New technologies of representation, collaborative autoethnographies and ‘taking it public’: An example from ‘Facilitating Communication on Sexual Topics in Education’

New technologies for representing and communicating autoethnographies make it possible to be publically visible in new and interesting ways that weren’t possible prior to the digital revolution. An important ingredient in this process is the internet platforms that can make the digitisation of performances accessible across the world, even for short, modest creations from less experienced digital storytellers and film makers. As an illustration of the potential applications of digital technologies for ‘taking’ autoethnographic research to the ‘public,’ and making our research accessible to a wider audience we share ‘Reverberations,’ a collaborative autoethnography exploring bullying, homophobia, and other types of sexual harassment and associated feelings of shame, embarrassment and fear which often surround these topics

Postcolonial town planning in Commonwealth nations: A case study of the Solomon Islands - an agenda for change

This is the author's PDF version of an article published in The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs© 2007. The definitive version is available at www.informaworld.comThe principal argument advanced in this paper is that spatial planning in the Solomon Islands has failed to deliver any substantive benefits and is therefore in urgent need of reform. The present model of planning, derived from a combination of colonial practice and legislation originating in the UK, does not add much, if any, value to the development process. The poor quality of planning in the Solomons cannot be seen in isolation. There are similar systems in use throughout much of the Commonwealth and anecdotal evidence suggests that the failings are widely duplicated. The Solomon Islands only appear exceptional in the extent to which other government systems have demonstrably broken down, following the 'Ethnic Tension' of 2000 - 03. The Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) provides a unique opportunity for a review of the way in which planning operates. A number of issues are identified which any reformed system must address

The Viscoelastic Properties of the Fungal Cell Wall Allow Traffic of AmBisome as Intact Liposome Vesicles

NARG thanks The Wellcome Trust (080088, 086827, 075470, 099215 & 097377) and MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (MR/N006364/1) and acknowledges financial support from Gilead Sciences for a studentship and grant IX-EU-131-0262. Dr. Linda Soo Hoo and Tark Bunch of Gilead provided expert technical assistance in liposomal sample preparations and GF provided gold labelled test articles. JAM is funded in part from a research grant from Gilead Sciences Inc. ML was supported by the MRC (MR/J008230/1). AC was supported in part by 5R01HL059842, 5R01AI033774, 5R37AI033142, and 5R01AI052733. We thank Debbie Wilkinson and Kevin McKenzie at the Imaging Core Facility at the University of Aberdeen for expert assistance with TEM.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

GREEN IGUANAS (\u3ci\u3eIGUANA IGUANA\u3c/i\u3e): THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN A SOUTH FLORIDA PARK

We examined the demographic response of the Green Iguana (Iguana iguana) to the removal of Raccoons in an urban maritime state park in southern Florida. The rapid growth of iguanas to sexual maturity in an underexploited, if not vacant, niche contributed to the rapid recruitment of a large and growing population during the four and one half years since removal of its limiting predator. We proffer here that at sites where Green Iguanas and high density Raccoons are syntopic, future Raccoon removal programs should be concurrent with an equally concerted effort to remove resident Green Iguanas. In this fashion, by replacing one limiting predator with another, a population explosion can be prevented and an advantage can be maintained in the local control of this exotic species

The Environmental Dependence of Galaxy Properties in the Local Universe: Dependence on Luminosity, Local Density, and System Richness

We investigate the environmental dependence of star formation and the morphology of galaxies in the local universe based on a volume-limited sample (0.030<z<0.065 and M_r<M_r^*+2) constructed from the data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. First, we focus on how galaxy properties change with local density. The star formation and morphology show a 'break' at the critical local density of log Sigma_crit~0.4 galaxies h_75^2 Mpc^-2, which is in agreement with previous studies. However, the break can be seen only for faint galaxies (M^*_r+1 < M_r < M^*_r+2), and bright galaxies (M_r < M^*_r+1) show no break. Thus, galaxies of different luminosities are found to show different environmental dependencies. Next, we examine dependencies on richness of galaxy systems. Star formation activities of galaxies are different from those of field galaxies even in systems as poor as sigma~100 km/s. This result suggests that environmental mechanisms that are effective only in rich systems, such as ram-pressure stripping of cold gas and harassment, have not played a major role in transforming galaxies into red early-type galaxies. Strangulation and interactions between galaxies, however, remain candidates of the driver of the environmental dependence. In the dense environments in the local universe, the slow transformation of faint galaxies occurs to some extent, but the transformation of bright galaxies is not clearly visible. We suggest that the evolution of bright galaxies is not strongly related to galaxy system, such as groups and clusters, while the evolution of faint galaxies is likely to be closely connected to galaxy system.Comment: 47 pages, 16 figures, to appear in A

Airglow and Aurorae at Dome A, Antarctica

Despite the absence of artificial light pollution at Antarctic plateau sites such as Dome A, other factors such as airglow, aurorae, and extended periods of twilight have the potential to adversely affect optical observations. We present a statistical analysis of the airglow and aurorae at Dome A using spectroscopic data from Nigel, an optical/near-IR spectrometer operating in the 300–850 nm range. These data complement photometric images from Gattini, a wide-field (90°) CCD camera with B, V, and R filters, allowing the background sky brightness to be disentangled from the various airglow and auroral emission lines. The median auroral contribution to the B, V, and R photometric bands is found to be 22.9, 23.4, and 23.0 mag arcsec^(-2), respectively. Auroral emissions most frequently occur between 10–23 hr local time, when up to 50% of observations are above airglow-level intensities. While infrequent, the strongest emissions detected occurred in the hours just prior to magnetic midnight. We are also able to quantify the amount of annual dark time available as a function of wavelength, as well as in the standard BVR photometric bands. On average, twilight ends when the Sun reaches a zenith distance of 102.6°

