Policy brief, number 11, 2014

[From Introduction] Urbanisation in sub-Saharan Africa: changing the locus of poverty. Urbanisation is a global phenomenon that is changing the face of the Earth, as well as how people earn a living and secure their livelihoods. In 2006 the number of urban people in the world surpassed the number of rural people, and this gap will continue to grow. In only 16 years (by 2030) just under two-thirds of the world's people will be urban dwellers. Whilst most of the developed world and large parts of Latin America already have more than threequarters of their populations living in cities and towns, most countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are still catching up. This means that they are experiencing massive migrations from rural to urban areas as rural people wish to swap the insecurities of rural living for the allure of secure employment and better services for health, education, sanitation and transport in towns and cities. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the most rapidly urbanising region of the globe. According to UN-Habitat, in 1990, only 28 % of the region's inhabitants lived in towns and cities; that increased to approximately 32 % in 2001 and 41 % in 2010. The size of the urban population is likely to surpass the rural one around 2025. Contrary to popular belief, most urban residents in SSA (and globally) live in small towns rather than massive megacities; with just over half living in towns of less than 200,000 people and 78 % living in towns of less than 500,000 residents. Only 14 % of urban dwellers live in cities of more than one million people. Many new urban households maintain strong links to relatives and clans in rural areas, with circular migration patterns emerging as the urban transition takes place over several decades. The implications of this extremely rapid urbanisation in SSA countries for livelihoods and poverty are widely debated. UN-Habitat highlights a relatively unique aspect of urbanisation in SSA as being the accompanying high rate of growth in informal settlements or slums. In other words, not all rural migrants to towns and cities find secure incomes or shelter. Some slum areas have become permanent features where inter-generational poverty is reproduced. Although urban areas are producing an increasing share of national wealth in SSA countries, some argue that slowly the nexus of poverty is shifting towards urban areas. Rates of poverty are high in rural areas of SSA, but migration and internal population growth means that in some countries the number of urban poor almost matches the number of rural poor, and it is likely to grow. The informal economy contributes an average of 40 – 45 % of total urban GDP, which is higher than any other region of the world

On elliptic solutions of the quintic complex one-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau equation

The Conte-Musette method has been modified for the search of only elliptic solutions to systems of differential equations. A key idea of this a priory restriction is to simplify calculations by means of the use of a few Laurent series solutions instead of one and the use of the residue theorem. The application of our approach to the quintic complex one-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE5) allows to find elliptic solutions in the wave form. We also find restrictions on coefficients, which are necessary conditions for the existence of elliptic solutions for the CGLE5. Using the investigation of the CGLE5 as an example, we demonstrate that to find elliptic solutions the analysis of a system of differential equations is more preferable than the analysis of the equivalent single differential equation.Comment: LaTeX, 21 page

Perceptions of knowledge sharing among small family firm leaders: a structural equation model

Small family firms have many unique relational qualities with implications for how knowledge is passed between individuals. Extant literature posits leadership approach as important in explaining differences in knowledge-sharing climate from one firm to another. This study investigates how leadership approaches interact with family influence to inform perceptions of knowledge sharing. We utilize survey data (n = 110) from owner-managers of knowledge-intensive small family firms in Scotland. Our findings present a choice in leadership intention, contrasting organization-focused participation against family-influenced guidance. Insight is offered on the implications of this leadership choice at both organizational and familial level

Efficient implementation of selective recoupling in heteronuclear spin systems using Hadamard matrices

We present an efficient scheme which couples any designated pair of spins in heteronuclear spin systems. The scheme is based on the existence of Hadamard matrices. For a system of $n$ spins with pairwise coupling, the scheme concatenates $cn$ intervals of system evolution and uses at most $c n^2$ pulses where $c \approx 1$. Our results demonstrate that, in many systems, selective recoupling is possible with linear overhead, contrary to common speculation that exponential effort is always required.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, mypsfig2, revtex, submitted April 27, 199

Liver secretin receptor predicts portoenterostomy outcomes and liver injury in biliary atresia

