Kenya's New Constitution

On 4 August 2010, Kenyans voted to adopt a new constitution, culminating a process that began as part of a resolution to the violent conflict that followed the December 2007 elections. By reducing executive power, devolving authority, and guaranteeing rights to women, minorities, and marginalized communities, the constitution has the potential to transform Kenyan politics. Political and logistical obstacles will, however, pose a challenge to implementation. Yet that the constitution has been adopted amidst a broader trend toward the institutionalization of political power in Africa—a context in which formal constitutional rules are increasingly consequential—provides cause for cautious optimism

The Institutionalisation of Political Power in Africa

Evidently, the failure of Nigeria's President Obasanjo's third term bid and the process through which it was reached is indicative of a growing trend in Africa whereby the formal institutional rules are starting to constrain leaders' behavior and to shape political actors' strategies in new ways. In this case, the major challenge for limiting presidential power in Africa today is making certain that leaders adhere to constitutional limits on their continued eligibility to contest them.NESG Economic Indicators Vol. 13 (1) 2007: pp. 15-2

Special issue in law and economics

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Faces capture attention: Evidence from Inhibition-of-return

The human face is a visual pattern of great social and biological importance. While previous studies have shown that attention may be preferentially directed and engaged longer by faces, the current study presents a new methodology to test the notion that faces can capture attention. The present study uses the occurrence of inhibition of return (IOR) as a diagnostic tool to determine the allocation of attention in visual space. Because previous research suggested that IOR at a location in space only occurs after attention has been reflexively moved to that location, the current finding of IOR at the location of the face provides converging support for the claim that faces do have the ability to summon attention. Faces capture attention: The human face constitutes one of the most important stimuli for social interactions. In addition, face perception is considered to be the most developed visual perceptual skill in humans. Research using single cell recording (Perrett, Hietanen, Oram, ..

Metabolic Alterations in Obstructive Jaundice: Effect of Duration of Jaundice and Bile-Duct Decompression

We examined the effect of prolonged bile duct obstruction, and subsequent biliary decompression, on biochemical and metabolic parameters, using a reversible jaundice model in male Fischer 344 rats. The animals were studied after biliary obstruction for varying periods (4 days, one week, and two weeks) and following decompression. They were sacrificed one or two weeks following decompression. All the rats were compared to sham operated, pair-fed, controls. Obstructive jaundice rapidly increased bilirubin, liver enzymes, serum free fatty acid, and triglyceride levels. Glucose levels were significantly decreased in the jaundice rats compared to their pair-fed controls. Only after two weeks of jaundice was significant hypoalbuminemia observed. Following decompression, all biochemical and metabolic values gradually returned to normal levels, except for albumin. Hypoalbuminemia was not reversed within the two-week post-decompression period. The rats jaundiced for two weeks had significantly higher mortality, compared to the other groups. We conclude that prolonged jaundice adversely affects the metabolic capacity of the rats, with albumin concentration being markedly decreased, and that biliary decompression could not reverse completely all the alterations seen with cholestasis, especially following two weeks of bile duct obstruction

[5,10,15,20-Tetra­kis(4-tol­yl)porphyrin]zinc(II) dichloro­methane solvate

In the title complex, [Zn(C48H36N4)]·CH2Cl2, the ZnII atom lies on an inversion center and the dichloro­methane solvent mol­ecule is disordered around an inversion center. The tolyl substituents are twisted compared to the central aromatic ring system of the porphyrin, similar to what is seen in previously published structures of this molecule [Dastidar & Goldberg (1996 ▶). Acta Cryst. C52, 1976–1980]. The dihedral angles between the mean planes of the tolyl rings and the central ring are 66.98 (6) and 60.40 (6)°

MODEL KEMITRAAN BISNIS DONAT MADU CIHANJUANG: Studi Deskriptif pada Mitra Usaha Donat Madu Cihanjuang Se-Bandung Raya

