The Hidden Costs of Pretrial Detention

This study investigates the correlation of pretrial detention with 1) pretrial outcomes (failure to appear and arrest for new criminal activity); and 2) post-disposition recidivism (new criminal activity post-disposition)

Investigating the Impact of Pretrial Detention on Sentencing Outcomes

This study investigates the impact of pretrial detention on sentencing outcomes for both misdemeanors and felonies

Conservation Status and Habitat Use of the West Virginia Spring Salamander (Gyrinophilus Subterraneus) and Spring Salamander (G. Porphyriticus) in General Davis Cave, Greenbrier Co., West Virginia

The West Virginia Spring Salamander (Gyrinophilus subterraneus) is one of four obligate cave-dwelling species of plethodontid salamanders found east of the Mississippi River in the United States. This species is endemic to a single cave system; General Davis Cave, in Greenbrier Co., West Virginia, where it is syntopic with the closely-related Spring Salamander (G. porphyriticus). Accordingly, the West Virginia Spring Salamander is a species of critical conservation concern. Because of it\u27s conservation status and lack of data regarding the ecology and life history, particularly about population trends, we present data on relative abundance of and habitat use by the West Virginia Spring Salamander during a 33-year period from 1975-2008. Specifically we address: (1) stability of the population during the last 33 years; (2) variation in habitat use by life stage and between species (Spring Salamanders and West Virginia Spring Salamanders); (3) plausibility of neoteny in the West Virginia Spring Salamander; and (4) the conservation status of the West Virginia Spring Salamander. We recorded 324 observations of Gyrinophilus salamanders, of which 192 were West Virginia Spring Salamanders, within the study area during 17 surveys. While both larval and metamorphosed West Virginia Spring Salamanders were encountered, only metamorphosed Spring Salamanders were observed. West Virginia Spring Salamander larvae were encountered in pools more often than in riffle habitat. Spring Salamanders were encountered more often in terrestrial habitats versus aquatic habitats. West Virginia Spring Salamanders reach relatively large size before metamorphosing, with some individuals becoming sexual mature as larvae. It remains unknown whether any of these individuals reproduce, however. Although the populations of both species appear to be stable over the past 33 years and not in immediate danger of extinction, the West Virginia Spring Salamander is still in critical conservation concern because of it\u27s extremely restricted distribution and current threats to the cave system it resides in

Polytomies and Bayesian Phylogenetic Inference

This is an electronic version of an article published in Systematic Biology [Lewis, Paul O., Mark T. Holder, and Kent E. Holsinger. Polytomies and Bayesian phylogenetic inference. Systematic Biology, 54:241{253, 2005.] Systematic Biology is available online at informaworld http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10635150590924208Bayesian phylogenetic analyses are now very popular in systematics and molecular evolution because they allow the use of much more realistic models than currently possible with maximum likelihood methods. There are, however, a growing number of examples in which large Bayesian posterior clade probabilities are associated with very short branch lengths and low values for non-Bayesian measures of support such as nonparametric bootstrapping. For the four-taxon case when the true tree is the star phylogeny, Bayesian analyses become increasingly unpredictable in their preference for one of the three possible resolved tree topologies as data set size increases. This leads to the prediction that hard (or near-hard) polytomies in nature will cause unpredictable behavior in Bayesian analyses, with arbitrary resolutions of the polytomy receiving very high posterior probabilities in some cases. We present a simple solution to this problem involving a reversible-jump Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm that allows exploration of all of tree space, including unresolved tree topologies with one or more polytomies. The reversible-jump MCMC approach allows prior distributions to place some weight on less-resolved tree topologies, which eliminates misleadingly high posteriors associated with arbitrary resolutions of hard polytomies. Fortunately, assigning some prior probability to polytomous tree topologies does not appear to come with a significant cost in terms of the ability to assess the level of support for edges that do exist in the true tree. Methods are discussed for applying arbitrary prior distributions to tree topologies of varying resolution, and an empirical example showing evidence of polytomies is analyzed and discussed

Processing and Transmission of Information

Contains research objectives and reports on three research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant G-16526)National Institutes of Health (Grant MH-04737-03)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-496)Lincoln Laboratory, Purchase Order DDL BB-107U.S. Air Force under Contract AF 19(628)-50

