No. 27: Food Security in Africa\u27s Secondary Cities: No. 1 Mzuzu, Malawi

This report marks the first stage of AFSUN’s goal of expanding knowledge about urban food systems and experiences of household food insecurity in secondary African cities. It contributes to an understanding of poverty and sustainability in Mzuzu, Malawi, through the lens of household food security. The focus on food as an urban issue not only speaks to the development challenges presented by urbanization, but it also brings a fresh perspective to debates about food security in Malawi. The urban setting highlights the changing food system in Malawi where people in rural and urban areas are increasingly reliant on cash income to buy food. The report’s key findings include that the most vulnerable households are those without a formal wage income, households headed by older people, especially older women, and households that are not able to produce food in the rural areas. The research also shows that the food system is dynamic and diverse, with households accessing food from a variety of formal and informal food sources and relying on rural-urban linkages for urban survival. Urban and rural agriculture are important features of the food system, but there is little evidence that these are the “self-help” responses to poverty that advocates for urban agriculture in Africa sometimes imply

The gendered image: deconstructing life drawing.

This article argues that viewers of artworks in general, and drawings of the female nude in particular, are positioned in terms of their mood and attitude towards the subject-matter of the artwork specifically by the compositional selections of the maker of the artwork, together with the viewer’s gender orientation. Two opposing ideological positions concerning the representation of the female nude are discussed, those of the traditionalist Kenneth Clark and, against him, the early feminists, and their differences charted. The article then proposes that these positions are only two of many available, and demonstrates how a constructivist philosophical base informed by deconstruction theory provides a means of analysis – and synthesis - of drawings which reveals alternative modal positionings of the gendered viewer by means of non-traditional compositional choices. The article is illustrated with drawings by the authors and others

Drawing as Worldmaking: Revitalising the Liferoom

This paper begins by setting out a cognitivist sociological position from which drawing is construed as a powerful means of gaining and sharing knowledge – the understanding and structuring of our experiences of the world - on a par with the way that the sciences are construed as the means to knowledge. Nelson Goodman is cited as being a leading proponent of this position, first elaborated in his 1978 book Ways of Worldmaking. The paper revitalises Goodman’s explanation of worldmaking as occurring through a range of five transformational processes, by illustrating how the activity of drawing itself affords the application of all such processes in its capacity for making multiple constructions of our world-experiences. The paper then argues that the potential of drawing as worldmaking is best realised through the development of an intelligence of seeing – regarded as a central function of art school pedagogy, and one most conveniently and efficiently explored in the life-room. The continuing validity of life- drawing as a means of nurturing an intelligence of seeing applicable to the worldmaking processes of transformation is illustrated with student work

Bridging Civilisations: The Application of Systemic-Functional Semiotics in the Comparison of Drawings from China and Europe.

This paper discusses the application of systemic-functional semiotics in the analysis of visual materials, and, specifically, presents an original systemic-functional model that is intended to facilitate both the analysis and synthesis of drawings in a cross-cultural context. The model is explained as developing from Michael O’Toole’s systemic-functional semiotic model for painting (O'TOOLE, 2011) itself an adaptation of Michael Halliday’s systemic-functional semiotic model for language (HALLIDAY, 1973 , HALLIDAY, 1978, HALLIDAY, 1985

Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities (PALLIC) building relationships: one school\u27s quest to raise Indigenous learners\u27 literacy

In 2011 to 2012, 48 schools in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland participated in the Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities (PALLIC) project. Central to this project was the establishment of positive working relationships between school principals and Indigenous community leaders in order to improve Indigenous literacy rates. Professional development in leadership skills and effective literacy instruction was provided through five professional learning modules. Participants worked together to create an action plan to support the literacy achievement of Indigenous students in their schools and communities. This article presents a case study of one participating school in Northern Queensland that successfully utilised the PALLIC framework to facilitate leadership actions and activities between Indigenous community and school leaders in order to form productive partnerships for the teaching of reading. In particular, the case study highlights the way that school leaders and Indigenous leaders established shared leadership and shared ways of learning in the school for reading outcomes of Indigenous students

Economic and Financial Analysis of Rainwater Harvesting Pond: A Case Study at Morehead State University

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) was primarily considered as a source for fresh water supply or a conservation practice for overcoming water shortages in drought prone areas. By retaining storm-water run-off for onsite use, harvesting systems reduce the runoff volumes and pollutant masses entering waterways. Some of the most interesting aspects of RWH are the methods of capture, storage, and the use of this natural resource at the place it occurs.https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/celebration_posters_2023/1045/thumbnail.jp

