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Marxistscholarship on South Africa's political economy was born as a meta-theoretical critique of liberalism in the 1960s and matured into a rich tradition of its own by the 1980s. As Marxists became more focused empirically and conceptually, they presented compelling evidence for their key analytical claims and generally bettered their liberal rivals—as they saw and portrayed them—in the debate over the complicity of capitalist development in the officially mandated racism of South Africa. Whereas liberals either ignored, minimised, or denied an association, Marxists argued that capitalism and its dominant classes systematically promoted and actively underwroteapartheidin particular, and white domination in general.

It's a commonplace that Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke draws his policies from Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz's A Monetary History of the United States ( MH). With that in mind, this article establishes five points. First, contrary to conventional wisdom, Friedman and Schwartz merely insinuate their claim the Fed caused the Depression in MH. Second, their criticisms of Fed policy during the Depression, which turn on its refusal to adopt open market purchases (OMPs), repudiate Friedman's famed libertarianism and market fundamentalism. Third, Friedman and Schwartz don't refute the practical objections of bankers who opposed OMPs in the 1930s. Consequently, Bernanke's policies for addressing the financial crisis risk doing precisely what Friedman's targets warned against—encouraging financial speculation without addressing problems of unemployment. Fourth, Friedman and Schwartz's prescriptions entail a neoliberal, not a libertarian, state, one governed by technocrats and answerable to financial markets. Finally, what accounts for and unifies Friedman's contradictions is the beneficiary—finance.

Management decisions and the development of appropriate conservation policy require scientifically rigorous and accessible information. Biodiversity conservation has been and continues to be a complex issue; more recently the field of ecosystem services has become more prominent. This provides both risks and opportunities for nature conservation. Risks, because the provision of ecosystem services may be prioritised over, and conflict with, nature conservation. Opportunities, because ecosystem services may support arguments for conserving the natural environments that provide them. Decision- and policy-makers require robust evidence regarding the provision of ecosystem services at sites where alternative management decisions may be considered, and there is a demand for tools that can produce that evidence. Many of these are GIS-based, operate at the regional or landscape scale, and require considerable expertise to apply. TESSA (Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment) has been developed by a collaboration of academics and practitioners from several organisations, including partners of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (Peh et al. 2013). It is designed to be used at the site-scale by non-experts, focuses on the net differences in ecosystem service provision, and explicitly incorporates communication of the results. In this way, it operates at the science-policy-society interface, providing a framework for researchers to gather information and disseminate it to decision-makers, and the general public. TESSA is widely used throughout the world (for example, it is approved for use in the EU's LIFE program), and supports local decision-making across varied contexts. Its application has been published in a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles. In December 2017, a new version was released, which introduced three new modules: coastal protection, pollination, and cultural services. The cultural services module in particular expands on TESSA's existing commitment to connect science, society and the natural world with policy-makers and stakeholders. I will present examples of uses of TESSA in societal decision-making, and discuss its future potential. Peh, K.S.-H., Balmford, A., Bradbury, R.B., Brown, C., Butchart, S.H.M., Hughes, F.M.R., Stattersfield, A., Thomas, D.H.L., Walpole, M., Bayliss, J., Gowing, D., Jones, J.P.G., Lewis, S.L., Mulligan, M., Pandeya, B., Stratford, C., Thompson, J.R., Turner, K., Vira, B., Willcock, S. & Birch, J.C. (2013) TESSA: A toolkit for rapid assessment of ecosystem services at sites of biodiversity conservation importance. Ecosystem Services, 5, 51-57. ; peerReviewed

Malaria vector control technology has remained largely static for decades and there is a pressing need for innovative control tools and methodology to radically improve the quality and efficiency of current vector control practices. This report summarizes a workshop jointly organized by the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) and the Armed Forces Pest Management Board (AFPMB) focused on public health pesticide application technology. Three main topics were discussed: the limitations with current tools and techniques used for indoor residual spraying (IRS), technology innovation to improve efficacy of IRS programmes, and truly disruptive application technology beyond IRS. The group identified several opportunities to improve application technology to include: insuring all IRS programmes are using constant flow valves and erosion resistant tips; introducing compression sprayer improvements that help minimize pesticide waste and human error; and moving beyond IRS by embracing the potential for new larval source management techniques and next generation technology such as unmanned "smart" spray systems. The meeting served to lay the foundation for broader collaboration between the IVCC and AFPMB and partners in industry, the World Health Organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others.

