Methods of earth building in the Huila Province, Angola

In Angola, the construction made of raw earth is a cultural heritage widely used by low income households, representing over 80% of the population [1, 3]. In Huila province is evident construction in raw earth in a large scale, either in urban or in periurban and rural areas. The construction methods follow the ancestral standards, distributed throughout the region of Huila, being built by the several ethnic groups. Among the construction techniques in earth, stand out: the adobe, wattle-and-daub and more recently on CEB (Compressed Earth Block). The type of soil used to make the adobes is mainly silty-clayed sand [1]. The most applied materials are: rods, reeds, wood, grass, straw, soil and stone, almost with the same characteristics [2]. The manufacture of adobe, consists essentially in mixing clay and grass (plant fibers), then put the mixture inside a wooden mold, having a size of 42 cm long and 18 cm high and taking three to four days to dry and be applied in housing construction. The application of these materials makes the construction less expensive because they are collected, transformed and applied by the owner himself of housing without any project, based only on the result of the practice and experience acquired from their ancestors. They are simple constructions, presenting a typology of grouped and isolated single-family housing, ranging between 2 and 3 bedrooms [2]. The construction techniques used in such small housings have positive environmental aspects, both as regards the materials employed, such as the manner in which the constructions are raised, showing special concerns for the quality improvement of them, as regards the resistance, durability and comfort [4].

Editorial of "International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies Volume 1, Number 1, 2008"

We perceive the epistemological boundaries of Critical Indigenous Studies as marked by analyses of contemporary colonising power in its multiple forms in different contexts. This first issue brings together a diverse group of international Indigenous scholars who are politically and intellectually engaged in theorising from their respective standpoints as well as spatial and geographic locations. As such these essays enable dialogue across and within different colonial power contexts addressing epistemological ethical and methodological concerns within the broad field of Indigenous studies. In each essay a connecting theme is the need for intercultural and comparative work and to import Indigenous agency in the writing of history...

Towards a Critique of the Concept of the Right to Self-Determination in Africa : A Conceptual Examination and the Cases of Western Sahara, Southern Sudan and Eritrea

This thesis examines the right to self-determination which is a norm used for numerous purposes by multiple actors in the field of international relations, with relatively little clarity or agreement on the actual and potential meaning of the right. In international practice, however, the main focus in applying the right has been in the context of decolonization as set by the United Nations in its early decades. Thus, in Africa the right to self-determination has traditionally implied that the colonial territories, and particularly the populations within these territories, were to constitute the people who were entitled to the right. That is, self-determination by decolonization provided a framework for the construction of independent nation-states in Africa whilst other dimensions of the right remained largely or totally neglected. With the objective of assessing the scope, content, developments and interpretations of the right to self-determination in Africa, particularly with regard to the relevance of the right today, the thesis proceeds on two fundamental hypotheses. The first is that Mervyn Frost s theory of settled norms, among which he lists the right to self-determination, assumes too much. Even if the right to self-determination is a human right belonging to all peoples stipulated, inter alia, in the first Article of the 1966 International Human Rights Covenants, it is a highly politicized and context-bound right instead of being settled and observed in a way that its denial would need special justification. Still, the suggested inconsistency or non-compliance with the norm of self-determination is not intended to prove the uselessness or inappropriateness of the norm, but, on the contrary, to invite and encourage debate on the potential use and coverage of the right to self-determination. The second hypothesis is that within the concept of self-determination there are two normative dimensions. One is to do with the idea and practice of statehood, the nation and collectivity that may decide to conduct itself as an independent state. The other one is to do with self-determination as a human right, as a normative condition, to be enjoyed by people and peoples within states that supersedes state authority. These external and internal dimensions need to be seen as complementary and co-terminous, not as mutually exclusive alternatives. The thesis proceeds on the assumption that the internal dimension of the right, with human rights and democracy at its core, has not been considered as important as the external. In turn, this unbalanced and selective interpretation has managed to put the true normative purpose of the right making the world better and bringing more just polity models into a somewhat peculiar light. The right to self-determination in the African context is assessed through case studies of Western Sahara, Southern Sudan and Eritrea. The study asks what these cases say about the right to self-determination in Africa and what their lessons learnt could contribute to the understanding and relevance of the right in today s Africa. The study demonstrates that even in the context of decolonization, the application of the right to self-determination has been far from the consistent approach supposedly followed by the international community: in many respects similar colonial histories have easily led to rather different destinies. While Eritrea secured internationally recognized right to self-determination in the form of retroactive independence in 1993, international recognition of distinct Western Sahara and Southern Sudan entities is contingent on complex and problematic conditions being satisfied. Overall, it is a considerable challenge for international legality to meet empirical political reality in a meaningful way, so that the universal values attached to the norm of self-determination are not overlooked or compromised but rather reinforced in the process of implementing the right. Consequently, this thesis seeks a more comprehensive understanding of the right to self-determination with particular reference to post-colonial Africa and with an emphasis on the internal, human rights and democracy dimensions of the norm. It is considered that the right to self-determination cannot be perceived only as an inter-state issue as it is also very much an intra-state issue, including the possibility of different sub-state arrangements exercised under the right, for example, in the form of autonomy. At the same time, the option of independent statehood achieved through secession remains a mode of exercising and part of the right to self-determination. But in whatever form or way applied, the right to self-determination, as a normative instrument, should constitute and work as a norm that comprehensively brings more added value in terms of the objectives of human rights and democracy. From a normative perspective, a peoples right should not be allowed to transform and convert itself into a right of states. Finally, in light of the case studies of Western Sahara, Southern Sudan and Eritrea, the thesis suggests that our understanding of the right to self-determination should now reach beyond the post-colonial context in Africa. It appears that both the questions and answers to the most pertinent issues of self-determination in the cases studied must be increasingly sought within the postcolonial African state rather than solely in colonial history. In this vein, the right to self-determination can be seen not only as a tool for creating states but also as a way to transform the state itself from within. Any such genuinely post-colonial approach may imply a judicious reconsideration, adaptation or up-dating of the right and our understanding of it in order to render it meaningful in Africa today.

