An examination of international students in three public two-year colleges.

International students have attended American colleges since colonial times. Although international students attend all types of colleges and universities, most studies and reports which have examined their presence on American campuses have been directed at four-year institutions. This is not surprising in that 86% of all international students in the United States, (based on 1990/91 data), were enrolled in four-year institutions. 57,720 international students were enrolled in two-year institutions by 1990/91. While such research is helpful in providing key data and information regarding international students at some of the largest and most prestigious U.S. institutions, comparatively little research has been directed at international students in two-year colleges. The purpose of this study has been to conduct a qualitative examination of international students in three public two-year colleges in New England. Using a case-study approach, four questions were investigated: Why do international students choose a public two-year college? What are their experiences? What are the experiences of faculty and administrators who work with them? What policy questions are important for these institutions? Field research included twenty-one interviews with international students, twenty-two interviews with faculty, and eight interviews with administrators. Also, on-site observations were conducted and available institutional documents reviewed. The study revealed a group of highly motivated international students who, for the most part, were quite satisfied with their educational experiences in the two-year community colleges. The study also revealed that international students are prominent in the academic life of the institutions and faculty members were, on the whole, pleased with the performance and presence of international students. The greatest policy challenge to public two-year community colleges that enroll international students, is the challenge of fully embracing a wider philosophy and vision of the institution\u27s role and contribution in international education. While the overall assessment of the two-year college experience from international students, faculty and administrators was a positive one, it is also clear that institutions could do more to improve the educational experience of international students and the faculty who work with them. Ten recommendations are offered including an examination of mission statements, development of on-going faculty and staff training programs, strengthening of international student orientation programs, development of more creative recruitment efforts, and strengthening of the institutional data base on international students

Lesser auger beetle Heterobostrychus aequalis(Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) in Australia: absent or elusive?

The lesser auger beetle, Heterobostrychus aequalis (Waterhouse), is a serious pest of seasoned hardwood timber throughout the Oriental region and several areas beyond. Some early collection records of H. aequalis from Australia in the 1950s and 1960s indicated that the insect was present in northern Queensland, but no confirmed breeding population has been found in the past few decades suggesting either that it may have not established permanently or it is difficult to detect. The ambiguity about the breeding status of the pest in Australia has caused confusion for regulating authorities needing to respond to each new post-border detection. We examined records of H. aequalis in Australian insect collections and from intensive plant pest surveillance activities in Queensland and northern Australia over the past 48 years to resolve this confusion. Until very recently, available evidence suggested that H. aequalis was not established in Australia, despite multiple introductions and apparently suitable climate and hosts. Collection records of the pest are predominantly linked to intercepted items or are recorded as of unknown origin, and no established populations have been found during many years of targeted surveillance. However, a detection of H. aequalis in suburban Cairns, north Queensland, in late 2013 and two more in mid-2015 in the same general locality do not appear to be linked to any imported material, indicating that there is at least a tenuously established local population. Investigations are underway to confirm this, but the insect is not widely established in Australia and, if present, remains elusive. Our recommended response to any future detection of H. aequalis is to fumigate or destroy the infested material, conduct tracing enquiries and limit surveys to the immediate vicinity of the detection

Visual Mining of Epidemic Networks

We show how an interactive graph visualization method based on maximal modularity clustering can be used to explore a large epidemic network. The visual representation is used to display statistical tests results that expose the relations between the propagation of HIV in a sexual contact network and the sexual orientation of the patients.Comment: 8 page

Information dynamics shape the networks of Internet-mediated prostitution

Like many other social phenomena, prostitution is increasingly coordinated over the Internet. The online behavior affects the offline activity; the reverse is also true. We investigated the reported sexual contacts between 6,624 anonymous escorts and 10,106 sex-buyers extracted from an online community from its beginning and six years on. These sexual encounters were also graded and categorized (in terms of the type of sexual activities performed) by the buyers. From the temporal, bipartite network of posts, we found a full feedback loop in which high grades on previous posts affect the future commercial success of the sex-worker, and vice versa. We also found a peculiar growth pattern in which the turnover of community members and sex workers causes a sublinear preferential attachment. There is, moreover, a strong geographic influence on network structure-the network is geographically clustered but still close to connected, the contacts consistent with the inverse-square law observed in trading patterns. We also found that the number of sellers scales sublinearly with city size, so this type of prostitution does not, comparatively speaking, benefit much from an increasing concentration of people

N4WBP5A (Ndfip2), a Nedd4-interacting protein, localizes to multivesicular bodies and the Golgi, and has a potential role in protein trafficking

