Energy and Society: Public Views and Responses to the Emerging Energy Regime

This work represents an exploratory study of public attitudes about energy availability and measures related to addressing shortfalls in energy supplies. The study also examines household responses to increased energy costs during this earliest stages of a potential new energy regime. The study finds mixed views about energy availability, especially in the foreseeable future. Despite this, the study finds overwhelming support for energy conservation and alternative energy development. The study also finds that recent increases in energy costs caused substantial financial and economic hardships among Ohio households.The Social Responsibility Initiativ

Local governments that offer greater incentives for businessesdo not retrench welfare services

In the pursuit of economic development and growth, many local governments in the US are increasingly turning to offering lucrative incentives to businesses such as tax incentives, loans and other subsidies. Many scholars and commentators have become concerned that these incentives are going hand in hand with the gutting of social welfare services. In new research, Lazarus Adua and Linda Lobao find no such relationship between counties putting in place business incentives and cutting services. In fact, such counties were actually more likely to provide a greater number of social services

Equatorial Guinea Perspectives on the United States: the significance of American Missionary Activities and Internal Equatoguinean Politics (Expanded Version)

Equatorial Guinea is a small country in western Central Africa, consisting of three physically separate major territories and a number of tiny islands. The major territories are Rio Muni, which is on the continent sandwiched between Cameroon and Gabon, and the insular territories of Bioko (formally Fernando Po) in the Bight of Biafra and Annobon, which is about 357 kilometers off the coast and just south of the equator. The tiny islands are Corisco, Belobi, Mbane, Conga, Cocotiers, and Elobey, all located off the coast of Rio Muni. Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa. It gained independence from Spain on 12 October 1968. Since independence, the country's politics has been dominated by the Esangui clan, from the Mongomo district on the mainland. Equatorial Guinea is among Africa's top oil-producing nations and for that reason has become a major commercial partner of the United States. This small country, with just over a half-million people, is currently the fourth-largest recipient of U.S. foreign direct investment in sub-Saharan Africa, surpassed only by the much larger countries of Nigeria, South Africa, and Angola.National profile; Relations with the United States; From Mid 1800 to 1979; Relations during the Presidency of Francisco Macias Nguema; Relations after the Overthrow of the Macias Nguema Regime; Perspectives on the United States; Post-Macias Nguema Era; Popular culture; September 11; Outlook for the Coming Year

Decoding the mechanism of hypertension through multiomics profiling

Hypertension, characterised by a constant high blood pressure, is the primary risk factor for multiple cardiovascular events and a major cause of death in adults. Excitingly, innovations in high-throughput technologies have enabled the global exploration of the whole genome (genomics), revealing dysregulated genes that are linked to hypertension. Moreover, post-genomic biomarkers, from the emerging fields of transcriptomics, proteomics, glycomics and lipidomics, have provided new insights into the molecular underpinnings of hypertension. In this paper, we review the pathophysiology of hypertension, and highlight the multi-omics approaches for hypertension prediction and diagnosis

N-Glycosylation profiles as a risk stratification biomarker for Type II Diabetes Mellitus and its associated factors

Worldwide, the prevalence of cardiometabolic diseases, particularly type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and to a lesser extent, metabolic syndrome (MetS), has increased dramatically. Despite this increase, there is still a lack of robust biomarkers for cardiometabolic diseases to secure better clinical outcomes. The enzymatic attachment of oligosaccharides (glycans) to proteins-glycosylation is of metabolic and physiological significance, as exploring aberrations of glycosylation profiles can reveal novel biomarkers. In parallel, this process could also explain the biological mechanisms that underpin a suboptimal health status (SHS), a reversible subclinical stage of a cardiometabolic disease. However, studies on the correlation between glycosylation and MetS/T2DM are scarce and none has thus far been performed on a West African population. Thus, the overall aim of this thesis was to explore complementary biomarker panels of healthy and diseased patients considered relevant to Ghanaian residents. The thesis is structured in the form of five related studies, each addressing a specific aim. From January 2016 to October 2016, a longitudinal case-control study comprising 253 T2DM patients and 260 controls, aged 18-80 years was conducted in Ghana. Fasting plasma samples were collected for clinical assessment, after which plasma N-glycans were analysed by Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) and statistical analyses performed. Central adiposity, underweight, high systolic blood pressure (SBP), high diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and high triglycerides (TG) were found to be independent risk factors associated with high SHS after adjusting for age and gender (Study I). SHS score was associated with age, physical inactivity, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), TG and MetS. MetS was associated with increased high branching (HB), trigalactosylated (G3), antennary fucosylated (FUC_A), triantennary (TRIA) and decreased low branching (LB) glycan structures (Study II). The levels of HB, G3, FUC_A, and TRIA N-glycans were increased in T2DM whereas levels of LB, non-sialylated (S0), monogalactosylation (G1), core fucosylation (FUC_C), biantennary galactosylation (A2G) and biantennary (BA) Nglycans were decreased compared to controls (Study III). Biguanides alone, or in combination with sulfonylurea and thiazolidinedione, did not improve glycaemic status at follow-up. Many participants using angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors achieved desired targets for blood pressure control while statins were effective for control of plasma lipids (Study IV). At a population level, the variability of N-glycan structures ranged from 11% to 56% at both baseline and follow-up, with an average coefficient of variation of 28% and 29%, respectively. The intra-individual N-glycan peak (GP) variations were minor except for GP1 and GP29. However, there were no statistically significant differences in N-glycosylation profiles from baseline to follow-up (Study V). This thesis shows an association between SHS and MetS/T2DM while MetS and T2DM are characterised by increased levels of complex N-glycan structures, and these structures are stable in T2DM over six months. Many of the findings in this thesis agree with earlier studies from Chinese and Croatian populations with major differences attributed to genetic and environmental factors. Future longitudinal studies are required to provide a better understanding of the transition from SHS to T2DM, as well as to validate N-glycans as generic risk stratification biomarkers for a general population

