Celebrating Womanhood: How better menstrual hygiene management is the path to better health, dignity and business

On International Women's Day in 2013, Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Councilheld Celebrating Womanhood: Menstrual Hygiene Management, a unique event that brought together a wide and deep range of participants to focus on issues related to menstruation. The event provided a chance to forge new connections and to make the "unspeakable" topic speakable. As the report describes, menstruation is still a taboo issue and has been neglected within WASH and in the field of human rights, but research and promising approaches and partnerships are already underway

MacMahon's sum-of-divisors functions, Chebyshev polynomials, and Quasi-modular forms

We investigate a relationship between MacMahon's generalized sum-of-divisors functions and Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind. This determines a recurrence relation to compute these functions, as well as proving a conjecture of MacMahon about their general form by relating them to quasi-modular forms. These functions arise as solutions to a curve-counting problem on Abelian surfaces.Comment: 6 Page

Homing and site fidelity in the greasy grouper Epinephelus tauvina (Serranidae) within a marine protected area in coastal Kenya

Homing ability and site-fidelity in the greasy grouper Epinephelus tauvina (Serranidae) were studied at Malindi Marine Park (6.3 km2), coastal Kenya, from January to April 2002 using acoustic telemetry. Displacement experiments involving 12 groupers (mean size 57.9 cm) from multiple capture sites resulted in a 67% homing success. Upon release at displacement sites (0.5 to 2.6 km from the point of capture), most initial movements were small-scale and non-directional. Neither the tidal range nor time of day influenced the magnitude of these daily movements. Returns to the capture sites were sudden, occurring predominantly (88%) on spring tide dates. Fish displaced at the spring tide returned to capture sites faster (8.6 d) than those displaced at the neap tide (14.3 d). Time taken to return to capture sites ranged from 4 to 19 d (mean 9.6 d) and was not correlated with distance of displacement. However, time taken for the fish to home was negatively correlated with tidal range at displacement. Home ranges established after homing (0.07 to 0.73 km2) were stable and negatively correlated with fish size, suggesting an ontogenetic shift in home range development

THE ROLE OF URBAN PARKS AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: CASE STUDY OF KISUMU KENYA

Urban parks are now viewed as an important part of the broader structure of urban and neighborhood development rather than just recreation and leisure facilities. While most of the world has recognized the multifunctional use of urban parks for development; the parks in Kenya and Kisumu Township in particular are suffering from lack of attention, poor maintenance, lack of development and underutilization. Also evident in most parks of Kisumu Township is lack of activities and basic utilities like public toilets, litterbins, benches and notice boards. The stakeholders of Kisumu Town do not seem to realize that parks can contribute to enormous social, cultural and economic development of the poverty stricken region. The aim of the study was to assess the utilization, investigate the benefits and analyze the factors influencing use of urban parks in Kisumu. Descriptive, cross-section research design was used where multistage cluster sampling technique was applied in sampling households and park users within seven wards of Kisumu Township and seven urban parks respectively. The study indicates that the poor maintenance and lack of adequate facilities had hindered optimal social, economical, environmental and educational benefits of the parks.urban parks, urban development, cross-section research

A study on length, position, variations in arterial supply and nature of lumen of appendix at different stages of life

Background: The appendix or vermiform appendix is a blind-ended tube connected to the cecum, from which it develops embryologically. Since, the morphology of human appendix greatly varies at different age groups; the present study was undertaken to record the length, position, variations in arterial supply, nature of lumen of appendix at different stages of life.Methods: The morphology of human appendix was studied in 100 specimens of varying age groups after the ethical clearance. The length, position, variations in arterial supply, nature of lumen of appendix at different stages of life was recorded.Results: Present study showed that female appendices were slightly shorter (by around 1 cms) than male appendices of same age group. Also there was a gradual increase in the length of the appendix till the early 4th decade and then showed a gradual decrease. Single appendicular artery was observed in most of the cases whereas double appendicular arteries were observed only in few cases. The origin of the arteries showed variation in both cases.Conclusions: The lumen of the appendix of a young person often appears somewhat 3 cornered instead of circular but in adults usually rounded and in advancing years it may become obliterated by connective tissue replacing its mucous membrane as well as fitting its lumen

Histological observations and its variations in appendix at different stages of life

Background: It was reported that the appendix is a tough soldier against infection, especially in people who have been exposed to some types of radiation. Early in a child’s life the appendix is relatively larger than it is in an adult which creates confusion. Hence, it is need to explore the histological details at different stages of life before the functional details.Methods: The present study was conducted after an institutional ethical clearance.  Fifty six human appendices were collected for histological study.  The fixed specimens were subjected to the process of paraffinisation and processed for staining with routine haematoxylin and eosin methods, Gamori’s methenamine silver method and AB – PAS staining method using standard procedures.Results: Histological features during the foetal period and first decade lumen of appendix appeared large and three cornered or irregular with comparatively thin wall, in second and third decades lumen became very narrow to almost  occluded, in the fourth and fifth decades lumen appeared wide as the wall thinned out. In the sixth decade appendix almost appeared oval in shape and the lumen was almost obliterated in seventh and eighth decades.Conclusions: The thickness of the mucosa kept increasing in the second decade onwards and in the later decades both lymphatic tissues and crypts were markedly reduced and by eighth decade these features were not present at all.

Little Deaths : My Investigation into the Double-Initial Murders

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College