The Trump Administration\u27s Approach to International Law and Courts: Are We Seeing a Turn for the Worse?

The article focuses on the approach of administration of the U.S. President Donald Trump to international courts and tribunals, to treaties and international agreements, and to international human rights

A new frontier in novelty detection: Pattern recognition of stochastically episodic events

A particularly challenging class of PR problems in which the, generally required, representative set of data drawn from the second class is unavailable, has recently received much consideration under the guise of One-Class (OC) classification. In this paper, we extend the frontiers of OC classification by the introduction of a new field of problems open for analysis. In particular, we note that this new realm deviates from the standard set of OC problems based on the following characteristics: The data contains a temporal nature, the instances of the classes are “interwoven”, and the labelling procedure is not merely impractical - it is almost, by definition, impossible, which results in a poorly defined training set. As a first attempt to tackle these problems, we present two specialized classification strategies denoted by Scenarios S 1 and S 2 respectively. In Scenarios S 1, the data is such that standard binary and one-class classifiers can be applied. Alternatively, in Scenarios S 2, the labelling challenge prevents the application of binary classifiers, and instead, dictates a novel application of OC classifiers. The validity of these scenarios has been demonstrated for the exemplary domain involving the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty (CTBT), for which our research endeavour has also developed a simulation model. As far as we know, our research in this field is of a pioneering sort, and the results presented here are novel

The Surface Morphology of Normal and Atherosclerotic Coronary Arteries in Male Macaca Fascicularis and the Effect of Coronary Angiography

Selective coronary angiography is one of the procedures used frequently in the diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease. Macaca fascicularis monkeys were used to study the effects of coronary angiography on coronary artery surface morphology. Fourteen M. fascicularis were fed either an atherogenic diet (0.34 mg of cholesterol/kcal and 40 to 43% of the calories as fat) for six to nine months or a control diet. For six of these animals the Judkin method of selective left coronary angiography was done 24 h prior to necropsy. The ascending aorta, right coronary artery, left circumflex (LCX), left anterior descending (LAD) and left main (LM) coronary arteries were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The animals fed an atherogenic diet had 27% of the ascending aorta and 7% of the coronary arteries covered with raised lesions. The surface of these coronary arteries differed from those of animals fed a control diet in that the surface appeared smoother and often had numerous adherent leukocytes. The animals undergoing coronary angiography had 25% of the ascending aorta and 10% of the LM surface injured by the catheter. These areas were denuded of endothelium and covered with adherent platelets. There were no morphologic changes observed by SEM following angiography within the LCX or LAD arteries. Thus even in a setting of hypercholesterolemia exposure to contrast media during the coronary angiography procedure did not lead to surface alterations

Low-level environmental lead exposure in childhood and adult intellectual function: a follow-up study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Early life lead exposure might be a risk factor for neurocognitive impairment in adulthood.</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>We sought to assess the relationship between early life environmental lead exposure and intellectual function in adulthood. We also attempted to identify which time period blood-lead concentrations are most predictive of adult outcome.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We recruited adults in the Boston area who had participated as newborns and young children in a prospective cohort study that examined the relationship between lead exposure and childhood intellectual function. IQ was measured using the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI). The association between lead concentrations and IQ scores was examined using linear regression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Forty-three adults participated in neuropsychological testing. Childhood blood-lead concentration (mean of the blood-lead concentrations at ages 4 and 10 years) had the strongest relationship with Full-Scale IQ (β = -1.89 ± 0.70, p = 0.01). Full-scale IQ was also significantly related to blood-lead concentration at age 6 months (β = -1.66 ± 0.75, p = 0.03), 4 years (β = -0.90 ± 0.41, p = 0.03) and 10 years (β = -1.95 ± 0.80, p = 0.02). Adjusting for maternal IQ altered the significance of the regression coefficient.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study suggests that lead exposure in childhood predicts intellectual functioning in young adulthood. Our results also suggest that school-age lead exposure may represent a period of increased susceptibility. Given the small sample size, however, the potentially confounding effects of maternal IQ cannot be excluded and should be evaluated in a larger study.</p

