bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Sterol Oxidation in Oils Recovered from Exhausted Bleaching Earth by Coupled Capillary Column GC and GC–MS Methods
Authors: Ubhayasekera Sarojini J. K. A. , Dutta Paresh C.
Published: March 2012

Cholesterol and phytosterols are generally present in foods at ppm levels and they can generate many oxidation products, i.e. oxysterols. The oxysterols comprise only a small percentage of unoxidized sterols. Reliable quantitative data on these compounds requires reasonably good separation by capillary column GC. The present study attempts to overcome the difficulties involved in separating many common oxysterols generated from cholesterol, brassicasterol, campesterol, stigmasterol, and sitosterol by coupling two high‐resolution GC capillary columns. The columns, DB‐17MS and DB‐35MS, were coupled separately to a DB‐5MS column. Total separation time of the authentic samples of oxysterols was 41 min for the DB‐35MS/DB‐5MS and 44 min for the DB‐17MS/DB‐5MS coupled columns. Two oil samples EBE1 and EBE2 extracted from exhausted bleaching earth collected from Europe were analyzed for oxysterol content by using these column combination systems. Both systems showed similar quantitative results; the total levels of oxysterols in these samples ranged from 2 to 3 mg/100 g. The prominent oxysterols were as follows: 7α‐hydroxysterols (0.29–0.49 mg/100 g), 7β‐hydroxysterols (0.13–0.68 mg/100 g) and 7‐ketosterols (0.63–0.69 mg/100 g).
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History’s “Travels in the Great Tree of Life”
Authors: Giusti Ellen
Published: March 2012

The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History developed a 1,000-square-foot exhibition to help the general public understand the concept of phylogenetic relationships and their depiction on scientific Trees, or cladograms. In addition, exhibition planners hoped visitors would understand that research on the Tree of Life is a massive, complex undertaking requiring powerful computers and that Tree research has many potential practical applications. Museum exhibits designed to convey scientific information must use “stealth” to accomplish their cognitive goals: Unlike students in formal science education classes, visitors are not obliged to learn—they do not learn because they must pass a final examination. Informal educators must engage visitors’ interest so that they willingly take in new information and perhaps even learn new skills, change attitudes, and behaviors. “Travels in the Great Tree of Life” succeeded in engaging visitors who came away with awareness and understanding of scientific Trees, the immensity of the construct, and to a lesser extent, potential practical applications.
Role of Ca2+ in the rapid cooling-induced Ca2+ release from sarcoplasmic reticulum in ferret cardiac muscles
Authors: Tanaka Etsuko , Konishi Masato , Kurihara Satoshi
Published: March 2012

Rapid lowering of the solution temperature (rapid cooling, RC) from 24 to 3°C within 3 s releases considerable amounts of Ca2+ from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) in mammalian cardiac muscles. In this study, we investigated the intracellular mechanism of RC-induced Ca2+ release, especially the role of Ca2+, in ferret ventricular muscle. Saponin-treated skinned trabeculae were placed in a glass capillary, and the amount of Ca2+ released from the SR by RC and caffeine (50 mM) was measured with fluo-3. It was estimated that in the presence of ATP about 45% of the Ca2+ content in the SR was released by RC. The amount of SR Ca2+ released by RC was unchanged by the replacement of ATP by AMP-PCP (a non-hydrolysable ATP analogue and agonist for the ryanodine receptor but not for the Ca2+ pump of SR), suggesting that the suppression of the Ca2+ pump of SR at low temperature might not be a major mechanism in RC-induced Ca2+ release. The free Ca2+ concentration of the solution used for triggering RC-induced Ca2+ release was estimated to be only about 20 nM with fluo-3 or aequorin. When this solution was applied to the preparation at 3°C, only a small amount of Ca2+ was released from SR presumably by the Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release (CICR) mechanism. Thus, in mammalian cardiac muscles, RC releases a part of the (<50%) stored Ca2+ contained in the SR, and the mechanism of RC-induced Ca2+ release may differ from that of CICR, which is thought to play a role in frog skeletal muscle fibres that express ryanodine receptors of different types.
Effect of phytochemicals on phase II enzyme expression in infant human primary skin fibroblast cells
Authors: Warwick Eliz , Cassidy Aedín , Hanley Bryan , Jouni Zeina E. , Bao Yongping
Published: March 2012

