Solar heating for swine buildings

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The politics and aesthetics of commemoration: national days in southern Africa

The contributions to the special section in this issue study recent independence celebrations and other national days in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They explore the role of national days in state-making and nation-building, and examine the performativity of nationalism and the role of performances in national festivities. Placing the case studies in a broader, comparative perspective, the introduction first discusses the role of the state in national celebrations, highlighting three themes: firstly, the political power-play and contested politics of memory involved in the creation of a country’s festive calendar; secondly, the relationship between state control of national days and civic or popular participation or contestation; and thirdly, the complex relationship between regional and ethnic loyalties and national identifications. It then turns to the role of performance and aesthetics in the making of nations in general, and in national celebrations in particular. Finally, we look at the different formats and meanings of national days in the region and address the question whether there is anything specific about national days in southern Africa as compared to other parts of the continent or national celebrations world-wide.Web of Scienc

Seasonal prediction of climate extremes for the pacific: Tropical cyclones and extreme ocean temperatures

Climate change and climate extremes have a major impact on Australia and Pacific Island countries. Of particular concern are tropical cyclones and extreme ocean temperatures. As a practical response to climate change, through the Pacific Australia Climate Change Science and Adaptation planning Program (PACCSAP), enhanced web-based information tools to provide seasonal forecasts for climatic extremes in the Western Pacific have been developed. Using the dynamical seasonal prediction model POAMA (Predictive Ocean Atmosphere Model for Australia), we aim to improve accuracy of seasonal forecasts of tropical cyclone activity and extreme sea surface temperatures for the Western Pacific. Since the PACCSAP has commenced, encouraging scientific and technological results have been obtained, particularly in the development of web-based information tools to provide climatic extremes forecasts in the Pacific and the Australian regions. Improvements to a statistical model for seasonal tropical cyclone prediction in the Australian region have been made. Additional functionality was added to the Pacific Tropical Cyclone Data Portal, such as enhanced flexibility of spatial and temporal selection. New web-based information tool for sea surface temperature seasonal prediction is also currently under development. Improved knowledge of extreme climatic events, together with the assistance of tailored forecast tools, will help enhance the resilience and adaptive capacity of Australia and Pacific Island Countries under climate change

Home care for the elderly: the role of relatives, friends and neighbors

We use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to examine the hours of home care received by the elderly. The existing empirical literature has mostly examined informal home care from children and formal home care. We identify two additional informal home care providers, namely, relatives (other than children) and friends (including neighbors) who provide about 30% of the hours of informal home care. Our main new empirical finding is that single elderly persons who can rely less on children — and in particular daughters — for their home care receive not only more formal care but also more care from friends and neighbors. These findings suggest that policymakers need to take into account not only home care provision from children but also home care provision from friends and neighbors to obtain accurate projections concerning the increasing costs of formal care programs due to an aging population