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Feathers in Reverse
(2014)
Feathers in Reverse is the ideal gift for a loved one who is scared of poetry. It engages and immerses readers with the luring subtlety of a serpent. Themes treated include good and evil, heaven and earth, man and woman, birth and death, urbanism and rural life, wealth and poverty. As much as the poet highlights salient issues and conflicts in everyday life, he suggests answers to burning problems as well. A common thread runs through the over 300 poems feathered and featured in this collection. The notion of the 'feather' is cross-cultural. It reminds us of the feather used as a pen in ancient Europe and the 'red feather' that is stuck on the caps of African notables as a mark of distinction. Feathers in Reverse is a magic pudding to be sampled, shared and indulged.
This book is the celebration of one man's vendetta against a cancerous regime that thrives on the rape of democracy and human rights abuses. Lapiro de Mbanga, born Lambo Sandjo Pierre Roger on April 7, 1957 was a conduit for social change. He fought for change in his homeland and died fighting for change in Cameroon. Lapiro believed in the innate goodness of man but also had the conviction that absolute power corrupts absolutely. He was noted for contending that 'power creates monsters.' His entire musical career was devoted to fighting the cause of the downtrodden in Cameroon. He composed satirical songs on the socio-economic dysphonia in his beleaguered country. In his songs, he articulated the daily travails of the man in the street and the government-orchestrated injustices he witnessed. As a songwriter, Lapiro de Mbanga distinguished himself from his peers through bravado, valiance and the courage to say overtly what many a Cameroonian musician would only mumble in the privacy of their homes. Lapiro's anti-establishment music led to his arrest and imprisonment in September 2009 for three years. Released from prison on April 8, 2011 he was later given political asylum by the USA. On September 2, 2012 Lapiro relocated with some members of his family to Buffalo in New York where he died on March 16, 2014 after an illness. His revolutionary music and fighting spirit live on.
The essays collected together in this book reflect the author's varied experiences in the realms of politics and social struggle; he notes that they cannot be separated from his other experiences in his country, Egypt, over the years. These experiences extend from popular culture or folklore, through the wider political world of African liberation politics, to the Committee for the Defense of National Culture. This book is like a long trip through African culture from the 1950s to the beginning of the 21st century. These essays will most likely provoke a lot of memories, sweet and bitter; with maybe the bitter ones as the more lasting. The author notes that it appears as if the only relationship that seems to have mattered, for a long time, for the Egyptians with the rest of Africa was the river Nile, which joins the country to ten other countries, while a vast desert stands in-between. Such separation ignores the ancient relations between Pharaonic Egypt and the rest of Africa, and the role of Egypt in supporting many liberation movements on the continent. The author has set himself some tough questions in this book: Is it legitimate today to use race to sub-divide the African continent? Can this, moreover, be simply done as if race is ahistorical or an idealistic concept of identities? Or are we going to talk about Arabism in Egypt, Libya or Maghreb as if it were an identity gained with the advent of the Arabs, implying that these were 'lands with no people' - a sort of 'No Man's Land?' Or was this a fragile space that could not confront the invading empire? Or will Arabism equate with Bantuism or negroism sometimes, and Hausa and Swahili cultures at other times? These are the types of issues that Helmi Sharawy examines in this very important book. Experiences that inform this book began with the author's first encounter in March 1956, with some African youths who were in Cairo for higher studies or as representatives of liberation movements with whom he worked as an intermediary with the Egyptian national state, which work left on him an everlasting impression.
The growing role of IT in real estate asset management – the appraisal process as a master sample
(2014)
FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS FACE SERIOUS PROBLEMS IF MANY OF THEIR CUSTOMERS LEAVE QUICKLY BECAUSE SUCH CUSTOMERS HAVE LITTLE LONG-TERM VALUE. STILL, CURRENT REPORTING PRIMARILY FOCUSES ON CURRENT PROFITABILITY THAT REPRESENTS THE SHORT-TERM VALUE OF THE CUSTOMERS. THE LONG-TERM VALUE TYPICALLY RECEIVES LITTLE ATTENTION. CUSTOMER EQUITY REPORTING PRESENTS A MEANS TO FOCUS ON THE LONG-TERM VALUE OF THE COMPANY'S CUSTOMERS. IT AVOIDS THE RISK THAT SHORT-TERM PROFITS ARE INCREASED AT THE EXPENSE OF LONG-TERM VALUE CREATION AND ITS CENTRAL METRIC, CUSTOMER EQUITY, SERVES AS AN EARLY WARNING INDICATOR FOR RISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS THAT FOCUS ON CUSTOMER LOSS.
