Struck in their hearts : David Zeisberger\u27s Moravian mission to the Delaware Indians in Ohio, 1767-1808

In 1767 David Zeisberger began his Moravian mission to the Delaware Indians in Ohio. He led this mission until his death in 1808. While Zeisberger and his assistants required conformity in matters religious, the converts did not have to make enormous changes in their traditional beliefs. The Delaware converts also did not have to alter their traditional economic, medical, housing, and diplomatic practices.;The goal of this study is to understand why hundreds of Delawares chose to convert, and why as many more chose to live at the mission. Many Delawares hoped to return to the peaceful life they had previously enjoyed. Many chiefs joined the mission and maintained their influence within the mission structure, and many followed these important men to the mission, believing that the latter must know something right. Others joined the mission because family members had converted. Many came to live at the mission to escape the destruction and danger of the revolutionary war, while others came to find an escape from the increasing disruption of drunkenness and witchcraft.;Previous studies have failed either to study the full chronological scope of the mission or have made serious errors in their conclusions. Unlike previous studies, it analyzes the structure and operations of the mission and the changes that were required of the converts.;Zeisberger\u27s success lay not only in the numbers of converts he gained but also in the relationships he forged with the Delaware and other Indian nations of Ohio. Even in the worst of circumstances, the Delaware converts chose to remain with or rejoin the mission. at all times Zeisberger managed to maintain friendly relations with most nations, even during times of war. Because of his leadership and tolerance, the converts continued to identify themselves as Delaware Indians; altering their religion did not remove their primary identity nor their sense of loyalty to their people. The converts, although now Moravian in faith, remained Delawares

Evaluation of a combination of SIFT-MS and multivariate data analysis for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium bovis in wild badgers

The currently accepted gold standard tuberculosis (TB) detection method for veterinary applications is that of culturing from a tissue sample post mortem. The test is accurate, but growing Mycobacterium bovis is difficult and the process can take up to 12 weeks to return a diagnosis. In this paper we evaluate a much faster screening approach based on serum headspace analysis using selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS). SIFT-MS is a rapid, quantitative gas analysis technique, with sample analysis times of as little as a few seconds. Headspace from above serum samples from wild badgers, captured as part of a randomised trial, was analysed. Multivariate classification algorithms were then employed to extract a simple TB diagnosis from the complex multivariate response provided by the SIFT-MS instrument. This is the first time that such multivariate analysis has been applied to SIFT-MS data. An accuracy of TB discrimination of approximately 88% true positive was achieved which shows promise, but the corresponding false positive rate of 38% indicates that there is more work to do before this approach could replace the culture test. Recommendations for future work that could increase the performance are therefore proposed

Dissemination of Research Findings to Research Participants Living with HIV in Rural Uganda: Challenges and Rewards

David Bangsberg and colleagues explore the challenges and rewards of sharing research findings with participants living with HIV enrolled in observational research in rural sub-Saharan Africa

Complexity, Development, and Evolution in Morphogenetic Collective Systems

Many living and non-living complex systems can be modeled and understood as collective systems made of heterogeneous components that self-organize and generate nontrivial morphological structures and behaviors. This chapter presents a brief overview of our recent effort that investigated various aspects of such morphogenetic collective systems. We first propose a theoretical classification scheme that distinguishes four complexity levels of morphogenetic collective systems based on the nature of their components and interactions. We conducted a series of computational experiments using a self-propelled particle swarm model to investigate the effects of (1) heterogeneity of components, (2) differentiation/re-differentiation of components, and (3) local information sharing among components, on the self-organization of a collective system. Results showed that (a) heterogeneity of components had a strong impact on the system's structure and behavior, (b) dynamic differentiation/re-differentiation of components and local information sharing helped the system maintain spatially adjacent, coherent organization, (c) dynamic differentiation/re-differentiation contributed to the development of more diverse structures and behaviors, and (d) stochastic re-differentiation of components naturally realized a self-repair capability of self-organizing morphologies. We also explored evolutionary methods to design novel self-organizing patterns, using interactive evolutionary computation and spontaneous evolution within an artificial ecosystem. These self-organizing patterns were found to be remarkably robust against dimensional changes from 2D to 3D, although evolution worked efficiently only in 2D settings.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 1 table; submitted to "Evolution, Development, and Complexity: Multiscale Models in Complex Adaptive Systems" (Springer Proceedings in Complexity Series

Waking up to sleepiness: Modafinil, the media and the pharmaceuticalisation of everyday/night life

This paper examines the social construction of the new wakefulness-promoting drug Modafinil (brand name Provigil) in the British press. Key themes in this newspaper coverage include the potential 'uses' and 'abuses' of this drug in relation to: (i) medical conditions; (ii) lifestyle choices; (iii) military operations; and (iv) sporting competition. The British press, we show, play a dual role in reporting on these trends and developments: on the one hand constructing this as something of a 'wonder drug' in relation to the treatment of a number of medical complaints or conditions, on the other hand articulating and amplifying a range of cultural concerns and anxieties about the non-medical 'uses' and 'abuses' of this drug, both now and in the future. These issues, it is argued, are best interpreted in terms of media concerns over the pharmaceuticalisation rather than the medicalisation of everyday/night life. The paper concludes with some further thoughts and reflections on these issues, including the potential reworking of notions of 'pharmaceutical Calvinism' and the 'elective affinity' between this 'smart' new drug and the spirit of (bio)capitalism