Rationalization and Harmonization of Seed Policies and Regulations in Eastern and Central Africa: Effecting Policy Change through Private Public Partnerships

Cereal grains are important staple foods in Africa but yields are still too low at 1.5 tons per ha for maize while compared with a global average of 4.5 tons per ha. This can be partly attributed to limited development of commercial seed markets, low use of improved seeds, small and highly fragmented seed markets. Many released varieties are not widely disseminated due to closed national markets dominated by a few international companies and parastatals, and restrictive laws, regulations and policies. Transactions costs within and across national boundaries are high because of differing arrangements across countries. Establishment of common regulatory structures is expected to reduce transactions costs and promote increased trade and hence use of improved seeds. This paper describes the process, results, experiences and lessons learned in developing and operationalizing a seed trade harmonization system in eastern and central Africa. It is clear that the public-private partnerships can play a pivotal role in catalyzing, facilitating and supporting the establishment, development and strengthening of national and regional seed trade. By building partnerships and wide participation, the project was able to apply lessons learned from older to newer countries. The technical, political and legislative processes in the policy-change-cycle are equally important and optimal outcomes must be based on trade-offs between technical issues and interests of the stakeholders.Seeds, harmonization, public-private partnerships, eastern Africa, Crop Production/Industries, Q18, Q19,

Striving for Higher Impacts in Agricultural Research and Development

Over the years, substantial investments in agricultural research have been made in sub-Saharan Africa. The few studies on research investments show impressive returns that are comparable to those achieved in developed countries. However, problems such as recurrent hunger, poverty, food insecurity and natural resource degradation continue to plague the region. Agricultural development arena is changing rapidly toward non-linear innovation systems of complex actor networks and multiple sources of innovations characterized by dynamic and iterative learning processes that constantly inform, renew and advance the state of the systems. Most actors and institutions are not linked effectively often from imaginary boundaries created by prescribed mandates and parochial interests. While more investments in research and development are required for the region, it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify them in the wake of competing needs in the face of shrinking national budgets. The few impact assessments that have been carried out in the region have been incidental and not linked to the research planning cycle implying that lessons from previous research efforts are not used when planning for subsequent research and development efforts. We are proposing impact orientation to track impact to the attainment of institutional and overall development goals. This calls in part for impact assessment to be made an integral part of planning, monitoring and evaluation along with appreciation of the impact chain and actors involved in the innovation process to demonstrate relevance to development goals and thus justify funding.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

The mental hospital and the community

No Abstrac

History of mental health services South Africa

During the British Occupation mental patients were detained in the old Slave Lodge, the old Somerset Hospital and on Robben Island. In 1846 the first mental hospital was formally established on Robben Island, and was finally closed down in 1920. The history of our early lunacy laws is described.S. Afr. Med. J., 48, 1629 (1974)

Mephenesin carbamate in the treatment of spastic paralysis

No Abstrac

Phylogeny of a Neotropical Clade in the Gesneriaceae: More Tales of Convergent Evolution

The Gesneriaceae is a family known for convergent evolution of complex floral forms. As a result, defining genera and resolving evolutionary relationships among such genera using morphological data alone has been challenging and often does not accurately reflect monophyletic lineages. The tribe Episcieae is the most diverse within Neotropical Gesneriaceae in terms of its number of species and morphological diversity. As a result, defining genera using floral characters has been historically troublesome. Here we investigate relationships among genera of the tribe using an array of chloroplast DNA, nuclear ribosomal genes, and low-copy nuclear genes to provide resolution for the monophyly of the genera and relationships among the monophyletic groups. All known genera in the tribe (with the exception of the monospecific Lampadaria) have been sampled, and most have been sampled to provide an assessment to determine their monophyly. Of the 17 genera in the tribe that comprise more than a single species, we have sampled 15 with at least two species. The following six genera are identified as para- or polyphyletic: Neomortonia, Episcia, Paradrymonia, Nautilocalyx, Codonanthe, and Nematanthus. Our results strongly support at least three independent origins of fleshy fruits, which are defined here as fleshy display capsules or indehiscent berries

New World Origins of Southwest Pacific Gesneriaceae: Multiple Movements Across and Within the South Pacific

