Advocacy Communication and The Child Trafficking Situation in Kenya: The Case of Mathare Constituency Primary Schools

Child trafficking is one of the leading crimes in Kenya. The purpose of this study therefore was to look at the efficacy of advocacy communication when it comes to addressing the complications of child trafficking in society. The study focus was Mathare constituency in Nairobi County. This is because there are many child trafficking cases from Mathare constituency that have been reported over the years causing a number of humanitarian organizations, who work with schools and community groups, to step in and address the issue. A purposive sample of 240 teacher respondents and 16 facilitators was selected as per Yamane’s formula while convergent parallel mixed methods design was used for data collection and analysis. The study established that videos and pictorials were the most popular advocacy methods used, with a 100 percent respondent rate while 98 percent observed that through advocacy, humanitarian organizations were making a difference in countering child trafficking. The study established also that all (100%) of the facilitators agreed that the stakeholders directly involved with children did contribute to the fight against child trafficking. The study concluded that integrated communication was adopted by facilitators and that the advocacy communication methods used were effective. The study recommends involvement of key stakeholders’ right from the planning stage for effectiveness. A recommendation of the study is that further investigations be done from the viewpoints of the children, parents and the local administration

Radar systems for the water resources mission. Volume 4: Appendices E-I

The use of a scanning antenna beam for a synthetic aperture system was examined. When the resolution required was modest, the radar did not use all the time the beam was passing a given point on the ground to build a synthetic aperture, so time was available to scan the beam to other positions and build several images at different ranges. The scanning synthetic-aperture radar (SCANSAR) could achieve swathwidths of well over 100 km with modest antenna size. Design considerations for a SCANSAR for hydrologic parameter observation are presented. Because of the high sensitivity to soil moisture at angles of incidence near vertical, a 7 to 22 deg swath was considered for that application. For snow and ice monitoring, a 22 to 37 deg scan was used. Frequencies from X-band to L-band were used in the design studies, but the proposed system operated in C-band at 4.75 GHz. It achieved an azimuth resolution of about 50 meters at all angles, with a range resolution varying from 150 meters at 7 deg to 31 meters at 37 deg. The antenna required an aperture of 3 x 4.16 meters, and the average transmitter power was under 2 watts

Refraction of a Gaussian Seaway

Refraction of a Longuet-Higgins Gaussian sea by random ocean currents creates persistent local variations in average energy and wave action. These variations take the form of lumps or streaks, and they explicitly survive dispersion over wavelength and incoming wave propagation direction. Thus, the uniform sampling assumed in the venerable Longuet-Higgins theory does not apply following refraction by random currents. Proper handling of the non-uniform sampling results in greatly increased probability of freak wave formation. The present theory represents a synthesis of Longuet-Higgins Gaussian seas and the refraction model of White and Fornberg, which considered the effect of currents on a plane wave incident seaway. Using the linearized equations for deep ocean waves, we obtain quantitative predictions for the increased probability of freak wave formation when the refractive effects are taken into account. The crest height or wave height distribution depends primarily on the ``freak index", gamma, which measures the strength of refraction relative to the angular spread of the incoming sea. Dramatic effects are obtained in the tail of this distribution even for the modest values of the freak index that are expected to occur commonly in nature. Extensive comparisons are made between the analytical description and numerical simulations.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure

An intramolecular t-SNARE complex functions in vivo without the syntaxin NH2-terminal regulatory domain

Membrane fusion in the secretory pathway is mediated by SNAREs (located on the vesicle membrane [v-SNARE] and the target membrane [t-SNARE]). In all cases examined, t-SNARE function is provided as a three-helix bundle complex containing three ∼70–amino acid SNARE motifs. One SNARE motif is provided by a syntaxin family member (the t-SNARE heavy chain), and the other two helices are contributed by additional t-SNARE light chains. The syntaxin family is the most conformationally dynamic group of SNAREs and appears to be the major focus of SNARE regulation. An NH2-terminal region of plasma membrane syntaxins has been assigned as a negative regulatory element in vitro. This region is absolutely required for syntaxin function in vivo. We now show that the required function of the NH2-terminal regulatory domain (NRD) of the yeast plasma membrane syntaxin, Sso1p, can be circumvented when t-SNARE complex formation is made intramolecular. Our results suggest that the NRD is required for efficient t-SNARE complex formation and does not recruit necessary scaffolding factors

