The Right to Counsel in Criminal Cases: Still a National Crisis?

In 1963, Gideon v. Wainwright dramatically changed the landscape of criminal justice with its mandate that poor criminal defendants be entitled to legal representation funded by the government. As scholars and practitioners have noted repeatedly over more than fifty years, states have generally failed to provide the equal access Gideon promised. This Article revisits the questions raised by the authors over a decade ago when they asserted that a genuine national crisis exists regarding the right to counsel in criminal cases for poor people. Sadly, despite a few isolated instances where litigation has sparked some progress, the issues remain the same: persistent underfunding and crushing caseloads, and little support from the Supreme Court to remedy ineffective assistance claims. The authors conclude that our patchwork system of public defense for the poor remains disturbingly dysfunctional

Cochrane dementia group turns 21—older and (slightly) wiser

This invited editorial describes the achievements of the last 21 years of the Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group (DR Quinn is the coordinating editor of the group)

Exploring the associations shared by mood, pain-related attention and pain outcomes related to sleep disturbance in a chronic pain sample

OBJECTIVE: Sleep disturbance in chronic pain is common, occurring in two-thirds of patients. There is a complex relationship between chronic pain and sleep; pain can disrupt sleep and poor sleep can exaggerate pain intensity. This may have an impact on both depressive symptoms and attention to pain. This study aims to evaluate the relationship between chronic pain and sleep, and the role of mood and attention. METHODS: Chronic pain patients, recruited from a secondary care outpatient clinic, completed self-report measures of pain, sleep, depressive symptoms and attention to pain. Hierarchical regression and structural equation modelling were used to explore the relationships between these measures. Participants (n = 221) were aged between 20 and 84 (mean = 52) years. RESULTS: The majority of participants were found to be ‘poor sleepers’ (86%) with increased pain severity, depressive symptoms and attention to pain. Both analytical approaches indicated that sleep disturbance is indirectly associated with increased pain severity Instead the relationship shared by sleep disturbance and pain severity was further associated with depressive symptoms and attention to pain. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that sleep disturbance may contribute to clinical pain severity indirectly though changes in mood and attention. Prospective studies exploring lagged associations between these constructs could have critical information relevant to the treatment of chronic pain

Multiple Family Groups to reduce child disruptive behavior difficulties: Moderating effects of child welfare status on child outcomes

Children who remain at home with their permanent caregivers following a child welfare (CW) involvement (e.g., investigation, out-of-home placement) manifest high rates of behavioral difficulties, which is a risk factor for further maltreatment and out-of-home placement if not treated effectively. A recently tested Multiple Family Group (MFG) service delivery model to treat youth Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBDs) has demonstrated effectiveness in improving child behavior difficulties among hard-to-engage, socioeconomically disadvantaged families by addressing parenting skills, parent-child relationships, family communication and organization, social support, and stress. This exploratory study examines whether child behavioral outcomes for MFG differ for families with self-reported lifetime involvement in CW services compared to other families, as families with CW involvement struggle with additional stressors that can diminish treatment success. Youth (aged 7–11) and their families were assigned to MFG or services as usual (SAU) using a block comparison design. Caregivers reported on child behavior, social skills, and functional impairment. Mixed effects regression modeled multilevel outcomes across 4 assessment points (i.e., baseline, mid-test, post-test, 6 month follow-up). Among CW-involved families, MFG participants reported significantly reduced child oppositional defiant disorder symptoms at 6-month follow-up compared with SAU participants. No other differences were found in the effect of MFG treatment between CW and non-CW involved families. Findings suggest that MFG may be as effective in reducing child behavior difficulties for both CW and non-CW involved families. As a short-term, engaging, and efficient intervention, MFG may be a particularly salient service offering for families involved in the CW system

Inter-Coder Agreement for Computational Linguistics

This article is a survey of methods for measuring agreement among corpus annotators. It exposes the mathematics and underlying assumptions of agreement coefficients, covering Krippendorff's alpha as well as Scott's pi and Cohen's kappa; discusses the use of coefficients in several annotation tasks; and argues that weighted, alpha-like coefficients, traditionally less used than kappa-like measures in computational linguistics, may be more appropriate for many corpus annotation tasks—but that their use makes the interpretation of the value of the coefficient even harder. </jats:p

Capacidade gerencial e habilidade política dos empresários de transporte por ônibus de Belo Horizonte: mito ou realidade?

O sistema de transporte por ônibus em Belo Horizonte, comparado ao de outras capitais brasileiras, apresenta algumas particularidades, como seu elevado número de empresas e o predomínio de empresas de médio porte. Este artigo discute o processo de evolução das empresas de Belo Horizonte, destacando questões como a diferença em relação ao padrão nacional de concentração, o desenvolvimento da capacidade gerencial e da habilidade política dos transportadores mineiros, e o papel do órgão gestor nesses processos. Optou-se pelo enfoque político das organizações, privilegiando-se as relações de trabalho e de poder entre os diversos atores do sistema. Pôde-se concluir que os empresários belo-horizontinos destacam-se como articuladores na criação e no desenvolvimento de suas empresas, como pioneiros na diversificação e expansão geográfica de seus negócios e como lideranças políticas e empresariais nacionais. A partir de um processo de profissionalização e expansão no setor em Belo Horizonte, ocorreu a articulação da classe, inicialmente para fazer frente ao poder público local, expandindo-se nacionalmente. Esse processo permitiu a alavancagem e a padronização da gestão empresarial

Lipocalin 2 in the central nervous system host response to systemic lipopolysaccharide administration

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Lipocalin 2 (Lcn2) is a bacteriostatic factor that may also modulate cellular function, however, little is known concerning the expression or role of Lcn2 in CNS inflammation. Therefore, here we investigated the regulation and possible function of Lcn2 in the CNS following peripheral lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection in mice.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A murine model for systemic endotoxemia was used in this study. Wild type or Lcn2 KO mice (both genotypes C57BL/6 strain) were given either a single or dual, staggered intraperitoneal injections of purified <it>E. coli </it>LPS or vehicle alone. The brain was examined for the expression and location of Lcn2 mRNA and protein and various markers for neuroinflammation were analyzed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Although undetectable under physiological conditions, both Lcn2 mRNA and protein were induced to high levels in the brain after LPS injection. By contrast, RNA corresponding to the putative Lcn2 (termed 24p3R) receptor was present at high levels in the normal brain and remained unaltered by LPS injection. Differences between Lcn2 and 24p3R mRNA expression were found at the anatomic and cellular level. Endothelial cells, microglia and the choroid plexus but not neurons were identified as the main cellular sources for Lcn2 mRNA in the CNS. By contrast, 24p3R mRNA was detected in neurons and the choroid plexus only. Lcn2 protein was found to have a similar cellular localization as the corresponding RNA transcripts with the exception that subsets of neurons were also strongly positive. Various inflammatory, glial, and iron handling markers were analyzed and found to have similar alterations between WT and Lcn2 KO animals.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>1) Lcn2 production is strongly induced in the CNS by systemic LPS injection, 2) in addition to Lcn2 production at key gateways of bacterial entry to the CNS, neurons may be a target for the actions of Lcn2, which is apparently taken up by these cells, and 3) the cellular functions of Lcn2 in the CNS remain enigmatic.</p