When does the state listen?

This is one of four research briefings in the 'When does the state listen?' series, part of the Making All Voices Count programme.In this brief, Nyambura Salome surveys the extent to which Kenya’s information and communications technology (ICT) revolution transforms e-government – implementing decisions with the help of ICTs – into e-governance – using ICTs to help make decisions (Marche and McNiven 2003). Her study of Nairobi, the country’s main technology hub, concludes that ICTs do not necessarily trigger better governance. State actors mistake e-government for e-governance and are often indifferent to citizens’ aspirations for more public participation. On the other side of the state–citizen interface, and despite an explosion of e-government tools, only a small minority of Nairobi citizens use ICTs to engage with the state. At the end of the day, it seems that much of Kenya’s ICT governance revolution is still yet to mature, lacking a concerted effort from state actors to engage with non-state actors.UK Department for International Development (DFID) US Agency for International Development (USAID) Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) Omidyar Networ

An inquiry into the nature of effective dialogue and discourse and peacebuilding through leadership

The research study and findings presented in this work underscore the necessity to design and develop effective strategies for inter-paradigm dialogue and discourse for peacebuilding. The study argues that adoption and application of appropriate dialogue strategies impact and engender the nurturing and emergence of a culture of leadership that can foster sustainable peace. Dialogue and discourse processes are considered as being intricately connected to processes of conflict transformation and resolution, and linkages of dialogue, peacebuilding and leadership are mirrored in macro- and micro- spaces of engagement, namely, much contested cultural, political and economic spaces in which myriad and diverse perspectives reside. The potential for peace, it is argued, substantially lies in the formulation and design of contextually-relevant frameworks for equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, and macro-micro intersections play themselves out in the dialogue field within which societies and individuals can seek and strive to anticipate, accommodate, attain and enact their life wisdoms into peaceful systems of co-existence. This view also speaks to the issue of how consensual and sustainable global and regional collaborative enterprise requires the parallel accompaniment of well-configured partnerships in support of cultural responsiveness and social cohesion. Through discussion of appropriate methodologies of dialogue and discourse, the identification and statement of objectives for this study, as well as the design, elaboration and configuration of its research framework, aimed to contribute towards furthering debate surrounding the integration of prevailing theoretical approaches, in order to gain a better understanding of the linkages and dynamics between peacebuilding initiatives, conflict resolution processes, and effective and sustainable leadership. Dialogue is adopted as the key component in the design of an effective model and architecture for peace building. The enquiry underscores emerging gaps that require addressing, and which may then highlight zones of ambiguity, or dialectics between action and practice, and between researcher and practitioner

Chronotype in the South African population: the influence of longitudinal location

Includes bibliographical references.Most human beings experience the pull of three different daily timers, the solar clock, their endogenous circadian clock and the societal clock. Solar time is generated by the Earth’s revolution on its axis, resulting in its surface being alternately exposed to and shielded from the sun every 24 hours. The endogenous clock, or circadian oscillator, is driven by a network of transcriptional translational feedback loops, and has a period of close to 24 hours. The circadian oscillator is synchronised to the 24 hour light-dark cycle of the solar clock. The third timer is the standardised societal clock that organises and schedules work, school, transport, appointments and free time in a 24 hour period. The way an individual’s endogenous clock synchronises to the solar clock, through advances or delays relative to sunrise and sunset, results in a phenomenon known as diurnal preference or chronotype. A person may have a morning-chronotype, where they enjoy rising and being active early in the day, an evening-chronotype where they prefer to be active later in the day into the late night, retiring in the early morning hours, or have no strong preference for early or late rising. This renders it easy for some to cope with the demands of the societal clock and others to struggle. Chronotype has both genetic and environmental influences. As society’s schedule is governed by the standardised clock, it was hypothesised that chronotype may be influenced by one’s longitudinal location within a time zone. South Africa presents an interesting case because although it uses just one time zone, in the most Easterly regions of the country, the sun rises and sets up to an hour earlier than in the most Westerly regions throughout the year. Sunrise times have an impact on the way the endogenous clock synchronises to the solar clock. It was hypothesised firstly, that South Africans living in the East of the country may have a greater preference for mornings (more morningchronotypes) than those living in the West; and secondly, that this difference would not be due to genetic differences in the populations, particularly two gene polymorphisms previously shown to influence chronotype. Therefore the aims of this study were to describe and compare the distribution of chronotype in Eastern (n=222) and Western (n=205) sample populations with the use of a validated tool, the Horne–Östberg Morningness, Eveningness Questionnaire. Secondly to describe the genotype and allelic frequency distributions of the PER2 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) G3853A (rs934945) in the Eastern (n= 184) and Western (n=186) populations, and the PER3 variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism in the Eastern (n=143) and Western (n=176) populations from buccal cell samples. There was a significantly higher proportion of morning-types in the Eastern population (60.6%) than in the Western population (40.5%) (p<0.001). Whereas there were higher proportions of neither-types and evening-types in the Western population (50.8% and 8.7% respectively) than in the Eastern population (35.1% and 4.3% respectively) (p<0.001). There were no significant differences in distribution of the PER2 genotype (p=0.121) and allele frequencies (p=0.051) between the Eastern and Western populations nor in the PER3 genotype (p=0.879) and allele (p=0.075) frequencies. Although previous studies have shown associations between chronotype and PER2 G3853A and PER3 VNTR genotypes, no significant associations were observed in either the Eastern (PER2 p=0.769; PER3 p=0.221) or the Western (PER2 p=0.584; PER3 p=0.733) populations. These findings indicate that, in South African populations, longitude influences chronotype independently of genotype. Factors that may contribute to this may be the difference in the rising times of the sun, which is exacerbated to some extent by the study areas being at dissimilar latitudes and thus experiencing slight differences in climate. The impact of the differences in chronotype but the maintenance of the same societal temporal organisation in the Eastern and Western regions were not assessed. However, they may be revealed by investigating certain general health indicators in such as quality of sleep and prevalence of depressive symptoms which are affected when there is incongruence between societal time and endogenous time

