Rethinking Film Festivals in the Pandemic Era and After

This is an open access book. This edited collection aims to document the effects of Covid-19 on film festivals and to theorize film festivals in the age of social distancing. To some extent, this crisis begs us to consider what happens when festivals can’t happen; while films have found new (temporary) channels of distribution (most often in the forms of digital releases), the festival format appears particularly vulnerable in pandemic times. Imperfect measures, such as the move to a digital format, cannot recapture the communal experience at the very core of festivals. Given the global nature of the pandemic and the diversity of the festival phenomenon, this book features a wide range of case studies and analytical frameworks. With contributors including established scholars and frontline festival workers, the book is conceived as both a theoretical endeavour and a practical exploration of festival organizing in pandemic times

Understanding Structural, Governance and Regulatory Incentives for Improved Utility Performance: A Comparative Analysis of Electricity Utilities in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda

Electricity utilities in most African countries have failed to deliver adequate, reliable and competitively priced electricity to support economic growth and improve the welfare of their populations. Despite more than two decades of power sector reforms, outcomes have been varied and often disappointing with many utilities still experiencing challenges in service delivery, operational efficiency and financial sustainability. Power sector and regulatory reforms involve changes to structural, regulatory and governance frameworks and incentives that potentially impact utility performance in Africa. This thesis draws on the literature of power sector reforms and applies a Principal–Agent theory lens to obtain a deeper understanding of the dynamics between principals (government/regulators/capital providers) and agents (utility managers) and how these impact on performance. A comparative case study analysis was undertaken of power utilities in three East Africa countries that have experienced different levels of reform: TANESCO in Tanzania, KPLC in Kenya and Umeme in Uganda. TANESCO remains a vertically integrated, state-owned utility and has performed the worst. KPLC is an unbundled, mixed capital utility, with a partial listing on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, but still majority government owned, and has performed better. Umeme is fully unbundled, operates as a private concession, is also listed on the stock exchange, and is the most financially sustainable of the three utilities. However, this ranking between the three utilities is not consistent across all performance measures, and an analysis of structural, governance and regulatory incentives, principal–agent dynamics – examining issues such as information asymmetry, moral hazard, adverse selection, amongst others – provides deeper insights into how reforms have impacted technical and economic performance. Findings also show that: (i) the deeper and more extensive the power sector reforms, the more incentives there are for improved performance; (ii) while the existence of an independent regulator is important, capability issues are also critical; (iii) private concessions provide deeper incentives for improved performance; (iv) strong management incentives are critical for the success of any utility; and (v) private capital, either through equity or debt financing, imposes additional compliance obligations and incentives for improved utility performance

Ultrasensitive detection of toxocara canis excretory-secretory antigens by a nanobody electrochemical magnetosensor assay.

peer reviewedHuman Toxocariasis (HT) is a zoonotic disease caused by the migration of the larval stage of the roundworm Toxocara canis in the human host. Despite of being the most cosmopolitan helminthiasis worldwide, its diagnosis is elusive. Currently, the detection of specific immunoglobulins IgG against the Toxocara Excretory-Secretory Antigens (TES), combined with clinical and epidemiological criteria is the only strategy to diagnose HT. Cross-reactivity with other parasites and the inability to distinguish between past and active infections are the main limitations of this approach. Here, we present a sensitive and specific novel strategy to detect and quantify TES, aiming to identify active cases of HT. High specificity is achieved by making use of nanobodies (Nbs), recombinant single variable domain antibodies obtained from camelids, that due to their small molecular size (15kDa) can recognize hidden epitopes not accessible to conventional antibodies. High sensitivity is attained by the design of an electrochemical magnetosensor with an amperometric readout with all components of the assay mixed in one single step. Through this strategy, 10-fold higher sensitivity than a conventional sandwich ELISA was achieved. The assay reached a limit of detection of 2 and15 pg/ml in PBST20 0.05% or serum, spiked with TES, respectively. These limits of detection are sufficient to detect clinically relevant toxocaral infections. Furthermore, our nanobodies showed no cross-reactivity with antigens from Ascaris lumbricoides or Ascaris suum. This is to our knowledge, the most sensitive method to detect and quantify TES so far, and has great potential to significantly improve diagnosis of HT. Moreover, the characteristics of our electrochemical assay are promising for the development of point of care diagnostic systems using nanobodies as a versatile and innovative alternative to antibodies. The next step will be the validation of the assay in clinical and epidemiological contexts

Multibody Systems with Flexible Elements

Multibody systems with flexible elements represent mechanical systems composed of many elastic (and rigid) interconnected bodies meeting a functional, technical, or biological assembly. The displacement of each or some of the elements of the system is generally large and cannot be neglected in mechanical modeling. The study of these multibody systems covers many industrial fields, but also has applications in medicine, sports, and art. The systematic treatment of the dynamic behavior of interconnected bodies has led to an important number of formalisms for multibody systems within mechanics. At present, this formalism is used in large engineering fields, especially robotics and vehicle dynamics. The formalism of multibody systems offers a means of algorithmic analysis, assisted by computers, and a means of simulating and optimizing an arbitrary movement of a possibly high number of elastic bodies in the connection. The domain where researchers apply these methods are robotics, simulations of the dynamics of vehicles, biomechanics, aerospace engineering (helicopters and the behavior of cars in a gravitational field), internal combustion engines, gearboxes, transmissions, mechanisms, the cellulose industry, simulation of particle behavior (granulated particles and molecules), dynamic simulation, military applications, computer games, medicine, and rehabilitation

Translating Early Modern Science (Volume 51)

Translating Early Modern Science explores the roles of translation and the practices of translators in early modern Europe. In a period when multiple European vernaculars challenged the hegemony long held by Latin as the language of learning, translation assumed a heightened significance. This volume illustrates how the act of translating texts and images was an essential component in the circulation and exchange of scientific knowledge. It also makes apparent that translation was hardly ever an end in itself; rather it was also a livelihood, a way of promoting the translator’s own ideas, and a means of establishing the connections that in turn constituted far-reaching scientific networks

JETC (Japanese Technology Evaluation Center) Panel Report on High Temperature Superconductivity in Japan

The Japanese regard success in R and D in high temperature superconductivity as an important national objective. The results of a detailed evaluation of the current state of Japanese high temperature superconductivity development are provided. The analysis was performed by a panel of technical experts drawn from U.S. industry and academia, and is based on reviews of the relevant literature and visits to Japanese government, academic and industrial laboratories. Detailed appraisals are presented on the following: Basic research; superconducting materials; large scale applications; processing of superconducting materials; superconducting electronics and thin films. In all cases, comparisons are made with the corresponding state-of-the-art in the United States