A State within ‘The States’ : Private Policing and Delegation of Power in America

Where there is a state, there is policing. Law enforcement and order maintenance, though, vary according to the nature of the state itself. In addition to patterns of local control, systemic corruption and violent ‘street corner justice’, American policing includes a long tradition of the coexistence of private policing with the forces of the state. Private policing, broadly defined as control of crime and disorder by individuals, organized groups, or profit-making companies, is usually taken..

Haia Shpayer-Makov, The Making of a Policeman: a Social History of a Labour Force in Metropolitan London, 1829-1914

When I received this book for review, I wondered whether the author could say anything new about London’s Metropolitan Police. Haia Shpayer-Makov has said new things, because she has approached the police from a new angle: recruitment and retention of a labor force. Other historians have noted the high standards the founders of the new police set in 1829, and they have addressed whether the men carried out those standards. Shpayer-Makov, though, asks several new questions: Did the leaders get..

Carolyn Strange, Discretionary Justice: Pardon and Parole in New York from the Revolution to the Depression

At least since Caesare Beccaria’s time, critics have attacked the power of a sovereign or head of state to pardon or reduce the punishment of people convicted of crimes. They charge that clemency diminishes the certainty of punishment and places the ruler outside of the rule of law. Carolyn Strange’s general theme is this quest for certainty in criminal justice and retention of discretionary punishment. Certainty of punishment within the rule of law was a major principle of Enlightenment thou..

New York City’s mid-19th century underworld: a history, a novel, a film

New York City’s mid-nineteenth century underworld has received considerable attention during the last two years. The «dangerous classes» and their neighborhoods are a major subject of Tyler Anbinder’s history of the Five Points (the intersection of five streets in lower Mahattan, now covered by court buildings and Chinatown), and the characters and setting of Kevin Baker’s novel and Martin Scorcese’s film. A focal event in each is the 1863 Draft Riots, when poor New Yorkers disrupted military..

Manganese Fertilization of Soybeans

Only a small quantity of manganese is essential for plant growth however under certain soil conditions even this is not available to the plant. Depending on severity, manganese deficiency will retard plant growth and may drastically decrease yields. A deficiency of manganese will affect the photosynthesis system of the plant. The visual symptoms of a manganese deficiency on soybeans is interveinal chlorosis of the leaves. The veins remains green until the chlorosis nears the white stage then they also lose their color

The practice of local union leadership: a study of five local unions

(print) xiv, 282 p. : tables ; 21 cm.This book examines trade-union leadership at the local union level. It is based on information collected through a systematic study of leadership as practiced in five local union organizations. Its purpose is to broaden understanding of both local union leadership and local union organization. The study is the product of a professional psychologist and two labor economists using an interdisciplinary approach.1. The background and design of the research. p.3 -- Local unions in a period of stress. p.3 -- The need for the study. p.5 -- The conceptual framework of the study. p.14 -- The objectives of the study. p.21 -- 2. Some environmental factors affecting leadership policies and problems of local unions. p.23 -- The community. p.23 -- The international unions. p.25 -- The local unions. p.30 -- The employers. p.34 -- The environment factors. p.37 -- 3. Union Members : their attitudes and behavior. p.39 -- Union democracy. p.39 -- The need for followers. p.41 -- The objective of this chapter. p.42 -- Member conceptions of unionism. p.43 -- Satisfaction members get from unionism. p.60 -- Communications in local unions. p.64 -- Differences among the locals. p.69 -- Summary and conclusions. p.73 -- 4. Local union officers as leaders : a description and evaluation. p.75 --Characteristics of the officers. p.75 -- Behavior of officers in office. p.76 -- Officers' concepts of union office. p.86 -- Officers' perceptions of local union goals. p.89 -- Identification of barriers to goal achievement. p.97 -- Attempts to remove barriers to goal achievement. p.106 -- Evaluation and conclusions. p.113 -- 5. The causes of unsuccessful leadership : factors which influence the performance of local union officers. p.121 -- Pressures from the membership: the democratic context. p.121 -- Pressures from the membership: concepts of unionism. p.123 -- Pressures from the membership: desired form of member-officer relationship. p.129 -- Members' conception of their own union roles. p.131 -- Lack of member solidarity. p.132 -- Summary: member attitudes. p.134 -- Personal limitations of the officers: conceptions of unionism and union leadership. p.134 -- Personal limitations of the officers: lack of specialized training and skills. p.140 -- Personal limitations of the officers: personality and interpersonal relations. p.143 -- Employer practices. p.144 -- International-local union relationships. p.148 -- Trends in labor relations. p.150 -- A case study of contrasting leadership patterns in two local unions. p.152 -- Conclusions. p.162 -- 6. Problems and alternatives ahead : implications of the study. p.165 -- A brief summary of findings. p.165 -- Implications of the findings for the future role of unionism. p.167 -- Some prerequisites for the survival and growth of unionism. p.179 -- Leadership and member participation in local union organizations. p.182 -- Implications of the findings for labor education. p.195 -- 7. A final comment. p.205 -- Appendixes. p.209 -- A. The method of the study. p.210 -- B. Union member questionnaire. p.215 -- C. Interview questions: union members. p.237 -- D. Information questions: union members. p.241 -- E. Information questions: union officers. p.251 -- F. Information questions: union officers. p.263 -- Bibliography. p.269 -- Index. p.27

