The Andre-Oort conjecture for the moduli space of Abelian Surfaces

We provide an unconditional proof of the Andr\'e-Oort conjecture for the coarse moduli space $\mathcal{A}_{2,1}$ of principally polarized Abelian surfaces, following the strategy outlined by Pila-Zannier.Comment: 14 page

Searching for a Path: Evangelicals in Nicaraguan Politics

Evangelicals now comprise approximately 20-25% of the Nicaraguan population, but the Nicaraguan political system has remained dominated by the specter of the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, in the 1990s, some evangelical leaders, including ones who had previously been vocal opponents of political involvement, sought new outlets for political participation. I claim that the evangelical political movement has drawn on three justifications: a struggle against political marginalization, a crusade for “traditional moral values,” and a fight for economic betterment. Here, utilizing interviews with 18 Nicaraguan Protestants involved in Christian political or social movements, I trace evangelical political parties though the 1990s, focusing on the successes and failings of the Camino Cristiano Nicaragüense (Nicaraguan Christian Path) party. I show that efforts to establish an evangelical political party have faltered for lack of transparent leadership, lack of a coherent plan of government, and lack of homogeneity within the evangelical community. I then examine the roles of evangelicals in the 2006 presidential campaign and conclude that future efforts by evangelicals to secure political power will likely operate within the structure of the major political parties

Resources and Results in Union Rivalry: A Case Study

L'Association des employés de soutien de l'Université Laurentienne (AESUL) s'est méritée le titre de premier syndicat indépendant d'un groupe d'employés de soutien à être accréditée sous la Loi des relations du travail dans une université d'Ontario, et ce après un conflit de rivalité syndicale fort coloré avec le Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique (SCFP). Certains estiment que l'organisation est un processus par lequel on s'efforce d'abord de vendre l'idée du syndicalisme pour ensuite vanter les avantages d'un syndicat en particulier. Quand il s'agit d'une bataille entre syndicats concurrents, il est loisible d'examiner les moyens utilisés par chacun d'eux pour prôner leurs avantages respectifs.La présente analyse rétrospective et approfondie permet de mettre en relief trois points qui ont concouru à l'obtention du résultat final: le rôle des facteurs non économiques reliés au travail, l'idée que l'on se fait du syndicalisme et les moyens d'influer sur les décisions à prendre.Les données de cette étude ont été tirées des dossiers des deux syndicats en présence, de ceux de la Commission des relations du travail de l'Ontario ainsi que de ceux de l'Université Laurentienne. Le représentant régional du SCFP, des membres du comité de direction de l'AESUL, de l'ancien recteur de l'Université ainsi que du directeur des services à l'époque ont été longuement interviewés.L'AESUL doit son existence à l'Association des employés de bureau de l'Université qui, à ses débuts en 1970, n'était pas accréditée et qui comptait dans ses rangs des employés du bureau, des dactylos, des expéditeurs et des receveurs, les techniciens en bibliotechnie, les employés des presses universitaires et les perforatrices. À ce moment, le SCFP commençait à faire du recrutement dans le secteur des employés de bureau et, pendant les premiers mois de 1973, il s'est efforcé d'obtenir l'adhésion de ce groupe d'employés à l'Université Laurentienne. Les effectifs y étaient assez nombreux pour retenir l'attention d'un syndicat aussi important. Le comité exécutif de l'AESUL a jugé que la tentative du SCFP était en quelque sorte une effraction.La tension était considérable. Les partisans des deux camps s'affairaient à poser des affiches, à arracher celles de la partie adverse peu de temps avant l'heure de la fermeture des bureaux afin de s'assurer que les employés en prendraient connaissance avant l'heure de la sortie du travail. L'administration de l'Université fermait les yeux sur cette activité. Les partisans de l'AESUL faisaient valoir les avantages suivants: pouvoir accru de négociation, statut juridique reconnu, autonomie de l'association et protection contre l'intervention d'un tiers en cours de convention collective. De son côté, le SCFC insistait sur le pouvoir de négociation.En juillet 1973, quand l'AESUL a demandé l'accréditation, le SCFP s'y est opposé en accusant l'Université de favoriser l'association. Un mois plus tard, après une deuxième audition devant la Commission ontarienne, cette dernière décréta un vote qui donna lieu à une nouvelle campagne de propagande. Le vote fut tenu en octobre.Il est bon de signaler que, en aucun temps, l'AESUL n'a parlé ouvertement de syndicat. Il était question d'accréditation, mais non de syndicat. Même s'il existait beaucoup de relations entre les employés de l'Université et ceux del’INCO et de laFalconbridge qui sont syndiqués, le personnel de bureau de l'Université ne trouvait pas convenable de former un syndicat. L'idée de syndicat détonnait dans un milieu universitaire. La communauté de Sudbury avait toujours considéré l'Université comme une institution de haut savoir. Le concept syndicat ne pouvait s'appliquer ni à l'endroit ni au milieu de travail. C'est pourquoi les responsables de la campagne de recrutement se sont gardés d'utiliser le terme « syndicat », et ceci en dépit du fait que le syndicalisme est une institution bien connue à Sudbury.Il faut se demander pourquoi le SCFP, qui possédait ressources et compétence, a perdu cette bataille. C'est que l'AESUL a su miser sur les problèmes du travail. Eneffet, sur les vingt-trois points que cette dernière a touchés, dix-huit portaient sur les problèmes inhérents au travail et cinq seulement se rapportaient aux salaires et aux avantages sociaux. Au contraire, le SCFP a mis presque exclusivement l'accent sur ces deux points.Ce qui ressort de cette étude, c'est que l'AESUL doit son succès en grande partie à sa situation de premier occupant et à la facilité de persuader des gens qu'elle connaissait bien. Les dirigeants étaient au courant des problèmes de chaque petit groupe d'employés. Ces facteurs se sont avérés plus efficaces que les arguments de propagande directe, même si les derniers jours de la campagne furent marqués d'une chaude lutte. Quant à l'Université, elle s'est montrée très discrète tout au long du débat. En résumé, ce sont des motifs d'ordre pratique qui ont poussé les employés à favoriser l'Association plutôt que le syndicat.This paper shows the asymetric disequilibrium between available resources and results in the course of a union recruiting campaign in a case study of an experience of CUPE and LUSSA at Laurentian University

