Providing for the common defense: internal security and the Cold War, 1945-1975

While the historiography of the Red Scare has often discussed the major internal security legislation passed during the period, the legislation in question is often given short shrift and characterized as a misguided response by Congress. It is important to examine this legislation not only for what it did for the internal security of the nation, but also for what it meant symbolically. Implementation of governmental policy, including internal security policy, through legislation often also serves as a window to the beliefs and values of those crafting the legislation. By examining the internal security legislation passed during the Red Scare, we can determine some of the beliefs and values that underlay the legislation. This dissertation argues three points. First, Congressional politics and legislation during the Second Red Scare created a pattern for dealing with internal security crises both during and after the Cold War. As part of this pattern, the values and beliefs that underlay the initial internal security legislation are present in internal security legislation of the 1960s and the early 2000s. The judicial response to this legislation created necessary limits to Congressional action. Second, while the race riots of many major urban centers in the 1960s have been explained as social crises, it’s important that they be studied as internal security crises as well. Particularly within Congress, some viewed these riots as an insurgency and an insurrection and framed their responses and legislation towards combating them. Finally, while attempts have been made to create a post-Cold War policy towards combating terrorism, the initial post-September 11, 2001, attempts at anti-terror legislation (such as the USA PATRIOT Act) continued to follow much of the same pattern established for internal security crises during the Cold War

Integrating remote sensing datasets into ecological modelling: a Bayesian approach

Process-based models have been used to simulate 3-dimensional complexities of forest ecosystems and their temporal changes, but their extensive data requirement and complex parameterisation have often limited their use for practical management applications. Increasingly, information retrieved using remote sensing techniques can help in model parameterisation and data collection by providing spatially and temporally resolved forest information. In this paper, we illustrate the potential of Bayesian calibration for integrating such data sources to simulate forest production. As an example, we use the 3-PG model combined with hyperspectral, LiDAR, SAR and field-based data to simulate the growth of UK Corsican pine stands. Hyperspectral, LiDAR and SAR data are used to estimate LAI dynamics, tree height and above ground biomass, respectively, while the Bayesian calibration provides estimates of uncertainties to model parameters and outputs. The Bayesian calibration contrasts with goodness-of-fit approaches, which do not provide uncertainties to parameters and model outputs. Parameters and the data used in the calibration process are presented in the form of probability distributions, reflecting our degree of certainty about them. After the calibration, the distributions are updated. To approximate posterior distributions (of outputs and parameters), a Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling approach is used (25 000 steps). A sensitivity analysis is also conducted between parameters and outputs. Overall, the results illustrate the potential of a Bayesian framework for truly integrative work, both in the consideration of field-based and remotely sensed datasets available and in estimating parameter and model output uncertainties

Assessing the Social Acceptability of New Technologies: Gaps and Tensions Between Science and Regulation

ArticleLes considérations éthiques concernant le développement de technologies font maintenant partie du champ de la bioéthique, concentrées en grande partie sur les interactions entre la science et le gouvernement pour établir le bien social. Depuis l’avènement des différentes formes de biotechnologies, l’analyse scientifique des risques a fait l’objet de diverses lignes de questionnement par rapport au rôle que la science quantitative joue dans la surveillance gouvernementale. Cela est d’autant plus important dans le débat actuel sur l’acceptabilité des nanotechnologies. Dans cet article, nous précisons d’abord les points forts et les limites de l’analyse scientifique de l’acceptabilité sociale des risques de la nanotechnologie. Ensuite, nous montrons les limites de l’adoption d’une approche empirique dans les sciences sociales et humaines pour prédire l’acceptabilité sociale d’une technologie. Nous soutenons que la reconnaissance des hypothèses sous-jacentes de ces deux approches quantitatives doit ouvrir une route à des approches plus réflexives par les sciences sociales et les sciences humaines.Ethical considerations regarding the development of technologies are now a standard part of the field of bioethics, focused in large part on the interactions between science and government in establishing the social good. Since the advent of different forms of biotechnology, scientific risk analysis has been subject to various lines of questioning relative to the role that quantitative science plays in government oversight. This is even more significant in the present debate on the acceptability of nanotechnology. In this article, we first specify the strengths and limitations of the scientific analysis of the social acceptability of risks in nanotechnology. Next, we demonstrate the limitations of taking an empirical approach in the social sciences and the humanities to predicting the social acceptability of a technology. We argue that recognizing the assumptions underlying these two quantitative approaches should open up a road to more reflective approaches by the social sciences and the humanities

Les enjeux identitaires de l’humain dans le débat philosophique sur la robotique humanoïde et l’amélioration humaine