Unlocking biomarker discovery: Large scale application of aptamer proteomic technology for early detection of lung cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths, because ~84% of cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Worldwide in 2008, ~1.5 million people were diagnosed and ~1.3 million died – a survival rate unchanged since 1960. However, patients diagnosed at an early stage and have surgery experience an 86% overall 5-year survival. New diagnostics are therefore needed to identify lung cancer at this stage. Here we present the first large scale clinical use of aptamers to discover blood protein biomarkers in disease with our breakthrough proteomic technology. This multi-center case-control study was conducted in archived samples from 1,326 subjects from four independent studies of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in long-term tobacco-exposed populations. We measured >800 proteins in 15uL of serum, identified 44 candidate biomarkers, and developed a 12-protein panel that distinguished NSCLC from controls with 91% sensitivity and 84% specificity in a training set and 89% sensitivity and 83% specificity in a blinded, independent verification set. Performance was similar for early and late stage NSCLC. This is a significant advance in proteomics in an area of high clinical need

Preoperative PROMIS Scores Predict Postoperative PROMIS Score Improvement for Patients Undergoing Hand Surgery

Background: Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) can be used alongside preoperative patient characteristics to set postsurgery expectations. This study aimed to analyze whether preoperative scores can predict significant postoperative PROMIS score improvement. Methods: Patients undergoing hand and wrist surgery with initial and greater than 6-month follow-up PROMIS scores were assigned to derivation or validation cohorts, separating trauma and nontrauma conditions. Receiver operating characteristic curves were calculated for the derivation cohort to determine whether preoperative PROMIS scores could predict postoperative PROMIS score improvement utilizing minimal clinically important difference principles. Results: In the nontrauma sample, patients with baseline Physical Function (PF) scores below 31.0 and Pain Interference (PI) and Depression scores above 68.2 and 62.2, respectively, improved their postoperative PROMIS scores with 95%, 96%, and 94% specificity. Patients with baseline PF scores above 52.1 and PI and Depression scores below 49.5 and 39.5, respectively, did not substantially improve their postoperative PROMIS scores with 94%, 93%, and 96% sensitivity. In the trauma sample, patients with baseline PF scores below 34.8 and PI and Depression scores above 69.2 and 62.2, respectively, each improved their postoperative PROMIS scores with 95% specificity. Patients with baseline PF scores above 52.1 and PI and Depression scores below 46.6 and 44.0, respectively, did not substantially improve their postoperative scores with 95%, 94%, and 95% sensitivity. Conclusions: Preoperative PROMIS PF, PI, and Depression scores can predict postoperative PROMIS score improvement for a select group of patients, which may help in setting expectations. Future work can help determine the level of true clinical improvement these findings represent