Radar systems for the water resources mission, volume 2

The application of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) in monitoring and managing earth resources was examined. The function of spaceborne radar is to provide maps and map imagery to be used for earth resource and oceanographic applications. Spaceborne radar has the capability of mapping the entire United States regardless of inclement weather; however, the imagery must have a high degree of resolution to be meaningful. Attaining this resolution is possible with the SAR system. Imagery of the required quality must first meet mission parameters in the following areas: antenna patterns, azimuth and range ambiguities, coverage, and angle of incidence

Radar systems for the water resources mission, volume 1

The state of the art determination was made for radar measurement of: soil moisture, snow, standing and flowing water, lake and river ice, determination of required spacecraft radar parameters, study of synthetic-aperture radar systems to meet these parametric requirements, and study of techniques for on-board processing of the radar data. Significant new concepts developed include the following: scanning synthetic-aperture radar to achieve wide-swath coverage; single-sideband radar; and comb-filter range-sequential, range-offset SAR processing. The state of the art in radar measurement of water resources parameters is outlined. The feasibility for immediate development of a spacecraft water resources SAR was established. Numerous candidates for the on-board processor were examined

Radar systems for a polar mission, volume 3, appendices A-D, S, T

Success is reported in the radar monitoring of such features of sea ice as concentration, floe size, leads and other water openings, drift, topographic features such as pressure ridges and hummocks, fractures, and a qualitative indication of age and thickness. Scatterometer measurements made north of Alaska show a good correlation with a scattering coefficient with apparent thickness as deduced from ice type analysis of stereo aerial photography. Indications are that frequencies from 9 GHz upward seem to be better for sea ice radar purposes than the information gathered at 0.4 GHz by a scatterometer. Some information indicates that 1 GHz is useful, but not as useful as higher frequencies. Either form of like-polarization can be used and it appears that cross-polarization may be more useful for thickness measurement. Resolution requirements have not been fully established, but most of the systems in use have had poorer resolution than 20 meters. The radar return from sea ice is found to be much different than that from lake ice. Methods to decrease side lobe levels of the Fresnel zone-plate processor and to decrease the memory requirements of a synthetic radar processor are discussed

Sec1p directly stimulates SNARE-mediated membrane fusion in vitro

Sec1 proteins are critical players in membrane trafficking, yet their precise role remains unknown. We have examined the role of Sec1p in the regulation of post-Golgi secretion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Indirect immunofluorescence shows that endogenous Sec1p is found primarily at the bud neck in newly budded cells and in patches broadly distributed within the plasma membrane in unbudded cells. Recombinant Sec1p binds strongly to the t-SNARE complex (Sso1p/Sec9c) as well as to the fully assembled ternary SNARE complex (Sso1p/Sec9c;Snc2p), but also binds weakly to free Sso1p. We used recombinant Sec1p to test Sec1p function using a well-characterized SNARE-mediated membrane fusion assay. The addition of Sec1p to a traditional in vitro fusion assay moderately stimulates fusion; however, when Sec1p is allowed to bind to SNAREs before reconstitution, significantly more Sec1p binding is detected and fusion is stimulated in a concentration-dependent manner. These data strongly argue that Sec1p directly stimulates SNARE-mediated membrane fusion

Freak Waves in Random Oceanic Sea States

Freak waves are very large, rare events in a random ocean wave train. Here we study the numerical generation of freak waves in a random sea state characterized by the JONSWAP power spectrum. We assume, to cubic order in nonlinearity, that the wave dynamics are governed by the nonlinear Schroedinger (NLS) equation. We identify two parameters in the power spectrum that control the nonlinear dynamics: the Phillips parameter $\alpha$ and the enhancement coefficient $\gamma$. We discuss how freak waves in a random sea state are more likely to occur for large values of $\alpha$ and $\gamma$. Our results are supported by extensive numerical simulations of the NLS equation with random initial conditions. Comparison with linear simulations are also reported.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. Let