Major flaws in conflict prevention policies towards Africa : the conceptual deficits of international actors’ approaches and how to overcome them

Current thinking on African conflicts suffers from misinterpretations oversimplification, lack of focus, lack of conceptual clarity, state-centrism and lack of vision). The paper analyses a variety of the dominant explanations of major international actors and donors, showing how these frequently do not distinguish with sufficient clarity between the ‘root causes’ of a conflict, its aggravating factors and its triggers. Specifically, a correct assessment of conflict prolonging (or sustaining) factors is of vital importance in Africa’s lingering confrontations. Broader approaches (e.g. “structural stability”) offer a better analytical framework than familiar one-dimensional explanations. Moreover, for explaining and dealing with violent conflicts a shift of attention from the nation-state towards the local and sub-regional level is needed.Aktuelle Analysen afrikanischer Gewaltkonflikte sind häufig voller Fehlinterpretationen (Mangel an Differenzierung, Genauigkeit und konzeptioneller Klarheit, Staatszentriertheit, fehlende mittelfristige Zielvorstellungen). Breitere Ansätze (z. B. das Modell der Strukturellen Stabilität) könnten die Grundlage für bessere Analyseraster und Politiken sein als eindimensionale Erklärungen. häufig differenzieren Erklärungsansätze nicht mit ausreichender Klarheit zwischen Ursachen, verschärfenden und auslösenden Faktoren. Insbesondere die richtige Einordnung konfliktverlängernder Faktoren ist in den jahrzehntelangen gewaltsamen Auseinandersetzungen in Afrika von zentraler Bedeutung. Das Diskussionspapier stellt die große Variationsbreite dominanter Erklärungsmuster der wichtigsten internationalen Geber und Akteure gegenüber und fordert einen Perspektivenwechsel zum Einbezug der lokalen und der subregionalen Ebene für die Erklärung und Bearbeitung gewaltsamer Konflikte

Characterization of traverse slippage experienced by Spirit rover on Husband Hill at Gusev crater

Spirit rover experienced significant slips traversing Husband Hill. This paper analyzes the slippage Spirit experienced from Sol 154 to Sol 737. Slippage with respect to terrain type and slope is computed using data downlinked from the rover, rover position, and orientation estimations from visual odometry (VO) and photogrammetry based bundle adjustment (BA) method. Accumulated slippage reached a maximum of 83.86 m on Sol 648. However, as Spirit descended into the Inner Basin, the direction of slippage reversed, and accumulated slippage approached zero by the end of the entire traverse. Eight local regions with significant slips and nineteen traverse segments have been analyzed. Slippage was found to be highly correlated to slope direction and magnitude; the reverse of slope directions in the ascending and descending portions of the traverse proves to be the main contributor to the observed cancellation of slippage. While the horizontal component of the slippage almost canceled out, the difference in elevation continually accumulated, mainly during the ascent. In general, long traverse segments created more slips than short ones. This is reflected in both the accumulated and individual slippages. In considering the four major Mars terrain types, Spirit performed best on bedrock, managing to drive on slopes close to 30°. Fine-grain surfaces were the most challenging; though progress was made on slopes up to 15°, slippages of over 100% (more slippage than distance traveled) occurred for short segments. The results of this work can be incorporate into a traverse planning framework in which rover slippage is minimized. Results can be employed in landed planetary missions for precision navigation to avoid potentially dangerous regions by considering expected slippage

Der Umzug der Menschheit: Die transformative Kraft der Städte

Die Wucht der derzeitigen Urbanisierungsdynamik und ihre Auswirkungen sind so groß, dass sich weltweit Städte, Stadtgesellschaften, Regierungen und Internationale Organisationen diesem Trend stellen müssen. Ein „Weiter so wie bisher“, würde ohne gestaltende Urbanisierungspolitik zu einer nicht-nachhaltigen Welt-Städte-Gesellschaft führen. Nur wenn Städte und Stadtgesellschaften ausreichend handlungsfähig werden, können sie ihre Kraft für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung entfalten: In den Städten wird sich entscheiden, ob die Große Transformation zur Nachhaltigkeit gelingt. In diesem Buch werden die Erfolgsbedingungen dafür diskutiert

Humanity on the move: Unlocking the transformative power of cities

The momentum of urbanization and its impacts are so massive that we must face up to this trend. In view of the existing cognitive, technical, economic and institutional path dependencies, a policy of business as usual – i.e. an unstructured, quasi-automatic urbanization – would lead to a non-sustainable ‘world cities society’. Only if cities and urban societies are sufficiently empowered can they make use of the opportunities for sustainability and successfully follow the urban transformation pathways. The success or failure of the Great Transformation will be decided in the cities. The WBGU discusses the relevant conditions for the success of this transformation in this report

The use of openfoam as a virtual laboratory to simulate oscillating water column wave energy converters

