Feminist Perspective of Cross-gender Power Relation in Caryl Churchill's Top Girls

Top Girls, one of Caryl Churchill's most popular plays, describes the lives of six female characters coming from different centuries. Each of them has their own story to tell, as they have all been victimized by the patriarchal system in the century when they live and have resisted the system with different strategies. They either employ roles that are traditionally reserved for men or they adopt the archetypically feminine qualities. Despite their resistance and success, they find themselves unhappy and unsatisfied over their achievements. Thus this raises the question of the effectiveness of the feminist movement

Money and Prices in the Philippines, 1981-1992: A Cointegration Analysis

Based largely on the work of Funke and Hall, estimation results indicate non-causality between money and price level attributed to the interplay of factors such as unstable political and economic environment. P* vector has no significance on potential output since Q instead of Q* has been used.monetary aggregates, causality, price level

Editorial overview: Membrane traffic and cell polarity

No abstract available

A H2 PEM fuel cell and high energy dense battery hybrid energy source for an urban electric vehicle

Electric vehicles are set to play a prominent role in addressing the energy and environmental impact of an increasing road transport population by offering a more energy efficient and less polluting drive-train alternative to conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Given the energy (and hence range) and performance limitations of electro-chemical battery storage systems, hybrid systems combining energy and power dense storage technologies have been proposed for vehicle applications. The paper discusses the application of a hydrogen fuel cell as a range extender for an urban electric vehicle for which the primary energy source is provided by a high energy dense battery. A review of fuel cell systems and automotive drive-train application issues are discussed, together with an overview of the battery technology. The prototype fuel cell and battery component simulation models are presented and their performance as a combined energy/power source assessed for typical urban and sub-urban driving scenario

ACSys/RDN experiences with Telstra’s experimental broadband network, second progress report

This report addresses three issues relevant to DHPC network infrastructure requirements:. · Technically, what we can currently achieve with the EBN? · What are desirable qualities in future ATM networks? · What further development of the EBN would we like to see for other applications? In writing this report, we will briefly describe the EBN ATM experience of ACSys’ Distributed High Performance Computing Project and Digital Media Libraries project, explain some of the technology and networking issues we have dealt with and summarise what we have learned. We have also included some background material on the EBN and ATM networks in general

Money and Prices in the Philippines, 1981-1992: A Cointegration Analysis

Based largely on the work of Funke and Hall, estimation results indicate non-causality between money and price level attributed to the interplay of factors such as unstable political and economic environment. P* vector has no significance on potential output since Q instead of Q* has been used.monetary aggregates, causality, price level

Policy Issues for the ASEAN Economic Community: the Rules of Origin

Striking a balance between trade facilitation and preventing trade deflection is the single most difficult challenge with regard to the issue of rules of origin (ROO). ASEAN ROO is already considered as among the simplest in the world and still, in practice, results fall short of expectations. ASEAN is fully cognizant that in order to achieve its goal of a single market and production base, progress in eliminating tariffs within ASEAN is not enough. It needs to be accompanied by an enabling ROO regime. Indeed, the AEC Blueprint explicitly provides for instituting reforms in ASEAN ROOs toward the direction of less restriction and simplification. In the medium term, ASEAN member countries can push for an East Asia Free Trade Area that will consolidate the various bilateral and subregional FTAs and therefore overcome the noodle bowl syndrome. This would be a direct result of harmonizing the various ROOs. It goes without saying that the ultimate or long-term objective would be an equitable and efficient multilateral trading system anchored on lower MFN rates under the auspices of the WTO

Obsessive-compulsive disorder and comorbid depression: the role of OCD-related and non-specific factors

Although comorbid depression is a predictor of poor treatment response in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), there is limited understanding of factors that contribute to depression severity in OCD. The current study examines the influence of OCD-related factors (autogenous obsessions and obsessional beliefs) and non-specific factors (avoidance and anxiety) on depression severity in a sample of OCD patients. There were 56 participants with only OCD and 46 with OCD and comorbid depression. Self-report questionnaires measuring depression, OCD-related factors, and non-specific factors were completed. Although there were no significant differences between the two groups on these variables, depression severity was positively correlated with anxiety, avoidance, obsessional beliefs, and autogenous obsessions in the whole sample. When entered into a multiple regression model to predict depression severity, these factors accounted for 51% of the variance. While OCD-related factors remained significant predictors after controlling for non-specific factors, the non-specific factors made the most significant contributions to the model. Our findings suggest that in addition to dealing with autogenous obsessions, addressing anxiety and avoidance might lead to improvements in the treatment of OCD with comorbid depression

Engineering Dehydrated Amino Acid Residues in the Antimicrobial Peptide Nisin

The small antimicrobial peptide nisin, produced by Lactococcus lactis, contains the uncommon amino acid residues dehydroalanine and dehydrobutyrine and five thio ether bridges. Since these structures are posttranslationally formed from Ser, Thr, and Cys residues, it is feasible to study their role in nisin function and biosynthesis by protein engineering. Here we report the development of an expression system for mutated nisin Z (nisZ) genes, using nisin A producing L. lactis as a host. Replacement by site-directed mutagenesis of the Ser-5 codon in nisZ by a Thr codon, led to a mutant with a dehydrobutyrine instead of a dehydroalanine residue at position 5, as shown by NMR. Its antimicrobial activity was 2-10-fold lower relative to wild-type nisin Z, depending on the indicator strain used. In another mutagenesis study a double mutation was introduced in the nisZ gene by replacing the codons for Met-17 and Gly-18 by codons for Gln and Thr, respectively, as in the third lanthionine ring of the related antimicrobial peptide subtilin from Bacillus subtilis. This resulted in the simultaneous production of two mutant species, one containing a Thr residue and the other containing a dehydrobutyrine residue at position 18, both having different bacteriocidal properties.

The role of negative urgency impulsivity and financial management practices in compulsive buying

Previous research has shown that negative urgency impulsivity is associated with compulsive buying even after controlling for depression. The aim of the present study was to replicate this finding and to examine if financial management practices mediated this relationship. A community sample of 162 participants (34 male and 128 female), aged between 18 and 82 years, completed online self-report questionnaire measures. As expected, results revealed (1) significant positive associations between compulsive buying and both negative urgency impulsivity (NUI) and psychological distress; and (2) a significant negative association between compulsive buying and financial management practices. We also found that after controlling for psychological distress (3) NUI was still significantly correlated with compulsive buying, and (4) financial management practices partially mediated the relationship between NUI and financial management practices. Our findings are consistent with an extension of the theory that compulsive buying is motivated by relieving negative mood states, positing both negative affect-driven impulsivity and psychological distress as important factors in understanding compulsive buying. These findings also support current cognitive-behavioural interventions for the treatment of compulsive buying that target psychological distress, NUI, and financial management practices