Parallel Courts

Even as American attention is focused on Iraq’s struggles to rebuild its political and legal systems in the face of violent sectarian divisions, another fractured society – Kosovo – has just begun negotiations to resolve the question of its political independence. The persistent ethnic divisions that have obstructed Kosovo’s efforts to establish multi-ethnic “rule of law” offer lessons in transitional justice for Iraq and other states. In Kosovo today, two parallel judicial systems each claim absolute and exclusive jurisdiction over the province. One system is sponsored by the United Nations administration in Kosovo and is mostly, although not exclusively, staffed by Kosovar Albanians. The other system, run primarily by Kosovar Serbians, is essentially a set of courts-in-exile, the remnants of the previous judicial system that existed before the Serbian government was forced out of Kosovo by NATO bombing in 1999. The parallel courts present a transitional justice issue that is as crucial to rebuilding Kosovo’s post-conflict society as convening a truth commission or conducting criminal trials. On one level, the existence of the parallel courts is a manifestation of the ongoing political dispute over sovereignty. For the residents of Kosovo, the lack of any recognition of judgments between these systems has also created legal chaos in their everyday lives. Conflicting judgments have been issued in civil cases, and criminal defendants are subject to prosecution and punishment in both systems. The palpable injustices that result from these conflicting judgments and repeated trials are undermining confidence in the ongoing process of legal and political transition. This article undertakes an assessment of Kosovo’s parallel systems and of the existing legal models for recognition and enforcement of judgments, with the aim of proposing an appropriate framework for Kosovo to recognize the Serbian parallel judgments. In my survey of the relevant national and international models, I find that each strives to strike a balance between two competing values: (1) certainty in the finality and consistency of legal judgments and (2) ensuring those judgments’ essential fairness. Using these two values as a guide, I assess whether and how the existing models might be adapted to Kosovo’s context, concluding that the proper balance between legal certainty and fairness will permit categorical recognition of most parallel civil judgments, but will require case by case, discretionary review of criminal judgments. Finally, from this analysis, I develop a set of factors for other transitioning states to consider when faced with judgments from ethnic and religious legal institutions or other parallel courts

Sending the Bureaucracy to War

Administrative law has been transformed after 9/11, much to its detriment. Since then, the government has mobilized almost every part of the civil bureaucracy to fight terrorism, including agencies that have no obvious expertise in that task. The vast majority of these bureaucratic initiatives suffer from predictable, persistent, and probably intractable problems - problems that contemporary legal scholars tend to ignore, even though they are central to the work of the writers who created and framed the discipline of administrative law. We analyze these problems through a survey of four administrative initiatives that exemplify the project of sending bureaucrats to war. The initiatives - two involving terrorism financing, one involving driver licensing, and one involving the adjudication of asylum claims - grow out of the two statutes perhaps most associated with the war on terrorism, the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the REAL ID Act of 2005. In each of our case studies, the civil administrative schemes used to fight terrorism suffer from the incongruity of fitting civil rules into an anti-civil project, the difficulties of delegating wide discretion without adequate supervision, and the problem of using inexpert civil regulators to serve complex law enforcement ends. We conclude that anti-terrorism should rarely be the principal justification for a new administrative initiative, but offer some recommendations as to when it might make sense to re-purpose civil officials as anti-terrorism fighters

A basic and applied investigation into the effect of the rate of reinforcer delivery

There is some evidence from basic research with animals that increasing the rate of delivering a reinforcer serves to increase response rates. There have been very few applied studies which have investigated rate of delivering a reinforcer independent of other variables, especially with non-discrete or durational target behaviours. Reinforcement remains a central feature of training or intervention programmes with severely developmentally delayed clients. Yet the parameters of a reinforcer and the parameters of the reinforcement process have not been fully investigated. The purpose of the current research was to investigate the effects of delivering a functionally positive reinforcer at a high and very high rate on discrete and durational target behaviours with two severely developmentally delayed adults. The present research consisted of two single subject ABACAC within subject reversal design experiments. Trainers presented the onset of the different reinforcer delivery rate conditions in a multiple baseline across two tasks. Results in the first three conditions of Experiment 1 demonstrated that when initially delivered at an increased rate, verbal praise rate was a functionally positive reinforcer of accurate production rate and time spent in production When the rate of delivering praise was further increased, this increase was initially associated with a further increase, but a later decrease in target behaviours. All target (production) behaviours became more variable with Client employee 1 and the function of the positive reinforcer did not remain stable when delivered at its highest rate. A correlational analysis of some of the data in the very frequent praise conditions did not support a positive proportional relationship between delivery rate of the reinforcer and either of the target behaviours. Results during the first three conditions of Experiment 2 also demonstrated that an increased rate of verbal praise was a functionally positive reinforcer of accurate production rate and time in production. When the rate of verbal praise was further increased, this increased rate was associated with maintaining, but not further increasing accurate production rates. Further increasing the rate of verbal praise was associated with decreases in time spent in production. Only one of the target behaviours became more variable with Client employee 2 when praise was delivered at a very frequent rate. A correlational analysis of some of the data in the very frequent praise conditions offered partial support for a positive proportional relationship between rate of delivering the reinforcer and the target behaviours. Although reinforcer delivery rate was associated with different specific effects across the two Client employees, the reinforcing function of verbal praise did not remain stable when delivered at different rates across both individuals. It was concluded that it cannot reliably be predicted that a reinforcer delivered at one rate will continue to reinforce at a higher rate across all behaviours. This result is discussed in light of previous related research and the parameters of the reinforcement process. The specific effects obtained across the two Client employees are discussed with reference to contributing experimental factors and possible functional accounts of the effects. Suggestions for future research are made

