Zheng Yi. Scarlet memorial : tales of cannibalism in modern China

This article reviews the book Scarlet Memorial: Tales of Cannibalism in Modem China , written by Zheng Yi, translated and edited by T. P. Sym

What Ambitious Donors Can Learn From The Atlantic Philanthropies' Experience Making Big Bets

By the time The Atlantic Philanthropies closes its doors in 2020, it will have distributed more than $8 billion—its entire endowment—to advance opportunity and lasting change for disadvantaged and vulnerable people worldwide. Founded in 1982, it was Founder Chuck Feeney's intention to champion "giving while living" and when the foundation closes, Atlantic will make history by becoming the largest foundation to complete its giving in the donor's lifetime.In its grant making, over 60 percent of Atlantic's overall giving ranks as big bets, investments of$10 million or more. Thirty percent of those bets went to social change causes, including gifts to human services, the environment, and international development. Such big bets have the potential to have big impacts on advancing social change goals. Yet as Bridgespan reported in the December 2015 Stanford Social Innovation Review article, "Making Big Bets for Social Change," investments of this size for social change are rare. Just 20 percent of philanthropic big bets went to social change causes between 2000 and 2012.Why? A number of barriers exist: it's hard to find and structure big bets, "shovel-ready" opportunities are few and far between, personal relationships between donors and nonprofit leaders can take years to nurture, and the long time horizons required for change and often-murky results make it difficult to measure success. In short, big bets on social change can feel risky.The story of Atlantic, however, illustrates what can happen when donors take that risk. This report, What Ambitious Donors Can Learn From The Atlantic Philanthropies' Experience Making Big Bets, looks at a number of big bets Atlantic made and how those achieved significant results. It identified four themes that ran through Atlantic's work and that were particularly evident in its most influential big bets:Pick distinctive investment spots and funding gaps in the landscape.Support organizations and strong leaders, often with unrestricted or capacity-building funding.Pursue advocacy in a complex social, policy and legal environment, and use both traditional grant funding and 501(c)(4) funding as tools.Give with the foundation's end in sight and sustainability in mind.The report also highlights the challenges and failures Atlantic faced along the way. Despite the inherent risk in big bets, Atlantic held the belief that a big bets strategy would be the best way to achieve lasting impact. It is a promising path that is yielding strong results, and Atlantic's experience offers potential strategies for other donors seeking similar goals

Tick-, Mosquito-, and Rodent-Borne Parasite Sampling Designs for the National Ecological Observatory Network [Special Feature: NEON Design]

Parasites and pathogens are increasingly recognized as significant drivers of ecological and evolutionary change in natural ecosystems. Concurrently, transmission of infectious agents among human, livestock, and wildlife populations represents a growing threat to veterinary and human health. In light of these trends and the scarcity of long-term time series data on infection rates among vectors and reservoirs, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) will collect measurements and samples of a suite of tick-, mosquito-, and rodent-borne parasites through a continental-scale surveillance program. Here, we describe the sampling designs for these efforts, highlighting sampling priorities, field and analytical methods, and the data as well as archived samples to be made available to the research community. Insights generated by this sampling will advance current understanding of and ability to predict changes in infection and disease dynamics in novel, interdisciplinary, and collaborative ways

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

An Arduino Uno Implementation of the Perturb and Observe Maximum Point Power Tracking Algorithm in Photovoltaic Panels

Manually tracking the weather-dependent point of maximum power production in photovoltaic panels can become a time-consuming endeavor, requiring one to sweep through the panel’s PV curve several times a day in order to obtain data on panel performance. In this experiment, an automatic closed-loop control system featuring the Arduino Uno will be designed to automate the data acquisition process by implementing the Perturb and Observe tracking algorithm. Other essential system components include three power electronics circuits: a diode bridge rectifier, buck-boost converter, and MOSFET firing circuit. The rectifier and converter will be used to down-convert the unregulated, time-varying voltage supplied by the solar panel to a regulated voltage safe for use as a feedback signal to the Arduino. Using this signal as an estimated settling point, the Arduino will then be able to track the point of maximum power production by driving the MOSFET without user intervention throughout any given day

Critical Comment: Designation and Curatorial Management of Type Host Specimens (Symbiotypes) for New Parasite Species

The accurate identification of a host organism is an important component in the taxonomic recognition of a new species of parasite. Correct identification, curatorial management, and safekeeping of the host specimen from which a parasite type specimen is collected is also desirable. We recommend that the host from which the type of a new parasite species is described should be designated as a symbiotype