Phase II metabolising enzymes enable the metabolism and excretion of potentially harmful substances in adults, but to date it is unclear whether dietary phytochemicals can induce phase II enzymes differently between adults and infants. We investigated the expression of phase II enzymes in an in vitro model of primary skin fibroblasts at three different developmental stages, 1 month, 2 years and adult, to examine potential differences in age-related phase II enzymes in response to different phytochemicals (5–20 μm) including sulphoraphane, quercetin and catechin. Following phytochemical treatment, a significant increase in mRNA of glutathione S-transferase A1 (GSTA1) and NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) was observed, with the most marked increases seen in response to sulphoraphane (3–10-fold for GSTA1, P = 0·001, and 6–35-fold for NQO1, P = 0·001–0·017). Catechin also induced 3–5-fold changes in NQO1 transcription, whereas quercetin had less effect on NQO1 mRNA induction in infant cells. Moreover, NQO1 protein levels were significantly increased in 2-year-old and adult cell models in response to sulphoraphane treatment. These results suggest that metabolic plasticity and response to xenobiotics may be different in infants and adults; and therefore the inclusion of phytochemicals in the infant diet may modulate their induction of phase II metabolism, thereby providing increased protection from potentially harmful xenobiotics in later life.
Lionel Cohen Lecture
Authors: Scotland Patricia Janet
Published: March 2012

Introduction

First let me say that I regard it as a great honour and a privilege to be asked to give this year's Lionel Cohen Lecture. I am very grateful to Professor Menahem Ben-Sasson as President and Professor Barak Medina as Dean of the Faculty for hosting this event here at the Hebrew University. It is a pleasure to be giving this lecture in a city of such central importance to three great religions; a city steeped in historical significance; but also a city which—through institutions such as the Hebrew University—is preparing today's youth for a bright future. Whilst I recognize and celebrate the University's distinguished heritage, it is particularly gratifying to find an institution not resting on the past but actively preparing for the future through its outreach projects such as those of the Clinical Legal Education Center for Human Rights and Social Responsibility. I am very interested in the work being done through the clinics on domestic violence and on youth justice through initiatives such as the “Street Law” program. This work chimes with many of my own priorities and concerns, and I was therefore very grateful to learn more about this work from Sharon Sionov Arad. I confess that I will steal every good idea I heard, but I also promise that I will give every credit where it is due for those that I do!
Binary Law Meets Complex Reality: The Occupation of Gaza Debate
Authors: Shany Yuval
Published: March 2012

The debate surrounding the legal status of Gaza after Israel's disengagement in September 2005 exemplifies some of the chronic limits and deficiencies that international humanitarian law in general and the law of occupation in particular suffer from: (a) binary application—the law operates within clear-cut dichotomies and struggles with recognizing ambiguous situations; (b) varying realities—prevalent tensions between “legal reality” and the actual conditions “on the ground” cause the characterization of conflicts to be based upon different law-based and fact-based perceptions of reality: (c) inconsistent legal and policy approaches—parties to a conflict attempt to simultaneously advance different legal and political goals, which leads to a state of affairs that encourages the application of IHL in a selective and inconsistent manner; (d) chronic gaps between law as it is and law as it should be—lex lata may bring about unsatisfactory outcomes—hence, parties and commentators often attempt to modify existing laws through radical reinterpretations. Focusing on the recent debate over the status of Gaza, this Article illustrates how these four fundamental tensions hamper the application of the law of occupation in factually complicated situations.
Human Rights, Israel, and the Political Realities of Occupation
Authors: Harris Grant T.
Published: March 2012

Various political realities influence the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and, more generally, the vitality of the international law of occupation. The law of occupation—though ill-suited to modern international relations and ill-equipped for prolonged occupation—has been almost universally invoked as applicable to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). At the same time, international human rights law is increasingly viewed as applicable to occupation. This creates a dilemma for Israel because international humanitarian law and international human rights law contain conflicting prescriptions and policy goals with respect to the administration of occupied territory. In many instances, occupants seek United Nations Security Council action in order to reconcile this tension and to secure legal and political cover for their actions. By acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter; the Security Council can create a select legal patchwork applicable to a particular occupation. This use of Chapter VII resolutions by the Security Council to create international law by fiat is an important trend in modern occupation. Yet geopolitics determines access to—and the content of—such resolutions, and the sensitive political context of the OPT currently makes this avenue unavailable to Israel. For the same reason, opponents of the Israeli occupation are unable to secure Security Council action to clarify and enforce Israeli legal obligations in the OPT. This Article considers these issues from the perspectives of both Israel and Palestinians in order to examine why the relative gain and loss in each case is not immediately clear. This Article also discusses how the legality of Israeli conduct in the OPT may be gauged in light of the conflicting international legal obligations imposed by human rights law and the law of occupation. A broader exploration of the impact of these phenomena reveals that these political realities serve to increase the influence of the Security Council while further undercutting the utility and relevance of the international law of occupation.
The Transformation of Constitutional Law through the European Convention on Human Rights
Authors: Frowein Jochen A.
Published: March 2012

Only five years after the end of the Second World War terminating the complete disregard for human rights in one of the important European countries and in the occupied territories, the governments of European countries agreed on a European Bill of Rights and took the first steps toward collective enforcement of certain rights of the Universal Declaration, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948. Evidently the Convention was a response to the totalitarian ideologies prevailing in national socialism but also to the communist ideology and practice governing the Soviet Union and the European countries behind the iron wall. Was the Convention intended to be more than a response and clarification of the fundamental principles which were well recognized in the constitutional structure of the free European states? If this is the case it should have had an impact on the legal system of member states.

