1,806 research outputs found

    Understanding Transitional Justice and its Two Major Dilemmas

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    Transitional justice is an ever growing field and greatly intersects with conflict science and peace studies. With the horrific crimes committed during World War II and the latter half of the 20th century societies now more than ever before are devising processes, mechanisms, and policies to move past gross human rights violations or communal violence. However, these mechanisms much like anything else are not perfect and come with a variety of dilemmas. In particular two main dilemmas plague transitional justice which this paper aims to deal with: Getting to Truth and Reality versus Expectation. Within the context of a theoretical analysis methodology, this paper explores these two by dilemmas explicating and analyzing them while looking at definitions of transitional justice, its processes, their pros and cons, its history, as well as how they impact transitioning societie

    Reconciling after Transitional Justice: When Prosecutions are not Enough, the Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina

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    The concept and study of transitional justice has grown exponentially over the last decades. Since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials after the end of the Second World War, there have been a number of attempts made across the globe to achieve justice for human rights violations (International Peace Institute 2013: 10). How these attempts at achieving justice impact whether or not societies reconcile, continues to be one of the key discussions taking place in a transitional justice discourse. One particular context where this debate continues to rage on is in Bosnia and Herzegovina, many scholars argue that the transitional justice process and mechanism employed in Bosnia and Herzegovina have not fostered inter-group reconciliation, but in fact caused more divisions. To this end, this article explores the context of transitional justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina from a unique perspective that focuses on the need for reconciliation and healing after transitional justice processes like war crime prosecutions. This article explores why the prosecuting of war criminals has not fostered reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and how the processes have divided the Bosnian society further. Additionally, this article presents the idea of state-sponsored dialog sessions as a way of dealing with the past and moving beyond the divisions of retributive justice

    Conflict and Identity as a Major Impetus in Escalating or De-Escalating Conflict

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    Identity is a complex phenomenon and so is conflict. When examining the two together we can understand why some of the world’s most difficult ethnic conflicts are long term and protracted. This paper aims to analyze how identity and conflict could prevent and manage conflicts, caused by different perceptions of the identity. After all, identity can be used to escalate conflicts and connected with power and resources, identity can also be used to de-escalate conflicts as well. The purpose of this paper is to make a comparative study of the relationship between identity and conflict

    The Dynamics in the Upper Atmospheres of Mars and Titan.

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    This thesis explores the dynamics of two terrestrial bodies: Mars and Titan. At Mars, the coupled Mars General Circulation Model - Mars Thermospheric General Circulation Model (MGCM-MTGCM) is employed to investigate the phenomenon known as Mars winter polar warming. At Titan, a new theoretical model, the Titan Global Ionosphere-Thermosphere Model (T-GITM), is developed, based on the previous modeling work of Ridley et al. [2006]. Using this new model, three separate numerical studies quantify the impacts of solar cycle, seasons, and lower boundary zonal winds on the Titan thermosphere structure and dynamics. At Mars, this thesis investigates winter polar warming through three major studies: (1) a systematic analysis of vertical dust mixing in the lower atmosphere and its impact upon the dynamics of the lower thermosphere (100 − 130 km), (2) an interannual investigation utilizingthree years of lower atmosphere infrared (IR) dust optical depth data acquired by the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument on board Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), and finally (3) a brief study of the MTGCM’s response to variations in upward propagating waves and tides from the lower atmosphere. Ultimately, this investigation suggests that an interhemispheric summer-to-winter Hadley circulation, originating in the lower atmosphere and extending into the upper atmosphere, is responsible for thermospheric winter polar warming [Bel l et al., 2007]. A major branch of this thesis builds upon the previous work of Muller-Wodarg et al. [2000], Muller-Wodarg et al. [2003], Muller-Wodarg et al. [2006], and Yelle et al. [2006] in order to explain the structures in Titan’s upper atmosphere, between 500 - 1500 km. Building also upon the recent development of GITM by Ridley et al. [2006], this thesis presents a new theoretical framework, T- GITM. This model is then employed to conduct a series of numerical experiments to quantify the impacts of the solar cycle, the season, and the lower boundary winds on Titan’s thermospheric structure and dynamics. Ultimately, these numerical experiments with T-GITM function to validate a newly created Titan upper atmosphere model that has been shown to serve as a viable theoretical and numerical tool for the planetary aeronomy community.Ph.D.Space and Planetary PhysicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/60693/1/jmbell_1.pd

    ARCHANGEL: Tamper-proofing Video Archives using Temporal Content Hashes on the Blockchain

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    We present ARCHANGEL; a novel distributed ledger based system for assuring the long-term integrity of digital video archives. First, we describe a novel deep network architecture for computing compact temporal content hashes (TCHs) from audio-visual streams with durations of minutes or hours. Our TCHs are sensitive to accidental or malicious content modification (tampering) but invariant to the codec used to encode the video. This is necessary due to the curatorial requirement for archives to format shift video over time to ensure future accessibility. Second, we describe how the TCHs (and the models used to derive them) are secured via a proof-of-authority blockchain distributed across multiple independent archives. We report on the efficacy of ARCHANGEL within the context of a trial deployment in which the national government archives of the United Kingdom, Estonia and Norway participated.Comment: Accepted to CVPR Blockchain Workshop 201

