Legal empire: international law and culture in U.S.-Latin American relations

Title from PDF of title page, viewed on May 30, 2013Thesis advisor: Dennis MerrillVitaIncludes bibliographic references (pages 114-119)Thesis (M.A.)--Dept. of History. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2013During the first decade of the twentieth century, U.S. Secretary of State, Elihu Root, used international law as mode of contact and communication in which he could persuasively present U.S. cultural values in terms of social, political, and economic expectations as a way of creating change within Latin American societies. This represented a less intrusive and seemingly more respectful way of exerting influence in the region all for the purpose of addressing Washington's concerns with national security and economic stability. Though the United States, as expressed by Root, articulated certain moral and ethical principles of conduct in foreign relations and invited Latin America to adopt those principles, the true focus and concern within international law from the U.S. perspective was creating a world in which U.S. political and economic interests could thrive. As adopted and deployed by Elihu Root, international law projected certain cultural constructions that defined America's understanding of civilization, which had the effect of creating more rigid boundaries of separation among nations. America's definition and application of civilization to foreign affairs installed further support for intervention by the United States when Latin American nations did not satisfy the cultural expectations of the United States. Constructions of gender and race within international law laid a foundation for scientific and political inequality among nations while also establishing basic expectations for behavior. Root's civilization expected nations to act with manly strength and self-mastery in all things, especially in resolving disputes and satisfying financial obligations. Failure to meet those preconditions to civilization signified an uncivilized and racially inferior nation in need of the civilizing paternalism of the United States. The legal discourse within international law that Root stimulated produced mixed responses and results. Politicians like Luis Drago of Argentina communicated within the legal forum to assert an independent Latin American identity under the law. Yet this same ruling class of elites to which Drago belonged communicated their support for those legal principles articulated by Secretary Root when that ruling class could advance their domestic programs of economic development and policies based on racial superiority.Routes to empire -- Imperial international law -- Laws of culture -- Conclusio

Front Solutions for Bistable Differential-Difference Equations with Inhomogeneous Diffusion

We consider a bistable differential-difference equation with inhomogeneous diffusion. Employing a piecewise linear nonlinearity, often referred to as McKean\u27s caricature of the cubic, we construct front solutions which correspond, in the case of homogeneous diffusion, to monotone traveling front solutions or, in the case of propagation failure, to stationary front solutions. A general form for these fronts is given for essentially arbitrary inhomogeneous discrete diffusion, and conditions are given for the existence of solutions to the original discrete Nagumo equation. The specific case of one defect is considered in depth, giving a complete understanding of propagation failure and a grasp on changes in wave speed. Insight into the dynamic behavior of these front solutions as a function of the magnitude and relative position of the defects is obtained with the assistance of numerical results

Front Solutions for Bistable Differential-Difference Equations with Inhomogeneous Diffusion

This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1137/100807156.We consider a bistable differential-difference equation with inhomogeneous diffusion. Employing a piecewise linear nonlinearity, often referred to as McKean's caricature of the cubic, we construct front solutions which correspond, in the case of homogeneous diffusion, to monotone traveling front solutions or, in the case of propagation failure, to stationary front solutions. A general form for these fronts is given for essentially arbitrary inhomogeneous discrete diffusion, and conditions are given for the existence of solutions to the original discrete Nagumo equation. The specific case of one defect is considered in depth, giving a complete understanding of propagation failure and a grasp on changes in wave speed. Insight into the dynamic behavior of these front solutions as a function of the magnitude and relative position of the defects is obtained with the assistance of numerical results

Institutional Repositories for Public Engagement: Creating a Common Good Model for an Engaged Campus

Most higher-education institutions strive to be publicly engaged and community centered. These institutions leverage faculty, researchers, librarians, community liaisons, and communication specialists to meet this mission, but they have largely underutilized the potential of institutional repositories. Academic institutions can use institutional repositories to provide open access and long-term preservation to institutional gray literature, research data, university publications, and campus research products that have tangible, real-world applications for the communities they serve. Using examples from the University of Minnesota, this article demonstrates how making this content discoverable, openly accessible, and preserved for the future through an institutional repository not only increases the value of this publicly-engaged work but also creates a lasting record of a university’s public engagement efforts and contributes to the mission of the institution.Ope

Dying Dyons Don't Count

The dyonic 1/4-BPS states in 4D string theory with N=4 spacetime supersymmetry are counted by a Siegel modular form. The pole structure of the modular form leads to a contour dependence in the counting formula obscuring its duality invariance. We exhibit the relation between this ambiguity and the (dis-)appearance of bound states of 1/2-BPS configurations. Using this insight we propose a precise moduli-dependent contour prescription for the counting formula. We then show that the degeneracies are duality-invariant and are correctly adjusted at the walls of marginal stability to account for the (dis-)appearance of the two-centered bound states. Especially, for large black holes none of these bound states exists at the attractor point and none of these ambiguous poles contributes to the counting formula. Using this fact we also propose a second, moduli-independent contour which counts the "immortal dyons" that are stable everywhere.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figures; one minus sign correcte

