255 research outputs found
Handgun Prohibition and the Original Meaning of the Second Amendment
One of the purposes of this Article will be to sketch out at least some of the very substantial limitations on the right of individuals to keep and bear arms suggested by the historical evidence. First, however, the controversy between the individual right and the exclusively state\u27s right views must be resolved. The evidence to be examined must include: the literal language of the second amendment; the history of its proposal and ratification; the philosophical and historical background that gave rise to the Founders\u27 belief in the necessity of an armed populace to effect popular sovereignty ; and the contemporary understanding of the second amendment. This Article will then consider the amendment\u27s subsequent judicial interpretation, and the question of its incorporation against the states, before returning to constitutional limitations on the right to keep and bear arms
Of Holocausts and Gun Control
This Article seeks to reclaim a serious argument from the lunatic fringe. We argue a connection exists between the restrictiveness of a country\u27s civilian weapons policy and its liability to commit genocide upon its own people. This notion has received a good deal of disdainful public attention over the past several years because of the Oklahoma City bombing, the Republic of Texas siege, and the inflamed subculture from which the defendants in those incidents emerged. We argue that there is a great deal more to weapons policy than some sort of cost-benefit calculation of firearms\u27 crime control benefits versus public health costs. The larger point, that no one who has lived through the greater part of the twentieth century may conscientiously disregard, is that sometimes people in power behave like Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, or Mao Zedong rather than like President Clinton. Of course public policy must acknowledge that exceptional brutality is indeed exceptional rather than commonplace. But it is senseless to pretend that what has happened many times before cannot possibly happen again. Sound policy makes allowances for even remote contingencies when they are grave enough, and denies opportunity to predators whenever it can
Characteristic Evolution and Matching
I review the development of numerical evolution codes for general relativity
based upon the characteristic initial value problem. Progress in characteristic
evolution is traced from the early stage of 1D feasibility studies to 2D
axisymmetric codes that accurately simulate the oscillations and gravitational
collapse of relativistic stars and to current 3D codes that provide pieces of a
binary black hole spacetime. Cauchy codes have now been successful at
simulating all aspects of the binary black hole problem inside an artificially
constructed outer boundary. A prime application of characteristic evolution is
to extend such simulations to null infinity where the waveform from the binary
inspiral and merger can be unambiguously computed. This has now been
accomplished by Cauchy-characteristic extraction, where data for the
characteristic evolution is supplied by Cauchy data on an extraction worldtube
inside the artificial outer boundary. The ultimate application of
characteristic evolution is to eliminate the role of this outer boundary by
constructing a global solution via Cauchy-characteristic matching. Progress in
this direction is discussed.Comment: New version to appear in Living Reviews 2012. arXiv admin note:
updated version of arXiv:gr-qc/050809
Timescales of transformational climate change adaptation in sub-Saharan African agriculture
Climate change is projected to constitute a significant threat to food security if no adaptation actions are taken. Transformation of agricultural systems, for example switching crop types or moving out of agriculture, is projected to be necessary in some cases. However, little attention has been paid to the timing of these transformations. Here, we develop a temporal uncertainty framework using the CMIP5 ensemble to assess when and where cultivation of key crops in sub-Saharan Africa becomes unviable. We report potential transformational changes for all major crops during the twenty-first century, as climates shift and areas become unsuitable. For most crops, however, transformation is limited to small pockets (<15% of area), and only for beans, maize and banana is transformation more widespread (â 1/430% area for maize and banana, 60% for beans). We envisage three overlapping adaptation phases to enable projected transformational changes: an incremental adaptation phase focused on improvements to crops and management, a preparatory phase that establishes appropriate policies and enabling environments, and a transformational adaptation phase in which farmers substitute crops, explore alternative livelihoods strategies, or relocate. To best align policies with production triggers for no-regret actions, monitoring capacities to track farming systems as well as climate are needed
Inhibition of Monkeypox virus replication by RNA interference
The Orthopoxvirus genus of Poxviridae family is comprised of several human pathogens, including cowpox (CPXV), Vaccinia (VACV), monkeypox (MPV) and Variola (VARV) viruses. Species of this virus genus cause human diseases with various severities and outcome ranging from mild conditions to death in fulminating cases. Currently, vaccination is the only protective measure against infection with these viruses and no licensed antiviral drug therapy is available. In this study, we investigated the potential of RNA interference pathway (RNAi) as a therapeutic approach for orthopox virus infections using MPV as a model. Based on genome-wide expression studies and bioinformatic analysis, we selected 12 viral genes and targeted them by small interference RNA (siRNA). Forty-eight siRNA constructs were developed and evaluated in vitro for their ability to inhibit viral replication. Two genes, each targeted with four different siRNA constructs in one pool, were limiting to viral replication. Seven siRNA constructs from these two pools, targeting either an essential gene for viral replication (A6R) or an important gene in viral entry (E8L), inhibited viral replication in cell culture by 65-95% with no apparent cytotoxicity. Further analysis with wild-type and recombinant MPV expressing green fluorescence protein demonstrated that one of these constructs, siA6-a, was the most potent and inhibited viral replication for up to 7 days at a concentration of 10 nM. These results emphasis the essential role of A6R gene in viral replication, and demonstrate the potential of RNAi as a therapeutic approach for developing oligonucleotide-based drug therapy for MPV and other orthopox viruses
Real-Time Contrast Enhancement to Improve Speech Recognition
An algorithm that operates in real-time to enhance the salient features of speech is described and its efficacy is evaluated. The Contrast Enhancement (CE) algorithm implements dynamic compressive gain and lateral inhibitory sidebands across channels in a modified winner-take-all circuit, which together produce a form of suppression that sharpens the dynamic spectrum. Normal-hearing listeners identified spectrally smeared consonants (VCVs) and vowels (hVds) in quiet and in noise. Consonant and vowel identification, especially in noise, were improved by the processing. The amount of improvement did not depend on the degree of spectral smearing or talker characteristics. For consonants, when results were analyzed according to phonetic feature, the most consistent improvement was for place of articulation. This is encouraging for hearing aid applications because confusions between consonants differing in place are a persistent problem for listeners with sensorineural hearing loss
Challenges to adaptation: a fundamental concept for the shared socio-economic pathways and beyond
The framework for the new scenarios being developed for climate research calls
for the development of a set of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), which are meant to
differ in terms of their challenges to mitigation and challenges to adaptation. In order for the
scenario process to fulfill its goals, the research and policy communities need to develop a
shared understanding of these concepts. This paper focuses on challenges to adaptation. We
begin by situating this new concept in the context of the rich literatures related to inter alia
adaptation, vulnerability, and resilience. We argue that a proper characterization of challenges to adaptation requires a rich, exploration of the concept, which goes beyond mere
description. This has a number of implications for the operationalization of the concept in
the basic and extended versions of the SSPs. First, the elements comprising challenges to
adaptation must include a wide range of socioeconomic and even some (non-climatic)
biophysical factors. Second, careful consideration must be given to differences in these
factors across scales, as well as cross-scale interactions. Third, any representation of the
concept will require both quantitative and qualitative elements. The scenario framework
offers the opportunity for the SSPs and full scenarios to be of greater value than has been the
case in past exercises to both Integrated Assessment Modeling (IAM) and Impacts,Adaptation, and Vulnerability (IAV) researchers, but this will require a renegotiation of the
traditional, primarily unidirectional relationship between the two communities
- …