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Why association?
No full textIn this paper, I want to consider the reasons why the Constitution of the United States has been interpreted to protect a right to freedom of association, and what implications those reasons have for the contours of that right. To understand why this is in fact a difficult and interesting question, however, one must also understand the basic history and background of the association right in the United States. The starting point for this analysis is that, unusually among national constitutions, the Constitution of the United States does not contain a textual right of association. Instead, the First Amendment to the Constitution, in addition to provisions dealing with religion, protects rights to the freedoms of speech and the press, to peaceable assembly, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. The question then becomes, how did this text come to be read to protect association as well. Part 1 will explore the historical roots of the right of association in the US, focusing on a conflict over association in the very early Republic. Part 2 will explain how the modern right of association was developed by the US Supreme Court, and describe in broad terms the current contours of that right. Part 3 will explore the theoretical underpinnings of the association right in the United States, tying its historical origins and purposes to the other political rights protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Part 4 will consider the implications of all of the above for the specific problem of associations that discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics such as race, sex, religion, or sexual orientation in selecting their membership. And Part 5 will examine the issue of whether, and to what extent, US law should and does protect associations whose goals are inconsistent with democratic values
Home as survival: Seeing Queer archival lives
No full textAs a teenager in the eighties, French filmmaker Sébastien Lifshitz scoured flea markets for amateur photographs. In 2013, he assembled a book titled The Invisibles comprised of snapshots depicting queer lives. He included a pair of Kodachrome images, which replicate a near-identical domestic scene in the 1960s: two aging women in their bourgeois home sit at a table, embracing as they look at the camera. Taking as a point of departure these personal photographs, this article focuses on two documentaries that queer postwar domesticity: Lifshitz’s The Invisibles (2011) and Magnus Gertten’s Nelly and Nadine (2022). In his film, Lifshitz not only includes postwar snapshots and home movies, but also reinvents the amateur dispositif. He interviews queer aging men and women inside their homes, challenging social exclusion and stigma based on gender nonconformity and aging. In Nelly and Nadine, a sexagenarian named Sylvie retrieves home movies from her attic that uncover a lesbian love story between her grandmother Nelly and a fellow survivor of Ravensbrück named Nadine. Decades later, the centrality of the domestic space and the amateur archive in these two documentaries offers a lesson in seeing the home as survival and unlearning the master narratives of the postwar era
'So how should I presume?': Loan, resulting trust, or discharge of a prior obligation?
No full textWhat does the law presume when it is proven simply that one person has made a payment of money to another? Surprisingly, there are three candidate answers to this question. First, a number of nineteenth-century authorities hold that ‘when money is paid by one man to another the legal presumption is that it was paid in discharge of some prior debt or obligation’. Secondly, both Professor James Penner and Professor William Swadling have recently argued that proof that one person made a payment or other transfer to another is sufficient to trigger the presumption of resulting trust. Finally, the rule in Seldon v Davidson [1968] 1 WLR 1083 suggests that, in the absence of any other evidence, the payment would be categorised as a loan and the recipient would be liable to repay the debt. Obviously, it would not be coherent for the law to presume three different things – discharge of a prior obligation, a resulting trust, a loan – on the same basic facts. This chapter attempts to reconcile the apparently competing approaches by showing that they do not, in fact, apply in the same scenario. It is argued that the presumption of discharge of a prior obligation is the one that applies where all that has been proven is that a payment has been made by one person to another. The presumption of resulting trust, notwithstanding the views of Professors Penner and Swadling, is not triggered unless, in addition to the fact that a payment has been made, the claimant shows that the transfer was ‘voluntary’, ie made without consideration. Similarly, the rule in Seldon v Davidson is not properly to be regarded as being triggered simply by the making of a payment but must be understood as applying only where the evidence and the pleadings have reduced the possibilities to a choice between ‘gift’ and ‘loan’ (in which case the rule dictates that a loan is presumed). Having made these distinctions, the chapter moves from the analytical to the normative and, by way of conclusion, consider briefly the merits of the three different rules in order to assess whether they represent an appropriate legal response in the circumstances in which they apply. It is concluded that both the presumption of resulting trust in the context of a voluntary transfer and the rule in Seldon v Davidson lack a convincing justification and should be discarded
Surface morphology evolution of AlGaN microhoneycomb structures during epitaxial overgrowth
No full textThe surface morphological development during epitaxial overgrowth of AlGaN on microhoneycomb (μ-HC) patterned relaxed AlGaN/AlN/sapphire templates is studied. Optimization of μ-pattern design and influence of various growth parameters are carried out in search for conditions resulting in coalescence of μ-HC structures into planar layers or ordered arrays of V-pits with well-defined crystallographic facets. It is found that in a wide range of growth conditions, formation of V-pits with semipolar facets occurs where their crystallographic orientation is defined by the geometry of the initial μ-HC patterns and growth conditions. High-temperature and high V/III ratio conditions are found to favor c-plane expansion and allow recovery of planarity on the patterned templates. Systematic study of surface morphology evolution in conditions favoring 1) semipolar facets formation and 2) coalescence is carried out and possible mechanisms underpinning the observed behaviors have been proposed
Early life exposure of infants to benzylpenicillin and gentamicin is associated with a persistent amplification of the gut resistome
No full textBackground
Infant gut microbiota is highly malleable, but the long-term longitudinal impact of antibiotic exposure in early life, together with the mode of delivery on infant gut microbiota and resistome, is not extensively studied.
Methods
Two hundred and eight samples from 45 infants collected from birth until 2 years of age over five time points (week 1, 4, 8, 24, year 2) were analysed. Based on shotgun metagenomics, the gut microbial composition and resistome profile were compared in the early life of infants divided into three groups: vaginal delivery/no-antibiotic in the first 4 days of life, C-section/no-antibiotic in the first 4 days of life, and C-section/antibiotic exposed in first 4 days of life. Gentamycin and benzylpenicillin were the most commonly administered antibiotics during this cohort’s first week of life.
