2,962 research outputs found
The judiciary and political change in Africa : developing transitional jurisprudence in Nigeria
At a time of increased evaluations of law, human rights, and the rise of judicial power all over the globe, the work of most African judiciaries and the principles of the jurisprudence they espouse in promoting social justice remain an unlikely focus of comparative legal scholarship. This ought not to be so in view of the considerable activities of the courts on the continent in the dawn of the third wave of democratization. This article explores the work of the Nigerian Supreme Court in the political transition to democracy since 1999. Utilizing insights from the work of Ruti Teitel, it attempts to outline some of the major constitutional and extraconstitutional principles adopted by the Court in mediating intergovernmental contestations in the turbulent transition away from almost three decades of authoritarian military rule. It emerges that the task of fostering social transformation through the “weakest” branch seriously tasks the institutional integrity of the judiciary
Calling the judiciary to account for the past : transitional justice and judicial accountability in Nigeria
Institutional and individual accountability is an important feature of societies in transition from conflict or authoritarian rule. The imperative of accountability has both normative and transformational underpinnings in the context of restoration of the rule of law and democracy. This article argues a case for extending the purview of truth-telling processes to the judiciary in postauthoritarian contexts. The driving force behind the inquiry is the proposition that the judiciary as the third arm of government at all times participates in governance. To contextualize the argument, I focus on judicial governance and accountability within the paradigm of Nigeria’s transition to democracy after decades of authoritarian military rule
The Hubble Web: The Dark Matter Problem and Cosmic Strings
I propose a reinterpretation of cosmic dark matter in which a rigid network
of cosmic strings formed at the end of inflation. The cosmic strings fulfill
three functions: At recombination they provide an accretion mechanism for
virializing baryonic and warm dark matter into disks. These cosmic strings
survive as configurations which thread spiral and elliptical galaxies leading
to the observed flatness of rotation curves and the Tully-Fisher relation. We
find a relationship between the rotational velocity of the galaxy and the
string tension and discuss the testability of this model.Comment: 5 page
Astrophysics in Southern Africa
The government of South Africa has identified astronomy as a field in which
their country has a strategic advantage and is consequently investing very
significantly in astronomical infrastructure. South Africa now operates a 10-m
class optical telescope, the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), and is
one of two countries short listed to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), an
ambitious international project to construct a radio telescope with a
sensitivity one hundred times that of any existing telescope. The challenge now
is to produce an indigenous community of users for these facilities,
particularly from among the black population which was severely disadvantaged
under the apartheid regime. In this paper I briefly describe the observing
facilities in Southern Africa before going on to discuss the various
collaborations that are allowing us to use astronomy as a tool for development,
and at the same time to train a new generation of astronomers who will be well
grounded in the science and linked to their colleagues internationally.Comment: Paper given at the 2007 meeting of the National Society of Black
Physicists; 10 pages, 2 photographs. To appear in American Institute of
Physics Conference Proceeding
Brain Weight and Life-Span in Primate Species
In haplorhine primates (tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans), there is a significant correlation between brain weight and maximum life-span when the effect of body size is removed. There is also a significant correlation in haplorhine primates between brain weight and female age at first reproduction. For strepsirhine primates (lorises and lemurs), there are no significant correlations between brain weight and either life-span or female reproductive age when the effect of body size is removed. This lack of correlation in strepsirhine primates may be related to the fact that these primates are nocturnal and/or natives of the island of Madagascar, both of which conditions may reduce competition for resources and predation pressure. These findings suggest that in haplorhine primates the genetic systems controlling brain growth are linked to the systems governing the life cycle so that species with longer cycles have larger brains. When the effect of body weight is removed, leaf-eating haplorhines have significantly smaller brains and shorter lives than haplorhines with other diets. Harem-living haplorhines also have significantly smaller brains and shorter life-spans than troop-living haplorhines when the effect of body weight is removed. We also sought to test the rate-of-living hypothesis by determining whether primates with basal metabolic rates that are higher than would be expected for their body size have shorter maximum life-spans than would be expected for their body size. Metabolic rate is not correlated with life-span or female age at first reproduction when the effect of body size is removed
On the Information Engine of Circuit Design
This paper addresses a new approach to find a spectrum of information
measures for the process of digital circuit synthesis. We consider the problem
from the information engine point of view. The circuit synthesis as a whole and
different steps of the design process (an example of decision diagram is given)
are presented via such measurements as entropy, logical work and information
vitality. We also introduce new information measures to provide better
estimates of synthesis criteria. We show that the basic properties of
information engine, such as the conservation law of information flow and the
equilibrium law of information can be formulated.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables, MWSCAS'0
Observations of an Energetically Isolated Quiet Sun Transient: Evidence of Quasi-Steady Coronal Heating
Increasing evidence for coronal heating contributions from cooler solar
atmospheric layers, notably quiet Sun (QS) conditions, challenges standard
solar atmospheric descriptions of bright transition region (TR) emission. As
such, questions to the role of dynamic QS transients in contributing to the
total coronal energy budget are elevated. Using observations from the {\it
Atmospheric Imaging Assembly} and {\it Heliosemic Magnetic Imager} on board the
{\it Solar Dynamics Observatory}, and numerical model extrapolations of coronal
magnetic fields, we investigate a dynamic QS transient energetically isolated
to the TR and extruding from a common footpoint shared with two heated loop
arcades. A non-casual relationship is established between episodic heating of
the QS transient and wide-spread magnetic field re-organization events, while
evidence is found favoring a magnetic topology typical of eruptive processes.
Quasi-steady interchange reconnection events are implicated as a source of the
transient's visibly bright radiative signature. We consider the QS transient's
temporally stable (\,35\,min) radiative nature occurs as a result of
the large-scale magnetic field geometries of the QS and/or relatively quiet
nature of the magnetic photosphere, which possibly act to inhibit energetic
buildup processes required to initiate a catastrophic eruption phase. This work
provides insight to the QS's thermodynamic and magnetic relation to eruptive
processes quasi-steadily heating a small-scale dynamic and TR transient. This
work elevates arguments of non-negligible coronal heating contributions from
cool atmospheric layers in QS conditions, and increases evidence for solar wind
mass feeding of dynamic transients therein.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure
Bibliography for War: The Truth Behind It and the Destruction It Causes
A bibliography for the War: The Truth Behind It and the Destruction It Causes display in the Leatherby Libraries
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