Rights at War: British Counterinsurgency in Cyprus, Aden, and Northern Ireland

This study analyzes the role of human rights activism during three post-1945 British counterinsurgency campaigns in Cyprus (1955-1959), Aden (1963-1967), and the Northern Ireland “Troubles” (emphasizing 1969-1976). Based on material gathered from 15 archives in four countries as well as oral history records and personal papers, this study demonstrates that human rights activism shaped British operational decisions during each of these conflicts. Activists mobilized ideas of human rights to restrain counterinsurgency violence by defining certain British actions as illegal or morally unjustifiable. Although British forces often prevented activists from restraining state violence, activists forced government officials and military commanders to develop new ways of covering up human rights abuses. Focusing the analytical lens on activists and the officials with whom they interacted places rights activists on the counterinsurgency “battlefield” not as traditional arms-bearing combatants, but as actors who nonetheless influenced warfare by shaping military decisions.Doctor of Philosoph

Providing access to risk prediction tools via the HL7 XML-formatted risk web service

Background: Cancer risk prediction tools provide valuable information to clinicians but remain computationally challenging. Many clinics find that Ca Gene or Hughes Risk Apps fit their needs for easy- and ready-to-use software to obtain cancer risks; however, these resources may not fit all clinics’ needs. The Hughes Risk Apps Group and Bayes Mendel Lab therefore developed a web service, called “Risk Service", which may be integrated into any client software to quickly obtain standardized and up-to-date risk predictions for Bayes Mendel tools (BRCAPRO, MMRpro, PancPRO, and MelaPRO), the Tyrer-Cuzick IBIS Breast Cancer Risk Evaluation Tool, and the Colorectal Cancer Risk Assessment Tool. Findings: Software clients that can convert their local structured data into the HL7 XML-formatted family and clinical patient history (Pedigree model) may integrate with the Risk Service. The Risk Service uses Apache Tomcat and Apache Axis2 technologies to provide an all Java web service. The software client sends HL7 XML information containing anonymized family and clinical history to a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) server where it is parsed, interpreted, and processed by multiple risk tools. The Risk Service then formats the results into an HL7 style message and returns the risk predictions to the originating software client. Upon consent, users may allow DFCI to maintain the data for future research. The Risk Service implementation is exemplified through Hughes Risk Apps. Conclusions: The Risk Service broadens the availability of valuable, up-to-date cancer risk tools and allows clinics and researchers to integrate risk prediction tools into their own software interface designed for their needs. Each software package can collect risk data using its own interface, and display the results using its own interface, while using a central, up-to-date risk calculator. This allows users to choose from multiple interfaces while always getting the latest risk calculations. Consenting users contribute their data for future research, thus building a rich multi-center resource

Inducible and constitutive heat shock gene expression responds to modification of Hsp70 copy number in Drosophila melanogaster but does not compensate for loss of thermotolerance in Hsp70 null flies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The heat shock protein Hsp70 promotes inducible thermotolerance in nearly every organism examined to date. Hsp70 interacts with a network of other stress-response proteins, and dissecting the relative roles of these interactions in causing thermotolerance remains difficult. Here we examine the effect of <it>Hsp70 </it>gene copy number modification on thermotolerance and the expression of multiple stress-response genes in <it>Drosophila melanogaster</it>, to determine which genes may represent mechanisms of stress tolerance independent of Hsp70.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>Hsp70 </it>copy number in four strains is positively associated with <it>Hsp70 </it>expression and inducible thermotolerance of severe heat shock. When assayed at carefully chosen temperatures, <it>Hsp70 </it>null flies are almost entirely deficient in thermotolerance. In contrast to expectations, increasing <it>Hsp70 </it>expression levels induced by thermal pretreatment are associated with increasing levels of seven other inducible <it>Hsps </it>across strains. In addition, complete <it>Hsp70 </it>loss causes upregulation of the inducible <it>Hsps </it>and six constitutive stress-response genes following severe heat shocks.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Modification of <it>Hsp70 </it>copy number quantitatively and qualitatively affects the expression of multiple other stress-response genes. A positive association between absolute expression levels of <it>Hsp70 </it>and other <it>Hsps </it>after thermal pretreatment suggests novel regulatory mechanisms. Severe heat shocks induce both novel gene expression patterns and almost total mortality in the <it>Hsp70 </it>null strain: alteration of gene expression in this strain does not compensate for <it>Hsp70 </it>loss but suggests candidates for overexpression studies.</p

