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Hereditary dysfibrinogenemia is a rare clotting disorder due to a structural defect in the fibrinogen molecule that results in a tendency for bleeding and thrombosis, as well as obstetric complications. We describe the laboratory results and clinical manifestations for 50 patients with a diagnosis of dysfibrinogenemia. Various different laboratory measurements of fibrinogen were performed on samples from these patients, including fibrinogen (Clauss), heat fibrinogen precipitation according to Schulz and immunological fibrinogen. Fifty patients were found with dysfibrinogenemia (52% female; median age 52, range 9–89 years). The fibrinogen level according to Clauss was low, with a median of 51 mg/dL (range 15–86 mg/dL; normal range 150–450 mg/dL). Determination of other fibrinogen levels revealed normal results: heat fibrinogen precipitation according to Schulz, 240 mg/dL; and immunological fibrinogen, 244 mg/dL. The median reptilase time was longer than normal, at 55 s (normal 20 s). Some 50% of the patients reported a distinct bleeding tendency, mostly a tendency for hematoma (60%) and secondary bleeding (44%). Thirteen patients had thrombotic events, of which 54% were located arterially. Some 12% of the patients reported a tendency for bleeding and for thrombosis, whereas 19% had miscarriages, sometimes recurrent. We found that functional fibrinogen levels (Clauss) were generally lower in patients with bleeding manifestations (43 vs. 57 mg/dL in other patients).
Varicella zoster virus (VZV) belongs to one of the eight herpes viruses known to infect humans. While primary VZV infection (chickenpox) is generally a disease of childhood, herpes zoster occurs primarily in elderly persons (>50 years). Herpes zoster, also called shingles, is a neurocutaneous disease resulting from reactivation of latent VZV infection within dorsal root ganglia. Severe complications may occur in elderly persons and immunocompromised of any age, including severe complication of the eye, ear, skin and internal organs, and the peripheral and central nervous systems. A progressive decline of VZV-specific cell-mediated immunity and age are associated with an increased incidence and severity of herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). PHN is the most common complication of herpes zoster causing chronic, debilitating pain. In cases with characteristic signs and symptoms (presence of prodromal pain, eruptions, grouped vesicles, segmental pain), the diagnosis is almost distinctive enough and no laboratory investigations are required. However, for patients lacking no characteristic pathology, a rapid laboratory diagnosis may be helpful to begin antiviral therapy as soon as possible. Antiviral therapy should be initiated immediately within 72 h after rash onset, particularly in older patients. The main aim of treatment is to control and reduce acute zoster pain, shorten virus replication, avoid dissemination of skin lesions and prevent PHN and other severe complications. The aim of the present review is to outline advantages and disadvantages of different herpes zoster laboratory methods (microscopy, direct immunofluorescence assay, detection of viral DNA, virus isolation and serological methods). A live attenuated VZV vaccine has been developed to prevent herpes zoster and PHN in individuals >60 years of age (Shingles Prevention Study). This review summarises the epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical aspects, complications, therapy and prevention of varicella zoster.
Introduction: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are exposed to bloodborne pathogens (e.g., contaminated devices). In the healthcare environment, needlestick injuries (NSI) represent a major risk factor in the transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Medical students are at risk of occupational exposure to bloodborne viruses following needlestick injuries during medical education. Reporting of needlestick injuries is an important step for initiating early prophylaxis or treatment. In the case of a bloodborne infection, pursuant to insure law could result in a claim. The objective of the present study was to describe occupational blood exposure of medical students through needlestick injuries.
Methods: Sixth-year medical students were invited to complete an anonymous questionnaire.
Results: In our study, 58.8% (n=183/311) of medical students recalled at least one needlestick injury during their studies. Overall, 284 needlestick injuries were reported. Only 38.3% of medical students reported all NSI to the appropriate hospital personnel. The main reason (54.0%) for not reporting NSI was being ashamed of having an NSI.
Conclusions: Occupational exposure to blood is a common problem among medical students. Efforts are required to ensure greater awareness among medical students about the risk of bloodborne pathogens. Proper training in procedures and how to act in case of injury should be offered to reduce the number of needlestick injuries.
Human serum albumin (HSA) nanoparticles represent a promising tool for targeted drug delivery to tumor cells. The coupling of the antibody trastuzumab to nanoparticles uses the capability of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive cells to incorporate agents linked to HER2. In our present study, we developed targeted nanoparticles loaded with antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) against polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1). We evaluated the receptor-mediated uptake into HER2-positive and -negative breast cancer and murine cell lines. We performed quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot analyses to monitor the impact on Plk1 expression in HER2-positive breast cancer cells. Antibody-conjugated nanoparticles showed a specific targeting to HER2-overexpressing cells with cellular uptake by receptor-mediated endocytosis and a release into HER2-positive BT-474 cells. We observed a significant reduction of Plk1 mRNA and protein expression and increased activation of Caspase 3/7. Thus, this is the first report about ASO-loaded HSA nanoparticles, where an impact on gene expression could be observed. The data provide the basis for the further development of carrier systems for Plk1-specific ASOs to reduce off-target effects evoked by systemically administered ASOs and to achieve a better penetration into primary and metastatic target cells. Treatment of tumors using trastuzumab-conjugated ASO-loaded HSA nanoparticles could be a promising approach to reach this goal.
GTPase-activating proteins are required to terminate signaling by Rap1, a small guanine nucleotide-binding protein that controls integrin activity and cell adhesion. Recently, we identified Rap1GAP2, a GTPase-activating protein of Rap1 in platelets. Here we show that 14-3-3 proteins interact with phosphorylated serine 9 at the N terminus of Rap1GAP2. Platelet activation by ADP and thrombin enhances serine 9 phosphorylation and increases 14-3-3 binding to endogenous Rap1GAP2. Conversely, inhibition of platelets by endothelium-derived factors nitric oxide and prostacyclin disrupts 14-3-3 binding. These effects are mediated by cGMP- and cAMP-dependent protein kinases that phosphorylate Rap1GAP2 at serine 7, adjacent to the 14-3-3 binding site. 14-3-3 binding does not change the GTPase-activating function of Rap1GAP2 in vitro. However, 14-3-3 binding attenuates Rap1GAP2 mediated inhibition of cell adhesion. Our findings define a novel crossover point of activatory and inhibitory signaling pathways in platelets.
Type I interferons (IFNs) signal for their diverse biological effects by binding a common receptor on target cells, composed of the two transmembrane IFNAR1 and IFNAR2 proteins. We have previously differentially enhanced the antiproliferative activity of IFN by increasing the weak binding affinity of IFN to IFNAR1. In this study, we further explored the affinity interdependencies between the two receptor subunits and the role of IFNAR1 in differential IFN activity. For this purpose, we generated a panel of mutations targeting the IFNAR2 binding site on the background of the IFNalpha2 YNS mutant, which increases the affinity to IFNAR1 by 60-fold, resulting in IFNAR2-to-IFNAR1 binding affinity ratios ranging from 1000:1 to 1:1000. Both the antiproliferative and antiviral potencies of the interferon mutants clearly correlated to the in situ binding IC(50) values, independently of the relative contributions of the individual receptors, thus relating to the integral lifetime of the complex. However, the antiproliferative potency correlated throughout the entire range of affinities, as well as with prolonged IFNAR1 receptor down-regulation, whereas the antiviral potency reached a maximum at binding affinities equivalent to that of wild-type IFNalpha2. Our data suggest that (i) the specific activity of interferon is related to the ternary complex binding affinity and not to affinity toward individual receptor components and (ii) although the antiviral pathway is strongly dependent on pSTAT1 activity, the cytostatic effect requires additional mechanisms that may involve IFNAR1 down-regulation. This differential interferon response is ultimately mediated through distinct gene expression profiling.
The neuronal adaptor protein Fe65 is involved in brain development, Alzheimer disease amyloid precursor protein (APP) signaling, and proteolytic processing of APP. It contains three protein-protein interaction domains, one WW domain, and a unique tandem array of phosphotyrosine-binding (PTB) domains. The N-terminal PTB domain (Fe65-PTB1) was shown to interact with a variety of proteins, including the low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP-1), the ApoEr2 receptor, and the histone acetyltransferase Tip60. We have determined the crystal structures of human Fe65-PTB1 in its apo- and in a phosphate-bound form at 2.2 and 2.7A resolution, respectively. The overall fold shows a PTB-typical pleckstrin homology domain superfold. Although Fe65-PTB1 has been classified on an evolutionary basis as a Dab-like PTB domain, it contains attributes of other PTB domain subfamilies. The phosphotyrosine-binding pocket resembles IRS-like PTB domains, and the bound phosphate occupies the binding site of the phosphotyrosine (Tyr(P)) within the canonical NPXpY recognition motif. In addition Fe65-PTB1 contains a loop insertion between helix alpha2 and strand beta2(alpha2/beta2 loop) similar to members of the Shc-like PTB domain subfamily. The structural comparison with the Dab1-PTB domain reveals a putative phospholipid-binding site opposite the peptide binding pocket. We suggest Fe65-PTB1 to interact with its target proteins involved in translocation and signaling of APP in a phosphorylation-dependent manner.
