From spaces of sexual violence to sites of networked resistance: Re-imagining mobile and social media technologies

To date, much of the work on mobile and social media in the context of sexual violence has focused on its threats and harmful effects, particularly in relation to cyber-bullying and other forms of online harassment. But what if we think of such technologies as technologies of non-violence? In this article we make a case for exploring this work in rural South Africa, where, in spite of some challenges of access, the availability of technology is increasing the number of possible ways of addressing sexual violence. Building on what we offer as a primer of technologies currently available, we consider the implications of this work for researchers (especially those in education), interested in how technology can help to address sexual violence

Book Reviews

Book Review 1Book Title: Concepts of Ecosystem EcologyBook Authors: Edited by L.R. Pomeroy & J.J. AlbertsSpringer-Verlag, New York 1988. 384 pp.Book Review 2Book Title: Ecophysiology of the Camelidae and Desert RuminantsBook Author: R.T. WilsonSpringer-Verlag 1989

To Grow or not to Grow: A Tool for Comparing Returns to Switchgrass for Bioenergy with Annual Crops and CRP

Cellulosic biomass for biofuel remains a substantial part of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandate and perennial grasses like switchgrass meet the RFS requirements for cellulosic biomass. Perennial grasses are a popular choice because of the benefits they can provide over traditional row crop production: numerous production years from a single planting, yield advantages on marginally productive cropland, increased soil carbon sequestration, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and other environmental benefits. Despite these benefits, scalable production of switchgrass in the Midwest faces substantial challenges. The largest of these is the need to compete economically with alternative land uses: row crop production, grazing, haying, or Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)

Review Article : Sacubitril/valsartan use for the hospitalist

The mainstays of therapy for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) have traditionally been angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB), beta-blockers, aldosterone receptor antagonists, and diuretics for symptomatic relief (1). With few advances made over the past few decades, the principles of treating HFrEF have been revolutionized following the results of the PARADIGM-HF trial (Prospective comparison of ARNI with ACEI to Determine Impact on Global Mortality and morbidity in Heart Failure) in 2014. The trial compared the novel agent sacubitril/valsartan (Entresto(R)) to Enalapril (1). Sacubitril/valsartan is a combination angiotensin II receptor blocker-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) that replaces traditional ACEI and ARB therapy in the treatment of HFrEF. The PARADIGM-HF trial was stopped early due to overwhelming evidence of decreased mortality and decreased HFrEF related hospitalizations with sacubitril/valsartan when compared to Enalapril (2). Since the study was released, the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the American Heart Association (AHA), and the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) released updated guidelines in May 2016. Sacubitril/valsartan now holds a Class I Recommendation for the treatment of HFrEF in patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II or III heart failure (3). These recommendations were further upheld in the recently released 2017 ACC/AHA/HFSA Focused Update for the Management of Heart Failure (4).Includes bibliographical reference

Morpheus Lander Testing Campaign

NASA s Morpheus Project has developed and tested a prototype planetary lander capable of vertical takeoff and landing designed to serve as a testbed for advanced spacecraft technologies. The Morpheus vehicle has successfully performed a set of integrated vehicle test flights including hot-fire and tether tests, ultimately culminating in an un-tethered "free-flight" This development and testing campaign was conducted on-site at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), less than one year after project start. Designed, developed, manufactured and operated in-house by engineers at JSC, the Morpheus Project represents an unprecedented departure from recent NASA programs and projects that traditionally require longer development lifecycles and testing at remote, dedicated testing facilities. This paper documents the integrated testing campaign, including descriptions of test types (hot-fire, tether, and free-flight), test objectives, and the infrastructure of JSC testing facilities. A major focus of the paper will be the fast pace of the project, rapid prototyping, frequent testing, and lessons learned from this departure from the traditional engineering development process at NASA s Johnson Space Center

Health Canada: Pollinator Protection and Pesticides

Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) is responsible for regulating pesticides in Canada, including assessing potential risk to pollinators. Pollinator health is a complex issue that may be affected by multiple factors including pests, diseases, habitat and nutrition, bee management practices, and pesticides. The pesticide risk assessment framework for pollinators has been recently updated and improved in collaboration with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. Health Canada is also working with international partners and stakeholders to develop improved measures to reduce pollinator exposure to pesticides through improved labelling, best management practices, and mandatory and voluntary mitigation measures. Many of the measures being developed are related to planting of insecticide treated seed, an area that was highlighted in 2012 and 2013 when Health Canada received a significant number of honey bee mortality reports from corn growing regions of Ontario and Quebec. Exposure to insecticides from dust generated during planting of treated corn seeds was determined to contribute to the majority of these bee mortalities. With the cooperation of multiple partners and stakeholders, including the provinces, registrants, seed distributors, equipment manufacturers, growers, beekeepers, and researchers, technical solutions and best management practices have been developed and implemented to reduce pollinator exposure to pesticides during planting of treated seed. Efforts are continuing to better understand the potential risks to pollinators from all areas of pesticide use and to develop additional measures that will further reduce exposure and risks

A Gibbs approach to Chargaff's second parity rule

Chargaff's second parity rule (CSPR) asserts that the frequencies of short polynucleotide chains are the same as those of the complementary reversed chains. Up to now, this hypothesis has only been observed empirically and there is currently no explanation for its presence in DNA strands. Here we argue that CSPR is a probabilistic consequence of the reverse complementarity between paired strands, because the Gibbs distribution associated with the chemical energy between the bonds satisfies CSPR. We develop a statistical test to study the validity of CSPR under the Gibbsian assumption and we apply it to a large set of bacterial genomes taken from the GenBank repository.Comment: 16 page

From spaces of sexual violence to sites of networked resistance: Re-imagining mobile and social media technologies

To date, much of the work on mobile and social media in the context of sexual violence has focused on its threats and harmful effects, particularly in relation to cyber-bullying and other forms of online harassment. But what if we think of such technologies as technologies of non-violence? In this article we make a case for exploring this work in rural South Africa, where, in spite of some challenges of access, the availability of technology is increasing the number of possible ways of addressing sexual violence. Building on what we offer as a primer of technologies currently available, we consider the implications of this work for researchers (especially those in education), interested in how technology can help to address sexual violence

Progressive refinement rendering of implicit surfaces

The visualisation of implicit surfaces can be an inefficient task when such surfaces are complex and highly detailed. Visualising a surface by first converting it to a polygon mesh may lead to an excessive polygon count. Visualising a surface by direct ray casting is often a slow procedure. In this paper we present a progressive refinement renderer for implicit surfaces that are Lipschitz continuous. The renderer first displays a low resolution estimate of what the final image is going to be and, as the computation progresses, increases the quality of this estimate at an interactive frame rate. This renderer provides a quick previewing facility that significantly reduces the design cycle of a new and complex implicit surface. The renderer is also capable of completing an image faster than a conventional implicit surface rendering algorithm based on ray casting

Becoming The Boss: Discretion And Postsuccession Success In Family Firms

Family firms can enjoy substantial longevity. Ironically, however, they are often imperiled by the very process that is essential to this longevity. Using the concept of managerial discretion as a starting point, we use a human agency lens to introduce the construct of successor discretion as a factor that affects the family business succession process. While important in general, successor discretion is positioned as a particularly relevant factor for productively managing organizational renewal in family businesses. This study represents a foundation for future empirical research investigating the role of agency in entrepreneurial action in the family business context, which consequently can contribute to the larger research literature on succession and change