Toward Comprehensive Refugee Legislation in Hong Kong? Reflections on Reform of the 'Torture Screening' Procedures

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Marine Archeological Survey of the Proposed Bolivar Ferry Dredge Spoil Pile Expansion Area, Galveston County, Texas

Archeologists from AmaTerra Environmental, Inc. (AmaTerra) and Southeastern Archaeological Research, Inc. (SEARCH; collectively the Team) conducted intensive underwater archeological remote sensing survey on behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) on a proposed dredge spoil expansion area south of the Bolivar Peninsula at the mouth of Galveston Bay, Galveston County, Texas. The survey was required for compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, due to dredge permits to be issued by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Antiquities Code of Texas, due to its location on lands owned by a political subdivision of the State of Texas (the Texas General Land Office). Completed under Antiquities Permit 6272, the survey area includes the 51-acre dredge spoil expansion footprint and the original 16-acre dredge spoil pile (67 acres total). The archeologists utilized towed marine magnetometer and side-scan sonar survey along 12 parallel, 20-meter-interval transects to assess the full archeological Area of Potential Effects. The survey area was found to be littered with isolated modern metallic debris. Side-scan sonar imagery revealed a submerged surface that was generally flat with no indications of shipwrecks and a large oyster reef along the southwestern quarter. One large metallic feature located within the survey area (Anomaly M1) was identified as a fallen modern navigational sighting marker tower. None of the archeological survey data, sensor readings, or imagery from the proposed expansion area is consistent with expected signatures of historic-age shipwrecks. Archeologists did re-identify the previously-documented magnetic anomaly M44 that was recommended for avoidance or testing within the original dredge pile area. If the avoidance zone continues to be observed, it will not be impacted by the current undertaking. As such, the project is recommended to proceed with no Historic Properties, State Archeological Landmarks, or archeological sites impacted in accordance with guidelines outlined in 36 CFR 800 and 13 TAC 26. No sites were identified and no artifacts were collected during the course of the survey. Accordingly, all project-generated notes, forms, and other materials will be permanently curated at AmaTerra’s office in Austin, Texas and SEARCH’s office in Pensacola, Florida

A logic-based diagram of signalling pathways central to macrophage activation.

BACKGROUND: The complex yet flexible cellular response to pathogens is orchestrated by the interaction of multiple signalling and metabolic pathways. The molecular regulation of this response has been studied in great detail but comprehensive and unambiguous diagrams describing these events are generally unavailable. Four key signalling cascades triggered early-on in the innate immune response are the toll-like receptor, interferon, NF-kappaB and apoptotic pathways, which co-operate to defend cells against a given pathogen. However, these pathways are commonly viewed as separate entities rather than an integrated network of molecular interactions. RESULTS: Here we describe the construction of a logically represented pathway diagram which attempts to integrate these four pathways central to innate immunity using a modified version of the Edinburgh Pathway Notation. The pathway map is available in a number of electronic formats and editing is supported by yEd graph editor software. CONCLUSION: The map presents a powerful visual aid for interpreting the available pathway interaction knowledge and underscores the valuable contribution well constructed pathway diagrams make to communicating large amounts of molecular interaction data. Furthermore, we discuss issues with the limitations and scalability of pathways presented in this fashion, explore options for automated layout of large pathway networks and demonstrate how such maps can aid the interpretation of functional studies

Transfer of K-types on local theta lifts of characters and unitary lowest weight modules

In this paper we study representations of the indefinite orthogonal group O(n,m) which are local theta lifts of one dimensional characters or unitary lowest weight modules of the double covers of the symplectic groups. We apply the transfer of K-types on these representations of O(n,m), and we study their effects on the dual pair correspondences. These results provide examples that the theta lifting is compatible with the transfer of K-types. Finally we will use these results to study subquotients of some cohomologically induced modules

RNAcentral: A vision for an international database of RNA sequences

During the last decade there has been a great increase in the number of noncoding RNA genes identified, including new classes such as microRNAs and piRNAs. There is also a large growth in the amount of experimental characterization of these RNA components. Despite this growth in information, it is still difficult for researchers to access RNA data, because key data resources for noncoding RNAs have not yet been created. The most pressing omission is the lack of a comprehensive RNA sequence database, much like UniProt, which provides a comprehensive set of protein knowledge. In this article we propose the creation of a new open public resource that we term RNAcentral, which will contain a comprehensive collection of RNA sequences and fill an important gap in the provision of biomedical databases. We envision RNA researchers from all over the world joining a federated RNAcentral network, contributing specialized knowledge and databases. RNAcentral would centralize key data that are currently held across a variety of databases, allowing researchers instant access to a single, unified resource. This resource would facilitate the next generation of RNA research and help drive further discoveries, including those that improve food production and human and animal health. We encourage additional RNA database resources and research groups to join this effort. We aim to obtain international network funding to further this endeavor

Chromosomal-level assembly of the Asian Seabass genome using long sequence reads and multi-layered scaffolding

We report here the ~670 Mb genome assembly of the Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer), a tropical marine teleost. We used long-read sequencing augmented by transcriptomics, optical and genetic mapping along with shared synteny from closely related fish species to derive a chromosome-level assembly with a contig N50 size over 1 Mb and scaffold N50 size over 25 Mb that span ~90% of the genome. The population structure of L. calcarifer species complex was analyzed by re-sequencing 61 individuals representing various regions across the species' native range. SNP analyses identified high levels of genetic diversity and confirmed earlier indications of a population stratification comprising three clades with signs of admixture apparent in the South-East Asian population. The quality of the Asian seabass genome assembly far exceeds that of any other fish species, and will serve as a new standard for fish genomics

Superconvergant interpolants for the collocation solution of boundary value ordinary differential equations

Publisher's version/PDFA long-standing open question associated with the use of collocation methods for boundary value ordinary differential equations is concerned with the development of a high order continuous solution approximation to augment the high order discrete solution approximation, obtained at the mesh points which subdivide the problem interval. It is well known that the use of collocation at Gauss points leads to solution approximations at the mesh points for which the global error is O(h[superscript 2k]), where k is the number of collocation points used per subinterval and h is the subinterval size. This discrete solution is said to be superconvergent. The collocation solution also yields a C[superscript 0] continuous solution approximation that has a global error of O(h[supercript k+1]). In this paper, we show how to efficiently augment the superconvergent discrete collocation solution to obtain C[superscript 1] continuous "superconvergent" interpolants whose global errors are O(h[superscript 2k]). The key ideas are to use the theoretical framework of continuous Runge-Kutta schemes and to augment the collocation solution with inexpensive monoimplicit Runge-Kutta stages. Specific schemes are derived for k = 1, 2, 3, and 4. Numerical results are provided to support the theoretical analysis