While much has been made of the Rome Statute's exhaustive definitions and stated desire for strict construction, the Statute and the International Criminal Court regularly employ terminology that is, ...by its very nature, vague and potentially unclear. Consider terms like "atrocities" (how many people must be harmed to qualify), "moral" (what and how many data points must be considered to find a judge does or does not have it), and "appropriate" (some would argue the only appropriate sentence for a convicted genocidaire under the Statute is life imprisonment). This is not a novel concern. Rather, states have consistently and often intentionally used relatively open-ended language when more precise terminology is insufficient or impractical. Many of the drafters of the Rome Statute and the judges presiding at the Court are from states where such terminology is ingrained in their legal vocabulary. Identifying such language usage is essential, not for purposes of eradication, but rather so that judges, practitioners, and those seeking to amend the Statute can recognize such terminology and how it affects the potential application of the law in actual cases involving defendants accused of the worst crimes and victims who have suffered immeasurable harm.
Model catalysts containing size-selected Pdn (n=1,2,4,7,10,16,20,25) deposited on rutile TiO2(110) deactivate during repeated CO oxidation temperature-programmed reaction (TPR) cycles, and the ...deactivation process has been probed using a combination of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), low-energy ion scattering (ISS), temperature-dependent ion scattering (TD-ISS), annealing experiments, and temperature-programmed desorption following exposure to CO and O2 reactants. Results from such experiments suggest the cluster deactivation proceeds via an alloy-like, strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) effect that chemically modifies the clusters via electronic interactions between the supported metal atoms and Ti from the support. Threshold measurements show that this effect detrimentally affects CO-oxidation activity prior to the formation of an encapsulating overlayer by severely weakening the COPd bond strengths for binding configurations on top of the clusters. Oxidation appears to provide means of partially restoring the clusters to their initial state, but after sufficient exposure to reducing environments and elevated temperatures, all Pdn become covered by an overlayer and begin to electronically and chemically resemble freshly deposited atoms, which are completely inactive towards the probe reaction. In addition, we find evidence of oxygen spillover induced by co-adsorbed CO during TPRs for all active Pdn clusters.
•Pdn/TiO2 model-catalysts are shown to deactivate via an SMSI-based mechanism.•SMSI alters cluster chemistry prior to TiOx overlayer formation/detection.•After many reaction cycles the clusters eventually become encapsulated.•Upward Pd XPS BE shifts are consistent with Pd–Ti alloying in SMSI state.•O-spillover is noted during reaction with CO over the clusters.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Termites are an important group of terrestrial insects that harbor an abundant gut microbiota, many of which contribute to digestion, termite nutrition and gas (CH
4, CO
2 and H
2) emission. With ...2200 described species, termites also provide a good model to study relationships between host diet and gut microbial community structure and function. We examined the relationship between diet and gut prokaryotic community profiles in 24 taxonomically and nutritionally diverse species of termites by using nucleic acid probes targeting 16S-like ribosomal RNAs. The relative abundance of domain-specific 16S-like rRNAs recovered from gut extracts varied considerably (ranges: Archaea (0–3%); Bacteria (15–118%)). Although Bacteria were always detectable and the most abundant, differences in domain-level profiles were correlated with termite diet, as evidenced by higher relative abundances of Archaea in guts of soil-feeding termites, compared to those of wood-feeding species in the same family. The oligonucleotide probes also readily distinguished gut communities of wood-feeding taxa in the family Termitidae (higher termites) from those of other wood-feeding termite families (lower termites). The relative abundances of 16S-like archaeal rRNA in guts were positively correlated with rates of methane emission by live termites, and were consistent with previous work linking high relative rates of methanogenesis with the soil (humus)-feeding habit. Probes for methanogenic Archaea detected members of only two families (Methanobacteriaceae and Methanosarcinaceae) in termite guts, and these typically accounted for 60% of the all archaeal probe signal. In four species of termites, Methanosarcinaceae were dominant, a novel observation for animal gut microbial communities, but no clear relationship was apparent between methanogen family profiles and termite diet or taxonomy.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
With the increasing spread of information technologies and their potential to filter content, some have argued that people will abandon the reading of dissenting political opinions in favor of ...material that is closely aligned with their own ideological position. We test this theory empirically by analyzing—both quantitatively and qualitatively—Web links among the writings of top conservative and liberal bloggers. Given our use of novel methods, we discuss in detail our sampling and data collection methodologies. We find that widely read political bloggers are much more likely to link to others who share their political views. However, we find no increase in this pattern over time. We also analyze the content of the links and find that while many of the links are based on straw-man arguments, bloggers across the political spectrum also address each others' writing substantively, both in agreement and disagreement.
The evolution of different feeding guilds in termites is paralleled by differences in the activity of their gut microbiota. In wood-feeding termites, carbon dioxide-reducing acetogenic bacteria were ...found to generally outprocess carbon dioxide-reducing methanogenic bacteria for reductant (presumably hydrogen) generated during microbial fermentation in the hindgut. By contrast, acetogenesis from hydrogen and carbon dioxide was of little significance in fungus-growing and soil-feeding termites, which evolved more methane than their wood- and grass-feeding counterparts. Given the large biomass of termites on the earth and especially in the tropics, these findings should help refine global estimates of carbon dioxide reduction in anoxic habitats and the contribution of termite emissions to atmospheric methane concentrations
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Understanding the factors that control electrochemical catalysis is essential to improving performance. We report a study of electrocatalytic ethanol oxidation – a process important for direct ...ethanol fuel cells – over size-selected Pt centers ranging from single atoms to Pt 14 . Model electrodes were prepared by soft-landing of mass-selected Pt n + on indium tin oxide (ITO) supports in ultrahigh vacuum, and transferred to an in situ electrochemical cell without exposure to air. Each electrode had identical Pt coverage, and differed only in the size of Pt clusters deposited. The small Pt n have activities that vary strongly, and non-monotonically with deposited size. Activity per gram Pt ranges up to ten times higher than that of 5 to 10 nm Pt particles dispersed on ITO. Activity is anti-correlated with the Pt 4d core orbital binding energy, indicating that electron rich clusters are essential for high activity.
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