THE SILENCING OF DISSENT IN THE AUSTRALIAN JEWISH COMMUNITY

This thesis explores the experiences of Jewish peace activists in Sydney, Australia, who actively dissent from the ‘mainstream’ Jewish community by expressing criticism of the oppression of the Palestinian people by various Israeli governments. Although some literature from the United States addresses the phenomenon of the silencing of dissent in the Jewish community, to date there has been very little research interest in the subject of dissent in the Australian Jewish community. This study sought to investigate the issue of dissent in the Australian Jewish community by examining the experiences of Jewish peace activists within an ethno-religious mainstream. Respondents were drawn from two Jewish peace groups in the Sydney metropolitan area. Data was generated by means of a questionnaire, which was sent to potential respondents at the time of the initial selection process. A series of semistructured, in-depth interviews followed, based on those questions and subsequent responses. The findings reveal that peace activists included in this research feel that there exists a subtle expectation/constraint within the Jewish community that disallows criticism of the Israeli government. Indeed, the majority of respondents revealed that they have personally experienced some form of ‘silencing’ of their opinions and the majority of respondents either keep silent or avoid situations that would expose their views. This research also examines how Jewish peace activists perceive their identification as Jews in view of the attempts to silence their dissenting views. A majority of those interviewed agreed that they regard their activism as an expression of their Jewish identity and that they link their political stance with Jewish ethics related to justice and human rights

EL TAMANO DEL CUERPO COMO FACTOR DIFERENCIADOR DE LA FECUNDIDAD DE HAEMATOPOTA ZTALZCA MEIG. (DZPTERA TABANZDAE)

The potential fecundity and body size were evaluated in Haematopota italica Meig. from the analysis of ovariole number and wing length in 460 field-collected females. This correlation looks representative (r=0.618) and the population potential fecundity without disection can be deduced. It has a very great deal importante, for field biology, in order to know the role played by tabanids in the posible disease transmission from cattle or man.Se ha determinado la relación existente entre la fecundidad potencial y el tamaño del cuerpo en Haematopota italica Meig. por la comparación entre el número de ovariolos y la longitud del ala en 460 hembras de campo. Dicha relación parece ser significativa (r=0.618) y permite deducir la fecundidad potencial de la población sin necesidad de disección. Este hecho es de gran importancia en estudios de campo cuando se pretende conocer el papel desempeñado por los tábanos en la posible transmisión de patógenos al ganado y hombre

Spin states of asteroids in the Eos collisional family

Eos family was created during a catastrophic impact about 1.3 Gyr ago. Rotation states of individual family members contain information about the history of the whole population. We aim to increase the number of asteroid shape models and rotation states within the Eos collision family, as well as to revise previously published shape models from the literature. Such results can be used to constrain theoretical collisional and evolution models of the family, or to estimate other physical parameters by a thermophysical modeling of the thermal infrared data. We use all available disk-integrated optical data (i.e., classical dense-in-time photometry obtained from public databases and through a large collaboration network as well as sparse-in-time individual measurements from a few sky surveys) as input for the convex inversion method, and derive 3D shape models of asteroids together with their rotation periods and orientations of rotation axes. We present updated shape models for 15 asteroids and new shape model determinations for 16 asteroids. Together with the already published models from the publicly available DAMIT database, we compiled a sample of 56 Eos family members with known shape models that we used in our analysis of physical properties within the family. Rotation states of asteroids smaller than ~20 km are heavily influenced by the YORP effect, whilst the large objects more or less retained their rotation state properties since the family creation. Moreover, we also present a shape model and bulk density of asteroid (423) Diotima, an interloper in the Eos family, based on the disk-resolved data obtained by the Near InfraRed Camera (Nirc2) mounted on the W.M. Keck II telescope.Comment: Accepted for publication in ICARUS Special Issue - Asteroids: Origin, Evolution & Characterizatio

Simplicial quantum dynamics

Present-day quantum field theory can be regularized by a decomposition into quantum simplices. This replaces the infinite-dimensional Hilbert space by a high-dimensional spinor space and singular canonical Lie groups by regular spin groups. It radically changes the uncertainty principle for small distances. Gaugeons, including the gravitational, are represented as bound fermion-pairs, and space-time curvature as a singular organized limit of quantum non-commutativity. Keywords: Quantum logic, quantum set theory, quantum gravity, quantum topology, simplicial quantization.Comment: 25 pages. 1 table. Conference of the International Association for Relativistic Dynamics, Taiwan, 201

Differential protein folding and chemical changes in lung tissues exposed to asbestos or particulates

Environmental and occupational inhalants may induce a large number of pulmonary diseases, with asbestos exposure being the most risky. The mechanisms are clearly related to chemical composition and physical and surface properties of materials. A combination of X-ray fluorescence (\u3bcXRF) and Fourier Transform InfraRed (\u3bcFTIR) microscopy was used to chemically characterize and compare asbestos bodies versus environmental particulates (anthracosis) in lung tissues from asbestos exposed and control patients. \u3bcXRF analyses revealed heterogeneously aggregated particles in the anthracotic structures, containing mainly Si, K, Al and Fe. Both asbestos and particulates alter lung iron homeostasis, with a more marked effect in asbestos exposure. \u3bcFTIR analyses revealed abundant proteins on asbestos bodies but not on anthracotic particles. Most importantly, the analyses demonstrated that the asbestos coating proteins contain high levels of \u3b2-sheet structures. The occurrence of conformational changes in the proteic component of the asbestos coating provides new insights into long-term asbestos effects

Present and Future of Parkinson’s Disease in Spain: PARKINSON-2030 Delphi Project

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic progressive and irreversible disease and the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide. In Spain, it affects around 120.000-150.000 individuals, and its prevalence is estimated to increase in the future. PD has a great impact on patients' and caregivers' lives and also entails a substantial socioeconomic burden. The aim of the present study was to examine the current situation and the 10-year PD forecast for Spain in order to optimize and design future management strategies. This study was performed using the modified Delphi method to try to obtain a consensus among a panel of movement disorders experts. According to the panel, future PD management will improve diagnostic capacity and follow-up, it will include multidisciplinary teams, and innovative treatments will be developed. The expansion of new technologies and studies on biomarkers will have an impact on future PD management, leading to more accurate diagnoses, prognoses, and individualized therapies. However, the socio-economic impact of the disease will continue to be significant by 2030, especially for patients in advanced stages. This study highlighted the unmet needs in diagnosis and treatment and how crucial it is to establish recommendations for future diagnostic and therapeutic management of PD

Establishment and genomic characterization of the new chordoma cell line Chor-IN-1

Chordomas are rare, slowly growing tumors with high medical need, arising in the axial skeleton from notochord remnants. The transcription factor "brachyury" represents a distinctive molecular marker and a key oncogenic driver of chordomas. Tyrosine kinase receptors are also expressed, but so far kinase inhibitors have not shown clear clinical efficacy in chordoma patients. The need for effective therapies is extremely high, but the paucity of established chordoma cell lines has limited preclinical research. Here we describe the isolation of the new Chor-IN-1 cell line from a recurrent sacral chordoma and its characterization as compared to other chordoma cell lines. Chor-IN-1 displays genomic identity to the tumor of origin and has morphological features, growth characteristics and chromosomal abnormalities typical of chordoma, with expression of brachyury and other relevant biomarkers. Chor-IN-1 gene variants, copy number alterations and kinome gene expression were analyzed in comparison to other four chordoma cell lines, generating large scale DNA and mRNA genomic data that can be exploited for the identification of novel pharmacological targets and candidate predictive biomarkers of drug sensitivity in chordoma. The establishment of this new, well characterized chordoma cell line provides a useful tool for the identification of drugs active in chordoma

Asteroids' physical models from combined dense and sparse photometry and scaling of the YORP effect by the observed obliquity distribution

The larger number of models of asteroid shapes and their rotational states derived by the lightcurve inversion give us better insight into both the nature of individual objects and the whole asteroid population. With a larger statistical sample we can study the physical properties of asteroid populations, such as main-belt asteroids or individual asteroid families, in more detail. Shape models can also be used in combination with other types of observational data (IR, adaptive optics images, stellar occultations), e.g., to determine sizes and thermal properties. We use all available photometric data of asteroids to derive their physical models by the lightcurve inversion method and compare the observed pole latitude distributions of all asteroids with known convex shape models with the simulated pole latitude distributions. We used classical dense photometric lightcurves from several sources and sparse-in-time photometry from the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff, Catalina Sky Survey, and La Palma surveys (IAU codes 689, 703, 950) in the lightcurve inversion method to determine asteroid convex models and their rotational states. We also extended a simple dynamical model for the spin evolution of asteroids used in our previous paper. We present 119 new asteroid models derived from combined dense and sparse-in-time photometry. We discuss the reliability of asteroid shape models derived only from Catalina Sky Survey data (IAU code 703) and present 20 such models. By using different values for a scaling parameter cYORP (corresponds to the magnitude of the YORP momentum) in the dynamical model for the spin evolution and by comparing synthetics and observed pole-latitude distributions, we were able to constrain the typical values of the cYORP parameter as between 0.05 and 0.6.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, January 15, 201