Children Behind Bars: A Path to Reducing Pre-Adjudicative Detention in the Juvenile Justice System

(Excerpt) In 2019, nearly 16,000 young people referred to the juvenile justice system were detained in juvenile facilities. Nearly 10,000 of them had not yet been found to have committed a crime. When it comes to youthful offenders, one might assume that courts would be inclined to exhibit leniency and favor pretrial release. In reality, judges detain youth pretrial in over a quarter of delinquency cases. Pretrial detention does not affect all youth at an equal rate: juvenile court judges consistently detain older youths more often than younger youths, more boys than girls, and far more children of color. In fact, “youth pretrial detention is marred by racial disparity.” For example, “less than 21% of white youth with delinquency cases are detained, compared to 32% of Hispanic youth, 30% of Black youth, 26% of American Indian youth, and 25% of Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander youth.” Like in the adult criminal justice system, pre-adjudicative detention is an inevitable reality of the juvenile system. Federal guidance provides that “the purpose of juvenile detention is to confine only those youth who are serious, violent, or chronic offenders pending legal action.” But in practice, this form of detention is decidedly not reserved for the most serious cases where, for example, a juvenile’s alleged offense is such that he poses imminent and grave danger to the community. In fact, a 2019 report found that “over 3,200 youth [were] detained [nationally] for technical violations of probation or parole, or for status offenses, which are behaviors that are not law violations for adults.” Two distinct problems are present when it comes to the pretrial detention of juveniles: detention is not limited to the most serious cases, and racial disparities abound. But while the statistics might paint a grim picture, there is hope for this vulnerable population. In the wake of robust bail reform for adults and juvenile justice reform across the country, the time is ripe for change in pre-adjudicative decision-making in the juvenile justice system. This Note will explore one specific option for such reform: integrating algorithmic risk assessment tools into judicial determinations of whether a juvenile needs to be detained before his trial. This particular reform has been successful in the adult system, and it could serve to remove racist and unjust subjectivity behind today’s preadjudicative detention of juveniles. Part I of this Note will explain the workings of the juvenile justice system and the harms that juveniles suffer when they are detained before trial. Part II will discuss the current state of reform in both the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems and will argue that the juvenile system should be further reformed by borrowing from adult system reform involving algorithmic risk assessment tools

Fine Scales, Broad Consequences: Drivers and Effects of Microclimatic Variation in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Climate is highly variable at scales that are not captured by most weather and climate models due to local effects of topography and living systems. This variation in microclimate has been noted for many decades but has been difficult to incorporate into quantitative understanding of ecological systems and processes due to the large amount of data and complex models required to adequately describe fine-scale patterns across complex landscapes. In recent years, models of thermal microclimate variation have been developed using low-cost temperature sensors, but few of these models have been used to predict the effects of microclimatic variation on ecological processes and patterns such as species distributions. In addition, no similar low-cost tools have been commercialized for soil moisture measurements, limiting the ability of microclimate models to fully describe the conditions experienced by organisms. In Chapter 1, I compare species distribution models for the plants of Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) generated using broad-scale climate drivers to those generated using an existing thermal microclimate model. While model fit was similar, microclimate projections of future suitable habitat under climate change were very different from macroclimate projections, highlighting the need to consider local buffering of climate when planning for the future. In Chapter 2, I develop, test, and deploy new low-cost soil moisture sensors across GSMNP and describe the effects of topographic, vegetation, and weather-related drivers on soil moisture. Local variation in moisture was high and was not fully explained by the gradient of precipitation or other proxies for moisture availability across the Park, indicating that better models are needed to describe the moisture available to organisms across the landscape. Together, these results demonstrate the need to consider the effects of microclimate on ecological systems and provide new tools for understanding multiple axes of microclimatic variation

Not For Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography

Including the latest research on prostitution and pornography, this essay anthology shows how the sex industries harm those within them while undermining the possibilities for gender justice, human equality, and stable sexual relationships. From sex industry survivors to social activists and theorists such as Taylor Lee, Adriene Sere, and Kristen Anderberg, this volume addresses from a feminist perspective the racism, poverty, militarism, and corporate capitalism of selling sex through strip clubs, brothels, mail-order brides, and child pornography

Lexical elaboration – A single case study of narratives produced two times in succession

Giving persons with aphasia (PWA) the opportunity to produce a narrative two times in immediate succession provides insight into their actual lexical retrieval abilities and at which level changes in performance are being made. Analyses of narratives produced by a Broca's aphasic two times in succession revealed quantitative and qualitative improvement in the major lexical categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) in the second tellings. This valuable information would not be available if the narratives were produced only once. For the complex task of producing narratives, the dynamic aspects of lexical retrieval can be well captured by using this procedure

Lexical elaboration – A single case study of narratives produced two times in succession

Giving persons with aphasia (PWA) the opportunity to produce a narrative two times in immediate succession provides insight into their actual lexical retrieval abilities and at which level changes in performance are being made. Analyses of narratives produced by a Broca's aphasic two times in succession revealed quantitative and qualitative improvement in the major lexical categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) in the second tellings. This valuable information would not be available if the narratives were produced only once. For the complex task of producing narratives, the dynamic aspects of lexical retrieval can be well captured by using this procedure

Epidemiology of gastroschisis: A population-based study in California from 1995 to 2012.

