A Price on Freedom: The Problems and Promise of the Vietnam Era G.I. Bills

At the end of World War II, the federal government bestowed one of the richest rewards ever given a mass mobilized army in the form of the Servicemen\u27s Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the OJ. Bill of Rights. The OJ. Bill offered veterans generous loans, education benefits, and unemployment insurance to help them readjust to civilian life. The bill is widely lauded as one of the most important federal acts of the twentieth century. Further 0.1. Bills followed for veterans of the Cold War including those who served in Korea and Vietnam. Despite their continued impact on the lives of veterans and on society, the later bills have received very little public or academic attention. No major study examines the later OJ. Bills beyond the World War II generation. This dissertation helps fill that void by examining the political origins of the Vietnam era OJ. Bills of 1966, 1972, and 1974. Specifically, this dissertation explores the debates over veterans\u27 education benefits at the federal level during the Vietnam era. After the passage of the 1966 OJ. bill, many Vietnam era veterans complained that their benefits fell short of those offered the World War II generation. As a result, the Vietnam era 0.1. Bills often get dismissed as a part of a wider pattern of government neglect of the Vietnam veteran. This study provides a context for understanding why the benefits did not, at first, reach the same generous heights as the previous OJ. Bills and challenges the standard narrative that the government abandoned the Vietnam veteran. The government, particularly the Senate, did make considerable efforts to improve the Vietnam veteran\u27s benefits. Although a succession of presidents and congressmen limited the government\u27s generosity because of their ideological or economic convictions, numerous increases in the level of funding followed the 1966 bill, making veterans\u27 benefits far more comparable to those offered World War II veterans. Following the increases, Vietnam era veterans claimed their education benefits in far greater numbers than their World War II predecessors. Because so many Vietnam veterans decided to return to school, this study shows that the G.I. Bill needs to be a central part of their homecoming story

Indigenising Photovoice: Putting Māori Cultural Values Into a Research Method

In this article, we discuss Indigenous epistemology that ensures research is inclusive of Māori cultural values, such as collectivity and storytelling. We explain an adapted photovoice methodology used in research investigating Māori (the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa/New Zealand) patient's perspectives on rongoā Māori (traditional Māori healing) and primary health care. Traditional photovoice theoretical frameworks and methodology were modified to allow Māori participants to document and communicate their experiences of health and the health services they utilised. Moreover, we describe the necessity for cultural adaptation of the theoretical framework and methodology of photovoice to highlight culturally appropriate research practice for Māori.In diesem Artikel diskutieren wir, wie Forschung durch den Einbezug einer indigenen Epistemologie inklusiv für kulturelle Maori-Werte wie Kollektivität und mündliche Überlieferung konzipiert werden kann. Wir veranschaulichen dies am Beispiel der Adaption von Photovoice zur Erforschung von Maori-Patient/innenperspektiven auf traditionelle Maori-Heilverfahren und Gesundheitsversorgung. Der herkömmliche Photovoice-Ansatz wurde dabei so modifiziert, dass Maori ihre Erfahrungen mit Gesundheit bzw. dem Gesundheitssystem dokumentieren und kommunizieren konnten. Wir versuchen so auf die Notwendigkeit der kulturellen Adaption theoretischer und methodologischer Vorannahmen zu verweisen, um zu kulturell sensitiven Forschungspraktiken zu kommen

Rongoā Māori is Not a Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Rongoā Māori Is A Way Of Life

Rongoā Māori (RM), traditional Māori healing, encompasses Māori values, customs and healing practices that have existed in Aotearoa/New Zealand for more than a thousand years. Increasing global interest in commercialization of Indigenous knowledge, has resulted in misuse, misrepresentation, and misunderstanding of this Indigenous knowledge. Amalgamation of RM practices under the umbrella of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) for ease of classification and categorization displaces RM from its place as a culturally appropriate healing treatment for Māori. This community-based commentary premises the right of Indigenous peoples to maintain the cultural integrity of their healing practices, separate from CAM, and that recognises Indigenous healing practices as integral to a culturally appropriate way of life

