bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Computer-based oral exams in Italian language studies
Authors: Newhouse C. Paul , Cooper Martin
Published: June 2013

In this paper we report on one component of a three-year study into the use of digital technologies for summative performance assessment in senior secondary courses in Western Australia. One of the courses was Italian Studies, which had an oral communication outcome externally assessed with an oral performance for which students travelled to a central location and undertook an interview with two assessors. Apart from the logistical difficulties for both students and the organising body, this method did not leave an enduring record of the process, and raised questions about the reliability of the assessment. Over the three years of this study, we tried several approaches to using digital technology to assess oral performance, including a portfolio of sub-tasks leading up to a video-recorded oral presentation, a computer-based exam, a video recorded interview, and an online exam that included oral audio-recordings. For each of the years online marking tools supported two methods of drawing inferences about student performance from the representations: the more traditional analytical method and the comparative pairs method. Rasch analysis of the results of the two methods showed that both were at an acceptable level of reliability. Overall, students and teachers reported that they liked using audiovisual recordings and online performance tasks for revision but not for summative assessment. The study also demonstrated that the scores from externally marked computer-based oral tasks carried out in class time correlated highly with the scores from traditional face-to-face recorded interviews. Therefore, online assessment of oral performance appears to be an equally effective way to facilitate assessment when compared with traditional methods and offers other affordances, such as convenience and access from a variety of locations, as well as providing an enduring record of student performance.
Metabolic suburbs, or the virtue of low densities
Authors: Hagan Susannah
Published: June 2013

The ‘Compact City’ model of sustainable development relies almost exclusively on transport energy analysis to justify the raising of low residential densities by the insertion of higher density dwellings within them. Higher densities mean more people per hectare, which makes public transport more economically viable, which cuts down on car use, which saves transport energy. Suburbs are very popular, however - over 80% of the populations of the UK and the US would prefer to live in them - and they can't all be bulldozed or ‘densified’. Turning the Compact City model on its head frees us to ask what environmental advantages low densities might have. Most suburbs have abundant open land, and land can perform: grow food and fuel, collect and recycle water, modify harsh microclimates, save and generate energy. The ‘performative’ potential of the suburban landscape can transform it into a grown infrastructure contributing to the reduction of the overall environmental impact of a city region, justifying its relatively low densities.
Conceptual diagrams in creative architectural practice: the case of Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum
Authors: Dogan Fehmi , Nersessian Nancy J.
Published: June 2013

The Jewish Museum in Berlin is the first major building of Daniel Libeskind [1,2]. The project for the museum has instigated a wealth of discussions in architectural circles and achieved a rare status of attracting the attention of scholars from other disciplines. Kurt W. Forster put the design for the Jewish Museum on a par with Piranesi's Carceri d'Invenzione, an unusual position for any building since very rarely does an architectural design ‘[…] bear this double burden of representing both actual buildings and mental structures, and which therefore have to submit to being measured by both standards: the durability of their ideas and the imaginative faculty of their designer.’
‘Vernacular’ accommodations: wordplay in contemporary-traditional architecture theory
Authors: Richards Simon
Published: June 2013

One might be forgiven for thinking that the concept of ‘vernacular’ architecture is straightforward. First, it suggests a contemporary approach to building that uses local materials and crafts, as well as the indigenous architecture of tribal peoples, such as piledwellings over tropical waters, mud houses in the desert, or animal-hide teepees on the savannah. These buildings can be distinguished easily from other types of buildings that use industrialised construction techniques and materials, such as concrete, sheet glass, plastics and steel. Second, it might suggest an alternative and more wholesome set of values towards life, the environment and aesthetics, than that represented by the out-of-town retail park or the inner-city office tower. Why bother with the word ‘vernacular’, though, let alone ‘indigenous’ or the more problematic ‘primitive’, when ‘traditional’ works well enough? Nothing could be simpler.
Isotype diagrams from Neurath to Doxiadis
Authors: Tsiambaos Kostas
Published: June 2013

The Austrian philosopher Otto Neurath (Vienna 1882 - Oxford 1945) was the only non-architect who participated in the fourth CIAM conference (Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne) that took place in Athens in the summer of 1933. As we read in the minutes of the congress published in the journal of the Technical Chamber of Greece Technika Chronika (Technical Chronicles), it was at the meeting of 13 August 1933 that CIAM members decided to set up two categories of participants: a) partners (mainly young architects and students of architecture), and b) specific members (non-architects participating as full members). The one and only such member was Otto Neurath. Neurath was invited as a representative of the Mundaneum in Vienna in order to cooperate with the CIAM Committee of Statistics which had as its task to collect, review and process statistical data relating to some of the most important cities of the Western world. As noted in the minutes of the congress: ‘The Committee of Statistics in cooperation with the Vienna Mundaneum will collect, review and edit the necessary statistical material which will remain as the property of the Conference.’
Elbows, bends and lyrical space
Authors: McGarry Michael
Published: June 2013

