A Just and Sustainable Solution to the Boat People Predicament in Australia?

Since the year 2000, there have been close to two thousand deaths of asylum seekers at sea as a result of foiled attempts to travel to Australia in order to seek protection under the United Nations Convention and Protocol on the Status of Refugees.[1] Many thousands more have made it to shore. Growing numbers of irregular or unauthorized migrants attempting to reach the United States and the European Union has long been known as a contentious policy issue in these states, but perhaps less known is the situation on the other side of the Pacific. Australia is the eight-largest recipient of asylum seekers in the industrialized world, receiving around 4% of the global applications for asylum, a relatively minimal amount considering that the state has the capacity to take on a much greater burden of the international refugee crisis.[2] In addition, the policies that are currently in place are primarily seeking to deter the arrival of ‘boat people’ and associated people smuggling activity, rather than to constructively manage the flow while upholding the individual rights of those seeking refuge under international law. This paper deconstructs the restrictive policies of the Australian government and proposes a more sustainable solution, drawing widely from research literature, government publications and media reports that use both primary and secondary sources to build a strong case for an alternative program. The policy that I found best balances the costs and benefits for both the asylum seekers in question as well as the Australian government is a combination of short-term onshore detention and community-based processing and integration. There is a robust debate in Australia over refugees and asylum policy, but in order for such a bill to be feasible in the Australian context, a major transformation of the public’s attitude is essential. [1] The study sponsored by Monash University has compiled a database of border deaths, and has found that 1911 deaths have occurred at sea since 2000, how the true numbers are not known as there is no official government database that has been published. See: Macleod, Kenneth. Deadly Voyages: Border Related Deaths Associated with Australia. SBS News. April 23, 2015, and Australian Border Deaths Database. Monash University: The Border Crossing Observatory. October, 2014 and Bullock, Chris. Asylum Seekers: Drowning on Our Watch. ABC Radio National. September 1, 2013.[2] Australia Asylum: Why Is It Controversial? - BBC News. BBC News. December 5, 2014

The Missing Piece: Assessing Implementation Fidelity

Two years ago, our library merged three desks as well as people from three different departments to staff that desk. As part of this consolidation, we developed a new model for answering patron questions that incorporated chat/text, an on-call system, and referrals. Before assessing whether this new service model was an improvement for our patrons, we first assessed whether we had implemented the model as it was originally envisioned in order to determine whether any failures were a result of the model itself or how the library had implemented the concept of the model. This recipe will introduce the concept of implementation fidelity, explain our methods for assessing the new service model, and share implications and recommendations for how other libraries can incorporate assessment of implementation fidelity into their evaluations of new services. While libraries are increasingly places of change and innovation, many of these changes are not assessed for their effectiveness, or for how they’re perceived and valued by staff and patrons. Additionally, few libraries attempt to determine whether their implementation of new services and programs is as how library administration envisioned them—and, by extension, how any differences between theory and practice affect staff and patron perceptions of those changes and new services. Libraries should therefore consider assessing the implementation fidelity of future proposed changes in order to avoid abandoning innovations that have failed only in execution

Resolution of Occlusive Carotid Artery Thrombus Treated with Anticoagulation as Demonstrated on Duplex Ultrasonography.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: While the majority of cerebral ischemic events due to carotid occlusive disease result from atherosclerotic plaque rupture, intraluminal carotid artery thrombus occasionally occurs in patients without preexisting carotid atherosclerosis. Identification of nonatherosclerotic thrombus as the cause of the carotid occlusive disease can obviate the need for an interventional procedure, and resolution of thrombus can be monitored with B-mode duplex ultrasonography. METHODS: We reviewed 3 patients treated on The Mount Sinai Hospital Stroke Unit with anticoagulation for nonatherosclerotic carotid thrombi and followed with serial Doppler ultrasonogrpahy for resolution of thrombus. RESULTS: Occlusive carotid thrombus was successfully treated in all 3 patients with systemic anticoagulation. B-mode duplex ultrasonography allowed for demonstration of resolving thrombus. CONCLUSION: Differentiation between a stenotic plaque and occlusive thrombus can be achieved by ultrasonographic analysis of thrombus morphology, attachment site potential, and characteristics of a resolving thrombus. Systemic anticoagulation can safely and effectively eliminate the risk for future embolization and complete occlusion of the carotid artery in patients who present with transient ischemic events or completed infarcts of small size

Rubrics as a Method for Assessing & Improving Library Instruction

Taken together, our team of instruction librarians provides course-integrated instruction for 70-80 sections of a sophomore-level research and writing course each semester. In order for the department to assess our instruction of this course consistently across librarians without detracting valuable time from the sessions themselves, an authentic learning exercise and rubric for scoring that exercise were developed and an IRB-approved study of the assessment results undertaken

CO2 reduction with protons and electrons at a boron-based reaction center.

Borohydrides are widely used reducing agents in chemical synthesis and have emerging energy applications as hydrogen storage materials and reagents for the reduction of CO2. Unfortunately, the high energy cost associated with the multistep preparation of borohydrides starting from alkali metals precludes large scale implementation of these latter uses. One potential solution to this issue is the direct synthesis of borohydrides from the protonation of reduced boron compounds. We herein report reactions of the redox series [Au(B2P2)] n (n = +1, 0, -1) (B2P2, 9,10-bis(2-(diisopropylphosphino)phenyl)-9,10-dihydroboranthrene) and their conversion into corresponding mono- and diborohydride complexes. Crucially, the monoborohydride can be accessed via protonation of [Au(B2P2)]-, a masked borane dianion equivalent accessible at relatively mild potentials (-2.05 V vs. Fc/Fc+). This species reduces CO2 to produce the corresponding formate complex. Cleavage of the formate complex can be achieved by reduction (ca. -1.7 V vs. Fc/Fc+) or by the addition of electrophiles including H+. Additionally, direct reaction of [Au(B2P2)]- with CO2 results in reductive disproportion to release CO and generate a carbonate complex. Together, these reactions constitute a synthetic cycle for CO2 reduction at a boron-based reaction center that proceeds through a B-H unit generated via protonation of a reduced borane with weak organic acids

Data DNA: The Next Generation of Statistical Metadata

Describes the components of a complete statistical metadata system and suggests ways to create and structure metadata for better access and understanding of data sets by diverse users