Sanctuary and the Cold War: The US Versus The Sanctuary Movement in Texas and Arizona 1981-1986

In the 1980s, the Reagan Administration launched a campaign against the American Solidarity and sanctuary movements, which were highly critical of US support for right-wing dictatorships in Central America. The US sought to discredit these movements by branding their members criminals. The government used many different tactics, some legitimate and others illegal. None were successful, however, and the government was ultimately forced to leave the movements alone. This thesis examines three different hotspots in the Reagan Administration’s war against these groups. It examines the different tactics employed and analyzes their effectiveness. It also explains why the government was unsuccessful in its prosecution

Application of Wireless Sensor Networks for Indoor Temperature Regulation

International audienceWireless sensor networks take a major part in our everyday lives by enhancing systems for home automation, healthcare, temperature control, energy consumption monitoring, and so forth. In this paper we focus on a system used for temperature regulation for residential, educational, industrial, and commercial premises, and so forth. We propose a framework for indoor temperature regulation and optimization using wireless sensor networks based on ZigBee platform. This paper considers architectural design of the system, as well as implementation guidelines. The proposed system favors methods that provide energy savings by reducing the amount of data transmissions through the network. Furthermore, the framework explores techniques for localization, such that the location of the nodes can be used by algorithms that regulate temperature settings

LineKing: Coffee Shop Wait-Time Monitoring Using Smartphones

This article describes LineKing, a crowdsensing system for monitoring and forecasting coffee shop line wait times. LineKing consists of a smartphone component that provides automatic and accurate wait-time detection, and a cloud backend that uses the collected data to provide accurate wait-time estimation. LineKing is used on a daily basis by hundreds of users to monitor the wait-times of a coffee shop in the University at Buffalo, SUNY. The novel wait-time estimation algorithms of LineKing deployed at the cloud backend provide median absolute errors of less than 3 minutes. © 2002-2012 IEEE

N-[(4-Amino-5-sulfanyl­idene-4,5-dihydro-1H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)meth­yl]-4-methyl­benzamide

In the title compound, C11H13N5OS, the dihedral angle between the triazole ring and the benzene ring is 84.21 (7)°. The amino group adopts a pyramidal configuration. An intra­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond stabilizes the mol­ecular structure and generates an S(8) ring. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked by inter­molecular N—H⋯O, N—H⋯S, N—H⋯N and C—H⋯S hydrogen bonds into layers lying parallel to the bc plane. The crystal structure is further stabilized by aromatic π–π stacking inter­actions [centroid–centroid distance = 3.3330 (7) Å]

Breast cancer in association with thyroid disorders

BACKGROUND: The relationship between breast cancer and thyroid diseases is controversial. Discrepant results have been reported in the literature. The incidences of autoimmune and nonautoimmune thyroid diseases were investigated in patients with breast cancer and age-matched control individuals without breast or thyroid disease. METHODS: Clinical and ultrasound evaluation of thyroid gland, determination of serum thyroid hormone and antibody levels, and fine-needle aspiration of thyroid gland were performed in 150 breast cancer patients and 100 control individuals. RESULTS: The mean values for anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies were significantly higher in breast cancer patients than in control individuals (P = 0.030). The incidences of autoimmune and nonautoimmune thyroid diseases were higher in breast cancer patients than in control individuals (38% versus 17%, P = 0.001; 26% versus 9%, P = 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our results indicate an increased prevalence of autoimmune and nonautoimmune thyroid diseases in breast cancer patients

(E)-N-Benzyl­idene-4H-1,2,4-triazol-4-amine

The title compound, C9H8N4, crystallizes with three independent mol­ecules (A, B and C) per asymmetric unit. The independent mol­ecules differ slightly in their conformations, the dihedral angles between the triazole and phenyl rings in mol­ecules A, B and C being 4.8 (2), 9.7 (2) and 7.2 (2)°, respectively. In the crystal, the independent mol­ecules are linked into a trimer by C—H⋯N hydrogen bonds

Mitochondrial Superoxide Dismutase Overexpression and Low Oxygen Conditioning Hormesis Improve the Performance of Irradiated Sterile Males

The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is a successful autocidal control method that uses ionizing radiation to sterilize insects. However, irradiation in normal atmospheric conditions can be damaging for males, because irradiation generates substantial biological oxidative stress that, combined with domestication and mass-rearing conditions, may reduce sterile male sexual competitiveness and quality. In this study, biological oxidative stress and antioxidant capacity were experimentally manipulated in Anastrepha suspensa using a combination of low-oxygen conditions and transgenic overexpression of mitochondrial superoxide dismutase (SOD2) to evaluate their role in the sexual behavior and quality of irradiated males. Our results showed that SOD2 overexpression enhances irradiated insect quality and improves male competitiveness in leks. However, the improvements in mating performance were modest, as normoxia-irradiated SOD2 males exhibited only a 22% improvement in mating success compared to normoxia-irradiated wild type males. Additionally, SOD2 overexpression did not synergistically improve the mating success of males irradiated in either hypoxia or severe hypoxia. Short-term hypoxic and severe-hypoxic conditioning hormesis, per se, increased antioxidant capacity and enhanced sexual competitiveness of irradiated males relative to non-irradiated males in leks. Our study provides valuable new information that antioxidant enzymes, particularly SOD2, have potential to improve the quality and lekking performance of sterile males used in SIT programs

An unusual complication of ureteral double-J stent placement: ureteral perforation

Ureteral double-J stent implantation has become a routine procedure in the management of a variety of urinary tract pathologies. Although this is a safe and simple procedure, there can be unexpected severe complications such as malpositioning, encrustation, ureteral erosion, intravascular migration, hematoma and ureterovascular fistula. Intraoperative fluoroscopic examination and postoperative imaging modalities are useful in early diagnosis and prevention of these complications. We present a case of right ureteral perforation during retrograde double-J stent implantation. To our knowledge ureteral perforation due to double-J stent placement has not been previously described