Unfinished Decolonisation and Globalisation

This article locates John Darwin’s work on decolonisation within an Oxbridge tradition which portrays a British world system, of which formal empire was but one part, emerging to increasing global dominance from the early nineteenth century. In this mental universe, decolonisation was the mirror image of that expanding global power. According to this point of view, it was not the sloughing off of individual territories, but rather the shrinking away of the system and of the international norms that supported it, until only its ghost remained by the end of the 1960s. The article then asks, echoing the title of Darwin’s Unfinished Empire, whether the decolonisation project is all but complete, or still ongoing. In addition, what is the responsibility of the imperial historian to engage with, inform, or indeed refrain from, contemporary debates that relate to some of these issues? The answer is twofold. On the one hand, the toolkit that the Oxbridge tradition and Darwin provide remains relevant, and also useful in thinking about contemporary issues such as China’s move towards being a global power, the United States’ declining hegemony, and some states and groups desires to rearticulate their relationship with the global. On the other hand, the decline of world systems of power needs to be recognised as just one of several types of, and approaches to, analysing ‘decolonisation’. One which cannot be allowed to ignore or marginalise the study of others, such as experience, first nations issues, the shaping of the postcolonial state, and empire legacies. The article concludes by placing the Oxbridge tradition into a broader typology of types and methodologies of decolonisation, and by asking what a new historiography of decolonisation might look like. It suggests that it would address the Oxbridge concern with the lifecycles of systems of power and their relationship to global changes, but also place them alongside, and in dialogue with, a much broader set of perspectives and analytical approaches

Breast cancer risk assessment: How risk models can “overdiagnose” risk.

Background: Overdiagnosis is commonly defined as a diagnosis of "disease" which will never cause symptoms or death during a patient's lifetime. Similarly, overdiagnosis can also happen when individuals are given the diagnosis of being at risk for a disease, such as being at high-risk for developing breast cancer. Women can be given such a diagnosis by meeting a set of risk assessment criteria, which are often accompanied by recommended management strategies. We sought to identify the extent and consequences of overdiagnosis for individuals being at high risk for breast cancer using the American Cancer Society (ACS) guidelines for the appropriate use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Methods: We identified women who fit the ACS criteria in a population based sample at a community hospital. The ACS criteria mentions three risk assessment models for determining a woman’s risk, and these criteria were reviewed to determine the extent of possible overdiagnosis in this population. The expected resource utilization resulting from this overdiagnosis, and the impact on patient quality of life are extrapolated. Results: 5,894 women who received mammography screening at the study site were included. 342 (5.8%) of the women were diagnosed as high risk by at least one model. However, only 0.2% of the total study population were diagnosed as high risk by all three models. One model identified 330 (5.6%) to be at high risk, while the other two models identified many fewer eligible women (25, 0.4% and 54, 0.9% respectively). Conclusions: Using different models to evaluation the ACS criteria identifies very different populations, implying a large potential for overdiagnosis. Further, this overdiagnosis is likely to result in the outcome of screening too many women, incurring false positives and unnecessary resource utilization

Inducible and constitutive heat shock gene expression responds to modification of copy number in but does not compensate for loss of thermotolerance in null flies-2

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Inducible and constitutive heat shock gene expression responds to modification of copy number in but does not compensate for loss of thermotolerance in null flies"</p><p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/6/5</p><p>BMC Biology 2008;6():5-5.</p><p>Published online 22 Jan 2008</p><p>PMCID:PMC2257928.</p><p></p>scription of the treatments). LSMs are expressed in reciprocally transformed CT values (1000/cycle number). Symbols are means ± 1 SE; the legend at top of figure indicates gene-symbol pairs. Graphs are organized according to strain (left to right) and timepoint post treatment (top to bottom). Mean fold changes in expression levels of all seven genes after PT and PT+HS39, relative to C, are indicated by the large arrows and numbers; arrows indicate direction of change