Precursor protein translocation across the outer chloroplast membrane depends on the action of the Toc complex, containing GTPases as recognizing receptor components. The G domains of the GTPases are known to dimerize. In the dimeric conformation an arginine contacts the phosphate moieties of bound nucleotide in trans. Kinetic studies suggested that the arginine in itself does not act as an arginine finger of a reciprocal GTPase-activating protein (GAP). Here we investigate the specific function of the residue in two GTPase homologues. Arginine to alanine replacement variants have significantly reduced affinities for dimerization compared with wild-type GTPases. The amino acid exchange does not impact on the overall fold and nucleotide binding, as seen in the monomeric x-ray crystallographic structure of the Arabidopsis Toc33 arginine-alanine replacement variant at 2.0A. We probed the catalytic center with the transition state analogue GDP/AlF(x) using NMR and analytical ultracentrifugation. AlF(x) binding depends on the arginine, suggesting the residue can play a role in catalysis despite the non-GAP nature of the homodimer. Two non-exclusive functional models are discussed: 1) the coGAP hypothesis, in which an additional factor activates the GTPase in homodimeric form; and 2) the switch hypothesis, in which a protein, presumably the large Toc159 GTPase, exchanges with one of the homodimeric subunits, leading to activation.
Treatment predictors are important tools for the management of therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B and C virus (HBV, HCV) infection. In chronic hepatitis B, several pretreatment parameters have been identified for prediction of virologic response to interferon alfa-based antiviral therapies or treatment with polymerase inhibitors. In interferon alfa and pegylated interferon alfa-treated patients, low baseline HBV DNA concentrations, HBV genotype A (B), and high baseline ALT levels are significantly associated with treatment response. In patients treated with nucleos(t)ide analogues, low baseline HBV DNA but not viral genotype is positively associated with virologic response. During treatment the best predictor of response is HBV DNA kinetics. Early viral suppression is associated with favourable virologic response and reduced risk for subsequent resistance mutations. For the current standard treatment with pegylated interferon alfa and ribavirin in patients with chronic hepatitis C, infection with HCV genotypes 2 and 3, baseline viral load below 400,000–800,000 IU/ml, Asian and Caucasian ethnicity, younger age, low GGT levels, absence of advanced fibrosis/cirrhosis, and absence of steatosis in the liver have been identified as independent pretreatment predictors of a sustained virologic response. After initiation of treatment, initial viral decline with undetectable HCV-RNA at week 4 of therapy (RVR) is the best predictor of sustained virologic response independent of HCV genotype.
Given the simplicity of the method and how it can be applied, as well as proof that it lowers the mortality rate, fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) is currently the most commonly used screening method for colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the test suffers from poor sensitivity, particularly with respect to detecting early stages, as well as low acceptance among the population. Preliminary data on detecting calprotectin and tumour-M2-PK in the stool indicated that a better screening performance could be expected. But these tests also suffer from low sensitivity in detecting early stages and from poor specificity, thus limiting the usefulness of the tests as a result of high follow-up costs. Recently developed immunological tests (I-FOBT) demonstrate significantly increased sensitivity and specificity. I-FOBTs use antibodies specific to human hemoglobin and are therefore not affected by diet and drugs, leading to improved patient partipication. At present, I-FOBTs seem to be the most cost-effective approach for non-invasive screening. The detection of tumour-DNA in the stool opens up a new era in early diagnosis of colorectal cancer. Small trials have pointed to a very high sensitivity of these methods: 62–91% for colorectal cancer and between 26% and 73% for adenomas, with a very high level of specificity (93–100%). The major drawback of this type of testing, compared with other screening tests available today, is its high cost.
Requirements for the interaction of mouse Polkappa with ubiquitin and its biological significance
(2008)
Polkappa protein is a eukaryotic member of the DinB/Polkappa branch of the Y-family DNA polymerases, which are involved in the tolerance of DNA damage by replicative bypass. Despite universal conservation through evolution, the precise role(s) of Polkappa in this process has remained unknown. Here we report that mouse Polkappa can physically interact with ubiquitin by yeast two-hybrid screening, glutathione S-transferase pulldown, and immunoprecipitation methods. The association of Polkappa with ubiquitin requires the ubiquitin-binding motifs located at the C terminus of Polkappa. In addition, Polkappa binds with monoubiquitinated proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) more robustly than with non-ubiquitinated PCNA. The ubiquitin-binding motifs mediate the enhanced association between monoubiquitinated PCNA and Polkappa. The ubiquitin-binding motifs are also required for Polkappa to form nuclear foci after UV radiation. However, the ubiquitin-binding motifs do not affect Polkappa half-life. Finally, we have examined levels of Polkappa expression following the exposure of mouse cells to benzo[a]pyrene-dihydrodiol epoxide or UVB radiation.
Glucokinase (GK) is a key enzyme of glucose metabolism in liver and pancreatic beta-cells, and small molecule activators of GK (GKAs) are under evaluation for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. In liver, GK activity is controlled by the GK regulatory protein (GKRP), which forms an inhibitory complex with the enzyme. Here, we performed isothermal titration calorimetry and surface plasmon resonance experiments to characterize GK-GKRP binding and to study the influence that physiological and pharmacological effectors of GK have on the protein-protein interaction. In the presence of fructose-6-phosphate, GK-GKRP complex formation displayed a strong entropic driving force opposed by a large positive enthalpy; a negative change in heat capacity was observed (Kd = 45 nm, DeltaH = 15.6 kcal/mol, TDeltaS = 25.7 kcal/mol, DeltaCp = -354 cal mol(-1) K(-1)). With k(off) = 1.3 x 10(-2) s(-1), the complex dissociated quickly. The thermodynamic profile suggested a largely hydrophobic interaction. In addition, effects of pH and buffer demonstrated the coupled uptake of one proton and indicated an ionic contribution to binding. Glucose decreased the binding affinity between GK and GKRP. This decrease was potentiated by an ATP analogue. Prototypical GKAs of the amino-heteroaryl-amide type bound to GK in a glucose-dependent manner and impaired the association of GK with GKRP. This mechanism might contribute to the antidiabetic effects of GKAs.
Cytotoxic T lymphocytes eliminate infected cells upon surface display of antigenic peptides on major histocompatibility complex I molecules. To promote immune evasion, UL49.5 of several varicelloviruses interferes with the pathway of major histocompatibility complex I antigen processing. However, the inhibition mechanism has not been elucidated yet. Within the macromolecular peptide-loading complex we identified the transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP1 and TAP2) as the prime target of UL49.5. Moreover, we determined the active oligomeric state and crucial elements of the viral factor. Remarkably, the last two residues of the cytosolic tail of UL49.5 are essential for endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated proteasomal degradation of TAP. However, this process strictly requires additional signaling of an upstream regulatory element in the ER lumenal domain of UL49.5. Within this new immune evasion mechanism, we show for the first time that additive elements of a small viral factor and their signaling across the ER membrane are essential for targeted degradation of a multi-subunit membrane complex.
We disassembled monomeric and dimeric yeast ATP synthase under mild conditions to identify labile proteins and transiently stable subcomplexes that had not been observed before. Specific removal of subunits α, β, oligomycin sensitivity conferring protein (OSCP), and h disrupted the ATP synthase at the γ-α3β3 rotor-stator interface. Loss of two F1-parts from dimeric ATP synthase led to the isolation of a dimeric subcomplex containing membrane and peripheral stalk proteins thus identifying the membrane/peripheral stalk sectors immediately as the dimerizing parts of ATP synthase. Almost all subunit a was found associated with a ring of 10 c-subunits in two-dimensional blue native/SDS gels. We therefore postulate that c10a1-complex is a stable structure in resting ATP synthase until the entry of protons induces a breaking of interactions and stepwise rotation of the c-ring relative to the a-subunit in the catalytic mechanism. Dimeric subunit a was identified in SDS gels in association with two c10-rings suggesting that a c10a2c10-complex may constitute an important part of the monomer-monomer interface in dimeric ATP synthase that seems to be further tightened by subunits b, i, e, g, and h. In contrast to the monomer-monomer interface, the interface between dimers in higher oligomeric structures remains largely unknown. However, we could show that the natural inhibitor protein Inh1 is not required for oligomerization.
Location and orientation of serotonin receptor 1a agonists in model and complex lipid membranes
(2008)
Magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR has been used to investigate the location and orientation of five serotonin receptor 1a agonists (serotonin, buspirone, quipazine, 8-OH-DPAT, and LY-163,165) in single component model lipid and brain lipid membranes. The agonist locations are probed by monitoring changes in the lipid proton chemical shifts and by MAS-assisted nuclear Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy, which indicates the orientation of the agonists with respect to the 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine lipids. In the single component bilayer, the membrane agonists are found predominantly in the top of the hydrophobic chain or in the glycerol region of the membrane. Most of the agonists orient approximately parallel to the membrane plane, with the exception of quipazine, whose piperazine ring is found in the glycerol region, whereas its benzene ring is located within the lipid hydrophobic chain. The location of the agonist in brain lipid membranes is similar to the 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine lipid bilayers; however, many of the agonists appear to locate close to the cholesterol in the membrane in preference to the phospholipids.
