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Powerful
Kinds of Powerful Terms modified by Powerful Selected AbstractsPentafluorophenylammonium Trifluoromethanesulfonimide: Mild, Powerful, and Robust Catalyst for Mukaiyama Aldol and Mannich Reactions between Ketene Silyl Acetals and Ketones or Oxime EthersADVANCED SYNTHESIS & CATALYSIS (PREVIOUSLY: JOURNAL FUER PRAKTISCHE CHEMIE), Issue 7 2010Ryohei Nagase Abstract Pentafluorophenylammonium trifluoromethanesulfonimide (C6F5N+H3,NTf2,) promotes Mukaiyama aldol and Mannich reactions using ketene silyl acetals with ketones and oxime ethers, respectively. The present robust method is mild, but powerful enough to utilize less accessible electrophiles such as enolizable ketones and oxime ethers to produce a variety of ,-hydroxy esters and ,-alkoxyamino esters, respectively. Mechanistic investigation revealed in situ generation of trimethylsilyl bistriflimide [Tf2N(TMS)], the truly active catalyst, which was supported by rational 1H,NMR measurements. [source] Building the Powerful 10-Minute Office Visit: Part II.THE LARYNGOSCOPE, Issue 1 2001Beginning a Critical Literature Review Abstract Objective This is the second part in a series of sequential Tutorials in Clinical Research. The objective of this tutorial is to introduce methods of searching the vast stores of information now available, to review some of the computer resources available, to reintroduce the concept of an a priori design for the search, and to reveal the need for assessment of the clinical importance and validity of each pertinent article found. Study Design Tutorial. Methods An open working group has been formed with the specific aim of surveying and translating the large volume of complex information on research design and statistics into easily understood, useable, and non-threatening tutorials for the busy practitioner. The hypotheses under which this work is conducted are highly intelligent, but extremely busy, surgeons are interested in evidence-based medicine and will increase personal participation in critical reading of the literature, pending an expanded familiarity with clinical research design and statistics. Results Available resources for literature searching, methods of quick personal overviews, and quick question-specific reviews are discussed. Additionally, the methods, with examples, of beginning a critical literature review are presented. Conclusions Rapid, personal, critical literature review requires succinct formulation of the question, efficient search for the best available evidence, and critical appraisal of the pertinent individual articles to determine if sufficient evidence exists to support a clinical contention. [source] The Rich, the Powerful and the Endangered: Conservation Elites, Networks and the Dominican RepublicANTIPODE, Issue 3 2010George Holmes Abstract:, This paper explores conservation as an elite process in the Dominican Republic. It begins by showing how conservation at a global level is an elite process, driven by a small powerful elite. Looking at the Dominican Republic, it demonstrates how the extraordinary levels of protection have been achieved by a small network of well connected individuals, who have been able to shape conservation as they like, while limiting the involvement by the large international conservation NGOs who are considered so dominant throughout Latin America. Despite this, conservation both globally and in the Dominican Republic is shown to share similar political structures and the same lack of critique of capitalism or its environmental impacts. [source] ChemInform Abstract: Pentafluorophenylammonium Trifluoromethanesulfonimide: Mild, Powerful, and Robust Catalyst for Mukaiyama Aldol and Mannich Reactions Between Ketene Silyl Acetals and Ketones or Oxime Ethers.CHEMINFORM, Issue 38 2010Ryohei Nagase Abstract The catalyst allows facile access to ,-hydroxy esters, ,-amino esters, and 5-oxo esters. [source] ChemInform Abstract: Clinoptilolite-Supported Iron(III) Nitrate as a Powerful and Efficient Deoximation Catalyst.CHEMINFORM, Issue 9 2010Fast Regeneration of Carbonyl Compounds from Oximes. Abstract ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a "Full Text" option. The original article is trackable via the "References" option. [source] ChemInform Abstract: o-Benzenedisulfonimide as a Powerful and Recyclable Organocatalyst for the Nazarov Reaction.CHEMINFORM, Issue 49 2009Margherita Barbero Abstract ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 200 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a "Full Text" option. The original article is trackable via the "References" option. [source] Simulation of two-phase flow with sub-scale droplet and bubble effectsCOMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM, Issue 2 2009Viorel Mihalef Abstract We present a new Eulerian-Lagrangian method for physics-based simulation of fluid flow, which includes automatic generation of sub-scale spray and bubbles. The Marker Level Set method