Real Master Research Articles

Expression Level of DREB Gene of Local Corn Cultivars from Kisar Island-Maluku, Indonesia, Using Quantitative Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction

The research objective was to determine the expression level of dehydration responsive element binding (DREB) gene of local corn cultivars from Kisar Island Maluku, Indonesia. The study was designed as randomized block design with single factor consist of six local corn cultivars obtained from farmers in Kisar Island and one reference varieties which has been released as a drought-tolerant varieties and obtained from Cereal Crops Research Institute Maros South Sulawesi. Isolation of total RNA from the second leaf after the flag leaf at the 65 days after planting were carried out according to the protocols of the R and ABlueTM Total RNA Extraction Kit, and was used as a template for cDNA synthesis. Amplification of cDNA from total RNA was carried out according to the protocol of One-Step Reverse Transcriptase PCR Premix Kit. Real Time-PCR was performed usingcDNA from reverse transcription following the procedures of Real MODTM Green Real-Time PCR Master Mix Kit. The real time-PCR data were analyzed using relative quantification method based on the critical point/cycle threshold. The highest DREB gene expression was showed by Deep Yellow local corn cultivar, and the lowest one was showed by Rubby Brown Cob cultivar. The DREB gene expression level of deep yellow local corn cultivar was even higher than Srikandi variety as a reference variety.

Grotowski e a Política

Resumo: Discute-se a relação entre arte e política na trajetória de Grotowski e seu Teatro Laboratório, expondo como suas ações artísticas estavam imbuídas de resistência política que, em muitos momentos, determinaram as decisões e o destino do grupo. Após um breve panorama do contexto sócio-político-econômico polonês, apresentam-se determinadas ações de Grotowski que estavam conjugadas com estratégias de sobrevivência perante o regime comunista polonês. Diante dos fatos apresentados, é possível afirmar que Grotowski foi um verdadeiro mestre no jogo político, ganhando uma série de batalhas que garantiram não só a existência de seu grupo como também a realização de experiências artísticas.

Between Job and Homo Sovieticus: Sergei Bondarchuk’s “Fate of a Man” as a masterpiece of propaganda cinema

The subject of this article is a famous Soviet war-film, Fate of a Man (1959), directed by Sergey Bondarchuk and based on the short-story written by the Nobel Price winner, Mikhail Sholokhov. The proposed analysis aims at uncovering an essential but hidden context of Bondarchuk’s vision of 20th century traumatic human experiences: the Old Testament Book of Job. Focused on the subtle meanings being created between gestures, words, sounds and pictures, the author tries to show the presence as well as the function of biblical images in this ‘most Soviet of the Soviet movies’. It would be useless to seek such dimensions in the literary version of the same story. Owing to his audiovisual sensibility, Bondarchuk turns out to be a real master of ‘soft’ adapting of the religious tradition to the needs of the new ideology.

Mlouma: to connect the agricultural products market players

Subject area Social entrepreneurship/social innovation. Study level/applicability This real case targets license and master’s students as part of an ongoing course on social entrepreneurship, social innovation, in one word, on entrepreneurship. Case overview Mlouma is a platform based on Web, SMS, USSD, mobile application and call center. This social enterprise keeps farmers in contact with food buyers by displaying real-time market prices and localizations. The service will improve the efficiency of the agriculture supply chain, helping farmers to get a better price for their product. By introducing information and communication technology, Mlouma provides innovative solutions to the market failure by creating more value for producers and consumers. Expected learning outcomes This case shows the importance of the entrepreneurial orientation of social enterprises to adapt to its context and discuss theory of social entrepreneurship. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

A 'Selfie' from Luxembourg: The Court of Justice and the Fabrication of the Pre-Accession Case-Law Dossiers

