The Iraq Crisis and the Future of the Western Alliance: An American view

In the wake of the Iraq war, there has been a tendency by both the Americans and the Europeans to overlook the difficulties facing the transatlantic relationship that resulted from the Iraq crisis. This approach to dealing with some of the basic issues that emerged during this time is not a healthy one, and these issues must be discussed openly and seriously. This chapter addresses four important matters related to the Iraq crisis: the question of deterrence, whether or not weapons inspections should have been further pursued, pre-emption and its relation to international law, and the crisis that existed within the transatlantic alliance. While both sides have attempted to address these issues, they are in reality much more complex than initial assessments have indicated. The predicaments posed by the Iraq war for the transatlantic alliance are unlike those that the alliance faced during the Cold War, and Europeans must think carefully about what kind of alliance they foresee with the United States in the future.NATO; international relations

Priority-Based Synchronization of Distributed Data

We consider the general problem of synchronizing the data on two devices using a minimum amount of communication, a core infrastructural requirement for a large variety of distributed systems. Our approach considers the interactive synchronization of prioritized data, where, for example, certain information is more time-sensitive than other information. We propose and analyze a new scheme for efficient priority-based synchronization, which promises benefits over conventional synchronization

Complete Genome Sequence of Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 12228 Chromosome and Plasmids Generated by Long-Read Sequencing

Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 12228 was sequenced using a long-read method to generate a complete genome sequence, including some plasmid sequences. Some differences from the previously generated short-read sequence of this nonpathogenic and non-biofilm-forming strain were noted. The assembly size was 2,570,371 bp with a total G+C% content of 32.08%

Neuromodulatory control of localized dendritic spiking in critical period cortex.

Sensory experience in early postnatal life, during so-called critical periods, restructures neural circuitry to enhance information processing1. Why the cortex is susceptible to sensory instruction in early life and why this susceptibility wanes with age are unclear. Here we define a developmentally restricted engagement of inhibitory circuitry that shapes localized dendritic activity and is needed for vision to drive the emergence of binocular visual responses in the mouse primary visual cortex. We find that at the peak of the critical period for binocular plasticity, acetylcholine released from the basal forebrain during periods of heightened arousal directly excites somatostatin (SST)-expressing interneurons. Their inhibition of pyramidal cell dendrites and of fast-spiking, parvalbumin-expressing interneurons enhances branch-specific dendritic responses and somatic spike rates within pyramidal cells. By adulthood, this cholinergic sensitivity is lost, and compartmentalized dendritic responses are absent but can be re-instated by optogenetic activation of SST cells. Conversely, suppressing SST cell activity during the critical period prevents the normal development of binocular receptive fields by impairing the maturation of ipsilateral eye inputs. This transient cholinergic modulation of SST cells, therefore, seems to orchestrate two features of neural plasticity-somatic disinhibition and compartmentalized dendritic spiking. Loss of this modulation may contribute to critical period closure

Health Inflation, Wealth Inflation, and the Discounting of Human Life

44 p.This Article presents two new arguments against “discounting” future human lives during cost-benefit analysis, arguing that even absent ethical objections to the disparate treatment of present and future humanity, the economic calculations of cost-benefit analysis itself—if properly performed—counsel against discounting lives at anything close to current rates. In other words, even if society sets aside all concerns with the discounting of future generations in principle, current discounting of future human lives cannot be justified even on the discounters’ own terms. First, because cost-benefit analysis has thus far ignored evidence of rising health care expenditures, it underestimates the “willingness to pay” for health and safety that future citizens will likely exhibit, thereby undervaluing their lives. Second, cost-benefit analysis ignores the trend of improved material conditions in developed countries. As time advances, residents of rich countries tend to live better and spend more, meaning that a strict economic monetization of future persons values the lives of our expected descendents above those of present citizens. These two factors justify “inflation” of future lives that would offset, perhaps completely, the discount rate used for human life. Until regulators correct their method of discounting the benefits of saving human lives in the future, the United States will continue to suffer the fatal costs of under-regulation, and agencies will remain in violation of legal requirements to maximize net benefits