South African Public opinion on Government's performance in the area of School Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa

The aim of this research project is to empirically unpack South African public opinion on government's performance in the area of school education. The descriptive analysis chapter shows that school education has not been as politically salient an issue amongst South Africans in post-apartheid South Africa. In addition, this chapter also shows that a vast majority of South Africans positively evaluate government's performance in the area of school education. Furthermore, the multivariate analysis chapter shows that the significant demographic variables collectively formed the strongest basis on which South Africans evaluated government's performance, followed by the significant general experiences with education variable and the significant heuristics variables respectively. Moreover, South Africans' perceptions of the present versus the past appear to be the strongest individual determinant of government's performance. The evidence therefore suggests that South Africans are making use of a schema that deals with their experiences of school education under apartheid to evaluate government's performance

Disability Research and Issues of Access: Insights from the November 2011 AfriNEAD Symposium

People with disabilities, especially within the African context, really do have a raw deal in this life. Not only do we usually have to navigate the medical terrain of our disabilities, but we also have to deal with the physical and social barriers that our society imposes on us. I use the word "we" because I myself am partially-sighted and I unashamedly identify as a person with a disability. This notion of "identifying as disabled" is an interesting one and one that in many ways highlights the complex and fluid nature of disabilities as well as the difficulties associated with trying to have a united disability movement. And perhaps this very notion of identification is exactly why African policy-makers have, until now, stayed significantly far away from addressing disability in a more concerted and integrated fashion. In my capacity as a SCAP researcher, I attended the 2011 African Network for Evidence-to-Action on Disability (AfriNEAD) symposium which was held on 28–30 November at the Elephant Hills Resort hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Lessons learned from engaging men in sexual and reproductive health as clients, partners and advocates of change in the Hoima district of Uganda.

This study examined the impact of a three-year intervention project conducted in the Hoima district of Uganda, which sought to engage men in sexual and reproductive health as clients, equal partners and advocates of change. Structured surveys with 164 self-reported heterosexual men aged 18-54 years were used to assess knowledge and attitudes towards sexual and reproductive health. Data from these were analysed using Stata and SPSS. Additionally, five focus groups were conducted with the female partners and male beneficiaries of the project and with project peer educators. Four interviews were conducted with project staff and male beneficiaries. Data from these and the focus groups were analysed using a thematic approach. Following the intervention, a significantly greater number of men accessed, and supported their partners in accessing sexual health services services, had gained sexual and reproductive health awareness, reported sharing domestic duties and contraceptive decision-making, and displayed a decreased tolerance for domestic violence. It was more difficult to assess men's involvement and behaviours as advocates of change, which sheds light on the complexities of a gender transformative project and the importance of evaluating such projects from both men's and their partners' perspectives and at different levels of the male involvement model in sexual and reproductive health

South Africa’s youth and political participation, 1994-2014

South Africans hold – often simultaneously – contradictory beliefs about young people and politics. On one hand, driven largely by a romanticized memory of Soweto and the street battles of the 1980s, many people see the youth as the primary catalyst of activism and political change. On the other hand, driven by continuing media depictions of youth unemployment, township protests and the antics of the ANC Youth League, a wide range of commentators routinely experience “moral panics” about the apparent “crisis” of the youth and their corrosive effect on the country’s political culture. In this report, we review a wide range of longitudinal survey data spanning the first two decades of democracy and find that there are indeed a series of real problems with South Africa’s political culture, particularly in the area of citizenship. At the same time, these data clearly show that these problems are largely not peculiar to young people. Across a range of different indicators, we find consistently that there are no, or relatively minor, age profiles to most dimensions of South African political culture

Mixed Chamber Ensembles

Kennesaw State University School of Music presents Mixed Chamber Ensembles, 2:00 p.m. performance.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1357/thumbnail.jp

Mucosal Application of gp140 Encoding DNA Polyplexes to Different Tissues Results in Altered Immunological Outcomes in Mice

