Yes / Richard Guthrie describes the central pillars of the verification regime for the Chemical Weapons Convention and assesses the relevance of a similar verification architecture for the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

Yes / Acceleration of the applications of cutting edge science is often most likely in situations involving conflict and warfare between different groups. That is the focus of this paper. It asks what we know of the past, present and possible future applications of advances in our understanding of the brain in the development of chemical weapons, and what might best be done to moderate the most dangerous aspects of that process at the present time, particularly by members of civil society. The paper therefore begins by examining this possibility of hostile manipulation of the brain in some detail. It then briefly reviews the current state of the chemical and biological arms control and disarmament regime as embodied in the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) following the 2016 8th Five Year Review Conference of the BTWC and in the lead up to the 2018 4th Five Year Review Conference of the CWC. Finally, our civil society initiative to assist in achieving a successful outcome of the 2018 CWC Review Conference is described. This initiative involves the production of a multi-authored edited book, to be published in advance of the Review Conference by the UK Royal Society of Chemistry that explores many of the critical issues facing the CWC States Parties as they seek to agree effective measures to prevent the development and use of chemical weapons, as the life and chemical sciences advance.

Yes

Yes / In this report, we identify some of the key technical and political challenges currently facing the broader Chemical and Biological Weapon (CBW) regime- with a particular emphasis on major forthcoming diplomatic meetings. Most significantly the Ninth Review Conference of the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention (1972) (BTWC) which will take place in 2022 and preparations for the Fifth Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993) (CWC), expected in 2023. This report is an output of an ongoing project, designed to stimulate thinking and discussion about these issues, within relevant stakeholder communities. The report provides an introduction to this issue area for the general reader before surveying key issues and developing a series of practical policy suggestions for further consideration.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Religion)--Vanderbilt University, Aug. 2008. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Regarding the structural logic behind Jacob’s death-bed story (Gen 47.28-50.26), biblical scholars historically have seen its enigmatic features as evidence of diachronic development. Those who treat it as an intentionally composed whole typically either simply assume that intention or else argue for it using only basic logical structures (chiasm, parallel). The story’s composition is better explained, however, through the lens of conventional structures, especially that of a Hebrew death-bed type-scene. In the first chapter I overview approaches to the passage in biblical scholarship and evaluate recent synchronic approaches. Structuralist readings of other biblical texts are considered and mostly dismissed as a precedent, though Propp’s method is similar. I then state my reasons for beginning with 47.28, rather than 47.27. In chapter two, I investigate the first of the four Episodes that make up Jacob’s death-bed story: 47.28-31. Specific issues addressed include: evidence of competing chronologies, phrasal similarities with the chosen-line genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11, and the characterization of Joseph as a Worthy Successor, one of four tale-roles taken by characters in death-bed stories. Chapter three deals with 48.1-22, giving special attention to the similarity of verses 3-12 to covenant-initiation forms, the issue of adoption, the conventional characterization of Joseph and his sons as Worthy Successors, and the grammar of verses 13-20. In chapter four I focus on the climactic aspects of the language of verse 28 and the characterization of all twelve sons as Worthy Co-Successors. Chapter five treats the Preparation and Testament sections (49.29-33) of the fourth and final Episode. Certain words and phrases are best understood in a legal register. In chapter six I turn to the extended conclusion of the fourth Episode, or the Epilogue, which encompasses the three short stories in 50.1-26. All three deal with conventional concerns typically addressed in death-bed stories. Furthermore, 50.22-26 is a conventional death-bed story in its own right. This investigation of conventional structures in Jacob’s death-bed story opens up new and more objective ways of understanding long-recognized problems in the passage as intentional elements, regardless of the process of the text’s composition and transmission.

The author presents an analysis of how speakers establish references in conversation. Further, this paper focuses on what words of a reference are conventionalized as speakers coordinate multiple times. The author explores how the co-occurrence of the reference terms with the referent can be a good predictor of what words are conventionalized over time. In order to study this, the author created an online version of the reference game from Clark and Wilkes-Gibbs (1986) experiment, where a matcher and director must describe a set of ambiguous shapes to each other many times. By creating an online version of this reference game the author was able to gather significantly more data and analyze the data with computational tools. Results prove that co-occurrence is a useful predictor of terms which are conventionalized, providing a first step for accounting for statistical inference in the process of conventionalization.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

This study was designed to identify the functional competencies necessary for a missionary to plant churches in the Philippines, to identify how those competencies can be recognized in individual missionaries, and to determine the percentage of personnel who possess specific functional competencies.