Big data – more than a hype
(2014)
You reap what you sow! differences in knowledge exchange effectiveness between communication types
(2014)
FOR KNOWLEDGE-INTENSIVE ORGANIZATIONS IN THE FINANCE INDUSTRY, AN EFFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE AMONG EMPLOYEES IS CRUCIAL FOR THE COMPETITIVE PERFORMANCE. THEREFORE, COMPANIES INCREASINGLY RELY ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS TO FACILITATE COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION. TO ENHANCE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF SUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATION IN ENTERPRISE SOCIAL MEDIA, WE APPLY HUMAN CODING AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS TO THE CONTENT AND TONE OF 15,505 ENTERPRISE MICROBLOGGING MESSAGES CREATED BY 1,166 EMPLOYEES OF AN INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDER. OUR RESULTS SUGGEST THAT A MORE FACTUAL-ORIENTED COMMUNICATION TYPE BENEFITS FROM A HIGHER KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE EFFECTIVENESS COMPARED TO A PRIMARILY SELF-DISCLOSING COMMUNICATION TYPE.
ALMOST 20% OF THE GERMAN POPULATION CURRENTLY HOLDS A CONSUMER LOAN. DESPITE ITS OBVIOUS IMPORTANCE FOR A PRIVATE HOUSEHOLD’S BALANCE SHEET, WE KNOW SURPRISINGLY LITTLE ABOUT IT. ONE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY IS TO GIVE AN OVERVIEW OF THE GERMAN CONSUMER/INSTALLMENT LOAN MARKET. WE COMPARED FIVE WIDELY ACCEPTED DATA SOURCES AND FOUND DIFFERENCES IN THE LOAN PARTICIPATION RATE, EVEN ON AN AGGREGATED NATIONWIDE LEVEL. IN A SECOND STEP, WE TRY TO FIND REASONS FOR EXTRAORDINARY HIGH GROWTH RATES AMONG SENIORS’ DEBT PARTICIPATION RATES.
ORGANIZATIONAL MINDFULNESS (OM) SUPPORTS THE MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEES WORKING IN THE INCREASINGLY DYNAMIC WORK ENVIRONMENTS DRIVEN BY CLOUD COMPUTING OR MOBILE DEVICES. SPECIFICALLY, IN MINDFUL ORGANIZATIONS, SUCH AS FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, RELIABLE OUTCOMES ARISE FROM OM IN THE FACE OF COMPLEX INFORMATION SYSTEMS. HOWEVER, EXTANT IS RESEARCH HAS DISREGARDED THE MULTILEVEL STRUCTURE OF MINDFULNESS, ESPECIALLY THEIMPORTANCE OF MINDFUL ORGANIZING (MO) ON LOWER HIERARCHICAL LEVELS. BASED ON DATA FROM 256 USERS OF AN ORGANIZATION WIDE CLOUD-BASED DESKTOP-AS-A-SERVICE SYSTEM, WE FOUND A SIGNIFICANTLY POSITIVE INFLUENCE OF THE COMBINATION OF OM AND MO AS WELL AS DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS FOR BOTH ON JOB PERFORMANCE.
THE WAY IN WHICH PEOPLE COMMUNICATE AFFECTS THEIR RELATIONSHIPS, SOCIAL NETWORK STRUCTURES AND ULTIMATELY THE SOCIAL CAPITAL ACQUIRED THROUGH THEIR CONNECTIONS. SOCIAL CAPITAL IS A KEY FACTOR FOR THE PERFORMANCE OF INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS. THEREFORE, COMPANIES IN THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY INCREASINGLY IMPLEMENT SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS TO FACILITATE COMMUNICATION AMONG EMPLOYEES AND TO LEVERAGE THE SOCIAL CAPITAL BENEFITS. ANALYZING THE INDIVIDUAL NETWORK STRUCTURES OF DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION TYPES, WE FIND THAT A MORE SELF-DISCLOSING COMMUNICATION TYPE (“MEFORMER”) BENEFITS FROM A HIGHER EFFICACY IN BUILDING SOCIAL CAPITAL COMPARED TO A PRIMARILY FACTUAL-ORIENTED COMMUNICATION TYPE (“INFORMER”).
Customer equity reporting
(2014)
WHARTON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT UNIVERSITY OF PHILADELPHIA HAS JUSTLAUNCHED AN 8-WEEK ONLINE PROGRAM “STRATEGIC VALUE OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS – ONLINE” TAUGHT BY MARKETING PROFESSOR AND AUTHOR PETER FADER. HE INVITED PROFESSOR SKIERA, DIRECTOR OF THE E-FINANCE LAB, TO PHILADELPHIA TO LEARN ABOUT HIS THOUGHTS ON “CUSTOMER EQUITY REPORTING”. THIS ARTICLE SUMMARIZES SOME OF PROFESSOR FADER’S QUESTIONS AND PROFESSOR SKIERA’S REPLIES.
