Naresuan University Journal
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The world-wide web of humanitarianism: non-governmental organisations and crises of population displacement in the third quarter of the twentieth century
No full textNon-state organisations were important actors in the international refugee regime after World War 2. This article traces connections between refugee crises and geo-politics by focusing on the interaction of three NGOs with the new Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the 1950s. One non-state actor, the World Council of Churches (WCC), highlighted the suffering of German expellees as illustrating the limitations of the refugee regime. The second non-state organisation, Jami’at al’ Islam (JAI), asserted its right to represent all Muslim refugees in Europe. Along with its anti-communist stance it adopted an anti-colonial rhetoric and denounced the limitations of UNHCR’s mandate, but it was later exposed as a front for the CIA. The third organisation, Comité Inter-Mouvements Auprès des Evacués (CIMADE), formed in 1939 to help French Jews escape deportation during the Vichy era, subsequently aided Algerians who suffered persecution by the French authorities. Like WCC, this began a long ‘career’ in humanitarianism. In its dealings with these NGOs, UNHCR trod cautiously, because it was constrained by its mandate and the governments that contributed to its budget. Each example demonstrates the challenges of ‘non-political’ efforts to offer humanitarian assistance to refugees and the limits to the autonomy of non-state organisations
Syria: The challenges of parenting children in refugee situations of immediate displacement.
No full textBackground: The way parents care for children during displacement plays a key role in their emotional and behavioural outcomes. Sparse literature exists regarding the parenting challenges faced by families fleeing conflict in transitional, preresettlement stages. This study aimed to identify the parenting experiences of Syrian families living in refugee camps, focusing on understanding how their parenting had changed and the impact this had on their parenting.Method: Interviews and focus groups were conducted with 27 mothers living in refugee contexts, plus two interviews with professional aid workers. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.Results: Data were structured in three themes; 1) environmental challenges; 2) child specific challenges, such as an increase in negative behaviours and emotions and symptoms of trauma; 3) parent specific challenges, including maladaptive parenting techniques and emotional difficulties. Parents reported how these challenges impacted on their perceived ability to support their children. Conclusion: Parents struggled physically and emotionally to support their children. There are clear ways such challenges could be addressed by parenting interventions to reduce the trauma impact experienced by children, the challenges they are living with and will face in the future. This study is important for policy and humanitarian organisations working in preresettlement contexts.<br/
Identifying a novel locus for Psoriatic Arthritis
No full textA number of studies have identified genetic risk loci for PsA, the majority of which also confer risk for psoriasis. The stronger heritability of PsA in comparison with psoriasis suggests that there should be risk loci that are specific for PsA. Identifying such loci could potentially inform therapy development to provide more effective treatments for PsA patients, especially with a considerable proportion being non-responsive to current therapies. Evidence of a PsA-specific locus has been previously found at HLA-B27 within the MHC region. A recent study has provided evidence of non-HLA risk loci that are specific for PsA at IL23R, PTPN22 and on chromosome 5q31. Functional characterization of these loci will provide further understanding of the pathways underlying PsA, and enable us to apply genetic findings for patient benefit
On the Energy Efficiency-Spectral Efficiency Trade-Off in MIMO-OFDMA Broadcast Channels
No full textThis paper investigates the fundamental energy efficiency-spectral efficiency (EE-SE) relationship in a multipleinput multiple-output (MIMO)- orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) broadcast channel (BC) with a practical power model considering the power consumption due to the number of admitted users as well as the number of active transmit antennas. However, with this power model, the EESE trade-off optimization problem which jointly optimizes the transmit covariance matrices whilst determining the optimal admitted user set and active transmit antenna set is non-convex, and hence it is extremely difficult to solve directly. As a result, we propose an algorithm that decouples the multi-carrier EE optimization problem to a set of single-carrier EE optimization problems. For the single-carrier EE optimization problem, we first investigate the EE-SE trade-off problem with fixed admitted user set and transmit antenna set. Under this setup, we prove that the EE-SE relationship is a quasiconcave function. Furthermore, EE is proved to be either strictly decreasing with SE or first strictly increasing and then strictly decreasing with SE. Based on these findings, we propose a two-layer resource allocation algorithm in order to tackle the comprehensive EE-SE trade-off problem. Meanwhile, since admitting more users and activating more transmit antennas can achieve higher sum-rate but at the cost of larger transmit-independent power consumption, there exists a trade-off between the sum-rate gain and the power consumption. We therefore study the user and antenna selection approach to further explore the optimal trade-off. Both the optimal exhaustive search and the Frobenius norm based dynamic selection schemes are developed to further improve the achievable EE. To further reduce the computational complexity, a strategy that chooses a fixed admitted user set for all the subcarriers is developed. Simulation results confirm the theoretical findings and demonstrate- that the proposed resource allocation algorithm can efficiently approach the optimal EE-SE trade-off