Increasing evidence suggests that mucosally targeted vaccines will enhance local humoral and cellular responses whilst still eliciting systemic immunity. We therefore investigated the capacity of nasal, sublingual or vaginal delivery of DNA-PEI polyplexes to prime immune responses prior to mucosal protein boost vaccination. Using a plasmid expressing the model antigen HIV CN54gp140 we show that each of these mucosal surfaces were permissive for DNA priming and production of antigen-specific antibody responses. The elicitation of systemic immune responses using nasally delivered polyplexed DNA followed by recombinant protein boost vaccination was equivalent to a systemic prime-boost regimen, but the mucosally applied modality had the advantage in that significant levels of antigen-specific IgA were detected in vaginal mucosal secretions. Moreover, mucosal vaccination elicited both local and systemic antigen-specific IgG(+) and IgA(+) antibody secreting cells. Finally, using an Influenza challenge model we found that a nasal or sublingual, but not vaginal, DNA prime/protein boost regimen protected against infectious challenge. These data demonstrate that mucosally applied plasmid DNA complexed to PEI followed by a mucosal protein boost generates sufficient antigen-specific humoral antibody production to protect from mucosal viral challenge

Mixed Chamber Ensembles

Kennesaw State University School of Music presents Mixed Chamber Ensembles, 4:00 performance.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1428/thumbnail.jp

Antimicrobial resistance among migrants in Europe: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are rising globally and there is concern that increased migration is contributing to the burden of antibiotic resistance in Europe. However, the effect of migration on the burden of AMR in Europe has not yet been comprehensively examined. Therefore, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify and synthesise data for AMR carriage or infection in migrants to Europe to examine differences in patterns of AMR across migrant groups and in different settings. METHODS: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, and Scopus with no language restrictions from Jan 1, 2000, to Jan 18, 2017, for primary data from observational studies reporting antibacterial resistance in common bacterial pathogens among migrants to 21 European Union-15 and European Economic Area countries. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to report data on carriage or infection with laboratory-confirmed antibiotic-resistant organisms in migrant populations. We extracted data from eligible studies and assessed quality using piloted, standardised forms. We did not examine drug resistance in tuberculosis and excluded articles solely reporting on this parameter. We also excluded articles in which migrant status was determined by ethnicity, country of birth of participants' parents, or was not defined, and articles in which data were not disaggregated by migrant status. Outcomes were carriage of or infection with antibiotic-resistant organisms. We used random-effects models to calculate the pooled prevalence of each outcome. The study protocol is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42016043681. FINDINGS: We identified 2274 articles, of which 23 observational studies reporting on antibiotic resistance in 2319 migrants were included. The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or AMR infection in migrants was 25·4% (95% CI 19·1-31·8; I2 =98%), including meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (7·8%, 4·8-10·7; I2 =92%) and antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (27·2%, 17·6-36·8; I2 =94%). The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or infection was higher in refugees and asylum seekers (33·0%, 18·3-47·6; I2 =98%) than in other migrant groups (6·6%, 1·8-11·3; I2 =92%). The pooled prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms was slightly higher in high-migrant community settings (33·1%, 11·1-55·1; I2 =96%) than in migrants in hospitals (24·3%, 16·1-32·6; I2 =98%). We did not find evidence of high rates of transmission of AMR from migrant to host populations. INTERPRETATION: Migrants are exposed to conditions favouring the emergence of drug resistance during transit and in host countries in Europe. Increased antibiotic resistance among refugees and asylum seekers and in high-migrant community settings (such as refugee camps and detention facilities) highlights the need for improved living conditions, access to health care, and initiatives to facilitate detection of and appropriate high-quality treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections during transit and in host countries. Protocols for the prevention and control of infection and for antibiotic surveillance need to be integrated in all aspects of health care, which should be accessible for all migrant groups, and should target determinants of AMR before, during, and after migration. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College Healthcare Charity, the Wellcome Trust, and UK National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare-associated Infections and Antimictobial Resistance at Imperial College London