Maternal mortality in Nigeria is unacceptably high, accounting for 14 percent of global maternal deaths, thereby making it a global public health issue. Given that maternal mortality is essentially a women problem, it is a matter of justice and discrimination. In addition, significant regional disparities in maternal mortality exist within Nigeria, particularly between the northern and southern parts of the country. The maternal mortality ratio in the North is six to ten times greater than that of the South. The country's maternal mortality crisis occurs along regional and socioeconomic lines-the poorer northern Nigeria has a disproportionately higher maternal mortality ratio than the wealthier southern Nigeria. This thesis explores the disparities in maternal health across different regions in Nigeria from an intersectional perspective, taking into account economic, religious, cultural, rural, and urban differences. The study adopts intersectionality theory to examine how these factors intersect to impact maternal health outcomes in Nigeria. Furthermore, the thesis employs a functional comparative law approach, using India and South Africa as comparators, to assess how the constitutional courts of these countries have applied intersectional perspective to right to health. It highlights the importance of adopting an intersectional approach to understanding maternal health disparities in Nigeria, as it considers the multiple and interconnected factors that contribute to poor maternal health outcomes. This is particularly crucial in the Nigerian context, where maternal mortality rates remain high and access to quality maternal health services is limited, particularly in rural and underdeveloped regions. The comparative analysis of India and South Africa sheds light on how these countries have approached constitutionalizing the right to health and intersectionality in their courts. In South Africa, the Constitutional Court has played a crucial role in advancing the right to health and applying an intersectional perspective in its judicial decisions, leading to improvements in maternal health outcomes. In India, the Supreme Court has also played an important role in interpreting the right to health to include other associated factors, but its impact on maternal health outcomes remains limited, particularly in rural areas. The thesis concludes by advocating for constitutionalizing maternal health in Nigeria, through incorporation of the right to health in the Nigerian Constitution to ensure that this right is enforceable through the court processes. The study recommends that an adoption intersectional perspective in the implementation of maternal health policies and programs, in order to address the multiple and interconnected factors that contribute to maternal health disparities in Nigeria. The findings of this thesis contribute to the existing literature on maternal health and the right to health, and have important implications for policymakers and health practitioners working to improve maternal health outcomes in Nigeria and other developing countries. By incorporating an intersectional and comparative approach, the thesis provides a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities for constitutionalizing maternal health in Nigeria and highlights the need for a more nuanced and integrated approach to maternal health policy and practice.

Terrorist activity has come to the forefront of political thought in recent years, especially since the attacks on the World Trade Center and Washington D.C on September 11, 2001. President George W. Bush declared a “war on terror” and governments all around the world have taken steps to enhance national security in efforts to prevent terrorist activity. The steps taken are not unwarranted, and in some cases have been successful. The nature of terrorism modernizes just as the world around it does, and as the global community has benefited from globalization and modernization, so have terrorist organizations. This study analyzes the history of modern terrorism through the comparison of four separate waves: the Anarchist Wave, the Nationalist-Separatist Wave, the Revolutionary Wave, and the Religious Wave. This paper compares each wave’s roots, desired outcomes and goals, strategies and modus operandi, destructive impact, and outcomes. The study identifies a move away from hierarchal organization, modernization in communications and weapon choice, and a significant rise in the lethality of terrorist activity in recent years. Furthermore, there is a connection between globalization and modernization and the increase in terrorist activity and lethality. Economic interconnection has provided opportunities through which terrorists can act by providing them with a shield of anonymity, while cultural interconnection has created situations through which anger and frustration can fester to provide motives and justifications for terrorist activity. Meanwhile, modernization has created new technologies that provide more effective means through which terrorists can act on their motives. Although the Religious Wave has been nicknamed the "jihadist wave" to reflect the prevalence of Islamic groups, this study analyzes social, economic, and historic impacts that have led to this wave rather than assume that Islam is inherently violent.

The control of asthma is a very important part of an asthmatic's life. Decreasing control can lead to asthma attacks, which can be fatal. For this reason, the researchers have set out to create an instrument to measure control of asthma, and have suggested five possible instruments. Before an instrument can be used, it must be shown to be reliable, valid, and responsive. Reliability will be shown using various intraclass correlation coefficients, depending on the model being used for the data. Construct validity will be shown by how well the instrument's correlation coefficients with other instruments correspond to a priori predictions. Responsiveness will be shown by three methods, t tests comparing the change in changers and stable subjects, a responsiveness index, and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves. All five instruments are shown to be highly reliable. No conclusions can be drawn as of yet about the validity, as the a priori predictions have yet to made. For all three methods of assessing responsiveness, the five instruments were ranked identically. In choosing the best instrument, no final decisions can be made, as validity has yet to be shown, but at this time it appears as though the simplest instrument (involving only five questions on the patient's asthma symptoms asked at a visit to a clinic) is also the best as it has high reliability and is highly responsive. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