How does the European Court of Justice view itself? Which cases does it regard as most important? The question has riddled EU scholarship for decades. Due to a basic lack of empirical evidence, which is in part a consequence of secrecy surrounding the Court, no empirically firm answer has been provided. In this article we seek to close this gap in scholarship by using a unique data-set, compiled by the Court. We use a set of quantitative and qualitative methods to unpack the so-called historic case-law dossiers assembled by the Court, and presented to thirteen member states upon accessions in 2004, 2007 and 2013. We reconstruct the content of the selection as well as the rather specific legal EU that they project. From our empirical analysis, framed by social science theories on the relationship between knowledge and power, it follows that this was not a neutral compilation of what EU law is. On the contrary, the Court seized the opportunity to highlight its own role in the formation of the EU legal order. At the receiving end, the importance of the dossier was not in the detailed legal knowledge to facilitate the transition to the EU, but primarily the institutional knowledge on who were the real masters of the Treaties.

Towards global seismic monitoring of underground nuclear explosions using waveform cross correlation. Part I: Grand master events

Waveform cross correlation is an efficient tool for detection and characterization of seismic signals. For the purposes of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, cross correlation can globally reduce the threshold of detection by 0.3 to 0.4 magnitude units. However, the technique critically depends on the availability of master events. In Part I of this paper, we have demonstrated that in seismically active regions the best master events (grand-masters) replicated over a regular grid allow improving the efficiency of signal detection and event finding. In aseismic areas, there are two approaches to populate the global grid of master events for the International Monitoring System: the replication of grand-masters and calculation of synthetic seismograms for master-events in the global grid nodes. The efficiency of synthetic templates depends on the accuracy of shape and amplitude predictions controlled by focal depth and mechanism, source function, velocity structure and attenuation along the master/station path. Here we test three focal mechanisms (explosion, thrust fault, and actual Harvard CMT solution for one of the April 11, 2012 Sumatra aftershocks) and two velocity structures (ak135 and CRUST 2.0). Sixteen synthetic master events were distributed over a 1° × 1° grid covering the zone of aftershocks. We built five cross correlation standard event lists (XSEL) and compared detections and events with those built using the real and grand master events as well as with the Reviewed Events Bulletin of the International Data Centre. The XSELs were built using an explosion source and ak135 and the reverse fault with isotropic radiation pattern to demonstrate the performance similar to that of the real and grand masters. Here we have proved quantitatively that it is possible to cover all aseismic areas with synthetic masters without significant loss in seismic monitoring capabilities based on cross correlation.

Pathos versus Ideal in Classical Greek Sculpture and the Parian Output

The fourth century BC although coupled together with the fifth century under the term Classical, is both historically and artistically a different era. Especially in art, particularly the sculpture, new traits are seen already in the early years of the century tending to divert from the Classical harmonious forms and ideal faces of the 5th century. Intensity and vital feelings become now the main tendency expressed in body forms and faces of sculptured figures. This tendency, generally considered as first seen ca 380 BC in the Epidauros sculptures, becomes dominant around the middle of the century when the new style of expressing pathos is well established. The evident departure of the art in the 4th century BC from the Classical ideal and its turn to the expression of strong emotions seem to reflect new prevailing attitudes in the political and social life of the Greeks. The sculptor who is mainly associated with the new style and became its real master, is Skopas from the island of Paros, active between 370–330 BC, a close contemporary of Praxiteles of Athens. In the paper it is argued that Skopas’ prolific career and distinctive art began in Paros, where the origins of his style are to be found. To this end, certain sculptures from Paros preceding Skopas’ age are discussed suggesting that the beginnings of the new trend in sculpture of the 4th century BC should be rather placed in Paros of the early 5th century BC than in Epidauros of the 4th century as considered until today.

Lessons Learned from Thirteen Years of International Real Estate Study Abroad Programs hosted by Universities in the United States, The Netherlands, and Germany

Using data about a diverse set of course offerings from Real Estate Management master classes at the Technical University Berlin, New York University, the George Washington University, and the University of Amsterdam, we discuss the lessons learned from international real estate abroad programs organized by these universities in 2000–2013. The findings come from the participating students' responses to different surveys and the personal experiences of the authors. The programs are different in duration, learning intensity and content, as well as in education targets. We also discuss the risks and opportunities of this educational approach and the possible ways to improve these programs.

