In this paper all the eight Millennium development goals will be evaluated and then mapped to the success they have achieved in Kenya. Our evaluation will be based on each goal and the impact each goal has had in Kenya. Millennium development goals are a set of eight goals that are to be achieved by 2015 in lieu of world’s development challenges. In 2000, 189 nations took an oath to liberate people from extreme poverty and deprivation, which later became the eight Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. The United Nations Development Program has given increased focus to this initiative under the Kenya development program. The program supports initiatives of transparency, accountability, and effectiveness in the system. The MDGs provide the government with a common framework for structuring policies and practices. The framework facilitates speed and efficiency in complying with the MDG spirit in planning, budgeting, and monitoring at all levels of government. The MDGs also bring clarity to the shared and individual roles and responsibilities of key actors working toward the realization of MDGs by working with a network of international organizations to put their resources and expertise in the most strategic and efficient way possible to support and sustain the efforts of partners at the international and national levels and the private sector to engage in improving human conditions by the target year of 2015. (Kenya millennium assessment) This thesis examines the range of investment efforts the government has undertaken to achieve the millennium development goals. We analyze the government initiatives aimed at meeting the MDGs against the realities of what it would take to realize the goals. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Liberal Arts

As adults reach advanced ages, the purpose of physical activity may shift from disease prevention to functional fitness and mobility. The purpose of the study is to test the hypothesis that engaging in an active lifestyle is associated with higher functional fitness in older women. Functional fitness was assessed by the Senior Fitness Test in 125 women (73.42 ± 8.84 yrs). Participants wore an accelerometer for 7 days without altering their normal activity. Accelerometer data were downloaded, moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) determined via proprietary filtering, and time spent in each intensity was calculated. A 5 day average of time spent in MVPA was organized into 4 groups. Frequency distributions were calculated to examine the number of participants meeting ACSM recommendation for MVPA. With respect to MVPA, only 18% of participants met ACSM recommendations by engaging in 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity for at least 5 days per week. Nearly half of the participants were classified as normal on most functional measures. To determine if a relationship existed between the participants 5 day MVPA, functional fitness, age and weight, correlation coefficients were calculated. The strongest relationships were found between MVPA and the 6 min walk (r = 0.52, p ≤ 0.001), chair stands (r = 0.46, p ≤ 0.001), and up & go (r = -0.44, p ≤ 0.001). To determine if engaging in an active lifestyle is associated with higher functional fitness, participants were grouped by time spent in moderate intensity physical activity to determine a cut-off on improvement observed in functional fitness. MVPA group comparisons were made using one-way ANOVAs with follow-up Post Hoc analysis. The results revealed significant differences between groups on all measures except sit and reach. The one-way ANOVA indicated a threshold of 20 minutes for the 6 min walk, chair stand, and up & go. With regard to upper body strength and flexibility, less than 10 min of MVPA was observed to be detrimental to performance. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Health Professions, Dept. of Public Health Sciences

Young students with autism and other developmental delays face specific challenges when learning to complete academic tasks, including writing. Through a single subject study, the author examined the use of multiple methods in teaching one kindergarten student with autism and one first grader with autism to write the letters in their names in capital letters without a model. Students were evaluated on letter use and letter legibility. One student was taught to build and identify letters with Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) (Olsen, 2008) sticks, use the HWT magnetic writing board, trace lines, trace their name, write their name with a model and write their name without a model. The other student was taught to write trace their name, write their name with a model and write their name without a model via video modeling. Both live and video modeling methods were found to be useful in advancing a student to more complex handwriting tasks. Both students in the study advanced – the student utilizing a live modeling method advanced two tasks and the student using a video modeling method advanced one. Both students showed improvement from initial baseline to post-test. / Thesis (M.A.T.)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction

In this work, the effect of different parameters, including stacking sequence, part thickness, and tooling material, on distortion of flat panels was investigated. A Romer arm equipped with a laser scanner was used to obtain the maximum amount of distortion as well as the 3D pattern of distortion for each panel. Among the different stacking sequences, the maximum distortion was observed in the asymmetric and balanced panel, while the least distortion belonged to the symmetric and unbalanced one. Furthermore, thinner panels were more distorted than thicker panels with the same planar size and stacking sequences. This study showed that distortion of the flat panels caused by asymmetry in the stacking sequence was an order of magnitude greater than distortion of the panels due to imbalance in the stacking sequence. L-shaped and U-shaped panels were also fabricated to investigate the effect of stacking sequence on spring-in angle and warpage of the panels. Among all the stacking sequences, the panel with an asymmetric and unbalanced stacking sequence showed the least spring-in angle, while the largest angle was observed in the symmetric and balanced panel. Although asymmetry in the stacking sequences reduced the spring-in angle, significantly more warpage was observed in the panels with asymmetric stacking sequences, as compared to the symmetric ones. MSC Marc was used to predict the distortion of the panels, and the simulation results were compared with the experimental results for several stacking sequences of the flat and the L-shaped panels. An L-shaped panel with the stacking sequence of [0/45/90/-45]4 was simulated to investigate the effect of curve radius and tool geometry on the spring-in angle. The FEA results showed that curing the L-shaped panel on a concave tool led to less spring-in angle, as compared to the panel confined to a convex tool. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN medium access control (MAC) provides transmission fairness to nodes in a network. A misbehaving node can modify its MAC and operate in a selfish manner to improve its own performance (throughput) at the expense of other nodes’ performance. In this thesis, new misbehavior detection and reaction mechanisms are proposed and evaluated, and their effect on throughput and fairness is studied. This thesis proposes a new criteria for misbehavior detection: the inter-packet transmission (IPT) time. Nodes maintain a moving average of their own IPT time and also maintain the moving average of neighboring nodes’ IPT times. The ratio of a node’s own IPT time to its neighbors’ IPT time is calculated, and if this ratio exceeds a predetermined threshold, then the presence of misbehavior is detected. When a misbehavior is detected in the network, genuine nodes react by collectively misbehaving, based on the extent of misbehavior in the network, in order to decrease the performance of the misbehaving nodes and also to improve their own performance. It has been shown using extensive simulations that the newly proposed metric of inter-packet transmission time is very effective in designing misbehavior detection and reaction schemes. Reaction effectiveness greater than 85% is achieved in all scenarios considered. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

