Mathematical Properties of a Class of Four-dimensional Neutral Signature Metrics

While the Lorenzian and Riemanian metrics for which all polynomial scalar curvature invariants vanish (the VSI property) are well-studied, less is known about the four-dimensional neutral signature metrics with the VSI property. Recently it was shown that the neutral signature metrics belong to two distinct subclasses: the Walker and Kundt metrics. In this paper we have chosen an example from each of the two subcases of the Ricci-flat VSI Walker metrics respectively. To investigate the difference between the metrics we determine the existence of a null, geodesic, expansion-free, shear-free and vorticity-free vector, and classify these spaces using their infinitesimal holonomy algebras. The geometric implications of the holonomy algebras are further studied by identifying the recurrent or covariantly constant null vectors, whose existence is required by the holonomy structure in each example. We conclude the paper with a simple example of the equivalence algorithm for these pseudo-Riemannian manifolds, which is the only approach to classification that provides all necessary information to determine equivalence.Comment: 18 page

Health seeking behaviour and challenges in utilising health facilities in Wakiso district, Uganda

Background: The health seeking behaviour of a community determines how they use health services. Utilisation of health facilities can be influenced by the cost of services, distance to health facilities, cultural beliefs, level of education and health facility inadequacies such as stock-out of drugs.Objectives: To assess the health seeking practices and challenges in utilising health facilities in a rural community in Wakiso district, Uganda.Methods: The study was a cross sectional survey that used a structured questionnaire to collect quantitative data among 234 participants. The sample size was obtained using the formula by Leslie Kish.Results: While 89% of the participants were aware that mobile clinics existed in their community, only 28% had received such services in the past month. The majority of participants (84%) did not know whether community health workers existed in their community. The participants’ health seeking behaviour the last time they were sick was associated with age (p = 0.028) and occupation (p = 0.009). The most significant challenges in utilising health services were regular stock-out of drugs, high cost of services and long distance to health facilities.Conclusions: There is potential to increase access to health care in rural areas by increasing the frequency of mobile clinic services and strengthening the community health worker strategy.Key words: Health seeking behaviour, Rural community, Health facilities, Challenges, Ugand

Examining social media utility in television news programming: a case study of urban tv, Uganda.

This study examined social media utility in television news programming using a case study of Urban TV, Uganda. It also provided an understanding of how television stations in the country integrate social media in their news programs by establishing social media utility in Urban Television’s news programs; assessing how Urban TV caters to its broadcast and social media audience in news programs, and exploring how Urban TV’s cross-platform utility caters to its social media audience in news programming. The study is anchored within the technology acceptance Model and uses in-depth interviews with Urban TV staff and direct observation of Urban TV’s social media platforms as data collection techniques. This study contributes to knowledge by providing scholars, practitioners, and policymakers with insights into how to integrate social media audiences into traditional television broadcasts and employ various platforms to reach social media audiences. Findings show that Facebook and X’s perceived usefulness in television news programming and ease of use in livestreaming, posting news updates, short clips or highlights of the news bulletin determined Urban TVs staff’s behaviour intension and actual behaviour in using them as an extension of the traditional broadcast, to engage audience, promote news programming, and attract and retain traditional broadcast audience. The study concluded that television can utilise social media in news programming as an extension of the traditional broadcast not only to attract and retain both offline (broadcast) audience and online (social media) audiences but also to remain an important source of news and information for the young audience. The study recommends that television consider going beyond utilising social media in news programming as an extension of the news broadcast to leverage opportunities for online broadcasting to cater to both broadcast and social media audiences

Ultraspinning limits and super-entropic black holes

By employing the new ultraspinning limit we construct novel classes of black holes with non-compact event horizons and finite horizon area and study their thermodynamics. Our ultraspinning limit can be understood as a simple generating technique that consists of three steps: i) transforming the known rotating AdS black hole solution to a special coordinate system that rotates (in a given 2-plane) at infinity ii) boosting this rotation to the speed of light iii) compactifying the corresponding azimuthal direction. In so doing we qualitatively change the structure of the spacetime since it is no longer possible to return to a frame that does not rotate at infinity. The obtained black holes have non-compact horizons with topology of a sphere with two punctures. The entropy of some of these exceeds the maximal bound implied by the reverse isoperimetric inequality, such black holes are super-entropic.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures; minor corrections as in published version, updated reference

