Inaccessible Justice: A qualitative and quantitative analysis into the Demographics, Socioeconomics, and Experiences of Self Represented Litigants

This paper centres around a more realistic characterization of who self-represented litigants are and the issues they face. For various social, economic, or geographic reasons, self represented litigants tend to have unmet legal needs, increasing the cost of already burdensome and cumbersome judicial proceedings. These result from an overall lack of legal resources and assistance, low incomes, low education, and low digital literacy rates, often leading to misunderstandings of social and legal needs and court processes. The disadvantaged position of those self-representing leads to power imbalances in the courtroom that reduces their access to justice. Further, the conflation between behaviours deemed to be vexatious and behaviours that suggest confusion and unintended errors that may result from unfamiliarity with courtroom proceedings is concerning

Värdväxter hos Coleophora - säckmalar : koppling till utbredning och hotstatus

Att stoppa utarmning av biologisk mångfald och livsmiljöer är en stor utmaning och en ödesfråga för mänskligheten. Klimatförändringar, exploatering, kalhyggesskogsbruk, intensivt brukad jordbruksmark, invasiva arter och miljögifter medför att jorden är inne i sitt sjätte utdöende. Insekter har drabbats hårt av det senaste decenniernas negativa utveckling, bland annat viktiga pollinerare som bin och fjärilar. Ett särskilt artrikt släkte bland Sveriges fjärilar är Coleophora, säckmalar. Kunskap om de olika arternas ekologi, såsom värdväxter, är viktigt för att kunna följa upp och tolka trender i naturen och sätta in rätt åtgärder. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilka värdväxter som finns representerade bland Sveriges säckmalar, och utröna huruvida det fanns samband mellan grad av värdväxtspecialisering och arternas utbredning och utdöenderisk bland de 135 säckmalarna som är bofasta i landet. För att få svar på frågeställningarna kopplat till syftet genomfördes en litteraturstudie där publikationer, litteratur och data erhölls via systematiska sökningar i databaser, samt i olika kanaler kopplat till svenskt naturvårdsarbete. Resultatet visade att en stor andel av säckmalarna var specialiserade i sitt val av värdväxt i larvstadiet. Särskilt uttalat var detta bland rödlistade säckmalar och säckmalar med begränsad utbredning, som hyste en större andel arter knutna till en specifik värdväxt. Andelen örtartade värdväxter var större bland de rödlistade, och andelen vedartade större bland de icke-rödlistade. Viktiga miljöer för de rödlistade arterna finns främst i jordbrukslandskapets gräsmarker, men även urbana miljöer såsom ruderatmarker och sand/grustäkter var viktiga miljöer. Hot mot de rödlistade säckmalarna var både upphörd hävd och för hårt hävdade marker. Några slutsatser är att säckmalar knutna till magra, blomrika marker hyser större risk att dö ut nationellt. Skötsel av värdefulla marker med säckmalar visade sig vara komplex då förhållandet till bete både är negativt och positivt. Skogliga miljöer med risvegetation är även viktiga för flertalet säckmalar med snäv värdväxtpreferens, utvecklingen i det moderna skogsbruket skulle kunna leda till att de hamnar på rödlistan framöver. Mer kunskap om säckmalars ekologi och regionala särarter är önskvärd, för två arter var värdväxt fortfarande okänt.To prevent loss off biodiversity, both species and habitats, is a major challenge for humanity. Climate change, exploitation, clear-cutting forestry, intensively managed agricultural land, invasive species, and environmental toxins has led the earth to its sixth mass extinction event. Insects have been affected by the negative trend of the recent decades, including important pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and moths. A species rich genus is the micro moths of Coleophora – case bearers. Knowledge of ecology and food plant dependence are important to be able to follow up and interpret trends in nature and put in place the right nature conservation measures. Many micromoths are strongly associated with one or a few specific host plant species. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is a correlation between degree of host plant specialization and the distribution and extinction risk of species among the 135 Coleophora that occur in Sweden. The purpose was also to see which host plants were represented as host plants, and in what frequency. Important habitats and threats amongst the red listed Coleophora were also an aim for the study. To answer the questions linked to the purpose, a literature study was conducted where publications, literature and data were obtained via systematic searches in databases, as well as in various channels linked to Swedish nature conservation work. To examine the static significance of the result, Chi2 tests were performed. The study showed that a majority of the Coleophora were monophagous to varying degrees. The results also show that red-listed Coleophora and/or those with limited distribution had a larger proportion of narrowly monophagous species. The red-listed species are mainly found in the open grasslands of the agricultural landscape, but also urban environments such as ruderal brownfields and sand/gravel quarries are important environments. Many of the currently more common Coleophora are monophagous to woody plants of the heather family Ericaceae. Modern clear-cutting forestry could lead to them ending up on the red list in the future. Some conclusions are that Coleophora of semi-natural grasslands are at greater risk of going extinct. Nature conservation measures tend to be complex as the relationship with grazing cattle can be both negative and positive. Forest environments with Ericaceae-vegetation are also important for several Coleophora with narrow host plant preference. Further, field studies to examine geographic variations of host plant preferences are needed to get a complete picture of the ecology and host plant preferences of the Swedish Coleophora. This is evident not least from the fact that the host plant is still not completely known for two of the species

