Unidentified man and young boy sit on park bench in Chile Portraits Women

Digital Image

Unidentified man and young boy sit on park bench in Chile Portraits Women

Digital Image

Dr. Bernhard Bardach in trench with unidentified soldiers Military; Portraits

Digital Image

Cecilia Razovsky papers, undated, 1913-1971.

The papers consist of correspondence and reports of Cecelia Razovsky (married name: Davidson), noted social worker specializing in immigration and resettlement of refugees. The collection includes information about her work with the National Council of Jewish Women in the 1920's, and with the National Refugee Service (and predecessor organizations) in the 1930's. Information is included about her work as a Resettlement Supervisor in the post-World War II DP camps in Europe, and as a field worker in the southwestern U.S. for the United Service for New Americans in 1950. The collection contains reports and correspondence from her trips to South America, primarily Brazil: to explore possibilities of refugee settlement in 1937 and 1946; as a representative for United HIAS Service to aid in settling Egyptian and Hungarian refugees in 1957-58; and as a pleasure trip and evaluation of the changes in the Jewish community of the country in 1963. Also included in the collection are many of Razovsky's articles, plays, and pamphlets.

Evidence from molecules and morphology expands Podonomopsis Brundin (Diptera: Chironomidae: Podonominae) to include ‘genus Chile'

The informal taxon ‘genus Chile’ of Brundin, based solely on pupal exuviae of a podonomine Chironomidae, has remained inadequately known for half a century. New collections reveal life associations, and provide molecular data to hypothesise a precise phylogenetic placement in the austral Podonominae. A densely sampled molecular phylogeny based on two nuclear and one mitochondrial DNA markers shows ‘genus Chile’ to be the sister group to Podonomopsis Brundin, 1966. Within Podonomopsis a clade of South American species is sister to all Australian species. We discuss how to rank such a sister group taxon and treat ‘genus Chile’ as a new subgenus Araucanopsis, subg. nov. with the new species, Podonomopsis (Araucanopsis) avelasse, sp. nov. from Chile and Argentina as genotype of the monotypic subgenus. We describe P. (A.) avelasse in all stages and provide an expanded diagnosis and description of Podonomopsis to include Araucanopsis. A dated biogeographic hypothesis (chronogram) infers the most recent common ancestor (tmcra) of expanded Podonomopsis at 95 million years ago (Mya) (68–122 Mya 95% highest posterior density), ‘core’ Podonomopsis at 83 Mya (58–108) and Australian Podonomopsis at 65 Mya (44–87). All dates are before the South America–Australia geological separation through Antarctica, supporting previous conclusions that the taxon distribution is ‘Gondwanan’ in origin. Podonomopsis, even as expanded here, remains unknown from New Zealand or elsewhere on extant Zealandia.

Greenwashing the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Fossil fuels, the environment, and climate change

