Competitive response, innovation and creating an innovative milieu: the case of manufacturing industry in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

competition;competitiveness;Zimbabwe;industrial development;industry;industrial innovations

Governance of local economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa: who are the dancers and do they act 'in concert'?

governance; economic development; local government; regional development; Sub-Saharan Africa;

Enabling communities and markets : meanings, relationships and options in settlement improvement

empowerment;poverty alleviation;market;UNCHS;community development;human settlements

Smallholder participation in high value agro-export chains in Peru. A study of the co-evolution of technology and institutions

[Introduction] In essence poverty is not only about lack of resources but also about the lack of opportunities. High value, tradable crops may provide opportunities to escape from what Dorward et al (2005) call a ‘low level equilibrium trap’ but as they observe there are important technological and institutional gaps that prevent small producers to produce for and transact in associated markets. The central question in this paper is how technological and institutional processes to overcome these gaps are interconnected. In these processes normally firms are the key players with a more or less active role of governments, but as Dorward and others have argued on different occasions for developing countries, NGOs can help overcome market and government failures in these processes (Dorward et al, 2003, 2005, Kydd et al, 2004, Helmsing & Knorringa, 2009) We will use a case study of a Peruvian NGO and its efforts to assist small producers to acquire technological competences and develop institutional arrangements amongst themselves and with new suppliers and buyers in new agro-export chains. These efforts concern simultaneously technological change and innovation as much as the construction of new institutional arrangements

A Theoretical Study of Brooker\u27s Merocyanine with (2-Hydroxypropyl)-β-Cyclodextrin

To understand the important forces in host-guest complexes, a theoretical study of these systems was carried out using computational methods to better understand experimental results. β-cyclodextrin (BCD) is a cone shaped molecule where the narrow end is known as the primary rim and the wider end is known as the secondary rim. The host molecule being studied, (2-hydroxypropyl)-β-cyclodextrin (2HPBCD),is a modified version of BCD with hydroxypropyl (HP) groups substituted along the rims. Because this modification replaces some of the OH groups present in BCD, it removes their ability to hydrogen bond, while introducing new OH groups that are more flexible. This alters how hydrogen bonding can occur and the role it plays in 2HPBCD\u27s complexations with Brooker\u27s merocyanine (BM), which is a model conjugated dye molecule with oxygen at one end and a nitrogen group at the other end. The computational method used in the work was semi-empirical parametric method 3 (PM3) in Gaussian03 (G03). The PM3 optimizations were performed on many possible structures to determine the most stable structure. Results show that the most stable structure has the nitrogen end of BM at the primary rim, and doesn\u27t appear to be positioned for proper hydrogen bonding. About the author: Ben is a senior chemistry major who grew up around computers. His father and brother both have computer science degrees. Combining an interest in computers and chemistry led to an interest in computational chemistry, which employs computers to answer relevant questions in chemistry

A Theoretical Study of Brooker\u27s Merocyanine with (2-Hydroxypropyl)-β-Cyclodextrin

To understand the important forces in host-guest complexes, a theoretical study of these systems was carried out using computational methods to better understand experimental results. β-cyclodextrin (BCD) is a cone shaped molecule where the narrow end is known as the primary rim and the wider end is known as the secondary rim. The host molecule being studied, (2-hydroxypropyl)-β-cyclodextrin (2HPBCD),is a modified version of BCD with hydroxypropyl (HP) groups substituted along the rims. Because this modification replaces some of the OH groups present in BCD, it removes their ability to hydrogen bond, while introducing new OH groups that are more flexible. This alters how hydrogen bonding can occur and the role it plays in 2HPBCD\u27s complexations with Brooker\u27s merocyanine (BM), which is a model conjugated dye molecule with oxygen at one end and a nitrogen group at the other end. The computational method used in the work was semi-empirical parametric method 3 (PM3) in Gaussian03 (G03). The PM3 optimizations were performed on many possible structures to determine the most stable structure. Results show that the most stable structure has the nitrogen end of BM at the primary rim, and doesn\u27t appear to be positioned for proper hydrogen bonding. About the author: Ben is a senior chemistry major who grew up around computers. His father and brother both have computer science degrees. Combining an interest in computers and chemistry led to an interest in computational chemistry, which employs computers to answer relevant questions in chemistry