Understanding informal institutions: Networks and communities in rural development

A major theme within the literature on rural development is that the particular mix of formal and informal institutions present in any situation is a key determinant of development outcomes. However, there is some evidence that in policy and practice there are considerable difficulties in articulating formal organizational realities with the rules and norms embedded in informally constructed social structures. The same difficulty is in evidence in the New Institutional Economics, where the mainstream literature concedes the critical importance of informal and cultural institutions, but has thus far failed to develop an adequate theory of the informal. This recognized weakness is all the more urgent because of the growing emphasis on governance, participation and social learning evident in European rural development policy and practice. A clear understanding of the opportunities and pitfalls that arise in working with informal institutions is required, and therefore theories that provide analytical and operational traction in the 'parallel' realities of the formal and the informal. This paper starts from the point of view that at the heart of the institutional dilemma lies a difficulty in conceptualising the informal social structures in which informal institutions are reproduced. A review of relevant bodies of theory is presented; drawing on sociological network theory, perspectives on governance and social capital, and new developments in the organisational and management literature. These suggest some starting points for a theory of informal social realities and the institutions that structure them. The paper concludes with a presentation of a theoretical framework for understanding informal structures in rural development in terms of networks and communities

Probing New Physics from Top-charm Associated Productions at Linear Colliders

The top-charm associated productions via $e^+ e^-$, $e^- \gamma$ and $\gamma \gamma$ collisions at linear colliders, which are extremely suppressed in the Standard Model (SM), could be significantly enhanced in some extensions of the SM. In this article we calculate the full contribution of the topcolor-assisted technicolor (TC2) to these productions and then compare the results with the existing predictions of the SM, the general two-Higgs-doublet model and the Minimal Supersymmetric Model. We find that the TC2 model predicts much larger production rates than other models and the largest-rate channel is $\gamma \gamma \to t \bar{c}$, which exceeds 10 fb for a large part of the parameter space. From the analysis of the observability of such productions at the future linear colliders, we find that the predictions of the TC2 model can reach the observable level for a large part of the parameter space while the predictions of other models are hardly accessible.Comment: discussions added (version in Eur. Phys. J. C

SPPADBASE: the first on-line searchable database of PCR primers for phytopathogenic fungi

The fast and unambiguous identification of microbial pathogens affecting plants or plant products is an essential prerequisite for obtaining high-quality and safe production. Ecologically friendly practice of the modern agriculture requires the adoption of diagnostic techniques able to detect minimum inoculum levels of pathogens in soil, seeds, transplants or crops, to limit the raise of epidemics and to address the adoption of rational and efficient control means. Moreover, there is an increasing public and official awareness of the potential threat of bio-terrorism directed against food and agriculture (Monke, 2004). Rapid detection techniques for bioweapon agents are a critical need for the first-responder community. Among the nucleic acid-based diagnostic techniques, those involving the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR; Mullis and Faloona, 1987) are the most suited for early detection of phytopathogenic agents, due to their high sensitivity and the potential for automation. Many sequence source types could be selected and used as target for specific primer design. These may include, for instance, Random Amplified Polymorphic DNAs (Williams et al., 1990; Welsh and McClelland, 1990), internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of the ribosomal RNA genes (White et al., 1990) or other specific gene sequences. Primer sets can be designed to target specificity at the genus, species, or physiological race level, to distinguish a particular pathogen from closely related organisms. A common and tedious task for researchers and technicians is to search for and retrieve bibliographic references of published and validated specific primer sets for a given pathogen querying the Internet, abstract collections and monthly journals’ tables of contents. Very few examples of specific primer set collections for phytopathogenic agents have been released: a summary of primers for the diagnostic characterization of phytopathogenic bacteria seems to be the only one printed so far (Louws et al., 1999). Moreover, among 719 molecular biology databases publicly available recorded by Galperin (2006) or among the 2470 BMC biomedical databases catalog available at http://databases.biomedcentral.com/, no online repository of primer sets of this kind is accessible. To overcome this lack of information, we released the first online searchable database of primer sets useful for the detection and identification of plant pathogenic fungi

