An analysis of New South Wales electronic vote counting

We re-examine the 2012 local government elections in New South Wales, Australia. The count was conducted electronically using a randomised form of the Single Transferable Vote (STV). It was already well known that randomness does make a difference to outcomes in some seats. We describe how the process could be amended to include a demonstration that the randomness was chosen fairly. Second, and more significantly, we found an error in the official counting software, which caused a mistake in the count in the council of Griffith, where candidate Rina Mercuri narrowly missed out on a seat. We believe the software error incorrectly decreased Mercuri's winning probability to about 10%---according to our count she should have won with 91% probability. The NSW Electoral Commission (NSWEC) corrected their code when we pointed out the error, and made their own announcement. We have since investigated the 2016 local government election (held after correcting the error above) and found two new errors. We notified the NSWEC about these errors a few days after they posted the results

“In Search of the Orphan” : intercultural theatre, multi-ethnic casting, and the representation of Chineseness on European and North American stages

In May 2012, La Jolla Playhouse in the United States staged a musical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's “The Nightingale”. Four months later, the Royal Shakespeare Company announced its upcoming production of a “new adaptation” of the late thirteenth-century Chinese play “The Orphan of Zhao”. Both plays were severely criticized for the decidedly poor quota of East Asian actors in their multi-ethnic casts, and the discrepancies present in the portrayal of “Ancient” and “imaginary” Chinas. Each production draws on plays and stories that are part of a history of one-directional cross-cultural appropriation by European artists. Despite the change in mentalities over the past century, and the attempts at diversifying the British and American theatre industries through multi-ethnic casting and intercultural performance, the legacy of the imperialist appropriation of supposedly “exotic” art-forms resurfaces in such productions. This article aims to assess the pitfalls of Western-led intercultural performance and multi-ethnic casting, the representations of Chinese stage stereotypes, and the state of racial relations in the entertainment industry.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Lost in consumerism : existential and linguistic wanderings in Confusions d’instants (2003) by Gerty Dambury

Guadeloupean author Gerty Dambury’s play Confusion d’instants (2003) is a treatment of the impact of globalization on the French and French Caribbean societies’ most disenfranchised members. It also explores the interaction of personal and collective memory with local, national, and global histories. Confusion d’instants depicts the lives of three characters belonging to different generations and genders, who each speak in a single tense (past, present, or future). Each character also has a personal fixation with specific objects of consumption, such as radios, cars, or household appliances. Through the experiences of these socially and culturally marginalized characters Dambury articulates a searing critique of contemporary Guadeloupean society and of global capitalist consumerism in general. Through a close reading of the play, the article will analyse Dambury’s dramatic reflection on globalization, forgotten histories, and social marginalization.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

CASE SUMMARY: SOTO-SOTO V. GARLAND: NINTH CIRCUIT RULES BIA APPLIED THE WRONG STANDARD OF REVIEW AND ERRED IN DENYING A VICTIM OF TORTURE DEFERRAL OF REMOVAL UNDER THE CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE

The Ninth Circuit granted a petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals decision to deny a deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture. The Board held that the Immigration Judge’s findings granting Delfina Soto-Soto relief under the convention were clearly erroneous. The Board reasoned that the judge failed to acknowledge certain facts that indicate Soto-Soto is not likely to suffer torture if sent back to her country, Mexico. On appeal, Soto-Soto argues that the Board did not apply the correct standard of review. Instead of reviewing the judge’s finding under the clear-error standard, Soto-Soto contends that the Board improperly engaged in de novo review. The Ninth Circuit determined that the Board applied the wrong standard of review and held that Soto-Soto qualifies for relief under the clear error standard

Comparing Anthropometric Methods To Quantify Relations Between Adiposity And Headache

Obesity is associated with increased risk for chronic migraine and migraine progression, but associations with episodic migraine (em) and episodic tension-type headache (tth) are unclear. Most studies have relied on bmi as an indicator of adiposity. More accurate anthropometric measures that distinguish adipose tissue from other body tissue are critical to examine adiposity-headache associations, including validated measures of abdominal adiposity and established measurement formulas such as body adiposity index (bai) and body composition equations developed by Peterson et al. (2003) and Garcia et al. (2005). The present study explored adiposity-headache associations by employing established anthropometric measures of adiposity and comparing individuals with migraine, with tth, and without headache. Participants were 109 young adults meeting ichd-3 criteria for tth or migraine, or without headache. Ninety-three percent of migraineurs had em, and 92.5% of tth sufferers had etth. Researchers measured each participant and calculated adiposity as a function of: bmi, waist circumference, bai, waist-to-hip ratio, and the aforementioned body composition equations. Headache severity and frequency were obtained via diagnostic interview (sdih-3), and headache-related disability was assessed by the headache impact test (hit-6). Manova and a subsequent mancova did not reveal significant differences in adiposity between migraine, tth, and non-headache groups. Regression analyses indicated that among migraineurs, adiposity accounted for 11%, 13%, and 10% of the variance in headache severity, frequency, and disability, respectively, though these proportions were not statistically significant. Among participants with tth, adiposity accounted for 8% (p = .82), 21% (p =.23), and 39% (p = .009) of the variance in headache severity, frequency, and disability. The association with disability among those with tth fell short of significance after Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Adiposity did not differ between headache groups, and no significant associations were found between adiposity and headache frequency, severity, and disability. Findings extend upon existing literature that has established a positive association between obesity and chronic headache, suggesting that adiposity may not be a distinguishing characteristic among individuals with em and etth. Longitudinal studies that employ gold standard methods of adiposity measurement among diverse samples are needed to further clarify the role of adiposity in headache

