The printing industry in sub-Sahara Africa: An exploratory study

The printing industry in Sub-Sahara Africa faces numerous problems inhibiting further growth and development. Because of a scarcity of published information regarding these problems, and regarding the nature of the industry in general, this study hoped to establish a beginning and baseline for researchers, printing managers, suppliers, development planners, and anyone else interested in the development of the African printing industry. Specifically, the objectives of this study were to identify: 1) the general characteristics of the printing industry in Sub-Sahara Africa; and 2) the primary constraints inhibiting its further growth and development. Information was gathered by several means, including a search of the literature, interviews, and a survey of manufacturers. General economic data was also gathered and statistically analyzed by country cluster and factor analyzes. Further, the industry is examined in terms of international technology transfer research findings. The study showed that the printing industry in Sub-Sahara Africa is characterized by the following generalizations: A wide range of diversity in technological sophistication from one country to another; rapid technological change; a scarcity of local sources of printing equipment and supplies; a generally low level of printing quality; predominantly single color printing; a relatively high cost for raw materials; high tariffs on industry inputs; a scarcity and low level of technical skills; poor management; a generally rudimentary level of technology; considerable infrastructure problems; small and underdeveloped markets ; poor environmental control; poor printer/publisher relations; and a scarcity of training and educational institutions for the graphic arts. Recommendations to participants and recommendations for further research are presented

Gravitino fields in Schwarzschild black hole spacetimes

The analysis of gravitino fields in curved spacetimes is usually carried out using the Newman-Penrose formalism. In this paper we consider a more direct approach with eigenspinor-vectors on spheres, to separate out the angular parts of the fields in a Schwarzschild background. The radial equations of the corresponding gauge invariant variable obtained are shown to be the same as in the Newman-Penrose formalism. These equations are then applied to the evaluation of the quasinormal mode frequencies, as well as the absorption probabilities of the gravitino field scattering in this background.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1006.3327 by other author

Animated pedagogical agents effects on enhancing student motivation and learning in a science inquiry learning environment

This study focuses on the design and testing of a motivational animated pedagogical agent (APA) in an inquiry learning environment on kinematics. The aim of including the APA was to enhance students’ perceptions of task relevance and self-efficacy. Given the under-representation of girls in science classrooms, special attention was given to designing an APA that would appeal to the female students. A review of the literature suggested that the best design solution would be an agent who was female, young, attractive, and “cool”. An experiment compared three conditions: agent (image and voice), voice (no image), and control (no image and no voice). The research question was whether students’ motivation and knowledge changed over time as they worked in the inquiry learning environment, and whether condition and gender affected such changes. Participants were 61 third-year students (mean age 14.7 years) from a secondary school. Gender was distributed evenly within and across conditions. A significant main effect of time on self-efficacy was found, with self-efficacy beliefs increasing significantly for both boys and girls. In addition, there was a significant interaction between time, condition, and gender for self-efficacy. About halfway during training, girls’ self-efficacy beliefs significantly increased in both experimental conditions and decreased in the control condition. For boys the opposite pattern was found. Girls also gave higher appraisals for the agent. Students in all three conditions realized significant knowledge gains, which did not differ by gender. The discussion critically considers the need for, and design of motivational scaffolding in inquiry learning environment

Desarrollo de modelos lineales para la determinación del área foliar en habichuela (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) a partir de medidas directas de hojas