How far that impact would go was certainly not foreseen in 1950 or 1953 when the Convention came into force. By hindsight we may say that the establishment of the European Commission of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights as judicial organs to enforce the Convention had something that is called “List der Vernunft” in German, a certain rule of reason, not fully understood by the drafters.
The Singarasa Case: Quis custodiet … ? A Test for the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct
Authors: Rodley Nigel
Published: March 2012

This Essay considers the 2006 Sri Lankan Supreme Court case, Singarasa v. Attorney General, which declared unconstitutional the state's eight-year-old accession to the Protocol permitting the Human Rights Committee to examine complaints of violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It places the decision in the context of the Committee's earlier findings of Covenant violations by Sri Lanka resulting from actions by the Court. This forms the basis of a discussion of problems of identifying questionable judicial conduct and the relevance of the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct.
What's Happening to the Right to a Fair Hearing
Authors: Chaskalson Arthur
Published: March 2012

The policies of the U.S.—developed in response to the threat of terroism have been criticized. This is of importance, not only because of the harm it does to the United States own reputation, but because of the influence such measures have on other countries with less commitment to the protection of human rights than the United States has historically had. It is, however, a crucial issue because of the impact that such policies can have on the political will of the international community to respect and promote half a century of endeavor to build an international human rights culture, and on attitudes and behavior in countries affected by such measures. The exception becomes the rule; the temporary becomes permanent; and fairness and due process cease to have the meaning they once had. This Article's remarks are directed to the right to a fair hearing which must be seen, however, in a broader context as a concern about a discourse which, whilst retaining the label, seeks to change the content of established principles of human rights.
What Human Rights Law Could Do: Lamenting the Absence of an International Human Rights Law Approach inBoumediene & Al Odah
Authors: de Londras Fiona
Published: March 2012

In December 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in its latest Guantánamo Bay cases, Boumediene v. BushandAl Odah v. United States.Interestingly, the argumentation offered in this litigation was almost exclusively domestic—international human rights law did not feature in spite of its capacity to add significantly to the weight and persuasiveness of the arguments petitioners' In respect of both the geographic scope and the content of constitutional standards, international human rights law has a well-developed body of jurisprudence that, this Article argues, ought to have been advanced by counsel for the petitioners. This Article both exposes the potentially significant international human rights law arguments that could have been advanced, and explores some possible reasons for the marginalization of this body of law. The Article concludes that this strategic decision on the part of counsel for the petitioners robbed the U.S. Supreme Court of an opportunity to assert the relevance of human rights law to the “War on Terrorism,” and to expand on the relationship between international and domestic constitutional standards and, for those reasons, is to be lamented.
Rethinking the Application of IHL in Non-International Armed Conflicts
Authors: Kretzmer David
Published: March 2012

The first step in application by treaty of IHL norms to non-international armed conflicts, adoption of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, 1949, was taken before the dramatic development of international human rights law (IHRL). The assumption was that unless international humanitarian law (IHL) norms were applied to such conflicts, the way States acted would be unrestrained by international law. With the development of IHRL this assumption is no longer valid. Application of IHL in such conflicts should therefore be re-examined. The Article argues that moving away from IHL in non-international armed conflicts should be based on the following principles: 1. In cases other than international armed conflicts, the presumption should be that the prevailing international legal regime is the human rights regime, based as it is on a law-enforcement model of law, rather than an armed conflict model. 2. The only justification for departure from that regime and for action under the armed conflict model, should be that the level and scope of organized armed violence are such that the State cannot reasonably be expected to act in accordance with the law-enforcement model. The rule of thumb in deciding whether this test has been met could be the definition of non-international armed conflicts adopted in APII. 3. There should be a return to the notion of minimum humanitarian standards or fundamental standards of humanity, which apply to all Parties in all situations, whether armed conflict, internal violence, disturbances, tensions and public emergencies. 4. A State should not be allowed to employ the armed conflict model, without at least some of the norms of protection that this model affords Parties in international armed conflicts. The ideal solution would be to demand that a State, which employs the armed conflict model has to draw the legal consequences and recognize as combatants those members of dissident forces who meet the substantive conditions of combatants under Article 4, paragraph 2 of Third Geneva Convention.
Transnational Armed Conflict: A “Principled” Approach to the Regulation of Counter-Terror Combat Operations
Authors: Corn Geoffrey , Jensen Eric Talbot
Published: March 2012

Transnational armed conflicts have become a reality. The increasing sophistication of terrorist organizations, their increasingly transnational nature, and their development of military strike capabilities, push and will continue to push States to resort to combat power as a means to defend against this threat. Relying on the factual fiction that the acts of such terrorists must be attributable to the States from which they launch their operations, or on the legal fiction that the use of military combat power to respond to such threats is in reality just extraterritorial law enforcement, fails to acknowledge the essential nature of such operations. Because these operations invoke the authority of the LOAC, they should and must be treated as armed conflicts.