Co-distribution and co-infection of chikungunya and dengue viruses

BACKGROUND Chikungunya and dengue infections are spatio-temporally related. The current review aims to determine the geographic limits of chikungunya, dengue and the principal mosquito vectors for both viruses and to synthesise current epidemiological understanding of their co-distribution. METHODS Three biomedical databases (PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science) were searched from their inception until May 2015 for studies that reported concurrent detection of chikungunya and dengue viruses in the same patient. Additionally, data from WHO, CDC and Healthmap alerts were extracted to create up-to-date global distribution maps for both dengue and chikungunya. RESULTS Evidence for chikungunya-dengue co-infection has been found in Angola, Gabon, India, Madagascar, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Saint Martin, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand and Yemen; these constitute only 13 out of the 98 countries/territories where both chikungunya and dengue epidemic/endemic transmission have been reported. CONCLUSIONS Understanding the true extent of chikungunya-dengue co-infection is hampered by current diagnosis largely based on their similar symptoms. Heightened awareness of chikungunya among the public and public health practitioners in the advent of the ongoing outbreak in the Americas can be expected to improve diagnostic rigour. Maps generated from the newly compiled lists of the geographic distribution of both pathogens and vectors represent the current geographical limits of chikungunya and dengue, as well as the countries/territories at risk of future incursion by both viruses. These describe regions of co-endemicity in which lab-based diagnosis of suspected cases is of higher priority.

Territorial Integrity and Self-Determination : The Approach of the International Court of Justice in the Advisory Opinion on Kosovo