The Effects of a Videoconferencing Implementation Project on Educators\u27 Level of Concern in Southwest Michigan Schools

Problem. Two-way, interactive videoconferencing is emerging as an important technology tool for K-12 educators. The challenge is to identify and describe successful implementation. Educator concerns related to implementation may inhibit success. The focus of this study of a federally funded videoconferencing project is to address the factors that influence educators\u27 level of concern. Method. The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) Stages of Concern (SoC) instrument was administered to measure the level of concern of two cohorts of participants. Data related to project, including number of connections, district and building technical support, professional development, and equipment reliability were also collected. One-way repeated measures of analysis of variance was used to determine if change took place in the Stages of Concern responses while canonical correlation and multiple regression were used to examine the relationship between level of concern and factors thought to be related to project implementation (e.g. number of connections, equipment reliability, etc.). Results. Overall, approximately 86% of the participants were at levels 1-3 on the measure of levels of concern at the beginning of the project. At the end of the project implementation period (at posttest), about 84% were at levels 4-5. Canonical correlation analysis indicated that level of concern and number of connections were significantly associated with professional development hours, building tech support and equipment reliability ( rc = 0.81, p = 0.001). Higher levels of concern (-0.88) and a larger number of connections (-0.71) are associated with higher professional development hours (-0.60), better building tech support (-0.42), and higher equipment reliability (-0.69). However, equipment reliability (β = 0.59) is the best predictor of participants\u27 level of concern. By itself, equipment reliability accounted for 42% ( r = 0 .65) of the variance in participants\u27 levels of concern. Conclusions. The activities in the project in this study resulted in improved levels of concernfor the project participants. Improved levels of concern and increased number of connections result from higher levels of equipment reliability, adequate building-level technical support, and a high level of professional development with equipment reliability having the most impact. It is essential that as videoconferencing projects are implemented, leaders at all levels address these factors

MS

thesisFive species of wild rodents native to the Great Salt Lake Basin have been found to produce a characteristic cutaneous response to intradermal injection of various Past. tularensis preparations, following challenge with viable Past. tularensis organisms. An area of in duration was produced which reached maximal size at 48 hours following intradermal injection of the Past. tularensis preparations. Histologically this reaction appeared to be a typical acute inflammatory process. Cutaneous sensitivity as a result of intradermal injection of heat killed Past. tularensis cells into challenged deer mice, Ord kangaroo rats, and desert wood rats persisted for up to 53, 40 and 25 weeks respectively. Deer mice challenged with Br. suis did not react to intradermal injection of heat killed Schu A strain cells whereas reactors were observed among deer mice challenged the Br. neotomae. White mice, guinea pigs and albino rabbits challenged with Past. tularensis were also observed to develop characteristic responses following intradermal injection of various Past. tularensis preparations. The cutaneous response of the challenged white mice was similar to that of the challenged wild rodents. In challenged guinea pigs the cutaneous response was one of edema and erythema which was maximal 24 hours after skin test. The response of rabbits to intradermal injection of Past. tularensis preparation was an erythematous area attaining a maximum size 48 hours after skin tests. The occurrence and development of cutaneous sensitivity in guinea pigs following challenge with Past. tularensis, strain Jap4, was studies. It was observed that cutaneous sensitivity may develop 4 to 5 days following challenge. Passive transfer studies with peritoneal exudate cells indicated a lack of detectable delayed hypersensitivity during the first week following challenge. However, delayed hypersensitivity was demonstrated in guinea pigs two, three and four weeks following challenge with the Jap4 strain Past. tularensis. A method of quantitative determination of Past. tularensis antibody precipitated by polysaccharide was established and used to determine the antibody nitrogen necessary to evoke local cutaneous sensitivity to Past. tularensis skin test antigens in normal rabbits and guinea pigs. Experimental evidence demonstrated that the cutaneous response of Past. tularensis challenged guinea pigs to intradermal injection of polysaccharide was similar to the Arthus type of reaction. It was also demonstrated that the cutaneous response of challenged guinea pigs to intradermal injections of heat killed Past. tularensis Schu A organisms was a combination of the Arthus type and the delayed type of hypersensitivity response. The persistence of Past. tularensis complement fixing and agglutinating antibodies in Past. tularensis Jap4 challenged deer mice, Ord kangaroo rats and wood rats was studied. The deer mice complement fixing antibody persisted for 31 weeks and agglutinating antibody for 25 weeks. Antibody detected by both tests persisted in Ord kangaroo rats for at least 40 weeks, although the agglutinin titers were much higher than the complement fixing titers. In challenged wood rats, both tests were positive in some animals 25 weeks following challenge. The relative values of the skin tests, agglutination test, and complement fixation test to detect Past. tularensis infection in rodents were discussed

June’s Learning Laboratory

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Finite Mirror Effects in Advanced Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors

Thermal noise is expected to be the dominant source of noise in the most sensitive frequency band of second generation ground based gravitational wave detectors. Reshaping the beam to a flatter wider profile which probes more of the mirror surface reduces this noise. The "Mesa" beam shape has been proposed for this purpose and was subsequently generalized to a family of hyperboloidal beams with two parameters: twist angle alpha and beam width D. Varying alpha allows a continuous transition from the nearly-flat to the nearly-concentric Mesa beam configurations. We analytically prove that in the limit of infinite D hyperboloidal beams become Gaussians. The Advanced LIGO diffraction loss design constraint is 1 ppm per bounce. In the past the diffraction loss has often been calculated using the clipping approximation that, in general, underestimates the diffraction loss. We develop a code using pseudo-spectral methods to compute the diffraction loss directly from the propagator. We find that the diffraction loss is not a strictly monotonic function of beam width, but has local minima that occur due to finite mirror effects and leads to natural choices of D. For the Mesa beam a local minimum occurs at D = 10.67 cm and leads to a diffraction loss of 1.4 ppm. We find that if one requires a diffraction loss of strictly 1 ppm, the alpha = 0.91 pi hyperboloidal beam is optimal, leading to the coating thermal noise being lower by about 10% than for a Mesa beam while other types of thermal noise decrease as well. We then develop an iterative process that reconstructs the mirror to specifically account for finite mirror effects. This allows us to increase the D parameter and lower the coating noise by about 30% compared to the original Mesa configuration.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables. Referee input included and typos fixed. Accepted by Phys. Rev.

Reinforcing tailor-made concrete structures: Alternatives and challenges

Recent advances in automated concrete production make it possible to produce geometrically complex concrete structures. The purpose of this paper is to review reinforcement alternatives suitable for such structures and to analyse the problems associated with the geometrical complexity, not only in the reinforcement itself, but also in design. A review of the literature on reinforcement alternatives and governing standards shows that conventional steel reinforcement load bearing structures cannot easily be set aside. Any deviation from the standard structural elements, e.g. beams, walls and slabs, introduces design problems for most structural engineers. Approaches to problems of this complex nature are discussed here. Further developments needed are indicated: being able to choose the reinforcement direction, and optimisation with regard to parameters other than the reinforcement amount, e.g. feasibility of production. Furthermore, the need for a rational design process is discussed and some key issues, such as software incompatibilities are raised

