Richard Nielsen

Nielsen primarily knew Myers through annual book sales but his wife is an alumna so he also attended some donor receptions. He observes that he and Myers shared a love of bargain hunting for books and frequently saw him at the book fair held on IWU\u27s campus and other venues. He saw that Minor was thorough when going through book offerings and enjoyed comparing finds. Nielsen recalls Myers had a focus on sheet music and does not recall hearing of Myers getting rid of any part of his collection

Richard Sommers

[Note: This interview was conducted on two different days and the resulting recording was edited to bring together some of the subject\u27s comments that were in audible due to technical problems.] Sommers begins with the story of their first meeting and later becoming Myers\u27 roommate. He asserts that Myers was more interested in history than his declared major of political science. Myers undertook an obscure research project during their Senior year that Sommers judges was graduate level work and uses as an example of the lengths Myers would go to, beyond the minimal requirements of the course. Sommers also reflects on early teaching tendencies in Myers through the publication he created called the Copely Historian. They remained friends afterwards, were frequent correspondents and had several in-person visits with latest being in 1997. Sommers shares specific memories of what he characterizes as Myers\u27 sense of propriety and then adds that he observed that same characteristic in Myers\u27 family during the IWU commemoration. Sommers was instrumental in Myers being recognized as Carleton\u27s Distinguished alumnus in 2004. Sommers did not have knowledge of Myers book collecting interests but reflects on his own collections. He concludes with further observations about Myers\u27 character

Learning, Systems Concepts and Values in Evaluation: Proposal for an Exploratory Framework to Improve Coherence

The three core systems concepts – interrelationships, perspectives and boundaries – can be used for framing an impact evaluation (see Williams, this IDS Bulletin) . But their use also has implications for the type of learning that an impact evaluation is likely to generate. Moreover, they can help to make the value base of evaluations more explicit. This article first outlines a typology for learning and elaborates on the implications for evaluation and the use of systems concepts. Then a similar typology for values is presented, together with their likely correspondence with learning types. These three aspects are usually dealt with separately in evaluation assignments, although they should be viewed together, as they mutually influence each other or can be seen as complementary. To this end a conceptual framework is proposed which permits to explore and reflect on the connections between the three systems concepts with learning and values

Non-perturbative dynamics of hot non-Abelian gauge fields: beyond leading log approximation

Many aspects of high-temperature gauge theories, such as the electroweak baryon number violation rate, color conductivity, and the hard gluon damping rate, have previously been understood only at leading logarithmic order (that is, neglecting effects suppressed only by an inverse logarithm of the gauge coupling). We discuss how to systematically go beyond leading logarithmic order in the analysis of physical quantities. Specifically, we extend to next-to-leading-log order (NLLO) the simple leading-log effective theory due to Bodeker that describes non-perturbative color physics in hot non-Abelian plasmas. A suitable scaling analysis is used to show that no new operators enter the effective theory at next-to-leading-log order. However, a NLLO calculation of the color conductivity is required, and we report the resulting value. Our NLLO result for the color conductivity can be trivially combined with previous numerical work by G. Moore to yield a NLLO result for the hot electroweak baryon number violation rate.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

Public awareness and perception towards COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan African countries during the lockdown

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has caused a universal health crisis resulting in significant morbidities and mortalities particularly among high-risk groups. This study sought to determine regional factors associated with knowledge and attitude towards COVID-19 mitigation practices and risk perception of contracting the disease in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Methods: A cross-sectional anonymous online study was conducted among 1970 participants between April and May 2020, during the lockdown in many SSA countries. Recruitment of participants was via WhatsApp, Facebook and emails using authors’ networks. The outcome variables were KAP (knowledge, attitudes and practice) of COVID-19 and analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post hoc test was run to assess the level of KAP by four regions in SSA. Simple and multiple linear regression (MLR) analyses were performed to examine factors associated with the outcome measures in the four SSA regions. Results: Mean knowledge (P=0.707) and risk perception (P=0.904) scores by four regions in SSA did not differ significantly. However, the mean attitude score was higher among West Africans compared with Southern (P=0.019) and Central Africans (P=0.003). MLR analysis revealed that among those living in West (adjusted coefficient β=-0.83 95% CI: -1.19, -0.48) and Southern Africa (β=-0.91 95% CI: -1.42, -0.40), having a primary or secondary education was associated with a decrease in knowledge scores while not being worried about COVID-19 decreased risk perception scores across the four SSA regions(West [β=-6.57, 95% CI: -7.53, -5.62], East [β=-6.24: 95% CI: -8.34,-4.15], Central [β=-6.51, 95% CI: -8.70, -4.31], and Southern Africa [β=-6.06: 95% CI: -7.51, -4.60]). Except among Southern Africans, participants who practiced self-isolation had positive attitude towards COVID-19. Conclusion: Future research on health education regarding COVID-19 or a future related pandemic in SSA should target people with lower education, those who do not self-isolate, those living in Southern and Western Africa and not worried about contracting COVID-19

Acceptance and Risk Perception of COVID-19 Vaccination among Pregnant and Non Pregnant Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Cross-Sectional Matched-Sample Study

This study aims to evaluate the acceptance and risk perception of pregnant and non pregnant women towards COVID-19 vaccines using a cross-sectional matched-sample study approach. A web-based questionnaire with closed- and open-ended questions was administered to adults older than 18 years in the sub–Saharan African (SSA) region. Respondents (n = 131) were grouped based on their pregnancy status (54 pregnant and 77 non pregnant women) and matched for comparison by age. The matched groups were compared using the chi-square test and the t-test where appropriate. Compared to non pregnant women, pregnant women reported significantly lower risk perception scores of COVID-19 infection (3.74 vs. 5.78, p < 0.001) and were less likely to take the COVID-19 vaccine (odds ratio = 0.12, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06–0.27, p < 0.001). A similar proportion of pregnant and non pregnant women believed in false information about the COVID-19 vaccine, and 40% of unvaccinated pregnant women (n = 40) were concerned about the safety of the vaccine. After adjustment, women’s education, marital status, belief in misconceptions and risk perception were associated with non-vaccination among pregnant women. The content analysis revealed that pregnant women refused the vaccine due to mistrust of their countries’ health systems, concerns about the country where the vaccines were manufactured and a lack of confidence in the production process of the vaccines. This study shows the poor acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines among pregnant women in SSA, who perceived a lower risk of COVID-19 infection. Understanding the reasons for non-acceptance and the motivation to accept the COVID-19 vaccine could guide the development of health education and promotion programmes, and aid governments and policymakers in implementing targeted policy changes