Revisiting elections in Africa.

Any analysis of elections in Africa over recent periods has to be placed within the wider debate about democracy and its application in Africa. Democracy, of course, can be a ‘learned trade’ over time, yet certain critical factors affect electoral efficacy and political reform. (See Box 1) Over 200 elections have taken place in Africa between 1989 and 2009, in certain countries, for the first time. The dynamics of those early elections were important as democracy needed to develop at a local level, particularly in authoritarian or transitional states in which the general population often had very little interaction with national political processes or leaders. Results were mixed, while South Africa moved forward from the apartheid years, Zimbabwe, for example, has flouted electoral principles. It is clear that elections themselves arouse contention and conflict within states. In the early 2000s Cote d’Ivoire experienced civil strife following divisive elections; in 2007/2008 Kenya experienced upheaval in the wake of contested elections

The effect of the thermal conductivity of the substrate on droplet evaporation

The evaporation of liquid droplets is of fundamental importance to industry, with a vast number of applications including ink-jet printing, spray cooling and DNA mapping, and has been the subject of considerable theoretical and experimental research in recent years. Significant recent papers include those by Deegan [1], Deegan et al. [2], Hu and Larson [3], Poulard et al. [4], Sultan et al. [5], and Shahidzadeh-Bonn et al. [6]

Cone pigment variations in four genera of new world monkeys

AbstractPrevious research revealed significant individual variations in opsin genes and cone photopigments in several species of platyrrhine (New World) monkeys and showed that these in turn can yield significant variations in color vision. To extend the understanding of the nature of color vision in New World monkeys, electroretinogram flicker photometry was used to obtain spectral sensitivity measurements from representatives of four platyrrhine genera (Cebus, Leontopithecus, Saguinus, Pithecia). Animals from each genus were found to be polymorphic for middle to long-wavelength (M/L) sensitive cones. The presence of a short-wavelength sensitive photopigment was established as well so these animals conform to the earlier pattern in predicting that all male monkeys are dichromats while, depending on their opsin gene array, individual females can be either dichromatic or trichromatic. Across subjects a total of five different M/L cone pigments were inferred with a subset of three of these present in each species

Moves Toward Conflict Resolution in Sudan

In the summer of 1998, the Khartoum government and John Garang of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed a temporary ceasefire in order that international aid could reach the war-torn areas. Some discussion has also taken place regarding the institution of a new constitution, which would include the political clauses of the 1997 Agreement. Although there is no easy solution to the conflict in Sudan, one aspect seems clear: if there is to be peace within the country, a political settlement must be both achievable and sustainable

Development and preliminary validation of a tool measuring concordance and belief about performing pressure-relieving activities for pressure ulcer prevention in spinal cord injury

Objective: To develop and examine the reliability, and validity of a questionnaire measuring concordance for performing pressure-relief for pressure ulcer (PrU) prevention in people with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). Methods: Phase I included item development, content and face validity testing. In phase II, the questionnaire was evaluated for preliminary acceptability, reliability and validity among 48 wheelchair users with SCI. Results: Thirty-seven items were initially explored. Item and factor analysis resulted in a final 26-item questionnaire with four factors reflecting concordance, perceived benefits, perceived negative consequences, and personal practical barriers to performing pressure-relief activities. The internal consistency reliability for four domains were very good (Cronbach's α = .75-.89). Pearson correlation coefficient on a test-retest of the same subjects yielded significant correlations in concordance (r = .91, p = .005), perceived benefit (r = .71, p < .04), perceived negative consequences (r = .98, p < .0001), personal barriers (r = .93, p= .002). Participants with higher levels of concordance reported a greater amount of pressure-relieving performed. Individuals viewing PrU as a threatening illness were associated with higher scores of concordance and tended to report a greater amount of pressure-relieving performance which provides evidence of criterion related validity. Conclusion: The new questionnaire demonstrated good preliminary reliability and validity in people with SCI. Further evaluation is necessary to confirm these findings using larger samples with follow-up data for predictive validity. Such a questionnaire could be used by clinicians to identify high risk of patients and to design individualised education programme for PrU prevention

The DNA damage checkpoint pathway promotes extensive resection and nucleotide synthesis to facilitate homologous recombination repair and genome stability in fission yeast.