ArticleLes représentations identitaires de l’humain (identité humaine, distinction naturel/artificiel) font-elles encore sens dans le contexte du développement de la robotique humanoïde (par l’humanisation du robot) et de l’amélioration humaine (par la robotisation de l’humain)? Le problème est que des philosophes critiques, comme Lin et Allhoff qui ont fondé la revue NanoEthics, remettent en question ces représentations identitaires de l’humain, comme si le discours de l’évaluation éthique fondée sur ces représentations était caduc quant aux deux questions qu’ils posent dans Ethics of Human Enhancement: 25 Questions and Answers en 2009: « Does the notion of human dignity suffer with human enhancements? » et « Is the natural-artificial distinction morally significant in this debate? » Le but du présent article sera de montrer, à partir de différents textes publiés, qui constituent notre cadre d’analyse des arguments moraux, la portée et l’insuffisance des arguments critiques que Lin et Allhoff utilisent pour répondre à ces deux questions. Mais, en appliquant à ces auteurs ce cadre de référence, nous pourrons aussi montrer en quoi la question de l’identité humaine ou la distinction naturel/artificiel fait encore sens dans l’évaluation éthique.Do human identity representations (human identity, natural/artificial distinction) still make sense in the context of the development of humanoid robotics (humanizing the robot) and human enhancement (automation of the human)? The problem is that critical philosophers, like Lin and Allhoff who founded the journal NanoEthics, challenge these representations of human identity, as if the discussion of the ethical evaluation of these representations was exhausted with regards to the two issues that they raise in 2009 in Ethics of Human Enhancement: 25 Questions and Answers, i.e.: “Does the notion of human dignity suffer with human enhancements?” and “Is the natural-artificial distinction morally significant in this debate?” The purpose of this article is to show – in light of various texts that constitute our framework for analyzing moral arguments – the limits of the scope and insufficiency of the critical arguments that Lin and Allhoff use to answer these two questions. But in applying our framework to these authors, we will also show how the question of human identity or the natural/artificial distinction still makes sense in the ethical evaluation

A 4-study replication of the moderating effects of greed on socioeconomic status and unethical behaviour.

Four replications of Piff and colleagues\u27 study examined the moderating effects of greed attitudes on the relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and unethical behaviour (Study 7). In the original study, the researchers found that both greed and SES predicted increased propensity to engage in unethical behavior. Furthermore, this association was moderated such that the effects of SES on unethical behaviour were no longer present in the greed prime condition versus the neutral condition. In replication 1 of the original study main effects of greed attitudes and SES were found, but no interaction was found. Main effects for greed emerged in replications 3 and 4. However no main effects for SES or interactions emerged for replications 2-4. A meta-analysis was conducted with all replications and the original study, and found no moderating effect of greed on the relationship between SES and unethical behavior

Structured Assessment Approach: a microcomputer-based insider-vulnerability analysis tool

The Structured Assessment Approach (SAA) was developed to help assess the vulnerability of safeguards systems to insiders in a staged manner. For physical security systems, the SAA identifies possible diversion paths which are not safeguarded under various facility operating conditions and insiders who could defeat the system via direct access, collusion or indirect tampering. For material control and accounting systems, the SAA identifies those who could block the detection of a material loss or diversion via data falsification or equipment tampering. The SAA, originally desinged to run on a mainframe computer, has been converted to run on a personal computer. Many features have been added to simplify and facilitate its use for conducting vulnerability analysis. For example, the SAA input, which is a text-like data file, is easily readable and can provide documentation of facility safeguards and assumptions used for the analysis

Improvement of Hydraulic and Water Quality Renovation Functions by Intermittent Aeration of Soil Treatment Areas in Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems

We tested intermittent aeration of the soil treatment area (STA) of onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) for its ability to restore and maintain STA hydraulic flow and improve the water quality functions of conventional OWTS. Evaluation was conducted on hydraulically-failed conventional OWTS at three state-owned medical group homes in Washington County, RI, USA. Testing was conducted in two phases, with Phase I (before intermittent soil aeration (ISA)) comprising the first 6 months of the study, and Phase II (during ISA) the remaining 7 months. Intermittent soil aeration restored STA hydraulic function in all three systems despite a marked reduction in the STA total infiltrative surface. Soil pore water was collected from 30 and 90 cm below the STA during both phases and analyzed for standard wastewater parameters. Although the STA infiltrative surface was reduced—and the contaminant load per unit of area increased—after installation of the ISA system, no differences were observed between phases in concentration of total N, NO3, total P, or dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Apparent removal rates—which do not account for dilution or differences in infiltrative area—for total N, total P, and DOC remained the same or improved during Phase II relative to the pre-operation phase. Furthermore, intermittent soil aeration enhanced actual removal rates —which do account for dilution and differences in infiltrative area. The effects of ISA on actual removal of contaminants from STE increased with increasing hydraulic load—a counterintuitive phenomenon, but one that has been previously observed in laboratory studies. The results of our study suggest that intermittent soil aeration can restore and maintain hydraulic flow in the STA and enhance carbon and nutrient removal in conventional OWTS

MSH6- or PMS2-deficiency causes re-replication in DT40 B cells, but it has little effect on immunoglobulin gene conversion or on repair of AID-generated uracils

The mammalian antibody repertoire is shaped by somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class switch recombination (CSR) of the immunoglobulin (Ig) loci of B lymphocytes. SHM and CSR are triggered by non-canonical, error-prone processing of G/U mismatches generated by activation-induced deaminase (AID). In birds, AID does not trigger SHM, but it triggers Ig gene conversion (GC), a ‘homeologous' recombination process involving the Ig variable region and proximal pseudogenes. Because recombination fidelity is controlled by the mismatch repair (MMR) system, we investigated whether MMR affects GC in the chicken B cell line DT40. We show here that Msh6−/− and Pms2−/− DT40 cells display cell cycle defects, including genomic re-replication. However, although IgVλ GC tracts in MMR-deficient cells were slightly longer than in normal cells, Ig GC frequency, donor choice or the number of mutations per sequence remained unaltered. The finding that the avian MMR system, unlike that of mammals, does not seem to contribute towards the processing of G/U mismatches in vitro could explain why MMR is unable to initiate Ig GC in this species, despite initiating SHM and CSR in mammalian cells. Moreover, as MMR does not counteract or govern Ig GC, we report a rare example of ‘homeologous' recombination insensitive to MM