Risks posed by per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on the African continent, with an emphasis on aquatic ecosystems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thimo Groffen ◽  
Bossissi Nkuba ◽  
Victor Wepener ◽  
Lieven Bervoets
Keyword(s):  
Aquatic Ecosystems ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Polyfluoroalkyl Substances

Threats to the Economic Security of Russia in the Context of Trends in the Development of Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 112-125
Author(s):  
Alexander I. Selivanov ◽  
Vladimir G. Starovoitov ◽  
Dmitriy V. Troshin
Keyword(s):  
National Economy ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Economic Crime ◽  
African Continent ◽  
New Developments ◽  
External Threats ◽  
National Economic ◽  
The World ◽  
National Economic Security

Situation and value of the African continent on the economic and social cardmap of the world dynamically changes and will continue to change throughout all the 21st century with strengthening of the Africa positions in the world. In Russia all the complex of threats and problems which arise owing to political and economic transformation of Africa is not adequately estimated. The scientific literature on economic security issues presents an expanded set of internal and external threats to the national economy that goes beyond the traditional areas of the shadow economy, corruption, economic crime and related segments, including the internal economic stability of the national economy and inter-country competition, the quality of state strategic management, studies of the specifics of ensuring economic security in the conditions of the sixth technological order, intercultural communication and their impact on the economic relations between countries, etc. Incomplete use of such approach to strategy for the countries of Africa creates additional threats and risks for Russia. An analysis of security problems in Africa revealed that studies of economic security in the context of African development trends in Russia are conducted in an unsatisfactory volume, not always taking into account the results of new developments in the field of ensuring economic security. Even the large shifts happening on the African continent, forecasts of this dynamics sometimes are poorly known to experts of a profile of economic security, and many experts of an economic profile including working in the African subject often do not accurately distinguish problems of “economic cooperation” and “the Russian – African relations”, on the one hand, and “economic security of Russia” – with another. In this regard the new scientific problem is proved: need for deeper analysis of trends of economic and social development in Africa as an important component of a system of ensuring national economic security of Russia in the current period and in the future into account the new developments in the sphere of economic security. The main directions of activating scientific research and concentration of practical efforts to increase national economic security, neutralize threats and reduce risk for Russia in the designated context are formulated.

Extracellular enzymatic activities in the aquatic ecosystems of the Danube Delta. 2. Alkaline phosphatase activity

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 2269-2274
Author(s):  
IOAN PĂCEŞILĂ ◽  
EMILIA RADU
Keyword(s):  
Alkaline Phosphatase ◽  
Water Column ◽  
Aquatic Ecosystems ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Extracellular Enzyme ◽  
Danube Delta ◽  
Phytoplankton Communities ◽  
Extracellular Enzymatic Activities ◽  
Adjacent Channels ◽  
Hydrolysis Of

Phosphorus is one of the most important inorganic nutrients in aquatic ecosystems, the development and functioning of the phytoplankton communities being often correlated with the degree of availability in assimilable forms of this element. Alkaline phosphatase (AP) is an extracellular enzyme with nonspecific activity that catalyses the hydrolysis of a large variety of organic phosphate esters and release orthophosphates. During 2011-2013, AP Activity (APA) was assessed in the water column and sediments of several aquatic ecosystems from Danube Delta: Roșu Lake, Mândra Lake and their adjacent channels – Roșu-Împuțita and Roșu-Puiu. The intensity of APA widely fluctuated, ranging between 230-2578 nmol p-nitrophenol L-1h-1 in the water column and 2104-15631 nmol p-nitrophenol g-1h-1 in sediment. Along the entire period of the study, APA was the most intense in Roșu-Împuțita channel, for both water and sediment samples. Temporal dynamics revealed its highest values in summer for the water column and in autumn for sediment. Statistical analysis showed significant seasonal diferences of the APA dynamics in spring vs. summer and autumn for the water column, and any relevant diferences for sediment.

Digital Borders, Diasporic Flows and the Nigerian Transgender Beauty Queen Who Would Not Be Denied

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
B Camminga
Keyword(s):  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Transgender People ◽  
Beauty Pageant ◽  
Global North ◽  
Lgbt People ◽  
Tabloid Press

In 2011, Miss Sahhara, a transgender woman from Nigeria with UK refugee status, was crowned First Princess at the world’s largest and most prestigious beauty pageant for transgender women—Miss International Queen. The then Cultural Minister of Nigeria when contacted for comment responded that if she was transgender, she could not be Nigerian, and if she was Nigerian, she could not be transgender—a tacit denial of her very existence. In recent years, LGBT people “fleeing Africa” to the “Global North” has become a common media trope. Responses to this, emanating from a variety of African voices, have provided a more nuanced reading of sexuality. What has been absent from these readings has been the role of gender expression, particularly a consideration of transgender experiences. I understand transgender refugees to have taken up “lines of flight” such that, in a Deleuzian sense, they do not only flee persecution in countries of origin but also recreate or speak back to systems of control and oppressive social conditions. Some transgender people who have left, like Miss Sahhara, have not gone silently, using digital means to project a new political visibility of individuals, those who are both transgender and African, back at the African continent. In Miss Sahhara’s case, this political visibility has not gone unnoticed in the Nigerian tabloid press. Drawing on the story of Miss Sahhara, this paper maps these flows and contraflows, asking what they might reveal about configurations of nationhood, gender and sexuality as they are formed at both the digital and physical interstices between Africa and the Global North.

Structure-Based Virtual Screening of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) as Endocrine Disruptors of Androgen Receptor Activity Using Molecular Docking and Machine Learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azhagiya Singam Ettayapuram Ramaprasad ◽  
Phum Tachachartvanich ◽  
Denis Fourches ◽  
Anatoly Soshilov ◽  
Jennifer C.Y. Hsieh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Molecular Docking ◽  
Androgen Receptor ◽  
Endocrine Disruptors ◽  
Hormone Receptors ◽  
Steroid Hormone Receptors ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Polyfluoroalkyl Substances ◽  
Perfluoroalkyl And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances

Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) pose a substantial threat as endocrine disruptors, and thus early identification of those that may interact with steroid hormone receptors, such as the androgen receptor (AR), is critical. In this study we screened 5,206 PFASs from the CompTox database against the different binding sites on the AR using both molecular docking and machine learning techniques. We developed support vector machine models trained on Tox21 data to classify the active and inactive PFASs for AR using different chemical fingerprints as features. The maximum accuracy was 95.01% and Matthew’s correlation coefficient (MCC) was 0.76 respectively, based on MACCS fingerprints (MACCSFP). The combination of docking-based screening and machine learning models identified 29 PFASs that have strong potential for activity against the AR and should be considered priority chemicals for biological toxicity testing.

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