Ghana’s Right to Information Bill: Opportunity for SDI as a Technical Infrastructure

Information is an important resource in the 21st century knowledge-based society. Access to public sector information is being viewed as an important path to strengthening democracy, good governance, public service and sustainable development. Ghana is about to enact a right to information law (now The Right to Information Bill) to provide a legal framework for making public sector information accessible to the public. However, while the legal framework is necessary, it is not sufficient to ensure real access to public sector information by the public. This paper highlights the need for designing policy and institutional frameworks in general and a technical infrastructure in particular for actuating the provisions of the anticipated law. Therefore, the paper assesses the opportunities and imperatives for building SDI, at least, as part of the technical infrastructure for making public sector information discoverable, retrievable and usable to the public. Steps are then proposed for creating the SDI, including building institutional mandate, creating a metadata catalogue, digitalization of analog data/information and the development of plans to strategically manage and enhance the organic growth of the SDI. The paper is significant in that it makes anticipatory contribution to the discourse on the design of policy and institutional frameworks in general; and technical infrastructure in particular to support the implementation of the Right to Information Law in Ghana

Goal-Based Selection of Visual Representations for Big Data Analytics

The H2020 TOREADOR Project adopts a model-driven architecture to streamline big data analytics and make it widely available to companies as a service. Our work in this context focuses on visualization, in particular on how to automate the translation of the visualization objectives declared by the user into a suitable visualization type. To this end we first define a visualization context based on seven prioritizable coordinates for assessing the user's objectives and describing the data to be visualized; then we propose a skyline-based technique for automatically translating a visualization context into a set of suitable visualization types. Finally, we evaluate our approach on a real use case excerpted from the pilot applications of TOREADOR

Repellency Potential, Chemical Constituents of Ocimum Plant Essential Oils, and Their Headspace Volatiles against Anopheles gambiae s. s., Malaria Vector

African malaria mosquitoes (Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto) transmit a malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) to humans. The current control strategies for the vector have mainly focussed on synthetic products, which negatively impact the environment and human health. Given the potential use of environmentally friendly plant-derived volatiles as a control, this work aims to examine and compare the repellency potential of essential oils and headspace volatiles from Ocimum gratissimum, Ocimum tenuiflorum, and Ocimum basilicum and their chemical compositions. The repellency potential and chemical composition of the plants were achieved by using the protected arm-in-cage method and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Among the three Ocimum species, both the essential oils and the headspace volatiles from O. tenuiflorum achieved the longest repellency time lengths of 90–120 minutes. One hundred and one (101) chemical constituents were identified in the headspace volatiles of the three Ocimum spp. Nonetheless, (−)-camphor, (E)-γ-bisabolene, terpinolene, β-chamigrene, cubedol, (E)-farnesol, germacrene D-4-ol, viridiflorol, γ-eudesmol, tetracyclo [6.3.2.0 (2,5).0(1,8)] tridecan-9-ol, 4,4-dimethyl, α-eudesmol, isolongifolol, and endo-borneol were unique only to O. tenuiflorum headspace volatiles. Either essential oils or headspace volatiles from O. tenuiflorum could offer longer protection time length to humans against An. gambiae. Though field studies are needed to assess the complementarity between the chemical constituents in the headspace volatiles of O. tenuiflorum, our observations provide a foundation for developing effective repellents against An. gambiae

Learning through social spaces: migrant women and lifelong learning in post-colonial London

This article shows how migrant women engage in learning through social spaces. It argues that such spaces are little recognised, and that there are multiple ways in which migrant women construct and negotiate their informal learning through socialising with other women in different informal modes. Additionally, the article shows how learning is shaped by the socio-political, geographical and multicultural context of living in London, outlining ways in which gendered and racialised identities shape, construct and constrain participation in lifelong learning. The article shows that one way in which migrant women resist (post)colonial constructions of difference is by engaging in informal and non-formal lifelong learning, arguing that the benefits are (at least) two-fold. The women develop skills (including language skills) but also use their informal learning to develop what is referred to in this article as 'relational capital'. The article concludes that informal lifelong learning developed through social spaces can enhance a sense of belonging for migrant women

A comparison of multiple Rosetta data sets and 3D model calculations of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko coma around equinox (May 2015)

