Toward Modernization: Using Strategic Development to Address Deficits in the Juvenile Justice System

The Juvenile Justice System was established on the premise of rehabilitative action for behaviors that have led youth to the criminal justice system. However, the system has increasingly moved away from this original concept toward a punitive model. The authors present how this movement resulted in the devolution of human rights for the youth involved, a decrease in public safety, and a radical departure from fiscal responsibility related to the theoretical origins of rehabilitation. Studies on topics ranging from costs of correctional centers to trauma experienced by youth in these systems, along with many others, are compared to identify specific areas for renovation. Evidence-based pathways are presented to address these concerns along with pragmatic strategies for utilization of a constructed theory focused on the relationship between diversionary policies, attrition, and growth through the reinvestment of existing resources

Social Capital and Educational Attainment: A Study of Undergraduates in a Faculty of Education

This research examines the effects of social capital on the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes among a sample of undergraduate university students. A theoretical model containing 14 variables including university and social background, social capital, time management, and educational attainment is presented. The data obtained from questionnaires completed by 269 undergraduate students in the Faculty of Education at a western Canadian university are used to test the model. Structural equation modeling tests the relationships among the variables. The results indicate that when other variables are taken into account, students' perceptions of social capital resources have direct and indirect effects on their developing self-concepts and their educational achievement. Students' perceptions of support, specifically support derived from interactions with other students, are an important resource that relates positively to their academic self-concepts and their grades.Cette recherche étudie les effets du capital social sur le développement de connaissances, d'habiletés et d'attitudes d'un échantillon d'étudiants du premier cycle. Dans cet article, les auteurs présentent un modèle théorique compose de 14 variables dont la formation universitaire, le contexte social, le capital social, la gestion du temps et le niveau de connaissance. Ce modèle est mis à I’ épreuve par les résultats des questionnaires complétés par 269 étudiants du premier cycle à la faculté d'éducation d'une université dans l'Ouest du Canada. On a teste les rapports entre les variables par le biais de la modélisation par équation structurelle. Les résultats indiquent que, lorsqu'on tient compte d'autres variables, les perceptions qu'ont les étudiants des ressources de capital social agissent directement et indirectement sur le développement de leur concept de soi et sur leur niveau de connaissance. Les perceptions des étudiants sur l'appui, surtout celui découlant de leur contact avec d'autres étudiants, constituent une ressource importance qui a une influence positive sur leur concept de soi et sur leurs notes

Time Use and Educational Attainment: A Study of Undergraduate Students

This research examines the effects of students' time use in academically related activities and paid employment on their educational attainment. A theoretical model containing fourteen background, social psychological, time use, and educational attainment variables was formulated. The data were obtained from questionnaires administered to 308 undergraduate students in the Faculty of Education at a Western Canadian University. A stratified random cluster sampling procedure was used to select classes of students. Structural equation modelling is used to test the relationships among the variables. Results indicate that when other variables are taken into account, the time students spend in academically related activities and paid employment has little effect on their educational achievement and their educational expectations.Cette recherche examine les effets de la répartition du temps d'étude et du temps alloué à un emploi sur le succès académique des étudiants. Un modèle théorique comportant quatorze variables de type général, socio-psychologique, d'utilisation du temps, et portant sur les résultats de l'expérience éducative, a été développé. Les données ont été obtenues d'une enquête effectuée auprès de 308 étudiants non diplômés de la faculté d'éducation d'une université canadienne. Une méthode d'échantillonnage stratifié par groupe a été utilisée pour sélectionner les groupes-cibles d'étudiants. Une modélisation par équation structurale a été effectuée pour analyser les résultats. Ils indiquent, qu'une fois l'effet des autres variables pris en compte, le temps dédié aux activités académiques et à un emploi rémunéré a peu d'impact sur le succès académique des étudiants et sur leurs attentes en matière de formation

Migratory connectivity of North American waterfowl across administrative flyways

Management of waterfowl that migrate seasonally across North America occurs within four flyways that were delineated in the early 1900s to include the annual movements of populations. Movements may have changed over the past century since the administrative flyways were established, and may do so while management plans are in use, so information about transitions among flyways through time can illustrate how management assumptions may change. Today there are more than 12 million records from 60 years of migratory waterfowl band recoveries to assess adaptive management approaches that will be most effective when they account for movements within and between flyways. We examined how much the movement of North American waterfowl occurs between flyways, whether those movements have changed through time, and whether movements of mallards are representative of multiple species, as suggested by current harvest management strategies. We estimated the probability a duck would transition from one flyway to another and the strength of migratory connectivity (MC) for each species within and among flyways. We used capture–mark–recovery models to estimate population-specific movement within and among flyways (transition probabilities) for 15 migratory waterfowl species that were banded during breeding and recovered during winter. We developed new functionality in the R package MigConnectivity to estimate the species-specific strength of MC using transition probability samples from the capture–mark–recovery models. We found the regular movement of duck populations among flyways, overall weak MC, and no consistent change in migratory movements through time. Mallard movements were median among all duck species, but significantly different from many species, particularly diving ducks. Despite the significant movement between flyways, our work suggests flyway management of waterfowl matches many of the seasonal movements of these species when considering mid-continent flyway management. We recommend models accounting for all transition probabilities between populations and regularly estimating harvest derivations, transition probabilities, and MC metrics to verify that the current movements match model assumptions