is used to provide a simple geometric criterion for free marker generation. A filtering method, inspired from Weber number thresholding, further controls the free marker generation (in a physics-based manner). Two separate models are used, one for sub-scale droplets, the other for sub-scale bubbles. Droplets are evolved in a Newtonian manner, using a density-extension drag force field, while bubbles are evolved using a model based on Stokes' Law. We show that our model for sub-scale droplet and bubble dynamics is simple to couple with a full (macro-scale) Navier-Stokes two-phase flow model and is quite powerful in its applications. Our animations include coarse grained multiphase features interacting with fine scale multiphase features. [source] Metric spaces in NMR crystallographyCONCEPTS IN MAGNETIC RESONANCE, Issue 4 2009David M. Grant Abstract The anisotropic character of the chemical shift can be measured by experiments that provide shift tensor values and comparing these experimental components, obtained from microcrystalline powders, with 3D nuclear shielding tensor components, calculated with quantum chemistry, yields structural models of the analyzed molecules. The use of a metric tensor for evaluating the mean squared deviations, d2, between two or more tensors provides a statistical way to verify the molecular structure governing the theoretical shielding components. The sensitivity of the method is comparable with diffraction methods for the heavier organic atoms (i.e., C, O, N, etc.) but considerably better for the positions of H atoms. Thus, the method is especially powerful for H-bond structure, the position of water molecules in biomolecular species, and other proton important structural features, etc. Unfortunately, the traditional Cartesian tensor components appear as reducible metric representations and lack the orthogonality of irreducible icosahedral and irreducible spherical tensors, both of which are also easy to normalize. Metrics give weighting factors that carry important statistical significance in a structure determination. Details of the mathematical analysis are presented and examples given to illustrate the reason nuclear magnetic resonance are rapidly assuming an important synergistic relationship with diffraction methods (X-ray, neutron scattering, and high energy synchrotron irradiation). © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Concepts Magn Reson Part A 34A: 217,237, 2009. [source] Protection of the young child's brain: personal observations and thoughts in postwar stress syndrome and in natural catastrophesACTA PAEDIATRICA, Issue 4 20006 May 199, The Nils Rosén von Rosenstein Lecture at Uppsala University This paper calls attention to the plight of children exposed to various traumas associated with wars and other natural disasters around the world. Little systematic attention has been paid to the mental health needs of child survivors of armed conflict. Our observations since 1968 and experiences around the world suggest that there are significant differences in the degree to which children have been prepared in anticipation of exposure to violence and in interventions applied after their exposure. It is the author's impression that prevention and intervention can be quite powerful when employed in these situations. [source] Tunable scheduling in a GridRPC frameworkCONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 9 2008A. Amar Abstract Among existing grid middleware approaches, one simple, powerful, and flexible approach consists of using servers available in different administrative domains through the classic client,server or remote procedure call paradigm. Network Enabled Servers (NES) implement this model, also called GridRPC. Clients submit computation requests to a scheduler, whose goal is to find a server available on the grid using some performance metric. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of a NES middleware developed in the GRAAL team called distributed interactive engineering toolbox (DIET) and to describe recent developments around plug-in schedulers, workflow management, and tools. DIET is a hierarchical set of components used for the development of applications based on computational servers on the grid. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The LEAD Portal: a TeraGrid gateway and application service architectureCONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 6 2007Marcus Christie Abstract The Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery (LEAD) Portal is a science application portal designed to enable effective use of Grid resources in exploring mesoscale meteorological phenomena. The aim of the LEAD Portal is to provide a more productive interface for doing experimental work by the meteorological research community, as well as bringing weather research to a wider class of users, meaning pre-college students in grades 6,12 and undergraduate college students. In this paper, we give an overview of the LEAD project and the role that LEAD portal is playing in reaching its goals. We then describe the various technologies we are using to bring powerful and complex scientific tools to educational and research users. These technologies,a fine-grained capability based authorization framework, an application service factory toolkit, and a Web services-based workflow execution engine and supporting tools,enable our team to deploy these once inaccessible, stovepipe scientific codes onto a Grid where they can be collectively utilized. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Incentive-based scheduling in Grid computingCONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 14 2006Yanmin Zhu Abstract With the rapid development of high-speed wide-area networks and powerful yet low-cost computational resources, Grid computing has emerged as an attractive computing paradigm. In typical Grid environments, there are two distinct parties, resource consumers and resource providers. Enabling an effective interaction between the two parties (i.e. scheduling jobs of consumers across the resources of providers) is particularly challenging due to the distributed ownership of Grid resources. In this paper, we propose an incentive-based peer-to-peer (P2P) scheduling for Grid computing, with the goal of building a practical and robust computational economy. The goal is realized by building a computational market supporting fair and healthy competition among consumers and providers. Each participant in the market competes actively and behaves independently for its own benefit. A market is said to be healthy if every player in the market gets sufficient incentive for joining the market. To build the healthy computational market, we propose the P2P scheduling infrastructure, which takes the advantages of P2P networks to efficiently support the scheduling. The proposed incentive-based algorithms are designed for consumers and providers, respectively, to ensure every participant gets sufficient incentive. Simulation results show that our approach is successful in building a healthy and scalable computational economy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Simple verification technique for complex Java bytecode subroutinesCONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 7 2004Alessandro Coglio Abstract Java is normally compiled to bytecode, which is verified and then executed by the Java Virtual Machine. Bytecode produced via compilation must pass verification. The main cause of complexity for bytecode verification is subroutines, used by compilers to generate more compact code. The techniques to verify subroutines proposed in the literature reject certain programs produced by mundane compilers, are difficult to realize within an implementation of the Java Virtual Machine or are relatively complicated. This paper presents a novel technique which is very simple to understand, implement and prove sound. It is also very powerful: the set of accepted programs has a simple characterization which most likely includes all the code produced by current compilers and which enables future compilers to make more extensive use of subroutines. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] User transparency: a fully sequential programming model for efficient data parallel image processingCONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 6 2004F. J. Seinstra Abstract Although many image processing applications are ideally suited for parallel implementation, most researchers in imaging do not benefit from high-performance computing on a daily basis. Essentially, this is due to the fact that no parallelization tools exist that truly match the image processing researcher's frame of reference. As it is unrealistic to expect imaging researchers to become experts in parallel computing, tools must be provided to allow them to develop high-performance applications in a highly familiar manner. In an attempt to provide such a tool, we have designed a software architecture that allows transparent (i.e. sequential) implementation of data parallel imaging applications for execution on homogeneous distributed memory MIMD-style multicomputers. This paper presents an extensive overview of the design rationale behind the software architecture, and gives an assessment of the architecture's effectiveness in providing significant performance gains. In particular, we describe the implementation and automatic parallelization of three well-known example applications that contain many fundamental imaging operations: (1) template matching; (2) multi-baseline stereo vision; and (3) line detection. Based on experimental results we conclude that our software architecture constitutes a powerful and user-friendly tool for obtaining high performance in many important image processing research areas. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Production Efficiency and the Pricing of Audit Services,CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 1 2003Nicholas Dopuch Abstract In this paper, we examine the relative efficiency of audit production by one of the then Big 6 public accounting firms for a sample of 247 geographically dispersed audits of U.S. companies performed in 1989. To test the relative efficiency of audit production, we use both stochastic frontier estimation (SFE) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). A feature of our research is that we also test whether any apparent inefficiencies in production, identified using SFE and DEA, are correlated with audit pricing. That is, do apparent inefficiencies cause the public accounting firm to reduce its unit price (billing rate) per hour of labor utilized on an engagement? With respect to results, we do not find any evidence of relative (within-sample) inefficiencies in the use of partner, manager, senior, or staff labor hours using SFE. This suggests that the SFE model may not be sufficiently powerful to detect inefficiencies, even with our reasonably large sample size. However, we do find apparent inefficiencies using the DEA model. Audits range from about 74 percent to 100 percent relative efficiency in production, while the average audit is produced at about an 88 percent efficiency level, relative to the most efficient audits in the sample. Moreover, the inefficiencies identified using DEA are correlated with the firm's realization rate. That is, average billing rates per hour fall as the amount of inefficiency increases. Our results suggest that there are moderate inefficiencies in the production of many of the subject public accounting firm's audits, and that such inefficiencies are economically costly to the firm. [source] Potential Errors in Detecting Earnings Management: Reexamining Studies Investigating the AMT of 1986,CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 4 2001Won W. Choi Abstract In this paper we seek to document errors that could affect studies of earnings management. The book income adjustment (BIA) of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) created apparently strong incentives to manage book income downward in 1987. Five earlier papers using different methodologies and samples all conclude that earnings were reduced in response to the BIA. This consensus of findings offers an opportunity to investigate our speculation that methodological biases are more likely when there appear to be clear incentives for earnings management. A reexamination of these studies uncovers potential biases related to a variety of factors, including choices of scaling variables, selection of affected and control samples, and measurement error in estimated discretionary accruals. A reexamination of the argument underlying these studies also suggests that the incentives to manage earnings are less powerful than initially predicted, and are partially mitigated by tax and non-tax factors. As a result, we believe that the extent of earnings management that occurred in 1987 in response to the BIA remains an unresolved issue. [source] GENDER, STRUCTURAL DISADVANTAGE, AND URBAN CRIME: DO MACROSOCIAL VARIABLES ALSO EXPLAIN FEMALE OFFENDING RATES?,CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 2 2000DARRELL STEFFENSMEIER Building on prior macrosocial-crime research that sought to explain either total crime rates or male rates, this study links female offending rates to structural characteristics of U.S. cities. Specifically, we go beyond previous research by: (1) gender disaggregating the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) index-crime rates (homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft) across U.S. cities; (2) focusing explicitly on the effects of structural disadvantage variables on the index-offending rates of females; and (3) comparing the effects of the structural variables on female rates with those for male rates. Alternative measures of structural disadvantage are used to provide more theoretically appropriate indicators, such as gender-specific poverty and joblessness, and controls are included for age structure and structural variables related to offending. The main finding is consistent and powerful: The structural sources of high levels of female offending resemble closely those influencing male offending, but the effects tend to be stronger on male offending rates. [source] Blood volume, blood pressure and total body sodium: internal signalling and output controlACTA PHYSIOLOGICA, Issue 1 2009P. Bie Abstract Total body sodium and arterial blood pressure (ABP) are mutually dependent variables regulated by complex control systems. This review addresses the role of ABP in the normal control of sodium excretion (NaEx), and the physiological control of renin secretion. NaEx is a pivotal determinant of ABP, and under experimental conditions, ABP is a powerful, independent controller of NaEx. Blood volume is a function of dietary salt intake; however, ABP is not, at least not in steady states. A transient increase in ABP after a step-up in sodium intake could provide