[Review of] Hoerder, Dirk. Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium

Cultures in Contact is an ambitious tome of the annotated world history of human mass migrations both within and between national boundaries. This book provides a glorious descriptive wealth of when, where, and to a lesser extent why mass migrations have occurred across the largest and most populous regions of the planet earth over the span of the past millennium. In this regard it may serve as a valued reference work for anyone curious about the bigger picture of migration flows; however, those seeking a simplistic theoretical synthesis that would account for the myriad patterns of human migrations over the past millennium will not be much gratified by Hoerder\u27s tome. As the author highlights in his introductory chapter, human migration flows may be either voluntary or coerced and in either case must be viewed in a socio-historically specific systems context

Prevention of cervical cancer in the Netherlands : Studies on cytology and HPV infections

Meijer, C.J.L.M. [Promotor]Snijders, P.J.F. [Promotor]Rozendaal, L. [Copromotor]Kemenade, F.J. van [Copromotor

Hmong on the Move : Understanding Secondary Migration

Between the time of first arrival of the Hmong refugees in 1975 and the mid-1990s, there has been much geographic movement of these new Americans. An initial pattern of Hmong residential dispersal throughout the American states has gradually transformed into a predominantly tri-state concentration (California, Wisconsin, and Minnesota). This highly distinctive resettlement pattern is the result of delicately balancing the most essential substance of Hmong tradition with pragmatic considerations such as job prospects (especially farming work), access to language and job training programs, extended family and clan obligations, changing federal policies for Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA), changing welfare eligibility regulations between the states (especially as it relates to AFDC-UP), climate and topographical considerations, and the like

Quantitative analysis of the mechanical environment in the embryonic heart with respect to its relationship in cardiac development

Includes bibliographical references.2015 Fall.In order to understand the causes of congenital heart defects, which afflict at least 4 infants per 1,000 live births, research has implemented the use of animal models to study embryonic heart development. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) have become one of the more prominent of these animal models due to the fact that their heart morphology at the earliest stages of development is remarkably similar to humans, and because embryos lack pigmentation, rendering them transparent. This transparency allows for high-speed images of blood flow to be acquired in the developing heart so that the mechanotransductive relationship between the intracardiac flow environment and myocardial progenitor cell differentiation can be understood. One particular aspect of the flow environment, a cyclic retrograde flow at the junction of the forming atrium and ventricle, has been shown to be necessary for valve formation, though the mechanisms causing it to occur had previously been unknown. By comparing the results of two-dimensional spatiotemporal analysis applied to embryos both with normal retrograde flow and inhibited retrograde flow, this study shows that a particular range of pressures associated with the pumping mechanics of the heart as well as resistance due to systolic contractile closure must exist in order to maintain adequate retrograde flow to induce valve formation. The use of two-dimensional spatiotemporal analysis was sufficient to acquire these results, however when applied to analysis of other aspects of the intracardiac flow environment, this computational method is subject to critical limitations. Therefore, this study includes the development of methodology to integrate the results of spatiotemporal analysis on multiple focal planes bisecting the heart into a more accurate, three-dimensional result. The results of this study not only increase our understanding of the mechanics behind an important factor in embryonic development, but also enable future experiments pertaining to the measurement of embryonic intracardiac blood flow to be performed with increased certainty

Qualitative and quantitative nature of mutual interactions dictate chemical noise in a democratic reaction network

The functions of a living cell rely on a complex network of biochemical reactions that allow it to respond against various internal and external cues. The outcomes of these chemical reactions are often stochastic due to intrinsic and extrinsic noise leading to population heterogeneity. The majority of calculations of stochasticity in reaction networks have focused on small regulatory networks addressing the role of timescales, feedback regulations, and network topology in propagation of noise. Here we computationally investigated chemical noise in a network with democratic architecture where each node is regulated by all other nodes in the network. We studied the effects of the qualitative and quantitative nature of mutual interactions on the propagation of both intrinsic and extrinsic noise in the network. We show that an increased number of inhibitory signals lead to ultrasensitive switching of average and that leads to sharp transition of intrinsic noise. The intrinsic noise exhibits a biphasic power-law scaling with the average, and the scaling coefficients strongly correlate with the strength of inhibitory signal. The noise strength critically depends on the strength of the interactions, where negative interactions attenuate both intrinsic and extrinsic noise

Production of organic seeds: Status, Challenges and Prospects

General article on the requirements of organic agriculture for seed production. Beside this the organic agricultural system has other demands for organic seed since it does not use chemical control measures and uses natural fertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers. Research can offer an important contribution in the production of seed without diseases

Gauges in the Bulk II: Models with Bulk Scalars

Extending previous work in Randall-Sundrum type models, we construct low-energy effective actions for braneworlds with a bulk scalar field, with special attention to the case of BPS branes. Holding the branes at fixed coordinate position with a general ansatz for the bulk metric, and imposing the Einstein frame as a gauge condition, we obtain a scalar-tensor theory with only one scalar degree of freedom related to the proper brane separation. The formalism is applicable even when there is direct coupling of the bulk scalar and brane matter, as in the Horava-Witten model. We further show that the usual moduli space approximation actually describes a non-BPS three-brane system.Comment: LaTeX file of 18 page