Abstract Background While consensus on malaria vector control policy and strategy has stimulated unprecedented political-will, backed by international funding organizations and donors, vector control interventions are expansively being implemented based on assumptions with unequaled successes. This manuscript reports on the strategies, achievements and challenges of the past and contemporary malaria vector control efforts in Zambia. Case description All available information and accessible archived documentary records on malaria vector control in Zambia were reviewed. Retrospective analysis of routine surveillance data from the Health Management Information System (HMIS), data from population-based household surveys and various operations research reports was conducted to assess the status in implementing policies and strategies. Discussion and evaluation Empirical evidence is critical for informing policy decisions and tailoring interventions to local settings. Thus, the World Health Organization (WHO) encourages the adoption of the integrated vector management (IVM) strategy which is a rational decision making process for optimal use of available resources. One of the key features of IVM is capacity building at the operational level to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate vector control and its epidemiological and entomological impact. In Zambia, great progress has been made in implementing WHO-recommended vector control policies and strategies within the context of the IVM Global Strategic framework with strong adherence to its five key attributes. Conclusions The country has solid, consistent and coordinated policies, strategies and guidelines for malaria vector control. The Zambian experience demonstrates the significance of a coordinated multi-pronged IVM approach effectively operationalized within the context of a national health system.

Background: Sleep disturbances are a hallmark of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet few studies have evaluated the role of dysregulated endogenous melatonin secretion in this condition. Methods: This study compared the sleep quality and nocturnal salivary melatonin profiles of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel diagnosed with PTSD, using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS score ≥50), with two healthy CAF control groups; comprising, a "light control" (LC) group with standardized evening light exposure and "normal control" (NC) group without light restriction. Participants were monitored for 1-week using wrist actigraphy to assess sleep quality, and 24-h salivary melatonin levels were measured (every 2h) by immunoassay on the penultimate day in a dim-light (< 5 lux) laboratory environment. Results: A repeated measures design showed that mean nocturnal melatonin concentrations for LC were higher than both NC (p = .03) and PTSD (p = .003) with no difference between PTSD and NC. Relative to PTSD, NC had significantly higher melatonin levels over a 4-h period (01 to 05 h), whereas the LC group had higher melatonin levels over an 8-h period (23 to 07 h). Actigraphic sleep quality parameters were not different between healthy controls and PTSD patients, likely due to the use of prescription sleep medications in the PTSD group. Conclusions: These results indicate that PTSD is associated with blunted nocturnal melatonin secretion, which is consistent with previous findings showing lower melatonin after exposure to trauma and suggestive of severe chronodisruption. Future studies targeting the melatonergic system for therapeutic intervention may be beneficial for treatment-resistant PTSD.

Abstract Integrated vector management (IVM) is defined as "a rational decision-making process for the optimal use of resources for vector control" and includes five key elements: 1) evidence-based decision-making, 2) integrated approaches 3), collaboration within the health sector and with other sectors, 4) advocacy, social mobilization, and legislation, and 5) capacity-building. In 2004, the WHO adopted IVM globally for the control of all vector-borne diseases. Important recent progress has been made in developing and promoting IVM for national malaria control programmes in Africa at a time when successful malaria control programmes are scaling-up with insecticide-treated nets (ITN) and/or indoor residual spraying (IRS) coverage. While interventions using only ITNs and/or IRS successfully reduce transmission intensity and the burden of malaria in many situations, it is not clear if these interventions alone will achieve those critical low levels that result in malaria elimination. Despite the successful employment of comprehensive integrated malaria control programmes, further strengthening of vector control components through IVM is relevant, especially during the "end-game" where control is successful and further efforts are required to go from low transmission situations to sustained local and country-wide malaria elimination. To meet this need and to ensure sustainability of control efforts, malaria control programmes should strengthen their capacity to use data for decision-making with respect to evaluation of current vector control programmes, employment of additional vector control tools in conjunction with ITN/IRS tactics, case-detection and treatment strategies, and determine how much and what types of vector control and interdisciplinary input are required to achieve malaria elimination. Similarly, on a global scale, there is a need for continued research to identify and evaluate new tools for vector control that can be integrated with existing biomedical strategies within national malaria control programmes. This review provides an overview of how IVM programmes are being implemented, and provides recommendations for further development of IVM to meet the goals of national malaria control programmes in Africa.