Improving the “Kangaroo Courts:” A Proposal for Reform in the Evaluation of Juveniles’ Waivers of Miranda

... In recent years, as juvenile crime rates have continued to rise, the public perceives juveniles as more sophisticated and, therefore, similar to their adult counterparts. ... If our purpose is truly to ensure that juveniles\u27 waiver of Miranda rights are knowing, intelligent, and voluntary then we must implement changes to ensure that children have sufficient protections during custodial interrogation. ... The Court created a formal process of advising suspects of their constitutional rights during custodial interrogation to ensure that waiver of these rights by a suspect was knowing, intelligent and voluntary. ... Dissatisfied with the current procedures, reformers felt that the legal system should not treat children like their adult counterparts; reformers believed that the justice system needed to instate juvenile procedures with a social welfare philosophy. ... Despite its well-intentioned beginnings, the juvenile justice system failed to meet its laudable goals of providing children with rehabilitation rather than discipline. ... When parents did speak with their children during interrogation, they recommended waiver of rights. ... Thus, if the purpose is truly to protect children, and is no longer to view the juvenile court system as a benevolent process designed to help them, then advocacy of the interested adult standard is misplaced. ... These children would still be accorded interested adult protection, but a lawyer would act as the adult present. ..

Cost Analysis of Alternative Harvest, Storage and Transportation Methods for Delivering Switchgrass to a Biorefinery from the Farmers’ perspective

Switchgrass for bioenergy production will require substantial storage. This study evaluated costs of alternative baling and on-farm storage systems. Rectangular bales minimize cost if switchgrass is processed immediately after harvest. However, round bales minimize cost if switchgrass is stored under cover for 200 days before transporting to the biorefineryswitchgrass, baling, storage, transport, costs, farm, biorefinery, Agricultural Finance, Farm Management, Production Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The effects of gender and length of time between commission of crime and trial on juveniles' trial outcomes

Similar to adults, juveniles’ trials are often delayed for a variety of reasons; however, developmental changes associated with adolescence and early adulthood differentiate them from adults in many ways. This study investigated the ways in which the length of time from crime to trial may affect juveniles’ trial outcomes. Further, it investigated the ways that extralegal factors, such as age and gender, change judges’ perceptions of defendants’ guilt and culpability. In particular, it examined the effect of these extralegal factors on judges’ perceptions of the appropriate verdict and sentence length, as well as perceptions of defendants’ levels of responsibility for the crime, likelihood of recidivism, and dangerousness. The study examined these questions using a hypothetical case vignette that varied a defendant’s gender and age at the time of trial, while keeping the age at the time of the crime constant.Participants included 295 juvenile and criminal court judges who, after reading the vignette, completed a short questionnaire asking them what they believed would be the appropriate verdict and sentence length, as well as their perceptions of the defendants’ levels of responsibility, likelihood of recidivism, and dangerousness. Following the survey, participants were asked to complete a short demographics questionnaire.Results revealed a main effect for defendant’s age on judges’ ratings of likelihood of recidivism and dangerousness. Specifically, judges rated younger defendants as more likely to recidivate and more dangerous than older juveniles. There was no main effect for defendant’s gender and no interaction between gender and age were found.Ph.D., Clinical Psychology -- Drexel University, 200

Analysis of Factors Affecting Farmers’ Willingness to Adopt Switchgrass Production

In the United States, biomass is the largest source of renewable energy accounting for over 3 percent of the energy consumed domestically and is currently the only source for liquid, renewable, transportation fuels. Continued development of biomass as a renewable energy source is being driven in large part by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which mandates that by 2022 at least 36 billion gallons of fuel ethanol be produced, with at least 16 billion gallons being derived from cellulose, hemi-cellulose, or lignin. However, the market for cellulosic biofuels is still under development. As such, little is known about producer response to feedstock prices paid for dedicated energy crops. While there have been some studies done on factors that determine farmers’ willingness to produce switchgrass, these have been very regional in nature. This study will provide information regarding potential switchgrass adoption by agricultural producers in twelve southeastern states. The objectives of this research are 1) to determine the likelihood of farmers growing switchgrass as a biomass feedstock and the acres they would be willing to devote to switchgrass production and 2) to evaluate some of the factors that are likely to influence these decisions, including the price of switchgrass.Switchgrass, Farmer Adoption, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q12, Q16,

Developing Statutes for Competence to Stand Trial in Juvenile Delinquency Proceedings: A Guide for Lawmakers

