Funding Innovative Programs for Adults: Searching for Policy on the Improvement of Higher Education

This paper examines the history of funding policies and grants from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE). It examines these policies in light of the changing and ephemeral sense of purpose of adult education

Proper names

Traditionally, the conflict over the question what is the role of proper names in ordinary language has centred around two proposals: a sense-reference account, where the meaning of a name is given by some favoured description of the bearer, or a designatory account, where the bearer is the meaning of the name. There is a predisposition towards the former account. largely apparent ease in dealing with a supposedly central question: what is the role of "Pegasus" in the sentence "Pegasus does not exist". If we consider sane more standard cases of proper names two facts are clear: speakers use a name from one occasion to the next with one and the same meaning, and what two men may know of a particular individual may not be the same thing. These facts not only undermine the traditional accounts but they also prohibit a uniform account of all names, bearerless or otherwise, in terms of the bare intentions of speakers irrespective of what populates the universe. These failures indicate the need for a different approach to the issue. The search for a direct answer to the question "what is the meaning of a name", prescribed by a sense-reference approach, should be replaced by seeking the conditions which must be satisfied by someone who knows the contribution a name makes to determining the truth grounds of statements. The role of standard proper names can then be explained without appeal to something which is the meaning; and further an account of why "Pegasus" is still with us can be given, which explains our intentions on the matter without unduly detracting from an ontology of middle sized hardware.<p

Out of the Box: Homegrown in Greater Lafayette [extracts]

Students from the Honors 299 course, “Homegrown,” researched local Hispanic culture, sound, green spaces, and coffee shops, among other areas of study, as well as the role of each in establishing a sense of place

SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE “LINKING THE MIDDLE AGES” WORKSHOP (MAY 11-12, 2015) at the University of Texas at Austin

Summary of Proceedings of Workshop on the possible application(s) of Linked Open Data to Medieval Studies.In May 2015 the CLIR/Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellows in Medieval Data Curation convened a two-day workshop on the sharing and publishing of linked open data (LOD). Funded by a CLIR/Mellon microgrant, the workshop brought together librarians, technologists, and scholars to exchange ideas on the challenges posed to medievalists in sharing data on digital platforms. More than thirty experts took part in the workshop, which was held at The University of Texas at Austin on May 11-12, 2015. Participants presented their work in linked open data operational sites and took part in discussions about the obstacles and opportunities of LOD in three areas: research, teaching, and publication. This paper documents the possibilities and problems of applying LOD in medieval studies. It focuses specifically on its application to the field’s data, which requires medievalists to work together with librarians and technologists, and considers a technical infrastructure that can maintain and proliferate this type of collaborative work.Council on Library and Information Resources, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, University of Texas Libraries, University of Texas at AustinUT Librarie

The Dissociation of Vibrationally Excited CH3OSO Radicals and Their Photolytic Precurson, Methoxysulfinyl Chloride

I developed a synthesis of an unstable molecule that undergoes cleavage when exposed to light. Laurie Butler, in her lab at the University of Chicago, studied the rate of decay/bond dissociation for this molecule. It serves as a model for bond dissociation processes that occur with pollutant molecules in the upper atmosphere. --author-supplied descriptio

A computationally engineered RAS rheostat reveals RAS-ERK signaling dynamics.

Synthetic protein switches controlled with user-defined inputs are powerful tools for studying and controlling dynamic cellular processes. To date, these approaches have relied primarily on intermolecular regulation. Here we report a computationally guided framework for engineering intramolecular regulation of protein function. We utilize this framework to develop chemically inducible activator of RAS (CIAR), a single-component RAS rheostat that directly activates endogenous RAS in response to a small molecule. Using CIAR, we show that direct RAS activation elicits markedly different RAS-ERK signaling dynamics from growth factor stimulation, and that these dynamics differ among cell types. We also found that the clinically approved RAF inhibitor vemurafenib potently primes cells to respond to direct wild-type RAS activation. These results demonstrate the utility of CIAR for quantitatively interrogating RAS signaling. Finally, we demonstrate the general utility of our approach in design of intramolecularly regulated protein tools by applying it to the Rho family of guanine nucleotide exchange factors

Who Counts in Crises? The New Geopolitics of International Migration and Refugee Governance

Recent migration ‘crises’ raise important geopolitical questions. Who is ‘the migrant’ that contemporary politics are fixated on? How are answers to ‘who counts as a migrant’ changing? Who gets to do that counting, and under what circumstances? This forum responds to, as well as questions, the current saliency of migration by examining how categories of migration hold geopolitical significance—not only in how they are constructed and by whom, but also in how they are challenged and subverted. Furthermore, by examining how the very concepts of ‘migrant’ and ‘refugee’ are used in different contexts, and for a variety of purposes, it opens up critical questions about mobility, citizenship and the nation state. Collectively, these contributions aim to demonstrate how problematising migration and its categorisation can be a tool of enquiry into other phenomena and processes

Divergence between genes but limited allelic polymorphism in two MHC class II A genes in Leach’s storm-petrels Oceanodroma leucorhoa

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is critical to host-pathogen interactions. Class II MHC is a heterodimer, with α and β subunits encoded by different genes. The peptide-binding groove is formed by the first domain of both subunits (α1 and β1), but studies of class II variation or natural selection focus primarily on the β subunit and II B genes. We explored MHC II A in Leach’s storm-petrel, a seabird with two expressed, polymorphic II B genes. We found two II A genes, Ocle-DAA and Ocle-DBA, in contrast to the single II A gene in chicken and duck. In exon 2 which encodes the α1 domain, the storm-petrel II A genes differed strongly from each other but showed little within-gene polymorphism in 30 individuals: just one Ocle-DAA allele, and three Ocle-DBA alleles differing from each other by single non-synonymous substitutions. In a comparable sample, the two II B genes had nine markedly diverged alleles each. Differences between the α1 domains of Ocle-DAA and Ocle-DBA showed signatures of positive selection, but mainly at non-peptide-binding site (PBS) positions. In contrast, positive selection within and between the II B genes corresponded to putative PBS codons. Phylogenetic analysis of the conserved α2 domain did not reveal deep or well-supported lineages of II A genes in birds, in contrast to the pronounced differentiation of DQA, DPA, and DRA isotypes in mammals. This uncertain homology complicates efforts to compare levels of functional variation and modes of evolution of II A genes across taxa

Move it AUS Better Ageing Grant; A national evaluation report

An evaluation of the nationally-funded Move It AUS Better Ageing Grant Program, funding organisations to design programs to reduce inactivity across target populations of older adults in Australia. The purpose of the independent national evaluation was to critically appraise the Program to better understand how organisations can utilise sport and targeted physical activity projects to tackle physical inactivity in older adults across Australia. This evaluation incorporated findings from participant surveys and will inform the sport sector on what works and what doesn't when engaging inactive older adults in sport and physical activity