ims

CBD Notification SCBD/IMS/JMF/JBF/NP/CR/WS/IH/88601 (2020-023): Postponement of the 2020 Global Youth Biodiversity Summit in Miyazaki




ims

CBD Notification SCBD/IMS/JMF/NP/CR/IH/88710 (2020-027): Final Call for Nominations for the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity 2020




ims

Marketing claims for infant formula should be banned, argue researchers

Current regulations do not effectively prevent potentially misleading claims, says Imperial scientists




ims

New Home Office funded report urges greater action for cybercrime victims

(University of Portsmouth) The first major UK study into victims of computer misuse crime has exposed the serious harm some victim's experience, as well as barriers to reporting such offences, receiving support, achieving justice and the precarious resources dedicated by the police to cybercrime.




ims

Investigation of inter- and intra-tumoral heterogeneity of glioblastoma using TOF-SIMS

Samvel K Gularyan
Apr 6, 2020; 0:RA120.001986v1-mcp.RA120.001986
Research




ims

A Compact Quadrupole-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer with FAIMS Interface Improves Proteome Coverage in Short LC Gradients

Dorte B. Bekker-Jensen
Apr 1, 2020; 19:716-729
Technological Innovation and Resources




ims

Breaking the Cycle of Violence: Transitional Justice for the Victims of ISIS in Syria

28 April 2020

This paper aims to assist the region’s local authorities, and their key foreign backers, in understanding how transitional justice can provide alternative avenues for holding local ISIS members to account while contributing to the healing of communities.

Haid Haid

Senior Consulting Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme

2020-04-28-Syria-prison.jpg

A fighter with the Syrian Democratic Forces monitors prisoners accused of being affiliated with ISIS, at a prison in the northeastern Syrian city of Hassakeh on 25 October 2019. Photo: Getty Images.

Summary

  • Following the territorial defeat of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in northeastern Syria, the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in the region is now grappling with the task of quickly dealing with thousands of the group’s detained members while bringing justice to their victims. To that end, local authorities are focusing on the use of counterterrorism laws and courts to charge captured ISIS members and determine their guilt accordingly.
  • The piecemeal approach to justice is deeply flawed, and raises particular concerns about due process. No precise instruments exist to determine the personal responsibility of ISIS individuals for specific crimes, or for their role in war crimes committed by the group. In any event, the scale of the crimes and the number of victims – as well as severe shortages of resources and workers – make dispensation of justice extremely difficult through the traditional legal system.
  • Not all detained ISIS members receive prison sentences. Individuals who did not hold senior roles in the group’s apparatus and are not accused of ‘major’ crimes (in practice, largely defined as fighting for ISIS and murder) are being released under limited reconciliation deals with tribal leaders. But the involvement of local community leaders in those efforts is not enough to ensure positive results. Many victims are upset at seeing ISIS members walk free without even admitting their guilt publicly or apologizing for the pain they caused.
  • To overcome the limitations of the current, counterterrorism-focused framework, a ‘transitional justice’ approach could provide judicial and non-judicial instruments to establish accountability for ISIS crimes and reduce community resistance to the reintegration of group members. A combination of non-judicial mechanisms such as truth commissions, missing persons’ committees, and reparations and victim-healing programmes could play a vital role in providing ISIS victims with a sense of justice while contributing to peacebuilding and stability.
  • Ignoring the urgency of developing a long-term plan to serve justice and contribute to community healing will almost certainly allow ISIS to continue to prevent the recovery and development of northeastern Syria. This, in turn, risks undermining the stability of the country and the region at large.




ims

Webinar: Breaking the Cycle of Violence: Transitional Justice for the Victims of ISIS in Syria

Research Event

12 May 2020 - 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Add to Calendar

Haid Haid, Senior Consulting Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House
Sara Kayyali, Syria Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division, Human Rights Watch
Moderator: Lina Khatib, Director, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House

You can register your interest here. Alternatively, you can watch the webinar live on the MENA Programme Facebook page.

Following the territorial defeat of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in northeastern Syria, the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in the region is now grappling with the task of quickly dealing with thousands of the group’s detained members while bringing justice to their victims. To that end, local authorities are focusing on the use of counterterrorism laws and courts to charge captured ISIS members and determine their guilt accordingly.

