Operation Judicial Review: A Comparative Analysis of the Role of the Judiciary in Domestic and Foreign Detention and Material Support Cases During the War on Terror

The Bush and Obama administrations have pursued a military campaign during the War on Terror in which “the world is a battlefield.” The globalized nature of contemporary warfare has tested the limits of constitutional protections for individuals under the control of the United States government. My distinction thesis focuses on the extension of constitutional rights and, in turn, the maintenance of the separation of powers during the War on Terror. I provide a comparative analysis of the role of the judiciary to reconcile constitutional First Amendment free speech & association and habeus corpus rights with federal executive & legislative counterterrorism policies. I compare the Supreme Court’s perspectives of balancing proper enforcement of international counterterrorism objectives with the preservation of constitutional rights in Boumediene v. Bush and Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project. I also utilize cases from the federal circuit courts to examine how Boumediene and Holder have been applied in subsequent issues. My thesis aims to differentiate the political, diplomatic, and legal considerations by the judiciary between cases that involve actors associated with Foreign Terrorist Organizations and detainees in Bagram, Afghanistan compared to non-foreign terrorist organizations and detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. I argue that the particular characteristics of American counterterrorism operations during the War on Terror have emphasized the legal distinction of domestic versus foreign individuals and organizations, territories, and jurisdiction. This distinction also intervenes upon the extent to which the courts seek to protect the separation of powers by constraining the actions of the executive, in addition to invoking certain rights and protections of the Constitution. I conclude that the federal courts have demonstrated greater deference to the federal government in foreign material support and detention cases since the Supreme Court rulings in Boumediene v. Bush and Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project

Development of HPV next-generation virus-like particle vaccines that are cross-protective

Virus-like particles (VLPs) comprised of viral structural proteins that self-assemble into particles resembling the native virion represent a relatively novel vaccine development strategy. Both safe and immunogenic, VLPs can be used as vaccines against the virus from which they are derived, but can also be used to present heterologous epitopes from other pathogens to the immune system. Both techniques result in high-titer antibody responses against the target epitope. Indeed, vaccines of VLPs are already available, including the two vaccines targeting Human Papillomavirus (HPV). These vaccines are very effective at preventing infection by the HPV types included in their formulation; high-risk HPV types that are associated with the development of cervical cancer. The elicited antibody response, however, largely does not protect against the other high-risk HPV types. Herein we report the results of studies aimed at developing a next-generation HPV vaccine using bacteriophage VLPs displaying epitopes from the minor capsid protein of HPV L2 that have been found to induce cross-protective antibodies. We first displayed a variety of N-terminal L2 epitopes on PP7 and Qβ VLPs and measured the elicited homologous protection in mice. Finding a type-specific neutralizing epitope, we were able to considerably broaden the observed cross-neutralization by immunizing with a consensus sequence of this epitope drawn from the high-risk HPV types. We also explored displaying a L2 epitope from two different HPV types on one VLP. We were able to construct assembled VLPs that displayed both targets on their surface. We observed that immunization with these hybrid VLPs elicited a more-cross neutralizing response than vaccination with VLPs displaying one target alone. Finally, we investigated the display of two molecular adjuvants on the surface of VLPs. Hypothesizing an increase in the speed and intensity of antibody response, we displayed both the complement receptor 2-minimum binding region, p28, and the monomer component of flagella, flagellin, at low levels on the surface of VLPs. We found, however, that displaying p28 in this way did not increase antibody titers

Unmasking Wagner\u27s Grail: Homoeroticism, Androgyny, and Anxiety in \u3ci\u3eParsifal\u3c/i\u3e

Most readings of Wagner’s final music drama Parsifal seek to illumine a clandestine presentation of Wagner’s racist doctrine or make sense of a less-shrouded but still ambiguous panegyric to Christianity. However, little scholarly material addresses Wagner’s provocative account of sensuality and homoeroticism in this Bühnenweihfestspiel [Stage Consecration Festival Play]. This thesis explores desire and homosexuality within the drama and considers how and why Wagner masks these themes through the opaque mythos of religion, race, and community. Parsifal was partly informed by Wagner’s own complex neuroses: his sexual anxieties and scandals, amalgam of German philosophies, and confusion concerning Germanness. As filtered through his own belief system, Wagner’s Parsifal ambivalently presents homoeroticism, wavering between an idealized pure love and a destructive, even unnatural, force of desire. I was initially inspired by Laurence Dreyfus’s work Wagner and the Erotic Impulse, which struck me as a fresh exegesis of Wagner’s oeuvre, embracing the overt sexual nature of his dramatic text, music, and philosophical writings. Carolyn Abbate’s Unsung Voices and Jean-Jacques Nattiez’s Wagner Androgyne provide methodologies for narration and androgyny from which I draw. Wagner demonstrates homoerotic sensibilities through both heroic and villainous characters, within an exotic medieval Spain (and a Zauberschloß), and through opposing sonic worlds of communal diatonicism and chromatic sensuality. Exploring this work from a perspective energized by recent musicological gender studies and musico-textual semiotics and relations, my reading of Parsifal is thus primarily corrective. Wagner’s final music drama offers a manifestation of love and sensuality with all the contradictions and fears of Wagner’s experiences and imagination

