\u3ci\u3eBringing the Science of Policing to Liability for Third-Party Crime at Shopping Malls\u3c/i\u3e

Unlike state and municipal police forces that can generally not be sued by victims of crime on the grounds that they provided inadequate policing, shopping malls are regularly the targets by crime victims in tort actions for failing to provide adequate security. Courts have struggled with the question of how to set the standard for reasonable policing. Most courts place heavy emphasis on the foreseeability by the mall management of the likelihood of criminal activity to take place on the grounds of the mall. In doing so, they rely on the testimony of security experts who intuit as to the adequacy of the staffing. This Article challenges the case law on several grounds. First, experts fail to utilize objective data as to the workload of security officers on the mall. This Article will demonstrate that such data is available and provides an objective measure as to adequate staffing. Second, foreseeability of crime is too uncertain a measure as to the adequacy of staffing. The question of how much foreseeability is sufficient to trigger a duty of security has bedeviled the courts. Third, courts have struggled to determine whether better security would have avoided harm to a particular crime victim. Thus, even if security is found to be inadequate it is often impossible for plaintiffs to prove causation. This Article argues that once a court, based on objective data, sets the standard of reasonable care, the burden of proof that additional security would not have averted the crime to the victim should shift to the defendant management of the mall

Plasma and cavitation dynamics during pulsed laser microsurgery in vivo

We compare the plasma and cavitation dynamics underlying pulsed laser microsurgery in water and in fruit fly embryos (in vivo) - specifically for nanosecond pulses at 355 and 532 nm. We find two key differences. First, the plasma-formation thresholds are lower in vivo - especially at 355 nm - due to the presence of endogenous chromophores that serve as additional sources for plasma seed electrons. Second, the biological matrix constrains the growth of laser-induced cavitation bubbles. Both effects reduce the disrupted region in vivo when compared to extrapolations from measurements in water.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

BeppoSAX LECS background subtraction techniques

We present 3 methods for the subtraction of non-cosmic and unresolved cosmic backgrounds observed by the Low-Energy Concentrator Spectrometer (LECS) on-board BeppoSAX. Removal of these backgrounds allows a more accurate modeling of the spectral data from point and small-scale extended sources. At high (>|25| degree) galactic latitudes, subtraction using a standard background spectrum works well. At low galactic latitudes, or in complex regions of the X-ray sky, two alternative methods are presented. The first uses counts obtained from two semi-annuli near the outside of the LECS field of view to estimate the background at the source location. The second method uses ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) all-sky survey data to estimate the LECS background spectrum for a given pointing position. A comparison of the results from these methods provides an estimate of the systematic uncertainties. For high galactic latitude fields, all 3 methods give 3 sigma confidence uncertainties of <0.9 10^-3 count/s (0.1-10 keV), or <1.5 10^-3 count/s (0.1-2 keV). These correspond to 0.1-2.0 keV fluxes of 0.7-1.8 and 0.5-1.1 10^-13 erg/cm2/s for a power-law spectrum with a photon index of 2 and photoelectric absorption of 3 10^20 and 3 10^21 atom/cm2, respectively. At low galactic latitudes, or in complex regions of the X-ray sky, the uncertainties are a factor ~2.5 higher.Comment: 13 pages. Accepted for publication in A&A

Effects of Disking Versus Feed Patch Management on Northern Bobwhite Brood Habitat and Hunting Success

More than 60 years ago, Herbert Stoddard (1931:376) wrote there is little doubt that such methods [i.e., disking and harrowing] are more practical for Southeastern quail preserves than artificial plantings, which are costly on a large scale and not always effective. Incredibly, this statement, and testing it as an hypothesis, has been ignored by the bobwhite research community until the past 10 years. Therefore, we designed a pilot study to compare measures of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) brood habitat (vegetation composition and arthropod biomass) and direct measures of hunting success (covey finds per half-day hunt) to test whether feed patches were really necessary for bobwhite habitat management in southern Georgia and northern Florida. We applied experimental treatments (disk only versus feed patch planting) by using shooting courses (150-250 ha each) on 2 southeastern shooting plantations during 1994, 1995 and 1996. Overall, results were equivocal between the feed patch and disking treatments; no consistent pattern or difference in brood habitat composition or hunting success was observed. One factor responsible for this pattern may be the relatively fine-grained scale (only 1-3% of the shooting courses were planted or disked) at which treatments were applied were insufficient to significantly influence bobwhite abundance. Further research using increased amounts of ground disturbance and planting (5%, 10%, 20%, etc.) will be required before the actual need for agricultural plantings can be determined in the context of their efficacy for bobwhite management. One potential result of these findings is that significant cost savings can be realized by disking rather than planting agricultural crop plants because at least 70% of the costs of planting are a function of seed, fertilizer and cultivation, whereas only about 30% are attributed to disking

Primed for Discovery: Atomic-Resolution Cryo-EM Structure of a Reovirus Entry Intermediate

A recently solved structure of the aquareovirus virion (Zhang, X; Jin, L.; Fang, Q; Hui, W.H.; Zhou Z.H. 3.3 Å Cryo-EM Structure of a Nonenveloped Virus Reveals a Priming Mechanism for Cell Entry. Cell 2010, 141, 472-482 [1]) provides new insights into the order of entry events, as well as confirming and refining several aspects of the entry mechanism, for aquareovirus and the related orthoreovirus. In particular, the structure provides evidence of a defined order for the progressive proteolytic cleavages of myristoylated penetration protein VP5 that prime the virion for membrane penetration. These observations reinforce the concept that, much like enveloped viruses, nonenveloped virions often undergo priming events that lead to a meta-stable state, preparing the virus for membrane penetration under the appropriate circumstances. In addition, this and other recent studies highlight the increasing power of electron cryomicroscopy to analyze large, geometrically regular structures, such as icosahedral viruses, at atomic resolution