Share Cropping Blackness: White Supremacy and the Hyper-Consumption of Black Popular Culture

This qualitative study will explore the impact of the way that “Blackness” is constructed and commodified for consumption within a White supremacist culture, and examine the effects of this construct on the Black community. According to Leonard and King (2012), in their book Commodified and Criminalized: New Racism and African Americans in Contemporary Sports, “The process of commodification is not simply about selling an essentialized Black culture, but rather a particular construction of Blackness that has proven beneficial to White[s]” (p. 10). This paper will discuss some of the twenty-first century consequences of this phenomenon. The methodology will be conducted through a literature review and a content analysis of various cultural texts including films, interviews, and art that depict Blackness. My belief is that the popular consumption of commodified Black images is related to the maintenance of White supremacy, and thus the systemic oppression of Blacks in the United States

Application of the transtheoretical model of behavior change to consumption of fruits, vegetables, and grain products among young adults

In this study the transtheoretical model for behavior change was applied to the consumption of fruits, vegetables, and grain products among young adults. The criterion behavior was the consumption of the recommended number of servings described in the United States Department of Agriculture Food Guide Pyramid. Three major constructs---stages of consumption, decisional balance, and self-efficacy---were used. Specific objectives were: develop and validate an instrument to measure the three constructs; use it to measure consumption for fruits, vegetables, and grain products among young adults; examine relationships among the three constructs and among all variables; make recommendations for nutrition education and research. Measuring scales were developed for the decisional balance and self-efficacy constructs. A stage of consumption algorithm was used to assess the stages of consumption. From 800 surveys mailed to a randomly selected sample of young adults, 18 to 24 years old, 116 usable (14.5%) questionnaires were returned. Factor and reliability analyses were conducted to assess the psychometric properties of the instrument. Decisional balance emerged as two factors---the positive and negative perceptions of increasing consumption. Self-efficacy emerged as one general factor. Confirmatory factor analysis indices confirm that the data fit the hypothesized model adequately for the three food groups (AGFI \u3e 0.80). The instrument exhibited moderate to excellent internal consistency for perceived advantages (=0.47 to 0.63), perceived disadvantages (\u3e0.70), and self-efficacy scales (\u3e0.88). The results of multivariate analysis of variance indicate that decisional balance and self-efficacy scores differ as stages of consumption change. The perceived advantages and self-efficacy scores increased while scores on perceived disadvantages decreased from precontemplation to maintenance stages with the exception of the action stage for fruits and grain products. For grain products, scores on the perceived disadvantages increased, with a corresponding decrease in scores for perceived advantages at the action stage. Hispanic origin, gender, race, current relationship status, and living arrangements were significant predictors of either decisional balance and/or self-efficacy among young adults. The results have implications for nutrition education and research

