Current management options for liposarcoma and challenges for the future

Liposarcoma (LS) represents one of the most common soft tissue sarcomas. There are three major subtypes, namely, well/dedifferentiated, myxoid/round cell and pleomorphic LS. In general, LS is known to be a relatively chemo-resistant sarcoma subtype with the exception of the myxoid variant. Conventional chemotherapy with doxorubicin and ifosfamide represents the mainstay of systemic treatment in the first line. Other active cytotoxic agents include gemcitabine and docetaxel and the marine-derived compounds trabectedin. Recent progress in molecular diagnostics of each single LS subtype has improved the knowledge of the molecular characteristics and has led to two recent treatment targets: the amplification of mouse double minute 2 homolog and cyclin-dependent kinase-4 in well- and dedifferentiated LS. Thus far, only early-phase trials are reported and no new drugs have been introduced in daily clinical practice. The focus of this review is on current systemic treatment options, including novel strategies.

The growth challenge for Europe and the EMU. CHALLENGE EUROPE Issue 22- Challenges and new beginnings: Priorities for the EU's new leadership, September 2014.

The European economy is slowly and painfully striving to reemerge from the last six years of crisis. It was a crisis of enormous intensity and contagiousness, given the unprecedented depth of global financial integration combined with the systemic flaws in the EMU architecture. And it is not over, as the high levels of unemployment and the growing divergence between Member States testify. The threat of fragmentation is imminent as ever: fragmentation between euro-ins and euro-outs; fragmentation between North and South; fragmentation within societies, with increasing income inequality and a growing number of, what used to be, the middle class population slipping through the social safety net and below poverty lines. Policies of front-loaded fiscal consolidation have left welfare states in economically weaker countries severely underfunded. According to OECD data, the number of people living in households without any income from work has doubled in Greece, Ireland and Spain, and has risen by 20% or more in Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, and Slovenia. Fertility rates have dropped further since the crisis, deepening the demographic and fiscal challenges of ageing. There are long-term implications from these deteriorating trends, regarding people's long-term health, education and upward mobility from low-income families. It is also highly likely that many of the people unemployed for a long period of time will never again be able to gain proper access to the job market and build a normal career track. The enduring effects of the crisis risk creating vicious cycles of low growth, high debt levels, austerity, declining productivity, and stagnation. These developments carry heavy implications for the future growth prospects of the European economies, for future prosperity, and for the sustainability of pension systems and welfare states. They must be urgently reversed.

Whose revolution? A study of the future course of liberalism in the United States,

Two revolutions, by Hans Kohn.--The technology of democracy, by A.M. Bingham.--Communism and the American intellectuals, by Granville Hicks.--When liberalism went totalitarian, by Eugene Lyons.--Faith and the future, by Malcolm Cowley.--Lieralism and the united front, by R.N. Baldwin.--Is democracy possible? By James Burnham.--The U.S. and the U.S.S.R., by B.D. Wolfe.--The need still is: a new special order, by Lewis Corey.--Towards a tolerable society, by John Chamberlain.--The contributors.

Biomass fuelled combined heat and power:situation in the UK and the Netherlands

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is the simultaneous generation of usable heat and power in a single process. Despite its obvious advantages in terms of increased efficiency when compared to a single heat or power generation unit, there are a number of technical and economic reasons that have limited their selection. Biomass resources can be, and actually are used as fuel in CHP installations; however several hurdles have to be sorted beforehand, among the most important is the fact that biomass energy sources are not as energy intense as conventional CHP fuels. The ultimate outcome is a limited number of CHP units making use of biomass as fuel. Even fewer CHP units use bioliquids (e.g.: fast pyrolysis biomass liquids, biodiesel and vegetable oil). The Bioliquid-CHP project is carried out by a consortium of seven European and Russian complementary partners, funded by the EU and by the Federal Agency for Science and Innovation of the Russian Federation. The project aim is to develop microturbine and internal combustion engine adaptations in order to adjust these prime movers to bioliquids for CHP applications. This paper will show a summary of the current biomass CHP installations in the UK and the Netherlands, making reference to number of units, capacity, fuel used, the conversion technology involved and the preferred prime movers. The information will give an insight of the current market, with probable future trends and areas where growth could be expected. A similar paper describing the biomass CHP situation in Italy and Russia will be prepared in the near future.