[EN] On 17 February 2008 Kosovo approved its declaration of independence from Serbia. The declaration was raised as a unilateral secession, a category which to date is widely debated by the international community, but supported in that case by a respectable number of the United Nation member states. A great many legal issues have been raised by the International Court of Justice's Advisory Opinion on Kosovo. This opinion was eagerly awaited by legal scholars due to both its possible effects and the scope of its principles outside the context of decolonization in what it could constitute of new approach to the international scenario for the twenty-first century. The ICJ stated that the declaration of independence was in accordance with international law if it was not prohibited. The answer turned on whether or not international law prohibited the declaration of independence, without ever examining whether an entity seeking secession is entitled with a positive right to secede and if so, under which circumstances. The basic issue can be summarised as whether or not we are facing a new course in the interpretation of certain classical categories of international law: the principle of territorial integrity, statehood, sovereignty, recognition, the right to external self-determination, etc. In this study we shall analyse some of the aspects arising from the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Accordance with international law of the unilateral declaration of independence in respect of Kosovo focusing on the territorial issue. Firstly we shall analyse the scope of the principle of territorial integrity of States and how it operates ; secondly, we shall focus on the scope of that principle in relation to the interior of the State, and ask ourselves how international law operates in relation to declarations of independence. Lastly, we shall deal with the principle of respect for territorial integrity in the specific case of Serbia with respect to Kosovo, and then end with a series of general conclusions. This study aims, definitely, to contribute to the theoretical debate on the challenges to the traditional certainties of international law in this area.

Projeto de biodigestor para geração de bioenergia em sistema de produção de suínos: um estudo de caso da região de Icolo e Bengo - Angola

A tecnologia da biodigestão anaeróbia tem sido comprovada como uma das mais eficientes no tratamento dos dejetos de suínos, esta tecnologia, encontra-se num crescimento tímido em Angola facilitando assim uma poluição maior dos Rios, solos e o ar atmosférico, por falta de tratamento adequado da biomassa produzida por milhares de suínos existentes neste País. O emprego do biogás como fonte de energia para o funcionamento dos equipamentos ainda encontra limitações de ordem tecnológica e por falta de informação, organização e em muitos casos apoios tecnológicos e de instituições governamentais ou Não Governamentais. Este trabalho avaliou a viabilidade técnica, na implantação de Biodigestores na Região de Icolo Bengo em Angola. Foi estudada a implantação de Biodigestores, Modelo Indiano, na fazenda Menga assim como o potencial de geração de energia elétrica existente na produção de Biogás. O tratamento anaeróbio dos resíduos de Suínos como fonte renovável de energia, dentro de um conceito de desenvolvimento sustentável e de racionalização da produção sem agressão ao Meio-Ambiente também são referenciados mostrando que esta tecnologia pode ser apropriada como estratégia de conservação e uso eficiente da energia elétrica que é muito escasso em Angola. O emprego da biodigestão anaeróbia neste caso é possível e desejável, uma vez que contribui para preservação do Meio Ambiente, viabiliza os modernos sistemas de confinamento e reduz o custo da produção assim como ajuda na produção de energia elétrica e de fertilizantes. Um sistema integrado foi proposto e será aplicado na Fazenda Menga, como um dos projetos pioneiros em Angola.

Zooplancton et micronecton dans la région du Dôme d'Angola en février-mars 1971 et rélation avec les thons

Diurnal variations and geographic distribution of zooplankton and micronekton are studied in the Angola Dome. The small zooplankton species (Copepodids, Copepods, Amphipods, Ostracods, Chaetognaths, etc.) undertake vertical migrations within a 100 m water layer. Most of the micronekton species are below this layer during the day and move towards the surface during the night. The whole region prospected is rich in zooplankton and micronekton species that are present in the upper 100 m layer during the day. Only the South-West region is poor. On the contrary, this latter region is abundant in species that migrate below this layer during the day. The authors think there are 3 main difficulties in establishing good relationships between micronekton and tunas distribution: 1 - inability of micronekton nets to catch the tunas preys; 2 - the great diversity of tunas food; and 3 - the too large delay between micronekton studies and those of stomach contents of tunas.