A geometric basis for the standard-model gauge group

A geometric approach to the standard model in terms of the Clifford algebra Cl_7 is advanced. A key feature of the model is its use of an algebraic spinor for one generation of leptons and quarks. Spinor transformations separate into left-sided ("exterior") and right-sided ("interior") types. By definition, Poincare transformations are exterior ones. We consider all rotations in the seven-dimensional space that (1) conserve the spacetime components of the particle and antiparticle currents and (2) do not couple the right-chiral neutrino. These rotations comprise additional exterior transformations that commute with the Poincare group and form the group SU(2)_L, interior ones that constitute SU(3)_C, and a unique group of coupled double-sided rotations with U(1)_Y symmetry. The spinor mediates a physical coupling of Poincare and isotopic symmetries within the restrictions of the Coleman--Mandula theorem. The four extra spacelike dimensions in the model form a basis for the Higgs isodoublet field, whose symmetry requires the chirality of SU(2). The charge assignments of both the fundamental fermions and the Higgs boson are produced exactly.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX requires iopart. Accepted for publication in J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 9 Mar 2001. Typos correcte

Non-coding stem-bulge RNAs are required for cell proliferation and embryonic development in C. elegans.

Stem bulge RNAs (sbRNAs) are a family of small non-coding stem-loop RNAs present in Caenorhabditis elegans and other nematodes, the function of which is unknown. Here, we report the first functional characterisation of nematode sbRNAs. We demonstrate that sbRNAs from a range of nematode species are able to reconstitute the initiation of chromosomal DNA replication in the presence of replication proteins in vitro, and that conserved nucleotide sequence motifs are essential for this function. By functionally inactivating sbRNAs with antisense morpholino oligonucleotides, we show that sbRNAs are required for S phase progression, early embryonic development and the viability of C. elegans in vivo. Thus, we demonstrate a new and essential role for sbRNAs during the early development of C. elegans. sbRNAs show limited nucleotide sequence similarity to vertebrate Y RNAs, which are also essential for the initiation of DNA replication. Our results therefore establish that the essential function of small non-coding stem-loop RNAs during DNA replication extends beyond vertebrates.This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC doctoral training grant DTG (BB/F016581/1) and grant BB/K013378/1).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from The Company of Biologists via http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jcs.166744

Regular order reductions of ordinary and delay-differential equations

We present a C program to compute by successive approximations the regular order reduction of a large class of ordinary differential equations, which includes evolution equations in electrodynamics and gravitation. The code may also find the regular order reduction of delay-differential equations.Comment: 4 figure

Lightlike infinity in GCA models of Spacetime

This paper discusses a 7 dimensional conformal geometric algebra model for spacetime based on the notion that spacelike and timelike infinities are distinct. I show how naturally of the dimensions represents the lightlike infinity and appears redundant in computations, yet usefull in interpretationComment: 12 page

The H-Index as a Quantitative Indicator of the Relative Impact of Human Diseases

Assessment of the relative impact of diseases and pathogens is important for agencies and other organizations charged with providing disease surveillance, management and control. It also helps funders of disease-related research to identify the most important areas for investment. Decisions as to which pathogens or diseases to target are often made using complex risk assessment approaches; however, these usually involve evaluating a large number of hazards as it is rarely feasible to conduct an in-depth appraisal of each. Here we propose the use of the H-index (or Hirsch index) as an alternative rapid, repeatable and objective means of assessing pathogen impact. H-index scores for 1,414 human pathogens were obtained from the Institute for Scientific Information's Web of Science (WOS) in July/August 2010. Scores were compared for zoonotic/non-zoonotic, and emerging/non-emerging pathogens, and across taxonomic groups. H-indices for a subset of pathogens were compared with Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) estimates for the diseases they cause. H-indices ranged from 0 to 456, with a median of 11. Emerging pathogens had higher H-indices than non-emerging pathogens. Zoonotic pathogens tended to have higher H-indices than human-only pathogens, although the opposite was observed for viruses. There was a significant correlation between the DALY of a disease and the H-index of the pathogen(s) that cause it. Therefore, scientific interest, as measured by the H-index, appears to be a reflection of the true impact of pathogens. The H-index method can be utilized to set up an objective, repeatable and readily automated system for assessing pathogen or disease impact

Systematic Assessment of the Climate Sensitivity of Important Human and Domestic Animals Pathogens in Europe

Climate change is expected to threaten human health and well-being via its effects on climate-sensitive infectious diseases, potentially changing their spatial distributions, affecting annual/seasonal cycles, or altering disease incidence and severity. Climate sensitivity of pathogens is a key indicator that diseases might respond to climate change, but the proportion of pathogens that is climate-sensitive, and their characteristics, are not known. The climate sensitivity of European human and domestic animal infectious pathogens, and the characteristics associated with sensitivity, were assessed systematically in terms of selection of pathogens and choice of literature reviewed. Sixty-three percent (N = 157) of pathogens were climate sensitive; 82% to primary drivers such as rainfall and temperature. Protozoa and helminths, vector-borne, foodborne, soilborne and waterborne transmission routes were associated with larger numbers of climate drivers. Zoonotic pathogens were more climate sensitive than human- or animal-only pathogens. Thirty-seven percent of disability-adjusted-life-years arise from human infectious diseases that are sensitive to primary climate drivers. These results help prioritize surveillance for pathogens that may respond to climate change. Although this study identifies a high degree of climate sensitivity among important pathogens, their response to climate change will be dependent on the nature of their association with climate drivers and impacts of other drivers