The Experience of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) : Political Parties in Kenya from 1991 to 2007

This paper first examines splits and mergers among Kenya’s political parties (and inner-party factions) from the restoration of a multi-party system in 1991 until 2007, before the turbulent 10th general elections were conducted. It then considers what functions “political parties” have in Kenya with special reference to the period since 2002, the year in which President Moi announced his intention to retire. A look back at NARC’s five years of rule reveals that, although it succeeded in changing the government, NARC, as a “political party,” remained throughout an organization without any real substance. The paper looks at (1) NARC’s de facto split after its overwhelming win in the ninth general election, (2) malfunctions of the anti-defection laws that were introduced in the 1960s, and (3) Kenya’s election rules that require candidates to be nominated by registered political parties in general elections. The paper proceeds to argue that as a result of the operation of these three elements, Kenya’s political parties, and especially the victorious coalition sides, tend to end up being nothing more than temporary vehicles for political elites angling for post-election posts.

Chapter 7 Clusters of Modern and Local Industries in Vietnam

Since the introduction of the Doi Moi ('renovation') economic reform in 1986, Vietnam has experienced a transformation of its economic management, from a central planning economy to a market-oriented economy. High economic growth, created by the liberalization of activities in all sectors of the economy, has changed the economic structure of the country, and the once agriculture-based and poverty-stricken land now generates a midlevel income and possesses many industrial bases. Economic growth has also changed the landscape of the country. Business complexes have been built in metropolises like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, and rice fields have been converted into industrial zones. As the number of enterprises increased, areas began to emerge where many enterprises agglomerated. Some of these 'clusters' were groups of cottage industry households, while many others were large-scale industrial clusters. As Porter [1998] argues, industrial clusters are the source of a nation's 'competitive advantage'. McCarty et al. [2005] indicate that in some key industries in Vietnam, some clusters of enterprises have been created, although the degree of agglomeration differs from one industry to another. Using industry census data from 2001, they include dot density maps for the 12 leading manufacturing industries in Vietnam. They show that most of the industries analyzed are clustered either in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City (or both). Among these 12 industries, the garments industry has the greatest tendency to cluster, followed by textile, rice, seafood, and paper industries. The fact that industrial clusters have begun to form in some areas could be a positive sign for Vietnam's future economic development. What is lacking in McCarty et al. [2005], however, is the identification of the participants in the industrial clusters. Some argue for the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam's economic development (e.g. Nguyen Tri Thanh [2007], Tran Tien Cuong et al. [2008]), while others stress the impact of foreign direct investments (FDI) (for example, Tuan Bui [2009]). Adding information about the participants in the above cluster study (and in other studies of spatial patterns of location of enterprises) may broaden the scope for analysis of economic development in Vietnam. This study aims to reveal the characteristics of industrial clusters in terms of their participants and locations. The findings of the study may provide basic information for evaluating the effects of agglomeration and the robustness of the effects in the industrial clusters in Vietnam. Section 1 describes the characteristics of economic entities in Vietnam such as ownership, size of enterprise, and location. Section 2 examines qualitative aspects of industrial clusters identified in McCarty et al. [2005] and uses information on the size and ownership of clusters. Three key industries (garments, consumer electronics, and motor vehicle) are selected for the study. Section 3 identifies another type of cluster commonly seen in Vietnam, composed of local industries and called 'craft villages'. Many such villages have been developed since the early 1990s. The study points out that some of these villages have become industrialized (or are becoming industrialized) by introducing modern modes of production and by employing thousands of laborers.

International labor migration in Vietnam and the impact of receiving countries' policies

Labor export has been part of Vietnam’s socio-economic development strategy since the beginning of the doi moi era. Recent years, Vietnam has sent about 80,000 workers abroad per year. Vietnam has become a major source country of unskilled foreign workers for high-income East Asian countries. However, in these receiving countries, the desertion rate among Vietnamese workers is quite high, compared with that for workers from other countries. This paper examines the impact of Korean and Japanese policies for receiving foreign workers applied to and implemented in Vietnam, as well as the impact of Vietnamese labor sending system, on the problem of runaway workers.

Conception d’un éco-quartier sur le site Masséna Bruneseau

Le projet à développer c’était la conception d’un éco-quartier dans une zone actuellement couverte par des voies ferrées à Paris Rive Gauche. C’était un travail complètement nouveau pour moi. Je n’avais bien sûr jamais élaboré un plan de masse par exemple. Mais le travail d’ingénierie que nous avons rendu était également : il s’agissait de prendre des ordres de grandeur de dépenses énergétiques, et non d’en étudier chaque caractéristique précisément. Ainsi, à partir d’un site très contraint – problèmes de pente, de proximité du périphérique pour ne citer que ces aspects -, nous avons donc entièrement conçu un éco-quartier avec son plan de masse, ses ambiances de rez-de-chaussée, mais aussi ses solutions techniques pour satisfaire les critères HQE. Nos maîtres mots étaient mixité, écologie, création de lieux de vie, et respect du lieu et de son histoire. Pour réaliser un tel projet, nous avons donc aiguisé notre regard sur la ville, nous nous sommes promenés dans divers quartiers parisiens, rendus à des colloques d’urbanistes, et les conseils avisés de Mr Gilles de Montmarin et Mr Jean Jacques Obriot furent très fructueux, nous tenons ici à les en remercier. Voici donc le fruit de notre travail d’un an, nous présentons d’abord le projet dans sa globalité, puis nos réalisations lors du premier et du deuxième semestre.

