Caolas

In 2013, we were on the beach at Caolas, at the north end of Tiree, looking over the sound (caol) towards the island of Coll. From Caolas, Robert's house is just hidden by the headland, but the colours of the sea, sky, sands and landscape that day were like some fantastic invention by a Scottish Colourist - more shades of blues, greens, whites and vivid rock-grays than could ever be counted

Absence, for Wind, Percussion and Strings

Commissioned by SoundFestival, aberdeen and Musique Demesurees, Clermont-Ferrand

Eòlas nan Ribheid

The title, "Eòlas nan Ribheid" could be translated as "The Wisdom of the Reeds", and might be thought of as a dream in which one of the great piobaireachd players meets Johnny Hodges in some ante-room of the after-life and they trade phrases interwoven with their memories; but the dreamer has also supplied items from his own back-catalogue of phrases from Weber, Brahms and from his own imagination

Caolas

In 2013, we were on the beach at Caolas, at the north end of Tiree, looking over the sound (caol) towards the island of Coll. From Caolas, Robert's house is just hidden by the headland, but the colours of the sea, sky, sands and landscape that day were like some fantastic invention by a Scottish Colourist - more shades of blues, greens, whites and vivid rock-grays than could ever be counted

An integrated plasma spectroscopic and capacitive sensing platform for water quality diagnostics

Even in modern times, the consumption of polluted water continues to inflict tremendous suffering on millions of people worldwide that is largely preventable with adequate sanitation practices, routine water quality diagnostics, and treatment. However, conventional water quality monitoring practices remain a time consuming endeavor, where water samples collected on-site are transported to off-site laboratories for evaluation with laboratory-scale chemical analysis devices. While considerable efforts have been made to miniaturize these devices for in-field use, many of the devices reported in the literature provide an incomplete assessment of a water contaminant\u27s environmental impact by focusing on identifying its chemical composition and providing limited or no data regarding the contaminant\u27s concentration. A water contaminant\u27s chemical composition and concentration must be known to adequately assess its human health and environmental impact, as well as coordinating effective restoration and maintenance efforts. The field portable water diagnostic system reported here addresses this need with dual miniaturized plasma spectroscopic and capacitive sensing elements. Both sensing platforms capitalize on a water sample preconcentration stage that isolates contaminant particles from the liquid water solution as a porous thin film. This arrangement yields a more robust spectral emission signature from which the contaminant can be spectroscopically identified and allows the contaminant\u27s concentration to be estimated as a function of the film\u27s capacitance. A numerical contaminant concentration-to-capacitance model was developed for water samples containing single and multiple contaminant species to interpret the capacitive sensor\u27s output, incorporating the physical parameters of the contaminant material and the device\u27s capacitive analysis chamber which houses the porous contaminant film. Prototypes of each sensing platform were developed separately to investigate first generation design flaws and optimize the spectroscopic and capacitive analysis procedures. Design modifications for each platform a were then incorporated into an integrated diagnostic system, combining both sensing platforms, to perform a complete water quality analysis of a pollutant\u27s chemical composition and concentration. Performance testing of the integrated diagnostic system focused on analyzing representatives of suspended and dissolved water contaminants that promote the incubation and spread of waterborne pathogens at concentration ranges comparable to regulations set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency

Evidence-Based Sentencing as Applied in a Circuit Court Using Missouri Sentencing Advisory Commission Recommendations

The last fifty years have been ones of great turmoil in the field of criminal justice. The focus of much attention has been the sentencing process in serious cases, and many legislative initiatives enacted harsher sentencing policies, which resulted in a sizable increase in the number of persons incarcerated in the U.S. The changes had a disproportionate effect on African-Americans, which magnified the public sentiment that the criminal justice system was broken. During the same period, the concept of evidence-based sentencing was being developed. Some form of it was adopted in federal courts and almost half the states, including Missouri. However, evidence-based sentencing had a sizable number of critics, many of whom contended the practice works to exacerbate the phenomena of mass incarceration and injustice towards African-Americans. Here in the City of Saint Louis, the seat of the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit of Missouri, that public sentiment has been even more pronounced. In the last ten years, there has been a startling increase in the number of homicides. The reasons for that trend have been difficult to understand; homicides had been steadily declining since a peak in the early 1990’s through 2010, only to then see a reversal of the trend with the number of homicides per capita in the City reaching a record number in 2020. Almost all of those homicides were perpetrated with a handgun. This study does two things: first, it looks at the evolution and criticisms of evidence-based sentencing, especially as developed and used in Missouri. In 1990, the Missouri Legislature established a Sentencing Commission to study sentencing practices in the state, and in 1994 expanded the Commission’s role to include developing a system of recommended sentences. The body, renamed the Sentencing Advisory Commission, published its first set of sentencing guidelines in 1997. In subsequent years, the Commission refined its sentencing recommendations and included in its user guides a considerable amount of information about dispositions of felony cases statewide for use by judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, probation and parole officers, corrections officials and others involved in the implementation of sentences. However, there was resistance to the use of the sentencing recommendations, which in 2012 led the Legislature to eliminate the Commission’s authority to publish sentencing recommendations. By 2017, the Commission became dormant, although remaining an authorized agency in the statutes. In 2020, an effort to revitalize the Commission began, and continues today. The second part of this study examines felony cases in which one of the charges involved a gun – “gun cases” – that were disposed of in one division of the Circuit Court of the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit of Missouri. The study examined how the sentencing recommendations and other information provided by the Commission related to the sentences defendants received in those cases. With regard to those defendants who were granted probation, the study examined their performance on probation and whether probation was completed successfully or revoked. The study demonstrated that the Commission’s sentence recommendations gave the Court useful tools that helped in arriving at the sentencing decision in any case, as did the data provided about the length of sentences in similar cases statewide, and the data the Commission provided from the Department of Corrections about the length of time offenders were required to serve before eligibility for parole and the length of time that was actually served before release on parole. It is hoped that the study may be useful in the ongoing effort to revitalize the Sentencing Advisory Commission

Personal Selling: A Humanist Perspective

Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2014

Environmental monitoring of Mycobacterium bovis in badger feces and badger sett soil by real-time PCR, as confirmed by immunofluorescence, immunocapture, and cultivation

Real-time PCR was used to detect and quantify Mycobacterium bovis cells in naturally infected soil and badger faeces. Immunomagnetic capture, immunofluorescence and selective culture confirmed species identification and cell viability. These techniques will prove useful for monitoring M. bovis in the environment and for elucidating transmission routes between wildlife and cattle