A Human Rights Approach to Emergency Response? The Advocacy of Canada's Human Rights Commissions during the COVID-19 Crisis

Emergencies can undermine human rights by disrupting societies, increasing vulnerabilities, and prompting extraordinary responses from governments and other actors. During the COVID-19 public health emergency, Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial human rights commissions (HRCs) have mobilized to advocate for upholding human rights. Based on an original dataset and content analysis of HRCs’ official statements in response to COVID-19, this research note examines the points of consistency and variation in HRCs’ advocacy for human rights during the COVID-19 crisis. It shows how HRCs have highlighted core human rights issues and obligations, and advocated for various policies and practices that promote respect for human rights during the COVID-19 crisis. In an emergency typically framed in terms of public health and safety, aggregating and comparatively analyzing these Canadian human rights authorities’ advocacy provides a foundation for deliberating whether and how a human rights approach to COVID-19 response should be pursued

Evaluation of screencasts settings applied to CAD online teaching

Screencasts are video recording techniques that capture dynamic images of the computer screen. Besides that, the screen recordings are combined with audio or subtitles instructions. Originally, screencasts were developed to produce videos that aim to teach instructional content. The most frequent applications of screencasts are in videos about software tutorials. Due to these features, screencasts present potential to be employed in online classes of technical drawing, especially ones that apply Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software. However, it is fundamental to optimize the screencast settings that adjust to the teaching-learning process. This article aims to evaluate different screencasts settings, directed to technical drawing online teaching with AutoCAD. Three participants evaluated four different screencasts settings to find which settings are adequated for capturing the attention and the student video comprehension. As a result, the participants exposed their preference for screencasts with audio instructions due to the facility of assimilating the audio with the images simultaneously. Additionally, there were inconclusive aspects related to the instructor’s webcam application in screencasts. Thus, it is recommended deep investigation in the future.The authors are glad to Prorectorate for Outreach and Extension (PROEX) of Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil, which become available financial resources to the Group of Innovative Communication Technologies for Education in Technical Drawing for Engineering Courses (NTICEGEng). NTICEGEng organized the course Introduction to AutoCAD Screencasts to train professors in online teaching for CAD. Juliane Silva de Almeida is a Junior Lecturer of the Graphic Communication Department at UFSC, Brazil, since 2015 and the head of the NTICEGEng. She lectures technical drawing with CAD and descriptive geometry for engineering undergrads. NTICEGEng activities are focused on promoting outreach training courses about online teaching tools and techniques. Nicole Santini Baratto is a student of Civil Engineering undergrad at UFSC, Brazil, since 2018 and a junior researcher at NTICEGEng. 64

International Courts’ Shadow Effects and the Aims of Judicialized International Cooperation

In “Judicialization of the Sea: Bargaining in the Shadow of UNCLOS,” Sara Mitchell and Andrew Owsiak make a valuable contribution to an expanding body of scholarship that considers whether and how international courts have out-of-court “shadow effects.” The authors argue that, in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) regime, the threat of binding international dispute settlement (IDS)—which entails high costs for states—encourages rational potential litigants to settle out of court through other peaceful and less costly IDS mechanisms. In this essay, I challenge the narrow focus of Mitchell and Owsiak's analysis, considering the diverse aims and processes of judicialized international cooperation in two key ways. First, the authors’ focus on peaceful IDS as the sole outcome of interest overlooks other important cooperation goals driving judicialization and delegation to international courts. An emphasis on out-of-court IDS, even when achieved peacefully, can actually undermine other objectives for judicialized international cooperation, including the development of international law and greater compliance with international law. Second, Mitchell and Oswiak's theoretical mechanism assumes that an international court contributes to its out-of-court influence through its case law, but this discounts how international courts can engage in a range of out-of-court, non-adjudicative activities that can affect potential litigants’ cost-benefit analyses regarding judicialized versus non-judicialized IDS. Indicating its preference for increasing its “direct effects” through adjudicating disputes, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) has developed capacity-building and training programs to encourage judicialized IDS under UNCLOS and states’ litigation at the ITLOS. Overall, I highlight how there is a broad range of actors and processes underpinning international courts’ out-of-court effects, and how these actors and processes can work towards multiple, at times conflicting, aims for judicialized international cooperation

A Participatory Information Management Framework for Patient Centred Care of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Patient-centred care (PCC) is grounded on the relationships formed between healthcare professionals, patients and patients’ family members. This network of stakeholders is frequently found to be disconnected due to the absence of an enabling framework. Active online participation and continuous engagement improves patients’ healthcare experience and healthcare professionals’ understanding of the illness. The community setting of PCC further generates crowd intelligence which in turn complements the knowledge of clinical experts. This body of evolving knowledge is a valuable resource with long term impact for both current and new patients as well as healthcare professionals. It is highly relevant for spectrum illnesses that usually span across the lifetime of a patient, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A framework provides structure to such a body of knowledge and defines functionality that delivers and sustains its use. This paper presents a participatory information management (PIM) framework for the delivery of PCC for ASD in a health, education and community service setting. The framework is founded on the updated IS participation theory. Driven by patient participation, it expands thereon to intersect community and clinician participation. As discussed in the paper, the potential outcomes are broad, ranging from improved healthcare quality to enabling translational research. An ongoing pilot project applying the framework to ASD is also reported in the paper