LOAC principles must be identified and must be broad enough to provide the authority necessary to bring the transnational enemy to submission while ensuring that that authority does not override fundamental humanitarian protections for victims of war: This Article proposes three essential pillars of this regulatory foundation: military necessity, targeting (object/distinction and proportionality), and humane treatment. These principles provide the balance between authority and obligation that is so essential for the effective and disciplined application of combat power Like the treatment of internal armed conflict, these pillars can form a foundation for a more comprehensive treatment of regulatory analysis, encompassing other issues such as command responsibility, criminal liability, access to judicial review, perfidy and treachery, and medical obligations.
Pragmatism and Principle in International Humanitarian Law
Authors: Lieberman Michael M.
Published: March 2012

As we seek to identify new norms to bridge the gaps between extant law and the challenges that new conflict modes pose today, we confront a threshold question as to which methodological ground we should stand upon in doing so. Based on a background assumption of positivism as the source of substantive norms, the issue for some observers comes down to a clash between pragmatism and formalism. To formalism's proponents, the concept of pragmatism—which sees law as a functional instrument to be used in pursuit of pre-envisioned ends—has contributed to a dearth of moral obligation in international humanitarian law discourse. Such a view considers that the emphasis on empiricism found in pragmatism both legitimizes and shrouds the reality of effective power lurking behind the law. The alternative they prefer, championed most articulately by Professor Koskenniemi, is a “culture of formalism” that sees law as an object of universal obligation and as a form of critique that unmasks the pragmatic mode for what it is, namely, a rationalization of might. As this Article suggests, this understanding misapprehends the true nature of pragmatism, which is neither a smokescreen nor an apoloay. Rather, pragmatism's focus on real-world effects and consequences holds far greater promise for advancing the actual humanitarianism of IHL. Formalism, moreover; is subsumed within the constellation of factors that pragmatic analysis demands. These ideas are explored on a theoretical level, and are then illustrated by a look at the Israel separation barrier cases decided by the International Court of Justice and the Israeli High Court of Justice.
National Security and Constitutional Law.Précis: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency
Authors: Posner Richard A.
Published: March 2012

In my recent bookNot a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency(2006), I argue for a way of understanding constitutional law that would enable sensible adjustments to the pressures that arise when a nation is confronted with a serious threat to the safety or other well-being of its people; and I tried to show how the method that I was advocating could be used to resolve some of the constitutional issues that have arisen in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001. The analysis is limited to American constitutional law; whether it has possible applications to the law of Israel or of any other foreign country, I leave for others to decide, though, given the audience, I drop a few hints in this Paper.

The starting point of my analysis is recognition that constitutional law, at least in America (but this is even more true of what passes for “constitutional law” in Israel), is very largely the creation of judges rather than of the framers or ratifiers of formal constitutions. The United States Constitution is 222 years old (1787–2009), though the amendments are younger (but the most influential of them—the first ten—the Bill of Rights, by just a few years). Some of the provisions, in both the original Constitution and in the Bill of Rights and later amendments, are precise; but many are not, and it is the vague or open-ended ones that figure most largely in debates over the legal limits of measures to protect national security. Terms like “due process of law,” “unreasonable searches and seizures,” “freedom of speech,” and “habeas corpus” are not self-defining; nor have judges been willing to confine them to the same meaning they had for the framers or to the core meaning that they would have to be given to have any significance at all. Because American judges do not adhere strictly to precedent, the meaning impressed by judicial decisions on constitutional texts is tentative, especially when a case arises that is not within the heartland of a previous decision because of the novelty of its facts or a shift in the social or political context of the relevant issues.
The Transnational Use of Torture Evidence
Authors: Ambos Kai
Published: March 2012

The Article examines the “transnational” use of torture evidence, i.e., the use of evidence obtained by torture by third states or parties in national criminal trials. The analysis of the law of the international criminal tribunals shows that supranational torture evidence must be excluded since such evidence is unreliable and damages the integrity of the proceedings. The same applies to the admission of transnational torture evidence before national tribunals. The strict exclusionary rule of Article 15 Convention Against Torture (CAT) confirms this view. The rationale for this rule is found in the general unreliability of torture evidence, its offensiveness to civilized values and its degrading effect on the administration of justice. The burden of proof must, as a rule, rest with the state as the party that presents the controversial evidence. For practical and fundamental considerations of fairness, such evidence should not be admitted if there is a real, serious risk that it was obtained by torture.
Rejoinder
Authors: Tushnet Mark
Published: March 2012

In this brief response I address two issues raised by these generous comments. Rivka Weill and Margit Cohn prod me to provide a more theoretical underpinning for the historical account I offered, and all three commenters suggest that the U.S. experience does not shed much light on the normative case for constitutional review presented by Alon Harel in other work. I sketch a theoretical account of the historical narrative, grounded in the structure of U.S. government and politics. That sketch may have some implications for conceptualizing the course of constitutional development in other polities. Then I raise some questions about Harel's theory of constitutional review as a mechanism for providing individuals with a forum in which they can receive an explanation of why they are properly being subjected to treatment that harms them individually, if one is available. I end with a suggestion connecting the two components of this Rejoinder.
Disengagement from the Gaza Strip and Post-Occupation Duties
Authors: Rubin Benjamin
Published: March 2012

Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip has created a situation in which this territory is dependent on the supply of various necessities by Israel, in particular the supply of electricity, In 2008 Israel decided to withhold 5% of the supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip, prompting several Gaza residents as well as human rights organizations to petition the Supreme Court of Israel against this decision. In Jaber Al-Bassiouni Ahmed v. The Prime Minister the Court assumed that the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip had ended with the disengagement and treated this issue on the basis of general humanitarian law. The basic questions of whether the occupation had ended, and whether certain duties remained with Israel, even assuming that Gaza is no longer occupied, have not been explored. This Article addresses these two questions.

It is the conclusion of this Article that regardless of the terms imposed by Israel after disengagement and other reservations that have been raised in this regard, occupation ended following the complete withdrawal of any Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip. Israel's disengagement raised difficulties that are not only unique to the Gaza Strip; these difficulties emerge in most cases when occupation is replaced by a process of self-determination rather than the return of the former sovereign. The contention presented herein is that Israel continues to have certain post-occupation duties even after the occupation of Gaza. These duties correspond to the occupant's duties to care for order and civil life in the territory during the occupation. These obligations will end once the new regime in the area is able to perform the duties that fell upon the shoulders of the occupant during the occupation, or until the non-performance of the new regime is attributable to its own failures and not to the ending of the occupation. In light of these contentions, Israel is still under certain obligations regarding the Gaza Strip, among them the regular supply of electricity to that area.
The IsraeliMilletSystem: Examining Legal Pluralism Throuh Lenses of Nation-Building and Human Rights
Authors: Sezgin Yüksel
Published: March 2012

Israel still maintains the personal status system (millet) that it inherited from the Ottoman Empire under which the courts of fourteen ethno-religious communities are granted exclusive jurisdiction over matters of marriage and divorce and concurrent jurisdiction with the civil courts in regard to such matters as maintenance and inheritance. But, why Israel, as a highly centralized and democratic polity, has maintained the old millet system which applies different laws to people from different ethno-religious backgrounds and holds men and women to different legal standards? And, how has such a plural application of law affected fundamental rights and freedoms of Israeli citizens? In brief, the Article argues that Israel utilized the old millet system in the nation-building process as an instrument of vertical segmentation and horizontal homogenization. However, the system has encountered with some serious challenges in producing its intended goals. This becomes particularly visible when we take a closer look at the field of human rights where individuals constantly challenge the legitimacy of Stateimposed religious laws, and seek to advance rights and liberties which are denied to them under the current system by engaging in various strategies of resistance.
Assessing the zoonotic potential ofAscaris suumandTrichuris suis: looking to the future from an analysis of the past
Authors: Nejsum P. , Betson M. , Bendall R.P. , Thamsborg S.M. , Stothard J.R.
Published: March 2012

The two geohelminths,Ascaris lumbricoidesandTrichuris trichiura, infect more than a billion people worldwide but are only reported sporadically in the developed part of the world. In contrast, the closely related speciesA. suumandT. suisin pigs have a truly global distribution, with infected pigs found in most production systems. In areas where pigs and humans live in close proximity or where pig manure is used as fertilizer on vegetables for human consumption, there is a potential risk of cross-infections. We therefore review this relationship betweenAscarisandTrichurisin the human and pig host, with special focus on recent evidence concerning the zoonotic potential of these parasites, and identify some open questions for future research.
The legitimacy of foreign intervention in elections: the Ukrainian response
Authors: SHULMAN STEPHEN , BLOOM STEPHEN
Published: March 2012

The empirical and theoretical study of the effect of foreign intervention in the electoral processes of states is exceedingly weak. Using insights from the nationalism literature, this article provides a theoretical argument on domestic reactions to foreign interference in a state's internal politics. It then tests the predictions generated by the argument using mass survey data in Ukraine. The article analyses the Ukrainian people's reaction to Western and Russian intervention in the 2004 presidential elections – the Orange Revolution. We find that efforts by Western governments, international organisations, and non-governmental organisations to shape Ukraine's electoral landscape appear to be unwelcome to average Ukrainians while electoral interference by a non-democratic state, Russia, is seen as less alienating. Our theoretical framework accounts for these potentially surprising results.
List Colourings of Regular Hypergraphs
Authors: SAXTON DAVID , THOMASON ANDREW
Published: March 2012

We show that the list chromatic number of a simpled-regularr-uniform hypergraph is at least (1/2rlog(2r2) +o(1)) logdifdis large.
Star Versus Two Stripes Ramsey Numbers and a Conjecture of Schelp
Authors: GYÁRFÁS ANDRÁS , SÁRKÖZY GÁBOR N.
Published: March 2012

R. H. Schelp conjectured that ifGis a graph with |V(G)| =R(Pn,Pn) such that δ(G) >$$\frac{3|V(G)|}{ 4}$, then in every 2-colouring of the edges ofGthere is a monochromaticPn. In other words, the Ramsey number of a path does not change if the graph to be coloured is not complete but has large minimum degree.