The lysosomal ABC transporter associated with antigen processing-like (TAPL, ABCB9) acts as an ATP-dependent polypeptide transporter with broad length selectivity. To characterize in detail its substrate specificity, a procedure for functional reconstitution of human TAPL was developed. By intensive screening of detergents, ideal solubilization conditions were evolved with respect to efficiency, long term stability, and functionality of TAPL. TAPL was isolated in a two-step procedure with high purity and, subsequently, reconstituted into proteoliposomes. The peptide transport activity of reconstituted TAPL strongly depends on the lipid composition. With the help of combinatorial peptide libraries, the key positions of the peptides were localized to the N- and C-terminal residues with respect to peptide transport. At both ends, TAPL favors positively charged, aromatic, or hydrophobic residues and disfavors negatively charged residues as well as asparagine and methionine. Besides specific interactions of both terminal residues, electrostatic interactions are important, since peptides with positive net charge are more efficiently transported than negatively charged ones.
The thickness of the cerebral cortex can provide valuable information about normal and abnormal neuroanatomy. High resolution MRI together with powerful image processing techniques has made it possible to perform these measurements automatically over the whole brain. Here we present a method for automatically generating voxel-based cortical thickness (VBCT) maps. This technique results in maps where each voxel in the grey matter is assigned a thickness value. Sub-voxel measurements of thickness are possible using sub-sampling and interpolation of the image information. The method is applied to repeated MRI scans of a single subject from two MRI scanners to demonstrate its robustness and reproducibility. A simulated data set is used to show that small focal differences in thickness between two groups of subjects can be detected. We propose that the analysis of VBCT maps can provide results that are complementary to other anatomical analyses such as voxel-based morphometry.
We present a measurement of e+e− pair production in central PbAu collisions at 158A GeV/c. As reported earlier, a significant excess of the e+e− pair yield over the expectation from hadron decays is observed. The improved mass resolution of the present data set, recorded with the upgraded CERES experiment at the CERN-SPS, allows for a comparison of the data with different theoretical approaches. The data clearly favor a substantial in-medium broadening of the ρ spectral function over a density-dependent shift of the ρ pole mass. The in-medium broadening model implies that baryon induced interactions are the key mechanism to the observed modifications of the ρ meson at SPS energy.
Ribavirin in combination with peginterferon alfa shows strong clinical efficacy against chronic hepatitis C, and is now established as the standard of care. However, the precise role of ribavirin is still being defined, suggesting that optimal ribavirin dose should be maintained over the whole treatment period. Ribavirin dosage varies by bodyweight for genotype 1 disease (1000 mg/day in patients ⩽75 kg and 1200 mg/day in patients >75 kg), whereas 800 mg/day is sufficient to ensure optimal response in all genotype 2/3 patients. Similarly, genotype 1 patients benefit from 48 weeks of therapy, while 24 weeks is sufficient for genotype 2/3 disease.
Recent data suggest treatment success is dependent on cumulative ribavirin exposure, as patients who receive <60% of the planned dose have lower response rates, regardless of whether reductions are from temporary interruptions or premature cessation of therapy. All patients should be monitored for hemolytic anemia, as early diagnosis allows management through small dose reductions and stepwise return to the target dose, maximizing cumulative exposure. Despite these recent advances in our knowledge, many questions remain, such as whether the role of ribavirin will change or even be eliminated as new therapies are developed.
The extrapolation of results obtained on a series of 3 succeeding grids with halved mesh size is tested as a variant of the multigrid approach for solving the Laplace and Poisson equations in 2D. Based on corresponding experience with BEM for electric and magnetic [2] field problems a pure power law is applied instead of the famous Richardson extrapolation [3]. On those grid points, which are common to all 3 grids, the potential values are extrapolated to an arbitrary fine discretization. On the points of the finest grid in between those of the coarser ones the potentials then are obtained by only few iterations to perform the interpolation. Both, the common 5-point discretization and the famous 9-point discretization by E. Kasper [5] are investigated and compared with respect to the possible win of accuracy by extrapolation. As an interesting result of this kind of extrapolation, the accumulated local discretization errors of the 5-point discretization are partially cured and the high accuracy by the 9-point formula of Kasper makes extrapolation inefficient. Like for classical MG (multi grid) [6] the acceleration of potential calculations on grids of large size is substantial.
Mitochondrial complex I (NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase) undergoes reversible deactivation upon incubation at 30–37 °C. The active/deactive transition could play an important role in the regulation of complex I activity. It has been suggested recently that complex I may become modified by S-nitrosation under pathological conditions during hypoxia or when the nitric oxide:oxygen ratio increases. Apparently, a specific cysteine becomes accessible to chemical modification only in the deactive form of the enzyme. By selective fluorescence labeling and proteomic analysis, we have identified this residue as cysteine-39 of the mitochondrially encoded ND3 subunit of bovine heart mitochondria. Cysteine-39 is located in a loop connecting the first and second transmembrane helix of this highly hydrophobic subunit. We propose that this loop connects the ND3 subunit of the membrane arm with the PSST subunit of the peripheral arm of complex I, placing it in a region that is known to be critical for the catalytic mechanism of complex I. In fact, mutations in three positions of the loop were previously reported to cause Leigh syndrome with and without dystonia or progressive mitochondrial disease.
Dilepton production in pp and Au+Au nucleus–nucleus collisions at s=200GeV as well as in In+In and Pb+Au at 158AGeV is studied within the microscopic HSD transport approach. A comparison to the data from the PHENIX Collaboration at RHIC shows that standard in-medium effects of the ρ,ω vector mesons—compatible with the NA60 data for In+In at 158AGeV and the CERES data for Pb+Au at 158AGeV—do not explain the large enhancement observed in the invariant mass regime from 0.2 to 0.5 GeV in Au+Au collisions at s=200 GeV relative to pp collisions.
We explore the formation of diquark bound states and their Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) in the phase diagram of three-flavor quark matter at nonzero temperature, T, and quark chemical potential, μ. Using a quark model with a four-fermion interaction, we identify diquark excitations as poles of the microscopically computed diquark propagator. The quark masses are obtained by solving a dynamical equation for the chiral condensate and are found to determine the stability of the diquark excitations. The stability of diquark excitations is investigated in the T–μ plane for different values of the diquark coupling strength. We find that diquark bound states appear at small quark chemical potentials and at intermediate coupling strengths. Bose–Einstein condensation of non-strange diquark states occurs when the attractive interaction between quarks is sufficiently strong.
We propose that the measurement of the transverse momentum dependence of the double ratio of the nuclear modification factors of charm and bottom jets, RAAc(pT)/RAAb(pT), in central nuclear collisions at the LHC will provide an especially robust observable that can be used to differentiate Standard Model perturbative QCD predictions from recently proposed strong coupling string drag models derived using the AdS/CFT conjecture.
Based on the microscopic transport model UrQMD in which hadronic and string degrees of freedom are employed, the HBT parameters in the longitudinal co-moving system are investigated for charged pion and kaon, and Λ sources in heavy ion collisions (HICs) at SPS and RHIC energies. In the Cascade mode, RO and the RL at high SPS and RHIC energies do not follow the mT-scaling, however, after considering a soft equation of state with momentum dependence (SM-EoS) for formed baryons and a density-dependent Skyrme-like potential for “pre-formed” particles, the HBT radii of pions and kaons and even those of Λs with large transverse momenta follow the mT-scaling function R=3/mT fairly well.
We determine the hard-loop resummed propagator in an anisotropic QCD plasma in general covariant gauges and define a potential between heavy quarks from the Fourier transform of its static limit. We find that there is stronger attraction on distance scales on the order of the inverse Debye mass for quark pairs aligned along the direction of anisotropy than for transverse alignment.
It has been suggested that the existence of a non-Gaussian fixed point in general relativity might cure the ultraviolet problems of this theory. Such a fixed point is connected to an effective running of the gravitational coupling. We calculate the effect of the running gravitational coupling on the black hole production cross section in models with large extra dimensions.
Biological functions of the small leucine-rich proteoglycans: from genetics to signal transduction
(2008)
The small leucine-rich proteoglycan (SLRP) family has significantly expanded in the past decade to now encompass five discrete classes, grouped by common structural and functional properties. Some of these gene products are not classical proteoglycans, whereas others have new and unique features. In addition to being structural proteins, SLRPs constitute a network of signal regulation: being mostly extracellular, they are upstream of multiple signaling cascades. They affect intracellular phosphorylation, a major conduit of information for cellular responses, and modulate distinct pathways, including those driven by bone morphogenetic protein/transforming growth factor β superfamily members, receptor tyrosine kinases such as ErbB family members and the insulin-like growth factor I receptor, and Toll-like receptors. The wealth of mechanistic insights into the molecular and cellular functions of SLRPs has revealed both the sophistication of this family of regulatory proteins and the challenges that remain in uncovering the totality of their functions. This review is focused on novel biological functions of SLRPs with special emphasis on their protein cores, newly described genetic diseases, and signaling events in which SLRPs play key functions.