Master of Science

thesisThe catecholamines: dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine, are naturally occurring amines that function as hormones and neurotransmitters. Excess concentrations of catecholamines have been observed in patients with rare neuroendocrine tumors and are associated with chronic hypertension, stroke, myocardial infarction, and cardiovascular disease. These potential consequences of high catecholamine concentrations emphasize the need for a rapid and accurate analytical measurement method. Catecholamines are often measured using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with electrochemical detection; however, the liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) technique is attractive due to its selectivity and throughput. Derivatization of catecholamines prior to LC-MS/MS analysis of plasma specimens may be used to enhance assay sensitivity. The goal of this study was to evaluate reductive amination derivatization of catecholamines using straight-chain and branched-chain aldehydes as a means to improve the sensitivity of the assay. Derivatization was performed on each catecholamine in triplicate using a series of straight-chain and branched-chain aldehydes. Aqueous catecholamine standards were reacted with an aldehyde in the presence of a buffer (ammonium acetate) and reducing agent (sodium cyanoborohydride) at 37 °C for 30 minutes. Samples were quenched with formic acid at room temperature and injected onto an LC-MS/MS system for analysis. Catecholamine derivatives were identified by individual retention times and mass transitions. Peak area counts were determined for three mass transitions for each derivative. The six-carbon straight-chain aldehyde, hexanal, and the branched-chain aldehyde, hydrocinnamaldehyde, proved to be the most effective derivatizing agents for the catecholamines in plasma assay. A derivatization protocol using hydrocinnamaldehyde was optimized for aldehyde and reducing agent concentrations, and incubation time and temperature. Derivatization with hydrocinnamaldehyde produced single alkylated products for all three catecholamines. Comparison of the derivatization agents showed higher peak area counts for norepinephrine and epinephrine derivatized with hydrocinnamaldehyde; hexanal provided greater sensitivity for dopamine. A method application experiment on patient samples using hydrocinnamaldehyde demonstrated its significant effect on assay sensitivity and supports use in a clinical setting. However, sensitivity for dopamine was inadequate and overall accuracy and precision were unsatisfactory. Further optimization of the derivatization protocol using hydrocinnamaldehyde is required to meet acceptable analytical criteria for this assay

Geographic Variations in Antenatal Care Services in Sierra Leone

Despite antenatal care presenting opportunities to identify and monitor women at risk, use of recommended antenatal care services remains. Barriers preventing use of antenatal services vary between countries, and limited knowledge exists about the link between geographical settings and antenatal service use. The objective of this cross-sectional quantitative study was to explore geographical variations and investigate how social demographic characteristics affect use of antenatal care for women in Sierra Leone using the Andersen behavioral model. The data used were from the 2016 maternal death surveillance report of the whole counrty (N =706). Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the individual predictor effects on antenatal care, including geographical location, the age of women, marital status, parity, and institution of birth impact. Southern, Northern, and Eastern women had significantly lower odds of attending the recommended antenatal services compared to women in the Western region (OR = .517, p = .019; OR = .497, p = .021; OR = 0.014, p = .041, respectively). The odds of married women attending the recommended antenatal services was 7.3 times more than that of the single women (OR = 7.397). Also, significantly associated with less uptake of recommended antenatal visits was lower education level among women (OR = .517). This study will contribute to positive social change by highlighting inequities in antenatal care use among women, thus allowing for accurate targeting of health promotion programs and ultimately saving lives of mothers and children of Sierra Leone through more inclusive policies

The Political Participation of Women in Kenya

To tackle the historic marginalization of women in Kenya, the 2010 Constitution introduced reforms on the gender principle, the quota system, and decentralization to promote gender equality. Decentralization formed a localized political system that unlocked leadership positions to previously underprivileged sets of people like women in all the forty-seven devolved units. Worthy of note is that the elections of 2013 and 2017 had the highest number of women in Kenyan history both in the legislature and the executive branch; however, most government institutions did not attain the one-third gender rule, hence violating the Constitution. Achievement of gender equality in Kenya has been difficult despite efforts of the government to promote women’s participation in politics through various policy and legal frameworks due to the prevailing standards of societal norms, financial capability, political parties’ structures, and gendered violence that have not essentially been changed by these reforms. This study draws on desk research to scrutinize both qualitative and quantitative data on the socio-political and economic factors that have contributed to the status quo in the Kenyan political landscape despite numerous efforts by the government to enhance gender equality, and subsequently maps out the persistent structural hindrances to women’s inclusion in politics. The study concludes that the political goodwill of a country is a major contributor to women’s inclusion in politics. Further, since political parties are the main conduits for women candidates to emerge, there must be critical reflection about the political parties’ power dynamics. There should also be concerted efforts by both the state and other stakeholders to fully implement the statutory instruments that support gender equality

