The 2019 General Election in Northern Ireland: the Rise of the Centre Ground?

The experience of the 2019 general election in Northern Ireland took a very different course to that of the rest of the UK and, indeed, to the pattern of electoral politics typical of the region. Coming after almost three years with no functioning devolved government, combined with intense disagreement and uncertainty about Brexit, voters were ready to give a message to the two largest parties. Both Sinn Féin and the DUP suffered losses in the election, with the headline outcome being that unionism no longer holds the majority of seats for Northern Ireland in Westminster. More generally, there was a swing from both sides towards centre ground voting, which brought significant gains for the Alliance Party and the SDLP. This article summarises the reasons for this broad trend, focussing on the conditions and electoral pacts which brought it about. It also considers what it might mean for the prospects for Irish unification, noting that a referendum on unification will only be passed by attracting votes from those who tend to see themselves as neither unionist or nationalist.     

Socio-political tensions in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) development in low-income Asian cities

International development agencies, with the help of the central government, support building state of art Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in low-income Asian cities. However, BRT investment over indigenous modes of mobility is creating socio-political tensions at the local level. This article uses multi-level governance as a theoretical lens to examine the relationships among actors in BRT investment decisions in Bandung and Surabaya, Indonesia. The research finds that local stakeholders can distort national and supranational policy initiatives totally or in a way that while projects are delivered, they are of limited use to the local communities they intended to help.     

Does fertiliser use improve household welfare? Evidence from Ghana’s cocoa industry

This article analyses welfare impacts of fertiliser adoption using data collected from 838 cocoa farm households in the four key cocoa-producing regions in Ghana. Using propensity score matching (PSM), the study indicates that application of fertiliser leads to significant gains in farm yields, farm income, consumption expenditure, consumption expenditure per capita, and value of productive farm assets. The article concludes that cocoa-specific programmes such as Cocoa High Technology (Cocoa Hi-tech), initiated to intensify the application of improved farm technologies such as fertiliser, should be strengthened through effective and efficient management systems.     

Modelling trust and contractual arrangements in a local economy

This article investigates trust among dairy value-chain actors to understand the innovative process in a local productive sector in Tunisia. It uses a sample of 45 smallholder farmers chosen randomly nearby existing collection centres in the region. A trust variable is constructed employing 11 ordinal variables based on principal component analysis, and institutional arrangements then modelled to examine the effect of trust on contracting decisions and cooperative membership. The results show that trust is defined by values such as “integrity”, “competence”, and “existence of credible information”, which are preconditions to sustainable contracts. The article contributes to the growing literature which considers social capital, networking and trust as determinants of farmer’s behaviour, as opposed to the classical model of rationality.     

Facilitating industrial symbiosis programmes in developing countries: reflections from Gauteng,South Africa

This viewpoint reflects on how to improve the process of introducing facilitated industrial symbiosis programmes (FISPs) to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. Although FISPs are a long-established industrial practice, their formal introduction to SMEs in developing countries has only recently begun, mostly through support from international development agencies. Based partly on anecdotal evidence from Gauteng, South Africa, we identify six key questions which need to be addressed to improve the process of facilitating FISPs.     

The star of David in a cedar tree: Jewish students and Zionism at the American University of Beirut (1908–1948)

The American University of Beirut's emergence as a hub of Arab national and cultural identity in the first half of the twentieth century has been well documented by historians. The simultaneous Zionist presence on campus has been largely overlooked. Zionist ideas were predominantly promoted by Palestinian Jewish students who formed a small but vocal minority at AUB prior to 1948. Faculty and non-Jewish students also regularly collaborated with and traveled to Zionist institutions in Palestine for academic, athletic, and leisure purposes. For Arab students on campus, therefore, Zionism was not an abstract concept, but rather a national identity embodied by fellow classmates and friends on campus. As the conflict in Palestine increased in the 1930s and 1940s, so too did political activism and tensions on campus between Zionist and Arab nationalist students. This article analyzes this unique period of exchange, collaboration, and friction at AUB, which came to a swift end with the outbreak of the 1948 War. By focusing on the interactions between Arab and Zionist Jewish students at AUB, I seek to extend the ‘relational’ approach towards Jewish-Arab contact beyond Palestine's borders.     