The National Youth Screening and Assessment Project, part of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change Initiative recently released a guide for policymakers who are considering creating juvenile competence to stand trial legislation. Authored by Kimberly Larson, J.D., Ph.D. and Thomas Grisso, Ph.D., the guide outlines the sixteen most important points lawmakers must consider in the creation of such legislation. Statutory language examples are provided throughout the guide on each of the sixteen key issues. This guide provides a comprehensive look at juveniles’ competence to stand trial. It will be of use not only to those considering drafting legislation in this area or currently creating juvenile competence to stand trial laws in their state, but also to judges who are addressing the issue of competence within their courts. Attorneys and mental health professionals can also use it to learn more about the application of competence to juveniles

Chiral Supergravitons Interacting with a 0-Brane N-Extended NSR Super-Virasoro Group

We continue the development of the actions, S_{AFF}, by examining the cases where there are N fermionic degrees of freedom associated with a 0-brane. These actions correspond to the interaction of the N-extended super Virasoro algebra with the supergraviton and the associated SO(N) gauge field that accompanies the supermultiplet. The superfield formalism is used throughout so that supersymmetry is explicit.Comment: PACS: 04.65.+e, 11.15.-q, 11.25.-w, 12.60.

Methylation of Leukocyte DNA and Ovarian Cancer: Relationships with Disease Status and Outcome

Genome-wide interrogation of DNA methylation (DNAm) in blood-derived leukocytes has become feasible with the advent of CpG genotyping arrays. In epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), one report found substantial DNAm differences between cases and controls; however, many of these disease-associated CpGs were attributed to differences in white blood cell type distributions. We examined blood-based DNAm in 336 EOC cases and 398 controls; we included only high-quality CpG loci that did not show evidence of association with white blood cell type distributions to evaluate association with case status and overall survival

Application of single molecule technology to rapidly map long DNA and study the conformation of stretched DNA

Herein we describe the first application of direct linear analysis (DLA) to the mapping of a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC), specifically the 185.1 kb-long BAC 12M9. DLA is a single molecule mapping technology, based on microfluidic elongation and interrogation of individual DNA molecules, sequence-specifically tagged with bisPNAs. A DNA map with S/N ratio sufficiently high to detect all major binding sites was obtained using only 200 molecule traces. A new method was developed to extract an oriented map from an averaged map that included a mixture of head-first and tail-first DNA traces. In addition, we applied DLA to study the conformation and tagging of highly stretched DNA. Optimal conditions for promoting sequence-specific binding of bisPNA to an 8 bp target site were elucidated using DLA, which proved superior to electromobility shift assays. DLA was highly reproducible with a hybridized tag position localized with an accuracy of ±0.7 µm or ±2.1 kb demonstrating its utility for rapid mapping of large DNA at the single molecule level. Within this accuracy, DNA molecules, stretched to at least 85% of their contour length, were stretched uniformly, so that the map expressed in relative coordinates, was the same regardless of the molecule extension

Characterization of recombinant B. abortus strain RB51SOD toward understanding the uncorrelated innate and adaptive immune responses induced by RB51SOD compared to its parent vaccine strain RB51

Brucella abortus is a Gram-negative, facultative intracellular pathogen for several mammals, including humans. Live attenuated B. abortus strain RB51 is currently the official vaccine used against bovine brucellosis in the United States and several other countries. Overexpression of protective B. abortus antigen Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD) in a recombinant strain of RB51 (strain RB51SOD) significantly increases its vaccine efficacy against virulent B. abortus challenge in a mouse model. An attempt has been made to better understand the mechanism of the enhanced protective immunity of RB51SOD compared to its parent strain RB51. We previously reported that RB51SOD stimulated enhanced Th1 immune response. In this study, we further found that T effector cells derived from RB51SOD-immunized mice exhibited significantly higher cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity than T effector cells derived from RB51-immunized mice against virulent B. abortus-infected target cells. Meanwhile, the macrophage responses to these two strains were also studied. Compared to RB51, RB51SOD cells had a lower survival rate in macrophages and induced lower levels of macrophage apoptosis and necrosis. The decreased survival of RB51SOD cells correlates with the higher sensitivity of RB51SOD, compared to RB51, to the bactericidal action of either Polymyxin B or sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Furthermore, a physical damage to the outer membrane of RB51SOD was observed by electron microscopy. Possibly due to the physical damage, overexpressed Cu/Zn SOD in RB51SOD was found to be released into the bacterial cell culture medium. Therefore, the stronger adaptive immunity induced by RB51SOD did not correlate with the low level of innate immunity induced by RB51SOD compared to RB51. This unique and apparently contradictory profile is likely associated with the differences in outer membrane integrity and Cu/Zn SOD release.Peer reviewedVeterinary Health Science