Brady Statute Data: Adjudicated Mental Defectives and Involuntary Mental Commitments

Currently, Alaska law enforcement agencies do not obtain data on four noncriminal categories prohibited by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 from obtaining firearms. This, the first of four reports on these categories, describes how adjudicated mental defectives and involuntary mental commitments can be identified within an Alaska context and discusses possible procedures, problems, and solutions associated with data collection. The report discussed federal statutory definitions of the terms adjudicated as a mental defective, committed to a mental institution, and legal authority; compares these terms with those current in Alaska Statues and used by social service and mental health agencies in the state; and describes, in general, data held by federal, state, local, and private agencies in Alaska. At present, there is no clear or cost-effective way to create and maintain a database for either of the two categories with any accuracy: besides technical difficulties in getting different databases to "talk" to each other, records are not kept on mentally ill individuals, and even if they were, access would be prohibited in the face of federal and state laws regarding privacy.Bureau of Justice Statistics, United States Department of Justice Grant No. 96-RU-RX-K026Introduction / Adjudicated Mental Defectives / Involuntary Mental Commitments / References / Appendix A: Mental Health Commitments (Civil Commitments) / Appendix B: Forms USed in the Alaska Court System During the Involuntary Mental Commitment Proces

Brady Statute Data: Persons Who Are Illegally or Unlawfully in the United States

Currently, Alaska law enforcement agencies do not obtain data on four noncriminal categories prohibited by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 from obtaining firearms. This, the fourth of four reports on these categories, describes how undocumented immigrants who are unlawfully in the United States can be identified within an Alaska context and discusses possible procedures, problems, and solutions associated with data collection. It was found that the most feasibile means for obtaining information for the purposes of Brady background checks would be the Verification Information System (VIS) of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). However, project researchers received no response from INS to inquiries about requirements of access to VIS.Bureau of Justice Statistics, United States Department of Justice. Grant No. 96-RU-RX-K026.Introduction / Background / Definitions / INS Records Availability / Determining an Individual's Classification for Brady / Verification Process / Conclusion / Appendix A: U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Guide to Commonly Used Documents Used to Identify Persons Eligible for Benefits Under the Immigration and Naturalization Act / Appendix B: U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Statement of Intent to Obtain a Handgun(s

Brady Statute Data: Persons Who are Subject to a Court Order Restraining Them from Threatening or Committing Acts of Domestic Violence or Abuse

Currently, Alaska law enforcement agencies do not obtain data on four noncriminal categories prohibited by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 from obtaining firearms. This, the second of four reports on these categories, describes how persons subject to a domestic violence restraining order can be identified within an Alaska context and discusses possible procedures, problems, and solutions associated with data collection. The state is rapidly moving to the point where all individuals who meet the Brady definition for this category will be identified, the information housed in a separate database, and reported to federal agencies. AS 18.65.540 provides for a central registry of Domestic Violence Protective Orders, a product of the (state) Domestic Violence Prevention and Victim Protection Act of 1996.Bureau of Justice Statistics, United States Department of Justice Grant No. 96-RU-RX-K026Introduction / Background / Civil Protection Orders / Handgun Applications / New Policies / Conclusion / References / Appendix A: APSIN Screen

Brady Statute Data: Establishing Noncriminal Classifications for the Alaska Department of Public Safety

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 prohibits the purchase of firearms by persons in certain noncriminal categories. These reports describe potential data sources for the identification of mental committments, addicted substance abusers, illegal aliens, and persons who have been the subject of a domestic violence restraining order and discusses possible procedures, problems, and solutions associated with data collection for the purpose of Brady background checks. Lack of infrastructure for collecting certain types of data, incompleteness of information, and state constitutional protections, including the guarantee of privacy, are the chief obstacles to completely meeting the provisions of the Brady Act in Alaska.Bureau of Justice Statistics, United States Department of Justice Grant No. 96-RU-RX-K026Background / Needs and Benefits / Goals and Objectives / Project Design / Findings by Classification / Conclusio

Brady Statute Data: Establishing Noncriminal Classifications for the Alaska Department of Public Safety—Executive Summary

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 prohibited the purchase of firearms by persons in certain noncriminal categories. This executive report summarizes study findings on potential data sources for the identification of mental committments, addicted substance abusers, noncitizens in the U.S. illegally or unlawfully, and persons who have been the subject of a domestic violence restraining order and briefly discusses possible procedures, problems, and solutions associated with data collection for the purpose of Brady background checks. Lack of infrastructure for collecting certain types of data, incompleteness of information, and state constitutional protections, including the guarantee of privacy, were the chief obstacles to completely meeting the provisions of the Brady Act in Alaska.Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S.Department of Justice. Grant No. 96-RU-RX-K026Background / Needs and Benefits / Goals and Objectives / Project Design / Findings by Classification / Conclusio