Here we prove Ramsey-type results that imply the conjecture in a weakened form, first replacing the path by a matching, showing that the star-matching–matching Ramsey number satisfyingR(Sn,nK2,nK2) = 3n− 1. This extendsR(nK2,nK2) = 3n− 1, an old result of Cockayne and Lorimer. Then we extend this further from matchings to connected matchings, and outline how this implies Schelp's conjecture in an asymptotic sense through a standard application of the Regularity Lemma.

It is sad that we are unable to hear Dick Schelp's reaction to our work generated by his conjecture.
Degree Powers in Graphs: The Erdős–Stone Theorem
Authors: BOLLOBÁS BÉLA , NIKIFOROV VLADIMIR
Published: March 2012

Let 1 ≤p≤r+ 1, withr≥ 2 an integer, and letGbe a graph of ordern. Letd(v) denote the degree of a vertexv∈V(G). We show that ifthenGhas more than(r+ 1)-cliques sharing a common edge. From this we deduce that ifthenGcontains more thancliques of orderr+ 1.

In turn, this statement is used to strengthen the Erdős–Stone theorem by using ∑v∈V(G)dp(v) instead of the number of edges.
The Phase Transition in the Configuration Model
Authors: RIORDAN OLIVER
Published: March 2012

Let G = G(d) be a random graph with a given degree sequence d, such as a random r-regular graph where r ≥ 3 is fixed and n = |G| → ∞. We study the percolation phase transition on such graphs G, i.e., the emergence as p increases of a unique giant component in the random subgraph G[p] obtained by keeping edges independently with probability p. More generally, we study the emergence of a giant component in G(d) itself as d varies. We show that a single method can be used to prove very precise results below, inside and above the ‘scaling window’ of the phase transition, matching many of the known results for the much simpler model G(n, p). This method is a natural extension of that used by Bollobás and the author to study G(n, p), itself based on work of Aldous and of Nachmias and Peres; the calculations are significantly more involved in the present setting.
Minimum Degree and Disjoint Cycles in Claw-Free Graphs
Authors: FAUDREE RALPH J. , GOULD RONALD J. , JACOBSON MICHAEL S.
Published: March 2012

A graph is claw-free if it does not contain an induced subgraph isomorphic to K1,3. Cycles in claw-free graphs have been well studied. In this paper we extend results on disjoint cycles in claw-free graphs satisfying certain minimum degree conditions. In particular, we prove that if G is claw-free of sufficiently large order n = 3k with δ(G) ≥ n/2, then G contains k disjoint triangles.
WERE MANKIW, ROMER, AND WEIL RIGHT? A RECONCILIATION OF THE MICRO AND MACRO EFFECTS OF SCHOOLING ON INCOME
Authors: Breton Theodore R.
Published: March 2012

In Mankiw, Romer, and Weil's augmented Solow model [Quarterly Journal of Economics 107 (2) 407–437 (1992)], the marginal product of human capital accrues to three factors of production: directly to human capital, and as an external effect to physical capital and labor. This paper estimates national stocks of human capital in 1990 created from prior investment in schooling and shows that for 36 countries the (macro) marginal product of human capital accruing to workers in 1990 is consistent with estimates of the (micro) marginal return on investment in schooling in workers' earnings studies. This reconciliation provides empirical evidence for the augmented Solow model.
ON THE SUPPORT VARIETIES FOR DEMAZURE MODULES
Authors: Jones Benjamin F. , Nakano Daniel K.
Published: March 2012

The support varieties for the induced modules or Weyl modules for a reductive algebraic group G were computed over the first Frobenius kernel G1 by Nakano, Parshall and Vella. A natural generalization of this computation is the calculation of the support varieties of Demazure modules over the first Frobenius kernel, B1, of the Borel subgroup B. In this paper we initiate the study of such computations. We complete the entire picture for reductive groups with underlying root systems A1 and A2. Moreover, we give complete answers for Demazure modules corresponding to a particular (standard) element in the Weyl group, and provide results relating support varieties between different Demazure modules which depend on the Bruhat order.
FREE ADEQUATE SEMIGROUPS
Authors: KAMBITES MARK
Published: March 2012

We give an explicit description of the free objects in the quasivariety of adequate semigroups, as sets of labelled directed trees under a natural combinatorial multiplication. The morphisms of the free adequate semigroup onto the free ample semigroup and into the free inverse semigroup are realised by a combinatorial ‘folding’ operation which transforms our trees into Munn trees. We use these results to show that free adequate semigroups and monoids are 𝒥-trivial and never finitely generated as semigroups, and that those which are finitely generated as (2,1,1)-algebras have decidable word problem.
A REMARK ON PRIMALITY TESTING AND DECIMAL EXPANSIONS
Authors: TAO TERENCE
Published: March 2012

