Columbia, Democracy, and the Intermingling Thereof

Since it began in the 1960s, much has been said and written about the various layers and aspects of the conflict in Colombia. Beginning as a civil war, this ongoing struggle has evolved from a struggle between peasant groups fighting to recapture their land from a powerful class of agro-elites to include multiple local and international actors with such diverse motivations as philosophical ideals, capital gain, and the execution of international, sociopolitical power plays. To better understand the gravity of the modern-day situation in Colombia and to attempt to ascertain how and why this decades-long struggle may be finally drawing to a close, I briefly explore the history of the conflict and review the ways in which the principal actors have directly influenced the development of the social and political infrastructure of this country. By analyzing past trends in this conflict and comparing them to current actions of guerrilla groups, the Colombian government, and international actors, I explain why it is reasonable to believe that this bloody chapter of Colombia’s history may be nearing a conclusion even if its memory will be etched into the minds of the generations to come

Lookin Beyond the Charitable Trust Debate to Amend, Enforce, or Terminate Conservation Easements

This Comment will recommend a uniform solution. Conservation easements are a hybrid-law creation, and the solution to modifying and terminating perpetual easements should be a hybrid one as well. The hybrid solution must address, in a holistic manner, the other difficulties surrounding conservation easements, like adaptive land management and enforcement. This Comment will not delve too deeply into the issues surrounding conservation easements and adaptive land management, but will touch on some concerns that might affect the debate over the charitable trust doctrine in the future

The politics of transition : Virginia and North Carolina and the 1824 presidential election

Although James Monroe stood unopposed for the presidency in 1820, many political observers knew that the next election would not be so placid. Monroe\u27s failure to designate a successor split the Republican party into factions, as a new generation of political leaders eagerly aspired to take their place at the head of national affairs. In 1824,John Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, William H. Crawford, and AndrewJackson all vied for the presidency. This election marks a key transition in American Political development, for it splintered the Republican party of Thomas Jefferson, ended the influence of the congressional caucus, and launched the coalitions that later develops into the second party system.This study examines the transition from factional politics to coalition politics inVirginia and North Carolina within the framework of the 1824 and 1828 presidential campaigns. An investigation of the elections in these states yields a clearer understanding of the complexities of the coalition-building process. Moreover, an analysis of support inVirginia and North Carolina for the various candidates illustrates the importance of their character and philosophy of government in attracting followers. This dissertation surveys public meetings, campaign rhetoric, the construction of electoral tickets, and voter turnout to ascertain the depth of popular support for the candidates and the means used to gamerthat backing.In this era of transition, various factions sought to form coalitions to solidify their support and relied upon an aggressive democratic rhetoric to amass popular enthusiasm.vmIn the post-1824 factional realignment, conservative Crawfordites in Virginia and NorthCarolina reluctantly backed Jackson and became a crucial component of the newly emerging Jacksonian alliance that defeated the Adams-Clay coalition in 1828. Thefactional discord of 1824 unleashed new methods of campaigning, sparked the shift to coalition politics, and transformed Jackson from a popular military figure to a symbol of the common man, the champion of democracy and reform, and protector of southern OldRepublican conservatism

COMPARISON OF I-123 THYROID UPTAKE PHANTOM VALUES: GAMMA CAM-ERA VERSUS UPTAKE PROBE

poster abstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate whether gamma cameras and uptake probes give comparable uptake results using 123I capsules. Methods: During a month-long period, five standard 123I thyroid dose cap-sules (156-163 μCi) were placed into a neck phantom, and positioned 10 centimeters away from the uptake probes and pinhole collimators attached to two gamma cameras. Each capsule was counted sixty seconds in three trials per capsule, along with a sixty second background count. The counts measured by both uptake probes and gamma cameras were compared. Re-sults: Comparison between the gamma camera uptake values and the probe system uptake values were done. The Argus gamma camera had higher counts than the Transcam 80% of the time. The probe systems had higher counts than the gamma cameras 100% of the time. Conclusion: Probe A and Probe B had significant higher counts than the Transcam and the Argus camera