Ultraspinning limits and rotating hyperboloid membranes

We apply the hyperboloid membrane limit to the general Kerr-AdS metrics and their recently studied super-entropic cousins and obtain a new class of rotating black holes, for which the rotational parameters in multiple directions attain their maximal value---equal to the AdS radius. These new solutions have a potential application in the description of holographic fluids with vorticity. They also possess interesting thermodynamic properties: we show that---despite the absence of Misner strings---the Bekenstein--Hawking entropy/area law is still violated, raising a question about the origin of this violation.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, REVTeX 4-

Transitional justice and gender in Uganda: Making peace, failing women during the peace negotiation process

Harriet Nabukeera-Musoke has been working with Isis Women’s InternationalCross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE) for ten years, where she now presides as the Exchange Programme Coordinator. She has taken part in research missions to document women’s experiences of the armed conflict in Uganda and women’s peace initiatives in Burundi, Liberia and Mozambique

But what is Leadership? A Systematic Review of the Leadership Concept in View of Heightened Educational Leadership in Africa

Although leadership is one of the most widely researched problems in the social sciences, to-date no standard definition has been developed for it. Most of the more than 650 existing leadership “definitions” have been found to deal with the “how” of leadership, and not the “what” (of leadership) itself, leaving the age-long conceptual confusion surrounding the concept of leadership unresolved. In an attempt to provide a scholarly answer to this problem, the current study leveraged existing literature to provide a refined definition of leadership. More specifically, the study redefined the concept of leadership; highlighted the meaning of leadership in education; and unveiled the concrete implications of the emerging leadership concept. In these endeavours, the study employed an exploratory interpretative systematic review design with a conceptual thematic focus. For conceptual lenses, the study utilized both classical definitional rules and Rost’s essentials of leadership, as well as Hallinger’s conceptual framework for systematic reviews. In the end, the study generated a more precise definition of leadership, which was particularly applied to education. Implications for heightened educational research and practice in Africa were also unveiled. The  study’s strongest contribution lies in not only rekindling systematic debate on the meaning of leadership, but also in concretely exemplifying this debate by providing a refined definition of leadership and applying the definition to a given field (education). Keywords: Leadership, Educational leadership, Leadership in Africa, Systematic review. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-9-14 Publication date:March 31st 202

An ethnographic study of Black Ugandan British parents’ experiences of supporting their children’s learning within their home environments

This ethnographic study explored how Black Ugandan British parents support their children’s learning in England. It is important to study this group because the parents in this study are Black migrants from Uganda and have an asylum seeking background, thus adding to our knowledge of asylum seeking and education. Moreover, little attention has been paid to this particular group before. The study comprises ten Black Ugandan British families with refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds in two London boroughs. Adopting an ethnographic and an interpretive approach allowed me to explore how Black Ugandan British parents supported their children’s education over time through data collected via long-term interactions, observations and semi-structured interviews with the ten families in their natural home environment settings. I adopted Yosso’s concept of community cultural wealth to analyse data from my study and the data was theorised using Critical Race Theory. Through this theoretical framework, I challenge the traditional interpretations of cultural capital, particularly in relation to educational support or provision, by highlighting various and different forms of capital Black Ugandan British parents use to support their children’s learning, which are unknown. This thesis contributes to knowledge by highlighting the different nature of parental educational support, educational strategies and the underlying factors that inform Black Ugandan British parents’ nature of parental educational support and educational strategies. I argue that Black Ugandan British parents’ culturalistic approach towards their children’s education within their homes and communities and additionally, the contribution they make towards their children’s learning are unrecognised in English schools and English education policy. Further, this thesis highlights class complexities and contributes to debates on class. The study found that Black Ugandan British parents with middle class backgrounds from Uganda, but positioned as working class parents in the UK, bring their Ugandan middle class backgrounds to supporting their children’s education in the UK, which calls for the need to understand Black Ugandan British parents’ middle class backgrounds and the influence they have on their ways of supporting their children’s education. My study shows that Black Ugandan British parents’ cultural, employment, educational and class backgrounds have a huge influence on how they support their children’s education. My study illuminates how class, ethnicity and culture shape Black British Ugandan children’s learning, and makes an original and important contribution to knowledge in this field