Blockchain as an Instrument for Human Rights Business Practice

Over the last decade, a promising technology has raised global attention: blockchain. Predictions and testimonies to its potential are promising. However, despite this proliferation of material, there continues to be limited empirical analysis of its positioned values and a demonstrated need to understand and overcome the limitations of the technology. This thesis analyses two current applications of blockchain for human rights business practice and argues that in order for its true value to be realized, traditional legal and regulatory functions and systems of accountability must not be substituted with technology. With a literature review supplemented with primary research, I gather qualitative analysis to reveal avenues to be taken into consideration for future applications of the technology in supply chain initiatives as well as current evolutions of blockchain’s current applications

The USS Arizona and Bunker C Fuel Oil: an Environmental Study

Before the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941, the USS Arizona\u27s 4,630-ton fuel tanks have been filled with Bunker C fuel oil, a No. 6 fuel oil. Currently the ship remains in the place where it sank as the USS Arizona memorial site in Pearl Harbor, HI. A significant amount of oil remains in the ship today and 1-2 L is leaking per day from several different locations (Murphy and Russell, personal communication). The focus of this study was to conduct a preliminary environmental assessment of the oil leaking from the USS Arizona, and to determine if aerobic microbial degradation processes are influencing oil composition. In 2000 and 2001, oil and sediment samples were taken from the ship and adjacent areas to examine the extent of oil weathering as well as the microbial degradability of the leaking oil. The first objective of this study was to chemically characterize oil leaking from different locations of the USS Arizona. Gas chromatographic analysis indicated that oil leaking from the stern starboard hatches had fewer n-alkanes and appeared weathered in comparison to oil leaking from barbette no. 4. Biomarker analysis of leaking oil showed no difference between hopanes (m/z=191) and steranes (m/z=217) found in oil leaking from different locations, suggesting that biomarker profiles in oil leaking form the USS Arizona are not being influenced by weathering processes inside the ship. The second objective was to assess the oil composition in sediments collected from on top of the ship as well as in sediments adjacent to the ship. Following continuous soxhlet extraction, gravimetric analysis suggested low amounts of extractable materials ranging from 0.99±0.61 to 2.59±0.11 mg of solvent extractable material per gram of sediment. Gas chromatography coupled to flame ionization (GC-FID) detection suggested the presence of n-alkanes in sediments. Furthermore, a predominant and ubiquitous peak was found in all sediment extracts and indentified by mass spectrometry as butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) (m/z 205.3). PAH analysis of sediment extracts indicated lower molecular weight PAHs (e.g., naphthalenes) were below the detection limit although higher molecular weight PAHs (.e.g., chrysene) were still present. The third objective was to determine the degradability of Bunker C fuel oil leaking from the ship by microorganisms enriched from Pearl Harbor sediments, and to determine if the enriched microbial community was capable of influencing biomarker profiles present in the oil. Aerobic microbial enrichment cultures were initiated using sediments collected from 8 ship locations, and oil leaking from the ship was used as the sole source of carbon. Following the third monthly transfer of these enrichments, gravimetric analysis of oil extracted from enrichment cultures indicated an average loss of 31.03±4.58%. Analysis by G-FID demonstrated extensive degradation of the n-alkanes and branched alkanes, in comparison to uninoculated controls. Mass spectrometry also indicated degradation of PAHs. For example the ratio of total PAHs to the conserved biomarker C3017a(H),21B(H)-hopane was 15.32±4.30 for the uninoculated control in comparison to USS Arizona aerobic enrichment culture 00-002 which had a ratio of 1.66±0.14. Denaturing gradient gel elecrophoresis analysis of enrichment cultures revealed multiple banding patterns with an average of 12 bands per enrichment culture. Biomarker analysis indicated degradation of C28-C29 tricylic terpanes along with degradation of C27-steranes. Oil leaking from the ship shows different amounts of weathering. Oil leaking from the hatches near barbete no. 4 is less weathered than oil leaking from the stern starboard portholes. This suggests oil residence times within the ship are different. Materials extracted from sediments contained n-alkanes along with BHT and high molecular weight PAHs. BIomarkers from the ship and the sediment extracted materials have similar profiles and contain same compounds, such as C2017a(H),21B(H)-hopane, 18a-oleanane, and tricyclic terpanes. USS Arizona aerobic enrichment cultures degraded the n-alkanes, branched alkanes, PAHs and biomarkers (C28-C29 tricyclic terpanes and C27-steranes). Overall, this study will contribute to the USS Arizona memorial site by providing background information useful for environmental considerations, such as what is the composition of the oil leaking from the ship and what compounds are present in the sediments. Furthermore, the aerobic degradation study suggests the oil leaking from the ship is degradable under laboratory conditions