Black churchgoers, environmental activism, and the preservation of nature in Miami, Florida

The goal of this project was to explore activism, attitudes, and imagery connecting Black churchgoers in Miami, Florida and the natural environment. The research approach was qualitative, began as exploratory research, and used the techniques of snowball sampling, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews. Three case studies representing various socio-economic levels, denominations, participant education levels, and environmental facets were chosen for in-depth ethnographic research. There are three major findings in the research. First, there is a link between the preservation of Black history and the preservation of the environment among Black churchgoers, who feel strong connections to a sense of place, rural life, and the past. However their work is strongly directed to bring about benefits for people and the environment in the present and the future. Second, public access to public lands is a basic and important right espoused by these Black churchgoing activists. Third, the vocabulary used by Black churchgoing activists regarding the natural environment differs from today's “mainstream” environmentalists. The concept of “beauty” is pivotal to Black appreciation of and activism toward the environment and is reminiscent of the early environmental protection movement in the United States and conservationists such as John Muir. These findings concerning how Black spirituality relates to the environment adds to the sparse literature on the subject, and provides for potential linkages between Blacks and “mainstream” environmental groups to benefit both parties. An understanding of the connections between Black spirituality and perceptions of the environment should facilitate the development of better programs to improve and protect the environment. Environmental projects may also address the social and economic needs of Black communities, churches, and congregations, as well as the ecosystem. ^

Phosphorus Biogeochemistry and the Impact of Phosphorus Enrichment: Why Is the Everglades so Unique?

The Florida Everglades is extremely oligotrophic and sensitive to small increases in phosphorus (P) concentrations. P enrichment is one of the dominant anthropogenic impacts on the ecosystem and is therefore a main focus of restoration efforts. In this review, we synthesize research on P biogeochemistry and the impact of P enrichment on ecosystem structure and function in the Florida Everglades. There are clear patterns of increased P concentrations and altered structure and processes along nutrient-enrichment gradients in the water, periphyton, soils, macrophytes, and consumers. Periphyton, an assemblage of algae, bacteria, and associated microfauna, is abundant and has a large influence on phosphorus cycling in the Everglades. The oligotrophic Everglades is P-starved, has lower P concentrations and higher nitrogen–phosphorus (N:P) ratios, and has oxidized to only slightly reduced soil profiles compared to other freshwater wetland ecosystems. Possible general causes and indications of P limitation in the Everglades and other wetlands include geology, hydrology, and dominance of oxidative microbial nutrient cycling. The Everglades may be unique with respect to P biogeochemistry because of the multiple causes of P limitation and the resulting high degree of limitation.

Two Decades Out of the Whirlpool: Past (and Possible Future) United States Interventions in Latin America [Student's Paper Series]

This paper examines the history of U.S. interventions in Latin America and attempts to explain their frequency by highlighting two factors – besides security and economic interests – that have made American interventions in Latin America so common. First, immense differences in size and influence between the United States and the States of Latin America have made interventions appear to be a low risk solution to crises that threaten American interests in the region. Second, when U.S government concerns and aspirations for Latin America converge with the general fears and aspirations of American foreign policy, interventions become much more likely. Such a convergence pushes Latin American issues high up the U.S. foreign policy agenda because of the region’s proximity to the United States and the perception that costs of intervening are low. The leads proponents of intervention to begin asking questions like “if we cannot stop communism/revolutions/drug-trafficking in Latin America, where can we stop it?” This article traces how these factors influenced the decision to intervene in Latin America during the era of Dollar Diplomacy and during the Cold War. It concludes with three possible scenarios that could lead to a reemergence of an American interventionist policy in Latin America. It makes the argument that even though the United Sates has not intervened in Latin America during the twenty-two years, it is far from clear that American interventions in Latin America will be consigned to the past.

Back to the future: Warlpiri encounters with drawings, country and others in the digital age

Since the early 1900s, Warlpiri people living in the central desert region of Australia have experienced an intense process of adaption to the changing circumstances of postcolonial life. From the earliest days, their encounters with kardiya, non-Aboriginal people, have been mediated by diverse visual technologies that have, over time, become integral to the ways Warlpiri orient themselves to each other and their wider world. In this paper I trace the key elements of the complex visual environment that has emerged from this history of mediation. The central part of the paper considers events around the repatriation to Warlpiri communities in 2011 of a collection of drawings made in the 1950s by their forebears.In responses to a medium that once was new but now is old, several points of interest emerge, among them a clear sense of a hierarchy of value Warlpiri apply to modes of visual communication. In the context of the return of the drawings, the significance Warlpiri ascribe to other visual media comes to the fore. I consider some of the ways visual forms are deployed in support of public projections of cultural identity on the one hand and everyday modes of expression and address on the other. The paper’s central argument is that contemporary Warlpiri attitudes to images – whether they be drawn, painted or broadcast – reveal the complex postcolonial workings of mimetic desire.

