Voir Dire in California Criminal Trials: Where Is It Going - Where Should It Go

Currently in the United States, there are three methods of conducting voir dire: (1) the federal judge controlled method, (2) the state combined judge and counsel method, and (3) New York counsel controlled method. This Comment examines the possible effects of California’s adoption of the federal method of voir dire by not only considering the arguments for and against voir dire by counsel, but also reviewing suggestions and alternatives. The Comment proposes using questionnaires for preliminary examination of veniremen and jury voir dire, conducting voir dire individually rather than collectively, examining veniremen in private, and submitting challenges in private

Including Cash Flow Risk In Stock Return Analysis

Despite their prominence in financial theory and practice, the Capital Asset Pricing Model and its critical beta component have failed test after test to explain stock returns.  Research by Campbell and Vuolteenaho cites the misspecification of beta as the reason for this failure.  They measure beta as the sum of two components: a more influential “cash-flow” beta and a secondary “discount-rate” beta.  The current study creates a ratio between the overall beta of a stock and the cash-flow component and uses an ordinary least squares regression model to determine its significance in interpreting overall returns to a stock, hypothesizing that the ratio will better explain returns than the overall beta alone.  The results are mixed but suggest significant explanatory power for the beta range of 0.60 to 0.95

Seamounts and Guyouts: A Unique Resource - The Necessity for Express Recognition in the Formulation of an International Regime of the Seabed

With dwindling natural resources, the international community needs a legal regime to regulate the exploration of seabed resources, notably seamounts and guyouts. This Article evaluates the legal status of seamounts and guyouts under international law with suggestions on the possible uses of these phenomena, while also attempting to formulate and assess a legal regime that properly recognizes the different characteristics of the sea bed from land formations. The geological characteristics of Seamounts and guyouts are important to any legal consideration. Because seamounts and guyouts are underwater mountains formed by volcanic activity, they have many possible uses, such as for research, military bases, mineral resource development, transportation, fishing, communications, weather forecasting, territorial expansion. These possible uses prompt the necessity for determining the legal status of seamounts and guyouts, which has been lacking in current international conventions. Thus, this Article concludes by recommending the creation of an international legal organization, the International Oceans Agency, that will control the seabed

The SET Complex Acts as a Barrier to Autointegration of HIV-1

Retroviruses and retrotransposons are vulnerable to a suicidal pathway known as autointegration, which occurs when the 3′-ends of the reverse transcript are activated by integrase and then attack sites within the viral DNA. Retroelements have diverse strategies for suppressing autointegration, but how HIV-1 protects itself from autointegration is not well-understood. Here we show that knocking down any of the components of the SET complex, an endoplasmic reticulum-associated complex that contains 3 DNases (the base excision repair endonuclease APE1, 5′-3′ exonuclease TREX1, and endonuclease NM23-H1), inhibits HIV-1 and HIV-2/SIV, but not MLV or ASV, infection. Inhibition occurs at a step in the viral life cycle after reverse transcription but before chromosomal integration. Antibodies to SET complex proteins capture HIV-1 DNA in the cytoplasm, suggesting a direct interaction between the SET complex and the HIV preintegration complex. Cloning of HIV integration sites in cells with knocked down SET complex components revealed an increase in autointegration, which was verified using a novel semi-quantitative nested PCR assay to detect autointegrants. When SET complex proteins are knocked down, autointegration increases 2–3–fold and chromosomal integration correspondingly decreases ∼3-fold. Therefore, the SET complex facilitates HIV-1 infection by preventing suicidal autointegration

Feminist Reflections on the Scope of Labour Law: Domestic Work, Social Reproduction and Jurisdiction

Drawing on feminist labour law and political economy literature, I argue that it is crucial to interrogate the personal and territorial scope of labour. After discussing the “commodification” of care, global care chains, and body work, I claim that the territorial scope of labour law must be expanded beyond that nation state to include transnational processes. I use the idea of social reproduction both to illustrate and to examine some of the recurring regulatory dilemmas that plague labour markets. I argue that unpaid care and domestic work performed in the household, typically by women, troubles the personal scope of labour law. I use the example of this specific type of personal service relation to illustrate my claim that the jurisdiction of labour law is historical and contingent, rather than conceptual and universal. I conclude by identifying some of the implications of redrawing the territorial and personal scope of labour law in light of feminist understandings of social reproduction