Relationship Between Metabolic By-Products and Nervous System Failure/Fatigue

Fatigue has generally been defined as an acute impairment of exercise/sport performance that includes both an increase in the perceived effort necessary to exert a desired force or power output, and the inability to produce the desired force or power output. The majority of research to date looking at fatigue has focused upon substrate utilization, however, what is relatively unknown is the contribution the nervous system has upon fatigue. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to investigate potential mechanisms that relate to neural fatigue. An additional purpose was to determine if there were any relationships between metabolic by-products and EMG characteristics following exercise. The first investigation sought to determine changes in EMG M-wave amplitude of the gastrocnemius following the calf raise exercise. There were no significant changes in M-wave EMG amplitude following exercise. The second investigation compared changes in muscle contractile properties and EMG characteristics of the VL, RF, and VM following a high-intensity exercise. There was a significant decrease in MDF of the VL only. Additionally, there was a decrease in peak force and rate of force development. The last investigation utilized the same exercise protocol as the second investigation, but added the supplementation of aspartate and sodium bicarbonate. Both supplements were effective in reducing ammonia concentrations following exercise. Additionally, supplementation with sodium bicarbonate resulted in an increase in rate of force development following exercise. As for EMG characteristics, there was a significant decrease in MDF for the RF, but not the VL. There were no significant changes in PF or EMG amplitude. Currently, no relationship between the metabolic and nervous systems during times of fatigue can be determined at this point

Mechanisms of planar cell polarity patterning by Prickle and Vangl and the control of collective cellular behaviors during tissue morphogenesis

Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) signaling establishes asymmetric molecular patterns that control polarized cellular behaviors within the plane of a tissue or organ. This feature is conserved among metazoans and essential for proper development and tissue homeostasis. Owing to its important role in establishing tissue function, PCP signaling defects have been associated with diverse human pathologies, most notably birth defects. Tissue development is a dynamic process that requires the coordinated, temporal control of polarized cell behaviors, and here, I present the first vertebrate platform for the study of asymmetric PCP tissue patterning dynamics in vivo. Using Xenopus laevis as a model allows for relatively rapid and highly tractable studies of PCP patterning function in developing tissues, affording both subcellular analysis of PCP protein dynamics and multiple readouts for various planar- polarized cellular and tissue behaviors. I identified specific members of core PCP gene families that serve as faithful reporters for molecular planar polarity in the multiciliated epidermis and neural plate epithelia and uncover an essential role for Pk2 in the asymmetric PCP patterning of both of these tissues. I demonstrate that Pk2 function influences the progressive anterior localization of Dvl1 and posterior localization of Vangl1 in the epidermis, which when disrupted, results in severe ciliary orientation defects. Structure-function analysis reveals the conserved domains essential for Pk2 and Vangl1 asymmetry here. After characterizing the dynamic behaviors of apical cell-cell junctions that mediate convergent extension movements in the Xenopus neural plate, I also show that Pk2 and Vangl2 are dynamic and increasingly asymmetrically enriched at shrinking cell-cell junctions during cellular rearrangements. I present evidence that suggests the polarized enrichment of Pk2 promotes the polarized accumulation of the actomyosin contractional machinery that facilitates mediolateral cell intercalations. Lastly, I detail how PCP point mutant alleles identified in human neural tube defect patient studies impact polarized protein localization behavior. Together, these findings establish a robust in vivo platform for the quantitative study of vertebrate PCP signaling and demonstrate the potential of this platform for furthering our understanding of dynamic tissue patterning processes and the molecular etiology of human birth defects.Cellular and Molecular Biolog

The Impact of Intensity on Exercise-Induced Oxidative Stress in Trained Men

Exercise has been noted in some, but not all studies, to elicit an oxidative stress response. The discrepancy in findings may be related to differences in exercise intensity across study protocols. Biomarkers of oxidative stress were compared for aerobic and anaerobic exercise bouts of different intensities and durations. On different days, exercised-trained men (n=12; 21-35 yrs) performed aerobic cycle exercise (60 min at 70% HR reserve) and anaerobic cycle sprints (five, 60 sec sprints at 100% max GXT watts; and ten, 15 sec sprints at 200% max GXT watts). Blood was collected before and 0, 30, and 60 min post-exercise and analyzed for malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity (TEAC). No differences were noted in MDA or H2O2. TEAC was significantly higher at 30 and 60 min post-exercise. In exercise-trained men, no increase was noted in post-exercise oxidative stress, possibly due to the increase in antioxidant defense

Junior Recital:Tyler Mitchell, violin

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Performance Mr. Mitchell studies violin with Helen Kim.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1646/thumbnail.jp

Three dimensional tracking with misalignment between display and control axes

Human operators confronted with misaligned display and control frames of reference performed three dimensional, pursuit tracking in virtual environment and virtual space simulations. Analysis of the components of the tracking errors in the perspective displays presenting virtual space showed that components of the error due to visual motor misalignment may be linearly separated from those associated with the mismatch between display and control coordinate systems. Tracking performance improved with several hours practice despite previous reports that such improvement did not take place