South African Private Security Contractors Active in Armed Conflicts: Citizenship, Prosecution and the Right to Wor

South Africa has adopted two pieces of legislation since 1998 aimed at restricting one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy: the private security industry. Not only is this legislation completely unique, but it appears wholly at odds with international opinion. In this article we place private security contractors (PSCs) under the microscope of international law, exploring the role they play in armed conflicts, and the status afforded them by international humanitarian law (IHL). We address the issue of prohibited mercenarism, questioning whether PSCs should be categorised as mercenaries. We then shift our focus to the South African legislation and discuss the ambit of its application as compared with international law obligations to outlaw mercenaries. We discuss the likelihood of successful prosecution of PSCs, and the potential penalties that PSCs might face in terms of the South African legislation. Lastly we consider the constitutional challenges which might emerge as this legislation, and a proposed amendment to the South African Citizenship Act threaten the constitutionally protected rights of South African PSCs to practise a profession and enjoy citizenship

Boom or bust? Embedding entrepreneurship in education in Australia

© 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the status of entrepreneurship education (EE) in Australia, replicating and expanding a similar study in 2015. The aim is to review neoteric global best practice EE initiatives, enabling the examination and embedding of EE offerings and initiatives at all 40 higher education institutions (HEIs) in Australia. Design/methodology/approach: The authors introduce a review of prominent and recent global EE scholarship, enabling an iterative and emergent inquiry perspective aligned to inductive and nascent multi-method empirical research associated with theoretical underpinnings of symbolic and substantive management theory. Findings: This paper highlights the sparse and inconsistent distribution of EE programs and initiatives across all 40 Australian HEIs, particularly against the backdrop of rapidly expanding start-up and entrepreneurship ecosystems. Furthermore, outcomes provide best practice EE initiatives, which included staff mobility and transferability of skills. HEIs in Australia are experiencing a moderate EE boom, albeit marginally down on global EE transformation initiatives. Research limitations/implications: Limitation of the data is subject to availability and accuracy of online documents and material resources, although implications have been mitigated using multi-method research design. Practical implications: The findings provide critical grounding for researchers, practitioners and HEIs wishing to enhance EE within ever-expanding entrepreneurship ecosystems. Originality/value: This study is the first multi-methods inquiry into the status of EE in Australia, consisting of quantitative, qualitative and algorithmic methods

Pastoral leadership for a relevant missional ecclesiology in a context of poverty

The relevancy of an ecclesiology within a context of poverty is determined by an understanding of missional ecclesiology, the context of poverty, and the interaction of leadership and congregants within a context of poverty. Missional ecclesiology, a short conceptualisation of poverty, and empirical data on practices of pastoral leadership within a context of poverty guide the professional practice to answer the question as to the relevance of a missional ecclesiology in congregations within a context of poverty. The definition of poverty evolves from a discussion on the basic needs of people. In this article, poverty is defined as a circumstance where the deprivation of individual and collective human abilities and resources hinders people in achieving their well-being. Where the professional practices of leaders in congregations within a context of poverty resemble love, caring, understanding, and commitment towards the well-being of the people, congregants allow their leaders to have autocratic authority over their lives. When congregants experience mutual trust and pastoral leaders attend to their needs, they grow in their experiences of their well-being. Due to the latter, these congregants are committed to take part in a missional ecclesiology through the autocratic authority, inspiration, and teachings of their pastor

Bilateral lower motor neuron facial nerve palsy due to HIV seroconversion

A 34-year-old-woman presented with acute onset of headache and bilateral facial nerve paralysis. On examination bilateral lower motor neuron 7th cranial nerve palsy in keeping with bilateral Bell’s palsy was apparent. Investigations showed aseptic meningitis, with a low CD4 count of 352 cells/μl and an elevated viral load (5 300 counts/ml, log = 3.72), in keeping with acute HIV infection. Bell’s palsy is a known complication of seroconversion – 13 cases have been reported worldwide. To our knowledge this is the first reported case in South Africa

Longitudinal Comparison of Bacterial Diversity and Antibiotic Resistance Genes in New York City Sewage

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a pressing health issue around the world, not only in health care settings but also in the community and environment, particularly in crowded urban populations. The aim of our work was to characterize the microbial populations in sewage and the spread of antibiotic resistance within New York City (NYC). Here, we investigated the structure of the microbiome and the prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes in raw sewage samples collected from the fourteen NYC Department of Environmental Protection wastewater treatment plants, distributed across the five NYC boroughs. Sewage, a direct output of anthropogenic activity and a reservoir of microbes, provides an ecological niche to examine the spread of antibiotic resistance. Taxonomic diversity analysis revealed a largely similar and stable bacterial population structure across all the samples, which was found to be similar over three time points in an annual cycle, as well as in the five NYC boroughs. All samples were positive for the presence of the seven antibiotic resistance genes tested, based on real-time quantitative PCR assays, with higher levels observed for tetracycline resistance genes at all time points. For five of the seven genes, abundances were significantly higher in May than in February and August. This study provides characteristics of the NYC sewage resistome in the context of the overall bacterial populations

Specialized morphology, not relatively large head size, facilitates competition between a small-bodied specialist and large-bodied generalist competitors

