A PROPOSAL FOR COMPARATIVE RESPONSIBILITY ANALYSIS IN COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE JURISDICTIONS

Part II of this thesis discusses the common law background of the assumption of risk and how it fits into the scheme of negligence principles as an affirmative defense. Part II also examines the background of assumption of risk and parallels its development with contributory negligence principles. Part III looks at how the assumption of risk has been redefined and narrowed in its application as comparative fault principles gained favor. It includes an examination of statutory erosion and in modern judicial activism. Next, Part IV examines how the assumption of risk, particularly the secondary form, conflicts with comparative fault and its underlying policy reasons. This examination will include the tension between applying secondary assumption of risk and comparative fault principles to a negligence suit. Part V comprises the bulk of this thesis. It details a proposal for eliminating secondary assumption of risk and proposes a comparative responsibility analysis to resolve suits where each party was deemed negligent and one assumed the risks of the other\u27s act or omission. This proposal is based on risk-utility principles widely accepted in other areas of the common law. Finally, Part VI will examine some criticisms of this proposed analysis

Between panegyric and history: literary representations of the Emperor Valentinian I (364-375)

This thesis examines the literary representation of the Pannonian emperor Valentinian I (364–375) in two different types of source dated to the fourth and fifth centuries AD. More specifically, it analyses how literary sources which were contemporaneous with Valentinian’s reign (Symmachus’ imperial panegyrics; and imperial legislation) and which promoted the ‘official’ view of Valentinian’s regime, were received and interpreted in the later historical sources for the emperor’s reign (namely, Ammianus Marcellinus’ Res Gestae; and the histories of the Christian historians Tyrannius Rufinus, Paulus Orosius, Socrates Scholasticus, Sozomen and Theodoret). By analysing three themes (dynastic, military and religious) which were prominent in both forms of representation, this thesis explores how and why these ‘contemporary’ and ‘historical’ representations of the emperor differed, and asks what the interaction of these sources can tell us about the literary representation of Valentinian more generally

Kingdom without end: the sacralisation of Roman Imperium from Eusebius of Caesarea to Avitus of Vienne

This thesis examines how the Roman political concept of imperium changed as a result of the tumultuous events of the fourth and fifth centuries, from its original meaning as a specifically Roman and pagan concept prior to Constantine, to a specifically Christian concept which found justification in the teachings of the Bible and which could be modified and adapted as the historical situation demanded to ensure the continual development of a new 'Christian Empire'

CCTV as a Tool for Early Police Intervention: Preliminary Lessons from Nine Case Studies.

This study explores the prospect of utilizing CCTV as an early intervention mechanism to detect and disrupt street-level activity that can lead to violence. The analysis focuses on nine case studies in Newark, NJ, incorporating data from several sources, including video footage, computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system incident data, CAD event chronologies and face-to-face interviews with CCTV operators. The findings suggest that the benefits offered by CCTV, namely the instantaneous discovery and reporting of crime, may be rendered incon- sequential by the process times associated with the differential-response policy of police dispatch. Potential methods by which police can more proactively utilize CCTV to prevent crime are discussed

Place-based correlates of Motor Vehicle Theft and Recovery: Measuring spatial influence across neighbourhood context

Social scientists have long shown great interest in the spatial correlates of crime patterns. A subset of the literature has focused on how micro-level spatial factors influence the formation of crime hot spots. At the same time, tangential research has highlighted how neighbourhood disadvantage influences crime occurrence. The current study focuses on the intersection of these perspectives through a spatial analysis of Motor Vehicle Theft (MVT) and Motor Vehicle Recovery (MVR) in Colorado Springs, CO. We begin by conducting a Risk Terrain Modelling analysis to identify spatial risk factors significantly related to MVT and MVR occurrence. We then test whether the spatial influences of the criminogenic risk factors differ across traditional measures of neighbourhood disadvantage. Findings suggest that while a citywide effect is evident for multiple risk factors, their spatial influence on crime significantly varies across neighbourhood contexts

Joint Utility of Event- Dependent and Environmental Crime Analysis Techniques for Violent Crime Forecasting

Violent crime incidents occurring in Irvington, New Jersey, in 2007 and 2008 are used to assess the joint analytical capabilities of point pattern analysis, hotspot mapping, near-repeat analysis, and risk terrain modeling. One approach to crime analysis suggests that the best way to predict future crime occurrence is to use past behavior, such as actual incidents or collections of incidents, as indicators of future behavior. An alternative approach is to consider the environment in which crimes occur and identify features of the landscape that would be conducive to crime. Thanks to advances in geographic information system technology and federally funded (free) software applications such as CrimeStat III or the Near Repeat Calculator, these methods have recently been made more accessible to “average” users. This study explores the information products that each method offers for the purposes of place-based violent crime forecasting and resource allocation. Findings help to answer questions about where, when, and why violent crimes occur in a jurisdiction. Ways in which event-dependent and environmental crime analysis techniques can be utilized as complementary instruments in a crime analyst’s tool kit are discussed in detail

Inhibitory Effect of Gold Nanoparticles on the D-ribose Glycation of Bovine Serum Albumin

Formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) by nonenzymatic glycation of proteins is a major contributory factor to the pathophysiology of diabetic conditions including senile dementia and atherosclerosis. This study describes the inhibitory effect of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) on the D-ribose glycation of bovine serum albumin (BSA). A combination of analytical methods including ultraviolet–visible spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography, circular dichroism, and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry were used to determine the extent of BSA glycation in the presence of citrate reduced spherical GNPs of various sizes and concentrations. GNPs of particle diameters ranging from 2 nm to 20 nm inhibited BSA’s AGE formation. The extent of inhibition correlated with the total surface area of the nanoparticles. GNPs of highest total surface area yielded the most inhibition whereas those with the lowest total surface area inhibited the formation of AGEs the least. Additionally, when GNPs’ total surface areas were set the same, their antiglycation activities were similar. This inhibitory effect of GNPs on BSA’s glycation by D-ribose suggests that colloidal particles may have a therapeutic application for the treatment of diabetes and conditions that promote hyperglycemia

Crime in Context: Utilizing Risk Terrain Modeling and Conjunctive Analysis of Case Configurations to Explore the Dynamics of Criminogenic Behavior Settings.

Risk terrain modeling (RTM) is a geospatial crime analysis tool designed to diagnose environmental risk factors for crime and identify the places where their spatial influence is collocated to produce vulnerability for illegal behavior. However, the collocation of certain risk factors’ spatial influences may result in more crimes than the collocation of a different set of risk factors’ spatial influences. Absent from existing RTM outputs and methods is a straightforward method to compare these relative interactions and their effects on crime. However, as a multivariate method for the analysis of discrete categorical data, conjunctive analysis of case configurations (CACC) can enable exploration of the interrelationships between risk factors’ spatial influences and their varying effects on crime occurrence. In this study, we incorporate RTM outputs into a CACC to explore the dynamics among certain risk factors’ spatial influences and how they create unique environmental contexts, or behavior settings, for crime at microlevel places. We find that most crime takes place within a few unique behavior settings that cover a small geographic area and, further, that some behavior settings were more influential on crime than others. Moreover, we identified particular environmental risk factors that aggravate the influence of other risk factors. We suggest that by focusing on these microlevel environmental crime contexts, police can more efficiently target their resources and further enhance place-based approaches to policing that fundamentally address environmental features that produce ideal opportunities for crime

Vulnerability and Exposure to Crime: Applying Risk Terrain Modeling to the Study of Assault in Chicago.

Prior research has applied risk assessment and spatial analysis techniques to the study of violence. This paper builds on those results, tying the practical outcomes of spatial risk analysis methods to broader spatial issues on the articulation of risky places for aggravated assault. We begin by conceptualizing key relationships, addressing the effects of environmental factors on creating distinct, identifiable areas that are conducive to crime. Propositions of the theory of risky places are posed and then empirically tested using a GIS based program, RTMDx, on aggravated assault data in an urban area. Given the current thinking about crime vulnerability based on concentration and spatial influence of features and events, this paper offers an analytical strategy to model risky places that combines the conceptual insights of crime emergence and persistence, advances in geo-spatial analytical techniques, and micro-level data