An Introduction: Adapting to a Rapidly Changing World

The 2015 American Society of International Law (ASIL) Annual Meeting aimed to assess how international law is and should be adapting to the profound global changes that are now underway. The Meeting took place against a dramatic backdrop of events: the rapid expansion of the so-called Islamic State in Syria and Iraq; a security and refugee crisis in the Middle East; escalating conflict in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea; an Ebola crisis in West Africa; and the build-up to a widely anticipated round of negotiations on climate change. These and similar geopolitical developments raise serious questions about the continued relevance and adequacy of existing international legal arrangements and institutions. For example, are the traditional processes for making international law capable of effectively and legitimately addressing these challenges? Can existing international institutions maintain their relevance in an increasingly multi-polar system? And how should the world tackle complex problems such as the proliferation of violence among non-state actors, degradation of the global environment, and persistent levels of severe poverty

An exploration of universal parenting interventions for parents of adolescents

Abstract available at each chapter

Teacher Education for a Rural-Ready Teaching Force: Swings, Roundabouts, and Slippery Slides?

The preparation of teachers for rural schools has been a significant focus of research for many decades. In this paper we update previous reports of the extent of Initial Teacher Education courses that prepare teachers for rural schools in Australia. We found that despite significant and continued calls for rural teacher education, there are still very few rural-teaching units offered in teacher education courses, and there are no courses at all that seek this as an explicit outcome. As the Australian Professional Standards for Teaching claim the importance of teachers understanding students and their contexts, we argue that effective teacher education must not only focus on understanding rurality, and developing awareness of the affordances of place, but must also address the pedagogical requirements for present day rural teaching. We argue that the lack of teacher preparation for locational, geographic forms of social difference works to produce and sustain educational disadvantage when these intersect with economic and cultural difference. On this basis we call for government to address this major failing in the provision of educatio

Purchasing, praising and promoting Whistler's etchings: The American collector Howard Mansfield, (1849-1938)

This thesis examines the collection of Whistler etchings assembled by Howard Mansfield (1849-1938). The first section examines the beginnings of Mansfield's collection considering the initial motivations that drove the collector to begin his collection. The motivations that sustained his collecting activities between 1876 and 1919 are considered. The context of the American Etching Revival is also considered. The second section is a comparison between Mansfield's collecting activities and those of Whistler's chief patron, Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919). Both collectors' motivations are considered in relation to the purchase of Whistler's first etching Sketches on a Coast Survey Plate, (figure 2.1, Kl). The third chapter of this thesis looks at Mansfield's writings on Whistler, especially his catalogue raisonne of Whistler's etchings published in 1909. This catalogue is compared to the better known and commonly used catalogue compiled by Edward. G. Kennedy (1849-1932) and published in 1910. Chapter four looks at exhibitions of Whistler etching that Mansfield organised; these are examined in relation to Whistler's own exhibition activities and techniques and reveal the ways in which Mansfield promoted Whistler's etchings in America. The overall aim of this thesis is to establish the significance of Howard Mansfield as a connoisseur in the context of contemporary public and private collections, thus contributing to print and collecting studies

I’LL TAKE THAT TO GO: THE ROLES OF PERSON, PLACE, AND PRICE IN THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE CONSUMPTION OF MEALS PREPARED AWAY FROM THE HOME, DIET, AND FOOD EXPENDITURES IN THE U.S.

The U.S. government’s Healthy People 2020 initiative1 identified improving diet as a strategy to prevent chronic conditions, specifically limiting total calories, saturated fats, sodium, and increasing fiber. Recent literature has shown that meals prepared away from the home often contradict the U.S. government’s diet recommendations2-5 and are associated with higher food expenditures.4,5 This dissertation, presented in three papers, examines relationships among the individual behavior of consuming meals prepared away from the home, diet measures, and household food expenditures. We examined these relationships accounting for key ecological factors that have not been included in prior research: county-level density of grocery stores and restaurants, sociodemographic factors, and the cost of food. A compiled dataset of individual factors from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey with ecological factors from the USDA Economic Research Service’s Food Environment Atlas and cost of food from Map the Meal Gap was analyzed. This study first (Paper 1) used ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to examine the relationships between the frequency of consuming meals prepared away from the home with diet measures (i.e., mean kCals/day; grams/day of protein, carbohydrates, fat, saturated fat, sugar, sodium, fiber) and proportions of monthly household income and the proportions of total household food expenditures allocated to food prepared away from the home versus purchased at the grocery store, controlling for individual sociodemographic characteristics in a nationally representative sample. Second (Paper 2), multilevel ordered logistic and multilevel linear regressions with a random intercept at the county level were used to examine the relationships among the frequency of consumption of meals prepared away from the home, diet measures, and food expenditures in a sample of Americans living in urban areas, controlling for the county-level sociodemographic and food environment factors. Third (Paper 3), the multilevel ordered logistic and linear regression analyses conducted in Paper 2 were repeated with the addition of county-level cost of food to the models. The results of all three papers supported the idea that reducing the number of meals prepared away from the home in the American diet could improve diet quality while reducing food expenditures, regardless of ecological factors

2002 Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition

The Republic of Turingia and the Republic of Babbage have brought their case before this Court by notification of the Special Agreement as provided for by Article 40(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. The Court has jurisdiction over the case pursuant to Article 36(2) of the said Statute

The Potential of Video in Patient Education Post Skin Biopsies

Plastic surgeons perform excisional skin biopsies that may be in aesthetically sensitive areas.  Excisional biopsies are performed on an outpatient basis and therefore patients are expected to perform wound care at home. The current standard of patient education for post-procedural care is verbal information along with a written set of instructions to take home. However, a patient’s comprehension of verbal directions and literacy level can greatly affect the transmission of knowledge, and verbal instructions are not standardized across each patient encounter. The importance of patient education in self-care with the use of video has great potential in promoting improved outcomes

The Association Between Discrimination and Sleep is Exacerbated in Individuals with Comorbid Chronic Health Conditions

Introduction: The consequences of recurrent, stressful daily experiences for sleep health appear intensified in individuals with pre-existing health conditions. Although discrimination has been associated with sleep outcomes, the role of comorbid chronic health conditions (CCHCs), and impact of perceived discrimination, remains unclear. The present study investigated (1) the associations between daily discrimination and sleep and (2) moderating roles of CCHCs and daily life interference and hardship. Methods: The current study utilized archival data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Study II. Participants, 174 adults (51% female, Mage=57 yrs., SD=11.5 yrs.), completed 7 days of actigraphy, sleep diary, PSQI, and CCHC-reporting measures. Models examined the moderating effects of CCHCs, daily interference, and hardship on the association between discrimination and sleep. Results: Daily discriminatory experiences predicted numerous poor sleep outcomes, exacerbated for persons with higher CCHCs. Higher comorbidity (95% CI=5.40, 68.75) exacerbated the association between discrimination and TSTactigraphy, further strengthened by perceived hardship (95% CI=-3.75, -.40) and interference (95% CI=-3.65, -.30). Number of CCHCs, qualified by perceived hardship (95% CI=.00, .04) and interference (95% CI=.01, .05), predicted diary sleep quality above discrimination. The interaction between CCHCs and hardship predicted global PSQI scores (95% CI=-.91, -.12) beyond discrimination. Conclusion: Daily experiences of discrimination are associated with decreased sleep duration and quality. These associations were stronger for individuals with multiple CCHCs. Exacerbating CCHC effects were perpetuated by perceived interference and hardships, suggesting individual emotion regulation (ER) differences. Future research should attend to sleep-related consequences of differential discrimination-informed ER by persons with CCHCs.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1042/thumbnail.jp