Church Leadership is Challenged

"Moral leadership is by far the most critical area where the church is expected to play a specific role. My contention is that even more than the political and economic crises, the moral crisis represents the greatest challenge in Africa – and indeed in the world in general. There are serious ethical questions both at the African and world level that we must be prepared to give leadership in addressing. [...].", p. 172 (1. Moral Crisis as a Challenge to the Church)

Why Pass On Fashion Viral Message? The Moderating Role of Consumers’ Fashion Traits, Message Traits and Individual Dynamics Traits in Social Media

Social media is being used as platforms for viral marketing. Although there is some evidence on the usefulness of viral marketing from the marketers’ perspective, little is known about the motivations, attitudes, and behaviors of consumers engaged in this marketing instrument. As the social media platform continues to grow, understanding the characteristics and motivations of key players is invaluable for marketers and communicators who deal with message strategy and media outreach. Fashion companies have noticed this change and want to be present in the social media in different ways. This research represents a comprehensive attempt to examine the factors that impact on consumer usage of social media and their behavioral intentions to forward fashion viral messages by developing an attitudinal model that integrated uses and gratification theory and elaboration likelihood model; proposing that the relationship is moderated by individual dynamic traits, message traits and consumer fashion traits. Empirical data was collected from a convenience sample of 381 college students in two southeastern universities via an online survey. Validity and reliability of research scales were assessed. Hypothesized relationships and moderating effects were tested using two-step structural equation modeling approach. Within the general model the findings show that individuals will forward a fashion viral message if they have stronger favorable utilitarian and value-expressive attitudes towards the message. Motivations did not significantly impact attitudes of the consumer with an exception of the dimension of interpersonal utility that impacts individual’s value expressive attitude. The results of moderating variables indicate that message traits (functional and experiential oriented) impact consumers’ utilitarian and value-expressive attitudes. In relation to consumer fashion traits, there was no significant difference among consumers with high or low fashion leadership and those with high or low fashion involvement. Individual dynamics traits (viral dynamics and structural social capital) showed some moderating effects on the relationships between motivations and attitudes toward a social media marketing message. The results add to existing literature related to viral marketing and validate the claim that viral marketing can be used for marketing purposes resulting in increased business for firms. Theoretical and practical implications were provided based on research findings

Mother tongue education in Kenya: significance, challenges and prospects in a multilingual situation

The importance of mother tongue(s) (also referred to as vernaculars or indigenous languages or African languages) in the cognitive, linguistic, personal and educational development of children cannot be overemphasized. Indeed it is out of this recognition that the UNESCO declared 2006, the Year of African Languages. In spite of this, the language policy in Kenya before and after independence has been tilted in favour of English and to some extent Kiswahili, at the expense of mother tongue(s).The big question posed in this paper is: When will the mother tongue(s) in Kenya take their rightful position in the education system? This paper aims at analysing the language policy as far as mother tongue education (MTE) is concerned in Kenya within an historical perspective. Of particular concern is the significance of mother tongue in the school system, the wider community and the nation.The paper addresses some of the persistent problems and challenges that hinder the teaching of indigenous languages in Kenya. Suggestions of possible strategies that can be used to revitalize mother tongue education in Kenya are highlighted

How firms can encourage more efficient customer adoption of self-service technologies the case of EDP

Self-service technologies are changing the way companies and customers interact with each other, with utility companies facing the increasing pressure of giving customers a satisfying digital experience. This work aims at providing a deeper insight into critical factors influencing EDP customers’ adoption of the self-service channel EDP Online. Focus groups were conducted with users and nonusers of EDP Online to ultimately find answers on how EDP can encourage more customers to adapt to its self-service channel. Recommendations were derived from proposed improvements by both users and nonusers and have been elaborated further, with examples including gamification features, a rewards system, an online chat, the monitoring of energy usage, the customization of push notifications and personalize

Examining teen girls\u27 fashion behavior in the virtual and the real world: an exploratory study

