The Royal Army Education Corps in the Gulf Conflict of 1990-91

The official history of the Royal Army Education Corps' involvement in Operation 'Desert Storm', the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation in 1991, their roles including prisoner of war interrogation, psychological operations, IT services and acting as interpreters for senior officers.

Atentado à formação de um Espirit de Corps: pelas tentativas da administração gerencial por um discurso da eficiência e pelas tentações dos "Espíritos de Porco"

This dissertation discuss the course of formation of EPPGG" (Specialists on Public Politics and Administration). We did a brief historical research on the origins of this career, stressing the problems of its implementation. We describe the process of selection and formation of "EPPGG" classes, focusing our attention on the first and fifth classes, the latter being the main object of our study. We avoided the standard approaches to this suject and based our investigation on the daily social interaction developed during the course, trying to unveil conflicts that show internal problems of the career and of "ENAP" (Scholl of Public Administration).

Comparative analysis of the corps en cerise in several species of Laurencia (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) from the Atlantic Ocean

Different species of Laurencia have proven to be a rich source of natural products yielding interesting bioactive halogenated secondary metabolites, such as terpenoids and acetogenins. It is shown that such compounds are accumulated in the spherical, reniform to claviform refractive inclusions called corps en cerise (CC), which are intensively osmiophilic and located mainly in the cortical cells of the thalli and also in trichoblast cells. Up to now, it was believed that CC were present only in these two kinds of cells. Recently, however, a species of Laurencia, L. marilzae, with CC in all cells of the thallus, i.e., cortical, medullary, including the pericentral and axial cells, as well as in the trichoblasts, was described from the Canary Islands, and subsequently also reported to Brazil and Mexico. Within the Laurencia complex, only Laurencia species produce CC. Since the species of Laurencia are targets of interest for the prospection of bioactive substances due to their potential antibacterial, antifungal, anticholinesterasic, antileishmanial, cytotoxic, and antioxidant activities, the present paper carries out a comparative analysis of the corps en cerise in several species of Laurencia from the Atlantic Ocean to obtain basic information that can support natural product bioprospection projects. Our results show that the number and size of the CC are constant within a species, independent of the geographical distribution, corroborating their use for taxonomical purposes to differentiate groups of species that present a lower number from those that have a higher number. In this regard, there was a tendency for the number of CC to be higher in some species of Laurencia from the Canary Islands. The presence of CC can also be used to distinguish species in which these organelles are present in all cells of the thallus from those in which CC are restricted to the cortical cells. Among the species analyzed, L. viridis displayed the most varied secondary metabolites composition, such as sesquiterpenes, diterpenes, triterpenes, all of which showed potent antiviral, cytotoxic, and antitumoral activities, including protein phosphatase type 2A (PP2A) inhibitory effects.

Community managed rural water supply systems in the Dominican Republic : assessment of sustainability of systems built by the National Institute of Potable Water and Peace Corps, Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic economic growth in the past twenty years has not yielded sufficient improvement in access to drinking water services, especially in rural areas where 1.5 million people do not have access to an improved water source (WHO, 2006). Worldwide, strategic development planning in the rural water sector has focused on participatory processes and the use of demand filters to ensure that service levels match community commitment to post-project operation and maintenance. However studies have concluded that an alarmingly high percentage of drinking water systems (20-50%) do not provide service at the design levels and/or fail altogether (up to 90%): BNWP (2009), Annis (2006), and Reents (2003). World Bank, USAID, NGOs, and private consultants have invested significant resources in an effort to determine what components make up an “enabling environment” for sustainable community management of rural water systems (RWS). Research has identified an array of critical factors, internal and external to the community, which affect long term sustainability of water services. Different frameworks have been proposed in order to better understand the linkages between individual factors and sustainability of service. This research proposes a Sustainability Analysis Tool to evaluate the sustainability of RWS, adapted from previous relevant work in the field to reflect the realities in the Dominican Republic. It can be used as a diagnostic tool for government entities and development organizations to characterize the needs of specific communities and identify weaknesses in existing training regimes or support mechanisms. The framework utilizes eight indicators in three categories (Organization/Management, Financial Administration, and Technical Service). Nineteen independent variables are measured resulting in a score of sustainability likely (SL), possible (SP), or unlikely (SU) for each of the eight indicators. Thresholds are based upon benchmarks from the DR and around the world, primary data collected during the research, and the author’s 32 months of field experience. A final sustainability score is calculated using weighting factors for each indicator, derived from Lockwood (2003). The framework was tested using a statistically representative geographically stratified random sample of 61 water systems built in the DR by initiatives of the National Institute of Potable Water (INAPA) and Peace Corps. The results concluded that 23% of sample systems are likely to be sustainable in the long term, 59% are possibly sustainable, and for 18% it is unlikely that the community will be able to overcome any significant challenge. Communities that were scored as unlikely sustainable perform poorly in participation, financial durability, and governance while the highest scores were for system function and repair service. The Sustainability Analysis Tool results are verified by INAPA and PC reports, evaluations, and database information, as well as, field observations and primary data collected during the surveys. Future research will analyze the nature and magnitude of relationships between key factors and the sustainability score defined by the tool. Factors include: gender participation, legal status of water committees, plumber/operator remuneration, demand responsiveness, post construction support methodologies, and project design criteria.