Peeling Back the Onion of Cyber Espionage after Tallinn 2.0

Tallinn 2.0 represents an important advancement in the understanding of international law’s application to cyber operations below the threshold of force. Its provisions on cyber espionage will be instrumental to states in grappling with complex legal problems in the area of digital spying. The law of cyber espionage as outlined by Tallinn 2.0, however, is substantially based on rules that have evolved outside of the digital context, and there exist serious ambiguities and limitations in its framework. This Article will explore gaps in the legal structure and consider future options available to states in light of this underlying mismatch

Practicing what we teach: The politics behind creating a state social studies curriculum

Societal importance of the social studies fields is the key to what makes the development of social studies curriculum political. State standardized curricula adopted in the 1990s gave freedom to individual states to create their own standards on what information they were requiring their students to learn. The standards we require students to know inherently molds their political philosophy throughout schooling. By focusing attention on two separate cases, Texas and Michigan, inherent differences in the creation process of these standards are highlighted to show how the differences in the creation process have an effect on the standards document. This thesis explores factors such as how the choice of board members, effect of interest groups and the type of revision process all effect how politicized state social studies standards can be

Predictors Of Psychosocial Adaptation To Pregnancy Among Urban African-American Primiparas

Psychosocial adaptation to pregnancy among urban African-American women has not been well-researched. The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of psychosocial adaptation to pregnancy and to explore relationships among socioeconomic status, experiences and frequency of discrimination, personal control beliefs, social support, planned pregnancy, and model of health care among urban African-American primiparas using life course theory and Lederman\u27s model of psychosocial adaptation to pregnancy as the framework. One hundred and nine women participated in this descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational study. Participants were recruited from three clinical sites that provided care using medical and/or midwifery models of care. Study variables were measured using the Prenatal Self-Evaluation Questionnaire - II; Internality, Powerful Others, and Chance Scales; Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire; Experiences of Discrimination instrument; and a researcher-developed Demographics and Personal Characteristics Questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to describe the sample and identify predictors of psychosocial adaptation to pregnancy. Higher adaptation was associated with social support received from the woman\u27s partner or mother, a relationship with the father of the baby, planned pregnancy, and receiving care from a Certified Nurse-Midwife. Lower adaptation to pregnancy was associated with the personal control belief of chance. Five variables predicted psychosocial adaptation to pregnancy and explained 29% of the variance: personal control belief of chance, current relationship with father of the baby, planned pregnancy, midwifery model of care, and affirmation social support provided by the woman\u27s mother. Knowledge of predictors of psychosocial adaptation to pregnancy assists health care providers to develop and implement intervention strategies to assess relationships important to urban African-American first-time mothers and provide needed support during the transition to motherhood. This study explored predictors of adaptation in a previously unstudied population, urban African-American primiparas; and added two new predictors to the existing body of literature regarding psychosocial adaptation to pregnancy: affirmation support provided by the woman\u27s mother, and midwifery care

POWs in the Age of the Internet

A future great power conflict could potentially involve large numbers of prisoners of war (POWs)—US, Allied, and partner nations—imprisoned by regimes that could seek to utilize and exploit these captives for propaganda gain. Deepfakes and digital manipulation technology provide an advantageous opportunity for a captor aiming to mitigate international humanitarian law concerns regarding the rules for POW treatment. Such an adversary could use manipulated audio and images of POWs to forward their cause, undermine the Alliance cohesion, attack the mutual will to fight, and reduce POWs’ will to resist. The risk of becoming a POW has steadily disappeared from the minds of US military members after two decades of counterinsurgency and antiterrorism operations. The memories of the Cold War and the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe—and the general understanding of what captivity means—are diminishing. This prospect, however, should not be forgotten as the potential for the capture of sizeable numbers of POWs in a large-scale conflict is a distinct possibility. The general strategic direction has recently changed from counterterrorism and antiterrorism operations toward great power competition and potentially protracted conflicts involving near-peer nation-states. Since the Cold War, air mobility, standoff weaponry, capabilities for deep strikes into enemy territory, and faster decision cycles have created a new battlefield. The modern battlefield is ever changing. High-paced engagements and mobility cross multiple war-fighting domains create the potential for a fragmented, fluid fight. In this unpredictable, widespread, rapidly changing, and violent environment, the potential for large numbers of POWs is high

On the factors that affect the mode of cyclization of [alpha]-silyl radicals: A method for angular hydroxymethylation by the 5-exo cyclization

