5,561 research outputs found
Child slavery and child labour
Child slavery and child labour deny children their God-given dignity and freedom, and their right to education. Catholic Social Teaching is unequivocal in resolute condemnation of child slavery and child labour, in all of their forms
The Concept of Entrapment
Our question is this: What makes an act one of entrapment? We make a standard distinction between legal entrapment, which is carried out by parties acting in their capacities as (or as deputies of) law- enforcement agents, and civil entrapment, which is not. We aim to provide a definition of entrapment that covers both and which, for reasons we explain, does not settle questions of permissibility and culpability. We explain, compare, and contrast two existing definitions of legal entrapment to commit a crime that possess this neutrality. We point out some problems with the extensional correctness of these definitions and propose a new definition that resolves these problems. We then extend our definition to provide a more general definition of entrapment, encompassing both civil and legal cases. Our definition is, we believe, closer to being extensionally correct and will, we hope, provide a clearer basis for future discussions about the ethics of entrapment than do the definitions upon which it improves
Instrumentation for Millimeter-wave Magnetoelectrodynamic Investigations of Low-Dimensional Conductors and Superconductors
We describe instrumentation for conducting high sensitivity millimeter-wave
cavity perturbation measurements over a broad frequency range (40-200 GHz) and
in the presence of strong magnetic fields (up to 33 tesla). A Millimeter-wave
Vector Network Analyzer (MVNA) acts as a continuously tunable microwave source
and phase sensitive detector (8-350 GHz), enabling simultaneous measurements of
the complex cavity parameters (resonance frequency and Q-value) at a rapid
repetition rate (approx. 10 kHz). We discuss the principal of operation of the
MVNA and the construction of a probe for coupling the MVNA to various
cylindrical resonator configurations which can easily be inserted into a high
field magnet cryostat. We also present several experimental results which
demonstrate the potential of the instrument for studies of low-dimensional
conducting systems.Comment: 20 pages including fig
Water Markets as a Tragedy of the Anticommons
In much of the American West water shortages are becoming an important concern. With increasing demands for water for municipal, industrial, and environmental uses, transfers of water from the currently predominant agricultural uses to these other uses should produce economic gains. Even though most commodity markets respond rapidly to price differentials and reduce those differentials over time, water transfers out of agriculture into higher value uses are not occurring very rapidly. The existence of multiple rights of exclusion unbundled from the rights of use under the prior appropriation doctrine in the American West creates an anticommons that has impeded water transactions. This article explains the tragedy of the anticommons, describes the various rights of exclusion that create an anticommons in western water markets, and concludes with case studies that illustrate the difficulty of water transfers
Ground-Based Astronomical Instrumentation Development in the United States: A White Paper on the Challenges Faced by the US Community
This invited white paper, submitted to the National Science Foundation in
January of 2020, discusses the current challenges faced by the United States
astronomical instrumentation community in the era of extremely large
telescopes. Some details may have changed since submission, but the basic
tenets are still very much valid. The paper summarizes the technical, funding,
and personnel challenges the US community faces, provides an informal census of
current instrumentation groups in the US, and compares the state-of-affairs in
the US with that of the European community, which builds astronomical
instruments from consortia of large hard-money funded instrument centers in a
coordinated fashion. With the recent release of the Decadal Survey on Astronomy
and Astrophysics 2020 (Astro2020), it is clear that strong community support
exists for this next generation of large telescopes in the US. Is the US ready?
Is there sufficient talent, facilities, and resources in the community today to
meet the challenge of developing the complex suite of instruments envisioned
for two US ELTs? These questions are addressed, along with thoughts on how the
National Science Foundation can help build a more viable and stable
instrumentation program in the US. These thoughts are intended to serve as a
starting point for a broader discussion, with the end goal being a plan that
puts the US astronomical instrumentation community on solid footing and poised
to take on the challenges presented by the ambitious goals we have set in the
era of ELTs.Comment: 22 pages, 1 table, 0 figures. This is an invited white paper
submitted to the National Science Foundation in January of 202
Kinetic analysis of antagonist-occupied adenosine-A3 receptors within membrane microdomains of individual cells provides evidence of receptor dimerization and allosterism
In our previous work, using a fluorescent adenosine-A3 receptor (A3AR) agonist and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), we demonstrated high-affinity labeling of the active receptor (R*) conformation. In the current study, we used a fluorescent A3AR antagonist (CA200645) to study the binding characteristics of antagonist-occupied inactive receptor (R) conformations in membrane microdomains of individual cells. FCS analysis of CA200645-occupied A3ARs revealed 2 species, τD2 and τD3, that diffused at 2.29 ± 0.35 and 0.09 ± 0.03 μm2/s, respectively. FCS analysis of a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged A3AR exhibited a single diffusing species (0.105 μm2/s). The binding of CA200645 to τD3 was antagonized by nanomolar concentrations of the A3 antagonist MRS 1220, but not by the agonist NECA (up to 300 nM), consistent with labeling of R. CA200645 normally dissociated slowly from the A3AR, but inclusion of xanthine amine congener (XAC) or VUF 5455 during washout markedly accelerated the reduction in the number of particles exhibiting τD3 characteristics. It is notable that this effect was accompanied by a significant increase in the number of particles with τD2 diffusion. These data show that FCS analysis of ligand-occupied receptors provides a unique means of monitoring ligand A3AR residence times that are significantly reduced as a consequence of allosteric interaction across the dimer interfac
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