Coronanthereae is a tribe of ~20 species with a suite of unique morphological characters and a disjunct geographic distribution in the Southern Hemisphere. Three species are found in southern South America and the remainder in the southwest Pacific. It has been suggested, because of this distribution and disjunction, that Coronanthereae represents a relictual Gondwanan group from which the two major lineages in the family, the Old World Cyrtandroideae and the New World Gesnerioideae, originated. We tested this hypothesis by using phylogenetic analyses of nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequences, ancestral-area reconstruction, and molecular dating. The tribe is placed within the mostly Neotropical subfamily Gesnerioideae and comprises three lineages, treated here as subtribes. Two events of dispersal from South America explain the presence of the tribe in the South Pacific. Negriinae, newly recognized here, comprises arborescent genera: Australian Lenbrassia, New Caledonian Depanthus, and Negria from Lord Howe Island. Mitrariinae groups facultatively epiphytic Australian Fieldia with epiphytes from South America, a finding inconsistent with recent placement of Lenbrassia in synonymy of Fieldia. Coronantherinae consists of the arborescent Coronanthera from New Caledonia and the shrub Rhabdothamnus from New Zealand. Ancestral-area reconstruction and molecular dating of the clades support long-distance dispersal mechanisms, rather than Gondwanan vicariance, for explaining geographic distributions

Prejudice and effective anti-bullying intervention: Evidence from the bullying of "minorities"

The tradition of research into school bullying, and the development of anti-bullying intervention programmes in Norway, has had a significant influence upon similar efforts being made in other countries. However, recent evaluations of the effectiveness of school-based anti-bullying interventions have revealed mixed and most often modest levels of success. This in turn has led to suggestions being made in Norway that rather than to continue support for a direct approach to the issue of school bullying, making improvements in the "learning environment" should be prioritized; however, it is argued here that there is, as yet, no body of direct evidence to directly confirm that position. Instead, it is contended that research into school bullying has been limited to the conceptualization of bullying as being purely a sub-set of aggression, and that anti-bullying intervention has been, consequently, focused largely on purely behaviour management solutions. From recent studies on specific forms of bullying of minority groups (lesbian, gay and bisexual young people, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities or special educational needs and members of alternative sub-cultures), it appears that prejudice is at least influential on specific patterns of bullying behaviour, but has not received sufficient attention in either the conceptualization of bullying or the design of programmes to prevent and counter it. Hence, rather than scaling down direct anti-bullying intervention efforts, it is suggested that subsequent research and programme design could be re-focused in order to give a greater consideration to prejudice as an underlying factor. © 2014 The Editors of Nordic Psychology

Assessing the Impacts of Zimbabwe’s Agricultural Vouchers Input Program

Using data from ICRISAT 2010/11 household and fertilizer retailer surveys, the study reveals that open vouchers enhance farmers input choice. The targeting of vulnerable farmers was efficient in selecting, households with less livestock ownership and those affected by HIV/AIDS. The use of open vouchers enabled retailers to sale agricultural inputs, boost revenue and link them to suppliers. The use of open voucher is preferable in areas where retailer’s infrastructure and mobile telephone network coverage is good. Timely payment of retailers and suppliers is necessary to encourage their willingness to participate in the program. Risk bearing options like wholesaler insurance are critical to ensure wholesalers are compensated in the event that agro-inputs are not purchased. Credit facilities specifically meant for retailers to stock and trade agricultural inputs will be useful. Programs and policies that enable farmers to access credit to buy inputs should also be put in place. A well planned voucher system links commercial retail channels and has multiplier effects to the society. Experiences from the PRP input program demonstrated that voucher system, as an alternative to direct input distribution, is workable in the Zimbabwe situation and can be adequately supported by suppliers and rural retailers. Voucher programs have the potential to support retail linkage and there is need for increasing more stakeholders, such as seed and fertilizer companies, and wholesalers

Determining biophysical protein stability in lysates by a fast proteolysis assay, FASTpp.

The biophysical stability is an important parameter for protein activity both in vivo and in vitro. Here we propose a method to analyse thermal melting of protein domains in lysates: Fast parallel proteolysis (FASTpp). Combining unfolding by a temperature gradient in a thermal cycler with simultaneous proteolytic cleavage of the unfolded state, we probed stability of single domains in lysates. We validated FASTpp on proteins from 10 kDa to 240 kDa and monitored stabilisation and coupled folding and binding upon interaction with small-molecule ligands. Within a total reaction time of approximately 1 min, we probed subtle stability differences of point mutations with high sensitivity and in agreement with data obtained by intrinsic protein fluorescence. We anticipate a wide range of applications of FASTpp in biomedicine and protein engineering as it requires only standard laboratory equipment