Forests and water: a state-of-the-art review for Colorado

Includes bibliographical references (pages 65-75).Forests occupy 22.6 million acres in Colorado, or 32 percent of the land area, and nearly three-quarters of the forest lands in Colorado are in public ownership. About 55 percent of the forested area is considered suitable for forest harvest. National forests comprise nearly half of the forested area and approximately 60 percent of the area is considered suitable for forest harvest. There are no significant, privately-owned, industrial forest lands in Colorado. Historic photographs, forest stand records, and other data indicate that forest density in Colorado is generally greater than in the mid to late 1800s. This increase in forest density, attributed to suppression of forest fires, reduced grazing, and lower rates of forest harvest for timber, fuel, and other products, are generally believed to have decreased annual water yields. Annual water yields from the 1.34 million acres of national forest lands in the North Platte River basin are estimated to have decreased by approximately 8 to 14 percent or 135,000 to 185,000 acre-feet per year, depending on the assumed stand history for the spruce-fir forests. Hydrologic models indicate that average annual water yields could be increased in the North Platte River basin by about 55,000 acre-feet per year if all 502,000 acres designated as suitable for timber harvest were regularly harvested on a sustained yield basis. Similar data are not available for other river basins in Colorado, although the overall trends are probably similar. This research looked at how reducing forest canopy affects the rate of spring snowmelt and water yield, how it affects evapotranspiration, what happens when the forest regrows, whether reducing forest density affects water yields if annual precipitation is a factor, the effects on water quality, and the necessity for water storage facilities to store the increased runoff. The report does not attempt to address the myriad of other issues that must be considered when evaluating various management alternatives for forested lands. Some of these issues include the numerous laws and regulations that affect land management, economic considerations, the downstream uses of water and water storage capacities, and the effects of forest management on recreation, local communities, aesthetics, and other plant and animal species.Sponsored by: Colorado River Water Conservation District, Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, Denver Water, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District and financed in part by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, through the Colorado Water Resources Research Institute and Grant no. 01HQGR0077

Book Reviews

The Hebrew God: Portrait of an Ancient Deity Lang, Bernhard New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002 Reviewed By Bill T. Arnold A Marginal Jew, vol. 3, Companions and Competitors Meier, John P New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, 2001 Reviewed By Mattie Greathouse The Gospel of Mark: A Soda-Rhetorical Commentary Witherington, Ill, Ben Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2001 Reviewed By Greg Carey After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. Trans. Doug Scott Voli, Miroslav Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1998 Reviewed By Howard A. Snyder The Literary Structure of the Old Testament: A Commentary on Genesis-Malachi Dorsey, David A. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999 Reviewed By Joel H. Hunt Make the Old Testament Live: From Curriculum to Classroom Hess, Richard S., and Cordon J. Wenham, editors Eerdmans, 1998 Reviewed By Joel H. Hunt Christology Schwarz, Hans Grand Rapids : William B. Eerdmans, 1998 Reviewed By Greg Carey New Testament History: A Narrative Account Witherington, Ben Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001 Reviewed By Ruth Anne Reese The Omphalos and the Cross: Pagans and Christians in Search of a Divine Center Ciholas, Paul Macon : Mercer University Press, 2003 Reviewed By Michael Harstad Participating in God: Creation and Trinity Powell, Samuel M. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003 Reviewed By James Holsinger Judges. Interpretation Commentary Series McCann, J. Clinton Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 2002 Reviewed By Victor H. Matthews Clark H. Pinnock: Journey Toward Renewal: An Intellectual Biography Callen, Barry L Published in Cooperation with The Wesleyan Theological Society. Nappanee, IN: Evangel Publishing House, 2000 Reviewed By Howard A. Snyder Radical Christianity: The Believers Church Tradition in Christianity\u27s History and Future Callen, Barry L Nappanee, IN: Evangel Publishing House, 1999 Reviewed By Howard A. Snyder The Unity Movement Vahle, Neal Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press, 2002 Reviewed By Steven Tsoukala

Isolation by distance and isolation by environment contribute to population differentiation in Protea repens (Proteaceae L.), a widespread South African species

PREMISE OF THE STUDY: The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) of South Africa is renowned for its botanical diversity, but the evolutionary origins of this diversity remain controversial. Both neutral and adaptive processes have been implicated in driving diversification, but population-level studies of plants in the CFR are rare. Here, we investigate the limits to gene flow and potential environmental drivers of selection in Protea repens L. (Proteaceae L.), a widespread CFR species. METHODS: We sampled 19 populations across the range of P. repens and used genotyping by sequencing to identify 2066 polymorphic loci in 663 individuals. We used a Bayesian FST outlier analysis to identify single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) marking genomic regions that may be under selection; we used those SNPs to identify potential drivers of selection and excluded them from analyses of gene flow and genetic structure. RESULTS: A pattern of isolation by distance suggested limited gene flow between nearby populations. The populations of P. repens fell naturally into two or three groupings, which corresponded to an east-west split. Differences in rainfall seasonality contributed to diversification in highly divergent loci, as do barriers to gene flow that have been identified in other species. CONCLUSIONS: The strong pattern of isolation by distance is in contrast to the findings in the only other widespread species in the CFR that has been similarly studied, while the effects of rainfall seasonality are consistent with well-known patterns. Assessing the generality of these results will require investigations of other CFR species.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (DEB-1046328). Seeds were collected under Cape Nature permits AAA005-00214-0028 and AAA005-00224-0028 and Eastern Cape Province permit CRO 4/11 C

An exemplar-based approach to risk assessment: Validating the risk management systems instrument

Using a sample of federal probationers, this study examines the predictive validity of the Risk Management Systems assessment instrument. The results indicate the RMS is predictive of arrest, technical violation, and unsuccessful termination from supervision