No / Class theorists ask for research on the 'paradox of class' - the fact that while class appears to be materially just as important as ever, it hardly features as part of a self-conscious social identity. At the same time mothering is usually seen as a classless activity. This paper describes class based differences in how mothers combine employment and caring for their children, how they divide labour with their partners, and how they choose childcare. These are not simple structural divisions between working class and middle class, but instead refer to more nuanced social identities. These class based differences in mothering present different mixes of choice and constraint, or of 'rationality' and 'preference' in choosing alternative courses of action. However, theories focusing on classless individualised preference (Hakim) and class-based rationality (Goldthorpe) do not go far beyond a tautological description of these alternatives. Rather, the paper shows how preference and rationality are socially and culturally created through the development of career as an identity, through biographical experience, through relations with partners, and through the development of normative views in social networks.

No / This paper discusses the aspect of student support that emerged as a key component of a longitudinal study into the experiences of nurses studying through open learning in the UK. Students engaged in this study were mature learners who were practicing nurses and predominantly, but not exclusively, women. Participants perceived entering higher education as a considerable challenge.

In the late 20th century, the proportions of women and men elected into European national parliaments became increasingly equal. Political parties shape these outcomes by selecting and fielding candidates in elections. Scholars recognise that parties' actions do not occur in isolation; yet there is little systematically comparative research about the configurations of conditions in which these actions occur. Previous research also often relies on studies of West European parties. This doctoral thesis investigates how conditions inside and outside parties combine to create gender-equal parliamentary presence. The thesis examines the extent to which Western European experiences apply to Central and East European parties, and explores the conditions that stand in the way of progress towards gender balance. It presents three empirical studies. The first is a qualitative comparative analysis of 57 West European parties during the late 1980s, a period in which the trend towards equality accelerated. The second study applies the knowledge produced in the first analysis to cases in Central and Eastern Europe. It uses an original dataset covering six parties in four EU member states in a structured focused comparison. Finally, the thesis presents an in-depth case study of an unexpectedly gender-balanced Latvian party. The analyses show that gender-equal parliamentary presence is achieved when conditions inside and outside parties combine, and that no condition is necessary or singularly sufficient. The absence of gender-equal parliaments is sustained by combinations other than the absence of those that lead to gender-balance. Operationalisations from Western Europe turn out to be largely applicable to cases in Central and Eastern Europe. These latter cases also demonstrate that organisational instability need not impede women’s presence in elected office. / Under sent 1900-tal har andelen kvinnor och män i nationella demokratiska parlament i Europa blivit alltmer jämstora. Politiska partier formar politisk representation genom att välja egna kandidater till val. Forskare har visat att partiers beteende på den punkten inte sker i isolering, men det finns ändå en brist på systematiskt jämförande studier om vilka kombinationer av villkor som leder till jämn könsrepresentation i nationella parlament. Dessutom vilar tidigare studier ofta på kunskap om situationen i Västeuropa. Den här doktorsavhandlingen undersöker hur villkor i och utanför politiska partier kombineras för att uppnå jämställd parlamentarisk representation. Den utforskar i vilken grad de västeuropeiska erfarenheterna är användbara i Öst- och Centraleuropa, och studerar villkoren som upprätthåller manlig dominans i parlamentariska partier. Den presenterar tre empiriska studier. Den första är en kvalitativt jämförande studie (fsQCA) av 57 Västeuropeiska partier under sent 1980-tal, en period då andelen kvinnor i nationella parlament ökade. Den andra studien tillämpar kunskapen från den första studien på fall i Öst- och Centraleuropa. Studien bygger på ett unikt dataset med sex partier från fyra EU-stater, i en strukturerad fokuserad jämförelse. Slutligen presenteras en fallstudie av ett ovanligt jämställt parti i Lettland. Analyserna visar att lika andelar kvinnor och män i nationella parlament åstadkoms när villkor i och utanför partier kombineras, och att inget villkor är nödvändigt eller ensamt tillräckligt. Frånvaro av jämn representation upprätthålls av andra kombinationer än de som leder till jämn representation. Operationaliseringarna som utvecklades för Västeuropa är applicerbara i Öst- och Centraleuropa. De senare fallen visar också att organisatorisk instabilitet inte behöver hindra en jämställd parlamentarisk närvaro.

