What's really going on in the South China Sea?

Most analysts and commentators portray China's conduct in the South China Sea as a series of aggressive norm violations by an emerging peer competitor to the United States. We argue that this narrative misreads both the substance and dynamics of recent Chinese policy. Since 2016, China has strenuously sought - and largely managed - not to be in technical violation of the Philippines Arbitration Tribunal ruling despite having publicly disavowed it and has attempted to position itself as a champion of win-win co-operation. This stands in stark contrast to the previous four years in which China rather shockingly began asserting itself with little regard for either legality or diplomatic nicety - the period in which the "aggressive China" narrative gelled. What explains China's whiplash behaviour? Why has the international community largely failed to notice recent changes and adjust the narrative accordingly? We argue that the answers to these questions lie in an eclectic appeal to bureaucratic struggles, the regime's two-level game balancing domestic and international pressures, and psychological considerations. These do not, however, provide satisfactory accounts either of China's behaviour or of the international response in the absence of recognising the crucial importance of second-order rules for making, interpreting, and applying first-order rules in the international system. Social practices of rule-making, in short, provide vital context. Our analysis suggests a series of takeaways both for International Relations theory and for managing relations with China

Reef Structure Alternatives for Restoration of Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) Populations in New Hampshire

Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) populations in New Hampshire have experienced severe declines since the 1990s, and restoration of oyster populations has been a major goal for New Hampshire management agencies. The most widely used technique in recent years in New Hampshire has been spat seeding which involves setting larvae from disease-resistant and/or fast-growth broodstock onto cultch material in large shore-based tanks, then distributing the spat attached to cultch onto the bottom to initiate reef restoration. This approach has the dual potential of providing direct population enhancement as well as introduction to the local gene pool of disease-resistance and/or fast-growth potential. Although spat seeding has been shown to be an effective technique much remains to be learned about the overall restoration process, particularly specific design criteria, the most effective combinations of methods, and long-term viability of restored bottom areas. The present project was designed in part based on results of earlier experimental work (mainly the use of spat seeding) to address the general management question: How should reefs be structurally enhanced (if at all) to enhance oyster populations and improve spat set

Privacy Preserving Network Security Data Analytics: Architectures and System Design

An incessant rhythm of data breaches, data leaks, and privacy exposure highlights the need to improve control over potentially sensitive data. History has shown that neither public nor private sector organizations are immune. Lax data handling, incidental leakage, and adversarial breaches are all contributing factors. Prudent organizations should consider the sensitive nature of network security data. Logged events often contain data elements that are directly correlated with sensitive information about people and their activities -- often at the same level of detail as sensor data. Our intent is to produce a database which holds network security data representative of people\u27s interaction with the network mid-points and end-points without the problems of identifiability. In this paper we discuss architectures and propose a system design that supports a risk based approach to privacy preserving data publication of network security data that enables network security data analytics research

The economic implications of HLA matching in cadaveric renal transplantation.

Abstract Background: The potential economic effects of the allocation of cadaveric kidneys on the basis of tissue-matching criteria are controversial. We analyzed the economic costs associated with the transplantation of cadaveric kidneys with various numbers of HLA mismatches and examined the potential economic benefits of a local, as compared with a national, system designed to minimize HLA mismatches between donor and recipient in first cadaveric renal transplantations. Methods: All data were supplied by the U.S. Renal Data System. Data on all payments made by Medicare from 1991 through 1997 for the care of recipients of a first cadaveric renal transplant were analyzed according to the number of HLA-A, B, and DR mismatches between donor and recipient and the duration of cold ischemia before transplantation. Results: Average Medicare payments for renal-transplant recipients in the three years after transplantation increased from $60,436 per patient for fully HLA-matched kidneys (those with no HLA-A, B, or DR mismatches) to$80,807 for kidneys with six HLA mismatches between donor and recipient, a difference of 34 percent (P\u3c0.001). By three years after transplantation, the average Medicare payments were $64,119 for transplantations of kidneys with less than 12 hours of cold-ischemia time and$74,997 for those with more than 36 hours (P\u3c0.001). In simulations, the assignment of cadaveric kidneys to recipients by a method that minimized HLA mismatching within a local geographic area (i.e., within one of the approximately 50 organ-procurement organizations, which cover widely varying geographic areas) produced the largest cost savings ($4,290 per patient over a period of three years) and the largest improvements in the graft-survival rate (2.3 percent) when the potential costs of longer cold-ischemia time were considered. Conclusions: Transplantation of better-matched cadaveric kidneys could have substantial economic advantages. In our simulations, HLA-based allocation of kidneys at the local level produced the largest estimated cost savings, when the duration of cold ischemia was taken into account. No additional savings were estimated to result from a national allocation program, because the additional costs of longer cold-ischemia time were greater than the advantages of optimizing HLA matching

Gambling Prevalence and Factors Associated with Gambling Participation among University Students in Uganda

This paper examines the prevalence of gambling for gain among university students and to gain a theory-based understanding and knowledge of the influence factors of this gambling behaviour based on the University Student Psychosocial Problems Development Theory (USPPDT). Relatively little is known about the factors associated with students’ gambling for financial gain encompassing a student’s biosocial/cultural and psycho characteristics informed by a theory. Participants were recruited from two public and three private universities in Uganda. A total of 1101 randomly selected students participated in the study and 976 (88.6%) completed the survey instruments. The self-reported current prevalence of gambling participation was 281 (28.8%) among university students (≥ 19 years). In agreement with the theory and findings from the study, student demographic characteristics, study program characteristics, student-related health burden characteristics, psychosocial functioning, and antisocial behaviour items were particularly predictive of students’ participation in gambling for financial gain. These risk factors for gambling are not presumed as causation, identifying them points to important implications in terms of prevention and intervention on student gambling behaviour. This points to a considered interplay of different players in designing transversal strategies for a student at risk for gambling

Toxicity and pathophysiology of palytoxin congeners after intraperitoneal and aerosol administration in rats

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2018. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Toxicon 150 (2018): 235-250, doi:10.1016/j.toxicon.2018.06.067.Preparations of palytoxin (PLTX, derived from Japanese Palythoa tuberculosa) and the congeners 42-OH-PLTX (from Hawaiian P. toxica) and ovatoxin-a (isolated from a Japanese strain of Ostreopsis ovata), as well as a 50:50 mixture of PLTX and 42-OH-PLTX derived from Hawaiian P. tuberculosa were characterized as to their concentration, composition, in-vitro potency and interaction with an anti-PLTX monoclonal antibody (mAb), after which they were evaluated for lethality and pathophysiological effects by intraperitoneal (IP) and aerosol administration to rats. Once each preparation was characterized as to its toxin composition by LC-HRMS and normalized to a total PLTX/OVTX concentration using HPLC-UV, all four preparations showed similar potency towards mouse erythrocytes in the erythrocyte hemolysis assay and interactions with the anti-PLTX mAb. The IP LD50 values derived from these experiments (1-3 μg/kg for all) were consistent with published values, although some differences from the published literature were seen. The aerosol LD50 values (.03-.06 μg/kg) confirmed the exquisite potency of PLTX suggested by the literature. The pathophysiological effects of the different toxin preparations by IP and aerosol administration were similar, albeit with some differences. Most commonly affected tissues were the lungs, liver, heart, kidneys, salivary glands, and adrenal glands. Despite some differences, these results suggest commonalities in potency and mechanism of action among these PLTX congeners.This work was supported by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, through the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense, Contract number CB10396. Additional support to DMA and DLK was provided by National Science Foundation (Grant OCE-1314642) and National Institutes of Health (NIEHS-1P50-ES021923-01) through the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health