MACHINE-READABLE TRAVEL DOCUMENTS IN AVIATION SECURITY AND INFORMATION PRIVACY: AN ISLAMIC LAW PERSPECTIVE

For the purpose of preventing civil aviation offences and maintaining security of civil aviation, passengers are required to give biometric information which must  be stored in the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) approved Machine Readable Travel Documents (MTRDs) and that such information obtained should be adequately secured against skimming and eavesdropping. Since its inception, many countries including the Islamic countries have adopted the machine to process information of passengers coming in and going out of their states. Academic writers have written on the challenges of skimming and eavesdropping as they are related to information privacy versus aviation security in the conventional law but the Islamic law position has not been dealt with. The article therefore attempts to explore the Islamic law position on the use of Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTDs) and the challenges being posed to aviation security. The paper is qualitative in nature and relies on primary and secondary sources of Islamic law to argue its position. The paper finds that Islamic law expressly preserves individual’s information privacy and that skimming and eavesdropping are allowed to promote public security and prevention of evil. Its further provides punishment for whoever transgresses against information privacy. It concludes that the adoption of MRTDs to obtain information about private affairs of passengers is in line with the principle of Islamic law

The role of social workers in curbing girl marriages : a FAMSA case study

Girl marriage has been identified by the United Nations (2015) as a harmful practice and it has been listed as one of the global agendas to be ended by 2030. In South Africa, protecting children from violence, exploitation and abuse is not only a basic value, but also an obligation clearly set out in the Bill of Rights as enshrined in the South African Constitution (RSA, 1996). Girl marriage is prevalent in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape (Department of Social Development, 2015; Byrne, 2017). The goal of the study was to explore and describe social workers’ role at FAMSA in curbing girl marriages. The qualitative study had both exploratory and descriptive research goals. It was an applied study and used a case study design. The study population was FAMSA social workers in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. The sample of the study was selected purposively and included 12 participants. The data was collected through face-to-face semi-structured interviews and data was analysed thematically. Findings indicate that girls are vulnerable to early marriage owing to socioeconomic conditions, self and peer pressure, patriarchal culture, stereotypes and religion. These incentives result in long-term consequences entailing missed opportunities for development, affecting the girls’ and their children’s futures. Social workers contribute to curbing girl marriages through life skills education in schools, which empowers girls to become activists claiming their rights. Social workers also engage in awareness campaigns against girl marriage through dialogues, workshops, public meetings and radio talks. The lack of stakeholder co-ordination, partnerships, organisational resources and clear policy guidelines was identified as an obstacle in curtailing girl marriage. The study concludes that the structural reasons and aftermaths of girl marriage are interconnected and should be collectively addressed through stakeholder coordination, partnerships, resource mobilisation, policy development and implementation. Recommendations include creating a platform for dialogue among all stakeholders, strengthening existing programmes to include topics on girl marriage, developing a peer education programme in schools and developing policy to end girl marriages.Mini Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2019.Social Work and CriminologyMSWUnrestricte

Back-testing the VaR risk measure: an empirical study

This thesis verifies the worst case losses (Value-at-Risk) of financial returns over a specified time period with a certain level of confidence. The measurement of VaR hinges on the distribution of investment returns. In order to test whether or not the VaR model accurately represents reality, back-testing is carried out for one day horizon for a yearly rolling window. The standard VaR parametric model which is based on normal distribution of returns is tested on real data. Findings are that this model is better for historical VaR estimation for bigger exceedance probabilities such as 5%, 1%, 2% etc, while the Student’s t-distribution seems to be better for smaller exceedance probabilities such as 0.5%, 0.1% etc

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL WORKERS IN CURBING GIRL MARRIAGES: A FAMSA CASE STUDY

Girl marriage is a global problem which is also prevalent in South Africa. It imposes on the rights of children and is recognised as a harmful practice (United Nations, 2015). This paper reports on a case study with social workers of the Families and Marriage Society of South Africa (FAMSA) in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng. The study concludes that the developmental approach presents a framework for social workers to curb girl marriages. Resources, coordination among stakeholders, monitoring of programmes, interventions and policies are required to curb girl marriage. A rights-based policy and enforcement and monitoring of existing policies that protect children are key to ending the practice of girl marriage