This paper aims to demystify, empirically, a statement widely shared in the political imaginary of the citizens of Santiago de Cali: candidates, who predominate in the popular sectors of the population, are the ones who win the elections for mayor («Aguablanca elects the mayor»). From an analysis with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in their mode of fuzzy sets, it is shown that there are more complex scenarios of the electoral behavior in the elections for the municipal mayor in 2003, 2007 and 2011. Starting from this premise, from a«sociological perspective» it is proposed a classification of the strata of the city according to the pooled weighted average and candidate as elite/non elite, to analyze the electoral trends in terms of political preferences of each stratum. It also seeks to identify causal combinations that consents the election of a mayor, taking into account variables such as the profil elite/non elite of the candidates, levels of fragmentation in both segments of candidatures and finally, the dominance that each achieved in the different communes of the city. / El presente trabajo se propone desmitificar, empíricamente, un enunciado ampliamente compartido en el imaginario político de los ciudadanos de Santiago de Cali: los candidatos predominantes en los sectores populares son quienes ganarán las elecciones a la alcaldía («Aguablanca elige al alcalde»). A partir de un análisis realizado con Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), en su modalidad de conjuntos difusos, se muestra que existen escenarios sensiblemente más complejos del comportamiento electoral en los comicios para la alcaldía municipal en 2003, 2007 y 2011. Partiendo de esta premisa, desde una «perspectiva sociológica» del análisis electoral, se propone una clasificación de los estratos de la ciudad acorde a la media ponderada agrupada y de los candidatos como élite/no élite, para analizar las tendencias electorales en términos de expresión de preferencias políticas por parte de cada estrato. Asimismo, se busca identificar cuáles son las combinaciones causales que consienten la elección de un alcalde, teniendo en cuenta variables como: el perfil élite/no élite de los candidatos, los niveles de fragmentación existentes en ambos segmentos de candidaturas y, finalmente, el predominio que cada uno de ellos logran en las diferentes comunas de la ciudad.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / John W. Keller / Rural communities are a vital part of America; they account for two-thirds of the land in the U.S. and are home to about one in every nine Americans. Throughout history, our country has been shaped by their presence and social, economic, and cultural influence (Flora et al., 2004). For over the past half century however, communities in rural America have been declining in size and population; in nearly 70% of the counties of the Great Plains, there are fewer people residing there today than there were in 1950. Furthermore, over the last half of the 20th century, residents living on farms in America have dropped by two-thirds (Mayer, 1993). These statistics indicate a drastic pattern of population loss among small town communities and farms throughout rural America, which is devastating because they [towns] ultimately depend on population to contribute to their industries, businesses, and local services in order to function and survive (Wood, 2008). Understanding the causes of rural decline is important in the field of planning; nevertheless, identifying statistical relationships and spatial patterns associated with rural decline is just as important. This research report is both an overview on rural decline, and a comparative analysis of rural decline amongst Kansas counties. The objective of this research report is to identify characteristics, patterns, and trends associated with rural decline, and to rank Kansas counties according to a list of variables which represent those characteristics for analytical purposes. The ultimate goal is to explain any spatial phenomenon associated with the variables and Kansas counties, as well as identify specific counties in Kansas most devastated by factors associated with rural decline. In order to determine which counties are most devastated by factors associated with rural decline, a numerical comprehensive comparative analysis will be conducted; the results of the analysis will serve as a side-by-side measure of rural decline among Kansas counties. It will also serve as the template for conducting the simulation and modeling research; ArcGIS 9.3.1 will be utilized in order display the characteristics, patterns, and trends of rural decline spatially among Kansas counties. The final maps will help serve to derive final conclusions on rural decline in Kansas.

The relationship between financial development and economic growth is an important issue for both developed and developing countries through which the extent of economic growth and the sophistication of the country’s financial markets are linked. The research studies the existence of a relationship between financial development and economic growth using a sample of BRICS and G-7 countries for the period of 1996 to 2013. The study objective was to conduct a comparative analysis of the relationship between financial development and economic growth within BRICS and G-7 countries. A panel data analysis was used to analyse secondary data from 5 BRICS countries (Brazil. Russia, India, China and South Africa) and G-7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and United States).Variables used include, economic growth, stock market capitalisation, total investment growth, interest rates and population growth. This study found that real interest rates and total investment is positively related to economic growth in both BRICS and G-7; while other variables such as stock market size, do play a significant role in explaining economic growth in both BRICS and G-7 countries and insignificant variables such as population growth. Findings of this study suggests there are no major difference between developed and developing countries with regards to their financial development and economic growth. This study may assist BRICS and G-7 countries to improve their economic growth structure and financial development systems over time.

The relationship between financial development and economic growth is an important issue for both developed and developing countries through which the extent of economic growth and the sophistication of the country’s financial markets are linked. The research studies the existence of a relationship between financial development and economic growth using a sample of BRICS and G-7 countries for the period of 1996 to 2013. The study objective was to conduct a comparative analysis of the relationship between financial development and economic growth within BRICS and G-7 countries. A panel data analysis was used to analyse secondary data from 5 BRICS countries (Brazil. Russia, India, China and South Africa) and G-7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and United States).Variables used include, economic growth, stock market capitalisation, total investment growth, interest rates and population growth. This study found that real interest rates and total investment is positively related to economic growth in both BRICS and G-7; while other variables such as stock market size, do play a significant role in explaining economic growth in both BRICS and G-7 countries and insignificant variables such as population growth. Findings of this study suggests there are no major difference between developed and developing countries with regards to their financial development and economic growth. This study may assist BRICS and G-7 countries to improve their economic growth structure and financial development systems over time.