Projecting absence: a decade of US Arctic intelligence, policy, and perceptions of Russia

Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2016The U.S. government engaged in Arctic security and politics at a low level throughout early 2000s, while the Russian government was quite active in it Arctic region during this timeframe. Using text, data and visual analysis tools, this research conducts content analysis, sentiment analysis and mapping on U.S. Arctic intelligence documents released through Wikileaks. It compares patterns found in the content of intelligence documents with content and sentiment patterns found in U.S. Arctic policy to correlate a shared perception of Russian Arctic engagement. Research findings indicate that the dialogue about Russian engagement in the Arctic in the early 2000s in both the intelligence community (IC) and policy-making communities attribute a low level of threat to U.S. national security with regard to Arctic issues. These findings may contribute to the lack of U.S. engagement in the Arctic leading up to the Crimean/Ukraine conflict

Meeting Free Appropriate Public Education and Least Restrictive Environment Requirements for Students With Disabilities During the Coronavirus-19 Pandemic: Implications for Special Education Directors

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) addresses educational access in a brick-and-mortar setting but does not specifically address how to meet the parameters of free appropriate public education (FAPE) and least restrictive environment (LRE) in an online or virtual setting. An increased desire by students with disabilities and their parents to select online learning, coupled with the Coronavirus (COVID)-19 global pandemic, prompted many school districts to pivot to remote learning for an extended period and disrupted the traditional educational system (Molnar et al., 2021). This phenomenological research study elevated the lived experiences of special education directors during the COVID-19 pandemic when schools were forced to shift learning models. The purpose of this study was to explore special education directors’ perspectives of how they met the requirements of providing a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE) for students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic when schools had to change their instructional models. Furthermore, the study allowed the researcher to gain insight into the perspectives of special education directors regarding the innovations that improved educational practices and outcomes for students with disabilities and the challenges and barriers that surfaced during this emergency shift to online learning. Constructivism guided this study by exploring the perceptions of six special education directors. Each director brought their own experiences, beliefs, and values. which shaped their actions and brought to life their efforts to meet student needs against barriers that surfaced throughout the phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. By deeply exploring the experience of each participant, the researcher gained insight into the situations the participants encountered to understand their individual actions regarding how they met FAPE and LRE for students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic while also identifying the essence of the common experience. Purposeful snowball sampling was used to identify participants within the researcher’s professional network who were current special education directors in urban, suburban, and rural locations in Colorado who held that role during the 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 school years with a minimum of three years of previous experience. Qualitative data were drawn from three different sources: interviews, artifacts, and a researcher’s journal. Interview transcripts, newspaper and website publications, and personal artifacts created by the participants during the data collection were gathered, analyzed, and coded for major themes. The data analysis revealed the special education directors in this study were able to meet the requirements of FAPE and LRE for students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on legal obligations, creativity in learning models, and communication across the multidisciplinary team. Special education directors also identified a need to re-evaluate the concepts of LRE moving forward, especially related to prior written notices and contingency plans, multidisciplinary team decisions, and the parent’s role. Additionally, the special education directors in this study shared their perceptions regarding the innovations that improved educational practices and outcomes for students with disabilities and the challenges and barriers that surfaced during this unprecedented time. The themes of improved systemic efficiencies, technology improved and enhanced the field, and relationships and partnerships strengthened emerged related to the innovations that improved educational practices and outcomes for students with disabilities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Five themes—feelings of ambiguity and uncertainty, effective implementation of student Individualized Educational Programs, challenges with families, barriers that impacted staffing, and negative impacts for students with disabilities—were revealed regarding challenges and barriers that surfaced during emergency shifts to online learning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

Panx1 and Panx3 regulate adipocyte development and fat accumulation in vivo

The obesity epidemic is a growing concern due to its various comorbidities and associated risk factors. Pannexins 1 and 3 (Panx1 and Panx3), are members of a family of channel-forming glycoproteins that have been reported to be important in paracrine signaling and development. Panx1 and Panx3 are homologous and are regulated in many different cell types, mediating cell proliferation and differentiation. We have shown that Panx1 and Panx3 are expressed in adipocytes and adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs) throughout the process of differentiation. Mice globally lacking Panx1 (Panx1 KO) have significantly greater total fat mass compared to wildtype (WT) mice under a normal diet. Comparatively, mice globally lacking Panx3 (Panx3 KO) have significantly less total fat mass compared to WT mice on the same diet. Multipotent ASCs isolated from both Panx1 KO and Panx3 KO mice proliferate less than WT cells. ASCs lacking Panx1 also have increased adipogenic differentiation and fat accumulation capacity compared to WTs. Despite the Panx1 KO mice having greater fat content, when placed on a high fat diet, they exhibit no differences in weight gain or metabolic parameters compared to WT mice. When placed in metabolic cages, Panx1 KO mice display significantly increased total activity, ambulatory activity, and sleep significantly less than WT mice. In contrast, Panx3 KO mice placed on a high fat diet exhibit a slight reduction in weight gain, however show no significant differences when placed in metabolic cages on regular diets. We conclude that both Panx1 and Panx3 are regulated throughout adipocyte proliferation and differentiation at early stages in the adipogenic lineage and can regulate fat accumulation in vivo, potentially playing contrasting roles