DIGITAL CURRENCIES ARE A GLOBALLY SPREADING PHENOMENON THAT IS FREQUENTLY AND PROMINENTLY ADDRESSED BY MEDIA, POLITICS AND ACADEMIA. WE AIM AT GIVING EMPIRICAL INSIGHTS ON WHETHER USERS’ INTEREST REGARDING DIGITAL CURRENCIES IS DRIVEN BY ITS APPEAL AS AN ASSET OR ITS UTILITY AS A CURRENCY. BASED ON OUR EVALUATION, WE FIND STRONG INDICATIONS THAT ESPECIALLY UNINFORMED USERS APPROACHING BITCOIN ARE NOT PRIMARILY INTERESTED IN AN ALTERNATIVE TRANSACTION SYSTEM, BUT SEEK TO PARTICIPATE IN AN ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENT VEHICLE.
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is characterized by an aberrant self-renewal of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and a block in differentiation. The major therapeutic challenge is the characterization of the leukemic stem cell as a target for the eradication of the disease. Until now the biology of AML-associated fusion proteins (AAFPs), such as the t(15;17)-PML/RARα, t(8;21)-RUNX1/RUNX1T1 and t(6;9)-DEK/NUP214, all able to induce AML in mice, was investigated in different models and genetic backgrounds, not directly comparable to each other. To avoid the bias of different techniques and models we expressed these three AML-inducing oncogenes in an identical genetic background and compared their influence on the HSC compartment in vitro and in vivo.
These AAFPs exerted differential effects on HSCs and PML/RARα, similar to DEK/NUP214, induced a leukemic phenotype from a small subpopulation of HSCs with a surface marker pattern of long-term HSC and characterized by activated STAT3 and 5. In contrast the established AML occurred from mature populations in the bone marrow. The activation of STAT5 by PML/RARα and DEK/NUP214 was confirmed in t(15;17)(PML/RARα) and t(6;9)(DEK/NUP214)-positive patients as compared to normal CD34+ cells. The activation of STAT5 was reduced upon the exposure to Arsenic which was accompanied by apoptosis in both PML/RARα- and DEK/NUP214-positive leukemic cells. These findings indicate that in AML the activation of STATs plays a decisive role in the biology of the leukemic stem cell. Furthermore we establish exposure to arsenic as a novel concept for the treatment of this high risk t(6;9)-positive AML.
Orientation: Publishing methodologically sound, empirically based studies in reputable accredited scientific journals are essential in order to advance knowledge and evidence-based practice in the field of industrial and organisational psychology.
Research purpose: The purpose of the research was to conduct a broad content analysis of the articles published in the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology (SAJIP) between 2004 and 2013. The study aimed to provide a descriptive overview of the most frequent content themes,published authors and institutions, research approaches, strategies, designs and analysis techniques, software packages and sample sizes in industrial and organisational (I-O) psychology utilised in the publications.
Motivation for study: The periodic analyses of published content in scholarly journals provide an index of the extent to which the publications reflect the scope of practice in a given discipline and broaden insight into the direction and relevance of research published in a journal.
Research design, approach and method: A broad systematic content analysis was conducted of 342 documented articles published in the SAJIP between 2004 and 2013. Descriptive data(frequencies and percentages) were used to report the findings.
Main findings: The publishing pattern of the SAJIP appeared to correspond with its focus and scope. Manuscripts utilising mostly cross-sectional quantitative correlational research designs with large samples (n > 201) were published in the SAJIP. The University of Johannesburg and Professor Sebastiaan (Ian) Rothmann were the largest contributors to publications between 2004 and 2013. Organisational psychology and psychometrics were the most prominent domains in I-O psychology research. Data were predominantly processed utilising SPSS.
Practical implications: The insights derived from the findings can be employed to plan future research initiatives in the field of I-O psychology.
Contribution/value-add: The findings provide valuable insight into the current status of the foci of I-O psychology research as published in the SAJIP between 2004 and 2013 and the contribution made by the SAJIP to advancing knowledge and evidence-based practice in I-O psychology.
This paper analyzes two contemporary, „third-generation“ perspectives within critical theory - Nancy Fraser’s and Axel Honneth’s - with the aim of examining the degree to which the two authors succeed in grounding the normative criteria of social critique in the perspectives of ’ordinary’ social actors, as opposed to speculative social theory. To that end, the author focuses on the influential debate between Fraser and Honneth Redistribution or Recognition? which concerns the appropriate normative foundations of a „post-metaphysical“ critical theory, and attempts to reconstruct the fundamental 29 disagreements between Fraser and Honneth over the meaning and tasks of critical theory. The author concludes that both critical theorists ultimately secure the normative foundations of critique through substantive theorizations of the social, which frame the two authors’ „reconstructions“ of the normativity of everyday social action, but argues that post-metaphysical critical theory does not have to abandon comprehensive social theory in order to be epistmologically „non-authoritarian“.
