7,346 research outputs found

    Law as Counterspeech

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    A growing body of work in free speech theory is interested in the nature of counterspeech, i.e. speech that aims to counteract the effects of harmful speech. Counterspeech is usually defined in opposition to legal responses to harmful speech, which try to prevent such speech from occurring in the first place. In this paper we challenge this way of carving up the conceptual terrain. Instead, we argue that our main classificatory division, in theorising responses to harmful speech, should be between pro-discursive and anti-discursive responses. Some legal responses to harmful speech, so we argue, make a positive discursive contribution in their own right. That is, legal restrictions on harmful speech can have a function that is importantly similar to speech that aims at countering the effects of harmful speech

    Subtropical-temperate forested wetlands of coastal south-eastern Australia – an analysis of vegetation data to support ecosystem risk assessment at regional, national and global scales

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    Forested wetlands occurring on fluvial sediments are among the most threatened ecosystems in south-east Australia. The first quantitative diagnosis of forested wetland types in NSW was completed in 2005. Since then, there has been a three-fold increase in survey data on coastal floodplains, vegetation classification systems have been developed in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, and methods for the assessment of ecosystem conservation risks have been adopted by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Aims. To ensure an evidence base that can support conservation decisions and national conservation assessments, there is a need to review and update the classification of forested wetlands and integrate classification schemes across jurisdictions. Methods. We evaluated the efficacy of a multi-stage clustering strategy, applied to data from different sources with largely unknown methodological idiosyncrasies, to retrieve ecologically meaningful clusters. We assessed the veracity and robustness of the 2005 classification of forest wetlands as a framework for national risk assessments over an expanded range. Key results. We derived a quantitative, cross- jurisdictional classification of forested wetlands based on a synthesis of 5173 plot samples drawn from three states and identified the status of our units in relation to IUCN's Global Ecosystem Typology. Conclusions. Our analyses support the retention of the five legacy types which are the basis for threatened ecosystem listings under the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 and Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Implications. Our results will support revised assessments of current listings and facilitate their integration at state, national and global scale

    A Long International Monetary Fund Intervention: Portugal 1975-1979

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    Most of the literature on the interventions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Portugal points to the June 1978 Stand-by arrangement (SBA) between the Portuguese authorities and the IMF as being the first such intervention (Nunes, 2010, Lopes, 1982 and 1996, Pinto, 1983, Schmitt, 1981, or Mateus, 2013). However, our research has unearthed facts that challenge such interpretation. The reasons are many. First, Portugal started using IMF resources since July 1975 and following policies to control the external deficit that were concordant with IMF principles and techniques since December of the same year. Second, Portugal signed an SBA in April 1977, one year before the 1978 one. And third, Portugal did not comply with the performance criteria of the 1978 SBA, which supposedly defined the first “intervention” and, consequently, did not receive any financial assistance from the IMF for its duration: June 1978 to May 1979. Zorrinho (2018) is a recent exception to the common interpretation, suggesting that, rather than a one-year intervention in 1978-1979 and a three-year one in 1983-1985, relations between Portugal and the IMF in order to restore external balance during the period 1975-1985 corresponded to a sort of decade-long IMF intervention, involving three SBAs and various other utilisations of IMF resources on the part of Portugal. We do agree with Zorrinho (2018) that the chronology of the first intervention should be enlarged but not with his proposed chronology, as we believe that the use of IMF resources was interrupted between 1978 and 1983 and that the third SBA signed with the IMF in October 1983 should be viewed in a different framework.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Emerging stronger? Assessing the outcomes of Habitat for Humanity’s housing reconstruction programmes following the Indian Ocean tsunami

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    Habitat for Humanity (HFH) built, rehabilitated or repaired homes for 25,000 families in four countries in the five years following the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. As part of a broader organizational and learning review in 2009-2010, HFH commissioned Arup International Development to carry out an assessment of its post-tsunami housing reconstruction programmes in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia. The purpose of this assessment was to investigate the extent to which HFH’s tsunami-response housing reconstruction programmes had contributed to the development of sustainable communities and livelihoods. Arup International Development undertook the assessment using the ASPIRE tool they had developed with Engineers Against Poverty. Basing their assessment on programme documentation and key informant interviews, household questionnaires and workshops with communities in each country, they completed one assessment for each country and a fifth assessment covering all four countries. This enabled comparison of both the impact of these four programmes and how the outcomes varied as a result of varying approaches and contextual issues. / The assessment found that HFH’s programme had made a significant contribution to the development of sustainable communities and livelihoods. The provision of high quality core homes had reduced household vulnerability and increased the standard of living, while HFH’s participatory process had increased community cohesion and developed positive relationships between communities and a range of external actors. There were also areas for improvement such as: the incorporation of hazard assessment, settlement planning and infrastructure at settlement level; greater community participation in decision-making regarding settlement planning, house design and the choice of appropriate construction techniques and technologies; greater focus on livelihood support and diversification both during construction and after completion of the housing programme; and complementing HFH’s experience in housing construction with the specialist expertise of other actors to maximize the impact of its work