Effects of Seasonal Fire Applications on Northern Bobwhite Brood Habitat and Hunting Success

Since the early part of the 20th century, land managers have used prescribed fire during February and March to maintain and enhance habitat for northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) in southern pine forests. During the past 2 decades, some managers have started to shift their use of fire to mimic more natural lightning-season (April to August) ignitions because these fires encourage flowering of plants in intact native ground cover, and are potentially more effective at hardwood control than winter fires. Therefore, we designed a short-term pilot study to evaluate whether seasonal applications of prescribed fire had any effect on bobwhite brood habitat (as measured by vegetation composition and arthropod biomass) or bobwhite abundance (as measured by hunting success) during the subsequent fall. During the first two years of our study (1994 and 1995), results showed that arthropod biomass and bobwhite hunting success were slightly greater on the shooting course burned during lightning-season (May) than the one burned during February and March. These results indicate that applications of lightning-season fire can be used, at least on a small scale (i.e., management blocks \u3c250 ha) in southern pine forests for hardwood control, and possibly enhancement of native ground cover without short-term negative impacts on northern bobwhites

Single-Site Colectomy With Miniature \u3ci\u3eIn Vivo\u3c/i\u3e Robotic Platform

There has been a continuing push to reduce the invasiveness of surgery by accessing the abdominal cavity through a single incision, such as with laparoendoscopic single-site (LESS) surgery. Although LESS procedures offer significant benefits, added complexities still inhibit the procedures. Robotic surgery is proving to be an excellent option to overcome these limitations. This paper presents the experimental results of the single-incision in vivo surgical robot (SISR), a multifunctional, dexterous, twoarmed robot capable of performing surgical tasks while overcoming the issues associated with manual LESS operations. In vivo surgical procedures have been used to demonstrate the efficacy of using a robotic platform over traditional laparoscopic tools. The most recent experimental test resulted in the first successful in vivo robotic LESS colectomy utilizing a robot completely contained within the abdominal cavity. In this test, SISR showed significant benefits including access to all quadrants in the peritoneal cavity and improved dexterity

The Close Environment of Seyfert Galaxies and Its Implication for Unification Models

This paper presents a statistical analysis of the circumgalactic environment of nearby Seyfert galaxies based on a computer-aided search of companion galaxies on the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS). An intrinsic difference between the environment of Seyfert 1 and Seyfert 2 galaxies, suggested by previous work, is confirmed as statistically significant. For Seyfert 2 galaxies we find a significant excess of large companions (diameter of companion >= 10 Kpc) within a search radius <= 100 Kpc of projected linear distance, as well as within a search radius equal to three times the diameter \ds of each Seyfert galaxy. For Seyfert 1 galaxies there is no clear evidence of any excess of companion galaxies neither within 100 Kpc, nor within 3\ds. For all samples the number of companions suggests a markedly non-Poissonian distribution for galaxies on scales <= 100 Kpc. This difference in environment is not compatible with the simplest formulation of the Unification Model for Seyferts: both types 1 and 2 should be intrinsicaly alike, the only difference being due to orientation of an obscuring torus. We propose an alternative formulation.Comment: 1 figure, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter

Effects of Supplemental Feeding on Breeding Season Home Ranges and Resource Selection of Northern Bobwhites

Providing supplemental food resources for northern bobwhite (Colinus virginanus) has been a common management practice for decades, but its impact on bobwhite home ranges sizes and space use has been debated. Between 2001 and 2007, we established a 397 ha fed study area on Tall Timbers Research Station, which received grain sorghum biweekly along a 19.5 km feed trail. An adjacent 465 ha area was treated as a control with no supplemental food resources. Radio-tagged wild bobwhites were located 3 – 5 times each week throughout the breeding season and we used these locations to calculate home ranges during early breeding season (15 April – 30 June) and late breeding season (1 July – 1 October). We also determined second and third order selection of a 10-m buffer area surrounding the supplemental feed trail using compositional analyses. In total, 552 and 286 bobwhite home ranges were calculated for early and late breeding seasons, respectively. We observed significantly smaller early breeding season home ranges on the fed area (x̄ = 12.3 ha, 95% CL ± 0.6) relative to the control (x̄ = 17.4 ha ± 1.9). Average length of feed trail within home ranges was 583 m and 710 m for early and late breeding season home ranges, respectively. The feed trail buffer area was 3 to 5% of all home ranges. Home range placement was not random with high selection preference for the feed trail buffer area. However, there was a low selection preference for the feed trail buffer area within home ranges. Average distances to the feed trail for bobwhite locations (x̄ = 64.4 m ± 16.1) was similar to random locations (x̄ = 74.4 m ± 16.9). The effect of supplemental feeding on bobwhite home ranges size and resource use was greatest during the early breeding season when food and useable habitat were likely lower in availability. On our study area, supplemental food resources distributed along a feed trail impacted bobwhites during a critical transition period from the spring prescribed burning season to the early breeding season

Eating attitudes in a group of 11-year-old urban South African girls

No Abstract. South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol. 19(2) 2006: 80-8