The Voices of the Cordillera- Digitising an Oral Tradition.

Under the remit of the UN Global Challenges Sustainable Goal 4, it must be understood that the capital value of knowledge preservation needs to be elevated by the economic benefits of formal education and the ongoing and often lifelong socio-economic impact it creates. The development and support of ethnolinguistic weaving practice may enable real-world benefits for Philippine society, culture, the environment and the economy; it may address global challenges of diminishing craft skill bases and knowledge and it may encourage an education ecosystem which challenges dominant craft and design education structures. This paper is a reflection on a 2019 British Council & Crafts Council / Crafting Futures grant project which enabled a collaboration between the Philippines based CordiTex project and Manchester School of Art to support the future digitization of indigenous weaving tradition within the Cordillera region of the Northern Philippines. The paper asks if the weaving tradition of the Cordillera is to transform and change from the problems it faces, what impacts will the shift from of an oral to a digital tradition create

Synthesis, Characterisation and Biological Activity of Transition Metal Complexes of Thiabendazole

A series of transition metal complexes of 2-(4’-thiazolyl)benzimidazole{thiabendazole}(TBZH) have been prepared and their ability to prevent the growth of the fungal pathogen Candida albicans has been assessed. The compounds were synthesised using the Chloride, Nitrate, Sulfate and Acetate salts of MN(II), Fe(II), Fe(III), Co(II), Ni(II), Zn(II) and Ag(1) resulting in the formation of 29 metal complexes. The complexes were formulated on the basis of their physico-chemical data. Reaction of Fe(NO3)3.9H2) with TBZH yielded the unusual nitrate salt [TBZH2NO3], a compound which could not be generated using simple acid –base chemistry. The X-ray crystal structure of [TBZH2NO3] was determined. TBZH, [TBZH2NO3], the 29 complexes and the simple salt starting materials were all tested, over a range of concentrations, for their anti-Candida activity. At a concentration of 100ug/cm-3 all of the non-silver complexes exhibit good to moderate activity but as the concentration drops their efficacy diminishes significantly. The silver compounds examined during this study have excellent biological activity

Novel strategies for the identification of biomarkers of non-Hodgkin lymphoma: evidence from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC)

Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas (NHL) represent the eighth most common cancer in Western Europe. Yet despite their widespread prevalence and high mortality rate relatively little is known about the aetiology of these hematological malignancies. Consequently NHL represents an ideal candidate for the discovery of biomarkers lying along the causal pathway. Such biomarkers would allow the improved identification of risk factors and high risk individuals, as well as an enhanced understanding of lymphomageneisis. However, to date there has been little progress in determining validated predictive biomarkers of NHL. This thesis attempts to address some of the issues that have previously hampered the study of NHL through novel strategies of biomarker identification utilising novel methodologies, technologies and statistical techniques. The thesis comprises a nested case-control study within the European Prospective investigation into Cancer (EPIC) cohort and is split into two parts: the ‘validation of biomarkers’ and the ‘integration of biomarkers’. The most exciting finding was the identification of a novel biomarker for Follicular lymphoma based on the t(14;18) translocation which comprises a previously unknown pre-disease condition. Although no other predictive biomarkers were identified this work represents a ‘proof-of-principle’ for the use profile regression in the study of highly dimensional complex datasets, and the possibility of using mass-spectrometry derived metabolic profiles in the study of lymphoma. Part two of the thesis confirmed that the use of the ‘meet-in-the-middle’ approach was a valuable and feasible method for studying the complete causal pathway from risk factor to disease. Together these results highlight potential avenues for further study of NHL and confirm the utility of a number of novel strategies that can aid such work. Additionally it informs on some of the likely challenges that will be involved.Open Acces

Will the Patient-Centered Medical Home Transform the Delivery of Health Care?

Explores various definitions of the medical home model, its components, rationale, effect on primary care, issues for implementation such as costs and payment methods, evidence of effectiveness, and healthcare reform provisions promoting it

Ensuring Contractor Accountability Overseas: A Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act Would Be Preferable to Expansion of the False Claims Act

This Note considers the advisability of amending the False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions beyond instances of fraud to include criminal allegations against government contractors employed overseas. It considers the negative effects that result from qui tam actions in the fraud context and discusses alternatives for holding contractors accountable for crimes committed overseas that could avoid those negative effects. This Note particularly focuses on and recommends a civilian corollary to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act—the Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. It discusses the benefits that the Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act would provide such as increased judicial efficiency, increased prosecutorial flexibility, and even protection of the contractors implicated as compared to the relatively uncertain option of local nations’ laws

A Composite Genome Approach to Identify Phylogenetically Informative Data from Next-Generation Sequencing

We have developed a novel method to rapidly obtain homologous genomic data for phylogenetics directly from next-generation sequencing reads without the use of a reference genome. This software, called SISRS, avoids the time consuming steps of de novo whole genome assembly, genome-genome alignment, and annotation. For simulations SISRS is able to identify large numbers of loci containing variable sites with phylogenetic signal. For genomic data from apes, SISRS identified thousands of variable sites, from which we produced an accurate phylogeny. Finally, we used SISRS to identify phylogenetic markers that we used to estimate the phylogeny of placental mammals. We recovered phylogenies from multiple datasets that were consistent with previous conflicting estimates of the relationships among mammals. SISRS is open source and freely available at https://github.com/rachelss/SISRS.Comment: 12 pages plus36 figures, 1 supplementary table, 3 supplementary figure

Wayne Roberts, The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food

Review of The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food, by Wayne Robert