Influence of riboflavin on the reduction of radionuclides by Shewanella oneidenis MR-1
No full textUranium (as UO2(2+)), technetium (as TcO4(-)) and neptunium (as NpO2(+)) are highly mobile radionuclides that can be reduced enzymatically by a range of anaerobic and facultatively anaerobic microorganisms, including Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, to poorly soluble species. The redox chemistry of Pu is more complicated, but the dominant oxidation state in most environments is highly insoluble Pu(iv), which can be reduced to Pu(iii) which has a potentially increased solubility which could enhance migration of Pu in the environment. Recently it was shown that flavins (riboflavin and flavin mononucleotide (FMN)) secreted by Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 can act as electron shuttles, promoting anoxic growth coupled to the accelerated reduction of poorly-crystalline Fe(iii) oxides. Here, we studied the role of riboflavin in mediating the reduction of radionuclides in cultures of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. Our results demonstrate that the addition of 10 μM riboflavin enhances the reduction rate of Tc(vii) to Tc(iv), Pu(iv) to Pu(iii) and to a lesser extent, Np(v) to Np(iv), but has no significant influence on the reduction rate of U(vi) by Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. Thus riboflavin can act as an extracellular electron shuttle to enhance rates of Tc(vii), Np(v) and Pu(iv) reduction, and may therefore play a role in controlling the oxidation state of key redox active actinides and fission products in natural and engineered environments. These results also suggest that the addition of riboflavin could be used to accelerate the bioremediation of radionuclide-contaminated environments
Constraints on non-Standard Model Higgs boson interactions in an effective Lagrangian using differential cross sections measured in the H→γγ decay channel at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector
No full textThe strength and tensor structure of the Higgs boson's interactions are investigated within an effective field theory framework, which allows new CP-even and CP-odd interactions that can lead to changes in the kinematic properties of the Higgs boson and associated jet spectra. The parameters of the effective field theory are probed using a fit to five differential cross sections previously measured by the ATLAS experiment in the \$H {\textbackslash}rightarrow {\textbackslash}gamma{\textbackslash}gamma\$ decay channel with an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb\${\textasciicircum}\{-1\}\$ at \${\textbackslash}sqrt\{s\}=8\$ TeV. In order to perform a simultaneous fit to the five distributions, the statistical correlations between them are determined by re-analysing the \$H {\textbackslash}rightarrow {\textbackslash}gamma{\textbackslash}gamma\$ candidate events in the proton-proton collision data. No significant deviations from the Standard Model are observed and limits on the effective field theory parameters are derived. The statistical correlations are made publicly available to allow for future analysis of theories with non-Standard Model interactions
Summer temperature can predict the distribution of wild yeast populations
No full textThe wine yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is the best understood microbial eukaryote at the molecular and cellular level, yet its natural geographic distribution is unknown. Here we report the results of a field survey for S. cerevisiae, S. paradoxus and other budding yeast on oak trees in Europe. We show that yeast species differ in their geographic distributions, and investigated which ecological variables can predict the isolation rate of S. paradoxus, the most abundant species. We find a positive association between trunk girth and S. paradoxus abundance suggesting that older trees harbor more yeast. S. paradoxus isolation frequency is also associated with summer temperature, showing highest isolation rates at intermediate temperatures. Using our statistical model, we estimated a range of summer temperatures at which we expect high S. paradoxus isolation rates, and show that the geographic distribution predicted by this optimum temperature range is consistent with the worldwide distribution of sites where S. paradoxus has been isolated. Using laboratory estimates of optimal growth temperatures for S. cerevisiae relative to S. paradoxus, we also estimated an optimum range of summer temperatures for S. cerevisiae. The geographic distribution of these optimum temperatures is consistent with the locations where wild S. cerevisiae have been reported, and can explain why only human-associated S. cerevisiae strains are isolated at northernmost latitudes. Our results provide a starting point for targeted isolation of S. cerevisiae from natural habitats, which could lead to a better understanding of climate associations and natural history in this important model microbe