Conceptualizing al-Qaeda and US Grand Strategy

The US debate about the nature of al-Qaeda and the associated threat does not occur in a political or ideological vacuum. In fact, given its on-going political salience, questions such as what al-Qaeda is, how it can be conceptualized and defeated provide a large number of access points for those trying to shape broader US policies and underlying discourses. In the context of Middle East politics, for example, the perception of an on-going terrorist threat allowed some to argue for US policies that take into account Palestinian demands, whilst others stressed the need to uphold a close relationship with the Israeli government and to vigorously pursue the ‘national interest’.1 More recently, the answer to the question of whether al-Qaeda can still be thought of as having a coherent core or whether it simply serves as a brand for essentially local, bottom-up radicalization processes has direct implications for the question of whether the US-led military presence in Afghanistan and the aggressive pursuit of the Taliban should be at the heart of US counterterrorism efforts. Ultimately, the US debate about al-Qaeda is inextricably linked to specific ontologies of international politics and long-held convictions about the global role which the United States should and can play. That is why the present analysis follows in the footsteps of those who have called for closer attention to be paid to individual perceptions and convictions as the intervening variable between international incentives and policy outcomes

Parabolic oblique derivative problem in generalized Morrey spaces

We study the regularity of the solutions of the oblique derivative problem for linear uniformly parabolic equations with VMO coefficients. We show that if the right-hand side of the parabolic equation belongs to certain generalized Morrey space than the strong solution belongs to the corresponding generalized Sobolev-Morrey space

Microlenses immersed in nematic liquid crystal with electrically controllable focal length

A microlens immersed in a nematic liquid crystal cell has been constructed with avariable focal length which can be controlled by applying an analogue voltage to thenematic liquid crystal. The focal length is -910 ± 30 ? m with no electric field appliedand with an applied field the focal length can be varied from 380 ± 50 to 560 ± 20 ? malthough at present the lens performance is limited by aberrations. A microlens immersed in a nematic liquid crystal cell has been constructed with avariable focal length which can be controlled by applying an analogue voltage to thenematic liquid crystal. The focal length is -910 ± 30 ? m with no electric field appliedand with an applied field the focal length can be varied from 380 ± 50 to 560 ± 20 ? malthough at present the lens performance is limited by aberrations. 12 May 199

Continuous growth of proximal tubular kidney epithelial cells in hormone-supplemented serum-free medium.

An epithelial cell line from pig kidney (LLC-PK1) with properties of proximal tubular cells can be maintained indefinitely in hormone-supplemented serum-free medium. Continuous growth requires the presence of seven factors: transferrin, insulin, selenium, hydrocortisone, triiodothyronine, vasopressin, and cholesterol. The hormone-defined medium (a) supports growth of LLC-PK1 cells at a rate of approaching that observed in serum-supplemented medium; (b) allows vectorial transepithelial salt and fluid transport as measured by hemicyst formation; and (c) influences cell morphology. The vasopressin dependency for growth and morphology can be partially replaced by isobutylmethylxanthine or dibutyryl cyclic AMP. The medium has been used to isolate rabbit proximal tubular kidney epithelial cells free of fibroblasts

A mixed integer quadratic programming formulation for the economic dispatch of generators with prohibited operating zones

In this paper, an optimisation-based approach is proposed using a mixed integer quadratic programming model for the economic dispatch of electrical power generators with prohibited zones of operation. The main advantage of the proposed approach is its capability to solve case studies from the literature to global optimality quickly and without any targeting of solution procedures. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Election results and opportunistic policies: A new test of the rational political business cycle model

The literature on the rational political business cycle suggests that politicians systematically manipulate economic and fiscal conditions before elections to increase their chance of gaining reelection. Most tests of this theory look for evidence of pre- election distortions in fiscal policy. We propose a new test that, instead, explores the implied two-way interaction between the magnitude of the opportunistic distortion and the margin of victory. The test is implemented using a panel of 278 Portuguese municipalities (from 1979 to 2005). The results show that (1) opportunism pays off, leading to a larger win-margin for the incumbent; (2) incumbents behave more opportunistically when their win-margin is small. These results are consistent with the theoretical model

