35 research outputs found
วิจารณ์หนังสือ : Delayed Democracy: How Press Freedom Collapsed In Gambia
No full textDelayed Democracy: How Press Freedom Collapsed In Gambia By Alagi Yorro Jallowจัดพิมพ์โดย Author House 1663 Drive, Bloomington, IN 47403, 2013. 222 หน้
Book Review
No full textDelayed Democracy: How Press Freedom Collapsed in the Gambiaby Alagi Yorro Jallow Author House: Bloomington, 2013ISBN: 978-1-4918-0662-3 (sc), 978-1-4918-0660-9 (hc),978-1-4918-0661-6 (e
Room temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy of single free standing quantum wells, 2007
No full textQuantum wells are thin-layered structures used in the development of smaller and more efficient optoelectronic devices. In this project, we design and construct a room temperature photoluminescence setup to study exciton interactions in semiconductor quantum wells. An exciton is a bound state of electron and hole. The goal of this project is to study the interaction of quantum confined exciton states with surface states in free standing GaAs quantum wells by using photoluminescence spectroscopy. The free standing quantum well structure has a high surface to volume ratio. The study has potential applications to laser technology and sensor development to view biological and chemical species. It provides the capability to study adsorbate interaction, which is important for sensor technology
The Icc Indictment Of Uhuru Kenyatta And Impunity In Kenya’s Political Leadership
No full textThis research study is conducted on the situation in Kenya before the International Criminal Court, more specifically on the case of Uhuru Mugai Kenyatta, the current president of the Republic of Kenya. Kenyatta‟s involvement in the 2007/8 post election violence in Kenya and his subsequent rise to power as the head of state has become an interesting subject of study under international law. The ICC quest for legal accountability to international crimes against a defiant political leadership in Kenya has prompted the author of this research to formulate three legal questions. The first question concern the immunity entitlement of heads of state before international courts; the second issue question the legality of court attendance by way of video conference and the third question purports to elucidate the consequences of withdrawal of Kenya‟s membership from the Rome Statute and the resulting impact, as well as a default in cooperation obligation. The research methodology employed is the expository research of the doctrinal method which is more prevalent among legal scholarship. The reason for such method is the absence of empirical data for analysis; rather it is concern with the presentation of systematic explanation of legal principles and doctrines of international law. Finally the research findings show coherence in the denial of immunity of heads of state before courts of international jurisdiction. On the question of an accused attendance in court, the research revealed a meager legal literature or legal basis under international law, however such permission may be granted on exceptional cases by the ICC. The research findings does not conclude on a non compliance on the part of Kenya, however this may be inferred from the factual situation and that withdrawal by Kenya will have no effect on Kenyatta‟s case or Kenya‟s international obligations under the Rome Statute
Why are there low institutional delivery rates in the Gambia? Women’s opinion.
No full textRationale for the Study: The Gambia, a small and poor Country in West Africa. Health is one of the key pillars in the agenda of the Gambia government. Spending has been increased from 13.6% in 2001 to 4.95% in 2003. Public health expenditure also increases steadily to 3.2% in 2003. Expenditure on health per capita US0.45) and D25.00 (US1.79). After delivery, they attend infant welfare clinic immediately after the naming ceremony. It is the same distance and they know the facilities well.
However, the women do not use the institutions for delivery. Institutional delivery is very low, estimated at 30.4%.
Objectives of the study:
1. To identify and describe the socio- demographic factors associated with not utilising health facility for delivery.
2. To identify and describe the economic factors associated with the low institutional deliveries.
3. To describe health services related factors contributing to the low utilization of health facility for deliveries.
4. To identify and describe cultural factors (if any) that act as a barrier to health facility deliveries.
5. To put forward recommendation for improved care and increased utilization of health institutions for delivery care and improved maternal health outcomes.
Materials and Methods: A cross sectional design was used. Individual in-depth interview using a semi structured interview guide and a focus group discussion were used to collect information on women who have just delivered and have come to the clinic for registration of their infants for infant welfare clinic; immunization and growth monitoring in 2 of the health divisions WD (urban) and NBW ( rural) in the Gambia. The women with live births were randomly selected from the MCH clinics, interviewed and followed back in the community for a focus group discussion.
Results: A total of 391 women were interviewed in the quantitative study and 36 women participated in the focus group discussions. Four focus groups was performed; 2 in each division. The study revealed that cultural factors, attitude of health care providers, previous experiences with the health system, long waiting time, negligence of health care workers, alternative delivery services, transport and cost of receiving services and expectations are factors that influenced their utilization of health facilities for delivery.
