The Measure of Poverty: A Boston Indicators Project Special Report

Examines Boston's poverty rate by race/ethnicity, family structure, education, and geography; income inequality; demand for safety-net programs; and how the high cost of living and budget cuts affect vulnerable households and those below the poverty line

City of Ideas: Reinventing Boston's Innovation Economy: The Boston Indicators Report 2012

Analyzes indicators of the city's economic, social, and technological progress; potential for creating innovative solutions to global and national challenges; and complexities, disparities, and weaknesses in the indicators and innovation economy paradigm

L'Europe en barbarie

Depuis plusieurs années, à travers différents dispositifs scientifiques – séminaire, journée d'étude et maintenant dossier de revue – la catégorie de « barbarie » a servi de fil directeur à notre réflexion sur l'histoire européenne. Dans l’histoire de l’idée européenne, le barbare a d’abord été l’autre, l’étranger, celui qui ne maîtrisait ni la langue ni les usages, celui qui était d’autres mœurs et d’autre contrée. Puis, quand l’idéologie du progrès et de la raison devint dominante, le barbare fut, avec le sauvage, celui qui incarnait le passé de la civilisation, l’état d’une humanité restée proche de l’animalité dont le processus civilisateur avait peu à peu éloigné les peuples européens, pour le meilleur mais aussi pour le pire. Il fut aussi l’ennemi de l’intérieur appartenant aux « classes laborieuses et dangereuses » ou bien, au contraire, la promesse de régénération d’une civilisation exténuée, « décadente ». Avec les grandes conflagrations mondiales, les massacres industriels et le suicide de l’Europe, la barbarie put être considérée non comme l’envers mais comme le prolongement de la civilisation, le triomphe de la raison instrumentale, l’achèvement d’un cycle historique. Mais peut-être le barbare n'est-il que celui qui croit à la barbarie, comme l'écrivait Claude Lévi-Strauss dans Race et histoire

Stabilizing liquid drops in nonequilibrium shapes by the interfacial crosslinking of nanoparticles

Droplets are spherical due to the principle of interfacial energy minimization. Here, we show that nonequilibrium droplet shapes can be stabilized via the interfacial self-assembly and crosslinking of nanoparticles. This principle allows for the stability of practically infinitely long liquid tubules and monodisperse cylindrical droplets. Droplets of oil-in-water are elongated via gravitational or hydrodynamic forces at a reduced interfacial tension. Silica nanoparticles self-assemble and cross-link on the interface triggered by the synergistic surface modification with hexyltrimethylammonium- and trivalent lanthanum-cations. The droplet length dependence is described by a scaling relationship and the rate of nanoparticle deposition on the droplets is estimated. Our approach potentially enables the 3D-printing of Newtonian Fluids, broadening the array of material options for additive manufacturing techniques

Hubble Space Telescope observations of Mars

Hubble Space Telescope (HST) afforded the possibility of resolving features as small as 100 km on the Martian surface even when it is at the far point of its orbit. Therefore it is ideally suited for monitoring seasonal changes on the red planet. The objectives research include: the study of Martian dust storms; use of images obtained through different filters to study the spectral reflectance of regions on the Martian surface; use of ultraviolet images and spectra to measure the amount of ozone in the planet's atmosphere as a function of location of the planet; use of images to study changes in the albedo of the Mars surface; and use of Planetary Camera images to study Martian clouds and to measure the opacity of the atmosphere

One Health: parasites and beyond

The field of parasitism is broad, encompassing relationships between organisms where one benefits at the expense of another. Traditionally the discipline focuses on eukaryotes, with the study of bacteria and viruses complementary but distinct. Nonetheless, parasites vary in size and complexity from single celled protozoa, to enormous plants like those in the genus Rafflesia. Lifecycles range from obligate intracellular to extensive exoparasitism. Examples of parasites include high profile medical and zoonotic pathogens such as Plasmodium, veterinary pathogens of wild and captive animals and many of the agents which cause neglected tropical diseases, stretching to parasites which infect plants and other parasites (e.g. (Blake et al., 2015; Hemingway, 2015; Hotez et al., 2014; Kikuchi et al., 2011; Meekums et al., 2015; Sandlund et al., 2015). The breadth of parasitology has been matched by the variety of ways in which parasites are studied, drawing upon biological, chemical, molecular, epidemiological and other expertise. Despite such breadth bridging between disciplines has commonly been problematic, regardless of extensive encouragement from government agencies, peer audiences and funding bodies promoting multi-disciplinary research. Now, progress in understanding and collaboration can benefit from establishment of the One Health concept (Stark et al., 2015; Zinsstag et al., 2012). One Health draws upon biological, environmental, medical, veterinary and social science disciplines in order to improve human, animal and environmental health, although it remains tantalizingly difficult to engage many relevant parties. For infectious diseases traditional divides have been exacerbated as the importance of wildlife reservoirs, climate change, food production systems and socio-economic diversity have been recognised but often not addressed in a multi-disciplinary manner. In response the 2015 Autumn Symposium organized by the British Society for Parasitology (BSP; https://www.bsp.uk.net/home/) was focused on One Health, running under the title ‘One Health: parasites and beyond…’. The meeting, held at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in Camden, London from September 14th to 15th, drew upon a blend of specialist parasitology reinforced with additional complementary expertise. Scientists, advocates, policy makers and industry representatives were invited to present at the meeting, promoting and developing One Health understanding with relevance to parasitology. The decision to widen the scope of the meeting to non-parasitological, but informative topics, is reflected in the diversity of the articles included in this special issue. A key feature of the meeting was encouragement of early career scientists, with more than 35% of the delegates registered as students and 25 posters

Anisotropy effects in a mixed quantum-classical Heisenberg model in two dimensions

We analyse a specific two dimensional mixed spin Heisenberg model with exchange anisotropy, by means of high temperature expansions and Monte Carlo simulations. The goal is to describe the magnetic properties of the compound (NBu_{4})_{2}Mn_{2}[Cu(opba)]_{3}\cdot 6DMSO\cdot H_{2}O which exhibits a ferromagnetic transition at $T_{c}=15K$. Extrapolating our analysis on the basis of renormalisation group arguments, we find that this transition may result from a very weak anisotropy effect.Comment: 8 pages, 10 Postscript figure

Boston's Education Pipeline: A Report Card

Assesses the city's progress in creating an effective and equitable education pipeline from early childhood through college or postsecondary training. Examines demographic and outcome data and risk and prevention factors, and notes areas for improvement