Civil society coalitions as pathways to PSB reform in Southern Africa

Democracy requires open public service broadcasting (PSB) institutions that constantly interact with active informed citizens. This article posits that a more proactive network of civil society across Southern Africa can produce an impact on PSB institutions in these countries enhancing reform and accountability to the public. We enter this topic by identifying pathways towards increased cooperation among public service broadcasters, civil society coalitions and other stakeholders in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The main focus is on the interaction between broadcasters, policy-makers and civil society groups, namely SOS: Support Public Broadcasting in South Africa and the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe, two leading media activist organizations in Southern Africa. The engagement by such networks can deepen public interest and reconnect PSB institutions and PSB staff to the PSB mandate and mission. Civil society coalitions working collaboratively with PSB will engender a context within which a collaboratively defined PSB mission, institutional structure and programme outcomes are constantly foregrounded in the operations and performance of the broadcasters

Who is spreading rumours about vaccines? Influential user impact modelling in social networks

Vaccine hesitancy, traditionally linked to issues of trust, misinformation and prior beliefs, has been increasingly fuelled by influential groups on social media (SM) and the Internet. Analysis of news media and social networks (SN) accessible in real-time provides a new opportunity for detecting changes in public confidence in vaccines. However, different concerns are important in different regions, and reasons for hesitancy and the role of opinion leaders vary between sub-controversies in the broader vaccination debates. It is therefore important for public health professionals to gain an overview of the emerging debates in cyberspace, identify influential users and rumours, and assess their impact in order to know how to respond. The VAC Medi+Board project aims to visualise the diffusion of rumours through SN and assess the impact of key individuals. We include, as a case study, discussions during winter 2015-16 pertaining to the alleged side-effects of the HPV vaccine

VAC Medi+board: Analysing Vaccine Rumours in News and Social Media

Digital health has revolutionised healthcare, with implications for understanding public reactions to health emergencies and interventions, while real-time analysis provides a new opportunity for rapidly detecting changes in public confidence in vaccines. Medi+board implements tools for infectious disease surveillance and outbreak management, and the novel aim of the VAC medi+board is to design an interactive visualisation framework integrating heterogeneous real-time data streams with social network data, to meet information needs as articulated by the LSHTM Vaccine Confidence Project (VCP) investigators

Technology: a tool in the hands of a few

This essay presents a brief survey on some of the basic questions concerning the Philosophy of Technology, including the different historical perspectives regarding the part played by technology in human life and societies. From the historical debate between the more pragmatic and the more skeptical sides, the optimistic and pessimistic views, an answer is proposed, finding support in a sociological point of view in what can be interpreted as a contemporary marxist approach on these problems. This work was developed in the context of the course \textit{An Introduction to the History of Science} given by Professor Luca Maria Possati, part of the Philosophy degree at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of University of Porto, Portugal

Optically monitored nuclear spin dynamics in individual GaAs quantum dots grown by droplet epitaxy

We report optical orientation experiments in individual, strain free GaAs quantum dots in AlGaAs grown by droplet epitaxy. Circularly polarized optical excitation yields strong circular polarization of the resulting photoluminescence at 4K. Optical injection of spin polarized electrons into a dot gives rise to dynamical nuclear polarization that considerably changes the exciton Zeeman splitting (Overhauser shift). We show that the created nuclear polarization is bistable and present a direct measurement of the build-up time of the nuclear polarization in a single GaAs dot in the order of one second.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Electrical response of β-PVDF in a constant uniaxial strain rate deformation

The microstructure of β-PVDF has great influence on its piezo- and pyroelectric responses. The microstructure of β-PVDF drastically changes upon a mechanical deformation perpendicular to the preferred chain orientation, mainly above the yielding point. The voltage (open-circuit response) developed in β-PVDF films was monitored while the material is subjected to a constant strain rate programFundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) - POCTI/CTM/33501/99

Natural fibres as reinforcement strategy on cork-polymer composites

Cork powder, the most important sub-product of cork processing, combined with thermoplastic matrixes like, high density polyethylene (HDPE), offer a new class of cork-polymer composite (CPC) materials with high added-value. Therefore, reinforcing strategies must be considered to increase the mechanical performance, especially when high content of cork powder is added to the formulation. Coconut fibres have several advantages, such as, low density, renewable source, low cost and biodegradability. The use of these fibres on the reinforcement of CPC materials will not only contribute to improve the mechanical performance but also for increasing the amount of natural component present on the final composition. The main goal of this work was to prepare HDPE/cork (50-50 wt.%) composites reinforced with discontinuous coconut fibres (5 and 10 wt.%) with and without the addition of coupling agent (2 wt.%) by extrusion. The developed reinforced cork based composites were characterized regarding its morphology and mechanical performance. Optical micrographs have shown a homogeneous distribution of the fibres. The coupling agent effect on CPC performance was also investigated. The tensile strength and tensile modulus of the reinforced composites were significantly improved with the addition of coupling agent. The use of 10 wt.% of coconut fibres in the presence of coupling agent promote an increase on maximum tensile strength of around 41 % comparing with the HDPE/cork (50-50 wt.%) composites. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs of the tensile fractured specimens confirmed that the use of coupling agent promoted the interfacial adhesion between the fibres and the thermoplastic matrix. Since, like cork powder, coconut fibres have good thermal and acoustic properties, we consider that the novel reinforced CPC herein described have high potential to be used in building and construction systems and other structural 3D applications.Corticeira Amorim S.G.P.S. (Portugal)Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)Project ”NovelComp”QREN FCOMP-01-0202 FEDER-00310