There has been much controversy over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – a plurilateral trade agreement involving a dozen nations from throughout the Pacific Rim – and its impact upon the environment, biodiversity, and climate change. The secretive treaty negotiations involve Australia and New Zealand; countries from South East Asia such as Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Japan; the South American nations of Peru and Chile; and the members of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canada, Mexico and the United States. There was an agreement reached between the parties in October 2015. The participants asserted: ‘We expect this historic agreement to promote economic growth, support higher-paying jobs; enhance innovation, productivity and competitiveness; raise living standards; reduce poverty in our countries; and to promote transparency, good governance, and strong labor and environmental protections.’ The final texts of the agreement were published in November 2015. There has been discussion as to whether other countries – such as Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Korea – will join the deal. There has been much debate about the impact of this proposed treaty upon intellectual property, the environment, biodiversity and climate change. There have been similar concerns about the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – a proposed trade agreement between the United States and the European Union. In 2011, the United States Trade Representative developed a Green Paper on trade, conservation, and the environment in the context of the TPP. In its rhetoric, the United States Trade Representative has maintained that it has been pushing for strong, enforceable environmental standards in the TPP. In a key statement in 2014, the United States Trade Representative Mike Froman insisted: ‘The United States’ position on the environment in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations is this: environmental stewardship is a core American value, and we will insist on a robust, fully enforceable environment chapter in the TPP or we will not come to agreement.’ The United States Trade Representative maintained: ‘Our proposals in the TPP are centered around the enforcement of environmental laws, including those implementing multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) in TPP partner countries, and also around trailblazing, first-ever conservation proposals that will raise standards across the region’. Moreover, the United States Trade Representative asserted: ‘Furthermore, our proposals would enhance international cooperation and create new opportunities for public participation in environmental governance and enforcement.’ The United States Trade Representative has provided this public outline of the Environment Chapter of the TPP: A meaningful outcome on environment will ensure that the agreement appropriately addresses important trade and environment challenges and enhances the mutual supportiveness of trade and environment. The Trans-Pacific Partnership countries share the view that the environment text should include effective provisions on trade-related issues that would help to reinforce environmental protection and are discussing an effective institutional arrangement to oversee implementation and a specific cooperation framework for addressing capacity building needs. They also are discussing proposals on new issues, such as marine fisheries and other conservation issues, biodiversity, invasive alien species, climate change, and environmental goods and services. Mark Linscott, an assistant Trade Representative testified: ‘An environment chapter in the TPP should strengthen country commitments to enforce their environmental laws and regulations, including in areas related to ocean and fisheries governance, through the effective enforcement obligation subject to dispute settlement.’ Inside US Trade has commented: ‘While not initially expected to be among the most difficult areas, the environment chapter has emerged as a formidable challenge, partly due to disagreement over the United States proposal to make environmental obligations binding under the TPP dispute settlement mechanism’. Joshua Meltzer from the Brookings Institute contended that the trade agreement could be a boon for the protection of the environment in the Pacific Rim: Whether it is depleting fisheries, declining biodiversity or reduced space in the atmosphere for Greenhouse Gas emissions, the underlying issue is resource scarcity. And in a world where an additional 3 billion people are expected to enter the middle class over the next 15 years, countries need to find new and creative ways to cooperate in order to satisfy the legitimate needs of their population for growth and opportunity while using resources in a manner that is sustainable for current and future generations. The TPP parties already represent a diverse range of developed and developing countries. Should the TPP become a free trade agreement of the Asia-Pacific region, it will include the main developed and developing countries and will be a strong basis for building a global consensus on these trade and environmental issues. The TPP has been promoted by its proponents as a boon to the environment. The United States Trade Representative has maintained that the TPP will protect the environment: ‘The United States’ position on the environment in the TPP negotiations is this: environmental stewardship is a core American value, and we will insist on a robust, fully enforceable environment chapter in the TPP or we will not come to agreement.’ The United States Trade Representative discussed ‘Trade for a Greener World’ on World Environment Day. Andrew Robb, at the time the Australian Trade and Investment Minister, vowed that the TPP will contain safeguards for the protection of the environment. In November 2015, after the release of the TPP text, Rohan Patel, the Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, sought to defend the environmental credentials of the TPP. He contended that the deal had been supported by the Nature Conservancy, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, the World Wildlife Fund, and World Animal Protection. The United States Congress, though, has been conflicted by the United States Trade Representative’s arguments about the TPP and the environment. In 2012, members of the United States Congress - including Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and John Kerry (D-MA) – wrote a letter, arguing that the trade agreement needs to provide strong protection for the environment: ‘We believe that a '21st century agreement' must have an environment chapter that guarantees ongoing sustainable trade and creates jobs, and this is what American businesses and consumers want and expect also.’ The group stressed that ‘A binding and enforceable TPP environment chapter that stands up for American interests is critical to our support of the TPP’. The Congressional leaders maintained: ‘We believe the 2007 bipartisan congressional consensus on environmental provisions included in recent trade agreements should serve as the framework for the environment chapter of the TPP.’ In 2013, senior members of the Democratic leadership expressed their opposition to granting President Barack Obama a fast-track authority in respect of the TPP House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said: ‘No on fast-track – Camp-Baucus – out of the question.’ Senator Majority leader Harry Reid commented: ‘I’m against Fast-Track: Everyone would be well-advised to push this right now.’ Senator Elizabeth Warren has been particularly critical of the process and the substance of the negotiations in the TPP: From what I hear, Wall Street, pharmaceuticals, telecom, big polluters and outsourcers are all salivating at the chance to rig the deal in the upcoming trade talks. So the question is, Why are the trade talks secret? You’ll love this answer. Boy, the things you learn on Capitol Hill. I actually have had supporters of the deal say to me ‘They have to be secret, because if the American people knew what was actually in them, they would be opposed. Think about that. Real people, people whose jobs are at stake, small-business owners who don’t want to compete with overseas companies that dump their waste in rivers and hire workers for a dollar a day—those people, people without an army of lobbyists—they would be opposed. I believe if people across this country would be opposed to a particular trade agreement, then maybe that trade agreement should not happen. The Finance Committee in the United States Congress deliberated over the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations in 2014. The new chair Ron Wyden has argued that there needs to be greater transparency in trade. Nonetheless, he has mooted the possibility of a ‘smart-track’ to reconcile the competing demands of the Obama Administration, and United States Congress. Wyden insisted: ‘The new breed of trade challenges spawned over the last generation must be addressed in imaginative new policies and locked into enforceable, ambitious, job-generating trade agreements.’ He emphasized that such agreements ‘must reflect the need for a free and open Internet, strong labor rights and environmental protections.’ Elder Democrat Sander Levin warned that the TPP failed to provide proper protection for the environment: The TPP parties are considering a different structure to protect the environment than the one adopted in the May 10 Agreement, which directly incorporated seven multilateral environmental agreements into the text of past trade agreements. While the form is less important than the substance, the TPP must provide an overall level of environmental protection that upholds and builds upon the May 10 standard, including fully enforceable obligations. But many of our trading partners are actively seeking to weaken the text to the point of falling short of that standard, including on key issues like conservation. Nonetheless, 2015, President Barack Obama was able to secure the overall support of the United States Congress for his ‘fast-track’ authority. This was made possible by the Republicans and dissident Democrats. Notably, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden switched sides, and was transformed from a critic of the TPP to an apologist for the TPP. For their part, green political parties and civil society organisations have been concerned about the secretive nature of the negotiations; and the substantive implications of the treaty for the environment. Environmental groups and climate advocates have been sceptical of the environmental claims made by the White House for the TPP. The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, the Australian Greens and the Green Party of Canada have released a joint declaration on the TPP observing: ‘More than just another trade agreement, the TPP provisions could hinder access to safe, affordable medicines, weaken local content rules for media, stifle high-tech innovation, and even restrict the ability of future governments to legislate for the good of public health and the environment’. In the United States, civil society groups such as the Sierra Club, Public Citizen, WWF, the Friends of the Earth, the Rainforest Action Network and 350.org have raised concerns about the TPP and the environment. Allison Chin, President of the Sierra Club, complained about the lack of transparency, due process, and public participation in the TPP talks: ‘This is a stealth affront to the principles of our democracy.’ Maude Barlow’s The Council of Canadians has also been concerned about the TPP and environmental justice. New Zealand Sustainability Council executive director Simon Terry said the agreement showed ‘minimal real gains for nature’. A number of organisations have joined a grand coalition of civil society organisations, which are opposed to the grant of a fast-track. On the 15th January 2013, WikiLeaks released the draft Environment Chapter of the TPP - along with a report by the Chairs of the Environmental Working Group. Julian Assange, WikiLeaks' publisher, stated: ‘Today's WikiLeaks release shows that the public sweetener in the TPP is just media sugar water.’ He observed: ‘The fabled TPP environmental chapter turns out to be a toothless public relations exercise with no enforcement mechanism.’ This article provides a critical examination of the draft Environment Chapter of the TPP. The overall argument of the article is that the Environment Chapter of the TPP is an exercise in greenwashing – it is a public relations exercise by the United States Trade Representative, rather than a substantive regime for the protection of the environment in the Pacific Rim. Greenwashing has long been a problem in commerce, in which companies making misleading and deceptive claims about the environment. In his 2012 book, Greenwash: Big Brands and Carbon Scams, Guy Pearse considers the rise of green marketing and greenwashing. Government greenwashing is also a significant issue. In his book Storms of My Grandchildren, the climate scientist James Hansen raises his concerns about government greenwashing. Such a problem is apparent with the TPP – in which there was a gap between the assertions of the United States Government, and the reality of the agreement. This article contends that the TPP fails to meet the expectations created by President Barack Obama, the White House, and the United States Trade Representative about the environmental value of the agreement. First, this piece considers the relationship of the TPP to multilateral environmental treaties. Second, it explores whether the provisions in respect of the environment are enforceable. Third, this article examines the treatment of trade and biodiversity in the TPP. Fourth, this study considers the question of marine capture fisheries. Fifth, there is an evaluation of the cursory text in the TPP on conservation. Sixth, the article considers trade in environmental services under the TPP. Seventh, this article highlights the tensions between the TPP and substantive international climate action. It is submitted that the TPP undermines effective and meaningful government action and regulation in respect of climate change. The conclusion also highlights that a number of other chapters of the TPP will impact upon the protection of the environment – including the Investment Chapter, the Intellectual Property Chapter, the Technical Barriers to Trade Chapter, and the text on public procurement.

