In Defense of Human Rights

This Article argues that international human rights law, and the human rights movement more generally, need more defenders than critics in the current international political environment. Groups ranging from academics to governments have taken stances critical of human rights, and this Article seeks to defend the rights framework from some of these while also arguing for the importance of human rights in today\u27s world. Noting that the field of human rights is not beyond criticism, this Article embraces some of those criticisms. However, it suggests that human rights law specialists need to spend at least as much time defending human rights law, and the universality of human rights, as they do criticizing it. Moreover, their criticisms need to be grounded in the reality of the theory and practice of human rights law to be useful and advance human dignity. Decontextualized hypercriticism risks playing into the hands of antirights actors, including some contemporary governments, as well as diverse fundamentalists and extremists

We must stand with Somalis who have been speaking out against the savagery of Al Shabaab

Last month, the Somali terrorist group Al Shabaab attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, killing 61 civilians. Karima Bennoune, who has conducted research in the Somali-American community in Minneapolis, argues that to truly defeat groups like Al Shabaab, we must support those who stand up to them and oppose their recruitment efforts. She finds that those who have tried to counter the efforts of Al Shabaab have sometimes been ostracized by some in their own communities and let down by state and federal officials. She writes that rather than stereotyping and stigmatizing all Somalis, we need to support those who speak out against Al Shabaab

High order asymptotic-preserving schemes for the Boltzmann equation

In this note we discuss the construction of high order asymptotic preserving numerical schemes for the Boltzmann equation. The methods are based on the use of Implicit-Explicit (IMEX) Runge-Kutta methods combined with a penalization technique recently introduced in [F. Filbet, S. Jin: A class of asymptotic preserving schemes for kinetic equations and related problems with stiff sources,J. Comp. Phys. 229, (2010), pp. 7625-7648.]

Evidence of jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus-induced pulmonary adenocarcinoma in Ouled Djellal breed sheep in Algeria

We report the occurrence of lung cancer in a six months old lamb of Ouled Djellal breed from Algeria. The main clinical sign was a considerable amount of whitish foamy fluid discharge from the nostrils when the animal head was lowered and the rear end was lifted. The postmortem examination revealed the presence of enlarged, heavy and edematous lungs with diffuse or foci areas, reddish or white-gray in color. The gross and histological lesions of the lungs were compatible with pulmonary adenocarcinoma. Lung adenocarcinoma in sheep is caused by jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV) and originated from differentiated alveolar type II cells and non-ciliated bronchiolar epithelial Clara cells. We evidenced the expression of the oncogenic JSRV by immunostaining of lung slides with specific antibodies against the JSRV envelope. The viral proteins were expressed only in the tumor cells from the affected areas. As already described in other countries, JSRV-induced lung adenocarcinoma is present in the sheep population in Algeria. (C) 2020 Urmia University. All rights reserved