Re-imagining The Human Rights Law Clinic

This article, co-authored with Chilean law professor Nicolás Espejo, engages the debate in U.S. clinical circles about how best to configure an international human rights law clinic, given that such clinics are widely perceived to be substantially different from their domestic law counterparts. This perception has led many U.S. human rights clinicians to favor the non-legal dimension of human rights advocacy in their teaching, such as fact-finding and reporting. In this context, we address a number of threshold questions: How different are clinics of the human rights variety from more traditional models that center on providing legal services to clients? Should the focus of the former be litigation, or is it preferable to emphasize other types of nonlegal advocacy? Does it make sense, for example, to teach classic lawyering skills such as client interviewing and counseling to human rights clinical students who have systemic change and broader advocacy objectives in mind? In short, should we be training lawyers or human rights activists? Our approach is first to present a summary of the evolution, focus, and function of public interest and human rights clinics in Latin America. While some variation naturally exists among the different manifestations of this model, there are also common denominators of shared purpose, perspective, and practice. Having defined the Latin American model, we analyze and illustrate it with select case studies from the aforementioned countries before outlining a number of useful lessons to be drawn from the Latin American experience. And while we recognize that there were important differences between the two clinical worlds we compared, we conclude there are even more similarities that, to our minds, help to bridge the geographic divide and allow for productive comparison. Based on the Latin American model and our own experience in the field, we conclude that the same core skill set embraced by most traditional law clinics in the United States – legal interviewing, counseling, negotiation, and oral advocacy – can well play an important role in the configuration of U.S. human rights law clinics too, more than is generally recognized. Whether these basic lawyering skills are taught is, at bottom, a pedagogic choice made by the clinical professor, not a limitation inherent in human rights clinics per se or a function of any particular definition of human rights advocacy. We argue, moreover, that these basic legal skills are highly transferable and thus invaluable to all kinds of advocacy, human rights included, and not just in the litigation context. In short, we take the view that international human rights clinic could, and should, be configured to train skilled and ethical legal professionals capable of practicing competently in any legal field, including but not limited to human right

Digital Image and Cinema

The new Hollywood digital cinema centered in spectacularity on the basis of computer graphics, has driven the filmmakers to work with tecnoscientific teams concentrating in the total control of the image and it is exactly the predominance of the image that tends to simplify the cinematographic plots. This simplification seems to reject the old idea that cinema is “about telling stories through images”, instead emancipating the narrative image. This goes side by side with a new sensibility that disregards the narrative and centers itself in entertainment, in despite of intellectuals’ complaints. Thus, the new digital spectacular cinema reopens under new conditions a fundamental poetological polemic that had already a background in the debate about abstract painting and figurative painting: what are the specific possibilities of each media?O novo cinema digital de Hollywood baseado na espetacularização a partir de computação gráfica levou os cineastas a trabalhar com equipes tecno-científicas concentradas no controle total da imagem, e é justamente a predominância da imagem que tende a simplificar os cenários cinematográficos. Esta simplificação parece rejeitar a velha idéia de que o cinema trata de “contar histórias por meio de imagens”, em vez de emancipar a imagem da narrativa. Isto caminha lado a lado com uma nova sensibilidade que negligencia a narrativa e está centrada no entretenimento, apesar das queixas feitas por intelectuals. Com isto, o novo cinema digital baseado no espetáculo reabre sob novas circunstâncias uma polêmica poética fundamental com origem no debate entre a pintura abstrata e a pintura figurativa: quais são as possibilidades específicas de cada meio

Post Activation Potentiation of Back Squat and Trap Bar Deadlift on Acute Sprint Performance

Please refer to the pdf version of the abstract located adjacent to the title

Wildlife Diversity and Relative Abundance Among a Variety of Adjacent Protected Areas in the Northern Talamanca Mountains of Costa Rica

