bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Antibiotic Exposure Has Sex-Dependent Effects on the Gut Microbiota and Metabolism of Short-Chain Fatty Acids and Amino Acids in Mice
Authors: Gao Hongchang , Shu Qi , Chen Jiuxia , Fan Kai , Xu Pengtao , Zhou Qi , Li Chen , Zheng Hong
Published: June 2019

Accumulating evidence shows that the gut microbiota regulates host metabolism by producing a series of metabolites, such as amino acids, bile acids, fatty acids, and others. These metabolites have a positive or negative effect on host health. Antibiotic exposure can disrupt the gut microbiota and thereby affect host metabolism and physiology. However, there are a limited number of studies addressing whether antibiotic effects on the gut microbiota and host metabolism are sex dependent. In this study, we uncovered a sex-dependent difference in antibiotic effects on the gut microbiota and metabolome in colonic contents and tissues in mice. These findings reveal that sex-dependent effects need to be considered for antibiotic use in scientific research or clinical practice. Moreover, this study will also give an important direction for future use of antibiotics to modify the gut microbiome and host metabolism in a sex-specific manner.
Factors related to road system organisation and its association with mortality due to motor vehicle-pedestrian collisions in Guadalajara Metropolitan Area
Authors: Herrera-Godina Melva Guadalupe , Martínez-Melendres Berenice , Novelo-Ramírez Hiram René , Dávalos-Guzmán Julio Cesar , Celis Alfredo , González-Estevez Guillermo , Mendez-Magaña Ana Cecilia
Published: June 2019

Introduction

Traffic events are one of the five leading causes of mortality in Mexico. Pedestrians are one of the main road users involved in such incidents and have the highest mortality rate, which is regularly analysed in relation to vehicles and pedestrians, but not the built environment. The purpose of this study was to analyse the elements of the road system organisation that influences the mortality rate of pedestrians hit by motor vehicles in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area.

Method

We designed a case and control study in which the cases were sites where a pedestrian died during 2012. The controls were sites close to where the death occurred, as well as those with road infrastructure characteristics similar to those where the events took place. We obtained the pedestrian data from the death certificates and assessed some of the environmental elements of the road sites. A logistic regression analysis was used to estimate OR; 95% CI.

Results

Road system factors related with pedestrian mortality in close locations were: the presence of bus stops on intersections in one street or both, and road system features, such as the presence of traffic islands, vehicle flow and pedestrian flow.

Conclusions

According to the urban network theory and multiple theory, the final elements resulted as risk factors due to a fault in connectivity between the nodes. A temporal analysis of urban features will help urban planners make decisions regarding the safety of pedestrians and other road users.
Zerumbone inhibits Candida albicans biofilm formation and hyphal growth
Authors: Shin Da-Seul , Eom Yong-Bin
Published: June 2019

Candida albicans biofilm formation is considered an important matter because it can lead to strong resistance to conventional antifungal agents. Hyphae formed by C. albicans can also act as an important virulence factor related to its biofilm. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of zerumbone, a monocyclic sesquiterpene extracted from Zingiber zerumbet (L.) Smith, against C. albicans biofilm formation. Our results suggest that zerumbone possesses antifungal and antibiofilm activity that inhibits biofilm formation and eradicates preformed biofilm. Notably, zerumbone considerably reduced carbohydrate and DNA contents of biofilm matrix. In addition, zerumbone showed antivirulence effects by decreasing the growth of hyphae and inhibiting morphologic changes of C. albicans. Furthermore, zerumbone significantly downregulated expression levels of biofilm-related and hyphae-specific genes, including HWP1 and ALS3. Since zerumbone suppresses biofilm formation and hyphae growth, these results indicate that zerumbone could be used as a potential candidate to treat and prevent C. albicans biofilm-related infections.
DCW
Authors: Wan Bo , Li Xi , Zhang Bo , Zhao Caixu , Chen Xianglan , Wang Chao , Zhou Xuehai
Published: June 2019

Real-time systems continuously interact with the physical environment and often have to satisfy stringent timing constraints imposed by their interactions. Those systems involve two main properties: reactivity and predictability. Reactivity allows the system to continuously react to a non-deterministic external environment, while predictability guarantees the deterministic execution of safety-critical parts of applications. However, with the increase in software complexity, traditional approaches to develop real-time systems make temporal behaviors difficult to infer, especially when the system is required to address non-deterministic aperiodic events from the physical environment.