Ridgeway Street sounds like something out of an Ealing comedy - all charm, Englishness and deft touch. This Belfast street is a continuing surprise - a sudden fall from Stranmillis Road in a city that one images as a flat apron laid out under Black Mountain and Divis; houses that have enough in common to establish a loose coherence, but with odd dormers and narrow stepping plots that give a whimsical twist; a line of folded roof planes dropping precariously towards the Lagan, their angles spiking the skyline. The Lyric accounts for the last set of these spiky roofs at the end of the terrace at the bottom of Ridgeway Street.
The Süleymaniye Mosque: a computational fractal analysis of visual complexity and layering in Sinan's masterwork
Authors: Ediz Özgür , Ostwald Michael J.
Published: June 2013

Completed in the sixteenth century, the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul has long been regarded as one of the great works of Sinan, the Ottoman Empire's foremost architect. In recent years, as our understanding of Sinan's design strategies and sensitivities has improved, a number of influential scholars have argued that there is a singular formal layering pattern present in Sinan's elevations. With the advent of recent advances in computational analysis it is possible to quantify the degree of visual layering (the hierarchical relationship between form, ornamentation and materiality) present in Sinan's Süleymaniye Mosque and thereby provide evidence, either for or against, this proposition. Using an advanced version of the computational fractal analysis method, the paper investigates the four facades of the Süleymaniye Mosque, along with two facade details, to provide a mathematical description of the layering visible in this building. Through this process the paper provides, for the first time, quantifiable data supporting the theorised properties of this famous building. In doing so, the paper also offers a description of the most advanced demonstration of fractal analysis ever applied in architecture.
‘Except where herein otherwise directed’: building with legal documents in early nineteenth-century England
Authors: Amhoff Tilo
Published: June 2013

To show every minute portion of a building by drawing is next to impossible, and would be more laborious than useful, and therefore description in writing is resorted to, by which much labour is saved, and the intentions of the architect more readily conveyed to the mind of the operative.

This paper investigates the changes in architectural practice following the introduction of contracting in gross for the execution of building work in early nineteenth-century England. This particular new form referred to two different agreements, either contracting for a whole undertaking by a single builder who agreed to erect the whole of an edifice at a predetermined price and time, or contracting for the work of a specific trade only.

The changes in contracting the building work are understood as changes in building practice, whose material product would be the building. In a similar manner the building contracts are considered as the material products of the architectural practice, including not only the working drawings, but also the legal obligations and building specifications. This paper investigates the contract documents that were to be produced in the architectural office in order to build on site as evidence for a response of architectural practice to the changes in building practice. It traces this process in the adaptation of the writings of the legal documents to contracting in gross by comparing the specifications of John Soane's building contract for Tendring Hall of 1784 with the instructions and model specifications of the early nineteenth-century handbooks and practical guides.
Demolition figures: the appearance and expression of the topman and mattockman in LCC contracts, 1941–1951
Authors: Beech Nicholas
Published: June 2013

The Rescue man was not only working on the incident, he became a part of it […] he was the vaguely apprehended shape which suddenly appeared from the surrounding chaos as a human being […].

This paper explores a very particular form of building activity: demolition work. My aim is to show that the peculiarities of demolition work challenge how construction history contends with certain ontological and epistemological problematics. In the first instance, I am concerned with how the historical activity of demolition produces subjects which are held in distinct social relationships and material processes. In the second instance, I am concerned with how knowledge is produced in those relationships and processes, and further how knowledge of those relationships and processes might be made historically available. These questions are developed through an examination of archival material related to the clearance of the South Bank in the late 1940s in preparation for the Festival of Britain Exhibition and the Royal Festival Hall. The archived contracts are shown to have a specific status and effect for such an enquiry.
Integrated. Dis-integrated. Coordinated. Re-integrated
Authors: Gelder John
Published: June 2013

This paper looks at the evolution of the structure of construction contract documentation over time, from ancient Greece through to the near future, in terms of the degree to which the contract documentation is integrated. Documentation might comprise anything from a single ‘integrated’ text to a range of ‘dis-integrated’ documents, fashioned by different players in the procurement process and not offering an easily appreciable integrated whole. The paper ends with the hope that new digital methods of information production will lead to better integrated and more easily readable ‘wholes’ in the new forms offered by building information modelling (BIM), which in turn will facilitate collaborative working.

The paper shows that contract documentation has evolved through four stages of integration: Integrated: up to the end of the medieval period construction contract documentation was essentially fully integrated – everything that was required was stated in the one written document, which typically covered contract conditions, building layouts, assembly descriptions, quantities of components and requirements for quality.
What is a building? Documents for the contractual diagramming of design
Authors: Bottomley Anne , Moore Nathan
Published: June 2013

The common lawyer's understanding of land still hovers between a purely material conception of the physical stuff of land and a more cerebral image of land as comprising a co-ordinated set of abstract entitlements. This underlying tension between the physical and the conceptual has imparted a multi-dimensional complexity to the term […]. Kevin Gray and Susan Gray

