Women and finance in rural and urban Sudan: A case study in Greater Omdurman and Khartoum

In the paper it is inquired how Sudanese women use the financial institutions in order to organise their lives between market, household, and the community. The results are based on interviews and observations done in two villages in the surroundings of Omdurman (Al Gharaza and Sanahir), displaced areas in Greater Khartoum (Ha Yusif and Umbedda) and in a lower middle-class area in Omdurman (Thawra). Within a gender ideology that enforces the role of the male provider and the female housekeeper, women seem to have some room of manoeuvre. Most of the interviewed women had access to money, could in some cases dispose of substantial savings and had quite a considerable influence within the household financial decision making. Income earning can widen up the financial repertoire of female behaviour, which, in turn, has led to a challenging of the prevailing conceptualisation of the gendering roles but at the same time questions the male obligation to provide for his family. Within an ongoing process of changing gender roles and expansion of the market economy, women use financial institutions to defend their access to resources and gain new economic power. In this context, women are open-minded about using formal institution such as banks, however, because of high transaction costs and limited trust in the efficiency of these institutions women prefer financial institutions that are embedded in their social networks and daily practices. Microcredit can be a means to enhance women's financial room of manoeuvre.In dem vorliegenden Forschungsbericht wird untersucht, wie sudanesische Frauen Finanzinstitutionen nutzen, um ihr Leben zwischen Markt, Haushalt und der Community zu organisieren. Die Ergebnisse basieren auf Interviews und Beobachtungen in zwei Dörfern in der Nähe Khartums, in Migrantenvierteln in Khartum und Omdurman und einem Mittelschichtsviertel in Omdurman (Tharwa). Im Rahmen einer Ideologie, die den Mann als Versorger der Familie und die Frau als Hausfrau definiert, haben Frauen gewisse Handlungsspielräume. Die meisten Frauen haben Zugang zu Geld, verfügen in einigen Fällen über beträchtliche Ersparnisse und beeinflussen die finanziellen Entscheidungen innerhalb des Haushaltes. Eigenes Einkommen kann diese Handlungsspielräume erweitern und die vorgegebenen Geschlechterrollen, damit aber auch die männliche Versorgerrolle in Frage stellen. Innerhalb dieses Prozesses der Veränderung von Geschlechternormen versuchen Frauen, sich neue Räume anzueignen, gleichzeitig traditionelle Rechte und den Zugang zu Ressourcen zu verteidigen und die Männer auf ihre (traditionelle) Versorgerrolle zu verpflichten. Dazu nutzen sie die ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden Finanzinstitutionen und sind auch formellen Institutionen wie Banken gegenüber aufgeschlossen; allerdings wird ihnen der Zugang zu diesen durch hohe Transaktionskosten erschwert. Auch Mikrokreditprogramme werden von den Frauen genutzt und ihren Bedürfnissen entsprechend angeeignet

Dual Doping of MoP with M(Mn,Fe) and S to Achieve High Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Activity in Both Acidic and Alkaline Media

Rational design of cost‐effective, high performance and stable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts in both acidic and alkaline media holds the key to the future hydrogen‐based economy. Herein, we introduce an effective approach of simultaneous non‐metal (S) and metal (Fe or Mn) doping of MoP to achieve excellent HER performance at different pH. The catalysts show remarkable overpotentials at −10 mA cm−2 of only 65 and 68 mV in 0.5 M H2SO4, and 50 and 51 mV in 1.0 M KOH, respectively, as well as much higher turnover frequencies compared to undoped MoP. Furthermore, the catalysts exhibit outstanding long‐term stability at a fixed current of −10 mA cm−2 for 40 h. The effects of both dopants, such as electronic structure modification and enhancement of the intrinsic activity, increase of the electrochemically active surface area, and formation of coordinatively unsaturated edge sites, act cooperatively to accelerate the HER at both pH media. Additionally, the presence of oxophilic Mn and Fe at the surface results in Mn or Fe oxide/hydroxide species that promote the dissociation of water molecules in alkaline electrolyte. This work introduces a facile and effective design principle that could pave the way towards engineering highly active HER catalysts for a wide pH range.Metal (Mn or Fe) and non‐metal (S) dual doped MoP catalysts were synthesiszed by reductive pyrolysis of the corresponding Mn,Mo‐ and Fe,Mo‐phosphonates precursors, in the presence of elemental S. The derived catalysts showed remarkable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity in acidic and alkaline media. The dual doping process endowed MoP with proper hydrogen binding energy thus enhancing the HER in acidic media. In addition, Mn and Fe acted as surface oxides species in alkaline medium, which facilitated the water dissociation step. imageYousef Jameel Scholarship FundPeer Reviewe