Efficient gene activation in cultured mammalian cells mediated by FLP recombinase-expressing recombinant adenovirus

A recombinant adenovirus (rAd) expressing Cre recombinase derived from bacteriophage P1 has already been extensively used for the conditional gene activation and inactivation strategies in mammalian systems. In this study, we generated AxCAFLP, a rAd expressing FLP recombinase derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and carried out quantitative comparisons with Cre-expressing rAd in both in vitro and in cultured cells to provide another efficient gene regulation system in mammalian cells. In the in vitro experiments, the relative recombination efficiency of FLP expressed in 293 cells infected with FLP-expressing rAd was approximately one-thirtieth that of Cre even at 30°C, the optimum temperature for FLP activity, and was approximately one-ninetieth at 37°C. Co-infection experiments in HeLa cells using a target rAd conditionally expressing LacZ under the control of FLP showed that an FLP-expressing rAd, infected at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 5, was able to activate the transgene in almost 100% of HeLa cells whereas the Cre-expressing rAd was sufficient at an MOI of 0.2. Since an MOI of 5 is ordinarily used in rAd experiments, these results showed that the FLP-expressing rAd is useful for gene activation strategies and is probably applicable to a sequential gene regulation system in combination with Cre-expressing rAd in mammalian cells.

A deletion mutant in the human cytomegalovirus gene encoding IE1(491aa) is replication defective due to a failure in autoregulation.

Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) replication begins with the expression of two regulatory proteins, IE1(491aa) and IE2(579aa), produced from differentially spliced transcripts under control of the ie1/ie2 promoter-enhancer. A deletion mutation removing all 406 IE1(491aa)-specific amino acids was engineered into the viral genome and this mutant (RC303 delta Acc) was propagated on an IE1(491aa)-expressing human fibroblast cell line (ihfie1.3). RC303 delta Acc failed to replicate on normal human fibroblasts at low multiplicities of infection (mois). At mois > 3 plaque-forming units per cell, virus replication and production of progeny were comparable to wild type. However, at mois between 0.01 and 1, mutant virus replicated slowly on normal fibroblasts, a pattern that suggested initiation of productive infection required multiple hits. Replication of RC303 delta Acc correlated with the ability to express IE2(579aa), consistent with a role for IE1(491aa) in positive autoregulation of the ie1/ie2 promoter-enhancer and with data suggesting that virion transactivators compensate for the lack of IE1(491aa) under high moi conditions. ie1-deficient CMV should be completely avirulent, suggesting its utility as a gene therapy vector for hematopoietic progenitors that are normal sites of CMV latency.

Efficient infection of a human T-cell line and of human primary peripheral blood leukocytes with a pseudotyped retrovirus vector.

Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) are an important target for gene transfer studies aimed at human gene therapy. However, no reproducibly efficient methods are currently available to transfer foreign, potentially therapeutic genes into these cells. While vectors derived from murine retroviruses have been the most widely used system, their low infection efficiency in lymphocytes has required prolonged in vitro culturing and selection after infection to obtain useful numbers of genetically modified cells. We previously reported that retroviral vectors pseudotyped with vesicular stomatitis G glycoprotein (VSV-G) envelope can infect a wide variety of cell types and can be concentrated to titers of greater than 10(9) infectious units/ml. In this present study, we examined the ability of amphotropic and pseudotyped vectors expressing a murine cell surface protein, B7-1, to infect the human T-cell line Jurkat or human blood lymphocytes. Limiting dilution analysis of transduced Jurkat cells demonstrated that the pseudotyped vector is significantly more efficient in infecting T cells than an amphotropic vector used at the same multiplicity of infection (moi). To identify the transduction efficiency on PBLs, we examined the levels of cell surface expression of the B7-1 surface marker 48 to 72 hr after infection. The transduction efficiency of PBLs with the pseudotyped vector increased linearly with increasing moi to a maximum of approximately 16-32% at an moi of 40. This relatively high efficiency of infection of a T-cell line and of blood lymphocytes with VSV-G pseudotyped virus demonstrates that such modified pseudotyped retrovirus vectors may be useful reagents for studies of gene therapy for a variety of genetic or neoplastic disorders.

Isolation of a differentially regulated splicing isoform of human NF-E2.

