The resumption of palm-oil production on Guadalcanal's northern plains

Palm-oil operations on the island of Guadalcanal are situated in an area that was a hot spot during the 'tension' years of 1998-2003. An analysis of the industry therefore provides an important case study of post-conflict development, and of how local animosities are tempered, or exacerbated, by new cash-earning opportunities. This paper examines the difference between the arrangements entered into by the Guadalcanal Plains Palm Oil Ltd (GPPOL) and its 1973-99 predecessor, Solomon Islands Plantations Ltd. It also looks at the impact on the industry of the 1998-99 Isatabu uprising, and the 2004 deal struck between local landowners and GPPOL, at the out-grower scheme, at land tenure arrangements, and at the trust funds established upon recommencement of operations. We analyse the oil-palm operations in the broader context of the socio-economic setting on the northern plains, with particular refeence to the way local villagers balance their time between participation in palm oil production and the supply of food to the Honiara market

“If You Build It, They Will Come”: Reverse Location Searches, Data Collection, and The Fourth Amendment

On January 6, 2021, the world looked on, stunned, as thousands of rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on live television in support of then-President Donald Trump. In the days and weeks that followed, federal law enforcement scrambled to identify those involved in the attack, in what has become the largest criminal investigation in American history. Whereas even 20 years prior it would have been difficult to identify those involved, as of February 2023, more than 950 people have been identified and charged in relation to the January 6th Capitol attack. Many of these individuals were identified using a wide array of new technology, including automated license plate readers, complex facial recognition searches, and reverse location searches. The use of reverse location searches dates to at least 2016. Reverse location searches provide law enforcement the ability to reverse-engineer the location of people for the purposes of an investigation. This is accomplished with location data collected by third-party companies from their users’ electronic devices. Many electronic devices, such as cellphones, are equipped with GPS, which determines a device’s location using signals from satellites. Additional information can be used to pinpoint the location of a device through Wi-Fi, mobile networks, and certain device sensors. Google, for example, states that in order to collect the location data, it uses “GPS and other sensor data from your device,” your “IP address,” “[a]ctivity on Google services, such as your searches and places you label like home or work,” and “[i]nformation about things near your device, such as Wi-Fi access points, cell towers, and Bluetooth-enabled devices.” This Comment examines the two types of reverse location searches in detail, analyzing the constitutionality of each under these three questions: (1) is it a search under the Fourth Amendment? (2) can it meet the particularity and probable cause requirements? (3) does it fall into the category of general warrants prohibited by the Fourth Amendment? Ultimately, it argues that reverse location searches are constitutional, raising the question of whether existing Fourth Amendment doctrine is sufficient to guarantee the Amendment’s protections

Increased inflammation in response to Porphyromonas gingivalis in diabetic mice

Thesis (M.S.D.)--Boston University, Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, 2002 (Endodontics).Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-75).Diabetic individuals are more susceptible to infection than normal individuals. Infections of diabetics tend to be more severe and are more likely to have serious systemic complications. Porphyromonas gingivalis , an anaerobic Gram-negative bacterium, is associated with adult periodontitis and lesions of endodontic origin. Infections by P. gingivalis result in necrosis of soft tissues and the activation of inflammatory responses that lead to induction of osteoclastogenesis. Polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs), components of the innate immune response, act as the primary leukocyte that counteracts bacterial infection. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that diabetes alters the inflammatory response to P. gingivalis. The host response to P. gingivalis in diabetic and matched control mice following injection with live P. gingivalis or P. gingivalis lipopolysaccharide (LPS) into the scalp was evaluated and the recruitment of PMNs and the necrosis of P. gingivalis infected tissue was assessed. Mice were sacrificed 1 day and 3 days after injection. On day 1, P. gingivalis induced areas of necrosis that were similar in normal and diabetic mice (p>0.05 , Student 's T test). On day 3, there were 3.35 PMN/field in the diabetic mice, which was 55% greater than control mice, (2.17 PMN/field) , and was statistically significant (p<0.05). Similar results were obtained with P. gingivalis LPS. These results indicate that the initial responses to P. gingivalis are similar in normal and diabetic mice, but that there are prolonged inflammatory responses in diabetic mice