N4WBP5A (Ndfip2) belongs to an evolutionarily conserved group of Nedd4-interacting proteins with two homologues in mammalian species. We have previously shown that N4WBP5A expression in Xenopus oocytes results in increased cell-surface expression of the epithelial sodium channel. N4WBPs are characterized by one or two amino terminal PPxY motifs and three transmembrane domains. Here we show that both PPxY motifs of N4WBP5A mediate interaction with WW domains of Nedd4 and that N4WBP5A can physically interact with the WW domains of several Nedd4-family proteins. N4WBP5A is ubiquitinated and ubiquitination does not significantly affect the turnover of N4WBP5A protein. Ubiquitination of N4WBP5A is enhanced by Nedd4 and Nedd4-2 expression. N4WBP5A localizes to the Golgi, vesicles associated with the Golgi complex and to multivesicular bodies. We show that the ectopic expression of N4WBP5A inhibits receptor-mediated endocytosis of labelled epidermal growth factor. N4WBP5A overexpression inhibits accumulation of EGF in large endocytic/lysosomal vesicles suggestive of a role for N4WBP5A in protein trafficking. We propose that N4WBP5A acts as an adaptor to recruit Nedd4 family ubiquitin-protein ligases to the protein trafficking machinery.Linda M. Shearwin-Whyatt, Darren L. Brown, Fiona G. Wylie, Jennifer L. Stow and Sharad Kuma

'Alive after five' : constructing the neoliberal night in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The development of the ‘night-time economy’ in the UK through the 1990s has been associated with neoliberal urban governance. Academics have, however, begun to question the use and the scope of the concept ‘neoliberalism’. In this paper, I identify two common approaches to studying neoliberalism, one exploring neoliberalism as a series of policy networks, the other exploring neoliberalism as the governance of subjectivities. I argue that to understand the urban night, we need to explore both these senses of ‘neoliberalism’. As a case study, I take the ‘Alive After Five’ project, organised by the Business Improvement District in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which sought to extend shopping hours in order to encourage more people to use the city at night. Drawing from Actor-Network-Theory, I explore the planning, the translation, and the practice of this new project. In doing so, I explore the on-going nature and influence of neoliberal policy on the urban night in the UK

Mao Tse-tung, Ch'en Po-ta, and the conscious creation of "Mao Tse-tung's Thought" in the Chinese Communist Party, 1935-1945.

One of the most distinctive aspects of modern Chinese politics is the role of "Mao Tse-tung's thought." This study investigates the concrete political and ideological process which gave rise to Mao's thought within the Chinese Communist Party, with special reference to the years 1935-45. This decade, which overlaps the Yenan period in Chinese Communist historiography, opens with Mao Tse-tung's rise to power at the Tsunyi Conference, and closes with the formal incorporation of his thought into the new CCP constitution at the Party's Seventh Congress. In the course of the study, it became apparent that Mao Tse-tung played a strong personal role in fostering the cult of his own person and thought. However, he received the enthusiastic support of a small group of Party intellectuals who gathered around him, of whom the most important is Ch'en Po-ta. Pending further research, conclusions regarding Ch'en's role must remain tentative, hut the initial evidence does suggest his influence on certain aspects of Mao's thinking, and in the formulation of a historio-philosophical rationale for Mao's claim to ideological supremacy. The study falls into two main periods; 1935-40 were years of ideological creativity, when the basic ideas behind Sinified Marxism were worked out by Mao and Ch'en; 1940-45 were years of ideological console idation, when the two men worked to systematize and disseminate Mao's thought as the CCP's official guiding doctrine. The conclusion emerges that the cult of Mao and his thought was not merely a simple concomitant of Mao's rise to power during this period. Rather, the dual cult was consciously created and propagated within and without the CCP as a deliberate act of policy on the part of the ascendant Maoists, with Mao and Ch'en very much at the core of this policy. From time to time, developments within the CCP, in Chinese domestic politics, and in the international arena intervened to accelerate or retard the Maoists' deliberate campaign to foster the ascendancy of Mao's thought. However, by the time of the CCP's Seventh Congress in 1945, the victorious Maoists had succeeded in their joint drive for the ''primitive accumulation" of political and ideological power. Mao's power was by no means absolute, but the Chinese Communist Party -- and shortly the entire nation -- had entered the era of "Mao Tse-tung's thought." In sum, this study contributes to our understanding of the Chinese Communist movement in four areas. It develops previous discussions of the ideological history of the CCP, especially regarding the emergence of the concepts of the "Sinification of Marxism" and "Mao Tse-tung's thought." In using these ideological concepts as points of reference, this thesis also offers a distinctive approach to the study of elite politics within the CCP during the Yenan period. At the same time, Mao Tse-tung's personal role in fostering the twin cult of himself and his thought is brought into sharper focus than in previous studies. Finally, our knowledge of the early career of Ch'en Po-ta is considerably enhanced, particularly regarding his role as Party ideologist and historian in the service of Mao Tse-tung