The Monumental Ally: Chief Justice John Marshall and the Protection of the United States Constitution

The culmination of this particular research intends to analyze U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall\u27s judicial opinions with historical perspectives. Special emphasis is placed upon Marshall\u27s motives for promoting the interests of the national government over the interests of the individual states and their respective governments and the interests ofthe federal judiciary over its fellow branches. Overall, it can be successfully argued that Marshall\u27s influence was not to promote the individual branch of the federal judiciary, but rather promote the necessity of a strong national government. The research utilizes primary and secondary sources including Marshall\u27s judicial opinions, his personal correspondence, and his autobiography. The overall purpose of the research seeks to achieve a sense of Marshall as a historical actor rather than the American iconic figure one generally associates Marshall as being

Valuing landslide risk reduction programs in the Italian Alps: the effect of visual information on preference stability

Climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of weather-related natural hazards everywhere. In particular, mountain areas with dense human settlements, such as the Italian Alps, stand to suffer the costliest consequences from landslides. Options for risk management policies are currently being debated among residents and decision makers. Preference analysis of residents for risk reduction programs is hence needed to inform the policy debate. We use discrete choice experiments to investigate the social demand for landslide protection projects. Given the importance of information in public good valuation via surveys, we explore the effect of specific visual information on the stability of preference estimates. In our survey, we elicit preferences before and after providing respondents with scientific-based information, based on visual simulations of possible events. This enables us to measure information effects. Choice data are used to estimate a Mixed Logit (MXL) model in WTP space to obtain robust estimates of marginal willingness-to-pay (mWTP) estimates and control for the effect of information. Mapping posterior individual specific mWTP estimates provide additional policy implications. Overall, we found the mWTP estimates to be dependent on information

La sindrome da anticorpi antifosfolipidi e la gravidanza

Gli anticorpi antifosfolipidi sono anticorpi (Ab) circolanti diretti contro i fosfolipidi e associati a trombosi arteriose e venose, trombocitopenia e/o aborti ricorrenti. Gli anticorpi anticardiolipina sono stati riconosciuti come marker di un aumentato rischio di trombosi. L’associazione tra Ab antifosfolipidi e aumentato rischio di trombosi nei pazienti con sindrome da Ab antifosfolipidi è probabilmente causata da molti meccanismi, tra cui l’effetto che gli Ab esplicano sulle proteine leganti i fosfolipidi, come la B2-glicoproteina I e la protrombina. Esami di laboratorio: 1) “test della miscela”; 2) test specifici per i fattori della via intrinseca della coagulazione; 3) misura dell’attività di uno o più di questi fattori; 4) test al veleno di vipera di Russell; 5) test aggiuntivi. Trattamento: è preferibile non utilizzare cumarinici in gravidanza per il rischio di embriopatie e di perdite fetali, ma queste possono essere evitate se si sostituiscono con l’eparina alla 6ª settimana di gestazione. Le eparine a basso peso molecolare sono più sicure e più convenienti di quelle non frazionate, e oggi sono i farmaci di scelta da utilizzare in gravidanza

Ecosystem services' values and improved revenue collection for regional protected areas.

The management of conservation areas is a costly enterprise, especially vulnerable to budget cutting when austerity measures are being considered. Optimal spatial taxation dictates that tax-payers contribute proportionally to the benefits they receive. This paper provides a framework to derive spatially varied benefit estimates for ecosystem services produced in Natura 2000 protected areas of Lombardy (Italy). These may be used as a framework for spatially optimised taxation to improve the efficiency of public funding. In the process we used non-market valuation techniques, as well as benefit functions’ transfer

On the theory of double quantum NMR in polymer systems: The second cumulant approximation for many spin i = 1/2 systems

General analytical expressions for Double Quantum Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (DQ NMR) kinetic curves of many-spin I = 1/2 systems are derived with an accuracy of the second cumulant approximation. The expressions obtained exactly describe the initial part of the kinetic curves and provide a reasonable approximation up to times of about the effective spin-relaxation time. For the case when the system contains two isolated spins, this result exactly reproduces known expressions. In the case of polymer melts, the intermolecular magnetic dipole-dipole interactions significantly influence the time dependence of the DQ NMR kinetic curves. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC

High-altitude glacier archives lost due to climate change-related melting.