Sistema de monitoramento de fornecimento de energia elétrica para uma residência

É fato que os avanços tecnológicos estão cada vez mais presentes no nosso cotidiano. A tecnologia tem transformado nosso modo de vida. Um exemplo são as residências que deixaram de ser apenas um abrigo, para se tornarem também escritórios ou leitos para cuidados médicos. Essa mudança no perfil do consumidor residencial, o torna mais exigente na sua relação de consumo com os prestadores de serviços. Um bom exemplo disso está relacionado à qualidade da energia elétrica entregue na sua residência. Neste contexto, o projeto propõe implementar um dispositivo com características de instrumento de medição Classe S utilizando um microcontrolador embarcado, o Arduino, conectado a um sensor de tensão eficaz e a um sensor de corrente eficaz por efeito de campo ligados ao circuito monofásico, com o objetivo de captar distúrbios elétricos previstos nos Procedimentos de Distribuição de Energia Elétrica no Sistema Elétrico Nacional- PRODIST da Aneel, como por exemplo: interrupções, afundamentos de tensão (SAG) ou elevação de tensão (SWEL). Essas informações serão gravadas em um cartão de memória não volátil para posterior avaliação, permitindo concluir sobre a qualidade da energia elétrica

Hidden figures: how legal experts influence the design of international institutions

Whose preferences influence the design of international institutions? Scholarship on the legalization of international politics and creation of international legal institutions largely adopts a state-centric perspective. Existing accounts, however, fail to recognize how states often delegate authority over institutional design tasks to independent legal experts whose preferences may diverge from those of states. We develop a principal–agent (PA) framework for theorizing relations between states (collective principals) and legal actors (agents) in the design process, and for explaining how legal actors influence the design of international institutions. The legal dimensions of the PA relationship increase the likelihood of preference divergence between the collective principal and the agent, but also create conditions that enable the agent to opportunistically advance its own design preferences. We argue that the more information on states’ preferences the agent has, the more effectively it can exploit its legal expertise to strategically select and justify design choices that maximize its own preferences and the likelihood of states’ acceptance. Our analysis of two cases of delegated institutional design concerning international criminal law at the United Nations and the African Union supports our theoretical expectations. Extensive archival and interview data elucidate how agents’ variable information on states’ preferences affects their ability to effectively advance their design preferences. Our theory reveals how independent legal experts with delegated authority over design tasks influence institutional design processes and outcomes, which has practical and normative implications for the legalization of international politics

Transcription factors of the alternative NF-κB pathway are required for germinal center B-cell development

The NF-κB signaling cascade relays external signals essential for B-cell growth and survival. This cascade is frequently hijacked by cancers that arise from the malignant transformation of germinal center (GC) B cells, underscoring the importance of deciphering the function of NF-κB in these cells. The NF-κB signaling cascade is comprised of two branches, the canonical and alternative NF-κB pathways, mediated by distinct transcription factors. The expression and function of the transcription factors of the alternative pathway, RELB and NF-κB2, in late B-cell development is incompletely understood. Using conditional deletion of relb and nfkb2 in GC B cells, we here report that ablation of both RELB and NF-κB2, but not of the single transcription factors, resulted in the collapse of established GCs. RELB/NF-κB2 deficiency in GC B cells was associated with impaired cell-cycle entry and reduced expression of the cell-surface receptor inducible T-cell costimulator ligand that promotes optimal interactions between B and T cells. Analysis of human tonsillar tissue revealed that plasma cells and their precursors in the GC expressed high levels of NF-κB2 relative to surrounding lymphocytes. Accordingly, deletion of nfkb2 in murine GC B cells resulted in a dramatic reduction of antigen-specific antibody-secreting cells, whereas deletion of relb had no effect. These results demonstrate that the transcription factors of the alternative NF-κB pathway control distinct stages of late B-cell development, which may have implications for B-cell malignancies that aberrantly activate this pathway

APONTAMENTOS SOBRE POTENCIAIS RELAÇÕES ENTRE DESINFORMAÇÃO, COMPORTAMENTO E PRÁTICAS INFORMACIONAIS

Ensaio que discute relações estabelecidas e potencialidades entre os conceitos de pós-verdade e desinformação no âmbito dos estudos de comportamentos e práticas informacionais que se efetivam na web, tendo como referência o paradigma social da Ciência da Informação. Assim, com o propósito de facilitar a compreensão e contribuir em relação à suplementaridade e convergência desses conceitos quanto abordagens de estudos de usuários, neste ensaio elencamos as distinções dos desdobramentos conceituais do termo desinformação e os tensionamentos potencializadores de estudos futuros. As reflexões permitem afirmar que a desinformação se consagra como cerne para a compreensão dos fenômenos informacionais no contexto do capitalismo cognitivo, através de comportamentos e práticas informacionais que instrumentalizam e deturpam os processos de comunicação até então consolidados.AbstractThis essay discusses established relations and potentialities between the concepts of post-truth and misinformation in the context of studies of informational behaviors and practices that take place on the web, having as reference the social paradigm of Information Science. Thus, with the purpose of facilitating the understanding and contributing in relation to the supplementarity and convergence of these concepts as approaches to user studies, we list the distinctions of the conceptual unfoldings of the term misinformation and the potential tensioning of future studies. The reflections allow us to affirm that misinformation is consecrated as the core for the understanding of informational phenomena in the context of cognitive capitalism, through informational behaviors and practices that instrumentalize and distort the communication processes consolidated until then