The Institute of International Law and the Colonial Phenomenon

This essay examines the activities of the Institute of International Law (the Institute or IIL) during its 150 years of existence, dealing directly or indirectly with the colonial phenomenon. It distinguishes between two major periods of roughly equal length: first the period between the years 1873 and 1945; and second, the period from 1945 to the present. These correspond to two important periods of international relations: the second wave of colonial expansion and its remnants and the regime of mandates following World War I, on the one hand, and the era of the United Nations Charter, the promotion of human rights, self-determination, and decolonialization, on the other hand

Project-level instantaneous emission modeling from mobile sources for freeway lane closure using SHRP2 Naturalistic Driving Study data and microscopic traffic simulation

This dissertation is one of the first studies which used the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) Naturalistic Driving Study (NDS) data to perform modal emission modeling at the project-level. SHRP2 NDS was the largest naturalistic driving study to date conducted in the U.S. which included instrumented vehicles with over 3,000 drivers that were recruited from six states. There is great potential to apply this data in modeling emissions as it will capture differences in driver behavior, roadway geometry, traffic conditions and their impact on emissions. The dissertation had two primary objectives: (1) apply the SHRP2 NDS data to model instantaneous exhaust emissions from passenger vehicles at four-lane divided freeway segments with work zones, and (2) examine the accuracy of microscopic traffic simulation models to replicate real-world vehicle trajectories in order to estimate emissions at work zones. Research studies related to assessing the impact of lane closure on vehicular emissions are limited considering that collecting data from field observations is resource intensive and expensive. In addition, the application of microsimulation models instigates certain constraints because various driver behavior and lane changing parameters must calibrated to ensure that the output from traffic simulation models can represent accurate real-world driving activity. Therefore, the first study focused on utilizing the vehicle kinematics data collected as part of the SHRP2 NDS to model emissions from passenger cars for work zones employed on four-lane divided principal arterials. The emissions models in this study considered different work zone configurations and varying congestion levels. Furthermore, the second analysis examined the ability of Vissim microsimulation model to replicate field conditions. A generic guidance to calibrate the driver behavior parameters in Vissim for freeway lane closure was applied and findings were compared to field observations from the SHRP2 study. Three different construction scenarios were implemented, i.e. AM-peak hour, PM-peak hour and nighttime off-peak lane closure

Evaluation of systemic safety methodologies on low-volume rural paved roadways

Prioritizing locations in rural areas has been a major concern to various transportation agencies due to the wide-spread nature of crashes on rural roadways. A systemic (more proactive) approach is required to rank sites in this case since the traditional hot spot method only considers crash data. The thesis was based on a prioritization project funded by Mid-America Transportation Center (MATC). Several systemic safety methodologies were explored and summarized in the report. However, one technique was selected, i.e. Minnesota CRSP approach, on the basis of a decision-making matrix that included five factors. The selected technique was applied on secondary paved rural roadways in Buchanan and Dallas counties in Iowa. Data was collected along 197 miles in Buchanan County and 156 miles in Dallas County. Initial prioritized ranking lists were generated for the three transportation elements (horizontal curves, stop-controlled intersections and rural segments) that were identified in the Minnesota CRSP approach. The tool was then evaluated to determine if a change in the weight/coefficient of risk factors in each transportation element would have a statistical impact on the prioritized list. Three different sensitivity analysis approaches were designed and tested. Results showed no statistical significance in the shift of rankings for all cases. A top 20 analyses was then conducted to evaluate the number of sites that shifted from the prioritization lists compared to the initial ranking. A maximum of 50 percent shift was recorded for rural horizontal curves in Dallas County when the third sensitivity analysis approach was applied

Some NP-Complete Problems in the Physical Design of Digital Integrated Circuits

Coordinated Science Laboratory was formerly known as Control Systems LaboratorySemiconductor Research Corporation / SRC-87-DP-109HA

Sufficient Conditions, Cost Bounds, and Approximation Algorithms for the Graph Bisectioning Problem

Coordinated Science Laboratory was formerly known as Control Systems LaboratorySemiconductor Research Corporation / SRC 86-12-10