Variation in the susceptibility of Anopheles gambiae to botanicals across a metropolitan region of Nigeria

Pesticide resistance is normally associated with genetic changes, resulting in varied responses to insecticides between different populations. There is little evidence of resistance to plant allelochemicals; it is likely that their efficacy varies between genetically diverse populations, which may lead to the development of resistance in the future. This study evaluated the response of Anopheles gambiae (larvae and adults) from spatially different populations to acetone extracts of two botanicals, Piper guineense and Eugenia aromatica. Mosquito samples from 10 locations within Akure metropolis in Southwest Nigeria were tested for variation in susceptibility to the toxic effect of botanical extracts. The spatial distribution of the tolerance magnitude (T.M.) of the mosquito populations to the botanicals was also mapped. The populations of An. gambiae manifested significant differences in their level of tolerance to the botanicals. The centre of the metropolis was the hot spot of tolerance to the botanicals. There was a significant positive correlation between the adulticidal activities of both botanicals and initial knockdown. Hence, knockdown by these botanicals could be a predictor of their subsequent mortality. In revealing variation in response to botanical pesticides, our work has demonstrated that any future use of botanicals as alternative environmentally friendly vector control chemicals needs to be closely monitored to ensure that resistance does not develop

Ethical Principles for the Conduct of Research in the North

Since the publication of the Ethical Principles in 1982, they have proven their worth by becoming the most widely cited and adopted among northern researchers in Canada. Since then, however, the situation in the North has changed significantly. Many First Nations, the Inuvialuit, and the Inuit have settled land claims and, in many cases, related Self-Government Agreements. Land and other regimes have altered. Researchers now find the research context shifting, often unpredictably. Communities have sometimes found themselves and their concerns disregarded by researchers. A renewed research relationship has been called for and is emerging. A new spirit of partnership between northerners and researchers is emerging in northern research. Of course, the nature of any particular partnership will depend on the specific project. The new partnership ethic, however, emphasizes the need to create meaningful relationships with the people and communities affected by research. Another change is the increasing involvement of northerners not only as subjects or passive observers of research but in all aspects of the research process. Northerners are actively involved in research from conception to reporting, from funding to licensing. For all parties to benefit fully from research partnerships, mutual understanding is critical. High quality research depends both on communities understanding the needs and concerns of researchers and on researchers understanding the needs and concerns of communities. Guidelines, or principles, are needed to provide a foundation for and to foster a mutual understanding of community and researcher needs and goals and to ensure that research is carried out with the least friction and social disruption and the most co-operation and support. The 20 principles presented here are intended to encourage the development of co-operation and mutual respect between researchers and the people of the North. They are also intended to encourage partnership between northern peoples and researchers that, in turn, will promote and enhance northern scholarship

Increasing Utilization and Awareness of an Existing Patient Portal Application

Patient portal applications (PPAs) are secure website or computer/mobile device applications that allow 24-hour access to a patient’s electronic health record (EHR). Patient portal applications are intended to improve quality and access to health care by engaging patients to be more active in managing and monitoring their health. A large Midwest multispecialty organization’s Follow My Healthpatient portal application (FMH app) is underutilized by patients and providers. While evidence supports the use of web-based patient portal applications, only 17% of this organization’s patients use the FMH app, and even less use its direct messaging capabilities. The purpose of this project was to increase awareness and use of the existing PPA at the clinic. This was accomplished through interviews, assessing patients’ knowledge and usage. Interviews were aimed at educating and raising patients’ awareness of the benefits and key features of the FMH app. More than half (61%) of the patients who were previously aware of the PPA reported being active users of the application. By contrast, only 39% knew about the PPA but were not users.Results of the quality improvement initiative indicated a technology limitation as the most common reported reason for lack of PPA usage. It was concluded that increasing patient use and awareness of PPAs can be challenging for healthcare providers. Continued research, discussion, and advancement of PPAs will be necessary for portals to fully live up to the capability of empowering patients to manage and track their own healthcare, provide meaningful use of EHRs, and enhance patient–provider communication

