Deadly Professions: Violent Attacks Against Aid-Workers and the Health Implications for Local Populations

War has devastating implications for families, communities, cultures, economies, and state infrastructure. Similarly, the last decade has seen an increase in the number of attacks against health workers in conflict zones and unstable environments. Unfortunately, these attacks have grave consequences for local populations which often rely on foreign aid programs for their health and well-being. As such, this paper will examine why aid-workers have increasingly been targeted for abductions, ambushes, assassinations, and various forms of intimidation. Furthermore, examples of terminated health programs, as well as populations served by current medical and humanitarian interventions, will be provided to impart a sense of magnitude and importance of health programs to the reader. Lastly, suggestions will be presented which could serve to minimize aid-workers’ risk and exposure to acts of violence in the field

GOurmet: A tool for quantitative comparison and visualization of gene expression profiles based on gene ontology (GO) distributions

BACKGROUND: The ever-expanding population of gene expression profiles (EPs) from specified cells and tissues under a variety of experimental conditions is an important but difficult resource for investigators to utilize effectively. Software tools have been recently developed to use the distribution of gene ontology (GO) terms associated with the genes in an EP to identify specific biological functions or processes that are over- or under-represented in that EP relative to other EPs. Additionally, it is possible to use the distribution of GO terms inherent to each EP to relate that EP as a whole to other EPs. Because GO term annotation is organized in a tree-like cascade of variable granularity, this approach allows the user to relate (e.g., by hierarchical clustering) EPs of varying length and from different platforms (e.g., GeneChip, SAGE, EST library). RESULTS: Here we present GOurmet, a software package that calculates the distribution of GO terms represented by the genes in an individual expression profile (EP), clusters multiple EPs based on these integrated GO term distributions, and provides users several tools to visualize and compare EPs. GOurmet is particularly useful in meta-analysis to examine EPs of specified cell types (e.g., tissue-specific stem cells) that are obtained through different experimental procedures. GOurmet also introduces a new tool, the Targetoid plot, which allows users to dynamically render the multi-dimensional relationships among individual elements in any clustering analysis. The Targetoid plotting tool allows users to select any element as the center of the plot, and the program will then represent all other elements in the cluster as a function of similarity to the selected central element. CONCLUSION: GOurmet is a user-friendly, GUI-based software package that greatly facilitates analysis of results generated by multiple EPs. The clustering analysis features a dynamic targetoid plot that is generalizable for use with any clustering application

The Use of Lethal Force by Canadian Police Officers: Assessing the Influence of Female Police Officers and Minority Threat Explanations on Police Shootings Across Large Cities

This study examines the applicability of several theoretically derived accounts used to explain the variations in police killings across 39 of Canada’s largest cities over a 15-year period. Pooled time-series negative binomial regression results are consistent with the ethnic threat hypothesis by indicating that lethal police action is associated with the size of the ethnic minority population in each city. Political accounts are supported as non-linear specifications suggest that once ethnic minorities reach a numerical majority in our sample of cities there is a decline in police killings. Findings also support expectations that greater female representation within policing will reduce the use of lethal force by changing the overall culture of the department. Theoretical implications of our findings are discussed

Legislative Responses to Wrongful Conviction: Do partisan principals and advocacy efforts influence state-level criminal justice policy?

The number of discovered wrongful criminal convictions (and resulting exonerations) has increased over the past decade. These cases erode public confidence in the criminal justice system and trust in the rule of law. Many states have adopted laws that aim to reduce system errors but no study has examined why some states appear more willing to provide due process protections against wrongful convictions than others. Findings from regression estimates suggest that states with a Republican controlled legislature or more Republican voters are less likely to pass these laws while the presence of advocacy organizations that are part of the \u27innocence movement\u27 make legislative change more likely. We thus identify important differences in the political and social context between U.S. states that influence the adoption of criminal justice policies

The Racial Politics of Due Process Protection: Does partisanship or racial composition influence state-level adoption of recorded interrogation policies?

