Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Evaluating The Feasibility And Potential Impacts Of A Recovery-Oriented Psychosocial Rehabilitation Toolkit In A Health Care Setting In Kenya: A Mixed-Methods Study, Regina Casey, Joshua C. Wiener, Terry Krupa, Rosemary Lysaght, Marlene Janzen Le Ber, Ruth Ruhara, Elizabeth Price, Romaisa Pervez, Sean Kidd, Victoria Mutiso, David M Ndetei, Arlene G Macdougall

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

OBJECTIVES: This pilot study evaluated the feasibility and potential impacts of delivering the Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR) Toolkit for people with serious mental illness within a health care setting in Kenya.

METHOD: This study used a convergent mixed-methods design. Participants were people with serious mental illness (n = 23), each with an accompanying family member, who were outpatients of a hospital or satellite clinic in semirural Kenya. The intervention consisted of 14 weekly group sessions of PSR cofacilitated by health care professionals and peers with mental illness. Quantitative data were collected from patients and family members using validated outcome measures before …

Where To Invest Project Efforts For Greater Benefit: A Framework Formanagement Performance Mapping With Examples For Potato Seed Health, C. E. Buddenhagen, Y. Xing, J. L. Andrade-Piedra, G. A. Forbes, P. Kromann, I. Navarrete, S. Thomas-Sharma, Robin A. Choudhury, K. F. Andersen Onofre, E. Schulte-Geldermann

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Policymakers and donors often need to identify the locations where technologies are most likely to have important effects, to increase the benefits from agricultural development or extension efforts. Higher-quality information may help to target the high-benefit locations, but often actions are needed with limited information. The value of information (VOI) in this context is formalized by evaluating the results of decision making guided by a set of specific information compared with the results of acting without considering that information. We present a framework for management performance mapping that includes evaluating the VOI for decision making about geographic priorities in regional …

Evaluating Human Pressure On Protected Areas In East Africa, Bailey M. Ytterdahl

Student Publications

Protected areas (PAs) are crucial to achieving effective conservation goals and mitigate the loss of biodiversity. I investigated the following research questions: How does human pressure threaten PAs in East Africa? Is human pressure associated with the factors of country, ecosystem characteristics, size, or governance type of a PA? For this study, I used a combination of a GIS analysis and case studies to evaluate human pressure on PAs in Tanzania and Kenya. For the GIS analysis, I used 589 terrestrial PAs from the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). Within each PA, I summarized the landform, landcover, moisture level, …

Water Insecurity, Water Borrowing, And Psychosocial Stress Among Daasanach Pastoralists In Northern Kenya, Leslie Ford, Hilary J. Bethancourt, Zane Swanson, Rosemary Nzunza, Amber Wutich, Alexandra Brewis, Sera Young, David Almeida, Matthew J. Douglass, Emmanuel K. Ndiema, David R. Braun, Herman Pontzer, Asher Y. Rosinger

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

This article quantifies Daasanach water insecurity experiences in Northern Kenya, examines how water insecurity is associated with water borrowing and psychosocial stress, and evaluates if water borrowing mitigates the stress from water insecurity. Of 133 households interviewed in 7 communities, 95% were water insecure and 74.4% borrowed water three or more times in the prior month. Regression analyses demonstrate water borrowing frequency moderates the relationship between water insecurity and psychosocial stress. Only those who rarely or never borrowed water reported greater stress with higher water insecurity. The coping mechanism of water borrowing may help blunt water insecurity-related stress.

An Assessment Of Terrestrial Decapoda Diversity Across Three Ecological Zones In Mida Creek, Kenya, Reese Yount

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mangroves make up one of the most effective natural remedies at combating climate change today. They represent great commercial interest worldwide and yet, are being degraded at an unsustainable rate. If successful mangrove conservation plans are to be implemented for our posterity, mangrove ecosystems need to be better understood at the community level. Mangrove crabs make up the most diverse and populace mangrove inhabitants. They are classified as ecosystem engineers and their potential for being used as bioindicators makes them integral to assessing mangrove health. Yet, their diversity and distribution patterns are not well understood. The aim of this study …

Relationships Between Institutional Success And Length Of Tenure In A Kenyan Irrigation Scheme, Camille Washington-Ottombre

Environmental Science and Policy: Faculty Publications

In a global context of climate change and increased water scarcity, the development of efficient irrigation schemes in sub-Saharan Africa where rainfed agriculture still prevails could significantly support food security. However, developing efficient irrigation schemes is highly challenging and necessitates the resolution of a number of collective action problems. Since the 1980s, a large body of research has explored the conditions needed for successful collective action, sustainable use of the resource in irrigation schemes, and the development of efficient institutions. Although there is no agreed-upon definition of what successful, sustainable, or efficient governance schemes or institutions are, there is a …