Supervision and culture: Meetings at thresholds

Counsellors are required to engage in supervision in order to reflect on, reflexively review, and extend their practice. Supervision, then, might be understood as a partnership in which the focus of practitioners and supervisors is on ethical and effective practice with all clients. In Aotearoa/New Zealand, there has recently been interest in the implications for supervision of cultural difference, particularly in terms of the Treaty of Waitangi as a practice metaphor, and when non-Māori practitioners counsel Māori clients. This article offers an account of a qualitative investigation by a group of counsellors/supervisors into their experiences of supervision as cultural partnership. Based on interviews and then using writing-as-research, the article explores the playing out of supervision’s contribution to practitioners’ effective and ethical practice in the context of Aotearoa/New Zealand, showing a range of possible accounts and strategies and discussing their effects. Employing the metaphor of threshold, the article includes a series of reflections and considerations for supervision practice when attention is drawn to difference

Broadening Participation: A Report on a Series of Workshops Aimed at Building Community and Increasing the Number of Women and Minorities in Engineering Design

Despite some progress in increasing the numbers of women and minorities in engineering over the past 30 years, their full participation in the discipline has yet to be achieved, particularly in engineering academia. One cause is the leaky pipeline ; even after women and minorities choose to major in engineering, they drop out at rates higher than their counterparts along all career stages (undergraduate school, graduate school, tenure-track, etc.). Their small numbers creates isolation that has the unfortunate risks of struggle, less professional success, less sense of personal belonging, and less retention. Our hypothesis is that building a community that provides networking and support, opportunities for collaboration, and professional development, will lead to greater career success, personal fulfillment and professional happiness, retention, and greater participation/contribution from women and minorities. The authors have been conducting a series of workshops aimed at broadening participation of women and other minorities within the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Design Engineering Division (DED). This paper reports on the activities and results of the workshop series. Pre-workshop survey data indicated a clear opportunity to address the unmet needs of underrepresented groups in the ASME DED. Post-workshop survey data showed success in attendee satisfaction with feelings of inclusion and community, professional skill building, and the prospect of future workshops held by the committee. A follow-up impact assessment survey showed that the workshops have led to greater participation in DED activities, new positive connections within the DED community, and positive feelings regarding their communication/collaboration abilities, self confidence, level of comfort, feelings of inclusion, professional goals, leadership abilities, and skill sets. While these results are encouraging, the committee feels strongly that greater success in broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in engineering would be possible by sharing our strategies and successes, and learning from others with similar experience creating communities within the many engineering disciplines represented in ASEE

Designing healthier neighbourhoods: A systematic review of the impact of the neighbourhood design on health and wellbeing

Several studies have investigated the impact of neighbourhood design on health and wellbeing, yet there are limited reviews investigating the quality of the evidence and the most effective interventions at a population level. This systematic review aims to clarify the impact of the neighbourhood design on health and wellbeing and evaluate the quality of the evidence underpinning such associations. Eight electronic databases were searched for studies conducted between 2000 and 2016. Additional searches were conducted on Google to identify potentially eligible grey literature. A total of 7694 studies were returned from the literature search, and a final selection of 39 studies were deemed eligible for inclusion. Quality appraisal was conducted using the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies. Findings from the studies showed important associations between neighbourhood design principles such as walkability, access to green space and amenities on health and wellbeing. Findings from this review also highlight areas with inconsistent findings and gaps in the evidence for future research

National Sea Grant Depository review

In early 1997, Bill Graham, Executive Director of the National Sea Grant College Program (NSGP), charged the Blue Ribbon Panel to review the value, role, technology and support issues surrounding the National Sea Grant Depository (the Depository). Consequently, Peter Brueggeman, Judy Buys, Kay Hale, Janet Webster visited the National Sea Grant Office in Silver Spring and the Depository in Kingston, RI on March 25 and 26. The following summarizes our observations and recommendations. After a brief overview, we outline some general concerns and recommendations that should be addressed. We then describe three funding scenarios--reduced, level and increased. Each scenario includes a short description, requirements for housing and staffing, and a discussion of implementation issues. (21pp.