Protest or Riot?: Interpreting Collective Action in Contemporary France

Although both events were fundamentally acts of contestation led by different segments of France’s youth, the fall 2005 riots and the spring 2006 CPE protests received very different treatment in French public opinion. Whereas the riots were overwhelmingly condemned, the protests were not only tolerated but also often celebrated. By examining dominant interpretations of these events circulated in the news media alongside those of young people collected during a year of fieldwork in the public housing projects of a medium-sized French city, this paper shines light on fundamental French values and beliefs about how society ought to work while also contributing to ongoing debates about the cultural identity of such youth. More generally, it demonstrates the usefulness of comparison in the analysis of acts of political dissent

Unsettling Stereotypes: Approaches to the French Culture and Society Course

Beginning with popular commentary on the 2013 Taubira Affair, this article aims to unsettle some common assumptions about “French identity.” More generally, it asks how best to approach the notion of culture in upperdivision culture and society courses. Drawing on recent debates in anthropology, it suggests an approach that moves away from an understanding of culture as a bound entity that promotes a common sense of orientation and purpose toward one where culture is viewed as a reservoir of references, whose meanings and values are continuously interpreted, negotiated, and contested

Cost-based burst dropping strategy in optical burst switching networks

Optical burst switching (OBS) is a new paradigm for future all-optical networks. Intentional burst dropping is one of techniques used to achieve desired quality of service. In this paper we note that some bursts are more likely to cause contention. We propose a cost function that can be used to predict the likelihood that a given burst will interfere with other traffic, then we explain how, by using this information a new burst dropping strategy can be designed. We compare our method with a random burst dropping technique and show that the cost-based approach offers a significant performance improvement

NOVEL HYBRID PEROVSKITE COMPOSITES AND MICROSTRUCTURES: SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION

The water-energy nexus has been described as one of the great problems of our time. In an ever-growing society the demand for resources such as water and electricity often dictate the magnitude and direction of growth of society. Efficient generation of electricity, with minimal socioeconomic pushback, is paramount in the stable growth of our society. Solar energy harvesting is a strong candidate for the efficient generation of electrical energy with increasingly minimal resource use in fabrication. As manufacturing processes improve and novel materials are discovered/optimized, solar energy harvesting becomes a more economically viable means of energy generation. Hybrid perovskites (HPs) represent the next-generation of solar energy harvesting materials due to favorable optoelectronic properties. Since first used as an absorber layer in a solar cell in 2012, HPs have experienced a ~10% increase in efficiency to 22.7%, and continue to climb. Despite the rapid climb in efficiencies, HPs solar cells have not been utilized the solar energy market due to intrinsic instabilities of the HP material itself. In order to implement the potentially disruptive HP technology, degradation triggered via environmental factors must be addressed. In an effort to mitigate the degradation initiated by environmental factors, in particular moisture, novel HP composites and microstructures were created. HP composites were created both through melt and solution compounding methods. Melt compounding methods demonstrated the feasibility of the synthesis of the HP materials in situ in the polymer melt. Additionally, the moisture resilience of the material was demonstrated through an accelerated ageing study. The polymer melt compounding method was then utilized to produce a polymer melt feedstock for melt electrospinning and ultimate creation of HP composite microfibers. Solution compounding methods were then implemented to generate HP/polymer composites with regular dispersion and isotropic optoelectronic behavior

The Reed Case: The Seed for Equal Protection From Sex-Based Discrimination, or Polite Judicial Hedging?

Reed is yet another example of how the Equal Protection Clause may be used to strike down state statutes which embody arbitrary classifications that are neither fairly nor substantially related to the object of the statute, and which bring about the invidious discrimination that is repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment. It must stressed that the outcome of Reed is clearly commendable in terms of justice. What is troublesome is the fact that one may contend that the Supreme Court hedged, perhaps avoided, an excellent opportunity in which to expand the constitutional scope of the Equal Protection Clause. Reed afforded the Supreme Court the opportunity to extend the full protection of the Fourteenth Amendment to classifications based solely on sex. The fact that the holding represented the first time the Supreme Court struck down a sex-based classification as violative of the Equal Protection Clause might lead one to conclude that the Reed case has in fact expanded the scope of the Equal Protection Clause by including sex-based discrimination with the previously protected areas of race, national origin, and poverty. However, notwithstanding the specific holding in Reed, the decision provides only minimum support to sexual equalit