The Political Economy of Natural Resource Use: Lessons for Fisheries Reform

This report discusses key lessons drawn from reform experience in the wider natural resource sector that might inform successful reform in fisheries. This report is a compilation of 12 papers prepared by acknowledged international experts in the fields of fisheries and wider natural resource reform which were reviewed at a workshop convened by the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in May 2009.The report forms an important initial input into an ongoing enquiry into the political economy of fisheries reform initiated by the World Bank in partnership with the Partnership for African Fisheries (a United Kingdom Department for International Development funded program of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD))

A Census of Baryons and Dark Matter in an Isolated, Milky Way-sized Elliptical Galaxy

We present a study of the dark and luminous matter in the isolated elliptical galaxy NGC720, based on deep X-ray observations made with Chandra and Suzaku. The gas is reliably measured to ~R2500, allowing us to place good constraints on the enclosed mass and baryon fraction (fb) within this radius (M2500=1.6e12+/-0.2e12 Msun, fb(2500)=0.10+/-0.01; systematic errors are <~20%). The data indicate that the hot gas is close to hydrostatic, which is supported by good agreement with a kinematical analysis of the dwarf satellite galaxies. We confirm a dark matter (DM) halo at ~20-sigma. Assuming an NFW DM profile, our physical model for the gas distribution enables us to obtain meaningful constraints at scales larger than R2500, revealing that most of the baryons are in the hot gas. We find that fb within Rvir is consistent with the Cosmological value, confirming theoretical predictions that a ~Milky Way-mass (Mvir=3.1e12+/-0.4e12 Msun) galaxy can sustain a massive, quasi-hydrostatic gas halo. While fb is higher than the cold baryon fraction typically measured in similar-mass spiral galaxies, both the gas fraction (fg) and fb in NGC720 are consistent with an extrapolation of the trends with mass seen in massive galaxy groups and clusters. After correcting for fg, the entropy profile is close to the self-similar prediction of gravitational structure formation simulations, as observed in galaxy clusters. Finally, we find a strong heavy metal abundance gradient in the ISM similar to those observed in massive galaxy groups.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Minor modifications to match accepted version. Conclusions unchange

Two-sided bounds on minimum-error quantum measurement, on the reversibility of quantum dynamics, and on the maximum overlap problem using directional iterates

In a unified framework, we obtain two-sided estimates of the following quantities of interest in quantum information theory: 1.The minimum-error distinguishability of arbitrary ensembles of mixed quantum states. 2.The approximate reversibility of quantum dynamics in terms of entanglement fidelity. (This is also referred to as "channel-adapted quantum error recovery" when the reversed channel is the composition of an encoding operation and a noise channel.) 3.The maximum overlap between a bipartite pure quantum state and a bipartite mixed state that may be achieved by applying a local quantum operation to one part of the mixed state. 4. The conditional min-entropy of bipartite quantum states. A refined version of the author's techniques [J. Math. Phys. 50, 032016] for bounding the first quantity is employed to give two-sided estimates of the remaining three quantities. Our primary tool is "small angle" initialization of an abstract generalization of the iterative schemes for computing optimal measurements and quantum error recoveries introduced by Jezek-Rehacek-Fiurasek [Phys. Rev. A 65, 060301], Jezek-Fiurasek-Hradil [Phys. Rev. A 68, 012305], and Reimpell-Werner [Phys. Rev. Lett 94, 080501].Comment: Extensively revised & new content added. Improved min-entropy bounds. Notation made more accessible. Minimax theorem used to clarify relationship between "worst case" bounds and "single instance" bounds. Improved motivation of the choice of "small angle" guess. Eliminated spurious factor appearing when overlap bounds are applied to state distinction. Work connected to that of Beny and Oreshko

Identification of the Imprinted KLF14 Transcription Factor Undergoing Human-Specific Accelerated Evolution

Imprinted genes are expressed in a parent-of-origin manner and are located in clusters throughout the genome. Aberrations in the expression of imprinted genes on human Chromosome 7 have been suggested to play a role in the etiologies of Russell-Silver Syndrome and autism. We describe the imprinting of KLF14, an intronless member of the Krüppel-like family of transcription factors located at Chromosome 7q32. We show that it has monoallelic maternal expression in all embryonic and extra-embryonic tissues studied, in both human and mouse. We examine epigenetic modifications in the KLF14 CpG island in both species and find this region to be hypomethylated. In addition, we perform chromatin immunoprecipitation and find that the murine Klf14 CpG island lacks allele-specific histone modifications. Despite the absence of these defining features, our analysis of Klf14 in offspring from DNA methyltransferase 3a conditional knockout mice reveals that the gene's expression is dependent upon a maternally methylated region. Due to the intronless nature of Klf14 and its homology to Klf16, we suggest that the gene is an ancient retrotransposed copy of Klf16. By sequence analysis of numerous species, we place the timing of this event after the divergence of Marsupialia, yet prior to the divergence of the Xenarthra superclade. We identify a large number of sequence variants in KLF14 and, using several measures of diversity, we determine that there is greater variability in the human lineage with a significantly increased number of nonsynonymous changes, suggesting human-specific accelerated evolution. Thus, KLF14 may be the first example of an imprinted transcript undergoing accelerated evolution in the human lineage