Future

Artwor

Water Lady

Artwor

Evolving Standards of Decency: The Intersection of Death Penalty Theory and Supreme Court Jurisprudence

The American death penalty must be abolished in order to establish a more just system of punishment. This thesis examines the arguments of eight political theorists and their connections with five essential Supreme Court cases on capital punishment in order to determine the Court\u27s theoretical view of the American death penalty. This theoretical view is that justices who affirm the constitutionality of capital punishment use philosophical theories, while justices who critique capital punishment rely upon context-dependent analyses. If the Court ever rules that capital punishment is unconstitutional in all circumstances, these latter theories will be dispositive

Editors\u27 Note

For more than two decades, the Sustainable Development Law and Policy Brief (SDLP) has published works analyzing emerging legal and policy issues within the fields of environmental, energy, sustainable development, and natural resources law. SDLP has also prioritized making space for law students in the conversation. We are honored to continue this tradition in Volume XXIII

Editors\u27 Note

For more than two decades, the Sustainable Development Law and Policy Brief (“SDLP”) has published works analyzing emerging legal and policy issues within the fields of environmental, energy, sustainable development, and natural resources law. SDLP has also prioritized making space for law students in the conversation. We are honored to continue this tradition in Volume XXIII

Controlled EGFR ligand display for tunable targeted intracellular delivery of cancer suicide enzymes

Advances in molecular engineering have led to customizable proteins for a multitude of clinical applications, leading to the rapid growth of the protein pharmaceutical market. Proteins can be advantageous compared to other treatment methods because of their functional complexities and high specificity that cannot be mimicked by small molecule drugs. Although there has been great interest and investment in advanced protein therapeutics, a majority of marketed proteins continue to have extracellular targets, despite the therapeutic relevance for intracellular protein therapies. Engineering efforts to improve cytosolic protein delivery often rely on modifying proteins through direct conjugation of polymers and peptides using reactive residues on amino acids. While this method has shown some success, the inability to modify a specific site within a protein can significantly hinder pharmacological action.Additionally, such approaches do not offer control over design variables that can be important determinants of targeting efficacy, such as ligand clustering. Previous work has demonstrated the ability to site-specifically insert biorthogonal reactive residues into proteins through unnatural amino acid incorporation, enabling direct protein conjugation with simple ‘click’ chemistries. Such an approach could be applied to protein therapeutics to explore the effect arrangement of delivery molecules has on protein bioactivity and intracellular delivery capabilities. In our work, we have demonstrated application of this approach for conjugation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) targeting peptides in fluorescent proteins. By varying EGFR peptide arrangements we have demonstrated the ability to tune cellular internalization in inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) cells. Furthermore, this system has been adapted for delivery of a cancer suicide enzyme to enable IBC-targeted cell death through prodrug activation. Through this approach, we have identified the importance of ligand display for targeted protein delivery and applied these finding to enhance enzyme delivery to IBC cells. Future efforts will refine the efficacy of this method though incorporation of endosomal escaping peptides and hydrophilic polymers to address additional challenges associated with in vivo intracellular protein delivery

What makes a belief delusional?

In philosophy, psychiatry, and cognitive science, definitions of clinical delusions are not based on the mechanisms responsible for the formation of delusions. Some of the defining features of delusions are epistemic and focus on whether delusions are true, justified, or rational, as in the definition of delusions as fixed beliefs that are badly supported by evidence). Other defining features of delusions are psychological and they focus on whether delusions are harmful, as in the definition of delusions as beliefs that disrupt good functioning. Even if the epistemic features go some way towards capturing what otherwise different instances of clinical delusions have in common, they do not succeed in distinguishing delusions as a clinical phenomenon from everyday irrational beliefs. Focusing on the psychological features is a more promising way to mark the difference between clinical and non-clinical irrational beliefs, but there is wide variability in the extent to which delusions are psychologically harmful, and some everyday irrational beliefs can affect functioning in similarly negative ways. In this chapter we consider three types of belief that share similar epistemic features and exhibit variation with respect to how psychologically harmful they are: (1) delusions of thought insertion, (2) alien abduction beliefs, and (3) self-enhancing beliefs. In the light of the similarities and differences between these cases, we highlight the difficulty in providing an answer to what makes an irrational belief delusional

Supermarket shopping and excess food waste: A comparative study of supermarket vs. independent retail clientele

The aim of the study is to investigate the link between environmental attitudes and levels of food waste produced by supermarket shoppers as opposed to independent retail shoppers. The study also aims to look at the different factors that may influence shoppers' habits and how much food waste they may produce. This study is both a quantitative and qualitative comparative study using a questionnaire to compare views of food waste and a food waste diary to compare methods of how the general public are disposing of it and their reasons why. The study took place at Hawarden Estate Farm shop and Tesco, Broughton Shopping Park. Random samples of 80 women over the age of 18, English speaking and who were independently living were asked to take part in the study. 40 participants were recruited at each of the two locations of whom fully completed the questionnaires. There were 5 participants who completed and returned the food waste diaries from home. The independent variable measured by the food waste diary and questionnaire in this study is the supermarkets effect on amount of household food waste created in comparison to independent retailers. The dependent variable is the amount of household food waste created. The quantitative data was statistically analysed using SPSS software. Qualitative data was analysed by comparing the answers given and discussed. The study was unable to compare differences of food waste between supermarket and independent retail clientele due to the small number of food waste diaries completed. Date labels have been identified as a possible cause of excess food waste. When participants at both sites of the study were asked what they understood by the term 'sell-by' date 80% answered correctly. A similar result was found when participants were asked about the 'use by' date where 86% answered correctly. The most confusion was seen when asked about the 'best before' date, only 38% of participants answered correctly. There were more independent retailer shoppers who owned an outdoor composter (n=15) compared to supermarket shoppers (n=5). More participants owned an indoor food waste bin compared to having an outdoor composter with 56% of participants having one. The most common type of food waste was found to be vegetable peelings and leftovers from meals. It may be suggested that supermarkets encourage bulk buying which may increase food waste. Supermarket shoppers in this study seemed to have a less organised approach to their food shopping and bought more food on offer and in promotions that weren't intentional. This type of shopping could be influencing the amount of food waste that is being sent to landfill and adding to the greenhouse gases being produced