A role for human mitochondrial complex II in the production of reactive oxygen species in human skin

AbstractThe mitochondrial respiratory chain is a major generator of cellular oxidative stress, thought to be an underlying cause of the carcinogenic and ageing process in many tissues including skin. Previous studies of the relative contributions of the respiratory chain (RC) complexes I, II and III towards production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) have focussed on rat tissues and certainly not on human skin which is surprising as this tissue is regularly exposed to UVA in sunlight, a potent generator of cellular oxidative stress. In a novel approach we have used an array of established specific metabolic inhibitors and DHR123 fluorescence to study the relative roles of the mitochondrial RC complexes in cellular ROS production in 2 types of human skin cells. These include additional enhancement of ROS production by exposure to physiological levels of UVA. The effects within epidermal and dermal derived skin cells are compared to other tissue cell types as well as those harbouring a compromised mitochondrial status (Rho-zero A549). The results show that the complex II inhibitor, TTFA, was the only RC inhibitor to significantly increase UVA-induced ROS production in both skin cell types (P<0.05) suggesting that the role of human skin complex II in terms of influencing ROS production is more important than previously thought particularly in comparison to liver cells. Interestingly, two-fold greater maximal activity of complex II enzyme was observed in both skin cell types compared to liver (P<0.001). The activities of RC enzymes appear to decrease with increasing age and telomere length is correlated with ageing. Our study showed that the level of maximal complex II activity was higher in the MRC5/hTERT (human lung fibroblasts transfected with telomerase) cells than the corresponding wild type cells (P=0.0012) which can be considered (in terms of telomerase activity) as models of younger and older cells respectively

DALiuGE: A Graph Execution Framework for Harnessing the Astronomical Data Deluge

The Data Activated Liu Graph Engine - DALiuGE - is an execution framework for processing large astronomical datasets at a scale required by the Square Kilometre Array Phase 1 (SKA1). It includes an interface for expressing complex data reduction pipelines consisting of both data sets and algorithmic components and an implementation run-time to execute such pipelines on distributed resources. By mapping the logical view of a pipeline to its physical realisation, DALiuGE separates the concerns of multiple stakeholders, allowing them to collectively optimise large-scale data processing solutions in a coherent manner. The execution in DALiuGE is data-activated, where each individual data item autonomously triggers the processing on itself. Such decentralisation also makes the execution framework very scalable and flexible, supporting pipeline sizes ranging from less than ten tasks running on a laptop to tens of millions of concurrent tasks on the second fastest supercomputer in the world. DALiuGE has been used in production for reducing interferometry data sets from the Karl E. Jansky Very Large Array and the Mingantu Ultrawide Spectral Radioheliograph; and is being developed as the execution framework prototype for the Science Data Processor (SDP) consortium of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope. This paper presents a technical overview of DALiuGE and discusses case studies from the CHILES and MUSER projects that use DALiuGE to execute production pipelines. In a companion paper, we provide in-depth analysis of DALiuGE's scalability to very large numbers of tasks on two supercomputing facilities.Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures, currently under review by Astronomy and Computin

The effects of climatic fluctuations and extreme events on running water ecosystems

Most research on the effects of environmental change in freshwaters has focused on incremental changes in average conditions, rather than fluctuations or extreme events such as heatwaves, cold snaps, droughts, floods or wildfires, which may have even more profound consequences. Such events are commonly predicted to increase in frequency, intensity and duration with global climate change, with many systems being exposed to conditions with no recent historical precedent. We propose a mechanistic framework for predicting potential impacts of environmental fluctuations on running water ecosystems by scaling up effects of fluctuations from individuals to entire ecosystems. This framework requires integration of four key components: effects of the environment on individual metabolism, metabolic and biomechanical constraints on fluctuating species interactions, assembly dynamics of local food webs and mapping the dynamics of the meta-community onto ecosystem function. We illustrate the framework by developing a mathematical model of environmental fluctuations on dynamically assembling food webs. We highlight (currently limited) empirical evidence for emerging insights and theoretical predictions. For example, widely supported predictions about the effects of environmental fluctuations are: high vulnerability of species with high per capita metabolic demands such as large-bodied ones at the top of food webs; simplification of food web network structure and impaired energetic transfer efficiency; reduced resilience and top-down relative to bottom-up regulation of food web and ecosystem processes. We conclude by identifying key questions and challenges that need to be addressed to develop more accurate and predictive bio-assessments of the effects of fluctuations, and implications of fluctuations for management practices in an increasingly uncertain world

