Large Scale Land Acquisitions In Sub-Saharan Africa: The New Scramble?

Almost three-fourths of the world’s recent “land grabs” have occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, estimated at some 50 million hectares, which is almost equal to the size of Spain. As most of the recent land acquisitions involve farmland, and since agriculture is so vital to Africa’s ability to reduce poverty and hunger, this is a particularly important topic. These large acquisitions raise concerns about the dangers of neglecting local needs and exacerbating social tensions in already fragile states

The Informal Sector In Sub-Saharan Africa: Out Of The Shadows To Foster Sustainable Employment And Equity?

Over the past twenty years or so, there has been a debate that basically asks “…whether the informal sector should really be seen as a marginalized, ‘survival’ sector, which mops up excess or entrenched workers, or as a vibrant, entrepreneurial part of the economy which can stimulate economic growth and job creation.” (African Union 2008). This paper argues the latter. Further, this paper argues that employment in the informal sector is no longer a journey, but has become the destination of many. If the aim is to create jobs and reduce poverty, the informal sector must be included in the debate. Indeed, this paper recommends that the debate about the advantages of formal sector vs. the informal sector needs to end.  Governments need to unequivocally recognize and admit the importance of the informal sector and finds ways to encourage its growth. They also need, at the same time, to decide how to strengthen the formal sector and extend benefits to those in the informal sector, while removing barriers to the formal sector to allow more to participate.  Specifically, there are at least five major areas where changes need to be made:  1) Establish an enabling environment and supportive regulatory framework, 2) Provide access to appropriate training, 3) Improve basic facilities and amenities and infrastructure, 4) Increase ability to obtain property title and access to credit, and 5) Improve national databases and establish uniform standards

Age differences in work adjustment : a study of male and female managerial stress, coping strategies and locus of control in Hong Kong

The present study is a 15 month project which involved data collection from Hong Kong managers at three points to examine mechanisms by which age would relate to work well-being. A total of 634 managers, both male and female, was drawn by random sampling and purposive sampling methods. The results showed that age was negatively related to job strains and quitting intention, and positively related to job satisfaction. Furthermore, older managers reported fewer sources of stress, better control coping, and a more internal work locus of control. Multiple regression analyses suggested that relations of age with job satisfaction and well-being can be attributed to the better coping, greater internality, lower sources of stress, higher organizational level, and longer tenure of older managers, although differences occurred as a function of gender and the specific well-being measure

De novo formation of an aggregation pheromone precursor by an isoprenyl diphosphate synthase-related terpene synthase in the harlequin bug.

Insects use a diverse array of specialized terpene metabolites as pheromones in intraspecific interactions. In contrast to plants and microbes, which employ enzymes called terpene synthases (TPSs) to synthesize terpene metabolites, limited information from few species is available about the enzymatic mechanisms underlying terpene pheromone biosynthesis in insects. Several stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), among them severe agricultural pests, release 15-carbon sesquiterpenes with a bisabolene skeleton as sex or aggregation pheromones. The harlequin bug, Murgantia histrionica, a specialist pest of crucifers, uses two stereoisomers of 10,11-epoxy-1-bisabolen-3-ol as a male-released aggregation pheromone called murgantiol. We show that MhTPS (MhIDS-1), an enzyme unrelated to plant and microbial TPSs but with similarity to trans-isoprenyl diphosphate synthases (IDS) of the core terpene biosynthetic pathway, catalyzes the formation of (1S,6S,7R)-1,10-bisaboladien-1-ol (sesquipiperitol) as a terpene intermediate in murgantiol biosynthesis. Sesquipiperitol, a so-far-unknown compound in animals, also occurs in plants, indicating convergent evolution in the biosynthesis of this sesquiterpene. RNAi-mediated knockdown of MhTPS mRNA confirmed the role of MhTPS in murgantiol biosynthesis. MhTPS expression is highly specific to tissues lining the cuticle of the abdominal sternites of mature males. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that MhTPS is derived from a trans-IDS progenitor and diverged from bona fide trans-IDS proteins including MhIDS-2, which functions as an (E,E)-farnesyl diphosphate (FPP) synthase. Structure-guided mutagenesis revealed several residues critical to MhTPS and MhFPPS activity. The emergence of an IDS-like protein with TPS activity in M. histrionica demonstrates that de novo terpene biosynthesis evolved in the Hemiptera in an adaptation for intraspecific communication

Using Watershed Boundaries to Map Adverse Health Outcomes: Examples From Nebraska, USA

