Culture, Beliefs, Attitude and Peer Group Influence on Female Genital Mutilation in Southeast Nigeria

Background: Female Genital Mutilation is still practiced in Ebonyi State in Southeast Nigeria, despite the complications that follows it and government legislation against the practice. Aim: To determine the impact of Culture, Beliefs, attitude and Peer Group Influence on the persistence Female Genital Mutilation practice in the State especially in the rural areas. Materials and Methods: Qualitative study that used Focused Group Discussion and In-depth interviews for data collection. Those willing and given consent were recruited into the group discussion according to age, marital status, educational level and their location in the state. In-depth interviews were used with the Stake Holders, Opinion Leaders, Traditional Rulers and the Clergy. Result: A total of 454 participants were recruited from the 13 local government areas of Ebonyi State but only 420 (92.5%) participated. The age ranges of participants were 25 to 35 years for single males and females while the married participants male and female were aged 35 to 70 years. One hundred single females (23.8%) and 94 single males (21.4%) participated while 97 (23.1%) married women and 95 (22.6%) married men participated. Out of the 26 health workers recruited only 22 (5.2%) participated. Four traditional rulers, 4 women leaders, 4 youth leaders and 2 clergy 12 (2.9%) in number had in-depth interviews. All the participants had knowledge of FGM and its practice. Rural health workers are getting more involved. ‘Female Genital Crushing’ is replacing actual cutting. The participants all agreed there is no benefit and the practice should stop. Conclusion: Female Genital Mutilation is secretly practiced and is getting replaced by “Female Genital Crushing” perpetrated by rural health workers as well as mothers, fathers, traditional birth attendants and the peer group playing a major role with low knowledge of the Law against Female genital mutilation.

Efficient Algorithms for Maximizing Group Influence in Social Networks

In social network applications,individual opinion is often influenced by groups,and most decisions usually reflect the majority’s opinions.This imposes the group influence maximization(GIM) problem that selects k initial nodes,where each node belongs to multiple groups for a given social network and each group has a weight,to maximize the weight of the eventually activated groups.The GIM problem is apparently NP-hard,given the NP-hardness of the influence maximization(IM) problem that does not consider groups.Focusing on activating groups rather than individuals,this paper proposes the complementary maximum coverage(CMC) algorithm,which greedily and iteratively removes the node with the approximate least group influence until at most k nodes remain.Although the evaluation of the current group influence against each node is only approximate,it nevertheless ensures the success of activating an approximate maximum number of groups.Moreover,we also propose the improved reverse influence sampling(IRIS) algorithm through fine-tuning of the renowned reverse influence sampling algorithm for GIM.Finally,we carry out experiments to evaluate CMC and IRIS,demonstrating that they both outperform the baseline algorithms respective of their average number of activated groups under the independent cascade(IC)model.

The Influence of Familial Reference Groups on Consumer Decisions in Different Culture Context

This paper examines the influence of familial reference groups on individuals＇ product and brand decisions for products across two kinds of culture. The study is addressed through an examination of intergenerational influences across the two different cultures. The results of the study lend support to the original approach and also provide an insight look into how reference group influence may vary depending on different culture context. The paper also provides very useful advice for marketers when they apply western marketing concepts in China market.

The influence of OH groups on laser performance in phosphate glasses

Because of the influence of OH groups in phosphate glasses on the radiation of rare-earth ions, the laser performance is degraded. The laser efficiency and the small signal gain experiment of several phosphate glass samples have been done, the concentration of OH groups in glasses was calculated from the measured absorption coefficient at 3.47 μm. It is shown that the concentration of OH groups in phosphate glasses can seriously influence the laser output characteristics, and the OH groups have worse influence on the laser amplifier than laser oscillator.

Influence of OH groups on 1.5-um emission of Yb_(3+)/Er_(3+) co-doped tungsten-tellurite glasses

The Yb3+/Er3+ co-doped TeO2-WO3-ZnO glasses bubbling with different times were prepared. The infrared (IR) transmission spectra, emission spectra and fluorescence lifetime of Er3+ at 1.5 um were measured. The quench effects of OH groups on emission intensity of Er3+ at 1.5 um as well as the relationships between fluorescence decay rate and OH group content were investigated. The constant kOH-Er which represents the strength of the interactions between Er3+ ions and OH groups, is approximately 17.0×10-20 cm4/s, and is comparable to that for Er3+ in Yb3+/Er3+ co-doped phosphate glasses.

Personalities in a crowd： What shapes the behaviour of Eurasian perch and other shoaling fishes？

Lately, there has been an increasing interest in intraspeciflc variation in behaviour, and numerous studies on persona- lity have been performed in a variety of animals, including several fish species. Individuals have been divided into coping style categories or arranged along a behaviour gradient, such as the bold/shy continuum. However, many fish species live in groups, and the social environment can influence the behaviour of an animal in different ways. There may be conflicts within groups due to competition for resources, and dominance hierarchies are commonly found. On the other hand, there are many benefits of con- sensus decision-making within the group. Conformity of behaviour is probably adaptive, due to the benefit of public information on, for example, food resources and predation risk. Accordingly, studies of fish shoals have found evidence of consensus deci- sion-making. Furthermore, factors in the environment, such as predation risk would also influence the behaviour expressed. To be able to understand behaviour patterns in a group of fish, it is necessary to consider the variation of individual characteristics, and how the group, as well as other environmental factors, affects the behaviour of individuals. Here, I will review studies on different aspects of personality within a social context in fish, with a special emphasis on the Eurasian perch Percafluviatilis [Current Zo- ology 58 （1）： 35-44, 2012].