What is a building? To begin to extrapolate our reasons for posing this question, consider the context of ‘Further Reading’, and the supplementary documents this supposes. To those whose profession is dedicated to the design of buildings, and whose professional life is, all too often, beleaguered by impediments threatening the actualisation, the construction, of their design, supplementary documents are not simply footnotes to design but evidence of struggles over design control. Within this trajectory, law is, most frequently, figured as yet another problematic. But consider a rather different trope – one which uses aspects of legal thinking, or rather thinking through law, to re-engage with the idea of ‘a building’ and of ‘design’. Supplementary documents, in this sense, become a ‘supplement’ which we could characterise as an ‘excess’. Documents which before might have been marginalised now become reconstituted as artefacts, evidencing other accounts of the processes of architecture. Legal artefacts related to design and building, which evidence a series of techniques and strategies for diagramming rights and responsibilities, may be deployed to open new perspectives on the question of ‘What is a building?’
Identification of Ferrous-Ferric Fe3O4 Nanoparticles in Recombinant Human Ferritin Cages
Authors: Walls Michael G. , Cao Changqian , Yu-Zhang Kui , Li Jinhua , Che Renchao , Pan Yongxin
Published: June 2013

Recombinant ferritin is an excellent template for the synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles. This paper describes carefully performed experiments both to identify ironoxides within nanoparticles and to measure the number of iron atoms in the cores of recombinant human H-chain ferritin (HFn), based on spectroscopy techniques. Using electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) analysis, magnetite (Fe3O4) has been unequivocally identified as the ironoxide formed within HFn cores under special preparation conditions. Atom counting analysis by EELS and high-angle annular dark-field imaging further allowed the correlation of the particle sizes to the real Fe atom numbers in a quantitative manner. These results help clarify some structural confusion between magnetite and maghemite (γ-Fe2O3), and also provide standard data for the number of Fe atoms within Fe3O4 particles of a given size, whose use is not limited to cases of magnetite synthesized in the cores of recombinant human ferritin.
Immunity to bovine herpesvirus 1: II. Adaptive immunity and vaccinology
Authors: Levings Randall L. , Roth James A.
Published: June 2013

Bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) infection is widespread and causes a variety of diseases. Although similar in many respects to the human immune response to human herpesvirus 1, the differences in the bovine virus proteins, immune system components and strategies, physiology, and lifestyle mean the bovine immune response to BHV-1 is unique. The innate immune system initially responds to infection, and primes a balanced adaptive immune response. Cell-mediated immunity, including cytotoxic T lymphocyte killing of infected cells, is critical to recovery from infection. Humoral immunity, including neutralizing antibody and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity, is important to prevention or control of (re-)infection. BHV-1 immune evasion strategies include suppression of major histocompatibility complex presentation of viral antigen, helper T-cell killing, and latency. Immune suppression caused by the virus potentiates secondary infections and contributes to the costly bovine respiratory disease complex. Vaccination against BHV-1 is widely practiced. The many vaccines reported include replicating and non-replicating, conventional and genetically engineered, as well as marker and non-marker preparations. Current development focuses on delivery of major BHV-1 glycoproteins to elicit a balanced, protective immune response, while excluding serologic markers and virulence or other undesirable factors. In North America, vaccines are used to prevent or reduce clinical signs, whereas in some European Union countries marker vaccines have been employed in the eradication of BHV-1 disease.
Characterization of the role of microRNA-517a expression in low birth weight infants
Authors: Song G. Y. , Song W. W. , Han Y. , Wang D. , Na Q.
Published: June 2013

The purpose of this study was to analyze the expression of the placenta-specific microRNA miR-517a in maternal serum and in placental tissue from low birth weight newborns and try to detect the effects of miR-517a expression on invasion potential of trophoblasts. Placental tissue and maternal serum were collected from both low birth weight newborns (n = 10) and normal birth weight newborns (n = 20). Expression of miR-517a was assessed in placenta and serum samples by real-time qRT-PCR. In addition, human trophoblast HTR8/SVneo cells were transfected with a miR-517a 2′-O-methyl oligonucleotide or a negative control RNA, and invasion was measured using transwell migration assays. Expression of miR-517a was significantly increased in placentas from low birth weight newborns (61.79 ± 23.06) in comparison with those of normal birth weight newborns (5.01 ± 1.97; P < 0.05). The expression of miR-517a was also increased in maternal serum isolated from the low birth weight newborn (25.78 ± 8.69) compared with the normal birth weight newborn (3.21 ± 1.07; P < 0.05). Overexpression of miR-517a significantly inhibited invasion of HTR8/SVneo cells (P < 0.05). These data indicate that miR-517a overexpression could potentially lead to low birth weight, likely through the inhibition of trophoblast invasion.
Mast cell mediators cause early allergic bronchoconstriction in guinea-pigs in vivo: a model of relevance to asthma
Authors: Riley Jason P. , Fuchs Barbara , Sjöberg Lisa , Nilsson Gunnar P. , Karlsson Lars , Dahlén Sven-Erik , Rao Navin L. , Adner Mikael
Published: June 2013