Environmental Stressors and Food Security in China

This article considers the immediate forces influencing China’s food system and food security. By immediate is meant events of the reform period, from the late 1970s to 2008. It begins by asking the question that has preoccupied specialists since the publication of Lester Brown’s Who Will Feed China? in 1995: How much arable land does China have? Is that land area sufficient to insure grain sufficiency? To insure food security? The article focuses on the human pressures on the food production environment, and then treats the effects of socioeconomic change: land, air, and water degradation. The core of the article examines six responses of the state to both perceived and actual environmental stressors: policy restricting arable land conversion, China’s one-child policy, investment in irrigation systems, the South–North Water Diversion Project, large-scale afforestation and reforestation campaigns, and the program to convert marginal agricultural lands to forests and grasslands.     

马立克病病毒致瘤相关基因的研究进展

从meq基因、pp38复合体、HSV ICP4的同源体、L开放阅读框(L ORF)、位于BamHⅠ-H片段的基因和病毒类白细胞介素-8(vIL-8)等几个方面论述了马立克病病毒感染期间参与肿瘤形成的相关基因的生物学活性。     

副猪嗜血杆菌抗体间接血凝检测方法的建立及应用

将副猪嗜血杆菌(Haemophilus parasuis,HPS)血清型4、5型分离菌株经超声波破碎处理后的产物致敏醛化红细胞,建立了检测HPS抗体的间接血凝试验方法。最适反应条件为绵羊红细胞30℃醛化5 h,4、5型菌株浓缩抗原以1∶8稀释致敏红细胞。免疫猪2周后检出率达89%。对15种HPS血清型阳性血清进行检测,结果均为阳性;对猪瘟病毒、口蹄疫病毒、猪圆环病毒、猪细小病毒、猪伪狂犬病病毒、猪生殖与呼吸综合征病毒、猪肺炎支原体、猪链球菌、猪肺疫巴氏杆菌、Ⅰ相支气管败血波氏杆菌及胸膜肺炎放线杆菌阳性血清进行检测,结果均为阴性。敏感性为琼脂扩散试验的16倍。对1 665份猪血清进行检测,阳性率为47.1%。结果表明,该方法敏感性较高,特异性强,重复性好,可用于疫苗免疫后抗体水平的检测及副猪嗜血杆菌的流行病学调查。     

猪生殖与呼吸综合征病毒CH-1a株GP5蛋白基因的表达及其单克隆抗体的制备

将猪生殖与呼吸综合征病毒(PRRSV)CH-1a株GP5蛋白基因信号肽部分删除后克隆于pGEX-6p-1载体上,并在大肠埃希氏菌中进行表达。经SDS-PAGE电泳分析发现,融合表达的rtGP5蛋白约42 ku,将融合蛋白rtGP5用PRRSV阳性血清进行Western-blotting分析,证实所表达的融合蛋白能被其特异性识别。收获融合表达产物rtGP5,按50μg/只的剂量与等量弗氏佐剂乳化,经腹腔免疫BALB/c小鼠3次后,取脾细胞与SP2/0骨髓瘤细胞进行融合,分别以融合蛋白rtGP5和GST蛋白为抗原,通过间接ELISA方法对融合细胞的上清液进行检测,筛选阳性克隆,结果得到了15株能稳定分泌抗rtGP5蛋白抗体的阳性细胞克隆株。经间接免疫荧光检测发现,获得的15株单克隆抗体都能与PRRSV感染细胞产生特异性荧光。15株单克隆抗体亚型鉴定结果显示均为IgG1型,且轻链均为κ链。