“Sports Law”: Implications for the Development of International, Comparative, and National Law and Global Dispute Resolution

In this Article, we observe that legal regulation of national and international sports competition has become extremely complex and has entered a new era, which provides fertile ground for the creation and evolution of broader legal jurisprudence with potentially widespread influence and application. Our principal aim is to draw these developments to the attention of legal scholars and attorneys not necessarily familiar with sports law. Specifically, the evolving law of sports is having a significant influence on the development of international and national laws, is establishing a body of substantive legal doctrine ripe for analysis from a comparative law perspective, and has important implications for global dispute resolution. For example, the global processes used to establish an international sports antidoping code and to resolve a broad range of Olympic and international sports disputes (which is rapidly creating a body of global private law) provide paradigms of international cooperation and global lawmaking. In addition, judicial resolution of sports-related cases may develop jurisprudence with new applications and influence. Our objective is to generate greater awareness of the importance of sports, not only as a worldwide cultural phenomenon and a significant part of the twenty-first-century global economy, but as a rich source of international and national public and private laws that provide models for establishing, implementing, and enforcing global legal norms

Cosmopolitan Education and Moral Education: Forging Moral Beings Under Conditions of Global Uncertainty

The accelerating pace of globalization places an imperative on formal schooling to figure out how to educate students for the rapidly changing world that today reaches even into the smallest towns and regions of our shared globe. This project attempts to respond to that imperative by examining the moral component of schooling, and specifically, what might be the best way to provide moral education. I begin from a premise that prevalent existing moral education constructs fall short of this task because they consist of either pre-determined morals that students are expected to learn and adopt or they teach about morality systems without analyzing their merits, preventing the development of the important skill of judgment. In a world of significantly different cultures and ways of living, such forms of moral education are simply incapable of providing the kind of education in morality that can withstand and accommodate the diversity that exists and the new forms of life that are yet to come. Cosmopolitan education, based in cosmopolitan philosophy, is posited as a possible answer to this question. Beginning with cosmopolitanism's grounding in the principle of shared humanity I show how cosmopolitan education might offer a more mutually beneficial response to evolving global conditions. This project uses conceptual analysis to examine the concepts of an education in morality and Hannah Arendt's work on natality, thinking, action, and the public space of politics to show that an education in morality is public and political. As a result, cosmopolitan education can use the processes found in Thomas Nagel's epistemological restraint, Jürgen Habermas's discourse ethics, and Chantal Mouffe's agonistic pluralism to help students acquire a disposition that both promotes active and flexible engagement in moral inquiry, as well as in other educational experiences, and embraces plurality and diversity by recognizing the positive contribution that others can make in one's life. Shared humanity emerges as a collective possession of what Arendt calls 'the human condition,' which is essentially a collection of the human conditions of plurality, natality, action, and one that I add, the condition of uncertainty. Through a cosmopolitan lens, these conditions frame the way political processes can be utilized in an education in morality to encourage the development of a disposition that I call 'moral agonism,' which equips students to inquire into and participate in the development of morality in the face of constantly evolving and uncertain conditions in the world

Mission Statement Possible: International Schools and Cosmopolitanism

  Cosmopolitanism has recently received increased interest and representation in educational discourse and theory. Given the global and international emphases in cosmopolitanism, international schools might provide some clues and illustrations of cosmopolitanism influence in schooling. The way an international school articulates its purpose can provide insight into the general discourse about international schools and what each thinks its purpose is, real or imagined. Thus, the mission statements of sixty-seven international schools were analysed to measure the extent to which these schools articulated purposes consistent with dominant typologies and characteristics of cosmopolitanism. The data shows that while international schools show a dominant predilection toward cognitive and academic development, they also contain a significant number of cosmopolitan characteristics and an orientation toward the development of attitudes and emotional development that aid in intercultural understanding and cosmopolitan ways of being

Temperature Switch PCR (TSP): Robust assay design for reliable amplification and genotyping of SNPs

Background Many research and diagnostic applications rely upon the assay of individual single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Thus, methods to improve the speed and efficiency for single-marker SNP genotyping are highly desirable. Here, we describe the method of temperature-switch PCR (TSP), a biphasic four-primer PCR system with a universal primer design that permits amplification of the target locus in the first phase of thermal cycling before switching to the detection of the alleles. TSP can simplify assay design for a range of commonly used single-marker SNP genotyping methods, and reduce the requirement for individual assay optimization and operator expertise in the deployment of SNP assays. Results We demonstrate the utility of TSP for the rapid construction of robust and convenient endpoint SNP genotyping assays based on allele-specific PCR and high resolution melt analysis by generating a total of 11,232 data points. The TSP assays were performed under standardised reaction conditions, requiring minimal optimization of individual assays. High genotyping accuracy was verified by 100% concordance of TSP genotypes in a blinded study with an independent genotyping method. Conclusion Theoretically, TSP can be directly incorporated into the design of assays for most current single-marker SNP genotyping methods. TSP provides several technological advances for single-marker SNP genotyping including simplified assay design and development, increased assay specificity and genotyping accuracy, and opportunities for assay automation. By reducing the requirement for operator expertise, TSP provides opportunities to deploy a wider range of single-marker SNP genotyping methods in the laboratory. TSP has broad applications and can be deployed in any animal and plant species.Tania Tabone, Diane E Mather and Matthew J Hayde

