Self-Policing: Dissemination and Adoption of Police Eyewitness Policies in Virginia

Professional policing organizations emphasize the importance of the adoption of sound police policies and procedures, but traditionally doing so has been left to individual agencies. State and local government typically does not closely regulate police, and neither federal constitutional rulings nor state law typically sets out in any detail the practices that police should follow. Thus, law enforcement agencies must themselves draft and disseminate policy. This paper presents the results of studies used to assess the adoption of eyewitness identification policies by law enforcement agencies in Virginia. Policymakers were focused on this problem because Virginia experienced a series of DNA exonerations in cases involving eyewitness misidentifications. In 2005, lawmakers enacted a law that required agencies to have some written policy in place. However, there was little guidance on what that policy should be. To remedy this problem, the state law enforcement policy agency, the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) promulgated, in 2011, a detailed model policy on eyewitness procedure. Nevertheless, as reported in a 2013 study, those model practices were only haltingly adopted. In particular, many agencies did not use blind or blinded lineups, in which the administrator does not know which photo is that of a suspect or cannot view which photo the eyewitness is examining. In Fall 2018, all of the over-three hundred law enforcement agencies in Virginia had their policies on this subject requested, using the state freedom of information law. The results show that there has now been widespread adoption of the DCJS model policy. Improved eyewitness identification practices have been adopted by the vast majority of agencies, including large and small agencies. This Article concludes by asking what contributed to the extensive dissemination of a model police policy, and what its implications are for improving police policy and practice without the use of regulation

Evolutionary winners are ecological losers among oceanic island plants

Aim Adaptive radiation, in which successful lineages proliferate by exploiting untapped niche space, provides a popular but potentially misleading characterization of evolution on oceanic islands. Here we analyse the respective roles of members of in situ diversified vs. non-diversified lineages in shaping the main ecosystems of an archipelago to explore the relationship between evolutionary and ecological ‘success’. Location Canary Islands. Taxon Vascular plants. Methods We quantified the abundance/rarity of the native flora according to the geographical range (number of islands where present and geographical extent of the range), habitat breadth (climatic niche) and local abundance (cover) using species distribution data based on 500 × 500 m grid cells and 2000 vegetation inventories located all over the archipelago. Results Species of diversified lineages have significantly smaller geographic ranges, narrower climatic niches and lower local abundances than those of non-diversified lineages. Species rarity increased with the degree of diversification. The diversified Canarian flora is mainly comprised by shrubs. At both archipelagic and island level, the four core ecosystems (Euphorbia scrub, thermophilous woodlands, laurel forest and pine forest) were dominated by non-diversified lineages species, with diversified lineages species providing <25% cover. Species of diversified lineages, although constituting 54% of the archipelagic native flora, were only abundant in two rare ecosystems: high mountain scrub and rock communities. Main conclusions Radiated species, endemic products of in situ speciation, are mostly rare in all three rarity axes and typically do not play an important role in structuring plant communities on the Canaries. The vegetation of the major ecosystem types is dominated by plants representing non-diversified lineages (species that derive from immigration and accumulation), while species of evolutionarily successful lineages are abundant only in marginal habitats and could, therefore, be considered ecological losers. Within this particular oceanic archipelago, and we posit within at least some others, evolutionary success in plants is accomplished predominantly at the margins.publishedVersio