Biliary atresia (BA) is a chronic neonatal cholangiopathy characterized by fibroinflammatory bile duct damage. Reliable biomarkers for predicting native liver survival (NLS) following portoenterostomy (PE) surgery are lacking. Herein we explore the utility of 22 preidentified profibrotic molecules closely connected to ductular reaction (DR) and prevailing after successful PE (SPE), in predicting PE outcomes and liver injury. We used qPCR and immunohistochemistry in a BA cohort including liver samples obtained at PE (n = 53) and during postoperative follow-up after SPE (n = 25). Of the 13 genes over-expressed in relation to cholestatic age-matched controls at PE, only secretin receptor (SCTR) expression predicted cumulative 5-year NLS and clearance of jaundice. Patients in the highest SCTR expression tertile showed 34–55% lower NLS than other groups at 1–5 years after PE (P = 0.006–0.04 for each year). SCTR expression was also significantly lower [42 (24–63) vs 75 (39–107) fold, P = 0.015] among those who normalized their serum bilirubin after PE. Liver SCTR expression localized in cholangiocytes and correlated positively with liver fibrosis, DR, and transcriptional markers of fibrosis (ACTA2) and cholangiocytes (KRT7, KRT19) both at PE and after SPE. SCTR is a promising prognostic marker for PE outcomes and associates with liver injury in BA

The IRIS Network of Excellence:: Integrating Research in Interactive Storytelling

Abstract. Interactive Storytelling is a major endeavour to develop new media which could offer a radically new user experience, with a potential to revolutionise digital entertainment. European research in Interactive Storytelling has played a leading role in the development of the field, and this creates a unique opportunity to strengthen its position even further by structuring collaboration between some of its main actors. IRIS (Integrating Research in Interactive Storytelling) aims at creating a virtual centre of excellence that will be able to progress the understanding of fundamental aspects of Interactive Storytelling and the development of corresponding technologies

New solar axion search in CAST with 4^4He filling

The CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) searches for $a\to\gamma$ conversion in the 9 T magnetic field of a refurbished LHC test magnet that can be directed toward the Sun. Two parallel magnet bores can be filled with helium of adjustable pressure to match the X-ray refractive mass $m_\gamma$ to the axion search mass $m_a$. After the vacuum phase (2003--2004), which is optimal for $m_a\lesssim0.02$ eV, we used $^4$He in 2005--2007 to cover the mass range of 0.02--0.39 eV and $^3$He in 2009--2011 to scan from 0.39--1.17 eV. After improving the detectors and shielding, we returned to $^4$He in 2012 to investigate a narrow $m_a$ range around 0.2 eV ("candidate setting" of our earlier search) and 0.39--0.42 eV, the upper axion mass range reachable with $^4$He, to "cross the axion line" for the KSVZ model. We have improved the limit on the axion-photon coupling to $g_{a\gamma}< 1.47\times10^{-10} {\rm GeV}^{-1}$ (95% C.L.), depending on the pressure settings. Since 2013, we have returned to vacuum and aim for a significant increase in sensitivity.Comment: CAST Collaboration 6 pages 3 figure

Beyond series expansions: mathematical structures for the susceptibility of the square lattice Ising model

We first study the properties of the Fuchsian ordinary differential equations for the three and four-particle contributions $\chi^{(3)}$ and $\chi^{(4)}$ of the square lattice Ising model susceptibility. An analysis of some mathematical properties of these Fuchsian differential equations is sketched. For instance, we study the factorization properties of the corresponding linear differential operators, and consider the singularities of the three and four-particle contributions $\chi^{(3)}$ and $\chi^{(4)}$, versus the singularities of the associated Fuchsian ordinary differential equations, which actually exhibit new ``Landau-like'' singularities. We sketch the analysis of the corresponding differential Galois groups. In particular we provide a simple, but efficient, method to calculate the so-called ``connection matrices'' (between two neighboring singularities) and deduce the singular behaviors of $\chi^{(3)}$ and $\chi^{(4)}$. We provide a set of comments and speculations on the Fuchsian ordinary differential equations associated with the $n$-particle contributions $\chi^{(n)}$ and address the problem of the apparent discrepancy between such a holonomic approach and some scaling results deduced from a Painlev\'e oriented approach.Comment: 21 pages Proceedings of the Counting Complexity conferenc