Spectral Typing of Late Type Stellar Companions to Young Stars from Low Dispersion Near-Infrared Integral Field Unit Data

We used the Project 1640 near-infrared coronagraph and integral field spectrograph to observe 19 young solar type stars. Five of these stars are known binary stars and we detected the late-type secondaries and were able to measure their JH spectra with a resolution of R\sim30. The reduced, extracted, and calibrated spectra were compared to template spectra from the IRTF spectral library. With this comparison we test the accuracy and consistency of spectral type determination with the low-resolution near-infrared spectra from P1640. Additionally, we determine effective temperature and surface gravity of the companions by fitting synthetic spectra calculated with the PHOENIX model atmosphere code. We also present several new epochs of astrometry of each of the systems. Together these data increase our knowledge and understanding of the stellar make up of these systems. In addition to the astronomical results, the analysis presented helps validate the Project 1640 data reduction and spectral extraction processes and the utility of low-resolution, near-infrared spectra for characterizing late-type companions in multiple systems.Comment: Accepted to Astronomical Journal, 25 pages, 8 figure

Importance of the Active Site "Canopy" Residues in an O_2-Tolerant [NiFe]-Hydrogenase

The active site of Hyd-1, an oxygen-tolerant membrane-bound [NiFe]-hydrogenase from Escherichia coli, contains four highly conserved residues that form a “canopy” above the bimetallic center, closest to the site at which exogenous agents CO and O_2 interact, substrate H_2 binds, and a hydrido intermediate is stabilized. Genetic modification of the Hyd-1 canopy has allowed the first systematic and detailed kinetic and structural investigation of the influence of the immediate outer coordination shell on H_2 activation. The central canopy residue, arginine 509, suspends a guanidine/guanidinium side chain at close range above the open coordination site lying between the Ni and Fe atoms (N–metal distance of 4.4 Å): its replacement with lysine lowers the H_2 oxidation rate by nearly 2 orders of magnitude and markedly decreases the H_2/D_2 kinetic isotope effect. Importantly, this collapse in rate constant can now be ascribed to a very unfavorable activation entropy (easily overriding the more favorable activation enthalpy of the R509K variant). The second most important canopy residue for H_2 oxidation is aspartate 118, which forms a salt bridge to the arginine 509 headgroup: its mutation to alanine greatly decreases the H_2 oxidation efficiency, observed as a 10-fold increase in the potential-dependent Michaelis constant. Mutations of aspartate 574 (also salt-bridged to R509) to asparagine and proline 508 to alanine have much smaller effects on kinetic properties. None of the mutations significantly increase sensitivity to CO, but neutralizing the expected negative charges from D118 and D574 decreases O_2 tolerance by stabilizing the oxidized resting Ni^(III)–OH state (“Ni-B”). An extensive model of the catalytic importance of residues close to the active site now emerges, whereby a conserved gas channel culminates in the arginine headgroup suspended above the Ni and Fe

RNA-binding protein CPEB1 remodels host and viral RNA landscapes.

Host and virus interactions occurring at the post-transcriptional level are critical for infection but remain poorly understood. Here, we performed comprehensive transcriptome-wide analyses revealing that human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection results in widespread alternative splicing (AS), shortening of 3' untranslated regions (3' UTRs) and lengthening of poly(A)-tails in host gene transcripts. We found that the host RNA-binding protein CPEB1 was highly induced after infection, and ectopic expression of CPEB1 in noninfected cells recapitulated infection-related post-transcriptional changes. CPEB1 was also required for poly(A)-tail lengthening of viral RNAs important for productive infection. Strikingly, depletion of CPEB1 reversed infection-related cytopathology and post-transcriptional changes, and decreased productive HCMV titers. Host RNA processing was also altered in herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2)-infected cells, thereby indicating that this phenomenon might be a common occurrence during herpesvirus infections. We anticipate that our work may serve as a starting point for therapeutic targeting of host RNA-binding proteins in herpesvirus infections