A fragmented Europe in a frail Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to risky contradictions: despite being very “rich” in natural resources, it remains consistently “poor” in solid and legitimate state structures. Europe conducts numerous efforts to strengthen Congolese social and economic infrastructures, offering security and governance support alongside more traditional development projects. But its actions suffer from situational ignorance, fragmentation, and policy frailty. A coherent and strategic (international) approach is urgently needed to provide valuable impetus to the most pressing Congolese needs

Africa’s sore spot: regional conflicts across the Middle and the Horn

Despite positive messages of democratisation and economic growth, sub-Saharan Africa remains afflicted by severe conflicts. The Middle and the Horn host the most widespread and intense of them. Resources and ethnoreligious differences are often part of the equation, but the core problem rests with bad governance. Political elites use underlying frictions to fight regional wars, all too often fuelled by third-party resource grabs. Until regional dynamics are better understood and addressed through conflict management and trade harmonisation, Africa will continue to seriously suffer

Development of new Mn-based oxygen carriers using MgO and SiO2 as supports for Chemical Looping with Oxygen Uncoupling (CLOU)

Chemical Looping with Oxygen Uncoupling (CLOU) is a technological adaptation of CLC, most applicable for the combustion of solid fuels. In the CLOU process, an oxygen carrier in the fuel reactor, avoiding the direct contact of the fuel with the air, releases the oxygen needed for the fuel combustion. The oxygen carrier is regenerated with air in the interconnected air reactor. The present work explores the behavior of the system Mn/Mg/Si as oxygen carriers for chemical-looping with oxygen uncoupling (CLOU). Six different mixed oxides of the system Mn/Mg/Si were investigated for the CLC/CLOU process. Materials were prepared by spray drying with different metal ratios used in the investigation. The properties of interest for the viability of these materials are the lattice oxygen supply for CLC and the gaseous oxygen release for CLOU, properties that were explored in a TGA. Further, the fluidization behavior and the mechanical resistance were investigated in a batch fluidized bed reactor. In the TGA it was observed that the most reactive oxygen carriers for the CLOU process were materials without Si in the structure, more specifically M24Mg76 and M48Mg51 which had a molar ratio of Mn/Mg of 0.17 and 0.51 respectively. It was also observed that for the oxygen carriers with Si in the composition, the regeneration was very poor. Oxygen carriers M24Mg76 and M48Mg51 were selected for batch fluidized bed reactor testing showing good behavior with respect to the CLOU reactivity, and mechanical stability. One of the materials, the M24Mg76 showed activation during the experiments in the batch fluidized bed reactor experiments, increasing the oxygen transport capacity by 20 % during the experiment. However, 10 vol% of O2 was needed to regenerate both oxygen carriers at 850 \ub0C. No agglomeration tendencies were seen, and the attrition rate was low, obtaining high-extrapolated lifetime values. The fact that highly reactive oxygen carriers can be made with cheap and highly available metals oxides, i.e. Mn and Mg, makes this system very promising and a possible alternative to benchmark Cu-based CLOU materials

Making connections and promoting the profession : social media use by World Federation of Occupational Therapists member organisations

Background World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) member organisations comprise 77 national occupational therapy organisations across the world. Each national organisation interacts with its members and the public using diverse methods. Increasingly, national organisations are broadening their communication methods. Objective The objective of this study was to examine if and how occupational therapy organisations are using social media for communication, and if so, the types of concerns or barriers they experience and what role they anticipate social media might play in the near future. Methods An online survey was developed; 57 of 77 WFOT member organisations responded. Findings This study identified that WFOT national organisations are using social media, to varying degrees, with or without an individual formally assigned to manage social media. Respondents reported that they used social media to: communicate with members, promote the organisation and promote the profession. Commonly expressed needs included assistance with guidelines for ethical social media use, developing technical expertise, and recognition of limits of time and competing priorities. Recommendations arising from this research are at the global, national, local and individual levels and incorporate active dissemination and pure diffusion approaches. Taking steps to increase the use of social media could indirectly impact occupational therapy practice through enhancing organisations’ abilities to support practitioners to enhance their practice. Limitations and recommendations for further research Although 57% of WFOT member organisations returned usable responses, there may be some additional perspectives that were not captured. It would be helpful to contact non-responding organisations to explore their social media use and plans. Further research could examine how future initiatives put in place by WFOT impact social media use by member organisation

HER2 testing in breast cancer: Opportunities and challenges

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is overexpressed in 15-25% of breast cancers, usually as a result of HER2 gene amplification. Positive HER2 status is considered to be an adverse prognostic factor. Recognition of the role of HER2 in breast cancer growth has led to the development of anti-HER2 directed therapy, with the humanized monoclonal antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin (R)) having been approved for the therapy of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Clinical studies have further suggested that HER2 status can provide important information regarding success or failure of certain hormonal therapies or chemotherapies. As a result of these developments, there has been increasing demand to perform HER2 testing on current and archived breast cancer specimens. This article reviews the molecular background of HER2 function, activation and inhibition as well as current opinions concerning its role in chemosensitivity and interaction with estrogen receptor biology. The different tissue-based assays used to detect HER2 amplification and overexpression are discussed with respect to their advantages and disadvantages, when to test (at initial diagnosis or pre-treatment), where to test (locally or centralized) and the need for quality assurance to ensure accurate and valid testing results

Direct recordings of grid-like neuronal activity in human spatial navigation

Grid cells in the entorhinal cortex appear to represent spatial location via a triangular coordinate system. Such cells, which have been identified in rats, bats and monkeys, are believed to support a wide range of spatial behaviors. Recording neuronal activity from neurosurgical patients performing a virtual-navigation task, we identified cells exhibiting grid-like spiking patterns in the human brain, suggesting that humans and simpler animals rely on homologous spatial-coding schemes

Is the superior verbal memory span of Mandarin speakers due to faster rehearsal?

It is well established that digit span in native Chinese speakers is atypically high. This is commonly attributed to a capacity for more rapid subvocal rehearsal for that group. We explored this hypothesis by testing a group of English-speaking native Mandarin speakers on digit span and word span in both Mandarin and English, together with a measure of speed of articulation for each. When compared to the performance of native English speakers, the Mandarin group proved to be superior on both digit and word spans while predictably having lower spans in English. This suggests that the Mandarin advantage is not limited to digits. Speed of rehearsal correlated with span performance across materials. However, this correlation was more pronounced for English speakers than for any of the Chinese measures. Further analysis suggested that speed of rehearsal did not provide an adequate account of differences between Mandarin and English spans or for the advantage of digits over words. Possible alternative explanations are discussed

Fatigue testing of three peristernal median sternotomy closure techniques

Failure of a sternotomy closure because of closure system fatigue is a complication that may result in dehiscence and put the individual at risk for serious complications. The purpose of this study was to assess the fatigue performance of three peristernal median sternotomy closure techniques (figure-of-eight stainless-steel wires, figure-of-eight stainless-steel cables, or Pectofix Dynamic Sternal Fixation [DSF] stainless-steel plates) in order to quantify the potential risk of fatigue failure of these devices when subject to cyclic loads in physiologically relevant loading directions