Trialling a technopulp belt press filter at Pioneer Mill

Wilmar’s Pioneer Sugar mill has a need to replace some small rotary vacuum filters (RVFs) due to the condition of existing aged plant. A vacuum belt press filter (VBPF) manufactured by Technopulp of Brazil was purchased and installed at Pioneer Mill in September/October 2012 and commissioning trials undertaken over a five week period commencing in early November. There are no vacuum belt press filters currently in use in Australian sugar mills for mud processing. The Technopulp filter is a relatively common and well accepted technology with over 600 units installed. The main attractions for the VBPF to Pioneer Mill were…

Evolution of a ~2.7 Ga large igneous province: A volcanological, geochemical and geochronological study of the Agnew Greenstone Belt, and new regional correlations for the Kalgoorlie Terrane (Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia)

The thick package of ~2.7 Ga mafic and ultramafic lavas and intrusions preserved among the Neoarchean of the Kalgoorlie Terrene in Western Australia provides valuable insight into geological processes controlling the most prodigious episode of growth and preservation of juvenile continental crust in Earth’s history. Limited exposure of these rocks results in uncertainty about their age, physical and chemical characteristics, and stratigraphic relationships. This in turn prevents confident correlation of regional occurrences of mafic and ultramafic successions (both intrusive and extrusive) and hinders the interpretation of tectonic setting and magmatic evolution. A recent stratigraphic drilling program of the Neoarchean stratigraphy of the Agnew Greenstone Belt in Western Australia has provided continuous exposures through a c. 7 km thick sequence of mafic and ultramafic units. In this study, we present a volcanological, lithogeochemical and chronological study of the Agnew Greenstone Belt, and provide the first pre-2690 Ma regional correlation across the Kalgoorlie Terrane. The Agnew Greenstone Belt records ~30 m.y. of episodic ultramafic-mafic magmatism that includes two cycles, each defined by a komatiite that is overlain by units that become more evolved and contaminated with time. The sequence is divided into nine conformable packages, each consisting of stacked subaqueous lava flows and comagmatic intrusions, as well as two sills without associated extrusions. Lavas, with the exception of intercalations between two units, form a layer-cake stratigraphy and were likely erupted from a system of fissures tapping the same magma source. The komatiites are not contaminated by continental crust ([La/Sm]PM ~0.7) and are of the Al-undepleted Munro-type. Crustal contamination is evident in many units (Songvang Basalt, Never Can Tell Basalt, Redeemer Basalt, and Turrett Dolerite), as judged by [La/Sm]>1, negative Nb and Ti anomalies, and geochemical mixing trends towards felsic contaminants. Crystal fractionation was also significant, with early olivine and chromite (Mg#>65) followed by plagioclase and clinopyroxene removal (Mg<65), and in the most evolved case, titanomagnetite accumulation. Three new TIMS dates on granophyric zones of mafic sills and one ICP-MS date from an interflow felsic tuff are presented and used for regional stratigraphic correlation. Cycle I magmatism began at ~2720 Ma and ended ~2705 Ma, whereas cycle II began ~2705 Ma and ended at 2690.7±1.2 Ma. Regional correlations indicate the western Kalgoorlie Terrane consists of a remarkably similar stratigraphy that can be recognised at Agnew, Ora Banda and Coolgardie, whereas the eastern part of the terrane (e.g., Kambalda Domain) does not include cycle I, but correlates well with cycle II. This research supports an autochthonous model of greenstone formation, in which one large igneous province, represented by two complete cycles, is constructed on sialic crust. New stratigraphic correlations for the Kalgoorlie Terrane indicate that many units can be traced over distances >100 km, which has implications for exploration targeting for stratigraphically hosted ultramafic Ni and VMS deposits.

Submission to the External Independent Review of the United Nations Response to Allegations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Other Serious Crimes by Members of Foreign Military Forces Not Under United Nations Command in the Central African Republic

In 2015 the UN Secretary-General established an External Independent Review to review how the United Nations has responded to allegations of child sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse, and to make recommendations concerning how the United Nations should respond to allegations in the future. This submission to the Review Panel draws on literature regarding children's rights, the nature of child sexual abuse, international instruments and policy, the nature of institutional child sexual abuse, and the CAR case itself. It makes recommendations for reform of UN protocols and procedures to better prevent child sexual abuse, and to improve responses to future occurrences.

African Gamer: Whose Story Is It Anyway?

