Birds of a Feather Protest Together: Theorizing Self-Organizing Political Protests with Flock Theory

The current research theorizes decentralized and self-organized political protests via flock theory (Rosen 2002), a theory of emergent self-organization in communicative human interaction. Flock theory draws from a theoretical basis of emergence and self-organizing systems, and is presented as a theory of decentralized communication structures. Focusing on the optimization of decentralized networks and roadmap based coordination of organizationally homopholous foci; the current theory poses a model of human interaction that captures the potentially egalitarian effects of cooperative evolution and collective action. Case studies of two separate decentralized political protests against Korean government and FARC are offered as evidences of such phenomena.     

Congratulations to Academician Changxu Shi on the Occasion of His Winning the 2010 Chinese Science ＆ Technology Grand Prize

On behalf of friends and colleagues at MIT and Johns Hopkins University,as well as students and faculty at the Center for Advancing Materials Performance from the Nanoscale(CAMP-Nano) at Xi’an Jiaotong University,we would like to express our hearty congratulations to Academician Shi on the occasion of his winning the highest science and technology award of China.This very well deserved Life Achievement Award recognizes the brilliant scientific career of Dr.Shi.The entire disciplines of materials science and nanosciences in China should also feel much gratified by this prize,for it was Dr.Shi who had vigorously     

客运专线调度集中系统方案探讨

CTC调度集中系统是信号系统中非常重要的一个子系统,文章主要针对客运专线调度集中系统的主要功能、系统结构等进行了简单介绍.     

对新时期现代企业安全保卫工作的思考

文章结合科学发展现,就如何做好新时期、新形势下的企业安全保卫工作问题,作了探索与思考.     

金融支持县域经济发展的战略研究

文章提出支持县域经济发展既是金融部门的责任,也是金融业自身发展的需要。     

Character and OTU stability in five taxonomic groups

The character and OTU stability of classifications based on UPGMA clustering and maximum parsimony (MP) trees were compared for 5 datasets (families of angiosperms, families of orthopteroid insects, species of the fish genusIctalurus, genera of the salamander family Salamandridae, and genera of the frog family Myobatrachidae). Stability was investigated by taking different sized random subsamples of OTUs or characters, computing UPGMA clusters and an MP tree, and then comparing the resulting trees with those based on the entire dataset. Agreement was measured by two consensus indices, that of Colless, computed from strict consensus trees, and Stinebrickner's 0.5-consensus index. Tests of character stability generally showed a monotone decrease in agreement with the standard as smaller sets of characters are considered. The relative success of the two methods depended upon the dataset. Tests of OTU stability showed a monotone decrease in agreement for UPGMA as smaller sets of OTUs are considered. But for MP, agreement decreased and then increased again on the same scale. The apparent superiority of UPGMA relative to MP with respect to OTU stability depended upon the dataset. Considerations other than stability, such as computer efficiency or accuracy, will also determine the method of choice for classifications.     

Isolation of human epidermal stem cells by adherence and the reconstruction of skin equivalents

The isolation of human epidermal stem cells is critical for their clinical applications. In the present study, we isolated three populations of epidermal keratinocytes according to their ability to adhere to collagen type IV: i.e., rapidly adhering (RA), slowly adhering (SA), and non-adhering (NA) cells. The aim of this study was to characterize RA cells and to investigate the possibility of using these cells for epidermis reconstruction. To identify RA cells, flow cytometric analysis was performed using anti-₆ integrin and anti-CD71 antibodies. RA cells express high levels of ₆ integrin and low levels of CD71, which are considered as markers of an epidermal stem cell nature. Furthermore, electron microscopy showed that RA cells are small and have a high nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio, whereas SA and NA cells have well-developed cellular organelles and abundant tonofilaments. Western blot analysis showed that RA cells are slow cycling and express p63, a putative epidermal stem cell marker, whereas SA and NA cells express c-Myc, which is known to regulate stem cell fate. To compare epidermal regenerative abilities, skin equivalents (SEs) were made using RA, SA, and NA cells. The epidermis constructed from RA cells was well formed compared to those formed from SA or NA cells. In addition, only SEs with RA cells expressed ₆ integrin and ₁ integrin at the basal layer. These results indicate that RA cells represent epidermal stem cells and are predominately comprised of stem cells. Therefore, the isolation of RA cells using a simple technique offers a potential route to their clinical application, because they are easily isolated and provide a high yield of epidermal stem cells.Received 2 July 2004; received after revision 20 August 2004; accepted 10 September 2004