Browsing by Subject "Development"

Development is a fundamental issue for many countries especially, developing nations. The media can play an important role in national development by connecting the government, people and development process. Thus, development journalism is one form of media function that emphasizes on advancement of living conditions of people by investigating and scrutinizing development plans, policies and actions of the government. This is why I decided to examine development issues in the media of developing country, Bangladesh. Specifically, my purpose was to explore how Bangladeshi journalists represent development issues in their media as notion of development journalism implies that it should focus on advancement of ordinary people. To conduct the research, I selected three most popular and influential newspapers (e-version) of Bangladesh in which one English and two other Bengali. These are: The Daily Star, Prothom Alo and Jugantor and the data regarding the development news stories were selected from January 2018 to June 2018. By applying mixed method, I carried out the quantitative and qualitative content analysis of development issues, for qualitative approach frame analysis was used. The study was based on the Modernization and Participatory theory of development communication and it explored representative nature of development news published by those newspapers in that period as well frequency of development news and themes in those papers. The findings revealed that development issues get little attention to the Bangladeshi media. Newspapers of this study published less than 3 percent development news in the time duration of January 2018 to June 2018 which showed a disappointing trend towards the practice of development journalism. The analysis also showed that among 13 development news themes, energy and infrastructure was the most published news topic followed by trade and business, education; on the contrary, gender equality and women empowerment, ethnic and minority rights, environmental sustainability, good governance and administrative reforms were the least preferable themes. Among three papers The Daily Star and Prothom Alo covered more diverse themes than that of Jugantor. In addition to those, development priorities exhibited in three newspapers overall reflected Bangladesh’s government development goals; however, discrepancies among them implied development journalism differ on the basis of each newspapers’ structural imperatives. Finally, this study examined the representative nature of development news in three newspapers of Bangladesh. The analysis revealed that journalists of Bangladeshi print media prefer unidirectional or modernization development communication approach (59%) in development journalism practice, it also showed a moderate portion (41%) of the representation of the participatory approach. This indicate they represent a combined approach of development communication approach with persuasive communication and Western-styled development model along with acknowledging the general peoples’ view although the participatory portion is not satisfactory to the expectation level of development journalism practice.

Kainate receptors are known to regulate neuronal function in the brain (Li, H., & Rogawski, M. A. (1998), Braga, M. F. et al. (2004), Lerma & Marques (2013), Carta, M (2014)). In the amygdala, they have been shown to affect synaptic transmission and plasticity, as well as glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) release (Li, H. et al. (2001). Braga, M. F. et al. (2003), Braga, M. F. et al. (2009), Aroniadou-Anderjaska, V. et al. (2012), Negrete‐Díaz, J. V. et al. (2012)), however, their role during development of the amygdala circuitry is not known. In the present study, we wished to understand how GluK1 kainate receptors regulate synaptic population activity and plasticity in the developing amygdala by using extracellular field recordings in P15-18 Wistar Han rat pup brain slices. Since field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) are not commonly measured from the amygdala, we first sought to pharmacologically characterize the basic properties of the extracellular signal, recorded from the basolateral amygdala in response to stimulation of the external capsulae (EC). Having confirmed the validity of the fEPSP as a measure of postsynaptic population response, we were able to show that blocking GluK1 with (S)-1-(2-Amino-2-carboxyethyl)-3-(2-carboxy-5-phenylthiophene-3-yl-methyl)-5-methylpyrimidine-2,4-dione (ACET), a selective GluK1 antagonist, had no effect on the fEPSP. Furthermore, activation of GluK1 with RS-2-amino-3-(3-hydroxy-5-tert-butylisoxazol-4-yl) propanoic acid (ATPA), a GluK1 agonist, reduced the amplitude of the fEPSP, without affecting its slope, suggesting an increase in inhibitory signaling within the network. Blocking GABAergic activity with GABAA- receptor antagonist picrotoxin significantly reduced the effects of ATPA. Additionally, the increase in inhibitory signaling due to the activation of GluK1 was confirmed with whole-cell voltage clamp, by measuring spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic current (sIPSC) frequency. Activation of GluK1 heavily increased sIPSC frequency in the basolateral amygdala neurons. Finally, we were also able to show that activation of GluK1 with ATPA strongly attenuates LTP induction. These results show that GluK1 kainate receptors play a vital role in the modulation of synaptic transmission and plasticity in the developing amygdala.

