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The Romans were the first civilization that envisaged an international legal system rooted in the human person and for all humankind. The innovation of this concept was precisely its universality centered on the human conscience, which, different from past approaches to international law, was not theoretically limited to a group of people or a religion. Although still deprived of universal de facto application, the Roman concept of the law of nations or jus gentium guided, to a greater or lesser extent, all subsequent writings on the subject until its complete limitation to a law between states and its current revival within the theoretical framework of international human rights law. The general framework of human rights is the Roman notion that international law flows from an universal reason of all humankind and is equally observed by all peoples and used as law by all peoples or nations. It is this definition, looked through the perspective of modern times, which forms the pro homine framework. Both the European and Inter-American human rights courts unconsciously follow the precepts of the Roman jus gentium. They contribute to the reaffirmation that international human rights is indeed centered on the human person as the end and source of law. This individual-centric and Roman-based conception guide the transformation, application and interpretation of international human rights law setting the basic parameters of individuals as bearers of rights, duties, capacity and interests at the international level. Accordingly, declarations, treaties and courts merge traditional elements of international law (the language of declarations and treaties) with the core elements of the Roman law of nations (universality, the human person as the source and end of law, international law setting guidelines to change and adapt domestic law and the importance of written instruments and magistrates). Adapting to different historical, legal, social and political contexts, international human rights law is in theory and method part of a truly corpus juris gentium romani (body of the Roman law of nations

The degradation of toxic and volatile contaminants in aqueous streams is considered a challenge using conventional bioremediation strategies. At moderate concentrations, toxic contaminants induce microbial inhibition, which results in an overall decrease of reaction rates. On the other hand, volatile compounds are often stripped out of solution into the atmosphere during aeration in conventional wastewater treatments, and are not treated. The addition of a second non-aqueous phase with affinities for the contaminants can reduce aqueous concentrations to sub-inhibitory levels and also decrease contaminant volatilization, while still allowing controlled release of contaminants back to the microbial population; such systems have been denoted as Two Phase Partitioning Bioreactor (TPPB). The current work examined and compared the performance of solid-liquid TPPB to a liquid-liquid TPPB and a single phase system. The systems were compared in the simultaneous degradation of phenol and butyl acetate, two substrates known for their relatively high levels of toxicity and volatility, respectively. The solid-liquid TPPB, using 2 polymers selected heuristically, showed an improvement of 40 and 54 % in phenol degradation rates compared to the single phase and the liquid-liquid systems. Additionally, the solid-liquid system presented a 55 and 11 % enhancement in the amount of butyl acetate degraded. At higher initial substrate concentration the solid-liquid TPPB showed an improvement in the phenol degradation rate and the amount of butyl acetate degraded of 44 and 94 % respectively, compared to the single phase system. In order to rationalize polymer screening for solid-liquid TPPBs, selection criteria based on first principles were developed, and were based on consideration of polymer accessibility and polymer-solute thermodynamic affinity. Polymer accessibility was evaluated by considering glass transition temperature (Tg) and degree of crystallinity, while polymer-solute thermodynamic affinity was assessed using three different methods, Hildebrand solubility parameters, Hansen Solubility Parameters (HSP) and activity coefficients at infinite dilution. It was found that the HSP method gave the best trends and its predictions had better agreement with the experimental results. Consequent biodegradation experiments with a single, rationally selected polymer, and a mixture of waste polymers, demonstrated the superior performance of rational selected polymers.

Background: The implementation of mandatory synoptic templates in the final diagnosis section of pathology reports has been associated with increased uniformity and clarity though the content and format of other pathology report sections have yet to be examined. This study appears to be the first of its kind to examine the importance of gross and microscopic descriptions for pathologists and clinicians. Methods: Survey invitations were forwarded to both pathologists and clinicians on their use and their perceived value of the gross and microscopic description sections. A retrospective review of pathology reports of the specimens most commonly submitted to pathology was then performed to determine the elements currently included in/ omitted from microscopic descriptions. Results: Overall, the majority of pathologists indicated they at least usually read the gross descriptions of biopsies (73.59%) and excisional specimens (91.18%) but rarely felt that microscopic descriptions should be included for biopsies (81.25%) nor excisional specimens (78.13%). Pathologists also indicated they believed gross and microscopic descriptions were rarely read (72.73% and 57.58% respectively), understood (54.55% and 42.42% respectively), or utilized by clinicians. However, the majority of clinicians indicated that they always read pathology reports (94.94%) and at least usually read and understood the gross (79.66% and 85.80% respectively) and microscopic descriptions (91.23% and 87.06% respectively) and found these sections valuable. The pathology report review revealed that microscopic descriptions were included most frequently for renal (100%) and hepatic (45%) biopsies and dermatological excisions (53.85%) and consisted of histological descriptions and ancillary studies of the respective tissues. Other specimen types including pulmonary, and breast biopsies along with gynecological excisions included this information in the comments section. Conclusion: In summary, pathologists are advised to be cognizant that clinicians read and find value in the gross and microscopic description sections. Furthermore, there appears to be a discordance between where elements are included in pathology reports depending on specimen type. For increased consistency and clarity, it is recommended that elements be included in designated sections across all specimen types.