Variabilité, circulation et chlorophylle dans la région du Dôme d'Angola en février-mars 1971

In February-March 1971 the hydrological conditions off Angola did not display the thermal dome mapped by Mazeika's averages (1967). Cold water cells observed are connected at the surface to a sinuous boundary between low-salinity coastal waters and high-salinity tropical oceanic waters. That boundary coincides rather regularly with an area where trades and SW winds alternate; photosynthesis growths rapidly in a thermoclinal layer that rises until 10 m of the surface but never outcrops. Below a poor and permanent homogeneous surface layer, chlorophyll concentrations show a distribution which is typical of divergence areas. Geostrophical and measured currents show off a transient process in horizontal and vertical movements, however the general curvature of the circulation is propitious to upwelling. Oxygen oversaturations of about 110%, suggest a moderate potential primary production which confirms slowness and alternation of movements. Also, the regular range of the various chemical and biological levels and moderate chlorophyll concentrations suggest an ecosystem where nutrients supply rapidly equilibrate phytoplankton consumption and not at all a 'phytoplankton bloom' area as that which exists in coastal upwelling. Values of Richardson's number show that instability becomes visible at the bottom of the euphotic layer. An evaluation of the vertical motion is inferred by the peculiar distribution and diurnal alternance of the winds shows that 'doming' structures may be sustained by local meteorological events.

Transição pela transação: uma análise da democratização em Angola

A presente tese versa sobre o processo de transição para a democracia em Angola. O período estudado compreende a independência do país em 1975 ao ano de 2012, com a realização das terceiras eleições gerais. Para tal, são realizados três recortes cronológicos, a saber: (1) de 1975 com a independência de Angola e a inauguração da Primeira República, ao ano de 1991 com o advento do multipartidarismo e da Segunda República; (2) da Segunda República em 1991, ao ano de 2010 com a promulgação da chamada Constituição Atípica e a instauração da Terceira República; (3) e da Terceira República em 2010, ao pleito eleitoral de 2012. Cada um destes períodos é estudado a partir da análise das instituições políticas que caracterizam a democracia. São igualmente identificadas e examinadas as razões que levaram a deflagrar a transição (por quê?); a forma pela qual a transição foi desencadeada (como?); os atores envolvidos no processo transicional (quem?); bem como o estágio da democratização em Angola. A tese é desenvolvida tendo em conta a produção bibliográfica existente sobre o tema e os dados empíricos coletados mediante entrevistas em profundidade com atores envolvidos no processo de transição e cidadãos comuns.

The Programme for Integrated Development of Artisanal Fisheries in West Africa

The Programme for Integrated Development of Artisanal Fisheries in West Africa (IDAF) was initiated in 1983 to help some 20 coastal states from Mauritiana to Angola which wished to develop and manage their artisanal fisheries through participatory and integrated approaches. IDAF was initially financed by Denmark and Norway. The second phase of the programme which started in January 1989 and its third phase, July 1984 are entirely financed by Denmark through the Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA). IDAF objectives and activities to meet its goals are briefly discussed together with its beneficiaries and accomplishments.

Através e apesar da reconstrução nacional em Angola: circunstâncias e arranjos nos limites da vida

A "reconstrução nacional" de Angola impressiona pela magnitude de seus empreendimentos visíveis. Esta Tese trata de travessias conduzidas por diferentes atores sociais "através" e "apesar" da "reconstrução nacional". A partir de micronarrativas de algumas pessoas que compõem a "Angola" contemporânea e que, em algum momento, foram minhas interlocutoras, sigo por caminhos que operam como chaves interpretativas para traçar os sentidos e os significados do pós-guerra no país. Para transitar "através da reconstrução nacional" é necessário ser re-conhecido, não apenas por políticas repressivas e de gestão de populações, mas também como sujeito de direitos. Aqueles que não obtiveram este re-conhecimento agenciam as brechas existentes em seus campos de possibilidades, "apesar da reconstrução nacional". Entre arranjos circunstanciais e (não) re-conhecimentos alguns ocupam, situacionalmente, a condição de borderlander. E "através" e "apesar" pessoas constroem suas vidas enquanto a nação se reconstrói.