Low-level environmental lead exposure in childhood and adult intellectual function: a follow-up study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Early life lead exposure might be a risk factor for neurocognitive impairment in adulthood.</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>We sought to assess the relationship between early life environmental lead exposure and intellectual function in adulthood. We also attempted to identify which time period blood-lead concentrations are most predictive of adult outcome.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We recruited adults in the Boston area who had participated as newborns and young children in a prospective cohort study that examined the relationship between lead exposure and childhood intellectual function. IQ was measured using the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI). The association between lead concentrations and IQ scores was examined using linear regression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Forty-three adults participated in neuropsychological testing. Childhood blood-lead concentration (mean of the blood-lead concentrations at ages 4 and 10 years) had the strongest relationship with Full-Scale IQ (β = -1.89 ± 0.70, p = 0.01). Full-scale IQ was also significantly related to blood-lead concentration at age 6 months (β = -1.66 ± 0.75, p = 0.03), 4 years (β = -0.90 ± 0.41, p = 0.03) and 10 years (β = -1.95 ± 0.80, p = 0.02). Adjusting for maternal IQ altered the significance of the regression coefficient.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study suggests that lead exposure in childhood predicts intellectual functioning in young adulthood. Our results also suggest that school-age lead exposure may represent a period of increased susceptibility. Given the small sample size, however, the potentially confounding effects of maternal IQ cannot be excluded and should be evaluated in a larger study.</p

Glutathione Peroxidase 4 is associated with Neuromelanin in Substantia Nigra and Dystrophic Axons in Putamen of Parkinson's brain

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized pathologically by the loss of nigrostriatal dopamine neurons that project from the substantia nigra in the midbrain to the putamen and caudate nuclei, leading to the clinical features of bradykinesia, rigidity, and rest tremor. Oxidative stress from oxidized dopamine and related compounds may contribute to the degeneration characteristic of this disease.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To investigate a possible role of the phospholipid hydroperoxidase glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) in protection from oxidative stress, we investigated GPX4 expression in postmortem human brain tissue from individuals with and without Parkinson's disease. In both control and Parkinson's samples, GPX4 was found in dopaminergic nigral neurons colocalized with neuromelanin. Overall GPX4 was significantly reduced in substantia nigra in Parkinson's vs. control subjects, but was increased relative to the cell density of surviving nigral cells. In putamen, GPX4 was concentrated within dystrophic dopaminergic axons in Parkinson's subjects, although overall levels of GPX4 were not significantly different compared to control putamen.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study demonstrates an up-regulation of GPX4 in neurons of substantia nigra and association of this protein with dystrophic axons in striatum of Parkinson's brain, indicating a possible neuroprotective role. Additionally, our findings suggest this enzyme may contribute to the production of neuromelanin.</p

Perspectives on the Restatement (Fourth) Project

Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for coming. It is great to have this conversation, particularly with so many people who are already helpfully contributing to this project. As Bill said, I just wanted to say a little bit about the treaty prong of the project that was approved for consideration by the ALI a couple of years ago. First of all, I should note we get a lot of questions about whether or not we are addressing executive agreements and congressional executive agreements, in addition to Article II treaties. And the current answer is that we are not. We were originally tasked by the ALI to take up the status of Article II treaties in U.S. domestic law, and that is the current character of the project

Inverse analysis of asteroseismic data: a review

Asteroseismology has emerged as the best way to characterize the global and internal properties of nearby stars. Often, this characterization is achieved by fitting stellar evolution models to asteroseismic observations. The star under investigation is then assumed to have the properties of the best-fitting model, such as its age. However, the models do not fit the observations perfectly. This is due to incorrect or missing physics in stellar evolution calculations, resulting in predicted stellar structures that are discrepant with reality. Through an inverse analysis of the asteroseismic data, it is possible to go further than fitting stellar models, and instead infer details about the actual internal structure of the star at some locations in its interior. Comparing theoretical and observed stellar structures then enables the determination of the locations where the stellar models have discrepant structure, and illuminates a path for improvements to our understanding of stellar evolution. In this invited review, we describe the methods of asteroseismic inversions, and outline the progress that is being made towards measuring the interiors of stars.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure. Invited review, Dynamics of the Sun and Star