Fading Colors of the Tibetan Prayer Flag

2014 was a Horse Year. Such a year, occurring every twelve years in Tibetan calendar, is considered the best time for a pilgrimage, particularly to sacred mountains. In the region of Golok, the most prominent of them is Amnye Machen (A myes rma chen). It takes about one week to perform circumambulation of Amnye Machen in the usual way: on foot. But in 2014, a new possibility opened: to perform the pilgrimage by car. This paper describes the experiences of a car pilgrimage around Amnye Machen which the author performed in 2014. It shows how different the new pilgrimage route is from the one followed by non-motorized pilgrims and how different experiences it brings. It also describes the landscape affected by the establishment of Mt. Amyesrmachen National Geological Park in the area of Amnye Machen and construction works connected to it

Disappearing Sheep: The Unexpected Consequences of the Emergence of the Caterpillar Fungus Economy in Golok, Qinghai, China

In 1999 China launched its Open Up the West campaign which was designed to change the economic face of the country’s Western regions. Left behind in the economic progress the country’s East had made since Deng Xiaoping’s reforms the West was defined in Chinese official and academic discourse as a case of chronic underdevelopment: technologically backward, lacking infrastructure and education, with its inhabitants’ living standards much below the average. The reasons for this situation were identified, and a cure prescribed: the Open Up the West campaign with the state’s intensive investments in the region was to lift it to a higher level of development. Apart from the state investments coming with this new campaign some regions of the West were fortunate enough to have another stimulus for changing the economic fate and raising the standard of life of their inhabitants. The Caterpillar fungus trade which gained a rather unexpected importance in the last decade turned out to be a hen laying golden eggs for Tibetans living in pastoral areas of West China. Importance of the caterpillar fungus income manifested both in the local economy and social life has been commented upon by a number of authors within and outside China. However, on the level of every-day functioning of Tibetan households in the areas blessed with this new ‘cash fungus’ this importance remains surprisingly understudied. This paper brings the discussion about the caterpillar fungus boom to the level of household economies to show how is its impact felt on this grassroots level. It is based on an anthropological fieldwork (which is proposed to lead to a Ph.D. degree) conducted by the author since 2007. The case study area is located in Golok Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province, in a township whose fame for the quality and abundance of the caterpillar fungus resources stretches far beyond the prefecture’s borders attracting numbers of gatherers from all over the province. Gathering and sale of the fungus, as well as leasing the land use rights to gatherers, bring for the local nomadic pastoralists an income of unprecedented size, unmatched by anything else available to the rural population of Golok. Data gathered in a household survey will be used in this paper to discuss several issues. The paper will start with analyzing the households’ budgets and comparing the scale of the caterpillar fungus related earnings to income from other sources. The households’ investments will be discussed, and the families’ material possessions contrasted with the data available from other Tibetan rural areas, which did not at the time or do not have access to the fungus. The paper will show how the availability of this new source of income changes the local nomadic pastoralists’ ways of managing livestock production which, prior to the boom, was the main fuel for their households’ budgets. Different decisions made regarding yak and sheep production will be shown on examples of gathered statistical data and put in a context of the pastoralists’ own cultural and economic rationale. Moving beyond the commonplace statements of the importance caterpillar fungus has for the local economy this paper brings detailed data on developments in a pastoral region which for long featured in the official statistics in the tail of the country’s economic indexes. Although in the last decade state investments have been influential in changing the economy of the area the changes discussed in this paper have been possible due to the emergence of the new caterpillar fungus-related economy rather than done with the centrally assigned assets. This paper brings comparative data for studying economic performance and social change throughout pastoral and, wider, rural Tibet in the first decade of the Open Up the West campaign

Trapped ion mobility spectrometry and PASEF enable in-depth lipidomics from minimal sample amounts

A comprehensive characterization of the lipidome from limited starting material remains very challenging. Here we report a high-sensitivity lipidomics workflow based on nanoflow liquid chromatography and trapped ion mobility spectrometry (TIMS). Taking advantage of parallel accumulation-serial fragmentation (PASEF), we fragment on average 15 precursors in each of 100 ms TIMS scans, while maintaining the full mobility resolution of co-eluting isomers. The acquisition speed of over 100 Hz allows us to obtain MS/MS spectra of the vast majority of isotope patterns. Analyzing 1 mu L of human plasma, PASEF increases the number of identified lipids more than three times over standard TIMS-MS/MS, achieving attomole sensitivity. Building on high intra- and inter-laboratory precision and accuracy of TIMS collisional cross sections (CCS), we compile 1856 lipid CCS values from plasma, liver and cancer cells. Our study establishes PASEF in lipid analysis and paves the way for sensitive, ion mobility-enhanced lipidomics in four dimensions

