Alex La Guma: the literary and political functions of marginality in the colonial situation

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 5

The characterization of the flavin-containing monooxygenase gene family of man

Flavin-containing monooxygenases (FMO) are a family of enzymes that metabolise a variety of foreign compounds such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals and toxicants. They are found in most tissues of all mammals. Five FMO isoforms (FMO1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) have been identified. Analysis of human genomic DNA by Southern blot hybridization with cDNAs encoding the different FMO isoforms gave simple patterns of hybridization suggesting that a single gene encodes each protein. Northern blot hybridization analyses and RNase protection assays showed that each FMO has a distinct tissue specific pattern of expression. This pattern differs between man and other species. The skin is a major portal of entry for a variety of chemicals and environmental pollutants. FMOs 1, 3 and 5 were found to be the major forms present in human skin. In situ hybridization demonstrated that FMOs 1, 3, 4 and 5 are expressed in the sebaceous gland and the epidermis. Western blotting analysis of FMOs in whole skin homogenates and microsomes was unsuccessful due to a high degree of cross-reactivity of the polyclonal antibodies used with other skin proteins. The methimazole assay was used to determine the presence of FMO activity in skin. The expression of FMOs in an immortalised human keratinocyte (HaCaT) cell line was also studied. These cells could offer an alternative system for biotransformation studies; this is possible only if HaCaT cells express a similar range of FMOs as the skin or primary human keratinocyte cultures. Primary cultures of human keratinocytes expressed FMOs 1, 2, and 3 to varying degrees, whereas HaCaT cells, expressed only FMOs 1, 4 and 5. An analysis of cytochromes P450 in whole human skin, primary keratinocyte cultures and HaCaT cells was undertaken. Regional localisation of CYP2As, CYP2B6 and CYP3As in the skin was the same as for FMOs

Queering Early Childhood Studies: Challenging the Discourse of Developmentally Appropriate Practice

This article reviews approaches to early childhood training and practice in Ontario and sets it in the wider context of feminist poststructural knowledge production. Through a feminist poststructural reading, this article uncovers dominant assumptions of universality underlying the heteronormative discourse of developmentally appropriate practice that dominates early childhood training, postsecondary program curriculum, and professional learning and practice. It argues that postsecondary studies in early childhood education must challenge the pervasive heteronormative discourse in order to shift early childhood practice toward a viewpoint that is counter-hegemonic and integrates queer perspectives

Command and Control System Software Development

With the first launch of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Space Launch System heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle and Lockheed Martin's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle scheduled for the year 2020, there exists a need to complete development of a new command and control system that will provide systems monitoring and launch control for NASA's Exploration Missions. One remaining task necessary for completion of this command and control system is to create and maintain comprehensive unit tests of the control system software packages. These tests should verify that the implementation of all required and desired functionality works as intended. This testing infrastructure is mostly in place, but the control system's open source automation server still reports software "bugs" (possible flaws or failures which may lead to unintended behavior) and intermittently failing unit tests. Since code correctness is of critical importance for human rated software systems, I was assigned to diagnose the root cause of failing unit tests, eliminate non-determinism in these tests, and fix bugs as reported by the automation server

Joyce Cary's African romances

African Studies Center Working Paper No.

Development, Evaluation and Application of Protocols for the Analyses of Trihalomethanes and Haloacetic Acids in Potable Water

Potable water distribution systems are a dynamic environment requiring constant monitoring of the levels of contaminants, such as trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs), to ensure a high quality and that the regulatory standards are always met. The monitoring of specific disinfection by-products (DBPs) is not typically continuous as the current industrial practice is manual sample collection, at regular intervals and at known locations, which are then sent to specialist analytical laboratories for analysis. The aims of this project were to develop, optimise and apply new and existing analytical protocols for the analysis of THMs and HAAs from UK water sources. The project also provided an opportunity to evaluate if the methods were suitable for the analysis of THMs in near-real time (HS-GC-MS and HS-SPME-GC-MS). The early monitoring of THMs would allow any corrective measures to be implemented sooner. The suitability of GC-MS (El), GC-MS (ECNI), GCxGC-ToFMS and GC-μECD for HAA concentration measurements was also evaluated. Analysis of HAAs by GCxGC-ToFMS in treated water samples have not been reported before. Apart from the GC-MS (El), the analytical performance of the methods developed were generally equivalent to those used in regulatory laboratories. HS-GC-MS was then utilised to determine the influence of a series of parameters on the formation potential of THMs in upland and lowland water samples. Similarly, GC-μECD and GCxGC-ToFMS were utilised to determine the formation potential of HAAs. GC-μECD was also applied to the determination of HAA concentrations in treated water samples from geographically different sources in the UK. The total HAAs concentration across thirteen sites in England had concentrations well below the US regulated levels of 60 μg/l

Ethiopia and Policy

SOSC 2800, Development in Comparative and Historical PerspectiveLA&PS 2016 Writing Prize Finalists, 2nd Year Winne