    Energy Dissipation in the Upper Atmosphere of TRAPPIST-1 Planets

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    We present a method to quantify the upper-limit of the energy transmitted from the intense stellar wind to the upper atmospheres of three of the Trappist-1 planets (e, f, and g). We use a formalismthat treats the system as two electromagnetic regions, where the efficiency of the energy transmission between one region (the stellar wind at the planetary orbits) to the other (the planetary ionospheres)depends on the relation between the conductances and impedances of the two regions. Since the energy flux of the stellar wind is very high at these planetary orbits, we find that for the case of high transmission efficiency (when the conductances and impedances are close in magnitude), the energy dissipation in the upper planetary atmospheres is also very large. On average, the Ohmic energy can reach 0:5 - 1 W/m2, about 1% of the stellar irradiance and 5-15 times the EUV irradiance. Here, using constant values for the ionospheric conductance, we demonstrate that the stellar wind energy could potentially drive large atmospheric heating in terrestrial planets, as well as in hot jupiters. More detailed calculations are needed to assess the ionospheric conductance and to determine more accurately the amount of heating the stellar wind can drive in close-orbit planets

    Deployment Technology of a Heliogyro Solar Sail for Long Duration Propulsion

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    Interplanetary, multi-mission, station-keeping capabilities will require that a spacecraft employ a highly efficient propulsion-navigation system. The majority of space propulsion systems are fuel-based and require the vehicle to carry and consume fuel as part of the mission. Once the fuel is consumed, the mission is set, thereby limiting the potential capability. Alternatively, a method that derives its acceleration and direction from solar photon pressure using a solar sail would eliminate the requirement of onboard fuel to meet mission objectives. MacNeal theorized that the heliogyro-configured solar sail architecture would be lighter, less complex, cheaper, and less risky to deploy a large sail area versus a masted sail. As sail size increases, the masted sail requires longer booms resulting in increased mass, and chaotic uncontrollable deployment. With a heliogyro, the sail membrane is stowed as a roll of thin film forming a blade when deployed that can extend up to kilometers. Thus, a benefit of using a heliogyro-configured solar sail propulsion technology is the mission scalability as compared to masted versions, which are size constrained. Studies have shown that interplanetary travel is achievable by the heliogyro solar sail concept. Heliogyro solar sail concept also enables multi-mission missions such as sample returns, and supply transportation from Earth to Mars as well as station-keeping missions to provide enhanced warning of solar storm. This paper describes deployment technology being developed at NASA Langley Research Center to deploy and control the center-of-mass/center-of-pressure using a twin bladed heliogyro solar sail 6-unit (6U) CubeSat. The 6U comprises 2x2U blade deployers and 2U for payload. The 2U blade deployers can be mounted to 6U or larger scaled systems to serve as a non-chemical in-space propulsion system. A single solar sail blade length is estimated to be 2.4 km with a total area from two blades of 720 m2; total allowable weight of a 6U CubeSat is approximately 8 kg. This makes the theoretical characteristic acceleration of approximately 0.75 mm/s2 at I AU (astronomical unit), when compared to IKAROS (0.005 mm/s2) and NanoSail-D (0.02 mm/s2)

    Evaluating the Sensitivity of HeatWave Definitions among North Carolina Physiographic Regions

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    Exposure to extreme heat is a known risk factor that is associated with increased heat-related illness (HRI) outcomes. The relevance of heat wave definitions (HWDs) could change across health conditions and geographies due to the heterogenous climate profile. This study compared the sensitivity of 28 HWDs associated with HRI emergency department visits over five summer seasons (2011–2016), stratified by two physiographic regions (Coastal and Piedmont) in North Carolina. The HRI rate ratios associated with heat waves were estimated using the generalized linear regression framework assuming a negative binomial distribution. We compared the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) values across the HWDs to identify an optimal HWD. In the Coastal region, HWDs based on daily maximum temperature with a threshold \u3e 90th percentile for two or more consecutive days had the optimal model fit. In the Piedmont region, HWD based on the daily minimum temperature with a threshold value \u3e 90th percentile for two or more consecutive days was optimal. The HWDs with optimal model performance included in this study captured moderate and frequent heat episodes compared to the National Weather Service (NWS) heat products. This study compared the HRI morbidity risk associated with epidemiologic-based HWDs and with NWS heat products. Our findings could be used for public health education and suggest recalibrating NWS heat products

    Developing a self‐consistent description of Titan's upper atmosphere without hydrodynamic escape

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    In this study, we develop a best fit description of Titan's upper atmosphere between 500 km and 1500 km, using a one‐dimensional (1‐D) version of the three‐dimensional (3‐D) Titan Global Ionosphere‐Thermosphere Model. For this modeling, we use constraints from several lower atmospheric Cassini‐Huygens investigations and validate our simulation results against in situ Cassini Ion‐Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) measurements of N 2 , CH 4 , H 2 , 40 Ar, HCN, and the major stable isotopic ratios of 14 N/ 15 N in N 2 . We focus our investigation on aspects of Titan's upper atmosphere that determine the amount of atmospheric escape required to match the INMS measurements: the amount of turbulence, the inclusion of chemistry, and the effects of including a self‐consistent thermal balance. We systematically examine both hydrodynamic escape scenarios for methane and scenarios with significantly reduced atmospheric escape. Our results show that the optimum configuration of Titan's upper atmosphere is one with a methane homopause near 1000 km and atmospheric escape rates of 1.41–1.47 ×10 11 CH 4  m −2 s −1 and 1.08 ×10 14  H 2  m −2 s −1 (scaled relative to the surface). We also demonstrate that simulations consistent with hydrodynamic escape of methane systematically produce inferior fits to the multiple validation points presented here. Key Points The methane homopause is most likely near 1000 km altitude Hydrodynamic escape of methane is not required to match INMS Molecular hydrogen is best fit with a methane homopause of 1000 kmPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108005/1/jgra51076.pd
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