Impairment in past tense production as well as interaction between tense and aspect have been found in both fluent and non-fluent aphasia (e.g. Dragoy & Bastiaanse, 2013). Inflection has been found to be relatively preserved in semantic dementia (SD) (Thompson et al., 2012). The aims of the present study are a) to compare the morphosyntactic abilities of patients with aphasia and SD in tense and aspect marking and b) to explore the interaction of lexical (+/- telic) and grammatical (perfective/imperfective) aspect in aphasia and SD. A sentence completion task was administered to 30 native speakers of Greek: 10 patients with aphasia (6 anomic, 2 Wernicke and 2 agrammatic), 10 age and education-matched controls, 5 patients with SD and 5 controls. The material consisted of unergative, unaccusative and transitive verbs (12 of each verb class) and the participants had to apply present (imperfective) and past (perfective) tense. Unergative and unaccusative verbs differ in terms of their aspectual properties with the unergative being [-telic], and unaccusative [+telic]. Transitive verbs vary. A principal distinction between the tested conditions was the standard ummarked combination ([+telic] verbs in past perfective and [–telic] verbs in present imperfective) vs. the marked one ([+telic] verbs in present imperfective and [–telic] in past perfective). Both control groups performed at ceiling in all conditions. Aphasic participants were significantly more impaired than the control group in all conditions. SD participants were significantly more impaired than the controls only in the production of present tense (M-W U= 1.5, p= 0.024). There was no difference between past perfective and present imperfective for neither group, but there was an interaction between verb class and tense for the aphasic participants, as performance in unaccusative verbs in past perfective (unmarked condition) was significantly better than in unergatives in past perfective (marked condition) (Z=2.512, p=0.012) but performance in unaccusatives in present imperfective (marked condition) was significantly worse than performance in unergatives in present imperfective (unmarked condition) (Z=2.680, p=0.004). In sum, aphasic participants performed significantly better in the unmarked than in the marked conditions. Such an interaction was not found for the SD group. Aphasic participants performed significantly worse than the SD subjects in past perfective tense (M-W U= 7.5, p=0.029) in total, and the difference was significant only for unaccusative verbs (M-W U= 6.5, p=0.021), although both groups performed very well in this condition. There was no difference in present, neither for each verb class separately nor for the total score. A general past tense deficit cannot be upheld for either group. Rather, SD participants appear relatively impaired in producing present tense. We argue for slight morphosyntactic impairment in SD, although with a different underlying cause than in aphasia. Moreover, our data suggest an effect of aspectual markedness in aphasia but not in SD. We discuss this finding in the light of the different neuropathology of the two populations.
A potential clinical and etiological overlap between schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) has long been a subject of discussion. Imaging studies imply functional and structural alterations of the hippocampus in both diseases. Thus, imaging this core memory region could provide insight into the pathophysiology of these disorders and the associated cognitive deficits. To examine possible shared alterations in the hippocampus, we conducted a multi-modal assessment, including functional and structural imaging as well as neurobehavioral measures of memory performance in BD and SZ patients compared with healthy controls. We assessed episodic memory performance, using tests of verbal and visual learning (HVLT, BVMT) in three groups of participants: BD patients (n = 21), SZ patients (n = 21) and matched (age, gender, education) healthy control subjects (n = 21). In addition, we examined hippocampal resting state functional connectivity, hippocampal volume using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and fibre integrity of hippocampal connections using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We found memory deficits, changes in functional connectivity within the hippocampal network as well as volumetric reductions and altered white matter fibre integrity across patient groups in comparison with controls. However, SZ patients when directly compared with BD patients were more severely affected in several of the assessed parameters (verbal learning, left hippocampal volumes, mean diffusivity of bilateral cingulum and right uncinated fasciculus). The results of our study suggest a graded expression of verbal learning deficits accompanied by structural alterations within the hippocampus in BD patients and SZ patients, with SZ patients being more strongly affected. Our findings imply that these two disorders may share some common pathophysiological mechanisms. The results could thus help to further advance and integrate current pathophysiological models of SZ and BD.
Highly promising preclinical data obtained in cultured cells and in nude mice bearing xenografts contrast with the rather modest clinical efficacy of Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) inhibitors. In the present study, we investigated if Plk1 might be a suitable target in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and if a genetically engineered mouse tumor model that well reflects the tumor cell and micro-environmental features of naturally occurring cancers might be suitable to study anti-Plk1 therapy. Analysis of Plk1 expression in human HCC samples confirmed that HCC express much higher Plk1 levels than the adjacent normal liver tissue. Inhibition of Plk1 by an adenovirus encoding for a short hairpin RNA against Plk1 or by the small-molecule inhibitor BI 2536 reduced the viability of HCC cell lines and inhibited HCC xenograft progression in nude mice. Treatment of transforming growth factor (TGF) α/c-myc bitransgenic mice with BI 2536 during hepatocarcinogenesis reduced the number of dysplastic foci and of Ki-67-positive cells within the foci, indicating diminished tumorigenesis. In contrast, BI 2536 had no significant effect on HCC progression in the transgenic mouse HCC model as revealed by magnetic resonance imaging. Measurement of BI 2536 by mass spectrometry revealed considerably lower BI 2536 levels in HCC compared with the adjacent normal liver tissue. In conclusion, low intratumoral levels are a novel mechanism of resistance to the Plk1 inhibitor BI 2536. Plk1 inhibitors achieving sufficient intratumoral levels are highly promising in HCC treatment.
