The Unforeseen Costs of Going to Trial: The Vitality of 212(C) Relief for Lawful Permanent Residents Convicted by Trial

Before 1996, a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) who was made deportable by a criminal conviction could apply for discretionary relief from deportation under section 212(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This relief, commonly known as 212(c) relief, was repealed in 1996. In 2001, the Supreme Court confronted the issue of whether an LPR with a pre-1996 deportable conviction could apply for 212(c) relief in his later post-repeal removal proceedings. The Court decided that an LPR who pleaded guilty to his pre-1996 conviction could still apply for 212(c) relief following the 1996 repeal. The status of those LPRs who were convicted of their pre-1996 offense after a trial remained unclear. Today, the courts of appeals are split on whether LPRs convicted at trial before the repeal of section 212(c) have access to this relief from deportation in their post-1996 removal proceedings stemming from that conviction. This Note examines and synthesizes the different approaches and resolutions of the courts of ap peals. This Note then undertakes an analysis of whether the repeal of 212(c) relief is impermissibly retroactive as to LPRs subject to post-1996 removal proceedings for pre-1996 convictions at trial. Finally, this Note argues that 212(c) relief should remain available to all LPRs in post-1996 removal proceedings stemming from their pre-1996 convictions, whether the conviction was by plea agreement or by trial

Youth Dating Culture in Urban Vietnam: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Influences

This paper attempts to research urban youth’s attitudes and behaviors concerning everything having to do with dating (the process, PDA, typical dating spots and behavior) and opinions towards “hot issues” in contemporary, Vietnam such as pre-marital sex and co-habitation. My research question focuses on what the term “dating” means among youth in urban Vietnam, and the various influences that affect youth’s dating and sexual lives. Through an extensive literature review, I learned that there is an overall lack of information and discussion about sex in Vietnam. There is also a general idea that from parents, the government, and school that youth are “not supposed” to have sex. Through focus groups, interviews, and an anonymous online questionnaire I attempt to discover if youth dating behavior matches the youth attitudes I have read in my literature review. I was surprised to see that the sexual behaviors reported in the online questionnaire differed from those reported in previous articles and in my own interviews. I found some differences regarding the findings of previous research, which are stated in my conclusion, but ultimately agreed with the established idea that sex among youth is “not supposed” to happen. However, there is a constant influx of foreign movies, advertisements, and web pages advocating sex –causing confusion among Vietnamese youth regarding how to fit this new world of sexuality into an old world of tradition. I ultimately conclude that in order handle various influences from society and media, youth must communicate amongst each other. They will be surprised to learn that they share similar sexual attitudes and concern. I also conclude that sex must be talked about and understood in Vietnamese society at large (the government, schools, and parents) to create an open and comfortable atmosphere for youth to learn about sex from trusted sources, rather than relying on foreign websites and friends’ experiences

An Investigational Study on The Impact of An Incopatible Filtration Of Benzyl Alcohol Using a Polyethersulfone Membrane

