Animation - a study and comparison of concepts and software issues

This paper examines animation from several different views – historical through the modern computer generated. It covers a short history of animation with a detailed look at some of the early examples with an emphasis on the techniques and tricks used in their creation. It also looks at how computers have changed the animation industry and expanded it into other occupations such as architectural modeling. A comparison between traditional and computer animation processes is noted as well as a look at software, its components, usability, and more. Types of and processes for rendering are also described and compared

The Canadian Input: The 34th Executive Committee UNHCR Geneva, Oct. 14, 1983

Ambassador J. Alan Beesley, in the opening address to the UNHCR Executive Committee, genuflected approriately to support the High Commissioner's efforts with respect to the fundamental issue of protection and the need to address the root causes of refugee situations as outlined in the Aga Khan's report. Canada focussed on four issues, and it is not clear whether the ordering is significant: repatriation, local integration in countries of asylum, resettlement in third countries, and utilization of traditional settlement assistance to lessen both the likelihood and the impact of refugee situations. Through the work of the subcommittee on protection, Canada assisted in developing a set of principles for the review of manifestly unfounded claims to refugee status, concurred in an agreement on a trial project for rescue at sea to which Canada makes a contribution, and urged continuing effort to develop a policy on preventing military attacks on refugee camps (on which there was no consensus). Canada also supported the promotion of existing legal instruments for the protection of refugees and urged the development of new, flexible and imaginative protection techniques. The review of specific refugee situations around the world was supportive and diplomatic; it was neither analytic nor critical

School feeding in KwaZulu-Natal : challenges faced by local women's co-operatives as service providers.

Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.This study identifies and explores the challenges faced by Local Women’s Co-operatives as service providers to the school feeding programmes in KwaZulu-Natal. It was motivated by the need to provide information, which could be used as a basis to ensure that the nutritional and educational objectives of the National School Nutritional Programme could co-exist with local women’s economic empowerment. A review of literature will demonstrate that, within the developmental framework, school feeding programmes are a valuable strategy and that there are diverse views as to whether co-operatives should be the preferred institutional model

Cookie cutter cooperatives in the KwaZulu-Natal school nutrition programme.

This article examines an initiative by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government to increase the income opportunities emerging from the school feeding programme. Since the inception of the programme, small medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) had been enlisted to provide schools with ingredients. However in 2006, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government replaced some SMMEs with women’s cooperatives. By 2009, 12 of the original 42 cooperatives had collapsed, and some schools being serviced by these cooperatives complained of unreliable delivery of ingredients. This article examines the interface between policy and implementation through a case study of four cooperatives in one district. Our data suggests that some cooperatives struggled to take root as a result of a variety of factors which we discuss under the themes of viability, membership and skills. The top down creation of these cooperatives according to inflexible guidelines also resulted in significant problems

DNA mismatch repair gene MSH6 implicated in determining age at natural menopause

The length of female reproductive lifespan is associated with multiple adverse outcomes, including breast cancer, cardiovascular disease and infertility. The biological processes that govern the timing of the beginning and end of reproductive life are not well understood. Genetic variants are known to contribute to ∼50% of the variation in both age at menarche and menopause, but to date the known genes explain <15% of the genetic component. We have used genome-wide association in a bivariate meta-analysis of both traits to identify genes involved in determining reproductive lifespan. We observed significant genetic correlation between the two traits using genome-wide complex trait analysis. However, we found no robust statistical evidence for individual variants with an effect on both traits. A novel association with age at menopause was detected for a variant rs1800932 in the mismatch repair gene MSH6 (P = 1.9 × 10−9), which was also associated with altered expression levels of MSH6 mRNA in multiple tissues. This study contributes to the growing evidence that DNA repair processes play a key role in ovarian ageing and could be an important therapeutic target for infertilit