In a recent research paper, author Haid Haid argues that this approach to justice is deeply flawed as it raises concerns about due process and lacks the precise instruments to determine the personal responsibility of ISIS individuals for specific crimes, or for their role in war crimes committed by the group. The paper proposes that a ‘transitional justice’ approach could provide judicial and non-judicial instruments to establish accountability for ISIS crimes and reduce community resistance to the reintegration of group members.

In this webinar, part of the MENA Programme’s Online Event Series, speakers will examine the benefits of such an approach to justice for overcoming the limitations of the current, counterterrorism-focused framework. Panelists will discuss the alternative mechanisms local authorities and their key foreign backers can use to hold local ISIS members to account while contributing to the healing of communities.
 
The event will be held on the record.

Reni Zhelyazkova

Programme Coordinator, Middle East and North Africa Programme
+44 (0)20 7314 3624




ims

A Compact Quadrupole-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer with FAIMS Interface Improves Proteome Coverage in Short LC Gradients [Technological Innovation and Resources]

State-of-the-art proteomics-grade mass spectrometers can measure peptide precursors and their fragments with ppm mass accuracy at sequencing speeds of tens of peptides per second with attomolar sensitivity. Here we describe a compact and robust quadrupole-orbitrap mass spectrometer equipped with a front-end High Field Asymmetric Waveform Ion Mobility Spectrometry (FAIMS) Interface. The performance of the Orbitrap Exploris 480 mass spectrometer is evaluated in data-dependent acquisition (DDA) and data-independent acquisition (DIA) modes in combination with FAIMS. We demonstrate that different compensation voltages (CVs) for FAIMS are optimal for DDA and DIA, respectively. Combining DIA with FAIMS using single CVs, the instrument surpasses 2500 peptides identified per minute. This enables quantification of >5000 proteins with short online LC gradients delivered by the Evosep One LC system allowing acquisition of 60 samples per day. The raw sensitivity of the instrument is evaluated by analyzing 5 ng of a HeLa digest from which >1000 proteins were reproducibly identified with 5 min LC gradients using DIA-FAIMS. To demonstrate the versatility of the instrument, we recorded an organ-wide map of proteome expression across 12 rat tissues quantified by tandem mass tags and label-free quantification using DIA with FAIMS to a depth of >10,000 proteins.




ims

Investigation of inter- and intra-tumoral heterogeneity of glioblastoma using TOF-SIMS [Research]

Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most aggressive human cancers with a median survival of less than two years. A distinguishing pathological feature of GBM is a high degree of inter- and intratumoral heterogeneity. Intertumoral heterogeneity of GBM has been extensively investigated on genomic, methylomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomics levels, however only a few studies describe intratumoral heterogeneity due to the lack of methods allowing to analyze GBM samples with high spatial resolution. Here, we applied TOF-SIMS (Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry) for the analysis of single cells and clinical samples such as paraffin and frozen tumor sections obtained from 57 patients. We developed a technique that allows us to simultaneously detect the distribution of proteins and metabolites in glioma tissue with 800 nm spatial resolution. Our results demonstrate that according to TOF-SIMS data glioma samples can be subdivided into clinically relevant groups and distinguished from the normal brain tissue. In addition, TOF-SIMS was able to elucidate differences between morphologically distinct regions of GBM within the same tumor. By staining GBM sections with gold-conjugated antibodies against Caveolin-1 we could visualize border between zones of necrotic and cellular tumor and subdivide glioma samples into groups characterized by different survival of the patients. Finally, we demonstrated that GBM contains cells that are characterized by high levels of Caveolin-1 protein and cholesterol. This population may partly represent a glioma stem cells. Collectively, our results show that the technique described here allows to analyze glioma tissues with a spatial resolution beyond reach of most of other omics approaches and the obtained data may be used to predict clinical behavior of the tumor.




ims

Breaking the Cycle of Violence: Transitional Justice for the Victims of ISIS in Syria

28 April 2020

This paper aims to assist the region’s local authorities, and their key foreign backers, in understanding how transitional justice can provide alternative avenues for holding local ISIS members to account while contributing to the healing of communities.