The Polycentric Turn: A Case Study Of Kenya's Evolving Legal Regime For Irrigation Waters, Daniel H. Cole, Stefan Carpenter, Elizabeth Baldwin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Formal legal systems comprise a major part, but not the only part, of the “rules of the game” that structure social and social-ecological interactions. Throughout the twentieth century, centralization and consolidation of legal authority were dominant themes among many, if not all, legal systems. That process may have been successful in some cases, but in others the presumed economies of scale from consolidation and centralization either did not materialize or were offset by other social costs, including the failure to accommodate local knowledge, expertise, and preferences. In what could become a theme of the twenty-first century, many countries, including developing …

Using Survival Analysis To Identify Risk Factors For Treatment Interruption Among New And Retreatment Tuberculosis Patients In Kenya, Enos O. Masini, Omar Mansour, Clare E. Speer, Vittorio Addona, Christy L. Hanson, Joseph K. Sitienei, Hillary K. Kipruto, Martin Muhingo Githiomi, Brenda Nyambura Mungai

Faculty Publications

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Despite high tuberculosis (TB) treatment success rate, treatment adherence is one of the major obstacles to tuberculosis control in Kenya. Our objective was to identify patient-related factors that were associated with time to TB treatment interruption and the geographic distribution of the risk of treatment interruption by county. Data of new and retreatment patients registered in TIBU, a Kenyan national case-based electronic data recording system, between 2013 and 2014 was obtained. Kaplan-Meier curves and log rank tests were used to assess the adherence patterns. Mixed-effects Cox proportional hazards modeling was used for multivariate analysis. Records from 90,170 patients were …

Kenyan Climate Variation Assessment Through Rainfall Anomalies And Sea Surface Temperature (Sst) Correlations, Kimberly E. Lykens

STAR Program Research Presentations

The diverse and varied climate of Eastern Africa’s Kenya is home to an agriculturally dependent populace, in which farmers and other related economic sectors make up the majority of livelihoods and gross domestic product. Recurring droughts and severe flooding are major concerns for local farmers and governmental entities. The purpose of this study is to identify and categorize differences in rainfall trends over Kenya and to examine relationships between seasonal rainfall anomalies of sea surface temperature (SST), with an ultimate goal to improve predictions of wet season rainfall amounts. The analysis began with data from 27 national and cooperative weather …

Anatomical Description And Phylogenetic Analysis Of Miocene Beaked Whale From The East African Rift Valley, Kenya, Andrew Lin

Collection of Engaged Learning

This study compares the anatomy of a Miocene whale fossil found in Kenya to that of modern and other fossil beaked whales in order to identify it using phylogenetic analysis. The specimen is a partial skull and lacks diagnostic features present in the posterior regions of the skull, but a parsimony analysis based on available characters determined the whale is likely linked to modern Mesoplodon and Hyperoodon. Identification of this specimen is necessary for biogeographical purposes and other investigations using the fossil as a marker for the paleocoastline. Furthermore, this whale is an important and unique tool that can …

Slides: Nokero: Power To The Powerless, Stephen Katsaros

2012 Energy Justice Conference and Technology Exposition (September 17-18)

Presenter: Stephen Katsaros, Inventor, Founder, and CEO, Nokero

13 slides

Assessing Social Benefits Of Domestic Rainwater Harvesting In Southern Kenya, Lindsey M. Filiatreau

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In the Kasigau location of the Voi District of Kenya, severe rainwater shortages closed fourteen water collection stations in 2008 and 2009, leaving ten water sources to service 15,000 people in the region. Few families in the area have domestic rainwater harvesting systems which are an easily implemented, low-cost means of water collection. I investigated the ability of rainwater catchment systems to modify family time budgets (by reducing water collection time) and lessen the severity of water scarcity (by supplying families a significant amount of water). Forty families participated in the research, 20 of whom received free installation of a …

Assessment Of Prenatal Care And Perinatal Outcomes In Kasigau, Kenya, Allison Smith

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The World Health Organization (WHO) implemented the Millennium Declaration in 2000 to establish global health goals to be achieved by 2015. Two of these Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) are directly related to maternal, neonatal and child health. Healthcare during the prenatal period can help achieve the WHO MDG’s for maternal health and child mortality. Evidence has shown that women in Kenya have limited access to prenatal care. This study focused on the prenatal care and postnatal outcome trends of the women in Kasigau, Kenya. Participants were surveyed in three villages (Rukanga, Makwasinyi, and Bhuguta) to determine if prenatal care was …

Human-Wildlife Conflict On Small, Subsistence Farms In Kenya, Christopher B. Colonna

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

As human populations expand, wildlife suddenly competes with humans for resources and confrontation arises as a result. Rural Africa is typical of this problem. We surveyed local owners of small farms within the five villages surrounding Mount Kasigau in Southeast Kenya to quantify losses due to wildlife depredation on both subsistence and cash crops as well as to discover the patterns and variables influencing farmer-wildlife confrontations in the region. We found no statistically significant correlations among the value of damage per acre, the distance from the bush, or the distance to the nearest water source. We did find statistical significance …