Necessity as a Justification: A Critique of Perka

In his characteristically trenchant and influential investigation, A Plea for Excuses ,\u27 J. L. Austin reminded us that we can and do use different strategies of defending a person when it is claimed that he has done wrong. He drew attention to two distinct tactics: One way of going about this (defending a person) is to admit that he, X, did that very thing, A, but to argue that it was a good thing, or the right or sensible thing, or a permissible thing to do . . . To take this line is to justify the action, to give reasons for doing it: not to say, to brazen it out, to glory in it or the like. A different way of going about it is to admit that it wasn\u27t a good thing to have done but to argue that it is not quite fair or correct to say badly X did A . . . (W)e admit that it was bad but don\u27t accept full or even any responsibility.2 While admitting that the concepts of justification and excuse may meld together on occasion and that other concepts live out a shady existence somewhere between the two, (he offers extenuation , palliation and mitigation as examples), Austin nevertheless urges that the basic dichotomy be embraced because it does reflect two separate facets of our moral life

Immigration, Xenophobia and Equality Rights

One can readily identify a number of factors that, over the last ten years or so, have combined to reduce and destabilize the legal status and social standing of non-citizens who are seeking to enter or remain in Canada. Particularly conspicuous are the amendments to our refugee and citizenship laws that were introduced by the government that held power from the 2006 election until 2015, especially those harsh measures that were introduced after the government obtained a majority in the legislature in 2011.1 The changes in question were extensive and far-reaching. A shortlist of wellknown examples indicates the scope. Prompted by concerns about fraud, families have been kept apart by provisions that, for example, rede�� ned who could sponsor. 2 Prompted by economic reasons, older children were removed from the list of dependants who could be sponsored, even in circumstances where they were clearly dependent on their parent.

A sweetspot for innovation:developing games with purpose through student-staff collaboration

Within industry as well as academia, developing games that have wider impact on society has been of particular interest in the last decade. The increasing use of terms such as ‘games with purpose’, ‘serious games’ and gamification’ has been mirrored in a flurry of activity in games research. Broader applications of games beyond entertainment are now well-understood and accepted, with universities and companies excelling in creating games to serve particular needs. However, it is not explicitly clear how undergraduates of game design and development courses can be directly involved in serious game creation. With most undergraduates inspired by commercial games development, and the games industry requiring that universities teach specific technical skills in their courses, balancing the research aspirations of academics with the educational requirements of an appropriate undergraduate course can be a difficult balancing act. In this paper, the authors present three case studies of games with purpose developed through collaboration between undergraduate students and academic staff. In all cases, the educational value of the projects for the students is considered in relation to the research value for the academics, who face increasing demands to develop research outcomes despite a necessity to provide a first-rate learning experience and nurture future game developers

Marine biotoxins and harmful algae : a national plan

Marine biotoxins and harmful algae represent a significant and expanding threat to human health and fisheries resources throughout the U.S. This problem takes many forms, ranging from massive "red tides" or blooms of cells that discolor the water to dilute, inconspicuous concentrations of cells noticed only because of the harm caused by the highly potent toxins those cells contain. Impacts include mass mortalities of wild and farmed fish, human intoxications and death from contaminated shellfish or fish, alterations of marine trophic structure, and death of marine mammals, seabirds, and other animals. The nature of the problem has changed considerably over the last two decades in the U.S. Where formerly a few regions were affected, now virtally every coastal state is threatened, in many cases over large geographic areas and by more than one harmful species. The U.S. research, monitoring, and regulatory infrastructure is not adequately prepared to meet this expanding threat. In an effort to surmount these problems, a workshop was convened to formulate a National Plan for the prediction, control, and mitigation of the effects of harmful algal blooms on the U.S. marine biota. This report summarizes the status of U.S. research knowledge and capabilties, and identifies areas where research funds should be directed for maximum benefit.Funding was provided by National Marine Fisheries Servce Saltonstall-Kennedy grant No. NA27FD0092-01, National Marine Fisheries Servce Charleston Laboratory and by the NOAA Coastal Oceans Program

Nonexistence of marginally trapped surfaces and geons in 2+1 gravity

We use existence results for Jang's equation and marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTSs) in 2+1 gravity to obtain nonexistence of geons in 2+1 gravity. In particular, our results show that any 2+1 initial data set, which obeys the dominant energy condition with cosmological constant \Lambda \geq 0 and which satisfies a mild asymptotic condition, must have trivial topology. Moreover, any data set obeying these conditions cannot contain a MOTS. The asymptotic condition involves a cutoff at a finite boundary at which a null mean convexity condition is assumed to hold; this null mean convexity condition is satisfied by all the standard asymptotic boundary conditions. The results presented here strengthen various aspects of previous related results in the literature. These results not only have implications for classical 2+1 gravity but also apply to quantum 2+1 gravity when formulated using Witten's solution space quantization.Comment: v3: Elements from the original two proofs of the main result have been combined to give a single proof, thereby circumventing an issue with the second proof associated with potential blow-ups of solutions to Jang's equation. To appear in Commun. Math. Phy

Combining Existing Monitoring Sites with a Probability Survey Design-Examples from U.S. EPA’s National Coastal Assessment