Latar belakang penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui model pengembangan bisnis yang dilakukan oleh Donat Madu Cihanjuang melalui model kemitraan. Dalam penelitian ini difokuskan pada model kemitraan pola waralaba sesuai yang diterapkan bisnis tersebut dengan subyek penelitian mitra usaha Donat Madu Cihanjuang yang berada di kawasan Bandung Raya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui (1) Gambaran umum mengenai alur kerja kemitraan Donat Madu Cihanjuang se-Bandung Raya (2) Kualitas hubungan kemitraan (3) Efektifitas pemasaran masing-masing mitra usaha (4) Tingkat keberhasilan usaha masing-masing mitra usaha. Metode yang dilakukan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode deskriptif kuantitatif dan kualitatif. Teknik pengumpulan data yang dilakukan dalam penelitian ini melalui studi kepustakaan, observasi dan instrument angket. Data yang telah terkumpul kemudian dianalisis melalui tahap display data, verifikasi data dan penegasan kesimpulan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan: (1) Ketepatan alur kemitraan pola waralaba berada pada kriteria tinggi (2) Kualitas hubungan kemitraan berada pada kriteria sangat tinggi (3) efektifitas pemasaran berada pada kriteria tinggi (4) Tingkat keberhasilan usaha berada pada kriteria tinggi. ---------- The background in this research is to find out about business model developing of Donat Madu Cihanjuang by means of partnership model. This research focusing to partnership model system franchise that appropriate and applying from this business. Subject in this research is Donat Madu Cihanjuang partners in Bandung Metropolitan area. This research aims to know about (1) activity groove partnership of Donat Madu Cihanjuang in Bandung Metropolitan area (2) Quality of partner relationship (3) Marketing product efectivity each labor partnership (4) Level of business success each labor partnership. This research using quantitative and qualitative descriptive method. The techniques of collection data by study literature, observation and questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed through the stage of data display, data verification, and finally through the assertion conclusion. This result show that are (1) activity groove partnership is in high criteria (2) Quality of partner relationship is in very high criteria (3) Marketing product efectivity is in high criteria (4) Level of business success is in high criteria

Formation of Alkanes by Aerobic Carbon–Carbon Bond Coupling Reactions Catalyzed by a Phosphovanadomolybdic Acid

The valorization of alkanes is possible via carbon–carbon coupling reactions. A series of dialkyl cobalt complexes [(RCH_2)_2Co^(III)(bpy)_2]ClO_4 (R = H, Me, Et, and Ph) were reacted with the H_5PV_2Mo_(10)O_(40) polyoxometalate as a catalyst, leading to a selective oxidative carbon–carbon bond coupling reaction. The reaction is initiated by electron transfer from [(RCH_2)_2Co^(III)(bpy)_2]^+ to H_5PV^V_2Mo_(10)O_(40) to yield an intermediate [(RCH_2)_2Co^(IV)(bpy)_2]^(2+)–H_5PV^(IV)V^VMo_(10)O_(40), as identified by a combination of EPR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy experiments. The reaction is catalytic with O_2 as terminal oxidant representing an aerobic C–C bond coupling reaction

RuleMonkey: software for stochastic simulation of rule-based models

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The system-level dynamics of many molecular interactions, particularly protein-protein interactions, can be conveniently represented using reaction rules, which can be specified using model-specification languages, such as the BioNetGen language (BNGL). A set of rules implicitly defines a (bio)chemical reaction network. The reaction network implied by a set of rules is often very large, and as a result, generation of the network implied by rules tends to be computationally expensive. Moreover, the cost of many commonly used methods for simulating network dynamics is a function of network size. Together these factors have limited application of the rule-based modeling approach. Recently, several methods for simulating rule-based models have been developed that avoid the expensive step of network generation. The cost of these "network-free" simulation methods is independent of the number of reactions implied by rules. Software implementing such methods is now needed for the simulation and analysis of rule-based models of biochemical systems.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, we present a software tool called RuleMonkey, which implements a network-free method for simulation of rule-based models that is similar to Gillespie's method. The method is suitable for rule-based models that can be encoded in BNGL, including models with rules that have global application conditions, such as rules for intramolecular association reactions. In addition, the method is rejection free, unlike other network-free methods that introduce null events, i.e., steps in the simulation procedure that do not change the state of the reaction system being simulated. We verify that RuleMonkey produces correct simulation results, and we compare its performance against DYNSTOC, another BNGL-compliant tool for network-free simulation of rule-based models. We also compare RuleMonkey against problem-specific codes implementing network-free simulation methods.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>RuleMonkey enables the simulation of rule-based models for which the underlying reaction networks are large. It is typically faster than DYNSTOC for benchmark problems that we have examined. RuleMonkey is freely available as a stand-alone application <url>http://public.tgen.org/rulemonkey</url>. It is also available as a simulation engine within GetBonNie, a web-based environment for building, analyzing and sharing rule-based models.</p