Parallel-Concurrent Versus Concurrent Fault Simulation

Coordinated Science Laboratory was formerly known as Control Systems LaboratorySemiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) / 86-12-10

Performance Evaluation of Redundant Disk Array Support for Transaction Recovery

Coordinated Science Laboratory was formerly known as Control Systems LaboratoryNational Aeronautics and Space Administration / NAG 1-613Department of the Navy / N00014-91-J-128

Racial variation in medical outcomes among living kidney donors

BACKGROUND: Data regarding health outcomes among living kidney donors are lacking, especially among nonwhite persons. METHODS: We linked identifiers from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) with administrative data of a private U.S. health insurer and performed a retrospective study of 4650 persons who had been living kidney donors from October 1987 through July 2007 and who had post-donation nephrectomy benefits with this insurer at some point from 2000 through 2007. We ascertained post-nephrectomy medical diagnoses and conditions requiring medical treatment from billing claims. Cox regression analyses with left and right censoring to account for observed periods of insurance benefits were used to estimate absolute prevalence and prevalence ratios for diagnoses after nephrectomy. We then compared prevalence patterns with those in the 2005–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for the general population. RESULTS: Among the donors, 76.3% were white, 13.1% black, 8.2% Hispanic, and 2.4% another race or ethnic group. The median time from donation to the end of insurance benefits was 7.7 years. After kidney donation, black donors, as compared with white donors, had an increased risk of hypertension (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.52; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.23 to 1.88), diabetes mellitus requiring drug therapy (adjusted hazard ratio, 2.31; 95% CI, 1.33 to 3.98), and chronic kidney disease (adjusted hazard ratio, 2.32; 95% CI, 1.48 to 3.62); findings were similar for Hispanic donors. The absolute prevalence of diabetes among all donors did not exceed that in the general population, but the prevalence of hypertension exceeded NHANES estimates in some subgroups. End-stage renal disease was identified in less than 1% of donors but was more common among black donors than among white donors. CONCLUSIONS: As in the general U.S. population, racial disparities in medical conditions occur among living kidney donors. Increased attention to health outcomes among demographically diverse kidney donors is needed. (Funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and others.

Association of NEDA-4 With No Long-term Disability Progression in Multiple Sclerosis and Comparison With NEDA-3

No evidence of disease activity (NEDA)-4 has been suggested as a treatment target for disease-modifying therapy (DMT) in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). However, the ability of NEDA-4 to discriminate long-term outcomes in MS and how its performance compares with NEDA-3 remain uncertain. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate (1) the association between NEDA-4 and no long-term disability progression in MS and (2) the comparative performance of NEDA-3 and NEDA-4 in predicting no long-term disability progression. English-language abstracts and manuscripts were systematically searched in MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane databases from January 2006 to November 2021 and reviewed independently by 2 investigators. We selected studies that assessed NEDA-4 at 1 or 2 years after DMT start and had at least 4 years of follow-up for determination of no confirmed disability progression. We conducted a meta-analysis using random-effects model to determine the pooled odds ratio (OR) for no disability progression with NEDA-4 vs EDA-4. For the comparative analysis, we selected studies that evaluated both NEDA-3 and NEDA-4 with at least 4 years of follow-up and examined the difference in the association of NEDA-3 and NEDA-4 with no disability progression. Five studies of 1,000 patients (3 interferon beta and 2 fingolimod) met inclusion criteria for both objectives. The median duration of follow-up was 6 years (interquartile range: 4-6 years). The prevalence of NEDA-4 ranged from 4.2% to 13.9% on interferon beta therapy and 24.9% to 25.1% on fingolimod therapy. The pooled OR for no long-term confirmed disability progression with NEDA-4 vs EDA-4 was 2.14 (95% confidence interval: 1.36-3.37; I 2 = 0). We did not observe any significant difference between NEDA-4 and NEDA-3 in the comparative analyses. In patients with RRMS, NEDA-4 at 1-2 years was associated with 2 times higher odds of no long-term disability progression, at 6 years compared with EDA-4, but offered no advantage over NEDA-3