Robert Ross

It is perhaps unusual to begin a review with a quotation from a book's bibliography. All the same, Femme S. Gaastra's comment in the recently published second edition of De Geschiedenis van de VOC makes a very valuable starting point for this essay. After surveying the recent literature on the activities of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in three continents, Gaastra turns to Africa, to the Cape of Good Hope, and writes that 'the historiography on the development of the VOC refreshment post in Table Bay is extensive, and discusses developments which have not been mentioned in this context [that of his book]' (p. 188). He is of course right. His book is about the organization of the largest business enterprise that the world had seen by the eighteenth Century, about how decisions were taken, profits made and so forth. In doing so, it is naturally necessary for Gaastra to discuss the Asian world in which the VOC operated, and to analyse the mix within the VOC's empire between direct rule, as in Sri Lanka, the Molucca and on Java, and the traditional position of a foreign trader present on the sufferance of the local rulers, as was the case along the southern coast of mainland Asia, from the Red Sea to Korea, and also in Japan. But these are very different matters from the question relating to the

This article argues that the !Kora, an essentially Khoisan group in central South Africa, consisted not of hereditary tribes, but of people who had chosen a predatory, raiding way of life. It then traces the history of those !Kora who were based on the jungle-covered islands of the middle Orange river, concentrating particularly on the three wars that occurred between them and the Cape Colony: in 1832–4, when the !Kora were led by Stuurman, 1868–9, when they were under Piet Rooi and Jan Kivido, and the final episodes during 1879–80. Pointing out the difficulty that the colonial forces had in reducing the islands, it shows how the !Kora were able to raid up to 250 kilometers across the Bushmanland Flats, and thus make colonial subsistence over a wide area of the northern Cape Colony non-viable. Nevertheless, it argues that the way of life that the !Kora had chosen could not be sustained in face of the consolidation of colonial society, and describes the processes whereby they were de...

When the Belgian Government was setting up the Archives Générales du Royaume, those papers held by three departments escaped centralisation, because they had already set up their own archival sections. These were the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defence and the Colonies. In the meantime the Ministry of Colonies has gone out of business, so that the papers it held came under the control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For a long time, the archives were kept in the magnificent eighteenth century building of the old Ministry of Colonies, 7 Place Royale. This was most convenient for researchers, since that building also contains the library of the Ministry, now renamed the Bibliothèque Africaine and kept well up to date, and the Centre d'Étude et de Documentation Africaine (CEDAF). Unfortunately, about a year ago, in the interests of bureaucratic tidyness the Archives Africaines, as they are now known, were moved into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2 Rue Quatre Bras. There t...

... Kadi Abdus Salaam from Ternate, better known at the Cape as Tuan Guru, who is celebrated as the first Islamic scholar in South Africa and the man who founded the country's first mosque. For reasons which are unclear, Jan did not succeed him as Imam of the Auwal mosque ...

During the first decade of the Dutch East India Company's existence, it made a number of vain attempts to drive the Portuguese out of their main base in East Africa, Mozambique island. Within a few years, though, the Dutch discovered that they could reach their destinations in the East more quickly by setting a course far to the south of Madagascar. Since they no longer needed to frequent the Mozambique channel, they saw no particular reason to dislodge the Portuguese from its shores. Except for one final Dutch attempt to capture Mozambique island, in 1668, the two imperial powers kept their distance from each other, at least in Africa. The Dutch did not even know the simplest details of the political or economic situation in East Africa, while Portuguese visitors to the Dutch sphere of influence in the Cape Colony were entirely those of transients and traders, particularly in slaves. They were not competitors, and therefore were not attempting to solve the same questions. Never...

Abstract: The articles in this issue were developed from papers presented at (or, in the case of Jared McDonald, arising from) the international conference entitled 'Christian Missions in 19th and 20th Southern Africa and in Comparative Perspective : Passing Review and Breaking ...

Recent research has demonstrated that some participants prefer to complete a larger series of responses in exchange for a longer duration of reinforcer access, rather than completing fewer tasks associated with smaller, but more frequent, reinforcer access. This review provides a summary of this line of research, examines variables contributing to participant preference and performance under different response-reinforcer arrangements, and discusses limitations and areas for future research.

