Final Report: Iconoclast and London Children\u27s Connection Internships

In my second year of university, I joined an on-campus magazine, Iconoclast, as an assistant director. In my third year, I continued with Iconoclast as a director and started another internship with the London Children\u27s Connection. Both projects have shown the effects of different language choice. With Iconoclast, I learned the importance of taking a less academic writing approach in theme descriptions and editors\u27 letters. A neutral tone reaches a wider audience and ensures that readers from any background gain a full understanding of our theme. At the London Children\u27s Connection, a simple change in choice of words can improve children\u27s problem-solving ability and their overall awareness of surroundings. Embracing the collective aspect of Iconoclast created an extremely powerful publication in response to the ongoing racial injustices in North America. By inviting the entire team to help with the theme, the focus shifted from only three directors (and three ideas) to one group collaboration, adding to the diversity and strength of the magazine. I have also gained an overall confidence in any workspace. As interns, it can be intimidating to suggest new ideas, especially when there is an already functional structure in place. In times of stress, the SASAH reflections help me take notice of all the accomplishments I have made this far. Our ideas as students and interns are equally as valuable, deserve to be shared, and bring positive change to the structures in place

Evidence-Based Practice and Sentencing in State Courts: A Critique of the Missouri System

This Note addresses the significant problem that is the United States’ criminal justice system as a whole, with a focus on the state of Missouri’s correctional practices. Specifically, it proposes that the use of evidence-based sentencing practices in Missouri, if done properly, could transform the state’s criminal justice system. Evidence-based sentencing methods use actuarial calculations and empirical research in judicial sentencing at decision making. This calculated approach is thought to help identify high- and low-risk offenders, reduce rising incarceration costs, as well as address a rising recidivism rate, and much more. Botnick argues that successful implementation of such practices in Missouri requires enhanced training for its users, ample resources put towards the implementation effort, increased transparency in data collection, and a limitation of the dynamic factors used in risk assessment tools

All Things Return: A Novel

This work is a novel about what happens to a young woman when her past catches up to her

Practice Makes Perfect: New Practitioners’ Perspectives on Trends in Legal Education

This Essay, by attorneys Claire Botnick and Cort VanOstran, both recent graduates of Washington University School of Law, offers a perspective on the efficacy and shortcomings of recent modal changes in legal training. Botnick and VanOstran have a point of view situated between a student’s immediate exposure but limited perspective, and the established practitioner’s measured but distant analysis. Botnick and VanOstran emphasize the importance of academic programs that prioritize a student’s interaction with the law through curricular offerings, clinical experiences, and oral advocacy training

Archivists as Amici Curiae: Activating Critical Archival Theory to Confront Racialized Surveillance

Archivists are uniquely situated to problematize the use and misuse of records in a legal context. But along with the ability to think critically about how records are discussed and employed, archivists have a responsibility to act when records are being used as tools of oppression. This paper serves a dual purpose. First, it contributes to the field of Critical Archival Studies with original analysis and theory around records in legal discourse. It rethinks the 2018 US Supreme Court case Carpenter v. United States through critical examination of four archival frameworks: co-creation and third-party doctrine; the use of documents to control the movements of certain bodies; privacy in record-keeping; and the assumed neutrality of information infrastructure. Second, it moves beyond specific analysis of the particular case, which has already been decided, to provide other archivists with a conceptual and practical roadmap to problematize the status quo usage of records in a legal context. Archivists’ increasingly nuanced conceptions of records and documentation are not cited as technical background or evidence in Supreme Court cases. Active introduction and application of these new theories to the legal field would disrupt broader societal conceptions of records in daily life, expose racism in legal invocations of records and record-keeping, and ultimately serve an emancipatory function. The paper ends with an appeal to archivists to intervene in the dominant narrative around records in legal discourse

H4 Histamine Receptors Mediate Cell Cycle Arrest in Growth Factor-Induced Murine and Human Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells

The most recently characterized H4 histamine receptor (H4R) is expressed preferentially in the bone marrow, raising the question of its role during hematopoiesis. Here we show that both murine and human progenitor cell populations express this receptor subtype on transcriptional and protein levels and respond to its agonists by reduced growth factor-induced cell cycle progression that leads to decreased myeloid, erythroid and lymphoid colony formation. H4R activation prevents the induction of cell cycle genes through a cAMP/PKA-dependent pathway that is not associated with apoptosis. It is mediated specifically through H4R signaling since gene silencing or treatment with selective antagonists restores normal cell cycle progression. The arrest of growth factor-induced G1/S transition protects murine and human progenitor cells from the toxicity of the cell cycle-dependent anticancer drug Ara-C in vitro and reduces aplasia in a murine model of chemotherapy. This first evidence for functional H4R expression in hematopoietic progenitors opens new therapeutic perspectives for alleviating hematotoxic side effects of antineoplastic drugs

Discrimination against HIV-Infected People and the Spread of HIV: Some Evidence from France

BACKGROUND: Many people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) suffer from stigma and discrimination. There is an ongoing debate, however, about whether stigma, fear and discrimination actually fuel the persisting spread of HIV, or slow it down by reducing contacts between the whole population and high-risk minorities. To contribute to this debate, we analysed the relationship between perceived discrimination and unsafe sex in a large sample of French PLWHAs. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In 2003, we conducted a national cross-sectional survey among a random sample of HIV-infected patients. The analysis was restricted to sexually active respondents (N = 2,136). Unsafe sex was defined as sexual intercourse without a condom with a seronegative/unknown serostatus partner during the prior 12 months. Separate analyses were performed for each transmission group (injecting drug use (IDU), homosexual contact, heterosexual contact). Overall, 24% of respondents reported experiences of discrimination in their close social environment (relatives, friends and colleagues) and 18% reported unsafe sex during the previous 12 months. Both prevalences were higher in the IDU group (32% for perceived discrimination, 23% for unsafe sex). In multivariate analyses, experience of discrimination in the close social environment was associated with an increase in unsafe sex for both PLWHAs infected through IDU and heterosexual contact (OR = 1.65 and 1.80 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Our study clearly confirms a relationship between discrimination and unsafe sex among PLWHAs infected through either IDU or heterosexual contact. This relationship was especially strong in the heterosexual group that has become the main vector of HIV transmission in France, and who is the more likely of sexual mixing with the general population. These results seriously question the hypothesis that HIV-stigma has no effect or could even reduce the infection spread of HIV

London Children\u27s Connection & Iconoclast

In my second year of university, I joined an on-campus magazine, Iconoclast, as an assistant director. In my third year, I continued with Iconoclast as a director and started another internship with the London Children\u27s Connection. Both projects have shown the effects of different language choice. With Iconoclast, I learned the importance of taking a less academic writing approach in theme descriptions and editors\u27 letters. A neutral tone reaches a wider audience and ensures that readers from any background gain a full understanding of our theme. At the London Children\u27s Connection, a simple change in choice of words can improve children\u27s problem-solving ability and their overall awareness of their surroundings. Embracing the collective aspect of Iconoclast created an extremely powerful publication in response to the ongoing racial injustices in North America. By inviting the entire team to help with the theme, the focus shifted from only three directors (and three ideas) to one group collaboration, adding to the diversity and strength of the magazine. I have also gained overall confidence in any workspace. As interns, it can be intimidating to suggest new ideas, especially when there is an already functional structure in place. In times of stress, the SASAH reflections help me take notice of all the accomplishments I have made this far. Our ideas as students and interns are equally as valuable, deserve to be shared, and bring positive change to the structures in place