Natural Law and Vengeance:Jurisprudence on the Streets of Gotham

Batman is allied with modern natural law in the way he relies upon reason to bring about his vision of ‘true justice’, operating as a force external to law. This vision of justice is a protective one, with Batman existing as a guardian—a force for resistance against the corruption of the state and the failures of the legal system. But alongside his rational means, Batman also employs violence as he moves beyond the boundaries of the civilised state into the dark and violent world outside law’s protection. He thus sacrifices his own safety to ensure the safety of others—he is a Dark Knight, a sentinel, fighting the nasty and brutish underworld of criminality in his effort to bring rational order to the world and protect the people of Gotham from criminal harm. This fight for justice is fuelled by a deeply private trauma: the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents: a private desire for vengeance that Batman transcends. In navigating Batman’s jurisprudential dimensions, we are ultimately reminded that private desires and motivations are enfolded within the public structures of justice

Gender gaps in education

This chapter reviews the growing body of research in economics which concentrates on the education gender gap and its evolution, over time and across countries. The survey first focuses on gender differentials in the historical period that roughly goes from 1850 to the 1940s and documents the deep determinants of the early phase of female education expansion, including preindustrial conditions, religion, and family and kinship patterns. Next, the survey describes the stylized facts of contemporaneous gender gaps in education, from the 1950s to the present day, accounting for several alternative measures of attainment and achievement and for geographic and temporal differentiations. The determinants of the gaps are then summarized, while keeping a strong emphasis on an historical perspective and disentangling factors related to the labor market, family formation, psychological elements, and societal cultural norms. A discussion follows of the implications of the education gender gap for multiple realms, from economic growth to family life, taking into account the potential for reverse causation. Special attention is devoted to the persistency of gender gaps in the STEM and economics fields

Gender Gaps in Education

This chapter reviews the growing body of research in economics which concentrates on the education gender gap and its evolution, over time and across countries. The survey first focuses on gender differentials in the historical period that roughly goes from 1850 to the 1940s and documents the deep determinants of the early phase of female education expansion, including preindustrial conditions, religion, and family and kinship patterns. Next, the survey describes the stylized facts of contemporaneous gender gaps in education, from the 1950s to the present day, accounting for several alternative measures of attainment and achievement and for geographic and temporal differentiations. The determinants of the gaps are then summarized, while keeping a strong emphasis on an historical perspective and disentangling factors related to the labor market, family formation, psychological elements, and societal cultural norms. A discussion follows of the implications of the education gender gap for multiple realms, from economic growth to family life, taking into account the potential for reverse causation. Special attention is devoted to the persistency of gender gaps in the STEM and economics fields

Autosomal dominant STAT6 Gain of function causes severe atopy associated with lymphoma

The transcription factor STAT6 (Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 6) is a key regulator of Th2 (T-helper 2) mediated allergic inflammation via the IL-4 (interleukin-4) JAK (Janus kinase)/STAT signalling pathway. We identified a novel heterozygous germline mutation STAT6 c.1255G > C, p.D419H leading to overactivity of IL-4 JAK/STAT signalling pathway, in a kindred affected by early-onset atopic dermatitis, food allergy, eosinophilic asthma, anaphylaxis and follicular lymphoma. STAT6 D419H expression and functional activity were compared with wild type STAT6 in transduced HEK293T cells and to healthy control primary skin fibroblasts and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). We observed consistently higher STAT6 levels at baseline and higher STAT6 and phosphorylated STAT6 following IL-4 stimulation in D419H cell lines and primary cells compared to wild type controls. The pSTAT6/STAT6 ratios were unchanged between D419H and control cells suggesting that elevated pSTAT6 levels resulted from higher total basal STAT6 expression. The selective JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor ruxolitinib reduced pSTAT6 levels in D419H HEK293T cells and patient PBMC. Nuclear staining demonstrated increased STAT6 in patient fibroblasts at baseline and both STAT6 and pSTAT6 after IL-4 stimulation. We also observed higher transcriptional upregulation of downstream genes (XBP1 and EPAS1) in patient PBMC. Our study confirms STAT6 gain of function (GOF) as a novel monogenetic cause of early onset atopic disease. The clinical association of lymphoma in our kindred, along with previous data linking somatic STAT6 D419H mutations to follicular lymphoma suggest that patients with STAT6 GOF disease may be at higher risk of lymphomagenesis

High connectivity in a long-lived High-Arctic seabird, the ivory gull Pagophila eburnea

Species may cope with rapid habitat changes by distribution shifts or adaptation to new conditions. A common feature of these responses is that they depend on how the process of dispersal connects populations, both demographically and genetically. We analyzed the genetic structure of a near-threatened high-Arctic seabird, the ivory gull (Pagophila eburnea) in order to infer the connectivity among gull colonies. We analyzed 343 individuals sampled from 16 localities across the circumpolar breeding range of ivory gulls, from northern Russia to the Canadian Arctic. To explore the roles of natal and breeding dispersal, we developed a population genetic model to relate dispersal behavior to the observed genetic structure of worldwide ivory gull populations. Our key finding is the striking genetic homogeneity of ivory gulls across their entire distribution range. The lack of population genetic structure found among colonies, in tandem with independent evidence of movement among colonies, suggests that ongoing effective dispersal is occurring across the Arctic Region. Our results contradict the dispersal patterns generally observed in seabirds where species movement capabilities are often not indicative of dispersal patterns. Model predictions show how natal and breeding dispersal may combine to shape the genetic homogeneity among ivory gull colonies separated by up to 2800 km. Although field data will be key to determine the role of dispersal for the demography of local colonies and refine the respective impacts of natal versus breeding dispersal, conservation planning needs to consider ivory gulls as a genetically homogeneous, Arctic-wide metapopulation effectively connected through dispersal