a causal relationship between ABP and the regulation of NaEx via a hypothetical integrative control system. However, recent data show that subtle sodium loading (simulating salty meals) causes robust natriuresis without changes in ABP. Changes in ABP are not necessary for natriuresis. Normal sodium excretion is not regulated by pressure. Plasma renin is log-linearly related to salt intake, and normally, decreases in renin secretion are a precondition of natriuresis after increases in total body sodium. Renin secretion is controlled by renal ABP, renal nerve activity and the tubular chloride concentrations at the macula densa (MD). Renal nerve activity is related to blood volume, also at constant ABP, and elevates renin secretion by means of ,1 -adrenoceptors. Recent results indicate that renal denervation reduces ABP and renin activity, and that sodium loading may decrease renin without changes in ABP, glomerular filtration rate or ,1 -mediated nerve activity. The latter indicates an essential role of the MD mechanism and/or a fourth mediator of the physiological control of renin secretion. [source] Equilibrium and growth shapes of crystals: how do they differ and why should we care?CRYSTAL RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 4-5 2005Robert F. SekerkaArticle first published online: 15 MAR 200 Abstract Since the death of Prof. Dr. Jan Czochralski nearly 50 years ago, crystals grown by the Czochralski method have increased remarkably in size and perfection, resulting today in the industrial production of silicon crystals about 30 cm in diameter and two meters in length. The Czochralski method is of great technological and economic importance for semiconductors and optical crystals. Over this same time period, there have been equally dramatic improvements in our theoretical understanding of crystal growth morphology. Today we can compute complex crystal growth shapes from robust models that reproduce most of the features and phenomena observed experimentally. We should care about this because it is likely to result in the development of powerful and economical design tools to enable future progress. Crystal growth morphology results from an interplay of crystallographic anisotropy and growth kinetics by means of interfacial processes and long-range transport. The equilibrium shape of a crystal results from minimizing its anisotropic surface free energy under the constraint of constant volume; it is given by the classical Wulff construction but can also be represented by an analytical formula based on the ,-vector formalism of Hoffman and Cahn. We now have analytic criteria for missing orientations (sharp corners or edges) on the equilibrium shape, both in two (classical) and three (new) dimensions. Crystals that grow under the control of interfacial kinetic processes tend asymptotically toward a "kinetic Wulff shape", the analogue of the Wulff shape, except it is based on the anisotropic interfacial kinetic coefficient. If it were not for long range transport, crystals would presumably nucleate with their equilibrium shape and then evolve toward their "kinetic Wulff shape". Allowing for long range transport leads to morphological instabilities on the scale of the geometric mean of a transport length (typically a diffusivity divided by the growth speed) and a capillary length (of the order of atomic dimensions). Resulting crystal growth shapes can be cellular or dendritic, but can also exhibit corners and facets related to the underlying crystallographic anisotropy. Within the last decade, powerful phase field models, based on a diffuse interface, have been used to treat simultaneously all of the above phenomena. Computed morphologies can exhibit cells, dendrites and facets, and the geometry of isotherms and isoconcentrates can also be determined. Results of such computations are illustrated in both two and three dimensions. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Situating Global Capitalisms: A View from Wall Street Investment BanksCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2005Karen Ho The project of conceptualizing powerful subjects and intervening against Wall Street investment banks' hegemonic claims is thwarted by social scientific norms of approaching late capitalism and globalization. Overarching scripts of capitalist globalization not only prevent understanding the heterogeneous and complicated particularities of Wall Street's approaches to the global but also ironically parallel the marketing schemes and hyped representations of Wall Street capitalist promoters. Drawing from in-depth fieldwork with investment bankers, this article portrays Wall Street's uses and understandings of the global and the contingencies and contexts of its global imaginings. It demonstrates that even for the most seemingly globalized and powerful of actors, global ambitions can implode and generate internal contradictions. [source] The Flexible and the Pliant: Disturbed Organisms of Soviet ModernityCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2004Serguei Alex. In the texts of prominent Soviet figures such as writer Maxim Gorky, the agrobiologist Trofim Lysenko, and the educator Anton Makarenko, the uncertainty of social norms in early Soviet society became equated with an instability of environment in general and nature in particular. A powerful and vivid rhetoric of a "second nature," to use Gorky's phrase, overcame the absence of clearly articulated models for subjectivity. A series of disciplining routines and activities capable of producing the new Soviet subject compensated in the 1930s for the dissolution of the daily order of things and all the structuring effects, social networks, and reciprocal obligations that were associated with it. [source] The Effect of Full-Face Broadband Light Treatments Alone and in Combination With Bilateral Crow's Feet Botulinum Toxin Type A ChemodenervationDERMATOLOGIC SURGERY, Issue 3 2004Jean Carruthers MD Background. Broadband light (BBL; Intense Pulsed Light; Lumenis Ltd., Yokneam, Israel) is a powerful, nonablative, light-based technology that targets melanin and hemoglobin and stimulates the formation of collagen and elastin. Botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A; BOTOX; Allergan Inc., Irvine, CA) treatment of the lateral periocular region relaxes the vertical fibers of the orbicularis oculi and results in softening of the lateral orbital crow's feet rhytides and widening of the palpebral aperture. Objective. To compare the effects of full-face BBL in combination with BTX-A and BBL alone in female subjects with Fitzpatrick I,III skin types, Glogau II,III rhytides, and significant associated facial lentigines and telangiectasia. Methods. This was a prospective, randomized study of 30 women with moderate to severe crow's feet rhytides. Half of the subjects were treated with BTX-A and BBL and the other half with BBL alone. Their response was assessed clinically and photographically. Skin biopsies of the temporal skin were taken from two subjects in each group and were stained with Masson trichrome. Results. Patients treated with a combination of BTX-A and BBL experienced a better response to treatment, both at rest and on maximum smile, as well as a slightly improved response in associated lentigines, telangiectasia, pore size, and facial skin texture compared with patients who received BBL treatment alone. Skin biopsies showed an increase in dermal collagen in each group. Conclusions. The patients in this study benefited from both treatments. Although BBL led to a remarkable improvement in full-face telangiectasias, lentigines, and skin texture, the improvement increased in all categories with combination therapy. In addition, an added improvement in the full-face aesthetic with both BTX-A and BBL therapy combined was obvious. These results suggest that both treatments,although evidently complementary,may also act synergistically to produce optimal clinical effects, revolutionizing the treatment of facial aging. [source] Building Leadership Brands by DesignDESIGN MANAGEMENT REVIEW, Issue 2 2005Jerry Kathman Distilling 30 years of experience, Jerry Kathman articulates four timeless principles companies can embrace to establish powerful and enduring brands. Richly amplified with examples, these tenets speak to the content and characteristics of effective brands, the ways in which they are communicated and nurtured, design issues, the necessity to innovate, and the types of relationships compelling brands have with consumers. [source] Powerful brands, Perspectives of design managers from around the globeDESIGN MANAGEMENT REVIEW, Issue 1 2001Article first published online: 10 JUN 2010 We asked design managers around the globe to identify brands they thought were especially powerful. Each of them selected one or two, sharing with us their rationale for making those choices. The breadth of their selections indicates that success isn't limited to any one arena or industry. More significantly, the thinking behind their choices offers concise but valuable commentary on brand management. It's a whirlwind tour of brand appreciation. Enjoy! [source] ,EVEN IF YOU'RE POSITIVE, YOU STILL HAVE RIGHTS BECAUSE YOU ARE A PERSON': HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE REPRODUCTIVE CHOICE OF HIV-POSITIVE PERSONSDEVELOPING WORLD BIOETHICS, Issue 1 2008LESLIE LONDON ABSTRACT Global debates in approaches to HIV/AIDS control have recently moved away from a uniformly strong human rights-based focus. Public health utilitarianism has become increasingly important in shaping national and international policies. However, potentially contradictory imperatives may require reconciliation of individual reproductive and other human rights with public health objectives. Current reproductive health guidelines remain largely nonprescriptive on the advisability of pregnancy amongst HIV-positive couples, mainly relying on effective counselling to enable autonomous decision-making by clients. Yet, health