New media and civil society : a study of Native Customary Rights (NCR) Land and Community-based Organisations (CBOs) in Sarawak, Malaysia

Civil society generally refers to a sphere where individuals exercise their freedom and rights through voluntary, independent associations. Spurred by world political events, the discourse of civil society shifted to a democratising mission against the tyranny of the state. It was also during the 1980s in Malaysia, middle-class non-governmental organisations (NGOs) blossomed and advocated for human rights issues such as feminism, labour and environment. In the late 1990s, the Internet was hailed as the platform to widen the public sphere in the oppressive environment of media in Malaysia, especially its broadcasting industry. The following two decades witnessed how websites, blogs and social media became the staple platform to influence public opinion especially before general elections.This thesis explores the relationship between civil society and new media using the study of native customary rights (NCR) land community-based organisations (CBOs) in Sarawak, Malaysia. Sarawak, the largest state of the Bornean Island, formed the Federation of Malaysia with Sabah in 1963 bound by an agreement that secured their oil royalty and native status as Bumiputra (prince of the soil). Sarawak is rich with natural resources, flora, fauna and cultural heritage with over 27 ethnic groups residing on the land. However, over the years, Sarawak lost much of its assets due to illegal deforestation and native land grabbing. Since the 1970s, environmental groups and activists have fought hard to reinstate the definition of NCR against state-given provisional leases (PLs) awarded to logging and palm oil manufacturing companies.This research uses the analytical framework from Italian social theorist Antonio Gramsci’s notion of civil society to understand the potential of new media in expanding the NCR land advocacy in Sarawak. Gramsci sees civil society as an arena of struggles between ruling and ruled classes to achieve hegemony, referring to cultural domination by shaping consent. To Gramsci, this consensus has to be constantly maintained through superstructural institutions such as religion, education, media and tourism. Therefore, civil society is the complex sphere where the state exerts its authority without having to resort to military forces, unless the hegemony is broken. The current state of literature suggests that the contribution of new media to Malaysian political changes is more to do with instantaneous online activities and rarely related to ongoing organising processes. Academic research studies about native customary land in Sarawak are largely technical, focused on geological mapping and land laws. By taking on the Gramscian framework, this thesis rejects the liberal paradigm that defines civil society as an autonomous sphere that unanimously aims for the common good, participated in by rational individuals. There is more to explore beyond the celebratory claims of freedom brought about by NGOs and new media. Characterising civil society as a complex arena of conflicting interests and actors is a more realistic way to understand the CBOs’ empowerment efforts related to Sarawakian subalterns and their interests. Interviews with the CBOs personnel and web-based analysis of their online platforms showed deep-seated distrust not only toward the state and new communication technologies, but among NGOs, indigenous ethnic groups, and churches. The Gramscian civil society framework allows the research to synthesise the potentials of new media in the CBOs’ organising activities as separate yet interrelated entities against the background of the lower status of Sarawak indigenous people. The research further contributes insights into the sturdy trenches of civil society that protect the state – officially sanctioned media systems, education, religion and national identities. By way of conclusion, the research suggests that the CBOs should consolidate their advocacy and venture into the site of hegemony to establish and normalise their cultural image

A novel automated rodent tracker (ART), demonstrated in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Background Generating quantitative metrics of rodent locomotion and general behaviours from video footage is important in behavioural neuroscience studies. However, there is not yet a free software system that can process large amounts of video data with minimal user interventions. New method Here we propose a new, automated rodent tracker (ART) that uses a simple rule-based system to quickly and robustly track rodent nose and body points, with minimal user input. Tracked points can then be used to identify behaviours, approximate body size and provide locomotion metrics, such as speed and distance. Results ART was demonstrated here on video recordings of a SOD1 mouse model, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, aged 30, 60, 90 and 120 days. Results showed a robust decline in locomotion speeds, as well as a reduction in object exploration and forward movement, with an increase in the time spent still. Body size approximations (centroid width), showed a significant decrease from P30. Comparison with existing method(s) ART performed to a very similar accuracy as manual tracking and Ethovision (a commercially available alternative), with average differences in coordinate points of 0.6 and 0.8 mm, respectively. However, it required much less user intervention than Ethovision (6 as opposed to 30 mouse clicks) and worked robustly over more videos. Conclusions ART provides an open-source option for behavioural analysis of rodents, performing to the same standards as commercially available software. It can be considered a validated, and accessible, alternative for researchers for whom non-invasive quantification of natural rodent behaviour is desirable

