Comparative Appraisal of Multilateral and Bilateral Approaches to Financing Private Sector Development in Developing Countries

private sector development, development cooperation, bilateral aid, multilateral aid

Philosophy and Science : The Place of Philosophy and Science in the Development of Knowledge and Understanding

This thesis examines the roles played by philosophy and science in the development of knowl-edge and understanding from ancient times to the present day. It is maintained that the sole contributor to this development has been science, philosophy for the most part acting as an impediment, contrary to the philosophically inspired myth that philosophy lays the groundwork for science, and consonant with the suspicions of most scientists who give thought to the matter. This thesis is expounded from two perspectives, the historical and the analytic. From the historical perspective, Part I of the thesis, the development of scientific ideas is traced in its philosophical context, principally that of the physical sciences from the time of Galileo, but also touching on the position of science in Greek thought. It is concluded that science effectively began with the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century, and pro-gressed from that time generally in opposition to philosophical dogma, and, once established, almost entirely independently of it. From the analytical perspective, Part II of the thesis, some recent and contemporary philosophical issues in the areas of epistemology, metaphysics and philosophy of mind, cen-tred principally on issues concerning the connection between mind and the world, are evalu-ated for their contributions to our current knowledge and understanding. The evaluation is that, by its resort to inappropriate terminology, for the most part philosophy generates confu-sion in matters that in everyday terms are inherently simple and in scientific terms are more complex than philosophers ever imagined—the issue of consciousness is given particular attention. The discussion devolves upon the view, also put forward by Rudolf Carnap in his later years, that controversy in these areas of philosophy arises largely from a confusion of theory with the referents of theory, of word with object, and from the consequent ideological commitment of philosophers to irreconcilable positions in the realist–idealist spectrum. The thesis maintains that although it is a scientific (that is, empirically based) fact that theories, concepts, percepts and the like are constructs of the human mind (suggesting an idealist view, and therefore a fact causing difficulty for realists), it does not follow that the referents of these constructs are themselves constructs of the human mind—indeed, the proposition that they are is without meaning (and hence the realism–idealism dualism is meaningless). This is because the referents of constructs are accessible only by means of those constructs, which do not speak of their own basis in the human mind—the reality of an object referred to depends on the empirical validity of the construct by which the reference is made (and, of course, it may not be real in this sense at all, but be an illusion or a deliberate fiction), not on some philosophical notion of reality. Thus, for example, while the theory of evolution is a human construct, there is no sense in which evolution can be spoken of as a human construct or oth-erwise—evolution is dealt with in its entirety through its theory. Such a resolution of age-old philosophical controversy reflects no more than the human condition (as epitomised by Neurath’s simile of “sailors who must rebuild their ship on the open sea”), which is fully en-compassed by the scientific approach, and from which there is no escape by means of any religious or philosophical construction

In search of the pitiful victim: A frame analysis of Dutch, Flemish and British newspapers and NGO-advertisements

Contains fulltext : 191166.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)This article contributes to the ongoing debate on the representation of global poverty in Western media. Both NGOs and journalists are being criticized for their one-sided emphasis on the misery and dependency of people in developing countries. The objective of this paper is to measure the extent of such problematizing representation in newspaper articles and NGO-advertisements. A frame analysis was conducted of 876 articles and 284 advertisements from the Netherlands, Flanders and the United Kingdom. The results challenge some conventional assumptions. Overall, the 'victim frame' and 'pitiful images' do not dominate the discourse of NGOs and newspapers. However, British NGOs are an exception: they portray the poor as 'pitiful victims' twice as often as their counterparts in the Netherlands and Flanders. Furthermore, the findings confirm the conviction that the media predominantly highlight poor countries' dependence on the West.18 p

Candidate Compounds for the Chemoprevention of Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer

Hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC) is a cancer syndrome caused by germline mutations in the tumour suppressor gene CDH1, which encodes the cell-cell adhesion protein E-cadherin. Mutations in CDH1 lead to increased proliferation, invasiveness and loss of cell polarity. Patients with germline CDH1 mutations have a 70% lifetime risk of developing gastric cancer. Female carriers also have a 42% lifetime risk of developing lobular breast cancer. The current optimal treatment for HDGC is a prophylactic gastrectomy as surveillance through endoscopy is imperfect and tumours can be discovered at a late stage. This project aims to utilise the synthetic lethal (SL) approach to find a chemopreventative treatment for HDGC. The SL approach aims to manipulate cell viability by exploiting the relationships between related genes. Synthetic lethality is a gene relationship in which an inactivation of either of two genes alone allows cell survival, however when both are inactivated it leads to cell death. Previous work within the laboratory has identified potential SL targets for CDH1 via high throughput drug screening. This was carried out in an isogenic pair of non-tumourigenic breast epithelial MCF-10A cell lines, one lacking CDH1 function. This identified histone de-acetylase inhibitors (HDACi) and statins as promising SL therapies for HDGC as they can selectively inhibit growth of CDH1-/- cells. Epigenetic changes, such as histone acetylation and deacetylation, modify expression patterns and are linked to cancer progression. Statins are widely used, well tolerated drugs that lower cholesterol levels and impact on plasma membrane organisation. This project has validated successful SL compounds from the MCF-10A drug screen in a gastric cancer model, using isogenic NCI-N87 CDH1+/+ and CDH1-/- cell lines. Promising compounds that have shown the best SL effect in 2D cell culture models, were then analysed for clinical trial data to find drugs that have minimal adverse effects. The compounds with minimal side effects and strong SL relationship with CDH1, were then assessed in a gastric organoid model of HDGC. This organoid model called the air-liquid interface (ALI) model, is a 3D representation of the gastric gland and contains all gastric cell lineages. As such it is a more accurate pre-clinical model for drug screening than 2D cultures. A second organoid model, the submerged model, was also further developed as it is a higher throughput model and will be more efficient for future drug compound testing. Mocetinostat, the compound identified to have the best synthetic lethal effect, will now undergo further preclinical testing as a potential chemopreventative compound for families affected by HDGC

Uncertainty Analysis Methodology for Measurements of Dynamic Millimeter-Wave Channels

Quantification of uncertainties in the results of channel sounding measurements is important for their interpretation and further usage. In this paper, a novel uncertainty analysis methodology to quantify uncertainties of condensed parameters in measurements of dynamic millimeter-wave channels is presented. The bandwidth limitation and multipath threshold are identified as important impairments. Therefore, the methodology provides three uncertainty metrics for condensed parameters, namely a standard uncertainty to quantify the impact of random variations; a bias due to the multipath threshold; and a total bias including the impact of the bandwidth limitation. These uncertainty metrics are highly channel dependent. Therefore, the proposed methodology creates reference channels, which are representative of corresponding measured channels. Hardware and processing impairments are included in the analysis via a Monte Carlo simulation. This results in a general methodology that can quantify uncertainties in both static and dynamic channel measurements of any wideband channel sounder. The methodology is implemented, verified and demonstrated for the TU/e channel sounder, which exemplifies how it can be used. The proposed methodology can improve the analysis, interpretation and reporting of channel measurement results.</p