African Women in the Entrepreneurial Landscape: reconsidering the formal and informal sectors

Informal and formal can be seen as «dual economies» of African countries. Governments often concern themselves with the formal, while development agencies often support the informal. This paper discusses the full landscape of entrepreneurship, considering both sectors, and the range from small to large within each. It queries whether or not there can be movement within and between sectors, and if the «rages to riches» upward movement, as seen in developed countries, is possible in developing ones. The range of women in traditional micro enterprises to the emerging new generation of African women owners of large‑scale companies are discussed in particular, but the research applies to both men and women. A paradigm of the entrepreneurial landscape will be presented with variables that consider demographics; types of typical enterprises and firms; product sourcing and markets; start‑up capital; and movement within and between the sectors. Some conclusions are that the informal‑formal distinction has been useful to disentangle the landscape, but movement between may not be substantial other than minor taxation for sites and services because of the entry requirements of capital, education, business networks, etc. Similarly, within the formal sector of small to medium to large businesses, there is some movement but they too are limited by access to capital, networks, market intelligence and niches, and product innovation. Nevertheless, there is a growing cadre of women at the top who both confound researchers/donors and provide role models for success within their societies.O informal e o formal podem ser vistos como «economias duais» dos países africanos. Os governos normalmente ocupam‑se do formal enquanto as agências de desenvolvimento apoiam frequentemente o informal. Neste texto discute‑se o panorama abrangente do empreendorismo, tendo em consideração ambos os sectores e as dimensões – de maiores a menores – das actividades que estes comportam. Questiona‑se a possibilidade de existir mobilidade dentro e entre os sectores e se a mobilidade ascendente – «de muito pobre a rico» – que se verifica nos países desenvolvidos é possível nos países em desenvolvimento. Discute‑se em particular um conjunto abrangente, desde as mulheres em micro‑empresas tradicionais às novas gerações de mulheres africanas proprietárias de grandes empresas, embora a pesquisa se aplique quer a homens quer a mulheres. Apresenta‑se um paradigma do panorama empresarial, com variáveis que têm em conta a demografia, os tipos de empresas e estabelecimentos típicos, o acesso aos produtos e aos mercados, o capital inicial e a mobilidade dentro e entre sectores. Algumas das conclusões são que a distinção informal‑formal tem sido útil para compreender o panorama mas que o movimento entre um e outro sector pode não ser substancialmente positivo, excepto em termos de redução das taxas sobre estabelecimentos e serviços devido às exigências no que diz respeito ao capital, à educação, redes de negócio, etc. Da mesma forma, no sector formal e desde as pequenas às médias e grandes empresas, existe alguma mobilidade que, contudo, é igualmente limitada devido ao acesso ao capital, às redes, ao conhecimento do mercado e dos seus nichos, às inovações. Apesar disso, existe um conjunto crescente de mulheres no topo, o que intriga os investigadores e os doadores ao mesmo tempo que servem de modelos de sucesso nas suas sociedades

African Women in the Entrepreneurial Landscape: reconsidering the formal and informal sectors

Informal and formal can be seen as «dual economies» of African countries. Governments oTen concern themselves with the formal, while development agencies oTen support the informal. This paper discusses the full landscape of entrepreneurship, considering both sectors, and the range from small to large within each. It queries whether or not there can be movement within and between sectors, and if the «rages to riches» upward movement, as seen in developed countries, is possible in developing ones. The range of women in traditional micro enterprises to the emerging new generation of African women owners of large ‑scale companies are discussed in particular, but the research applies to both men and women. A paradigm of the entrepreneurial landscape will be presented with variables that consider demographics; types of typical enterprises and firms; product sourcing and markets; start ‑up capital; and movement within and between the sectors. Some conclusions are that the informal ‑formal distinction has been useful to disentangle the landscape, but movement between may not be substantial other than minor taxation for sites and services because of the entry requirements of capital, education, business networks, etc. Similarly, within the formal sector of small to medium to large businesses, there is some movement but they too are limited by access to capital, networks, market intelligence and niches, and product innovation. Nevertheless, there is a growing cadre of women at the top who both confound researchers/donors and provide role models for success within their societies.O informal e o formal podem ser vistos como «economias duais» dos países africanos. Os governos normalmente ocupam ‑se do formal enquanto as agências de desenvolvimento apoiam frequentemente o informal. Neste texto discute ‑se o panorama abrangente do empreendorismo, tendo em consideração ambos os sectores e as dimensões – de maiores a menores – das actividades que estes comportam. Questiona ‑se a possibilidade de existir mobilidade dentro e entre os sectores e se a mobilidade ascendente – «de muito pobre a rico» – que se verifica nos países desenvolvidos é possível nos países em desenvolvimento. Discute ‑se em particular um conjunto abrangente, desde as mulheres em micro ‑empresas tradicionais às novas gerações de mulheres africanas proprietárias de grandes empresas, embora a pesquisa se aplique quer a homens quer a mulheres. Apresenta ‑se um paradigma do panorama empresarial, com variáveis que têm em conta a demografia, os tipos de empresas e estabelecimentos típicos, o acesso aos produtos e aos mercados, o capital inicial e a mobilidade dentro e entre sectores. Algumas das conclusões são que a distinção informal ‑formal tem sido útil para compreender o panorama mas que o movimento entre um e outro sector pode não ser substancialmente positivo, excepto em termos de redução das taxas sobre estabelecimentos e serviços devido às exigências no que diz respeito ao capital, à educação, redes de negócio, etc. Da mesma forma, no sector formal e desde as pequenas às médias e grandes empresas, existe alguma mobilidade que, contudo, é igualmente limitada devido ao acesso ao capital, às redes, ao conhecimento do mercado e dos seus nichos, às inovações. Apesar disso, existe um conjunto crescente de mulheres no topo, o que intriga os investigadores e os doadores ao mesmo tempo que servem de modelos de sucesso nas suas sociedades

