Synchrotron X-ray study of polycrystalline wurtzite Zn1-xMgxO (0 <= x <= 0.15): Evolution of crystal structure and polarization

The effect of Mg-substitution on the crystal structure of wurtzite ZnO is presented based on synchrotron X-ray diffraction studies of polycrystalline Zn1-xMgxO (0 <= x <= 0.15). Increase in Mg concentration results in pronounced c-axis compression of the hexagonal lattice, and in diminution of the off-center cation displacement within each tetrahedral ZnO4 unit. Going from ZnO to Zn0.85Mg0.15O, significant changes in the ionic polarization are observed (-5.6 to -4.8 uC/cm2), despite only subtle increments in the cell volume (~0.03 %) and the ab-area dimension (~0.1 %). The optical properties of the samples have also been characterized and the band gap changes from 3.24 eV (ZnO) to 3.35 eV (Zn0.85Mg0.15O).Comment: 9 Pages, Word + PDF, 3 Figures, 1 Tabl

Making Amends by Amendment: Women\u27s Equality and Equal Rights in the U.S.

The constitutional politics of gender equality are never static – the pendulum appears in constant motion the world over, and no less for the US. As protections of equality and non-discrimination are now given in all but three of the world’s constitutions, and as women’s rights are given direct expression in 24, the constitutionalist promise of gender equality has appeared to be on a global upswing. And yet these trends are not everywhere the same. Indeed, with the tributes flowing in for the late, great and notorious Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month, both for her legacy to global constitutionalism as well as to US constitutional law, the robust protections of gender equality in the US seem ever more fragile. It becomes vital to understand that legacy, and other feminist achievements, outside of US Supreme Court doctrine. Enter Julie Suk’s wonderful new book, We the Women: The Unstoppable Mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment. In this carefully researched and extraordinarily well-timed intervention, Suk documents the historical trajectory, and the current import, of the Equal Rights Amendment (the ‘ERA’) in the US

Disease, Distribution and Race in the Time of Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted all of us, but not all of us equally. Far from acting as the great leveller, the disease that itself does not discriminate has revealed and exacerbated startling health disparities across the United States and globally. The early disaggregation of data indicated that Covid-19 mortality rates were more than double in Black populations than in White populations in the U.S., and were one and a half times as high, nationwide, in Latinx, and Indigenous populations. Infection rates, by population group, were also higher. The disparities of the global spread added further complexities. Now, as the Covid-19 vaccine has been developed in record speed, the challenge of distribution must incorporate facts about public health disparities alongside questions of prioritization. Two big questions loom: how much do our concepts of distributive justice and global justice incorporate racial justice? And how much should they? Matiangai Sirleaf has given us a vocabulary, and a theoretical framework, to grapple with these issues. In her forthcoming article, Racial Valuation of Disease, she examines both the hierarchical valuation of racial groups in the context of disease, and the distributional consequences of that valuation

The Minimum Core of Economic and Social Rights: A Concept in Search of Content

Within the catalogue of rights, whether conceived in constitutional or international terms, economic and social rights are said to be especially indeterminate. This Article inquires into the conceptual foundations of a minimum core of economic and social rights. The concept of the minimum core has been applied to provide determinacy and even justiciability to the rights to food, health, housing, and education, and also (most ambitiously) to give substance to minimum legal obligations in both national and global distributive justice debates. This Article brings together the methodological insights of comparative constitutional law and international human rights, and traces the ways in which concepts are borrowed from each field. By doing so, this Article disaggregates three contrasting approaches to giving content to the minimum core - that of ascertaining the normative essence, minimum consensus or minimum obligation of economic and social rights. This Article further demonstrates how each approach is ultimately unable to provide an account that satisfies the proclaimed aims of the minimum core\u27s proponents. It ends by gesturing towards alternative ways of approaching a universalized discourse of minimums in economic and social rights

Self monitoring of blood glucose - a survey of Diabetes UK members with type 2 diabetes who use SMBG