Stabilizing trench's algorithm to invert symmetric toeplitz matrices

Presented here is a stable algorithm that uses Zohar's formulation of Trench's algorithm and computes the inverse of a symmetric Toeplitz matrix including those with vanishing or nearvanishing leading minors. The algorithm is based on a diagonal modification of the matrix, and exploits symmetry and persymmetry properties of the inverse matrix.

Chromium Nanowires Grown Inside Lithographically Fabricated U-Trench Templates

Chromium nanowires of diameter 40-120 nm have been grown inside lithographically fabricated U-trench templates on oxidized silicon substrate by RF sputtering deposition technique. Under favourable experimental conditions, very long nanowires can be grown which depends on the trench length and surface homogeneity along the axis. Surface wettability control by the restricted supply of metal vapour is the key for the formation of nanowires. Diameter/depth ratio for the trench template is demonstrated to be crucial for the growth of nanowires.

Constraining large earthquakes along the Andaman trench using deepwater turbidites: prospects and challenges

The 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake was unprecedented in terms of its magnitude (M-w 9.2), rupture length along the plate boundary (1300 km) and size of the resultant tsunami. Since 2004, efforts are being made to improve the understanding of the seismic hazard in the Sumatra-Andaman subduction zone in terms of recurrence patterns of major earthquakes and tsunamis. It is reasonable to assume that previous earthquake events in the Myanmar Andaman segment must be preserved in the geological record in the form of seismo-turbidite sequences. Here we present the prospects of conducting deep ocean palaeoseismicity investigations in order to refine the quantification of the recurrence pattern of large subduction-zone earthquakes along the Andaman-Myanmar arc. Our participation in the Sagar Kanya cruise SK-273 (in June 2010) was to test the efficacy of such a survey. The primary mission of the cruise, along a short length (300 km) of the Sumatra Andaman subduction front was to collect bathymetric data of the ocean floor trenchward of the Andaman Islands. The agenda of our piggyback survey was to fix potential coring sites that might preserve seismo-turbidite deposits. In this article we present the possibilities and challenges of such an exercise and our first-hand experience of such a preliminary survey. This account will help future researchers with similar scientific objectives who would want to survey the deep ocean archives of this region for evidence of extreme events like major earthquakes.

Evaluation of termination techniques for 4H-SiC PiN diodes and trench JFETs

An investigation concerning suitable termination techniques for 4H-SiC trench JFETs is presented. Field plates, p+ floating rings and junction termination extension techniques are used to terminate 1.2kV class PiN diodes. The fabricated PiN diodes evaluated here have a similar design to trench JFETs. Therefore, the conclusions for PiN diodes can be applied to JFET structures as well. Numerical simulations are also used to illustrate the effect of the terminations on the diodes' blocking mode behaviour.

Caracterización y evaluación preliminar de catorce accesiones de chile (Capsicum spp.)

La presente investigación se llevó a cabo en el Programa de Recursos Genéticos Nicaraguenses (REGEN) de la Universidad Nacional Agraria, durante el período Octubre 2002-Abril-2003, teniendo como principal objetivo contribuir al desarrollo y mejoramiento de la actividad productiva en el cultivo del chile (Capsicum spp.) en Nicaragua. El material genético estuvo formado por genotipos procedentes de México (Chile Ancho, Catarina, Serrano, Mirasol, Arbol, Puya, Guajillo y Cascabel), de Nicaragua (Pico de pájaro, Diente de perro y Jalapeño), de Perú (Alfilerillo y Bacatum) y Pakistán (Canica). Se construyó una base de datos con 44 descriptores cualitativos y cuantitativos de 14 genotipos. Como base se empleó la guía de descriptores propuesta por el IBPGR (1983). Las parcelas experimentales estuvieron constituidas por nueve plantas con dos réplicas de las cuales se tomaron dos plantas por parcela para la recolección de los datos. Fueron empleadas herramientas estadísticas univariadas y multivariadas. El ANDEVA y Tukey (∞=0.05) aplicados a los descriptores cuantitativos demostró una alta significancia estadística estableciéndose clara diferencia entre los genotipos; las accesiones Bacatum, Diente de perro, Pico de pájaro, Alfilerillo y Ancho manifestaron una amplia variación. El análisis de componentes principales determinó que los descriptores de fruto, semillas y flor contribuyeron a que los tres primeros componentes principales aislaran el 68.09 % de la variación general conformada por 28 variables. De igual manera, el análisis de conglomerados (Ward, coeficiente R2 semiparcial) fijó cuatro grupos a una distancia de 0.125, este análisis aglutina a los cultivares de la siguiente forma: Primer grupo (Bacatum), segundo grupo (Diente de perro y Pico de pájaro), y el tercer grupo (Guajillo, Mirasol, Cascabel, Chile Ancho y Jalapeño) y el cuarto grupo (Alfilerillo, Catarina, Serrano, Canica, Arbol y Puya). Los cultivares evaluados presentan características morfológicas de C. annum, C. frutescens y C. baccatum. Con respecto a la caracterización del germoplasma a enfermedades se observó una alta incidencia de infección viral. La mayoría de los genotipos mostraron altos niveles de severidad; sin embargo los materiales Alfilerillo, Canica y Diente de perro mostraron valores de severidad menores del 20%. Respecto al ataque de picudo se pudo observar que Puya, Pico de pájaro y Diente de perro mostraron un nivel de daño severo mientras que los genotipos Cascabel,Jalapeño, Guajillo, Alfilerillo yChile Ancho no mostraron daño.

