February 2017: Volume 2 Issue 1

This essay focuses on the themes of humanity and morality in Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road. I use secondary sources to demonstrate how the two main characters, a father and son, are conflicted with the idea of morality in their journey of survival. The challenge to define what is ‘good’ and ‘bad,’ and live according to that moral standard is emphasized throughout the novel and is discussed analytically in this essay.

The Schengen Agreement has been a prime example of European integration, providing citizens of member states the unique experience of travelling across borders without the inconvenience of border checks. However, the recent peak in the flow of refugees and a changing political environment has challenged the agreement and put the future of open borders in Europe into question. This article initially establishes the background on the Schengen and Dublin conventions, the benefits they have brought to member states, and the role they have played in European integration. Subsequently, the challenges brought by refugees and the reactions of European nations are discussed and finally, the attempts by members to address the current challenges are assessed. In summary, I argue that the situation can only be resolved with political will from all member states in order to make the tough decisions required to maintain an achievement that was itself reached after a collective effort by all member states. There is also a need to realize the extra burden that frontier states are bearing and the need for sharing the responsibility of any collective decision. Inaction or counterproductive measures would either challenge the moral responsibility of the EU in protecting those risking their lives to reach its shores or result in the end of a borderless Schengen zone. Both scenarios are undesired, underscoring the importance of robust, collective action.

The ‘Age of McCarthyism’ of the late 1940s and early 1950s is often remembered as a deplorable period in American political history. Rampant fear swept through all branches of society, creating an environment of suspicion and hysteria. This essay will attempt to explain this seemingly inexplicable phenomenon. It will argue that the Second Red Scare was a result of long-standing Anti-Communist sentiment, combined with the reverses of American fortune in the early Cold War.

In processing audio, it can be helpful to have algorithms that can extract volume and loudness information. One application of this would be finding speech in long intervals of silence. Digital audio files, which contain raw information, may not represent how a human can perceive the sound. For example, high and low frequencies of sound with equal intensities will be perceived as having different levels of loudness. This paper presents a series of processing operations to be performed on sound signals, which attempt to find the loudness of sounds as perceived by a human. Previously used methods of calculating perceived loudness includes looking at the frequency spectrum of sounds [1]. The first operation accounts for the human perception of loudness at different frequencies. The second creates an envelope of the sound signal, while preventing impulses from getting filtered out. These impulses are short bursts of sound such as a gunshot or a handclap. The third operation accounts for the human perception of impulse loudness. The output of this process is an envelope of the original sound signal, which represents how a human would perceive the audio volume. This removes the sinusoidal components in the sound signal and maintains the sound amplitude information, with some other minor adjustments.

Vascular Dementia is a complex condition often co-diagnosed with other neurodegenerative disorders. Its pathophysiology is driven by multiple factors including hypoxia which facilitates tissue death. Vascular stresses including ischemic brain lesions thereby accompany this harmful subset of dementia. PRMT1 is an arginine methyltransferase responsible for the repression of Hif-1, a hypoxia-induced cellular factor. HIF-1 in turn regulates VEGF expression, an angiogenic factor that assists with the restoration of blood vessels. Hence, targeting brain endothelial cell PRMT1 may represent a means to induce angiogenesis and downstream neurogenesis in damaged brain tissues thereby alleviating cognitive declines associated with tissue death. The in vitro and in vivo studies highlighted here present an opportunity to study a novel function of PRMT1 in Vascular Dementia.

Self-esteem, an important topic in behavioral research, refers to the positive or negative subjective evaluation of one’s self.  Indeed, our feelings of self-worth influence a wide range of domains such as mental well-being, academic success and life satisfaction. Clearly, it is important to foster healthy self-esteem as early as possible in development by assessing the specific factors that promote positive self-esteem in childhood. Yet, this research in children has mostly employed an explicit approach and may not reflect an accurate representation of a child’s self-esteem. Here, I argue for the use of an implicit model in studying self-esteem in providing a more holistic approach. Specifically, I will outline some key weaknesses of a solely explicit model and the benefits of employing an implicit model to the study of children’s self-esteem. Specific methods that can be utilized to measure implicit self-esteem in children will also be discussed. Finally, I will provide possible future directions for the application of a holistic approach in order to investigate specific parental techniques and environmental factors that promote the healthy development of explicit and implicit self-esteem.

We present the design for a high resolution triple-grating Czerny-Turner spectrometer for visible and telecom wavelengths, together with results of optical simulations using ZEMAX. Results from the simulations show that one of the most important factors affecting spectral resolution is the focal length of mirrors. Increasing the focal length allows for a greater degree of spatial dispersion of light diffracted from the gratings and also reduces optical aberrations. Radiation of wavelengths around 1550 nm are shown to have very noticeable aberrations in certain designs, evident by a large degree of smudging. Using parabolic mirrors instead of spherical mirrors is demonstrated to have a negligible effect when compared with increasing focal length. The optical simulations and preliminary testing of mechanical components show that it is possible to build a cost effective high resolution Czerny-Turner spectrometer using off the shelf components.

Turkey has been fighting a war against the ethnic minority Kurds in the east of its territory, and refusing to support the Kurds that are fighting ISIS/Daesh in northern Syria and Iraq. This essay intends to uncover, via a securitisation process, the motivations behind Turkey’s domestic and external responses to the Kurdish conflicts. As well, the essay wants to show that Turkey’s responses have a profound impact on the international community, with much stronger political effects on Turkey’s geographical neighbours.By analysing primary documents, as well as examining experiences from those who have traveled to the region and work closely with Kurds and Turks, this essay will shape a picture of the messy relations between the actors involved in the Syrian conflict, and showing how each political action must be weighed carefully in order to maintain power balances.

Transnational advocacy networks played a crucial role in the acceptance of the right to health as a trade concern that takes precedence over intellectual property (IP) protections. The development and influence of this norm is reflected in international responses to the 1998-2001 South African litigation over access to medicines. In the process of pressuring an army of pharmaceutical firms to back down from an unjust legal challenge, the transnational advocacy network surrounding access to AIDS medicines transformed the case from a largely trade-focused issue to a human rights issue. The right to health was thus brought to the world of international trade.

Historical tensions have been a predominant problem along the Thailand-Burma border for decades. As a result, women residing in the surrounding areas have received inadequate reproductive health care. This structured literature review aimed to answer the question: “What barriers do women living along the Thailand-Burma border face when trying to access contraception?” The findings demonstrated that women are facing five main barriers to access proper contraceptive methods, these are: legal, geographical, security, educational, and socio-demographic. The researcher concluded that work needs to be done on a local and global scale to improve the situation for women in the Thailand-Burma border.

An extract of an unidentified green filamentous fungus isolated as an endophyte of the Canadian medicinal plant Geum macrophyllum exhibited significant antimycobacterial activity and a distinct ¹H NMR profile. Bioassay guided fractionation indicated that the natural product phomopsolide A was responsible for the distinguishing characteristics of the extract.