Lessons from New Orleans: A Stronger Role for Public Defenders in Spurring Indigent Defense Reform

Excessive caseloads prevent public defenders from fulfilling their ethical obligations and curtail criminal defendants’ right to the effective assistance of counsel. Despite this ethical and constitutional dilemma, legislators have been reluctant to provide adequate funds for indigent defense. And because of the separation of powers, courts have been unable to force legislators’ hands. Against this backdrop, criminal defendants in states that choose not to adequately fund indigent defense face a serious risk of wrongful conviction. The Orleans Public Defenders Office (OPD) provides a case study of public defenders playing a stronger role in spurring legislative reform. In response to a funding crisis in Louisiana, the OPD refused to take new cases beyond constitutionally permissible workloads. This refusal resulted in criminal defendants being put on waiting lists for representation, which garnered national attention, gave rise to class action lawsuits against the state, and created a threat to public safety. These are governance problems that legislators prioritize over funding indigent defense. The OPD’s refusal to take new cases has been somewhat successful: in response to this crisis, the state legislature has provided additional funds to public defenders’ offices in the state. Public defenders are in a unique position to put pressure on legislators. By refusing to take new cases that would cause their workloads to be excessive, public defenders can both maintain their obligations to the profession and ensure constitutional representation for their clients

MENINGKATKAN KETERAMPILAN SOSIAL MELALUI MODEL COOPERATIVE LEARNING TIPE TIME TOKEN ARENDS: Penelitian Tindakan Kelas Mata Pelajaran IPS di SMP Negeri 2 Curugbitung Kabupaten Lebak - Provinsi Banten, Peserta Didik Kelas VIII-B Semester Genap Tahun Pelajaran 2015/2016

Penelitian ini dilatarbelakangi oleh lemahnya keterampilan sosial peserta didik khususnya keterampilan berpartisipasi dalam pembelajaran, baik diskusi kelas maupun kelompoknya. Penguasaan keterampilan sosial seperti ini penting dimiliki oleh peserta didik karena akan berpengaruh pada proses pembelajaran secara keseluruhan. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini yaitu Penelitian Tindakan Kelas (Classroom Action Research) yang merujuk pada pola desain penelitian Kemmis and Mc. Taggart. Dari hasil observasi dan analisis pada ke tujuh indikator keterampilan sosial, yaitu: (1) Mendengarkan ketika orang lain bicara; (2) Bicara tidak asal-asalan; (3) Tidak cepat emosi; (4) Bicara lantang dan jelas; (5) Melibatkan diri dalam diskusi kelompok; (6) Bergiliran dalam bicara (tidak mendominasi); dan (7) Mau bicara (Tidak diam sama sekali), disimpulkan bahwa ada peningkatan keterampilan social yang signifikan setelah dilakukan tindakan sebanyak dua kali siklus dengan masing-masing siklus terdiri dari tiga kali tindakan. Pada tindakan siklus I, keterampilan social peserta didik berada pada kategori cukup dan setelah dilakukan tindakan pada siklus II, meningkat pada kategori baik

Trans Self-Imaging Praxis, Decolonizing Photography, and the Work of Alok Vaid-Menon

As an identity and an analytic, trans offers a compelling challenge to photographic discourse. Trans, as a rejection of the assigned sex at birth, is a rejection of what was assigned to us based on our physical attributes, an assumption made about us based on our surface aesthetics. Trans rejects the physical surface in favor of living our lives based on an internal feeling: something that is not visible but manifested visually in a way that plays with the aesthetics and expectations of gender. As trans scholar and artist micha cárdenas has observed, trans is often about a rejection of the visible. To picture trans subjects, then, is to make a surface rendering of something (the person’s outward appearance) that is already de-essentialized from any necessary essence or “truth.” Trans as an analytic offers a method to view the photographic image not only as distinct and distant from the referent but in tension with it. Trans as a method prompts a rethinking of surfaces in relation to essence, identity, authenticity, and fixity, unfixing the surface from the subject

Growing on a Scar: Genetic Variation of Achillea millefolium near Meeker, Colorado

Mining operations deposit high concentrations of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, and vanadium into the topsoil of an ecosystem. These toxic metals can affect plant health and behavior, causing local extinction and shifts in ecosystem dynamics. However, genetic analyses of some plants growing on toxic soil conditions indicate higher genetic diversity than would be expected in that environment. Determining the effects of soil pollution on plants is important to determine a species’ utility in conservation and restoration. This investigation compared the genetic diversity of western yarrow (Achillea millefolium, Asteraceae), growing near a mine with vanadium and arsenic contamination to plants existing up to two kilometers away in undisturbed habitat. Leaf tissue from yarrow (n = 88) was collected on and off the Butterfly-Burrell uranium mine northeast of Meeker, Colorado. Two microsatellite loci were scored for heterozygosity and allelic diversity, common measurements of a population’s genetic diversity. Genetic diversity has been shown to be correlated with the ability of organisms to adapt to selective pressures. While heterozygosity was highest at the mines, no significant difference was detected between mine and off-site populations. Plants did not exhibit a reduction of genetic variability on the mine, indicating an adaptation or tolerance to the contaminated soils. This response establishes yarrow as a strong candidate for restoration and revegetation use at amended mines in the Rocky Mountains

Plasmaspheric dynamics studied using a three-dimensional machine learning-based plasma density model in the inner magnetosphere and the ionosphere

