Global Health Initiatives and aid effectiveness: insights from a Ugandan case study

BACKGROUND: The emergence of Global Health Initiatives (GHIs) has been a major feature of the aid environment of the last decade. This paper seeks to examine in depth the behaviour of two prominent GHIs in the early stages of their operation in Uganda as well as the responses of the government. METHODS: The study adopted a qualitative and case study approach to investigate the governance of aid transactions in Uganda. Data sources included documentary review, in-depth and semi-structured interviews and observation of meetings. Agency theory guided the conceptual framework of the study. RESULTS: The Ugandan government had a stated preference for donor funding to be channelled through the general or sectoral budgets. Despite this preference, two large GHIs opted to allocate resources and deliver activities through projects with a disease-specific approach. The mixed motives of contributor country governments, recipient country governments and GHI executives produced incentive regimes in conflict between different aid mechanisms. CONCLUSION: Notwithstanding attempts to align and harmonize donor activities, the interests and motives of the various actors (GHIs and different parts of the government) undermine such efforts

The cryptographic power of misaligned reference frames

Suppose that Alice and Bob define their coordinate axes differently, and the change of reference frame between them is given by a probability distribution mu over SO(3). We show that this uncertainty of reference frame is of no use for bit commitment when mu is uniformly distributed over a (sub)group of SO(3), but other choices of mu can give rise to a partially or even asymptotically secure bit commitment.Comment: 4 pages Latex; v2 has a new referenc

A Genuine ‘Miteinander’: On Becoming a Team in an International Virtual Simulation Game

Megacities is a simulation game which uses the Internet as a transnational virtual space for developing intercultural competence, thereby fostering intercultural dialogue. The experience of over a hundred people of several nationalities in this simulation game is at the core of this study, which aims to understand how individuals succeed in creating a genuine ‘Miteinander’ despite language barriers, the constraints of virtual communication, and expected cultural differences. ‘Miteinander’ is a German word which combines the concept of collaboration with that of cohesion. The introduction of this term allows us to further clarify the focus of this investigation, which aims to observe how a diverse group becomes a team in an online environment. This study is a qualitative one and its corpus is composed of reflection sheets in which participants share the feelings, thoughts and perceptions they had before, during, and after their experience in the game Megacities. The analysis of the data revealed that participants had similar fears and perceptions, despite their diversity. Out of their reflections, an interplay of factors related to individual, social, and technical-organizational dimensions emerges. Two factors which have a particularly high impact on the process of building trust and creating culture are looked at in depth in this paper: language and the virtual setting of communication

Utilização do Biodiesel como Forma de Reduzir a Emissão de CO2, e os Custos com Óleo Diesel

Devido à evolução de carga transportada há um aumento do consumo de diesel do transporte ferroviário, e, portanto, existe uma preocupação em desenvolver mecanismo para amenizar o impacto ambiental causado pelo uso de combustíveis fósseis e redução do custo com o seu uso. O biodiesel vem sendo uma fonte de energia alternativa promissora, o qual propõe não só em reduzir os principais gases causadores do efeito estufa, como também em amenizar o alto custo com o consumo de óleo diesel. Dado a essa sua importante característica, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo de levantar, de forma sucinta, as tendências desse biocombustível no modo ferroviário, tendo como referencia de aplicabilidade e sucesso à Companhia do Vale do Rio Doce.--------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------Due to carried load evolution there is an increase in the consumption of diesel rail transport, and, therefore, there is a concern to develop mechanism to alleviate the environmental impact caused by the use of fossil fuels and reducing the cost with its use. The biodiesel has been a source of energy promising alternative, which proposes not only to reduce the principal gases causing the greenhouse effect, as well as alleviate the high cost to the consumption of diesel oil. Given that its important feature, this paper has as objective of raising, briefly, trends in the way that biofuel rail, taking as reference of applicability and success of the Company Vale do Rio Doce.biodiesel, transporte ferroviário, redução de poluição, Biodiesel, rail transport, reduction of pollution, Environmental Economics and Policy,

A criminalização da homofobia e da transfobia: o ativismo judicial como instrumento de reconhecimento e de proteção dos direitos humanos à população LGBTQI+ no Brasil

O presente trabalho trata do possível ativismo judicial na atuação do Supremo Tribunal Federal para proteção da população LGBTQI+ no Brasil, bem como para o reconhecimento dessas pessoas como verdadeiros sujeitos de direitos. O objetivo do presente artigo é analisar a criminalização da homofobia e da transfobia pelo Poder Judiciário através da problemática em torno do posicionamento do STF diante da mora inconstitucional do Poder Legislativo, mais precisamente, do Congresso Nacional, demonstrando a importância do tema à luz dos Direitos Humanos. Tem como fundamento a análise dos Direitos Humanos garantidos à população LGBTQI+, os motivos que levaram o Supremo Tribunal Federal a realizar o julgamento conjunto da Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade por Omissão 26 e Mandado de Injunção 4733. Por fim, busca-se concluir a respeito da atuação do Tribunal, se foi ou não ativista

Use Of XR Technologies to Trigger Interest in High School Students in a Construction Management Career

The construction management skilled workforce in the United States is shrinking as a big number of its employees approach retirement and are not being replaced quickly enough by younger generations. According to the literature, pre-college educational programs can help address this issue by attracting a broader and more varied pool of students into Construction Management and related programs. The literature also indicates that the application of Extended Reality (XR) modalities generates student benefits such as increased engagement and self-efficacy that could be derived from bringing these modalities into educational settings. These benefits, in turn, help recruitment efforts for these domains. Georgia Tech’s School of Building Construction developed a Building Construction Summer Camp in 2022 using the Model of Domain (MDL) educational framework and its theory on triggering situational interest in students, to recruit students to the Bachelor of Science in Building Construction program. To trigger interest, memorable situational activities must be incorporated. As such, all camp activities were carefully selected to be engaging and memorable and included hands-on activities such as building a masonry wall with professional masons and use of advanced technology, such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology such as REVIT and Masonry iQ, infrared cameras, laser scanners, and various XR modalities. Pre- and post-surveys for the entire summer camp and shorter surveys after three specific activities using XR modalities were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the camp in triggering interest in the participants into pursuing a career in construction management. This thesis summarizes the evidence-based research results on the impact of these specific activities that used XR modalities as well as the overall camp on triggering situational interest in students. The post-camp survey results show a significant increase in the participants’ interest in a career in Construction Management after the camp. The findings contribute to the body of knowledge regarding the use of hands-on and XR-technology-based educational activities, specifically in the context of a summer camp for student recruitment purposes. Moreover, the findings provide an empirical foundation for developing a pre-college educational program to intrigue high school students' interests in the construction management domain. Analysis of the results also presents findings and recommendations useful to academia with respect to proper selection of XR modalities when different educational objectives and priorities are considered, such as student comfort. A limitation of the study is the small sample size, but data from future camps will be used to verify these findings.M.S

Crystal structure of 4-hydroxy-3-meth-oxybenzaldehyde 4-methylthiosemi-carbazone methanol monosolvate

BRSF thanks CNPq/UFS for the award of a PIBIC scholarship.Peer reviewedPublisher PD