One feature of allergic asthma, the EAR (early allergic reaction), is not present in the commonly used mouse models. We therefore investigated the mediators involved in EAR in a guinea-pig in vivo model of allergic airway inflammation. Animals were sensitized using a single OVA (ovalbumin)/alum injection and challenged with aerosolized OVA on day 14. On day 15, airway resistance was assessed after challenge with OVA or MCh (methacholine) using the forced oscillation technique, and lung tissue was prepared for histology. The contribution of mast cell mediators was investigated using inhibitors of the main mast cell mediators [histamine (pyrilamine) and CysLTs (cysteinyl-leukotrienes) (montelukast) and prostanoids (indomethacin)]. OVA-sensitized and challenged animals demonstrated AHR (airway hyper-responsiveness) to MCh, and lung tissue eosinophilic inflammation. Antigen challenge induced a strong EAR in the sensitized animals. Treatment with a single compound, or indomethacin together with pyrilamine or montelukast, did not reduce the antigen-induced airway resistance. In contrast, dual treatment with pyrilamine together with montelukast, or triple inhibitor treatment, attenuated approximately 70% of the EAR. We conclude that, as in humans, the guinea-pig allergic inflammation model exhibits both EAR and AHR, supporting its suitability for in vivo identification of mast cell mediators that contribute to the development of asthma. Moreover, the known mast cell mediators histamine and leukotrienes were major contributors of the EAR. The data also lend further support to the concept that combination therapy with selective inhibitors of key mediators could improve asthma management.
Contested Delineations: Planning, Law, and the Governance of Protected Areas
Authors: Beunen Raoul , van Assche Kristof
Published: June 2013

In this paper we reflect on the relationship between planning and law. We analyse the Dutch interpretation and implementation of the European Union Habitats and Birds Directives by investigating the practices of delineation of protected areas. These directives provide a legislative framework for the designation of protected sites as well as for decision making about social and economic activities that might have negative effects on the conservation objectives. The formal boundaries of the protected area can have legal, political, and economic consequences and are therefore the subject of much debate. Using Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory, we analyse the debates concerning delineation and the potential for planning to reduce tensions and balance interests. It is argued that the irreducible differences between the economic, political, and legal perspectives, in combination with the Dutch path of a legalistic interpretation of EU directives, have produced a situation in which the role of planning is reduced and new forms of planning are hard to implement.
Shrinking Cities as Retirement Cities? Opportunities for Shrinking Cities as Green Living Environments for Older Individuals
Authors: Nefs Merten , Alves Susana , Zasada Ingo , Haase Dagmar
Published: June 2013

Increasingly, policy makers and planners must develop strategies to cope with urban shrinkage. This paper proposes that active retirement migration and health tourism can be parts of such strategies. Shrinking cities, normally observed as less competitive, could develop advantages over other cities with respect to attracting retirees if their spatial conditions were used effectively. By converting vacant space or improving access to high-quality green space, shrinking cities can attract retirees in search of quality of life, who in turn might represent a crucial catalyst in urban renewal for shrinking cities. The authors conclude that the potential of shrinking cities as green retirement cities can be considered by integrating existing research concepts: eg, green space typologies and the functionality of public space for older individuals. Furthermore, recent practical studies suggest that the potential for shrinking cities as retirement cities exists. However, the potential has led to specific policy to only a limited extent. Despite substantial opportunities, many challenges arise when this idea is put into practice. Therefore, recommendations are made at the end of this paper for addressing this topic in future research and urban planning.
Urban Renewal and Strata Scheme Termination: Balancing Communal Management and Individual Property Rights
Authors: Easthope Hazel , Hudson Sarah , Randolph Bill
Published: June 2013

A debate is taking place in Australia regarding potential changes to the legislation governing what proportion of owners must agree before apartment buildings can be redeveloped and whether a collective sale model should be adopted in order to facilitate urban renewal. To date, urban renewal has proven challenging because of difficulties of coordinating renewal within a planning system that relies on the market to deliver housing. This challenge is amplified by the governance framework created to promote multiunit housing—strata title—and associated tensions between communal management and individual property rights. This paper makes particular reference to the implications of this debate in the greater Sydney metropolitan area, which raises universal issues regarding tensions between the government and the market and between individual rights and the collective good. This paper argues that there is a case for changing the legislation, with government involvement required to respond to the significant social issues raised, to guarantee the needs of existing owners and tenants are met, and to ensure that high-quality, economically viable, buildings result.
Distinct patterns of functional brain connectivity correlate with objective performance and subjective beliefs
Authors: Barttfeld Pablo , Wicker Bruno , McAleer Phil , Belin Pascal , Cojan Yann , Graziano Martín , Leiguarda Ramón , Sigman Mariano
Published: June 2013

