Haley-database developer, CIA operative, and multiple personality-is engaged to Willi Mayers. A violent act makes her return home, then her father is murdered. Haley's alter ego emerges, but, after Haley shows an assassin mercy, ends their arrangement. Later, the duo begin work on a Tribulation Tracking System. On the team is Patricia Candor, a born again Christian. Seeing her faith makes agnostic Willi open to Christ, a decision atheist Haley frets about. When the team is attacked, Willi can't defend herself, so Haley sends her to the CIA's Farm for training. Later, as women are abducted, Willi deduces the kidnapper is guided by Revelations' Seal, Trumpet, and Vial judgments. Also, a cryptic message is left at churches - the only way to the Father is through the sunset of Christianity. After Al Qaeda recruits MS-13 to commit terrorist acts, an enraged Willi renounces God and plans to execute all involved. Haley must now deal with two mass murderers and a woman he no longer trusts.

Maxine Kordell's high school reunion is marred when al-Qaeda hijacks her plane, a female gang accosts her, her friend Marty Blair is murdered, and she's threatened by a drug cartel, coyotes, and the police. Joined by Mena Harling and Willi Mayers, 3-M investigate, but are almost killed while in custody. Haley joins them, but events intrude involving lost Francisco Goya paintings, a Jim Bowie silver hoard, Sherlock Holmes, Pope Pius XII, The Cluster, a list compiled by former Vice President Aldrich Fellerson implicating The Vatican in war crimes, and a plan for hiding the list devised by Holmes. So Pope John Paul II brings the foursome to Rome, where they're caught in a feud between two cardinals and become targets of the Mafia. 3-M and Haley soon learn their foes include four professional assassins. Aided by born again Christian/Sherlockian Nora Kelly, they find a letter from Holmes, pursue the treasures and list, then Max must face Marty's killer, whose lethality may exceed her own.

Mena Harling learns shoddy maintenance caused ThriftJet crashes, one in which her brother died. Then a whistleblower is murdered, a note left by his corpse-Too risky to fly; deny that, you'll die; I'll watch your tears dry; your last sigh's my high. Aether. And TOETIFTSA, who desecrated Nora Kelly's church, continues killing Christians, leaving a note-Christian fundamentalism is not a righteous pursuit. So Maxine Kordell, Nora, Willi Mayers, and Haley join Mena. When Aether murders Cluster members, The Tracer asks for help, and reveals The Cluster killed Will Rogers, Amelia Earhart, and Glenn Miller. Then Aether attacks Dulles Airport and other iconic aerospace sites, as TOETIFTSA causes the crash of a plane carrying Christians, then tries to murder Nora. So Mena seeks help from a notorious serial killer, a psychiatrist living in Italy, who will profile Aether if the team agrees to a favor. Finally, events push Mena to become the determined protector of certain sociopaths just rewards.

Haley, suicidal after Willi's death, joins a CIA mission, then finds her alive in the hands of slavers. As both face death, his alter ego returns to kill her captors. Then past events intrude. Valen, a Gnostic, forges a letter in Jesus' name, then Cesare Borgia adapts it. Centuries later, the letter involves John McCone, J. Edgar Hoover, four U.S. Presidents, Judy Garland, and Haley's CIA mentor, George Durell. In 2000, Pope John Paul II receives the letter, then asks the U.S. for help. But The Order Of The Gnostic Cross, Church Of Triantology, and Raven H2O have their own plans, as does female spy Jasus al-Mara, who enlists the aid of al-Qaeda terrorist Karbala. Meanwhile, the shadowy Cluster pulls everyone's strings, the unknown Termagant plots to destroy TGC, and a monster carves TINPLUFORPLE on the torsos of little girls. When a letter from George Durell surfaces, Haley and Willi again face violent foes, but this time they have help-serial killers Maxine Kordell and Mena Harling.