In this article, we propose a reactive and predictable programming framework, Distributed Clockwerk (DCW), for distributed real-time systems. DCW introduces the Servant, which is a non-preemptible execution entity, to implement periodic tasks based on the Logical Execution Time (LET) model. Furthermore, a joint schedule policy, based on the slack stealing algorithm, is proposed to efficiently address aperiodic events with no violated hard-time constraints. To further support predictable communication among distributed nodes, DCW implements the Time-Triggered Controller Area Network (TTCAN) to avoid collisions while accessing the shared communication medium. Moreover, a programming framework implements to provide a set of programming APIs for defining timing and functional behaviors of concurrent tasks. An example is further implemented to illustrate the DCW design flow. The evaluation results demonstrate that our proposal can improve both periodic and aperiodic reactivity compared with existing work, and the implemented DCW can also ensure the system predictability by achieving extremely low overheads.
Pure Sequent Calculi
Authors: Lahav Ori , Zohar Yoni
Published: June 2019

Analyticity, also known as the subformula property, typically guarantees decidability of derivability in propositional sequent calculi. To utilize this fact, two substantial gaps have to be addressed: (i) What makes a sequent calculus analytic? and (ii) How do we obtain an efficient decision procedure for derivability in an analytic calculus? In the first part of this article, we answer these questions for
pure calculi
—a general family of fully structural propositional sequent calculi whose rules allow arbitrary context formulas. We provide a sufficient syntactic criterion for analyticity in these calculi, as well as a productive method to construct new analytic calculi from given ones. We further introduce a scalable decision procedure for derivability in analytic pure calculi by showing that it can be (uniformly) reduced to classical satisfiability. In the second part of the article, we study the extension of pure sequent calculi with modal operators. We show that such extensions preserve the analyticity of the calculus and identify certain restricted operators (which we call “Next” operators) that are also amenable for a general reduction of derivability to classical satisfiability. Our proofs are all semantic, utilizing several strong general soundness and completeness theorems with respect to non-deterministic semantic frameworks: bivaluations (for pure calculi) and Kripke models (for their extension with modal operators).
Split Contraction
Authors: Agrawal Akanksha , Lokshtanov Daniel , Saurabh Saket , Zehavi Meirav
Published: June 2019

The edit operation that contracts edges, which is a fundamental operation in the theory of graph minors, has recently gained substantial scientific attention from the viewpoint of Parameterized Complexity. In this article, we examine an important family of graphs, namely, the family of split graphs, which in the context of edge contractions is proven to be significantly less obedient than one might expect. Formally, given a graph
G
and an integer
k
, S
PLIT
C
ONTRACTION
asks whether there exists
X
⊆
E
(
G
) such that
G
/
X
is a split graph and |
X
| ≤
k
. Here,
G
/
X
is the graph obtained from
G
by contracting edges in
X
. Guo and Cai [Theoretical Computer Science, 2015] claimed that S
PLIT
C
ONTRACTION
is fixed-parameter tractable. However, our findings are different. We show that S
PLIT
C
ONTRACTION
, despite its deceptive simplicity, is W[1]-hard. Our main result establishes the following conditional lower bound: Under the Exponential Time Hypothesis, S
PLIT
C
ONTRACTION
cannot be solved in time 2

o

(ℓ
2
)⋅
n
O
(1), where ℓ is the vertex cover number of the input graph. We also verify that this lower bound is essentially tight. To the best of our knowledge, this is the
first
tight lower bound of the form 2

o

(ℓ
2
)⋅
n

O
(1)

for problems parameterized by the vertex cover number of the input graph. In particular, our approach to obtain this lower bound borrows the notion of harmonious coloring from Graph Theory, and might be of independent interest.
The Method of Activating Blood and Dredging Collaterals for Reducing Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Li Zhaoyi , Jin Huimin , Yan Qingying , Sun Leitao , Wasan Harpreet S. , Shen Minhe , Ruan Shanming
Published: June 2019

Background. Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) remains as a big unsolved challenge for cancer patients and oncologists. However, there is no effective treatment to prevent and cure it. This systematic review and meta-analysis chiefly aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety on the method of activating blood and dredging collaterals in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for reducing CIPN. Methods. Two authors comprehensively searched all the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) via PubMed, Cochrane, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang Database of China Science Periodical Database (CSPD). The Review Manager (RevMan) 5.0 was used to conduct the meta-analysis. Results. 20 trials including 1481 participants were analyzed. 15 trials tested the incidence of all-grade CIPN which was significantly lower in intervention arm and 16 trails presented that the result of high-grade CIPN was the same. The total effective rate of the use of Chinese herbs was 77.19% versus 45.79% in the comparator group. Besides, the use of Chinese herbs statistically promoted the sensory nerve conduction velocity (SNCV) and the motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV). Besides, the quality of life (QoL) in the intervention group was better than the comparator one. Herbs-related adverse events were skin allergy, skin chap, and scald, which could be managed well. Conclusions. The work involving studies of the effectiveness and safety on TCM for reducing CIPN proves to be encouraging. Herbs with the function of activating blood and dredging collaterals were found to potentially promote the curative effects as well as making improvements of SNCV and MNCV. However, in the future, more double-blind, multicenter, large-scale RCTs and more comprehensive researches are still required.
Design of Series-Fed Bandwidth-Enhanced Microstrip Antenna Array for Millimetre-Wave Beamforming Applications
Authors: Chen Hung-Chen , Chiu Tsenchieh , Hsu Ching-Luh
Published: June 2019

