International law on the protection of child refugees and its domestic implementation: A case study of refugee children in South Africa (1994-2005)

The study is an examination of issues with implementing international law pertaining to refugee children, with particular reference to South Africa. The study provides some selected outcomes with implementation and undertakes an analysis of the factors that influence those outcomes. While South Africa like many other countries provides a comprehensive legal regime in the protection of refugee children, there are still gaps with compliance. Also, whilst the norms of international law demand obedience and compel behaviour, there is no doubt that there still exists some degree of disparity between actual national behaviour and the behaviour prescribed by the rule of international law. If it were possible or meaningful to conduct a quantitative study of obedience to the rules of international law, it might be expected to show that most states obey most agreed rules of international law most of the time. In this particular case study, rules of law are in some instances violated or disregarded but these cases do not in themselves provide evidence that international law is without efficacy in South Africa

Sectoral public investment on economic growth

The purpose of this study was to find out the impact of sectoral public investment on economic growth in Kenya. This paper uses a Vector Autoregressive (VAR) Model to analyze the impact of sectoral public expenditure on economic growth. Time series data from the Kenya Bureau of Statistics and the World Bank Development Indicators for the period 1964-2014 was used. The study finds a long run relationship between aggregate government expenditure and economic growth. The sectoral analysis indicates a positive impact on public expenditure in infrastructure on economic growth whereas a periodic negative and positive impact on economic growth as a result of public expenditure in public administration and defense and education

Dual HLA B*42 and B*81-reactive T cell receptors recognize more diverse HIV-1 Gag escape variants

Closely related HLA alleles presenting similar HIV-1 epitopes can be associated with variable clinical outcome. Here the authors report their findings on CD8+ T cell responses to the HIV-1 Gag-p24 TL9 immunodominant epitope in the context of closely related protective and less protective HLA alleles, and their differential effect on viral contro

Roots and Routes of Political Violence in Kenya’s Civil and Political Society: A Case Study of Marsabit County

Struggles to influence the balance of power and the distribution of economic resources in Kenya have a long history of violence: national and local, actual and threatened, physical and psychological. Somewhat controlled by sophisticated legal, administrative and political institutions and strongly tempered by a deep fund of intercommunity cooperation, violence has been kept in check, but remains persistent. The levels of violence vary from place to place and year to year, and seldom break out into full-scale clashes or war. Nonetheless, different forms of violence combine with politics to form a resilient chain that exerts powerful control over people’s lives and resists straightforward policy prescriptions or easy practical resolutions. This case study uses a definition of political settlements to frame the inquiry (Parks and Cole 2010). This approach defines political settlements as the informal agreements that govern the formal negotiation and distribution of goods, rights and responsibilities within the state. The study aims to show one manifestation of how the political settlement in Kenya is upheld by a variety of interlinked forms of ‘normal’ violence, themselves linked to economic dependencies. Today’s political settlement is founded in the new constitution of Kenya and structured by the new system of devolved government. We show how the informal rules of the political (un)settlement in operation at the most local level play a role in sustaining a violent political system.UK Department for International Developmen

Partial compartmentalisation of HIV-1 subtype C between lymph nodes, peripheral blood mononuclear cells and plasma

HIV-1 compartmentalisation is likely to have important implications for a preventative vaccine as well as eradication strategies. We genetically characterised HIV-1 subtype C variants in lymph nodes, peripheral blood mononuclear cells and plasma of six antiretroviral (ART) naïve individuals and four individuals on ART. Full-length env (n = 171) and gag (n = 250) sequences were generated from participants using single genome amplification. Phylogenetic relatedness of sequences was assessed, and compartmentalisation was determined using both distance and tree-based methods implemented in HyPhy. Additionally, potential associations between compartmentalisation and immune escape mutations were assessed. Partial viral compartmentalisation was present in nine of the ten participants. Broadly neutralising antibody (bnAb) escape was found to be associated with partial env compartmentalisation in some individuals, while cytotoxic T lymphocyte escape mutations in Gag were limited and did not differ between compartments. Viral compartmentalisation may be an important consideration for bnAb use in viral eradication

The DARC-null trait is associated with moderate modulation of NK cell profiles and unaltered cytolytic T cell profiles in black South Africans

The Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines (DARC)-null trait, common among persons of African descent and associated with lower absolute neutrophil counts (ANCs), may be linked to increased risk to certain infections including HIV-1 but the underlying causes are poorly understood. We hypothesized that DARC-null-linked neutropenia may negatively impact neutrophil immunoregulatory modulation of other immune cells such as natural killer (NK) and CD8+ T cells leading to altered phenotype, functionality and homeostatic activity of these immune cells. HIV-1 uninfected (n = 20) and HIV-1 chronically infected (n = 19) participants were assessed using multi-parametric flow cytometry to determine NK and CD8+ T cell counts, phenotypic profiles, and cytokine production and degranulation. Annexin V and carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) staining were used to examine NK cell survival and NK cell and CD8+ T cell proliferation respectively. Participants were genotyped for the DARC-null polymorphism using allelic discrimination assays and ANCs were measured by full blood count. In HIV uninfected individuals, a reduction of total NK cell counts was noted in the absence of DARC and this correlated with lower ANCs. HIV uninfected DARC-null subjects displayed a less mature NK cell phenotype. However, this did not translate to differences in NK cell activation or effector functionality by DARC state. Whilst HIV-1 infected subjects displayed NK cell profiling that is typical of HIV infection, no differences were noted upon DARC stratification. Similarly, CD8+ T cells from HIV infected individuals displayed phenotypic and functional modulation that is characteristic of HIV infection, but profiling was unaffected by the DARC-null variant irrespective of HIV status. Overall, the data suggests that the DARC-null polymorphism and lower ANCs does not impede downstream cytolytic cell priming and functionality

Prevalence of substance use among college students in Eldoret, western Kenya

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Substance use among college and university students predicts substance related problems in later life. Few studies on this phenomenon have been carried out in low income countries, and most focus on primary and secondary school students. This study therefore aimed to establish the prevalence and factors associated with drug use among university and college students in a low income country.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p><it>Design: </it>A descriptive cross-sectional survey using the Self-Administered WHO Model Core Questionnaire to collect information on use of various drugs among students in colleges and university campuses within Eldoret Municipality in Western Kenya. <it>Setting: </it>Four tertiary learning institutions in Eldoret Municipality were randomly selected for inclusion in the study- three tertiary level non-university institutions and one university campus. <it>Subjects: </it>Five hundred students who gave consent to participate in the study, 125 from each of the four participating institutions. The mean age was 22.9 years (18-32, s.d. 2.5), and males made up 52.2% of the sample.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Lifetime prevalence rate of any substance use was 69.8%, and none of the socio-demographic factors was significantly associated with this. Lifetime prevalence rate of alcohol use was 51.9%, and 97.6% of alcohol users had consumed alcohol in the week prior to the study. The prevalence rate of cigarette use was 42.8%, with males having statistically significantly higher rates than females (p < 0.05). Other substances used were cannabis (2%) and cocaine (0.6%). Among those who admitted to using substances, 75.1% were introduced by a friend while 23.5% were introduced by a relative other than a member of the nuclear family. Majority of those using substances wanted to relax (62.2%) or relieve stress (60.8%). Problems associated with alcohol use included quarrelling and fights, loss and damage to property, problems with parents, medical problems and unplanned unprotected sex.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The prevalence of substance use among college and university students in Eldoret is high and causes significant physical and psychosocial problems in this population. A large proportion of those using alcohol reported serious adverse effects, raising the necessity of targeted interventions to reduce the risk of subsequent substance dependence and other deleterious consequences.</p

HIV-1 subtype C envelope characteristics associated with divergent rates of chronic disease progression

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>HIV-1 envelope diversity remains a significant challenge for the development of an efficacious vaccine. The evolutionary forces that shape the diversity of envelope are incompletely understood. HIV-1 subtype C envelope in particular shows significant differences and unique characteristics compared to its subtype B counterpart. Here we applied the single genome sequencing strategy of plasma derived virus from a cohort of therapy naïve chronically infected individuals in order to study diversity, divergence patterns and envelope characteristics across the entire HIV-1 subtype C gp160 in 4 slow progressors and 4 progressors over an average of 19.5 months.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sequence analysis indicated that intra-patient nucleotide diversity within the entire envelope was higher in slow progressors, but did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.07). However, intra-patient nucleotide diversity was significantly higher in slow progressors compared to progressors in the C2 (p = 0.0006), V3 (p = 0.01) and C3 (p = 0.005) regions. Increased amino acid length and fewer potential N-linked glycosylation sites (PNGs) were observed in the V1-V4 in slow progressors compared to progressors (p = 0.009 and p = 0.02 respectively). Similarly, gp41 in the progressors was significantly longer and had fewer PNGs compared to slow progressors (p = 0.02 and p = 0.02 respectively). Positive selection hotspots mapped mainly to V1, C3, V4, C4 and gp41 in slow progressors, whereas hotspots mapped mainly to gp41 in progressors. Signature consensus sequence differences between the groups occurred mainly in gp41.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data suggest that separate regions of envelope are under differential selective forces, and that envelope evolution differs based on disease course. Differences between slow progressors and progressors may reflect differences in immunological pressure and immune evasion mechanisms. These data also indicate that the pattern of envelope evolution is an important correlate of disease progression in chronic HIV-1 subtype C infection.</p