The short-term and long-term consequences of whole-body vibration (WBV) have been shown to adversely affect occupational health and safety. Some of these effects can lead to permanent disabilities, especially to muscoskeletal, spinal and gastro-intestinal disorders (Boshuizen and Hulshof1). One of the most common complaints from personnel exposed to high levels of WBV is that of lower back pain...

The Economic Partnership Agreements between the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and the European Union should serve as an opportunity to accelerate ACP global and regional trade integration and as an important tool for development and the eradication of poverty. There are, however, a number of preconditions. This article argues that institutional quality plays a key role in successful ...

I. Introduction Trade integration in Africa is often viewed in light of the European Union and other regional integration arrangements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). From this perspective, integration is regarded as necessarily destined to proceed on a linear path where tariffs and non-tariff barriers are progressively eliminated, the trade regimes of member countries are...

background: a highly efficient genetic transformation system is essential for a successful genetic manipulation of the african violet (saintpaulia ionantha wendl.).objectives: developing a particle bombardment-based genetic transformation system for the african violet.materials and methods: a local cultivar of the african violet from guilan province was used for transformation experiments. the ...

Background: Distal tibia fractures are among the most common bony injuries, with a significant rate of nonunion anddelayed union. There are multiple methods for the management of distal tibia fractures. Among the plating methods,there are bridge plating and compression plating techniques. There is still a lack of evidence about whether one methodhas a higher rate of union than...

This paper evaluates the new theories of trade and economic geography in the light of the pattern of regional specialisation in Southern Africa. The analysis is applied to the nine South African provinces and the SADC member countries of 1995, except Angola. Based on Gini coefficients, the regional specialisation of provinces and countries and dispersion/concentration of manufacturing employmen...