Protected areas are intended to achieve the long-term conservation of nature, but not all such areas are equal in their effectiveness because of their varying regulation of human activities. In Costa Rica, we assessed mammal and bird species presence and relative abundance in three protected areas in the northern Talamanca Mountains. In this humid tropical forest area, we placed camera traps in an adjacent national park, forest reserve, and indigenous territories, each with a different mix of human activities. In 10,120 trap nights, we obtained 6181 independent photos of mostly mammals (34 species other than humans) and birds (34 species). Species with greater abundance or only occurrence in the national park were mammals and birds commonly hunted outside of the park, large carnivores rarely documented in other areas, and poachers. Species found more often outside of the park were medium-sized mammals, some birds, and domestic mammals. We conclude that even in the same ecological area, varying regulations related to type of protected area have significant effects on some mammal and bird species abundances and occurrences, and thus need to be considered when assessing the overall effectiveness of protection as a conservation strategy

Living on the Edge: Settlement Patterns by the Symbiotic Barnacle \u3cem\u3eXenobalanus globicipitis\u3c/em\u3e on Small Cetaceans

The highly specialized coronulid barnacle Xenobalanus globicipitis attaches exclusively on cetaceans worldwide, but little is known about the factors that drive the microhabitat patterns on its hosts. We investigate this issue based on data on occurrence, abundance, distribution, orientation, and size of X. globicipitis collected from 242 striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) that were stranded along the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Barnacles exclusively infested the fins, particularly along the trailing edge. Occurrence, abundance, and density of X. globicipitis were significantly higher, and barnacles were significantly larger, on the caudal fin than on the flippers and dorsal fin. Barnacles were found more frequently and in greater numbers on the dorsal rather than ventral side of the caudal fin and on the central third of dorsal and ventral fluke surfaces. Nearly all examined individuals attached with their cirral fan oriented opposite to the fluke edge. We suggest that X. globicipitis may chemically recognize dolphins as a substratum, but fins, particularly the flukes, are passively selected because of creation of vortices that increase contact of cyprids with skin and early survival of these larvae at the corresponding sites. Cyprids could actively select the trailing edge and orient with the cirri facing the main direction of flow. Attachment on the dorsal side of the flukes is likely associated with asymmetrical oscillation of the caudal fin, and the main presence on the central segment of the flukes could be related to suitable water flow conditions generated by fluke performance for both settlement and nutrient filtration

Application of longitudinal data analysis allows to detect differences in pre‐breeding growing curves of 24‐month calving Angus heifers under two pasture‐based system with differential puberty onset

Background. Longitudinal data analysis contributes to detect differences in the growing curve by exploiting all the information involved in repeated measurements, allowing to distinguish changes over time within individuals, from differences in the baseline levels among groups. In this research longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis were compared to evaluate differences in growth in Angus heifers under two different grazing conditions, ad libitum (AG) and controlled (CG) to gain 0.5 kg/day. Results. Longitudinal mixed models show differences in growing curves parameters between grazing conditions, that were not detected by cross sectional analysis. Differences (P < 0.05) in first derivative of growth curves (daily gain) until 289 days were observed between treatments, being AG higher than CG. Correspondingly, pubertal heifer proportion was also higher in AG at the end of rearing (AG 0.94; CG 0.67). Conclusion. In longitudinal studies, the power to detect differences between groups increases by exploiting the whole information of repeated measures, modelling the relation between measurements performed on the same individual. Under a proper analysis valid conclusion can be drawn with less animals in the trial, improving animal welfare and reducing investigation costs.Fil: Bonamy, Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: de Iraola, Julieta Josefina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Prando, Alberto José. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Baldo, Andres. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Giovambattista, Guillermo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Rogberg Muñoz, Andres. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Producción Animal; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria; Argentin

Mixtures of four organochlorines enhance human breast cancer cell proliferation.

