Constitutional Contortion? Making Unfettered War Powers Compatible with Limited Government. Book Review Of: The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs After 9/11. by John Yoo

Book review: The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs After 9/11. By John Yoo. University of Chicago Press. 2005. xii + 366 pp. Reviewed by: Gordon Silverstei

The non-adiabatic pressure in general scalar field systems

We discuss the non-adiabatic or entropy perturbation, which controls the evolution of the curvature perturbation in the uniform density gauge, for a scalar field system minimally coupled to gravity with non-canonical action. We highlight the differences between the sound and the phase speed in these systems, and show that the non-adiabatic pressure perturbation vanishes in the single field case, resulting in the conservation of the curvature perturbation on large scales.Comment: 6 pages, revtex4; v2: typos corrected, results clarified, version being submitted; v3: version accepted for publicatio

Transient Hypoxia Alters Striatal Catecholamine Metabolism in Immature Brain: An In Vivo Microdialysis Study

Microdialysis probes were inserted bilaterally into the striatum of 7-day-old rat pups (n = 30) to examine extracellular fluid levels of dopamine, its metabolites 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and homovanillic acid (HVA), and the serotonin metabolite 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA). The dialysis samples were assayed by HPLC with electrochemical detection. Baseline levels, measured after a 2-h stabilization period, were as follows: dopamine, not detected; DOPAC, 617 ± 33 fmol/min; HVA, 974 ± 42 fmol/min; and 5-HIAA, 276 ± 15 fmol/min. After a 40-min baseline sampling period, 12 animals were exposed to 8% oxygen for 120 min. Hypoxia produced marked reductions in the striatal extracellular fluid levels of both dopamine metabolites ( p < 0.001 by analysis of variance) and a more gradual and less prominent reduction in 5-HIAA levels ( p < 0.02 by analysis of variance), compared with controls (n = 12) sampled in room air. In the first hour after hypoxia, DOPAC and HVA levels rose quickly, whereas 5-HIAA levels remained suppressed. The magnitude of depolarization-evoked release of dopamine (elicited by infusion of potassium or veratrine through the microdialysis probes for 20 min) was evaluated in control and hypoxic animals. Depolarization-evoked dopamine efflux was considerably higher in hypoxic pups than in controls: hypoxic (n = 7), 257 ± 32 fmol/min; control (n = 12), 75 ± 14 fmol/min ( p < 0.001 by analysis of variance). These data demonstrate that a brief exposure to moderate hypoxia markedly disrupts striatal catecholamine metabolism in the immature rodent brain.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66218/1/j.1471-4159.1990.tb01914.x.pd

Being Explicit about Culture: Māori, Neoliberalism, and the New Zealand Parliament

In this article, I explore how people use the culture concept in legislatures to understand the minorities they legislate for and about. I focus on recent debates in the New Zealand parliament over whether the indigenous Ma¯ ori are a cultural group or a racial group. A Westminster parliament system encourages these debates, in which political parties argue that Ma¯ ori are either cultural or racial but not both. For the ruling Labour Party and its allies, Ma¯ ori are cultural; for their opposition, the National Party and its allies, Ma¯ ori are a racial group. This division is possible only because of the legislators’ neoliberal assumptions about identity categories. To complicate these political divisions, Ma¯ ori MPs currently belong to political parties from all parts of the political spectrum, and their effectiveness as culture bearers in a parliamentary context can disrupt the terms of this debate

Hypoglycemia alters striatal amino acid efflux in perinatal rats: An in vivo microdialysis study

In adult brain, during insulin-induced hypoglycemia, striatal extracellular fluid concentrations of the excitatory amino acids glutamate and aspartate rise markedly (fourfold to tenfold). In this study, we used in vivo microdialysis to determine if insulin-induced hypoglycemia altered striatal amino acid efflux in similar fashion in the immature brain. Microdialysis probes were inserted into the right striatum of rats on postnatal day 7. After a 2-hour recovery period, in each animal a 30-minute baseline sample was obtained. Then insulin (0.6 Μ/Kg, intraperitoneal injection) was administered (n = 6) and dialysate sampling was continued over the next 210 minutes (terminal blood glucose level < 5 mg/dl). Untreated control rats (n = 6) were sampled over the same time interval. After pre-column derivatization with o -Phthaldialdehyde, dialysate samples were assayed by high-pressure liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection to measure their amino acid content; eight amino acids (glutamate, aspartate, taurine, glutamine, alanine, serine glycine, and asparagine) were consistently detected. In controls, amino acid efflux did not change over 4 hours. In hypoglycemic animals, glutamate efflux increased (peak: 238 ± 85% of baseline, p = 0.02, repeated measures analysis of variance [ANOVA]), glutamine efflux declined (to 44 ± 5% of baseline, P = 0.002, ANOVA), and taurine efflux increased (up to 310 ± 120% of baseline; p < 0.06, ANOVA). In contrast with 9-to 12-fold increases in aspartate efflux reported in adult striatum, asparate efflux increased only slighty (to 174 ± 69% of baseline; not significant). In immature rodent brain, overall trends in striatal amino acid efflux during hypoglycemia are similar to patterns reported in adult animals; however, there are major differences in the timing, duration, and magnitude of these responses.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50336/1/410280408_ftp.pd

The Phagocyte, Metchnikoff, and the Foundation of Immunology

ABSTRACTSince the ability of some cells to engulf particulate material was observed before Metchnikoff, he did not "discover" phagocytosis, as is sometimes mentioned in textbooks. Rather, he assigned to particle internalization the role of defending the host against noxious stimuli, which represented a new function relative to the previously recognized task of intracellular digestion. With this proposal, Metchnikoff built the conceptual framework within which immunity could finally be seen as an active host function triggered by noxious stimuli. In this sense, Metchnikoff can be rightly regarded as the father of all immunological sciences and not only of innate immunity or myeloid cell biology. Moreover, the recognition properties of his phagocyte fit surprisingly well with recent discoveries and modern models of immune sensing. For example, rather than assigning to immune recognition exclusively the function of eliminating nonself components (as others did after him), Metchnikoff viewed phagocytes as homeostatic agents capable of monitoring the internal environment and promoting tissue remodeling, thereby continuously defining the identity of the organism. No doubt, Metchnikoff's life and creativity can provide, still today, a rich source of inspiration