Haid Haid

Senior Consulting Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme

2020-04-28-Syria-prison.jpg

A fighter with the Syrian Democratic Forces monitors prisoners accused of being affiliated with ISIS, at a prison in the northeastern Syrian city of Hassakeh on 25 October 2019. Photo: Getty Images.

Summary

  • Following the territorial defeat of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in northeastern Syria, the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in the region is now grappling with the task of quickly dealing with thousands of the group’s detained members while bringing justice to their victims. To that end, local authorities are focusing on the use of counterterrorism laws and courts to charge captured ISIS members and determine their guilt accordingly.
  • The piecemeal approach to justice is deeply flawed, and raises particular concerns about due process. No precise instruments exist to determine the personal responsibility of ISIS individuals for specific crimes, or for their role in war crimes committed by the group. In any event, the scale of the crimes and the number of victims – as well as severe shortages of resources and workers – make dispensation of justice extremely difficult through the traditional legal system.
  • Not all detained ISIS members receive prison sentences. Individuals who did not hold senior roles in the group’s apparatus and are not accused of ‘major’ crimes (in practice, largely defined as fighting for ISIS and murder) are being released under limited reconciliation deals with tribal leaders. But the involvement of local community leaders in those efforts is not enough to ensure positive results. Many victims are upset at seeing ISIS members walk free without even admitting their guilt publicly or apologizing for the pain they caused.
  • To overcome the limitations of the current, counterterrorism-focused framework, a ‘transitional justice’ approach could provide judicial and non-judicial instruments to establish accountability for ISIS crimes and reduce community resistance to the reintegration of group members. A combination of non-judicial mechanisms such as truth commissions, missing persons’ committees, and reparations and victim-healing programmes could play a vital role in providing ISIS victims with a sense of justice while contributing to peacebuilding and stability.
  • Ignoring the urgency of developing a long-term plan to serve justice and contribute to community healing will almost certainly allow ISIS to continue to prevent the recovery and development of northeastern Syria. This, in turn, risks undermining the stability of the country and the region at large.




ims

Diaz aims to turn heads, cement everyday role

When Yandy Diaz arrived at Rays camp on Sunday, he quickly established himself as the most muscular player inside the clubhouse. During Spring Training, his focus will be to establish himself as an everyday player.




ims

Votto aims to improve after 'frustrating' 2018

Even before the Reds underscored their determination to improve by making major offseason acquisitions for the club, first baseman Joey Votto was already working to improve his hitting and his overall game.




ims

Artificial intelligence versus clinicians: systematic review of design, reporting standards, and claims of deep learning studies




ims

Covid-19: Home testing programme across England aims to help define way out of lockdown




ims

Phishing email claims to be from ADA president

At least one American Dental Association member has reported receiving a phishing email appearing to come from an address containing ADA President Chad P. Gehani's name and including a link to "view member's details."




ims

Free ADA webinar aims to help dentists plan recovery during, after pandemic

The ADA is streaming a free webinar April 14 intended to help dentists jump-start their recovery process during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.




ims

Ohio State University agrees to $10M settlement with abuse victims

Ohio State University will pay more than $40 million to 162 former students who said a team doctor abused them over two decades, the school announced.




ims

People Who Have Lost Their Religion Show “Residues” Of Religious Past In Their Thoughts And Behaviours, Study Claims

By Emma Young. Formerly religious are more prosocial than those who were never religious, researchers argue.




ims

Will Child-Care Services Help Recruit Teachers? Oklahoma District Aims to Find Out

A small school district in Oklahoma plans to offer low-cost daycare services to its employees next year in an effort to better compete with larger districts when it comes to recruiting and retaining teachers.




ims

Montana unemployment claims decrease, some schools reopen




ims

Sharing Services Offers Cost Savings and Better Service, Claims N.Y. Survey

New York superintendents who shared services reported more cost savings and improved service quality than improved student achievement, according to a new research brief.




ims

Montana unemployment claims decrease, some schools reopen




ims

Montana unemployment claims decrease, some schools reopen




ims

Federal Judge Dismisses Most Claims in Connecticut School Choice Lawsuit

A federal judge dismissed most claims in a lawsuit challenging Connecticut's restrictions on magnet schools, charter schools, and school choice programs, saying there is no fundamental right to equal education opportunity under the U.S. Constitution.




ims

Recoveries and Preclusions in Compensation Claims.




ims

CTP Update - Claims for Loss of Dependency under part 5 of the Civil Liability Act 1936.




ims

Forum 2019 : 2C: Inheritance (Family Provision) Act claims / paper presented by Melisa Yule, Adelta Legal.




ims

An introduction to claims under the Inheritance (Family Provision) Act 1972 (SA) / paper presented by: Graham Edmonds-Wilson SC, Howard Zelling Chambers.

