Boxed In: The True Cost of Extreme Isolation in New York's Prisons

The NYCLU set out to investigate New York's use of extreme isolation. We explored the history that led to the emergence and expansion of the practice in New York. We asked who New York subjects to extreme isolation, for what reasons, and for how long. We sought to understand and articulate its effects on prisoners and their families, as well as an often-overlooked population -- the corrections staff assigned to watch them. We compared New York's use of extreme isolation with practices in other states and asked if the widespread use of the practice violates legal standards. Finally, we considered how reforming the use of extreme isolation would affect the safety of New York's prisons and communities.In order to answer these questions, the NYCLU conducted an intensive year-long investigation. We communicated with more than 100 prisoners who have spent significant amounts of time -- in one case, more than 20 years -- inside a SHU cell. We interviewed family members and corrections staff. We consulted corrections experts, mental health professionals, lawyers and academics. We read decades of DOCCS reports and press coverage recounting the history of New York's SHU expansion. We researched the scientific and academic literature regarding the use and effects of extreme isolation. We studied domestic and international legal standards governing extreme isolation and the steps undertaken by other states to reform their use of the practice. Finally, we reviewed DOCCS' internal regulations and policies and analyzed thousands of pages of official DOCCS records obtained through New York's open records laws

Highly diverse nirK genes comprise two major clades that harbour ammonium-producing denitrifiers

Background: Copper dependent nitrite reductase, NirK, catalyses the key step in denitrification, i.e. nitrite reduction to nitric oxide. Distinct structural NirK classes and phylogenetic clades of NirK-type denitrifiers have previously been observed based on a limited set of NirK sequences, however, their environmental distribution or ecological strategies are currently unknown. In addition, environmental nirK-type denitrifiers are currently underestimated in PCR-dependent surveys due to primer coverage limitations that can be attributed to their broad taxonomic diversity and enormous nirK sequence divergence. Therefore, we revisited reported analyses on partial NirK sequences using a taxonomically diverse, full-length NirK sequence dataset. Results: Division of NirK sequences into two phylogenetically distinct clades was confirmed, with Clade I mainly comprising Alphaproteobacteria (plus some Gamma- and Betaproteobacteria) and Clade II harbouring more diverse taxonomic groups like Archaea, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Gemmatimonadetes, Nitrospirae, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Planctomycetes and Proteobacteria (mainly Beta and Gamma). Failure of currently available primer sets to target diverse NirK-type denitrifiers in environmental surveys could be attributed to mismatches over the whole length of the primer binding regions including the 3' site, with Clade II sequences containing higher sequence divergence than Clade I sequences. Simultaneous presence of both the denitrification and DNRA pathway could be observed in 67 % of all NirK-type denitrifiers. Conclusion: The previously reported division of NirK into two distinct phylogenetic clades was confirmed using a taxonomically diverse set of full-length NirK sequences. Enormous sequence divergence of nirK gene sequences, probably due to variable nirK evolutionary trajectories, will remain an issue for covering diverse NirK-type denitrifiers in amplicon-based environmental surveys. The potential of a single organism to partition nitrate to either denitrification or dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium appeared to be more widespread than originally anticipated as more than half of all NirK-type denitrifiers were shown to contain both pathways in their genome

Dissimilatory nitrogen reduction in intertidal sediments of a temperate estuary: small scale heterogeneity and novel nitrate-to-ammonium reducers

The estuarine nitrogen cycle can be substantially altered due to anthropogenic activities resulting in increased amounts of inorganic nitrogen (mainly nitrate). In the past, denitrification was considered to be the main ecosystem process removing reactive nitrogen from the estuarine ecosystem. However, recent reports on the contribution of dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) to nitrogen removal in these systems indicated a similar or higher importance, although the ratio between both processes remains ambiguous. Compared to denitrification, DNRA has been underexplored for the last decades and the key organisms carrying out the process in marine environments are largely unknown. Hence, as a first step to better understand the interplay between denitrification, DNRA and reduction of nitrate to nitrite in estuarine sediments, nitrogen reduction potentials were determined in sediments of the Paulina polder mudflat (Westerschelde estuary). We observed high variability in dominant nitrogen removing processes over a short distance (1.6m) with nitrous oxide, ammonium and nitrite production rates differing significantly between all sampling sites. Denitrification occurred at all sites, DNRA was either the dominant process (two out of five sites) or absent, while nitrate reduction to nitrite was observed in most sites but never dominant. In addition, novel nitrate-to-ammonium reducers assigned to Thalassospira, Celenbacter, and Halomonas, for which DNRA was thus far unreported, were isolated, with DNRA phenotype reconfirmed through nrfA gene amplification. This study demonstrates high small scale heterogeneity among dissimilatory nitrate reduction processes in estuarine sediments and provides novel marine DNRA organisms that represent valuable alternatives to the current model organisms

