Genocidal Speech and Speech Act Theory

Speech act theory has been applied to genocidal speech in an extension of its use in other forms of speech regulation. I detail how a misguided reliance on speech act theoretic tools has negatively impacted legal thinking in understanding direct and public incitement to commit genocide. I argue that undue factive and normative significance has been placed on the idea that incitement to genocide may be considered an illocutionary or performative speech act, rather than as a perlocutionary act, as an inchoate crime. With attention to the role of causation in the regulation of incitement to genocide within a speech act framework, I clarify legal applications of speech act theory which have confused or displaced the appropriate questions underpinning genocidal speech regulation. In doing so, I reinforce the role of causation with respect to inchoate speech crimes, and particularly the potential merits of a preventative risk assessment model when identifying genocidal speech. I demonstrate that while these speech act accounts present unique issues for genocidal speech regulation, they also in part stem from prior work applying speech act theory to other speech crimes such as hate speech and pornography

Strongly non embeddable metric spaces

Enflo constructed a countable metric space that may not be uniformly embedded into any metric space of positive generalized roundness. Dranishnikov, Gong, Lafforgue and Yu modified Enflo's example to construct a locally finite metric space that may not be coarsely embedded into any Hilbert space. In this paper we meld these two examples into one simpler construction. The outcome is a locally finite metric space $(\mathfrak{Z}, \zeta)$ which is strongly non embeddable in the sense that it may not be embedded uniformly or coarsely into any metric space of non zero generalized roundness. Moreover, we show that both types of embedding may be obstructed by a common recursive principle. It follows from our construction that any metric space which is Lipschitz universal for all locally finite metric spaces may not be embedded uniformly or coarsely into any metric space of non zero generalized roundness. Our construction is then adapted to show that the group $\mathbb{Z}_\omega=\bigoplus_{\aleph_0}\mathbb{Z}$ admits a Cayley graph which may not be coarsely embedded into any metric space of non zero generalized roundness. Finally, for each $p \geq 0$ and each locally finite metric space $(Z,d)$, we prove the existence of a Lipschitz injection $f : Z \to \ell_{p}$.Comment: 10 page

Assessing clonal diversity in acute myeloid leukemia

Clonal diversity in cancer has been proposed as a mechanism underlying patient-to-patient variability in therapeutic response, as well as the variability in the likelihood and the time to relapse of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and other cancers. As a neoplasm develops it often continues to mutate, diversifying into differing clonal populations. Darwinian evolutionary pressures such as inherent fitness imbalances, immune system interactions, and chemotherapy treatments target sensitive clones and drive competition between the clonal populations; selecting for dynamic and resistant cell lines. In this way clonal diversity is conceivable as an impediment to a complete remission with more populations offering more opportunities for therapy resistance. Bulk next generation sequencing (NGS) is currently used to assess clonal composition in leukemia but requires several broad assumptions be made, which can result in incorrect assessments of diversity. Factors such as differences in zygosity of mutations, convergent evolution, or contamination with wild-type/non-cancerous cells can artificially raise or lower reported variable allele frequencies (VAF), leading to errors in clonal assessments. To examine discrepancies between the actual clonal structure and the clonal structures determined through bulk sequencing we developed a novel method of sampling the cell population to identify concurrent mutations. We first created an in silico model which randomly draws cell samples from a simulated tumor multiple times and calculates the VAF for each mutant allele in each sample. By tracking the correlation of mutations between sample replicates, a clonal composition that is not observable from the bulk NGS VAF becomes apparent. We then created in vitro model tumors from AML cell lines, isolated low cell number samples via flow cytometry, and applied a multiplex/nested PCR protocol with pyrosequencing to quantify VAFs in each sample. Again, by calculating the correlation of mutant alleles between replicates, previously unseen with NGS characteristics of the clonal structure becomes evident. Population sampling analysis may potentially offer a solution for clarifying how we can interpret NGS clonal analyses

Ballot Collection and Native American Voters: An Assessment of Benefits and Costs

This article assesses the benefits and alleged costs of ballot collection on Indian reservations. Using the conceptual frame of the “cost of voting,” the research analyzes the impact of ballot collection by examining trends in vote-by-mail programs, socioeconomic variables, distance to polls and mail locations, and US Postal Service delivery on Indian reservations. It then uses a statistical analysis to test the claim that ballot collection leads to voter fraud. Our analysis reveals that ballot collection offers significant opportunities to reduce inequality in voter costs for Native American voters but finds no support for the hypothesis that ballot collection leads to fraud. These findings have significant implications for the voting rights of Native Americans, who tend to rely on ballot collection more than other voters. This research also offers a modification to the concept of voter costs

Toward an Integrated Self: Making Meaning of the Multiple Identities of Gay Men in College

Since the mid-twentieth century, a shift in demographics of those attending higher education institutions has resulted in increased attention to underrepresented students and their development, specifically their social identities, including race (Cross, 1991), gender (Gilligan, 1982), and sexual orientation (Cass, 1979; D\u27Augelli, 1994; Fassinger, 1998). However, many theories have compartmentalized aspects of one\u27s overall identity with little understanding of how one\u27s social identity may influence the development of other identities. In the past decade, the concept of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1995), which explores the interplay between one\u27s multiple identities and the larger systems of power and privilege within society, has been applied to understanding the holistic development of college students\u27 multiple social identities (Abes, Jones, & McEwen, 2007; Jones & McEwen, 2000). The purpose of this study was to understand how traditionally-aged gay men in college come to make meaning of the intersections of their gender and sexuality. The research questions for this study included: (a) how do gay men make meaning of their masculinity and sexuality during their college years, (b) in what ways do gender, sexuality, and other dimensions of identity intersect for gay men in college, and (c) what are the critical influences during college on their meaning-making process? Seventeen gay men attending three universities in a metropolitan city in Southern California participated in this constructivist grounded theory study (Charmaz, 2006). Data collection included two in-depth interviews for each participant as well as journaling and an activity using the Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity as a methodological tool for identity salience. A focus group was held also to discuss the theoretical model and the major themes that emerged. The findings are represented in a theoretical model, depicted as a labyrinth that represents a nested system between the Individual and Societal Contexts. The Individual Context includes five main themes: (1) Sense of Sameness Disappears; (2) Compartmentalizing Identit(ies); (3) Seeking Community; (4) Questioning Allegiances; and (5) Living in the Nexus. The Societal Context includes two main themes: (1) Socialization of Hegemonic Masculinity and the Inherent Tensions and (2) Heteronormativity and Homophobia as Internal and External Influences