Plasmaspheric density and composition strongly influence wave growth and propagation, as well as energetic particle scattering. Previous statistical, empirical plasma density models of the inner magnetosphere have limited capability to make accurate predictions. Consequently, these models cannot be used to adequately quantify complex global processes and nonlinear responses to driving conditions, factors of critical importance during geomagnetic storms. Recent advancements in machine learning techniques have enabled a more dynamic study of the space environment. Here we present two three-dimensional dynamic electron density models (one magnetospheric model and one ionospheric model) based on an artificial neural network. The models use feedforward neural networks which were generated using electron densities from satellite missions of CRRES, ISEE, IMAGE, POLAR, and DMSP. The three-dimensional electron density model takes spacecraft location and time series solar wind conditions (e.g., flow speed, plasma density, solar radiance) and geomagnetic indices (e.g., AP index, AE and AL indices, F10.7 index, Dst index, KP index, PC­N index, and solar Lyman-Alpha flux) obtained from NASA’s OMNI database as inputs. When compared with the out-of-sample data, the three-dimensional models predict equatorial and field-aligned density profiles from satellite measurements with root mean square errors of 0.410 and 0.622, respectively. When the three-dimensional magnetospheric model is applied to a geomagnetic storm, successful reconstruction of the expected plasmaspheric dynamics, such as the plasmaspheric erosion, and plume formation in three dimensions was achieved

Growing on a Scar: Genetic Variation of Achillea Millefolium Near Meeker, Colorado

Mining operations deposit high concentrations of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and vanadium into the topsoil of an ecosystem. These toxic metals can affect flora species health and behavior, causing local extinction and shifts in ecosystem dynamics. However, genetic analyses of some plants growing on toxic soil conditions indicate higher genetic diversity than would be expected in that environment. Determining the effects of soil pollution on plants is important to determine a species’ utility in conservation and restoration. This investigation compared the genetic diversity of western yarrow (Achillea millefolium, Asteraceae), growing near a mine site with vanadium and arsenic contamination to plants existing up to two kilometers away in undisturbed habitat. Leaf tissue from yarrow (N=88) was collected on and off the Butterfly-Burrell uranium mine northeast of Meeker, CO. Two microsatellite loci were scored for heterozygosity and allelic diversity, common measurements of a population’s genetic diversity, which is correlated with the ability of organisms to adapt to selective pressures. While heterozygosity was highest at the mines, no significance was detected between them and off-site locations. Plants did not exhibit a reduction of genetic variability on the mine, indicating an adaptation or tolerance to the contaminated soils. This response establishes yarrow as a strong candidate for restoration and revegetation use at amended mines in the Rocky Mountains

One Way Pendulum (The Absurd in the World and the Theatre)

This paper is about human relation with and reaction to the Absurd. The Absurd seen in terms of the theatre, and the Absurd in relation to human images. The Absurd is not easy to define; it is more a condition than a concept--understood more easily by reference to an extensive body of metaphor. Ionesco calls it ... that which is devoid of purpose... . Cut off from his religious, metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost... . Which is not so much a definition as an evocation of a mood, a mood that comes from living in a world or observing one on stage. In this sense the Theatre of the Absurd creates a metaphor for the world (as in the plays of Ionesco, Pinter, and Beckett) and not a representation of the world. And also in this sense the Theatre of the Absurd is at once the most compact and the most complete image of the Absurd. The term Theatre of the Absurd is most often used to mean those cases ... when the playwright attempts to give expression to the absurd through both the structure and the language of his work ... . This conventional terminology is not a definition but a category, used to separate the non-classical work of playwrights such as Beckett, Pinter, Ionesco, and Simpson from the classical work of playwrights such as Sartre, Camus, and Albee. It allows scholars to limit their area of study. However, since this paper is concerned primarily with development and content and only secondarily with form, both Theatre of the Absurd and Absurd Drama (used to signify the more classical drama) will be dealt with

Growing on a Scar: Population Genetics of a Colorado Wildflower

Speciation is a natural process in organisms caused by geographic isolation and adaptation to novel conditions. Human activities are a source for environmental changes in the air, soil, and waterways of an ecosystem. Organisms living around agricultural or industrial developments must adapt at a much faster rate than organisms subjected to natural selection pressures. Molecular biology technologies allow us to study genetic variation changes in populations subjected to human disturbances, with preliminary studies on plants showing greater genetic diversity in the genome, contrary to how organisms are expected to respond to anthropogenic pressures. Leaf tissue from the yarrow plant, Achillea millifolium, was collected within and around a reclaimed uranium mine outside of Meeker, CO. Leaf tissue DNA was extracted, and its microsatellites regions were analyzed for genetic variation. Plants growing on the mine are expected to have greater variation in their genome compared to those outside of the mine’s influence, due to greater selection pressures from the mine’s run-off. Plants subject to differential rates of mutation present initial indicators of divergence and show how human activities drive biological processes

The Impact of Implicit Bias on the Overdiagnosis of Schizophrenia

According to the American Psychiatric Association (2017), Black Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia and less likely to be diagnosed with a mood disorder in compassion to their White counterparts presenting with the same symptoms. To address mechanisms of implicit bias and the implications for mental health practice, it is imperative to investigate the diagnostic process of students who will enter the field of mental health. According to the Council on Social Work Education, 80% of MSW graduates work in positions providing micro-level direct service to individuals, families, and groups (CSWE, 2019). Moreover, 80% of MSW graduates are licensed clinicians or plan on pursuing licensure within the next five years. The purpose of this study was to explore the clinician-client dynamic by analyzing clinical-decision making in students currently enrolled in Master of Social Work (MSW) graduate programs. The goal of the study was to gain insight into the significance of race during the process of diagnosing individuals with mood disorders. The quantitative study was designed to examine the impact implicit bias on the diagnosis of mental illness using a vignette and clinical impressions survey. Based on the findings from 73 surveys, MSW students tend to under-diagnose major depressive disorder and over diagnose schizoaffective or schizophrenia disorder when assessing a Black client. However, despite these findings, race/ethnicity did not emerge as significantly associated with overdiagnosis; only the severity of diagnosis was associated with the overdiagnosis