Global warming has caused widespread surface lowering of mountain glaciers. By comparing two firn cores collected in 2018 and 2020 from Corbassière glacier in Switzerland, we demonstrate how vulnerable these precious archives of past environmental conditions have become. Within two years, the soluble impurity records were destroyed by melting. The glacier is now irrevocably lost as an archive for reconstructing major atmospheric aerosol components

Polymer chain dynamics under nanoscopic confinements

It is shown that the confinement of polymer melts in nanopores leads to chain dynamics dramatically different from bulk behavior. This so-called corset effect occurs both above and below the critical molecular mass and induces the dynamic features predicted for reptation. A spinodal demixing technique was employed for the preparation of linear poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) confined to nanoscopic strands that are in turn embedded in a quasi-solid and impenetrable methacrylate matrix. Both the molecular weight of the PEO and the mean diameter of the strands were varied to a certain degree. The chain dynamics of the PEO in the molten state was examined with the aid of field-gradient NMR diffusometry (time scale, 10-2-100 s) and field-cycling NMR relaxometry (time scale, 10-9-10-4 s). The dominating mechanism for translational displacements probed in the nanoscopic strands by either technique is shown to be reptation. On the time scale of spin-lattice relaxation time measurements, the frequency dependence signature of reptation (i.e., T 1∼ν3/4) showed up in all samples. A "tube" diameter of only 0.6 nm was concluded to be effective on this time scale even when the strand diameter was larger than the radius of gyration of the PEO random coils. This corset effect is traced back to the lack of the local fluctuation capacity of the free volume in nanoscopic confinements. The confinement dimension is estimated at which the crossover from confined to bulk chain dynamics is expected. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Chain dynamics in mesoscopically confined polymer melts. A field-cycling NMR relaxometry study

Polymer chain dynamics were studied with the aid offield-cycling NMR relaxometry (time scale: 10-9s⋯10-4s) supplemented by field gradient NMR diffusometry( time scale: 10-4s⋯100s). Three sorts of samples of mesoscopically confined polymer melts were examined. In the first sample series, linear poly(ethylene oxide) was incorporated in strands embedded in a quasi-solid and impenetrable methacrylate matrix. The strand diameters ranged from 10 to 60 nm. It was shown that chain dynamics becomes dramatically different from bulk behavior. This so-called "corset effect" occurs both above and below the critical molecular mass and reveals dynamic feature spredicted for reptation. On the time scale of spin-lattice relaxation, the frequency and molecular weight, signature of reptation, T1 ∼ M0v3/4, that is limit II ofthe Doi/Edwards formalism corresponding to the mean squared segment displacement law (r2) ∼ M0 t1/4, showed up. A "tube" diameter of only 0.6 nm was concluded to be effective on this time scale even when the strand diameter was larger than the radius of gyration of the PEO random coils. The corset effect is traced back to the lack of the local fluctuation capacity of the free volume under nanoscopic confinements. The confinement dimension at which the cross-over from confined to bulk chain dynamics is expected was estimated to be micrometers. Using the so-called roll-coating technique, micrometer thick polymer melt layers between Kapton foils were prepared. Perceptible differences from the bulk materials were found. The polymer species studied in this case was perfluoropolyether with Flory radii in the order of 7 nm. Remarkably, the confinement effect was shown to reach polymer-wall distances of the order 100 Flory radii. As a third confinement system, melts of perfluoropolyether were filled into a porous silica glass (Vycor; 4 nm nominal pore size). In this case, a crossover from Rouse dynamics in the bulk to reptation in the Doi/Edwards limit III (T1 ∼ M-1/2v1/2 corresponding to (r2) ∼ M-1/2t1/2) was observed. © EDP Sciences/Societé Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2007