U.S. Press Representation of the Southern Sudanese Civil War, 1983-2005

The study examines how the U.S. print news media discursively represented the civil war that raged from 1983-2005 between southern Sudan and the central government in the north over the tenures of three successive war-time Sudanese administrations. The study was situated within the broader theoretical umbrella of cultural studies. However, the theory of representation and postcolonial theory served as the principal theoretical frames for the study. Employing critical discourse analysis, with framing as a strategy, the study focused on five U.S. print news media outlets (three national newspapers and two national newsmagazines): The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report. News articles published on the subject in the selected print news media outlets over the entire stretch of the civil war were collected and analyzed. The analysis revealed that the narratives of the selected print news media discursively constructed an ethno/racial-religious frame as a colonizing frame in talking about the southern Sudanese civil war. With respect to the portrayal of the warring parties (southern forces and three war-time Sudanese administrations), a shift of narratives was observed over the entire civil war period. While the ethno/racial-religious discursive angle remained the same throughout the civil war period, the news narratives\u27 portrayal of the warring parties oscillated depending on the nature of Washington\u27s policy toward Khartoum\u27s regimes. It was argued that the news discourse of the civil war focused exclusively on the ethno/racial-religious dimension in explaining the locus of the southern Sudanese civil war, and in so doing, excluded the role of colonial legacy, which could have shared the same discursive terrain, as an important explanatory factor for the southern Sudanese predicament. This colonial legacy, among other things, encompasses the institution of the north-south divide, the emergence of a sectarian political structure, and the contribution of the Condominium in the Sudanese national identity crisis. The study outlines the implications of such representations and portrayals and articulates some of the loci of the U.S. news media\u27s analytical impoverishment with respect to reporting events on the African continent. Finally, the study makes some suggestions as to what the U.S. news media might do to improve the way they cover crises on the continent

Observations on the immune responses of sheep infected with Cytoecetes phagocytophila

Humoral and cell-mediated immune responses of sheep infected with Cytoecetes phagocytophila, the causative agent of tick-borne fever, were studied. Previous immunological studies were hampered by lack of reliable sources of antigen. Attempts, therefore, were made to improve antigen yields. Two methods were used successfully. The first was based on the properties of corticosteroids to induce granulocytosis; sheep injected with betamethasone sodium phosphate injection BP at the peak period of parasitaemia had a neutrophilia with an increase of infected cells within six hours. The second method involved the culture of infected blood overnight at 37°C which increased the number of infected cells and the number of organisms per infected cell.A relationship between complement fixing antibodies and pro¬ tective immunity was found and a threshold of protective immunity established. The kinetics of antibody responses to the organism were studied by fractionating immunoglobulins of sera from immune sheep by gel-filtration and ion-exchange chromatography and by complement fixation test. Antibody response to _C. phagocytophila was characterised by an initial production of IgM followed by IgG but the IgM persisted for long periods.The complement fixation test was also used to assess the antigenic relationships between strains of Ch phagocytophila. All strains tested showed strong antigenic relationships but quantitative differentiation was possible.A hitherto undescribed in vitro test for cell-mediated immune response of sheep was developed. The cell-mediated immune response appeared earlier than the humoral immune response

Former foster youths\u27 perceptions of their life experiences

The purpose of this project was to examine the perceptions of former foster youths\u27 life experience while in foster care and after leaving the foster care system. It was also recommended for child welfare social workers to have contact with former foster youth on a regular basis and to provide services as needed even after they exited the system

Is There a Tradeoff between Outreach and Sustainability of Micro finance institutions? Evidence from Indian Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)

There has been an argument in literature that the more Micro finance institutions (MFIs) aim for financial sustainability the less will be the impact on poverty reduction and hence, there is a tradeoff between outreach to the poor and financial sustainability. As part of empirical evidence on the ongoing debate, the paper has tried to examine a tradeoff between outreach to the poor and financial sustainability based on the recent (2009) data on 85 Indian MFIs using correlation matrix. In this regard, the finding of this study does not support a tradeoff between outreach and financial sustainability more specifically the simple correlation between average loan size (proxy to depth of outreach) and operational sustainability is found to be weak. Furthermore, the correlation between number of women borrowers (alternative proxy to outreach) and operational sustainability is also very weak. However, the study revealed that there is a strong positive correlation between the number of active borrowers (breadth of outreach) and operational sustainability. Key Words: Outreach, Sustainability, Tradeoff, Correlation, Indian MFIs

The Role of ICTs in Governance, Statebuilding, and Peacebuilding in Africa: The Case of Ethiopia

While the codification of a national ICT policy is an important indicator of a nation’s commitment to the development of ICTs, it is possible that states are “coerced” into implementing ICT reforms, particularly e-Government reforms, through pressure from donors (Brussels, 2011) and other significant and powerful constituent groups. Even when policies are developed by a state’s own volition, what matters is not the policy per se, but how and to what end the policy is used. Located in one of the most economically marginalized and unstable regions of the world, Ethiopia’s prioritization of economic development, stability, and national security might be legitimate. However, such concerns could also have a chilling effect on ICT development in the country. In light of this, this study seeks to examine how Ethiopia’s ICT policy is deployed and the extent to which the policy creates an enabling environment for the free flow of ideas, promotion of good governance, and socio-economic development

Chapter 12- A New Vision for Promoting Equity and Inclusion in Academic Mentoring Programs

