The United States, PMSCs and the state monopoly on violence: Leading the way towards norm change

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2013 Sage.The proliferation of private military and security companies (PMSCs) in Iraq and Afghanistan has raised many questions regarding the use of armed force by private contractors. This article addresses the question of whether the increased acceptance of PMSCs indicates a transformation of the international norm regarding the state monopoly on the legitimate use of armed force. Drawing on theoretical approaches to the analysis of norm change, the article employs four measures to investigate possible changes in the strength and meaning of this norm: modifications in state behaviour, state responses to norm violation, the promulgation of varying interpretations of the norm in national and international laws and regulations, and changes in norm discourse. Based on an analysis of empirical evidence from the United States of America and its allies, the article concludes that these measures suggest that the USA is leading the way towards a transformation of the international norm of the state monopoly on violence, involving a revised meaning. Although this understanding has not yet been formally implemented in international law, it has allowed a growing number of countries to tolerate, accept or legalize the use of armed force by PMSCs in the international arena.The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt

A Multi-Fidelity Prediction of Aerodynamic and Sonic Boom Characteristics of the JAXA Wing Body

This paper presents a detailed comparison between the linear panel solver PANAIR A502 and the in-house Navier–Stokes solver UNS3D for a supersonic low-boom geometry. The high-fidelity flow solver was used to predict both the inviscid and laminar flow about the aircraft geometry. The JAXA wing body was selected as the supersonic low-boom geometry for this study. A comparison of the undertrack near-field pressure signatures showed good agreement between the three levels of model fidelity along the first 0.8L of the signature. Large oscillations in the PANAIR results were observed. The PANAIR discrepancies were traced back to violations of the underlying assumptions within PANAIR: (1) small perturbation velocities and (2) no regions of transonic flow. These violations were due to large changes in surface curvature resulting in a strong expansion wave. While investigating the PANAIR discrepancy, measures of the fundamental assumptions of the Prandtl-Glauert equation used by PANAIR were quantified and used to assess the applicability of PANAIR to a given problem. Further comparison of surface temperatures predicted between the inviscid and laminar solutions was made. It was found that the recovery temperatures predicted by the inviscid solution were 5% less than those predicted by the laminar solution in likely candidate regions for distributed adaptivity. A surface deformation was added to the forward portion of the geometry to asses the viability of a future optimization study in this region. In this study, it was found that the near-field and ground signatures predicted by PANAIR and the UNS3D solutions responded in similar manners to the deformation

Case of relapsed AIDS-related plasmablastic lymphoma treated with autologous stem cell transplantation and highly active antiretroviral therapy

Plasmablastic lymphoma is a rare and aggressive malignancy strongly associated with HIV infection. The refractory/relapsed disease rate is high, and the survival rate is characteristically poor. There are no satisfactory salvage regimens for relapsed cases. We successfully performed autologous stem cell transplantation using a regimen consisting of MCNU (ranimustine), etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan in a Japanese patient with relapsed AIDS-related plasmablastic lymphoma of the oral cavity. Highly active antiretroviral therapy continued during the therapy. Therapy-related toxicity was tolerable, and a total of 40 Gy of irradiation was administered after autologous stem cell transplantation. The patient has remained in complete remission for 16 months since transplantation

KCNQ2 R144 variants cause neurodevelopmental disability with language impairment and autistic features without neonatal seizures through a gain-of-function mechanism

Prior studies have revealed remarkable phenotypic heterogeneity in KCNQ2-related disorders, correlated with effects on biophysical features of heterologously expressed channels. Here, we assessed phenotypes and functional properties associated with KCNQ2 missense variants R144W, R144Q, and R144G. We also explored in vitro blockade of channels carrying R144Q mutant subunits by amitriptyline

Two nations underground: building schools to survive nuclear war and desegregation in the 1960s

In the 1960s federal agencies in the United States encouraged the building of protected schools designed to survive a nuclear attack. A number of designs, including underground schools, were constructed. In order to promote the building of protected schools, the US government produced a number of propaganda films for school boards and governors. In addition to promoting post-nuclear survival, these films considered that protected schools were beneficial in terms of progressive and child-centred education and sometimes racial assimilation. This paper considers the extent to which securitisation and progressive education found a common purpose at this time and considers the implications of this for race equality. The data is based upon rare, archival film from the US National Archives in College Park, Maryland on school protection during the Cold War. These films, intended for wider public consumption were intended as promotional shorts for schools boards and other decision makers to show the advantages of adding fallout protection to school design. The method involved an archival search to scope the range of films produced at this time. Each film was viewed multiple times at the archive to transcribe text and image descriptions. This dual data was then used to form a narrative account of the argument structure of the films to identify the ways in which interest convergences and divergences around ‘race’ are deployed. The discussion uses conceptions of ‘flexible whiteness’ to examine how securitisation, a discourse identified with white hegemony, can additionally contain conceptions of race equality and progressivism