care provider values and attitudes may substantially impact on the effectiveness of nonprescriptive guidelines, particularly where social norms and stereotypes regarding childbearing are powerful, and where providers are subjected to dual loyalty pressures, with potentially adverse impacts on rights of service users. Data from a study of user experiences and perceptions of reproductive and HIV/AIDS services are used to illustrate a rights analysis of how reproductive health policy should integrate a rights perspective into the way services engage with HIV-positive persons and their reproductive choices. The analysis draws on recognised tools developed to evaluate health policies for their human rights impacts and on a model developed for health equity research in South Africa to argue for greater recognition of agency on the part of persons affected by HIV/AIDS in the development and content of policies on reproductive choices. We conclude by proposing strategies that are based upon a synergy between human rights and public health approaches to policy on reproductive health choices for persons with HIV/AIDS. [source] Global Environmental Governance and the Challenge of Shadow States: The Impact of Illicit Sapphire Mining in MadagascarDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 5 2005Rosaleen Duffy The environment has become a key site of global governance because of its transboundary nature: forests, wildlife and oceans have all become central foci for networks of global governance which link international organizations, international financial institutions, states and non-governmental organizations. This article examines how contemporary forms of global governance can be challenged and even subverted. It uses the concept of shadow states introduced by William Reno to explore how invisible global networks flow through developing states, to show how they constitute important political and economic interest groups, and to assess what kinds of environmental impact they have. It explores how powerful these networks are, and whether they are able to challenge or subvert attempts to manage, control or govern the environment. The author provides an analysis of the ways in which the clandestine networks of shadow states impact on conservation initiatives in the developing world, focusing on the features of global environmental governance and the problems posed by illicit gem mining and trafficking in Madagascar. [source] Single-cell gene profiling of planarian stem cells using fluorescent activated cell sorting and its "index sorting" function for stem cell researchDEVELOPMENT GROWTH & DIFFERENTIATION, Issue 1 2010Tetsutaro Hayashi To achieve an integrated understanding of the stem cell system of planarians at both the cellular and molecular levels, we developed a new method by combining "fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS) index sorting" analysis and single-cell reverse transcription,polymerase chain reaction (RT,PCR) to detect the gene expression and cell cycle state of stem cells simultaneously. Single cells were collected using FACS, and cDNAs of each cell were used for semi-quantitative RT,PCR. The results were plotted on the FACS sorting profile using the "index sorting" function, which enabled us to analyze the gene expression in combination with cell biological data (such as cell cycle phase) for each cell. Here we investigated the adult stem cells of planarians using this method and obtained findings suggesting that the stem cells might undergo commitment during S to G2/M phase. This method could be a powerful and straightforward tool for examining the stem cell biology of not only planarians but also other organisms, including vertebrates. [source] Comparative and developmental study of the immune system in XenopusDEVELOPMENTAL DYNAMICS, Issue 6 2009Jacques Robert Abstract Xenopus laevis is the model of choice for evolutionary, comparative, and developmental studies of immunity, and invaluable research tools including MHC-defined clones, inbred strains, cell lines, and monoclonal antibodies are available for these studies. Recent efforts to use Silurana (Xenopus) tropicalis for genetic analyses have led to the sequencing of the whole genome. Ongoing genome mapping and mutagenesis studies will provide a new dimension to the study of immunity. Here we review what is known about the immune system of X. laevis integrated with available genomic information from S. tropicalis. This review provides compelling evidence for the high degree of similarity and evolutionary conservation between Xenopus and mammalian immune systems. We propose to build a powerful and innovative comparative biomedical model based on modern genetic technologies that takes take advantage of X. laevis and S. tropicalis, as well as the whole Xenopus genus. Developmental Dynamics 238:1249,1270, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Neuropeptides and appetite controlDIABETIC MEDICINE, Issue 8 2002J. P. H. Wilding