In New York City, database developers Haley and Willi foil an attempt to blow up the Manhattan Bridge. Home again, in Centreville, Virginia, a snobbish waiter brings out Willi's darker side, so Haley insists she see a psychiatrist. Then, outside events intrude. A serial killer is murdering pedophiles. A second killer is eliminating famous people who escaped justice, leaving behind a cryptic note-To the determined protector of my just reward. A third killer is murdering parents and daughters, then leaving bizarre notes citing songs about Bill. A hostile takeover of their employer is underway, using The Stroller, an assassin, to ensure the sale. Nora Kelly, an evangelical friend presumed dead in the Sudan, returns, mysteriously saved by Raven H2O, a security contractor known for its ruthlessness. When friends are killed, the twosome are drawn into the tangled web of serial murders, and Haley must deal with the distinct possibility Willi may be one of the killers.

Life hasn't been kind to Haley. In his early 30's, a database developer, and once a covert CIA operative, he has an alter ego who emerges when violence threatens. A half Irish, half Jewish orphan, he retreated to a workaholic existence after his wife died in an accident. Then Haley met Montana-born Episcopalian, Willi Mayers, a master at verbal jousting, able to eat enormous quantities of food without gaining weight. As they develop a Cultural Landscapes System for the National Park Service, a cryptic note appears with the message 3912. More notes appear, and Haley's formerly submissive alter ego becomes aggressive. In Montana, Haley tries to effect a rapprochement between Willi and her father, only to return home to face a personal tragedy that frees his alter ego to take vengeance on a merciless killer. His future with Willi at stake, Haley must confront a violent adversary from his past, while deciphering the true meaning and intent of the notes.

Since the dawn of athletic competition during the original Olympic Games in Ancient Greece, athletes, as well as their coaches and trainers, have been finding innovative ways to gain an edge on their competition. Some of those performance-enhancement methods have been within the accepted rules while other methods skirt the gray area between being within the rules and not, while still other methods break the established rules. In modern times, doping - the use of performance-enhancing drugs - has been one method athletes and their trainers have used to beat their competition. The history of sports doping during the modern era can be traced through the events and scandals of the times in which the athletes lived. From the use of amphetamines and other stimulants in the early 20th century, to the use of testosterone and steroids by both the USSR and the United States during Cold War-era Olympics games, to blood doping and EPO, to designer drugs, the history of doping in sports closely follows the medical and technological advances of our times. In the early 21st century, the possibility of genetically engineered athletes looms. The story of doping in sports over the last century offers clues to where the battle over performance enhancement will be fought in the years to come. This book includes a timeline of major milestones/events in the history of doping from the mid-1800s onward. It also shows that a number of popularly circulated stories about doping in sports don't hold up under close examination. For example, in 1886, an English cyclist was said to have died following the Bordeaux to Paris Derny race. However, the Bordeaux to Paris race didn't exist in 1886. It was first run in 1891.Second, the cyclist who supposedly died in 1886 actually died in 1896-from typhoid fever, rather than doping-related causes. To round this landmark study, Dope features an afterword that addresses the final conclusion of the Floyd Landis doping case and brings the content up to the minute on other current doping scandals.

In this book, I deal with some fundamental problems of the Hegelian dialectic. For this purpose, I take a middle course between total scepticism, which considers dialectic as a devastator sophistry with no respect even for the non-contradiction principle, and authoritarian dogmatism, which claims to solve any question with the magic wand of the Hegelian Aufhebung. That is, I decide to be critical, defining concepts anew, bringing out sources, determining conditions of possibility and fields of validity, accepting or rejecting when necessary. Following G. R. G. Mure's thinking, from an inner point of view I examine whether, in carrying out his work, Hegel remains faithful to the different principles he proclaims, and I find substantial deviations. And, following W. Becker's thinking, from an external point of view, that is, from a formal, empirical or existential contemporary angle, I try to determine the extent to which we may legitimately talk about the fruitfulness of Hegelian dialectic. In this way, I reconstruct Hegel's thought so that it may become acceptable to us-readers of the twentieth-century-as intelligible and coherent as possible. I conclude that dialectic, as a logic of human reality, has to be grasped and expressed from the viewpoint of the particular historical individual, in constant interaction with the cultural environment of his or her time. Using this approach, I investigate the questions at issue from Hegel's Logic point of view.