The degree of correspondence between objective performance and subjective beliefs varies widely across individuals. Here we demonstrate that functional brain network connectivity measured before exposure to a perceptual decision task covaries with individual objective (type-I performance) and subjective (type-II performance) accuracy. Increases in connectivity with type-II performance were observed in networks measured while participants directed attention inward (focus on respiration), but not in networks measured during states of neutral (resting state) or exogenous attention. Measures of type-I performance were less sensitive to the subjects’ specific attentional states from which the networks were derived. These results suggest the existence of functional brain networks indexing objective performance and accuracy of subjective beliefs distinctively expressed in a set of stable mental states.
Orally fed seeds producing designer IgAs protect weaned piglets against enterotoxigenicEscherichia coliinfection
Authors: Virdi Vikram , Coddens Annelies , De Buck Sylvie , Millet Sam , Goddeeris Bruno Maria , Cox Eric , De Greve Henri , Depicker Ann
Published: June 2013

Oral feed-based passive immunization can be a promising strategy to prolong maternal lactogenic immunity against postweaning infections. EnterotoxigenicEscherichia coli(ETEC)-caused postweaning diarrhea in piglets is one such infection that may be prevented by oral passive immunization and might avert recurrent economic losses to the pig farming industry. As a proof of principle, we designed anti-ETEC antibodies by fusing variable domains of llama heavy chain-only antibodies (VHHs) against ETEC to the Fc part of a porcine immunoglobulin (IgG or IgA) and expressed them inArabidopsis thalianaseeds. In this way, four VHH-IgG and four VHH-IgA antibodies were produced to levels of about 3% and 0.2% of seed weight, respectively. Cotransformation of VHH-IgA with the porcine joining chain and secretory component led to the production of light-chain devoid, assembled multivalent dimeric, and secretory IgA-like antibodies. In vitro analysis of all of the antibody-producing seed extracts showed inhibition of bacterial binding to porcine gut villous enterocytes. However, in the piglet feed-challenge experiment, only the piglets receiving feed containing the VHH-IgA–based antibodies (dose 20 mg/d per pig) were protected. Piglets receiving the VHH-IgA–based antibodies in the feed showed a progressive decline in shedding of bacteria, significantly lower immune responses corroborating reduced exposure to the ETEC pathogen, and a significantly higher weight gain compared with the piglets receiving VHH-IgG producing (dose 80 mg/d per pig) or wild-type seeds. These results stress the importance of the antibody format in oral passive immunization and encourage future expression of these antibodies in crop seeds.
Combined optical and topographic imaging reveals different arrangements of human RAD54 with presynaptic and postsynaptic RAD51–DNA filaments
Authors: Sanchez Humberto , Kertokalio Aryandi , van Rossum-Fikkert Sari , Kanaar Roland , Wyman Claire
Published: June 2013

Essential genome transactions, such as homologous recombination, are achieved by concerted and dynamic interactions of multiple protein components with DNA. Which proteins do what and how, will be reflected in their relative arrangements. However, obtaining high-resolution structural information on the variable arrangements of these complex assemblies is a challenge. Here we demonstrate the versatility of a combined total internal reflection fluorescence and scanning force microscope (TIRF-SFM) to pinpoint fluorescently labeled human homologous recombination protein RAD54 interacting with presynaptic (ssDNA) and postsynaptic (dsDNA) human recombinase RAD51 nucleoprotein filaments. Labeled proteins were localized by superresolution imaging on complex structures in the SFM image with high spatial accuracy. We observed some RAD54 at RAD51 filament ends, as expected. More commonly, RAD54 interspersed along RAD51–DNA filaments. RAD54 promotes RAD51-mediated DNA strand exchange and has been described to both stabilize and destabilize RAD51–DNA filaments. The different architectural arrangements we observe for RAD54 with RAD51–DNA filaments may reflect the diverse roles of this protein in homologous recombination.
Structure of the C-terminal region of an ERG channel and functional implications
Authors: Brelidze Tinatin I. , Gianulis Elena C. , DiMaio Frank , Trudeau Matthew C. , Zagotta William N.
Published: June 2013

The human ether-à-go-go–related gene (hERG) encodes a K
+
channel crucial for repolarization of the cardiac action potential. EAG-related gene (ERG) channels contain a C-terminal cyclic nucleotide-binding homology domain coupled to the pore of the channel by a C-linker. Here, we report the structure of the C-linker/cyclic nucleotide-binding homology domain of a mosquito ERG channel at 2.5-Å resolution. The structure reveals that the region expected to form the cyclic nucleotide-binding pocket is negatively charged and is occupied by a short β-strand, referred to as the intrinsic ligand, explaining the lack of direct regulation of ERG channels by cyclic nucleotides. In hERG channels, the intrinsic ligand harbors hereditary mutations associated with long-QT syndrome (LQTS), a potentially lethal cardiac arrhythmia. Mutations in the intrinsic ligand affected hERG channel gating and LQTS mutations abolished hERG currents and altered trafficking of hERG channels, which explains the LQT phenotype. The structure also reveals a dramatically different conformation of the C-linker compared with the structures of the related ether-à-go-go–like K
+
and hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-modulated channels, suggesting that the C-linker region may be highly dynamic in the KCNH, hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-modulated, and cyclic nucleotide-gated channels.
Informalisation and the end of trade unionism as we knew it? Dissenting remarks from a Tanzanian case study
Authors: Rizzo Matteo
Published: June 2013