Factors that influence the career decisions of special education teachers in Iowa: an investigation of teachers\u27 perceptions toward retention

It is important to understand the factors that influence the career decisions of Iowa\u27s special education professionals in order to address persistent shortages of special educators. This study investigated the perceptions of teachers toward teacher retention. Two hundred & seventy three current and former special education teachers in Iowa participated in the study. The Special Education Teacher Retention Survey was used to collect data. Teachers were asked to rate the importance and frequency of five retention factors. The educators\u27 motivations for becoming special education professionals were also assessed, alongside their job satisfaction and burnout levels. Reasons for leaving the field were obtained from former special education teachers.;Teachers perceived that retention factors were important, with mean importance scores ranging from above average to high. Teachers believed that retention factors were occurring somewhat frequently, with mean frequency scores ranging from low to high. Teachers\u27 ratings of importance of retention factors were significantly higher than ratings of frequency factors, indicating that a disparity existed between the retention factors teachers value and the actualization of those factors.;Former special education teachers (Transfers) generally perceived that retention factors were more important to them than current special education teachers (Stayers). Conversely, retention factors were believed to be occurring more frequently for current special education teachers than for Transfers. Thus former special education teachers valued retention factors but perceived that these factors were not occurring as frequently as desired. This finding was supported by the reasons that the Transfer teachers gave for transferring to general education especially with regard to the factor of school support.;As a whole the teachers in this sample were committed to teaching special education, they were motivated to become special educators due to intrinsic reasons, majority of them indicated high overall job satisfaction, and majority were certified to teach special education. However, Stayers and Transfers varied in some of their demographic characteristics, with Stayers being older, having more teaching experience, and more of the Stayers being fully endorsed to teach special education compared to Transfer teachers. Implications of these findings and recommendations for policies related to special education teachers are discussed

INFLUENCE OF HUMANITARIAN TECHNOLOGY ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF HUMANITARIAN AID PROJECTS IN NGOS BASED IN NAIROBI COUNTY, KENYA

Humanitarian crisis across the globe continue to increase in size, frequency and complexity challenging the ability of NGOs in disaster relief to save lives of persons in distress. This has been a challenge to countries prone to natural disaster and human conflict such as Syria, Southern Sudan, Central Africa Republic, Yemen, Somalia and Democratic Republic of Congo.  In Kenya, humanitarian crises have occurred in the form of recurrent drought, floods, malnutrition and food security, disease outbreak, post election violence, resource based inter-communal conflicts as well as terror attacks. In 21st Century, disasters have become frequent, complex and growing in size, overstretching humanitarian sector ability to respond effectively. As a result, there is increasing need to apply humanitarian technology when implementing humanitarian aid projects and NGOs in disaster relief have been laggards in adopting humanitarian technology. The objective of this study was to examine the influence of humanitarian technology and the implementation of humanitarian aid projects.  The paradigm guiding the study is pragmatism and the study employed a cross sectional-survey design. The sample was drawn from NGOs in disaster relief programmes using both probability and non-probability sampling technique. Both primary and secondary data was utilized in data collection. Primary data was collected using self administered questionnaires, Key Informant Interview and Focus Group Discussions Guides. Questionnaires issued were 117 out of these, 85 which is 72.6% were returned for analysis. The data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. For descriptive analysis, mean, percentages and frequencies were used. For inferential analysis, correlations and regressions were used. For p&lt;0.05, H0 was rejected and H1 accepted. For the strength of the relationships, r values were considered where: +0.10&lt; r &lt;+0.29; weak correlation +0.30&lt; r &lt;+0.49; moderate correlation +0.5 &lt; r &lt;+1.0; Strong correlation. The qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis.  The study findings indicate that humanitarian technology influence implementation of humanitarian aid projects. In conclusion, humanitarian technology is critical in implementation of humanitarian aid projects and there is need to put more emphasis on use of existing humanitarian technology.  The study recommended that there is need for NGOs in disaster relief to adopt more technologies another recommendation was that there is need to increase trainings in Humanitarian technology in academic institutions. Key Words: Humanitarian technology, Implementation of Humanitarian aid projects, NGOs in disaster relief, Private sector engagemen