This book is about the experiences of Jewish children who were members of armed partisan groups in Eastern Europe during World War II and the Holocaust. It describes and analyze the role of children as activists, agents, and decision makers in a situation of extraordinary danger and stress. The children in this book were hunted like prey and ran for their lives. They survived by fleeing into the forest and swamps of Eastern Europe and joining anti-German partisan groups. The vast majority of these children were teenagers between ages 11 and 18, although some were younger. They were, by any definition, child soldiers, and that is the reason they lived to tell their tales. The book will be of interest to general and academic audiences. There is also great interest in children and childhood across disciplines of history and the social sciences. It is likely to spark considerable debate and interest, since its argument runs counter to the generally accepted wisdom that child soldiers must first and foremost be seen as victims of their recruiters. The argument of this book is that time, place, and context play a key role in our understanding of children’s involvement in war and that in some contexts children under arms must be seen as exercising an inherent right of self-defense.

This book is the result of a conference on arithmetic geometry, held July 30 through August 10, 1984 at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, the purpose of which was to provide a coherent overview of the subject. This subject has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity due in part to Faltings' proof of Mordell's conjecture. Included are extended versions of almost all of the instructional lectures and, in addition, a translation into English of Faltings' ground-breaking paper. ARITHMETIC GEOMETRY should be of great use to students wishing to enter this field, as well as those already working in it. This revised second printing now includes a comprehensive index.

This book is about the experiences of Jewish children who were members of armed partisan groups in Eastern Europe during World War II and the Holocaust. It describes and analyze the role of children as activists, agents, and decision makers in a situation of extraordinary danger and stress. The children in this book were hunted like prey and ran for their lives. They survived by fleeing into the forest and swamps of Eastern Europe and joining anti-German partisan groups. The vast majority of these children were teenagers between ages 11 and 18, although some were younger. They were, by any definition, child soldiers, and that is the reason they lived to tell their tales. The book will be of interest to general and academic audiences. There is also great interest in children and childhood across disciplines of history and the social sciences. It is likely to spark considerable debate and interest, since its argument runs counter to the generally accepted wisdom that child soldiers must first and foremost be seen as victims of their recruiters. The argument of this book is that time, place, and context play a key role in our understanding of children's involvement in war and that in some contexts children under arms must be seen as exercising an inherent right of self-defense.

3 billion years ago, an alien evolution experiment began, then they ended the age of dinosaurs to protect that experiment. Later, they performed three human makeovers-Jesus Of Nazareth, Galileo, and a 72 year old man named Sam. In 2016, a spacecraft lands in Virginia carrying Sam-now The Emissary-who reveals an hypothesis to be tested-Science as an organizing principle is compatible with species survivability and longevity. With Sam is BC. who appears as a platinum rod, a wooden staff, a Border Collie, and a giant tarantula. Sam explains the experiment is threatened by religious fundamentalism, so to usher in an Age Of Science, Sam confronts a variety of believers and unbelievers. But superstition is hard to overcome, and when fanatics attempt to assassinate them, BC wreaks havoc. Then Sam reveals an unimpeachable witness, whose testimony rocks the world. But the aliens have a hidden motive, one that forces humanity to confront an unworldly terror that threatens their very existence.