Abstract Obesity is important in the aetiology of type 2 diabetes, and presents a major barrier to its successful prevention and management. Obesity develops when energy intake exceeds energy expenditure over time. A complex system has evolved to maintain energy homeostasis, but this is biased towards weight gain. Meal size is controlled by a series of short-term hormonal and neural signals that derive from the gastrointestinal tract, such as cholecystokinin whereas others may initiate meals, such as the recently discovered hormone, ghrelin. Other hormones such as insulin and leptin, together with circulating nutrients, indicate long-term energy stores. All these signals act at several central nervous system (CNS) sites but the pathways converge on the hypothalamus, which contains a large number of peptide and other neurotransmitters that influence food intake. As energy deficit is most likely to compromise survival, it is not surprising that the most powerful of these pathways are those that increase food intake and decrease energy expenditure when stores are depleted. When energy stores are low, production of leptin from adipose tissue, and thus circulating leptin concentrations fall, leading to increased production of hypothalamic neurotransmitters that strongly increase food intake, such as neuropeptide Y (NPY), galanin and agouti-related protein (AGRP) and decreased levels of ,-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (,-MSH), cocaine and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) and neurotensin that reduce food intake and increase energy expenditure. The finding that mutations in leptin and POMC lead to severe early onset obesity in bumans has highlighted the importance of these peptides in humans. This new understanding may eventually lead to new treatments for obesity that will be of particular benefit in the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes. Diabet. Med. 19, 619,627 (2002) [source] Conservation Biogeography: assessment and prospectDIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS, Issue 1 2005Robert J. Whittaker ABSTRACT There is general agreement among scientists that biodiversity is under assault on a global basis and that species are being lost at a greatly enhanced rate. This article examines the role played by biogeographical science in the emergence of conservation guidance and makes the case for the recognition of Conservation Biogeography as a key subfield of conservation biology delimited as: the application of biogeographical principles, theories, and analyses, being those concerned with the distributional dynamics of taxa individually and collectively, to problems concerning the conservation of biodiversity. Conservation biogeography thus encompasses both a substantial body of theory and analysis, and some of the most prominent planning frameworks used in conservation. Considerable advances in conservation guidelines have been made over the last few decades by applying biogeographical methods and principles. Herein we provide a critical review focussed on the sensitivity to assumptions inherent in the applications we examine. In particular, we focus on four inter-related factors: (i) scale dependency (both spatial and temporal); (ii) inadequacies in taxonomic and distributional data (the so-called Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls); (iii) effects of model structure and parameterisation; and (iv) inadequacies of theory. These generic problems are illustrated by reference to studies ranging from the application of historical biogeography, through island biogeography, and complementarity analyses to bioclimatic envelope modelling. There is a great deal of uncertainty inherent in predictive analyses in conservation biogeography and this area in particular presents considerable challenges. Protected area planning frameworks and their resulting map outputs are amongst the most powerful and influential applications within conservation biogeography, and at the global scale are characterised by the production, by a small number of prominent NGOs, of bespoke schemes, which serve both to mobilise funds and channel efforts in a highly targeted fashion. We provide a simple typology of protected area planning frameworks, with particular reference to the global scale, and provide a brief critique of some of their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, we discuss the importance, especially at regional scales, of developing more responsive analyses and models that integrate pattern (the compositionalist approach) and processes (the functionalist approach) such as range collapse and climate change, again noting the sensitivity of outcomes to starting assumptions. We make the case for the greater engagement of the biogeographical community in a programme of evaluation and refinement of all such schemes to test their robustness and their sensitivity to alternative conservation priorities and goals. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||