Chemical compatibility of a process stream with a disposable component is a critical element of determining the suitability of the single-use system. Chemical compatibility is often a collection of data on the physical interactions of a disposable with a solution, including but not limited to filter integrity, membrane swelling, and hardware deformations. Compatibility conditions recommended by the disposable manufacturer such as solvent concentration, temperature, and contact time should be compared to actual process use conditions. An incompatible filtration operation can impact the integrity of the filter, in addition to introducing material-derived impurities to a process stream that may not be understood. A case study is presented on the investigation and impact assessment of an incompatible filtration of a polyethersulfone (PES) membrane with 100% benzyl alcohol. The filtration of 100% benzyl alcohol using a PES membrane filter has the potential to introduce material-derived impurities to a process stream by dissolution of the membrane. Laboratory samples were prepared by filtering the 100% benzyl alcohol through the PES filter. LC-MS and FT-IR were utilized to screen the benzyl alcohol filtrate for PES derived compounds and other known wetting agents utilized in the production of the PES membrane. The FT-IR analysis confirmed the presence of PES in the benzyl alcohol filtrate. An additional analysis of the 100% benzyl alcohol filtrate was compared to the 100% unfiltered benzyl alcohol control using LC-MS, and a number of compounds (including the slip agent erucamide, several cyclic PES oligomers, and stearic and palmitic acid) were observed only in the benzyl alcohol filtrate. When compared to the control samples, cyclic PES oligomers were present in greater amounts in the filtered solution. A commercial reference standard was not available for quantiying tricyclic ether sulfone; as a result, a reference standard was generated internally and a limit test method was established at 0.9 ng/mL. Sample retains from three chromatography product pools were obtained, and tricyclic ether sulfone at less than 0.9 ng/mL was identified in three separate production lots. A toxicological assessment was completed to determine impact to patient safety resulting from the entirety of the tricyclic ether sulfone forward processing into a single dose of injectable drug product. The permissible daily exposure (PDE) of tricyclic ether sulfone was determined to be 160 µg/day, while the worst case estimated daily exposure to tricyclic ether sulfone was 0.027 µg/day. This results in an exposure 5,926 times lower than the PDE. A hazard or risk to patient safety is therefore not anticipated based on these findings. As a result of this investigation, several corrective actions/preventative actions were identified, including a materials gap assessment as a prerequisite for a technical process transfer

Sliding mode control applied to an underactuated fuel cell system

In this work, a method for controlling a nonlinear underactuated system using augmented sliding mode control (SMC) is proposed. SMC requires inversion of the input influence matrix to derive the desired control law. In under or over actuated systems this matrix is nonsquare therefore a true inverse does not exist. The proposed control approach demonstrated in this work involves introducing a transformation matrix mapping the systems input influence matrix to a transformed system that is square and thus invertible. The proposed approach is shown to control selectable states with proper choice of the transformation matrix yielding good control performance. The methodology is applied to an underactuated nonlinear fuel cell system to show its viability in a real world application. A sliding mode controller is derived for the full nonlinear system with a switching gain accounting for modeling errors and uncertainties. Simulation results indicate the viability of the proposed control law and demonstrate the robust nature of the control law in the presence of significant modeling errors while maintaining tracking stability. Finally, the augmented SMC is compared to a traditional linear control architecture illustrating the effectiveness and advantages in tracking performance and control effort over traditional methods

The influence of poly(ethylene glycol) on the micelle formation of alkyl maltosides used in membrane protein crystallization

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.With the aim of better understanding the phase behavior of alkyl maltosides (n-alkyl-beta-D-maltosides, C(n)G(2)) under the conditions of membrane protein crystallization, we studied the influence of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) 2000, a commonly used precipitating agent, on the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the alkyl maltosides by systematic variation of the number n of carbon atoms in the alkyl chain (n = 10, 11, and 12) and the concentration of PEG2000 (chi) in a buffer suitable for the crystallization of cyanobacterial photosystem II. CMC measurements were based on established fluorescence techniques using pyrene and 8-anilinonaphthalene-1-sulfonate (ANS). We found an increase of the CMC with increasing PEG concentration according to ln(CMC/CMC0) = k(P)chi, where CMC0 is the CMC in the absence of PEG and k(P) is a constant that we termed the "polymer constant". In parallel, we measured the influence of PEG2000 on the surface tension of detergent-free buffer solutions. At PEG concentrations chi > 1% w/v, the surface pressure pi(s)(chi) = gamma(0) - gamma(chi) was found to depend linearly on the PEG concentration according to pi(s)(chi) = kappa chi + pi(s)(0), where gamma(0) is the surface tension in the absence of PEG. Based on a molecular thermodynamic modeling, CMC shifts and surface pressure due to PEG are related, and it is shown that k(P) = kappa c(n) + eta, where c(n) is a detergent-specific constant depending inter alia on the alkyl chain length n and eta is a correction for molarity. Thus, knowledge of the surface pressure in the absence of a detergent allows for the prediction of the CMC shift. The PEG effect on the CMC is discussed concerning its molecular origin and its implications for membrane protein solubilization and crystallization.DFG, SFB 429, Molekulare Physiologie, Energetik und Regulation primärer pflanzlicher StoffwechselprozesseDFG, SFB 498, Protein-Kofaktor-Wechselwirkungen in biologischen ProzessenDFG, SFB 1078, Proteinfunktion durch ProtonierungsdynamikDFG, EXC 314, Unifying Concepts in CatalysisBMBF, 031A154B, Basistechnologien Forschertandem: Nutzung von Sonnenenergie für die Bioelektrokatalyse - Entwicklung von Photo-Bioelektrodenstrukturen für die Synthes