Haley and 3-M plan to kill The Termagant, but at a movie house, a clown opens fire, kills two people, and leaves an enigmatic note-What Would J Do? Thus begins an endgame rooted in 1635, conflating the psychotic Lomi; a killing machine named Ubeltater; natural philosopher Marin Mersenne; movie icon James Cagney; and the prime numbers series. Meanwhile, The Termagant leaves a prophetic note-Your demises shall be my right hand's gift, but how shall I do it? Asked and answered. Soon, serial killer La Boheme begins murdering women, cutting out a section of cheek, and also leaving a note-She's so perfect now, my chef-d'oeuvre. As the clown shootings escalate, Haley and 3-M engage in a battle at Kings Dominion, then learn a massacre to be seen by millions is being planned. But as they hunt the killers, the beasts decide to target their families, stoking Willi's long repressed savagery. After deducing The Termagant's identity, she hides her discovery, then confronts the killer on her own.

Preoperative imaging is increasingly being adopted for preoperative planning in plastic and reconstructive surgery. Accurate preoperative analysis can reduce the length of operations and maximize surgical design and dissection techniques. Imaging for Plastic Surgery covers the techniques, applications, and potentialities of medical imaging technology in plastic and reconstructive surgery. Presenting state-of-the-art research on evolving imaging modalities, this cutting-edge text: Provides a practical introduction to imaging modalities that can be used during preoperative planning Addresses imaging principles of the face, head, neck, breast, trunk, and extremities Identifies the strengths and weaknesses of all available imaging modalities Demonstrates the added value of imaging in different clinical scenarios Comprised of contributions from world-class experts in the field, Imaging for Plastic Surgery is an essential imaging resource for surgeons, radiologists, and patient care professionals.

This book exposes the role of children in war, describing where, why, and how children are deployed, the attempts made by international organizations to protect children, and the underlying political and cultural issues that make this such a thorny issue. In conflict-torn countries such as Myanmar and Uganda, the use of child soldiers in military and paramilitary operations continues to occur despite widespread condemnation and the efforts of organizations such as the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. This book will allow readers to grasp the impact of this issue for both individuals and nations worldwide. Child Soldiers: A Reference Handbook traces the evolution of child soldiers from approximately 1940 onwards, covering important historical to modern conflicts. The subject is discussed from a global perspective, with particular attention given to areas where the use of child soldiers is most prevalent. The book covers the complex underlying reasons for the continued use of child soldiers in the modern world, examines the political and psychological consequences of using children-both male and female-in military and paramilitary organizations, and describes how this subject has been addressed by international law and various human rights organizations. A chronology of major events in the efforts to limit the use of child soldiers Biographical sketches of famous child soldiers and key figures in the effort to ban the use of child soldiers A directory of organizations involved in the child soldier issue

A cutting-edge study showcases the emergence of contemporary youth activism in the United States, its benefits to young people, its role in strengthening society, and its powerful social justice implications. At a time when youth are too often dismissed as either empowered consumers or disempowered deviants, it is vital to understand how these young people are pushing back, challenging such constructions, and advancing new possibilities for their institutions and themselves. This book examines the latest developments in the field of contemporary youth activism (CYA) and documents the myriad ways in which youth activists are effecting social change, even as they experience personal change. By taking public, political action on a range of intersecting issues, youth activists are shifting their own developmental pathways, shaping public policy, and shaking up traditional paradigms. Section one of the book offers a historical perspective on youth activism in the United States, followed by a discussion of contemporary examples of CYA for social justice. The second and third sections analyze the individual, institutional, and ideological effects of CYA, arguing that youth activism works to promote change at three levels: self, systems, and in the broader society. Readers will come away with a clearer understanding of the many ways in which today's youth activists are working to reimagine and remake American democracy, reawakening the promise of a multi-issue, progressive movement for social justice.