BackgroundAlthough the incidence of gastroschisis is increasing, risk factors are not clearly identified.MethodsUsing the Linked Birth Database from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development from 1995 to 2012, patients with gastroschisis were identified by ICD-9 diagnosis/procedure code or birth certificate designation. Logistic regressions examined demographics, birth factors, and maternal exposures on risk of gastroschisis.ResultsThe prevalence of gastroschisis was 2.7 cases per 10,000 live births. Patients with gastroschisis had no difference in fetal exposure to alcohol (p = 0.609), narcotics (p = 0.072), hallucinogenics (p = 0.239), or cocaine (p = 0.777), but had higher exposure to unspecified/other noxious substances (OR 3.27, p = 0.040; OR 2.02, p = 0.002). Gastroschisis was associated with low/very low birthweight (OR 5.08-16.21, p < 0.001) and preterm birth (OR 3.26-10.0, p < 0.001). Multivariable analysis showed lower risk in black (OR 0.44, p < 0.001), Asian/Pacific Islander (OR 0.76, p = 0.003), and Hispanic patients (OR 0.72, p < 0.001) compared to white patients. Risk was higher in rural areas (OR 1.24-1.76, p = 0.001). Compared to women age < 20, risk decreased with advancing maternal age (OR 0.49-OR 0.03, p < 0.001). Patients with gastroschisis had increased total charges ($336,270 vs.$9012, p < 0.001) and length of stay (38.1 vs. 2.9 days, p < 0.001). Mortality was 4.6%.ConclusionsThis is the largest population-based study summarizing current epidemiology of gastroschisis in California.Type of studyRetrospective comparative cohort study.Level of evidenceIII

Inklusion: Perspektiven für die soziale Landwirtschaft

Die Biolandwirtschaft bietet besonders gute Möglichkeiten für inklusive Angebote. Mit dem neuen Bundesteilhabegesetz eröffnen sich hier neue Chancen: Künftig können nicht nur Behindertenwerkstätten, sondern auch Bauern leichter betreute Arbeitsplätze anbieten

Cognitive impairment and conversion to dementia in Parkinson's disease: an imaging study of amyloid PET and diffusion MRI

Objective To investigate the association between amyloid deposition or white matter degeneration with cognitive impairment and conversion to dementia in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Background Cognitive decline and dementia are common in Parkinson's disease, however the pathophysiological basis of cognitive impairment in PD is unresolved. The time-course from diagnosis to development of dementia is highly variable, and imaging biomarkers are urgently needed to assist estimation of long-term cognitive outcomes, and enable targeted therapeutic interventions in early disease. Misfolded beta-amyloid protein aggregates, or amyloid plaques, are a significant pathology in Alzheimer's disease, and may play a part in future cognitive decline in PD. Measures of cerebral blood flow and white matter micro- and macro-structural degeneration may correlate more directly with current cognitive impairment, and may interact with amyloid to affect cognitive decline in PD. This thesis comprehensively investigates these measures in PD and aims to differentiate pathology and age-related effects, using both cross-sectional and longitudinal (three-year) study designs. Methods We acquired [18F]-Florbetaben (FBB) amyloid PET, arterial spin labelling perfusion MRI, and structural MRI in 115 patients with Parkinson’s disease, recruited from the Movement Disorders clinic at the New Zealand Brain Research Institute. Movement Disorders Society level II criteria were used to classify PD patients as having normal cognition (PDN, n=23), mild-cognitive impairment (PD-MCI, n=76), or dementia (PDD, n=16), at study baseline and over the course of three-year neuropsychological follow-up. The relationship between amyloid deposition and cognitive classification, global cognitive ability, cerebral blood flow, and conversion to dementia during the three-year follow-up was assessed using both Bayesian regression and whole-brain voxel-wise analysis. High angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) MRI was acquired in a wider cohort of 123 PD participants and 37 controls, for the investigation of white matter integrity in PD across the cognitive spectrum (PDN, n=46; PD-MCI, n=66; PDD, n=11). Cross-sectional fixel-based analysis investigated measures of fibre density, fibre cross-section, and combined fibre-density-cross-section across PD, controls, and PD cognitive subgroups. Clinical measures of global cognitive ability and motor impairment were also assessed for association with these fixel-based metrics. Results We observed significantly higher cortical amyloid accumulation in our PDD group relative to other cognitive subgroups, but model comparison indicated this was due to an effect of age. Cortical amyloid was seen to be present in PD at levels comparable to healthy ageing. Longitudinal assessment identified that, while increased cortical and subcortical amyloid was associated with conversion to dementia within three years, this did not represent a clinically relevant effect. There was no evidence of an interactive effect of amyloid with cerebral blood flow to affect cognition. Reduced fibre density in the substantia nigra correlated with disease, however age exhibited the most widespread association with white matter metrics in this cohort. Conclusions This thesis investigated the effect of amyloid on cognitive impairment within a large, well-characterised, longitudinal PD cohort, and subsequently challenged existing characterisations of regional amyloid deposition relating to cognitive decline. This work also represents the largest application to-date of fixel-based analysis for the investigation of white matter degeneration across the cognitive spectrum in PD

Using Augmented Reality in Software Engineering Education? First insights to a comparative study of 2D and AR UML modeling

Although there has been much speculation about the potential of Augmented Reality (AR) in teaching for learning material, there is a significant lack of empirical proof about its effectiveness and implementation in higher education. We describe a software to integrate AR using the Microsoft Hololens into UML (Unified Modeling Language) teaching. Its user interface is laid out to overcome problems of existing software. We discuss the design of the tool and report a first evaluation study. The study is based upon effectiveness as a metric for students performance and components of motivation. The study was designed as control group experiment with two groups. The experimental group had to solve tasks with the help of the AR modeling tool and the control group used a classic PC software. We identified tendencies that participants of the experimental group showed more motivation than the control group. Both groups performed equally well