Plant leaf area is an important physiological trait, and direct, non-destructive methods for estimating leaf area have been shown to be effective while allowing for repeated plant sampling.The objective of this study was to evaluate direct, non-destructive leaflet measurements as predictors of actual leaflet area (LA), to test previously developed models, and to develop genotype-specific linear models for leaflet area estimation in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). For development of appropriate regression models for leaflet area estimation, four common bean genotypes were evaluated under greenhouse conditions: BAT 477, 'Morales', SER 16, and SER 21. The greenhouse-derived models were evaluated under field conditions. Previously developed models were tested and found to overestimate or underestimate leaflet area. Leaflet measurements included maximum leaflet width (W) and maximum leaflet length (L) and L X W. The measurements with the highest values for the coefficient of determination (R2) were W or L X W for BAT 477, SER 16, and Morales (0.97, 0.95, and 0.95, respectively), and L X W for SER 21 (R2 = 0.96). The linear models developed were shown to be effective and robust for predicting leaflet area under both greenhouse and field conditions during both vegetative and reproductive stages of plant development.El área foliar es una medida importante de la fisiología de las plantas, y los métodos indirectos y no-destructivos para medir el área foliar han demostrado ser muy eficientes a la vez que permiten la toma de medidas repetidas en el tiempo. El objetivo del presente estudio fue evaluar directamente métodos no destructivos para la estimación del área foliar en habichuelas (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) a partir de la medida de las hojas, probar modelos previos, y desarrollar modelos lineales específicos para cada genotipo. Se evaluaron cuatro genotipos: BAT 477, Morales, SER 16, y SER 21, bajo condiciones de invernadero y de campo. Los modelos desarrollados en invernadero se aplicaron y evaluaron bajo condiciones de campo durante dos años. Los modelos previos reportados por otros autores fueron evaluados, y se encontró que sobre-o sub-estimaban el área foliar. Los modelos desarrollados en este estudio incluyeron el ancho máximo de la hoja (W), y la longitud máxima (L), los que fueron empleados para calcular un tercer factor, L X W. Los modelos con mayores coeficientes de determinación (R2) fueron W or L X W para BAT 477, SER 16 y Morales (0.97, 0.95, y 0.95, respectivamente) y L X W para SER 21 (R2 = 0.96). Los modelos de regresión desarrollados mostraron ser eficientes en la predicción del área foliar bajo condiciones de campo e invernadero, en las fases vegetativas y reproductivas, para cada uno de los genotipos evaluados

Faecalibacterium prausnitzii Strain HTF-F and Its Extracellular Polymeric Matrix Attenuate Clinical Parameters in DSS-Induced Colitis

Date of Acceptance: 26/02/2015 Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Enhancement of toxin- and virus-neutralizing capacity of single-domain antibody fragments by N-glycosylation

Single-domain antibody fragments (VHHs) have several beneficial properties as compared to conventional antibody fragments. However, their small size complicates their toxin- and virus-neutralizing capacity. We isolated 27 VHHs binding Escherichia coli heat-labile toxin and expressed these in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The most potent neutralizing VHH (LT109) was N-glycosylated, resulting in a large increase in molecular mass. This suggests that N-glycosylation of LT109 improves its neutralizing capacity. Indeed, deglycosylation of LT109 decreased its neutralizing capacity three- to fivefold. We also studied the effect of glycosylation of two previously isolated VHHs on their ability to neutralize foot-and-mouth disease virus. For this purpose, these VHHs that lacked potential N-glycosylation sites were genetically fused to another VHH that was known to be glycosylated. The resulting fusion proteins were also N-glycosylated. They neutralized the virus at at least fourfold-lower VHH concentrations as compared to the single, non-glycosylated VHHs and at at least 50-fold-lower VHH concentrations as compared to their deglycosylated counterparts. Thus, we have shown that N-glycosylation of VHHs contributes to toxin- and virus-neutralizing capacity

Studies on the Induction of Antigen-Specific Antibody in Anti-CD40 Cultured Human B Lymphocytes

Costimulatory signals provided by T cells are required for B cells to produce specific antibody to T-dependent antigen. We have investigated the suitability of using the CD40 culture system for the proliferation and differentiation of Ag-specific human B cells using cytomegalovirus (CMV) or tetanus toxoid (TT) as antigen. We modified the CD40 culture system (CD32- transfected L cells, anti-CD40, and IL-4) by applying a sequential cytokine stimulation and compared total B-cell cultures with antigen-specific B cells preselected by panning. The detection of specific antibody became possible when antigen-selected B cells were cultured for 7 days in the CD40 system to induce clonal expansion, followed by the addition of IL-2 and IL10 for an additional 7 days to induce plasma-cell differentiation. We conclude that our intial inability to detect specific antibody in the CD40 system is due to overgrowth of nonspecific B cell clones and that selection of antigen-specific B cells by panning overcomes this problem. Induction of antigen-specific antibody production was found to be optimal when the initial contact with antigen during panning was limited to between 1 to 24 hours