Contra-thermodynamic hydrogen atom abstraction in the selective C−H functionalization of trialkylamine N‑CH3 groups

We report a simple one-pot protocol that affords functionalization of N-CH3 groups in N-methyl-N,N-dialkylamines with high selectivity over N-CH2R or N-CHR2 groups. The radical cation DABCO+•, prepared in situ by oxidation of DABCO with a triarylaminium salt, effects highly selective and contra-thermodynamic C−H abstraction from N-CH3 groups. The intermediates that result react in situ with organometallic nucleophiles in a single pot, affording novel and highly selective homologation of N-CH3 groups. Chemoselectivity, scalability, and recyclability of reagents are demonstrated, and a mechanistic proposal is corroborated by computational and experimental results. The utility of the transformation is demonstrated in the late-stage site-selective functionalization of natural products and pharmaceuticals, allowing rapid derivatization for investigation of structure−activity relationships

Customised Learning Development - An Exploration of Practice

The development of a world-class base of skills has become the key driver of economic growth in the developed world. There is a recognition that future competitive advantages will only emerge through enhancement of workplace skills. Ireland, in particular, is experiencing a significant economic downturn allied to the competitive challenges posed by more open markets. International and intense competition and technological developments, which are enabling global trading are placing increased pressure for competitiveness and productivity on enterprises. In this kind of climate organisations need to identify the precise areas where they have or can build distinctive strengths that will enable them to compete effectively. In the past, Ireland benefited significantly from the international expansion of markets for trade, capital and labour. Today, with the rapid opening of markets in Eastern Europe and Asia (especially China and India), globalisation presents both opportunities and challenges. The primary source of continuing skilled labour supply is, and will continue to be, achieved through the training, development, and learning of individuals. In effect, from an employer’s perspective, the focus is on workforce (or professional) development – the upskilling and reskilling of an organisation’s employees at a higher level. Changing employment patterns in the organisation of work have impacted on the demand for higher level skills. Employees are expected to be more flexible, have a broader range of skills, and be more competent at managing their own career and development. Graduate-level skills and qualifications are seen as increasingly important in the changing workplace. Knowledge creation and the deployment of new knowledge in the workplace have given rise to the workplace itself being recognised as a site of learning and knowledge production. Brennan (2005) suggests that, if higher education is to continue to make a contribution to the knowledge economy, collaborative learning activities based in and around the workplace should be considered. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are expected to be responsive to the needs of the economy and of the labour market, while at the same time affording citizens the right to appropriate levels of education to sustain economies in stable societies. Langworthy and Turner (2003) describe the University role within a complex process requiring forecasting of emerging workplace skills needs and a trend towards lifelong learning in a model of engaged scholarship. The growing interest in the interface between the higher education sector and the world of work at European Union and national levels is evident as an increasing number of research projects, incentives and initiatives now have a distinct enterprise and labour market focus

Screening of a HUVEC cDNA library with transplant-associated coronary artery disease sera identifies RPL7 as a candidate autoantigen associated with this disease.

A HUVEC cDNA library was screened with sera from two patients who had developed transplant-associated coronary artery disease (TxCAD) following cardiac transplantation. A total of six positive clones were isolated from a primary screen of 40 000 genes. Subsequent DNA sequence analysis identified these to be lysyl tRNA synthetase, ribosomal protein L7, ribosomal protein L9, beta transducin and TANK. Another gene whose product could not be identified showed homology to a human cDNA clone (DKFZp566M063) derived from fetal kidney. Full-length constructs of selected genes were expressed as his-tag recombinant fusion proteins and used to screen a wider patient base by ELISA to determine prevalence and association with TxCAD. Of these ribosomal protein L7 showed the highest prevalence (55.6%) with TxCAD sera compared to 10% non-CAD