Production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by the mitochondrial respiratory chain is considered to be one of the major causes of degenerative processes associated with oxidative stress. Mitochondrial ROS has also been shown to be involved in cellular signaling. It is generally assumed that ubisemiquinone formed at the ubiquinol oxidation center of the cytochrome bc(1) complex is one of two sources of electrons for superoxide formation in mitochondria. Here we show that superoxide formation at the ubiquinol oxidation center of the membrane-bound or purified cytochrome bc(1) complex is stimulated by the presence of oxidized ubiquinone indicating that in a reverse reaction the electron is transferred onto oxygen from reduced cytochrome b(L) via ubiquinone rather than during the forward ubiquinone cycle reaction. In fact, from mechanistic studies it seems unlikely that during normal catalysis the ubisemiquinone intermediate reaches significant occupancies at the ubiquinol oxidation site. We conclude that cytochrome bc(1) complex-linked ROS production is primarily promoted by a partially oxidized rather than by a fully reduced ubiquinone pool. The resulting mechanism of ROS production offers a straightforward explanation of how the redox state of the ubiquinone pool could play a central role in mitochondrial redox signaling.
Prolonged treatment of leukemic cells with chemotherapeutic agents frequently results in development of drug resistance. Moreover, selection of drug-resistant cell populations may be associated with changes in malignant properties such as proliferation rate, invasiveness, and immunogenicity. In the present study, the sensitivity of cytarabine (1-β-d-arabinofuranosylcytosine, araC)-resistant and parental human leukemic cell lines (T-lymphoid H9 and acute T-lymphoblastic leukemia Molt-4) to natural killer (NK) cell-mediated killing was investigated. The results obtained demonstrate that araC-resistant H9 and Molt-4 (H9rARAC100 and Molt-4rARAC100) cell lines are more sensitive to NK cell-mediated lysis than their respective parental cell lines. This increased sensitivity was associated with a higher surface expression of ligands for the NK cell-activating receptor NKG2D, notably UL16 binding protein-2 (ULBP-2) and ULBP-3 in H9rARAC100 and Molt-4rARAC100 cell lines. Blocking ULBP-2 and ULBP-3 or NKG2D with monoclonal antibody completely abrogated NK cell lysis. Constitutive phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) but not pAKT was higher in araC-resistant cells than in parental cell lines. Inhibition of ERK using ERK inhibitor PD98059 decreased both ULBP-2/ULBP-3 expression and NK cell cytotoxicity. Furthermore, overexpression of constitutively active ERK in H9 parental cells resulted in increased ULBP-2/ULBP-3 expression and enhanced NK cell lysis. These results demonstrate that increased sensitivity of araC-resistant leukemic cells to NK cell lysis is caused by higher NKG2D ligand expression, resulting from more active ERK signaling pathway.
Newsletter No 36 Special Pesach edition, April 2008 / Australian Association of Jewish Studies
(2008)
This is a story about a house with a history and about the people who lived or worked there. It captures something of the spirit of the times in the worlds of politics and development, and it discusses the links which were established between Oxfam GB in Zambia and the African National Congress of South Africa.
The Botsotso literary journal started in 1996 as a monthly 4 page insert in the New Nation, an independent anti-apartheid South African weekly and reached over 80,000 people at a time largely politisized black workers and youth with a selection of poems, short stories and short essays that reflected the deep changes taking place in the country at that time. Since the closure of the New Nation in 1999, the journal has evolved into a stand-alone compilation featuring the same mix of genres, and with the addition of photo essays and reviews. The Botsotso editorial policy remains committed to creating a mix of voices which highlight the diverse spectrum of South African identities and languages, particularly those that are dedicated to radical expression and examinations of South Africa's complex society.
The poems, stories and essays of Mphutlane wa Bofelo operate within a framework of thinking that is an amalgam of philosophies: that of black consciousness, humanistic Islam and socialism. His voice is both lyrical and satirical, expressing anger and tenderness even as his barbs are sharp and his kisses tender. His beats are complex polyrhythms that roll on in incantatory style or achieve mystical brevity. Bofelo entered the world of sociopolitical and cultural activism in the early 1980s through the black consciousness movement in Zamdela Township in Sasolburg. He lives in Durban, where he has built up an audience as a performer of poetry, a speaker and a facilitator. He has self-published two poetry collections and is represented in journals, newspapers and on web sites.
Married But Available
(2008)
Married But Available ventures into a theme about which people say as much as they withhold. It explores intersections between sex, money and power, challenging orthodoxies, revealing complexities and providing insights into the politics and economics of relationships. During six months of fieldwork in Mimboland, Lilly Loveless, a Muzungulander doctoral student in Social Geography, researches how sex shapes and is shaped by power and consumerism in Africa. The bulk of her research takes place on the outskirts of the University of Mimbo, an institution where nothing is what it seems. Through her astounding harvest of encounters, interviews, conversations and observations, the reader gets a captivating glimpse into the frailty and resilience of human beings and society. Lilly Loveless comes out of it all well and truly baptized. And so does the reader!
The Pan-Africanist debate is back on the historical agenda. The stresses and strains in the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar since its formation some forty years ago are not showing any sign of abating. Meanwhile, imperialism under new forms and labels continues to bedevil the continent in ever-aggressive, if subtle, ways. The political federation of East Africa, which was one of the main spin-offs of the Pan-Africanism of the nationalist period, is reappearing on the political stage, albeit in a distorted form of regional integration. It is in this context that the present study is situated. Backgrounding the major dramas of the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar this book studies the personalities involved and their politics, and includes an account of the Dodoma CCM conference that toppled President Jumbe. It is also a detailed legal analysis of the union incorporating powerful new material.
Getting Heard: (Re)claiming Performance Space is the third in a series of publications on art, culture and society released by Twaweza Communications. The aim is to bring to the fore conversations taking place in Kenya about identity, creativity, nationalism and the generation of knowledge. The series is also about the pursuit of freedom through arts, media and culture. In Getting Heard the performance space is shown to offer wider possibilities for knowledge creation. It shows that in post-colonial Africa political leaders have consistently performed over their subjects at local and national levels. There is discussion of: Kenya National Theatre, Story Telling, Radio Theatre, Translation, African Languages, Music, Media and Mungiki This volume opens a window to our understanding of post-colonial Africa through performances.
The book examines the creative industries of Cameroon and Africa and makes bold the cultural triumphant assertion that Africa is home to some of the most diverse cultural patrimony and the most versatile creative professionals. It also discusses indigenous development models and questions the rationale for Eurocentric democratic paradigms which have partly contributed to the demise of a concrete democratic development entitlement in most African countries. Ngwane weaves both the cultural and political strands into a search for a homegrown development web which he calls 'glocalisation'. Ngwane's essays, most of which have animated debate and discourse in national newspapers, online blogs and International journals are lucid in their arguments, poignant in their ideological focus, rich in their non-fiction craftsmanship and urgent in their message delivery. The essays will make good reading for students of Africa studies, Development studies, Politics and Culture.
Titabet and the Takumbeng
(2008)
Titabet and the Takumbeng is a play that relives the unprecedented political upheaval of the 1992 first ever multiparty presidential elections in Cameroon. Following the controversial elections, Bamenda - the stronghold of the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF) - was plunged into a tense and intense civil disobedience campaign. The violence which ensued pitted SDF militants who claimed their victory was stolen against regime loyalists. The government reacted by imposing a curfew on Bamenda. The army that was dispatched to keep the peace committed ferocious kidnapping, rape, theft and torture, driving women, children and men into the arms of terror. Titabet the protagonist emerges as the leader of the oppressed. He and the sacred women's cult of Takumbeng were the only hope for the people. The sacred cleansing cult and Titabet's courageous resistance apparently brought an end to what would have been too devastating a tale to narrate. Kehbuma Langmia teaches courses in Mass Communications, Broadcast Journalism and Media Studies at Bowie State University. With previous degrees in fine arts, television and film, he earned his PhD in Mass Communication and Media Studies from Howard University. He also has an MA degree in theatre arts from the University of Yaound?, Cameroon. He is also a graduate from the Television Academy in Munich, Germany. Dr. Langmia writes, produces and directs independent productions, and serves as executive producer for students' television projects at Bowie State University.
This book is about emerging informal responses to unemployment in Malawi. To the bicycle taxi and handcart operators who are at the centre of the book, informality is a means for negotiating newer experiences and challenges associated with urbanisation. Jimu richly documents how informal economy activities continue to represent grassroots responses to widespread poverty, unavailability of meaningful employment opportunities and the failure of the state as well as the private and the non-state sectors to respond to escalating demand for formal sector jobs. Multiplicity of activities and straddling urban and rural opportunities are strategies employed to deal with opportunity impermanence and maximize returns from various low paying tasks and jobs. While these activities have grown without state support, state involvement is necessary to regulate and promote the welfare of the workers in the sector as well as that of the users of their service and the general public. This will require constructive engagement among the operators, users of their services, local government, and various state agencies.
The Raped Amulet
(2008)
An extraordinary story of a young man from Africa who tries hard to reconcile the ways he had grown up with, and those he was experiencing in his host country - Great Britain. The story is set in Coventry, in the English Midlands and is told by Dion Ekpochaba, a postgraduate student at the University of Warwick. Dion, fresh from his motherland, Cameroon, loses an amulet, a cherished heritage of his ancestry and becomes desperate about the loss. He meets an elderly English man, Tom Jones who makes a startling revelation: the amulet had just been desecrated by his dog and thrown into the depths of a lake in the campus. Dion became so flabbergasted that Tom Jones thought he might have gone out of his mind. The two strangers tried to understand each other to no avail. However, the misfortunes of time turn the tides, resulting in a friendship, which provides grounds for mutual understanding and respect for each other's ways. Read on and spark your views on making the world a better place.
This book explores the latent and sometimes overt undercurrents that have shaped the judicial history of Cameroon since the United Nations Trusteeship period. It is an insightful account by a critical observer privileged to serve as Director of Public Prosecutions and a judge in a post-independence context characterized by dual and often conflictual legal systems inspired by French and English colonialism. Justice Nyo'Wakai demonstrates how the conflict of judicial concepts, procedures and usages have led to the Francophone judicial system trying to impose itself on the Anglophone judicial system in Cameroon. Often reduced to toothless bulldogs by new constitutional dispensations informed largely by the French colonial legacy and Francophone realities, Anglophones have bemoaned the independence of the Judiciary identified with their Anglo-Saxon heritage. In the face of such domination and the highhandedness of the Executive, only mature cool headedness and the ability to bend over backwards on the part of Anglophone legal practitioners have contained the explosive situation and allowed for a gradual evolution of the Judicial System in Cameroon.
Their Champagne Party Will End! Poems in Honor of Bate Besong : Poems in Honor of Bate Besong
(2008)
A collection of six thought-provoking stories, four of which were award-winning-stories at the 1990 literary contest of the national Association of Cameroonian Poets and Writers (APEC). The stories are set in different localities in Africa and Cameroon in particular. The author in a lucid manner explores the theme of women lib- the African way in the lead story. Ebenye, the protagonist, representing the sharp-witted African woman cannot understand why she should cook food without tasting of it. So she decides to take the bold step of eating a piece of the python that she has been ordered to cook for the men of her community. The other stories tackle themes of corruption, poverty, alcoholism, endurance, love and more.
The House of Falling Women
(2008)
House of Falling Women is the story of a young woman with quixotic ideas about improving the lot of women who finds out that the crusader's cloak is an uncomfortable one. Martha Elive, armed with a university education and a substantial legacy from a Dutchwoman she meets while studying abroad on a scholarship, decides to create an institute for the empowerment of women, only to find that the contradictions to be resolved are more firmly anchored in her psyche than elsewhere. In addition to her unexorcised ghosts and the legacies of a chequered love life, she has to contend with recalcitrant public opinion and moral inertia, the opposition of old-guard reactionaries, and the incomprehension of her small-town parents. House of Falling Women is a poignant, often hilarious story of the search by a group of women for a new place in society in a world where women are dissatisfied with the old values and bewildered by the new.
The Tragedy of Mr No Balance
(2008)
No Love Lost
(2008)
No Love Lost is a tale of troubled times in which the storyteller strives to return to wholesomeness a society whose values have jumped the rail. Set in the 'No Man's Land' of Ongola, the novel unravels the corruption and influence-peddling endemic in this African country. Framed around the travails of an unemployed university graduate, the story is the gripping depiction of one man's vendetta against a society at odds with itself. Among others, the novel explores the themes of identity crisis, political gerrymandering, individual and collective greed, love and marriage, and class exploitation to weave an enduring tapestry of great human interest. Written against the backdrop of nascent neo-colonialism No Love Lost combines the traditional and the modern; the private and the public to demonstrate that the quest for truth and justice behooves all and sundry. The author infuses the narrative with oral traditions to capture the reader's attention in a compelling style. This is a refreshing work by a writer whose heart throbs for his people and their plight.
The Fire Within
(2008)
In Africa, there is unrest, and possibly tragedy, when new trends clash with traditional values. With a curmudgeonly stepmother who harasses her even as she spoils her own biological daughter, Mungeu', the protagonist, blazes a path for herself in the face of many odds. But things go terribly wrong when she falls pregnant. The dilemma of whether or not to keep the pregnancy, given society's expectations, flings this young woman into direct confrontation with a life that is beyond her years. She is bent on succeeding: she will keep her baby, and with her training at a girls' craft center, start a business and bring up her illegitimate child. But Mungeu' can only make plans as she realises before long that the authority to dispose of them does not rest with her alone; there are other powerful forces out there.
' The United Nations-organised plebiscite on 11 February 1961 was one of the most significant events in the history of the southern and northern parts of the British-administered trust territory in Cameroon. John Percival was sent by the then Colonial Office as part of the team to oversee the process. This book captures the story of the plebiscite in all its dimensions and intricacies and celebrates the author's admiration for things African through a series of reminiscences of what life was like in the 1960s, both for the Africans themselves and for John Percival as a very young man. The complex story is also a series of reflections about the effect of the modern world on Africa. It is a thorough, insightful, rich and enlightening first-hand source on a political landmark that has never been told before in this way. In a vivid style with a great sense of humour, Percival's witty, cogent, eyewitness and active-participant account deconstructs the rumours and misrepresentations about the February 1961 Plebiscite which was a prelude to reunification and to the present day politics of 'belonging' in Cameroon. ''One of the major merits of this book is to provide us with a deeper insight into the role of those actors who have never been the subject of plebiscite studies, namely the Plebiscite Supervisory Officers.'' - Piet Konings, African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands John Percival-Anthropologist, Writer, Television Broadcaster of many innovative BBC series on the environment, history and anthropology. As a young graduate he was recruited and sent to serve in the Southern Cameroons as a Plesbiscite Supervisory Officer in 1961. He died in 2005 after a recent return visit to Cameroon with Nigel Wenban-Smith who writes an epilogue. This posthumous memoir has been edited by his wife, Lalage Neal.'
Precipice
(2008)
Madam Essin stood watching the young people holding each other. She looked at the young man who was her son. How handsome he looked. When he smiled he had that elusive curve on his lips that reminded her of her husband. She had been unable to resist that curve of the lips even after eight years of marriage. When her husband smiled she had the feeling he was looking down on her in amused condescension. This used to annoy her but she could not resist the charm he exuded. Now here she was an abandoned wife with an estranged son. Her thoughts roved as she watched them, plunging into the past, the present and the future. The girl brought back the past. She wished she could obliterate that past from her life and her son's. In Precipice, Susan Nkwentie Nde, in her first novel, has a way of weaving past intrigues and present emotions to keep all guessing about what will be. She opens up her characters for the reader to enter and inhabit their minds and bodies in a compelling story of love and estrangement, happy accidents, quest and survival.
Tale of an African Woman
(2008)
The village of Yakiri has been cursed by ancestral wrath because of the treatment of Yaa, the first girl who wrestled her male goatherd peers to earn the right to be initiated into the society of manhood. Her struggle is taken up generations later by Yaya, the granddaughter of Tafan and Wirba. Orphaned like her forebear, Yaya becomes a star student in the village's primary school and promises to go far. But, ask the villagers, is it right to invest in an education for an African girl who may become the property of another village? An educated woman will abandon the farm where she is needed, wear high heels and try to order men around! In the midst of it all, one Irish missionary, living in Africa and for the most time with Africans, literally wiggles his way into hearts and minds. With his intervention, Yaya leaves the village to school in the city, but her troubles as a woman have not really begun. Yarns of cultural borrowing, indigestion and transcendence reveal the simple and complex ways in which community matters are confronted and decided. This happens in shrines where seers are consulted and cowry shells thrown, in palm wine houses, but also around the school and presbytery. The untold stories and perspectives of girls and women burst through in illuminating and uplifting ways. Quarrels, squabbles, near collisions and mutual conversions give way to innovative traditions.
The Barn
(2008)
As a veteran playwright and actor, Kwo Victor Elame Musinga is more than just a pioneer in popular theatre. His simple but profound messages demonstrate a depth of understanding and insight into human nature and the nature of society. The texts he crafts are universal and timeless in their content and appeal, even as the themes and situations that inspire them are localized in specific places, experiences and histories. The Barn is a collection of three topical plays. Njema captures the predicament of love in a context where innocence and trust are preyed upon by deceit, dishonesty, promiscuity, waywardness, callous indifference to human life, the reckless abandon of parental authority and wisdom by youth in a hurry to celebrate sexuality, irresponsible manhood with or without the connivance of girls/women, and HIV/AIDS and its terror. Invitation to God addresses elitism and fair-weather friendship even among believers. In Moka, the theme of friendship is explored through the simple act of dishonesty and greed, especially to those with whom one should be nothing but virtuous, open, generous and kind. In these plays Kwo Victor Elame Musinga explores the virtues of being human, while addressing the dark side of humanity.
Souls Forgotten
(2008)
' ''One day, Mama Ngonsu told her son: ''''Normally, a child grew up and stayed around to help his parents. The world has changed, and things are no longer as they used to be. Things must not be normal all the time, otherwise life would not be life.'''' When Emmanuel Kwanga gets a University scholarship, he travels from the lake and hills of Abehema to the Great City. Everyone in the village has invested in him their hopes for the good life. When the life they've imagined is cut short by the University guillotine, Emmanuel Kwanga must struggle to make sense of what the good life means - for himself and for Abehema - in a world where things are no longer as they used to be. This novel is about coming of age and coming to terms in Mimboland. It is also about the fragility of life and the strength of the human spirit. The filth and screaming splendor of the city and the perplexed tranquility of the village are juxtaposed, as the tension and conviviality between tradition and modernity are lived and explored. Roads and drivers, dreams and public transport link different geographies. Faltering along or speeding away, these spaces of risk, frustration and solidarity are filled with popular songs as vehicles for understanding events and relationships. With every crossing of the Pont de Maturit? the story flows, and its mysteries surge. In this novel, the worlds of the living and the dead intermingle, as do the natural and the supernatural, the visible and the invisible.'''
This book richly documents the battles fought by the Anglophone community in Cameroon to safeguard the General Certificate of Education (GCE), a symbol of their cherished colonial heritage from Britain, from attempts by agents of the Ministry of National Education to subvert it. These battles opposed a mobilised and determined Anglophone civil society against numerous machinations by successive Francophone-dominated governments to destroy their much prided educational system in the name of 'national integration'. When Southern Cameroonians re-united with La R?publique du Cameroun in 1961, they claimed that they were bringing into the union 'a fine education system' from which their Francophone compatriots could borrow. Instead, they found themselves battling for decades to save their way of life. Central to their concerns and survival as a community is an urgent need for cultural recognition and representation, of which an educational system free of corruption and trivialisation through politicisation is a key component.
Cry My Beloved Africa is a compendium of essays having as locus the continent of Africa. It comprises insightful observations on the politics, governmental systems, political economy, cultural practices, educational systems and natural phenomena that impact on the lives of Africans. True to the tradition of French novelist Stendhal, the author intends this work to serve as a mirror that reflects the day-to-day living of the different peoples that inhabit the fifty-three nation-states in Africa. It is directed to contemporary Africa and to the relationship between Africa and the rest of the globe. The didactic value of the book resides in its suitability to the young and the old. The language is clear and free of sophistry.
God the Politician
(2008)
God the Politician is a compelling analytical, critical, informed and largely eyewitness account of the major events that have taken place in Cameroon since the return of multiparty politics in the 1990s. The accession of Paul Biya to power under the one-party regime in 1982 and the attempt to overthrow him in a coup d'?tat in 1984 are told in flashback, so are the excesses of power without responsibility that have come to be associated with over 25 years of Biya as President. Most of the story is centred on the struggle by the opposition, led by the Social Democratic Front (SDF), to overthrow the incumbent. In his determination to crush opposition, President Biya and his collaborators have sometimes used intrigue, but mostly force and callous indifference to basic human rights and to democracy. Bloodshed has often been the result of the regime's titanic struggles against freedoms. President Paul Biya is not in a hurry to go and so instead of democratizing Cameroon, he has chosen to Cameroonize democracy, turning electoral fraud into an art. Because of massive fraud during elections and the inability of the opposition to unite, political party leaders have decided to join him who they cannot beat. The book is an x-ray of a regime and the Frankenstein monsters it has created and sustained to thwart democracy. It exposes the corruption, electoral fraud, human rights abuse and cynicism that make politicians believe they can play God in the lives of Cameroonians.
Beware the Drives
(2008)
This collection of verse, which has mostly short poems, some of which are two-liners, is an outcome of several years of keen observation of the very nature of man. The observation brought this writer to the conclusion that man is dominated by fear and in his effort to conquer it, he resorts to unbridled aggression. Such aggression has been very instrumental in much of the success that humanity has been able to achieve, so far. But at the same time, the same aggression in man's nature has been responsible for the pleasure he takes in the ruthless destruction of his own kind, the environment in which he cushions himself, plants and animals.
' Cameroon's Social Democratic Front (SDF) was among the watershed challenges c.1990 by sub-Saharan Africa's democratization forces against autocratic regimes, but it crested in 1992 and has subsided since. Yet the party survives, participates in the National Assembly, maintains a grass roots structure, and prepares for a presidential ballot in 2011 that will likely determine its fate. The author conducted research four times in Cameroon, 1989-1999, focusing on the SDF since 1991, and maintains party contacts to the present. The book assesses its history and its prospects, covering the SDF in Africa-wide as well as Cameroonian terms. ''Krieger has given us the first, superbly researched, finely tuned analysis of the fortunes of a major contemporary African opposition party, Cameroon's Social Democratic Front (SDF).'' - Victor Le Vine, Washington University, St. Louis, USA. ''The book goes far beyond its title and puts in context a daylight re-emergence of political opposition in Cameroon. To say that this long overdue history of the SDF party is a prolegomena to understanding contemporary Cameroon social forces is not an overstatement.'' - Ambroise Kom, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon. ''...a level-headed but provocative examination of the structure and workings of a major African country...the sobriety with which he evaluates institutions and leadership is commendable, yielding exceptional analysis that will stand the test of time.'' - Toyin Falola, Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria. Milton Krieger started teaching and research about sub-Saharan Africa in 1970. Nine trips there include four research visits providing two years time in Cameroon, 1989-99. The second, 1991, coincided with 'villes mortes' and turned his primary scholarship to the Social Democratic Front. Access to party documents, officials, and rank and file members included visitor status at the 1995 and 1999 national conventions. Party contacts continue to the present.'
' ''Building Capacity promotes the vision that the teaching of African languages can best achieve its aim of boosting the economic and cultural development of the Africans if they are made to work in synergy with a revamping of the course contents of international languages that will be taught within the frame of a development-oriented literacy curriculum. Great emphasis is put on the oral skills in the use of African languages as they are to serve as a link between the community and the school for the ultimate revitalization of the positive aspects of African cultures in a world beset by globalization. The book is supplemented with a sample of texts in the appendix that are meant to be a bridge between formal texts taught in classrooms and literacy texts that can raise the genuine interests of the local populations in that they address their immediate needs. Among the possible topics language teachers are encouraged to explore in their classes are those concerning economic development, but also such issues as health, education, the environment, food security, and conflict resolution. ''''In the face of the growing interest in the use of African Languages by Africans as symbols of personal and cultural identity and as means of empowering the rural communities in the entreprise of national development,the need for a methodologically appropriate manual to guide the teaching and learning of African languages becomes urgent.This book is a timely response, predicated on a policy of the symbiotic use of African languages along with partner (foreign-official) languages, to attain a balanced level of economic and socio-cultural development.It is based on a compendium of well- thought-out principles geared towards a rapid acquisition of written and oral language skills that are congruent with and reflect the socio-cultural and economic concerns of the linguistic community.'''' Beban Sammy Chumbow, Professor of Linguistics, University of Yaounde I ''''Among the numerous proposals in this book is the necessity for Africans, and I would add, for the communities of Asia and Latin America, to re-think the contents of their language courses and assign them an objective which aims at the integral development of their communities. It is indeed imperative that these courses reflect clear objectives of seeking social, cultural, and economic developments that harmonize with African, Asian, and Latin American values that are deep rooted in their respective various cultures.'''' Jean-Pierre Angenot Professor of Linguistics, Federal University of Rond?nia, Porto Velho, Brazil.'''
In K?cracy, Trees in the Storm and Other Poems, Bill Ndi vociferously bemoans the fate of a world in which the good and the evil are intimate bedfellows; a world wherein miscreants proceed with nauseating impunity to trample on innocence. The poet, a widely traveled scholar in Africa, Europe, and the Americas, currently resides in Australia where he is hailed as an Ambassador of the Peace. Informed by his experience as a child of the world - being at home away from home and thinking of home, Bill Ndi serves the reader with a delicious platter of poetic maze which to him is synonymous to the political maze he has known around the world.
Pidgin English is the chief medium of communication for the great majority of Cameroonians. It sustains a world view, culture and way of life. Pidgin embodies concepts that would at best be partially expressed in formal English. A critical understanding of Pidgin English requires not only a thorough grasp of the socio-cultural matrix from which the words and expressions originate but also an immersion in an Afro-centric worldview. Majunga Tok: Poems in Pidgin English is the poet's attempt at capturing these speech patterns of ordinary Cameroonians in written form. Pidgin English, also called broken English, is a lingua franca spoken not only in Cameroon but also in many West African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia amonst others. This poetry anthology is inspired by the poet's desire to salvage a language that has been subjected to multiple forms of denigration because it is oral. In Cameroon, for instance, Pidgin English has been the target of myriad attacks from self-styled linguistic purists who claim that Pidgin is a bastardized variant of Standard English and, therefore, should not be allowed to thrive. The controversy and denigration directed at Amos Tutuola and his Pidgin English creative genius are vivid examples. This condescending attitude of speakers of Standard English stems from the fact that Pidgin is often associated with illiteracy.
