Administrative Delay and Judicial Relief

The problem of judicial relief from protracted agency delay has been virtually undiscussed in the existing literature. The few courts that have dealt with the delay question have acted instinctively, without providing any rational framework and without articulating either relevant concerns or appropriate standards. This Article will explore the range of issues raised when courts are called upon to grant relief from excessive administrative delay

Revocation of Police Officer Certification: A Viable Remedy for Police Misconduct?

We take it as a given that any profession or occupation, which involves interaction with the public, will be regulated by a state agency. Accountants, architects, attorneys, barbers, cosmeticians, dentists, etc. are all required to undergo training, meet selection standards and, if they seriously misbehave, they will have their licenses or certificates revoked by the board or commission which regulates that profession. Until fairly recently, there was no license or professional certificate issued by a state agency for law enforcement officers. That meant that an officer, who had successfully completed his police academy training and received a diploma, could be terminated by one department for cause and be hired by any other department in the state willing to hire him. This article describes the statutes and regulations now in existence in the 44 states that do license and revoke licenses of law enforcement officers for misconduct. There is great variation among the states on what conduct can lead to revocation, e.g., some states require conviction of a crime whereas others permit revocation administratively, after a hearing before an ALJ. There are also differences on what types of officers are subject to having their licenses removed, e.g., in some states, only peace officers, in others, correctional officers are also covered. With the fate of the exclusionary rule uncertain given recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, strengthening license revocation to ensure that citizens are not subject to continuing abuse by law enforcement officers is more important than ever before

Accuracy of multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging to detect significant prostate cancer and index lesion location

Background: Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) of the prostate appears to improve prostate cancer detection, but studies comparing mpMRI to histopathology at the time of radical prostatectomy (RP) are lacking. This retrospective study determined the accuracy of mpMRI predicting Gleason score and index lesion location at the time of RP, the current gold standard for diagnosis. Methods: Between April 2013 and April 2016, a database of all men aged more than 40 years who underwent RP after positive transrectal ultrasound biopsy by an experienced urological surgeon was collated at a single regional centre. This was cross‐referenced with a database of all men who had mpMRIs performed at a single centre and reported according to Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI‐RADS version 1) during this period to generate a sample size of 64 men. A Spearman\u27s rho test was utilized to calculate correlation. Results: Median age of patients was 64 years, the median prostate‐specific antigen at RP was 6.22 ng/mL. mpMRI was positive (≥PI‐RADS 3) in 85.9% of patients who underwent RP. More than 92% of participants had Gleason ≥7 disease. A positive relationship between mpMRI prostate PI‐RADS score and RP cancer volume was demonstrated. An anatomical location correlation calculated in octants was found to be 89.1% accurate. Conclusion: mpMRI accurately detects prostate cancer location and severity when compared with gold standard histopathology at the time of RP. It thus has an important role in planning for future prostate biopsy and cancer treatment

Crystal-Field and Mössbauer Applications to the Study of Site Distribution and Electronic Properties of Ferrous Iron in Minerals with Emphasis on Calcic Amphiboles, Orthopyoxene and Cordierite

The electronic absorption spectroscopy of ferrous iron is sensitive to the geometry of the coordination site in which it resides. This sensitivity enables ferrous iron in multiple sites in a mineral to be distinguished. The spectra of ferrous iron in the M(2) site in orthopyroxene, (Mg,Fe)SiO₃, are used as a model for the spectroscopic properties of iron in a distorted site. The splitting of the ⁵T_(2G) ground state is observed to be 2350 cm⁻¹ enabling a theoretical point-charge model to be developed using C_(2V) symmetry. The intensity of the near infrared bands due to the splitting of the ⁵E_G state are found to linearly correlate with the concentration of ferrous iron in the M(2) site. From this correlation, calibrations are established for the intensities of the near infrared bands so that quantitative site distributions can be determined for single orthopyroxene crystals from optical spectra. Thermally induced cation disorder allows assignments to be made for spin-allowed and spin-forbidden ferrous iron bands originating from both the M(1) and M(2) sites. The electronic absorption and Mössbauer spectra of calcic amphiboles, Ca₂(Mg,Fe)₅Si₈O₂₂(OH)₂, are reinterpreted to include previously neglected contributions from ferrous iron in the calcium-rich M(4) site. Bands due to ferrous iron in M(l), M(2) and M(3) sites are examined in the electronic spectra and the intensity of the Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ intervalence charge-transfer band is found to linearly correlate with the ferric iron content. Next­ nearest neighbor variations of ferric iron and aluminum are found to affect the ferrous iron peak parameters in the Mössbauer spectra of calcic amphiboles which impairs the capability of determining accurate site distributions. Ferrous iron is found to be present in the channel cavities and the octahedral site in cordierite, (Mg,Fe)₂Al₄Si₅O₁₈, osumilite, K(Mg,Fe)₂Al₃(Si₁₀Al₂)O₃₀, and beryl, Be₃Al₂Si₆O₁₈. In cordierite, two types of water are suggested to be present in the channel cavities that differ in crystallographic orientation and relationship to other channel constituents, whereas osumilite is found to be virtually anhydrous. In cordierite, cation migration within the channels is suggested to occur after dehydration which could explain the observed change in the lattice geometry. The blue color in these minerals is suggested to be due to intervalence charge transfer between ferrous iron and channel ferric iron. Electronic spectra suggest that structural state variations occur in osumilite, whereas significant variations in cordierite are not apparent. Ferric iron in tetrahedral coordination in osumilite is indicated from Mössbauer spectra. The effect of site size and distortion on the spectroscopic properties of ferrous iron in terms of band position, intensity and polarization anisotropy is examined. As a non-centrosymmetric site becomes larger, absorption bands migrate to longer wavelengths (lower energy), become more intense, and exhibit greater polarization anisotropy among each other. For these sites, intensification is correlated with a decrease in the quadrupole splitting determined from Mössbauer spectra. The spectroscopy of ferrous iron in large sites is distinctly different from that observed from ferrous iron in smaller sites.</p

Symmetry breaking from confined water wave fields propels an oscillating robot

We discover a new phenomenon in which a symmetrically oscillating, free-floating robot can be attracted to or repelled from a horizontal boundary. The device generates radially expanding gravity-capillary (GC) waves at the fluid surface. Visualization of the wave field dynamics reveals that when near a boundary, the complex interference of generated and reflected waves induces a wave amplitude asymmetry that generates a net radiation force that drives robot motion. Direct force measurements reveal that attraction increases as wave frequency increases or robot-boundary separation decreases. Theory on confined GC wave radiation dynamics developed by Hocking in the 1980s captures the observed parameter dependence due to these ``Hocking fields".Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 8 supplementary figure