Perceptual phenomenology

I am looking at an apple. The apple has a lot of properties and some, but not all, of these are part of my phenomenology at this moment: I am aware of these properties. And some, but not all, of these properties that I am aware of are part of my perceptual (or sensory) phenomenology. If I am attending to the apple’s color, this property will be part of my perceptual phenomenology. The property of being a granny smith apple from Chile is unlikely to be part of my perceptual phenomenology. Here are two problems for anyone who is interested in conscious experience in general, and perceptual experience in particular: (a) How can we tell which properties are part of our phenomenology and which ones are not? (b) How can we tell which properties are part of our perceptual phenomenology and which ones are part of our non-perceptual phenomenology? I will focus on (b) in this paper. My aim is twofold: I propose a methodology for answering the question of which properties are part of our perceptual phenomenology and I provide an example for how this methodology could be applied

Visualization Component of Vehicle Health Decision Support System

The visualization front-end of a Decision Support System (DSS) also includes an analysis engine linked to vehicle telemetry, and a database of learned models for known behaviors. Because the display is graphical rather than text-based, the summarization it provides has a greater information density on one screen for evaluation by a flight controller.This tool provides a system-level visualization of the state of a vehicle, and drill-down capability for more details and interfaces to separate analysis algorithms and sensor data streams. The system-level view is a 3D rendering of the vehicle, with sensors represented as icons, tied to appropriate positions within the vehicle body and colored to indicate sensor state (e.g., normal, warning, anomalous state, etc.). The sensor data is received via an Information Sharing Protocol (ISP) client that connects to an external server for real-time telemetry. Users can interactively pan, zoom, and rotate this 3D view, as well as select sensors for a detail plot of the associated time series data. Subsets of the plotted data can be selected and sent to an external analysis engine to either search for a similar time series in an historical database, or to detect anomalous events. The system overview and plotting capabilities are completely general in that they can be applied to any vehicle instrumented with a collection of sensors. This visualization component can interface with the ISP for data streams used by NASA s Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center. In addition, it can connect to, and display results from, separate analysis engine components that identify anomalies or that search for past instances of similar behavior. This software supports NASA's Software, Intelligent Systems, and Modeling element in the Exploration Systems Research and Technology Program by augmenting the capability of human flight controllers to make correct decisions, thus increasing safety and reliability. It was designed specifically as a tool for NASA's flight controllers to monitor the International Space Station and a future Crew Exploration Vehicle

Health-Related Fitness and Energy Expenditure in Recreational Youth Rock Climbers 8-16 Years of Age

International Journal of Exercise Science 8(2): 174-183, 2015. Information on the characteristics of youth rock climbers is minimal. The purpose was to 1) Determine the influence of a three-month program of bouldering and vertical rock climbing on the anthropometry and health-related physical fitness of relatively novice youth climbers, and 2) determine whether rock climbing and bouldering in novice youth climbers can provide adequate levels of moderate to vigourous physical activity (US DHHS, 2008). Fifteen participants (11 males and 4 females; mean age = 11.5 ± 2.3 years) from a newly established youth climbing team were assessed twice weekly during their normal two-hour training sessions at a local rock gym. Body composition, flexibility, grip strength, and anthropometric estimates of somatotype were measured in August and November. Heart rate (HR) monitors recorded average activity heart rate (AHR), peak heart rate (HRpeak), and estimated energy expended (EE-kcals) during each climbing session. Basic descriptive statistics were run; repeat measure ANOVAs were used to assess changes between times. Estimated percent body fat did not change, but individual skinfolds (biceps and supraspinale) decreased significantly (

