Some problems in the selection and preliminary training of non-European medical students.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Natal, Durban, 1961.Abstract not available.Vol. 1 will be added when it has been digitised

Security of Tenure and Land Registration in Africa: Literature Review and Synthesis

In 1984, the Land Tenure Center embarked on a project to evaluate the experiences with land registration and tenure reform in Africa. The goal was to determine is African states been able to use tenure reform and land registration to provide greater security of tenure than was available through customary tenure systems. Donor agencies focused attention on the creation of individual freehold title, emphasizing the heightened security of holding, marketability, and access to credit under such tenure. National governments, on the other hand, were more concerned to see that land was used productively rather than merely accumulated for purposes of prestige or inheritance or as a hedge against inflation, and for this reason have tended to favor granting more circumscribed rights, such as leaseholds or rights of occupancy. This literature review and synthesis was prepared as part of an effort to increase very substantially our knowledge, especially on a quantitative level, of tenure and development relationships in Africa. The literature review is an attempt to gather in one place data about the diverse efforts at land registration and to describe briefly for each country the various registration programs that have taken place (if any), why they were undertaken, and what subsequent studies of these programs have found. Among other things, it will be seen that the intended benefits, and beneficiaries, of land registration have changed over the century or so since the first systems were put in place. In addition to these variations over time, there are also differences among Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusophone countries, differences that not only influenced the structure of registration systems established during the colonial era, but also continue to inform the kinds of registration systems adopted today.Land Economics/Use,

Garnet-bearing ultramafic rocks from the Dominican Republic: Fossil mantle plume fragments in an ultra high pressure oceanic complex?

Ultra high pressure (UHP) garnet-bearing ultramafic rocks from the Dominican Republic may represent the only known example where such rocks were exhumed at an ocean–ocean convergent plate boundary, and where the protolith crystallized from a UHP magma (> 3.2 GPa, > 1500 °C). This study focuses on the petrology and geochemistry of one of the ultramafic lithologies, the pegmatitic garnet-clinopyroxenite (garnet + clinopyroxene + spinel + corundum + hornblende). Three distinct types of garnet were recognized: Type-1 garnet (low Ca, high Mg) is interpreted as near magmatic (P > 3.2 GPa, > 1500 °C). Type-1′ garnet (high Ca, low Mg) is interpreted as having formed approximately isochemically from magmatic high-Al clinopyroxene. Type-2 garnet (intermediate Ca, high Mg, and low Fe + Mn) formed together with hornblende as a result of late, low-pressure retrograde hydration. Clinopyroxene is close to diopside–hedenbergite (Mg# ~ 88) and metasomatized by arc-related fluids. Spinel and corundum occur as microinclusions in type-1 and type-1′ garnets in the only reported natural occurrence of coexisting garnet + spinel + corundum, indicative of very high pressure. Chondrite-normalized REEs (rare earth elements) of the garnets show humped or weakly sinusoidal patterns, typically associated with garnet inclusions in diamond and garnet in kimberlite that crystallized at UHP conditions. These humped to weakly sinusoidal REE patterns developed as the result of interaction with a light REE-enriched metasomatic fluid. Partitioning of REEs between type-1′ and type-1 garnets is consistent with the former having inherited its REEs from a high-Al clinopyroxene predecessor. The partitioning preserves a record of near-solidus temperatures (~ 1475 °C). Petrology and phase relationships independently suggest near-solidus conditions > 1500 °C (the highest temperature conditions reported in a UHP orogenic setting), providing evidence for an origin in a mantle plume. Therefore, the Dominican ultramafic rocks may represent the only example of exhumed "fossil fragments" of mantle plume in an orogenic setting (oceanic or continental)

How dimensional analysis allows to go beyond Metzner–Otto concept for non-Newtonian fluids

The concept of Metzner and Otto (1957) was initially developed for correlating power measurements in stirred vessels for shear-thinning fluids in the laminar regime with regard to those obtained for Newtonian liquids. To get this overlap, Metzner and Otto postulated and determined an “effective shear rate” which was proportional to the rotational speed of the impeller Although it was not based on a strong theoretical background, it was rapidly admitted as a practical engineering approach and was extended for seeking out a “Newtonian correspondence” with non-Newtonian results (i.e. different classes of fluids). This was applied in a variety of tank processes even for predicting heat transfer or mixing time, which stretches far away from the frame initially envisaged by Metzner and Otto themselves. This paper aimed to show how dimensional analysis offers a theoretically founded framework to address this issue without the experimental determination of effective quantities. This work also aimed to enlarge the underlying questions to any process in which a variable material property exists and impacts the process. For that purpose, the pending questions of Metzner and Otto concept were first reminded (i.e. dependence of the Metzner-Otto constant to rheological parameters, physical meaning of the effective shear rate, etc). Then, the theoretical background underlying the dimensional analysis was described and, applied to the case of variable material properties (including non-Newtonian fluids), by introducing in particular the concept of material similarity. Last, two examples were proposed to demonstrate how the rigorous framework associated with the dimensional analysis is a powerful method to exceed the concept of Metzner & Otto and, can be adapted beyond the Ostwald-de Waele power law model to a wide range of non-Newtonian fluids in various processes, without being restricted to batch reactor and laminar regime

Three patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia: Genomic sequencing and kindred analysis.

BackgroundHomozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia (HoFH) is an inherited recessive condition associated with extremely high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in affected individuals. It is usually caused by homozygous or compound heterozygous functional mutations in the LDL receptor (LDLR). A number of mutations causing FH have been reported in literature and such genetic heterogeneity presents great challenges for disease diagnosis.ObjectiveWe aim to determine the likely genetic defects responsible for three cases of pediatric HoFH in two kindreds.MethodsWe applied whole exome sequencing (WES) on the two probands to determine the likely functional variants among candidate FH genes. We additionally applied 10x Genomics (10xG) Linked-Reads whole genome sequencing (WGS) on one of the kindreds to identify potentially deleterious structural variants (SVs) underlying HoFH. A PCR-based screening assay was also established to detect the LDLR structural variant in a cohort of 641 patients with elevated LDL.ResultsIn the Caucasian kindred, the FH homozygosity can be attributed to two compound heterozygous LDLR damaging variants, an exon 12 p.G592E missense mutation and a novel 3kb exon 1 deletion. By analyzing the 10xG phased data, we ascertained that this deletion allele was most likely to have originated from a Russian ancestor. In the Mexican kindred, the strikingly elevated LDL cholesterol level can be attributed to a homozygous frameshift LDLR variant p.E113fs.ConclusionsWhile the application of WES can provide a cost-effective way of identifying the genetic causes of FH, it often lacks sensitivity for detecting structural variants. Our finding of the LDLR exon 1 deletion highlights the broader utility of Linked-Read WGS in detecting SVs in the clinical setting, especially when HoFH patients remain undiagnosed after WES

UniFHy v0.1.1: a community modelling framework for the terrestrial water cycle in Python

The land surface, hydrological, and groundwater modelling communities all have expertise in simulating the hydrological processes at play in the terrestrial component of the Earth system. However, these communities, and the wider Earth system modelling community, have largely remained distinct with limited collaboration between disciplines, hindering progress in the representation of hydrological processes in the land component of Earth system models (ESMs). In order to address key societal questions regarding the future availability of water resources and the intensity of extreme events such as floods and droughts in a changing climate, these communities must come together and build on the strengths of one another to produce next-generation land system models that are able to adequately simulate the terrestrial water cycle under change. The development of a common modelling infrastructure can contribute to stimulating cross-fertilisation by structuring and standardising the interactions. This paper presents such an infrastructure, a land system framework, which targets an intermediate level of complexity and constrains interfaces between components (and communities) and, in doing so, aims to facilitate an easier pipeline between the development of (sub-)community models and their integration, both for standalone use and for use in ESMs. This paper first outlines the conceptual design and technical capabilities of the framework; thereafter, its usage and useful characteristics are demonstrated through case studies. The main innovations presented here are (1) the interfacing constraints themselves; (2) the implementation in Python (the Unified Framework for Hydrology, unifhy); and (3) the demonstration of standalone use cases using the framework. The existing framework does not yet meet all our goals, in particular, of directly supporting integration into larger ESMs, so we conclude with the remaining limitations of the current framework and necessary future developments.</p

The WIRE study a phase II, multi-arm, multi-centre, non-randomised window-of-opportunity clinical trial platform using a Bayesian adaptive design for proof-of-mechanism of novel treatment strategies in operable renal cell cancer - a study protocol.