Over the past few years, changes in technology, especially the emergence of virtual worlds, have impacted the landscape of doing business. Many industries, such as retailing and fashion industries have recognized the e-commerce potentials and have engaged in setting up strategic ventures in the virtual worlds to develop products and/or services that are geared towards meeting consumer needs. Previous research has examined consumers’ adoption of innovative products, but there is no known study that has examined consumers’ adoption of virtual fashion. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to shed some light on understanding consumer adoption of virtual fashion. Specifically, assessed the effects of external variables, (i.e., fashion innovativeness and peer pressure), on need gratification, attitudes, and adoption of virtual fashion among teen girl consumers who have grown up with advanced technology and sophisticated fashion changes. Data was collected from a convenience sample of teen girls between the ages of 12 to 19 via an online survey. The final sample consisted of 177 teen girls. A series of multiple regressions were employed to test all hypotheses. Results revealed that adoption of virtual fashion is significantly impacted by teen girl consumers’ gratification of needs, attitude towards the virtual fashion world, and fashion innovativeness. However, adoption of virtual fashion was not significantly impacted by peer pressure. The results add to existing literature related to consumers’ adoption of an innovation by the integration of communications, sociological and innovation adoption theories. Future research may focus on the difference between urban and suburban teens

Gender roles in African oral literature: a case study of initiation songs among the Igembe people of Meru of Kenya

This article examines and critically analyses gender images in initiation songs among the Igembe community, an African ethnic group of Eastern Bantu in Kenya. The article traces the evolution of the concept of gender from Plato’s time to 21st century and places it within the Igembe people’s worldview using initiation songs as a point of reference. It is revealed that both man and woman play a crucial and complimentary role in the socio-economical life in Igembe community. However, despite the crucial role that women play, they are devalued due to societal attitudes and beliefs as evident in the initiation songs analysed.Keywords: gender roles, African oral literature, initiation songs, Igembe peopl

Literature: Gender Roles in Initiation Songs of the Igembe People of Kenya

This article examines and critically analyses gender images in initiation songs among the Igembe community, an African ethnic group of Eastern Bantu in Kenya. The article traces the evolution of the concept of gender from Plato’s time to the 21st Century and places it within the Igembe people’s worldview using initiation songs as a point of reference. It is revealed that both man and woman play a crucial and complementaryrole in the socio-economical life in Igembe community. However, despite the crucial role that women play, they are devalued due to societal attitudes and beliefs as evident in the initiation songs analysed

TARGETING NOTCH TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN CANCER CELLS: A. PHARMACOLOGIC INHIBITION OF THE VACUOLAR H+ ATPASE REDUCES PHYSIOLOGIC AND ONCOGENIC NOTCH SIGNALING. B. HIGH CONTENT SCREEN FOR NOVEL MODULATORS OF THE NOTCH PATHWAY.

Abstract: Notch signaling is prominently involved in cell fate decision and growth regulation in metazoan tissues. Because of this, Notch is often upregulated in cancer and current efforts point to developing drugs that block its activation. Notch receptor endocytosis towards acidic compartments is a recently appreciated determinant of signaling activation. The Vacuolar H+ ATPase (V-ATPase) is responsible for acidification of endocytic organelles and recently it has been shown that mutants in V-ATPase subunit encoding genes in model organisms display loss of Notch signaling phenotypes. In the first part of my graduate studies, we aimed at discovering whether pharmacologic reduction of V-ATPase activity affected Notch signaling. We found that administration of BafilomycinA1 (BafA1), a highly specific V-ATPase inhibitor decreases Notch signaling during Drosophila and Zebrafish development, and in human cells in culture. In normal breast cells, we have found that BafA1 treatment leads to accumulation of Notch in the endo-lysosomal system, and reduces its processing and signaling activity. In Notch-addicted breast cancer cells, BafA1 treatment reduces growth in cells expressing membrane tethered forms of Notch, while sparing cells expressing cytoplasmic forms. In contrast, V-ATPase inhibition reduces growth of leukemia cells, without affecting Notch activating cleavage. However, consistent with the emerging roles of V-ATPase in controlling multiple signaling pathways, in these cells Akt activation is reduced, as it is also the case in BafA1-treated breast cancer cells. Our data support V-ATPase inhibition as a novel therapeutic approach to counteract tumor growth sustained by signaling pathways regulated at the endo-lysosomal level. The functions of Notch throughout the life of an individual are varied and complex. This complexity is not sufficiently accounted for by the limited core of known Notch signaling components and a growing body of evidence attributes it to additional factors that determine whether, when and how Notch functions within a given context. Considering this, in the second part of my graduate work, we sought to identify novel genes that might influence Notch. Thus, we performed a high content immunofluorescence-based RNA interference screen of a pharmacologically-relevant subset of the human genome. To this end, we monitored how knockdown of specific genes perturbs the localization of the Notch-1 receptor in human breast cells under resting and signaling conditions. Here we present the screen setup, the primary screen results and the candidate follow-up strategy