The theory of international business: the role of economic models

This paper reviews the scope for economic modelling in international business studies. It argues for multi-level theory based on classic internalisation theory. It present a systems approach that encompasses both firm-level and industry-level analysis

Actomyosin drives cancer cell nuclear dysmorphia and threatens genome stability

Altered nuclear shape is a defining feature of cancer cells. The mechanisms underlying nuclear dysmorphia in cancer remain poorly understood. Here we identify PPP1R12A and PPP1CB, two subunits of the myosin phosphatase complex that antagonizes actomyosin contractility, as proteins safeguarding nuclear integrity. Loss of PPP1R12A or PPP1CB causes nuclear fragmentation, nuclear envelope rupture, nuclear compartment breakdown and genome instability. Pharmacological or genetic inhibition of actomyosin contractility restores nuclear architecture and genome integrity in cells lacking PPP1R12A or PPP1CB. We detect actin filaments at nuclear envelope rupture sites and define the Rho-ROCK pathway as the driver of nuclear damage. Lamin A protects nuclei from the impact of actomyosin activity. Blocking contractility increases nuclear circularity in cultured cancer cells and suppresses deformations of xenograft nuclei in vivo. We conclude that actomyosin contractility is a major determinant of nuclear shape and that unrestrained contractility causes nuclear dysmorphia, nuclear envelope rupture and genome instability

Towards Structure-Property-Function Relationships for Eumelanin

We discuss recent progress towards the establishment of important structure-property-function relationships in eumelanins - key functional bio-macromolecular systems responsible for photo-protection and immune response in humans, and implicated in the development of melanoma skin cancer. We focus on the link between eumelanin's secondary structure and optical properties such as broad band UV-visible absorption and strong non-radiative relaxation; both key features of the photo-protective function. We emphasise the insights gained through a holistic approach combining optical spectroscopy with first principles quantum chemical calculations, and advance the hypothesis that the robust functionality characteristic of eumelanin is related to extreme chemical and structural disorder at the secondary level. This inherent disorder is a low cost natural resource, and it is interesting to speculate as to whether it may play a role in other functional bio-macromolecular systems.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, Invited highlight article for Soft Matte

Using the surface profiles of modern ice masses to inform palaeo-glacier reconstructions

Morphometric study of modern ice masses is useful because many reconstructions of glaciers traditionally draw on their shape for guidance Here we analyse data derived from the surface profiles of 200 modern ice masses-valley glaciers icefields ice caps and ice sheets with length scales from 10(0) to 10(3) km-from different parts of the world Four profile attributes are investigated relief span and two parameters C* and C that result from using Nye s (1952) theoretical parabola as a profile descriptor C* and C respectively measure each profile s aspect ratio and steepness and are found to decrease in size and variability with span This dependence quantifies the competing influences of unconstrained spreading behaviour of ice flow and bed topography on the profile shape of ice masses which becomes more parabolic as span Increases (with C* and C tending to low values of 2 5-3 3 m(1/2)) The same data reveal coherent minimum bounds in C* and C for modern ice masses that we develop into two new methods of palaeo glacier reconstruction In the first method glacial limits are known from moraines and the bounds are used to constrain the lowest palaeo ice surface consistent with modern profiles We give an example of applying this method over a three-dimensional glacial landscape in Kamchatka In the second method we test the plausibility of existing reconstructions by comparing their C* and C against the modern minimum bounds Of the 86 published palaeo ice masses that we put to this test 88% are found to be plausible The search for other morphometric constraints will help us formalise glacier reconstructions and reduce their uncertainty and subjectiveness (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserve