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The “loaded weapon” of presidential immunity: an international law perspective on Trump v. United States
Get PDFIn July 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States held that President Donald Trump enjoys absolute immunity for acts he committed within his constitutional powers as President, even if they were unlawful under U.S. law. Under international law, upon vacating office, a head of state continues to enjoy functional immunity for prior acts in their official capacity, which may include acts that exceeded the person’s authority. In this Article, we analyze the Supreme Court’s ruling from the viewpoint of international law. We explore the divergences between the Supreme Court’s approach to official and unofficial conduct and that of international law. In particular, we address the Court’s tripartite distinction between immunity and presumptive immunity for official conduct, and non-immunity for unofficial conduct—an approach that does not exist in international law. We consider how the Supreme Court’s categorization of activities will have implications both domestically and internationally. We are delighted to write this contribution in honor of Professor David Stewart whose work on immunity law in the United States and internationally is consistently insightful and thoughtful. His enthusiasm for the intricacies and implications of this area of law is infectious, and his support for colleagues, junior and senior alike, is a model for us all
Isolation of Potassium Bis(amido)diazadipnictogenide Salts
Get PDFThe reaction of Zintl phases K3As7 and K3P7 were investigated with 1-azido-4-bromobenzene (4-BrC6H4N3) and found to yield potassium salts of substituted diazadipnictogen rings (general molecular fragment {(RN)2Pn2}; Pn = P, As). In the case of the arsenic derivatives, amido(imino)arsenide persists in solution and bis(amido)diazadiarsenide persists in the solid state. These two species can be considered to share a monomer–dimer relationship, accessible by alteration between the solid and solution states, whereas in the case of K3P7, our crystallographic and spectroscopic studies are consistent with the formation of a bisamido(bisimino)diazadiphosphenide, the “dimeric” form, persisting in both the solid and solution phase. Subsequent reactivity studies with amido(imino)arsenide show that it can act as a source of amide anion, giving a carbonate and a thiourea derivative when investigated with CO2 and CS2, respectively
From first lines of code to peer-reviewed science: what high schoolers can build with AI research
Get PDFWhen I began teaching at Veritas AI, I first worked in the AI Scholars program, helping students build a foundation in Python, data science, and core machine learning. Later, I designed and taught AI + Medicine, which moves quickly from those fundamentals into clinical datasets, medical imaging, and model evaluation. These courses give students shared tools and a common starting point. From there, some students choose to continue their work in a more individualized research mentorship. In that setting, the student takes ownership of the question, and we work together to develop the methods, run experiments, and understand what the results mean. It is simply a different mode of learning: more open-ended, more iterative, and shaped by the student’s curiosity. In the fellowship program, students learn by doing. They explore datasets that are noisy and imperfect. They test baselines, refine architectures, troubleshoot errors that make no sense at first, and get comfortable asking, “Why did the model behave that way?” Research becomes less about performing correctness and more about learning how to think. The reward is not just a result: it is the moment the student realizes that they are capable of building knowledge, not just consuming it. Over the past two years, several of my mentees have taken their research from idea to publication. Five of these projects were published in the Journal of Emerging Investigators, each one shaped by a student’s personal curiosity and their persistence in solving a problem that mattered to them. What stands out is how different these problems are: ocean sustainability, global health, oncology. The diversity reflects the students, not any instruction to pursue a particular theme
Host plant use is driven by microclimate not nutritional quality in a grassland butterfly
Get PDF1. Abundance of insect herbivores often depends on host plant suitability for their specialised immature stages. Suitability can be strongly influenced by both microclimate and the nutritional quality of the plants themselves. Where soil nitrogen is high, host plants tend to have high nutritional quality, but vigorous growth of surrounding vegetation reduces microclimatic temperatures. Thus, thermophilous insects may face a choice between host plants with optimal microclimates and those with optimal nutritional quality.
2. We investigated how microclimate and nitrogen content influence oviposition choices by the declining Small Copper butterfly, Lycaena phlaeas, on its host plant, Rumex acetosa. We predicted that warmer plants would have lower nitrogen content, and that butterflies would choose cooler, high-nitrogen plants during warmer ambient conditions.
3. Although warmer acetosa plants had lower nitrogen content, L. phlaeas consistently chose to lay eggs on plants in warm microclimates, implying a trade-off between temperature and the nutritional quality of host plants.
4. Patches of bare ground created by Talpa europaea (European Mole) near acetosa plants increased microclimatic temperatures and decoupled the negative correlation between nutritional quality and thermal suitability.
5. Our results have implications for the conservation of thermophilous insect herbivores, especially close to their range margins and in the context of climate change. Rather than maximising host plant abundance or nutritional quality, management that creates suitable microclimatic conditions is likely to be critical. Our findings also suggest that, while nitrogen pollution may increase host plant nutritional quality, its negative impacts on microclimate will likely further reduce breeding habitat for phlaeas and other insects in grassland habitats
Medical haematology: Repositioning haematology at the centre of medicine
Get PDFSummary: Haematology is at a crossroads, divided between haemato‐oncology and the disparate disciplines collectively known as ‘non‐malignant’ haematology. This latter term is a misnomer that devalues a spectrum of complex, life‐threatening conditions and contributes to workforce shortages and research inequities. This article argues for the formal adoption of the term Medical Haematology to redefine this domain. We chart its central role across medicine, from guiding anticoagulation, transfusion and thrombosis care across specialties to addressing global health challenges. We highlight its pioneering contributions to molecular medicine and immunotherapy, exemplified by gene therapy for haemophilia and the repurposing of chimeric antigen receptor T cells for autoimmune disease. Finally, we present a forward‐looking blueprint involving establishment of ‘Blood Teams’, revamping educational curricula and championing equity to secure the speciality's future. Embracing Medical Haematology is a strategic imperative to reflect the life‐threatening nature of many conditions within the speciality, attract trainees, rebalance research priorities and firmly re‐establish haematology's indispensable role at the heart of modern medical practice
JADES: comprehensive census of broad-line AGN from reionization to cosmic noon revealed by JWST
Get PDFThe depth and coverage of the first years of James Webb Space Telescope observations have revealed low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGN) across a wide redshift range, shedding light on black hole (BH) assembly and feedback. We present our spectroscopic sample of 34 Type 1 AGN obtained from JADES survey data and spanning . Our sample of AGN probes a BH mass range of M at bolometric luminosities down to erg s. Most of these AGN are hosted in low-mass ( M) galaxies and are overmassive relative to the local relation, while remaining consistent with the local – relation. The wide redshift range provided by our sample allows us to trace the emergence of local – scaling relation across cosmic time. Additionally, we explore the capability of narrow-line diagnostics in identifying Type 2 AGN and find that a significant fraction of our AGN would be missed by them due to low metallicity or lack of high-energy ionizing photons. We explore the UV luminosity function of AGN and their hosts and find that it is subject to significant cosmic variance and is also dependent on the AGN bolometric luminosity. Finally, we show that the electron scattering scenario recently proposed to explain broad Balmer lines is untenable on multiple grounds showing that there is no evidence of significant BH mass overestimation
Aouchem '67: Algerian modernism and Third World revolution
No full textThis thesis examines how the modern art collective Aouchem (1967–1971) envisioned a multicultural Algerian nation. Previous histories have focused on how successfully, or not, Algerian artists distinguished postcolonial modernism from French influence. Shifting from this ‘vertical’ model of decolonisation to a horizontal framework, this thesis reconsiders modern art as a site of both national and transnational identity formation.Five years after Algeria’s independence in 1962, nine artists set out to revive what they called the ‘magical sign’: the encoded patterns found in Amazigh textiles, pottery, murals, and tattoos. Aouchem weaved these motifs and their own into painting, sculptures, and performance, blending them with Arab-Islamic abstraction and European traditions of painting. By locating all these forms at the ‘avant-garde’ of modern art, I argue that Aouchem collapsed colonial-era hierarchies of cultural expression.Theirs was not simply a formal statement. By layering its various legacies, the group sought to represent Algeria’s linguistically and culturally diverse population of eleven million, in contrast to the monolithic Arab-Islamic identity promoted by the state. Moreover, Aouchem included their project within a broader current of modern artists engaging with indigenous sources across Africa, Asia, and the Americas. For Aouchem’s artists, I argue, the dialogue between Algeria’s various cultures was part of a global conversation, firmly situated within the anticolonial context of the Third World movement.Stretching from 1962 to 1992, the thesis documents the rise and fall of Aouchem’s ‘Third World modernism’. Based on archival research, interviews, and visual analysis of their artworks, it locates the group at a high point of Algeria’s nation-building and international consciousness. It also reveals tensions between Aouchem’s nationalist project and other forms of identity, whether regional or gendered. However, written amid a global resurgence of ethnonationalism, this thesis explores a decolonising vision of the multicultural nation
Queering the simile: being ‘like’ in ancient epic and contemporary queer poetry: Queering the simile
No full textIn this thesis, my aim is to interrogate how the simile may serve as a vehicle for unconventional and non-conforming modes of presentation, imagination, and articulation of identity in classical epic poetry, and to showcase how we can extrapolate from such examples more general functionalities of the simile as a figure of speech with a particularly pronounced queer potential. Each chapter begins by taking soundings in similes from ancient epic and develops, through close readings of selected examples, insights into how the simile’s distinctive linguistic structure and conceptual framework yields such queer potential. It then carries these insights over into the analysis of, as it were, ‘out and out’ queer poetry by contemporary writers, both to test whether the formal-aesthetic analysis of the simile previously established on the basis of ancient material holds here as well and to examine if and how the previously detected queer potential is (or is not) realised in these contemporary queer works. In the Introduction, I show what kind of relevancy a queer study of the simile might have across the study of Classics as a discipline today. In the first chapter, I position the simile as both an object of inquiry and a methodological framework, exploring its queer potential and its capacity to disrupt linear time. Rather than reinforcing stable literary genealogies, I argue that similes create dynamic, non-linear engagements with the past, offering a model for queerness as fluid and resistant to fixed categories. Focusing on epic poetry, I demonstrate how similes unsettle conventional narrative structures and enable transhistorical dialogues between texts. Ultimately, I show that the simile functions as a queer figure of speech that disturbs, disrupts, and opens new possibilities for engaging with both antiquity and contemporary literature. The second chapter, on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, concentrates on the simile as a tool for erotic fantasy. It takes as its point and mode of comparison explicit receptions of the studied texts via the technique of impersonation, such as Kae Tempest’s Hold Your Own (2014). The third chapter, on Homer’s Odyssey and similes on familial structures, then compares uses of the simile in the Odyssey with uses of the simile in Ocean Vuong’s Night Sky with Exit Wounds (2016), exploring dynamics of classical reception that implicate the simile by way of intertextual references. The fourth chapter, on Homer’s Iliad, focuses on animal similes and their recurrence in contemporary queer poetry, taking Donika Kelly’s Bestiary (2016) as a main example and adopting a more open, thematic way of comparison. The fifth chapter, on Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica, discusses water similes in this poem and puts them into dialogue with the associative-conceptual notion of water-as-simile developed by Alice Oswald in her lecture “Interview with Water” (2020). The conclusion synthesises the findings of the previous chapters, reflecting on the broader implications of the study for the fields of classical reception, queer poetics, and comparative literature. It considers how the simile’s queer potential might be further explored beyond the texts examined here, suggesting directions for future research in both classical and contemporary literary studies.Across the different chapters, through these variations of comparative-critical engagement, the thesis seeks to model and make manifest, alongside the substantive analysis and arguments it develops, how the simile not only opens up new ways