An Anti-Corruption Bureau’s Inexorable Endeavor: A Study of Malawi’s Cashgate Scandal

The “Cashgate” scandal has had far-reaching consequences for the southern African nation of Malawi and its people. Western donors suspended budgetary aid—circa $150 million annually—upon learning that civil servants and senior cabinet ministers in former President Joyce Banda’s administration had manipulated the government’s financial management system to embezzle more than$45 million over an eighteen-month period. As a precondition to the resumption of aid, the donors required that the government not only implement financial management reforms but also fully prosecute the perpetrators and recover the stolen assets. The donors’ position solidified when audits of Malawian government ledgers from 2009 to 2014 could not account for $356 million. This essay examines whether Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has the institutional capacity to achieve the prosecutorial benchmarks set by Western donors. Despite the obstacles inherent in an overstretched and underfunded criminal justice system, the ACB has made some progress, with fifteen convictions on theft and money laundering charges, and$1.4 million in cash and property recovered. Yet, as this essay observes, the quest to secure convictions and recover assets in the more complex cases of senior officials will become quixotic unless the government provides the ACB with sufficient independence, authority, and resources. Lacking ACB operational success, donors seem disinclined to resume direct budgetary support to Malawi. And as Western countries retract, China moves in, extending its influence

3D modeling of indoor environments by a mobile platform with a laser scanner and panoramic camera

One major challenge of 3DTV is content acquisition. Here, we present a method to acquire a realistic, visually convincing D model of indoor environments based on a mobile platform that is equipped with a laser range scanner and a panoramic camera. The data of the 2D laser scans are used to solve the simultaneous lo- calization and mapping problem and to extract walls. Textures for walls and floor are built from the images of a calibrated panoramic camera. Multiresolution blending is used to hide seams in the gen- erated textures. The scene is further enriched by 3D-geometry cal- culated from a graph cut stereo technique. We present experimental results from a moderately large real environment.

Der Psychopath und sein Gutachter: ein kriminalbiologisches Szenario

Weniger auf strenge Wissenschaftlichkeit bedacht, möchte ich ein kriminologisches Szenario der Zukunft skizzieren. Die Kriminologie wird, wenig überraschend, durch die biologischen Forschungen am menschlichen Gehirn beeinflusst sein. Seit Cesare Lombrosos "geborenem Verbrecher" wurden psychopathische (bzw. soziopathische) Persönlichkeiten in einer paradoxen Art und Weise behandelt: Obwohl ihr Verhalten als durch biologische Ursachen 'determiniert' galt, hielt man sie dennoch in den meisten Fällen für verantwortlich - wenigstens für vermindert zurechnungsfähig. Ihre deviante Persönlichkeit wurde, statt wertneutral als gewissensschwach und mitleidensunfähig diagnostiziert zu werden, als eine Verkörperung des ›natürlich Bösen‹ verurteilt. Dieses mythologisierende Schema ist, so vermute ich, dabei, unter dem Einfluss popularisierter Bilder von bestialischen, ja teuflischen Kreaturen wiederbelebt und, auf verfeinertem Niveau, unter den forensischen Gutachtern erneut verbreitet zu werden.Rather than delivering a scientific approach, I shall depict a scenario that is supposed to outline some typical characteristics of future criminology. Not surprisingly, criminology will be backed by biological research focusing on the human brain. Since Lombroso’s Born Criminal, psychopathic (resp. sociopathic) individuals have been treated in a paradoxical manner. Although their behavior was seen as ›determined‹ by biological causes, in most cases psychopaths were held responsible - at least diminished responsible - for their misdeeds. Their deviant personality was, instead of being value-neutrally diagnosed as lacking conscience and compassion, condemned as an embodiment of 'natural badness'. This fairly mythological scheme is, I assume, going to be revived and, at a more sophisticated level, adopted by forensic experts under the influence of popularized images of bestial and even devilish creatures

Electrochemical water splitting by layered and 3D cross-linked manganese oxides: correlating structural motifs and catalytic activity

