There is almost unanimous agreement that civilians should be protected from the direct effects of violent conflict, and that the distinction between combatant and non-combatant should be respected.
...But what are the fundamental ethical questions about civilian immunity?
Are new styles of conflict making this distinction redundant?
Eloquently combining theory and practice, leading scholars from the fields of political science, law and philosophy have been brought together to provide an essential overview of some of the major ethical, legal and political issues with regard to protecting civilians caught up in modern inter- and intra-state conflicts.
In doing so, they examine what is being done, and what can be done, to make soldiers more aware of their responsibilities in this area under international law and the ethics of war, and more able to respond appropriately to the challenges that will confront them in the field.
'Protecting Civilians During Violent Conflict' presents a clear-eyed look at the dilemmas facing regular combatants as they confront enemies in the modern battlespace, and especially the complications arising from the new styles of conflict where enemy and civilian populations merge.
In normal circumstances, the Bcl-2 family dutifully governs when cells die. However, the rules of engagement between the pro- and antiapoptotic family members are still contested, and how Bax is ...transformed from a cytosolic monomer to an outer mitochondrial membrane-permeabilizing oligomer is unclear. With fluorescence techniques and an in vitro system, the combination of tBid and Bax produced dramatic membrane permeabilization. The membrane is not a passive partner in this process beause membranes are required for the protein-protein interactions to occur. Simultaneous measurements of these interactions revealed an ordered series of steps required for outer membrane permeabilization: (1) tBid rapidly binds to membranes, where (2) tBid interacts with Bax, causing (3) Bax insertion into membranes and (4) oligomerization, culminating in (5) membrane permeabilization. Bcl-XL prevents membrane-bound tBid from binding Bax. Bad releases tBid from Bcl-XL, restoring both tBid binding to Bax and membrane permeabilization.
Although Bcl-XL and Bax are structurally similar, activated Bax forms large oligomers that permeabilize the outer mitochondrial membrane, thereby committing cells to apoptosis, whereas Bcl-XL ...inhibits this process. Two different models of Bcl-XL function have been proposed. In one, Bcl-XL binds to an activator, thereby preventing Bax activation. In the other, Bcl-XL binds directly to activated Bax. It has been difficult to sort out which interaction is important in cells, as all three proteins are present simultaneously. We examined the mechanism of Bax activation by tBid and its inhibition by Bcl-XL using full-length recombinant proteins and measuring permeabilization of liposomes and mitochondria in vitro. Our results demonstrate that Bcl-XL and Bax are functionally similar. Neither protein bound to membranes alone. However, the addition of tBid recruited molar excesses of either protein to membranes, indicating that tBid activates both pro- and antiapoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family. Bcl-XL competes with Bax for the activation of soluble, monomeric Bax through interaction with membranes, tBid, or t-Bid-activated Bax, thereby inhibiting Bax binding to membranes, oligomerization, and membrane permeabilization. Experiments in which individual interactions were abolished by mutagenesis indicate that both Bcl-XL-tBid and Bcl-XL-Bax binding contribute to the antiapoptotic function of Bcl-XL. By out-competing Bax for the interactions leading to membrane permeabilization, Bcl-XL ties up both tBid and Bax in nonproductive interactions and inhibits Bax binding to membranes. We propose that because Bcl-XL does not oligomerize it functions like a dominant-negative Bax in the membrane permeabilization process.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The importance of the Gallus gallus (chicken) as a model organism and agricultural animal merits a continuation of sequence assembly improvement efforts. We present a new version of the chicken ...genome assembly (Gallus_gallus-5.0; GCA_000002315.3), built from combined long single molecule sequencing technology, finished BACs, and improved physical maps. In overall assembled bases, we see a gain of 183 Mb, including 16.4 Mb in placed chromosomes with a corresponding gain in the percentage of intact repeat elements characterized. Of the 1.21 Gb genome, we include three previously missing autosomes, GGA30, 31, and 33, and improve sequence contig length 10-fold over the previous Gallus_gallus-4.0. Despite the significant base representation improvements made, 138 Mb of sequence is not yet located to chromosomes. When annotated for gene content, Gallus_gallus-5.0 shows an increase of 4679 annotated genes (2768 noncoding and 1911 protein-coding) over those in Gallus_gallus-4.0. We also revisited the question of what genes are missing in the avian lineage, as assessed by the highest quality avian genome assembly to date, and found that a large fraction of the original set of missing genes are still absent in sequenced bird species. Finally, our new data support a detailed map of MHC-B, encompassing two segments: one with a highly stable gene copy number and another in which the gene copy number is highly variable. The chicken model has been a critical resource for many other fields of study, and this new reference assembly will substantially further these efforts.