No. 27: Food Security in Africa\u27s Secondary Cities: No. 1 Mzuzu, Malawi

This report marks the first stage of AFSUN’s goal of expanding knowledge about urban food systems and experiences of household food insecurity in secondary African cities. It contributes to an understanding of poverty and sustainability in Mzuzu, Malawi, through the lens of household food security. The focus on food as an urban issue not only speaks to the development challenges presented by urbanization, but it also brings a fresh perspective to debates about food security in Malawi. The urban setting highlights the changing food system in Malawi where people in rural and urban areas are increasingly reliant on cash income to buy food. The report’s key findings include that the most vulnerable households are those without a formal wage income, households headed by older people, especially older women, and households that are not able to produce food in the rural areas. The research also shows that the food system is dynamic and diverse, with households accessing food from a variety of formal and informal food sources and relying on rural-urban linkages for urban survival. Urban and rural agriculture are important features of the food system, but there is little evidence that these are the “self-help” responses to poverty that advocates for urban agriculture in Africa sometimes imply

Locational distribution of gene functional classes in Arabidopsis thaliana

BACKGROUND: We are interested in understanding the locational distribution of genes and their functions in genomes, as this distribution has both functional and evolutionary significance. Gene locational distribution is known to be affected by various evolutionary processes, with tandem duplication thought to be the main process producing clustering of homologous sequences. Recent research has found clustering of protein structural families in the human genome, even when genes identified as tandem duplicates have been removed from the data. However, this previous research was hindered as they were unable to analyse small sample sizes. This is a challenge for bioinformatics as more specific functional classes have fewer examples and conventional statistical analyses of these small data sets often produces unsatisfactory results. RESULTS: We have developed a novel bioinformatics method based on Monte Carlo methods and Greenwood's spacing statistic for the computational analysis of the distribution of individual functional classes of genes (from GO). We used this to make the first comprehensive statistical analysis of the relationship between gene functional class and location on a genome. Analysis of the distribution of all genes except tandem duplicates on the five chromosomes of A. thaliana reveals that the distribution on chromosomes I, II, IV and V is clustered at P = 0.001. Many functional classes are clustered, with the degree of clustering within an individual class generally consistent across all five chromosomes. A novel and surprising result was that the locational distribution of some functional classes were significantly more evenly spaced than would be expected by chance. CONCLUSION: Analysis of the A. thaliana genome reveals evidence of unexplained order in the locational distribution of genes. The same general analysis method can be applied to any genome, and indeed any sequential data involving classes

PD5: a general purpose library for primer design software

BACKGROUND: Complex PCR applications for large genome-scale projects require fast, reliable and often highly sophisticated primer design software applications. Presently, such applications use pipelining methods to utilise many third party applications and this involves file parsing, interfacing and data conversion, which is slow and prone to error. A fully integrated suite of software tools for primer design would considerably improve the development time, the processing speed, and the reliability of bespoke primer design software applications. RESULTS: The PD5 software library is an open-source collection of classes and utilities, providing a complete collection of software building blocks for primer design and analysis. It is written in object-oriented C(++) with an emphasis on classes suitable for efficient and rapid development of bespoke primer design programs. The modular design of the software library simplifies the development of specific applications and also integration with existing third party software where necessary. We demonstrate several applications created using this software library that have already proved to be effective, but we view the project as a dynamic environment for building primer design software and it is open for future development by the bioinformatics community. Therefore, the PD5 software library is published under the terms of the GNU General Public License, which guarantee access to source-code and allow redistribution and modification. CONCLUSIONS: The PD5 software library is downloadable from Google Code and the accompanying Wiki includes instructions and examples: http://code.google.com/p/primer-desig

First Profunda Artery Perforator Flap for Breast Reconstruction Performed at a VA Hospital

The profunda artery perforator (PAP) flap for breast reconstruction originated by Dr. Robert J. Allen in 2010 after multiple failed attempts at using muscle-sparing transverse rectus abdominal muscle (MS-TRAM) flap and implants. This flap method was initially approached due to the patient’s request for an autologous tissue graft that did not sacrifice muscle. The PAP flap has grown significantly in popularity and usage in breast reconstruction and makes up to about 16% of autologous breast reconstruction, coming second to DIEP flaps (76%). This well-tolerated, muscle-sparing approach is ideal for patients without sufficient abdominal fat (low BMI or previous abdominal liposuction) or those who prefer a non-abdominal donor site. In addition to its gained popularity for breast reconstruction, the PAP flap has also been utilized in defects reconstruction over the entire body such as the head and neck, lower extremities, vulva, and tongue. This is a sophisticated procedure and has never been performed at a VA hospital before this case