What are the pitfalls of conventional student, faculty, and staff mentoring programs? Despite good intentions, how might they negatively impact Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), as well as other marginalized faculty who are women, LGBTQIA+, Persons with Disabilities (PWD), or first-generation college students (e.g., grew up in household where no parent/legal guardian earned a four-year college degree in the United States or abroad)? How could employing an intersectional framework—attention to the simultaneity of systems of oppression and resistance—as inquiry and praxis transform student, faculty, and staff mentoring programs? This chapter examines the challenges and possibilities for advancing equity and inclusion that considers simultaneous and complex social identities and statuses of faculty, students and staff (and complex identities such as BIPOC, women, first-generation college status, and/or PWD), as relevant to structuring successful mentoring programs. In this chapter, we (a) explain the vital necessity of mentoring to advance inclusive excellence, (b) discuss mentors’ role in designing strategies for creating more inclusive educational and scholarly environments, and (c) review impediments to successful mentoring practices that have deleterious effects on students, faculty, and staff who are BIPOC, women, PWD, LGBTQIA+, and first-generation college status. This review shines a light on a number of common missteps in mentoring relationships, including senior staff and faculty members’ fixed mindsets and one-dimensional approaches toward students, staff, and junior faculty from marginalized groups; deficit perspectives about junior faculty members’ intellectual contributions; color-, gender-, disability-, class-, and other power-evasive perspectives on the part of senior faculty and their resultant lack of intervention when students, staff, and junior faculty are targets of microaggressions and bullying; insensitive and triggering comments by senior faculty (even as content in conventional mentoring trainings); and lack of critical reflexivity amongst faculty who have been assigned to serve as mentors to BIPOC, PWD, LGBTQIA+, first-generation college status, students, staff, and other faculty. Based on this review, we recommend several promising practices for mentoring BIPOC, PWD, LGBTQIA+, first-generation college status, and other minoritized students, staff, and faculty at all ranks, including but not limited to the importance of critical reflexivity and centering the assets of mentees so that senior faculty can become better mentors to students (both undergraduate and graduate), staff, and other faculty

Is There a Tradeoff between Outreach and Sustainability of Micro finance institutions? Evidence from Indian Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)

There has been an argument in literature that the more Micro finance institutions (MFIs) aim for financial sustainability the less will be the impact on poverty reduction and hence, there is a tradeoff between outreach to the poor and financial sustainability. As part of empirical evidence on the ongoing debate, the paper has tried to examine a tradeoff between outreach to the poor and financial sustainability based on the recent (2009) data on 85 Indian MFIs using correlation matrix. In this regard, the finding of this study does not support a tradeoff between outreach and financial sustainability more specifically the simple correlation between average loan size (proxy to depth of outreach) and operational sustainability is found to be weak. Furthermore, the correlation between number of women borrowers (alternative proxy to outreach) and operational sustainability is also very weak. However, the study revealed that there is a strong positive correlation between the number of active borrowers (breadth of outreach) and operational sustainability. Key Words: Outreach, Sustainability, Tradeoff, Correlation, Indian MFIs

Total Factor Productivity Change of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions (MFIs): A Malmquist Productivity Index Approach (MPI)

By employing the Malmquist productivity index this study attempts to examine the total factor productivity change in the Ethiopian micro finance institutions (MFIs) using a balanced panel dataset of 114 observations from 19 micro finance institutions over the period 2004-2009. The selection of inputs and outputs for the study is based on the dual objectives of MFIs viz outreach and sustainability framework which is in line with the prior study of (Gutierrez et al 2007, 2009). Consequently, we specify two inputs and three outputs; the number of employees, and operating expenses are specified as inputs whereas the outputs are interests and fee income, gross loan portfolio, and number of loans outstanding (number). The result of the study indicated that over the period the malmquist productivity change experienced by the micro finance industry as a whole has averaged 3.8 % annually. With the exception of the year 2004-2005 (slight decline in productivity, which was 0.2 percent) the micro finance industry has reported productivity progress in the study period(i.e productivity rose of 5.5 percent, 5.8 percent,0.3 percent and 7.7 percent in the years 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 respectively. It is apparent from the analysis that the main source of total factor productivity (TFP) growth for the MFIs was attributed to the technical efficiency change(10.1 percent increase) as the result depicted that 16 out of 19 MFIs ( about 84 %) has shown improvement in technical efficiency changes. In contrast, only 5 out of 19 (26.3%) MFIs have shown improvement in technological change but still the industry as a whole has exhibited a decline in technological change (5.8 percent decrease over the period) and suggested that there has been a deterioration in the performance of the best practicing micro finance institutions. Further the result showed that pure technical efficiency increased by 8.9 percent while scale efficiency contributed on average 1.1 percent increase and hence suggested that during the study period the Ethiopian MFIs have experienced mainly an increment of pure technical efficiency( improvement in management practices) rather than an improvement in optimum size(scale efficiency change). Generally, an important implication for the Ethiopian micro finance industry is that they need to pursue a technological progress in order to meet the dual objectives of reaching many poor people and financial sustainability.Key words: Productivity Change, Malmquist Productivity Index, Ethiopian MFIs

How the "rapport de forces" evolves in a soccer match : the dynamics of collective decisions in a complex system

This article discusses the contribution of dynamics to the study of complex systems with regards to performance analysis in soccer. Evaluation tools are presented to better understand how the "rapport de forces" evolves with perturbations of play, contraction / expansion phases of game play, and possession of the ball. It is hypothesized that application of these tools and models may enable researchers and trainers to efficiently analyze configurations of play and identify those that appear to be critical for success. All things considered, nothing may be fundamentally understood about team sports if one does not shift from a spatial to temporal reference system. It makes it possible to bring to light the system's evolving trends. This way, it is possible to understand how players produce functional behaviors or answers to momentary configurations of play, whatever their complexity