Discoveries of wrongful convictions have increased substantially over the last several decades. During this period, practitioners and scholars have been advocating for the adoption of policies aimed at reducing the likelihood of convicting a person for a crime they did not commit. Implementing such policies are vitally important not only because they help ensure that the innocent do not receive unwarranted sanctions or that the guilty go unpunished but also because cases of wrongful conviction can erode public confidence in the criminal justice system and trust in the rule of law. To avoid such outcomes, many states have adopted policies through legislation that aim to reduce system errors. It remains unclear, however, why some states appear more willing to provide due process protections against wrongful convictions than others. Findings suggest that dimensions of racial politics may help explain the reluctance of some states to adopt protections against wrongful convictions. Specifically, interaction terms show that states with a Republican governor and a large African American population are the least likely to adopt policies aimed at protecting against wrongful convictions. We thus identify important differences in the political and social context between U.S. states that influence the adoption of criminal justice policies

Structural Determinants of Municipal Police Force Size in Large Cities across Canada: Assessing the applicability of ethnic threat theories in the Canadian context

Substantial theoretical and empirical attention has been directed at isolating the structural conditions that lead to shifts in the size of metropolitan police departments in the United States. These studies rely heavily on ethnic and racial threat explanations, which imply that larger police forces will be employed in jurisdictions with larger minority populations. It is entirely unclear, though, whether such accounts are applicable outside the United States. This study fills this void in the literature by assessing the extent to which ethnic threat hypotheses can explain variations in police strength using data on 40 large Canadian cities from 1996 to 2006. Results show that the size of the minority population significantly influences the size of metropolitan police departments

Structural Determinants of Municipal Police Force Size in Large Cities across Canada: Assessing the applicability of ethnic threat theories in the Canadian context

Substantial theoretical and empirical attention has been directed at isolating the structural conditions that lead to shifts in the size of metropolitan police departments in the United States. These studies rely heavily on ethnic and racial threat explanations, which imply that larger police forces will be employed in jurisdictions with larger minority populations. It is entirely unclear, though, whether such accounts are applicable outside the United States. This study fills this void in the literature by assessing the extent to which ethnic threat hypotheses can explain variations in police strength using data on 40 large Canadian cities from 1996 to 2006. Results show that the size of the minority population significantly influences the size of metropolitan police departments

Racial Residential Segregation and Social Control: A Panel Study of the Variation in Police Strength Across U.S Cities, 1980–2010

Despite a great deal of theoretical and empirical attention given to racial residential segregation and its influence on a number of social problems in the United States, few scholars have examined the role that this persistent form of racial inequality plays in shaping the magnitude of formal social control efforts. Our study examines this relationship by assessing the potential influence that the isolation of minorities may have on efforts to control crime in urban centers across the United States. Using a pooled time-series regression technique well suited for the analysis of aggregate, longitudinal data, we assess the potential influence of racial segregation on the size of municipal police departments in 170 U.S. cities between 1980 and 2010. After accounting for minority group size, economic threat, crime, and disorganization, we find that racial residential segregation has a significant non-linear effect on police force size. Cities with the most racially integrated populations have the smallest police presence but at very high levels of segregation, police strength levels off. This finding is consistent with expectations derived from the contact hypothesis. Under such conditions, majority group members appear to be less inclined to demand greater crime control measures such as increased police protection. Period interactions with residential segregation also suggest that this relationship has grown stronger in each decade since 1980. Overall, our study provides strong support for threat theories and the contact hypothesis but offers necessary refinements

Legislative Responses to Wrongful Conviction: Do partisan principals and advocacy efforts influence state-level criminal justice policy?

The number of discovered wrongful criminal convictions (and resulting exonerations) has increased over the past decade. These cases erode public confidence in the criminal justice system and trust in the rule of law. Many states have adopted laws that aim to reduce system errors but no study has examined why some states appear more willing to provide due process protections against wrongful convictions than others. Findings from regression estimates suggest that states with a Republican controlled legislature or more Republican voters are less likely to pass these laws while the presence of advocacy organizations that are part of the \u27innocence movement\u27 make legislative change more likely. We thus identify important differences in the political and social context between U.S. states that influence the adoption of criminal justice policies

THE ANSWER TO A MAIDEN’S PRAYER: HOMER CUMMINGS AND THE ORIGINS OF THE 1937 COURT PACKING PLAN

On February 5, 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt submitted to Congress “The Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1937,” often simply called the Court-packing bill. The president hoped to circumvent the Court, which for years had been overturning New Deal programs, by appointing six new justices. However, the bill disguised its true intentions behind a veil of improving judicial efficiency. This misdirection backfired; the bill failed and Roosevelt’s popularity plummeted just months after a landslide reelection. This thesis examines the origins of the infamous Court-packing bill. It argues that Roosevelt was largely a background figure in the development of the plan, as he charged Attorney General Homer Cummings with finding a solution to the Court’s obstinacy. Cummings was the driving force behind the bill, particularly with regards to keeping it secret from other advisers and hiding its true intentions. Roosevelt’s most crucial mistake was in relying almost exclusively on his cunning attorney general