Majority rule and human rights: identity and non-identity in SAS v France

This article considers the July 2014 decision of the European Court of Human Rights in S.A.S v France in which the court upheld the legality of a ban on the wearing of the burqa and niqab in public places. Exploring the connection between S.A.S and a related trend of deference to the will of the national community in the court’s jurisprudence, it relies on Joseph Slaughter’s work to argue that the decision is best explained on the basis of what Theodor Adorno termed ‘identity thinking’ which, in a human rights context, involves the conceptualisation of human identity as something existing in and defined by the community rather than the individual. Drawing on the work of Franz Neumann, Otto Kirchheimer and Peter Mair, the article reflects on the social and political function of the ECtHR in the light of S.A.S. and argues for an alignment between international human rights practice and the ‘non-identity thinking’ that Adorno advocated

The political unconscious of the English foreign act of state and non-justiciability doctrine(s)

This article reviews the history and politics of the English foreign act of State and non-justiciability doctrines in light of recent judgments in Belhaj and Rahmatullah. It argues that the doctrines have a political unconscious—a term borrowed from literary theorist Fredric Jameson—and that an appreciation of this should inform the Supreme Court's approach to the forthcoming appeals

Pursuit of the Vote: Factors Utilized in Resisting Discrimination in Democratic Elections

Suffrage movements make use of various social and political factors to pressure their governments to expand the scope of voting rights. Using McAdam’s political process model, I will analyze how disenfranchised groups’ use of nonviolent demonstration, appeals to international pressure, and appeals to religion, affects their success. This will also highlight patterns that emerge when groups are willing to instigate violence in pursuit of their goals. Most studies examine these variables in the context of the pursuit of independence or revolution, whereas this study focuses on groups wishing to remain within a system given their desired reforms. I will analyze the data derived based on a diverse set of cases of movements from distinct cultural backgrounds and time periods, such as women’s suffrage movements, Civil Rights Movements, and discrimination against the economically disadvantaged to determine what aspects of these movements are statistically significant

On 'The Horniman Walrus'

London and international environmental law. Drawing on my experience of reproducing this walrus in clay, it uses the walrus as a microcosm of international environmental law’s engagement with nature in the context of cultural and philosophical trends involving the artefactualisation, socialisation and humanisation of nature

The Smallest Particles in Saturn's A and C Rings

Radio occultations of Saturn's main rings by spacecraft suggest a power law particle size-distribution down to sizes of the order of 1 cm (Marouf et al., 1983), (Zebker et al., 1985). The lack of optical depth variations between ultraviolet and near-IR wavelengths indicate a lack of micron-sized particles. Between these two regimes, the particle-size distribution is largely unknown. A cutoff where the particle-size distribution turns over must exist, but the position and shape of it is not clear from existing studies. Using a series of solar occultations performed by the VIMS instrument on-board Cassini in the near-infrared, we are able to measure light forward scattered by particles in the A and C rings. With a model of diffraction by ring particles, and the previous radio work as a constraint on the slope of the particle size distribution, we estimate the minimum particle size using a truncated power-law size distribution. The C Ring shows a minimum particle size of $4.1^{+3.8}_{-1.3}$ mm, with an assumed power law index of q=3.1 and a maximum particle size of 10 m. The A Ring signal shows a similar level of scattered flux, but modeling is complicated by the presence of self-gravity wakes and higher optical depths. If q<3, our A Ring model requires a minimum particle size below one millimeter (< 0.34 mm for an assumed q=2.75, or $0.56^{+0.35}_{-0.16}$ mm for a steeper q=2.9) to be consistent with VIMS observations. These results might seem to contradict previous optical(Dones et al., 1993) and infrared (French and Nicholson, 2000) work, which implied that there were few particles in the A Ring smaller than 1 cm. But, because of the shallow power law, relatively little optical depth (between 0.03 and 0.16 in extinction, or 0.015 - 0.08 in absorption) is provided by these particles.Comment: 47 pages, 16 figures, 3 Table