The transcription factor NF-E2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2), interacting via DNA motifs within regulatory regions of several hematopoietic genes, is thought to mediate the enhancer activity of the globin locus control regions. By screening a human fetal liver cDNA library with probes derived from mouse NF-E2, we have isolated a splicing variant of the NF-E2 gene (fNF-E2) that differs in the 5' untranslated region from the previously reported cDNA (aNF-E2). The fNF-E2 isoform is transcribed from an alternative promoter located in the 3' end of the first intron and joined by alternative splicing to the second and third exons, which are shared by both RNA isoforms. Although the two forms produce the same protein, they are expressed in different ratios during development. fNF-E2 is more abundant in the fetal liver and less abundant in the adult bone marrow compared to the previously described form. Their distribution apparently follows the differential expression of fetal and adult hemoglobins.

La danza española y la ilusión cinematográfica en Mariemma: de las variedades al recital de danzas (1934-1943)

El papel específico de Mariemma (1917-2008) en su contribución a la conformación de la identidad de la danza española tras la guerra civil, exige ser estudiado desde los numerosos frentes que plasmaron su actividad como bailarina, coreógrafa y maestra. Este trabajo busca dar una primera aproximación de la recepción, el contexto formal y el repertorio en el que Mariemma proyecta su carrera artística desde España (1940), tras sus años de infancia y juventud en París (1920-1939). Con este objetivo, se utiliza una metodología que combina las entrevistas a informantes que fueron testigos cercanos de su labor, además del apoyo en fuentes documentales (hemeroteca y fílmicas) desconocidas hasta ahora. Desde los años 40, la bailarina presentó bailes regionales junto con repertorio de escuela bolera, flamenco y danza estilizada en el formato del recital de danzas. Al mismo tiempo. Mariemma hacía sus primeras incursiones en el cine con títulos como Boy (Antonio Calvache, 1940) o Donne-moi tes yeux (Sacha Guitry, 1943). Películas que han pasado desapercibidas porque pertenecen a los primeros años de la posguerra española y coinciden cronológicamente con su debut en el formato del recital de danzas. Por otra parte, son documentos con una visibilidad mínima al quedar sumergidos en las hemerotecas o supeditados a las exigencias de la gran industria cinematográfica.

Investigating the thymopoiesis stimulating property of interleukin-21 in aging mice

La vaccination est largement utilisée pour la génération de lymphocytes T spécifiques contre les tumeurs. Malheureusement, cette stratégie n'est pas adaptée aux personnes âgées car leur thymus régresse avec l'âge conduisant ainsi à une baisse dans la production de cellules T et à l'accumulation de cellules immunitaires âgées ayant des défauts liés à leurs stimulations. Comme il a été démontré auparavant que L’IL-21 est capable d’induire des fonctions thymiques, nous avons émis l’hypothèse que l’injection d’IL-21 à des souris âgées stimulera la thymopoïèse. Nos résultats montrent que l’administration de l’IL-21 augmente le nombre absolu de thymocytes chez les souris âgées et augmente la migration de ces cellules vers la périphérie ou ils contribuent à la diversité du TCR. De plus les cellules T en périphérie expriment un niveau plus élevé de miR181-a, et par conséquent moins de phosphatase comme SHP2, DUSP5/6 qui inhibent le TCR. En vaccinant des souris âgées avec le peptide Trp2, les souris traitées avec l’IL-21 montrent un retard dans la croissance des cellules B16 tumorales. Cette étude montre que l’IL-21 pourrait être utilisé comme stratégie pour le rétablissement du systeme immunitaire chez les personnes âgées.

Les emprunts lexicaux français du roumain. Étude de cas: Ion Luca Caragiale, O soacrã

L’étude que je viens de mener s’adresse principalement à un public universitaire, aux italiens, à mes amis et professeurs, et à toutes ces personnes curieuses comme moi, qui n’ont pas encore eu la chance de connaitre la Roumanie dans le sens de son lien bien étroit avec la France. Il s’agit d’une analyse contextuelle et spécifique à la fois. Bien que restant une étude de surface sur de nombreux aspects j’ai tenté de montrer, à travers l’historiographie atypique de la culture roumaine, que celle-ci s’imprègne avant tout du français, aussi bien par son mimétisme socio-culturel que par l’évolution de sa langue. Nous avons pu constater à travers divers exemples - en partant du phénomène social “Petit-Paris” aux termes calqués en passant par l’intertextualité française - que la France a joué un rôle majeur dans l’épanouissement de la culture roumaine. Plus particulièrement, l’étude de la farce fantaisiste de Ion Luca Caragiale, O soacră, m’a permis de comprendre et de partager à travers l’analyse et la traduction de cette pièce ce mimétisme classique que le théâtre français prodiguait tant au XVIIè siècle.

Oeuvres illustrées de Balzac.

Vol.1,4,7,8, pub. 1874; v.2, 1873; v.5-6, 1867, v.3, t.-p. wanting.

La chanson du Charbonnier /

For voice and piano.

Un groupe d'artistes : opéra-bouffe en un acte : no. 4, couplets pour ténor /

For voice (T) and piano.

Album /

For voice and piano.