A novel series-fed microstrip patch array antenna for 37/39 GHz beamforming is proposed. To improve the antenna bandwidth, two of the patches are modified with truncated corners in the diagonal direction. This truncation generates two degenerate resonances which result in a flattened frequency response of the input impedance. Then, the recessed microstrip feeds for the other two patches are designed to yield a proper current distribution for radiation while maintaining minimal return loss, wide bandwidth, and low sidelobes. Though the individual patch antenna is elliptically polarized due to the truncated corners, a phased array with linear polarization can still be obtained by alternately deploying left-handed and right-handed elliptically polarized patches. For validation of the proposed design, an array is fabricated with 16 elements on a substrate with 10 mil thickness and εr =2.2. The beamforming capability of the proposed array is also demonstrated. The experiment results agree well with the simulation and show that the antenna gain and the return loss bandwidth can be more than 21 dBi and 8%, respectively.
Modeling of Ice Accretion over Aircraft Wings Using a Compressible OpenFOAM Solver
Authors: Li Sibo , Paoli Roberto
Published: June 2019

A method to simulate ice accretion on an aircraft wing using a three-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes solver, a Eulerian droplet flow field model, a mesh morphing model, and a thermodynamic model, is presented in this paper. The above models are combined together into one solver and implemented in OpenFOAM. Two-way coupling is achieved between airflow field calculation and ice simulation. The density-based solver rhoEnergyFoam is used to calculate the airflow field. The roughness wall function is proposed to simulate the roughness effect caused by ice accretion. For droplet flow field calculation, the Eulerian model is applied and the permeable wall boundary condition is used on the wing to simulate the droplet impingement. The icing thermodynamic model is built based on the Messinger model. The mesh morphing model adjusts the wing’s shape every time step based on the amount of accreted ice so that the airflow field is updated during the simulation. The effect of the ice accretion on the airflow is studied by comparing the aerodynamic performance—with and without ice. The ice accretion on the ONERA M6 wing model under a specific condition has been simulated to validate the solver’s performance and investigate the effect of the accreted ice on the aerodynamic performance.
Deciphering Mechanisms of UVR-Induced Tumoral Immune Checkpoint Regulation against Melanoma
Authors: Sahu Ravi P.
Published: June 2019

Exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) impacts various cellular, genetic, and immunologic responses governing biological and pathophysiologic events including the development of skin cancers. The mechanistic insights into UVR-induced immune tolerance against skin cancers, particularly cutaneous melanoma, have been a great challenge, given the sophisticated regulation of immune checkpoint proteins. A study led by Wang and colleagues has elucidated novel mechanisms of UVR-induced immune suppression, implicated in melanoma immune evasion and progression mediated via upregulation of PD-L1, and reduced CD8+ T-cell–mediated cytotoxicity in HMGB1/TBK1/IRF3/NF-κB–dependent manner. These findings offer new mechanistic insights into UVR-induced melanoma immune evasion and progression.

See related article by Wang et al., p. 2909
AQP4 and the Fate of Gliomas
Authors: Amiry-Moghaddam Mahmood
Published: June 2019

High-grade glioma is the most common primary brain cancer type and is characterized by invasive and fast growth. In a previous issue of Cancer Research, Simone and colleagues show that the two isoforms of the aquaporin-4 (AQP4) water channel may determine the fate of gliomas. Glioma cell lines expressing the M23-AQP4 isoform, which forms large aggregates of orthogonal arrays of particles, shrink and undergo apoptosis, whereas cell lines expressing the tetramer-forming M1-AQP4 isoform display higher activity of matrix metalloproteinases, making them more invasive. This study provides new insight on the role of AQP4 isoforms in the biology of gliomas.

See related article by Simone and colleagues; Cancer Res 79(9):2182–94.
Association between Liver Fibrosis and Serum PSA among U.S. Men: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2001–2010
Authors: Wang Anqi , Lazo Mariana , Carter H. Ballentine , Groopman John D. , Nelson William G. , Platz Elizabeth A.
Published: June 2019

Background:

To evaluate the association of liver fibrosis scores with PSA level among U.S. adult men overall and by race/ethnicity.

Methods:

Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2001–2010, were used. Males ages ≥40 years without a prostate cancer diagnosis and who had serum PSA, liver enzymes, albumin, and platelet counts measured as part of NHANES protocol were included. Liver fibrosis was measured using three scores: aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI), fibrosis 4 index (FIB-4), and NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS). We assessed overall and race/ethnicity-stratified geometric mean PSA by fibrosis score using predictive margins by linear regression, and the association of abnormal fibrosis scores (APRI > 1, FIB-4 > 2.67, NFS > 0.676) and elevated PSA (>4 ng/mL) by logistic regression.