Habitat selection by mule deer: Effects of migration and population density

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1995I investigated effects of migration and population density on habitat and diet selection in a population of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in southern California from 1989 to 1991. All male deer were migratory, whereas females exhibited a mixed strategy with both migrant and resident individuals. No difference occurred in sizes of home ranges for migratory or resident deer. Home-range size of deer was smaller in summer than in winter, however. Size of home range was positively associated with proximity to human disturbance and the amount of avoided habitat (use $<$ available) in the home range. Deer avoided human disturbance in all seasons. Clear tradeoffs existed for deer in montane southern California with respect to whether they migrated. Migratory females were farther from human disturbance and used high-quality habitats more often than did their nonmigratory conspecifics. Nonetheless, during migration deer were at increased risk of predation, and in years of low precipitation (low snow) had higher rates of mortality than did resident deer. Thus, in areas with extremely variable precipitation and snow cover, a mixed strategy for migration can be maintained. Migration patterns of deer resulted in drastic shifts of population density between seasons as deer migrated into and out of ranges. Quality of diet (as indexed by fecal crude protein) for deer in a low-density area was higher than that of a high-density area in winter, when deer densities were most different. Diet quality was similar in summer when both areas had similar densities of deer. Contrary to predictions of the ideal-free distribution, diet quality was different between the two areas in autumn when population densities were similar; this may have been due to an elevated availability of graminoids on the high-density area. Niche breadth, as measured by diet diversity, differed in a manner opposite to the predictions of the ideal-free distribution. During winter, when differences in density between the two study areas were most evident, niche breadth along the dietary axis in the low-density group was twice the size of this measure for the high-density area. Theoretical models for changes in niche dimension need to consider such empirical outcomes

Shear Stress Distribution and Hemolysis Measurements in a Centrifugal Blood Pump

The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFO) to predict red blood cell trauma (hemolysis) in blood pumps based on their exposure to turbulent stresses has increased in recent years. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has initiated a project to determine the fidelity with which modern CFO can accurately predict hemolysis in such devices. The project involves the collection of experimental data against which externally-conducted CFO simulations may be compared. Because the data will be used to judge the ability of CFO to predict hemolysis, the pump was designed to cause more turbulence and blood damage than would be typical of an approved clinical device. In support of this effort, a shaft-driven centrifugal blood pump was constructed for use in both quantitative flow visualization analysis and in blood-damage experiments. The hydraulic performance of the pump was measured to determine the degree to which it represented a typical blood pump. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure planar velocity fields in three different regions of the pump including the blade passage, impeller rear-gap, and cutwater region. For all PIV experiments, the pump delivered volumetric flow rates of 0.6, 3.0, and 6.0 liters per minute (LPM), each at a constant shaft speed of 2800 RPM. Statistical analysis was performed on each PIV data set in order to determine the time-averaged velocity fields as well as to resolve turbulent quantities of interest to the prediction of hemolysis (namely the Reynolds shear stresses). Additionally, the pump was operated using bovine blood as the working fluid in order to measure the hemolysis caused at the same operating points measured during PIV experiments. Further experiments were conducted to determine the contribution of the pump\u27s shaft-seal interface to the total measured hemolysis. The pump\u27s hydrodynamic performance was measured to be a close match to that of a typical clinical blood pump. PIV analysis revealed that the velocity and shear stress fields within the pump were dependent on its operating point, and can thus serve as benchmarking data against which to compare CFO analyses. Finally, the pump was confirmed to produce measurable hemolysis. The contribution of a polyurethane shaft seal to the measured hemolysis was significant (39%-62% of the total VAD hemolysis), but this contribution was small (7%-9% of the total VAD hemolysis) when a Teflon seal was used

Decision Model for Additive versus Conventional Construction in Remote Locations

Additive construction is a potential game changing innovative alternative to conventional methods with regards to structural integrity, timeliness, and waste reduction, especially in remote locations. While there have been numerous studies into the material science, additive construction will not be a viable alternative until a cost analysis is performed. This paper details the cost elements for both methods. Breaking down the key variables of material, logistics and transportation, and labor costs garner a better understanding of the cost difference between the two construction methods