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Manganese based precious metal-free electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are promising materials for energy storage systems based on dark or photo-coupled water electrolysis, because they are active, inexpensive and of low toxicity. In this work, atomic scale structure–activity relationships of two different nano-structured manganese oxides, MnOx, are established using a combination of X-ray absorption, diffraction and electrochemistry. Prepared by chemical symproportionation (s-MnOx) and impregnation (i-MnOx), the s-MnOx catalyst consisted of a layered structure similar to δ-MnO2 while the i-MnOx catalyst displayed a mixture of tunnelled, 3D cross-linked β- and defective γ-MnO2 structures. During electrocatalytic oxygen evolution the structural motifs of both MnOx remain largely unchanged, but the oxidation state of Mn increases from 3.5 to 3.9–4. Kinetic parameters of the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction were extracted using Tafel slope analysis and pH titration experiment, and the role of the protons abstracted was analyzed. The study reveals fundamental differences of general importance in the catalytic activity between layered and cross-linked structures. The exclusive presence of di-μ-oxo-bridged Mn ions in the layered structure is coupled to a pronounced redox and charge capacity behaviour. This ensured efficient use of surface and bulk active sites, and resulted in a relatively large Tafel slope. Consequently, the intrinsic OER activity is especially high in s-MnOx. In contrast, 3D cross-linked structures with both mono- and di-μ-oxo-bridged Mn ions resulted in lower intrinsic activity but smaller Tafel slope, and thus favourable activity at technological water-splitting rates. The insights from this comparative study will provide guidance in the structural design and optimization of other non precious metal oxide OER catalysts.DFG, EXC 314, Unifying Concepts in Catalysi

correlating structural motifs and catalytic activity

Manganese based precious metal-free electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are promising materials for energy storage systems based on dark or photo-coupled water electrolysis, because they are active, inexpensive and of low toxicity. In this work, atomic scale structure–activity relationships of two different nano-structured manganese oxides, MnOx, are established using a combination of X-ray absorption, diffraction and electrochemistry. Prepared by chemical symproportionation (s-MnOx) and impregnation (i-MnOx), the s-MnOx catalyst consisted of a layered structure similar to δ-MnO2 while the i-MnOx catalyst displayed a mixture of tunnelled, 3D cross-linked β- and defective γ-MnO2 structures. During electrocatalytic oxygen evolution the structural motifs of both MnOx remain largely unchanged, but the oxidation state of Mn increases from 3.5 to 3.9–4. Kinetic parameters of the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction were extracted using Tafel slope analysis and pH titration experiment, and the role of the protons abstracted was analyzed. The study reveals fundamental differences of general importance in the catalytic activity between layered and cross-linked structures. The exclusive presence of di-μ-oxo-bridged Mn ions in the layered structure is coupled to a pronounced redox and charge capacity behaviour. This ensured efficient use of surface and bulk active sites, and resulted in a relatively large Tafel slope. Consequently, the intrinsic OER activity is especially high in s-MnOx. In contrast, 3D cross-linked structures with both mono- and di-μ-oxo-bridged Mn ions resulted in lower intrinsic activity but smaller Tafel slope, and thus favourable activity at technological water- splitting rates. The insights from this comparative study will provide guidance in the structural design and optimization of other non precious metal oxide OER catalysts

Nitrogen-doped coatings on carbon nanotubes and their stabilizing effect on Pt nanoparticles

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.A homogeneous coating of nitrogen-doped carbon on carbon nanotubes is performed using ionic liquids. The N-doped material is employed as a support for nanoparticles. Electrochemical degradation behavior is monitored in situ and compared to an unmodified material. The strongly enhanced stability is explained on the basis of a Pt–nitrogen interaction.DFG, EXC 314, Unifying Concepts in Catalysi

ATPase activity of thylakoid membranes in CTAB-hexanol-octane low water system

AbstractThylakoid membranes transferred into a low water system composed of n-octane, the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), and 1-hexanol as cosurfactant, displayed protein- and substrate-dependent ATPase activities for more than 60 min. This activity was enhanced 7–10-fold and 3–4-fold with 28%-vol. of methanol and 21%-vol of tert-butanol present in the polar phase, respectively, in a fashion reminiscent of what occurs in aqueous media. Approximately 25% and 10% of control and methanol-enhanced ATPase activities found in buffer were detected in the low water system, respectively, and both activities showed a pronounced dependency on the amount of water present (between 2.5 and 15% of water (v/v)). 1H-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H-NMR) studies revealed that the bound/free water ratio (a) increased with decreasing concentration of water in the reverse micellar phase and (b) slightly increased in the presence of methanol. The results altogether suggest that the amount and physical state of water significantly contribute to determine the ATPase activity in the low water system

Communicating Synthetic Biology: from the lab via the media to the broader public

We present insights from a study on communicating Synthetic Biology conducted in 2008. Scientists were invited to write press releases on their work; the resulting texts were passed on to four journalists from major Austrian newspapers and magazines. The journalists in turn wrote articles that were used as stimulus material for eight group discussions with select members of the Austrian public. The results show that, from the lab via the media to the general public, communication is characterized by two important tendencies: first, communication becomes increasingly focused on concrete applications of Synthetic Biology; and second, biotechnology represents an important benchmark against which Synthetic Biology is being evaluated