Faculty String Trio and Friends

Kennesaw State University School of Music presents Faculty String Trio and Friends.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1854/thumbnail.jp

Desis doing it like this: diaspora and the spaces of the London urban Asian music scene

My thesis examines the complex, fractured and diverse spaces of Asian cultural production in London, highlighting the immensely creative work in this area of popular music. The creation of these spaces presents new and different ideas about the self, and, furthermore, what it means to be young, Asian cultural producers in Britain and beyond. I conducted 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in which I collected interviews and engaged in participant observation in London’s various Asian music spaces - primarily at club nights, but also video shoots, album launches and music shows (large and small) throughout the city. Through ethnographic research, this thesis challenges and adds to the existing knowledge of Asian diasporic cultural production in the UK through the investigation of lived experience of diaspora. In stressing the knowledge that arrives out of everyday interactions this thesis seeks to go beyond the textual and theoretical in understanding diasporic music cultures. Furthermore the thesis explores how the everyday strategies produced within this Asian scene present a clear break from simplistic models of resistance that still forms the dominant reading of youth cultures. I argue that cultural production cannot be identified simply as a site for resistance or accommodation, nor are these Asian cultural producers following a strict binary model of authenticity or commodification. The findings suggest that these Asian music spaces are where young Asians actively engage in and create different and alternative ways of being that move away from ‘official’ constructions of Asians available in media and public debates. Moreover, Asian identities that are forged in these Asian music spaces are complex and contradictory, inclusive and exclusive. I argue that the cultural politics within the scene around representation, identity and production rely on both progressive, open, shifting and contingent definitions and boundaries of ethnic identity and forms of belonging while, at the same time, often impose or reinforce closed, exclusive, static and conservative notions of identity, nation, and gender

Being “Other” in Berlin: German Koreans, Multiraciality, and Diaspora

Germany is considered a relatively recent country where multiraciality has become a recognised phenomenon. Yet, Germany still considers itself a monoracial state, one where whiteness is conflated with “Germanness”. Based on interviews with seven people who are multiracial (mostly Korean–German) in Berlin, this article explores how the participants construct their multiracial identities. My findings show that participants strategically locate their identity as diasporic to circumvent racial “othering”. They utilise diasporic resources or the “raw materials” of diasporic consciousness in order to construct their multiracial identities and challenge racism and the expectations of racial and ethnic authenticity. I explored how multiracial experiences offer a different way of thinking about the actual doing and performing of diaspora

Symphony Orchestra featuring Helen Kim, violin

The KSU Symphony Orchestra, led by Director of Orchestral String Studies, Dr. Nathaniel F. Parker, presents a special program featuring Brahms\u27 Symphony No. 2 in D Major and KSU faculty violinist Helen Kim performing Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2106/thumbnail.jp

Faculty and Friends, Chamber Players

Kennesaw State University School of Music presents Faculty and Friends Chamber Players.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1833/thumbnail.jp

KSU Symphony Orchestra

The KSU Symphony Orchestra performs Mendelssohn\u27s Violin Concerto featuring violinist Helen Kim and is joined by chamber orchestras from Peachtree Ridge High School and Duluth High School for additional great works, including Mars and Jupiter from Gustav Holst\u27s The Planets.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1003/thumbnail.jp

KSU Symphony Orchestra featuring Helen Kim, violin and KSU Women\u27s Choir

Kennesaw State University School of Music presents Symphony Orchestra featuring Helen Kim, violin and the KSU Women\u27s Choir.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1536/thumbnail.jp