Conflicts in Africa as Compound Disasters: Complex Crises Requiring Comprehensive Responses

This paper reflects on African conflicts as compound disasters. A compound disaster is defined as an emergency situation with adverse consequences resulting from different, but related, disaster-agents (ICLA, 1996). In a natural disaster situation, for instance, an earthquake that is quickly followed by a fire outbreak, gas leakage, the disruption of water supply and the outbreak of water-borne diseases, would be regarded as a compound disaster. Similarly, armed conflicts trigger a chain of consequences. The focus of this paper is the complexity of the consequences and impact of conflicts in Africa. To a lesser extent, the paper looks at the complex causes of the conflicts themselves and, finally, examines challenges with regard to responses.     

Measles, polio and tetanus toxoid antibody levels in Gambian children aged 3 to 4 years following routine vaccination

A nation-wide cross-sectional survey of 816 children 3-4 years old was carried out in The Gambia between September 1990 and July 1991 to assess the seroprevalence of antibodies against 3 diseases included in the expanded programme on immunization: measles, poliomyelitis and tetanus. Among 689 children whose records were available, 94.5% were fully immunized. Measles vaccine was administered to 97% of the children and 91% of these had detectable antibodies at the time of the survey. Antibodies against type 1 and type 3 polioviruses, after up to 6 doses of oral polio vaccine, were present in 88.1% and 89.3% of the children respectively. Ninety-seven percent of the children who had received 4 doses of diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine (DPT) and 91% of those who received 3 doses had detectable tetanus toxoid antibodies at the age of 3-4 years. This study shows that serological responses to EPI vaccines given in infancy persist at very satisfactory levels throughout early childhood.     

Interfacial effects of surface-active agents under zinc pressure leach conditions

Liquid sulfur-zinc sulfate solution interfacial tensions and liquid sulfur-zinc sulfate solution-zinc sulfide (marmatite) contact angles were measured in the absence and presence of surface-active agents. Interfacial tensions measured varied between 54 ± 1 mN/m in the surfactant-free system and 20 ± 1 mN/m in the presence of a surfactant. The liquid sulfur-zinc sulfide mineral-zinc sulfate solution contact angle varies between 80 ± 5 deg, in the absence of any surfactant, and 148 ± 5 deg, depending on the surfactant used. The surface-active agents were used as dispersants for sulfur in bench-scale zinc pressure-leaching experiments. The observed extent of zinc extraction depends on the surfactant and varies from 40 to 96 pct.     

Product Platform Identification and Development for Mass Customization

This paper is mainly concerned with the Identification of an embryonic product platform from a family of products whose composition, configuration and characteristics are represented by Attributed Graphs. The problem becomes that of identifying the largest isomorphic sub-graph with the highest similarity. An algorithm is proposed for solving this problem together with several novel concepts.     

An Approximate Model of Multistage Automatic Transfer Lines with Possible Scrapping Of Workpieces

We consider multistage automatic transfer lines with unreliable stages, finite interstage buffer storages, and possible scrapping of workpieces. It is assumed that the first stage never idles and the last stage never becomes blocked. Assuming that uptimes and downtimes of a stage are geometrically distributed, an approximate model is developed to compute different performance measures of the transfer line. The results obtained through the approximate model are compared to the exact results for three-stage transfer lines and to simulation results for longer transfer lines. It is observed that the approximate results are good in almost all cases considered.     

Nutritional response of mature rats to kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) lectins

In a series of 10-day pair feeding experiments it was found that the nutritional value of diets containing beans was essentially the same for rats aged between 30 and 123 days. Thus net protein utilisation (NPU) values of 25–39 on diets containing Processor bean (35 g protein kg^?1) + egg albumin (65g protein kg^?1) were obtained. As food intakes were considerably reduced when rats were fed diets containing more than 35g protein kg^?1 of Processor bean, the measurement of protein utilisation became increasingly more difficult. The severe disruption of the brush borders of duodenal and jejunal enterocytes, originally observed when bean-containing diets were fed to young (30-day-old) rats was also found with rats up to the age of 120 days on similar diets. Similarly, the development of circulating anti-lectin antibodies in the animals showed no age dependence within the age limits investigated. It was also shown that oral immunisation did not protect the rats from the effects of toxicity and that the immune response was a result of continuous absorption of lectin throughout the feeding period. Thus the extent and the mechanism of toxicity of Phaseolus vulgaris bean lectins were found not to be dependent on the age or maturity of the animal.     