Development of a hollow-fiber membrane bioreactor system for the continuous production of 2,5-diketo-D-gluconic acid

A hollow-fiber membrane bioreactor system for the continuous production of 2,5-diketo-gluconic acid (2,5-DKG) was constructed and demonstrated. Additionally, key control parameters affecting the production of 2,5-DKG were identified. Pantoea citrea, which possesses three membrane bound enzymes that convert D-glucose into 2,5-DKG, was contained within the extracapillary space of the reactor. The system was designed to provide direct oxygenation to the biomass in the reactor, while liquid nutrients were provided through the intracapillary space. Experiments in which biomass concentration within the reactor and substrate throughput rate were varied identified key operating parameters that control product titre and the volumetric production rate of the system Under the operating conditions used in the experiments, 2,5-DKG concentrations as high as 13 g/L were observed and maintained for 37 hours. Yields as high as 0.54 g 2,5-DKG/g glucose consumed were seen and a maximum volumetric productivity (based upon intracapillary volume) of 3.9 g/L/hr was achieved

Acknowledgements

Each year, in a tradition dating back twenty-three years to Volume 33, the Editor-in-Chief of the University of Richmond Law Review authors acknowledgements to be included in their volume’s final publication. In keeping with tradition, I offer below my gratitude to those who have contributed to this publication and to the overall success of the Law Review, and reflect upon the fifty-seventh volume of our journal

“If You Build It, They Will Come”: Reverse Location Searches, Data Collection, and The Fourth Amendment

On January 6, 2021, the world looked on, stunned, as thousands of rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on live television in support of then-President Donald Trump. In the days and weeks that followed, federal law enforcement scrambled to identify those involved in the attack, in what has become the largest criminal investigation in American history. Whereas even 20 years prior it would have been difficult to identify those involved, as of February 2023, more than 950 people have been identified and charged in relation to the January 6th Capitol attack. Many of these individuals were identified using a wide array of new technology, including automated license plate readers, complex facial recognition searches, and reverse location searches. The use of reverse location searches dates to at least 2016. Reverse location searches provide law enforcement the ability to reverse-engineer the location of people for the purposes of an investigation. This is accomplished with location data collected by third-party companies from their users’ electronic devices. Many electronic devices, such as cellphones, are equipped with GPS, which determines a device’s location using signals from satellites. Additional information can be used to pinpoint the location of a device through Wi-Fi, mobile networks, and certain device sensors. Google, for example, states that in order to collect the location data, it uses “GPS and other sensor data from your device,” your “IP address,” “[a]ctivity on Google services, such as your searches and places you label like home or work,” and “[i]nformation about things near your device, such as Wi-Fi access points, cell towers, and Bluetooth-enabled devices.” This Comment examines the two types of reverse location searches in detail, analyzing the constitutionality of each under these three questions: (1) is it a search under the Fourth Amendment? (2) can it meet the particularity and probable cause requirements? (3) does it fall into the category of general warrants prohibited by the Fourth Amendment? Ultimately, it argues that reverse location searches are constitutional, raising the question of whether existing Fourth Amendment doctrine is sufficient to guarantee the Amendment’s protections

Multidentate Sulfur-Containing Ligands

Novel sulfur-containing ligands for binding of heavy metals are disclosed. To read the remainder of this abstract, please download this patent

Top-tagging: A Method for Identifying Boosted Hadronic Tops

A method is introduced for distinguishing top jets (boosted, hadronically decaying top quarks) from light quark and gluon jets using jet substructure. The procedure involves parsing the jet cluster to resolve its subjets, and then imposing kinematic constraints. With this method, light quark or gluon jets with pT ~ 1 TeV can be rejected with an efficiency of around 99% while retaining up to 40% of top jets. This reduces the dijet background to heavy t-tbar resonances by a factor of ~10,000, thereby allowing resonance searches in t-tbar to be extended into the all-hadronic channel. In addition, top-tagging can be used in t-tbar events when one of the tops decays semi-leptonically, in events with missing energy, and in studies of b-tagging efficiency at high pT.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; v2: separate quark and gluon efficiencies included, figure on helicity angle added, and physics discussion extende