Effects of an Interactive, Computer-Based, Abstinence Education Curriculum on Selected Student Outcomes

A variety of environmental health issues occur within homes along the US/Mexico border region. Individuals living in this region are often not aware that specific issues, including pesticide safety, occur in their homes and may not understand the potential adverse effects of pesticide use on their families’ health. The Environmental Health/Home Safety Education Project created by the Southern Area Health Education Center at New Mexico State University, utilizes promotoras (community health workers) to educate clients on pesticide safety issues. Data from 367 pre/post tests and home assessments were collected from 2002-2005. The data were analyzed to detect changes in clients’ knowledge or behavior as they related to protecting themselves and their families against unsafe pesticide use and storage. Statistically significant changes occurred with both knowledge and behavior in regards to safe pesticide use. Through this culturally appropriate intervention, the promotoras provide practical information allowing clients to make their homes safer

Examining the Biological Functions of the H3K36 Methylation States in Transcription Regulation and the Post-Translational Modification Landscape of Set2

To package DNA, eukaryotes fold and compact DNA into chromatin. The fundamental building block of chromatin is the nucleosome, which plays a crucial role in DNA accessibility. The unstructured N-terminal tails of histones can be post-translationally modified with chemical moieties such as acetylation and methylation, amongst others. These post-translational modifications (PTMs) can serve as binding sites for proteins that alter chromatin structure or affect the interactions between histones and DNA, thus making the DNA more or less accessible to other cellular machinery. Additionally, other proteins in the cell can be post-translationally modified with similar chemical moieties, which can alter their enzymatic activity, create binding sites for other proteins, or other outcomes. The role of PTMs in regulating cellular processes underscores their importance and the need to understand their function and regulation. One important chromatin-modifying enzyme in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is Set2, which is the sole enzyme that catalyzes mono-, di-, and trimethylation on lysine 36 on histone H3 (H3K36). Set2 and H3K36 methylation (H3K36me) are functionally important in transcription elongation, DNA damage repair, and mRNA spicing. However, most work examining Set2 and H3K36me was completed in wild-type cells or those completely lacking Set2 and H3K36me. Thus, our understanding of the functions of the different H3K36me states is incomplete. Similarly, while Set2-mediated methylation has been well studied, no studies have examined any PTMs on Set2 and their functional significance. Utilizing biochemical, genetic, and genomic assays, this work uncovers the unique and shared roles for the H3K36me states in a variety of cellular contexts. Importantly, H3K36me1/2 and H3K36me3 appear to have redundant roles in repressing aberrant transcription during nutrient stress, thus providing flexibility during dynamic processes. Additional evidence demonstrates that Set2 is post-translationally modified and those PTMs have functional significance. Furthermore, the human homolog of Set2, SETD2, catalyzes H3K36me3 and robust evidence demonstrates that SETD2 is mutated in human cancers. Additional data presented in this work uncovers some of the structural and functional similarities and differences between Set2 and SETD2. Overall, the work presented here will further our understanding of Set2 and H3K36me in transcription, development, and disease.Doctor of Philosoph