The battle of Detroit and anti-communism in the depression era

This article is an exploration of Diego Rivera's visit to Detroit in 1932-3. It seeks to use his experiences, and in particular the spectacular popular reaction to the Detroit Industry murals he pointed, as a prism for anaylsing varieties of anti-communism in. Detroit in the depression era. The article argues that close relationships between Private capitalists, most notably Hen?)) Ford and a Mexican communist, expose contradictions in big business's use of anti-communism in the interwar period, and suggest that anti-communism was a more complicated phenomenon than simply a tool for the promotion of free enterprise'. Moreover, by comparing the public reaction to the artists' work with their original intent, it is possible to see how members of Detroit's society unconsciously, used anti-communism to sublimate broader concerns over race and ethnicity gender, politics, and religiosity in a region in the throes of profound social change. The article seeks to highlight elements of these latent anxieties and fears in order to show how anti-communism acted as a vessel for social debate

Economic Evaluation of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) in Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC), CHERE Working Paper 2007/6

Background: There are several perceived benefits from introducing positron emission tomography (PET) scanning into the staging of non small lung cancer (NSCLC). However, its greatest primary benefit is the role it can potential perform in reducing the number of unnecessary diagnostic examinations and futile surgeries. Objectives: To evaluate the economic impact and cost effectiveness of PET scanning in the management of potentially operable NSCLC patients using a cost-utility model. Methods: A literature review was conducted to find relevant studies and appropriate parameters to construct a decision model. Two strategies were compared. The first strategy was a conventional work up (CWU) consisting of an x-ray, a chest computer tomography (CT) scan and brochoscopy; the second strategy consisted of a CWU plus a whole body PET scan. These two strategies were applied to two sub-groups of NSCLC patients; those that had received a positive result on their CT scan and those that got a negative result on their CT scan. The cost-effectiveness of each strategy was dependent on a number of variables that were taken from a literature review. Costs were based on the Australian diagnostic related groups, a cost calculation for a chemotherapy course and values obtained from the literature. The life expectancy and utility scores were also taken from the literature and combined to create an incremental quality adjusted life year (QALY) value for PET for each of the patient groups. Results: The mean costs in CT negative and CT positive patients were lower in the CWU strategy, costing $A 20,427 and$A 23,578 per patient respectively compared to the PET strategy ($A 20,826 and$A 24,083 per patient respectively). The mean QALYs for both the CT positive and CT negative patients were higher in PET with 2.91 and 2.11 respectively compared to the CWU of 2.88 and 2.09. The incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER) for the CT negative strategy was $A 14,581 and$A 52,039 for the CT positive strategy. Conclusion: The PET strategy in CT negative and CT positive patients appears to be cost effective, however, there is much uncertainty surrounding this base result, particularly in CT positive patients.PET, non-small-cell lung cancer, economic evaluation

Passing the Torch? Anglo-American Encounters in the British West Indies and Negotiating White Supremacy, c. 1865–1914

This article explores encounters between U.S. tourists and British imperial actors in the British West Indies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Drawing on published traveller accounts from the period, it argues that literary cross-fertilization and practices of colonial sociability encouraged shared understandings of the Caribbean framed around visions of global white supremacy. Although these supported the Anglo-Saxonist project that underpinned the geopolitical rapprochement between the two powers between the 1890s and First World War, there were also tensions and disagreements, especially over which nation was best placed to defend the racial order in the Caribbean in the new century. As the volume of U.S. tourists grew, these disagreements became clearer, as revealed in the accounts given of the aftermath of the diplomatic crisis that followed the Kingston earthquake of 1907. Traveller accounts on the ground contrasted with efforts in Washington and London to resolve the crisis amicably. In this sense, the cultural politics of inter-imperial sociability did not always perfectly align with geopolitical imperatives

The ICTD Government Revenue Dataset

tax; revenue; government revenue; data.A major obstacle to cross-country research on the role of revenue and taxation in development has been the weakness of available data. This paper presents a new Government Revenue Dataset (GRD), developed through the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD). The dataset meticulously combines data from several major international databases, as well as drawing on data compiled from all available International Monetary Fund (IMF) Article IV reports. It achieves marked improvements in data coverage and accuracy, including a standardised approach to revenue from natural resources, and holds the promise of significant improvement in the credibility and robustness of research in this area. This paper sets out the issues with existing sources and explains the process of creating the new dataset, including a discussion of remaining limitations. It then presents data on tax and revenue trends over the past two decades, while a concluding section briefly considers potential strategies for, and barriers to, more effective data collection in future.DfID, NORA

Decolonising Wikipedia: opportunities for digital knowledge activism

This article describes the establishment of the Decolonising Wikipedia Network (DWN) during the first lockdown of 2020, by staff and student Changemakers at London College of Communication. It outlines the approaches used to set up and facilitate DWN as a digital knowledge activism initiative, highlighting key outcomes. This includes an extra-curricular activity for students and staff belonging to the CRiSAP Sound Arts Research Centre and in-curricula activity on the MA Photojournalism Documentary Photography course. The article provides helpful insights for readers on evolving staff-student knowledge activism projects through digital learning platforms.