Results:

A total of 6,705 men were included. Abnormal liver fibrosis scores were present in 2.1% (APRI), 3.6% (FIB-4), and 5.6% (NFS). Men with higher fibrosis scores had lower geometric mean PSA (all Ptrend < 0.02). Men with abnormal APRI had a lower odds of PSA > 4 ng/mL [adjusted OR (aOR) = 0.33; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.11–0.96]. Compared with men with 0 abnormal scores, those with 2 or 3 abnormal fibrosis scores had a lower odds of PSA > 4 ng/mL (aOR = 0.55; 95% CI, 0.33–0.91). The patterns were similar by race/ethnicity.

Conclusions:

Men of all race/ethnicities with higher liver fibrosis scores had lower serum PSA, and men with advanced fibrosis scores had a lower odds of an elevated PSA.

Impact:

These findings support further research to inform the likelihood of delay in prostate cancer detection in men with abnormal liver function.
Prediction of Heart Disease Using Different Classification Techniques
Authors: Nikhar Sonam , Karandikar A.M.
Published: June 2019

Data mining is one of the essential areas of research that is more popular in health organization. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the world over the past 10 years. The healthcare industry gathers enormous amount of heart disease data which are not “mined” to discover hidden information for effective decision making. This research intends to provide a detailed description of Naïve Bayes, decision tree classifier and Selective Bayesian classifier that are applied in our research particularly in the prediction of Heart Disease. It is known that Naïve Bayesian classifier (NB) works very well on some domains, and poorly on some. The performance of NB suffers in domains that involve correlated features. C4.5 decision trees, on the other hand, typically perform better than the Naïve Bayesian algorithm on such domains. This paper describes a Selective Bayesian classifier (SBC) that simply uses only those features that C4.5 would use in its decision tree when learning a small example of a training set, a combination of the two different natures of classifiers. Experiments conducted on Cleveland datasets indicate that SBC performs reliably better than NB on all domains, and SBC outperforms C4.5 on this dataset of which C4.5 outperform NB. Some experiment has been conducted to compare the execution of predictive data mining technique on the same dataset, and the consequence reveals that Decision Tree outperforms over Bayesian classifier and experiment also reveals that selective Bayesian classifier has a better accuracy as compared to other classifiers.
Path-Loss Prediction for UHF/VHF Signal Propagation in Edo State: Neural Network Approach
Authors: O. Ogbeide K. , Mwenrenren E. J. Eko
Published: June 2019

The aim of this paper is to present and evaluate artificial neural network model used for path loss prediction of signal propagation in the VHF/UHF spectrum in Edo state.Measurement data obtained from three television broadcasting stations in Edo state, operating at 189.25MHz, 479.25MHz, and 743.25MHz, is used to train and evaluate the artificial neural network. A two layer neural network with one hidden and one output layer is evaluated regarding prediction accuracy and generalization properties. The path loss prediction results obtained by using the artificial neural network model are evaluated against the Hata and Walfisch-Ikegami empirical path loss models .Result analysis shows that the artificial neural network performs well as regards to prediction accuracy and generalization ability. The ANN performed better across all performance measures in comparison to the Hata and Walfisch-Ikegami and Line of Sight models in estimating path loss in vhf/uhf spectrum in Edo state.
Design adaptive Subnetting Hybrid Gateway MANET Protocol on the basis of Dynamic TTL value adjustment
Authors: Kishor Kaushal , Nand Parma , Agarwal Pankaj
Published: June 2019

Mobile ad hoc Network is infrastructure less wireless network and decentralized way, and then for a large network number of nodes dynamically therefor the connection established between source node to destination node is really challenging. The challenge is interconnecting ad hoc network to the internet seems from the needs to inform ad hoc nodes about available gateways in an extremely challenging scenario while a making a minimum consumption of the source network resources. Then an efficient gateway discovery of an ad hoc network becomes one of the central factors to enable the economic consumption of hybrid ad hoc network in future mobile and wireless network. In mobile ad hoc network have multihop nature of MANET therefore several reachable gateways for mobile node at any period of time. If the mobile node receives gatways advertisement from more than one gateway. It has to determine which gateway to use for connecting to the net. Most existing protocol choose the gateway which is closer in terms of the number of physical hops. This paper has focused on design an efficient and adaptive subnetting hybrid gateway discovery mechanism on the basis of dynamic TTL value adjustment such that congestion and unnecessary overhead is reduced. Selecting the gateway on the basis of one and two parameters will increase the performance and throughput of the network. The main objective of adaptive gateway discovery to determine the optimal TTL value in terms of number of hops to determine the proactive area, nodes outside this area follow the reactive approach. Consequently, for achieving a good trade off between performanceand network operating expense.
Multi-Functioning Home Bot with Integrated Feedback System
Authors: Satapathy Lalit Mohan , Bastia Samir Kumar , Mohanty Nihar
Published: June 2019