Daily harvest limits are a common form of regulation in consumptive recreation. We show that angler willingness to pay for a bag limit change is an option price and show how it relates to the value ...of harvest changes. Specifically, if expected utility theory holds, then option prices for one-fish bag limit increments along with catch distributions can be used to “recover” the compensating surplus (CS) for harvest increments. We also show that further assumptions (e.g., risk neutrality) are necessary to recover the CS for harvest from option prices for larger bag limit increments. We demonstrate our method using a choice experiment and catch data for Gulf of Mexico anglers. This work gives analysts a way to adapt the information at hand to the policy question. For example, when CS estimates are needed for an ex post analysis, but only option prices are available, our work shows how to obtain the required CS information.
Since September 11, 2001, our newspapers have been filled with the ‘war on terror’; our governments have mobilised their resources for ‘homeland security’; and people everywhere are braced for more ...terrorist attacks. Yet while the new threat is genuine, we must not lose sight of the continuing security concerns in the Asia-Pacific. Tensions persist on the Korean peninsula, in the Taiwan Straits and the South China Sea, and in Kashmir. The region is well supplied with weapons of mass destruction and may face an arms race, and there are a range of pressing human security issues. Likewise, the strategic realities of the region remain linked with US power, and with the emergence of China as a key regional player. The book examines the developing strategic relationships in the region, and clarifies the dilemmas for Australian policy-makers as they try to balance genuine engagement with the region against a long-standing and valued alliance with the United States. Emerging from discussions between the Shanghai Institute for International Studies and the University of New South Wales at ADFA, Asia-Pacific Security has a particular relevance for foreign-policy professionals and scholars of the region.
Fluid structure interaction simulations h hold promise in studying normal and abnormal cardiac function, including the effect of fluid dynamics on mitral valve (MV) leaflet motion. The goal of this ...study was to develop a 3D fluid structure interaction computational model to simulate bileaflet MV when interacting with blood motion in left ventricle (LV).
The model consists of ideal geometric-shaped MV leaflets and the LV, with MV dimensions based on human anatomical measurements. An experimentally-based hyperelastic isotropic material was used to model the mechanical behaviour of the MV leaflets, with chordae tendineae and papillary muscle tips also incorporated. LV myocardial tissue was prescribed using a transverse isotropic hyperelastic formulation. Incompressible Navier–Stokes fluid formulations were used to govern the blood motion, and the Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) method was employed to determine the mesh deformation of the fluid and solid domains due to trans-valvular pressure on MV boundaries and the resulting leaflet movement.
The LV–MV generic model was able to reproduce physiological MV leaflet opening and closing profiles resulting from the time-varying atrial and ventricular pressures, as well as simulating normal and prolapsed MV states. Additionally, the model was able to simulate blood flow patterns after insertion of a prosthetic MV with and without left ventricular outflow tract flow obstruction. In the MV–LV normal model, the regurgitant blood flow fraction was 10.1 %, with no abnormality in cardiac function according to the mitral regurgitation severity grades reported by the American Society of Echocardiography.
Our simulation approach provides insights into intraventricular fluid dynamics in a contracting LV with normal and prolapsed MV function, as well as aiding in the understanding of possible complications after transcatheter MV implantation prior to clinical trials.
