Norms for Outer Space: A Small Step or a Giant Leap for Policymaking?

Space is increasingly critical to modern life on Earth. But there is growing concern that, as it becomes more economically and strategically important, tensions between different space actors are heightening in a manner that could lead to conflict. The accelerating proliferation of counterspace capabilities, as well as the enactment of national policies that deem space an operational or warfighting domain, underlines the very real nature of threats that exist and highlights the importance of keeping space peaceful. To address these challenges, some experts in space security have called for more robust norms of behaviour in outer space. This report explores the role of norms as a tool for outer space governance, as well as their challenges and limitations.

A Small Step, a Giant Leap: Somatic Hypermutation of a Single Amino Acid Leads to Anti-La Autoreactivity

The anti-La mab 312B, which was established by hybridoma technology from human-La transgenic mice after adoptive transfer of anti-human La T cells, immunoprecipitates both native eukaryotic human and murine La protein. Therefore, it represents a true anti-La autoantibody. During maturation, the anti-La mab 312B acquired somatic hypermutations (SHMs) which resulted in the replacement of four aa in the complementarity determining regions (CDR) and seven aa in the framework regions. The recombinant derivative of the anti-La mab 312B in which all the SHMs were corrected to the germline sequence failed to recognize the La antigen. We therefore wanted to learn which SHM(s) is (are) responsible for anti-La autoreactivity. Humanization of the 312B ab by grafting its CDR regions to a human Ig backbone confirms that the CDR sequences are mainly responsible for anti-La autoreactivity. Finally, we identified that a single amino acid replacement (D > Y) in the germline sequence of the CDR3 region of the heavy chain of the anti-La mab 312B is sufficient for anti-La autoreactivity.

The Giant Leap for Smart Cities: Scaling up Smart City Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) Initiatives

Despite the promise of AI and IoT, the efforts of many organizations at scaling smart city initiatives fall short. Organizations often start by exploring the potential with a proof-of-concept and a pilot project, with the process later grinding to a halt for various reasons. Pilot purgatory, in which organizations invest in small-scale implementations without them realizing substantial benefits, is given very little attention in the scientific literature relating to the question of why AI and IoT initiatives fail to scale up for smart cities. By combining extensive study of the literature and expert interviews, this research explores the underlying reasons why many smart city initiatives relying on Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) fail to scale up. The findings suggest that a multitude of factors may leave organizations ill prepared for smart city AIoT solutions, and that these tend to multiply when cities lack much-needed resources and capabilities. Yet many organizations tend to overlook the fact that such initiatives require them to pay attention to all aspects of change: strategy, data, people and organization, process, and technology. Furthermore, the research reveals that some factors tend to be more influential in certain stages. Strategic factors tend to be more prominent in the earlier stages, whereas factors relating to people and the organization tend to feature later when organizations roll out solutions. The study also puts forward potential strategies that companies can employ to scale up successfully. Three main strategic themes emerge from the study: proof-of-value, rather than proof-of-concept; treating and managing data as a key asset; and commitment at all levels.

Sea Prayer: An Illustrated Literary Narration on the Afflictions of Refugees

Children have been the most sought-after artist, sculptors, creators, innovators, poets, builders, and are likely to practice many professions and become one. As curious learners from their toddler life, they try to grab any object that is around and make some sense out of them. For instance, playing on a heap of sand they construct their dream homes, getting hold of their dad’s stethoscope they try to feel the ‘lub dub’ beat on the chest of their parents; playing with the cooking vessels that they stealthily take it from their mother’s kitchen and play the role of a cook and chef by heating water on a toy gas stove etc. These little incidents in their life, as little ones, have given a giant leap for mankind in the field of discovery and inventions. Many scientists like James Watt (watching the boiling kettle in his mother’s cottage), Archimedes (incident in his bathing tub), Isaac Newton (falling apple) and many other such scientists have invented something or the other, through observations and experiences. These inventions are taught to children in their science classes according to their syllabus that are graded by the education department and syllabus makers. This article will make an attempt to cater interest among students to get into the picturesque and fascinating world of children’s Nursery Rhymes to understand and learn many scientific and engineering concepts from it. Through the pictorial representations found in the nursery rhymes, many engineering concepts can be taught to children between the ages of six to fifteen. This can be seen as one of the innovative methods of revealing the great wonders of science through the Nursery Rhymes.

How Climate-Induced Migration Entered the UN Policy Agenda in 2007–2010: A Multiple Streams Assessment

In 2007, issues regarding climate-induced migration took a giant leap on the international policy agenda at the same time as a growth of interest in and salience of climate security. From having been a technical non-issue since the 1980s, climate-induced migration became one of the most emphasised consequences of climate change for a short period. After three years of fluidity in actors, institutions, and conceptual framings, issues of climate change and migration reached a formal recognition in the 2010 Cancún Adaptation Framework, marking a new era for policy discussions on climate-induced migration. This article sets out to show why this issue, which had been known to policymakers and academia for at least two decades, took such a major leap up the agenda at this specific point in time. The article draws from rich primary interview material together with an analytical framework based on the multiple streams framework in order to systematically answer this question. In doing so, the article primarily offers an empirical contribution to the knowledge and understanding of the specific agenda-setting mechanisms of climate-induced migration in an international policy context.