We report on posttransplant relapsed pediatric patients with B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia with no further standard of care therapy who were treated with the T-cell engaging CD19/CD3-bispecific single-chain antibody construct blinatumomab on a compassionate use basis. Blast load was assessed prior to, during and after blinatumomab cycle using flow cytometry to detect minimal residual disease, quantitative polymerase chain reaction for rearrangements of the immunoglobulin or T-cell receptor genes, and bcr/abl mutation detection in one patient with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blinatumomab was administered as a 4-week continuous intravenous infusion at a dosage of 5 or 15 μg/m2/day. Nine patients received a total of 18 cycles. Four patients achieved complete remission after the first cycle of treatment; 2 patients showed a complete remission from the second cycle after previous reduction of blast load by chemotherapy. Three patients did not respond, of whom one patient proceeded to a second cycle without additional chemotherapy and again did not respond. Four patients were successfully retransplanted in molecular remission from haploidentical donors. After a median follow up of 398 days, the probability of hematologic event-free survival is 30%. Major toxicities were grade 3 seizures in one patient and grade 3 cytokine release syndrome in 2 patients. Blinatumomab can induce molecular remission in pediatric patients with posttransplant relapsed B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia and facilitate subsequent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from haploidentical donor with subsequent long-term leukemia-free survival.
• Endomicroscopy is a new imaging tool for gastrointestinal endoscopy.
• Panchromoendoscopy with targeted biopsies has become the method of choice for surveillance of patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
• Endomicroscopy can be added after chromoendoscopy to clarify whether standard biopsies are still needed.
• This smart biopsy concept can increase the diagnostic yield of intraepithelial neoplasia and substantially reduce the need for biopsies.
• Endomicroscopy is still mainly used for research but clinical acceptance is increasing because of a multitude of positive studies about the diagnostic value of endomicroscopy.
The highly conserved eukaryotic process of macroautophagy (autophagy) is a non-specific bulk-degradation program critical for maintaining proper cellular homeostasis, and for clearing aged and damaged organelles. This decision is inextricably dependent upon prevailing metabolic demands and energy requirements of the cell. Soluble monomeric decorin functions as a natural tumor repressor that antagonizes a variety of receptor tyrosine kinases. Recently, we discovered that decorin induces endothelial cell autophagy, downstream of VEGFR2. This process was wholly dependent upon Peg3, a decorin-inducible genomically imprinted tumor suppressor gene. However, the signaling cascades responsible have remained elusive. In this report we discovered that Vps34, a class III phosphoinositide kinase, is an upstream kinase required for Peg3 induction. Moreover, decorin triggered differential formation of Vps34/Beclin 1 complexes with concomitant dissolution of inhibitive Bcl-2/Beclin 1 complexes. Further, decorin inhibited anti-autophagic signaling via suppression of Akt/mTOR/p70S6K activity with the concurrent activation of pro-autophagic AMPK-mediated signaling cascades. Mechanistically, AMPK is downstream of VEGFR2 and inhibition of AMPK signaling abrogated decorin-evoked autophagy. Collectively, these findings hint at the complexity of the underlying molecular relays necessary for decorin-evoked endothelial cell autophagy and reveal important therapeutic targets for augmenting autophagy and combatting tumor angiogenesis.
The highly conserved eukaryotic process of macroautophagy (autophagy) is a non-specific bulk-degradation program critical for maintaining proper cellular homeostasis, and for clearing aged and damaged organelles. This decision is inextricably dependent upon prevailing metabolic demands and energy requirements of the cell. Soluble monomeric decorin functions as a natural tumor repressor that antagonizes a variety of receptor tyrosine kinases. Recently, we discovered that decorin induces endothelial cell autophagy, downstream of VEGFR2. This process was wholly dependent upon Peg3, a decorin-inducible genomically imprinted tumor suppressor gene. However, the signaling cascades responsible have remained elusive. In this report we discovered that Vps34, a class III phosphoinositide kinase, is an upstream kinase required for Peg3 induction. Moreover, decorin triggered differential formation of Vps34/Beclin 1 complexes with concomitant dissolution of inhibitive Bcl-2/Beclin 1 complexes. Further, decorin inhibited anti-autophagic signaling via suppression of Akt/mTOR/p70S6K activity with the concurrent activation of pro-autophagic AMPK-mediated signaling cascades. Mechanistically, AMPK is downstream of VEGFR2 and inhibition of AMPK signaling abrogated decorin-evoked autophagy. Collectively, these findings hint at the complexity of the underlying molecular relays necessary for decorin-evoked endothelial cell autophagy and reveal important therapeutic targets for augmenting autophagy and combatting tumor angiogenesis.
