American Duality: The Legal History of Racial Slavery in the United States of America

This paper explores the duality of American law and American culture in the context of American Slavery. On the one hand, White Americans took great pride in the robust and progressive protection of individual liberties and rights guaranteed to them by documents like the Constitution. But, on the other, those same legal documents worked symbiotically with the cultural mores of the day to create and sustain a system that enslaved African Americans for generations. This paper starts with an analysis on the origins of racial slavery in colonial America, which emphasizes the insidious function of the law and preconceptions about African culture and race. Then, the focus turns to the role of Southern law and culture in sustaining the hegemonic structure of Southern society that allowed for slavery’s continued survival. With the role of Southern law and culture put properly in their place, the focus shifts to federal law by examining how the nation’s highest institutions allowed slavery to survive the birth of a “free republic.” The part that the framers and the Constitution of 1787 played in the story of American slavery is first considered in the context of Frederick Douglass’s arguments related to whether the Constitution was pro-slavery or anti-slavery. Next, it is argued that Chief Justice John Marshall started the Court’s long tradition of feigning judicial restraint to justify clearly racist decisions. In keeping with this tradition, the Court rendered the Constitution undeniably pro-slavery through two racially-driven decisions made under the pretense of legal formalism: Prigg and Dred Scott. Of course, Congress also played an unfortunate part in this story—particularly for its role in the events leading up to the Dred Scott case—that is discussed in turn. Finally, the paper closes with a brief comment on the long-lasting implications of the law’s failure to adequately protect the rights of Black Americans

The importance of physiological data variability in wearable devices for digital health applications

This paper aims at characterizing the variability of physiological data collected through a wearable device (Empatica E4), given that both intra- and inter-subject variability play a pivotal role in digital health applications, where Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques have become popular. Inter-beat intervals (IBIs), ElectroDermal Activity (EDA) and Skin Temperature (SKT) signals have been considered and variability has been evaluated in terms of general statistics (mean and standard deviation) and coefficient of variation. Results show that both intra- and inter-subject variability values are significant, especially when considering those parameters describing how the signals vary over time. Moreover, EDA seems to be the signal characterized by the highest variability, followed by IBIs, contrary to SKT that results more stable. This variability could affect AI algorithms in classifying signals according to particular discriminants (e.g. emotions, daily activities, etc.), taking into account the dual role of variability: hindering a net distinction between classes, but also making algorithms more robust for deep learning purposes thanks to the consideration of a wide test population. Indeed, it is worthy to note that variability plays a fundamental role in the whole measurement chain, characterizing data reliability and impacting on the final results accuracy and consequently on decision-making processes

IR Kuiper Belt Constraints

We compute the temperature and IR signal of particles of radius $a$ and albedo $\alpha$ at heliocentric distance $R$, taking into account the emissivity effect, and give an interpolating formula for the result. We compare with analyses of COBE DIRBE data by others (including recent detection of the cosmic IR background) for various values of heliocentric distance, $R$, particle radius, $a$, and particle albedo, $\alpha$. We then apply these results to a recently-developed picture of the Kuiper belt as a two-sector disk with a nearby, low-density sector (40<R<50-90 AU) and a more distant sector with a higher density. We consider the case in which passage through a molecular cloud essentially cleans the Solar System of dust. We apply a simple model of dust production by comet collisions and removal by the Poynting-Robertson effect to find limits on total and dust masses in the near and far sectors as a function of time since such a passage. Finally we compare Kuiper belt IR spectra for various parameter values.Comment: 34 pages, LaTeX, uses aasms4.sty, 11 PostScript figures not embedded. A number of substantive comments by a particularly thoughtful referee have been addresse

The roles of client religion, counselor religiosity, and spiritual competence in counselors' clinical judgment

Title from PDF of title page, viewed on July 15, 2011VitaIncludes bibliographical references (p. 167-190)Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Education. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2011The present study explored the roles that clients' religious beliefs, therapists' spiritual/religious beliefs, and therapists' attitudes toward spirituality and religion may play in how therapists conceptualize a prospective client case. The study also explored the role that the construct “spiritual competence” played in moderating the relationship between therapists' attitudes toward spirituality and religion and factors related to their clinical judgment of the client's concerns. One hundred seventy-six therapists and doctoral students were randomly assigned to read one of four vignettes differing only on the client's spiritual/religious beliefs and practices (Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or an unstated religious preference). In order to account for various forms of clinical decision-making, a MANCOVA was used with dependent constructs of psychopathology, attribution for the problem, and prognosis. A separate MANCOVA was conducted in order to determine whether the interaction of client religious orientation (religious vs. unidentified religion) and counselor spiritual competence (high vs. low) would be related to different clinical judgments.Introduction -- Review of the literature -- Methods -- Results -- Discussion -- Appendix A. Demographic form -- Appendix B. Duke Religion Index -- Appendix C. Religion scale -- Appendix D. Spiritual and religious antagonism scale -- Appendix E. Vignette descriptions -- Appendix F. Attribution of problem scale -- Appendix G. Counseling prognosis scale -- Appendix H. Exploratory research questions -- Appendix I. Email recruitment letter -- Appendix J. IRB approval lette

The association between water kilomasers and compact radio sources in the starburst galaxy NGC2146

We report the detection of 22 GHz water vapor emission toward the starburst galaxy NGC2146, made using the Effelsberg 100-m telescope. Interferometric observations with the Very Large Array (VLA) show that a part of the emission originates from two prominent sites of star formation that are associated with compact radio continuum sources, likely ultra-compact HII regions. It is concluded that the emission arises from the most luminous and distant water `kilomasers' detected so far. Our data increase the number of water maser detections in northern galaxies (Dec > -30 deg) with 100 micron IRAS point source fluxes > 50 Jy to 18%.Comment: 4 pages including 3 figures, accepted for publication in A&A Lette

Opportunities and Traps for Trade Unions in European Employment Policy Initiatives:The Case of Social Dialogue on Active Inclusion

After some promise in the 1990s, European unions have grown increasingly disillusioned with regard to the results of EU social policy and EU social dialogue. The paper analyses the extent and reasons of this disillusion by looking at the impact on social dialogue of the Active Inclusion Recommendation launched by the European Commission at the outset of the economic crisis in 2008. The Recommendation led to a tripartite framework agreement at the EU level in 2010 (the only such agreement in a decade), which was then to be implemented at national and regional levels. With a multilevel governance approach, the paper looks at the extent to which social dialogue on Active Inclusion at the EU level, in six EU countries (France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK) and six regions (Rhône-Alpes, Lombardy, Lower Silesia, Catalonia, West Sweden and Greater Manchester) within those countries was somehow revitalised. The analysis, looking at both top-down and bottom-up processes and based on documentary analysis and interviews, shows that the initiative displays ambiguities similar to those of typical composite EU principles, such as famously the case of ‘flexicurity’. The multilevel governance of the EU, including the interaction between ‘soft’ employment policies and evolving ‘hard’ Eurogovernance tools, and with poor horizontal and vertical coordination, resulted in multiple distortions of the principle and, over time, to frustration. Unions’ engagement varies by level, country and region, reflecting both traditional national approaches and the local perception of ‘active inclusion’ as an opportunity. Although trade unions were more welcoming of ‘active inclusion’ than they had been for flexicurity, similar related threats and opportunities led to modest achievements and a gradual fading of the idea at the European and national levels, with some more opportunities however at the regional level. The paper concludes that, if trade unions want to engage with the idea of a European Social Model and with Eurogovernance, they could develop stronger networks among regional organisations