Phase behaviour of DNA in presence of DNA-binding proteins

To characterize the thermodynamical equilibrium of DNA chains interacting with a solution of non-specific binding proteins, a Flory-Huggins free energy model was implemented. We explored the dependence on DNA and protein concentrations of the DNA collapse. For physiologically relevant values of the DNA-protein affinity, this collapse gives rise to a biphasic regime with a dense and a dilute phase; the corresponding phase diagram was computed. Using an approach based on Hamiltonian paths, we show that the dense phase has either a molten globule or a crystalline structure, depending on the DNA bending rigidity, which is influenced by the ionic strength. These results are valid at the thermodynamical equilibrium and should therefore be consistent with many biological processes, whose characteristic timescales range typically from 1 ms to 10 s. Our model may thus be applied to biological phenomena that involve DNA-binding proteins, such as DNA condensation with crystalline order, which occurs in some bacteria to protect their chromosome from detrimental factors; or transcription initiation, which occurs in clusters called transcription factories that are reminiscent of the dense phase characterized in this study.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication at The Biophysical Journa

Mapping research areas and collaboration in the College of Human Sciences, University of South Africa

This paper examines the research output of the College of Human Sciences (CHS) at the University of South Africa (UNISA) with a view to determining the subjects or topics of research focus as well as the pattern and extent of research collaboration within the college. Using informetric approaches and more specifically the content analysis, the study employs various analytical technologies including UCINET for Windows, Microsoft Excel, Pajek, TI and TextStat to analyse data that was extracted from the University’s institutional research management system (IRMA). Results indicate that the research focus of the college is largely on HIV/AIDS; the most productive department was Christian Spirituality; the actual research output of the college is below the expected output; research is largely conducted singly as opposed to collaborative research; and that external research collaboration is common. Conclusions and recommendations for further research are provided

Proverbial Space and the Dialectics of Place and Displacement in Sade Adeniran’s Imagine This

Literary scholarship on proverb usage in Nigerian literary discourse had focused mostly on canonized writers and the nature, structure, form and context of proverbs in literature. Little work has been done on Sade Adeniran, her novel and the effect of place and displacement on proverb usage. This study is concerned with Adeniran‘s use of proverbs in her debut novel titled Imagine This. The novel, which won the Best First Book award for Commonwealth Writers‘ Prize (Africa Region) in 2008, has not received much critical attention because of the relative newness of the writer and the novel. The current paper examines Adeniran‘s attempt at creating a large proverbial space through her conscious use and structural arrangement of proverb in language. It foregrounds the dialectic of place and displacement, and location and dislocation as a crucible for her identity formation and major factor in appreciating her proverbs in the novel.Postcolonial theory served as the theoretical framework for the paper. Through the reading of the cultural features, Adeniran‘s techniques of writing which demonstrate her use of proverbs were purposively selected and subjected to content analysis in order to discuss the dynamics of language change in the novel. Proverbs are graphically enacted and foregrounded and Yoruba and English overlap in Imagine This. Through an examination of the implication of location and dislocation on proverb usage in the novel, the novel reveals an abundant usage of techniques of postcolonial writings such as code-mixing, pidginisation, use of proverbs, untranslated words and other language variants through which Adeniran creates a cultural space for herself. Geographical place and displacement as a feature of postcolonial writing imposes a gap that produces linguistic displacement. Therefore proverbs and other language variance and identity as in their literary contexts are areas of postcolonial study that require further research

Editorial - Improving the quality of health services in our tertiary hospitals

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Desirability: Now the primary basis for considering change of land use

In the Land Use Planning Ordinance (1511985), 'Desirability' is the sole basis for evaluating land use applications, in contrast to the traditional 'necessity and desirability' basis used during the previous dispensation. The terms are not defined in the Ordinance (old or new) or accompanying regulations, but it can be deduced that the change was to create a more market-oriented system. Where a local authority is the developer, the necessity will of course still be an important criterion. 'Desirability', however, is a subjective concept, and in order to be able to judge consistently and fairly, local governments should develop a system that can objectively test the impact of an intended change in land use. Such a system that serves as a tentative example is described in the article

Bridging the gap between theory and practice in language revitalization efforts in Africa

This paper examines the increasing concerns about language endangerment in Sub-Saharan Africa, and assesses the necessity and practicality of language revitalization efforts in some situations in the region in light of a number of practical problems of implementation. The paper identifies the need for a clearer paradigm of revitalization efforts, and recommends an approach that recognizes the hard reality that not all endangered languages can receive attention toward functional restoration due to the practical matters involved. The paper proposes archival preservation in such cases, while strongly supporting functional revitalization where the concerned languages a meet some suggested thresholds of viability.Key Words: African languages, language revitalization, language endanger-ment, language death

Culture and the Challenges of Development in Africa: Towards A Hybridization of Traditional and Modern Values

Development is a multi-dimensional process involving changes in structures, altitudes and institutions as well as the acceleration of economic growth, reduction of inequality and eradication of absolute poverty. However, the paper argues that the cultural dimension is a long-neglected aspect of development; the challenge, therefore, lies in fostering a synergistic development between science and technology and cultural values. What is essential is how to take culture into account both scientifically (methods and data) and practically. Because people do not commit themselves to a development undertaking unless that undertaking corresponds to their deeply felt needs, people should be able to derive the means and motivation for their development; the paper further stressed. This paper recommends a renaissance of applied cultural studies through the consolidation and generation of knowledge about (1) how cultural diversity affects what people do and want; (2) how cultural factor interact with other variables in the “production” of development, good or bad; and (3) how culture itself is affected by various kinds of development and other factors.Keywords: development, culture, modernity, traditional, challenge,compatibility, process etc

Mother/Daughter Relationship: Psychological Implication of Love in Toni Morrison’s Beloved

Motherhood posed great challenges to African American women under slavery as reflected in literary works by Black writers. Black mothers lost the opportunity and freedom to perform roles of ‘caregivers’ to their children. Instead, their children’s milk was appropriated, under very humiliating and intolerable conditions, to nourish white babies whose mothers were incapacitated. As victims of such humiliating andshameful experiences, the black women, realizing the implication of this situation to their sex, developed survival strategies to protect themselves and their female children. This resulted in some very strange relationships between mothers and their daughters.This paper re-examines Toni Morrison’s Beloved to identify an example of the types of mother/daughter relationship that existed between black mothers and their daughters and the implications of such relationship on the Black American society. The paper is a psychoanalytic reading, utilizing Melanie Klein’s Object Relations theory to reveal the psychological motivations for the behaviour of the protagonistsof the novel in the peculiar circumstances they find themselves. The paper exposes the slave masters’ strategies under the slave regime in America and the psychological implication of decimating the blacks and their family institutions on the generation of the Blacks in Toni Morrison’s Beloved