TT2013 meeting report: the transgenic technology meeting visits Asia for the first time

The 11th Transgenic Technology meeting was held in Guangzhou, China on 25th–27th February 2013. Over 300 scientists and students from round the world gathered to hear the latest developments in the technologies underpinning the creation of transgenic and knockout animals and their application to biological sciences in areas such as the modeling human diseases and biotechnology. As well as informative presentations from leading researchers in the field, an excellent selection of short talks selected from abstracts and posters, attendees were also treated to an inspiring talk from Allan Bradley who was awarded the 9th International Society of Transgenic Technologies Prize for outstanding contributions to the field of transgenic technologies

The Renormalization Group for Flag Manifolds

The renormalization group equations for a class of non--relativistic quantum $\sigma$--models targeted on flag manifolds are given. These models emerge in a continuum limit of generalized Heisenberg antiferromagnets. The case of the ${SU(3)\over U(1)\times U(1)}$ manifold is studied in greater detail. We show that at zero temperature there is a fixed point of the RG transformations in $(2+\varepsilon )$--dimensions where the theory becomes relativistic. We study the linearized RG transformations in the vicinity of this fixed point and show that half of the couplings are irrelevant. We also show that at this fixed point there is an enlargement of the global isometries of the target manifold. We construct a discrete non--abelian enlargement of this kind.Comment: 22 page

The impact of home entertainment technologies on government\u27s ability to regulate sexually explicit materials

This thesis examines the impact of home entertainment technologies (pay TV, home satellite dishes and video cassettes) on the ability of governments and regulatory officials to control sexually explicit materials. Information was gathered through personal interviews, a literature review and a nation-wide mail survey of 400 people selected because of their professional experience or personal interest in the topic. The first section of the thesis provides an overview of regulation in western nations. sets out the philosophical case for restrictions on sexually explicit materials from the conservative, liberal, feminist and Christian perspectives and explains the purpose of the study. A definitional section follows outlining the various definitions used for the terms erotica and pornography. The third section looks at relevant issues in the literature, with particular attention to the Fraser and Badgley Reports. An examination of the history and current status of the home entertainment technologies with which the study lS concerned follows. This section outlines many of the regulatory challenges posed by VCRs. home satellite dishes and pay TV. A fifth section explains the manner in which the survey was conducted, problems experienced in the study, and survey findings. Survey results revealed a certain degree of consensus among respondents as to what constitutes pornography , but little common understanding of the term erotica. These findings suggest a need for new terminology. Strong support was found for the hypothesis under study, that technology is making regulation of sexually explicit materials more difficult. Also discovered in the research was: support for a federal government role in regulating sexually explicit materials, and a belief among respondents that neither federal nor provincial governments spend enough money in their efforts to regulate sexually explicit materials. While respondents don\u27t think that Canadians are over-censored when it comes to sexually explicit materials, they tended to disapprove of the use of stringent measures to achieve a greater degree of control over sexually explicit materials, with women being more supportive of regulation than men. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the lack of will to regulate displayed by a number of agencies, what might change that situation and the restrictions on commercial activity and personal freedoms which would conceivably be necessary in order to achieve a greater degree of control over sexually explicit materials

Shaping Future Generations

Due to the extent and variety of research available on the topic of child-targeted advertising, it was determined that an appraisal of the current state of the situation was necessary in order to determine the best course of action. After summarizing the history of children’s advertising and considering the arguments on both sides of the debate – from the children’s advocates and the advertising industry – the previously recommended solutions were evaluated in the paper. Each of these possible solutions were considered, and led to the proposal of a best solution. Supported by research, the best solution advocated a joint effort between the children’s advocates, parents and the advertising industry that emphasized education over government restriction

Transformed epithelia trigger non-tissue-autonomous tumor suppressor response by adipocytes via activation of toll and Eiger/TNF signaling

High tumor burden is associated with increased levels of circulating inflammatory cytokines that influence the pathophysiology of the tumor and its environment. The cellular and molecular events mediating the organismal response to a growing tumor are poorly understood. Here, we report a bidirectional crosstalk between epithelial tumors and the fat body—a peripheral immune tissue—in Drosophila. Tumors trigger a systemic immune response through activation of Eiger/TNF signaling, which leads to Toll pathway upregulation in adipocytes. Reciprocally, Toll elicits a non-tissue-autonomous program in adipocytes, which drives tumor cell death. Hemocytes play a critical role in this system by producing the ligands Spätzle and Eiger, which are required for Toll activation in the fat body and tumor cell death. Altogether, our results provide a paradigm for a long-range tumor suppression function of adipocytes in Drosophila, which may represent an evolutionarily conserved mechanism in the organismal response to solid tumors

Continuous Local Symmetry in Ising-type Models

A class of generalized Ising models is examined with a view to extracting a low energy sector comprising Dirac fermions coupled to Yang-Mills vectors. The main feature of this approach is a set of gap equations, covariant with respect to one of the $4$-dimensional crystallographic space groups.Comment: 7 pages, latex, IC/94/2