The ambivalent shadow of the pre-Wilsonian rise of international law

The generation of American international lawyers who founded the American Society of International Law in 1906 and nurtured the soil for what has been retrospectively called a “moralistic legalistic approach to international relations” remains little studied. A survey of the rise of international legal literature in the U.S. from the mid-19th century to the eve of the Great War serves as a backdrop to the examination of the boosting effect on international law of the Spanish American War in 1898. An examination of the Insular Cases before the US Supreme Court is then accompanied by the analysis of a number of influential factors behind the pre-war rise of international law in the U.S. The work concludes with an examination of the rise of natural law doctrines in international law during the interwar period and the critiques addressed.by the realist founders of the field of “international relations” to the “moralistic legalistic approach to international relation

Enhanced Water Quality Protection in Florida: An Analysis of the Regulatory and Practical Significance of an Outstanding Florida Water Designation

The Outstanding Florida Water (OFW) designation is the highest protection offered to a body of water by the state of Florida and is available only to those waters whose “natural attributes” warrant it. An OFW designation provides that water body with an antidegradation standard for certain activities affecting its water quality. Ordinarily, waters in Florida must meet the criteria established by rule for their respective class of water (based on the Florida water body classification system), regardless of existing water quality. Once a water body is designated as an OFW, however, a baseline water quality standard is set based on the ambient water quality of that particular water body. Because the OFW water quality standard may be higher than the rule-based water quality classification criteria, regulated activities that may affect the OFW are subject to additional scrutiny by regulatory agencies. In addition, those activities not necessarily occurring within an OFW, but that may “significantly degrade” an OFW, are subject to heightened scrutiny. The ability of current OFW regulation to fulfill the legislative intent behind the OFW designation remains uncertain. Judicial and administrative case law addressing OFWs provide little clear guidance in interpreting the statutory standards for the issuance of permits in or affecting OFWs, especially the “clearly in the public interest” standard. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) should consider adopting for the OFW Program the type of public interest benefits/costs balancing test currently provided for in Aquatic Preserves Program rules. This test creates a discernible distinction between the public interest standard for submerged lands activities that are within aquatic preserves as opposed to those occurring outside of the preserves. The effect of the OFW designation on water quality parameters subject to a narrative standard (nutrients), and on water quality parameters that are not currently established by rule (e.g. emerging pathogens of concern) has not been established. In addition OFWs do not appear to enjoy any special consideration as designated uses subject to impaired waters restoration. The definitions of non-degradation and of ambient water quality for the purposes of OFW designation should be amended to ensure that they contemplate degradation by contaminants other than the current rule–based list of water quality standards and criteria. The extent to which Best Management Practices (BMPs) for silviculture operations are sufficient to safeguard OFW water quality may require further research. In addition, the extent to which the OFW statute and rules recognize the ecological role and recreational value of riparian zones remains in question. This should be clarified by the FDEP

Hypoglossal schwannoma masquerading as a carotid body tumor.

Study Objective. To describe the clinical presentation, evaluation, and treatment of a hypoglossal schwannoma. Methods. We report an unusual case of a hypoglossal schwannoma presenting as a pulsatile level II neck mass at the bifurcation of the external and internal carotid arteries, mimicking a carotid body tumor. Radiologic findings are reviewed in detail. Results. A 59-year-old female presented to a tertiary care medical center with complaints of a pulsatile right-sided neck mass. An MRA of the neck was obtained demonstrating a 5 cm mass located at the carotid artery bifurcation and causing splaying of the internal and external carotids. Based on clinical presentation and imaging, a diagnosis of a carotid body tumor was conferred and the patient scheduled for excision. Intraoperatively, the mass was noted to arise from the hypoglossal nerve, remaining independent of the carotid artery. On histopathologic analysis, the mass was determined to be consistent with hypoglossal schwannoma. Conclusion. Though rare, the hypoglossal schwannoma should remain a consideration in the evaluation of a parapharyngeal space mass. As this report demonstrates, the clinical and radiologic presentation of a hypoglossal schwannoma may closely mimic that of the more common carotid body tumor

On the kinematics of the Local cosmic void

We collected the existing data on the distances and radial velocities of galaxies around the Local Void in the Aquila/Hercules to examine the peculiar velocity field induced by its underdensity. A sample of 1056 galaxies with distances measured from the Tip of the Red Giant Branch, the Cepheid luminosity, the SNIa luminosity, the surface brightness fluctuation method, and the Tully-Fisher relation has been used for this purpose. The amplitude of outflow is found to be ~300 km/s. The galaxies located within the void produce the mean intra-void number density about 1/5 of the mean external number density of galaxies. The void's population has a lower luminosity and a later morphological type with the medians: M_B = -15.7^m and T = 8 (Sdm), respectively.Comment: Version 1. 14 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Accepted to Astrophysics, Volume 54, Issue