The thesis examines how the national water policies of Tanzania and Kenya address informality in the urban water sector by critically analysing the representations of “problems” in policies related to increasing urban water access. While access to safely managed water has increased rapidly on a global in the last decades, in most cities in the global south 30¬–60 per cent of the urban population relies on informal practices to meet its daily water needs. Especially the urban areas of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) struggle to increase access to safe water to citizens, resulting in a high reliance on informal practices, such as getting water from unprotected wells or buying water from street vendors. While these practices are generally associated with health risks and higher water prices, they serve as the main everyday water supply for millions of people. Since the state has failed to provide access to water for everyone, both under private and public management, informally managed water systems are, despite their problems, increasingly seen as a viable alternative to the standard solution of expanding the piped network to increase access. Many of the case studies on informality in SSA cited in this thesis argue that the state should accept and support the informal water sector as a pragmatic alternative for water supply in unserved urban areas. By analysing the national water policies of Tanzania and Kenya, this thesis sets out to answer the research questions of (1) how the problem of water supply is constructed in urban water policy in Tanzania and Kenya and (2) how Tanzanian and Kenyan water policies approach the informal water sector. The analysis applies Carol Bacchi’s (2009) poststructuralist approach to analysing policy, the ‘What’s The Problem Represented To Be?’ (WPR) approach. Four general representations of problems related to urban water access and informality were identified in the data: (1) The problem of lacking infrastructure, (2) the problem of identifying appropriate technologies, (3) the problem of stakeholder involvement and (4) the problem of informality in the water sector. The results show a high reliance on investment in large-scale infrastructure projects as the main policy for increasing access to water in urban areas in both Kenya and Tanzania, even though previous studies on informality and urban water provision suggests this tactic will fail in providing safe water for all. In addressing the informal water sector in urban areas, informality was represented as a problem that eventually will fade away as soon as the piped network reaches all. However, both countries appeared to take a completely different stance towards informality in rural areas. Whereas large-scale infrastructure projects still were the go-to solution for increasing access in urban areas, for rural areas the analysed documents proposed a massive support of community-based informal practices as the cornerstones of future rural water supply, covering tens of millions of people in the coming decade. If the attempt to solve lacking access to safe water in urban areas by expanding the piped network should fail, as previous research suggests it might, the community based policies for rural water supply may be scaled out to solve the urban water problem. This thesis shows that the informal water sector is still to a large extent seen as a temporary problem. However, both Kenyan and Tanzanian water policy has opened the door to supporting informal practices as sustainable solutions as a way to achieve the ambitious goal of safe water for all.

The internal structure of the NEPSY-II, a developmental cognitive test, was examined by explorative factor analyses (EFAs). The EFAs were conducted employing the NEPSY-II Finnish standardization sample. The structure of the NEPSY-II, as presented in the manual, is divided into six cognitive domains: Attention and Executive Functioning, Language, Memory and Learning, Sensorimotor Functions, Social Perception and Visuospatial Processing. The objectives of the current study were: 1) To explore what are the best fitting factor structures for 3- to 4-year-old, 5- to 6-year-old, and 7- to 15-year-old children; and 2) To compare the resulting factor structures to the NEPSY-II six cognitive domains. Four-factor structures were found best fitting for all the age groups. These structures shared three roughly similar factors: Language, Visuospatial/Motor Functions, and Processing Speed, although the exact set of subtests loading on each factor differed from one group to another. The four-factor structures considerably differed from the NEPSY-II six cognitive domains. Further, although there were similarities between the factor structures, there were also notable differences in how the subtests related together. The thesis produces scientific knowledge on the relations between the subtests that may also be employed in clinical assessment. The presented psychometrical knowledge might clarify how the problems that present themselves in distinct subtest in an assessment setting are related. Thus, it provides an additional perspective to clinical assessment alongside the prevailing neuropsychological knowledge.