This paper analyses the political organisation by informal transport workers, and their partial achievements in claiming rights at work from employers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's largest city, from 1995 to the present. The paper takes issue with the influential view that, due to widespread economic informalisation, trade unionism and workplace labourism are no longer a viable option for defending workers' interests. From less despondent approaches to the possibilities for labour(ism), it borrows the insight that making sense of workers' unrest requires a political economy approach. This entails, first and foremost, locating workers within their economic structure, and understanding their relationship to capital. The paper thus starts by sketching out the state of public transport in Dar es Salaam, the predominant employment relationship in the sector, and the balance of power between bus owners and workers. It then analyses workers' organisation since 1997, workers' strategies to achieve (in conjunction with the Tanzania transport workers union) the formalisation of the employment relationship with bus owners, and their progress towards it. The conclusion reflects on the broader lessons that can be learned from this case study.

[Informalisation et fin du syndicalisme traditionnel? Réflexions dissidentes à partir d'une étude de cas en Tanzanie.] Cet article analyse l'organisation politique des travailleurs informels du secteur des transports, et les résultats de leurs revendications pour faire valoir leurs droits fondamentaux au travail auprès des employeurs à Dar es Salaam, première ville de Tanzanie, de 1995 à maintenant. L'article conteste l'opinion influente selon laquelle, en raison de la généralisation du travail informel économique, le syndicalisme et lelabourismou « travaillisme » sur le poste de travail ne sont plus une option viable pour défendre les intérêts des travailleurs. À partir d'approches moins pessimistes sur le potentiel du « travail(lisme) », l'article suit l'idée selon laquelle la compréhension des conflits sociaux nécessite une approche en terme d'économie politique. Ceci implique, avant toute chose, de placer les travailleurs au sein de leur structure économique, et comprendre leur relation au capital. L'article commence donc par esquisser l'état du transport public à Dar es Salaam, les relations d'emploi prédominantes dans le secteur, et le partage du pouvoir entre les propriétaires des bus et les travailleurs. L'article analyse ensuite l'organisation des travailleurs depuis 1997, les stratégies des travailleurs pour arriver (en conjonction avec le syndicat des travailleurs du transport de Tanzanie) à la formalisation des relations d'emploi avec les propriétaires des bus, et les progrès accomplis. La conclusion se penche sur les leçons plus larges pouvant être tirées de cette étude de cas.

Mots-clés: syndicats; économie informelle; droits du travail; transport urbain; gouvernance urbaine; Tanzanie
The rise and fall of trade unionism in Zimbabwe, Part I: 1990–1995
Authors: Yeros Paris
Published: June 2013

This article is the first of a two-part study on the evolution of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) in the 1990s. This first part covers the period 1990–1995, when the labour centre was in its most radical mode. This is demonstrated by tracing its interventions in the public debate, its mobilisation and democratisation campaign, and its escalating strike action. It is argued, however, that the weaknesses of the ZCTU, especially its lack of organic roots outside the formal sector and its dependence on foreign donors, set the stage for a significant change in its ideology and strategy.

[La montée et la chute du syndicalisme au Zimbabwe, Part I: 1990–1995.] Cet article est le premier d'une étude en deux parties sur l’évolution du Congrès des syndicats du Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, ZCTU) dans les années 90. La première partie couvre la période 1990–1995, époque à laquelle le mouvement des travailleurs était le plus radical. Les interventions de la ZCTU dans le débat public, ses campagnes de mobilisation et de démocratisation ainsi que ses actions de grève qui dégénéraient, nous montrent cette radicalité. Cependant, les faiblesses du ZCTU, en particulier son manque de liens en dehors du secteur formel et sa dépendance envers les bailleurs de fonds étrangers, ont été déterminant dans le changement significatif opéré par après dans son idéologie et sa stratégie.

Mots-clés : Afrique; Zimbabwe; relations de travail; syndicalisme; démocratisation; développement
The Ramanujan-Serre differential operators and certain elliptic curves
Authors: Kaneko Masanobu , Sakai Yuichi
Published: June 2013

For several congruence subgroups of low levels and their conjugates, we derive differential equations satisfied by the Eisenstein series of weight 4 and relate them to elliptic curves whose associated newforms of weight 2 constitute the list of Martin and Ono of newforms given by eta-products/quotients.
Importance of Location of Digestion and Colonic Fermentation of Starch Related to Its Quality
Authors: Lee Byung‐Hoo , Bello‐Pérez Luis Arturo , Lin Amy Hui‐Mei , Kim Choon Young , Hamaker Bruce R.
Published: June 2013