The web and the social web play an increasingly important role as an information source for Members of Parliament and their assistants, journalists, political analysts and researchers. It provides important and crucial background information, like reactions to political events and comments made by the general public. The case study presented in this paper is driven by two European parliaments (the Greek and the Austrian parliament) and targets an effective exploration of political web archives. In this paper, we describe semantic technologies deployed to ease the exploration of the archived web and social web content and present evaluation results.
The World Wide Web is the largest information repository available today. However, this information is very volatile and Web archiving is essential to preserve it for the future. Existing approaches to Web archiving are based on simple definitions of the scope of Web pages to crawl and are limited to basic interactions with Web servers. The aim of the ARCOMEM project is to overcome these limitations and to provide flexible, adaptive and intelligent content acquisition, relying on social media to create topical Web archives. In this article, we focus on ARCOMEM’s crawling architecture. We introduce the overall architecture and we describe its modules, such as the online analysis module, which computes a priority for the Web pages to be crawled, and the Application-Aware Helper which takes into account the type of Web sites and applications to extract structure from crawled content. We also describe a large-scale distributed crawler that has been developed, as well as the modifications we have implemented to adapt Heritrix, an open source crawler, to the needs of the project. Our experimental results from real crawls show that ARCOMEM’s crawling architecture is effective in acquiring focused information about a topic and leveraging the information from social media.
The constantly growing amount of Web content and the success of the SocialWeb lead to increasing needs for Web archiving. These needs go beyond the pure preservationo of Web pages. Web archives are turning into “community memories” that aim at building a better understanding of the public view on, e.g., celebrities, court decisions and other events. Due to the size of the Web, the traditional “collect-all” strategy is in many cases not the best method to build Web archives. In this paper, we present the ARCOMEM (From Future Internet 2014, 6 689 Collect-All Archives to Community Memories) architecture and implementation that uses semantic information, such as entities, topics and events, complemented with information from the Social Web to guide a novel Web crawler. The resulting archives are automatically enriched with semantic meta-information to ease the access and allow retrieval based on conditions that involve high-level concepts.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) continues to be a leading cause of cerebrovascular morbidity and mortality resulting from cardioembolic stroke. Oral anticoagulation therapy has been shown to decrease the incidence of cardioembolic stroke in patients with AF by more than 50%. Appropriate use of anticoagulation with vitamin K antagonists requires precise adherence and monitoring. A number of factors that potentially induce patients' dissatisfaction reduce quality of patient life. New direct oral anticoagulants, such as the direct factor Xa inhibitors rivaroxaban, apixaban, edoxaban, and the thrombin inhibitor dabigatran, were developed to overcome the limitations of the conventional anticoagulant drugs. However, models to optimize the benefit of therapy and to ensure that therapy can be safely continued are missing for the new oral anticoagulants. This review will briefly describe the new oral anticoagulants dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban, and edoxaban with focus on their use for prevention of embolic events in AF. Moreover, it will discuss the safety, efficacy, cost data, and benefit for patients' quality of life and adherence.
The ( J, T ) = (1, 1) parity doublet in 20Ne at 11.26 MeV is a good candidate to study parity violation in nuclei. However, its energy splitting is known with insufficient accuracy for quantitative estimates of parity violating effects. To improve on this unsatisfactory situation, nuclear resonance fluorescence experiments using linearly and circularly polarized γ -ray beams were used to determine the energy difference of the parity doublet E = E(1−) − E(1+) = −3.2(±0.7)stat( +0.6 −1.2)sys keV and the ratio of their integrated cross sections I (+) s,0 /I (−) s,0 = 29(±3)stat( +14 −7 )sys. Shell-model calculations predict a parityviolating matrix element having a value in the range 0.46–0.83 eV for the parity doublet. The small energy difference of the parity doublet makes 20Ne an excellent candidate to study parity violation in nuclear excitations.
In this paper we discuss to what extent one can infer details of the interior structure of a black hole based on its horizon. Recalling that black hole thermal properties are connected to the non-classical nature of gravity, we circumvent the restrictions of the no-hair theorem by postulating that the black hole interior is singularity free due to violations of the usual energy conditions. Further these conditions allow one to establish a one-to-one, holographic projection between Planckian areal “bits” on the horizon and “voxels”, representing the gravitational degrees of freedom in the black hole interior. We illustrate the repercussions of this idea by discussing an example of the black hole interior consisting of a de Sitter core postulated to arise from the local graviton quantum vacuum energy. It is shown that the black hole entropy can emerge as the statistical entropy of a gas of voxels.
Peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) represents a relatively rare group of heterogeneous non-Hodgkin lymphomas with a very poor prognosis. Current therapies, based on historical regimens for aggressive B-cell lymphomas, have resulted in insufficient patient outcomes. The majority of patients relapse rapidly, and current 5-year overall survival rates are only 10–30%. It is evident that new approaches to treat patients with PTCL are required. In recent years, prospective studies in PTCL have been initiated, mainly in patients with relapsed/refractory disease. In some of these, selected histologic subtypes have been evaluated in detail. As a consequence, numerous new therapies have been developed and shown activity in PTCL, including: agents targeting the immune system (e.g. brentuximab vedotin, alemtuzumab, lenalidomide); histone deacetylase inhibitors (romidepsin, belinostat); antifolates (pralatrexate); fusion proteins (denileukin diftitox); nucleoside analogs (pentostatin, gemcitabine); and other agents (e.g. alisertib, plitidepsin, bendamustine, bortezomib). A variety of interesting novel combinations is also emerging. It is hoped that these innovative approaches, coupled with a greater understanding of the clinicopathologic features, pathogenesis, molecular biology, and natural history of PTCL will advance the field and improve outcomes in this challenging group of diseases. This review summarizes the currently available clinical evidence on the various approaches to treating relapsed/refractory PTCL, including the role of stem cell transplantation, with an emphasis on potential new drug therapies.
Based on a meta-analysis, Redick and Lindsey (2013) found that complex span and n-back tasks show an average correlation of r = 0.20, and concluded that "complex span and n-back tasks cannot be used interchangeably as working memory measures in research applications" (p. 1102). Here, we comment on this conclusion from a psychometric perspective. In addition to construct variance, performance on a test contains measurement error, task-specific variance, and paradigm-specific variance. Hence, low correlations among dissimilar indicators do not provide strong evidence for the existence, or absence, of a construct common to both indicators. One way to arrive at such evidence is to fit hierarchical latent factors that model task-specific, paradigm-specific, and construct variance. We report analyses for 101 younger and 103 older adults who worked on nine different working memory tasks. The data are consistent with a hierarchical model of working memory, according to which both complex span and n-back tasks are valid indicators of working memory. The working memory factor predicts 71% of the variance in a factor of reasoning among younger adults (83% for among older adults). When the working memory factor was restricted to any possible triplet of working memory tasks, the correlation between working memory and reasoning was inversely related to the average magnitude of the correlations among the indicators, indicating that more highly intercorrelated indicators may provide poorer coverage of the construct space. We stress the need to go beyond specific tasks and paradigms when studying higher-order cognitive constructs, such as working memory.
Smac (second mitochondria-derived activator of caspase) mimetics are considered as promising anticancer therapeutics and used to induce apoptosis by antagonizing inhibitor of apoptosis proteins, which are often abundantly expressed in cancer cells. Here, we identify interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF1) as a novel critical regulator of Smac mimetic BV6-induced apoptosis and proinflammatory cytokine secretion with impact on the immune response. IRF1 knockdown rescues cells from BV6-induced apoptosis and attenuates BV6-stimulated upregulation of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα), indicating that IRF1 mediates BV6-triggered cell death, at least in part, by inducing TNFα. This notion is supported by data showing that exogenous supply of TNFα restores BV6-induced cell death in IRF-knockdown cells. Interestingly, IRF1 selectively controls the induction of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) target genes, as IRF1 depletion attenuates BV6-stimulated upregulation of TNFα and interleukin-8 (IL-8) but not p100 and RelB. Concomitant knockdown of IRF1 and p65 cooperate to inhibit BV6-induced cell death, implying a cooperative interaction of IRF1 and NF-κB. In addition, IRF1 silencing hampers TNFα induction by TNFα itself as an another prototypical NF-κB stimulus. Importantly, IRF1 depletion impedes BV6-stimulated secretion of additional proinflammatory cytokines such as granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), IL-8, IL-6 and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, and migration of primary monocytes to BV6-treated tumor cells. In conclusion, this identification of IRF1 as a dual regulator of BV6-induced apoptosis and inflammatory cytokine secretion provides novel insights into determinants of sensitivity towards Smac mimetic and possible implications of Smac mimetic treatment on tumor microenvironment and immune response.
How to write (international) legal histories that would be true to their protagonists while simultaneously relevant to present audiences? Most of us would also want to write "critically" – that is to say, at least by aiming to avoid Eurocentrism, hagiography and commitment to an altogether old-fashioned view of international law as an instrument of progress. Hence we write today our histories "in context". But this cannot be all. Framing the relevant "context" is only possible by drawing upon more or less conscious jurisprudential and political preferences. Should attention be focused on academic debates, military power, class structures or assumptions about the longue durée? Such choices determine for us what we think of as relevant "contexts", and engage us as participants in large conversations about law and power that are not only about what once "was" but also what there will be in the future.