Now-a-days, automation in home is becoming more popular. It always remains important to consider accuracy and speed in a said job. This paper is addressing an Arduino Mega micro-controller based Home Bot, which has several aspects like cleaning of the floor and on-off switches as per requirement, theft detection and monitoring. The ability of the proposed model is auto pathfinding when ever hurdles appear and auto detection when a trouble appears inside the Home Bot. It is verified that the cost of this module is around 21%, compared to the robots available in the market having features of only floor cleaning.
Efficient image retrieval through hybrid feature set and neural network
Authors: Arora Nitin , Ashok Alaknanda , Tiwari Shamik
Published: June 2019

Images are an important part of daily life. The huge repository of digitally existing images cannot be easily controlled by any individual. Extensive scanning of the image database is very much essential to search a particular image from the huge repository. In some cases, this procedure becomes very exhaustive also. As a result, if a count of ten thousand, lakhs or considerably more images are included in image database, then it may be transformed into a tedious and never ending process. Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is a technique, which is used for retrieving any image. This type of image retrieval procedure is centred on the actual content of image. This paper proposed a model of hybrid feature set of Haar wavelets and Gabor features and analysed with different existing models image retrieval. Content based image retrieval using hybrid feature set of Haar wavelets and Gabor features superiors on other models.
Survey Based Classification of Bug Triage Approaches
Authors: Yadav Asmita , Singh Sandeep Kumar
Published: June 2019

This paper presents a comprehensive survey of bug triaging approaches in three classes namely machine learning based, meta-data based and profile based. All approaches under three categories are critically compared and some potential future directions and challenges are reported. Findings from the survey show that there is a lot of scope to work in cold-start problem, developer- profiling, load balancing, and reopened bug analysis.
Wireless Sensor Network for Real-time Flood Monitoring Based on 6loWPAN Communication Standard
Authors: K. Nuhu B. , T. Arulogun O. , A. Adeyanju I. , M. Abdullahi I.
Published: June 2019

Riverine flood is a major disaster faced by most countries and has significant adverse effect on long term economic growth of affected regions and their environments. Several systems have previously employed different technologies to monitor riverine flood but are expensive with low accuracy and consumes high amount of energy. In this paper, we proposed an energy efficient and accurate flood monitoring system. The system leverages on Internet Protocol Version 6 over Low Power Wireless Personal Area Network (6loWPAN) technology to construct a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) comprising of two XM1000 motes and a rule-base water level monitoring application. The motes were configured using NesC programming for flood monitoring with Basestation and water level sensing applications. The water level sensing mote samples and transmits real-time water level information to the Basestation mote which interfaces with a rule-based water level monitoring application. The application compares current water level with a predetermined threat level and alerts relevant agencies when flood is imminent via an email. The results obtained from the emulation of the developed system showed that, it achieved an accuracy of 95.3% in water level monitoring with a Mean Squared Error of 5.1. The power consumed in transmitting a packet of 2 bytes payload plus other overhead was 0.4µJ and 0.0396mJ with and without 6loWPAN configuration respectively.
Riqueza mineral, instituições fracas e clientelismo: a maldição dos recursos naturais nos governos locais
Authors: Rodrigues Alexandre de Cássio , Rodrigues Suzana Braga
Published: June 2019

Este artigo analisa o papel das instituições na relação entre a receita de royalties, decorrente da riqueza mineral existente no município, e a probabilidade de uso dessa receita para ações clientelistas. Analisamos, para o período de 2013 a 2016, se os prefeitos dos municípios de Minas Gerais utilizaram os royalties da mineração para criar posições de trabalho nas prefeituras e distribuir gratuitamente materiais, bens e serviços. Adicionalmente, analisamos se a possibilidade de reeleição dos prefeitos ou a transparência do gasto público interferiram na propensão a esta prática. As evidências indicam que existe uma forte associação entre uma maior receita de royalties com um desproporcional número de cargos comissionados. A transparência dos gastos públicos não reduz esse efeito, que ainda é agravado pela possibilidade de os prefeitos se candidatarem à reeleição.
The Work of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf: Current Accomplishments and Challenges on the Verge of Its 20th Anniversary
Authors: Vernet Paula M.
Published: June 2019

2017 marks the 20th anniversary of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), in coincidence with its 43rd session. This session has been the last before the expiration of the term of office of its current members. Elections were held in June. During this five year period, the CLCS faced great challenges: the workload of the Commission increased dramatically, stays in New York became longer, conditions of work became an issue; the complexity of the Submissions required new interpretations and more time for their consideration; new revised Submissions were made and brought new alterations in the order of Submissions on the list waiting to be analysed. This article provides some views on the work carried out by the CLCS following the election of members of the Commission at the twenty-second Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, held in June 2012, up to December 2016, in an attempt to assess the accomplishments and challenges of the last five years.
Marine Genetic Resources in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction: Issues with, in and outside of UNCLOS
Authors: Morris-Sharma Natalie Y.
Published: June 2019

