Property and Empire: The Law of Imperialism in Johnson v. M’Intosh

Chief Justice\u27s Marshall\u27s opinion in Johnson v. M\u27Intosh, 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.)543 (1823) has long been a puzzle, both in its doctrinal structure and in long, strange dicta which are both triumphal and elegiac. In this Essay, I show that the opinion becomes newly intelligible when read in the context of the law and theory of colonialism, concerned, like the case itself, with the expropriation of continents and relations between dominant and subject peoples. I examine several instances where the seeming incoherence of the opinion instead shows its debt to imperial jurisprudence, which rested on a distinction between two bodies of law: one governing relations between civilized nations, the other relations between civilized governments and the imperfect sovereigns of other nations. I then show how Marshall\u27s long dicta reflect the then-prevalent view of the hsitorical progress of societies from hunter-gatherer to commercial orders, with each stage corresponding to a particular set of property institutions.This historical theory lent intelligibility to the legal distinctions between civilized and lesser or imperfect sovereigns by claiming that the latter occupied earlier stages of development and that civilized nations were legally permitted to overrride the property institutions of primitive societies in order to induce progress. The dicta, then, provide the frame for the reasoning of this case, just as the theory of historical progress framed the jurisprudence of colonialisn in general

[Practical reports] Japanese Language Education in Turkmenistan

Home automation systems of today tend to be external solutions to an existing product that enable rather complex and expensive communications equipment to be attached to existing products. This is because it would not be economically defendable to implement the communications hardware internally in the products, due to a high increase of the cost for the product. This thesis tries to solve this problem by introducing a low-cost product-embedded solution for home automation. By using the Elvin protocol together with low-cost communication solutions, such as the RS232 protocol and Open/Closed circuits, communications could be embedded into products and device interaction could be implemented without increasing the cost of already existing products too much. Furthermore this thesis will discuss an implementation of an Elvin router that will act as a bridge between RS232, Open/Closed circuits and the Ethernet network that contains an Elvin server

Prediction of cerebral perfusion pressure during carotid surgery – A computational fluid dynamics approach

Background: Maintaining cerebral perfusion pressure in the brain when a carotid artery is closed during vascular surgery is critical for avoiding intraoperative hypoperfusion and risk of ischemic stroke. Here we propose and evaluate a method based on computational fluid dynamics for predicting patient-specific cerebral perfusion pressures at carotid clamping during carotid endarterectomy. Methods: The study consisted of 22 patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis who underwent carotid endarterectomy (73 ± 5 years, 59–80 years, 17 men). The geometry of the circle of Willis was obtained preoperatively from computed tomography angiography and corresponding flow rates from four-dimensional flow magnetic resonance imaging. The patients were also classified as having a present or absent ipsilateral posterior communicating artery based on computed tomography angiography. The predicted mean stump pressures from computational fluid dynamics were compared with intraoperatively measured stump pressures from carotid endarterectomy. Findings: On group level, there was no difference between the predicted and measured stump pressures (−0.5 ± 13 mmHg, P = 0.86) and the pressures were correlated (r = 0.44, P = 0.039). Omitting two outliers, the correlation increased to r = 0.78 (P < 0.001) (−1.4 ± 8.0 mmHg, P = 0.45). Patients with a present ipsilateral posterior communicating artery (n = 8) had a higher measured stump pressure than those with an absent artery (n = 12) (P < 0.001). Interpretation: The stump pressure agreement indicates that the computational fluid dynamics approach was promising in predicting cerebral perfusion pressures during carotid clamping, which may prove useful in the preoperative planning of vascular interventions.publishedVersio

Singleshot polychromatic coherent diffractive imaging with a high-order harmonic source

© 2020 Optical Society of America. Users may use, reuse, and build upon the article, or use the article for text or data mining, so long as such uses are for non-commercial purposes and appropriate attribution is maintained. All other rights are reserved.Singleshot polychromatic coherent diffractive imaging is performed with a high-intensity high-order harmonic generation source. The coherence properties are analyzed and several reconstructions show the shot-to-shot fluctuations of the incident beam wavefront. The method is based on a multi-step approach. First, the spectrum is extracted from double-slit diffraction data. The spectrum is used as input to extract the monochromatic sample diffraction pattern, then phase retrieval is performed on the quasi-monochromatic data to obtain the sample’s exit surface wave. Reconstructions based on guided error reduction (ER) and alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) are compared. ADMM allows additional penalty terms to be included in the cost functional to promote sparsity within the reconstruction

Reference shape effects on Fourier transform holography

Soft-x-ray holography which utilizes an optics mask fabricated in direct contact with the sample, is a widely applied x-ray microscopy method, in particular, for investigating magnetic samples. The optics mask splits the x-ray beam into a reference wave and a wave to illuminate the sample. The reconstruction quality in such a Fourier-transform holography experiment depends primarily on the characteristics of the reference wave, typically emerging from a small, high-aspect-ratio pinhole in the mask. In this paper, we study two commonly used reference geometries and investigate how their 3D structure affects the reconstruction within an x-ray Fourier holography experiment. Insight into these effects is obtained by imaging the exit waves from reference pinholes via high-resolution coherent diffraction imaging combined with three-dimensional multislice simulations of the x-ray propagation through the reference pinhole. The results were used to simulate Fourier-transform holography experiments to determine the spatial resolution and precise location of the reconstruction plane for different reference geometries. Based on our findings, we discuss the properties of the reference pinholes with view on application in soft-x-ray holography experiments

Hydrodynamics of the Certas™ programmable valve for the treatment of hydrocephalus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The new Certas™ shunt for the treatment of hydrocephalus has seven standard pressure settings that according to the manufacturer range from 36 to 238 mmH₂O, and an additional “Virtual Off” setting with an opening pressure >400 mmH₂O. Information on actual pressure response and reliability of shunt performance is important in clinical application, especially the “Virtual Off” setting as a non-surgical replacement for shunt ligation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the <it>in-vitro</it> hydrodynamic performance of the Certas™ shunt.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Six new Certas™ shunts with proximal and distal catheters were tested with an automated, computerized test system that raised the pressure from zero to a maximum pressure and back to zero at each valve setting. Opening pressure and flow resistance were determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For settings 1–7 the measured opening pressure range was 26 to 247 mmH₂O, and the mean change in opening pressure for a one-step adjustment was between 33 and 38 mmH₂O. For setting 8 (“Virtual Off”) the measured mean opening pressure was 494 ± 34 mmH₂O (range 451 to 556 mmH₂O). The mean outflow resistance was 7.0 mmHg/ml/min (outflow conductance 17.9 μl/s/kPa).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The six shunts had similar characteristics and closely matched the manufacturer’s specifications for opening pressure at settings 1–7. The opening pressure for the “Virtual Off” setting was nearly 500 mmH₂O, which is 100 mmH₂O higher than the manufacturer’s specification of “>400” and should be functionally off for most patients with communicating hydrocephalus. Clinical studies are needed to evaluate if the CSF dynamic profile persists after implantation in patients.</p

Exploring the technical feasibility of carbon capture onboard ships

publishedVersio