In 2009, a paper was published suggesting that watersheds provide a geospatial platform for establishing linkages between aquatic contaminants, the health of the environment, and human health. This article is a follow-up to that original article. From an environmental perspective, watersheds segregate landscapes into geospatial units that may be relevant to human health outcomes. From an epidemiologic perspective, the watershed concept places anthropogenic health data into a geospatial framework that has environmental relevance. Research discussed in this article includes information gathered from the literature, as well as recent data collected and analyzed by this research group. It is our contention that the use of watersheds to stratify geospatial information may be both environmentally and epidemiologically valuable

Diffusion MRI of the facial-vestibulocochlear nerve complex: a prospective clinical validation study

Objectives: Surgical planning of vestibular schwannoma surgery would benefit greatly from a robust method of delineating the facial-vestibulocochlear nerve complex with respect to the tumour. This study aimed to optimise a multi-shell readout-segmented diffusion-weighted imaging (rs-DWI) protocol and develop a novel post-processing pipeline to delineate the facial-vestibulocochlear complex within the skull base region, evaluating its accuracy intraoperatively using neuronavigation and tracked electrophysiological recordings./ Methods: In a prospective study of five healthy volunteers and five patients who underwent vestibular schwannoma surgery, rs-DWI was performed and colour tissue maps (CTM) and probabilistic tractography of the cranial nerves were generated. In patients, the average symmetric surface distance (ASSD) and 95% Hausdorff distance (HD-95) were calculated with reference to the neuroradiologist-approved facial nerve segmentation. The accuracy of patient results was assessed intraoperatively using neuronavigation and tracked electrophysiological recordings./ Results: Using CTM alone, the facial-vestibulocochlear complex of healthy volunteer subjects was visualised on 9/10 sides. CTM were generated in all 5 patients with vestibular schwannoma enabling the facial nerve to be accurately identified preoperatively. The mean ASSD between the annotators’ two segmentations was 1.11 mm (SD 0.40) and the mean HD-95 was 4.62 mm (SD 1.78). The median distance from the nerve segmentation to a positive stimulation point was 1.21 mm (IQR 0.81–3.27 mm) and 2.03 mm (IQR 0.99–3.84 mm) for the two annotators, respectively./ Conclusions: rs-DWI may be used to acquire dMRI data of the cranial nerves within the posterior fossa./ Clinical relevance statement: Readout-segmented diffusion-weighted imaging and colour tissue mapping provide 1–2 mm spatially accurate imaging of the facial-vestibulocochlear nerve complex, enabling accurate preoperative localisation of the facial nerve. This study evaluated the technique in 5 healthy volunteers and 5 patients with vestibular schwannoma./ Key Points: • Readout-segmented diffusion-weighted imaging (rs-DWI) with colour tissue mapping (CTM) visualised the facial-vestibulocochlear nerve complex on 9/10 sides in 5 healthy volunteer subjects./ • Using rs-DWI and CTM, the facial nerve was visualised in all 5 patients with vestibular schwannoma and within 1.21–2.03 mm of the nerve’s true intraoperative location./ • Reproducible results were obtained on different scanners

Winter Bird Assemblages in Rural and Urban Environments: A National Survey

Urban development has a marked effect on the ecological and behavioural traits of many living organisms, including birds. In this paper, we analysed differences in the numbers of wintering birds between rural and urban areas in Poland. We also analysed species richness and abundance in relation to longitude, latitude, human population size, and landscape structure. All these parameters were analysed using modern statistical techniques incorporating species detectability. We counted birds in 156 squares (0.25 km2 each) in December 2012 and again in January 2013 in locations in and around 26 urban areas across Poland (in each urban area we surveyed 3 squares and 3 squares in nearby rural areas). The influence of twelve potential environmental variables on species abundance and richness was assessed with Generalized Linear Mixed Models, Principal Components and Detrended Correspondence Analyses. Totals of 72 bird species and 89,710 individual birds were recorded in this study. On average (±SE) 13.3 ± 0.3 species and 288 ± 14 individuals were recorded in each square in each survey. A formal comparison of rural and urban areas revealed that 27 species had a significant preference; 17 to rural areas and 10 to urban areas. Moreover, overall abundance in urban areas was more than double that of rural areas. There was almost a complete separation of rural and urban bird communities. Significantly more birds and more bird species were recorded in January compared to December. We conclude that differences between rural and urban areas in terms of winter conditions and the availability of resources are reflected in different bird communities in the two environments

Why Not Nephrology? A Survey of US Internal Medicine Subspecialty Fellows

There is a decreased interest in nephrology such that the number of trainees likely will not meet the upcoming workforce demands posed by the projected number of patients with kidney disease. We conducted a survey of US internal medicine subspecialty fellows in fields other than nephrology to determine why they did not choose nephrology