    Molecular Aspects of Breast Cancer Metastasis to the Brain

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    Our knowledge of the biology underlying the development of brain metastases (BM) from breast cancer has improved over the last decade due to large clinical epidemiological studies, animal models of metastasis, and the use of high-resolution gene expression profiling technologies. However, there are still major gaps in our understanding of the mechanisms utilized by breast cancer cells to colonize the brain microenvironment, thus our arsenal of therapies remains relatively nonspecific, and the prognosis for breast cancer patients with BM remains poor. Additional insights into these mechanisms are necessary to facilitate the development of new preventive and curative therapeutic regimens to block this fatal disease. This paper aims to provide a general overview for the readers of what has been achieved in this field of research and its translation into clinical practice to date and to highlight exciting new areas of research that promise to inform the development of new targeted therapies for BM

    Stratifying quotient stacks and moduli stacks

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    Recent results in geometric invariant theory (GIT) for non-reductive linear algebraic group actions allow us to stratify quotient stacks of the form [X/H], where X is a projective scheme and H is a linear algebraic group with internally graded unipotent radical acting linearly on X, in such a way that each stratum [S/H] has a geometric quotient S/H. This leads to stratifications of moduli stacks (for example, sheaves over a projective scheme) such that each stratum has a coarse moduli space.Comment: 25 pages, submitted to the Proceedings of the Abel Symposium 201

    An ALMA survey of Sub-millimeter Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: Physical properties derived from ultraviolet-to-radio modelling

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    [abridged] The ALESS survey has followed-up a sample of 122 sub-millimeter sources in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South at 870um with ALMA, allowing to pinpoint the positions of sub-millimeter galaxies (SMGs) to 0.3'' and to find their precise counterparts at different wavelengths. This enabled the first compilation of the multi-wavelength spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of a statistically reliable survey of SMGs. In this paper, we present a new calibration of the MAGPHYS modelling code that is optimized to fit these UV-to-radio SEDs of z>1 star-forming galaxies using an energy balance technique to connect the emission from stellar populations, dust attenuation and dust emission in a physically consistent way. We derive statistically and physically robust estimates of the photometric redshifts and physical parameters for the ALESS SMGs. We find that they have a median stellar mass M=(8.9±0.1)×1010MM_\ast=(8.9\pm0.1)\times10^{10} M_\odot, SFR=280±70M=280\pm70 M_\odot/yr, overall V-band dust attenuation AV=1.9±0.2A_V=1.9\pm0.2 mag, dust mass M_\rm{dust}=(5.6\pm1.0)\times10^8 M_\odot, and average dust temperature Tdust~40 K. The average intrinsic SED of the ALESS SMGs resembles that of local ULIRGs in the IR range, but the stellar emission of our average SMG is brighter and bluer, indicating lower dust attenuation, possibly because they are more extended. We explore how the average SEDs vary with different parameters, and we provide a new set of SMG templates. To put the ALESS SMGs into context, we compare their stellar masses and SFRs with those of less actively star-forming galaxies at the same redshifts. At z~2, about half of the SMGs lie above the star-forming main sequence, while half are at the high-mass end of the sequence. At higher redshifts (z~3.5), the SMGs tend to have higher SFR and Mstar, but the fraction of SMGs that lie significantly above the main sequence decreases to less than a third.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. The new MAGPHYS model libraries used in this paper will appear in www.iap.fr/magphys. The SMG SED templates shown in Section 6.1 are available at http://astronomy.swinburne.edu.au/~ecunha/ecunha/SED_Templates.htm

    Access to health services for the control of cancer of the uterine cervix in promary care

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    Objective: To analyze the control of cancer of the cervix from the focus of access to health services. Method: A crosssectional study using consultation documentary and household survey with analysis of calculation of frequencies of selected variables. Results: The results of the last cytological examination showed higher frequency of squamous metaplasia immature; intraepithelial lesion of low grade (LSIL); Intraepithelial Lesion high grade (HSIL) and atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US), predominantly in women In the age group 25 to 64, brown, married/marital harmony and housewives, with clinical complaints of vaginal discharge, bleeding and the occurrence of stds (including HPV). Conclusion: There is no longitudinal follow-up of women in the geographical area of enrollment 47 of USF Nova Natal II from the collection of cytological examination until the discharge by cure
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