The Rise of Computing Research in East Africa: The Relationship Between Funding,Capacity and Research Community in a Nascent Field

The emergence of vibrant research communities of computer scientists in Kenya and Uganda has occurred in the context of neoliberal privatization, commercialization, and transnational capital flows from donors and corporations. We explore how this funding environment configures research culture and research practices, which are conceptualized as two main components of a research community. Data come from a three-year longitudinal study utilizing interview, ethnographic and survey data collected in Nairobi and Kampala. We document how administrators shape research culture by building academic programs and training growing numbers of PhDs, and analyze how this is linked to complicated interactions between political economy, the epistemic nature of computer science and sociocultural factors like entrepreneurial leadership of key actors and distinctive cultures of innovation. In a donor-driven funding environment, research practice involves scientists constructing their own localized research priorities by adopting distinctive professional identities and creatively structuring projects. The neoliberal political economic context thus clearly influenced research communities, but did not debilitate computing research capacity nor leave researchers without any agency to carry out research programs. The cases illustrate how sites of knowledge production in Africa can gain some measure of research autonomy, some degree of global competency in a central arena of scientific and technological activity, and some expression of their regional cultural priorities and aspirations. Furthermore, the cases suggest that social analysts must balance structure with culture, place and agency in their approaches to understanding how funding and political economy shape scientific knowledge.     

Automatic tracing and segmentation of rat mammary fat pads in MRI image sequences based on cartoon-texture model

The growth patterns of mammary fat pads and glandular tissues inside the fat pads may be related with the risk factors of breast cancer.Quantitative measurements of this relationship are available after segmentation of mammary pads and glandular tissues.Rat fat pads may lose continuity along image sequences or adjoin similar intensity areas like epidermis and subcutaneous regions.A new approach for automatic tracing and segmentation of fat pads in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image sequences is presented,which does not require that the number of pads be constant or the spatial location of pads be adjacent among image slices.First,each image is decomposed into cartoon image and texture image based on cartoon-texture model.They will be used as smooth image and feature image for segmentation and for targeting pad seeds,respectively.Then,two-phase direct energy segmentation based on Chan-Vese active contour model is applied to partitioning the cartoon image into a set of regions,from which the pad boundary is traced iteratively from the pad seed.A tracing algorithm based on scanning order is proposed to accurately trace the pad boundary,which effectively removes the epidermis attached to the pad without any post processing as well as solves the problem of over-segmentation of some small holes inside the pad.The experimental results demonstrate the utility of this approach in accurate delineation of various numbers of mammary pads from several sets of MRI images.     

Social and Environmental Factors Associated With Preschoolers' Nonsedentary Physical Activity

The twofold purposes of the investigation were (a) to describe with direct observation data the physical activity behaviors and the accompanying social and environmental events of those behaviors for children in preschools and (b) to determine which contextual conditions were predictors of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and nonsedentary physical activity (i.e., light activity + MVPA) for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children during their outdoor play. The results indicate that preschoolers' physical activity is characterized as sedentary in nature throughout their preschool day (i.e., 89% sedentary, 8% light activity, and 3% MVPA). During outdoor play periods, when children are most likely to be physically active, some contextual and social circumstances better predict their physical activity. Implications for policy makers, practitioners, and researchers are discussed.     

Reduced barriers mediated physical activity maintenance among breast cancer survivors

To better understand mechanisms of physical activity (PA) behavior change in breast cancer survivors, we examined mediation of a successful PA behavior change intervention by social cognitive theory (SCT) constructs. Our exploratory study randomized 41 breast cancer survivors to receive the 3-month intervention (INT) or usual care (UC). We used the Freedman and Schatzkin approach to examine mediation of intervention effect on PA 3 months postintervention by changes in SCT constructs from baseline to immediately postintervention. Compared with UC, the INT group reported lower barriers interference (mean difference = -7.8, 95% CI [-15.1, -0.4], d = -0.67, p = .04) and greater PA enjoyment (mean difference = 0.7, 95% CI [0, 1.5], d = 0.61, p = .06). Barriers interference mediated 39% (p = .004) of the intervention effect on PA 3 months postintervention. PA enjoyment was not a significant mediator. Reducing barriers to PA partially explained our intervention effect.     

Referees who have given help in 2004/05

Background:?‘Creative learning conversations’, are methodological devices developed in two co-participative qualitative research projects exploring creativity and educational futures at the University of Exeter in England.

Sources of evidence:?Framed by Critical Theory, the projects, one on dance education partnership, the other on student voice and transformation, sought to open space between creativity and performativity to initiate emancipatory educational change. This was undertaken over the course of five years in English primary and secondary schools, prioritising humanising, wise creativity.

Purpose:?This paper re-analyses data and methodological processes to characterise and theorise creative learning conversations in terms of social spatiality and dialogue. The characteristics are: partiality, emancipation, working from the ‘bottom up’, participation, debate and difference, openness to action, and embodied and verbalised idea exchange.

Main argument:?This re-analysis theoretically adapts Bronfenbrenner's ecological model (The ecology of human development; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979) to situate layered engagement. Utilising Lefebvre's conceptualisation of lived space (The production of space; Wiley-Blackwell, 1991) and Bakhtin's work (Problems of Dostoevsky's poetics; ed. and trans. Caryl Emerson; Minneapolis: University of Michigan Press, 1984) on open-ended dialogue, the paper theorises creative learning conversations as producing living dialogic spaces.

Conclusions:?Creative learning conversations are a way of contributing to change, which moves us towards an education future fit for the twenty-first century. From a living dialogic space perspective, a creative learning conversation is the ongoing process without forced closure of those in the roles of university academic, teachers, artists, students co-participatively researching and developing knowledge of their ‘lived space’ together. Given traditional lethargy in the educational system as a whole commitment to changing education for better futures demands active involvement in living dialogic space, where our humanity both emerges from and guides our shared learning.     

Feed-forward assessment,exemplars and peer marking: evidence of efficacy

The paper reports the findings of evaluative research that attempted to rigorously assess the efficacy of a feed-forward, formative assessment intervention. The aim was to improve participants’ conceptions of quality, and hence improve the quality of a complex piece of summative assessment, by asking them to mark exemplars produced by former students. Feed-forward assessment has theoretical support in the literature, but empirical confirmation has been slight. Research findings were encouraging. A statistical model incorporating feed-forward was developed which accounted for a large effect in the improvement of results for the summative item. Importantly, there was improvement across student ability levels. Students, in the main, made accurate judgements about different levels of exemplar quality, although they had some difficulty discerning different pathways to high-quality products. Qualitative analysis indicated improved student conceptions of coherence and integration in the summative piece.