Acquiring Universal Values through a Particular Tradition: A Perspective on Judaism and Modern Pluralism

Religious traditions can be sources of values and attitudes supporting the liberal polity in ways that political theorizing and conceptions of public reason often fail to recognize. moreover, religious traditions can give support through the ways reason is crucial to their self-understanding. one understanding of Judaism is examined as an example. Also, the particularism of traditions can encourage commitment to universally valid values and ideals. reason’s role in Judaism and other religious traditions makes possible constructive interaction between those traditions and between religious and secular thought. exclusion of religiously grounded considerations from the discourse and deliberations of liberal polities can be counterproductively illiberal

The State of Asylum Representation: Ideas for Change

The plight of refugees-those who flee persecution-touches a chord with Americans, who have supported both a substantial overseas resettlement program and a fair system for asylum seekers. U.S. laws provide a seemingly full opportunity for asylum applicants to explain their fear or actual experience of persecution. In fact, the U.S. offers an extensive process of interviews, hearings, and appeals to ensure that bona fide refugees are not sent back to their persecutors. The substantive law, too, has been developed considerably through administrative and judicial precedents. But how meaningful is a process that, no matter how extensive and developed, leaves asylum seekers on their own to present their claims when only experts understand how the process works and what the case law means? Asylum applicants often have escaped life threatening situations in their home countries and have overcome financial and physical obstacles to reach the United States, only to be faced with a daunting and confusing asylum application process. Legal assistance is permitted, but it must be at no expense to the government. While some asylum seekers find competent representation, many do not. Most of the key players in the U.S. asylum process-the representatives, the Immigration and Naturalization Service ( INS ) trial attorneys, the Asylum Officers and the Immigration Judges– believe that representation makes a difference for those seeking relief and for the effectiveness of the system. Immigration Court data indicates that represented asylum cases are four to six times more likely to succeed than pro se ones. The time has come to develop ways for all asylum seekers to have the type of legal assistance needed to more fully ensure that bona fide refugees receive the protection that the U.S. public wants to give them and that our laws require. Despite the importance of legal representation, there has yet to be a systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of the current delivery mechanisms in place to aid those in need of legal services and the effect of representation on the asylum system in general. This paper examines the state of affairs with regard to asylum representation and attempts to understand better the barriers to representation. It also begins to assess the effects of representation on asylum seekers and the asylum system itself, and to analyze the various ways in which the representation system can be improved

Armstrong on Probabilistic Laws of Nature

D. M. Armstrong famously claims that deterministic laws of nature are contingent relations between universals and that his account can also be straightforwardly extended to irreducibly probabilistic laws of nature. For the most part, philosophers have neglected to scrutinize Armstrong’s account of probabilistic laws. This is surprising precisely because his own claims about probabilistic laws make it unclear just what he takes them to be. We offer three interpretations of what Armstrong-style probabilistic laws are, and argue that all three interpretations are incompatible either with some feature of Armstrong’s broader metaphysics or with essential features of his account of laws (or both)

Confocal analysis of nervous system architecture in direct-developing juveniles of Neanthes arenaceodentata (Annelida, Nereididae)

Background: Members of Family Nereididae have complex neural morphology exemplary of errant polychaetes and are leading research models in the investigation of annelid nervous systems. However, few studies focus on the development of their nervous system morphology. Such data are particularly relevant today, as nereidids are the subjects of a growing body of "evo-devo" work concerning bilaterian nervous systems, and detailed knowledge of their developing neuroanatomy facilitates the interpretation of gene expression analyses. In addition, new data are needed to resolve discrepancies between classic studies of nereidid neuroanatomy. We present a neuroanatomical overview based on acetylated α-tubulin labeling and confocal microscopy for post-embryonic stages of Neanthes arenaceodentata, a direct-developing nereidid. Results: At hatching (2-3 chaetigers), the nervous system has developed much of the complexity of the adult (large brain, circumesophageal connectives, nerve cords, segmental nerves), and the stomatogastric nervous system is partially formed. By the 5-chaetiger stage, the cephalic appendages and anal cirri are well innervated and have clear connections to the central nervous system. Within one week of hatching (9-chaetigers), cephalic sensory structures (e.g., nuchal organs, Langdon's organs) and brain substructures (e.g., corpora pedunculata, stomatogastric ganglia) are clearly differentiated. Additionally, the segmental-nerve architecture (including interconnections) matches descriptions of other, adult nereidids, and the pharynx has developed longitudinal nerves, nerve rings, and ganglia. All central roots of the stomatogastric nervous system are distinguishable in 12-chaetiger juveniles. Evidence was also found for two previously undescribed peripheral nerve interconnections and aspects of parapodial muscle innervation. Conclusions: N. arenaceodentata has apparently lost all essential trochophore characteristics typical of nereidids. Relative to the polychaete Capitella, brain separation from a distinct epidermis occurs later in N. arenaceodentata, indicating different mechanisms of prostomial development. Our observations of parapodial innervation and the absence of lateral nerves in N. arenaceodentata are similar to a 19th century study of Alitta virens (formerly Nereis/Neanthes virens) but contrast with a more recent study that describes a single parapodial nerve pattern and lateral nerve presence in A. virens and two other genera. The latter study apparently does not account for among-nereidid variation in these major neural features

A Sensitivity and Array-Configuration Study for Measuring the Power Spectrum of 21cm Emission from Reionization