The negotiations for a new international legally binding instrument under UNCLOS, on marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, has brought to the fore interesting questions over the applicable regime for marine genetic resources, including issues of benefit sharing. This article examines the different principles that have been suggested as applying to marine genetic resources, as well as suggestions of middle-of-the-way approaches. The freedom of the high seas, common heritage of mankind, common concern of humankind, Part xiii of UNCLOS on marine scientific research, and the Nagoya Protocol, are reflected on in turn. Brief reflections are also offered on the matter of intellectual property rights. This article recognizes the need for coherence with the existing UNCLOS regimes that apply to the areas beyond national jurisdiction, whilst taking into account the specific characteristics of marine genetic resources. There is potential utility in distilling means by which the seemingly diametrically opposed notions in Part vii and Part xi of UNCLOS may overlap. Perhaps the best point of entry for successful navigation of the issues is through the regime for marine scientific research, appropriately informed by other experiences, other existing agreements, and related regimes. Ultimately, the new implementing agreement, like its parent treaty (UNCLOS), will need to maintain a balance of interests.
The Realization of the Ethical Mandate of UNESCO in 2015 and in 2016
Authors: Molnár-Gábor Fruzsina
Published: June 2019

UNESCO has fulfilled its ethical mandate in 2015 and in 2016 foremost by standard-setting activities within its various ethics committees. The IBC’ and IGBC’S work focused on the principle of benefit sharing, on the update of IBC’S reflection on the issues of the human genome and human rights as well as on big data in health care and health research and on bioethical questions arising from conditions of refugees and migrants. In the meantime, COMEST has concentrated its efforts on climate change and on elaborating on a post-2015 agenda for the context of science, technology and society as well as on the ethics of water and oceans and the ethics of robotics. Common feature of the standard-setting work of these bodies in 2015 and 2016 remains that UNESCO establishes a strong link between bioethical principles and the human rights framework. However, the developed global principles in different areas have again not resulted in a declaratory standard-setting and thus remain beyond any factual binding force of the already established three international and universal declarations of UNESCO in the field of bioethics. Although an intensified cooperation between the different bodies can be observed, it remains to be seen, which results the external auditing of the work of UNESCO brings about on the issue of governance within the organization.
Autonomy and Accountability of the UN in Peacekeeping Operations: The Case of the Central African Republic
Authors: Le Moli Ginevra
Published: June 2019

This article explores the tension between autonomy and accountability of international organizations with a focus on the role of the United Nations in the context of peacekeeping operations. What triggered the interest in this particular matter was the recent failure by the UN in the Central African Republic to prevent and respond to allegations of sexual exploitation and/or abuse crimes committed by UN peacekeepers.

A more theoretical analysis of the meaning of autonomy in the law of international organizations will be followed by a practical examination of issues of accountability and existing mechanisms to address them. The assessment of the current legal and judicial framework is followed by a further exploration of the main challenges and possible alternative solutions to bridge the gap between two mutually constitutive concepts. The primary (and modest) purpose of this analysis is to attempt to plant legal seeds that can not only grow into an ethical and accountable culture within the un but also be instrumental in preventing abuses and be strong enough to remain in place when the public spotlight on crimes has been turned off.
Protection Gaps and Temporary Protection
Authors: Ineli-Ciger Meltem
Published: June 2019

The Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (the 1951 Convention) does not address all the challenging questions posed by contemporary forced migration. The 1951 Convention does not deal with persons fleeing armed conflict, admission and large-scale movement of forced migrants in a clear and comprehensive manner. In addition to this, restrictive interpretation of the refugee definition provided in Art. 1 A (2) of the 1951 Convention by State authorities, popularity of non-entrée policies and the absence of solidarity in response to large-scale forced migration movements create protection gaps. A number of initiatives have been adopted at the national, regional and international level to remedy these gaps and one of them is temporary protection. This article focuses on protection gaps and temporary protection. The first part of the article explores the extent to which the 1951 Convention deals with persons fleeing armed conflict, admission and mass-influx situations, and it seeks to clarify the reason why there are protection gaps concerning these issues. Building on this analysis, the second part of the article defines temporary protection by reviewing temporary protection policies in Turkey, the United States and the European Union and it explores to what extent temporary protection regimes can remedy protection gaps and provide effective protection to forced migrants.
The UN and Its Agencies in the Development of Regulations on Management and Conservation of Fisheries: A Plurality of Initiatives but Questionable Coherence
Authors: Sato Chie
Published: June 2019

Although various organizations have been established for the management and conservation of fisheries and these have contributed to the establishment of common regulations pertaining to the management of fisheries on a global or regional level, current measures for the management and conservation of fish resources do not appear to be very effective. This article attempts to clarify the current problems involved in the management and conservation of fisheries and what kinds of regulations are necessary to manage sustainable fisheries effectively in an era of increasing fish consumption.
Crimea in International Courts and Tribunals: Matters of Jurisdiction
Authors: Nuridzhanian Gaiane
Published: June 2019

The events taking place in Crimea since early 2014 have given rise to a number of international disputes currently pending before international courts and tribunals. Ukraine instituted inter-State proceedings against Russia before the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights and an unclos Annex vii Tribunal. Seven investor-State cases have been commenced against Russia. The Prosecutor of the icc is conducting preliminary examination into the crimes allegedly committed in Crimea in 2014 and afterwards. Foreign courts have also had to deal with cases related to the annexation of Crimea.