Turning conflict into coexistence: cross-cutting ties and institutions in the agro-pastoral borderlands of Lake Naivasha basin, Kenya

The Maasai/Kikuyu agro-pastoral borderlands of Maiella and Enoosupukia, located in the hinterlands of Lake Naivasha’s agro-industrial hub, are particularly notorious in the history of ethnicised violence in the Kenya’s Rift Valley. In October 1993, an organised assault perpetrated by hundreds of Maasai vigilantes, with the assistance of game wardens and administration police, killed more than 20 farmers of Kikuyu descent. Consequently, thousands of migrant farmers were violently evicted from Enoosupukia at the instigation of leading local politicians. Nowadays, however, intercommunity relations are surprisingly peaceful and the cooperative use of natural resources is the rule rather than the exception. There seems to be a form of reorganization. Violence seems to be contained and the local economy has since recovered. This does not mean that there is no conflict, but people seem to have the facility to solve them peacefully. How did formerly violent conflicts develop into peaceful relations? How did competition turn into cooperation, facilitating changing land use? This dissertation explores the value of cross-cutting ties and local institutions in peaceful relationships and the non-violent resolution of conflicts across previously violently contested community boundaries. It mainly relies on ethnographic data collected between 2014 and 2015. The discussion therefore builds on several theoretical approaches in anthropology and the social sciences – that is, violent conflicts, cross-cutting ties and conflicting loyalties, joking relationships, peace and nonviolence, and institutions, in order to understand shared spaces that are experiencing fairly rapid social and economic changes, and characterised by conflict and coexistence. In the researched communities, cross-cutting ties and the split allegiances associated with them result from intermarriages, land transactions, trade, and friendship. By institutions, I refer to local peace committees, an attempt to standardise an aspect of customary law, and Nyumba Kumi, a strategy of anchoring community policing at the household level. In 2010, the state “implanted” these grassroots-level institutions and conferred on them the rights to handle specific conflicts and to prevent crime. I argue that the studied groups utilise diverse networks of relationships as adaptive responses to landlessness, poverty, and socio-political dynamics at the local level. Material and non-material exchanges and transfers accompany these social and economic ties and networks. In addition to being instrumental in nurturing a cohesive social fabric, I argue that such alliances could be thought of as strategies of appropriation of resources in the frontiers – areas that are considered to have immense agricultural potential and to be conducive to economic enterprise. Consequently, these areas are continuously changed and shaped through immigration, population growth, and agricultural intensification. However, cross-cutting ties and intergroup alliances may not necessarily prevent the occurrence or escalation of conflicts. Nevertheless, disputes and conflicts, which form part of the social order in the studied area, create the opportunities for locally contextualised systems of peace and non-violence that inculcate the values of cooperation, coexistence, and restraint from violence. Although the neo-traditional institutions (local peace committees and Nyumba Kumi) face massive complexities and lack the capacity to handle serious conflicts, their application of informal constraints in dispute resolution provides room for some optimism. Notably, the formation of ties and alliances between the studied groups, and the use of local norms and values to resolve disputes, are not new phenomena – they are reminiscent of historical patterns. Their persistence, particularly in the context of Kenya, indicates a form of historical continuity, which remains rather “undisturbed” despite the prevalence of ethnicised political economies. Indeed, the formation of alliances, which are driven by mutual pursuit of commodities (livestock, rental land, and agricultural produce), markets, and diversification, tends to override other identities. While the major thrust of social science literature in East Africa has focused on the search for root causes of violence, very little has been said about the conditions and practices of cooperation and non-violent conflict resolution. In addition, situations where prior violence turned into peaceful interaction have attracted little attention, though the analysis of such transitional phases holds the promise of contributing to applicable knowledge on conflict resolution. This study is part of a larger multidisciplinary project, “Resilience in East African Landscapes” (REAL), which is a Marie Curie Actions Innovative Training Networks (ITN) project. The principal focus of this multidisciplinary project is to study past, present, and future thresholds and sustainable trajectories in human-landscape interactions in East Africa over the last millennia. While other individual projects focus on long-term ecosystem dynamics and societal interactions, my project examines human-landscape interactions in the present and the very recent past (i.e. the period in which events and processes were witnessed or can still be recalled by today’s population). The transition from conflict to coexistence and from competition to cooperative use of previously violently contested land resources is understood here as enhancing adaptation in the face of social-political, economic, environmental, and climatic changes. This dissertation is therefore a contribution to new modes of resilience in human-landscape interactions after a collapse situation.

Automated code checking

Most buildings constructed in Australia must comply with the Building Code of Australia (BCA). Checking for compliance against the BCA is a major task for both designers and building surveyors. This project carries out a prototype research using the EDM Model Checker and the SMC Model Checker for automated design checking against the Building Codes of Australia for use in professional practice. In this project, we develop a means of encoding design requirements and domain specific knowledge for building codes and investigate the flexibility of building models to contain design information. After assessing two implementations of EDM and SMC that check compliance against deemed-to-satisfy provision of building codes relevant to access by people with disabilities, an approach to automated code checking using a shared object-oriented database is established. This project can be applied in other potential areas – including checking a building design for non-compliance of many types of design requirements. Recommendations for future development and use in other potential areas in construction industries are discussed