Neonicotinoids Disrupt Circadian Rhythms and Sleep in Honey Bees

Honey bees are critical pollinators in ecosystems and agriculture, but their numbers have significantly declined. Declines in pollinator populations are thought to be due to multiple factors including habitat loss, climate change, increased vulnerability to disease and parasites, and pesticide use. Neonicotinoid pesticides are agonists of insect nicotinic cholinergic receptors, and sub-lethal exposures are linked to reduced honey bee hive survival. Honey bees are highly dependent on circadian clocks to regulate critical behaviors, such as foraging orientation and navigation, time-memory for food sources, sleep, and learning/memory processes. Because circadian clock neurons in insects receive light input through cholinergic signaling we tested for effects of neonicotinoids on honey bee circadian rhythms and sleep. Neonicotinoid ingestion by feeding over several days results in neonicotinoid accumulation in the bee brain, disrupts circadian rhythmicity in many individual bees, shifts the timing of behavioral circadian rhythms in bees that remain rhythmic, and impairs sleep. Neonicotinoids and light input act synergistically to disrupt bee circadian behavior, and neonicotinoids directly stimulate wake-promoting clock neurons in the fruit fly brain. Neonicotinoids disrupt honey bee circadian rhythms and sleep, likely by aberrant stimulation of clock neurons, to potentially impair honey bee navigation, time-memory, and social communication

Mass Activated Droplet Sorting (MADS) Enables Highâ Throughput Screening of Enzymatic Reactions at Nanoliter Scale

Microfluidic droplet sorting enables the highâ throughput screening and selection of waterâ inâ oil microreactors at speeds and volumes unparalleled by traditional wellâ plate approaches. Most such systems sort using fluorescent reporters on modified substrates or reactions that are rarely industrially relevant. We describe a microfluidic system for highâ throughput sorting of nanoliter droplets based on direct detection using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESIâ MS). Droplets are split, one portion is analyzed by ESIâ MS, and the second portion is sorted based on the MS result. Throughput of 0.7â samplesâ sâ 1 is achieved with 98â % accuracy using a selfâ correcting and adaptive sorting algorithm. We use the system to screen â 15â 000â samples in 6â h and demonstrate its utility by sorting 25â nL droplets containing transaminase expressed in vitro. Labelâ free ESIâ MS droplet screening expands the toolbox for droplet detection and recovery, improving the applicability of droplet sorting to protein engineering, drug discovery, and diagnostic workflows.A microfluidic system for sorting nanoliter droplets based on mass spectrometry is presented. Fully automated, labelâ free sorting at 0.7â samplesâ sâ 1 is achieved with 98â % accuracy. In vitro transcription and translation (ivTT) of a transaminase enzyme in ca.â 25â nL samples is demonstrated and samples are sorted on the basis of enzyme activity.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154315/1/anie201913203.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154315/2/anie201913203-sup-0001-misc_information.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154315/3/anie201913203_am.pd

Mass Activated Droplet Sorting (MADS) Enables Highâ Throughput Screening of Enzymatic Reactions at Nanoliter Scale

Microfluidic droplet sorting enables the highâ throughput screening and selection of waterâ inâ oil microreactors at speeds and volumes unparalleled by traditional wellâ plate approaches. Most such systems sort using fluorescent reporters on modified substrates or reactions that are rarely industrially relevant. We describe a microfluidic system for highâ throughput sorting of nanoliter droplets based on direct detection using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESIâ MS). Droplets are split, one portion is analyzed by ESIâ MS, and the second portion is sorted based on the MS result. Throughput of 0.7â samplesâ sâ 1 is achieved with 98â % accuracy using a selfâ correcting and adaptive sorting algorithm. We use the system to screen â 15â 000â samples in 6â h and demonstrate its utility by sorting 25â nL droplets containing transaminase expressed in vitro. Labelâ free ESIâ MS droplet screening expands the toolbox for droplet detection and recovery, improving the applicability of droplet sorting to protein engineering, drug discovery, and diagnostic workflows.Ein Mikrofluidiksystem zur Sortierung von Nanolitertröpfchen basierend auf Massenspektrometrie erreicht eine vollautomatische markierungsfreie Sortierung bei 0.7 Probenâ sâ 1 mit 98â % Genauigkeit. Die Inâ vitroâ Transkription und â Translation (ivTT) eines Transaminaseâ Enzyms in Proben von etwa 25â nL wird demonstriert, und die Proben werden nach ihrer Enzymaktivität sortiert.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154446/1/ange201913203-sup-0001-misc_information.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154446/2/ange201913203.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154446/3/ange201913203_am.pd

Measurement of pair-production by high energy photons in an aligned tungsten crystal

A new measurement has been made of the rate of pair production in a 3.2 mm thick tungsten crystal, exposed to photons with energies in the range 10 to 150 GeV, for angles of incidence up to 10 mrad from the crystal axis. A strong enhancement of the pair-production rate is observed when the beam is aligned along the crystal axis, as compared to a random orientation. This effect can be exploited in the NA48 CP- violation experiment by using a thin crystal rather than an amorphous material to convert photons, thus minimising the scattering of kaons in the converter