Research in the North American North: Action and Reaction

The political mobilization of indigenous peoples in the North American North has resulted in new guidelines, statements of ethical principles, and consultative processes for the conduct of scientific research. This article explores the history of large-scale physical science in the North, the development of ethical principles for research conduct in Canada and the United States, and the potential difficulties of bridging the gaps between scientists and indigenous communities.La mobilisation politique des populations autochtones de l'Amérique du Nord septentrionale a débouché sur de nouvelles lignes directrices et déclarations de principes de déontologie ainsi que sur des processus consultatifs novateurs visant la conduite de la recherche scientifique. Cet article examine l'histoire de la science physique menée sur une grande échelle dans le Nord, l'élaboration de principes de déontologie concernant la recherche au Canada et aux États-Unis, ainsi que les difficultés qu'il peut y avoir à rapprocher les scientifiques et les collectivités autochtones

He Said, She Said: Style Transfer for Shifting the Perspective of Dialogues

In this work, we define a new style transfer task: perspective shift, which reframes a dialogue from informal first person to a formal third person rephrasing of the text. This task requires challenging coreference resolution, emotion attribution, and interpretation of informal text. We explore several baseline approaches and discuss further directions on this task when applied to short dialogues. As a sample application, we demonstrate that applying perspective shifting to a dialogue summarization dataset (SAMSum) substantially improves the zero-shot performance of extractive news summarization models on this data. Additionally, supervised extractive models perform better when trained on perspective shifted data than on the original dialogues. We release our code publicly.Comment: Findings of EMNLP 2022, 18 page

New distributional record of Anthrenus dorsatus Mulsant & Rey, 1868 (Coleoptera, Dermestidae) on the island of Mallorca, Spain

The carpet beetle Anthrenus dorsatus has previously been recorded from North Africa and Malta. During a recent visit to the island of Mallorca several Anthrenus species were collected which included a number of Anthrenus dorsatusspecimens. This record adds a new species both to the island of Mallorca and to the Spanish checklist. These records extend our knowledge of the distribution of A. dorsatus and provide more evidence of range expansion in the pimpinel-lae species group across Europe, possibly because of global climate change

The University Project in the Canadian North, 1964 to 2014

Résumé Depuis 1964, on peut compter quatre périodes lors desquelles des tentatives ou des propositions d’une université nordique ont été faites pour les territoires canadiens. La première, entre 1964 et 1982, coïncida avec une motivation des forces nationales inhérente à l’expansion de l’après-guerre et à la revitalisation de l’enseignement postsecondaire avec la création d’universités et de collèges communautaires, le développement du Nord et les revendications territoriales. Dans la deuxième période, allant de 1983 à 2000, les gouvernements des territoires établirent les collèges Yukon et Arctic, des institutions s’apparentant à des niveaux universitaires. La troisième période dite circumpolaire, de 2001 à 2011, le monde arctique franchit une étape et établit le réseau des universités de l’Arctique. La quatrième phase surnommée l’académique débute le 14 octobre 2014, alors que le gouvernement du Yukon et le Conseil des gouverneurs du Collège du Yukon annoncent conjointement la création d’un diplôme et d’un certificat « post-gradué » qui entrera en vigueur en 2017. Les habitants du Nord et tous ceux qui ont défendu l’idée d’une université nordique peuvent dorénavant saluer l’émergence d’une telle institution qui va répondre aux besoins des résidents nordiques. AbstractSince 1964, there have been four periods in which a northern university for the Canadian territories was proposed or attempted. The first, from 1964 to 1982, coincided with such motivating national forces as post-war expansion and renovation of the post-secondary sector with new universities and community colleges, northern development, and land claims. In the second stage, from 1983 to 2000, the territorial governments established Yukon and Arctic colleges, both institutions with some university-like features. During the third, “circumpolar,” period, from 2001 to 2011, the Arctic world opened up and the University of the Arctic network was established. The fourth, “academic,” phase began on October 14, 2014, when the Yukon Government and Yukon College Board of Governors jointly announced the college is developing a degree and a post-graduate certificate for launch in 2017. Northerners and others who have advocated for a northern university may now finally witness the emergence of such an institution, one that will meet the varied needs of residents of the North