Magellan LDSS3 emission confirmation of galaxies hosting metal-rich Lyman-alpha absorption systems

Using the Low Dispersion Survey Spectrograph 3 at the Magellan II Clay Telescope, we target {candidate absorption host galaxies} detected in deep optical imaging {(reaching limiting apparent magnitudes of 23.0-26.5 in $g, r, i,$ and $z$ filters) in the fields of three QSOs, each of which shows the presence of high metallicity, high $N_{\rm HI}$ absorption systems in their spectra (Q0826-2230: $z_{abs}$=0.9110, Q1323-0021: $z_{abs}=0.7160$, Q1436-0051: $z_{abs}=0.7377, 0.9281$). We confirm three host galaxies {at redshifts 0.7387, 0.7401, and 0.9286} for two of the Lyman-$\alpha$ absorption systems (one with two galaxies interacting). For these systems, we are able to determine the star formation rates (SFRs); impact parameters (from previous imaging detections); the velocity shift between the absorption and emission redshifts; and, for one system, also the emission metallicity.} Based on previous photometry, we find these galaxies have L$>$L$^{\ast}$. The [O II] SFRs for these galaxies are in the range $11-25$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ {(uncorrected for dust)}, while the impact parameters lie in the range $35-54$ kpc. {Despite the fact that we have confirmed galaxies at 50 kpc from the QSO, no gradient in metallicity is indicated between the absorption metallicity along the QSO line of sight and the emission line metallicity in the galaxies.} We confirm the anti-correlation between impact parameter and $N_{\rm HI}$ from the literature. We also report the emission redshift of five other galaxies: three at $z_{em}>z_{QSO}$, and two (L$<$L$^{\ast}$) at $z_{em}<z_{QSO}$ not corresponding to any known absorption systems.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables, accepted to MNRA

Core-Level Satellite Excitations of K/Al(100) and K/Al(111)

Alkali-metal-induced satellite peaks associated with the K 3p and Al 2p core levels have been measured with photoemission for K/Al(111) and K/Al(100) under both low- and room-temperature preparation conditions. For low-temperature deposition we observedddd loss peaks in good agreement with electron-energy-loss spectroscopy studies of analogous systems which we assign to the excitation of collective plasmonlike modes in the alkali-metal overlayer. For room-temperature preparation conditions, we observed significant changes in the satellite loss structure which we attribute to a decrease or loss of metallic behavior in the alkali-metal layer. We account for some of our results as a change in bonding configuration of the K atoms from on-top-of surface to substitutional adsorption for low versus room-temperature preparations

Two-way slabs: Experimental investigation of load redistributions in steel fibre reinforced concrete

In the design of two-way reinforced concrete slabs, e.g. using the strip or yield line design method, the possibility of redistributing the load between different loading directions is used. The main aim of the present study was to investigate how fibres affect the structural behaviour such as the possibility for redistribution, crack patterns and load-carrying capacity. The investigation was conducted by means of experiments on two-way octagonal slabs, simply supported on four edges, centrically loaded with a point load. The slabs spanned 2.2 m in both directions and the reinforcement amount was twice as large in one direction as in the other, in order to provoke uneven load distribution. Three slabs of each reinforcement configuration were produced and tested: conventionally reinforced slabs, steel fibre reinforced slabs and a combination of both reinforcement types. The reaction force on each supported edge was measured on five rollers per edge. A moderate fibre content (35 kg/m3) of double hook-end steel fibres was used. The steel fibres affected the structural behaviour significantly by providing post-cracking ductility and by increasing the ultimate load-carrying capacity by approximately 20%. Most significant, the steel fibres influenced the load redistribution in such a way that more load could be transferred to supports in the weaker direction after cracking. Further, more evenly distributed support reactions were obtained in the slabs containing both reinforcement types compared to the case when only conventional reinforcement was used. The slabs reinforced by steel fibres alone did not experience any bending hardening; however, a considerable post-cracking ductility was observed. Furthermore, the work presented in this paper will provide results suitable for use in benchmarking numerical and analytical modelling methods for steel fibre reinforced concrete, as the experimental programme also included extensive testing of material properties