For decades, quality of starch‐based foods has been associated with the in vivo measured glycemic index or the in vitro digestion rate‐based categories of rapidly digestible, slowly digestible, and resistant starch (RS). Glycemic index has been related to health‐based endpoints mostly through correlative or observational studies, with mechanisms proposed but not well established. Here, we bring forth the concept of locational delivery of glucose from dietary starches to the distal small intestine to elicit an ileal brake effect, as well as short‐chain fatty acid production from RS fermentation to cause a colonic brake. Both effects slow gastric emptying and, in turn, extend nutrient (i.e., energy) delivery to the body and may decrease appetite and promote weight management. Slowly digestible starches are currently a popular topic of research, although where they are digested and the released glucose is delivered in the small intestine is not known. A proposal is to further study and establish this mechanism of appetite and food intake regulation so that starch‐based ingredients and foods can be developed that promote both the ileal and colonic brake mechanisms.
Bound to Succeed: Transcription Factor Binding-site Prediction and Its Contribution to Understanding Virulence and Environmental Adaptation in Bacterial Plant Pathogens
Authors: Saha Surya , Lindeberg Magdalen
Published: June 2013

Bacterial plant pathogens rely on a battalion of transcription factors to fine-tune their response to changing environmental conditions and to marshal the genetic resources required for successful pathogenesis. Prediction of transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) represents an important tool for elucidating regulatory networks and has been conducted in multiple genera of plant-pathogenic bacteria for the purpose of better understanding mechanisms of survival and pathogenesis. The major categories of TFBS that have been characterized are reviewed here, with emphasis on in silico methods used for site identification and challenges therein, their applicability to different types of sequence datasets, and insights into mechanisms of virulence and survival that have been gained through binding-site mapping. An improved strategy for establishing E-value cutoffs when using existing models to screen uncharacterized genomes is also discussed.
Effect of Gallotannins Derived from Sedum takesimense on Tomato Bacterial Wilt
Authors: Vu Thuy Thu , Kim Jin-Cheol , Choi Yong Ho , Choi Gyung Ja , Jang Kyoung Soo , Choi Tae Ho , Yoon Tae Mi , Lee Seon-Woo
Published: June 2013

In the process of searching antibacterial agents from plants, we discovered that the methanol extract of Sedum takesimense showed potent antibacterial activity against Ralstonia solanacearum in vitro and in vivo. Eight antibacterial gallotannins were isolated from the aerial parts of S. takesimense and identified as gallic acid, methyl gallate, 4,6-di-O-galloylarbutin, 2,6-di-O-galloylarbutin, 2,4,6-tri-O-galloyl-glucose, 1,3,4,6-tetra-O-galloyl-β-glucose, 1,2,4,6-tetra-O-galloyl-β-glucose, and 1,2,3,6-tetra-O-galloyl-β-glucose based on electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. These gallotannins displayed broad-spectrum activity against various plant-pathogenic bacteria, and the strongest in vitro antibacterial activities of these gallotannins were against R. solanacearum minimum inhibitory concentration = 0.02 to 0.10 g/liter). Among these gallotannins, methyl gallate and 1,2,3,6-tetra-O-galloyl-β-glucose showed the strongest activities. In addition, synergistic or partial synergistic effects were observed in most combinations between major antibacterial compounds. The wettable powder formulation of the S. takesimense crude extract effectively reduced the development of tomato bacterial wilt caused by R. solanacearum under greenhouse conditions for 14 days after infection. This is the first report on the isolation of antibacterial compounds from S. takesimense. These results suggest that the extract from S. takesimense or the isolated gallotannins could be used as natural bactericides for the control of tomato bacterial wilt.
Coping with the cold: predictors of survival in wild Barbary macaques,
Macaca sylvanus
Authors: McFarland Richard , Majolo Bonaventura
Published: June 2013

We report the death of 30 wild Barbary macaques, living in two groups, during an exceptionally cold and snowy winter in the Middle Atlas Mountains, Morocco. We examined whether an individual's time spent feeding, the quality and number of its social relationships, sex and rank predicted whether it survived the winter or not. The time an individual spent feeding and the number of social relationships that an individual had in the group were positive and significant predictors of survival. This is the first study to show that the degree of sociality affects an individual's chance of survival following extreme environmental conditions. Our findings support the view that sociality is directly related to an individual's fitness, and that factors promoting the establishment and maintenance of social relationships are favoured by natural selection.
Electrophoretic coating of amphiphilic chitosan colloids on regulating cellular behaviour
Authors: Wang Yen-Jen , Lo Teng-Yuan , Wu Chieh-Hsi , Liu Dean-Mo
Published: June 2013

In this communication, we report a facile nanotopographical control over a stainless steel surface via an electrophoretic deposition of colloidal amphiphilic chitosan for preferential growth, proliferation or migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Atomic force microscopy revealed that the colloidal surface exhibited a deposition time-dependent nanotopographical evolution, wherein two different nanotopographic textures indexed by ‘kurtosis’ (Rkur) value were easily designed, which were termed as ‘sharp’ (i.e. high peak-to-valley texture) surface and ‘flat’ (i.e. low peak-to-valley texture) surface. Cellular behaviour of VSMCs and HUVECs on both surfaces demonstrated topographically dependent morphogenesis, adherent responses and biochemical properties in comparison with bare stainless steel. The formation of a biofunctionalized surface upon a facile colloidal chitosan deposition envisions the potential application towards numerous biomedical devices, and this is especially promising for cardiovascular stents wherein a new surface with optimized texture can be designed and is expected to create an advantageous environment to stimulate HUVEC growth for improved healing performance.
Numerical metrics for automated quantification of interstitial cell of Cajal network structural properties
Authors: Gao Jerry , Du Peng , O'Grady Greg , Archer Rosalind , Farrugia Gianrico , Gibbons Simon J. , Cheng Leo K.
Published: June 2013

