Does GPS supervision of intimate partner violence defendants reduce pretrial misconduct? Evidence from a quasi-experimental study

Objectives This research examines the effect global positioning system (GPS) technology supervision has on pretrial misconduct for defendants facing intimate partner violence charges. Methods Drawing on data from one pretrial services division, a retrospective quasi-experimental design was constructed to examine failure to appear to court, failure to appear to meetings with pretrial services, and rearrest outcomes between defendants ordered to pretrial GPS supervision and a comparison group of defendants ordered to pretrial supervision without the use of monitoring technology. Cox regression models were used to assess differences between quasi-experimental conditions. To enhance internal validity and mitigate model dependence, we utilized and compared results across four counterfactual comparison groups (propensity score matching, Mahalanobis distance matching, inverse probability of treatment weighting, and marginal mean weighting through stratification). Results Pretrial GPS supervision was no more or less effective than traditional, non-technology based pretrial supervision in reducing the risk of failure to appear to court or the risk of rearrest. GPS supervision did reduce the risk of failing to appear to meetings with pretrial services staff. Conclusions The results suggest that GPS supervision may hold untapped case management benefits for pretrial probation officers, a pragmatic focus that may be overshadowed by efforts to mitigate the risk of pretrial misconduct. Further, the results contribute to ongoing discussions on bail reform, pretrial practice, and the movement to reduce local jail populations. Although the cost savings are not entirely clear, relatively higher risk defendants can be managed in the community and produce outcomes that are comparable to other defendants. The results also call into question the ability of matching procedures to construct appropriate counterfactuals in an era where risk assessment informs criminal justice decision-making. Weighting techniques outperformed matching strategies

Information Security Among Small Organizations: a Survey

Small businesses are at extreme risk from network based attacks. A lack of security budget for hardware such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, proxy servers, and web 2.0 gateway filters, plus a lack of technical expertise in network security, put small businesses at higher risk than larger companies. This paper researches the current state of small business network security and the types of threats they are seeing. It also looks at the factors that determine when and why security is implemented or modified

Influence of fuel sulfur content on emissions from diesel engines equipped with oxidation catalysts

Diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs) are a viable exhaust aftertreatment alternative for alleviating regulated exhaust emissions of hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter (PM) from diesel-fueled heavy-duty engines. This study was a part of the Diesel Emissions Control-Sulfur Effects (DECSE) program that was aimed at determining the impact of diesel fuel sulfur levels on diesel oxidation catalysts that were designed to lower brake-specific PM, HC, and CO emissions from on-highway trucks and buses in the 2002--2004 model years. The research focused on high-temperature DOCs installed on a Cummins ISM370 ESP engine, and low-temperature DOCs installed on a Navistar T444E engine to determine how the DOCs affect the various emissions, how fuel sulfur affects emissions, and how fuel sulfur poisons the catalysts over time.;The DOCs were found to affect the brake-specific PM, HC, and CO emissions. The PM emissions were not significantly affected by the DOCs when lower sulfur fuels (3 ppm and 30 ppm) were used. Brake-specific PM emissions were dramatically increased with the higher sulfur fuel (350 ppm) due to the formation of sulfates and the associated sulfate bound water. Hence, fuel sulfur affected the brake-specific PM, HC, and CO emissions from DOC equipped heavy-duty diesel engines.;Brake-specific HC emissions were eliminated by nearly 100% by the use of the DOCs. The DOCs had various reduction efficiencies ranging from 90% to 100% for CO emissions from the Navistar engine and 24% to 79% for the Cummins engine.;The DOCs were only evaluated for only 250 aging hours, which is a relatively short duration. Over this short amount of time, there was no significant evidence of the fuel sulfur poisoning the diesel oxidation catalysts

Sequence-Based Specification of Embedded Systems

Software has become integral to the control mechanism of modern devices. From transportation and medicine to entertainment and recreation, embedded systems integrate fundamentally with time and the physical world to impact our lives; therefore, product dependability and safety are of paramount importance. Model-based design has evolved as an effective way to prototype systems and to analyze system function through simulation. This process mitigates the problems and risks associated with embedding software into consumer and industrial products. However, the most difficult tasks remain: Getting the requirements right and reducing them to precise specifications for development, and providing compelling evidence that the product is fit for its intended use. Sequence-based specification of discrete systems, using well-chosen abstractions, has proven very effective in exposing deficiencies in requirements, and then producing precise specifications for good requirements. The process ensures completeness, consistency, and correctness by tracing each specification decision precisely to the requirements. Likewise, Markov chain based testing has proven effective in providing evidence that systems are fit for field use. Model-based designs integrate discrete and continuous behavior; models have both hybrid and switching properties. In this research, we extend sequence-based specification to explicitly include time, continuous functions, nondeterminism, and internal events for embedded real-time systems. The enumeration is transformed into an enumeration hybrid automaton that acts as the foundation for an executable model-based design and an algebraic hybrid I/O automaton with valuable theoretical properties. Enumeration is a step-wise problem solving technique that complements model-based design by converting ordinary requirements into precise specifications. The goal is a complete, consistent, and traceably correct design with a basis for automated testing

Christian Faith and Political Life: A Pre- and Post-Election Dialogue

The 2004 presidential election has generated a wide-ranging discussion of the role of religion in public life. Well before the election, Jason Carter, grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, anticipated the difficulties the political left would experience in attracting the votes of theologically conservative Christians. In a paper initially drafted for a Spring 2004 law school seminar, Mr. Carter called for a genuine dialogue about political implications of the Christian faith, designed to overcome the country\u27s unhealthy polarization between a religious right and a secular left. In light of the election results, Prof. Randy Beck suggested that Mr. Carter\u27s seminar paper form the basis for this written dialogue, which explores political implications of Christian faith, including the extent to which conservative theology might be consistent with liberal politics

Managing and Sharing the Risks of Drought in Australia

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Gait Extraction and Description by Evidence-Gathering

Using gait as a biometric is of increasing interest, yet there are few model-based, parametric, approaches to extract and describe moving articulated objects. One new approach can detect moving parametric objects by evidence gathering, hence accruing known performance advantages in terms of performance and occlusion. Here we show how that the new technique can be extended not only to extract a moving person, but also to extract and concurrently provide a gait signature for use as a biometric. We show the natural relationship between the bases of these approaches, and the results they can provide. As such, these techniques allow for gait extraction and description for recognition purposes, and with known performance advantages of a well-established vision technique

F16RS SGR No. 7 (Off-Campus Housing)

To urge and request Louisiana State University to take an active role in promoting student safety at off-campus apartment