A Muslim Perspective of Leadership – Insights from Oman

This paper presents a Muslim perspective of leadership as viewed from observing leaders in Muscat, Oman – the capital city of the Middle East country that has grown at the rate of just under 4% per year since 2000 and is awash with residents from places throughout the world. With this rate of growth and rich diversity, leadership designed to make an equitable impact is required to govern

Taking individual heterogeneity in mortality risks into account in demographic studies of wild animal populations: development and use of statistical models.

The Cormarck-Jolly-Seber model incorporating frailty implemented in WinBUGS, using the 9000 kittiwake’s dataset monitorized during 22 years, showed that the convergence is very low over computational view. We developed different kind of multistate model, considering independence/dependence between random effect of breeding and survival probability. The last part of the work was dedicated to model selection with Bayesian framework

A genome-wide investigation of the worldwide invader Sargassum muticum shows high success albeit (almost) no genetic diversity

Twenty years of genetic studies of marine invaders have shown that successful invaders are often characterized by native and introduced populations displaying similar levels of genetic diversity. This pattern is presumably due to high propagule pressure and repeated introductions. The opposite pattern is reported in this study of the brown seaweed, Sargassum muticum, an emblematic species for circumglobal invasions. Albeit demonstrating polymorphism in the native range, microsatellites failed to detect any genetic variation over 1,269 individuals sampled from 46 locations over the Pacific-Atlantic introduction range. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) obtained from ddRAD sequencing revealed some genetic variation, but confirmed severe founder events in both the Pacific and Atlantic introduction ranges. Our study thus exemplifies the need for extreme caution in interpreting neutral genetic diversity as a proxy for invasive potential. Our results confirm a previously hypothesized transoceanic secondary introduction from NE Pacific to Europe. However, the SNP panel unexpectedly revealed two additional distinct genetic origins of introductions. Also, conversely to scenarios based on historical records, southern rather than northern NE Pacific populations could have seeded most of the European populations. Finally, the most recently introduced populations showed the lowest selfing rates, suggesting higher levels of recombination might be beneficial at the early stage of the introduction process (i.e., facilitating evolutionary novelties), whereas uniparental reproduction might be favored later in sustainably established populations (i.e., sustaining local adaptation).Agence Nationale de la Recherche - ANR-10-BTBR-04; European Regional Development Fund; Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia - SFRH/BPD/107878/2015, UID/Multi/04326/2016, UID/Multi/04326/2019; Brittany Region;info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Is Transphobia Conditional? The Effects of Coming Out Before or After an Interaction

Knowing when to come out is an important decision in the lives of transgender people, especially as doing so can put them at great risk of hate crimes or aggressions. Coming out, however, can also bring a feeling of freedom and foster a community more openly. A friend or child coming out is different than a stranger coming out to you, and this may change how you feel towards this person’s queerness. A person you do not know is already in an out-group so you may be more likely to jump to negative conclusions about them. This is compounded if you are cisgender and they are transgender (or vice versa) and it is a further, perhaps more notable, out-group. This study explores when it is safe to come out by presenting participants with a vignette in which someone either comes out early in the vignette, late, or not at all to simulate someone coming out before or after you get to know them. Warmth and trust are then measured between transgender and cisgender participants. Results showed positive reception towards the character in the vignette who came out, and that transgender participants rated all characters higher than cisgender participants. It was also found that transgender participants, and cisgender participants with transgender friends, had higher explicit support of transgender people as a whole. This provides hopeful evidence that, while the world remains dangerous for transgender individuals, coming out is getting safer, and understanding its role is an important starting point for research

Imposter: A Graphic Novel

When we dream of running away, where do we run to, and what finds us there? I’ve wanted to run away from home since I was little. I dreamed of flying, of escaping to other worlds, and of finding them before they found me. Imposter is a story that’s been in progress for a long time. Sally, the main character, was created in high school, but the themes have been there, coming up in different ways, throughout my life. Every year I find a new way to escape, and that’s ok - sometimes you need a break. I think it’s important to take space. To understand that you are capable of choosing who you keep around, and that that may change. Family may not be forever, friends may not be forever - it’s a two-way street and you are in control of who you keep close. Of course there will always be power dynamics and complicated histories, but in general we are in control of this balance. Comics are dependent on relationships. Relationships between author, artist, and reader, and relationships between creator and story. A story will look different throughout its creation, and especially so depending on who’s reading it. They are collaborative, showing the motions of these connections, and they’re like diaries, sharing stories you didn’t know you had. This is a beginning. Comics are for all ages, for all places, for all people. There is so much I would like to explore in the relationship between art and words. Comics are a collaboration of mediums, and their interpretation as a story is a collaboration between the creator and the reader, and I’m excited to share this work, and see what voice it’s found for itself

Comparison of Information Structures and Completely Positive Maps

A theorem of Blackwell about comparison between information structures in classical statistics is given an analogue in the quantum probabilistic setup. The theorem provides an operational interpretation for trace-preserving completely positive maps, which are the natural quantum analogue of classical stochastic maps. The proof of the theorem relies on the separation theorem for convex sets and on quantum teleportation.Comment: 12 pages. Substantial changes. Accepted for publication in Journal of Physics

A Muslim Perspective of Leadership – Insights from Oman

This paper presents a Muslim perspective of leadership as viewed from observing leaders in Muscat, Oman – the capital city of the Middle East country that has grown at the rate of just under 4% per year since 2000 and is awash with residents from places throughout the world. With this rate of growth and rich diversity, leadership designed to make an equitable impact is required to govern

Variation Within the Species \u3cem\u3eMacroptilium atropurpureum\u3c/em\u3e Regarding Adaptation to Grazing

The twining legume Macroptilium atropurpureum cv. Siratro was released around 1960 (Hutton 1962) and the rust resistant cultivar Aztec was released in 1994 (Bray & Woodroffe 1995). The species showed great potential for pastures in northern Australia and was planted over some 220 Kha in the 1960\u27s and 70\u27s. The species was high yielding and readily eaten by cattle. However, by the early 1980\u27s the species had declined dramatically in grazed pastures. Clements (1989) showed that a major problem with Siratro was the frequency of removal of growing points. This leads to less regrowth after grazing, less seed set and hence less regenerative capacity. Accessions with greater branching characteristics may overcome this problem

No significant association between the promoter region polymorphisms of factor VII gene and risk of venous thrombosis in cancer patients

Factor VII (FVII) plays an important role in blood coagulation. The role of common polymorphisms influencing the FVII plasma levels in thromboembolic disorders has been evaluated but there is no published data related to the effect of FVII gene polymorphisms on the venous thrombosis risk in cancer. Aim: To investigate the association of three common functional polymorphisms in the promoter region of FVII gene: a decanucleotide insertion at position-323 (-323ins10-bp), a G to T substitution at position-401 (-401GT), and a G to A substitution at position-402 (-401GT) with venous thrombosis in cancer patients. Materials and Methods: The study included 60 cancer patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) (group 1) and 130 cancer patients without VTE (group 2). Genotyping of -323ins10-bp, -401GT, and -402GA polymorphisms in the promoter region of FVII gene was performed by the method of single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis and sequencing. Factor V Leiden (FVL) was also determined in all cases. Results: The frequency of FVL was significantly greater in cancer patients with VTE compared with group 2 patients (p 0.05). The results did not change significantly after the exclusion of patients carrying the FVL (p > 0.05). Conclusions: The screening for the -323ins10-bp, -401GT, and -402GA olymorphisms of FVII gene did not contribute to a meaningful diagnostic nvestigation in cancer patients with venous thrombosis