Making Bread From Broken Eggs: A Basic Recipe for Conflict Resolution Using Earned Sovereignty

Questions of state sovereignty are the cause of many conflicts today. The theory of earned sovereignty is an evolving concept. A review of recent practice in southern Sudan, Bougainville, and Aceh shows that the core elements of earned sovereignty offer a three-part roadmap for conflict resolution beginning with shared sovereignty, continuing through institution building, and ending at a determination of final status. Other parts of the theory called, “optional elements,” are tools stakeholders in a conflict situation may use in order to move from one core element to another until a final status solution is obtained. Though the optional elements of phased sovereignty, conditional sovereignty, and constrained sovereignty are parts of earned sovereignty they need not always be used. In-depth analysis of the peace agreements in southern Sudan, Bougainville, and Aceh show that, while the core elements are implemented throughout, the optional elements are used to varying degrees and in some instances not at all

Neutrophils: the forgotten cell in JIA disease pathogenesis

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) has long been assumed to be an autoimmune disease, triggered by aberrant recognition of "self" antigens by T-cells. However, systems biology approaches to this family of diseases have suggested complex interactions between innate and adaptive immunity that underlie JIA. In particular, new data suggest an important role for neutrophils in JIA pathogenesis. In this short review, we will discuss the new data that support a role for neutrophils in JIA, discuss regulatory functions that link neutrophils to adaptive immune responses, and discuss future areas of investigation. Above all else, we invite the reader to re-consider the use of the term "autoimmunity" as applied to the family of illnesses we collectively call JIA

Ultrafast Exciton Dynamics in Two Dimensional Covalent Organic Frameworks Reveals Size Dependence to Exciton Diffusion

Large singlet exciton diffusion lengths are a hallmark of high performance in organic based devices such as photovoltaics, chemical sensors, and photodetectors. In this study, exciton dynamics of a two-dimensional covalent organic framework, COF- 5, is investigated using ultrafast spectroscopic techniques. Following photoexcitation, the COF-5 exciton decays via three pathways: 1) excimer formation (4 ± 2 ps), 2) excimer relaxation (160 ± 40 ps), and 3) excimer decay (>3 ns). Excitation fluence-dependent transient absorption studies suggest that COF-5 has a relatively large diffusion coefficient (0.08 cm2/s). Furthermore, exciton-exciton annihilation processes are characterized as a function of COF-5 crystallite domain size in four different samples, which reveal domain- size dependent exciton diffusion kinetics. These results reveal that exciton diffusion in COF-5 is constrained by its crystalline domain size. These insights indicate the outstanding promise of delocalized excitonic processes available in 2D COFs, which motivate their continued design and implementation into optoelectronic devices. </p