We show that for any fixed base a, a positive proportion of primes become composite after any one of their digits in the base a expansion is altered; the case where a=2 has already been established by Cohen and Selfridge [‘Not every number is the sum or difference of two prime powers’, Math. Comput.29 (1975), 79–81] and Sun [‘On integers not of the form ±pa±qb’, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc.128 (2000), 997–1002], using some covering congruence ideas of Erdős. Our method is slightly different, using a partially covering set of congruences followed by an application of the Selberg sieve upper bound. As a consequence, it is not always possible to test whether a number is prime from its base a expansion without reading all of its digits. We also present some slight generalisations of these results.
Tectonic evolution of southern Baffin Bay and Davis Strait: Results from a seismic refraction transect between Canada and Greenland
Authors: Funck Thomas , Gohl Karsten , Damm Volkmar , Heyde Ingo
Published: March 2012

Wide‐angle reflection/refraction seismic data were acquired on a 450‐km‐long transect in southern Baffin Bay extending from Baffin Island to Greenland. Dense air gun shots were recorded on 22 ocean bottom seismometers. APwave velocity model was developed from forward and inverse modeling of the observed travel times. Beneath the Baffin Island shelf, a three‐layered continental crust is observed with velocities of 5.5 to 6.9 km/s. Typical for transform margins, there is a sharp transition between continental and oceanic crust. Off Baffin Island, 7‐km‐thick oceanic crust is interpreted to lie in a major transform fault identified on the gravity map. Beneath the deep Baffin Bay basin, 9‐km‐thick oceanic crust is encountered but thins to 6 km within an assumed fracture zone. The thicker than normal oceanic crust indicates an ample magma supply, possibly related to melt extracted from a mantle plume. Seaward of the Greenland continental crust, 20‐km‐thick igneous crust (6.3 to 7.3 km/s) is encountered in a 25‐km‐wide zone interpreted as a leaky transform fault that can be correlated southward through Davis Strait. The igneous crust is bounded by a 20‐km wide basin to the west, underlain by 4‐km‐thick crust of unknown affinity. This structure is probably associated with transform movements. A high‐velocity lower crustal layer (7.1 km/s) of 8 km thickness is indicated beneath the Greenland crust and can be correlated into the adjacent thick igneous crust. Both the thick igneous and Greenland crust are covered by up to 4 km of Paleogene volcanics (5.2 to 5.7 km/s).
Quantifying uncertainties in global and regional temperature change using an ensemble of observational estimates: The HadCRUT4 data set
Authors: Morice Colin P. , Kennedy John J. , Rayner Nick A. , Jones Phil D.
Published: March 2012

Recent developments in observational near‐surface air temperature and sea‐surface temperature analyses are combined to produce HadCRUT4, a new data set of global and regional temperature evolution from 1850 to the present. This includes the addition of newly digitized measurement data, both over land and sea, new sea‐surface temperature bias adjustments and a more comprehensive error model for describing uncertainties in sea‐surface temperature measurements. An ensemble approach has been adopted to better describe complex temporal and spatial interdependencies of measurement and bias uncertainties and to allow these correlated uncertainties to be taken into account in studies that are based upon HadCRUT4. Climate diagnostics computed from the gridded data set broadly agree with those of other global near‐surface temperature analyses. Fitted linear trends in temperature anomalies are approximately 0.07°C/decade from 1901 to 2010 and 0.17°C/decade from 1979 to 2010 globally. Northern/southern hemispheric trends are 0.08/0.07°C/decade over 1901 to 2010 and 0.24/0.10°C/decade over 1979 to 2010. Linear trends in other prominent near‐surface temperature analyses agree well with the range of trends computed from the HadCRUT4 ensemble members.
Shock‐induced silicate vaporization: The role of electrons
Authors: Kurosawa Kosuke , Kadono Toshihiko , Sugita Seiji , Shigemori Keisuke , Sakaiya Tatsuhiro , Hironaka Yoichiro , Ozaki Norimasa , Shiroshita Akiyuki , Cho Yuichiro , Tachibana Shogo , Vinci Tommaso , Ohno Sohsuke , Kodama Ryosuke , Matsui Takafumi
Published: March 2012

