Missing the Point

“What would happen if we thought of Darfur as we do of Iraq, as a place with a history and politics—a messy politics of insurgency and counterinsurgency?” (§4). This is the most telling question posed by Professor Mahmood Mamdani in “The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency.” The implication is that the growing public demand for strong international action—military or otherwise—to halt the atrocities in Darfur is somehow unwarranted because people have failed to understand that the systematic crimes against humanity committed against civilians in Darfur (and indeed Iraq) are an inevitability of “the messy politics of insurgency and counterinsurgency.

Stick index of knots and links in the cubic lattice

The cubic lattice stick index of a knot type is the least number of sticks necessary to construct the knot type in the 3-dimensional cubic lattice. We present the cubic lattice stick index of various knots and links, including all (p,p+1)-torus knots, and show how composing and taking satellites can be used to obtain the cubic lattice stick index for a relatively large infinite class of knots. Additionally, we present several bounds relating cubic lattice stick index to other known invariants.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figure

The evaluation of evidence for exponentially distributed data

At present, likelihood ratios for two-level models are determined with the use of a normal kernel estimation procedure when the between-group distribution is thought to be non-normal. An extension is described here for a two-level model in which the between-group distribution is very positively skewed and an exponential distribution may be thought to represent a good model. The theoretical likelihood ratio is derived. A likelihood ratio based on a biweight kernel with an adaptation at the boundary is developed. The performance of this kernel is compared alongside those of normal kernels and normal and exponential parametric models. A comparison of performance is made for simulated data where results may be compared with those of theory, using the theoretical model, as the true parameter values for the models are known. There is also a comparison for forensic data, using the concentration of aluminium in glass as an exemplar. Performance is assessed by determining the numbers of occasions on which the likelihood ratios for sets of fragments from the same group are supportive of the proposition that they are from different groups and the numbers of occasions on which the likelihood ratios for sets of fragments from different group are supportive of the proposition that they are from the same group

High diversity of microplankton surrounds deep-water coral reef in the Norwegian Sea

Coral reefs that exist in the depths of the oceans are surrounded by Eukarya, Archaea and bacterial communities that may play an important role in the nutrition and health of the reef. The first interdomain community structure of planktonic organisms in seawater from a deep-water coral reef is described. Community profiling and analysis of ribosomal RNA gene sequences from a coral reef system at 350 m depth in the Norwegian Sea revealed a rich diversity of Eukarya and Bacteria and a moderate diversity of Archaea. Most sequences affiliated with marine microplankton from deep-sea to cold-surface regions, with many sequences being similar to those described in studies of mesopelagic and oxygen minimum zones. Dominant phylotypes belonged to the Alveolata (group I, II, dinoflagellates), Stramenopiles (silicoflagellates), Alphaproteobacteria (Pelagibacter ubique), Gammaproteobacteria (ARCTIC96BD-19), Bacteroidetes (Flavobacteria) and mesophilic Crenarchaeota (Nitrosopumilus maritimus). Several rare and novel members of the community fell into distinct phylogenetic groups. The inferred function of dominant community members suggested autotrophs that utilise light, ammonium or sulphide, and lifestyles based on host associations. The high diversity reflected a microplankton community structure, which is significantly different from that of microplankton collected at the same depth at a pelagic station away from reefs

Private Policies Examined: Fair Warning or Fair Game?

Posting privacy policies has become a popular practice with businesses as they seek to shield themselves from potential liability or regulation, as well as inform users about their privacy and rights. These policies are in many ways modeled after software license statements, and are often more legalistic than user friendly. This paper examines the current practice of privacy policies as fair warning hold up from a usability perspective, and what steps can be taken to ensure that the average user can protect their privacy online

Tracking website data-collection and privacy practices with the iWatch Web Crawler