Linear and nonlinear waves in surface and wedge index potentials

We study optical beams that are supported at the surface of a medium with a linear index potential and by a piecewise linear wedge type potential. In the linear limit the modes are described by Airy functions. In the nonlinear regime we find families of solutions that bifurcate from the linear modes and study their stability for both self-focusing and self-defocusing Kerr nonlinearity. The total power of such nonlinear waves is finite without the need for apodization

Sequential star formation at the periphery of the HII regions Sh 217 and Sh 219

The HII regions Sh 217 and Sh 219 are textbook examples of a Stromgren sphere surrounded by an annular photodissociation region (PDR). The annular PDR is observed in both the 21 cm atomic hydrogen emission and the dust (PAH) emission near 8 micron (MSX Survey). An ultracompact radio continuum source is observed in the direction of the annular PDR, in both Sh 217 and Sh 219. JHKobservations show the presence of highly reddened stellar clusters (AV ~ 20 mag) in the directions of these radio sources. These clusters are also IRAS sources, of luminosities 22700 Lo for Sh 217 and 5900 Lo for Sh 219. Each cluster contains at least one luminous star with an IR colour excess; the one in the Sh 219 cluster shows H-alpha emission. The cluster associated with Sh 217 is almost spherical and contains luminous objects at its centre. The cluster associated with Sh 219 is elongated along the ionization front of this HII region. We argue that these are `second-generation clusters', which means that the physical conditions present in the PDRs, close to the ionization fronts, have favoured the formation of clusters containing massive objects. We discuss the physical mechanisms which may be at the origin of the observed triggered star formation.Comment: 12 pages, Late

Measurement of Friction Pressure Drops in Vertical Slurry and Bubbly Flows

A Three Component Flow Facility (TCFF) was used to study friction pressure drops in vertical two component flows of both air bubbles in water and polyester particle-water mixtures. Friction factors of up to two orders in magnitude higher than those at zero volume fraction were observed for both bubbly and slurry flows. This deviation is shown to decrease with increased liquid Reynolds number. Bubbly and slurry flow friction factors were comparably large in magnitude and displayed the same decreasing trend as a function of Reynolds number. The two phase friction multiplier for bubbly flow was shown to attain values up to one order of magnitude higher than the prediction given by Lockhart and Martinelli. Two phase multiplier data is presented for the dispersed flow regime

The system in the room. The extent to which coaching can change the organization

Synopsis: In this book, each contributor describes the way they use the systemic model in their consultancy practice. Their key ideas are illustrated via a case example (or examples), where possible including detailed accounts of the exercises and techniques they use inspired by systemic thinking. They conclude with a evaluation of the work, pinpointing its strengths and weaknesses and what the contributor learned from it as well as how it might be developed or applied in other situations

Jury deliberation: An observation study.

In this article, the way that the jury works is considered from a group-analytic perspective. Observational fieldwork of simulated jury deliberations is presented. The data was gathered from a joint funded Home Office and Law Commission project at the Socio- Legal Studies Centre, Oxford in 1995. Inferences are drawn from the observations and the unconscious group processes are considered. The efficacy of the jury process is discussed

Tales from the playing field: black and minority ethnic students' experiences of physical education teacher education

This article presents findings from recent research exploring black and minority ethnic (BME) students’ experiences of Physical Education teacher education (PETE) in England (Flintoff, 2008). Despite policy initiatives to increase the ethnic diversity of teacher education cohorts, BME students are under-represented in PETE, making up just 2.94% of the 2007/8 national cohort, the year in which this research was conducted. Drawing on in-depth interviews and questionnaires with 25 BME students in PETE, the study sought to contribute to our limited knowledge and understanding of racial and ethnic difference in PE, and to show how ‘race,’ ethnicity and gender are interwoven in individuals’ embodied, everyday experiences of learning how to teach. In the article, two narratives in the form of fictional stories are used to present the findings. I suggest that narratives can be useful for engaging with the experiences of those previously silenced or ignored within Physical Education (PE); they are also designed to provoke an emotional as well as an intellectual response in the reader. Given that teacher education is a place where we should be engaging students, emotionally and politically, to think deeply about teaching, education and social justice and their place within these, I suggest that such stories of difference might have a useful place within a critical PETE pedagogy