When Flexibility Is Stable: Implicit Long-Term Shaping of Olfactory Preferences

Preferences are traditionally assumed to be stable. However, empirical evidence such as preference modulation following choices calls this assumption into question. The evolution of such postchoice preference over long time spans, even when choices have been explicitly forgotten, has so far not been studied. In two experiments, we investigated this question by using a variant of the free choice paradigm: In a first session, participants evaluated the pleasantness of a number of odors. We then formed pairs of similarly rated odors, and asked participants to choose their favorite, for each pair. Participants were then presented with all odors again, and asked for another pleasantness rating. In a second session 1 week later, a third pleasantness rating was obtained, and participants were again asked to choose between the same options. Results suggested postchoice preference modulation immediately and 1 week after choice for both chosen and rejected options, even when choices were not explicitly remembered. A third experiment, using another paradigm, confirmed that choice can have a modulatory impact on preferences, and that this modulation can be long-lasting. Taken together, these findings suggest that although preferences appear to be flexible because they are modulated by choices, this modulation also appears to be stable over time and even without explicit recollection of the choice. These results bring a new argument to the idea that postchoice preference modulation could rely on implicit mechanisms, and are consistent with the recent proposal that cognitive dissonance reduction could to some extent be implicit

Psychological responses to the proximity of climate change

A frequent suggestion to increase individuals’ willingness to take action on climate change and to support relevant policies is to highlight its proximal consequences. However, previous studies that have tested this proximising approach have not revealed the expected positive effects on individual action and support for addressing climate change. We present three lines of psychological reasoning that provide compelling arguments as to why highlighting proximal impacts of climate change might not be as effective a way to increase individual mitigation and adaptation efforts as is often assumed. Our contextualisation of the proximising approach within established psychological research suggests that, depending on the particular theoretical perspective one takes to this issue, and on specific individual characteristics suggested by these perspectives, proximising can bring about the intended positive effects, can have no (visible) effect, or can even backfire. Thus, the effects of proximising are much more complex than is commonly assumed. Revealing this complexity contributes to a refined theoretical understanding of the role psychological distance plays in the context of climate change and opens up further avenues for future research and for interventions

Deliver us from Evil: The Effects of Mortality Salience and Reminders of 9/11 on Support for President George W. Bush

According to terror management theory, heightened concerns about mortality should intensify the appeal of charismatic leaders. To assess this idea, we investigated how thoughts about death and the 9/11 terrorist attacks influence Americans’ attitudes toward current U.S. President George W. Bush. Study 1 found that reminding people of their own mortality (mortality salience) increased support for Bush and his counterterrorism policies. Study 2 demonstrated that subliminal exposure to 9/11-related stimuli brought death-related thoughts closer to consciousness. Study 3 showed that reminders of both mortality and 9/11 increased support for Bush. In Study 4, mortality salience led participants to become more favorable toward Bush and voting for him in the upcoming election but less favorable toward Presidential candidate John Kerry and voting for him. Discussion focused on the role of terror management processes in allegiance to charismatic leaders and political decision making.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Agency affects adults', but not children's, guessing preferences in a game of chance

Adults and children have recently been shown to prefer guessing the outcome of a die roll after the die has been rolled (but remained out of sight) rather than before it has been rolled. This result is contrary to the predictions of the competence hypothesis (Heath & Tversky, 1991), which proposes that people are sensitive to the degree of their relative ignorance and therefore prefer to guess about an outcome it is impossible to know, rather than one that they could know, but do not. We investigated the potential role of agency in guessing preferences about a novel game of chance. When the experimenter controlled the outcome, we replicated the finding that adults and 5- to 6-year-old children preferred to make their guess after the outcome had been determined. For adults only, this preference reversed when they exerted control over the outcome about which they were guessing. The adult data appear best explained by a modified version of the competence hypothesis that highlights the notion of control or responsibility. It is proposed that potential attributions of blame are related to the guesser's role in determining the outcome. The child data were consistent with an imagination-based account of guessing preferences