Cell division in Bacillus subtilis : new insights from an old mutant

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Science.In bacteria, cell division is mediated by a macromolecular complex consisting of numerous proteins that act together to split the cell into two. The earliest event in this process is the formation of a polymeric ring, composed of the tubulin-like protein FtsZ, at the future site of division. This so-called ‘Z ring’ plays a pivotal role in the cell division mechanism, at least in part because it serves as a scaffold for the assembly of the division apparatus. Importantly, Z ring formation establishes both when and where the cell will divide, and is therefore subject to stringent spatiotemporal control. This thesis is concerned with the molecular mechanism of Z ring assembly and its regulation in the gram-positive model organism Bacillus subtilis. It involves the use of powerful fluorescence microscopy techniques in combination with molecular biological and genetic methods to examine the specific effects of a temperature sensitive FtsZ mutation on Z ring formation in vivo. The B. subtilis strain harbouring this mutation is known as tsl, while the mutant protein itself has been designated FtsZ(Tsl). Initial experiments examined the intracellular localisation pattern of the FtsZ(Tsl) protein in live cells growing at 49°C (the non-permissive temperature for tsl). This work revealed that while FtsZ(Tsl) is unable to form Z rings under non-permissive conditions, it retains the capacity to polymerise in vivo and instead assembles into short helical-like structures. Interestingly, these helices were observed to reorganise into fully functional Z rings following a shift from 49°C down to permissive temperatures. These and other observations suggest an exciting new model for Z ring assembly in wild-type bacterial cells, involving a regulated helix-to-ring remodelling of FtsZ polymers. The work also suggests that at non- permissive temperatures, the FtsZ(Tsl) protein is unable to complete the final stages of this remodelling process, and becomes trapped as a short helical intermediate of Z ring formation in vivo. To explore how the FtsZ helix-to-ring assembly mechanism is orchestrated within the cell, further experiments aimed to identify exactly why FtsZ(Tsl) is unable to complete this process at 49°C. During this work, it was discovered that in the presence of elevated levels of the FtsZ-binding protein ZapA, FtsZ(Tsl) regains the capacity to form functional Z rings at 49°C via the normal assembly pathway. The ZapA protein has previously been shown to promote Z ring assembly in the cell, and to stimulate the association of simple FtsZ polymers (protofilaments) into higher-order polymeric structures in vitro. These and other results suggest that FtsZ(Tsl) is specifically defective in its ability to support higher-order polymer association in vivo under non-permissive conditions. This enables FtsZ(Tsl) to polymerise into a helix, while preventing the helix from undergoing the structural changes required for it to reorganise into a stable ring. These findings have important implications regarding the molecular mechanism of the FtsZ helix-to-ring transition in wild-type cells. Other work presented in this thesis involved a genetic screen for extragenic suppressors of tsl thermosensitivity. Using insertional mutagenesis, a total of four unique genes were identified that rescue tsl to temperature resistance when inactivated. Given that the tsl strain is specifically defective in FtsZ function, and taking into account other findings in the literature, this strongly suggests that these genes act in some capacity to control FtsZ activity in vivo. Further characterisation of the gene products promises to uncover novel insights into the regulation of Z ring assembly in bacteria

Anatomy of a gamechanger : BBC Radio 4’s Life and Fate

Before the broadcast of a series of radio plays on BBC’s Radio 4 in September 2011, few people in the UK would have heard of Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate. The ubiquity of the Radio 4 adaptations in 2011 meant that not only did many more people know the book by name at least, but perhaps they were among the millions who downloaded the plays from iTunes. There were many elements to Life and Fate as a production that were unique, including its structure, the role of star casting within its production, its approach to adaptation, and its approach to genre-within-marketing. This paper explores the progression within BBC Radio 4’s drama department in the context of Life and Fate. As BBC radio drama evolves to respond to its audience(s), what kind of audience did it seek to reach with Life and Fate and how successful was it in doing so