Review of Empirical studies of psychoanalytical theories.

Reviews the book, Empirical studies of psychoanalytical theories, volume 1 by Joseph Masling (1983). Many psychoanalytic clinicians are comfortable functioning in the clinical world, using experience-near data. Many others are comfortable in the metapsychological world, using more experience-distant concepts. Some are even able to apply theory to practice, and modify one based on their experience of the other. But the bridge between the two, the middle-level described by Mayman, which represents the empirical joining of the theoretical and clinical, operationalized in the form of research which can inform either the clinical or the theoretical, is an area of lessened comfort for many. It is to this middle-level that Masling's book addresses itself, presenting examples of a wide variety of psychoanalytic research projects. Some are studies of psychoanalytic theory and others of psychoanalytic therapy; some are more empirical and others are more theoretical, some are original and others are reviews of already published material; but all provide an empirical grounding for practice. Stricker reviews the major findings and contributions of each of the seven chapters, and concludes with some general comments about psychoanalytic research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Type synthesis of spatial mechanisms on the basis of spatial single loop structural groupsTypensynthese räumlicher mechanismen auf der grundlage räumlicher einfach geschlossener strukturgruppen

This paper describes the basis for a new method of type synthesis of spatial mechanisms with the use of single-loop structural groups having zero degrees of freedom. Applying the binary system, the value 0 is used for R (revolute) and 1 is used for P (prismatic) pairs. The five-link spatial groups are described by codes both in the binary and decimal systems. All other groups are reduced to the basis of five-link spatial groups. In these cases two-degree-of-freedom and three-degree-of-freedom kinematic pairs are transformed to one-degree-of-freedom pairs, and these transformations are also described by codes in the binary and decimal systems. This method of coding can be programmed for digital computation and applied towards the automatic type synthesis in the design of spatial mechanisms. The system is equally clear for alphanumeric or for graphical display. To the designer it defines the diagram of the mechanism, pointing out the frame, the mobile links, the types of the kinematic pairs and their mutual disposition in the mechanism configuration.     

Distal dorsal forearm flap

Reinstatement and spontaneous recovery of previously extinguished nicotine-taking behavior were examined in rats. Male subjects were trained to self-administer nicotine (30 microg/kg per infusion, IV; one 60-min session per day for 3 weeks). Extinction sessions were then given for 5-10 days during which saline was substituted for nicotine. Subsequently, in the first set of tests for nicotine seeking, the reinstatement of lever presses that previously delivered nicotine was examined after priming injections of saline and nicotine (75, 150 and 300 microg/kg, SC; and 30 and 60 microg/kg, IV). In the second set of tests for nicotine-seeking, rats were tested after an additional 21-day drug-free period during which they were not exposed to the self-administration chambers (a test for the spontaneous recovery of drug seeking), and after priming injections of nicotine (150 and 300 microg/kg, SC). Reinstatement of extinguished food-reinforced behavior after exposure to nicotine was also determined. Priming injections of nicotine reinstated nicotine seeking regardless of the route of administration. In addition, previously extinguished nicotine seeking recovered spontaneously after a 21-day period during which rats were not exposed to the drug-taking environment. Nicotine also reinstated extinguished food-reinforced behavior in rats with a history of nicotine self-administration, but not in drug-naive rats. The present results extend previous work with opioid and stimulant drugs on reinstatement of drug seeking by the self-administered drug. It also appears that, as with other positive reinforcers, the mere passage of time is a sufficient condition for the spontaneous recovery of extinguished nicotine seeking.