This article provides an overview of cases pending before international courts and tribunals in relation to events in Crimea. The focus is on the questions related to jurisdiction of the international courts and tribunals seized in Crimea-related cases. The study explores the limits of the jurisdiction of international courts to adjudicate disputes concerning the interpretation and application of a treaty arising in connection with a larger dispute regarding the use of force, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. The article also discusses novel and debated jurisdiction-related matters that arise in cases brought in relation to events in Crimea. A brief description of cases heard in foreign courts is provided as well.
Social Death as Gendered Genocide: The Fate of Women and Children
Authors: Steinberg Naomi
Published: June 2019

This paper uses two contemporary ethnic genocides to underscore the impacts of war on women described in biblical texts, particularly Num. 31:17-18, Judges 21, and Deuteronomy 21. The analysis uncovers gendered patterns of warfare aimed at group annihilation. Rape and other forms of gender-targeted violence are intentional means of diluting the purity of the victims’ group that result in the social death of women, an erasure of their past identities. The identities of children born from intermarriages of victims and conquerors are contested in light of connections among patrilineal descent, virginity, and purity. The concept of contested identity is important also for interpreting the stories of Hagar, Ruth, and Esther. Comparative study of these texts makes apparent how women in the biblical world suffer particular consequences during warfare that otherwise would seem to be only ethnic or tribal in nature.
Slips of the Tongue, Slips of the Word: A Poststructuralist Psychoanalytic Reading of John 8:37-47
Authors: Emanuel Sarah
Published: June 2019

John 8:37-47 is arguably the most dangerous passage for Jews within the entire New Testament. Repeatedly used to fuel anti-Semitism, it remains haunted by the events of the Holocaust. Its statements about “the Jews” are delivered with all the incomparable authority and divine assurance that the implied author has worked unremittingly to establish for Jesus. However, examining the passage with a poststructuralist psychoanalytic lens, I propose that the reader may not only confront the text’s apparent anti-Jewishness, but may also find that this narrative is far less coherent than it seems. Reading with theorists such as Jacques Lacan and Julia Kristeva, I argue that this textualized Jesus subtly contradicts himself, suggesting a textual unconscious filled with conflict and ambivalence. In fact, by using Genesis 22 as a possible intertext, I demonstrate that it is not necessarily the Jews who resemble “their father the devil” so much as the Johannine Jesus himself.
“The Temple which You Will Build for Me in the Land”
Authors: Rhyder Julia
Published: June 2019

This article examines the instruction regarding the wood offering and the festival of new oil in fragment 23 of 4QReworked Pentateuch C (4Q365), and in particular its setting at a future temple (בית) in the land. It argues that while 4Q365 23 represents a departure from earlier versions of Leviticus, it should be considered nonetheless as part of an authoritative version of this book. In introducing the new temple and its rituals, the addition develops notions already present within priestly ritual legislation concerned with the community’s obligations towards the wilderness sanctuary. 4Q365 23 therefore has the potential to progress the present debate concerning the priestly traditions of the Pentateuch and cult centralization. In projecting the ritual obligations established at the wilderness shrine onto a future temple, the fragment throws new light on the way in which ritual legislation was used to promote a centralized cult in ancient Israel.
Nine Dubious “Dead Sea Scrolls” Fragments from the Twenty-First Century
Authors: Davis Kipp , Rabin Ira , Feldman Ines , Krutzsch Myriam , Rimon Hasia , Justnes Årstein , Elgvin Torleif , Langlois Michael
Published: June 2019

In 2002 new “Dead Sea Scrolls” fragments began to appear on the antiquities market, most of them through the Kando family. In this article we will present evidence that nine of these Dead Sea Scrolls-like fragments are modern forgeries.
Reproof in cd 9:2–8 and 1QS 5:24–6:1
Authors: Akiyama Kengo
Published: June 2019

The Damascus Document (cd 9:2–8) and the Serekh (1QS 5:24–6:1) amplify Leviticus 19:17–18 and carefully spell out the legal procedure for open reproof. In doing so, however, they both omit the key phrase of Leviticus 19:18b (ואהבת לרעך כמוך). This short note suggests that the omission is deliberate and results from a specific sectarian reading of Leviticus 19:17–18. The sectarians are construing this scriptural mandate as a legal command in contrast to the more mainstream reading as exhortation in the Second Temple period.
24 Hours in Contemporary Art: Reflections on an Exhibition About Time
Authors: Sbrilli Antonella
Published: June 2019