We conducted a spectroscopic study of shock‐heated silicate (diopside) and obtained the time evolution of the spectral contents, the line widths of emission lines, and the time‐ and irradiance‐averaged peak shock temperatures. The peak shock pressures ranged from 330 to 760 GPa. Time‐resolved emission spectra indicated that the initial spectrum was blackbody radiation; the spectrum evolved to yield several ionic emission lines, which in turn evolved to yield atomic lines at the later stages. The shock‐heated diopside was highly dissociated and ionized, even though it is likely to have been subjected to high‐pressure conditions near the liquid–vapor phase boundary. The time evolution of the spectra, from ions to atoms, strongly suggests that electron recombination occurred in the expanding shock‐induced diopside vapor. The time‐ and irradiance‐averaged peak shock temperatures at >330 GPa were lower than the theoretical Hugoniot curve, with a constant isochoric specific heat, indicating endothermic shock‐induced ionization. Thus, we conclude that electrons behave as an important energy reservoir in energy partitioning via endothermic shock‐induced ionization and subsequent exothermic electron recombination. This electron behavior leads to a higher degree of vaporization after isentropic release and a lower cooling rate due to the exothermic electron recombination in expanding impact‐induced silicate vapors than previously expected. These results will affect the predictions associated with hypervelocity impact events in planetary science, such as the origin of the Moon and chemical reactions and production of silicate dust particles in impact‐generated silicate vapor clouds.
Global data products help assess changes to ocean carbon sink
Authors: Bakker Dorothee C. E. , Pfeil Benjamin , Olsen Are , Sabine Christopher L. , Metzl Nicolas , Hankin Steven , Koyuk Heather , Kozyr Alex , Malczyk Jeremy , Manke Ansley , Telszewski Maciej
Published: March 2012

Net oceanic uptake of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) reduces global warming but also leads to ocean acidification [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007]. Understanding and predicting changes in the ocean carbon sink are critical to assessments of future climate change. Surface water CO2 measurements suggest large year‐to‐year variations in oceanic CO2 uptake for several regions [Doney et al., 2009]. However, there is much debate on whether these changes are cyclical or indicative of long‐term trends. Sustained, globally coordinated observations of the surface ocean carbon cycle and systematic handling of such data are essential for assessing variation and trends in regional and global ocean carbon uptake, information necessary for accurate estimates of global and national carbon budgets.
Fine‐scale Venusian topography from Magellan stereo data
Authors: Herrick Robert R. , Stahlke Daniel L. , Sharpton Virgil L.
Published: March 2012

Of all the solar system bodies, Venus is the most like Earth in terms of average surface age, size, distance from the Sun, and diversity of volcanic and deformational features. Despite these similarities, Venus does not currently have plate tectonics and is uninhabitable, and it is not known whether these two conditions are related. As technology advances and such missions as NASA's Kepler begin to detect Earth‐sized planets in the habitable zone around other stars, understanding the evolution of Venus will be critical in assessing the odds that “Earth‐sized” equates to “Earth‐like.” Unfortunately, there has not been a geology‐oriented spacecraft mission to Venus since the Magellan mission (1989–1994), and no missions are currently planned.
Congressional hearing reviews NSF major research and facilities projects
Authors: Showstack Randy
Published: March 2012

An 8 March congressional hearing about the U.S. National Science Foundation's Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (NSF MREFC) account focused on fiscal management and accountability of projects in that account and reviewed concerns raised by NSF's Office of Inspector General (OIG). NSF established the MREFC account in 1995 to better plan and manage investments in major equipment and facilities projects, which can cost from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars, and the foundation has funded 17 MREFC projects since then. The Obama administration's proposed fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget includes funding for four MREFC projects: Advanced Laser Gravitational‐Wave Observatory (AdvLIGO), Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST), National Ecological Observatory (NEON), and Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). The hearing, held by a subcommittee of the House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, reviewed management oversight throughout the life cycles of MREFC projects and concerns raised in recent OIG reports about the use of budget contingency funds. NSF's February 2012 manual called “Risk management guide for large facilities” states that cost contingency is “that portion of the project budget required to cover ‘known unknowns,’” such as planning and estimating errors and omissions, minor labor or material price fluctuations, and design developments and changes within the project scope. Committee members acknowledged measures that NSF has made to improve the MREFC oversight process, but they also urged the agency to continue to take steps to ensure better project management.
Soren W. Henriksen (1916–2011)
Authors: Morrison Foster
Published: March 2012

Soren Werner Henriksen, a pioneer in applying space technology to geodesy and mapping, died on 5 September 2011 at the age of 95. His expertise spanned the fields of applied mathematics, astronomy, surveying, and photogrammetry as well as geodesy and cartography. Soren was born in New York City on 5 August 1916 but grew up in Chicago. He joined the Illinois National Guard in 1938 and 3 years later transferred to the U.S. Army, where he served until August 1945. During that summer he had been severely wounded in the Philippines. The following year he entered the Illinois Institute of Technology, graduating in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. In 1950 he obtained a master's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign, also in math.
Developing plans and priorities for climate science in service to society
Authors: Asrar Ghassem , Busalacchi Antonio , Hurrell James
Published: March 2012

World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Open Science Conference; Denver, Colorado, 24–28 October 2011 The WCRP Open Science Conference (OSC), which had the theme “Climate Research in Service to Society,” was held to consult with the international community of experts on future plans and priorities for the WCRP. More than 1900 participants, including 541 young scholars from 86 nations and 300 scientists from developing nations, made the conference a success. Several major scientific priorities emerged from OSC.