Ballot Collection and Native American Voters: An Assessment of Benefits and Costs

This article assesses the benefits and alleged costs of ballot collection on Indian reservations. Using the conceptual frame of the “cost of voting,” the research analyzes the impact of ballot collection by examining trends in vote-by-mail programs, socioeconomic variables, distance to polls and mail locations, and US Postal Service delivery on Indian reservations. It then uses a statistical analysis to test the claim that ballot collection leads to voter fraud. Our analysis reveals that ballot collection offers significant opportunities to reduce inequality in voter costs for Native American voters but finds no support for the hypothesis that ballot collection leads to fraud. These findings have significant implications for the voting rights of Native Americans, who tend to rely on ballot collection more than other voters. This research also offers a modification to the concept of voter costs

Politics Between and Within Us: Authenticity and Theatricality in Modern Political Thought

This dissertation details the ways in which two distinct models of politics — the politics of authenticity and the politics of theatricality — have influenced political rhetoric and activity in America and beyond. The focus on authenticity in politics goes back to the ancients, yet it has taken on greater political significance in the modern era. Morally-charged language of “telling the truth”, or “being oneself” in politics has meant that public judgment and analysis has increasingly focused on the interiority of the speaker: one’s intentions, feelings and consistency, rather than on the persuasive case one is attempting to communicate. In the extreme, this has led to some nefarious actions and political regimes in the modern world (e.g. the Terror of the French Revolution and twentieth century totalitarianism) as well as less severe but still troubling results (the lack of a dynamic public sphere in which our everyday political discourse takes place). To combat the theory that led to these developments, I offer an analysis of theatrical politics which sees politics as something existing “outside and between us” rather than “within us.” At the same time, I acknowledge the ways in which authenticity in politics has led to emancipatory movements of oppressed persons and groups (e.g. abolitionism and civil rights, especially in America). The main representative of authentic politics I employ in this dissertation is Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and for theatricality, I detail the arguments of Hannah Arendt. I argue that we can find a proper balance between the two models in the politics of Henry David Thoreau. Ultimately, I explain the potential for a politics in which the best elements of each model could be practiced

Evolution of Water Institutions in the Indus River Basin: Reflections from the Law of the Colorado River

Transboundary water institutions in the Indus River Basin can be fairly characterized as broken in key respects. International relations between India and Pakistan over the Indus Waters Treaty, as well as interprovincial relations within Pakistan over the 1991 Water Accord, speak to this sentiment. Stemming from research undertaken by the authors for the Harvard Water Federalism Project and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), this Article seeks to spur the evolution of the Indus River Basin’s water institutions by offering a comparative perspective from North America’s most “institutionally encompassed” basin, the Colorado River Basin. Mindful of the importance of context for comparative water law and policy scholarship, the Article begins with overviews of the Colorado and Indus basins. In turn, the Article considers in greater detail major water-related challenges facing the latter basin, including climate change and overallocation. Against this backdrop, the Article ultimately turns to analysis and prescription. Examining a host of topics involving transboundary water allocation, conservation, and governance, the Article considers key institutions associated with these topics in the Colorado River Basin and reflects on how, if at all, they may serve as reference points for institutional evolution in the Indus Basin. Many of the proposals in the Article are expensive. But compared to military operations, they are quite modest in terms of expense and minimize the risk of loss of life and destruction of property. Still, the Article prioritizes solutions that maximize individual and local freedom to the greatest extent possible. This means relying upon voluntary market-based transfers that protect the vulnerable, favoring incentives rather than regulations, and creating a reward structure that includes benefits other than water

The social context of high school dropouts and prevention initiatives : the Québec case

