Disfranchising Felons: The Desecration of Human Dignity and Civic Voice- A Rational Approach to Enfranchising Felons

The right of the franchise is the cornerstone of both democratic expression and American citizenry. Suffrage is not a mere means of formal representation, but also denotes a citizen’s civic worth. Accordingly, any restrictions on this right should be heavily considered. This paper will primarily deliberate on the specific voting restrictions placed on felons, both historically and currently, and their disproportionate effects on people of color. Secondly, it will delineate plausible policy alternatives to mitigate these effects. Racial obstructionism has been an enduring facet of the criminal justice system (and the collateral consequences associated) since the Reconstruction era. From Jim Crow laws to sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine users, race has played both an implicit and direct role in shaping legislation. This paper specifically explores the nuance behind contemporary “colorblind” legislation as it relates to felon enfranchisement. With the historic context of disfranchisement presented, I will employ the rationalism model to assess policy alternatives which will increase enfranchisement and equity while reducing administrative costs. After a thorough evaluation of the possible costs and benefits of each alternative, this paper identifies automatic restoration of voting rights upon release from prison as the best policy alternative. This alternative will not only swiftly and efficiently reintroduce felons to civic engagement, but will also eliminate interstate policy inconsistencies and the administrative costs associated with the continued usage of absentee ballots. The anticipated long-term derivative of this policy will be a more cohesive and rehabilitative treatment of criminals

Anthropogenic noise compromises antipredator behaviour in European eels.

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons LtdThis is the peer reviewed version of the article which has been published in final form at DOI : 10.1111/gcb.12685. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-ArchivingArticle first published online: 6 August 2014Increases in noise-generating human activities since the Industrial Revolution have changed the acoustic landscape of many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Anthropogenic noise is now recognized as a major pollutant of international concern, and recent studies have demonstrated impacts on, for instance, hearing thresholds, communication, movement and foraging in a range of species. However, consequences for survival and reproductive success are difficult to ascertain. Using a series of laboratory-based experiments and an open-water test with the same methodology, we show that acoustic disturbance can compromise antipredator behaviour--which directly affects survival likelihood--and explore potential underlying mechanisms. Juvenile European eels (Anguilla anguilla) exposed to additional noise (playback of recordings of ships passing through harbours), rather than control conditions (playback of recordings from the same harbours without ships), performed less well in two simulated predation paradigms. Eels were 50% less likely and 25% slower to startle to an 'ambush predator' and were caught more than twice as quickly by a 'pursuit predator'. Furthermore, eels experiencing additional noise had diminished spatial performance and elevated ventilation and metabolic rates (indicators of stress) compared with control individuals. Our results suggest that acoustic disturbance could have important physiological and behavioural impacts on animals, compromising life-or-death responses

Application of the particle filter to tracking of fish in aquaculture research

The analysis of fish movement as an indicator of fish behaviour plays an important role in aquaculture research. Currently observations are carried out manually using video recordings. In this paper we describe a tracking system which can automatically detect and track two fish in a video sequence in a small aquaculture tank. The system is based on the particle filter tracking algorithm augmented by an adaptive partition scheme and using a Global Nearest Neighbour approach for data association. Results show that this method is sufficient for simple interactions where fish bypass each other without significant changes in velocity. However, more complex scenarios involving occlusions, loss of tracks and fish manoeuvres can cause ambiguity during data association

Wills Formalities in Post-Pandemic World: A Research Agenda

The COVID-19 global pandemic has brought new focus to human mortality. The virus has reminded many people that they need to have a valid will or otherwise make plans for the effective transmission of their property on death. Yet stay-at-home orders and social distancing recommendations make it difficult or impossible to comply with the traditional rules for validly executing wills. Across most common law jurisdictions, the traditional requirements call for two witnesses in the physical presence of the testator. Because of the practical difficulties of safely executing documents during the pandemic with witnesses assembled in physical proximity, many jurisdictions internationally have implemented emergency measures that permit the remote witnessing of wills and other estate planning documents via audio-visual platforms like Zoom, Skype, or FaceTime. This essay employs a dual Australian-United States perspective to investigate the purposes of traditional will-making requirements and to suggest their continued vitality in the context of remotely witnessed wills. Although emergency measures adopted in both countries arguably have made it easier to execute wills during the pandemic, these provisions will, for the most part, sunset in the near future. The desirability of increasing access to legal services generally, and will-making specifically, might argue in favor of making permanent the pandemic-era rules for will executions. Before embracing a permanent change, though, there needs to be more research. This essay proposes a research agenda comprised of four future empirical studies of pandemic and post-pandemic-era will-making. These studies aim to identify and address any problems with the remote witnessing of testamentary documents. The results of these and other studies can facilitate the development of evidence-based, workable rules for effective will-making in the twenty-first century

Assessing effects of increased noise levels on fish behaviour

Man-made noise can affect physiology and behaviour of animals of all taxa, including fish. However, there is not much known about effects of increased noise levels on anti-predator and foraging behaviour, which are both essential for survival and reproduction. In our laboratory study, we investigated effects of increased noise levels on these behaviours in two sympatric fish species, three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and European minnows (Phoxinus phoxinus), which differ in their anti-predator defences and likely in their hearing capabilities. Our study indicated that both behavioural contexts were affected by increased noise levels, but effects differed between species. Sticklebacks responded to a visual predatory stimulus sooner when exposed to additional noise playbacks than in control conditions, whereas minnows were not affected by the noise treatments. In foraging experiments, both fish species consumed fewer water fleas, but the reasons fish decreased food consumption seemed species specific: sticklebacks increased the number of foraging errors, whereas minnows tended to decrease their foraging effort by interacting socially more often and more individuals were inactive during increased noise level conditions. To allow for controlled comparative experiments, our studies were conducted in the laboratory. Complementary field experiments ensuring natural acoustic conditions will be necessary to investigate whether species differences can translate into community effects and whether these effects differ between different kinds of noise, such as drilling, pile driving and energy device operation noise. Expanding research to commercially important fish and quantification of particle motion in addition to sound pressure as most fish, and likely invertebrate species, perceive particle motion rather than sound pressure, would further deliver valuable knowledge for industry, policy makers and fisheries managers about how marine renewable energy devices may interfere with the marine environment.University of BristolBasler Stiftung für Biologische ForschungDefraNER

Studying development in Williams syndrome: Progress, prospects and challenges

Williams Syndrome (WS) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder associated with a specific cognitive profile of strengths and impairments. It has been argued that studying cognitive development of this disorder would not only allow improved knowledge of WS but also provide insight into alternative pathways in development. However, due to the rarity and nature of the disorder, there are a number of challenges to collect longitudinal data. This letter describes a new multi-lab based approach to examine development in WS longitudinally and discusses some of the challenges and solutions that need to be taken into account when putting together either previously obtained or newly collected data from different labs

The Benefits of Laser Scanning & 3D Modelling in Accident Investigation: In a Mining Context

PublishedArticleThis is the author’s final accepted version of the article: M. L. Eyre, P. J. Foster, J. Jobling-Purser and J. Coggan. "The benefits of laser scanning and 3D modelling in accident investigation: in a mining context." Mining Technology 2015; 124(2), 73-77. DOI: 10.1179/1743286315Y.0000000004Accurate reconstruction of the facts and causes surrounding accidents is critical if the mining industry is to learn from incidents and prevent future events. Effective accident investigation and training are essential in order to accomplish this, while providing a record of the incident in order to help in explaining the situation to people unconnected to the event itself. Over a number of years there have been considerable innovations in survey instrumentation and software used to record data. However, the final deliverable data has remained the same, with surveyors tasked to represent a 3D environment using 2D deliverables. This paper explores the benefits that can be obtained using 3D data capture and representation with regard to accident investigation with discussion on accuracy, time, witness verification and reduction in human error