of imagining identity and kinship in classical poetry, but also enriches contemporary readerly and writerly practices, both scholarly and creative. My analysis then seeks to illustrate how the simile can inspire innovative methods of textual comparison, leading to new approaches for classical reception and comparative criticism. As I aim to show, comparing similes in epic poetry with those in contemporary queer poetry can reveal common themes and poetic techniques used across different genres, enriching the study of poetics and poetic imagination. Situated at the intersection of general descriptive poetics and decidedly queer formal-aesthetic analysis, this thesis approaches the study of poetics from an engaged queer perspective to shed new light on how the simile functions as a trope within classical epic and contemporary queer poetry and how it inspires new modalities of comparison, in both creative and literary-critical writing
Acute postoperative complications after scleral fixation of Akreos AO60 intraocular lens
No full textWe report three cases of postoperative exogenous endophthalmitis and toxic anterior segment syndrome (TASS) following vitrectomy for dislocated intraocular or crystalline lenses and scleral fixation of an Akreos intraocular lens (IOL) with Gore-Tex sutures. To our knowledge, postoperative exogenous endophthalmitis and TASS have not been previously described with this technique. A 67-, 56-, and 36-year-old underwent pars plana vitrectomy, lens removal or vitreolensectomy, and Akreos IOL scleral fixation. Three days later, cases 1 and 3 required vitreous biopsy and intravitreal Vancomycin/Amikacin for culture-positive endophthalmitis (Staphylococcus epidermidis and Streptococcus pneumoniae). Case 2 underwent removal of a dislocated fluocinolone implant, biopsy, and intravitreal antibiotics; negative cultures supported a diagnosis of TASS. Scleral-fixated IOLs carry risks of endophthalmitis and TASS. Large corneal wounds increase risk; meticulous wound construction is essential. Akreos IOLs do not prevent anterior migration of steroid implants. Immediate management is crucial
B and T cell responses to pre-erythrocytic R21/Matrix-M and blood-stage RH5.1/Matrix-M malaria vaccines in endemic settings
No full textIntroduction: There is great interest in combining the licensed pre-erythrocytic malaria vaccine R21/Matrix-M® and the blood-stage candidate vaccine RH5.1/Matrix-M® to maximise efficacy against Plasmodium falciparum malaria. As protection is understood to be antibody-mediated for both vaccines, the success of a multistage vaccination strategy will be aided by understanding factors that impact the cellular drivers of humoral immunity, e.g. dosing regimen, exposure to malaria, and age. Prior analyses of adult vaccinees showed higher RH5-specific memory B cell responses with delayed fractional versus monthly booster dosing (50-50-10μg at 0-1-6months and 10-10-10μg at 0-1-2months, respectively), but the B cell impact of delayed booster regimens has not yet been evaluated in the target paediatric population. There have also not yet been NANP-specific B cell immunogenicity analyses with R21/Matrix-M. Methods: Here, pre- and post-vaccination PBMC from two Phase 1b clinical trials with R21/Matrix-M® (NCT03580824;Kenya) and RH5.1/Matrix-M® (NCT04318002; Tanzania) were analysed by flow cytometry for antigen-specific memory B cell and total (R21) or antigen-specific (RH5) circulating Tfh (cTfh) cell responses. Results: For R21, higher frequencies of NANP-specific activated memory IgG+ B cells were detected in infants versus adults, and also with a higher Matrix-M® dose (50μg versus 25μg). Both NANP-specific IgG+ memory B cells and total cTfh cells correlated with anti-NANP serum IgG. For RH5.1, higher previous malaria exposure was associated with increased RH5- specific cTfh and cTfh2 cell frequencies. RH5-specific IgG+ memory B cell responses were greatest with delayed booster dosing (10-10-10μg at 0-1-6months) compared to monthly or delayed fractional regimens, and correlated with both peak and late time point serum antibody (2-years after final vaccination). Interestingly, while late time point anti-RH5.1 serum IgG concentrations in delayed booster children vaccinees matched previous reports with RH5.1/AS01B delayed fractional dosing in adults (NCT02927145; UK), IgG durability and relationship to RH5-specific B cells differed between these two cohorts. Discussion: While our conclusions would be strengthened by further analyses in larger clinical trials, our data indicate that age, adjuvant dose, vaccine dose, and timing of final booster vaccination impact antigen-specific cellular responses to malaria vaccines and could thus inform the development of next-generation multi-stage malaria vaccination strategies