Depletion of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) networks is known to occur in several gastrointestinal motility disorders. Although confocal microscopy can effectively image and visualize the spatial distribution of ICC networks, current descriptors of ICC depletion are limited to cell numbers and volume computations. Spatial changes in ICC network structural properties have not been quantified. Given that ICC generate electrical signals, the organization of a network may also affect physiology. In this study, six numerical metrics were formulated to automatically determine complex ICC network structural properties from confocal images:
density
,
thickness
,
hole size
,
contact ratio
,
connectivity
and
anisotropy
. These metrics were validated and applied in proof-of-concept studies to quantitatively determine jejunal ICC network changes in mouse models with decreased (
5-HT

2
B

receptor knockout (KO)) and normal (
Ano1
KO) ICC numbers, and during post-natal network maturation. Results revealed a novel remodelling phenomenon occurring during ICC depletion, namely a spatial rearrangement of ICC and the preferential longitudinal alignment. In the post-natal networks, an apparent pruning of the ICC network was demonstrated. The metrics developed here enabled the first detailed quantitative analyses of structural changes that may occur in ICC networks during depletion and development.
Crystallographic orientation inhomogeneity and crystal splitting in biogenic calcite
Authors: Checa Antonio G. , Bonarski Jan T. , Willinger Marc G. , Faryna Marek , Berent Katarzyna , Kania Bogusz , González-Segura Alicia , Pina Carlos M. , Pospiech Jan , Morawiec Adam
Published: June 2013

The calcitic prismatic units forming the outer shell of the bivalve
Pinctada margaritifera
have been analysed using scanning electron microscopy–electron back-scatter diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. In the initial stages of growth, the individual prismatic units are single crystals. Their crystalline orientation is not consistent but rather changes gradually during growth. The gradients in crystallographic orientation occur mainly in a direction parallel to the long axis of the prism, i.e. perpendicular to the shell surface and do not show preferential tilting along any of the calcite lattice axes. At a certain growth stage, gradients begin to spread and diverge, implying that the prismatic units split into several crystalline domains. In this way, a branched crystal, in which the ends of the branches are independent crystalline domains, is formed. At the nanometre scale, the material is composed of slightly misoriented domains, which are separated by planes approximately perpendicular to the
c
-axis. Orientational gradients and splitting processes are described in biocrystals for the first time and are undoubtedly related to the high content of intracrystalline organic molecules, although the way in which these act to induce the observed crystalline patterns is a matter of future research.
Sharp inequalities that generalize the divergence theorem: an extension of the notion of quasi-convexity
Authors: Milton Graeme W.
Published: June 2013

Subject to suitable boundary conditions being imposed, sharp inequalities are obtained on integrals over a region
Ω
of certain special quadratic functions
f
(
E
), where
E
(
x
) derives from a potential
U
(
x
). With
E
=∇
U
, it is known that such sharp inequalities can be obtained when
f
(
E
) is a quasi-convex function and when
U
satisfies affine boundary conditions (i.e. for some matrix
D
,
U
=
D
x
on ∂
Ω
). Here, we allow for other boundary conditions and for fields
E
that involve derivatives of a variety orders of
U
. We define a notion of convexity that generalizes quasi-convexity.
Q
*-convex quadratic functions are introduced, characterized, and an algorithm is given for generating sharply
Q
*-convex functions. We emphasize that this also solves the outstanding problem of finding an algorithm for generating extremal quasi-convex quadratic functions. We also treat integrals over
Ω
of special quadratic functions
g
(
J
), where
J
(
x
) satisfies a differential constraint involving derivatives with, possibly, a variety of orders. The results generalize an example of Kang, and the author in three spatial dimensions where
J
(
x
) is a 3×3 matrix-valued field satisfying ∇⋅
J
=0.
The Laplace equation in the exterior of the Hankel contour and novel identities for hypergeometric functions
Authors: Fokas A. S. , Glasser M. L.
Published: June 2013

By using conformal mappings, it is possible to express the solution of certain boundary-value problems for the Laplace equation in terms of a single integral involving the given boundary data. We show that such explicit formulae can be used to obtain novel identity for special functions. A convenient tool for deriving this type of identity is the so-called
global relation
, which has appeared recently in a wide range of boundary-value problems. As a concrete application, we analyse the Neumann boundary-value problem for the Laplace equation in the exterior of the Hankel contour, which appears in the definition of both the gamma and the Riemann zeta functions. By using the explicit solution of this problem, we derive a number of novel identities involving the hypergeometric function. Also, we point out an interesting connection between the solution of the above Neumann boundary-value problem for a particular set of Neumann data and the Riemann hypothesis.