A (k,t,n) Verifiable Multi-secret Sharing Scheme Based on Adversary Structure

A (n,t, n) secret sharing scheme is to share a secret among n group members, where each member also plays a role of a dealer, and any t shares can be used to recover the secret. In this paper, we propose a strong (k,t, n) verifiable multi-secret sharing scheme, where any k out of n participants operate as dealers. The scheme realizes both threshold structure and adversary structure simultaneously, and removes a trusted third party. The secret reconstruction phase is performed using an additive homomorphism for decreasing the storage cost. Meanwhile, the scheme achieves the pre-verification property in the sense that any participant doesn’t need to reveal any information about real master shares in the verification phase. We compare our proposal with the previous (n,t, n) secret sharing schemes from the perspectives of what kinds of access structures they achieve, what kinds of functionalities they support and whether heavy storage cost for secret share is required. Then it shows that our scheme takes the following advantages: (a) realizing the adversary structure, (b) allowing any k out of n participants to operate as dealers, (c) small sized secret share. Moreover, our proposed scheme is a favorable candidate to be used in many applications, such as secure multi-party computation and privacy preserving data mining, etc.

The Practical Approach to Freeform Shape Elements Reverse Engineering

Element geometry can be restored with basic measurement techniques. However if the element geometry is too complex (free form surfaces), it is not possible to take all measurements in that way. Example presented in the paper is a drop forged element (car suspension link). In situation when spare element is out of reach (product withdraw from market, producer technological process tooling redesign), the element can be reproduced (singularly or in series, what depends on producer). Reconstructed element is slightly different from a master element (impossible existence of reliably identically designed and manufactured parts), because of measurement uncertainty. Another problem is that original element is usually worn out or during disassembly process can be damaged, so it has different geometry,(when worn out is not fitting to tolerances) than newly manufactured one. The practical approach for reverse engineering is based on: measurement uncertainty extrapolation, 3D part scanning, transformation of point cloud to solid model, composition examination of an alloy. The method is a complex solution that brings: geometrical description and material assignment and heat treatment. Important part of the method is typical measurement techniques. In cases when tolerances have to be preserved, additional tolerance assignment is needed according to linkage between redesigned part of element and parts of other elements in assembly. The insurance of measurement was checked according to typical tolerance of the drop forged element. The retrieved 3D model was compared with virtual mass to real master element mass. The technological tooling reconstructed prototype and element reconstructed prototype have been made. Finally the alloy material is assigned according to measurement result analysis (electron spectroscopy EDS). Proposed example shows many important clues that can be used in order to provide properly redesigned element.

A machine learning approach to create blocking criteria for record linkage.

Record linkage, a part of data cleaning, is recognized as one of most expensive steps in data warehousing. Most record linkage (RL) systems employ a strategy of using blocking filters to reduce the number of pairs to be matched. A blocking filter consists of a number of blocking criteria. Until recently, blocking criteria are selected manually by domain experts. This paper proposes a new method to automatically learn efficient blocking criteria for record linkage. Our method addresses the lack of sufficient labeled data for training. Unlike previous works, we do not consider a blocking filter in isolation but in the context of an accompanying matcher which is employed after the blocking filter. We show that given such a matcher, the labels (assigned to record pairs) that are relevant for learning are the labels assigned by the matcher (link/nonlink), not the labels assigned objectively (match/unmatch). This conclusion allows us to generate an unlimited amount of labeled data for training. We formulate the problem of learning a blocking filter as a Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) learning problem and use the Probably Approximately Correct (PAC) learning theory to guide the development of algorithm to search for blocking filters. We test the algorithm on a real patient master file of 2.18 million records. The experimental results show that compared with filters obtained by educated guess, the optimal learned filters have comparable recall but reduce throughput (runtime) by an order-of-magnitude factor.