Equity

Equity (dt. Billigkeit) ist ein Begriff aus dem weiteren semantischen Feld der Gerechtigkeit, der allgemein eine Ergänzung oder Korrektur des Rechts dort, wo es systemische oder praktische Defizite aufweist, bezeichnet. Literatur hat sich seit jeher mit Fragen rechtlicher Billigkeit auseinandergesetzt. In geschichtlicher Perspektive lässt sich die evokative Paarung von Billigkeit und Literatur zurückverfolgen zu frühen Betrachtungen von Literatur und Recht in den griechischen Anfängen der westlichen Zivilisation. Sie wurde vertieft durch römische Philosophen und Rhetoriker und gewann im Horizont des Christentums neue Bedeutung. Im mittelalterlichen England hat sich eine eigene Equity-Gerichtsbarkeit neben dem Common Law etabliert. In der frühen Neuzeit fungierten die Topoi und Institutionen der Equity in England als zentrale Orte der Aushandlung von Fragen der Gerechtigkeit und ihrer staatlichen Gewährleistung. Der Artikel rekonstruiert, wie diese beiderseitig produktive Konstellation in der Antike entstand, wie sich die Equity in England zu einer eigenständigen rechtlichen Institution entwickelte, wie literarische Autor*innen die Diskussion über Billigkeit aufnahmen und in verschiedenen Epochen ihre eigene unverwechselbare Stimme in diese Diskussion einbrachten, und nicht zuletzt, wie der Anspruch auf Equity/Billigkeit auch in anderen geographischen und kulturellen Kontexten unter dem Einfluss des englischen Rechts sowie darüber hinaus auch in weiteren, eher durch die römisch-rechtliche Traditionen geprägten Gesellschaften das Recht begleitet und herausfordert.Equity is a concept within the wider semantic field of justice, most commonly referring to a complement or corrective of the law to compensate for its systemic or practical deficiencies. Literature has long been involved with questions of equity. Following the historical trajectory of this evocative pairing of equity and literature leads back to early reflections on literature and law in the Greek beginnings of Western civilization. The concept of 'aequitas' was further developed by Roman philosophers and rhetoricians and gained new meaning with the rise of Christianity. In medieval England, equity jurisdiction evolved alongside the common law. In early modern England, equity provided a prime site for negotiating concepts of justice and how best to administer it in the state. This article discusses how this mutually productive constellation of law and equity emerged in antiquity and how equity evolved as a separate legal institution in England, how literary authors took up the discussion about equity and found their own, distinctive voice in various literary periods, and soon in various other geographic and cultural contexts inspired by English law, but also in other contexts dominated by civil law traditions

Correspondence of gradual developmental increases of expression of galectin-reactive glycoconjugates with alterations of the total contents of the two differentially regulated galectins in chicken intestine and liver as indication for overlapping function

The duplication of genes for recognition molecules and the ensuing diversification of the members of such families generate complex groups of homologous proteins. One example are galactosidespecific lectins whose sequences display constant features related to sugar binding, the galectins. Based on the inverse abundance of the chicken galectins CG-14 and CG-16 in adult intestine and liver, these two lectins represent a model to comparatively study expression of the related proteins and the galectin-reactive sites (glycoproteins and glycolipids) biochemically and histochemically. Functional overlap andtor acquisition of distinct functions would be reflected in qualitative andlor quantitative aspects of ligand display. Using five different stages of embryogenesis, differential regulation of the two galectins was detected in liver and intestine. The clear preference for one galectin (CC-14) was observed in intestine already at rather early stages, whereas equivalence for both proteins was noted in liver from day 12 to day 18 prior to hatching, as seen by ELISA assays and Western blot analysis. Presentation of galectin-reactive glycoproteins showed a tendency for gradual increase in both organs. Galectin-blotting analysis revealed primarily very similar patterns of positive bands at the different stages of development and only few quantitative and qualitative changes. The reactivity of glycolipids in a solid-phase assay was more variable, even surpassing the response of extracts of the adult organ at several embryonic stages. While the localization patterns of the galectins and galectinreactive sites were nearly indistinguishable in the liver, intestinal tissue differed with respect to the placement and accessibility of binding sites. Thus, the results suggest a differential regulation of galectin activities in the two organs. As a sum they resemble the course of development of availability of glycoprotein ligands in vitro. These findings support the notion for a partial functional redundancy in this family. The described approach to employ galectin-specific antibodies and the labeled galectins as tools to assess presentation of ligands is suggested to be of general relevance to address the question of distinct vs. overlapping functions of related recognition molecules

A non-functioning vitamin D receptor predisposes to leukaemoid reactions in mice

The vitamin D hormone 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) [1,25(OH)(2)D(3)], the biologically active form of vitamin D, is not only essential for mineral metabolism but may have important functions beyond calcium homoeostasis. By gene targeting, we have recently generated mice expressing a functionally inactive mutant vitamin D receptor (VDR). After a change in environmental conditions from specific pathogen free (SPF) conditions to a modified barrier system, a high percentage of aged mutant, but not wild-type, mice developed a haematological disorder characterized by splenomegaly, granulocytosis, thrombocytosis and dysplastic changes with displacement of erythropoiesis in bone marrow during the following months. All cases were associated with very high serum levels of the acute phase reaction protein serum amyloid A (SAA). Serological testing of affected mice revealed antibodies against murine hepatitis virus (MHV). However, electron microscopy of spleen and bone marrow cells did not reveal virus particles, and clinical signs of infectious diseases were absent. We hypothesize that a non-functioning VDR is associated with a latent defect in the regulation of myeloid cell differentiation and proliferation. Under the conditions of environmental stress, this latent defect may predispose to a deregulation of myelopoiesis in the form of a leukaemoid reaction accompanied by dysplastic changes. Thus, 1,25(OH)(2)D(3) may be an important inhibitory factor in the onset and progression of myeloproliferative and myelodysplastic disease