Captured by Evil: The Idea of Corruption in Law

Corruption is one of the most powerful words in the English language. When it comes to the treatment of corruption by law, however, corruption is a troubled concept. With increasing recognition of the costs of corruption for economic development, democratic governance, international aid programs, and other world goals, attempts to articulate what this destructive force is have led to an avalanche of theoretical writing. In the last fifteen years, corruption has been variously defined as the violation of law, a public servant\u27s breach of public duty, an agent\u27s betrayal of a principal\u27s interests, the pursuit of secrecy, the denial of equality in political influence, and other ways. In the end, however, all of these efforts fall short. Corruption is more than law-breaking: it is more than breaching public duties. To say that A is a thief or that A has breached his duty is not to say that A is corrupt. The latter is far more powerful, far more emotional, far more essential than the others. It is more than secrecy, or the denial of equal opportunity. It is a searing indictment, somehow, not only of A\u27s act but of A\u27s character. It is a statement not only of what A has done, but of what A has become. Corruption is, I argue, a far more powerful idea than these existing legal understandings have articulated: it is the idea of capture by evil, the possession of the individual by evil, in law. Just as we once believed in corruption of the blood in American law, which decreed that offspring of those who had committed crimes were believed to be irrevocably tainted by their parents\u27 depravity, so we still retain - through the idea of corruption - the belief that individual evil extends beyond acts of wrongdoing, or the denial of equal opportunity, or breach of the public trust. It is this idea of corruption, I argue - the idea of capture by evil - that, although unarticulated, drives our understandings of corruption in law. It drives our understanding of corrupt judges, who, once corrupt, we believe will act so in every case. It drives our understanding of campaign finance reform, where we fear deep corruption of the process from the occurrence of corrupt acts. It drives our understanding of corruption as a systemic effect and systemic influence, which presents institutional dangers that are greater than other crimes, and that requires purgation rather than simple law enforcement. This Article explores this deeper understanding of corruption, its impacts in areas such as judicial corruption and campaign finance reform, and its implications for the principle of the rule of law

Myoglobinopathy is an adult-onset autosomal dominant myopathy with characteristic sarcoplasmic inclusions

Myoglobin, encoded by MB, is a small cytoplasmic globular hemoprotein highly expressed in cardiac myocytes and oxidative skeletal myofibers. Myoglobin binds O-2, facilitates its intracellular transport and serves as a controller of nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species. Here, we identify a recurrent c.292C>T ( p.His98Tyr) substitution in MB in fourteen members of six European families suffering from an autosomal dominant progressive myopathy with highly characteristic sarcoplasmic inclusions in skeletal and cardiac muscle. Myoglobinopathy manifests in adulthood with proximal and axial weakness that progresses to involve distal muscles and causes respiratory and cardiac failure. Biochemical characterization reveals that the mutant myoglobin has altered O-2 binding, exhibits a faster heme dissociation rate and has a lower reduction potential compared to wild-type myoglobin. Preliminary studies show that mutant myoglobin may result in elevated superoxide levels at the cellular level. These data define a recognizable muscle disease associated with MB mutation.Peer reviewe

Electrochemical Interfaces in Electrochemical Energy Storage Systems

International audienc

Investigation of the Structural and Electrochemical Properties of Mn2Sb3O6CI upon Reaction with Li Ions

The structural and electrochemical properties of a quaternary layered compound with elemental composition Mn2Sb3O6Cl have been investigated upon reaction with lithium in Li half cells. Operando XRD was used to investigate the potential impact of this particular layered structure on the lithiation process. Although the results suggest that the material is primarily reacted through a conventional conversion mechanism, they also provide some hints that the space between the slabs may act as preferential entry points for lithium ions but not for the larger sodium ions. Cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic cycling, HRTEM, SAED, and EELS analyses were performed to unravel the details of the reaction mechanism with the lithium ions. It is found that two pairs of reactions are mainly responsible for the reversible electrochemical cycling of this compound, namely, the alloying of Li-Sb and the conversion of MnxOy to metallic Mn with concomitant formation of Li2O upon lithium uptake. A moderate cycling stability is achieved with a gravimetric capacity of 467 mAh g(-1) after 100 cycles between 0.05 and 2.2 V vs Li+/Li despite the large particle sizes of the active material and its nonoptimal inclusion into composite coatings. The electrochemical activity of the title compound was also tested in Na half cells between 0.05 and 2 V vs Ne/Na. It was found that a prolonged period of electrochemical milling is required to fully gain access to the active material, after which the cell delivers a capacity of 350 mAh CI. These factors are demonstrated to clearly limit the ultimate performances for these electrodes

Basic need frustration in motivational redesign of engineering courses

Engineering Education aims at realizing students’ satisfaction and intrinsic motivation. However, students’ frustration is never fully banned. In this article, I argue that one of the reasons for the limited focus on frustration in Engineering Education is the limited focus on frustration in classical motivational theory itself. I focus on Self-Determination Theory and distinguish between the early work focussing on satisfaction and the recent work considering frustration as a distinct active threat. I will complement this theoretical approach with an empirical analysis of data from a large ethics of technology course in 2016 and 2020 at Eindhoven University of Technology. Two research questions are asked: “(RQ1) Do basic needs satisfactions and frustrations in the USE basic course confirm the asymmetrical pattern described in recent literature?”; and “(RQ2) Do basic needs frustrations add to the variance of motivation types?” I performed principal axis factoring with an oblique rotation to answer RQ1 and stepwise regression analyses to answer RQ2. I conclude that basic need frustration can be measured as a clearly different concept compared to satisfaction and that splitting these two concepts is helpful for Engineering Education when studying motivation. I discuss two main avenues for Engineering Education: motivational theories should take need profiles and need trajectories into account in course design; and motivational research should inquire how individuals can learn to cope adaptively with need-frustrating experiences

The influence of Teacher cues on self-directed Learning in Math Education

Increasing class sizes forces universities to change their education in ways that allow for independent learning for students. This study looks at a case where blended learning was introduced to alleviate some of the educationally negative consequences of large class sizes. Independent learning requires from the students to become more self-regulated while at the same time they need efficient feedback from lecturers to enact these self-regulated learning activities. In this paper we investigate whether at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) student perceptions of lecturing behaviour is such as to stimulate student’s independent learning and whether self-regulated learning behaviour results in more active engagement with the learning materials

LiTDI: A Highly Efficient Additive for Electrolyte Stabilization in Lithium-Ion Batteries

International audienc