Associations between sole ulcer, white line disease and digital dermatitis and the milk yield of 1824 dairy cows on 30 dairy cow farms in England and Wales from February 2003–November 2004

The milk yields of 1824 cows were used to investigate the effect of lesion-specific causes of lameness, based on farmer treatment and diagnosis of lame cows, on milk yield. A three level hierarchical model of repeated test day yields within cows within herds was used to investigate the impact of lesion-specific causes of lameness (sole ulcer, white line disease, digital dermatitis and other causes) on milk yield before and after treatment compared with unaffected cows. Cattle which developed sole ulcer (SU) and white line disease (WLD) were higher yielding cattle before they were diagnosed. Their milk production fell to below that of the mean of unaffected cows before diagnosis and remained low after diagnosis. In cattle which developed digital dermatitis (DD) there was no significant difference in milk yield before treatment and a slightly raised milk yield immediately after treatment. The estimated milk loss attributable to SU and WLD was approximately 570kg and 370kg respectively. These results highlight that specific types of lameness vary by herds and within herds they are associated with higher yielding cattle. Consequently lesion-specific lameness reduction programmes targeting the cow and farm specific causes of lameness might be more effective than generic recommendations. They also highlight the importance of milk loss when estimating the economic impact of SU and WLD on the farms profitability

On the origin of tropospheric ozone and NOx over the tropical South Pacific

The budgets of ozone and nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) in the tropical South Pacific troposphere are analyzed by photochemical point modeling of aircraft observations at 0-12 km altitude from the Pacific Exploratory Mission-Tropics A campaign flown in September-October 1996. The model reproduces the observed NO2/NO concentration ratio to within 30% and has similar success in simulating observed concentrations of peroxides (H2O2, CH3OOH), lending confidence in its use to investigate ozone chemistry. It is found that chemical production of ozone balances only half of chemical loss in the tropospheric column over the tropical South Pacific. The net loss is 1.8 x 1011 molecules cm-2 s-1. The missing source of ozone is matched by westerly transport of continental pollution into the region. Independent analysis of the regional ozone budget with a global three-dimensional model corroborates the results from the point model and reveals the importance of biomass burning emissions in South America and Africa for the ozone budget over the tropical South Pacific. In this model, biomass burning increases average ozone concentrations by 7-8 ppbv throughout the troposphere. The NOx responsible for ozone production within the South Pacific troposphere below 4 km can be largely explained by decomposition of peroxyacetylnitrate (PAN) transported into the region with biomass burning pollution at higher altitudes. Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union

The use of cosmic muons in detecting heterogeneities in large volumes

The muon intensity attenuation method to detect heterogeneities in large matter volumes is analyzed. Approximate analytical expressions to estimate the collection time and the signal to noise ratio, are proposed and validated by Monte Carlo simulations. Important parameters, including point spread function and coordinate reconstruction uncertainty are also estimated using Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures, submetted to NIM

Dopamine Activation Preserves Visual Motion Perception Despite Noise Interference of Human V5/MT

