Using a qualitative research methodology and explanatory approach to collect data, we assessed whether the Beijing Consensus diplomacy in Africa is a promoter or threat to Africa’s pathway to sustainable development. The collected data were analysed using document and content analysis techniques. Analysis of the data revealed that the Beijing Consensus diplomacy in Africa is a positive initiative that has created a win-win situation, promoting sustainable development. The Beijing Consensus is opposed to the Washington Consensus, which influenced a win-lose situation that has deepened poverty, making Africa unable to move towards achieving sustainable development. The study found that China’s resource-for-development approach has similarities with pre-colonial Africa’s barter trade approach, which Africans practised in the entire continent. The analysis showed that applying the Beijing Consensus diplomacy to Africa has led to economic growth and development. The results showed that China’s Belt Road Initiative has transformed Africa, changing the continent from poverty to economic productivity, as road infrastructure is associated with economic growth and development. Moreover, it was evident from the analysis that without an African continental foreign policy rooted in continental sovereignty with transparent terms and conditions, Africa’s current benefits from China’s investments would lead to poverty instead of sustainable development. A continental foreign policy would create an African Consensus, which would act on behalf of the entire continent. This African Consensus diplomacy would thus become a continental foreign policy defining Africa globally. However, as it stands, the Beijing Consensus diplomacy is a promoter of sustainable development, but this promotion would not last long without African Consensus diplomacy. The study recommends that Africa should establish a continental foreign policy with African Consensus diplomacy to enable the continent to have one standard foreign policy and goal when trading with China and any other external world.
Species of the Moraceae family are of great economic, medicinal and ecological importance in Amazonia. However, there are few studies on their diversity and population dynamics in residual forests. The objective was to determine the composition, structure and ecological importance of Moraceae in a residual forest. The applied method was descriptive and consisted of establishing 16 plots of 20 m × 50 m (0.10 ha), in a residual forest of the Alexánder von Humboldt substation of the National Institute of Agrarian Innovation-INIA, Pucallpa, department of Ucayali, where individuals of arboreal or hemi-epiphytic habit, with DBH ≥ 2.50 cm, were evaluated. The floristic composition was represented by 33 species, distributed in 12 genera; five species not recorded for Ucayali were found. Structurally, the family was represented by 138 individuals/ha with a horizontal distribution similar to an irregular inverted “J”. However, there were different horizontal structures among species. It was determined that 85% of the species were in diameter class I (2.50 to 9.99 cm), being the most abundant Pseudolmedia laevis (Ruiz & Pav.) J.F. Macbr. (41.88 individuals/ha); and the most dominant were Brosimum utile (Kunth) Oken (1.71 m2∕ha) and Brosimum alicastrum subsp. bolivarense (Pittier) C.C.Berg (0.90 m2/ha). Likewise, P. laevis and B. utile were the most ecologically important. The information from the present research will allow the establishment of a baseline, which can be used to propose the management of Moraceae in residual forests in the same study area.
Currently, no academic work examines the history of the legality of roads in Chile during its independent existence as a sovereign country. Addressing this gap in the literature, this paper focuses specially on the period from 1842 to 1969, when different actors articulated a set of guiding ideas about the duties of the state and the legal powers of the administrative authority in terms of planning, construction and management of road infrastructure that would allow connectivity between population centers and across regions, according to the ideas and resources available at their historical time. This historical overview of Chilean “road law” is done in the light of insights and questions of contemporary intellectual history and institutional history. In this regard, it is argued that the evolution of road infrastructure norms and institutions during the period under study can be divided into three historical regimes, based on their fundamental legislative milestones, guiding ideas, institutional settings, and strategies of state action: from 1842 to 1887, a period of a decentralized “minimal road state” with precarious roads characterized by both material and juridical uncertainty; from 1887 to 1920, the emergence of a “proto-developmentalist road state” intent on strengthening its grip on the nationwide road infrastructure; and from 1920 to 1969, a period of a “techno-developmentalist road state” that created a nationwide paved road network for the new technology of mobile vehicles.
Freshwater problems in coastal areas include the process of salt intrusion which occurs due to decreasing groundwater levels below sea level which can cause an increase in salt levels in groundwater so that the water cannot be used for water purposes, human consumption and agricultural needs. The main objective of this research is to implementation of RWH to fulfill clean water needs in tropical coastal area in Tanah Merah Village, Indragiri Hilir Regency, with the aim of providing clean water to coastal communities. The approach method used based on fuzzy logic (FL). The model input data includes the effective area of the house’s roof, annual rainfall, roof runoff coefficient, and water consumption based on the number of families. The BWS III Sumatera provided the rainfall data for this research, which was collected from the Keritang rainfall monitoring station during 2015 and 2021. The research findings show that FL based on household scale RWH technology is used to supply clean water in tropical coastal areas that the largest rainwater contribution for the 144 m2 house type for the number of residents in a house of four people with a tank capacity of 29 m2 is 99.45%.
The problem of the synthesis of new type nanomaterials in the form of nano-coatings with sub-nanometric heterogeneity has been formulated. It has been presented an analysis of influences of physical vapor deposition in ultrahigh vacuum on the process of intermixing a film with a substrate, including the results, which has been obtained under the formation of transition metal – silicon interface. The generalization of the obtained experimental results develops an approach to the development of new nano-coatings with low-dimensional heterogeneity. The principles of constructing such low-dimensional nano-coatings, their properties and possible applications are considered.
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