"The purpose of this paper is to provide an introductory overview about the making of family provision claims in South Australia under the Inheritance (Family Provision) Act 1972".




ims

An introduction to claims under the Inheritance (Family Provision) Act 1972 (SA) / paper presented by: Graham Edmonds-Wilson SC, Howard Zelling Chambers.




ims

Report on review of detriment : Aboriginal land claims recommended for grant but not yet finalised / the Hon John Mansfield AM QC, Aboriginal Land Commissioner.




ims

Eminent medical men of Asia, Africa, Europe and America, who have advanced medical science; for the use of students and for the Vydians and Hakims of India / by Edward Balfour.

Madras : printed by C. Foster, 1876.




ims

West Virginia Teachers Continue to Strike After State Senate Trims Pay Raise

The West Virginia Senate trimmed the proposed pay raise for teachers from 5 percent to 4 percent, prompting union officials to declare that the strike will continue indefinitely.




ims

A shepherd supporting himself with a staff points down to something on the ground. Etching after S. Rosa.




ims

Relapse and recovery in drug abuse / editors, Frank M. Tims, Carl G. Leukefeld.

Rockville, Maryland : National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1986.




ims

Compulsory treatment of drug abuse : research and clinical practice / editors, Carl G. Leukefeld, Frank M. Tims.

Rockville, Maryland : National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1988.




ims

Drug abuse treatment evaluation : strategies, progress, and prospects / editors Frank M. Tims, Jacqueline P. Ludford.

Springfield, Virginia. : National Technical Information Service, 1984.




ims

Regression for copula-linked compound distributions with applications in modeling aggregate insurance claims

Peng Shi, Zifeng Zhao.

Source: The Annals of Applied Statistics, Volume 14, Number 1, 357--380.

Abstract:
In actuarial research a task of particular interest and importance is to predict the loss cost for individual risks so that informative decisions are made in various insurance operations such as underwriting, ratemaking and capital management. The loss cost is typically viewed to follow a compound distribution where the summation of the severity variables is stopped by the frequency variable. A challenging issue in modeling such outcomes is to accommodate the potential dependence between the number of claims and the size of each individual claim. In this article we introduce a novel regression framework for compound distributions that uses a copula to accommodate the association between the frequency and the severity variables and, thus, allows for arbitrary dependence between the two components. We further show that the new model is very flexible and is easily modified to account for incomplete data due to censoring or truncation. The flexibility of the proposed model is illustrated using both simulated and real data sets. In the analysis of granular claims data from property insurance, we find substantive negative relationship between the number and the size of insurance claims. In addition, we demonstrate that ignoring the frequency-severity association could lead to biased decision-making in insurance operations.




ims

Holey Cow Product! Swiss Gruyère Claims Cheese Championship

This is the cheesy content readers crave




ims

COVID-19 Claims the Lives of Three Jazz Greats

Pianist and educator Ellis Marsalis Jr., trumpeter Wallace Roney, and guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli succumbed to complications caused by the novel coronavirus




ims

Crowdsourcing Project Aims to Document the Many U.S. Places Where Women Have Made History

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is looking for 1,000 places tied to women's history, and to share the stories of the figures behind them




ims

This Pandemic Isn't the First Time the Hajj Has Been Disrupted for Muslims

Plague, war and politics have altered the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca throughout history




ims

Newly-elected chief of the Selkirk First Nation aims to bring housing, jobs to citizens

Darin Isaac was elected on Wednesday as the new chief of the Selkirk First Nation in Yukon. Isaac also held the position for two terms from 2005 to 2011. He has also served as a councillor for three terms.



  • News/Canada/North

ims

Pandemic claims 1 in 12 Manitoba jobs so far, Statistics Canada says

About one in 12 Manitoba jobs disappeared during the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Statistics Canada's latest monthly survey of Canadian employment.