The screwworm eradication data system archives

The archives accumulated during 1 year of operation of the Satellite Temperature-Monitoring System during development of the Screwworm Eradication Data System are reported. Brief descriptions of all the kinds of tapes, as well as their potential uses, are presented. Reference is made to other documents that explain the generation of these data

Characterizing Multi-planet Systems with Classical Secular Theory

Classical secular theory can be a powerful tool to describe the qualitative character of multi-planet systems and offer insight into their histories. The eigenmodes of the secular behavior, rather than current orbital elements, can help identify tidal effects, early planet-planet scattering, and dynamical coupling among the planets, for systems in which mean-motion resonances do not play a role. Although tidal damping can result in aligned major axes after all but one eigenmode have damped away, such alignment may simply be fortuitous. An example of this is 55 Cancri (orbital solution of Fischer et al., 2008) where multiple eigenmodes remain undamped. Various solutions for 55 Cancri are compared, showing differing dynamical groupings, with implications for the coupling of eccentricities and for the partitioning of damping among the planets. Solutions for orbits that include expectations of past tidal evolution with observational data, must take into account which eigenmodes should be damped, rather than expecting particular eccentricities to be near zero. Classical secular theory is only accurate for low eccentricity values, but comparison with other results suggests that it can yield useful qualitative descriptions of behavior even for moderately large eccentricity values, and may have advantages for revealing underlying physical processes and, as large numbers of new systems are discovered, for triage to identify where more comprehensive dynamical studies should have priority.Comment: Published in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 25 pages, 10 figure

Sunjammer

No abstract available

Analysis of the total 12C(α,γ)16O cross section based on available angular distributions and other primary data

Because a knowledge of the 12C/16O ratio is crucial to the understanding of the later evolution of massive stars, new R- and K-matrix fits have been completed using the available angular distribution data from radiative α capture and elastic α scattering on 12C. Estimates of the total 12C(α,γ)16O rate at stellar energies are reported. In contrast with previous work, the analyses generally involve R- and K-matrix fits directly to the primary data, i.e., the energy- and angle-dependent differential yields, with all relevant partial waves fitted simultaneously (referred to here as surface fits). It is shown that, while the E1 part of the reaction is well constrained by a recent experiment on the β-delayed α-particle decay of 16N, only upper limits can be placed on the E2 ground state cross section factor which we take conservatively as SE2(300)<140 keV b. Simulations were then carried out to explore what kind of new data could lead to better restrictions on SE2(300). We find that improved elastic scattering data may be the best short-term candidate for such restrictions while significantly improving S(300) with new radiative capture data may require a longer-term effort. Theoretical models and estimates from α-transfer reactions for the E2 part of 12C(α,γ)16O are then discussed for comparison with the R- and K-matrix fits of the present work

Effects of Extreme Obliquity Variations on the Habitability of Exoplanets

We explore the impact of obliquity variations on planetary habitability in hypothetical systems with high mutual inclination. We show that large amplitude, high frequency obliquity oscillations on Earth-like exoplanets can suppress the ice-albedo feedback, increasing the outer edge of the habitable zone. We restrict our exploration to hypothetical systems consisting of a solar-mass star, an Earth-mass planet at 1 AU, and 1 or 2 larger planets. We verify that these systems are stable for $10^8$ years with N-body simulations, and calculate the obliquity variations induced by the orbital evolution of the Earth-mass planet and a torque from the host star. We run a simplified energy balance model on the terrestrial planet to assess surface temperature and ice coverage on the planet's surface, and we calculate differences in the outer edge of the habitable zone for planets with rapid obliquity variations. For each hypothetical system, we calculate the outer edge of habitability for two conditions: 1) the full evolution of the planetary spin and orbit, and 2) the eccentricity and obliquity fixed at their average values. We recover previous results that higher values of fixed obliquity and eccentricity expand the habitable zone, but also find that obliquity oscillations further expand habitable orbits in all cases. Terrestrial planets near the outer edge of the habitable zone may be more likely to support life in systems that induce rapid obliquity oscillations as opposed to fixed-spin planets. Such planets may be the easiest to directly characterize with space-borne telescopes.Comment: 46 pages, 12 Figures, 5 Table