The Florida State University (FSU) Superensemble technique as applied to real-time numerical weather prediction will be described. An evaluation of the skill of the Superensemble forecasts will be presented in comparison to the skills of the seven global numerical weather prediction models that comprise the Superensemble. Forecast variables that will be examined include lower and upper tropospheric wind fields, mean

South Central Richmond, California is the home of one of the nation's most innovative green workforce training centers, Richmond BUILD - Green Jobs Training facility. A near constant stream of young people engaged in training activities, instructors, invited guests, and journalists of various ages can be seen moving in and out of the facility nearly every day of the week

Domain growth plays an important role in many biological systems, and so the inclusion of domain growth in models of these biological systems is important to understanding how these systems function. In this work we present methods to include the effects of domain growth on the evolution of spatial correlations in a continuum approximation of a lattice-based model of cell motility and proliferation. We show that, depending on the way in which domain growth is implemented, different steady-state densities are predicted for an agent population. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the way in which domain growth is implemented can result in the evolution of the agent density depending on the size of the domain. Continuum approximations that ignore spatial correlations cannot capture these behaviors, while those that account for spatial correlations do. These results will be of interest to researchers in developmental biology, as they suggest that the nature of domain growth can determine t...

The striated muscle costamere, a multiprotein complex at the boundary between the sarcomere and the sarcolemma, plays an integral role in maintaining striated muscle structure and function. Multiple costamere-associated proteins, such as integrins and integrin-interacting proteins, have been identified and shown to play an increasingly important role in the pathogenesis of human cardiomyopathy. Kindlin-2 is an adaptor protein that binds to the integrin β cytoplasmic tail to promote integrin activation. Genetic deficiency of Kindlin-2 results in embryonic lethality, and knockdown of the Kindlin-2 homolog in Caenorhabditis elegans and Danio rerio suggests that it has an essential role in integrin function and normal muscle structure and function. The precise role of Kindlin-2 in the mammalian cardiac myocyte remains to be determined. The current studies were designed to investigate the role of Kindlin-2 in the mammalian heart. We generated a series of cardiac myocyte-specific Kindlin-2 knockout mice with excision of the Kindlin-2 gene in either developing or adult cardiac myocytes. We found that mice lacking Kindlin-2 in the early developing heart are embryonic lethal. We demonstrate that deletion of Kindlin-2 at late gestation or in adult cardiac myocytes resulted in heart failure and premature death, which were associated with enlargement of the heart and extensive fibrosis. In addition, integrin β1D protein expression was significantly downregulated in the adult heart. Kindlin-2 is required to maintain integrin β1D protein stability. Postnatal loss of Kindlin-2 from cardiac myocytes leads to progressive heart failure, showing the importance of costameric proteins like Kindlin-2 for homeostasis of normal heart function.

It has been proposed that deluded and delusion-prone individuals gather less evidence before forming beliefs than those who are not deluded or delusion-prone. The primary source of evidence for this "jumping to conclusions" (JTC) bias is provided by research that utilises the "beads task" data-gathering paradigm. However, the cognitive mechanisms subserving data gathering in this task are poorly understood. In the largest published beads task study to date (n = 558), we examined data gathering in the context of influential dual-process theories of reasoning. Analytic cognitive style (the willingness or disposition to critically evaluate outputs from intuitive processing and engage in effortful analytic processing) predicted data gathering in a non-clinical sample, but delusional ideation did not. The relationship between data gathering and analytic cognitive style suggests that dual-process theories of reasoning can contribute to our understanding of the beads ta...