The individual in-depth interview revealed that place of delivery for first pregnancy in NBW was health facility 60% and home 40.6% and WD place of delivery for first pregnancy was health facility 88% and home 13%. Those who delivered in health facility during their first pregnancy, (N296) in both divisions, only 24% delivered at home during their index pregnancy and 40% delivered in health facility. In NBW 80% did not receive any information on place of delivery. Of those who received information, 45% delivered at home and 55% delivered in HF. In WD, 42% received information and 60% did not receive information. Of those who received information, 18% delivered at home and 82% delivered in HF. The prominent danger signs that are the major causes of maternal death are not known. Bleeding before and after delivery which are very severe and are major causes of maternal death is only known by 14(4.4%) and 3(1.0%) respectively in both divisions.
Conclusions: Cultural factors and health services factors which include staff attitude and lack of maternal education during ANC attendance were the most frequently identified contributing factors to the low Uterlisation of health institutions for delivery in this study
An analysıs on the relatıonshıp bewteen organızatıonal clımate and employee retentıon:evıdence from the Gambıa
No full textÖRGÜTSEL İKLİMİN VE ÇALIŞANI ELDE TUTMA İLİŞKİSİ ÜZERİNE BİRARAŞTİRMA: GAMBİYA ÖRNEĞİ Gambiya’da bulunan (kamu ve özel sektör) kurumlar; yetenekli bireyleri işe alma eğiliminde olmalarına rağmen, bu bireyleri organizasyon içerisinde tutma konusunda çok az çaba sarf etmektedir. Kurum içerisindeki uygulamaların, çalışanların işten ayrılma niyetlerinin altında yatan nedenlerden biri olması muhtemeldir. Bu nitel çalışma; örgüt ikliminin çalışanların elde tutulması üzerine etkisini ve işe cezbolmanın Gambiya’da bulunan kamu ve özel sektör işletmelerindeki bu ilişkiye nasıl aracılık edeceğini incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Araştırma sorularını yanıtlamak ve araştırma hipotezlerini test etmek için, deneysel ve ilişkisel araştırma tasarımı temel alınarak anket yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen verilere faktör analizi, korelasyon ve regresyon analizi uygulanmıştır. Basit doğrusal regresyon analizi sonuçları; örgüt iklimi boyutları (katılım ve ilişki boyutu) ve çalışan elde tutma boyutları ( işte kalma niyeti ve işten ayrılma niyeti) arasında anlamlı bir ilişki olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Hiyerarşik regresyon analizi sonuçlarına göre; işe cezbolmanın aracı rolü olduğu belirlenmiştir. İşe cezbolma boyutlarından kendini işe adama ve yoğunlaşma; örgüt iklimi ve işte kalma niyeti ilişkisinde pozitif aracılık etkisine sahipken; örgüt iklimi ve işten ayrılma niyeti ilişkisinde negatif aracılık etkisine sahip olduğu ortaya konmuştur. Araştırma bulguları; çalışanları organizasyon içerisinde tutmak ve örgütsel etkinliği arttırmak için uygun ve doğru örgütsel faaliyetlere sahip olmanın önemini ortaya koymuştur. Bu araştırma; araştırmacının bilgisi dahilinde Gambiya’da örgüt iklimi ve çalışanların elde tutulması arasındaki ilişkiyi inceleyen ilk çalışmadır. Araştırma; çalışanları anlama, örgütsel başarıya ulaşma ve çalışanları elde tutma noktasında örgüt iklimi ve çalışan tutkunluğunun ne kadar önemli olduğunun şirket yöneticileri ve hükümet yetkilileri tarafından anlaşılmasına ışık tutmuştur. Bu bağlamda; çalışmanın, örgüt iklimi ve işe cezbolma literatürüne katkı sağlaması beklenmektedir. cezbolma, Elde tutulmasıAN ANALYSIS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE AND EMPLOYEE RETENTION: EVIDENCE FROM THE GAMBIA Gambia Institutions (Public and Private) have the tendency of attracting highly skilled individuals but do little to keep them. Organizational practices might be a reason behind employee’s intention to leave. The quantitative study seeks to examine the influence of organizational climate on employee retention and how employee engagement mediates this relationship in The Gambia Public and Private sector organizations. A quantitative survey based experimental, correlational research design was used to answer the research questions and test the hypothesis. Factor analysis, correlational and regression analysis was conducted. The results from the simple regression showed a significant relationship to exist between organizational climate factors (participation and relations) and employee retention factors (intention to stay and intention to leave). The hierarchical regressions showed the mediating effect of employee engagement. It further revealed that employee engagement variables dedication and absorption positively mediates the relationship between organizational climate and intention to stay and negatively mediates the relationship between organizational climate and intention to leave. The findings of the research revealed the importance of having good organizational practices in order to retain employees and boost organizational effectiveness. To the knowledge of the author, the research was the first to explore the relationship between organizational climate and employee retention on The Gambia. It would provide policy makers and leaders an understanding of their employees and how organizational climate and employee engagement are crucial factors in retaining employees and driving organizational success. It will further add to the wealth of existing literature on organizational climate and retention. Organizational Climate, Employee Engagement, Employee Retentio
Innate immunity in ocular Chlamydia trachomatis infection: contribution of IL8 and CSF2 gene variants to risk of trachomatous scarring in Gambians.
