Kokonte expenditure in Ghana: patterns from GLSS3 data (NRI report no. 2382)

The impetus for this research came from the findings of a previous report, which recommended the use of Ghana Living Standards Survey Round 3 (GLSS3) data to study kokonte expenditure patterns in Ghana. Such research was necessary to: confirm previously gathered anecdotal evidence on kokonte expenditure; test hypotheses regarding consumer preferences for kokonte; provide background information for a forthcoming kokonte consumer survey; and assist the targeting of potential technology transfer projects. The research concluded that the biggest kokonte spenders came from Northern Region, Upper East Region, Greater Accra Region and Central Region. The smallest spenders were from Brong Ahafo, Eastern Region, Western Region and Upper West region. Data on kokonte prices was also collected during GLSS3. Unfortunately, large gaps appear in the price series. Despite this, two price patterns emerged. First, urban areas which were furthest from areas of kokonte production seemed to experienced higher prices. The high cost of Ghanaian transport explains this finding. Second, prices in many of Ghana's ten regions experienced a peak between the beginning of April and the end of July 1992. Typically during this period, kokonte supply is low and demand is high due to the unavailability of other food items. The analysis is developed by focusing on expenditure in Accra. Accra households whose origins lie in Central Region, Greater Accra and Ashanti were found to be under-represented among kokonte consuming households in Accra. Those households which were "over-represented" hailed from Eastern Region, Upper East Region and Northern Region. By and large, these results confirm expectations and coincide with results from previous sections of this report. Finally, the Accra analysis examines the relationship between income, family size and kokonte expenditure. The research provides no conclusive evidence that kokonte is an inferior good. However, the report concludes that large Accra households tend to exploit the relative cheapness of kokonte to ensure that sufficient food is available for household members

The role of the Hall effect in the global structure and dynamics of planetary magnetospheres: Ganymede as a case study

We present high resolution Hall MHD simulations of Ganymede's magnetosphere demonstrating that Hall electric fields in ion-scale magnetic reconnection layers have significant global effects not captured in resistive MHD simulations. Consistent with local kinetic simulations of magnetic reconnection, our global simulations show the development of intense field-aligned currents along the magnetic separatrices. These currents extend all the way down to the moon's surface, where they may contribute to Ganymede's aurora. Within the magnetopause and magnetotail current sheets, Hall currents in the reconnection plane accelerate ions to the local Alfv\'en speed in the out-of-plane direction, producing a global system of ion drift belts that circulates Jovian magnetospheric plasma throughout Ganymede's magnetosphere. We discuss some observable consequences of these Hall-induced currents and ion drifts: the appearance of a sub-Jovian "double magnetopause" structure, an Alfv\'enic ion jet extending across the upstream magnetopause and an asymmetric pattern of magnetopause Kelvin-Helmholtz waves.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures; presented at Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) workshop (June, 2014) and Fall American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting (December, 2014); submitted to Journal of Geophysical Research, December 201

High altitude climbers as ethnomethodologists making sense of cognitive dissonance: ethnographic insights from an attempt to scale Mt Everest

This ethnographic study examined how a group of high altitude climbers (N = 6)drew on ethnomethodological principles (the documentary method of interpretation, reflexivity, indexicality, and membership) to interpret their experiences of cognitive dissonance during an attempt to scale Mt. Everest. Data were collected via participant observation, interviews, and a field diary. Each data source was subjected to a content mode of analysis. Results revealed how cognitive dissonance reduction is accomplished from within the interaction between a pattern of self-justification and self-inconsistencies; how the reflexive nature of cognitive dissonance is experienced; how specific features of the setting are inextricably linked to the cognitive dissonance experience; and how climbers draw upon a shared stock of knowledge in their experiences with cognitive dissonance

On Schwarzschild's Topology in Brane-Worlds

The topological structure of Schwarzschild's space-time and its maximal analytic extension are investigated in context of brane-worlds. Using the embedding coordinates, these geometries are seen as different states of the evolution of a single brane-world. Comparing the topologies and the embeddings it is shown that this evolution must be followed by a signature change in the bulk.Comment: 6 page

`Hidden' Symmetries of Higher Dimensional Rotating Black Holes

We demonstrate that the rotating black holes in an arbitrary number of dimensions and without any restrictions on their rotation parameters possess the same `hidden' symmetry as the 4-dimensional Kerr metric. Namely, besides the spacetime symmetries generated by the Killing vectors they also admit the (antisymmetric) Killing-Yano and symmetric Killing tensors.Comment: 4 pages, slightly extended introductio

Analysis of the relationship between quality and price of yam in Ghana - second round (NRI report no. 2428)