In view of the large differences between the concentrations of estrogenic chemicals needed to elicit effects in in vitro assays and their levels in human tissues, it is hard to explain possible health risks in terms of exposure to individual compounds. Human populations, however, are exposed to mixtures of estrogenic and estrogen-like agents and it is necessary to consider the impact of combined effects. We assessed the combined effects of 1-(o-chlorophenyl)-1-(p-chlorophenyl)-2,2,2-trichloroethane (o,p'-DDT), 2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)-1,1-dichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE), beta-hexachlorocyclohexane (beta-HCH), and 1,1-bis(p-chlorophenyl)-2,2,2-trichloroethane (p,p'-DDT) on the induction of cell proliferation in MCF-7 cells. All four compounds are persistent organochlorines that can be found in human tissues. We performed extensive concentration-response analyses with the single agents to predict the effects of two mixtures of all four compounds with different mixture ratios. We calculated the predictions by using the pharmacologically well-founded models of concentration addition and independent action and then tested them experimentally. o,p'-DDT, p,p'-DDE, beta-HCH, and p,p'-DDT acted together to produce proliferative effects in MCF-7 cells. The combined effect of the four agents could be predicted on the basis of data about single agent concentration-response relationships. Regression analysis demonstrated that there were combination effects even when each mixture component was present at levels at or below its individual no-observed-effect-concentration. We assessed combination effects in two ways: First, evaluations in relation to the proliferative responses induced by single mixture components revealed that the combination effects were stronger than the effects of the most potent constituent. Thus, according to this method of evaluation, the combined effects may be termed synergistic. Second, comparisons with the expected effects, as predicted by concentration addition and independent action, showed excellent agreement between prediction and observation. With this approach, the combined effect of all four compounds can be termed additive

Flux flow of Abrikosov-Josephson vortices along grain boundaries in high-temperature superconductors

We show that low-angle grain boundaries (GB) in high-temperature superconductors exhibit intermediate Abrikosov vortices with Josephson cores, whose length $l$ along GB is smaller that the London penetration depth, but larger than the coherence length. We found an exact solution for a periodic vortex structure moving along GB in a magnetic field $H$ and calculated the flux flow resistivity $R_F(H)$, and the nonlinear voltage-current characteristics. The predicted $R_F(H)$ dependence describes well our experimental data on $7^{\circ}$ unirradiated and irradiated $YBa_2Cu_3O_7$ bicrystals, from which the core size $l(T)$, and the intrinsic depairing density $J_b(T)$ on nanoscales of few GB dislocations were measured for the first time. The observed temperature dependence of $J_b(T)=J_{b0}(1-T/T_c)^2$ indicates a significant order parameter suppression in current channels between GB dislocation cores.Comment: 5 pages 5 figures. Phys. Rev. Lett. (accepted

Epigenome-wide analysis of T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia identifies BCL11B as a potential biomarker

Background: The molecular pathogenesis of T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia (T-LGLL), a mature T-cell leukemia arising commonly from T-cell receptor alpha beta-positive CD8(+) memory cytotoxic T cells, is only partly understood. The role of deregulated methylation in T-LGLL is not well known. We analyzed the epigenetic profile of T-LGLL cells of 11 patients compared to their normal counterparts by array-based DNA methylation profiling. For identification of molecular events driving the pathogenesis of T-LGLL, we compared the differentially methylated loci between the T-LGLL cases and normal T cells with chromatin segmentation data of benign T cells from the BLUEPRINT project. Moreover, we analyzed gene expression data of T-LGLL and benign T cells and validated the results by pyrosequencing in an extended cohort of 17 patients, including five patients with sequential samples. Results: We identified dysregulation of DNA methylation associated with altered gene expression in T-LGLL. Since T-LGLL is a rare disease, the samples size is low. But as confirmed for each sample, hypermethylation of T-LGLL cells at various CpG sites located at enhancer regions is a hallmark of this disease. The interaction of BLC11B and C14orf64 as suggested by in silico data analysis could provide a novel pathogenetic mechanism that needs further experimental investigation. Conclusions: DNA methylation is altered in T-LGLL cells compared to benign T cells. In particular, BCL11B is highly significant differentially methylated in T-LGLL cells. Although our results have to be validated in a larger patient cohort, BCL11B could be considered as a potential biomarker for this leukemia. In addition, altered gene expression and hypermethylation of enhancer regions could serve as potential mechanisms for treatment of this disease. Gene interactions of dysregulated genes, like BLC11B and C14orf64, may play an important role in pathogenic mechanisms and should be further analyzed