Political theology’s recent rise to academic prominence has, no doubt, been inspired by the sense of a certain staleness of standard (read: Anglo-American) analytical political and legal theory. Especially postcolonial and postmodern philosophy has resuscitated debates about the reality of secularization in Europe, pointing out that much of our shared political metaphysic is indeed that – a metaphysic – with close historical links to debates in theology. That should be no surprise. For almost half a millennium theology stood as the primus inter pares among the three "higher faculties" at European universities. The best minds at work in Europe explained the social and political changes to European audiences within a fully God-centric intellectual universe. Awareness of that fact, as Wim Decock points out in this massive and brilliant work, not only assists us in understanding the development of our political and legal vocabularies. It also enables us to grasp the contingency of our present debates, the way opposite standpoints on political and legal obligation refer back to assumptions about human nature, the roles of individual and society and the nature of "law" that are hard to detach from religious speculation. ...
The children's book "Duck! Rabbit!" dramatizes the lesson that just because one is right, others don’t have to be wrong. An endless dispute is quickly settled once the quarrellers experience an aspect change or gestalt switch and thereby realize that the same picture can be seen in different ways. This simple scenario offers an intriguing model for arbitrating between conflicting positions by going back and forth between different aspects and thereby realizing that conflicting accounts can be equally valid.
The notion of ambivalence currently seems to be an invigorating figure with heuristic potential in political, social, and art theory. It refers to a plurality of possibilities, a paradoxical multiplicity, and a complex relationality. It foregrounds thinking in terms of indeterminacy and incommensurability, as well as in terms of the possible. Ambivalence has been deployed in positive ways, as offering political promise, while, at the same time, being regarded with suspicion.
In 1989 the triumphant discourse on the 'end of history' brought the death of socialism and the expansion of liberal democracy. The proclamation of the end of history could also be read literally, as the death of 'history' as a discipline with a homogenized narrative. It is in the same year that Pierra Nora wrote a groundbreaking article, which disentangled the fundamental opposition between history and memory, and at the end assumed the standpoint of memory. The article departs from the diagnosis of post-Yugoslav contemporary accounts of Yugoslav and partisan events. The critique of nationalist and Yugonostalgic discourses discloses shared assumptions that are based on the 'romantic' temporality of Nation and on history as a closed process. In the main part of the article the author works on the special, multiple temporality of partisan poetry that emerged during the WWII partisan struggle. The special temporality hinges on the productive and tensed relationship between the 'not yet existing' - the position of the new society free of foreign occupation, but also in a radically transformed society - and the contemporary struggle within war, which is also marked by the fear that the rupture of the struggle might not be remembered rightly, if at all. The memory of the present struggle remains to be the task to be realized not only for poets, but for everyone participating in the struggle. This is where the revolutionary temporality of the unfinished process comes to its fore, relating poetry to struggle, but again producing a form of poetry in the struggle.
Identity politics redux
(2014)
Pornography reappropriated by feminist and queer pornographers is being reimagined as a site of activist productions, be it through the reshaping of desire or engaging with wider discussions of representational politics. Here, K. Heintzman takes up Shine Louise Houston's feature length film, "The Wild Search", as a unique case study for addressing the relationship between debates of identity politics and queer activist practice.
In his major theoretical work on experimentation, "Towards a History of Epistemic Things" (1997), Hans-Jörg Rheinberger writes: 'If experimental systems have a life of their own, precisely what kind of life they have remains to be determined.' Rheinberger is alluding to the slogan Ian Hacking gave to the post-Kuhnian 'practical turn' in the history and epistemology of science.
This paper deals with the general topic of subjectivity and subjectivation, considered through a philosophical tradition opposed to the 'philosophies of consciousness': that is, a philosophical tradition, from Spinoza to Althusser, that rejects as a myth the supposed primacy and presocial character of subjective identity.
The Rubin vase and duck-rabbit have two things in common: not only are they famous multistable figures, or 'Kippbilder', but before being discovered by scientists and philosophers, they both started their career as simple jokes. In contrast to usual understandings of 'Kippbilder', this paper will try to demonstrate that 'Kippbilder' can be a helpful model for understanding better dramatic, existential, and even religious events and their consequences. Multistable figures or 'Kippbilder' combine reversibility and irreversibility in an interesting way. While the so called first aspect change introduces an irreversible split, all subsequent aspect changes can be understood as an endless chain of reversible changes. After discussing the specificity of the Rubin vase and its aspect changes and focussing then on the distinction between first and further aspect changes, Di Blasi suggests the productive potential of the multistable figure as model for eventful events in discussing the conversion of Paul and his 'hōs mē' ('as if not').
Aspects and abstracta
(2014)
Philosophers of perception and psychologists first studied 'multistable' or 'reversible' figures, 'Kippbilder', in the nineteenth century. The earliest description of the phenomenon of a 'sudden and involuntary change in the apparent position' of a represented object occurred in a letter written by Louis Albert Necker in Geneva to Sir David Brewster on 24 May 1832 and published six months later in the "Philosophical Magazine". The picture in question would become known as the Necker cube.