3,686 research outputs found
Veiled Women in the American Courtroom: Is the Niqab a Barrier to Justice?
U.S. courts and policy-makers have recently authorized laws and practices that interfere with the wearing of religious modesty attire that conceals the hair or face in contexts such as courtroom testimony or driver’s license issuance. For example, in response to a court’s dismissal of the case of a woman who refused to remove her niqab in the courtroom, the Michigan Supreme Court decided that judges can exercise “reasonable control” over the appearance of courtroom parties. But what degree of control over religious attire is reasonable? The Constitution will not allow a blanket niqab removal policy based on any of the following needs: to judge demeanor or veracity, to identify witnesses, to compel accountability, or to identify and avert bias. Where the state’s interest in niqab removal is truly compelling, for the sake of religious free exercise it should be protected in the least restrictive manner. I argue that because Muslim women who wear the niqab in the courtroom are neither disruptive nor an affront to the dignity of the court, their religious freedom to dress modestly should be accommodated in straightforward and available ways
Molecular Genetics of T Cell Development
T cell development is guided by a complex set of transcription factors that act recursively, in different combinations, at each of the developmental choice points from T-lineage specification to peripheral T cell specialization. This review describes the modes of action of the major T-lineage-defining transcription factors and the signal pathways that activate them during intrathymic differentiation from pluripotent precursors. Roles of Notch and its effector RBPSuh (CSL), GATA-3, E2A/HEB and Id proteins, c-Myb, TCF-1, and members of the Runx, Ets, and Ikaros families are critical. Less known transcription factors that are newly recognized as being required for T cell development at particular checkpoints are also described. The transcriptional regulation of T cell development is contrasted with that of B cell development, in terms of their different degrees of overlap with the stem-cell program and the different roles of key transcription factors in gene regulatory networks leading to lineage commitment
Assessment of joystick and wrist control in hand-held articulated laparoscopic prototypes
Various steerable instruments with flexible distal tip have been developed for laparoscopic surgery. The problem of steering such instruments, however, remains a challenge, because no study investigated which control method is the most suitable. This study was designed to examine whether thumb (joystick) or wrist control method is designated for prototypes of steerable instruments by means of motion analysis. Methods: Five experts and 12 novices participated. Each participant performed a needle-driving task in three directions with two prototypes (wrist and thumb) and a conventional instrument. Novices performed the tasks in three sessions, whereas experts performed one session only. The order of performing the tasks was determined by Latin squares design. Assessment of performance was done by means of five motion analysis parameters, a newly developed matrix for assigning penalty points, and a questionnaire. Results: The thumb-controlled prototype outperformed the wrist-controlled prototype. Comparison of the results obtained in each task showed that regarding penalty points, the up ? down task was the most difficult to perform. Conclusions: The thumb control is more suitable for steerable instruments than the wrist control. To avoid uncontrolled movements and difficulties with applying forces to the tissue while keeping the tip of the instrument at the constant angle, adding a ‘‘locking’’ feature is necessary. It is advisable not to perform the needle driving task in the up down directionBiomechanical EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin
Future Boundary Conditions in De Sitter Space
We consider asymptotically future de Sitter spacetimes endowed with an
eternal observatory. In the conventional descriptions, the conformal metric at
the future boundary I^+ is deformed by the flux of gravitational radiation. We
however impose an unconventional future "Dirichlet" boundary condition
requiring that the conformal metric is flat everywhere except at the conformal
point where the observatory arrives at I^+. This boundary condition violates
conventional causality, but we argue the causality violations cannot be
detected by any experiment in the observatory. We show that the bulk-to-bulk
two-point functions obeying this future boundary condition are not realizable
as operator correlation functions in any de Sitter invariant vacuum, but they
do agree with those obtained by double analytic continuation from anti-de
Sitter space.Comment: 16 page
Vacuum Ambiguity in de Sitter Space at Strong Coupling
It is well known that in the weak coupling regime, quantum field theories in
de Sitter space do not have a unique vacuum, but a class of vacua parametrized
by a complex parameter , i.e., the so-called -vacua. In this
article, using gauge/gravity duality, we calculate the symmetric two-point
function of strongly coupled supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on
. We find that there is a class of de Sitter invariant vacua,
parametrized by a set of complex parameters .Comment: 17 pages in JHEP style, references adde
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