Telescopes aiming to measure 21cm emission from the Epoch of Reionization must toe a careful line, balancing the need for raw sensitivity against the stringent calibration requirements for removing bright foregrounds. It is unclear what the optimal design is for achieving both of these goals. Via a pedagogical derivation of an interferometer's response to the power spectrum of 21cm reionization fluctuations, we show that even under optimistic scenarios, first-generation arrays will yield low-SNR detections, and that different compact array configurations can substantially alter sensitivity. We explore the sensitivity gains of array configurations that yield high redundancy in the uv-plane -- configurations that have been largely ignored since the advent of self-calibration for high-dynamic-range imaging. We first introduce a mathematical framework to generate optimal minimum-redundancy configurations for imaging. We contrast the sensitivity of such configurations with high-redundancy configurations, finding that high-redundancy configurations can improve power-spectrum sensitivity by more than an order of magnitude. We explore how high-redundancy array configurations can be tuned to various angular scales, enabling array sensitivity to be directed away from regions of the uv-plane (such as the origin) where foregrounds are brighter and where instrumental systematics are more problematic. We demonstrate that a 132-antenna deployment of the Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER) observing for 120 days in a high-redundancy configuration will, under ideal conditions, have the requisite sensitivity to detect the power spectrum of the 21cm signal from reionization at a 3\sigma level at k<0.25h Mpc^{-1} in a bin of \Delta ln k=1. We discuss the tradeoffs of low- versus high-redundancy configurations.Comment: 34 pages, 5 figures, 2 appendices. Version accepted to Ap

Monetary benefits of preventing childhood lead poisoning with lead-safe window replacement

Previous estimates of childhood lead poisoning prevention benefits have quantified the present value of some health benefits, but not the costs of lead paint hazard control or the benefits associated with housing and energy markets. Because older housing with lead paint constitutes the main exposure source today in the U.S., we quantify health benefits, costs, market value benefits, energy savings, and net economic benefits of lead-safe window replacement (which includes paint stabilization and other measures). The benefit per resident child from improved lifetime earnings alone is $21,195 in pre-1940 housing and$8,685 in 1940-59 housing (in 2005 dollars). Annual energy savings are $130 to$486 per housing unit, with or without young resident children, with an associated increase in housing market value of $5,900 to$14,300 per housing unit, depending on home size and number of windows replaced. Net benefits are $4,490 to$5,629 for each housing unit built before 1940, and $491 to$1,629 for each unit built from 1940-1959, depending on home size and number of windows replaced. Lead-safe window replacement in all pre-1960 U.S. housing would yield net benefits of at least $67 billion, which does not include many other benefits. These other benefits, which are shown in this paper, include avoided Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, other medical costs of childhood lead exposure, avoided special education, and reduced crime and juvenile delinquency in later life. In addition, such a window replacement effort would reduce peak demand for electricity, carbon emissions from power plants, and associated long-term costs of climate change.Lead Poisoning, IQ, Energy Efficiency, Cost Benefit Analysis, Housing, Climate Change

Normal Pursuit-System Limitations— First Discovered in Infantile Nystagmus Syndrome

Infantile nystagmus syndrome (INS) patients occasionally have impaired pursuit. Model and patient data identified relative timing between target motion initiation and INS-waveform saccades as the cause. We used a new stimulus, the “step-pause-ramp” (SPR), to induce saccades proximal to target-velocity onset and test their effect on normal pursuit. Our OMS model predicted that proximal saccades impaired normal ramp responses, as in INS. Eye movements of subjects were calibrated monocularly and recorded binocularly; data were analyzed using OMtools software. Proximal saccades caused lengthened target acquisition times and steady-state position errors, confirming the model’s predictions. Spontaneous pursuit oscillation supported the hypothesis that INS is caused by loss of smooth-pursuit damping. Snooth pursuit may be impaired by saccades overlapping targetmotion onset

Chronic Early-life Stress in Rat Pups Alters Basal Corticosterone, Intestinal Permeability, and Fecal Microbiota at Weaning: Influence of Sex.

Background/aimsWistar rat dams exposed to limited nesting stress (LNS) from post-natal days (PND) 2 to 10 display erratic maternal behavior, and their pups show delayed maturation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and impaired epithelial barrier at PND10 and a visceral hypersensitivity at adulthood. Little is known about the impact of early life stress on the offspring before adulthood and the influence of sex. We investigated whether male and female rats previously exposed to LNS displays at weaning altered corticosterone, intestinal permeability, and microbiota.MethodsWistar rat dams and litters were maintained from PND2 to 10 with limited nesting/bedding materials and thereafter reverted to normal housing up to weaning (PND21). Control litters had normal housing. At weaning, we monitored body weight, corticosterone plasma levels (enzyme immunoassay), in vivo intestinal to colon permeability (fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran 4 kDa) and fecal microbiota (DNA extraction and amplification of the V4 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene).ResultsAt weaning, LNS pups had hypercorticosteronemia and enhanced intestinal permeability with females &gt; males while body weights were similar. LNS decreased fecal microbial diversity and induced a distinct composition characterized by increased abundance of Gram positive cocci and reduction of fiber-degrading, butyrate-producing, and mucus-resident microbes.ConclusionsThese data indicate that chronic exposure to LNS during the first week post-natally has sustained effects monitored at weaning including hypercorticosteronemia, a leaky gut, and dysbiosis. These alterations may impact on the susceptibility to develop visceral hypersensitivity in adult rats and have relevance to the development of irritable bowel syndrome in childhood