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) National Coastal Assessment was envisioned as a research effort led by EPA’s Office of Research and Development to evaluate assessment methods for ecosystem condition monitoring. The program was conducted through strategic partnerships with the coastal states. These states conducted the survey in their waters with a common set of indicators. The resources targeted for initial monitoring were estuarine waters. A flexible probability survey design was used to incorporate, to the extent possible, existing state monitoring program sites. Three criteria were developed to evaluate existing monitoring program sites in the northeastern United States for possible incorporation into the national design: (1) the sites were selected to be representative, (2) the variables sampled at the sites were similar in distribution with variables from a probability design, and (3) the correlation structure of variables was equivalent to that for a probability design. Detailed examples were presented for Long Island Sound water quality sites, New Jersey coastal water quality sites, and Casco Bay, ME, sediment sites to illustrate the approach

The effect of the systemic inflammatory response on plasma vitamin 25 (OH) D concentrations adjusted for albumin

<b>Aim</b><p></p> To examine the relationship between plasma 25(OH)D, CRP and albumin concentrations in two patient cohorts.<p></p> <b>Methods</b><p></p> 5327 patients referred for nutritional assessment and 117 patients with critical illness were examined. Plasma 25 (OH) D concentrations were measured using standard methods. Intra and between assay imprecision was <10%.<p></p> <b>Result</b><p></p> In the large cohort, plasma 25 (OH) D was significantly associated with CRP (rs = −0.113, p<0.001) and albumin (rs = 0.192, p<0.001). 3711 patients had CRP concentrations ≤10 mg/L; with decreasing albumin concentrations ≥35, 25–34 and <25 g/l, median concentrations of 25 (OH) D were significantly lower from 35 to 28 to 14 nmol/l (p<0.001). This decrease was significant when albumin concentrations were reduced between 25–34 g/L (p<0.001) and when albumin <25 g/L (p<0.001). 1271 patients had CRP concentrations between 11–80 mg/L; with decreasing albumin concentrations ≥35, 25–34 and <25 g/l, median concentrations of 25 (OH) D were significantly lower from 31 to 24 to 19 nmol/l (p<0.001). This decrease was significant when albumin concentration were 25–34 g/L (p<0.001) and when albumin <25 g/L (p<0.001). 345 patients had CRP concentrations >80 mg/L; with decreasing albumin concentrations ≥35, 25–34 and <25 g/l, median concentrations of 25 (OH) D were not significantly altered varying from 19 to 23 to 23 nmol/l. Similar relationships were also obtained in the cohort of patients with critical illness.<p></p> <b>Conclusion</b><p></p> Plasma concentrations of 25(OH) D were independently associated with both CRP and albumin and consistent with the systemic inflammatory response as a major confounding factor in determining vitamin D status.<p></p&gt

Black Holes and Instabilities of Negative Tension Branes

We consider the collision in 2+1 dimensions of a black hole and a negative tension brane on an orbifold. Because there is no gravitational radiation in 2+1 dimensions, the horizon area shrinks when part of the brane falls through. This provides a potential violation of the generalized second law of thermodynamics. However, tracing the details of the dynamical evolution one finds that it does not proceed from equilibrium configuration to equilibrium configuration. Instead, a catastrophic space-time singularity develops similar to the `big crunch' of $\Omega >1$ FRW space-times. In the context of classical general relativity, our result demonstrates a new instability of constructions with negative tension branes.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, uses RevTeX. Minor typos fixed. References and one footnote adde

Interventions in measles outbreaks: the potential reduction in cases associated with school suspension and vaccination interventions

Background: Measles is resurgent in the US, with more cases in 2019 than any year since 1992. Many of the cases were concentrated in three outbreaks in New York and Washington states, where local governments enacted intervention strategies in an attempt to limit the spread of measles. Regulations differed by location, suggesting guidance on the optimal interventions may be beneficial. Methods: We simulate the daily interactions of the populations of six metropolitan areas of Texas, US, using an agent-based model. The real-life vaccination rates of each school in these metropolitan areas are applied to simulated equivalents. A single case of measles is introduced to the population and the resulting number of cases counted. A range of public health interventions, focused on suspending unvaccinated students and mandatory vaccinations, were simulated during measles outbreaks and the reduction in the number of measles cases, relative to no intervention, recorded. Interventions were simulated only in schools with measles cases and in all schools in each metropolitan area. Results: Suspending unvaccinated students from school was associated with the greatest reduction in measles cases. In a plausible worst-case outbreak scenario, the number of cases is forecast to reduce by 68-96%. Interventions targeting all schools in a metropolitan area is not found to be associated with fewer measles cases than only targeting schools with measles cases, at 2018 vaccination rates. Targeting all schools also increases the cumulative number of school days missed by suspended students by a factor of 10-100, depending on the metropolitan area, compared to targeting only schools with measles cases. If vaccination rates drop 5% in the schools which are under-vaccinated in 2018, metropolitan area-wide interventions are forecast to be associated with fewer cases than school-specific interventions. Conclusions: Interventions that are quickly implemented and widely followed may reduce the size of measles outbreaks by up 96%. If vaccination rates continue to fall in Texas, metropolitan area-wide interventions should be considered in the event of an outbreak