Altered serological and cellular reactivity to H-2 antigens after target cell infection with vaccinia virus

MICE generate cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) which are able to lyse virus infected target cells in vitro after infection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) and pox-viruses1−3. CTL kill syngeneic and semiallogenic infected cells but not allogenic infected targets. Target cell lysis in these systems seems to be restricted by H-2 antigens, especially by the K or D end of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). In experiments where virus specific sensitised lymphocytes kill virus infected allogenic target cells4 the effector lymphocytes have not been characterised exactly. Recent investigations suggest that the active cell in this assay, at least in the measles infection, is a non-thymus derived cell (H. Kreth, personal communication). An H-2 restriction of cell mediated cytolysis (CMC) to trinitrophenol (TNP)-modified lymphocytes has also been described5. Zinkernagel and Doherty6 postulated that the CTL is directed against syngeneic H-2 antigens and viral antigens and they suggested an alteration of H-2 induced by the LCMV infection. Earlier7 we found a close topological relationship between H-2 antigens and the target antigen(s) responsible for CMC in the vaccinia system. Here we report experiments which were carried out to prove alteration of H-2 after infection of L-929 fibroblasts with vaccinia virus

Pairwise dwarf galaxy formation and galaxy downsizing: some clues from extremely metal-poor Blue Compact Dwarf galaxies

Some of the extremely metal-poor Blue Compact Dwarf galaxies (XBCDs) in the nearby universe form galaxy pairs with remarkably similar properties. This fact points to an intriguing degree of synchronicity in the formation history of these binary dwarf galaxies and raises the question as to whether some of them form and co-evolve pairwise (or in loose galaxy groups), experiencing recurrent mild interactions and minor tidally induced star formation episodes throughout their evolution. We argue that this hypothesis offers a promising conceptual framework for the exploration of the retarded previous evolution and recent dominant formation phase of XBCDs.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the JENAM 2010 Symposium "Dwarf Galaxies: Keys to Galaxy Formation and Evolution" (Lisbon, 9-10 September 2010), P. Papaderos, S. Recchi, G. Hensler (eds.), Springer Verlag (2011), in pres

On Steering Swarms

The main contribution of this paper is a novel method allowing an external observer/controller to steer and guide swarms of identical and indistinguishable agents, in spite of the agents' lack of information on absolute location and orientation. Importantly, this is done via simple global broadcast signals, based on the observed average swarm location, with no need to send control signals to any specific agent in the swarm

Developing Children's Oral Health Assessment Toolkits Using Machine Learning Algorithm.

ObjectivesEvaluating children's oral health status and treatment needs is challenging. We aim to build oral health assessment toolkits to predict Children's Oral Health Status Index (COHSI) score and referral for treatment needs (RFTN) of oral health. Parent and Child toolkits consist of short-form survey items (12 for children and 8 for parents) with and without children's demographic information (7 questions) to predict the child's oral health status and need for treatment.MethodsData were collected from 12 dental practices in Los Angeles County from 2015 to 2016. We predicted COHSI score and RFTN using random Bootstrap samples with manually introduced Gaussian noise together with machine learning algorithms, such as Extreme Gradient Boosting and Naive Bayesian algorithms (using R). The toolkits predicted the probability of treatment needs and the COHSI score with percentile (ranking). The performance of the toolkits was evaluated internally and externally by residual mean square error (RMSE), correlation, sensitivity and specificity.ResultsThe toolkits were developed based on survey responses from 545 families with children aged 2 to 17 y. The sensitivity and specificity for predicting RFTN were 93% and 49% respectively with the external data. The correlation(s) between predicted and clinically determined COHSI was 0.88 (and 0.91 for its percentile). The RMSEs of the COHSI toolkit were 4.2 for COHSI (and 1.3 for its percentile).ConclusionsSurvey responses from children and their parents/guardians are predictive for clinical outcomes. The toolkits can be used by oral health programs at baseline among school populations. The toolkits can also be used to quantify differences between pre- and post-dental care program implementation. The toolkits' predicted oral health scores can be used to stratify samples in oral health research.Knowledge transfer statementThis study creates the oral health toolkits that combine self- and proxy- reported short forms with children's demographic characteristics to predict children's oral health and treatment needs using Machine Learning algorithms. The toolkits can be used by oral health programs at baseline among school populations to quantify differences between pre and post dental care program implementation. The toolkits can also be used to stratify samples according to the treatment needs and oral health status