Incidencia de mosca blanca (Bemisia tabaci Genn) y Picudo (Anthonomus eugenii cano) en cinco genotipos de chile (Capsicum ssp)

Este trabajo se realizó en el período comprendido entre noviembre 2003 y abril 2004, en el área experimental del programa de Recursos Genéticos Nicaragüenses(REGEN), de la Universidad Nacional Agraria, ubicado en el km 12 ½ Carretera Norte con el objetivo de evaluar cinco genotipos de chile (Capsicum ssp.), a la infestación natural de las principales plagas. Los genotipos evaluados fueron CANICA1, CANICA2, ALFILERILLO, DIENTE PERRO Y MIRASOL; se utilizó un diseño de Bloques Completos al Azar (BCA). Las variables evaluadas fueron: incidencia de mosca blanca, incidencia y severidad de virosis, incidencia de picudo,número de frutos por planta, número de frutos anormales y rendimiento (kg ha-1).Para identificar características entre los genotipos, se realizó análisis de varianza y separación de medias (Tukey α=0.05). Los resultados indicaron que para todas las variables evaluadas existen diferencias significativas. El mayor promedio de mosca blanca la obtuvo el genotipo CANICA2 y el menor el genotipo MIRASOL. En cuanto a la incidencia de virosis el menor valor lo presentó CANICA1 y el mayor DIENTE PERRO. El genotipo con mayor severidad por infección viral fue MIRASOL y el menor valor promedio en CANICA1. Para la variable número de frutos por planta, los genotipos MIRASOL y ALFILERILLO promediaron los menores y mayores valores promedio, respectivamente. En cuanto a frutos deformes el menor promedio lo obtuvo CANICA1 y el mayor DIENTE PERRO. Los mayores rendimientos fueron alcanzados por los genotipos DIENTE PERRO (944.4 kg ha-1) y CANICA2 (941 kg ha-1) y el menor valor al genotipo ALFILERILLO con un rendimiento de 368.8 kg ha-1.

Caracterización y evaluación preliminar de 14 accesiones de Chile (Capsicum spp)

La presente investigación se llevó a cabo en el Programa de Recursos Genéticos Nicaragüenses (REGEN) de la Universidad Nacional Agraria, durante el período Octubre 2002-Abril-2003. El objetivo fue estudiar y evaluar gennoplasma nativo e introducido de chile {Capsicum spp.) en condiciones del trópico seco de Nicaragua. La caracterización de las 14 accesiones en base a la guía de descriptores propuesta por IBPGR (lt¡83) y mediante el análisis estadístico univariado y multivariados permitió identificar los principales descriptores cualitatí vos ( fonna del fruto, pungencía y forma del fruto en la unión con el pedúnculo) y cuantitativos (diámetro de semillas, diámetro del fruto y peso del fruto) que son de gran utilidad para el estudio de la variación genética de chile. Además se logró conformar un catálogo con las características de cada uno de los material.es. Las accesiones de mayor variación fueron Bacatum, Diente de perro, Pico de pájaro, Alfilerillo y Chile ancho. El resto de materiales tienen características más uniformes. Las accesiones evaluadas presentaron características morfológicas propias de las especies C. annuum, C. frutescens y C. baccatum. En el germopla.sma de Capsicum evaluado se encontraron materiales que poseen diferente reacción a plagas y enfermedades. Palabras claves: Capsicum; accesión; germoplasma; descriptor.