Results
Newborn gut microbial composition differed in all three groups, with higher diversity and stable composition seen at 2 years of age, compared to week 1. An increase in microbial diversity from week 1 to week 4 only in the C-section/antibiotic-exposed group reflects the effect of antibiotic use in the first 4 days of life, with a gradual increase thereafter. Overall, a relative abundance of Actinobacteria and Bacteroides was significantly higher in vaginal delivery/no-antibiotic while Proteobacteria was higher in C-section/antibiotic-exposed infants. Strains from species belonging to Bifidobacterium and Bacteroidetes were generally persistent colonisers, with Bifidobacterium breve and Bifidobacterium bifidum species being the major persistent colonisers in all three groups. Bacteroides persistence was dominant in the vaginal delivery/no-antibiotic group, with species Bacteroides ovatus and Phocaeicola vulgatus found to be persistent colonisers in the no-antibiotic groups. Most strains carrying antibiotic-resistance genes belonged to phyla Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, with the C-section/antibiotic-exposed group presenting a higher frequency of antibiotic-resistance genes (ARGs).
Conclusion
These data show that antibiotic exposure has an immediate and persistent effect on the gut microbiome in early life. As such, the two antibiotics used in the study selected for strains (mainly Proteobacteria) which were multiple drug-resistant (MDR), presumably a reflection of their evolutionary lineage of historical exposures—leading to what can be an extensive and diverse resistome
The future of pharmacology education: A global outlook
No full textPharmacology educators play a unique role in higher education, at the intersection of basic biological, and clinical sciences. They teach a on wide range of courses including undergraduate and postgraduate medicine, pharmacy, nursing, dentistry, physiotherapy, osteopathy, veterinary science and biomedical science. Note that this is far from an exhaustive list. Significant changes have taken place in pharmacology education in response to advances in pharmacology, developments in educational approaches and learning technologies, changes in healthcare education delivery, and the massification and internationalization of higher education. These challenge the educator, whose role is increasingly recognized as encompassing teaching, leadership and scholarly activity. The future of pharmacology education depends on our ability to navigate these changes. We argue that there are sets of interrelated knowledge, skill, and attribute competencies that pharmacology educators must master to ultimately enable their students to succeed, discussed in detail in the following sections
Cold adaptation does not handicap warm tolerance in the most abundant Arctic seabird
No full textArctic birds and mammals are physiologically adapted to survive in cold environments but live in the fastest warming region on the planet. They should therefore be most threatened by climate change. We fitted a phylogenetic model of upper critical temperature (TUC) in 255 bird species and determined that TUC for dovekies (Alle alle; 22.4°C)—the most abundant seabird in the Arctic—is 8.8°C lower than predicted for a bird of its body mass (150 g) and habitat latitude. We combined our comparative analysis with in situ physiological measurements on 36 dovekies from East Greenland and forward-projections of dovekie energy and water expenditure under different climate scenarios. Based on our analyses, we demonstrate that cold adaptation in this small Arctic seabird does not handicap acute tolerance to air temperatures up to at least 15°C above their current maximum. We predict that climate warming will reduce the energetic costs of thermoregulation for dovekies, but their capacity to cope with rising temperatures will be constrained by water intake and salt balance. Dovekies evolved 15 million years ago, and their thermoregulatory physiology might also reflect adaptation to a wide range of palaeoclimates, both substantially warmer and colder than the present day
Porous privacies: Gender, migration, and precarious homes in early twenty-first century narrative films from the French Mediterranean
No full textA prominent trope in so-called banlieue cinema—French cinema focused on housing projects on the outskirts of large French cities largely inhabited by migrants and their descendants—represents precarious migrant homes, and by extension entire neighborhoods, as dysfunctional and cut off from social life. This essay explores representations of precarious migrant homes that resist such polarising media images, and that insist on a porous privacy as a precondition for narrative and subjective development—for the ability to thrive—while pointing out the often gendered and precarious nature of such porosity. The natural and built specificities of the Mediterranean coast have often provided a productively rich set for such revisions, including for auteurs such as Claire Denis and Abdellatif Kechiche to develop their distinctive styles. Lesser-known filmmakers, such as Bania Medjbar and Hafsia Herzi, emerge in the wake of earlier revisionist films. Less focused on developing distinctive styles, they are invested in character-driven stories, and on stories that feature a range of characters and thus narrative options, while pointing out the gendered complexities of precariously porous homes
“My cinema is not diplomatic, it is confrontational”: Decolonial framing of the home in two documentaries by Rosine Mbakam
No full textThis article centers on two documentaries about migrant women in their home: At Jolie Coiffure (Chez Jolie Coiffure, 2018) and Delphine’s Prayers (Les Prières de Delphine, 2021), both directed by by Rosine Mbakam. I put in conversation the home as a private space and the home as a national construction which creates categories of exclusion and restrictions. I argue that Rosine Mbakam performs an act of “decolonial framing” by taking an antiethnographic approach and creating documentary events—including the filmmaking process, the film viewing, and real-life interactions centering on the film. This transnational cinema of confrontation creates community for Black, diasporic, and African audiences while reversing the gaze against white audiences. Mbakam films the home to showcase instances of resistance to institutional racism and colonial duress. Showing the home on screen also opens the way to create better homes for all through multiple avenues of participation. First, I analyse Mbakam’s filmmaking process and her own involvement on screen as a co-creative act, I then look at her composition which reflects the complex dwellings of the protagonists and how they are shaped by architecture. Finally, I look at the reception of her films to show how her mobile cinema activities provide the infrastructure for making new home spaces