In 1997, NRI staff and officers from the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture conducted two quantitative surveys of yam trading in Techiman market. The aim was to establish the importance of financial losses caused by poor yam quality and to measure the relationships between price and a series of quality defect variables. This report summarises the analysis of data gathered during the second survey. Data was analysed using multiple regression. Of the nine quality variables measured in the market, only "rotting" could be proved to have a significant influence on price. This result should not be interpreted to mean that other quality variables do not have an impact on price, merely that there was insufficient variation in quality for the statistical techniques to prove the existence of other price quality relationships. Moreover, at the time of the survey, these findings suggest that the financial losses caused by quality defects were slight. The report concludes with suggestions for improving the data gathering methodology for future surveys. In particular, it recommends extensive qualitative surveys to establish the incidence of quality defect related financial losses throughout the year. If these surveys indicate high financial losses, the research should attempt to establish the quantitative nature of price quality relationships using biased sampling techniques

Integrating multiple representations: fighting asthma

This paper seeks to engage debates about integrating pluralisms regarding multiple forms/representations and how they might function smoothly if they are closely aligned. This paper offers, narrative poetry with an artistic impression aimed at seeing how these might interact with each other. Like poetry, visual images are unique and can evoke particular kinds of emotional and visceral responses. By offering narrative poetry together with an artistic representation it is not meant to de-value the importance of either, but it is aimed at seeing how these arts-based methods and creative analytical practices might unite as a narrative to offer knew ways of ‘knowing’ and ‘seeing

Everyday envisionings: running pleasures and pains

The precise ways in which we go about doing the mundane, often repetitive, actions of everyday life are central concerns of ethnographers and theorists working within the traditions of the sociology of the mundane, sociological phenomenology and ethnomethodology. In this article, we utilize insights derived from Schützian phenomenology and its operationalization via ethnomethodology to provide a novel perspective on a particular, mundane and embodied social practice: training for distance running - in specific places: our favoured running routes. Despite a growing corpus of ethnographic studies of sports and physical cultures, relatively scant analytic attention has been devoted to investigating the actual, mundane, everyday practices of “doing” or “producing” physical cultural activity, particularly from a sensory auto/ethnographic perspective (Allen-Collinson & Hockey, 2009; Sparkes, 2009). Here we seek to “mark” (Brekhus, 1998) the everyday activity of training for distance running, in particular analysing how terrain is habitually seen, evaluated and experienced on the run

Distance running as joint accomplishment: an ethnomethodological perspective

Whilst there exists a substantial literature focused upon abstract theorizations of sport, at present there is little ethnographic work within the sociology of sport on the mundane practices of actually ‘doing’ sport. In sum, the phenomenological ground of ‘how’ sport is accomplished remains largely uncharted territory for researchers (Allen-Collinson 2009, Haldrup & Larsen 2006, Hockey & Allen Collinson 2007, Sparkes 2009). This lacuna applies both to the phenomenology of the lived sporting body and to the embodied interaction that occurs between participants as they do sport. In order to address this lacuna, this presentation offers an in-depth analysis of how training together for the sport of distance running constitutes a joint accomplishment by us as distance runners. Here we focus specifically upon the sensory and interactional work, which, for us, are essential components in the experience of ‘doing’ running. The theoretical foundation of the presentation lies in the social phenomenology of Alfred Schütz (1967), which focused upon how individuals sustain routine social life using a ‘stock of knowledge at hand’, in particular the mundane use of typfications, the common sense constructs that individuals use to order their social world on a moment to moment basis. In applying Schützian insights to the study of members’ methods for producing and reproducing everyday social order, Harold Garfinkel (1967) developed ethnomethodology, the study of members’ methods, their mundane practices for managing the social world. Adopting an ethnomethodological stance, our presentation portrays ‘how’ joint distance running training sessions are habitually accomplished

Prolonging disuse in aged mice amplifies cortical but not trabecular bones’ response to mechanical loading

Objective: Short-term neurectomy-induced disuse (SN) has been shown to restore load responses in aged mice. We examined whether this restoration was further enhanced in both cortical and trabecular bone by simply extending the SN. Methods: Following load: strain calibration, tibiae in female C57BL/J6 mice at 8, 14 and 20 weeks and 18 months (n=8/group) were loaded and bone changes measured. Effects of long-term SN examined in twenty-six 18 months-old mice, neurectomised for 5 or 100 days with/without subsequent loading. Cortical and trabecular responses were measured histomorphometrically or by micro-computed tomography. Results: Loading increased new cortical bone formation, elevating cross-sectional area in 8, 14 and 20 week-old (p <0.05), but not 18 month-old aged mice. Histomorphometry showed that short-term SN reinstated load-responses in aged mice, with significant 33% and 117% increases in bone accrual at 47% and 37%, but not 27% of tibia length. Cortical responses to loading was heightened and widespread, now evident at all locations, following prolonged SN (108, 167 and 98% at 47, 37 and 27% of tibial length, respectively). In contrast, loading failed to modify trabecular bone mass or architecture. Conclusions: Mechanoadaptation become deficient with ageing and prolonging disuse amplifies this response in cortical but not trabecular bone