Gene transfer has rarely been tested in randomized clinical trials. To evaluate the safety and efficacy of intracoronary delivery of adenovirus 5 encoding adenylyl cyclase 6 (Ad5.hAC6) in heart failure. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 clinical trial was conducted in US medical centers (randomization occurred from July 19, 2010, to October 30, 2014). Participants 18 to 80 years with symptomatic heart failure (ischemic and nonischemic) and an ejection fraction (EF) of 40% or less were screened; 86 individuals were enrolled, and 56 were randomized. Data analysis was of the intention-to-treat population. Participants underwent exercise testing and measurement of left ventricular EF (echocardiography) and then cardiac catheterization, where left ventricular pressure development (+dP/dt) and decline (-dP/dt) were recorded. Participants were randomized (3:1 ratio) to receive 1 of 5 doses of intracoronary Ad5.hAC6 or placebo. Participants underwent a second catheterization 4 weeks later for measurement of dP/dt. Exercise testing and EF were assessed 4 and 12 weeks after randomization. Intracoronary administration of Ad5.hAC6 (3.2 × 109 to 1012 virus particles) or placebo. Primary end points included exercise duration and EF before and 4 and 12 weeks after randomization and peak rates of +dP/dt and -dP/dt before and 4 weeks after randomization. Fourteen placebo participants were compared (intention to treat) with 24 Ad5.hAC6 participants receiving the highest 2 doses (D4 + 5). Fifty-six individuals were randomized and monitored for up to 1 year. Forty-two participants (75%) received Ad5.hAC6 (mean [SE] age, 63 [1] years; EF, 30% [1%]), and 14 individuals (25%) received placebo (age, 62 [1] years; EF, 30% [2%]). Exercise duration showed no significant group differences (4 weeks, P = .27; 12 weeks, P = .47, respectively). The D4 + 5 participants had increased EF at 4 weeks (+6.0 [1.7] EF units; n = 21; P < .004), but not 12 weeks (+3.0 [2.4] EF units; n = 21; P = .16). Placebo participants showed no increase in EF at 4 weeks or 12 weeks. Exercise duration showed no between-group differences (4-week change from baseline: placebo, 27 [36] seconds; D4 + 5, 44 [25] seconds; P = .27; 12-week change from baseline: placebo, 44 [28] seconds; D4 + 5, 58 [29 seconds, P = .47). AC6 gene transfer increased basal left ventricular peak -dP/dt (4-week change from baseline: placebo, +93 [51] mm Hg/s; D4 + 5, -39 [33] mm Hg/s; placebo [n = 21]; P < .03); AC6 did not increase arrhythmias. The admission rate for patients with heart failure was 9.5% (4 of 42) in the AC6 group and 28.6% (4 of 14) in the placebo group (relative risk, 0.33 [95% CI, 0.08-1.36]; P = .10). AC6 gene transfer safely increased LV function beyond standard heart failure therapy, attainable with one-time administration. Larger trials are warranted. clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00787059.

ABSTRACT To remain competitive IC manufacturers have to accelerate the development of most advanced (CMOS) technology and to deliver high yielding products with best cycle times and at a competitive pricing. With the increase of technology complexity, also the need for physical characterization support increases, however many of the existing techniques are no longer adequate to effectively support the 65-45 nm technology node developments. New and improved techniques are definitely needed to better characterize the often marginal processes, but these should not significantly impact fabrication costs or cycle time. Hence, characterization and metrology challenges in state-of-the-art IC manufacturing are both of technical and economical nature. TEM microscopy is needed for high quality, high volume analytical support but several physical and practical hurdles have to be taken. The success rate of FIB-SEM based failure analysis drops as defects often are too small to be detected and fault isolation becomes more difficult in the nano-scale device structures. To remain effective and efficient, SEM and OBIRCH techniques have to be improved or complemented with other more effective methods. Chemical analysis of novel materials and critical interfaces requires improvements in the field of e.g. SIMS, ToF-SIMS. Techniques that previously were only used sporadically, like EBSD and XRD, have become a `must' to properly support backend process development. At the bright side, thanks to major technical advances, techniques that previously were practiced at laboratory level only now can be used effectively for at-line fab metrology: Voltage Contrast based defectivity control, XPS based gate dielectric metrology and XRD based control of copper metallization processes are practical examples. In this paper capabilities and shortcomings of several techniques and corresponding equipment are presented with practical illustrations of use in our Crolles facilities.

Bands of colour extending laterally from the dorsal to ventral trunk are a common feature of mouse chimeras. These stripes were originally taken as evidence of the directed dorsoventral migration of melanoblasts (the embryonic precursors of melanocytes) as they colonize the developing skin. Depigmented 'belly spots' in mice with mutations in the receptor tyrosine kinase Kit are thought to represent a failure of this colonization, either due to impaired migration or proliferation. Tracing of single melanoblast clones, however, has revealed a diffuse distribution with high levels of axial mixing-hard to reconcile with directed migration. Here we construct an agent-based stochastic model calibrated by experimental measurements to investigate the formation of diffuse clones, chimeric stripes and belly spots. Our observations indicate that melanoblast colonization likely proceeds through a process of undirected migration, proliferation and tissue expansion, and that reduced proli...