Ethiopia’s unique cultural and historical leadership contexts have molded its conception of leader power, a conception differing significantly from Western leadership models’. This paper explores shepherd leadership’s response to leader authority in Ethiopia compared to that of Transformational Leadership (TL) and Greenleaf’s Servant Leadership (SL). An overview of Ethiopia’s cultural and historical leadership contexts precedes an examination of TL and SL’s conceptions of authority in Western and Ethiopian leadership literature. A review of shepherd leadership and authority in ancient and current literature follows. A process of ‘problematization’ (Alvesson & Sandberg, 2011) demonstrates that TL and SL’s postmodern view of authority inadequately addresses Ethiopia’s high power distance context, whereas shepherd leadership provides a robust and culturally appropriate response. This is the first known examination of shepherd leadership in Ethiopia and the first exploration of TL and SL’s conceptualization of authority and power in Ethiopia’s hierarchical context. Three managerial applications are proposed.

Communications between nano-devices is an emerging research field in nanotechnology. Molecular Communication (MC), which is a bio-inspired paradigm, is a promising technique for communication in nano-network. In MC, molecules are administered to exchange information among nano-devices. Due to the nature of molecular signals, traditional communication methods can’t be directly applied to the MC framework. The objective of this thesis is to present novel diffusion-based MC methods when multi nano-devices communicate with each other in the same environment. A new channel model and detection technique along with a molecular-based access method, are proposed in here for communication between asynchronous users. In this work, the received molecular signal is modeled as a Gaussian mixture distribution when the MC system undergoes Brownian noise and inter-symbol interference (ISI). This novel approach demonstrates a suitable modeling for diffusion-based MC system. Using the proposed Gaussian mixture model, a simple receiver is designed by minimizing the error probability. To determine an optimum detection threshold, an iterative algorithm is derived which minimizes a linear approximation of the error probability function. Also, a memory-based receiver is proposed to improve the performance of the MC system by considering previously detected symbols in obtaining the threshold value. Numerical evaluations reveal that theoretical analysis of the bit error rate (BER) performance based on the Gaussian mixture model match simulation results very closely. Furthermore, in this thesis, molecular code division multiple access (MCDMA) is proposed to overcome the inter-user interference (IUI) caused by asynchronous users communicating in a shared propagation environment. Based on the selected molecular codes, a chip detection scheme with an adaptable threshold value is developed for the MCDMA system when the proposed Gaussian mixture model is considered. Results indicate that the MCDMA system is a promising approach to reduce interference created by asynchronous nodes in multi-user MC systems. Meanwhile, the receiver is modified by exploiting previously detected chips to eliminate the ISI. The performance evaluations via computer simulations show that the memory-based receiver, which considers previously detected chips in detection procedure, outperforms the memory-less receiver.

Youth health promotion activities should reflect the concerns and interests of the youth being served. A quantitative exploration of youth concern related to health risk behaviour (HRB) engagement was conducted among youth in Winnipeg, MB. This study involved descriptive and inferential analysis of HRB engagement and attitude data from a cross-sectional survey of 250 youth (14–24 years). Chi-squared tests, Fisher’s exact tests, logistic regression and cluster analyses were employed to explore relationships between sociodemographic traits, HRB engagement, and HRB-specific concern. Findings demonstrated that A) youth in Winnipeg, regardless of their sociodemographic characteristics, do express concern about HRBs that they engage in; B) the likelihood of concern varies depending on what HRB one is examining; and C) while youth display similar trends in their concern about HRBs, different groups of youth, characterized by different patterns of engagement and sociodemographic traits vary in their likelihood of being concerned about particular HRBs.

On Tuesday night, Greg Stevenson, CEO of the Chili for Children program, was presented with the President's Community Award by Dr. Vianne Timmons, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Regina and Pam Klein, Vice-Chair of the University's Board of Governors. "If I could open my chest, you would see that my heart is overflowing with gratitude tonight," Stevenson shared with the friends, family, community leaders, and members of the University and wider community gathered to honour the not-for-profit hot lunch program. Staff no