Performance: o desenrolar do drama em um grupo de Capoeira Angola

Este trabalho é um estudo de caso cujo objeto consiste em um grupo de capoeira angola que passava por um momento de transição. A partir do rompimento entre os dois principais líderes do grupo sem mestre, investigou-se as tensões existentes reveladoras de diferentes pontos de vista sobre a capoeira e a atuação do mesmo em suas redes de relacionamento. Estas diferenças são significativas uma vez que estão relacionadas com as transformações em torno das concepções sobre esta atividade e também se inserem no contexto de transformações em curso na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Concebendo-se a capoeira angola como um estilo de vida, as diversas maneiras de pensá-la também geram diferentes maneiras de atuar na sociedade. A metodologia consiste na pesquisa qualitativa com observação participante. Escolheu-se a abordagem pela performance por se acreditar que os valores são comunicados também por meio das diferenças de movimentação. Ao final da pesquisa, concluiu-se que o grupo investigado passava por um momento de transição, que considero como uma passagem apoiada nas considerações de Victor Turner, já em vias de transição para a fase seguinte a partir da indicação do treinel que ficou responsável de se juntar a um grupo já estabelecido.

Identidades na Roda: diálogos com a Capoeira Angola e com as narrativas de suas/seus praticantes

Este trabalho tem como proposta pensar os processos identitários da afrodiáspora, a partir dos diálogos com a Capoeira Angola e as narrativas de suas/seus praticantes. Apresentamos a Capoeira Angola como prática cultural de matriz africana, significada por um processo histórico de luta e resistência das populações negras na diáspora. Procuramos discutir quais identidades são reivindicadas, tecidas e enunciadas nessa prática, com especial atenção às identidades angoleiras, às identidades negras e ao pertencimento etnicorracial enunciado por suas/seus praticantes. O processo histórico de escravização das populações negras no Brasil resultou na discriminação racial de mulheres e homens negras/os e na visibilização estereotipada das suas práticas e epistemologias, produzindo diferenciações hierárquicas. A cultura como enunciação e diferença permite através do ato enunciativo, a produção de novos sentidos e significados para as populações negras, que ressignificam suas identidades e tensionam às lógicas e racionalidades hegemônicas. As identidades são compreendidas como processos de identificação, permitidos pelo dinamismo da cultura e pelas práticas discursivas. O agenciamento coletivo reivindica outras identificações, de modo que o ato enunciativo pode produzir novos sentidos para às significações atribuídas às populações negras, sendo a linguagem um importante mecanismo de circulação da palavra e o indicador mais sensível de transformações sociais.

Sensitivity of Lake Sturgeon population dynamics and genetics to demographic parameters [Powerpoint Slide]

Lake sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens restoration is a priority throughout the Great Lakes basin, where sturgeon have been reduced to less than 1% of historic levels due to habitat degradation, overharvest, and fragmentation of spawning populations. The population parameters most important to long-term lake sturgeon persistence are unknown.

Visual Disobedience: The Geopolitics of Experimental Art in Central America, 1990-Present

This dissertation centers on the relationship between art and politics in postwar Central America as materialized in the specific issues of racial and gendered violence that derive from the region's geopolitical location and history. It argues that the decade of the 1990s marks a moment of change in the region's cultural infrastructure, both institutionally and conceptually, in which artists seek a new visual language of experimental art practices to articulate and conceptualize a critical understanding of place, experience and knowledge. It posits that visual and conceptual manifestations of violence in Central American performance, conceptual art and installation extend beyond a critique of the state, and beyond the scope of political parties in perpetuating violent circumstances in these countries. It argues that instead artists use experimental practices in art to locate manifestations of racial violence in an historical system of domination and as a legacy of colonialism still witnessed, lived, and learned by multiple subjectivities in the region. In this postwar period artists move beyond the cold-war rhetoric of the previous decades and instead root the current social and political injustices in what Aníbal Quijano calls the `coloniality of power.' Through an engagement of decolonial methodologies, this dissertation challenges the label "political art" in Central America and offers what I call "visual disobedience" as a response to the coloniality of seeing. I posit that visual colonization is yet another aspect of the coloniality of power and indispensable to projects of decolonization. It offers an analysis of various works to show how visual disobedience responds specifically to racial and gender violence and the equally violent colonization of visuality in Mesoamerica. Such geopolitical critiques through art unmask themes specific to life and identity in contemporary Central America, from indigenous genocide, femicide, transnational gangs, to mass imprisonments and a new wave of social cleansing. I propose that Central American artists--beyond an anti-colonial stance--are engaging in visual disobedience so as to construct decolonial epistemologies in art, through art, and as art as decolonial gestures for healing.