•Modelling approach provides insights into intraventricular fluid dynamics.•Simulations illustrate the capability to reproduce normal and diseased MV states.•Systolic anterior leaflet motion compared well with 2D echocardiology images.•Model with MR compared well with regurgitation volume reported in the literature.
Predicting Days in Hospital Using Health Insurance Claims Yang Xie; Schreier, Gunter; Chang, David C. W. ...
IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics,
2015-July, 2015-Jul, 2015-7-00, 20150701, Letnik:
19, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Health-care administrators worldwide are striving to lower the cost of care while improving the quality of care given. Hospitalization is the largest component of health expenditure. Therefore, ...earlier identification of those at higher risk of being hospitalized would help health-care administrators and health insurers to develop better plans and strategies. In this paper, a method was developed, using large-scale health insurance claims data, to predict the number of hospitalization days in a population. We utilized a regression decision tree algorithm, along with insurance claim data from 242 075 individuals over three years, to provide predictions of number of days in hospital in the third year, based on hospital admissions and procedure claims data. The proposed method performs well in the general population as well as in subpopulations. Results indicate that the proposed model significantly improves predictions over two established baseline methods (predicting a constant number of days for each customer and using the number of days in hospital of the previous year as the forecast for the following year). A reasonable predictive accuracy (AUC =0.843) was achieved for the whole population. Analysis of two subpopulations-namely elderly persons aged 63 years or older in 2011 and patients hospitalized for at least one day in the previous year-revealed that the medical information (e.g., diagnosis codes) contributed more to predictions for these two subpopulations, in comparison to the population as a whole.
Ionic liquids have been considered for their potential applications within the nuclear fuel cycle. If ionic liquids are to be successful in their application as solvents for highly radioactive ...materials in any future process, there will be a requirement for them to be robust to high radiation doses. A preliminary assessment of the radiation stability of 1,3-dialkylimidazolium cation based ionic liquids containing nitrate and chloride anions has been performed. The results of radiolysis studies are reported, in which the samples were exposed to alpha radiation from a tandem Van der Graaff generator, beta radiation from a linear accelerator and gamma radiation from cobalt 60 sources. These results suggest that their stability is similar to that of benzene and that they are much more stable than mixtures of tributylphosphate and odourless kerosene under similar irradiation conditions. The radiolysis of 1,3-dialkylimidazolium cation based ionic liquids reflects their combination of the properties of a salt, an alkane and an aromatic. They appear to be relatively radiation resistant and there is certainly no major decomposition of the organic component.
The story of the Communist Party of Australia has been told in various ways. Until now, however, archival collections that have borne on this story have been relatively inaccessible to the ordinary, ...interested reader. This book begins to redress that deficiency by bringing together 85 key documents from the Russian State Archives of Social and Political History (RGASPI), selected from a collection of thousands of documents concerning the relations between the Communist International and the Communist Party of Australia. The selection focuses on the relationship between the CPA and the Comintern because the activities of the CPA are essentially incomprehensible without understanding the international communist context within which the CPA operated. That context was dominated by the newly-created Soviet state and its decision to authorize and utilize a network of communist parties throughout the world. The documents in this work suggest three major propositions about the relationship between the CPA and the Comintern. First, that the Comintern was crucial in the formation of the CPA, via its emissaries, instructions and authority. Second, that the Comintern played a major role in directing the policies of the CPA in domestic matters (not to mention in international matters, where the Comintern’s decisions were supreme). And third, that the leadership of the CPA was, from 1929 onwards, shaped, trained and authorized by the Comintern. With access to the documents, readers now have a chance not just to hear the voices of the times, but to make their own judgements about the relationship between the CPA and Moscow. The book also includes two extended introductory essays that outline the development of the Comintern and its relations with the CPA, as well as supporting materials that provide information on individuals, organizations and tactics mentioned within the documents themselves.
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