  • News/Canada/Manitoba

ims

Google Meet Aims to Head Off Zoom

Google is integrating its Google Meet videoconferencing application with Gmail, and it already appears as an option in some users' accounts. It is making the service available to everyone for free in the coming weeks, on the Web and through mobile apps for iOS and Android. Users will be able to start or join Meet videoconferences from within Google Calendar as well.




ims

Quebec's Karim Mané aims to carve new path straight from Vanier College to the NBA

The 19-year-old has declared for the 2020 NBA Draft. If selected he would become the first player out of CEGEP program in Quebec to make the leap directly to the world's top basketball league.



  • News/Canada/Montreal

ims

Human Traffickers Continue to Use Popular Online Platforms to Recruit Victims




ims

Jobless Claims

New unemployment claims are compiled weekly to show the number of individuals who filed for unemployment insurance for the first time. An increasing (decreasing) trend suggests a deteriorating (improving) labor market. The four-week moving average of new claims smooths out weekly volatility.




ims

Apple TV with A12X ready to go at any time, claims leaker



A prolific leaker has declared that Apple has a new Apple TV 4K ready to go, and it could launch the product at any time.




ims

Fatima confirms no pilgrims for May 13 feast day celebrations

Denver Newsroom, May 7, 2020 / 03:48 pm (CNA).- For the first time in over a century, the annual May 13 celebrations at the Fatima shrine will take place without the physical presence of pilgrims, the bishop of Fatima confirmed this week.

Cardinal Antonio Marto said in a May 3 statement that the celebrations for the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima “will take place as was announced April 6, without the physical presence of pilgrims, in the name of prudence to avoid the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus.”

“As planned in conjunction with the civil authorities, the May 12 and 13 celebrations for this year cannot have the physical presence of the pilgrims and will be transmitted by broadcast and digital media,” he continued.

The cardinal explained that hosting “an unpredictable multitude of people” gathering at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is still a serious threat would go against the efforts of health authorities to gradually lift restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the virus.

“We therefore respect, in an attitude of collaboration with the competent civil authorities, the guidelines for these celebrations to be held with a symbolic presence of participants,” Marto said.

The clarification over the Fatima feast day came as the Portuguese government gradually begins to ease restrictions that had been put in place in response to the pandemic, prompting speculation over whether the May 13 celebrations would be able to take place as normal. The annual event typically draws hundreds of thousands from around the world to the shrine.

The Portuguese Bishops’ Conference had announced earlier this month that public Masses could tentatively resume the weekend of Pentecost, May 30-31, in accordance with guidelines to be established by the country’s health department and the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Marto stressed that the decision to suspend public religious celebrations was based in a sense of responsibility toward the public health, as a way of loving one’s neighbor.

“[A]s much as our hearts would like to be in Fatima celebrating together in the same place, as has been the case since 1917, prudence counsels us not to do so this time,” he said, adding that Catholics can look forward to an end to the pandemic and an opportunity to gather together joyfully in the future.

Fr. Carlos Cabecinhas, rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, encouraged pilgrims who are unable to physically attend the events to make an interior pilgrimage, participating in the events of the Solemnity of Our Lady of Fatima through the internet or social media.

“This is a painful time: the shrine exists to welcome the pilgrims and we cannot do so, this is a cause for great sadness; but this decision is also an act of responsibility toward the pilgrims, protecting their health and welfare,” the priest said.

The shrine’s website offers four steps to guide people on this interior pilgrimage.

According to the website, “the celebrations of May 12 and 13 will maintain the usual schedule with recitation of the Rosary at 9:30 p.m. followed by the Candlelight Procession. On the 13th the Rosary will be prayed at 9:00 a.m. followed by the International Mass and the Farewell Procession.”

In March, 24 countries were consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.

At that ceremony, Cardinal Marto recalled that Saints Francisco and Jacinto Marto, shepherd children to whom an angel, and then the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in 1916 and 1917 at Fatima, both died amid the victims of the Spanish flu pandemic.

To date, Johns Hopkins University has reported 26,182 cases of novel coronavirus in Portugal, with 1089 deaths.