Regenerative Re-use of the Informal City

The modern theme of vigorous urban transformation has been left behind by contemporary procedures linked to interstice methods and regenerative re-use. It appears appropriate to work on a hypothesis of renovation both of the favela buildings the hills are studded with and of the streets and public spaces that have no identification yet. This is the occasion to provide informal settlements with urban dignity granting them a tourist appeal, inevitably linked to the security issue, constantly threatened by unorganized crime and narco-traffic.In Florianópolis, the capital of the state of Southern Brazil Santa Catarina, projects of social housing for an elegant urban acquisition are not necessary; what is important is to work on infrastructural equipment, on natural nets, to bring them to light and enhance them as an instrument for development perspectives in a tourist key. Informal settlements are often in the landscape, hiding it: regeneration projects must reveal it in order to cure it, making of it the treasure of the city. The suggested tourism will never become voyeurism or safari of misery if a constant checking of community participation is the test paper for the success of the project.The project which starts in Italian and Brazilian projects, will be introduced to the involved community by means of artistic and handcraft installations, capable of making it easy to share, simulations with prototypes that can become a system: a canvas covering a public space, the bright color of a façade with the notes of a samba school imprinted, a self propelled urban garden made with wooden boxes.The perspective for the research is very interesting, providing for the enlargement of the graduate school Habitaçao e Cidade to the “Florianópolis case”. This school has developed in São Paulo by the Escola da Cidade, with the involvement of the technicians of the municipality. So it would become in a real international master, with a request for funding of European funds Erasmus Plus, that would allow the movement of Italian graduates ready to make an experience on the topic of “informal city” in Brazil.

An Official Image of the World for the Hispanic Monarchy

This paper discusses the Padrón Real (Royal Pattern Chart or master sea chart), an official class of maps of the world instituted by the Spanish monarchy and produced by Seville’s Casa de la Contratación (House of Trade) from 1508 onwards, in a political context dominated by the dispute between the two largest expansionist empires in Europe – Portugal and Castile – which was heightened following the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. The Padrón Real became a model for European cartographers and its history sheds light on the development of map-making practices at the Casa in the Crown’s attempt to regulate cosmography for its own political ends. The Padrón Real was unprecedented for its time and, together with the question of how to determine longitude, reflected what were the most important cartographic challenges facing the early modern world: how to represent a three-dimensional body – the globe – on a flat surface and how to provide reliable geographic maps when they were subject to constant revision.

Of Anxiety in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

This essay reads Shakespeare’s Macbeth in the light of anxiety by drawing on Heidegger’s idea of angst as opposed to furcht in Being and Time. By and large, the discussion is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the illumination of anxiety itself whereas the second part addresses anxiety in relation to hospitality. To be more specific, I argue that anxiety is an uncanny feeling of uneasiness mostly generated from an encounter with strangeness and that it escalates into the level of indefinity and uncontrollability beyond mood, thereby raising a phenomenological concern of Being. Macbeth’s interiority, especially after his encounter with the Witches, is a case in point. He feels strange about himself, which leads to the uncanny experience of blood and knocking sound after he assassinates Duncan. Consequently, everything that used to familiar to him becomes strange and he feels anxious about it. He is not even able to identify what causes his anxiety. He thinks that he can eliminate it once he kills Banquo and his son Fleance. But he is wrong about that because the more he kills, the more he feels anxious. He cannot do anything about his anxiety except that he takes it as his Being, as Heidegger ethically suggests, thereby liberating himself from it, paradoxically speaking. But he refuses to do so, which deepens his feelings of anxiety. For the second part of this essay, I claim that Macbeth’s anxiety problem can be addressed along with two hospitality(or hostility) scenes in the play. It is because the origin of anxiety feelings has something to do with a situation in which hosts meet guests both literally and symbolically. Hosts can experience an uncanny and uneasy feeling from their own place being taken by their guests. According to the law of hospitality, which Heidegger implies in the aforementioned book and which Shakespeare dramatizes in Duncan’s visit to Inverness, hosts ought to welcome guests as their real master, which of course may lead to uneasy feelings on the part of the former. This is precisely what Macbeth cannot take for granted. Rather, he takes the advantage of his guests by maximizing his position of host in order to place them under his control. Doing so, thinks he, would reduce his feelings of anxiety about uncontrollable guests. However, Macbeth’s anxiety increases against his will until he dies because all of his attempt to control guests fail, as best shown in the appearance of Banquo’s ghost in the banquet scene. Macbeth cannot control the unexpected guest in the first place because it is always already beyond his intelligibility. Nor can he define it in his own terms because its transcendence as the feelings of anxiety always already overflows him. Macbeth has no choice but to take it for granted in order to feel peaceful. He does so only on the threshold of his death.