Linkage and association of myocilin (MYOC) polymorphisms with high myopia in a Chinese population

Author name used in this publication: Maurice K.H. Yap2006-2007 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Heterogeneous decrease in malaria prevalence in children over a six-year period in south-western Uganda

Malaria is a major public health problem, especially for children. However, recent reports suggest a decline in the malaria burden. The aim of this study was to assess the change in the prevalence of malaria infection among children below five years of age between 2004 and 2010 in a mesoendemic area of Uganda and to analyse the risk factors of malaria infection

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Factors associated with nursing home placement of all patients admitted for inpatient rehabilitation in Singapore community hospitals from 1996 to 2005: A disease stratified analysis

10.1371/journal.pone.0082697PLoS ONE812-POLN

Loss of LMO4 in the Retina Leads to Reduction of GABAergic Amacrine Cells and Functional Deficits

BACKGROUND: LMO4 is a transcription cofactor expressed during retinal development and in amacrine neurons at birth. A previous study in zebrafish reported that morpholino RNA ablation of one of two related genes, LMO4b, increases the size of eyes in embryos. However, the significance of LMO4 in mammalian eye development and function remained unknown since LMO4 null mice die prior to birth. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We observed the presence of a smaller eye and/or coloboma in ∼40% LMO4 null mouse embryos. To investigate the postnatal role of LMO4 in retinal development and function, LMO4 was conditionally ablated in retinal progenitor cells using the Pax6 alpha-enhancer Cre/LMO4flox mice. We found that these mice have fewer Bhlhb5-positive GABAergic amacrine and OFF-cone bipolar cells. The deficit appears to affect the postnatal wave of Bhlhb5+ neurons, suggesting a temporal requirement for LMO4 in retinal neuron development. In contrast, cholinergic and dopaminergic amacrine, rod bipolar and photoreceptor cell numbers were not affected. The selective reduction in these interneurons was accompanied by a functional deficit revealed by electroretinography, with reduced amplitude of b-waves, indicating deficits in the inner nuclear layer of the retina. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Inhibitory GABAergic interneurons play a critical function in controlling retinal image processing, and are important for neural networks in the central nervous system. Our finding of an essential postnatal function of LMO4 in the differentiation of Bhlhb5-expressing inhibitory interneurons in the retina may be a general mechanism whereby LMO4 controls the production of inhibitory interneurons in the nervous system

Establishment of the nasal microbiota in the first 18 months of life: Correlation with early-onset rhinitis and wheezing.

BACKGROUND: Dynamic establishment of the nasal microbiota in early life influences local mucosal immune responses and susceptibility to childhood respiratory disorders. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this case-control study was to monitor, evaluate, and compare development of the nasal microbiota of infants with rhinitis and wheeze in the first 18 months of life with those of healthy control subjects. METHODS: Anterior nasal swabs of 122 subjects belonging to the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) birth cohort were collected longitudinally over 7 time points in the first 18 months of life. Nasal microbiota signatures were analyzed by using 16S rRNA multiplexed pair-end sequencing from 3 clinical groups: (1) patients with rhinitis alone (n = 28), (2) patients with rhinitis with concomitant wheeze (n = 34), and (3) healthy control subjects (n = 60). RESULTS: Maturation of the nasal microbiome followed distinctive patterns in infants from both rhinitis groups compared with control subjects. Bacterial diversity increased over the period of 18 months of life in control infants, whereas infants with rhinitis showed a decreasing trend (P < .05). An increase in abundance of the Oxalobacteraceae family (Proteobacteria phylum) and Aerococcaceae family (Firmicutes phylum) was associated with rhinitis and concomitant wheeze (adjusted P < .01), whereas the Corynebacteriaceae family (Actinobacteria phylum) and early colonization with the Staphylococcaceae family (Firmicutes phylum; 3 weeks until 9 months) were associated with control subjects (adjusted P < .05). The only difference between the rhinitis and control groups was a reduced abundance of the Corynebacteriaceae family (adjusted P < .05). Determinants of nasal microbiota succession included sex, mode of delivery, presence of siblings, and infant care attendance. CONCLUSION: Our results support the hypothesis that the nasal microbiome is involved in development of early-onset rhinitis and wheeze in infants