyme digests of plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) were used to study 175 Salmonella and Shigella species isolated from predominantly HIV-seropositive adult patients in Nairobi, Kenya. All the isolates were sensitive to ciprofloxacin. A significantly higher proportion of Shigella species were resistant to chloramphenicol, cotrimoxazole, streptomycin and tetracycline compared to Salmonella species (p-value < 0.001). Multi-resistant Salmonella typhimurium isolates had 60, 40 and 5 MDa plasmids, the 5 MDa plasmid was absent in gentamicin sensitive isolates. In addition to 2-10 MDa range of plasmids, multi-resistant Shigella species had a heavy 100-105 MDa plasmid. Restriction enzyme digests were similar for the 60 and 40 MDa plasmid DNA bands from Salmonella typhimurium isolates but did not show any consistency among Shigella spp. Plasmid-encoded multi-drug resistance plays a major role in the spread of resistance among enteric bacteria. It is vital to use drugs rationally in order to control the emergence and spread of multi-drug resistance

Carriage of potentially pathogenic Escherichia coli in chickens

DNA-DNA hybridization, cultured cell lines, and transmission electron microscopy were used to study pathogenicity traits of 64 Escherichia coli isolated from apparently healthy chickens from 18 small-scale farms in Thika District, Kenya. A total of 39 (60.9%) isolates hybridized with the eae gene probe for enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) whereas another 16 (25%) hybridized with the lt and st gene probes and were categorized as enterotoxigenic E. coli. Electron microscopic examination of the eae probe-positive E coli cultures with the HT-2919A cell line confirmed that they were able to attach intimately and produced effacement typical of EPEC. In addition, negative stain electron microscopy showed that the EPEC strains produced pili that have previously been associated with increased virulence of E. coli infections in chickens. This study has also demonstrated that apparently healthy chickens may carry enteropathogenic E. coli strains

Disseminated Mycobacterium-Avium Infection Among Hiv-Infected Patients in Kenya

Previous studies from Africa have been unable to identify disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection in patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. We performed mycobacterial blood cultures and CD4 counts on 48 symptomatic adults with advanced HIV infection admitted to the hospital in Nairobi, Kenya over 4 weeks in 1992. Fourteen patients had mycobacteremia; these patients had significantly lower CD4 counts than the patients with negative cultures (14/mm vs. 85/mm; p < 0.01). Three patients (6%) were bacteremic with M. avium (mean CD4 count, 10/mm) and 11 (23%) were bacteremic with Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTB) (mean CD4 count, 15/mm). Thus, M. avium bacteremia was detected significantly less frequently in the study population than MTB bacteremia (p = 0.04). The minimum rate for HIV-associated disseminated M. avium infection in patients admitted to the hospital in Nairobi was estimated to be approximately 1%. Patients with mycobacteremia died or were discharged home sick before the diagnosis was made. Disseminated M. avium does occur in adults with advanced HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa, but is less common than disseminated MTB

Multidrug Resistance Like Protein 1 Activity in Malpighian Tubules Regulates Lipid Homeostasis in Drosophila

Simple Summary Multidrug resistance proteins (MRPs) are important for ion transport, toxin/xenobiotic secretion, and signal transduction. Although studies have been undertaken to understand their physiological function, it is not fully known how MRPs may regulate metabolism. We knocked down the expression of Drosophila multidrug-resistance like protein 1 (MRP) in several tissues central to metabolic regulation. Reducing MRP in Malpighian tubules, the functional equivalent to the human kidney, was sufficient to disrupt metabolic homeostasis, owing to abnormal lipid accumulation, as well as changes in feeding behavior. It also increased oxidative stress resistance in adult flies, possibly due to reduced levels of reactive oxygen species. Multidrug resistance proteins (MRPs), members of the ATP-binding cassette transporter (ABC transporter) family, are pivotal for transporting endo- and xenobiotics, which confer resistance to anticancer agents and contribute to the clearance of oxidative products. However, their function in many biological processes is still unclear. We investigated the role of an evolutionarily conserved MRP in metabolic homeostasis by knocking down the expression of Drosophila multidrug-resistance like protein 1 (MRP) in several tissues involved in regulating metabolism, including the gut, fat body, and Malpighian tubules. Interestingly, only suppression of MRP in the Malpighian tubules, the functional equivalent to the human kidney, was sufficient to cause abnormal lipid accumulation and disrupt feeding behavior. Furthermore, reduced Malpighian tubule MRP expression resulted in increased Hr96 (homolog of human pregnane X receptor) expression. Hr96 is known to play a role in detoxification and lipid metabolism processes. Reduced expression of MRP in the Malpighian tubules also conveyed resistance to oxidative stress, as well as reduced normal levels of reactive oxygen species in adult flies. This study reveals that an evolutionarily conserved MRP is required in Drosophila Malpighian tubules for proper metabolic homeostasis