Triggerman: Maintaining the Distinction Between Deliberate Violence and Conspiracy Under the Armed Career Criminal Act

(Excerpt) This Note argues that conspiracies to commit violent felonies are not violent felonies under § 924(e)(2)(B)(i) because, while criminals may participate in conspiracies in the hopes of accomplishing the underlying offense, conspiracies are distinct crimes and do not categorically have elements of threatened, attempted, or actual use of physical force. Part I of this Note describes relevant legal history behind the ACCA, the applicable law, and the process courts use to determine whether criminals are subject to the fifteen-year mandatory minimum. Part II analyzes the approaches represented in the circuit split. Part III demonstrates how relevant legislative history, case law, and policy considerations indicate that conspiracies to commit violent felonies are not violent felonies under the ACCA. Part III also proposes a rearrangement of factors considered in the categorical approach

Triggerman: Maintaining the Distinction Between Deliberate Violence and Conspiracy Under the Armed Career Criminal Act

(Excerpt) This Note argues that conspiracies to commit violent felonies are not violent felonies under § 924(e)(2)(B)(i) because, while criminals may participate in conspiracies in the hopes of accomplishing the underlying offense, conspiracies are distinct crimes and do not categorically have elements of threatened, attempted, or actual use of physical force. Part I of this Note describes relevant legal history behind the ACCA, the applicable law, and the process courts use to determine whether criminals are subject to the fifteen-year mandatory minimum. Part II analyzes the approaches represented in the circuit split. Part III demonstrates how relevant legislative history, case law, and policy considerations indicate that conspiracies to commit violent felonies are not violent felonies under the ACCA. Part III also proposes a rearrangement of factors considered in the categorical approach

Simon-Task Reveals Balanced Visuomotor Control in Experienced Video-Game Players

Both short and long-term video-game play may result in superior performance on visual and attentional tasks. To further these findings, we compared the performance of experienced male video-game players (VGPs) and non-VGPs on a Simon-task. Experienced-VGPs began playing before the age of 10, had a minimum of 8 years of experience and a minimum play time of over 20 h per week over the past 6 months. Our results reveal a significantly reduced Simon-effect in experienced-VGPs relative to non-VGPs. However, this was true only for the right-responses, which typically show a greater Simon-effect than left-responses. In addition, experienced-VGPs demonstrated significantly quicker reaction times and more balanced left-versus-right-hand performance than non-VGPs. Our results suggest that experienced-VGPs can resolve response-selection conflicts more rapidly for right-responses than non-VGPs, and this may in part be underpinned by improved bimanual motor control

Discontinuity in the subjective experience of self among people with mild-to-moderate dementia is associated with poorer psychological health: findings from the IDEAL cohort

This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.IDEAL data were deposited with the UK data archive in April 2020 and will be available for access from April 2023. Details of how the data can be accessed after that date can be found here: http://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/854293/.BACKGROUND: The onset and progression of dementia can result in changes in the subjective experience of self, impacting on psychological health. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore the extent to which people with mild-to-moderate dementia experience discontinuity in the subjective experience of self, and the factors associated with this experience for people with dementia and their family caregivers. METHODS: We used data from the baseline assessment of the IDEAL cohort. Discontinuity in the subjective experience of self was assessed by asking participants about their agreement with the statement 'I feel I am the same person that I have always been'. Participants were divided into those who did and did not experience discontinuity, and the two groups were compared in terms of demographic and disease-related characteristics, psychological well-being, measures of 'living well', and caregiver stress. RESULTS: Responses to the continuity question were available for 1,465 participants with dementia, of whom 312 (21%) reported experiencing discontinuity. The discontinuity group experienced significantly poorer psychological well-being and had significantly lower scores on measures of 'living well'. There was no clear association with demographic or disease-related characteristics, but some indication of increased caregiver stress. CONCLUSION: A significant proportion of people with mild-to-moderate dementia describe experiencing discontinuity in the subjective sense of self, and this is associated with poorer psychological health and reduced ability to 'live well' with the condition. Sensitively asking individuals with dementia about the subjective experience of self may offer a simple means of identifying individuals who are at increased risk of poor well-being.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)Alzheimer's Societ

Linking seasonal forecasts into RiskView to enhance food security contingency planning

RiskView is a tool developed by the World Food Programme (WFP) to translate weather data (real-time and historical) and other spatial information (e.g., crops, drought risk, population, etc.) into food security needs and response costs. It serves as a swift way of estimating costs in advance of food insecurity outlooks for financial planning, and for facilitating better resource allocations to disasters before on-the-ground needs assessments are produced