Interspecific competition for limited resources should theoretically occur between species that are morphologically similar to each other. Consequently, species that reduce competition by adapting to specialize on a specific resource should be morphologically disparate to sympatric contemporaries and show evidence of phenotypic specialization. However, few studies have compared the morphologies of specialist and generalist competitors. In this context, we compare the feeding morphology and diet of an obligate, specialist, bird-egg-eating snake to three sympatric generalists that only facultatively consume bird eggs. We measured and compared body and head morphology of preserved museum specimens of each of four, syntopic snake species from southern Africa: the obligate bird-egg-eating rhombic egg-eater (Dasypeltis scabra), and the facultative bird-egg-eating boomslang (Dispholidus typus), cape cobra (Naja nivea) and mole snake (Pseudaspis cana). Given the physical challenges of consuming bird eggs in snakes, we predicted that consumption of bird eggs would be facilitated by the evolution of relatively larger heads in the smaller bodied Dasypeltis. We found that head size was not phylogenetically conserved in the clades of these taxa and that contrary to our expectations, the specialist egg-eaters evolved to possess significantly smaller heads relative to body size than their competitors. We found a positive relationship between dietary niche breadth and head size within these species and their close relatives. Thus, relatively large-headed species have evolved diverse diets that overlap with the restricted diets of the small-headed specialist thereby producing this atypical competitive interaction. Our findings suggest that specialized adaptations can decouple typical body-size-constrained competition dynamics between sympatric snake species and highlight the complexity of the origins of dietary specialization

Serpientes depredadoras de huevos de aves: Una revisión y bibliografía

Snakes are frequent predators of bird nests and therefore potentially have an important impact on bird population dynamics. However, while many species are known to consume nestlings and chicks, few species have been recorded consuming bird eggs. To effectively quantify the effects of bird egg predation by snakes on bird demographics, a key first step is to identify which snake species consume bird eggs. Unfortunately, detailed information on the dietary habits of most snakes is scarce and feeding records are poorly cataloged, making it difficult to ascertain which species do and do not eat bird eggs. We reviewed the literature and online community science reports to compile a global list of confirmed snake predators of bird eggs. In total, we gathered 471 feeding records of 123 snake taxa consuming the eggs of at least 210 bird species from 238 individual data sources. Geographical locations of records disproportionately represented well-sampled regions, and we infer that many snake species not included on our list also consume bird eggs

Spatial trends in tourism within South Africa : the expected and the surprising

Abstract: Several researchers have highlighted the spatial imbalances of the tourism sector in South Africa. It has been noted that this sector is highly concentrated spatially in terms of its distribution and in relation to its potential local impacts across the country. Although it is broadly understood that the tourism sector is geographically uneven, the lack of sector comparative data at municipal level may inhibit the wide spread use of geographically comparative analyses of the contribution of the various dimensions of tourism in the South African space economy. The aim of this paper is to provide an indication of the value of such comparative analyses of the spatial trends and impacts of the tourism sector in local economies in South Africa. The discussion of the tourism space economy is based on an analysis of a local tourism database which contains details of the tourism performance of all local authorities in the country focussing on the period from 2001 to 2011. Whilst the study confirms the important role of metropolitan areas, secondary and coastal cities and typical tourism destinations in the tourism space economy, it also highlights the significance of some local places/economies that are not traditionally associated with tourism, as well as illustrating the significance of tourism spend in the local economies of a range of municipalities that might not be part of the ‘top’ tourist destinations in South Africa

Recent advances in understanding hypertension development in sub-Saharan Africa

Consistent reports indicate that hypertension is a particularly common finding in black populations. Hypertension occurs at younger ages and is often more severe in terms of blood pressure levels and organ damage than in whites, resulting in a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease and mortality. This review provides an outline of recent advances in the pathophysiological understanding of blood pressure elevation and the consequences thereof in black populations in Africa. This is set against the backdrop of populations undergoing demanding and rapid demographic transition, where infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus predominates, and where under and over-nutrition coexist. Collectively, recent findings from Africa illustrate an increased lifetime risk to hypertension from foetal life onwards. From young ages black populations display early endothelial dysfunction, increased vascular tone and reactivity, microvascular structural adaptions, as well as increased aortic stiffness resulting in elevated central and brachial blood pressures during the day and night, when compared to whites. Together with knowledge on the contributions of sympathetic activation and abnormal renal sodium handling, these pathophysiological adaptations result in subclinical and clinical organ damage at younger ages. This overall enhanced understanding on the determinants of blood pressure elevation in blacks encourages (a) novel approaches to assess and manage hypertension in Africa better, (b) further scientific discovery to develop more effective prevention and treatment strategies, and (c) policymakers and health advocates to collectively contribute in creating health-promoting environments in Africa

The Metagenomics and Metadesign of the Subways and Urban Biomes (MetaSUB) International Consortium inaugural meeting report

The Metagenomics and Metadesign of the Subways and Urban Biomes (MetaSUB) International Consortium is a novel, interdisciplinary initiative comprised of experts across many fields, including genomics, data analysis, engineering, public health, and architecture. The ultimate goal of the MetaSUB Consortium is to improve city utilization and planning through the detection, measurement, and design of metagenomics within urban environments. Although continual measures occur for temperature, air pressure, weather, and human activity, including longitudinal, cross-kingdom ecosystem dynamics can alter and improve the design of cities. The MetaSUB Consortium is aiding these efforts by developing and testing metagenomic methods and standards, including optimized methods for sample collection, DNA/RNA isolation, taxa characterization, and data visualization. The data produced by the consortium can aid city planners, public health officials, and architectural designers. In addition, the study will continue to lead to the discovery of new species, global maps of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) markers, and novel biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). Finally, we note that engineered metagenomic ecosystems can help enable more responsive, safer, and quantified cities