Background: aim - to survey members of Diabetes UK who had Type 2 diabetes and who used self monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG), to elicit their views on its usefulness in the management of their diabetes, and how they used the results. A questionnaire was developed for the Diabetes UK website. The questionnaire was posted on the Diabetes UK website until over 500 people had responded. Questions asked users to specify the benefits gained from SMBG, and how these benefits were achieved. We carried out both quantitative analysis and a thematic analysis for the open ended free-text questions.Findings: 554 participants completed the survey, of whom 289 (52.2%) were male. 20% of respondents were recently diagnosed (&lt; 6 months). Frequency of SMBG varied, with 43% of participants testing between once and four times a day and 22% testing less than once a month or for occasional periods.80% of respondents reported high satisfaction with SMBG, and reported feeling more 'in control' of their diabetes management using it. The most frequently reported use of SMBG was to make adjustments to food intake or confirm a hyperglycaemic episode.Women were significantly more likely to report feelings of guilt or self-chastisement associated with out of range readings (p = &lt; .001).Conclusion: SMBG was clearly of benefit to this group of confirmed users, who used the results to adjust diet, physical activity or medications. However many individuals (particularly women) reported feelings of anxiety and depression associated with its use.<br/

American Exceptionalism and Government Shutdowns: A Comparative Constitutional Reflection on the 2013 Lapse in Appropriations

The shutdown of the U.S. government after failure to pass a budget is exceptional by global standards. Other governments in mature constitutional democracies do not stop functioning, despite the difficulties in passing revenue bills. Yet shutdowns in America are increasing in occurrence, costliness and intensity. I argue that the Constitution is partly to blame, both because of what it creates and what it lacks. Drawing on a comparative perspective, I show how the constitutional emphasis on checks and balances contributes to the likelihood of shutdown, and how features that might forestall or resolve financial impasse are omitted. After rejecting an easy story of parliamentary functionality compared with presidential deadlock, I provide three frames in which constitutions resolve financial impasse, across branches or legislative chambers. In the first, the constitution rules that a default budget must pass if a proposed budget has stalled. Analogous to proposals for an automatic continuing resolution in the United States, these provisions differ in terms of whether the previous year’s budget continues, or the proposed budget passes. In the second, the constitution outlines the procedure for a prorepresentative solution, in the form of an early election. In presenting a closer case study of the Australian version of this option, this Article shows its dependence upon voter repercussions and hence political compromise. In the third, constitutional silence relies on a political resolution only. As American experience has shown, however, compromise is more difficult in conditions of divided-party government, polarization, and an unequal party tolerance for shutdowns.Unlike other instances of legislative impasse, checks-and-balances deadlock on budgets does not simply continue the status quo, but causes the active shuttering of government operations. These shutdowns harm vulnerable populations, government employees, fiscal stability, and the public trust of government more generally. The curious tolerance for shutdowns in the U.S. is not simply part of a libertarian strain within an American culture of negative constitutionalism. Rather, it may be attributed to distinctive – but curable – features of constitutional design.This Article was part of the Boston University Law Review Symposium: America’s Political Dysfunction, Constitutional Connections, Causes, and Cures, November 15-16, 2013

The World, through the Judge’s Eye

Constitutional interpretation is increasingly performed on a world stage, as judges refer to international and comparative law as a relevant - but not binding - source of law. Yet the practice is an uneven one, with some courts - and some judges - being more open to international engagement than others. This disparity unsettles the conventions of the judicial role, such as decision-making by majority when its members disagree. In a telling example, Justice Michael Kirby of the High Court of Australia was often alone and in dissent when citing international and comparative law, especially when interpreting the Australian Constitution. The Australian example demonstrates the way in which references to foreign law allow minority judges to introduce a new quantity - a new plurality - of informal judicial support. The article goes on to outline constitutionalism as a model of international engagement that justifies this technique. It contrasts this model with the alternative justifications of internationalism and judicial worldliness, two models that are less able to resolve questions of authority and relevance