In this paper we introduce the iWatch web crawler, a tool designed to catalogue and analyze online data practices and the use of privacy related indicators and technologies. Our goal in developing iWatch was to make possible a new type of analysis of trends, the impact of legislation on practices, and geographic and social differences online. In this paper we present preliminary findings from two sets of data collected 15 months apart and analyzed with this tool. Our combined samples included more than 240,000 pages from over 24,000 domains and 47 different countries. In addition to providing useful and needed data on the state of online data practices, we show that iWatch is a promising approach to the study of the web ecosystem.Keywords: P3P, Web-crawling, End-user's privacy, Privacy, Privacy technologies in terms of geography, Webbugs, Cookies, Data-collection practice

Enhancing skills of critical reflection to evidence learning in professional practice

Professional organisations and regulatory bodies are making critical reflection a mandatory component of professional practice. Reflection is a vital part of learning from experience and is central to developing and maintaining competency across a practitioner's lifetime. This paper will discuss key educational theories to illustrate why reflection is important. Kolb's and Gibbs' reflective cycles are used to structure the process of critical reflection. Elements of the educational tradition of Bildung are discussed and integrated to enrich the understanding of self and to facilitate the reader's ability to enhance their professional practice

Designing Next-Generation Local Drug Delivery Vehicles for Glioblastoma Adjuvant Chemotherapy: Lessons from the Clinic.

To date, the clinical outcomes and survival rates for patients with glioblastoma (GB) remain poor. A promising approach to disease-modification involves local delivery of adjuvant chemotherapy into the resection cavity, thus circumventing the restrictions imposed by the blood-brain barrier. The clinical performance of the only FDA-approved local therapy for GB [carmustine (BCNU)-loaded polyanhydride wafers], however, has been disappointing. There is an unmet medical need in the local treatment of GB for drug delivery vehicles that provide sustained local release of small molecules and combination drugs over several months. Herein, key quantitative lessons from the use of local and systemic adjuvant chemotherapy for GB in the clinic are outlined, and it is discussed how these can inform the development of next-generation therapies. Several recent approaches are highlighted, and it is proposed that long-lasting soft materials can capture the value of stiff BCNU-loaded wafers while addressing a number of unmet medical needs. Finally, it is suggested that improved communication between materials scientists, biomedical scientists, and clinicians may facilitate translation of these materials into the clinic and ultimately lead to improved clinical outcomes.The Winston Churchill Foundation of the United State

Ten Simple Rules for Getting Help from Online Scientific Communities

The increasing complexity of research requires scientists to work at the intersection of multiple fields and to face problems for which their formal education has not prepared them. For example, biologists with no or little background in programming are now often using complex scripts to handle the results from their experiments; vice versa, programmers wishing to enter the world of bioinformatics must know about biochemistry, genetics, and other fields. In this context, communication tools such as mailing lists, web forums, and online communities acquire increasing importance. These tools permit scientists to quickly contact people skilled in a specialized field. A question posed properly to the right online scientific community can help in solving difficult problems, often faster than screening literature or writing to publication authors. The growth of active online scientific communities, such as those listed in Table S1, demonstrates how these tools are becoming an important source of support for an increasing number of researchers. Nevertheless, making proper use of these resources is not easy. Adhering to the social norms of World Wide Web communication—loosely termed “netiquette”—is both important and non-trivial. In this article, we take inspiration from our experience on Internet-shared scientific knowledge, and from similar documents such as “Asking the Questions the Smart Way” and “Getting Answers”, to provide guidelines and suggestions on how to use online communities to solve scientific problems

Financialization directing strategy

Original article can be found at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01559982 Copyright Elsevier Ltd. DOI: 10.1016/j.accfor.2008.08.001This paper constructs an account of how financialization is directing strategy in the S&P 500. Financialization describes how changes in US accounting regulations require firms to account for the market value of capital market transactions where corporate strategy is not simply concerned with delivering value creation but also reacting to value absorption in an era of shareholder value. Financialization is directing strategy and arbitrage to modify stakeholder financial settlements where an increased share of income is extracted as surplus cash and more of this cash from operations is being distributed to shareholders. Share buy-backs account for a substantial increase in the share of corporate cash distributed to shareholders in the S&P 500 which, we argue, reflects a strategic process of value creation and value absorption.Peer reviewe