Human rights, maintaining

In a meeting opened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2171 on conflict prevention. The Security Council expressed its commitment to prevent armed conflict as part of its primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security, and reaffirmed fhat each state has the responsibility to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. 

One of the current debates concerns the issue as to whether or not it is meaningful to look at IDPs as a distinct category of concern. The International Committee of the Red Cross, for instance, maintains that ICRC does not believe that someone displaced is automatically more vulnerable than someone who is not (ICRC 2009 20) and a study by the Overseas Development Institute stressed that identifying IDPs as a distinct category has not ame ho rated their situation (Collinson, Darcy, and Waddell 2009 53). Similarly, James Hathaway has asked Why should they be treated as a category of concern distinguished from other internal human rights victims who have not been displaced (Hathaway 2007 360). 

The term vitamin E describes a family of eight antioxidants, four tocopherols, alpha (a), beta ((3), gamma (y) and delta (8), and four tocotrienols (also a, (3, y, and 8). a-Tocopherol is present in nature in only one form, RRR a-tocopherol. The chemical synthesis of a-tocopherol results in eight different forms (SRR, SSR, SRS, SSS, RSR, RRS, RSS, RRR), only one of which is RRR a-tocopherol. These forms differ in that they can be right (R) or left (S) at three different places in the a-tocopherol molecule. RRR a-tocopherol is the only form of vitamin E that is actively maintained in the human body and is therefore the form of vitamin E found in the largest quantities in the blood and tissue. A protein synthesized in the liver (a-TTP alpha-tocopherol transfer protein) preferentially selects the natural form of vitamin E (RRR a-tocopherol) for distribution to the tissues. However, the mechanisms for the regulation of vitamin E in tissues are not known... 

Figure 9.29—NM R magnets and samples. Robotic introduction (on the left) of a sample in solution placed in an NMR tube within a magnetic field generated by a superconducting coil and maintained at liquid helium temperature. (Reproduced by permission of Varian.) Electromagnet ton the right) of sizeable volume used for a special kind of sample the human body (part of an MRI instrument from the SMIS Society).

Despite extensive use, animal models have not contributed significantly to AIDS research. While monkeys, rabbits, and mice can be infected with HIV, none develops the human AIDS syndrome. Of over 100 chimpanzees infected with HIV over a 10-year period, only two became sick. Because chimpanzees turned out to be poor models for AIDS, and were expensive to maintain, all of the animals were faced with euthanasia (a euphemism for being killed). In 1997, the National Research Council recommended a solution. For all of the chimpanzees housed in research facilities throughout the United States, a breeding moratorium was introduced and specific steps taken toward making long-term care available for the primates. Animal rights supporters applauded the decision on the basis of moral responsibility. 

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