Multiplex-Ready PCR: A new method for multiplexed SSR and SNP genotyping

© 2008 Hayden et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background Microsatellite (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers are widely used in plant breeding and genomic research. Thus, methods to improve the speed and efficiency of SSR and SNP genotyping are highly desirable. Here we describe a new method for multiplex PCR that facilitates fluorescence-based SSR genotyping and the multiplexed preparation of DNA templates for SNP assays. Results We show that multiplex-ready PCR can achieve a high (92%) success rate for the amplification of published sequences under standardised reaction conditions, with a PCR specificity comparable to that of conventional PCR methods. We also demonstrate that multiplex-ready PCR supports an improved level of multiplexing in plant genomes of varying size and ploidy, without the need to carefully optimize assay conditions. Several advantages of multiplex-ready PCR for SSR and SNP genotyping are demonstrated and discussed. These include the uniform amplification of target sequences within multiplexed reactions and between independent assays, and the ability to label amplicons during PCR with specialised moieties such fluorescent dyes and biotin. Conclusion Multiplex-ready PCR provides several technological advantages that can facilitate fluorescence-based SSR genotyping and the multiplexed preparation of DNA templates for SNP assays. These advantages can be captured at several points in the genotyping process, and offer considerable cost and labour savings. Multiplex-ready PCR is broadly applicable to plant genomics and marker assisted breeding, and should be transferable to any animal or plant species.Matthew J Hayden, Thao M Nguyen, Amanda Waterman and Kenneth J Chalmer

Genomic prediction and selection response for grain yield in safflower

In plant breeding programs, multiple traits are recorded in each trial, and the traits are often correlated. Correlated traits can be incorporated into genomic selection models, especially for traits with low heritability, to improve prediction accuracy. In this study, we investigated the genetic correlation between important agronomic traits in safflower. We observed the moderate genetic correlations between grain yield (GY) and plant height (PH, 0.272–0.531), and low correlations between grain yield and days to flowering (DF, −0.157–0.201). A 4%–20% prediction accuracy improvement for grain yield was achieved when plant height was included in both training and validation sets with multivariate models. We further explored the selection responses for grain yield by selecting the top 20% of lines based on different selection indices. Selection responses for grain yield varied across sites. Simultaneous selection for grain yield and seed oil content (OL) showed positive gains across all sites with equal weights for both grain yield and oil content. Combining g×E interaction into genomic selection (GS) led to more balanced selection responses across sites. In conclusion, genomic selection is a valuable breeding tool for breeding high grain yield, oil content, and highly adaptable safflower varieties

Ribonucleoprotein Purification and Characterization Using RNA Mango

The characterization of RNA–protein complexes (RNPs) is a difficult but increasingly important problem in modern biology. By combining the compact RNA Mango aptamer with a fluorogenic thiazole orange desthiobiotin (TO1-Dtb or TO3-Dtb) ligand, we have created an RNA tagging system that simplifies the purification and subsequent characterization of endogenous RNPs. Mango-tagged RNP complexes can be immobilized on a streptavidin solid support and recovered in their native state by the addition of free biotin. Furthermore, Mango-based RNP purification can be adapted to different scales of RNP isolation ranging from pull-down assays to the isolation of large amounts of biochemically defined cellular RNPs. We have incorporated the Mango aptamer into the S. cerevisiae U1 small nuclear RNA (snRNA), shown that the Mango-snRNA is functional in cells, and used the aptamer to pull down a U1 snRNA-associated protein. To demonstrate large-scale isolation of RNPs, we purified and characterized bacterial RNA polymerase holoenzyme (HE) in complex with a Mango-containing 6S RNA. We were able to use the combination of a red-shifted TO3-Dtb ligand and eGFP-tagged HE to follow the binding and release of the 6S RNA by two-color native gel analysis as well as by single-molecule fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy. Together these experiments demonstrate how the Mango aptamer in conjunction with simple derivatives of its flurophore ligands enables the purification and characterization of endogenous cellular RNPs in vitro

Neural activity during self-referential processing in children at risk for depression.

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: According to cognitive theories of depression, more negative and less positive self-schemas are thought to play a causal role in the disorder. Existing evidence speaks to the neural substrates of self-referential processes in both healthy and depressed individuals, but little is known about how the brain relates to selfreferential processing in the context of depression risk in children. We therefore studied the neural substrates of self-referential processing in never-depressed preadolescent children at high and low risk for depression based on maternal depression history. METHODS: A total of 87 never-depressed 10–12-year-old children (29 with maternal depression) completed a selfreferential encoding task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging session, in which they were presented a series of positive and negative trait adjectives and endorsed whether each word was self-descriptive. Small volume correction analyses were conducted within 7 regions of interest that are important for self-referential and emotion-related processes. RESULTS: Analyses of small volume correction indicated that high-risk children showed greater activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during the positive-word self-referential encoding task condition than low-risk children. Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation mediated the association between maternal depression and child depressive symptoms only when children had lower positive self-schemas, indicating that more positive self-schemas may protect at-risk children from developing depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Cortical midline and prefrontal regions are important to self-, emotion-, and regulation-related processes. Heightened activation within these regions in never-depressed high-risk children indicates that these neurobiological substrate

The Emergence of Group Potency and Its Implications for Team Effectiveness

Much of the previous research on the emergence of team-level constructs has overlooked their inherently dynamic nature by relying on static, cross-sectional approaches. Although theoretical arguments regarding emergent states have underscored the importance of considering time, minimal work has examined the dynamics of emergent states. In the present research, we address this limitation by investigating the dynamic nature of group potency, a crucial emergent state, over time. Theory around the “better-than-average” effect (i.e., an individual’s tendency to think he/she is better than the average person) suggests that individuals may have elevated expectations of their group’s early potency, but may decrease over time as team members interact gain a more realistic perspective of their group’s potential. In addition, as members gain experience with each other, they will develop a shared understanding of their team’s attributes. The current study used latent growth and consensus emergence modeling to examine how potency changes over time, and its relation with team effectiveness. Further, in accordance with the input-process-output framework, we investigated how group potency mediated the relations between team-level compositions of conscientiousness and extraversion and team effectiveness. We collected data at three time points throughout an engineering design course from 337 first-year engineering students that comprised 77 project teams. Results indicated that group potency decreased over time in a linear trend, and that group consensus increased over time. We also found that teams’ initial potency was a significant predictor of team effectiveness, but that change in potency was not related to team effectiveness. Finally, we found that the indirect effect linking conscientiousness to effectiveness, through initial potency, was supported. Overall, the current study offers a unique understanding of the emergence of group potency, and facilitate a number theoretical and practical implications, which are discussed

Mapping The Interstellar Medium With Near-Infrared Diffuse Interstellar Bands

We map the distribution and properties of the Milky Way's interstellar medium as traced by diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) detected in near-infrared stellar spectra from the SDSS-III/APOGEE survey. Focusing exclusively on the strongest DIB in the H band, at lambda similar to 1.527 mu m, we present a projected map of the DIB absorption field in the Galactic plane, using a set of about 60,000 sightlines that reach up to 15 kpc from the Sun and probe up to 30 mag of visual extinction. The strength of this DIB is linearly correlated with dust reddening over three orders of magnitude in both DIB equivalent width (Wpm) and extinction, with a power law index of 1.01 +/- 0.01, a mean relationship of W-DIB/A(v) = 0.1 angstrom mag(-1) and a dispersion of similar to 0.05 angstrom mag(-1) at extinctions characteristic of the Galactic midplane. These properties establish this DIB as a powerful, independent probe of dust extinction over a wide range of Av values. The subset of about 14,000 robustly detected DIB features have a W-DIB distribution that follows an exponential trend. We empirically determine the intrinsic rest wavelength of this transition to be lambda(0) = 15 272.42 angstrom and use it to calculate absolute radial velocities of the carrier, which display the kinematical signature of the rotating Galactic disk. We probe the DIB carrier distribution in three dimensions and show that it can be characterized by an exponential disk model with a scale height of about 100 pc and a scale length of about 5 kpc. Finally, we show that the DIB distribution also traces large-scale Galactic structures, including the Galactic long bar and the warp of the outer disk.NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship AST-1203017NSF AST-1109665Alfred P. Sloan FoundationNational Science FoundationU.S. Department of Energy Office of ScienceUniversity of ArizonaBrazilian Participation GroupBrookhaven National LaboratoryUniversity of CambridgeCarnegie Mellon UniversityUniversity of FloridaFrench Participation GroupGerman Participation GroupHarvard UniversityInstituto de Astrofisica de CanariasMichigan State/Notre Dame/JINA Participation GroupJohns Hopkins UniversityLawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryMax Planck Institute for AstrophysicsMax Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial PhysicsNew Mexico State UniversityNew York UniversityOhio State UniversityPennsylvania State UniversityUniversity of PortsmouthPrinceton UniversitySpanish Participation GroupUniversity of TokyoUniversity of UtahVanderbilt UniversityUniversity of VirginiaUniversity of WashingtonYale UniversitySpanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness AYA-2011-27754McDonald Observator