An Evaluation of the Effects of the Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado and Washington from an International Law Perspective

The legalization of marijuana in the states of Colorado and Washington has raised issues that the international community has not previously been forced to consider. Through examining relevant state laws, current federal legislation and applicable international agreements, this Note will outline the legal ramifications that the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington could have both nationally and internationally. This Note will further evaluate all reasonable alternatives available to the United States in meeting the requirements mandated of it by the international agreements it is party to

An Evaluation of the Effects of the Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado and Washington from an International Law Perspective

The legalization of marijuana in the states of Colorado and Washington has raised issues that the international community has not previously been forced to consider. Through examining relevant state laws, current federal legislation and applicable international agreements, this Note will outline the legal ramifications that the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington could have both nationally and internationally. This Note will further evaluate all reasonable alternatives available to the United States in meeting the requirements mandated of it by the international agreements it is party to

Green Apparel Consumption: An Empirical Examination of Behavior versus Attitudes

The research reports empirical findings that contrast apparel consumers who behave in pro-environment purchasing behavior with those who do behave in pro-environmental purchasing behavior, in an effort to better understand the attitude-behavior gap commonly recognized among consumer researchers in the ethical consumption research stream. A large cross-section of U.S. Consumer data (N=1,846) provides the sample data for analyses.Demographics, product preferences, attribution behavior and intentions are contrasted between the two groups using appropriate statistical tests. Distinctly different profiles of the two consumer groups emerge, suggesting a number of directions for future research with academic and practical implications

PROTECTED ESTIMATION OF GUIDELINE CLASSIFICATION UNDER PHYSICAL ASSAULT

Pattern classification systems are commonly used in adversarial applications, like biometric authentication, network intrusion detection, and spam filtering, in which data can be purposely manipulated by humans to undermine their operation. As this adversarial scenario is not taken into account by classical design methods, pattern classification systems may exhibit vulnerabilities, whose exploitation may severely affect their performance, and consequently limit their practical utility. Extending pattern classification theory and design methods to adversarial settings is thus a novel and very relevant research direction, which has not yet been pursued in a systematic way. In this paper, we address one of the main open issues: evaluating at design phase the security of pattern classifiers, namely, the performance degradation under potential attacks they may incur during operation. We propose a framework for empirical evaluation of classifier security that formalizes and generalizes the main ideas proposed in the literature, and give examples of its use in three real applications. Reported results show that security evaluation can provide a more complete understanding of the classifier’s behavior in adversarial environments, and lead to better design choice

Palynological diversity of highly medicinal rare, endangered, and threatened plants from Western Himalaya, India

The present study investigated the palynological diversity of highly medicinal Rare, Endangered, and Threatened (RET) plant species dwelling in higher altitudes of Western Himalaya, India. The pollen morphology of 32 plant species covering 29 genera, 23 families, and 18 orders of Angiosperms was analyzed by Light Microscopy (LM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The families of the studied plant species have been arranged and discussed following the evolutionary sequence as per the updated version of Angiosperm Phylogeny Group ІV. The studied pollen characters were found to be helpful in the delimitation of taxa at the species level. In the studied monocots, the species belonging to order Zingiberales, Asparagales, and Liliales followed the general trend of having primitive inaperturate to advance monosulcate pollen except for Alismatales which had inaperturate pollen and placed after the orders mentioned above in the APG ІV classification system. The pollen aperture of the eudicot group in the present study followed the evolutionary pattern from tricolpate to tricolporate and triporate, which corroborated previous reports. All the investigated species of both monocot and eudicot groups had monad pollen units suggesting their primitiveness on the evolutionary scale except for the Rhododendron companulatum (Ericales), having evolutionarily advanced tetrad arrangement. The current study found primitive exine ornamentation in Ranunculales to advance in Asterales, Lamiales, Gentianales, and Boraginales and confirms the results of the previous studies. The data on the pollen morphological features of the studied species generated in the present study will help understand these important high-altitude plant species' reproductive biology and conservation aspects

Comparative study of harmonic scalpel haemorrhoidectomy versus conventional (milligan and morgan) haemorrhoidectomy

Background: Haemorrhoids are dilated veins occurring in relation to the anus. There are various treatment modalities for haemorrhoids and among them surgical treatment is considered to be most effective one. Harmonic scalpel hemorrhoidectomy was compared with conventional in terms of symptomatic relief and complications.Methods: The aim of our study was to compare harmonic scalpel haemorrhoidectomy with conventional in terms of various intraoperative and postoperative factors for the treatment of grade III and IV haemorrhoids.Results: In our case study of 25 patients average time taken was 17.68 ± 2.84 minutes, while it was 28.44 ±3.69 minutes in control group. The mean blood loss was 8.96 ± 2.15 ml, 31.72 ± 3.28 ml in the case and control group respectively. Postoperative pain with VAS in case group on the first postoperative day was 5.92 ± 0.72, while it was 8.52 ± 0 in the control group. The dose of analgesia was less in case group. The postoperative wound site soakage was less in case study, early ambulation and return to normal work was faster in case study group.Conclusions: Harmonic scalpel haemorrhoidectomy is a simple, bloodless, safe and effective procedure in terms of blood loss, postoperative pain early return to routine work because of less lateral thermal injury

Unsteady viscous flow driven by the combined effects of peristalsis and electro-osmosis

Electrokinetic transport of fluids through micro-channels by micro-pumping and micro- peristaltic pumping has stimulated considerable interest in biomedical engineering and other areas of medical technology. Deeper elucidation of the fluid dynamics of such transport requires the continuous need for more elegant mathematical models and numerical simulations, in parallel with laboratory investigations. In this article we therefore investigate analytically the unsteady viscous flow driven by the combined effects of peristalsis and electro-osmosis through microchannel. An integral number of waves propagating in the microchannel is considered as a model for transportation of fluid bolus along the channel length. Debye-Hückel linearization is employed to evaluate the potential function. Low Reynolds number and large wavelength approximations are employed. Closed-form solutions are derived for the non-dimensional boundary value problem. The computations demonstrate that magnitude of electric potential function is increased with a decrease in the thickness of the electrical double layer (EDL). Stronger electric field also decelerates the flow and decreases local wall shear stress. Hydrodynamic pressure is increased with EDL thickness whereas it is suppressed with electric field. Streamline visualization reveals that the quantity of trapped bolus is decreased with increasing EDL thickness and also with higher external electric field