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) can cause chromosomal rearrangements and extensive loss of heterozygosity (LOH), hallmarks of cancer cells. Yet, how such events are normally suppressed is unclear. Here we identify roles for the DNA damage checkpoint pathway in facilitating homologous recombination (HR) repair and suppressing extensive LOH and chromosomal rearrangements in response to a DSB. Accordingly, deletion of Rad3(ATR), Rad26ATRIP, Crb2(53BP1) or Cdc25 overexpression leads to reduced HR and increased break-induced chromosome loss and rearrangements. We find the DNA damage checkpoint pathway facilitates HR, in part, by promoting break-induced Cdt2-dependent nucleotide synthesis. We also identify additional roles for Rad17, the 9-1-1 complex and Chk1 activation in facilitating break-induced extensive resection and chromosome loss, thereby suppressing extensive LOH. Loss of Rad17 or the 9-1-1 complex results in a striking increase in break-induced isochromosome formation and very low levels of chromosome loss, suggesting the 9-1-1 complex acts as a nuclease processivity factor to facilitate extensive resection. Further, our data suggest redundant roles for Rad3ATR and Exo1 in facilitating extensive resection. We propose that the DNA damage checkpoint pathway coordinates resection and nucleotide synthesis, thereby promoting efficient HR repair and genome stability

Cultivating a Community of Practice model to support and encourage innovative T&L practices to engage practitioners and enhance student success

Communities of Practice (CoPs) are naturally forming groups of individuals who come together through a shared passion or goal and learn collectively by reciprocating knowledge and experiences. With competing demands of faculty, universities are increasingly challenged to provide professional development opportunities that actively encourage innovative pedagogical practices to enhance student success and quality of the learner experience. We report on four embryonic CoPs, based on collaborative processes, supporting institutional transformation and the formation of a new education model at Ireland’s first Technological University (TU). Juxtaposing a series of planned learning innovations with spontaneous interactions and actions of CoP members, we draw out common themes with respect to how these members developed as professional educators, how they accelerated the adoption of new innovations and their perceived factors for CoP success. Findings from this funded initiative are first reported as separate case-studies each covering a six-month period. The CoP model is then evaluated as a professional development strategy to initiate and sustain practice-based change. Finally, a thematic analysis of our shared perceptions across the four CoPs is undertaken. Whilst selection bias is inherent in these perceptions, we nevertheless conclude from our shared experiences that CoPs are particularly attuned to rapid and extensive adoption of teaching and learning practice innovations and organisational transformation in Higher Education (HE). Consequently, CoPs can serve as vehicles for sustainable professional development in teaching and learning practice. Based on our findings, we offer recommendations for fostering CoPs in supporting strategy-as-practice in the technological university sector

Zigzag-shaped nickel nanowires via organometallic template-free route

In this manuscript, the formation of nickel nanowires (average size: several tens to hundreds of μm long and 1.0-1.5 μm wide) at low temperature is found to be driven by dewetting of liquid organometallic precursors during spin coating process and by self-assembly of Ni clusters. Elaboration of metallic thin films by low temperature deposition technique makes the preparation process compatible with most of the substrates. The use of iron and cobalt precursor shows that the process could be extended to other metallic systems. In this work, AFM and SEM are used to follow the assembly of Ni clusters into straight or zigzag lines. The formation of zigzag structure is specific to the Ni precursor at appropriate preparation parameters. This template free process allows a control of anisotropic structures with homogeneous sizes and angles on standard Si/SiO2 surface

Lattice Model of Sweeping Interface for Drying Process in Water-Granule Mixture

Based on the invasion percolation model, a lattice model for the sweeping interface dynamics is constructed to describe the pattern forming process by a sweeping interface upon drying the water-granule mixture. The model is shown to produce labyrinthine patterns similar to those found in the experiment[Yamazaki and Mizuguchi, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. \textbf{69} (2000) 2387]. Upon changing the initial granular density, resulting patterns undergo the percolation transition, but estimated critical exponents are different from those of the conventional percolation. Loopless structure of clusters in the patterns produced by the sweeping dynamics seems to influence the nature of the transition.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Ground state properties of heavy alkali halides

We extend previous work on alkali halides by calculations for the heavy-atom species RbF, RbCl, LiBr, NaBr, KBr, RbBr, LiI, NaI, KI, and RbI. Relativistic effects are included by means of energy-consistent pseudopotentials, correlations are treated at the coupled-cluster level. A striking deficiency of the Hartree-Fock approach are lattice constants deviating by up to 7.5 % from experimental values which is reduced to a maximum error of 2.4 % by taking into account electron correlation. Besides, we provide ab-initio data for in-crystal polarizabilities and van der Waals coefficients.Comment: accepted by Phys. Rev.