On-line Calibration of Semiconductor Gas Sensors Based on Prediction Model

In this study, an Electronic nose (Enose) instrument used indoor for monitoring formaldehyde is designed. In mass production of this instrument, because of the inherent variability in the sensor manufacturing process, the Enose instruments give different outputs. It is impossible to train an individual prediction model on each instrument to have uniform output. A new on-line calibration method based on prediction model without real master instrument is proposed. This method avoids the problem that if the real master instrument behaves drift, the calibration of the other batch of instruments would lose its effect. In this paper, the prediction model is radial basis function (RBF) neural network and particle swarm optimization (PSO) is used to determine the parameters in RBF. The results show that the responses of the same type sensors are uniform after calibration, and this new method is easy and robust.

Sonic hedgehog maintains survival and growth of chronic myeloid leukemia progenitor cells through β-catenin signaling

Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling plays an important role in many human cancers and cancer stem cells. Here we investigate the activity and functional role of Shh signaling in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and leukemia progenitor cells. Differential activation of Shh signaling was found in about 50% CML chronic phase samples, about 70% of CML accelerated phase samples, and >80% CML blast crisis phase samples. Deregulated activation of Shh signaling was observed in CD34(+) and c-kit(+) leukemia progenitor cells. Stimulation of Shh signaling with exogenous Shh peptide induced expansion of CD34(+) and c-kit(+) progenitor cells (p < 0.05), inversely, blocking the pathway with signal inhibitor induced cell apoptosis (p < 0.05). Low level of Shh protein was observed in CML bone marrow stromal cells, and CD34(+) progenitor cells are less sensitive to exogenous Shh peptide and more sensitive to cyclopamine than CD34(-) cells (p < 0.05), implying cell-autonomous activation of Shh signaling play a predominant role in progenitor cells. Coactivation of Shh and β-catenin signaling was found in CD34(+) and c-kit(+) progenitor cells. Administration of Shh-neutralizing antibody or Wnt3a-neutralizing antibody in c-kit(+) progenitor cells induced cell apoptosis; however, Wnt3a peptide could salvage cell apoptosis, while Shh peptide failed to revert anti-Wnt3a-induced cell apoptosis. C-MYC, GLI1, BCL-2, and P21 were also found to be downstream targets of Shh signaling, mediating apoptosis or G(2)/M cell cycle arrest of progenitor cells. Our results demonstrate that autoactivated Shh signaling provides survival and proliferative cues in CML progenitor cells through downstream β-catenin signaling, suggesting a novel therapeutic approach in CML.