The steric and stereochemical factors which favor the 5-exo cyclization of a 5-substituted 2-sila-5-hexen-1-yl radical have been probed. This radical cyclization approach constitutes a highly efficient and convenient means for the stereospecfic introduction of an angular hydroxymethyl group.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29782/1/0000121.pd

Evolution and biogeography of the endemic Roucela complex (Campanulaceae: Campanula) in the Eastern Mediterranean

At the intersection of geological activity, climatic fluctuations, and human pressure, the Mediterranean Basin – a hotspot of biodiversity – provides an ideal setting for studying endemism, evolution, and biogeography. Here, we focus on the Roucela complex (Campanula subgenus Roucela), a group of 13 bellflower species found primarily in the eastern Mediterranean Basin. Plastid and low-copy nuclear markers were employed to reconstruct evolutionary relationships and estimate divergence times within the Roucela complex using both concatenation and species tree analyses. Niche modeling, ancestral range estimation, and diversification analyses were conducted to provide further insights into patterns of endemism and diversification through time. Diversification of the Roucela clade appears to have been primarily the result of vicariance driven by the breakup of an ancient landmass. We found geologic events such as the formation of the mid-Aegean trench and the Messinian Salinity Crisis to be historically important in the evolutionary history of this group. Contrary to numerous past studies, the onset of the Mediterranean climate has not promoted diversification in the Roucela complex and, in fact, may be negatively affecting these species. This study highlights the diversity and complexity of historical processes driving plant evolution in the Mediterranean Basin

A Prospective Cohort Study of Mineral Metabolism After Kidney Transplantation.

BACKGROUND: Kidney transplantation corrects or improves many complications of chronic kidney disease, but its impact on disordered mineral metabolism is incompletely understood. METHODS: We performed a multicenter, prospective, observational cohort study of 246 kidney transplant recipients in the United States to investigate the evolution of mineral metabolism from pretransplant through the first year after transplantation. Participants were enrolled into 2 strata defined by their pretransplant levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH), low PTH (\u3e65 to ≤300 pg/mL; n = 112), and high PTH (\u3e300 pg/mL; n = 134) and underwent repeated, longitudinal testing for mineral metabolites. RESULTS: The prevalence of posttransplant, persistent hyperparathyroidism (PTH \u3e65 pg/mL) was 89.5%, 86.8%, 83.1%, and 86.2%, at months 3, 6, 9, and 12, respectively, among participants who remained untreated with cinacalcet, vitamin D sterols, or parathyroidectomy. The results did not differ across the low and high PTH strata, and rates of persistent hyperparathyroidism remained higher than 40% when defined using a higher PTH threshold greater than 130 pg/mL. Rates of hypercalcemia peaked at 48% at week 8 in the high PTH stratum and then steadily decreased through month 12. Rates of hypophosphatemia ( CONCLUSIONS: Persistent hyperparathyroidism is common after kidney transplantation. Further studies should determine if persistent hyperparathyroidism or its treatment influences long-term posttransplantation clinical outcomes.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License, where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0

Bisphenol a affects neurodevelopmental gene expression, cognitive function, and neuromuscular synaptic morphology in Drosophila melanogaster

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an environmentally prevalent endocrine disrupting chemical that can impact human health and may be an environmental risk factor for neurodevelopmental disorders. BPA has been associated with behavioral impairment in children and a variety of neurodevelopmental phenotypes in model organisms. We used Drosophila melanogaster to explore the consequences of developmental BPA exposure on gene expression, cognitive function, and synapse development. Our transcriptome analysis indicated neurodevelopmentally relevant genes were predominantly downregulated by BPA. Among the misregulated genes were those with roles in learning, memory, and synapse development, as well as orthologs of human genes associated with neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. To examine how gene expression data corresponded to behavioral and cellular phenotypes, we first used a predator-response behavioral paradigm and found that BPA disrupts visual perception. Further analysis using conditioned courtship suppression showed that BPA impairs associative learning. Finally, we examined synapse morphology within the larval neuromuscular junction and found that BPA significantly increased the number of axonal branches. Given that our findings align with studies of BPA in mammalian model organisms, this data indicates that BPA impairs neurodevelopmental pathways that are functionally conserved from invertebrates to mammals. Further, because Drosophila do not possess classic estrogen receptors or estrogen, this research suggests that BPA can impact neurodevelopment by molecular mechanisms distinct from its role as an estrogen mimic