Alaska’s Merit Selection Of Judges: The Council’s Role, Past And Present

Delegates to Alaska\u27s Constitutional Convention adopted a Judiciary Article that called for the state\u27s judges to be selected and retained in a merit selection system. Modeled after the Missouri Plan, attorneys applying for judgeships are reviewed by the Judicial Council; two or more candidates are nominated to the governor; the governor appoints from the Council\u27s list; and all judges periodically stand for retention in the general elections. Alaska\u27s Judicial Council is composed of three non-attorneys appointed by the governor and confirmed by the legislature, three attorneys appointed by the Alaska Bar Board of Governors, and the Chief Justice who serves ex officio. All appointed members serve staggered six-year terms and are appointed with due consideration for area representation and without regard to political affiliation. This article draws on Council minutes, reports, and other materials to describe the Council\u27s selection process, and how it has evolved since the first days of statehood. The authors evaluate the effectiveness of the process using objective measures, including outcomes of retention elections. Finally, the article concludes with considerations for possible changes to make the process better suited to the Council\u27s increasing work load and the needs of applicants and others participating in judicial selection

Exercise Variety Associates with Low Adiposity and Better Emotional Wellbeing in Adults with Metabolic Syndrome

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Megahertz-wave-transmitting conducting polymer electrode for device-to-device integration

The ideal combination of high optical transparency and high electrical conductivity, especially at very low frequencies of less than the gigahertz (GHz) order, such as the radiofrequencies at which electronic devices operate (tens of kHz to hundreds of GHz), is fundamental incompatibility, which creates a barrier to the realization of enhanced user interfaces and ‘device-to-device integration.’ Herein, we present a design strategy for preparing a megahertz (MHz)-transparent conductor, based on a plasma frequency controlled by the electrical conductivity, with the ultimate goal of device-to-device integration through electromagnetic wave transmittance. This approach is verified experimentally using a conducting polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), the microstructure of which is manipulated by employing a solution process. The use of a transparent conducting polymer as an electrode enables the fabrication of a fully functional touch-controlled display device and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-compatible biomedical monitoring device, which would open up a new paradigm for transparent conductors. © 2019, The Author(s

Is the HERV-K HML-2 Xq2133, an endogenous retrovirus mutated by gene conversion of chromosome X in a subset of African populations, associated with human breast cancer?

The human endogenous retroviruses HERV-K HML-2 have been considered a possible cause of human breast cancer (BrC). A HERV-K HML-2 fully intact provirus Xq21.33 was recently identified in some West African people. We used PCR technology to search for the Xq21.33 provirus in DNA from Nigerian women with BrC and controls. to see if Xq21.33 plays any role in predisposing to BrC. This provirus was detected in 27 of 216 (12.5%) women with BrC and in 22 of 219 (10.0%) controls. These results were not statistically significant. The prevalence of provirus in premenopausal control women 44 years or younger [18/157 (11.46%)} vs women with BrC [12/117 (10.26%)] showed no statistical difference. The prevalence of virus in postmenopausal control women \u3e 45 yrs. was 7.4% (4/54) vs 15.31% (15/98) in postmenopausal women with BrC. These changes were not statistically significant at \u3c.05, but the actual p value of \u3c.0.079, suggests that Xq21.33 might play some role in predisposing to BrC in postmenopausal women. Provirus was present in Ghanaian women (6/87), in 1/6 Pygmy populations and in African American men (4/45) and women (6/68), but not in any Caucasian women (0/109). Two BrC cell lines (HCC 70 and DT22) from African American women had Xq21.33. Env regions of the virus which differed by 2-3 SNPs did not alter the protein sequence of the virus. SNP at 5730 and 8529 were seen in all persons with provirus, while 54% had an additional SNP at 7596.Two Nigerian women and 2 Ghanaian women had additional unusual SNPs. Homozygosity was seen in (5/27) BrC and (2/22) control women. The genetic variation and homozygosity patterns suggested that there was gene conversion of this X chromosome associated virus. The suggestive finding in this preliminary data of possible increased prevalence of Xq21.33 provirus in post-menopausal Nigerian women with BrC should be clarified by a more statistically powered study sample to see if postmenopausal African and/or African American women carriers of Xq21.33 might show increased risk of BrC. The implication of finding such a link would be the development of antiretroviral drugs that might aid in preventing BrC in Xq21.33+ women

Alaska Felony Process: 1999

The Alaska Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on Fairness and Access recommended that the state assess the relationships between defendants' ethnicities and their treatment by the criminal justice system. At the time of the request, the disproportionate numbers of ethnic minorities at all points in Alaska's criminal justice system were well-known. The main purpose of this work was to identify whether. those disproportions resulted from unjustifiable reasons and amounted to discrimination. Another purpose was to identify other unwarranted disparities, if they existed, based on the defendant's gender, the defendant's type of attorney, the location of the defendant's case, or other inappropriate characteristics. A third purpose was to update descriptive data about the criminal justice system. The Judicial Council collected and examined data from Alaska felony cases from 1999, beginning from the time formal charges were filed through case dispositions by way of dismissal, acquittal, or sentencing. At the time charges were initially filed, the Alaska felony defendants in these cases included disproportionally large numbers of young males, Alaska Natives, and Blacks. The report showed that, after charges were filed, justice for felony defendants in Alaska was, in many respects, substantially equal....In the area of non-presumptive sentencing, sentences were uniformly imposed among ethnic groups in all but Drug offenses. The disparity in this category was limited to Blacks in Anchorage and to Natives outside Anchorage. Matt Berman and Stephanie Martin at the UAA Institute for Social and Economic Research contributed the multivariate analyses used in this report