De treastfûgel by Hylke Speerstra

Garrett Hongo Coral Road Poems Knopf Relying on the history of his own family, Hongo’s third collection of poetry speaks to issues of immigration and the meaning of homeland. Each poem is set in Hawaii, where Hongo’s Japanese ancestors live on the margins of existence as minorities in a troubled era of history. Though each story simply represents a shard of experience, Hongo’s powerful compositions “bring forth a complete aesthetic experience.” Johan Harstad Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? Seven Stories Press Harstad’s Buzz Aldrin has already been published and marked as a best-seller in eleven countries. The protagonist, a thirtysomething Norwegian gardener named Mattias, holds Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, as his ultimate idol. After finding himself abandoned in the middle of a rain-soaked highway in the Faroe Islands, Mattias embarks on a journey that will show him that sometimes traveling through the space of relationships is a journey similar to landing on the moon. Nota Bene Sorokin is a real master of painting the different scenes, from dark and frightening to satiric and comic, as when Komiaga is called upon to be one of the censors at the general rehearsal for an upcoming festive concert in the great Kremlin hall. The resemblance to Soviet-style pumped-up patriotism and propaganda is striking. One might be tempted to brush away this uncomfortable vision as too dark and improbable in the global, interconnected world. But careful reading of the news from Russia can give us pause. And the power grab of elites, who live in a world closed to the hoi polloi and indulge in its privileges , is most certainly not confined to Russia. Michaela Burilkovova Gainesville, Florida Hylke Speerstra. De treastfûgel. Gorredijk, Netherlands. Bornmeer. 2011. isbn 9789056152703 Hylke Speerstra, like the journalist that he was for much of his life, knows how to sniff out a good story. He has done so again and again in tales of hardy folk who left the familiarity of the homeland behind for a hoped-for better life on distant shores (Cruel Paradise, 2005), or of semi-isolated folk, by choice, who survived floods, fire, crops failure, and epidemics (De oerpolder, 2009; see WLT, December 2007, 71). And now he has found another winner in De treastfûgel (The bird that comforts). This is the story of two families and their descendants who in the 1800s start out in the same small village of Hichtum, Friesland, then find themselves nearly a century later not only on two different continents but, shockingly, on two opposing sides in World War II. The families are bonded by a common metaphor: the figure of the “treastfûgel,” introduced early in the book when Meindert Boorsma , the bird lover, tells young Ytsje Wytsma: “In every flight of migrating birds another kind of bird flies along to lend comfort, for they have a long and difficult journey ahead of them.” For Ytsje, in her long and difficult life that ended as a migrating widow in disaster-plagued South Dakota, her treastfûgel was her faith. For Meindert Boorsma’s grandson (his namesake), as an unwilling German SS soldier struggling desperately for survival in the disastrous siege of Leningrad and subsequent retreat, his treastfûgel was his father’s bird whistle that doubled as a guardian angel. Ytsje Wytsma-Namminga long nurtured what she perceived as a divine mandate: to immigrate to America. In the early 1900s she, with her descendants, set out for South Dakota, where floods, disease, fatal accidents, drought, and the Great Depression made life more cruel than kind. Sometime after Ytsje’s death in 1934, her son and family moved to Wisconsin for a brighter future. It is there that Ytsje’s grandson Nanno is drafted into the army, takes part in the hell of World War II’s D-Day and every major battle after that, then in the “liberation” of Germany, including a concentration camp, inexplicably living through it all without incurring a scratch. Though the reader knows that sometimes fact is stranger than fiction, there is nonetheless some incredulity when the diverse paths of Meindert Boorsma and Nanno Namminga...

Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin

hope (she will go out and make friends) and depression (she totally avoids her neighbors), Mathea’s approach to life is schizophrenic. Oddly, this characterization seems natural. Will she find a way out of the darkness? Or will she slip further into irredeemable melancholy? As a tragicomic novel, The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am invites reflection : What is it, exactly, that determineswhetherornotwearetrulyalive ? Mathea is sad because, like so many lonely people, she cannot find validation . Fortunately for her—and for the rest of us—Kjersti Skomsvold’s novel may provide the corroboration we seek. Shaun Randol New York Vladimir Sorokin. Day of the Oprichnik . Jamey Gambrell, tr. New York. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2011. isbn 9780374134754 We jump some two decades ahead: high tech, 3-d virtual-reality communications , a ten-lane road and four high-speed rail tracks underground connecting Guangzhou to Paris through Russia to support the dominant Chinese manufacturing exports. We are safely in the future, or are we? Russia is again ruled by a tsar, the country is surrounded by walls to the south and the west, the Orthodox Church has fully restored its influence , and most Russians have burned their foreign passports in fires lasting for months on the Red Square. Actually , the walls of the Kremlin are painted white again as in old times, reflecting more closely the original meaning of the name: the “Beautiful Square.” This is the fiction for a not too distant future by Vladimir Sorokin, author of many novels, short stories, and plays. Born in 1955, he lives in Moscow and has won the People’s Booker and Andrei Bely prizes. He started as a dissident and has blossomed in post-Soviet times. Day of the Oprichnik describes a day in the life of Andrei Danilovich Komiaga, one of the elite members of the Oprichnina, an Inquisitiontype order brought to life to punish the enemies of the state. The original Oprichniks were the dreaded, pitiless guards of Ivan the Terrible, and their black clothes and horses created fear whenever they showed up. Komiaga will race in his Chinese-made Mercedov car in the special lane reserved for the privileged, while the plebeians are stuck in Moscow traffic; suppress unruly boyars (members of the aristocracy ), rape, censor, do shady deals both for the benefit of the order and for the entertainment of the top brass, drink and indulge in potent and exquisite drugs, all the while convinced that he is a true defender of the pure Orthodox faith and the Russian king. 66 | World Literature Today wltreviews Garrett Hongo Coral Road Poems Knopf Relying on the history of his own family, Hongo’s third collection of poetry speaks to issues of immigration and the meaning of homeland. Each poem is set in Hawaii, where Hongo’s Japanese ancestors live on the margins of existence as minorities in a troubled era of history. Though each story simply represents a shard of experience, Hongo’s powerful compositions “bring forth a complete aesthetic experience.” Johan Harstad Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? Seven Stories Press Harstad’s Buzz Aldrin has already been published and marked as a best-seller in eleven countries. The protagonist, a thirtysomething Norwegian gardener named Mattias, holds Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, as his ultimate idol. After finding himself abandoned in the middle of a rain-soaked highway in the Faroe Islands, Mattias embarks on a journey that will show him that sometimes traveling through the space of relationships is a journey similar to landing on the moon. Nota Bene Sorokin is a real master of painting the different scenes, from dark and frightening to satiric and comic, as when Komiaga is called upon to be one of the censors at the general rehearsal for an upcoming festive concert in the great Kremlin hall. The resemblance to Soviet-style pumped-up patriotism and propaganda is striking. One might be tempted to brush away this uncomfortable vision as too dark and improbable in the global, interconnected world. But careful reading of the news from Russia can give us pause. And the power grab of elites, who live in a world closed to the...

Simvastatin Prevents Skeletal Metastasis of Breast Cancer by an Antagonistic Interplay between p53 and CD44

Substantial data from clinical trials and epidemiological studies show promising results for use of statins in many cancers, including mammary carcinoma. Breast tumor primarily metastasizes to bone to form osteolytic lesions, causing severe pain and pathological fracture. Here, we report that simvastatin acts as an inhibitor of osteolysis in a mouse model of breast cancer skeletal metastasis of human mammary cancer cell MDA-MB-231, which expresses the mutant p53R280K. Simvastatin and lovastatin attenuated migration and invasion of MDA-MB-231 and BT-20 breast tumor cells in culture. Acquisition of phenotype to express the cancer stem cell marker, CD44, leads to invasive potential of the tumor cells. Interestingly, statins significantly decreased the expression of CD44 protein via a transcriptional mechanism. shRNA-mediated down-regulation of CD44 markedly reduced the migration and invasion of breast cancer cells in culture. We identified that in the MDA-MB-231 cells, simvastatin elevated the levels of mutated p53R280K, which was remarkably active as a transcription factor. shRNA-derived inhibition of mutant p53R280K augmented the expression of CD44, leading to increased migration and invasion. Finally, we demonstrate an inverse correlation between expression of p53 and CD44 in the tumors of mice that received simvastatin. Our results reveal a unique function of statins, which foster enhanced expression of mutant p53R280K to prevent breast cancer cell metastasis to bone.

Telemanipulation without Physical Contact in the Intelligent Space

This paper presents a telemanipulation system, where the operator's movement is transmitted to the slave site not in a mechanical way, as in case of a real master device, but by image processing. The virtual master device uses cameras as sensors, subtracts the background from the images, and recognizes the skin colour of the operator in real time. The 3D position of the operator's hand is determined by stereo vision and it becomes traceable by the colour of the skin.