This volume is the result of a (mainly) instructional conference on arithmetic geometry, held from July 30 through August 10, 1984 at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. This volume contains expanded versions of almost all the instructional lectures given during the conference. In addition to these expository lectures, this volume contains a translation into English of Falt ings' seminal paper which provided the inspiration for the conference. We thank Professor Faltings for his permission to publish the translation and Edward Shipz who did the translation. We thank all the people who spoke at the Storrs conference, both for helping to make it a successful meeting and enabling us to publish this volume. We would especially like to thank David Rohrlich, who delivered the lectures on height functions (Chapter VI) when the second editor was unavoidably detained. In addition to the editors, Michael Artin and John Tate served on the organizing committee for the conference and much of the success of the conference was due to them-our thanks go to them for their assistance. Finally, the conference was only made possible through generous grants from the Vaughn Foundation and the National Science Foundation."

gar discusses recent studies of the SF gene promoter that may be relevant to understanding the detailed molecular mechanism(s) by which soluble factors regulate SF production. Polverini and Nickoloff discuss another mechanism by which SF may enhance tumor growth, ie., stimulation of angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing microvessels. Angiogenesis is required for continued growth of most solid tumors, and provides a mechanism by which the stroma may continue to grow along with the tumor cells. Although endothelial cells are stromal cells, they express a number of epithelial characteristics including (i) epithelial-like tight junctions and junctional proteins; (ii) the ability to organize into flat- tened tubular structures; (iii) the c-met receptor protein; and (iv) biologic responsiveness to SF. It is, perhaps, not surprising that vascular endothe- lial cells may both produce and respond to SF in different situations. 'Epithelialness' may be defined in two ways: (i) expression of generic epithelial structures and proteins (eg., specialized junctions, junctional proteins [eg., cadherins, ZOl], cytokeratins); and (ii) production of specific differentiated products (eg. , milk proteins by mammary epithelia, renin by renal tubular epithelia of the juxtaglomerular apparatus). Recent studies suggest that SF Ic-met signalling may mediate epithelia- mesenchyme interconversion, in part by modifying some of the generic epithelial characteristics. Nusrat discusses the effects of SF on the epithelial junctional apparatus. Relatively little is known about whether and how SF regulates cell-specific differentiation.

When released in 2003, The Room, an obscure, self-financed relationship drama by an eccentric self-taught filmmaker named Tommy Wiseau, should have been completely forgotten. Yet nearly two decades later, "the worst movie ever made"—as many a critic would have it—has become the most popular cult film since The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In You Are Tearing Me Apart, Lisa!, contributors explore this priceless cultural artifact, offering fans and film buffs critical insight into the movie's various meanings, historical context, and place in the cult canon. Even if by complete accident, The Room touches on many issues of modern concern, including sincerity, authenticity, badness, artistic value, gender relations, Americanness, Hollywood conventions, masculinity, and even the meaning of life. Revealing the timeless, infamous power of Wiseau's The Room, You Are Tearing Me Apart, Lisa! is a deeply entertaining deconstruction of an original work of all-American failure.

When we hear the term ""child soldiers"", most Americans imagine innocent victims roped into bloody conflicts in distant war-torn lands like Sudan and Sierra Leone. Yet our own history is filled with examples of children involved in warfare - from adolescent prisoner of war Andrew Jackson to Civil War drummer boys - who were once viewed as symbols of national pride rather than signs of human degradation. In this daring new study, anthropologist David M. Rosen investigates why our cultural perception of the child soldier has changed so radically over the past two centuries. Child Soldiers in the Western Imagination reveals how Western conceptions of childhood as a uniquely vulnerable and innocent state are a relatively recent invention. Furthermore, Rosen offers an illuminating history of how human rights organizations drew upon these sentiments to create the very term ""child soldier"", which they presented as the embodiment of war's human cost. Filled with shocking historical accounts and facts - and revealing the reasons why one cannot spell ""infantry"" without ""infant"" - Child Soldiers in the Western Imagination seeks to shake us out of our pervasive historical amnesia. It challenges us to stop looking at child soldiers through a biased set of idealized assumptions about childhood, so that we can better address the realities of adolescents and pre-adolescents in combat. Presenting informative facts while examining fictional representations of the child soldier in popular culture, this book is both eye-opening and thought-provoking.