Of Masks and Masculinities in Africa

Contemporary forms of precarity, migration, connectivity, and sociality have transformed what it means to be a man in many African communities. Responding with agency and creativity to various incentives and constraints, Africans have adapted practices pertaining to labour, marriage, and sexuality to the exigencies of modern life amid the impacts of European colonialism, rapid urban growth, economic hardship, and political conflict. Drawing upon ethnographic and historical research to study settings in East, West, and Southern Africa, the articles in this special issue review the social changes that have taken place regarding men's roles and assess prospects for the emergence of counter-hegemonic masculinities.</p

Of Masks and Masculinities in Africa

Contemporary forms of precarity, migration, connectivity, and sociality have transformed what it means to be a man in many African communities. Responding with agency and creativity to various incentives and constraints, Africans have adapted practices pertaining to labour, marriage, and sexuality to the exigencies of modern life amid the impacts of European colonialism, rapid urban growth, economic hardship, and political conflict. Drawing upon ethnographic and historical research to study settings in East, West, and Southern Africa, the articles in this special issue review the social changes that have taken place regarding men's roles and assess prospects for the emergence of counter-hegemonic masculinities.</p

Of Masks and Masculinities in Africa

Contemporary forms of precarity, migration, connectivity, and sociality have transformed what it means to be a man in many African communities. Responding with agency and creativity to various incentives and constraints, Africans have adapted practices pertaining to labour, marriage, and sexuality to the exigencies of modern life amid the impacts of European colonialism, rapid urban growth, economic hardship, and political conflict. Drawing upon ethnographic and historical research to study settings in East, West, and Southern Africa, the articles in this special issue review the social changes that have taken place regarding men's roles and assess prospects for the emergence of counter-hegemonic masculinities.</p

Of Masks and Masculinities in Africa

Contemporary forms of precarity, migration, connectivity, and sociality have transformed what it means to be a man in many African communities. Responding with agency and creativity to various incentives and constraints, Africans have adapted practices pertaining to labour, marriage, and sexuality to the exigencies of modern life amid the impacts of European colonialism, rapid urban growth, economic hardship, and political conflict. Drawing upon ethnographic and historical research to study settings in East, West, and Southern Africa, the articles in this special issue review the social changes that have taken place regarding men's roles and assess prospects for the emergence of counter-hegemonic masculinities.</p

The Kinetics of Autoxidation in Wine

The kinetics of autoxidation in wine begins with Fenton (1876) who observed that tartaric acid could be oxidized in the presence of iron without peroxide if left in air. Rodopulo (1951) demonstrated that iron tartrate complexes added to wine promoted more extensive oxygen consumption than the molar equivalent of inorganic ferrous or ferric salts. The role of iron complexes in the activation of oxygen, the formation of reactive oxygen species and the initiation of autoxidation are crucial for understanding wine oxidation kinetics. Mechanisms based on hydroxyl radicals versus the ferryl species are likely to have different oxidation products of wine components based on pH effects. The ferryl ion, hydroxyl radical, and tartaric acid radical are proposed as key intermediates in the proposed general mechanism for hydrogen peroxide formation and the autoxidation of wine components. A quantitative kinetic description is presented for the autoxidation of tartaric acid and extended to other acid components as potential ligands. This chapter explores the theoretical considerations of iron complexes formation, oxygen activation, an autoxidative mechanism, and experimental measurements of tartaric acid oxidation as the basis of autoxidation in wine

Structure of the Maize Streak Virus Geminate Particle

AbstractThe Geminiviridae is an extensive family of plant viruses responsible for economically devastating diseases in crops worldwide. Geminiviruses package circular, single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) genomes. The characteristic twinned or “geminate” particles, which consist of two joined, incomplete T = 1 icosahedra, are unique among viruses. We have determined the first structure of a geminivirus particle, the Nigerian strain of Maize streak virus (MSV-N), using cryo-electron microscopy and three-dimensional image reconstruction methods. The particle, of dimensions 220 × 380 Å, has an overall 52-point-group symmetry, in which each half particle “head” consists of the coat protein (CP) arranged with quasi-icosahedral symmetry. We have modeled the MSV-N CP as an eight-stranded, antiparallel β-barrel motif (a structural motif common to all known ssDNA viruses) with an N-terminal α-helix. This has produced a model of the geminate particle in which 110 copies of the CP nicely fit into the reconstructed density map. The reconstructed density map and MSV-N pseudo-atomic model demonstrate that the geminate particle has a stable, defined structure

General Practitioners' views on the provision of nicotine replacement therapy and bupropion.

BACKGROUND: Nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) and a new drug, bupropion, are licensed in several countries as aids to smoking cessation. General practitioners (GPs) play a crucial role in recommending or prescribing these medications. In the UK there has been discussion about whether the medications should be reimbursable by the National Health Service (NHS). This study assessed English GPs' attitudes towards reimbursement of NRT and bupropion. METHODS: Postal survey of a randomly selected national sample of GPs; 376 GPs completed the questionnaire after one reminder; effective response rate: 53%. There was no difference between the responses of GPs who responded to the initial request and those who responded only after a reminder suggesting minimal bias due to non-response. RESULTS: Attitudes of GPs were remarkably divided on most issues relating to the medications. Forty-three percent thought that bupropion should not be on NHS prescription while 42% thought that it should be (15% did not know); Fifty percent thought that NRT should not be on NHS prescription while 42% thought it should be (8% did not know). Requiring that smokers attend behavioural support programmes to be eligible to receive the medications on NHS prescription made no appreciable difference to the GPs' views. GPs were similarly divided on whether having the medications reimbursable would add unacceptably to their workload or offer a welcome opportunity to discuss smoking with their patients. A principal components analysis of responses to the individual questions on NRT and bupropion revealed that GPs' attitudes could be understood in terms of a single 'pro-con' dimension accounting for 53% of the total variance which made no distinction between the two medications. CONCLUSIONS: GPs in England appear to be divided in their attitudes to medications to aid smoking cessation and appear not to discriminate in their views between different types of medication or different aspects of their use. This suggests that their attitudes are generated by quite fundamental values. Addressing these values may be important in encouraging GPs to adhere more closely to national and international guidelines