Capital Punishment Reforms in Illinois: Comparing the Views of Police, Prosecutors, and Public Defenders

On 9 March 2011, Governor Patrick Quinn abolished capital punishment in Illinois stating that the state’s system of imposing the death penalty was inherently flawed. Quinn’s announcement followed an eleven-year effort to end the death penalty that began with a 2000 moratorium on executions imposed by then Governor George Ryan. This moratorium was the direct result of the appellate reversal of a series of death-row convictions. Prompted by these reversals, Ryan also created the Governor’s Commission on Capital Punishment to study the use of the death penalty in Illinois. As a result of this effort, comprehensive legislation was enacted to reform the Illinois death penalty system, and the Capital Punishment Reform Study Committee was formed to gauge the implementation and impact of the reforms. Working with the Committee, the authors’ surveyed 413 Illinois police departments, 102 Illinois State’s Attorneys’ Offices, and all 99 Public Defender’s Offices in an effort to determine the extent to which criminal justice agencies had implemented the requirements of the capital punishment reform legislation, and whether there were any significant barriers to the implementation of the legislative requirements. This paper reports the results of this inquiry, and argues that capital punishment ended in Illinois because of the complexity of the death penalty and the perceived inability to devise a system free of racial, geographic, and economic bias and not the failure of the criminal justice community to implement the reforms recommended by the Governor’s Commission on Capital Punishment

The epidemiology of HIV among young people in sub-Saharan Africa: know your local epidemic and its implications for prevention.

BACKGROUND: Broad patterns of HIV epidemiology are frequently used to design generic HIV programs in sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS: We reviewed the epidemiology of HIV among young people in sub-Saharan Africa, and explored the unique dynamics of infection in its different regions. RESULTS: In 2009, HIV prevalence among youth in sub-Saharan Africa was an estimated 1.4% in males and 3.4% in females, but these values mask wide variation at regional and national levels. Within countries there are further major differences in HIV prevalence, such as by sex, urban/rural location, economic status, education, or ethnic group. Within this highly nuanced context, HIV prevention programs targeting youth must consider both where new infections are occurring and where they are coming from. CONCLUSIONS: Given the epidemiology, one-size-fits-all HIV prevention programs are usually inappropriate at regional and national levels. Consideration of local context and risk associated with life transitions, such as leaving school or getting married, is imperative to successful programming for young people

Organizational Approaches to Drug Law Enforcement by Local Police Departments in the United States: Specialized Drug Units and Participation in Multi-Agency Drug Task Forces

This paper examines the factors associated with the decision of local police departments in the United States to operate specialized drug units or to participate in multi-jurisdictional drug task forces. Combining data from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) Survey, the 2000 Census, and the Uniform Crime Report, we use both bivariate and multivariate methods to conduct the analysis. The findings indicate that county-level agencies, those with other formalized drug control efforts, high levels of violent crime, high degrees of task specialization and formalization, and high proportions of the resident population accounted for by renters were more likely to operate drug units, participate in multi-agency drug task forces, and allocate more officers per capita to these efforts

A cell-permeable biscyclooctyne as a novel probe for the identification of protein sulfenic acids

Reactive oxygen species act as important second messengers in cell signaling and homeostasis through the oxidation of protein thiols. However, the dynamic nature of protein oxidation and the lack of sensitivity of existing molecular probes have hindered our understanding of such reactions; therefore, new tools are required to address these challenges. We designed a bifunctional variant of the strained bicyclo[6.1.0]nonyne (BCN-E-BCN) that enables the tagging of intracellular protein sulfenic acids for biorthogonal copper-free click chemistry. In validation studies, BCN-E-BCN binds the sulfenylated form of the actin-severing protein cofilin, while mutation of the cognate cysteine residues abrogates its binding. BCN-E-BCN is cell permeable and reacts rapidly with cysteine sulfenic acids in cultured cells. Using different azide-tagged conjugates, we demonstrate that BCN-E-BCN can be used in various applications for the detection of sulfenylated proteins. Remarkably, cycloaddition of an azide-tagged fluorophore to BCN-E-BCN labelled proteins produced in vivo can be visualized by fluorescence microscopy to reveal their subcellular localization. These findings demonstrate a novel and multifaceted approach to the detection and trapping of sulfenic acids

