Convicts and coolies : rethinking indentured labour in the nineteenth century

This article seeks to shift the frame of analysis within which discussions of Indian indentured migration take place. It argues that colonial discourses and practices of indenture are best understood not with regard to the common historiographical framework of whether it was 'a new system of slavery', but in the context of colonial innovations in incarceration and confinement. The article shows how Indian experiences of and knowledge about transportation overseas to penal settlements informed in important ways both their own understandings and representations of migration and the colonial practices associated with the recruitment of indentured labour. In detailing the connections between two supposedly different labour regimes, it thus brings a further layer of complexity to debates around their supposed distinctions

Controlling a triangular flexible formation of autonomous agents

In formation control, triangular formations consisting of three autonomous agents serve as a class of benchmarks that can be used to test and compare the performances of different controllers. We present an algorithm that combines the advantages of both position- and distance-based gradient descent control laws. For example, only two pairs of neighboring agents need to be controlled, agents can work in their own local frame of coordinates and the orientation of the formation with respect to a global frame of coordinates is not prescribed. We first present a novel technique based on adding artificial biases to neighboring agents' range sensors such that their eventual positions correspond to a collinear configuration. Right after, a small modification in the bias terms by introducing a prescribed rotation matrix will allow the control of the bearing of the neighboring agents.Comment: 7 pages, accepted in the 20th World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC

The politics of punishment in colonial Mauritius, 1766-1887

The history of imprisonment in British colonial Mauritius is intertwined with its political economy, most especially the relationship between metropolitan government and plantation owners. Whether labour was predominantly enslaved, apprenticed or indentured, incarceration was part of a broader process through which the regulation of the colonial workforce was taken from the private to the public sphere and became associated with economic development. Nevertheless, prisoners both challenged and used prison regimes as vehicles for the improvement of their lives. Mauritian jails were intensely political arenas in which the changing nature of colonial relations and the regulation of labour was both expressed and contested

Going Vegan Or Vegetarian: Motivations & Influences

After studying hundreds of U.S. and Canadian consumers during their transition to vegetarianism or veganism (collectively referred to as veg*nism), a new report from research organization Faunalytics found that 42% of people’s veg*n journeys were motivated by health, 20% by animal protection, and 18% by environmental concern. For animal advocates interested in helping new vegans and vegetarians maintain their change of lifestyle, study results suggest a focus on self-driven motivations (like personal values or moral identity) and experiences with animal advocacy

Holding a world café with medical educators

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. The University of Liverpool introduced a new integrated spiral MBChB undergraduate medical curriculum in 2014/15. One aspect of this change was ensuring that key stakeholder partners (such as Trusts, hospitals and community GPs) felt supported and knowledgeable about the new programme delivery. Therefore, a World Cafe event was organised to identify issues relating to the new programme, and what the University could do to support the delivery of the curriculum in placement settings. Results from the event were thematically coded into topics including student skills, attendance, good practice, professionalism and technology. The event provided valuable information for the school and medical educators to help improve the student experience across placements and ensure effective partner working between stakeholders.</ns4:p

Hvordan påvirker digitalisering samhandling med kundene

Formålet med denne studien er å identifisere samhandlingsutfordringer og -muligheter digitalisering gir både kunder og regnskapsbyrå samt å analysere hva kan bedriftene fokusere på for å oppnå best mulig resultat og skape merverdi for kundene sine? I studien belyses sentrale elementer innen digitalisering og hvordan disse kan påvirke samhandling med kundene. I arbeidet med problemstillingen intervjues representanter for bransjen og tilbakemeldingene deres sammenholdes med teorier knyttet til samhandling og digitalisering. Gjennom studien viser jeg at ny teknologi skaper både muligheter og utfordringer som påvirker hele regnskapsførerbransjen. Automatisert arbeidshverdag betyr mange omstillingsprosesser og ny teknologi kan gi bedrifter som anvender slike et konkurransefortrinn, eksempelvis vil skybaserte løsninger kunne gi fordeler til både regnskapsbyrå og kunden, gjennom at flere oppgaver gjøres mer effektivt og raskere

Lensing signals in the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field using all 2nd order shape deformations

The long exposure times of the HST Ultra-Deep Field plus the use of an empirically derived position-dependent PSF, have enabled us to measure a cardioid/displacement distortion map coefficient as well as improving upon the sextupole map coefficient. We confirmed that curved background galaxies are clumped on the same angular scale as found in the HST Deep Field North. The new cardioid/displacement map coefficient is strongly correlated to a product of the sextupole and quadrupole coefficients. One would expect to see such a correlation from fits to background galaxies with quadrupole and sextupole moments. Events that depart from this correlation are expected to arise from map coefficient changes due to lensing, and several galaxy subsets selected using this criteria are indeed clumped

The Many Faces of Interleukin-6: The Role of IL-6 in Inflammation, Vasculopathy, and Fibrosis in Systemic Sclerosis

Interleukin-6 is currently attracting significant interest as a potential therapeutic target in systemic sclerosis (SSc). In this paper, the biology of interleukin-6 is reviewed, and the evidence for interleukin-6 dysregulation in SSc is explored. The role of inteleukin-6 classical and trans signalling pathways in SSc relevant phenomena such as chronic inflammation, autoimmunity, endothelial cell dysfunction, and fibrogenesis is discussed. The existing evidence that interventions designed to block interleukin-6 signalling are of therapeutic relevance in SSc is evaluated