Freedom to Trade, Free Trade and Laissez-Faire: Latin American Approaches to Economic Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century

There were at least four stages in the nineteenth-century transition from mercantilism to "free trade". The first involved the freedom to trade with any country; the second led to the application of the same tariffs on imports from all countries. The third required the sharp reduction of the tariff rates themselves. The fourth assumed the subordination of the state to the market. This presentation explores how far Latin American countries advanced along this continuum in the nineteenth century

A one locus, biased mutation model and its equivalence to an unbiased model

Experimental data suggests that for some continuously varying characters under stabilising selection, mutation may cause a mean change in the value of the character. A one locus, mathematical model of a continuously varying biological character with this property of biased mutation is investigated. Via a mathematical transformation, the equilibrium equation describing a large population of individuals is reduced to the equilibrium equation describing a mutationally unbiased problem. Knowledge of an unbiased problem is thus su¢ cient to determine all equilibrium properties of the corresponding biased problem. In the biased mutation problem, the dependence of the mean equilibrium value of the character, as a function of the mutational bias, is non monotonic and remains small, for all levels of mutational bias. The analysis presented in this work sheds new light on Turelli's House of Cards approximation

Encounters with the military : toward an ethics of feminist critique?

This conversation developed from a panel titled “Interrogating the Militarized Masculine: Reflections on Research, Ethics and Access” held at the May 2013 International Feminist Journal of Politics conference at the University of Sussex, UK

Encapsulation and Controlled Release of rHu-Erythropoietin from Chitosan Biopolymer Nanoparticles

The objective of this research project was to develop a drug delivery system for recombinant human erythropoietin (rHu-EPO), a glycoprotein hormone used in the treatment of renal anaemia and chemotherapy induced anaemia, using the biopolymer chitosan as the base component. Two types of chitosan nanoparticles were produced through ionotropic gelation using flush mixing with either tripolyphosphate (TPP) or carrageenan polymer. Chitosan-TPP and chitosan-carrageenan nanoparticles were generated under a variety of conditions to evaluate the effects of chitosan concentration, chitosan to anion mass ratio and solution pH on the nanoparticle characteristics of particle diameter, surface charge and particle size distribution. A statistical method of experimentation design, known as response surface modeling, was applied to allow for accurate manipulation of nanoparticle characteristics and to create nanoparticles with optimized characteristics. The encapsulation and controlled release of rHu-EPO from chitosan nanoparticles was evaluated with chitosan-TPP nanoparticles demonstrating an encapsulation efficiency of 43.45±0.84% and ~68% drug release within two weeks, while chitosan-carrageenan nanoparticles had an encapsulation efficiency of 47.97±4.10% and ~50% drug release within two weeks. Both types of chitosan nanoparticles exhibited improved encapsulation and release of rHu-EPO compared to previous results. Also, the molecular weight of the chitosan used and the surface charge of the nanoparticles were shown to have an effect on the encapsulation and release of rHu-EPO