Coils of Mortal Flesh
(2008)
The diverse voices in the poems in this collection are unified in the single voice of the omnipresent persona who appears to be searching for a collective voice, some kind of order or rhythm that would impose meaning to life. Reading the poems constitutes an individual journey. This poetic journey from Awakening that takes the reader to Moonlight Spells and Wreaths and leads her/him through Laments to the Epilogue is a continuous movement in the search for humanity's existence. As a metaphor of self-discovery, the poetic quest is both an expression of, and a search for mankind's elusive self-that single, unbroken umbilical cord that is firmly rooted in the African experience and identity. Ba'bila Mutia teaches oral and written literatures, creative writing, advanced writing and research methodology, at the University of Yaound? I. His poetry and short stories have been featured in anthologies and reviews worldwide, and his work has been broadcast on the BBC. In June of 1993 Mutia was honoured by the Berlin Academy of Arts as special guest writer in an international writers' reading. He is the author of Whose Land? (Longman), Before This Time, Yesterday (Silex/Nouvelles du Sud) and 'The Miracle' in the Heinemann Book of Contemporary African Short Stories.
Green Rape: Poetry for the Environment is an anthology of poems written in strong support of environmental literacy. Each poem is the poet's cry of protest against the rape of natural and built environments. The anthology examines a wide range of issues including the clash of global capitalism with environmental activism. It takes a close look at the major themes in international discourse on environmental degradation, climate change, renewable energy sources, global warming, Gene technology, biodiversity and more. The poet dispels a number of myths, notably the existence of an inexhaustible bank of natural resources at the disposal of Man. He attempts to provide a solution to the abusive and unbalanced utilization of scarce natural resources. In a unique way, the poems contribute to the fostering of environmental awareness that would contribute to the sustainable management of natural resources. The poet invites us to look beyond the doomsday rhetoric about the state of the environment and to commit more of our resources where they will do the most good to lifting the world's population out of poverty. The significance of this anthology to environmental education resides in its contribution to the debate on global sustainable development, especially efforts to protect the environment and eradicate poverty.
The Day God Blinked
(2008)
The Day God Blinked x-rays the politico-economic and socio-moral life of a rich and resourceful country called Ewawa from 1982 to 2007. The country had been ruled by a dynamic and insightful miser known as the Old Man. But because he had been in power for too long, his citizens longed for change. It happened when nobody expected it. The old man died suddenly in his sleep and was replaced by his handpicked successor. Unfortunately, the successor whom everybody had expected would do better plunged the country into terrible economic and moral crises. Lucia, the protagonist, narrates her predicament. To her, Ewawa is rotten in all totality. There is nowhere to turn for salvation. The custodians of the economic, social, moral and spiritual values of the land are not up to the task. The country is without hope. Is all doomed?
Babi Yar Symphony
(2008)
This unique work lifts the African question out of the dust. Against the backdrop of prison life, it explores the complex reality of being an African in today's world. Through the tight sensitivity and illuminating knowledge of its two principal characters, themselves victims of misplaced justice, greed and lust, it captures the pain and sadness that almost always comes in the wake of betrayal and egotism. The work's message is strong, and is delivered with equal strength by characters whose individual convictions also sway us to their side. We have here a new, powerful shaft of light on the landscape of recent African writing.
Africa's Political Wastelands: The Bastardization of Cameroon : The Bastardization of Cameroon
(2008)
Africa?s Political Wastelands explores and confirms the fact that because of irresponsible, corrupt, selfish, and unpatriotic kleptocrats parading as leaders, the ultimate breakdown of order has become the norm in African nations, especially those south of the Sahara. The result is the virtual annihilation of once thriving and proud nations along with the citizenry who are transformed into wretches, vagrants, and in the extreme, refugees. Doh uses Cameroon as an exemplary microcosm to make this point while still holding imperialist ambitions largely responsible for the status quo in Africa. Ultimately, in the hope of jumpstarting the process, he makes pertinent suggestions on turning the tide on the continent.
Grassfields Stories from Cameroon is an anthology of short stories. It comprises animal trickster tales, bird survival tales, and human-interest stories. The compendium is a reflection of the mores, cultures, and value systems of the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Province of Cameroon. It is motivated by the author's keen interest in the preservation of Cameroonian oral traditions in written form. These stories deal with the day-to-day life of the sedentary and the globe-trotter. Each story is sufficient onto itself. The author has intentionally avoided chronology in the order of presentation of the stories. Whether you read the stories in the order in which they are presented or dart about as your fancy dictates, you will feel the abundance of richness and entertainment the book contains. The didactic value of this collection of short stories resides in its suitability to readers of all age groups. The uniqueness of the volume lies in its universal appeal. Peter Wuteh Vakunta was born and raised in the village of Bamunka-Ndop in Cameroon where he worked as senior translator at the Presidency of the Republic before immigrating to America. He is an alumnus of Sacred Heart College-Mankon. Vakunta obtained his Bachelor degrees in Cameroon and Nigeria; MA and MSE degrees in Cameroon and the U.S.A. At present, Vakunta and his family live in Madison, U.S.A. He teaches in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he is also completing his PhD dissertation titled: Translation in Literature: Indigenization in the Francophone Text. Vakunta is poet, storyteller and essayist. His published works include Better English: Mind Your P's and Q's, Lion Man and Other Stories (short stories), Brainwaves (poems), Pandora's Box (poems). African Time and Pidgin Verses (poems), Square Pegs in Round Holes (essays) and It Takes Guts (essays). Vakunta's literary works have earned him several awards in the U.S.A, U.K and Africa.
The debate is no longer whether to use information and communication technologies (ICT) in education in Africa but how to do so, and how to ensure equitable access for teachers and learners, whether in urban or rural settings. This is a book about how Africans adopt and adapt ICT. It is also about how ICT shape African schools and classrooms. Why do we use ICT, or not? Do girls and boys use them in the same ways? How are teachers and students in primary and secondary schools in Africa using ICT in teaching and learning? How does the process transform relations among learners, educators and knowledge construction? This collection by 19 researchers from Africa, Europe, and North America, explores these questions from a pedagogical perspective and specific socio-cultural contexts. Many of the contributors draw on learning theory and survey data from 36 schools, 66000 students and 3000 teachers. The book is rich in empirical detail on the perceived importance and appropriation of ICT in the development of education in Africa. It critically examines the potential for creative use of ICT to question habits, change mindsets, and deepen practice. The contributions are in both English and French.
Disturbing the Peace
(2008)
If Minna has a successful career, a loving husband, wonderful children - all well-deserved - is it compulsory that she must also toil for a reckless sister who has diametrically opposed priorities? Her biased mother thinks so. What if the sister dumps her child on Minna's veranda and vamooses and in trying to find the sister to give back her child, there appear some strange persons and a cult intended on grabbing the child? A decision has to be made and made fast. How could Minna ever envisage that in trying to help her careless sister and baby while taking care of her own family she would end up antagonising everyone in spite of her desperate battle to spread love to all? Just where are her priorities? How prepared is she for the unexpected conclusion to her simmering travails? Hell definitely breaks lose in this emotionally charged family saga in which Emmanuel Achu carves a world where such opposites as love and hate, sympathy and apathy, despair and hope, fear and courage, friendship and enmity reside as bedfellows. Disturbing the Peace is definitely a lyrical treat where you would be shocked to discover that being responsible can equate to being cursed.
The Travail of Dieudonné
(2008)
Dieudonnes life is spun from the threads of one of Africa's grand moral dilemmas, in which personal responsibility is intertwined with the social catharsis occasioned by ambitions of dominance and ever diminishing circles. We encounter Dieudonne at the tail end of his service as 'houseboy' to the Toubaabys, a patronising expatriate couple. In the company of a lively assortment of characters and luring music at the Grand Canari Bar, Dieudonne recounts his life. As he peels layer after layer of his vicissitudes, he depicts the everyday resilience of the African on a continent caught in the web of predatory forces. Yet, this enchanting failure also celebrates the infinite capacity of the African to find happiness and challenge victimhood.
This study investigates the experiences of women journalists during the last phase of Namibia's liberation struggle against South African rule. Black or white, women journalists in Namibia made significant contribu-tions to the liberation cause -including the founding of a high-profiled newspaper -whilst others worked for media sympathetic to the apart-heid government. Based on interviews and deploying feminist media theory, Maria Mboono Nghidinwa pays close attention to the gendered power relationships in the newsrooms of newspapers and radio stations at the time. She looks at the intense political intimidations which tar-geted women and, in particular, the constraints experienced by black women journalists.
