Medicine as Colonial Enterprise: The Founding of the Pasteur Institute in Saigon, 1891

In 1891, naval physician Albert Calmette successfully lobbied the French government for the creation of a medical laboratory to study smallpox, rabies, cholera, and other diseases; he would also produce smallpox and rabies serum for local vaccinations. The proposal was a historical landmark not only because it became the first expansion of the Pasteur Institute in Paris—a government-sanctioned institution that continued Louis Pasteur’s recent discoveries in microbiology—but also because the laboratory was to be in Saigon. That the first offshoot of a French scientific body should be so far from the metropole, and extant merely three years after the Paris Institute’s 1888 founding, merits investigation. Science and medicine were not isolated in an ivory tower but were deeply engaged in society: at the turn of the 20th century, European society was preoccupied with colonialism. It is no accident that the heyday of European expansion and control overseas was also the heyday of the expansion of “Western” science and medicine outside of Europe. The founding of the Pasteur Institute in Saigon provides a case study of the ways in which colonialism impinged on all aspects of society, including medicine, and as importantly, how medicine influenced colonialism

Information Technologies and Education for the Poor in Africa: Recommendations for a Pro-Poor ICT4D Non-Formal Education Policy

More than half of Africa\u27s youth and adults do not have basic literacy skills and/or have not completed primary or secondary school. It is deeply concerning how little serious attention has been paid to the potential ways in which ICT can enhance such skills, as part of a pro-poor model of ICT for Development (ICT4D). Such work is crucial if the goals of Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are to be achieved. The present effort, Information Technologies and Education for the Poor in Africa (ITEPA), is designed to focus attention on what is being and has been attempted in this domain in some of the poorest communities in Africa

The Specific Characteristics of Childhood Obesity and the Effective Strategies to Combat Childhood Obesity in Hong Kong: A Short Review

Childhood obesity is a serious public health problem all around the world. The problem also currently exists in Hong Kong. Unhealthy lifestyle behavior may be one of key factors contributing to childhood obesity. The review revealed the specific characteristics of childhood obesity and the effective strategies in prevention of childhood obesity in Hong Kong context. Hong Kong is a metropolitan city which is interwoven eastern and western culture. The historical reasons and the complex political issues lead to overcrowded of people living in a small place. The environmental factors and the lifestyle pattern are the crucial causes contributing to childhood obesity. Parents have significant influence in shaping lifestyle behavior of children. While Chinese culture, informal childcare and more energy-dense food consumptions are the specific factors affecting children in lifestyle behavior as shown in the previous studies. The finding of the present review paper is expected to realize root causes of the prevalence of childhood obesity. On the other hand, many studies regarding to the treatment of childhood obesity were also reviewed. It was found that fewer studies were conducted to provide the combined intervention to combat childhood obesity. Generally, parental education was not the focus of childhood obesity intervention programs and parent-oriented approach was not commonly adopted in these programs. While limited childhood obesity intervention programs have been conducted in Hong Kong, it is recommended to conduct an appropriate program for children specifically in Hong Kong context. The design of preventive strategies should take into consideration of these specific characteristics in Hong Kong to reverse the increased prevalence of childhood obesity

CONSTRAINTS ON REIONIZATION FROM THE THERMAL HISTORY OF THE INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM 1,2

ABSTRACT The temperature of the diffuse, photoheated intergalactic medium (IGM) depends on its reionization history because the thermal timescales are long. The widths of the hydrogen Lya absorption lines seen in the spectra of distant quasars that arise in the IGM can be used to determine its temperature. We use a wavelet analysis of the Lya forest region of quasar spectra to demonstrate that there is a relatively sudden increase in the line widths between redshifts and 3.0, which we associate with entropy injection resulting from the reionization of z ≈ 3.5 He ii. The subsequent falloff in temperature after is consistent with a thermal evolution dominated by z ≈ 3.5 adiabatic expansion. If, as expected, the temperature also drops rapidly after hydrogen reionization, then the high temperatures inferred from the line widths before He ii reionization imply that hydrogen reionization occurred below redshift . z p

Analyzing Partitioned FAIR Health Data Responsibly

It is widely anticipated that the use of health-related big data will enable further understanding and improvements in human health and wellbeing. Our current project, funded through the Dutch National Research Agenda, aims to explore the relationship between the development of diabetes and socio-economic factors such as lifestyle and health care utilization. The analysis involves combining data from the Maastricht Study (DMS), a prospective clinical study, and data collected by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) as part of its routine operations. However, a wide array of social, legal, technical, and scientific issues hinder the analysis. In this paper, we describe these challenges and our progress towards addressing them.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, preliminary result, project repor

Light-Soaking-Free Inverted Polymer Solar Cells with an Efficiency of 10.5% by Compositional and Surface Modifications to a Low-Temperature-Processed TiO2 Electron-Transport Layer.

Compositional modification and surface treatments of a TiO2 film prepared by a low-temperature route are carried out by a new promising method. Inverted polymer solar cells incorporating the post-treated TiO2 :TOPD electron-transport layer achieve the highest efficiency of 10.5%, and more importantly, eliminate the light-soaking problem that is commonly observed in metal-oxide-based inverted polymer solar cells

A Survey of Air-to-Ground Propagation Channel Modeling for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), particularly for small UAVs, due to their affordable prices, ease of availability, and ease of operability. Existing and future applications of UAVs include remote surveillance and monitoring, relief operations, package delivery, and communication backhaul infrastructure. Additionally, UAVs are envisioned as an important component of 5G wireless technology and beyond. The unique application scenarios for UAVs necessitate accurate air-to-ground (AG) propagation channel models for designing and evaluating UAV communication links for control/non-payload as well as payload data transmissions. These AG propagation models have not been investigated in detail when compared to terrestrial propagation models. In this paper, a comprehensive survey is provided on available AG channel measurement campaigns, large and small scale fading channel models, their limitations, and future research directions for UAV communication scenarios

The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: Exploring Fundamental Symmetries of the Universe

The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early Universe, the dynamics of the supernova bursts that produced the heavy elements necessary for life and whether protons eventually decay --- these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our Universe, its current state and its eventual fate. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) represents an extensively developed plan for a world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions. LBNE is conceived around three central components: (1) a new, high-intensity neutrino source generated from a megawatt-class proton accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, (2) a near neutrino detector just downstream of the source, and (3) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber deployed as a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. This facility, located at the site of the former Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, is approximately 1,300 km from the neutrino source at Fermilab -- a distance (baseline) that delivers optimal sensitivity to neutrino charge-parity symmetry violation and mass ordering effects. This ambitious yet cost-effective design incorporates scalability and flexibility and can accommodate a variety of upgrades and contributions. With its exceptional combination of experimental configuration, technical capabilities, and potential for transformative discoveries, LBNE promises to be a vital facility for the field of particle physics worldwide, providing physicists from around the globe with opportunities to collaborate in a twenty to thirty year program of exciting science. In this document we provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess.Comment: Major update of previous version. This is the reference document for LBNE science program and current status. Chapters 1, 3, and 9 provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess. 288 pages, 116 figure