This paper describes an extension to the ALPHA (A Language for Programming Hybrid Agents) programming language that employs roles as run-time constructs. Specifically, this paper describes how the inclusion of this concept has facilitated the use of a number of OOP -based reuse mechanisms within the language. Finally, we illustrate the new version of ALPHA through a simple auction-based example.

... in Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area Craig Snyder John Young David Smith David Lemarie ... Craig Snyder Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) occurs in cool, moist, hillside and ravine environments throughout the eastern United States (Harlow 1942). ...

Background: Pressure overload leads to cardiac hypertrophy, which is often followed by heart failure. We tested the hypothesis that depressed contractility in this process results from an imbalance in Ca 2 transport by the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca 2 ATPase (SERCA) and the sarcolemmal Na/Ca 2 exchanger (NCX). Methods and Results: Left ventricular (LV) myocytes (n 79) from 12 normal

Abstract. The MPI-IO interface is a critical component in I/O software stacks for high-performance computing, and many successful optimiza-tions have been incorporated into implementations to help provide high performance I/O for a variety of access patterns. However, in spite of ...

This paper describes the general concept of Route Graphs, to be used for navigation by various agents in a variety of scenarios. We introduce the concept of an ontology and describe the modelling of general graphs as an example. This approach is then applied to define a "light-weight" ontology of Route Graphs in an indoors environment, giv- ing at first

ABSTRACT Current visualization tools lack the ability to perform full-range spatial and temporal analysis on terascale scientific datasets. Two key reasons exist for this shortcoming: I/O and postprocessing on these datasets are being performed in suboptimal manners, and the subsequent data ...

MPI datatypes are a convenient abstraction for manipulating complex data structures and are useful in a number of contexts. In some cases, these descriptions need to be preserved on disk or communicated between processes, such as when defining RMA windows. We propose an extension to MPI that enables marshalling and unmarshalling MPI datatypes in the spirit of MPI_Pack/MPI_Unpack. Issues in

... Robert A. Ross' and Peter Fong ... Since alkali metal (Haynes, et al., 1974; Appell and Pan-tages, 1976; Starkovich et al., 1977) and alkaline earth metal (Otto et al., 1979; Feldmann et al., 1977) compounds have been reported to catalyze the gasification of coal or graphite in the ...

This paper investigates the linearity of optical flow odometry with respect to velocity when using refocused optical mouse sensors for outdoor robotic navigation. Optical mouse sensors are small, inexpensive and contactless devices which include a low resolution CMOS camera, DSP hardware and optical flow firmware to provide optical displacement measurements in two dimensions. We perform experiments using different velocities, sampling periods and with decoupled acceleration to develop a linear, real-time compensation algorithm providing velocity corrected displacement measurements.

High performance computing systems continue to grow: currently deployed systems exceed 160,000 cores and systems exceeding 1,000,000 cores are planned. Without significant improvements in component reliability, partial system failure modes could become an ...

ABSTRACT The MPI datatype functionality provides a powerful tool for describing structured memory and file regions in parallel applications, enabling noncontiguous data to be operated on by MPI communication and I/O routines. However, no facilities are provided by the MPI standard to allow users to efficiently manipulate MPI datatypes in their own codes. We present MPITypes, an open source, portable library that enables the construction of efficient MPI datatype processing routines outside the MPI implementation. MPITypes enables programmers who are not MPI implementors to create efficient datatype processing routines. We show the use of MPITypes in three examples: copying data between user buffers and a “pack” buffer, encoding of data in a portable format, and transpacking. Our experimental evaluation shows that the implementation achieves rates comparable to existing MPI implementations.

Methods for describing structured data are a key aid in ap- plication development. The MPI standard defines a system for creating "MPI types" at run time and using these types when passing messages, performing RMA operations, and accessing data in files. Similar capa- bilities are available in other middleware. Unfortunately many imple- mentations perform poorly when processing these structured data