BACKGROUND: Window-of-opportunity trials, evaluating the engagement of drugs with their biological target in the time period between diagnosis and standard-of-care treatment, can help prioritise promising new systemic treatments for later-phase clinical trials. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the 7th commonest solid cancer in the UK, exhibits targets for multiple new systemic anti-cancer agents including DNA damage response inhibitors, agents targeting vascular pathways and immune checkpoint inhibitors. Here we present the trial protocol for the WIndow-of-opportunity clinical trial platform for evaluation of novel treatment strategies in REnal cell cancer (WIRE). METHODS: WIRE is a Phase II, multi-arm, multi-centre, non-randomised, proof-of-mechanism (single and combination investigational medicinal product [IMP]), platform trial using a Bayesian adaptive design. The Bayesian adaptive design leverages outcome information from initial participants during pre-specified interim analyses to determine and minimise the number of participants required to demonstrate efficacy or futility. Patients with biopsy-proven, surgically resectable, cT1b+, cN0-1, cM0-1 clear cell RCC and no contraindications to the IMPs are eligible to participate. Participants undergo diagnostic staging CT and renal mass biopsy followed by treatment in one of the treatment arms for at least 14 days. Initially, the trial includes five treatment arms with cediranib, cediranib + olaparib, olaparib, durvalumab and durvalumab + olaparib. Participants undergo a multiparametric MRI before and after treatment. Vascularised and de-vascularised tissue is collected at surgery. A ≥ 30% increase in CD8+ T-cells on immunohistochemistry between the screening and nephrectomy is the primary endpoint for durvalumab-containing arms. Meanwhile, a reduction in tumour vascular permeability measured by Ktrans on dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI by ≥30% is the primary endpoint for other arms. Secondary outcomes include adverse events and tumour size change. Exploratory outcomes include biomarkers of drug mechanism and treatment effects in blood, urine, tissue and imaging. DISCUSSION: WIRE is the first trial using a window-of-opportunity design to demonstrate pharmacological activity of novel single and combination treatments in RCC in the pre-surgical space. It will provide rationale for prioritising promising treatments for later phase trials and support the development of new biomarkers of treatment effect with its extensive translational agenda. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03741426 / EudraCT: 2018-003056-21

The advancement president in higher education

An investigation of the role of many college presidents which has changed dramatically over the past twenty years, largely due to influences outside of academics. In July of 1998 The National Commission on the costs of Higher Education reported that tuition at private four-year colleges and universities increased by 99 percent between 1987 and 1996. At public four-year institutions tuition increased by 137 percent for the same period. Individual states have reduced allocations to public institutions, federal programs for student grants have been curtailed, deferred maintenance projects have come due, overall personnel costs have escalated, technology infrastructure investments have skyrocketed, and today more students, with less financial resources, are pursuing a higher education. An increasing need for new funding sources, other than state revenues, local taxation, student fees and tuitions has resulted in colleges recognizing the efficacy of philanthropy (fundraising) as an alternative/necessary funding source. Giving USA, 1996, AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy, Inc. reports that annual philanthropic giving in the United States has risen from $28.6 billion in 1975 to$143.9 billion in 1995. Higher education\u27s share in 1995 was $17.9 billion. As the importance and influence of private support in the life of higher education have expanded, so too have the structures which raise and manage these dollars. This dissertation examines the relationship between the campus chief executive officer and the institution\u27s fundraising foundation. The researcher will investigate the individual leadership styles and personal management strengths of ten college/university presidents and/or senior campus chief executive officers and their involvement with this institution\u27s fundraising foundation. The study examines the complexities of the role of the chief executive officer, vis a vis transformational leadership theory, to determine the degree of control, influence, involvement in the decision making process and/or autonomy each exercises in implementing the foundation\u27s fundraising initiatives. Each chief executive officer was purposely selected to be interviewed as a result of their high profile in advancement activities related to their particular institution. As an adjunct, a questionnaire was developed to articulate each foundation\u27s development and history, and the role played by the chief executive officer. This questionnaire and another one developed by CASE was given to the executive directors of those institutions which have foundations. Institutions, while mostly from New England, represent the following higher education sectors: public community college, private business college, private high tech graduate school, private veterinary school of medicine, public university school of medicine, private religious-affiliated college, private university, private college. The principle findings, simply stated, to emerge from this investigation are: (1) Institutional foundations as independent agencies are not for everyone. There are benefits to be sure; however, there are detractions as well, and it would seem that the public sector institutions stand to benefit most. (2) Transformation leadership characteristics are particularly effective in advancement president roles and responsibilities; however, the degree of effectiveness is contextually driven. (3) The literature of advancement president concepts and fundraising initiatives is curiously silent on two significant issues: the role of spouse and the president\u27s residence

The nature of damages in contract

Lord Justice Atkin once remarked that the law of damages is 'a branch of the law on which one is less guided by authority laying down definite principles than on almost any other matter that one can consider'. When Professor Goodhart later made the same complaint he wondered why this should be so, but concluded that there were three fundamental reasons. First, the nature of the subject matter is such as to make it impossible to elicit a rule capable of doing absolute justice to all concerned. For no plaintiff is fully compensated for the breach unless he recovers for every item of loss which stems directly or indirectly, foreseeably or unforeseeably, from the breach. And yet, argued Goodhart, it would plainly be intolerable for any wrongdoer to be saddled with such extremes of liability. Second, until the basic theories of contract, or tort, are fully worked out, it will be impossible to develop consistent principles in the la of damages, which after all are only part of the major substantive body of rules. Take tort, he says, and the debate as to whether fault is or is not an essential ingredient of liability