The high school dropout situation in the 1990s is taking on a greater urgency as society moves into an era in which technology and social organization require higher levels of skills and knowledge. This thesis examines how this social problem has evolved. In particular it explores the factors "pushing" students to drop out, and the responses established to prevent them from doing so. The policies implemented by the Quebec Ministry of Education (MEQ) are examined in light of what has been theorized and/or implemented elsewhere. A variety of theories are reviewed, many of which argue that dropouts are "pushed" towards their fate by social and institutional factors. Others note the complexity of the problem, with its myriad of interacting variables. An illustrative study of a program instituted under the MEQ's dropout prevention initiative is presented. This serves to allow for greater elaboration of the types of problems that are encountered in setting up and running a dropout prevention program. The study concludes with an analysis of the MEQ's dropout prevention strategy, considering its strengths and limitations. Suggestions for improvement of the strategy and suggestions for further research are proposed

Materials research for high-speed civil transport and generic hypersonics: Composites durability

This report covers a portion of an ongoing investigation of the durability of composites for the High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) program. Candidate HSCT composites need to possess the high-temperature capability required for supersonic flight. This program was designed to initiate the design, analysis, fabrication, and testing of equipment intended for use in validating the long-term durability of materials for the HSCT. This equipment includes thermally actuated compression and tension fixtures, hydraulic-actuated reversible load fixtures, and thermal chambers. This equipment can be used for the durability evaluation of both composite and adhesive materials. Thermally actuated fixtures are recommended for fatigue cycling when long-term thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) data are required on coupon-sized tension or compression specimens. Long term durability testing plans for polymer matrix composite specimens are included

The Natural Cytotoxicity Receptor 1 Contribution to Early Clearance of Streptococcus pneumoniae and to Natural Killer-Macrophage Cross Talk

Natural killer (NK) cells serve as a crucial first line of defense against tumors, viral and bacterial infections. We studied the involvement of a principal activating natural killer cell receptor, natural cytotoxicity receptor 1 (NCR1), in the innate immune response to S. pneumoniae infection. Our results demonstrate that the presence of the NCR1 receptor is imperative for the early clearance of S. pneumoniae. We tied the ends in vivo by showing that deficiency in NCR1 resulted in reduced lung NK cell activation and lung IFNγ production at the early stages of S. pneumoniae infection. NCR1 did not mediate direct recognition of S. pneumoniae. Therefore, we studied the involvement of lung macrophages and dendritic cells (DC) as the mediators of NK-expressed NCR1 involvement in response to S. pneumoniae. In vitro, wild type BM-derived macrophages and DC expressed ligands to NCR1 and co-incubation of S. pneumoniae-infected macrophages/DC with NCR1-deficient NK cells resulted in significantly lesser IFNγ levels compared to NCR1-expressing NK cells. In vivo, ablation of lung macrophages and DC was detrimental to the early clearance of S. pneumoniae. NCR1-expressing mice had more potent alveolar macrophages as compared to NCR1-deficient mice. This result correlated with the higher fraction of NCR1-ligandhigh lung macrophages, in NCR1-expressing mice, that had better phagocytic activity compared to NCR1-liganddull macrophages. Overall, our results point to the essential contribution of NK-expressed NCR1 in early response to S. pneumoniae infection and to NCR1-mediated interaction of NK and S. pneumoniae infected-macrophages and -DC

Acute mountain sickness.

Acute mountain sickness (AMS) is a clinical syndrome occurring in otherwise healthy normal individuals who ascend rapidly to high altitude. Symptoms develop over a period ofa few hours or days. The usual symptoms include headache, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, lethargy, unsteadiness of gait, undue dyspnoea on moderate exertion and interrupted sleep. AMS is unrelated to physical fitness, sex or age except that young children over two years of age are unduly susceptible. One of the striking features ofAMS is the wide variation in individual susceptibility which is to some extent consistent. Some subjects never experience symptoms at any altitude while others have repeated attacks on ascending to quite modest altitudes. Rapid ascent to altitudes of 2500 to 3000m will produce symptoms in some subjects while after ascent over 23 days to 5000m most subjects will be affected, some to a marked degree. In general, the more rapid the ascent, the higher the altitude reached and the greater the physical exertion involved, the more severe AMS will be. Ifthe subjects stay at the altitude reached there is a tendency for acclimatization to occur and symptoms to remit over 1-7 days