Role of Epigenetic Modification and Immunomodulation in a Murine Prostate Cancer Model

INTRODUCTION. Decreased expression of highly immunogenic cancer-testis antigens (CTA) might help tumor to achieve low immunogenicity, escape immune surveillance and grow unimpeded. Our aim was to evaluate CTA expression in tumor and normal tissues and to investigate possible means of improving the immune response in a murine prostate cancer (CaP) model by using the combination of epigenetic modifier 5-azacitidine (5-AzaC) and immunomodulator lenalidomide. No study to date has examined the effect of this combination on the prostate cancer or its impact on antigen-presenting cells (APC). MATERIALS AND METHODS. Gene microarrays were performed to compare expression of several CTA in murine prostate cancer (RM-1 cells) and normal prostate. RM-1 cells were treated with 5-AzaC and real-time PCR was performed to investigate the expression of several CTA. Western blotting was used to determine whether expression of CTA-specific mRNA induced by 5-AzaC resulted in increase in the corresponding protein. Effect of the epigenetic agents and immunomodulators was assessed on dendritic cells (DC) using flow cytometry, ELISA and T-cell proliferation assay. RESULTS. Gene arrays demonstrated decreased expression of 35 CTA in CaP tissue compared to normal prostate. 5-AzaC treatment of RM-1 prostate cancer cells upregulated the expression of all 13 CTA tested in a dose-dependent fashion. DC were treated with 5-AzaC and lenalidomide and the expression of surface markers MHC Class I, MHC Class II, CD80, CD86, CD 205, and CD40 was increased. Combination of 5-AzaC and lenalidomide enhances the ability of DC to stimulate T-cell proliferation in mixed leukocyte reaction. Secretion of IL-12 and IL-15 by DC increased significantly with addition of 5-AzaC or 5-AzaC and lenalidomide. CONCLUSIONS. Decreased expression of CTA by prostate cancer may be a means of escaping immune monitoring. Combination of epigenetic modifications and immunomodulation by 5-AzaC and lenalidomide increased tumor immunogenicity and enhanced DC function and may be used in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer

The LHC Beam Pipe Waveguide Mode Reflectometer

The waveguide-mode reflectometer for obstacle detection in the LHC beam pipe has been intensively used for more than 18 months. The âﾜAssemblyâ version is based on the synthetic pulse method using a modern vector network analyzer. It has mode selective excitation couplers for the first TE and TM mode and uses a specially developed waveguide mode dispersion compensation algorithm with external software. In addition there is a similar âﾜIn Situâ version of the reflectometer which uses permanently installed microwave couplers at the end of each of the nearly 3 km long LHC arcs. During installation a considerable number of unexpected objects have been found in the beam pipes and subsequently removed. Operational statistics and lessons learned are presented and the overall performance is discussed

Operational experience with the LHC waveguide mode reflectometer

The LHC microwave mode reflectometer (assembly version) reached operational status by the autumn of 2005. It is now routinely used in the LHC tunnel and on the surface to take data on the beam screens of the individual LHC magnets and also groups of magnets with lengths up to 100 meters. The reflectometer operates in the frequency range from about 4 GHz to 10 GHz and employs mode selective launchers. This paper discusses the operational aspects of the system as well as methods for clutter (fake reflection) elimination and procedures for cross-checks in case of a suspected obstacle or other faul

Peptide functionalized superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles as MRI contrast agents

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) attracts great attention in cellular and molecular imaging due to its non-invasive and multidimensional tomographic capabilities. Development of new contrast agents is necessary to enhance the MRI signal in tissues of interest. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) are used as contrast agents for signal enhancement as they have revealed extraordinary magnetic properties at the nanometre size and their toxicity level is very low compared to other commercial contrast agents. In this study, we developed a new method to functionalize the surface of SPIONs. Peptide amphiphile molecules are used to coat SPIONs non-covalently to provide water solubility and to enhance biocompatibility. Superparamagnetic properties of the peptide-SPION complexes and their ability as contrast agents are demonstrated. In vitro cell culture experiments reveal that the peptide-SPION complexes are biocompatible and are localized around the cells due to their peptide coating

Community Care and the Care Programme Approach: Confusion between two distinct assessment processes

R (on the application of HP and KP) v London Borough of Islington [2004] EWHC 7 (Admin).Queens Bench Division, Administrative Court (8th January 2004) Mr. Justice Munby.