A Comparison of the Sensitivity and Specificity of I-123 Whole body scan and Serum Thyroglobulin for Follow-up Thyroid Cancer Patients

poster abstractAbstract Does the I-123 WBS have more sensitivity and specificity than Tg level test in follow-up for thyroid cancer? A comparison of the sensitivity & specificity between I-123 whole body scan (I-123 WBS) and serum thyroglobulin (Tg) for follow-up patients who were treated with I-131 for thyroid cancer was conducted. Methods & material: The design of this study is Null hypothesis: I-123 WBS has equal sensitivity or greater than Tg test when predicting recurrence of thyroid cancer. Alternate hypothesis: I-123 WBS has less sensitivity than Tg test. The population of this study is a convenience sample consisted of 28 patients who met the following criteria: 1) had follicular or papillary thyroid cancer or both, 2) between the period 2013 to 2015, and 3) had serum Tg results and had undergone I-123 WBS after one year of iodine therapy. Any detectable Tg value was considered positive. Tg and I-123 WBS results were compared with the final impression, which was the radiologist determination from the patient history and other tests (besides Tg and I-123 WBS), We compared Sensitivity and Specificity for both tests Results: Tg had a higher sensitivity than I-123 WBS. Tg has 75% sensitivity while I-123 WBS has 73.3 % sensitivity. I-123 WBS had a specificity of 100% and Tg had a specificity of 91.7%. Positive predictive Value (PPV) for Tg was 92.3%. and I-123 WBS was 100%. Negative Predictive Value (NPV) for Tg was 73.3% and I-123 WBS was 75%. Conclusions: I-123 WBS should not be replaced by Tg. I-123 WBS has higher specificity

Beam tests of the 12 MHz RFQ RIB injector for ATLAS

Beam tests of the ANL 12 MHz Radio-Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ), designed for use as the initial element of an injector system for radioactive beams into the existing ATLAS accelerators, are in progress. Recent high-voltage tests of the RFQ without beam achieved the design intervane voltage of 100 kV cw, enabling beam tests with A /q as large as 132 using beams from the ANL Physics Division 4 MV Dynamitron accelerator facility. Although the RFQ was designed for bunched beams, initial tests have been performed with unbunched beams. Experiments with stable, unbunched beams of singly-charged /sup 132/Xe and /sup 84/Kr measured the output beam energy distribution as a function of the RFQ operating voltage. The observed energies are in excellent agreement with numerical beam simulations. (5 refs)

Operator Approach to Isospin Violation in Pion Photoproduction

Unambiguous isospin violation in the strong interaction sector is a key issue in low energy hadronic physics, both experimentally and theoretically. Bernstein has employed the Fermi-Watson theorem to demonstrate that pion photoproduction is a process where isospin violation in the pi N system can be revealed, an approach we review here. Here we propose a general operator approach to the phenomenon in pion photoproduction, thereby providing an analogue for the framework that was proposed for pi N scattering by Kaufmann and Gibbs. The resulting set of amplitudes could form the basis for determining the multipole amplitudes for photoproduction. Thus, the so resulting phase shift determination from photoproduction can then be used via the Fermi-Watson theorem to resolve discrepancies in pi N phase shift analyses. We point out that casting effective Lagrangian results in terms of our framework would be beneficial. The upcoming polarization experiments are an ideal setting to test our approach, and also to constrain better the isotensor currents which strictly are not forbidden.Comment: 14 pages, latex, to appear in Physics Letters

Backward-angle photoproduction of π0\pi^0 mesons on the proton at EγE_\gamma = 1.5--2.4 GeV

Differential cross sections and photon beam asymmetries for $\pi^0$ photoproduction have been measured at $E_\gamma$ = 1.5--2.4 GeV and at the $\pi^0$ scattering angles, --1 $<$ cos$\Theta_{c.m.} <$ --0.6. The energy-dependent slope of differential cross sections for $u$-channel $\pi^0$ production has been determined. An enhancement at backward angles is found above $E_\gamma$ = 2.0 GeV. This is inferred to be due to the $u$-channel contribution and/or resonances. Photon beam asymmetries have been obtained for the first time at backward angles. A strong angular dependence has been found at $E_\gamma >$ 2.0 GeV, which may be due to the unknown high-mass resonances.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PL