Time and its representation have been historically fascinating, as Books of Hours, allegories, and artistic calendars testify. This attention to time has become increasingly more urgent recently, as studies confirm. The exhibition Dall’oggi al domani (From Today till Tomorrow), held in Rome in 2016, focused on the discrete single day, with its date and its 24- hour rhythm. The article addresses the main aspects of that exhibition, its historical background, the conceptual attraction for calendars’ grids, the interest of artists in the everyday, the processing of daily digital traces, time-lapse, and 24/7 formats. Artworks were displayed according to their affinity towards time rhythms, time words, dates, calendars, and diaries. Although the itinerary of the show was not chronological, some historical clusters emerged: for example, the importance of the pivotal year 1966 in time consideration.
Facing the Eternal Desert: Sociotemporal Values in Old English Poetry
Authors: Huisman Rosemary
Published: June 2019

Time is a singular noun, but includes a multiplicity of temporalities, including what J. T. Fraser has termed sociotemporality. In this paper, I discuss facing the urgency of time in a narrative dominated by sociotemporality, that of the Old English poem Beowulf, and suggest how criticism of the narrative structure of Beowulf has derived from a monovalent understanding of narrative time. Moreover, in recognizing sociotemporality as dominant in the organization of the poem, the modern reader can gain greater access to what was valued in the social context of its response to “the urgency of time.”
Quantum Computation and Time Asymmetry
Authors: Kincanon Eric
Published: June 2019

This paper considers the possibility that the world is a quantum computer. Accepting the argument that the world is a quantum computer leads to contradictions with the metaphysics of time that deny the reality of time. Further, metaphysicians who argue for the unreality of time based on physical arguments make assumptions in their models that contradict the quantum computational nature of the world and are not necessary.
Zur Auffassung des Wunders in der griechischen Tragödie
Authors: Gerolemou Maria
Published: June 2019

The article focuses on miracles in Greek tragedy as an essential factor in pushing forward the frontiers of intellectual experience based on the notion of credibility rather than on the negative analysis of the term as an affirmation of truth conditions. Three questions are raised: a) How and when are certain events and phenomena perceived as miracles? b) Do miracles as phenomena beyond the cognitive grasp question the authenticity of human experience and knowledge? c) Does the miraculous contribute to the construction of an authorial identity? The study concentrates on Euripides’ tragedies which, in indicating a feeble human understanding and reception, recognize the limits of human’s cognitive reach; Euripides draws a clear line between the sophos, god or man, who can design a miracle-scene and thus form and reform religious consciousness and the receiver of the wonder-spectacle from whom the mechanisms that govern the miracle are hidden.
Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation in Metro Manila
Authors: Porio Emma
Published: June 2019

Climate change and flooding in Asian cities pose great challenges to the environmental and human security of the population and their governance systems. This paper examines the intersections of ecological-environmental and social vulnerability and the adaptive responses of urban poor communities and commercial-industrial establishments in Metro Manila to floods and other climate change-related effects, such as storm surges and sea-level rise (SLR). These weaken the communities’ ecological-environmental systems, threaten the well-being and security of the people and strain the resources of city governments. Disaggregating the ecological-environment vulnerabilities of a city/community according to specific places/spaces (or place-based vulnerabilities) that lead also to variable patterns among different groups (e.g., gender, income group, sector) of adaptive responses to flooding. Drawing a systematic sample of urban poor households and industrial-commercial establishments along the Pasig-Marikina River Basin of Metro Manila, this study utilised household surveys, key informant interviews, focus group discussions (FGD) and secondary data sources, in analysing the sources of their vulnerability and adaptive responses. Existing studies generally focus on the vulnerability and adaptation of urban-rural populations and do not highlight the interaction of place-based vulnerabilities with sector-specific vulnerabilities that reconfigure flood impacts and responses among the urban poor communities and commercial-industrial establishments during and after floods. In particular, poor and female-headed households residing in highly degraded environments or places/spaces within and across urban poor communities suffered higher damages and losses compared to better-off households and establishments. The interaction of these drivers of vulnerability further heightens and compromises the environmental and human security needs of poor people, their communities and those in the private sector that local/national government agencies need to respond.
Borders and Insecurities in Western Flores
Authors: Erb Maribeth
Published: June 2019

Creating and guarding boundaries is one of the pervasive features of modern states. Many boundaries have been contested in the Southeast Asian region between states, and boundaries are always locations of great insecurity for states, and for the people who live on them. The case to be explored in this paper is about boundaries that are not international, but local boundaries between districts within the nation state of Indonesia, in the eastern region of western Flores. The years of political change in Indonesia have created considerable attention to the creation of new boundaries, with the “pemekaran”, or “flowering” of new districts. This has caused the revival of concern over the actual boundaries of western Flores districts, resulting in various extreme instances of boundary contestation and protection. One contestation revived a much older dispute of the eastern boundary of the western Flores district of Manggarai, which dates from the time of the beginning of the Indonesian modern state. In this paper it will be queried what makes internal, domestic boundaries important, including how they are complicated by issues of ethnicity, foreign investment in natural resources, and religion, all of which can create considerable insecurity for the local communities who live near and on these contested borders.