The Oscillating Water Column is one of the oldest concepts for wave energy harvesting. T e device optimization is still a crucial point for the commercial-scale diffusion of this technology. Therefore, research at fundamental level is still required. The implementation and the application a CFD code for the conduction of a parameter study aiming at the optimization of the device is presented. The numerical set up and the validation of a virtual wave flume in the open-source environment OpenFOAM® are initially presented, using comparatively different wave generation approaches. The application of the model to simulate the device and a validation with physical results are shown. The model solves incompressible 3D Navier-Stokes equations for a single Eulerian fluid mixture of water and air, using a Finite Volume Method for equations discretization and the Volume Of Fluid method for free surface tracking. Different turbulence models are tested, comparing their suitability for this particular application both in terms of computational cost and model capability to reproduce the experimental data

Systematic review of the effects of the intestinal microbiota on selected nutrients and non-nutrients

The systematic review demonstrates that the IM plays a major role in the breakdown and transformation of the dietary substrates examined. However, recent human data are limited with the exception of data from studies examining fibres and polyphenols. Results observed in relation with dietary substrates were not always consistent or coherent across studies and methodological limitations and differences in IM analyses made comparisons difficult. Moreover, non-digestible components likely to reach the colon are often not well defined or characterised in studies making comparisons between studies difficult if not impossible. Going forward, further rigorously controlled randomised human trials with well-defined dietary substrates and utilizing omic-based technologies to characterise and measure the IM and their functional activities will advance the field. Current evidence suggests that more detailed knowledge of the metabolic activities and interactions of the IM hold considerable promise in relation with host health

Neuroanatomical Abnormalities in Violent Individuals with and without a Diagnosis of Schizophrenia

Several structural brain abnormalities have been associated with aggression in patients with schizophrenia. However, little is known about shared and distinct abnormalities underlying aggression in these subjects and non-psychotic violent individuals. We applied a region-of interest volumetric analysis of the amygdala, hippocampus, and thalamus bilaterally, as well as whole brain and ventricular volumes to investigate violent (n = 37) and non-violent chronic patients (n = 26) with schizophrenia, non-psychotic violent (n = 24) as well as healthy control subjects (n = 24). Shared and distinct volumetric abnormalities were probed by analysis of variance with the factors violence (non-violent versus violent) and diagnosis (non-psychotic versus psychotic), adjusted for substance abuse, age, academic achievement and negative psychotic symptoms. Patients showed elevated vCSF volume, smaller left hippocampus and smaller left thalamus volumes. This was particularly the case for non-violent individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. Furthermore, patients had reduction in right thalamus size. With regard to left amygdala, we found an interaction between violence and diagnosis. More specifically, we report a double dissociation with smaller amygdala size linked to violence in non-psychotic individuals, while for psychotic patients smaller size was linked to non-violence. Importantly, the double dissociation appeared to be mostly driven by substance abuse. Overall, we found widespread morphometric abnormalities in subcortical regions in schizophrenia. No evidence for shared volumetric abnormalities in individuals with a history of violence was found. Finally, left amygdala abnormalities in non-psychotic violent individuals were largely accounted for by substance abuse. This might be an indication that the association between amygdala reduction and violence is mediated by substance abuse. Our results indicate the importance of structural abnormalities in aggressive individuals

Expression patterns in reductive iron assimilation and functional consequences during phagocytosis of lichtheimia corymbifera , an emerging cause of mucormycosis

Iron is an essential micronutrient for most organisms and fungi are no exception. Iron uptake by fungi is facilitated by receptor-mediated internalization of siderophores, heme and reductive iron assimilation (RIA). The RIA employs three protein groups: (i) the ferric reductases (Fre5 proteins), (ii) the multicopper ferroxidases (Fet3) and (iii) the high-affinity iron permeases (Ftr1). Phenotyping under different iron concentrations revealed detrimental effects on spore swelling and hyphal formation under iron depletion, but yeast-like morphology under iron excess. Since access to iron is limited during pathogenesis, pathogens are placed under stress due to nutrient limitations. To combat this, gene duplication and differential gene expression of key iron uptake genes are utilized to acquire iron against the deleterious effects of iron depletion. In the genome of the human pathogenic fungus L. corymbifera, three, four and three copies were identified for FRE5, FTR1 and FET3 genes, respectively. As in other fungi, FET3 and FTR1 are syntenic and co-expressed in L. corymbifera. Expression of FRE5, FTR1 and FET3 genes is highly up-regulated during iron limitation (Fe-), but lower during iron excess (Fe+). Fe- dependent upregulation of gene expression takes place in LcFRE5 II and III, LcFTR1 I and II, as well as LcFET3 I and II suggesting a functional role in pathogenesis. The syntenic LcFTR1 I–LcFET3 I gene pair is co-expressed during germination, whereas LcFTR1 IILcFET3 II is co-expressed during hyphal proliferation. LcFTR1 I, II and IV were overexpressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to represent high and moderate expression of intracellular transport of Fe3+, respectively. Challenge of macrophages with the yeast mutants revealed no obvious role for LcFTR1 I, but possible functions of LcFTR1 II and IVs in recognition by macrophages. RIA expression pattern was used for a new model of interaction between L. corymbifera and macrophages