Radial fingering in a Hele-Shaw cell: a weakly nonlinear analysis

The Saffman-Taylor viscous fingering instability occurs when a less viscous fluid displaces a more viscous one between narrowly spaced parallel plates in a Hele-Shaw cell. Experiments in radial flow geometry form fan-like patterns, in which fingers of different lengths compete, spread and split. Our weakly nonlinear analysis of the instability predicts these phenomena, which are beyond the scope of linear stability theory. Finger competition arises through enhanced growth of sub-harmonic perturbations, while spreading and splitting occur through the growth of harmonic modes. Nonlinear mode-coupling enhances the growth of these perturbations with appropriate relative phases, as we demonstrate through a symmetry analysis of the mode coupling equations. We contrast mode coupling in radial flow with rectangular flow geometry.Comment: 36 pages, 5 figures, Latex, added references, to appear in Physica D (1998

The endothelial glycocalyx prefers albumin for evoking shear stress-induced, nitric oxide-mediated coronary dilatation

Background: Shear stress induces coronary dilatation via production of nitric oxide ( NO). This should involve the endothelial glycocalyx ( EG). A greater effect was expected of albumin versus hydroxyethyl starch ( HES) perfusion, because albumin seals coronary leaks more effectively than HES in an EG-dependent way. Methods: Isolated hearts ( guinea pigs) were perfused at constant pressure with Krebs-Henseleit buffer augmented with 1/3 volume 5% human albumin or 6% HES ( 200/0.5 or 450/0.7). Coronary flow was also determined after EG digestion ( heparinase) and with nitro-L-arginine ( NO-L-Ag). Results: Coronary flow ( 9.50 +/- 1.09, 5.10 +/- 0.49, 4.87 +/- 1.19 and 4.15 +/- 0.09 ml/ min/ g for `albumin', `HES 200', `HES 450' and `control', respectively, n = 5-6) did not correlate with perfusate viscosity ( 0.83, 1.02, 1.24 and 0.77 cP, respectively). NO-L-Ag and heparinase diminished dilatation by albumin, but not additively. Alone NO-L-Ag suppressed coronary flow during infusion of HES 450. Electron microscopy revealed a coronary EG of 300 nm, reduced to 20 nm after heparinase. Cultured endothelial cells possessed an EG of 20 nm to begin with. Conclusions: Albumin induces greater endothelial shear stress than HES, despite lower viscosity, provided the EG contains negative groups. HES 450 causes some NO-mediated dilatation via even a rudimentary EG. Cultured endothelial cells express only a rudimentary glycocalyx, limiting their usefulness as a model system. Copyright (c) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel

Pathogenesis and shedding of Usutu virus in juvenile chickens

Usutu virus (USUV; family: Flaviviridae, genus: Flavivirus), is an emerging zoonotic arbovirus that causes severe neuroinvasive disease in humans and has been implicated in the loss of breeding bird populations in Europe. USUV is maintained in an enzootic cycle between ornithophilic mosquitos and wild birds. As a member of the Japanese encephalitis serocomplex, USUV is closely related to West Nile virus (WNV) and St. Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV), both neuroinvasive arboviruses endemic in wild bird populations in the United States. An avian model for USUV is essential to understanding zoonotic transmission. Here we describe the first avian models of USUV infection with the development of viremia. Juvenile commercial ISA Brown chickens were susceptible to infection by multiple USUV strains with evidence of cardiac lesions. Juvenile chickens from two chicken lines selected for high (HAS) or low (LAS) antibody production against sheep red blood cells showed markedly different responses to USUV infection. Morbidity and mortality were observed in the LAS chickens, but not HAS chickens. LAS chickens had significantly higher viral titers in blood and other tissues, as well as oral secretions, and significantly lower development of neutralizing antibody responses compared to HAS chickens. Mathematical modelling of virus-host interactions showed that the viral clearance rate is a stronger mitigating factor for USUV viremia than neutralizing antibody response in this avian model. These chicken models provide a tool for further understanding USUV pathogenesis in birds and evaluating transmission dynamics between avian hosts and mosquito vectors.This work was supported by National Science Foundation [grant number: 1813011]; Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [grant number: Data and Decisions Proposal, VMCVM Internal Research Competition].S