Combination Treatment with Sublethal Ionizing Radiation and the Proteasome Inhibitor, Bortezomib, Enhances Death-Receptor Mediated Apoptosis and Anti-Tumor Immune Attack

Sub-lethal doses of radiation can modulate gene expression, making tumor cells more susceptible to T-cell-mediated immune attack. Proteasome inhibitors demonstrate broad anti-tumor activity in clinical and pre-clinical cancer models. Here, we use a combination treatment of proteasome inhibition and irradiation to further induce immunomodulation of tumor cells that could enhance tumor-specific immune responses. We investigate the effects of the 26S proteasome inhibitor, bortezomib, alone or in combination with radiotherapy, on the expression of immunogenic genes in normal colon and colorectal cancer cell lines. We examined cells for changes in the expression of several death receptors (DR4, DR5 and Fas) commonly used by T cells for killing of target cells. Our results indicate that the combination treatment resulted in increased cell surface expression of death receptors by increasing their transcript levels. The combination treatment further increases the sensitivity of carcinoma cells to apoptosis through FAS and TRAIL receptors but does not change the sensitivity of normal non-malignant epithelial cells. Furthermore, the combination treatment significantly enhances tumor cell killing by tumor specific CD8+ T cells. This study suggests that combining radiotherapy and proteasome inhibition may simultaneously enhance tumor immunogenicity and the induction of antitumor immunity by enhancing tumor-specific T-cell activity

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

African Women in the Entrepreneurial Landscape: reconsidering the formal and informal sectors

Informal and formal can be seen as «dual economies» of African countries. Governments often concern themselves with the formal, while development agencies often support the informal. This paper discusses the full landscape of entrepreneurship, considering both sectors, and the range from small to large within each. It queries whether or not there can be movement within and between sectors, and if the «rages to riches» upward movement, as seen in developed countries, is possible in developing ones. The range of women in traditional micro enterprises to the emerging new generation of African women owners of large‑scale companies are discussed in particular, but the research applies to both men and women. A paradigm of the entrepreneurial landscape will be presented with variables that consider demographics; types of typical enterprises and firms; product sourcing and markets; start‑up capital; and movement within and between the sectors. Some conclusions are that the informal‑formal distinction has been useful to disentangle the landscape, but movement between may not be substantial other than minor taxation for sites and services because of the entry requirements of capital, education, business networks, etc. Similarly, within the formal sector of small to medium to large businesses, there is some movement but they too are limited by access to capital, networks, market intelligence and niches, and product innovation. Nevertheless, there is a growing cadre of women at the top who both confound researchers/donors and provide role models for success within their societies

The 2030 Agenda as Agenda Setting Event for Water Governance? Evidence from the Cuautla River Basin in Morelos and Mexico

Policy science has developed various approaches, such as agenda-setting and goal-setting theory, aimed at explaining the emergence of policy shifts and behavioural changes. The 2030 Agenda sets an ambitious vision for human development in times of global environmental change and makes for an interesting subject to study the explanatory power of these approaches. While the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) enshrined in the 2030 Agenda resulted from a process of intergovernmental negotiations, they will ultimately have to be implemented by national governments. Using the case of Mexico, we take the governance of water as a starting point to investigate whether the 2030 Agenda has indeed become a focusing event for sustainability transformation. Building on data from 33 expert interviews and findings of a Social Network Analysis of communications between water stakeholders from different sectors in the Cuautla River Basin, we conclude that major paradigm shifts in water governance in Mexico are thus far rather attributable to domestic focusing events and windows of opportunity than to the motivating impact of globally set goals. The Mexican case also illustrates that the implementation of the 2030 Agenda is strongly dependent on political will at the highest level. Ensuring the continuity of its implementation across administrations will, therefore, require mainstreaming and anchoring the SDGs into the sectorial strategies that determine activities at the lower working level of government