29,084 research outputs found
Statelessness as a Human Rights Issue: A Concept Whose Time Has Come?
The protection of stateless persons has long been understood as a challenge for the international community, yet for many of the past sixty years a prioritised focus on refugees has dominated, indeed arguably eclipsed, the plight and protection needs of stateless persons. Guy Goodwin-Gill has long argued for a refocus of international attention and effort on the plight, predicament and protection needs of stateless persons. In a seminal contribution over two decades ago he observed that at that time, statelessness was perceived by many as a mere ‘technical problem,’ yet ‘statelessness is indeed a broad human rights issue, even as it retains a distinct technical dimension.’ In this contribution, we examine the challenge set by Goodwin-Gill for the international community, namely, the need for greater recognition and protection of stateless persons, in light of developments over the more than two decades that have passed since his incisive analysis. We celebrate the positive developments and identify areas of ongoing challenge. We focus on the key initiatives he identified as requiring attention, and assess progress that has been made in relation to each, while concentrating predominantly on the need for closer attention to the relevance of developments in human rights law
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Congenital imperforate hymen with hydrocolpos and hydronephrosis associated with severe hydramnios and increase of maternal ovarian steroidogenic enzymes
This is a clinical research paperStudy Objective: To study clinical features of patient presented with severe hydramnios, associated with hydronephrosis, that was antenatally diagnosed and has
been successfully treated immediately after birth. At a molecular level, we investigated the gene expression of key steroidogenic enzymes from the maternal ovary.
Design: Ultrasound scan,MRI, semi-quantitativeRT-PCR
Setting: The patient was admitted to the University Hospital,
University of Crete, Medical School, Greece, where
all clinical data has been obtained. Gene expression studies
took place at Biosciences, Brunel University, UK.
Results: Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analyses revealed
that there is upregulation of key steroidogenic genes in
the maternal ovary, including steroidogenic acute regulatory
protein, and the cytochrome P450 heme-containing
proteins CYP11A, CYP17 and CYP19. From a clinical perspective,
the prenatal ultrasound scan and MRI findings
showed a multicystic pelvic mass, bilateral hydronephrosis
and prior to delivery severe polyhydramnios.
Conclusion: This clinical case is the only one that we
have found in the current literature where congenital imperforate
hymen accompanied with hematocolpos is associated
with renal obstruction in combination with polyhydramnios
and increase in maternal steroidogenic enzymes
Self-discharge in bimetallic cells containing alkali metal
Theoretical analysis of thermally regenerative bimetallic cells with alkali metal anodes shows a relation between the current drawn and the rate of discharge under open-circuit conditions. The self-discharge rate of the cell is due to the dissolution and ionization of alkali metal atoms in the fused-salt electrolyt
The curatorial consequences of being moved, moveable or portable: the case of carved stones
It matters whether a carved stone is moved, moveable or portable. This influences perceptions of significance and of form and nature – is it a monument or an artefact? This duality may in turn affect understanding and appreciation of the resource. It has implications for how and if carved stones can be legally protected, who owns them, where and how they are administered, and by whom. The complexities of the legislation mean that all too often this is also a grey area. This paper explores these curatorial issues and their impact
Observer based feedback control of 3rd order LCC resonant converters
The paper considers specific issues related to the design and realisation of observer-based feedback of isolated output voltage for resonant power converters. To provide a focus to the study, a 3rd order LCC converter is employed as a candidate topology. It is shown that whilst resonant converters nominally operate at high switching frequencies to facilitate the use of small reactive components, by appropriate pre-conditioning of non-isolated resonant-tank voltages and currents, the resulting observer can be implemented at relatively low sampling frequencies, and hence, take advantage of low-cost digital hardware.
Experimental results are used to demonstrate the accuracy of observer estimates under both transient and steady-state operating conditions, and to show operation of the observer as part of a closed-loop feedback system where the LCC resonant converter is used as a regulated power supply
Lower Bounds on Mutual Information
We correct claims about lower bounds on mutual information (MI) between
real-valued random variables made in A. Kraskov {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. E {\bf
69}, 066138 (2004). We show that non-trivial lower bounds on MI in terms of
linear correlations depend on the marginal (single variable) distributions.
This is so in spite of the invariance of MI under reparametrizations, because
linear correlations are not invariant under them. The simplest bounds are
obtained for Gaussians, but the most interesting ones for practical purposes
are obtained for uniform marginal distributions. The latter can be enforced in
general by using the ranks of the individual variables instead of their actual
values, in which case one obtains bounds on MI in terms of Spearman correlation
coefficients. We show with gene expression data that these bounds are in
general non-trivial, and the degree of their (non-)saturation yields valuable
insight.Comment: 4 page
M-grid: Using Ubiquitous Web Technologies to create a Computational Grid
There are many potential users and uses for grid computing. However, the concept of sharing computing resources excites security concerns and, whilst being powerful and flexible, at least for novices, existing systems are complex to install and use. Together these represent a significant barrier to potential users who are interested to see what grid computing can do. This paper describes m-grid, a system for building a computational grid which can accept tasks from any user with access to a web browser and distribute them to almost any machine with access to the internet and manages to do this without the installation of additional software or interfering with existing security arrangements
Strong field effects on binary systems in Einstein-aether theory
"Einstein-aether" theory is a generally covariant theory of gravity
containing a dynamical preferred frame. This article continues an examination
of effects on the motion of binary pulsar systems in this theory, by
incorporating effects due to strong fields in the vicinity of neutron star
pulsars. These effects are included through an effective approach, by treating
the compact bodies as point particles with nonstandard, velocity dependent
interactions parametrized by dimensionless "sensitivities". Effective
post-Newtonian equations of motion for the bodies and the radiation damping
rate are determined. More work is needed to calculate values of the
sensitivities for a given fluid source, so precise constraints on the theory's
coupling constants cannot yet be stated. It is shown, however, that strong
field effects will be negligible given current observational uncertainties if
the dimensionless couplings are less than roughly 0.01 and two conditions that
match the PPN parameters to those of pure general relativity are imposed. In
this case, weak field results suffice and imply one further condition on the
couplings. Thus, there exists a one-parameter family of Einstein-aether
theories with "small-enough" couplings that passes all current observational
tests. No conclusion can yet be reached for large couplings.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure; v2: fixed error in Eqn. (70) and resulting bounds
on c'
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Expression of membrane and nuclear progesterone receptors in two human placental choriocarcinoma cell lines (JEG-3 and BeWo): Effects of syncytialization
This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund and is available from the specified link -
Copyright @ 2011 Spandidos Publications Ltd.A vital function of the human placenta is to produce steroid hormones such as progesterone, which are essential for the maintenance of pregnancy and the onset of parturition. Although choriocarcinoma cell lines are valuable placental models for investigations of steroid hormone actions, little is known about the expression of progesterone receptors (PRs) in these cell lines. Therefore, in this study, the expression of membrane and nuclear PRs was investigated in cultures of fusigenic (BeWo) and non-fusigenic (JEG-3) human choriocarcinoma cell lines. In addition, the effects of an inducer of syncytialization (forskolin) on the PR expression in BeWo cells were assessed. Quantitative RT-PCR revealed that in fully syncytialized BeWo cells (treated with 50 mu M forskolin for 72 h) there was a significant down-regulation of mPR alpha and up-regulation of mPR beta and of the progesterone membrane component-1 (PGRMC1) when compared with non-syncytialized BeWo cells. Expression of all the mPR and PGRMC1 mRNAs was significantly lower in JEG-3 cells compared to non-syncytialized BeWo cells. Interestingly, expression of PR-B was unaltered between the two BeWo states but was significantly higher in JEG-3 cells. Immunofluorescence analysis revealed that mPR proteins are differentially expressed in these choriocarcinoma cell lines as well as in the human placenta. The data demonstrate that human choriocarcinoma cell lines have a complex system of progesterone signalling involving multiple classes of PRs. The finding that syncytialization is accompanied by changes in the expression of these receptors may suggest that this process influences progesterone signalling
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