“Girl Power!” is a message that parents raising young women in today’s media-saturated society should be able to turn to with a modicum of relief from the relentlessly harmful messages normally found within popular music. But what happens when we turn a critical eye toward the messages cloaked within this supposedly feminist missive? A close examination of popular music associated with girl empowerment reveals that many of the messages found within these lyrics are frighteningly just as damaging as the misogynistic, violent, and explicitly sexual ones found in the usual fare of top 100 Hits. In fact, this cooption of feminist messages introduces a new danger in that it masks the commodification of feminism into a marketed brand of heightened sexual awareness (Gill 2008) while promoting traditional male behaviors as equalizing acts of power (Kilbourne 2009 ). / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Liberal Studies

Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Communication / This research describes and analyzes the rhetorical choices made by Tiger Woods in response to the allegations of marital infidelity. This thesis uses qualitative methodology to analyze the image restoration efforts used by Woods to combat this crisis situation. Benoit’s (1995a) image restoration theory is used to examine the statements of self-defense provided by Woods during the time period of November 29, 2009 to March 21, 2010. Each strategy used by Woods is identified, followed by an analysis based on the intended audience. Finally, an analysis of how these strategies work in conjunction with another is conducted. There are three findings from this case study. First, those who find themselves faced with a crisis situation who lack feasible deniability should take responsibility as quickly as possible. Second, strategies primarily intended for one target audience can have significant impact on other target audiences if the initial target audience reacts favorably to those strategies. Third, the strategies of mortification and corrective action complement one another, as an apology becomes much more powerful if the public sees the accused party is taking steps to make sure the crisis does not reoccur.

In this thesis I use organic inquiry as a method to understand the transformative process when studying the collective history of the Great Goddess. The study shines a light on the history of the ancient Great Goddess, the impact of the invention of the alphabet, and how the written word influenced women’s roles and the role of the Divine Feminine as seen through the lens of Leonard Shlain, and additionally, the artistic work of contemporary mystic Meinrad Craighead. The transformative impact of the study is explored through the use of stories as a tool for reclaiming connection to a grounding, creative source. Conclusions are that a sense of wholeness can be lost when a woman loses the tethering balance of both right and left-brained integration and this disconnect can be overcome by seeking connection through telling of personal stories. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Communication

Fibre Channel (FC) is a high-speed data transfer technology used in communication between storage subsystems and computing devices commonly called Storage Area Networks (SAN). A Fibre Channel over TCP/IP enables the connection of FC-SANs isolated by IP networks. This thesis examines the FCIP protocol which is used as FC SAN extensions for SANs geographically separated by Wide Area IP networks. The performance of synchronous mirroring is examined between two SAN islands when operating though an IP network. A mathematical model is developed based on a series of experiments which denotes the characteristics of the FCIP protocol under the presence of varying load mixed IP traffics such as voice and video. The author also investigates performance improvement mechanisms using Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) and IP Quality of Service (QoS). The application of IP QoS to classify data based on priority is used to differentiate mission-critical applications and to apply the appropriate priority schemes. The use of MPLS enables core networks to function with a packet exchange speed closer to that offered by layer 2 switching. This thesis presents a comparison of the real time values against the modeled values. The performance boost observed using IP QoS and MPLS is also presented in this study. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Research and development of graphene and graphene based materials have been increasing significantly since they were invented. This report presents the development of a highly conductive graphene thin film (GTF) to reduce the damage of lightning effects on composite aircrafts. Furthermore, there are three new developments that are presented in this research: (a) the development of a highly conductive functionalized nanosize GTF, (b) a new approach of incorporating the GTF into the carbon fiber reinforced composite panel, and (c) a new development of 3D stitching concept were introduced specifically using polyester threads instead of fiber yarns that can be useful for the applications of aircraft protections against the effects of lightning strike. In addition, graphene was chemically functionalized and oxidized to form GTF. The highest electrical conductivity measured on the GTF was approximately 1800 S/cm. Furthermore, the GTF was then incorporated into the carbon fiber reinforced composite. Delamination was observed between the GTF and the composite. To investigate this issue, the composite was mechanically tested and there was a 40% decrease in tensile strength compared to the baseline. Therefore, 3D stitching concept was then introduced to reduce the delamination. Four stitch configurations having different stitch length, thread to thread thickness, thread tension, and thread thickness respectively were used in this study. 3D stitching was initially done on six sheets of unidirectional prepreg, MTM45-1 without the incorporation of GTF. Furthermore, mechanical testing was carried out and the stitch configuration that delivered the most appropriate result was then further used on twelve sheets of unidirectional prepreg, 5320. Here, three samples which was the baseline, 5320 with and without the incorporation of GTF respectively were prepared and mechanically tested, and the strength values were observed. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering