Islands and despots

This paper challenges a conventional wisdom: that when discussing political systems, small is democratic. And yet, can there be paradises without serpents? The presumed manageability of small island spaces promotes and nurtures dispositions for domination and control over nature and society. In such dark circumstances, authoritarian rule is a more natural fit than democracy. By adopting an inter-disciplinary perspective, this paper argues that small island societies may be wonderful places to live in, as long as one conforms to a dominant cultural code. Should one deviate from expected and established practices, the threat of ostracism is immense. Formal democratic institutions may and often do exist, and a semblance of pluralism may be manifest, but these are likely to be overshadowed by a set of unitarist and homogenous values and practices to which many significant social players, in politics and civil society, subscribe (at least in public).peer-reviewe

Alternatives to independence: explorations in post-colonial relations

This book examines post-colonial relations in three French overseas departments, Reunion, Martinique and Guadeloupe. This highly original form of relationship is based on the argument that decolonisation can be achieved through equal citizenship within a single state (France), rather than through the equality of separate national states. The author looks at the implications of political integration for the islands' economic, social and political development, in addition to the implications of being part of the European Community in the Third World. Chapters also examine the unsettled colonial question of French Guyana, and the evolution of Franco-Algerian relations, with special reference to immigration and decolonisation. Finally, post-colonial liberation and human rights is discussed from a feminist-humanist perspective. -H.Clou

Alternatives to independence:explorations in post-colonial relations

This book examines post-colonial relations in three French overseas departments, Reunion, Martinique and Guadeloupe. This highly original form of relationship is based on the argument that decolonisation can be achieved through equal citizenship within a single state (France), rather than through the equality of separate national states. The author looks at the implications of political integration for the islands' economic, social and political development, in addition to the implications of being part of the European Community in the Third World. Chapters also examine the unsettled colonial question of French Guyana, and the evolution of Franco-Algerian relations, with special reference to immigration and decolonisation. Finally, post-colonial liberation and human rights is discussed from a feminist-humanist perspective. -H.Clout</p

Unilateral giant cell lesion of the jaw in Noonan syndrome

Noonan syndrome (NS) is an etiologically heterogeneous disorder caused by mutations in the RAS-MAPK signaling pathway. Noonan-Like/Multiple Giant Cell Lesion (NL/MGCL) syndrome is initially described as the occurrence of multiple gnathic giant cell lesions in patients with phenotypic features of NS. Nowadays, NS/MGCL syndrome is considered a variant of the NS spectrum rather than a distinct entity. We report the case of a 14-year-old female patient carrying a SOS1 mutation with a unilateral giant cell lesion of the right mandible. Cross-sectional imaging such as CT and MRI are not specific for the diagnosis of oral giant cell lesions. Nonetheless, intralesional scattered foci of low SI on T2-WI, corresponding to hemosiderin deposits due to hemorrhage, can help the radiologist in narrowing down the differential diagnosis of gnathic lesions in patients with NS

Autonomic Coordination of Skeleton-Based Applications Over CPU/GPU Multi-Core Architectures

Widely adumbrated as patterns of parallel computation and communication, algorithmic skeletons introduce a viable solution for efficiently programming modern heterogeneous multi-core architectures equipped not only with traditional multi-core CPUs, but also with one or more programmable Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). By systematically applying algorithmic skeletons to address complex programming tasks, it is arguably possible to separate the coordination from the computation in a parallel program, and therefore subdivide a complex program into building blocks (modules, skids, or components) that can be independently created and then used in different systems to drive multiple functionalities. By exploiting such systematic division, it is feasible to automate coordination by addressing extra-functional and non-functional features such as application performance, portability, and resource utilisation from the component level in heterogeneous multi-core architectures. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to exploit the inherent features of skeleton-based applications in order to automatically coordinate them over heterogeneous (CPU/GPU) multi-core architectures and improve their performance. Our systematic evaluation demonstrates up to one order of magnitude speed-up on heterogeneous multi-core architectures