Land governance and land deals in Africa: opportunities and challenges in advancing community rights

This article examines the converging focus on “governance” by those donors and scholars who promote investment in land in Africa as well as by scholars and activists who criticize what they call “land grabs.” This focus on governance is particularly found in terms of understanding and assessing socio-economic consequences among the communities for the land deals, investment initiatives which have been accelerating on the continent over the last decade and longer. This article expands the concept of governance by examining how structures of authority and power are also involved in defining who belongs, or who has claims to belong, to these territories. It explores the topic of land deals and community rights through the conceptual lens of governance and belonging, the ability to be recognized as part of the community at various levels of action (including in terms of national citizenship). It starts with an examination of the recent increase in land investments in Africa, setting out its broad parameters, including public criticisms raised and some of the protests around them, and noting some of the key issues on which scholars have focused. In the next two sections, the article analyses these processes through the conceptual lens of governance and belonging as a way to bring out what the article proposes are key issues for assessing matters on community rights in regards to investments concerning natural resources in Africa, particularly over land. This analysis raises questions about those who uncritically promote Free and Prior Informed Consent as the solution to ensure “communities” approve any land deals.Keywords: Land grabs, governance, Africa, community, politics of belongin

Empowering women in artisanal and small-scale mining in Central and East Africa

French version available in IDRC Digital Library: Favoriser l’autonomisation des femmes dans l’exploitation minière artisanale et à petite échelle en Afrique centrale et en Afrique de l’EstResearch from Central and East Africa shows that, despite facing engrained gender barriers, women are important participants in the economic activity surrounding artisanal and small-scale mining, and some are forging new economic pathways

Favoriser l’autonomisation des femmes dans l’exploitation minière artisanale et à petite échelle en Afrique centrale et en Afrique de l’Est

Version anglaise disponible dans la Bibliothèque numérique du CRDI: Empowering women in artisanal and small-scale mining in Central and East AfricaDes études faites en Afrique centrale et en Afrique de l’Est montrent que, malgré des obstacles sexospécifiques ancrés dans les mentalités, les femmes s’avèrent des intervenantes importantes dans l’activité économique entourant l’exploitation minière artisanale et à petite échelle et que certaines d’entre elles tracent de nouvelles voies économiques

Relationship between Arterial and Peripheral Venous Lactate Levels

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73453/1/j.1553-2712.1996.tb03502.x.pd

Material Damage Test for ILC Collimators

Simulations were completed to determine the energy deposition of an ILC bunch using FLUKA, Geant4 and EGS4 to a set of different spoiler designs. These shower simulations were used as inputs to thermal and mechanical studies using ANSYS. This paper presents a proposal to optimize the material choice and mechanical design of ILC spoilers jaws using ATF and benchmark the energy deposition simulations and the ANSYS studies giving the researchers valuable data which will help achieve a definitive ILC spoiler design

Gender and Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in Central and East Africa: Barriers and Benefits

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) on the African continent is increasingly the focus of global, regional and national efforts aimed at regulating the sector as part of larger initiatives to increase national benefits from mining, while also addressing problems seen as linked to this form of mining such as violence and conflict. Women’s significant participation in artisanal mining (estimated at 25-50% or more of artisanal miners) is largely overlooked in these efforts. This paper draws from r

Tar DNA-binding protein-43 (TDP-43) regulates axon growth in vitro and in vivo

Intracellular inclusions of the TAR-DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43) have been reported in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD-TDP). Rare mutations in TARDBP have been linked to both ALS and FTD-TDP suggesting that TDP-43 dysfunction is mechanistic in causing disease. TDP-43 is a predominantly nuclear protein with roles in regulating RNA transcription, splicing, stability and transport. In ALS, TDP-43 aberrantly accumulates in the cytoplasm of motor neurons where it forms aggregates. However it has until recently been unclear whether the toxic effects of TDP-43 involve recruitment to motor axons, and what effects this might have on axonal growth and integrity. Here we use chick embryonic motor neurons, in vivo and in vitro, to model the acute effects of TDP-43. We show that wild-type and two TDP-43 mutant proteins cause toxicity in chick embryonic motor neurons in vivo. Moreover, TDP-43 is increasingly mislocalised to axons over time in vivo, axon growth to peripheral targets is truncated, and expression of neurofilament-associated antigen is reduced relative to control motor neurons. In primary spinal motor neurons in vitro, a progressive translocation of TDP-43 to the cytoplasm occurs over time, similar to that observed in vivo. This coincides with the appearance of cytoplasmic aggregates, a reduction in the axonal length, and cellular toxicity, which was most striking for neurons expressing TDP-43 mutant forms. These observations suggest that the capacity of spinal motor neurons to produce and maintain an axon is compromised by dysregulation of TDP-43 and that the disruption of cytoskeletal integrity may play a role in the pathogenesis of ALS and FTD-TDP

An islet of social ability in Asperger Syndrome: Judging social attributes from faces

We asked adults with Asperger Syndrome to judge pictorial stimuli in terms of certain social stereotypes to evaluate to what extent they have access to this type of social knowledge. Sixteen adults with Asperger Syndrome and 24 controls, matched for age and intelligence, were presented with sets of faces, bodies and objects, which had to be rated on a 7-point scale in terms of trustworthiness, attractiveness, social status, and age, or, in the case of objects, price. Despite impaired performance on two important aspects of social cognition (second-order mentalizing and face recognition) the social judgements of the individuals with Asperger Syndrome were just as competent and consistent as those of their matched controls, with only one exception: there was a trend for them to be less able to judge the attractiveness of faces if they were the same sex. We explain this difference in terms of a weakness in mentalizing, specifically the ability to take a different point of view: While all other stereotypic attributions could be made from an egocentric point of view, judging the attractiveness of faces of one's own sex requires taking the perspective of someone of the opposite sex, a challenge for people with mentalizing problems. We conclude that individuals with Asperger Syndrome show preserved aspects of social knowledge, as revealed in the attribution of stereotypes to pictures of people. These findings suggest that there are dissociable subcomponents to social cognition and that not all of these are compromised in Asperger Syndrome