Governance and small states

This paper attempts to assess how small states perform in terms of governance using the so- called Kaufmann Index as a yardstick. The issue of “good governance” has been at the centre of the development debate for many years. It has major normative implications and it is therefore subject to political and cultural interpretations. However, there is a broad measure of agreement on what might be termed essential elements such as open, transparent, accountable, efficient, effective and responsive administration. Respect for human rights and the rule of law is also generally included in the definition of good governance. Governance is very important for all states, but it is particularly important for small states, which are often characterized by very limited resources endowments and are very exposed to the negative effects of external shocks. In the quest for economic development, effective, stable and accountable governments are indispensable. Recently, good governance has been associated with economic resilience building, mainly for small states, which are very highly prone to external shocks and the promotion of good governance in the public and private sector of small states was considered to be a major element of an integrated approach for resilience building (Briguglio et al., 2006). The paper is organised in five sections. Section 2 which follows this introduction deals with the meaning of good governance, while section 3 describes a number of governance indicators, focussing on the Kaufmann Index. Section 4 uses the Kaufmann index to assess the performance on small states in terms of good governance. Section 5 concludes the paper.peer-reviewe

Comparison of the photoluminescence properties of semiconductor quantum dots and non-blinking diamond nanoparticles. Observation of the diffusion of diamond nanoparticles in living cells

Long-term observations of photoluminescence at the single-molecule level were until recently very diffcult, due to the photobleaching of organic ?uorophore molecules. Although inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals can overcome this diffculty showing very low photobleaching yield, they suffer from photoblinking. A new marker has been recently introduced, relying on diamond nanoparticles containing photoluminescent color centers. In this work we compare the photoluminescence of single quantum dots (QDs) to the one of nanodiamonds containing a single-color center. Contrary to other markers, photoluminescent nanodiamonds present a perfect photostability and no photoblinking. At saturation of their excitation, nanodiamonds photoluminescence intensity is only three times smaller than the one of QDs. Moreover, the bright and stable photoluminescence of nanodiamonds allows wide field observations of single nanoparticles motion. We demonstrate the possibility of recording the tra jectory of such single particle in culture cells

Molecular Interactions of the Min Protein System Reproduce Spatiotemporal Patterning in Growing and Dividing Escherichia coli Cells

© 2015 Walsh et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Oscillations of the Min protein system are involved in the correct midcell placement of the divisome during Escherichia coli cell division. Based on molecular interactions of the Min system, we formulated a mathematical model that reproduces Min patterning during cell growth and division. Specifically, the increase in the residence time of MinD attached to the membrane as its own concentration increases, is accounted for by dimerisation of membrane- bound MinD and its interaction with MinE. Simulation of this system generates unparalleled correlation between the waveshape of experimental and theoretical MinD distributions, suggesting that the dominant interactions of the physical system have been successfully incorporated into the model. For cells where MinD is fully-labelled with GFP, the model reproduces the stationary localization of MinD-GFP for short cells, followed by oscillations from pole to pole in larger cells, and the transition to the symmetric distribution during cell filamentation. Cells containing a secondary, GFP-labelled MinD display a contrasting pattern. The model is able to account for these differences, including temporary midcell localization just prior to division, by increasing the rate constant controlling MinD ATPase and heterotetramer dissociation. For both experimental conditions, the model can explain how cell division results in an equal distribution of MinD and MinE in the two daughter cells, and accounts for the temperature dependence of the period of Min oscillations. Thus, we show that while other interactions may be present, they are not needed to reproduce the main characteristics of the Min system in vivo

Discriminating impacts of geomorphological and human factors on vineyard soil erosion (Burgundy, France)

International audienceThe Burgundy vineyards have been recognized for the high diversity of Terroirs, controlled by complex interactions between natural features, historical parameters and soil management practices. Vineyards are known to undergo substantial soil loss in comparison with other types of agricultural land. Hydric erosion on vineyards is controlled by complex interactions of natural and anthropogenic factors leading to intra-plot spatial heterogeneities of topsoil at a scale of a metre. Studying the relationship between soils and their degradation is crucial in this situation where soil sustainability is threatened. This study explores the relative influences of historical and present-day anthropogenic factors and geomorphological processes controlling soil erosion on vineyard hillslopes. The selected area was located in the Monthelie vineyard (Côte de Beaune, France) where intensive erosion occurred during high-intensity rainfall events. Soil erosion quantification was performed at a square-metre scale using dendrogeomorphology. This method is based on the measurement of the unearthing of the stock located on the vine plants, considered as a passive marker of soil-surface vertical displacement since the year of plantation. The obtained maps, together with various complementary datasets, such as geological and geomorphological data, but also historical documents (cadastral plans, cadastral matrices and old aerial photographs) allow landscape evolution to be assessed. The combination of all these data shows that spatial distribution and intensity of erosion are controlled mainly by lithology and slope value. However, our study highlights that the sediment dynamics in this vineyard plot is highly related to historical former plot limits and present-day management practices. Nonetheless, quantification of sediment dynamic for the last decade reveals that the impacts of historical structures are disappearing gradually, in response to present-day management practices and geomorphological factors. Finally, this study shows that it is crucial to take into account the pre-plantation history of vineyard plots in order to increase our understanding of sediment dynamics on vineyard hillslopes

Embedding a Crowd inside a Relay Baton:A Case Study in a Non-Competitive Sporting Activity

This paper presents a digital relay baton that connects long-distance runners with distributed online spectators. Such baton broadcasts athletes’ live locative data to a social network and communicates back remote-crowd support through haptic and audible cheers. Our work takes an exploratory design approach to bring new insights into the design of real-time techno-mediated social support. The prototype was deployed during a 170-mile charity relay race across the UK with 13 participants, 261 on-line supporters, and collected a total of 3153 ‘cheers’. We report on the insights collected during the design and deployment process and identify three fundamental design considerations: the degree of expressiveness afforded by the system design, the context applicability, and the data flow within the social networ

A contribution to an understanding of landscape development through three-dimensional morphological analysis of a pedological cover (Paulinia, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil) = Contribution à l'analyse morphologique tridimensionnelle de la couverture pédologique à la reconstitution de l'évolution du modelé (Paulinia, Etat de Sao Paulo, Brésil)

L'organisation tridimensionnelle d'une couverture pédologique, comprenant l'étude des relations géométriques entre horizons, et particulièrement des relations de concordance ou de discordance, permet de reconstituer certaines étapes de l'évolution du modelé. Le versant étudié, situé en zone tropicale humide (Brésil atlantique), présente à l'amont une couverture ferrallitique très épaisse (> 10 m) constituée d'horizons à limites subhorizontales. La partie supérieure de cette couverture est recoupée par une différenciation pédologique moins développée. Cette dernière est concordante à la topographie actuelle et s'est développée le long du versant à partir des horizons successifs de la couverture ferrallitique jusqu'au substratum. Lorsque ce substratum est atteint, des sols lithodépendants se forment à partir des grès, siltites et argilites de la "formation Tubarao" (permo-carbonifère). Cette discordance entre la différenciation superficielle et les horizons de la couverture ferrallitique implique que la première est plus récente que la seconde. Plus à l'aval, une couverture épaisse réapparaît qui a pu être raccordée à celle de l'amont par l'étude selon le plan horizontal. En considérant que la géométrie de la couverture ferrallitique (limites entre horizons et front de structuration pédologique) est conforme à la surface topographique contemporaine de sa formation, il est possible de reconstituer cette dernière. La topographie actuelle apparaît alors comme partiellement incisée dans cette topographie ancienne. (Résumé d'auteur