The crime of 'terror' under International Humanitarian Law

The objective of this thesis is to investigate the status of the crime of ‘terror’ as a war crime under international humanitarian law. Included in Article 51 (2) of Additional Protocol I and in Article 13 (2) of Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the crime prohibits the ‘acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population’. The thesis is structured in two parts. The first traces the historical development of the prohibition on spreading terror among the civilian population. It surveys the evolution of state practice and scrutinises the drafting history of the Additional Protocols. The second part focuses on the prosecution of the crime before international courts and tribunals. The jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is given particular attention as the first international tribunal to prosecute the offence as a violation of laws and customs of war. Despite the case-law of the ad hoc Tribunals confirming the crime of ‘terror’ as an international crime in customary law, it was not included in the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court. The thesis explores the reasons for this and advances an argument for extending the subject-matter jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to include the crime of ‘terror’. In doing so, the thesis examines the conflation of ‘terror’ as a war crime with the offence of ‘terrorism’ in order to add clarity to the conceptualization of the former under international humanitarian law

CHARACTERIZATION AND INTRINSIC DISSOLUTION RATE STUDY OF MICROWAVE ASSISTED CYCLODEXTRIN INCLUSION COMPLEXES OF GEMFIBROZIL

Objective: The aim of the present study was to carry out characterization and intrinsic dissolution rate study of microwave assisted inclusion complex of poorly water soluble, lipid lowering agent gemfibrozil [5-(2,5-dimethylphenoxy)-2,2-dimethylpentanoic acid] with naturally occurring β-cyclodextrins (CDs) or cycloheptaamylase.Methods: In this work, the phase solubility study was performed to find the ratio of drug and cyclodextrin complexes. Inclusion complexes were prepared by kneading and the prepared complex was subjected to microwave drying and conventional drying techniques. The prepared complexes were evaluated by intrinsic dissolution rate studies and equilibrium solubility study. Further characterization was done by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray powder diffractometry (DSC).Results: The phase solubility studies showed a linear AL-type diagram indicating the formation of inclusion complexes in 1:1 molar ratio β-CD-gemfibrozil complex with maximum stability constant of 148.88 M-1was selected for preparation of inclusion complex. The microwave dried product was identified as the inclusion complex with maximum IDR when compared to the conventional dried product.Conclusion: This study was concluded that the microwave drying is the most suitable of the previously occurring drying techniques. Since it showed the highest solubility and IDR value

Progressive resistance training improving gait performance and mobility in acute and chronic stroke patients

Stroke, a neurological disorder, leads to long-term disability thereby greatly affecting gait and mobility. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of progressive resistance training in both acute and chronic stroke patients. A quasi interventional study was designed and 46 stroke patients were recruited through convenience sampling technique. Sample size was calculated using epi-tool. Patients who had cognitive problems, balance impairments and contractures were excluded from the study. The study was conducted from January to June 2018, at Rafsan Rehab & Research Centre, Peshawar. Progressive resistance exercises starting at 50 % of one repetition maximum (RM) were performed three days/week and for a total duration of nine weeks. Blind assessor measured readings at baseline and after nine weeks. Gait dynamic index (GDI), Six-Meter Walk Test (SMWT) and Five Times Sit-to-Stand (FTSTS) tools were used to collect the required data. The data was analysed at baseline and after nine weeks on SPSS-20. After nine weeks of intervention significant improvement was recorded in patients on GDI (p<0.001), SMWT score (P<0.001) and FTSTS (p<0.001). Progressive resistance training improves mobility limitations and gait in both acute and chronic stroke patients.måsjekke

QoS based optimal resource allocation and workload balancing for fog enabled IoT

This paper is aimed at efficiently distributing workload between the Fog Layer and the Cloud Network and then optimizing resource allocation in cloud networks to ensure better utilization and quick response time of the resources available to the end user. We have employed a Dead-line aware scheme to migrate the data between cloud and Fog networks based on data profiling and then used K-Means clustering and Service-request prediction model to allocate the resources efficiently to all requests. To substantiate our model, we have used iFogSim, which is an extension of the CloudSim simulator. The results clearly show that when an optimized network is used the Quality of Service parameters exhibit better efficiency and output

3D multi-agent models for protein release from PLGA spherical particles with complex inner morphologies

In order to better understand and predict the release of proteins from bioerodible micro- or nanospheres, it is important to know the influences of different initial factors on the release mechanisms. Often though it is difficult to assess what exactly is at the origin of a certain dissolution profile. We propose here a new class of fine-grained multi-agent models built to incorporate increasing complexity, permitting the exploration of the role of different parameters, especially that of the internal morphology of the spheres, in the exhibited release profile. This approach, based on Monte-Carlo (MC) and Cellular Automata (CA) techniques, has permitted the testing of various assumptions and hypotheses about several experimental systems of nanospheres encapsulating proteins. Results have confirmed that this modelling approach has increased the resolution over the complexity involved, opening promising perspectives for future developments, especially complementing in vitro experimentation

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto- noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far