New Video Gamer: Africa Needs More Technology (CNN 12/12/2011) In December 2011 CNN news service online edition (Sutter, 2011) posted a short item about Cwi Nqane, a Khoisan man who entered Samsung’s Namibian World Cyber Games (WCG) heats held at the 2011 the annual Windhoek Show. Cwi Nqane won a place on the Namibian WCG team playing a smartphone game called Asphalt 6: Adrena-line (Gameloft, 2011). Cwi was presented with a ‘top of the line’ Samsung Galaxy tablet and subsequently sent to compete in Korea. Later, other news and game news websites re-reported the incident, which inspired a variety of enthusiastic comment about tech-nology and ‘new knowledge’. Then Kotaku news service picked up the item (Narcisse, 2011) and took a very different slant. Kotaku proposed that Samsung was exploiting Cwi and had assumed the role of a Techno-Tarzan: “striding into Nqane’s homeland and swinging him off into the wonders of the modern world where they can trot him out as a curiosity”. These two perspectives on the story of Cwi’s WCG entry expose two dominant views on Indigenous knowledges and technologies: ICTs as progress for in-digenous peoples and ICTs as disruptive and exploitative. Neither position, however, allows for the claiming of digital technology by indigenous communities, indeed both views position indigenous cultures as being outsiders.

Generalizability of established prostate cancer risk variants in men of African ancestry

Genome-wide association studies have identified more than 80 risk variants for prostate cancer, mainly in European or Asian populations. The generalizability of these variants in other racial/ethnic populations needs to be understood before the loci can be used widely in risk modeling. In our study, we examined 82 previously reported risk variants in 4,853 prostate cancer cases and 4,678 controls of African ancestry. We performed association testing for each variant using logistic regression adjusted for age, study and global ancestry. Of the 82 known risk variants, 68 (83%) had effects that were directionally consistent in their association with prostate cancer risk and 30 (37%) were significantly associated with risk at p < 0.05, with the most statistically significant variants being rs116041037 (p = 3.7 × 10(-26) ) and rs6983561 (p = 1.1 × 10(-16) ) at 8q24, as well as rs7210100 (p = 5.4 × 10(-8) ) at 17q21. By exploring each locus in search of better markers, the number of variants that captured risk in men of African ancestry (p < 0.05) increased from 30 (37%) to 44 (54%). An aggregate score comprised of these 44 markers was strongly associated with prostate cancer risk [per-allele odds ratio (OR) = 1.12, p = 7.3 × 10(-98) ]. In summary, the consistent directions of effects for the vast majority of variants in men of African ancestry indicate common functional alleles that are shared across populations. Further exploration of these susceptibility loci is needed to identify the underlying biologically relevant variants to improve prostate cancer risk modeling in populations of African ancestry.

Effects of methyl eugenol feeding on mating compatibility of Asian population of Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae) with African population and with B. carambolae

Males of some species included in the Bactrocera dorsalis complex are strongly attracted to methyl eugenol (ME) (1,2-dimethoxy-4-(2-propenyl) benzene), a natural compound occurring in a variety of plant species. ME feeding of males of the B. dorsalis complex is known to enhance their mating competitiveness. Within B. dorsalis, recent studies show that Asian and African populations of B. dorsalis are sexually compatible, while populations of B. dorsalis and Bactrocera carambolae are relatively incompatible. The objectives of this study were to examine whether ME feeding by males affects mating compatibility between Asian and African populations of B. dorsalis and ME feeding reduces male mating incompatibility between B. dorsalis (Asian population) and B. carambolae. The data confirmed that Asian and African populations of B. dorsalis are sexually compatible for mating and showed that ME feeding only increased the number of matings. Though ME feeding also increased the number of matings of B. dorsalis (Asian population) and B. carambolae males but the sexual incompatibility between both species was not reduced by treatment with ME. These results conform to the efforts resolving the biological species limits among B. dorsalis complex and have implications for fruit fly control programs in fields and horticultural trade.

A reanalysis of 409 European-Ancestry and African American schizophrenia pedigrees reveals significant linkage to 8p23.3 with evidence of locus heterogeneity

