Danger Ahead: Risk Assessment and the Future of Bail Reform

In the last five years, legislators in all fifty states have made changes to their pretrial justice systems. Reform efforts aim to shrink jails by incarcerating fewer people—particularly poor, low-risk defendants and racial minorities. Many jurisdictions are embracing pretrial risk assessment instruments—statistical tools that use historical data to forecast which defendants can safely be released—as a centerpiece of reform. Now, many are questioning the extent to which pretrial risk assessment instruments actually serve reform goals. Existing scholarship and debate centers on how the instruments themselves may reinforce racial disparities and on how their opaque algorithms may frustrate due process interests. This Article highlights three underlying challenges that have yet to receive the attention they require. First, today’s risk assessment tools lead to what we term “zombie predictions.” That is, predictive models trained on data from older bail regimes are blind to the risk-reducing benefits of recent bail reforms. This may cause predictions that systematically overestimate risk. Second, “decision-making frameworks” that mediate the court system’s use of risk estimates embody crucial moral judgments, yet currently escape appropriate public scrutiny. Third, in the long-term, these tools risk giving an imprimatur of scientific objectivity to ill-defined concepts of “dangerousness,” may entrench the Supreme Court’s historically recent blessing of preventive detention for dangerousness, and could pave the way for an increase in preventive detention. Pretrial risk assessment instruments, as they are currently built and used, cannot safely be assumed to support reformist goals of reducing incarceration and addressing racial and poverty-based inequities. This Article contends that system stakeholders who share those goals are best off focusing their reformist energies on other steps that can more directly promote decarceral changes and greater equity in pretrial justice. Where pretrial risk assessments remain in use, this Article proposes two vital steps that should be seen as minimally necessary to address the challenges surfaced. First, where they choose to embrace risk assessment, jurisdictions must carefully define what they wish to predict, gather and use local, recent data, and continuously update and calibrate any model on which they choose to rely, investing in a robust data infrastructure where necessary to meet these goals. Second, instruments and frameworks must be subject to strong, inclusive governance

Electric and hydrogen buses : Shifting from conventionally fuelled cars in the UK

This research was carried out under the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) as part of the ADdressing Valuation of Energy and Nature Together (ADVENT) funded project. Funding was received from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/M019691/1), United Kingdom and the School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom. The authors would also like to thank Dr Christian Brand, University of Oxford, for giving them access to the Transport Energy and Air Pollution Model UK (TEAM - UK).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Golden Hours: An Approach to Postnatal Stabilization and Improving Outcomes

The “Golden Hour” model of care originated in adult trauma medicine. Recently, this concept has been applied to premature neonates and the care they receive immediately after birth. This is not limited to the first hour of life, however, as this approach encompasses the first hours and days after birth. While no universal description defines the Golden Hour model, critical domains include initial delivery room management, thermoregulation, ventilation and oxygenation, glycemic control and prevention of infection. Strong evidence favors standardization of care to improve short- and long-term outcomes. This approach to care for the most at-risk premature infant is typically institution-specific; thus, team-building and quality improvement are critical to the care of these vulnerable patients

Circular 64

Treatment of Alaska-produced food products by ionizing radiation may benefit the seafood and agricultural industries and the Alaskan consumer. A feasibility study to evaluate the potential social and economic benefits and risks as well as the costs of using the process in Alaska on Alaskan products is being coordinated by the Institute of Northern Engineering. A research and development project to determine effects on the quality o f Alaskan products could be the next phase in the introduction o f a new food-preservation technique to Alaska

Electric and hydrogen rail : Potential contribution to net zero in the UK

Acknowledgements  This research was carried out under the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) as part of the ADdressing Valuation of Energy and Nature Together (ADVENT) funded project. Funding was received from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/M019691/1), United Kingdom and the School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom. The authors would also like to thank Dr Christian Brand, University of Oxford, for giving them access to the Transport Energy and Air Pollution Model (TEAM-UK).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Japan and the UK : Emission predictions of electric and hydrogen rail to 2050

Acknowledgements This research was carried out under the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) as part of the ADdressing Valuation of Energy and Nature Together (ADVENT) funded project. Funding was received from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/M019691/1), United Kingdom and the School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom. Funding was also received from the Postgraduate Research Grant from University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom. This work has also emanated from research supported in part by a research grant from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under the SFI Strategic Partnership Programme Grant number SFI/15/SPP/E3125. The authors would also like to thank Dr Christian Brand, University of Oxford, for giving them access and guidance regarding the Trans- port Energy and Air Pollution Model (TEAM‐UK).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The application of travel demand management initiatives within a university setting

This research was undertaken as part of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) research programme under the ADdressing Valuation of Energy and Nature Together (ADVENT) project, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/M019691/1) United Kingdom. Funding was also received from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom. The authors would like to thank Dr Kate Pangbourne, The University of Leeds, for their detailed and constructive feedback on this paper. The authors would also like to acknowledge Dr Alex Douglas for their input in the methodology.Peer reviewedPostprin

Novel use of stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) as a tool for isolation of oviposition site attractants for gravid Culex quinquefasciatus

Mosquitoes such as Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae) are important vectors of organisms that cause disease in humans. Research into the development of effective standardized odour baits for blood-fed females (oviposition attractants), to enable entomological monitoring of vector populations, is hampered by complex protocols for extraction of physiologically active volatile chemicals from natural breeding site water samples, which have produced inconsistent results. Air entrainment and solvent extraction are technically demanding methods and are impractical for use in resource poor environments where mosquito-borne disease is most prevalent. This study reports the first use of a simple, robust extraction technique, stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE), to extract behaviourally active small lipophilic molecules (SLMs) present in water samples collected from Cx. quinquefasciatus breeding sites in Tanzania. Extracts from a pit latrine and from a cess pool breeding site attracted more gravid Cx. quinquefasciatus in pair choice bioassays than control extracts, and coupled gas chromatography-electroantennography (GC-EAG) allowed tentative identification of 15 electrophysiologically active chemicals, including the known oviposition attractant, skatole (3-methylindole). Here, we have demonstrated, using simple pair choice bioassays in controlled laboratory conditions, that SBSE is effective for the extraction of behaviourally and electrophysiologically active semiochemicals from mosquito breeding site waters. Further research is required to confirm that SBSE is an appropriate technique for use in field surveys in the search for oviposition cues for Cx. quinquefasciatus