Heritage, crisis, and community crime prevention in Nepal

Following Nepal's 2015 earthquake there was speculation that sacred art would be looted from the ruins of severely damaged temples due to breakdown in formal security. Although pillage did not immediately occur, the months following the earthquake have seen the theft of sacred heritage items. As Nepali sacred art remains under threat of theft, we explore the processes by which government intervention can be destructive of the community dynamic that maintains local crime prevention on an informal and unofficial level. Can situational crime prevention measures when imposed in a top-down fashion upon communities by state actors be corrosive of collective efficacy, and therefore ultimately self-defeating in crime prevention terms? The case of post-quake Nepal seems to suggest that the answer to this question is, in some circumstances, yes

Fair assignment of indivisible objects under ordinal preferences

We consider the discrete assignment problem in which agents express ordinal preferences over objects and these objects are allocated to the agents in a fair manner. We use the stochastic dominance relation between fractional or randomized allocations to systematically define varying notions of proportionality and envy-freeness for discrete assignments. The computational complexity of checking whether a fair assignment exists is studied for these fairness notions. We also characterize the conditions under which a fair assignment is guaranteed to exist. For a number of fairness concepts, polynomial-time algorithms are presented to check whether a fair assignment exists. Our algorithmic results also extend to the case of unequal entitlements of agents. Our NP-hardness result, which holds for several variants of envy-freeness, answers an open question posed by Bouveret, Endriss, and Lang (ECAI 2010). We also propose fairness concepts that always suggest a non-empty set of assignments with meaningful fairness properties. Among these concepts, optimal proportionality and optimal weak proportionality appear to be desirable fairness concepts.Comment: extended version of a paper presented at AAMAS 201

Identifying innovative and effective practice in e-assessment: findings from seventeen UK case studies

The aim of this JISC funded project was to extend the understanding of what e-assessment meant to users and producers in the HE and FE sectors. A case study methodology was employed to identify and report upon best and current practice within this field of inquiry. This approach facilitated the identification of both the enabling factors and barriers associated with e-assessment. The variety of applications of e-assessment studied and their innovation and general effectiveness indicate the potential of e-assessment to significantly enhance the learning environment and the outcomes for students, in a wide range of disciplines and applications

Equilibria Under the Probabilistic Serial Rule

The probabilistic serial (PS) rule is a prominent randomized rule for assigning indivisible goods to agents. Although it is well known for its good fairness and welfare properties, it is not strategyproof. In view of this, we address several fundamental questions regarding equilibria under PS. Firstly, we show that Nash deviations under the PS rule can cycle. Despite the possibilities of cycles, we prove that a pure Nash equilibrium is guaranteed to exist under the PS rule. We then show that verifying whether a given profile is a pure Nash equilibrium is coNP-complete, and computing a pure Nash equilibrium is NP-hard. For two agents, we present a linear-time algorithm to compute a pure Nash equilibrium which yields the same assignment as the truthful profile. Finally, we conduct experiments to evaluate the quality of the equilibria that exist under the PS rule, finding that the vast majority of pure Nash equilibria yield social welfare that is at least that of the truthful profile.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1401.6523, this paper supersedes the equilibria section in our previous report arXiv:1401.652

Is there a direct role for erythrocytes in the immune response?

Erythrocytes are highly abundant circulating cells in the vertebrates, which, with the notable exception of mammals, remain nucleated throughout the entire life cycle. The major function associated with these cells is respiratory gas exchange however other functions including interaction with the immune system have been attributed to these cells. Many viral, prokaryotic and eukaryotic pathogens directly target this cell type and across the vertebrate group a significant number of related pathologies have been reported. Across the primary literature mechanisms of interaction, invasion and replication between viruses and erythrocytes have been well described however the functional response of the erythrocyte has been poorly studied. A fragmented series of reports spanning the vertebrates suggests that these cells are capable of functional responses to viral infection. In contrast, in-depth proteomic studies using human erythrocytes have strongly progressed throughout the past decade providing a rich source of information related to protein expression and potential function. Furthermore information at the gene expression level is becoming available. Here we provide a review of erythrocyte-pathogen interactions, erythrocyte functions in immunity and propose in light of recent -omics research that the nucleated erythrocytes may have a direct role in the immune response

Complexity of Manipulating Sequential Allocation

Sequential allocation is a simple allocation mechanism in which agents are given pre-specified turns and each agents gets the most preferred item that is still available. It has long been known that sequential allocation is not strategyproof. Bouveret and Lang (2014) presented a polynomial-time algorithm to compute a best response of an agent with respect to additively separable utilities and claimed that (1) their algorithm correctly finds a best response, and (2) each best response results in the same allocation for the manipulator. We show that both claims are false via an example. We then show that in fact the problem of computing a best response is NP-complete. On the other hand, the insights and results of Bouveret and Lang (2014) for the case of two agents still hold

Cortisol: funcions i importància del receptor glucocorticoide : una visió comparada

Les hormones corticoesteroides són essencials per a la regulació d'una gran varietat de processos fisiològics. El cortisol és el principal corticoesteroide en peixos teleostis, amb funcions glucocorticoides i mineralocorticoides. És el principal indicador de la resposta a l'estrès, i la principal hormona en el control de l'osmorregulació en peixos, especialment per a l'adaptació a l'aigua marina. També intervé en la regulació de la resposta inflamatòria inhibint la producció de citocines després d'una infecció experimental per l'endotoxina dels bacteris gramnegatius o LPS. Una infecció experimental per LPS desencadena una reacció immunitària innata que activa una resposta inflamatòria. Les citocines produïdes en resposta a aquesta infecció activen l'eix hipotalàmic-pituïtari-interrenal (HPI) mitjançant l'activació de l'hormona adrenocorticotropa (ACTH) i l'alliberació de cortisol. També, els efectes de les hormones corticoesteroides estan regulats a través de receptors intracell. ulars específics que actuen com a factors de transcripció dependents del lligand i activen diferents gens implicats en la resposta a l'estrès. Aquests receptors són el receptor de tipus i o receptor mineralocorticoide (MR) i el receptor de tipus ii o receptor glucocorticoide (GR). Per tant, la comunicació neuroimmunoendocrina en els vertebrats és crucial per a mantenir l'homeòstasi i el receptor de cortisol hi té un paper clau.Corticosteroid hormones are essential for the regulation of a wide variety of physiological processes. Cortisol is the most important corticoesteroid in teleost fish, with glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid functions. It is the principal indicator of stress response, and it is the main hormone in osmoregulation in fish, especially in seawater adaptation. It also participates in the regulation of the inflammatory response inhibiting the production of cytokines after an immune challenge by the endotoxin of gramnegative bacteria or LPS. An experimental infection by LPS unleash an innate immune reaction that activates an inflamatory response. The cytokines produced in response to exposure to LPS are also involved in the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal axis (HPI) through the activation of the adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH) and the cortisol release. On the other hand, the effects of corticosteroid hormones are mediated through intracellular receptors that act as ligand-dependant transcription factors and activate different genes involve in the stress response. These receptors are the receptor type I or mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and the receptor type II or glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Therefore, the neuro-immune-endocrine comunication in vertebrates is crucial to maintain the homeostasis and the cortisol receptor plays a key role