Copyright © 2016 Yousif et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.When processing sensory signals, the brain must account for noise, both noise in the stimulus and that arising from within its own neuronal circuitry. Dopamine receptor activation is known to enhance both visual cortical signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and visual perceptual performance; however, it is unknown whether these two dopamine-mediated phenomena are linked. To assess this, we used single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied to visual cortical area V5/MT to reduce the SNR focally and thus disrupt visual motion discrimination performance to visual targets located in the same retinotopic space. The hypothesis that dopamine receptor activation enhances perceptual performance by improving cortical SNR predicts that dopamine activation should antagonize TMS disruption of visual perception. We assessed this hypothesis via a double-blinded, placebo-controlled study with the dopamine receptor agonists cabergoline (a D2 agonist) and pergolide (a D1/D2 agonist) administered in separate sessions (separated by 2 weeks) in 12 healthy volunteers in a William's balance-order design. TMS degraded visual motion perception when the evoked phosphene and the visual stimulus overlapped in time and space in the placebo and cabergoline conditions, but not in the pergolide condition. This suggests that dopamine D1 or combined D1 and D2 receptor activation enhances cortical SNR to boost perceptual performance. That local visual cortical excitability was unchanged across drug conditions suggests the involvement of long-range intracortical interactions in this D1 effect. Because increased internal noise (and thus lower SNR) can impair visual perceptual learning, improving visual cortical SNR via D1/D2 agonist therapy may be useful in boosting rehabilitation programs involving visual perceptual training.Peer reviewe

Patient-specific image-based computer simulation for theprediction of valve morphology and calcium displacement after TAVI with the Medtronic CoreValve and the Edwards SAPIEN valve

AIMS: Our aim was to validate patient-specific software integrating baseline anatomy and biomechanical properties of both the aortic root and valve for the prediction of valve morphology and aortic leaflet calcium displacement after TAVI. METHODS AND RESULTS: Finite element computer modelling was performed in 39 patients treated with a Medtronic CoreValve System (MCS; n=33) or an Edwards SAPIEN XT (ESV; n=6). Quantitative axial frame morphology at inflow (MCS, ESV) and nadir, coaptation and commissures (MCS) was compared between multislice computed tomography (MSCT) post TAVI and a computer model as well as displacement of the aortic leaflet calcifications, quantified by the distance between the coronary ostium and the closest calcium nodule. Bland-Altman analysis revealed a strong correlation between the observed (MSCT) and predicted frame dimensions, although small differences were detected for, e.g., Dmin at the inflow (mean±SD MSCT vs. MODEL: 21.6±2.4 mm vs. 22.0±2.4 mm; difference±SD: -0.4±1.3 mm, p<0.05) and Dmax (25.6±2.7 mm vs. 26.2±2.7 mm; difference±SD: -0.6±1.0 mm, p<0.01). The observed and predicted calcium displacements were highly correlated for the left and right coronary ostia (R2=0.67 and R2=0.71, respectively p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Dedicated software allows accurate prediction of frame morphology and calcium displacement after valve implantation, which may help to improve outcome

Integrating new memories into the hippocampal network activity space

By investigating the topology of neuronal co-activity, we found that mnemonic information spans multiple operational axes in the mouse hippocampus network. High-activity principal cells form the core of each memory along a first axis, segregating spatial contexts and novelty. Low-activity cells join co-activity motifs across behavioral events and enable their crosstalk along two other axes. This reveals an organizational principle for continuous integration and interaction of hippocampal memories

Understanding Behavioral Sources of Process Variation Following Enterprise System Deployment

This paper extends the current understanding of the time-sensitivity of intent and usage following large-scale IT implementation. Our study focuses on perceived system misfit with organizational processes in tandem with the availability of system circumvention opportunities. Case study comparisons and controlled experiments are used to support the theoretical unpacking of organizational and technical contingencies and their relationship to shifts in user intentions and variation in work-processing tactics over time. Findings suggest that managers and users may retain strong intentions to circumvent systems in the presence of perceived task-technology misfit. The perceived ease with which this circumvention is attainable factors significantly into the timeframe within which it is attempted, and subsequently impacts the onset of deviation from prescribed practice and anticipated dynamics