We have used the latest available shape model for gas and dust simulations of the inner coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the period around May 2015 (equinox). We compare results from a purely insolation-driven model with a complementary set of observations made by ROSINA, VIRTIS, MIRO, and OSIRIS within the same period. The observations include - for the first time - inverted MIRO measurements of gas density, temperature and bulk velocity to constrain the model. The comparisons show that, as in November 2014 (Marschall et al., 2016), insolation-driven activity does not provide an adequate fit to the data. Both VIRTIS and MIRO observations indicate that emissions from the Hatmehit and Imhotep regions of the nucleus are strongly depleted in total gas, H2O, and dust emissions in this case. The MIRO inversion provides a challenging constraint to the models as a consequence of the terminator orbit and nucleus pointing of the spacecraft. Nonetheless a consistent picture with a dominance of outgassing from the Hapi region, even at equinox, is clearly evident. An inhomogeneous model consistent with models proposed for the November 2014 time-frame was constructed and provides a better fit to the data. As far as we are aware this is the first time comae data from four Rosetta instruments have been used to constrain within one self-contained model the emission distribution at the nucleus surface and study the dynamics of the gas and dust outflow

Critical Race Theory and Education: racism and anti-racism in educational theory and praxis

What is Critical Race Theory (CRT) and what does it offer educational researchers and practitioners outside the US? This paper addresses these questions by examining the recent history of antiracist research and policy in the UK. In particular, the paper argues that conventional forms of antiracism have proven unable to keep pace with the development of increasingly racist and exclusionary education polices that operate beneath a veneer of professed tolerance and diversity. In particular, contemporary antiracism lacks clear statements of principle and theory that risk reinventing the wheel with each new study; it is increasingly reduced to a meaningless slogan; and it risks appropriation within a reformist “can do” perspective dominated by the de-politicized and managerialist language of school effectiveness and improvement. In contrast, CRT offers a genuinely radical and coherent set of approaches that could revitalize critical research in education across a range of inquiries, not only in self-consciously "multicultural" studies. The paper reviews the developing terrain of CRT in education, identifying its key defining elements and the conceptual tools that characterise the work. CRT in education is a fast changing and incomplete project but it can no longer be ignored by the academy beyond North America

A Conceptual Modelling Approach to Visualising Linked Data

Increasing numbers of Linked Open Datasets are being published, and many possible data visualisations may be appropriate for a user's given exploration or analysis task over a dataset. Users may therefore find it difficult to identify visualisations that meet their data exploration or analyses needs. We propose an approach that creates conceptual models of groups of commonly used data visualisations, which can be used to analyse the data and users' queries so as to automatically generate recommendations of possible visualisations. To our knowledge, this is the first work to propose a conceptual modelling approach to recommending visualisations for Linked Data

Metabolomics-Based Discovery of Diagnostic Biomarkers for Onchocerciasis

Onchocerciasis, caused by the filarial parasite Onchocerca volvulus, afflicts millions of people, causing such debilitating symptoms as blindness and acute dermatitis. There are no accurate, sensitive means of diagnosing O. volvulus infection. Clinical diagnostics are desperately needed in order to achieve the goals of controlling and eliminating onchocerciasis and neglected tropical diseases in general. In this study, a metabolomics approach is introduced for the discovery of small molecule biomarkers that can be used to diagnose O. volvulus infection. Blood samples from O. volvulus infected and uninfected individuals from different geographic regions were compared using liquid chromatography separation and mass spectrometry identification. Thousands of chromatographic mass features were statistically compared to discover 14 mass features that were significantly different between infected and uninfected individuals. Multivariate statistical analysis and machine learning algorithms demonstrated how these biomarkers could be used to differentiate between infected and uninfected individuals and indicate that the diagnostic may even be sensitive enough to assess the viability of worms. This study suggests a future potential of these biomarkers for use in a field-based onchocerciasis diagnostic and how such an approach could be expanded for the development of diagnostics for other neglected tropical diseases

Functional Analysis of the Cathepsin-Like Cysteine Protease Genes in Adult Brugia malayi Using RNA Interference

Filarial nematodes are an important group of human pathogens, causing lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis, and infecting around 150 million people throughout the tropics with more than 1.5 billion at risk of infection. Control of filariasis currently relies on mass drug administration (MDA) programs using drugs which principally target the microfilarial life-cycle stage. These control programs are facing major challenges, including the absence of a drug with macrofilaricidal or permanent sterilizing activity, and the possibility of the development of drug-resistance against the drugs available. Cysteine proteases are essential enzymes which play important roles in a wide range of cellular processes, and the cathepsin-like cysteine proteases have been identified as potential targets for drug or vaccine development in many parasites. Here we have studied the function of several of the cathepsin-like enzymes in the filarial nematode, B. malayi, and demonstrate that these cysteine proteases are involved in the development of embryos, show similar functions to their counterparts in C. elegans, and therefore, provide an important target for future drug development targeted to eliminate filariasis