No full textBACKGROUND: Trachoma, a chronic keratoconjunctivitis caused by Chlamydia trachomatis, is the world's commonest infectious cause of blindness. Blindness is due to progressive scarring of the conjunctiva (trachomatous scarring) leading to in-turning of eyelashes (trichiasis) and corneal opacification. We evaluated the contribution of genetic variation across the chemokine and cytokine clusters in chromosomes 4q and 5q31 respectively to risk of scarring trachoma and trichiasis in a large case-control association study in a Gambian population. METHODS: Linkage disequilibrium (LD) mapping was used to investigate risk effects across the 4q and 5q31 cytokine clusters in relation to the risk of scarring sequelae of ocular Ct infection. Disease association and epistatic effects were assessed in a population based study of 651 case-control pairs by conditional logistic regression (CLR) analyses. RESULTS: LD mapping suggested that genetic effects on risk within these regions mapped to the pro-inflammatory innate immune genes interleukin 8 (IL8) and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulatory factor (CSF2) loci. The IL8-251 rare allele (IL8-251 TT) was associated with protection from scarring trachoma (OR = 0.29 p = 0.027). The intronic CSF2_27348 A allele in chromosome 5q31 was associated with dose dependent protection from trichiasis, with each copy of the allele reducing risk by 37% (p = 0.005). There was evidence of epistasis, with effects at IL8 and CSF2 loci interacting with those previously reported at the MMP9 locus, a gene acting downstream to IL8 and CSF2 in the inflammatory cascade. CONCLUSION: innate immune response SNP-haplotypes are linked to ocular Ct sequelae. This work illustrates the first example of epistatic effects of two genes on trachoma
Inactive alleles of cytochrome P450 2C19 may be positively selected in human evolution
No full text© 2014 Janha et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain
Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article,
unless otherwise stated
Human cytomegalovirus-derived protein UL18 alters the phenotype and function of monocyte-derived dendritic cells
No full textThe inhibitory receptor LILRB4 (ILT3) modulates antigen presenting cell phenotype and, along with LILRB2 (ILT4), is upregulated in response to Salmonella infection.
No full textBACKGROUND: Leukocyte Ig-like receptors (LILR) are a family of innate immune receptors with immunomodulatory functions. High-level expression of the receptors LILRB2 (ILT4) and LILRB4 (ILT3) is a feature of tolerogenic antigen presenting cells and has been observed in cancer and transplant situations. There are relatively few studies regarding these receptors in the context of infection and it is not yet clear how LILRB4 exerts its inhibitory effects.
RESULTS: We studied the effects of LILRB4 ligation on antigen presenting cell phenotype, and the expression of LILRB2 and LILRB4 on Salmonella-infected antigen presenting cells. Ligation of LILRB4 throughout in vitro culture of dendritic cells led to an upregulation of the co-stimulatory protein CD86. Alterations in the production of IL-8 and IL-10 by LILRB4-ligated macrophages were also observed. Infection with Salmonella typhimurium or TLR stimulation with Salmonella components led to an upregulation of LILRB2 and LILRB4.
CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the inhibitory effects of LILRB4 do not result from a failure to upregulate co-stimulatory proteins. In addition to the high level expression that can render antigen presenting cells tolerogenic, there may be a role for lower level expression and activity of LILRB2 and LILRB4 in response to TLR signalling during an immune response to bacterial infection