Testing the Performance of Tropical Cyclone Genesis Indices in Future Climates Using the HiRAM Model

Tropical cyclone genesis indices (TCGIs) are functions of the large-scale environment that are designed to be proxies for the probability of tropical cyclone (TC) genesis. While the performance of TCGIs in the current climate can be assessed by direct comparison to TC observations, their ability to represent future TC activity based on projections of the large-scale environment cannot. Here the authors examine the performance of TCGIs in high-resolution atmospheric model simulations forced with sea surface temperatures (SST) of future, warmer climate scenarios. They investigate whether the TCGIs derived for the present climate can, when computed from large-scale fields taken from future climate simulations, capture the simulated global mean decreases in TC frequency. The TCGIs differ in their choice of environmental predictors, and several choices of predictors perform well in the present climate. However, some TCGIs that perform well in the present climate do not accurately reproduce the simulated future decrease in TC frequency. This decrease is captured when the humidity predictor is the column saturation deficit rather than relative humidity. Using saturation deficit with relative SST as the other thermodynamic predictor overpredicts the TC frequency decrease, while using potential intensity in place of relative SST as the other thermodynamic predictor gives a good prediction of the decrease’s magnitude. These positive results appear to depend on the spatial and seasonal patterns in the imposed SST changes; none of the indices capture correctly the frequency decrease in simulations with spatially uniform climate forcings, whether a globally uniform increase in SST of 2 K, or a doubling of CO2 with no change in SST

Promoting Community Engagement: A Campus-Wide Approach to Applied Learning

Applied learning pedagogy has gained momentum in recent decades. Simultaneously, a call for universities to respond to the needs of local and global communities has prompted a focus on community engagement in higher education. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of the Applied Learning and Teaching Community (ALTC), an initiative designed to further integrate applied learning—including community engagement— into the identity, practice, and teaching ethos of the university. With a focus on sustainability, the ALTC has evolved into an expansive model that involves faculty, staff, students, and other supporters across campus. A discussion of the ALTC’s relevance in the context of current trends in higher education is included

No Difference in Growth Outcomes up to 24 Months of Age by Duration of Exposure to Maternal Antiretroviral Therapy Among Children Who Are HIV-Exposed and Uninfected in Malawi

BACKGROUND: With the implementation of lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV treatment and prevention, the proportion of children exposed to ART in utero from conception is increasing. We estimated the effect of timing of ART exposure on growth of children HIV-exposed and uninfected (CHEU) up to Up to 24 months of age in Malawi. METHODS: Data were collected from a prospective cohort of infants HIV-exposed aged 1–6 months (enrollment) and their mothers with HIV enrolled in the National Evaluation of Malawi’s Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Programme (2014–2018). Anthropometry was measured at enrollment, visit 1 (approximately 12 months), and visit 2 (approximately 24 months). Weight-for-age (WAZ) and length-for-age (LAZ) were calculated using the WHO Growth Standards. Multivariable mixed-effects models with linear splines for age were used to examine differences in growth by timing of ART exposure (from conception, first/second trimester, or third trimester/postpartum). Models were adjusted for confounders selected a priori guided by a conceptual framework. Hypothesized interactions and potential mediators were explored, and interactions with splines were included in final models if P 1.0). CONCLUSION: Reassuringly, ART exposure from conception was not associated with decreased WAZ or LAZ in CHEU Up 24 months of age. Overall growth trajectories suggest CHEU experience growth faltering after 12 months of age and may need support through and beyond the first 2 years of life

Tomimatsu-Sato geometries, holography and quantum gravity

We analyze the $\delta=2$ Tomimatsu-Sato spacetime in the context of the proposed Kerr/CFT correspondence. This 4-dimensional vacuum spacetime is asymptotically flat and has a well-defined ADM mass and angular momentum, but also involves several exotic features including a naked ring singularity, and two disjoint Killing horizons separated by a region with closed timelike curves and a rod-like conical singularity. We demonstrate that the near horizon geometry belongs to a general class of Ricci-flat metrics with $SL(2,\mathbb{R})\times U(1)$ symmetry that includes both the extremal Kerr and extremal Kerr-bolt geometries. We calculate the central charge and temperature for the CFT dual to this spacetime and confirm the Cardy formula reproduces the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. We find that all of the basic parameters of the dual CFT are most naturally expressed in terms of charges defined intrinsically on the horizon, which are distinct from the ADM charges in this geometry.Comment: 20+1 pages, 3 figures, changed title, expanded discussion, matches version published in CQ