A Reply to Camilla Pickles' “Pregnancy Law in South Africa: Between Reproductive Autonomy and Foetal Interests”

Camilla Pickles’ Pregnancy Law in South Africa. Between Reproductive Autonomy and Foetal Interests (Pregnancy Law) aims at providing a less adversarial angle related to the pregnant woman and the unborn within her, by moving away from the pregnant woman as a single entity (including the unborn within her) as well as from viewing the pregnant woman and the unborn within her as two separate entities of distinctive value and separate needs. This applies to four categories addressed by Pregnancy Law, namely foetal personhood, violence against pregnant women that terminates pregnancies, substance abuse during pregnancy, and termination of pregnancy for especially the South African context. Pregnancy Law positions its argument on a relational model that emphasises the context of pregnancy as signifying a connection between the pregnant woman (with rights) and the unborn (with interests) inside of her, the unborn being fully dependent on the pregnant woman’s body. This in turn is blended with what is referred to as a not-one/not-two approach. Bearing this in mind, Pregnancy Law claims to provide a compromise, middle ground and third approach regarding what is perceived to be the extremes of the single-entity and separate-entities approaches. Bearing this in mind, this article comprises a critical appraisal directed at Pregnancy Law’s claims as alluded to in the above with specific focus on the status of the unborn against the background of abortion (which in turn has implications for matters related to foetal personhood, violence against pregnant women that terminates pregnancies and substance abuse during pregnancy).

Electro-Oxidation of Amino-Functionalized Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

We report the electrochemistry of amino-functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs-NH2) in the pH range from 0.3 to 6.4 using quantitative cyclic voltammetry (CV) and single entity electrochemistry measurements, making comparison...

Battling Against COVID-19 Infodemic in Indonesia: A Sociocybernetics Perspective

As Indonesians collectively fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation is simultaneously combatting the rampant spread of misinformation related to COVID-19. This phenomenon is often referred to as an ‘infodemic,’ defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the mass spread of information, factual or nonfactual, during a disease outbreak. In this article, we employ the methods of sociocybernetics analysis to examine the COVID-19 infodemic in Indonesia. We divide this paper into two sections. In the first section, we lay out the current state of the problem in Indonesia -how misinformation has challenged the post-pandemic recovery and changed the dynamics of Indonesian society at all levels, ranging from individuals to the society as-a-whole. In the second section, we propose a model, based on the approach of sociocybernetics, by which we propose to assess this challenge not just as a single entity but as a continuous, looping process, from the conception to the impact it has caused at all levels (micro, meso, and macro) of society. Given the complexity of this issue, we propose to develop an awareness and the education of cybernetics or systems thinking across multiple sectors when dealing with the infodemic in Indonesia.

Unravelling the Past: World War I in Africa

Africa’s involvement in World War I presents the researcher with challenges that few researchers of the Western Front are likely to encounter. The centenary years of the War have seen a range of publications on the conflict in Africa: from Marike Sherwood who claims little has been written on Africa’s involvement to others who have tended to rely on online articles that are limited in scope and draw on dated publications, thereby perpetuating myths. A handful of researchers are breaking new ground through their accessing of archival material. Authors such as David Killingray and Joe Lunn, writing on West Africa over two World Wars, unwittingly set the scene for how Africa as a whole has been perceived. However, an outcome of the centenary commemorations of the War has been new and varied insights to Africa’s contributions, not least the different approaches taken by Africans and non-Africans, academic and enthusiast, and those interested in the conflicts of French (West) Africa and the rest of Africa. Engagement with the diaspora and people from the across the continent has reinforced the diversity of Africa in contrast to the published narratives and interpretations of the war which have generally been homogeneous in their approach. This study provides an opportunity to explore recent historiographical developments of the war in Africa. In particular, it aims to show that by treating Africa as a single entity (‘Africa is a country’), misconceptions have been perpetuated and experiences of World War II conflated with those of World War I. In addition, the complexities, challenges and rewards of researching Africa’s involvement in World War I are highlighted in the article.

Semantic Segmentation of Hippocampal Subregions With U-Net Architecture

The Automatic semantic segmentation of the hippocampus is an important area of research in which several convolutional neural networks (CNN) models have been used to detect the hippocampus from whole cerebral MRI. In this paper we present two convolutional neural networks the first network ( Hippocampus Segmentation Single Entity HSSE) segmented the hippocampus as a single entity and the second used to detect the hippocampal sub-regions ( Hippocampus Segmentation Multi Class HSMC), these two networks inspire their architecture of the U-net model. Two cohorts were used as training data from (NITRC) (NeuroImaging Tools & Resources Collaboratory (NITRC)) annotated by ITK-SNAP software. We analyze this networks alongside other recent methods that do hippocampal segmentation, the results obtained are encouraging and reach dice scores greater than 0.84

SEMANTIC SEGMENTATION OF HIPPOCAMPAL SUBREGIONS WITH U-NET ARCHITECTURE

The Automatic semantic segmentation of the hippocampus is an important area of research in which several convolutional neural networks (CNN) models have been used to detect the hippocampus from whole cerebral MRI. In this paper we present two convolutional neural networks the first network ( Hippocampus Segmentation Single Entity HSSE) segmented the hippocampus as a single entity and the second used to detect the hippocampal sub-regions ( Hippocampus Segmentation Multi Class HSMC), these two networks inspire their architecture of the U-net model. Two cohorts were used as training data from (NITRC) (NeuroImaging Tools & Resources Collaboratory (NITRC)) annotated by ITK-SNAP software. We analyze this networks alongside other recent methods that do hippocampal segmentation, the results obtained are encouraging and reach dice scores greater than 0.84

Genetic and epigenetic characterization of posterior pituitary tumors

Pituicytoma (PITUI), granular cell tumor (GCT), and spindle cell oncocytoma (SCO) are rare tumors of the posterior pituitary. Histologically, they may be challenging to distinguish and have been proposed to represent a histological spectrum of a single entity. We performed targeted next-generation sequencing, DNA methylation profiling, and copy number analysis on 47 tumors (14 PITUI; 12 GCT; 21 SCO) to investigate molecular features and explore possibilities of clinically meaningful tumor subclassification. We detected two main epigenomic subgroups by unsupervised clustering of DNA methylation data, though the overall methylation differences were subtle. The largest group (n = 23) contained most PITUIs and a subset of SCOs and was enriched for pathogenic mutations within genes in the MAPK/PI3K pathways (12/17 [71%] of sequenced tumors: FGFR1 (3), HRAS (3), BRAF (2), NF1 (2), CBL (1), MAP2K2 (1), PTEN (1)) and two with accompanying TERT promoter mutation. The second group (n = 16) contained most GCTs and a subset of SCOs, all of which mostly lacked identifiable genetic drivers. Outcome analysis demonstrated that the presence of chromosomal imbalances was significantly associated with reduced progression-free survival especially within the combined PITUI and SCO group (p = 0.031). In summary, we observed only subtle DNA methylation differences between posterior pituitary tumors, indicating that these tumors may be best classified as subtypes of a single entity. Nevertheless, our data indicate differences in mutation patterns and clinical outcome. For a clinically meaningful subclassification, we propose a combined histo-molecular approach into three subtypes: one subtype is defined by granular cell histology, scarcity of identifiable oncogenic mutations, and favorable outcome. The other two subtypes have either SCO or PITUI histology but are segregated by chromosomal copy number profile into a favorable group (no copy number changes) and a less favorable group (copy number imbalances present). Both of the latter groups have recurrent MAPK/PI3K genetic alterations that represent potential therapeutic targets.