Decolonising Wikipedia: opportunities for digital knowledge activism

This article describes the establishment of the Decolonising Wikipedia Network (DWN) during the first lockdown of 2020, by staff and student Changemakers at London College of Communication. It outlines the approaches used to set up and facilitate DWN as a digital knowledge activism initiative, highlighting key outcomes. This includes an extra-curricular activity for students and staff belonging to the CRiSAP Sound Arts Research Centre and in-curricula activity on the MA Photojournalism Documentary Photography course. The article provides helpful insights for readers on evolving staff-student knowledge activism projects through digital learning platforms

Tractography in the presence of multiple sclerosis lesions

Accurate anatomical localisation of specific white matter tracts and the quantification of their tract-specific microstructural damage in conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS) can contribute to a better understanding of symptomatology, disease evolution and intervention effects. Diffusion MRI-based tractography is being used increasingly to segment white matter tracts as regions-of-interest for subsequent quantitative analysis. Since MS lesions can interrupt the tractography algorithm’s tract reconstruction, clinical studies frequently resort to atlas-based approaches, which are convenient but ignorant to individual variability in tract size and shape. Here, we revisit the problem of individual tractography in MS, comparing tractography algorithms using: (i) The diffusion tensor framework; (ii) constrained spherical deconvolution (CSD); and (iii) damped Richardson-Lucy (dRL) deconvolution. Firstly, using simulated and in vivo data from 29 MS patients and 19 healthy controls, we show that the three tracking algorithms respond differentially to MS pathology. While the tensor-based approach is unable to deal with crossing fibres, CSD produces spurious streamlines, in particular in tissue with high fibre loss and low diffusion anisotropy. With dRL, streamlines are increasingly interrupted in pathological tissue. Secondly, we demonstrate that despite the effects of lesions on the fibre orientation reconstruction algorithms, fibre tracking algorithms are still able to segment tracts that pass through areas with a high prevalence of lesions. Combining dRL-based tractography with an automated tract segmentation tool on data from 131 MS patients, the cortico-spinal tracts and arcuate fasciculi could be reconstructed in more than 90% of individuals. Comparing tract-specific microstructural parameters (fractional anisotropy, radial diffusivity and magnetisation transfer ratio) in individually segmented tracts to those from a tract probability map, we show that there is no systematic disease-related bias in the individually reconstructed tracts, suggesting that lesions and otherwise damaged parts are not systematically omitted during tractography. Thirdly, we demonstrate modest anatomical correspondence between the individual and tract probability-based approach, with a spatial overlap between 35 and 55%. Correlations between tract-averaged microstructural parameters in individually segmented tracts and the probability-map approach ranged between r=.53 ( p<.001 ) for radial diffusivity in the right cortico-spinal tract and r=.97 ( p<.001 ) for magnetisation transfer ratio in the arcuate fasciculi. Our results show that MS white matter lesions impact fibre orientation reconstructions but this does not appear to hinder the ability to anatomically reconstruct white matter tracts in MS. Individual tract segmentation in MS is feasible on a large scale and could prove a powerful tool for investigating diagnostic and prognostic markers

New Caledonian crows rapidly solve a collaborative problem without cooperative cognition

There is growing comparative evidence that the cognitive bases of cooperation are not unique to humans. However, the selective pressures that lead to the evolution of these mechanisms remain unclear. Here we show that while tool-making New Caledonian crows can produce collaborative behavior, they do not understand the causality of cooperation nor show sensitivity to inequity. Instead, the collaborative behavior produced appears to have been underpinned by the transfer of prior experience. These results suggest that a number of possible selective pressures, including tool manufacture and mobbing behaviours, have not led to the evolution of cooperative cognition in this species. They show that causal cognition can evolve in a domain specific manner-understanding the properties and flexible uses of physical tools does not necessarily enable animals to grasp that a conspecific can be used as a social tool