The case for privatization, whether defined in a broad or narrow sense, has been forcefully made by its advocates against the backdrop of the much advertised poor performances of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and theoretical arguments relating to the efficiency of private firms over public enterprises. Consequently, privatization and commercialization have been key components of the structural adjustment programmes foisted by the Bretton Woods institutions on Third World countries. Yet, the empirical findings on privatization, especially outside Africa where they exist, do not portray the strategy to be a panacea that works in all circumstances in all branches of economic activity. In spite of this, since the late 1980s, privatization has been stepped up in almost all African countries. And after about two decades of vigorous implementation of privatization programmes in Africa, there is a compelling need for a comprehensive and systematic analysis of various privatization issues, particularly the economic and social impact. This book thus establishes a clear case for a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the impact of privatization in Africa. Specifically, the book provides a state-of-the art review of privatization issues and research questions as a prelude to an in-depth study of the economic and social impact of privatization. In the light of the rich insights brought to bear on the issues, this book should stimulate the interest of researchers, donors and policy makers to undertake or support the follow-up in-depth research envisaged.
Reforming the African Public Sector: Retrospect and Prospectsis an in-depth and wide-ranging review of the available literature on African public sector reforms. It illustrates several differing country experiences to buttress the main observations and conclusions. It adopts a structural/institutional approach which underpins most of the reform efforts on the continent. To contextualize reform of the public sector and understand its processes, dynamics and intricacies, the book examines the state and state capacity building in Africa, especially when there can be no state without an efficient public sector. In addition, the book addresses a number of theories such as the new institutional economics, public choice and new public management, which have in one way or another influenced most of the initiatives implemented under public sector reform in Africa. There is also a survey of the three phases of public sector reform which have emerged and the balance sheet of reform strategies, namely, decentralization, privatization, deregulation, agencification, co-production and public-private partnerships. It concludes by identifying possible alternative approaches such as developing a vigorous public sector ethos and sustained capacity building to promote and enhance the renewal and reconstruction of the African public sector within the context of the New Partnerships for Africa's Development (NEPAD), good governance and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Drawing on various disciplinary perspectives, this book re-focuses the debate on what makes a good health system, with a view to clarifying the uses of social science research in thinking about health care issues in Africa. The explosion of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the persistence of malaria as a major killer, and the resurgence of diseases like tuberculosis which were previously under control, have brought about changes in the health system, with implications for its governance, especially in view of the diminished capacity of the public health facilities to cope with a complex range of expanded needs. Government responsibilities and objectives in the health sector have been redefined, with private sector entities (both for profit and not-for profit) playing an increasingly visible role in health care provisions. The reasons for collaborative patterns vary, but chronic under-funding of publicly financed health services is often an important factor. Processes of decentralisation and health sector reforms have had mixed effects on health care system performance; while private health insurance markets and private clinics are pointers to a growing stratification of the health market, in line with the intensified income and social differentiation that has occurred over the last two decades.These developments call for health sector reforms.
This sixth volume of the CODESRIA Gender Series is a collection of discourses, perspectives, practices and policies on the role of the female gender in science and technology, particularly in the African context. Although widely advocated as the indisputable foundation for political and economic power in the modern world, science and technology remains marked by various layers and dimensions of gender inequality that work to the disadvantage of girls and women. Despite the fact that a lot of awareness has been created, and gender issues are now more readily acknowledged by various development initiatives in Africa, participation in science and technology still remains a hurdle as far as girls and women are concerned. A common theme that runs through the book is how feminine identities, ideologies of domesticity and gender stereotypes, and the inadequacy or lack of clear policies facilitate the invisibility of women in science and technology. This notwithstanding, women have never ceased devising clever and ingenious ways that would enable them to master nature, from the margins. The book provides a window onto the current state of female participation in science and technology in Africa, along with an analysis of the historical backgrounds, current educational and professional contexts, and prospects for the future. While it is evident that more research needs to be done, with more groups in different regions, this volume brings together a rich and inspiring collection of qualitative insights on gender, science and technology in Africa. The CODESRIA Gender Series acknowledges the need to challenge the masculinities underpinning the structures of repression that target women. The series aims to keep alive and nourish African social science research with insightful research and debates that challenge conventional wisdom, structures and ideologies that are narrowly informed by caricatures of gender realities. It strives to showcase the best in African gender research and provide a platform for emerging new talents to flower.
Xenophobia is a political discourse. As such, its historical development as well as the conditions of its existence must be elucidated in terms of the practices and prescriptions that structure the field of politics. In South Africa, its history is connected to the manner citizenship has been conceived and fought over during the past fifty years at least. Migrant labour was de-nationalised by the apartheid state, while African nationalism saw it as the very foundation of that oppressive system. However, only those who could show a family connection with the colonial/apartheid formation of South Africa could claim citizenship at liberation. Others were excluded and seen as unjustified claimants to national resources. Xenophobia's current conditions of existence are to be found in the politics of a post-apartheid nationalism were state prescriptions founded on indigeneity have been allowed to dominate uncontested in condition of passive citizenship. The de-politicisation of a population, which had been able to assert its agency during the 1980s, through a discourse of 'human rights' in particular, has contributed to this passivity. State liberal politics have remained largely unchallenged. As in other cases of post-colonial transition in Africa, the hegemony of xenophobic discourse, the book shows, is to be sought in the character of the state consensus. Only a rethinking of citizenship as an active political identity can re-institute political agency and hence begin to provide alternative prescriptions to the political consensus of state-induced exclusion.
Africa is richly blessed with cultural and natural heritage, key resources for nation building and development. Unfortunately, heritage is not being systematically researched or recognised, denying Africans the chance to learn about and benefit from heritage initiatives. This book offers a preliminary discussion of factors challenging the management of intangible cultural heritage in the African communities of Zanzibar, Mauritius and Seychelles. These islands are part of an overlapping cultural and economic zone influenced by a long history of slavery and colonial rule, a situation that has produced inequalities and underdevelopment. In all of them, heritage management is seriously underfinanced and under-resourced. African descendant heritage is given little attention and this continues to erode identity and sense of belonging to the nation. In Zanzibar tensions between majority and minority political parties affect heritage initiatives on the island. In Mauritius, the need to diversify the economy and tourism sector is encouraging the commercialisation of heritage and the homogenisation of Creole identity. In Seychelles, the legacy of socialist rule affects the conceptualisation and management of heritage, discouraging managers from exploring the island's widerange of intangible heritages. The author concludes that more funding and attention needs to be given to heritage management in Africa and its diaspora. Rosabelle Boswell is a senior lecturer in the Anthropology Department at Rhodes University, South Africa and a specialist of the southwest Indian Ocean islands. Her research interests include ethnicity, heritage, gender and development. Boswell's PhD was on poverty and identity among Creoles in Mauritius and her most recent work is onthe role of scent and fragrances in the heritage of the Swahili islands of the Indian Ocean region.
Developing a Sustainable Economy in Cameroon is an ambitious effort as the authors try to set a blue print for Cameroon's economy. In the 1980s facing economic crisis, and as dictated by the structural adjustment programme, Cameroon sharply cut public investment expenditures before later cutting government consumption which were followed by privatisation, liquidation of public companies and reduction in the size of the public sector. All these measures are believed to have had devastating effects on the economy. Given the performance of the economy so far the authors suggest that much more effort, with a strong commitment of the main stakeholders, is required to guarantee sustainable economic development in Cameroon. Truly, very few countries in Africa possess such enormous human and natural resources as Cameroon does. This volume brings out the challenges Cameroon faces in its quest for development as well as for designing appropriate strategies for addressing those development challenges.
When the Dar es Salaam Declaration on Academic Freedom and Social Responsibility of Academics came up in the early 1990s, African higher-education systems were in a serious, multi-dimensional and long-standing crisis. Hand-in-hand with the imbalances and troubles that rocked and ruined African economies, the crisis in the academia was characterised by the collapse of infrastructures, inadequate teaching personnel and poor staff development and motivation. It was against this background that the questions of academic freedom and the responsibilities and autonomy of institutions of higher-learning were raised in the Dar es Salaam Declaration. In February 2005, the University of Dar es Salaam Staff Association (UDASA), in cooperation with CODESRIA, organised a workshop to bring together the staff associations of some public and private universities in Tanzania, in order to renew their commitment to the basic principles of the Dar es Salaam Declaration and its sister document - the Kampala Declaration on Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility. The workshop was also aimed at re-invigorating the social commitment of African intellectuals. The papers included in this volume reflect the depth and potentials of the debates that took place during the workshop. The volume is published in honour of Chachage Seithy L. Chachage, who was an active part of the workshop but unfortunately passed away in 2006.
100 Papers
(2008)
Liesl Jobson's collection is aptly termed 'flash fiction' or 'prose poems'. It comprises 100 short pieces that are beautifully impressionistic - the literary equivalent of a well-times photograph. Jobson was born in Durban, South Africa. Her poetry and prose has been published in journals and anthologies in South Africa and abroad. She won the People Opposing Women Abuse women's writing poetry competition in 2005. She as also awarded a community publishing project great from the Centre for the Book under the auspices of the National Library of South Africa in 2007. This is her debut collection which won the Ernst van Heerden creative writing award for 2006 from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is a freelance writer, photographer ad bassoonist.
Out of the Wreckage
(2008)