Allostatic load and preterm birth

Preterm birth is a universal health problem that is one of the largest unmet medical needs contributing to the global burden of disease. Adding to its complexity is that there are no means to predict who is at risk when pregnancy begins or when women will actually deliver. Until these problems are addressed, there will be no interventions to reduce the risk because those who should be treated will not be known. Considerable evidence now exists that chronic life, generational or accumulated stress is a risk factor for preterm delivery in animal models and in women. This wear and tear on the body and mind is called allostatic load. This review explores the evidence that chronic stress contributes to preterm birth and other adverse pregnancy outcomes in animal and human studies. It explores how allostatic load can be used to, firstly, model stress and preterm birth in animal models and, secondly, how it can be used to develop a predictive model to assess relative risk among women in early pregnancy. Once care providers know who is in the highest risk group, interventions can be developed and applied to mitigate their risk

Optical properties of single crystals of some rare-earth trifluorides, 5-34 eV

The reflectances of single crystals of the trifluorides of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Dy, and of polycrystalline GdF3 were measured in the 10-34-eV region, along with 5-9-eV transmission measurements on films of these materials. Localized 4f→5d, 6stransitions on the rare-earth ions give rise to the absorption below 10 or 11 eV. Strong interband absorption gives anisotropic reflectance peaks in the 10-15-eV region, presumably from F− 2p valence bands to lanthanide 5d, 6s (and other states) conduction bands, accounting for about one-third of the expected F− 2p osillator strength. Transitions from lanthanide 5p levels cause two types of spectra beginning around 20 eV: transitions of the 5p→5d type, apparently localized on lanthanide ions, but with some an isotropy; and transitions of 5p electrons to the conduction band, giving a peak of very high reflectance at energies above 27 eV

Thermomodulation Study of Plasmons and Longitudinal Excitons in Alkali Halides

Thermoreflectance measurements on LiF and KCl were made from 10 to 30 eV using synchrotron radiation. Analysis of the differential dielectric and electron-energy-loss functions shows that the energy-loss peak generally attributed to the valence plasmon actually arises from the plasmon and overlapping longitudinal-exciton-like peak(s)

Temperature-Modulated Reflectance of Gold from 6 to 35 eV

The thermoreflectance spectrum of gold has been measured in the 6-35-eV region at about 200 K by using synchrotron radiation. Considerable sharp structure exists throughout this region, showing that lifetime broadening is not large enough to preclude the extension of high-resolution modulation techniques to at least 35 eV. The structure arises from interband transitions of the 5d electrons and from plasmons

Thermoreflectance of LiF between 12 and 30 eV

The thermoreflectance spectrum of LiF between 12 and 30 eV was measured and several of the structures interpreted. The absorption-edge region is interpreted in terms of a Wannier exciton series converging to the fundamental band gap Γ15→Γ1. Structure associated directly with the band gap is not manifest, so the Γ15−Γ1 energy is determined indirectly to be 14.2 ± 0.2 eV. The n=1 exciton state generates the first strong structure in Δε̃ and we suggest that the exciton-phonon interaction, along with a central-cell correction, can give a significant contribution to its binding energy. Structures at higher energy have been associated with the interband transitions L3′→L1 and L2′→L1 between the crystal-field-split valence band at L and the lower conduction band. The strong electron-hole interaction modifies the expected line shape and a hyperbolic exciton, associated with the transitions at L, may exist as an antiresonance in the continuum. A strong feature at 22.2 eV in Δε̃ is associated with excitonic transitions at X involving the second d-like conduction band. The corresponding peak at 26.4 eV in Δ[Im(−1ε̃)] overlaps the valence-band plasmon at 24.6 eV. No evidence for double excitations is found around 25 eV in either Δε̃ or Δ[Im(−1ε̃)]. The Δ[Im(−1ε̃)] spectrum shows for the first time which structures in the energy-loss function are generated by longitudinal excitons and which by plasmons