The detection and replication of schizophrenia risk loci can require substantial sample sizes, which has prompted various collaborative efforts for combining multiple samples. However, pooled samples may comprise sub-samples with substantial population genetic differences, including allele frequency differences. We investigated the impact of population differences via linkage reanalysis of Molecular Genetics of Schizophrenia 1 (MGS1) affected sibling-pair data, comprising two samples of distinct ancestral origin: European (EA: 263 pedigrees) and African-American (AA: 146 pedigrees). To exploit the linkage information contained within these distinct continental samples, we performed separate analyses of the individual samples, allowing for within-sample locus heterogeneity, and the pooled sample, allowing for both within-sample and between-sample heterogeneity. Significance levels, corrected for the multiple tests, were determined empirically. For all suggestive peaks, stronger linkage evidence was obtained in either the EA or AA sample than the combined sample, regardless of how heterogeneity was modeled for the latter. Notably, we report genomewide significant linkage of schizophrenia to 8p23.3 and evidence for a second, independent susceptibility locus, reaching suggestive linkage, 29 cM away on 8p21.3. We also detected suggestive linkage on chromosomes 5p13.3 and 7q36.2. Many regions showed pronounced differences in the extent of linkage between the EA and AA samples. This reanalysis highlights the potential impact of population differences upon linkage evidence in pooled data and demonstrates a useful approach for the analysis of samples drawn from distinct continental groups.

Further evidence for linkage of Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) susceptibility loci on chromosomes 2p11, 8q22 and 11q23-24 in South African Afrikaners

Utilizing DNA samples from 91 Afrikaner nuclear families with one or more affected children, five genomic regions on chromosomes 2p, 8q, 11q, 20q, and 21q that gave evidence for association with GTS in previous case-control association studies were investigated for linkage and association with GTS. Highly polymorphic markers with mean heterozygosity of 0.77 were typed and resulting genotypes evaluated using single marker transmission disequilibrium (TDT), single marker haplotype relative risk (HRR), and multi-marker "extended" TDT and HRR methods. Single marker TDT analysis showed evidence for linkage or association, with p-values near 0.05, for markers D2S139, GATA28F12, and D11S1377 on chromosomes 2p11, 8q22 and 11q23-24, respectively. Extended, two-locus TDT and HRR analysis provided further evidence for linkage or association on chromosome 2 with p-values of 0.007 and 0.025, and chromosome 8 with p-values of 0.059 and 0.013, respectively. These results provide important additional evidence for the location of GTS susceptibility loci.

Who is the South African retail giant behind the David Jones bid?

Yesterday morning came the news South African retailer Woolworths had offered $4 a share to acquire David Jones, a proposal that has the approval of the department store’s board. This offer, worth an estimated A$2.15 billion, represents a 25% premium over the current share price value. An earlier offer, from rival Myer, was rejected earlier this year. But who is Woolworths? Not to be confused with Australia’s largest supermarket, Woolworths SA is one of South Africa’s largest retailers.

Barriers to and facilitators of cervical screening practice among African immigrant women from refugee and non-refugee backgrounds living in Brisbane

This thesis investigated and compared barriers and facilitators of cervical screening among African-born refugee and non-refugee women living in Brisbane. Refugee women were more likely to have limited or no knowledge about cervical cancer and the screening test and also less likely to use Pap smear services than non-refugee women. The analysis identified belief systems, lack of knowledge about cervical cancer and screening practices, and lack of culturally appropriate screening programs as major barriers. In the context of health promotion interventions, these findings will contribute to addressing major differential screening needs among African immigrant refugee and non-refugee women.

The present attitude of African youth towards entrepreneurship

It is widely known that entrepreneurship plays a crucial role within the economy. As the African economy needs rapid development and growth, this paper investigates the present attitude of African youth towards new business creation and entrepreneurship. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used, and 204 people participated in the study. The participants were accessed via social media such as Facebook (pages and groups), LinkedIn (groups), Twitter, and WhatsApp. The results reveal that African youth have positive attitudes and that they are entrepreneurially active and ready to take risks, provided that they can be self-dependent. Similarly, the results show that entrepreneurship education is much needed to improve innovative start-ups in Africa.

Free software and the law. Out of the frying pan and into the fire: How shaking up intellectual property suits competition law just fine

Free software is viewed as a revolutionary and subversive practice, and in particular has dealt a strong blow to the traditional conception of intellectual property law (although in its current form could be considered a 'hack' of IP rights). However, other (capitalist) areas of law have been swift to embrace free software, or at least incorporate it into its own tenets. One area in particular is that of competition (antitrust) law, which itself has long been in theoretical conflict with intellectual property, due to the restriction on competition inherent in the grant of ‘monopoly’ rights by copyrights, patents and trademarks. This contribution will examine how competition law has approached free software by examining instances in which courts have had to deal with such initiatives, for instance in the Oracle Sun Systems merger, and the implications that these decisions have on free software initiatives. The presence or absence of corporate involvement in initiatives will be an important factor in this investigation, with it being posited that true instances of ‘commons-based peer production’ can still subvert the capitalist system, including perplexing its laws beyond intellectual property.