The Criminalization of Vehicle Residency and the Case for Judicial Intervention via the Washington State Homestead Act

In 2014, a nationwide survey by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty found that the number of cities with ordinances that effectively criminalized vehicle habitation increased by 119% between 2011 and 2014. These ordinances take the form of metered street parking zones, permit-only parking zones, time restrictions, restrictions on vehicle operability, restrictions regarding licensing and registration, and even prohibitions directed specifically at vehicle habitation. Violations of these policies typically result in noncriminal citations imposing fees, requiring attendance at hearings, or inflicting other financial burdens, which nevertheless can have devastating impacts on someone with already limited resources. Additionally, the effects of these typically noncriminal citations can be exacerbated by the implementation of “scofflaw ordinances.” Scofflaw ordinances escalate penalties and financial burdens by allowing for the extrajudicial impoundment of the targeted vehicle for specific violations, such as accumulating a certain threshold of unpaid fines, or exceeding specified time restrictions. These restrictions are typically justified by municipalities as necessary to address public order or health and safety concerns; however, the policies are also driven by pressure from community members who fear that allowing overnight parking will invite problems stereotypically associated with vehicle residents. Two recent Ninth Circuit opinions indicate a possible shift in the bench’s general reluctance to entertain judicial interventions on behalf of homeless individuals. Because of those indications, actions seeking other such novel interventions could be filed as potential test cases. A case raising such a novel statutory claim, under Washington’s Homestead Act, was recently rejected in Seattle Municipal Court; however, that decision was subsequently overturned on appeal in King County Superior Court. That action and the specific novel claim raised will be introduced in Part II of this Note. Part III will explore two federal cases that signal a possible shift away from the bench’s general hostility toward judicial activism on issues of homelessness and homeless rights by reaching limited constitutional interventions. Part IV will present a closer examination of Washington’s Homestead Act from both a textual interpretation and historical perspective to determine how amenable it might be as a path for judicial intervention. Part V will conclude by describing why Washington State courts should heed the signals of the Ninth Circuit and apply similar interventionist reasoning as the superior court in the Seattle test case when interpreting the Homestead Act

Allometric Extension for Multivariate Regression Models

In multivariate regression, interest lies on how the response vector depends on a set of covariates. A multivariate regression model is proposed where the covariates explain variation in the response only in the direction of the first principal component axis. This model is not only parsimonious, but it provides an easy interpretation in allometric growth studies where the first principal component of the log-transformed data corresponds to constants of allometric growth. The proposed model naturally generalizes the two–group allometric extension model to the situation where groups differ according to a set of covariates. A bootstrap test for the model is proposed and a study on plant growth in the Florida Everglades is used to illustrate the model

Lipid and Protein Transfer between Nanolipoprotein Particles and Supported Lipid Bilayers.

A nanolipoprotein particle (NLP) is a lipid bilayer disc stabilized by two amphipathic "scaffold" apolipoproteins. It has been most notably utilized as a tool for solubilizing a variety of membrane proteins while preserving structural and functional properties. Transfer of functional proteins from NLPs into model membrane systems such as supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) would enable new opportunities, for example, two-dimensional protein crystallization and studies on protein-protein interactions. This work used fluorescence microscopy and atomic force microscopy to investigate the interaction between NLPs and SLBs. When incubated with SLBs, NLPs were found to spontaneously deliver lipid and protein cargo. The impact of membrane composition on lipid exchange was explored, revealing a positive correlation between the magnitude of lipid transfer and concentration of defects in the target SLB. Incorporation of lipids capable of binding specifically to polyhistidine tags encoded into the apolipoproteins also boosted transfer of NLP cargo. Optimal conditions for lipid and protein delivery from NLPs to SLBs are proposed based on interaction mechanisms

Teaching Faculty Perceptions of Academic Librarians at Memphis State University

published or submitted for publicatio

Irreversibility of World-sheet Renormalization Group Flow

We demonstrate the irreversibility of a wide class of world-sheet renormalization group (RG) flows to first order in $\alpha'$ in string theory. Our techniques draw on the mathematics of Ricci flows, adapted to asymptotically flat target manifolds. In the case of somewhere-negative scalar curvature (of the target space), we give a proof by constructing an entropy that increases monotonically along the flow, based on Perelman's Ricci flow entropy. One consequence is the absence of periodic solutions, and we are able to give a second, direct proof of this. If the scalar curvature is everywhere positive, we instead construct a regularized volume to provide an entropy for the flow. Our results are, in a sense, the analogue of Zamolodchikov's $c$-theorem for world-sheet RG flows on noncompact spacetimes (though our entropy is not the Zamolodchikov $C$-function).Comment: Minor changes, added one citation, version accepted for publicatio

The Effects of Vocational Support Programs on Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Purpose: The purpose of this review is to examine the effects of vocational support programs versus the absence of vocational support programs on employment rates, social skills, and quality of life of transition-aged youth diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders and related diagnoses. Methods: The CINAHL, Cochrane Collection Plus, Medline, PubMed, and UpToDate databases were searched for articles pertaining to our purpose statement. Four reviewers analyzed the articles for results and extracted data regarding sample characteristics, treatment characteristics, assessment tools, and outcomes. Results: Nine studies were included, all of which related to the effects of vocational support programs on individuals with ASD and related diagnoses. Conclusion: Across the board, data strongly suggested that vocational support interventions increased employment rates, improved social skills, and enhanced quality of life for individuals with ASD and related diagnoses

Optimising invasive fish management in the context of invasive species legislation in South Africa

South Africa hosts a large number of non-native freshwater fishes that were introduced for various industries. Many of these species are now listed under the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEM:BA) Alien and Invasive Species (A&IS) lists and regulations, though the practical options available to conservation agencies to effectively manage these fishes vary greatly among species and regions. Objectives & methods: We assessed the history and status of national legislation pertaining to invasive freshwater fishes, and the practical implications of the legislation for managing different species with contrasting distributions, impacts and utilisation value. Results: The smallmouth bass, despite being a potential conflict-generating species, is fairly straightforward to manage based on current legislation. Two species of trout, which remain absent from the NEM:BA A&IS lists because of ongoing consultation with stakeholders, continue to be managed in regions like the Western Cape province using existing provincial legislation. To maximise the limited capacity for management within conservation agencies, we proposed a decision-support tool that prioritises invasive fish populations that represent high environmental risk and low potential for conflict with stakeholders. Using three case studies, we demonstrated how the tool can be used to set management goals of 'eradicate', 'manage against impacts and further spread' and 'continue to monitor population' as the most pragmatic solutions given the state of an invasion, its socio-economic impact and the capacity of the responsible agency to act. Conclusion: By choosing a pragmatic management strategy, conservation agencies can maximise the effective deployment of limited resources, while minimising avoidable conflicts with stakeholders.EM201

Asian Longhorned Tick

The Asian longhorned tick (Haemophysalis longicorns Neumann; alternative names include Asian longhorned tick, Asian tick, bush tick, New Zealand cattle tick) is a species of hard tick in the family Ixodidae. It is native to eastern China, Japan, the Russian Far East and Korea. It has also established in Australia, New Zealand and several Pacific islands, where it is considered a severe exotic pest of livestock. In late 2017, the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) confirmed the presence of the Asian longhorned tick in the United States. These ticks were first identified in New Jersey, but have since been found in archival samples from West Virginia as far back as 2010. The origin of the tick in the US remains unknown. Some possible routes of entry include entering on domestic pets, horses, livestock or humans. The real impact of the introduction of this tick into the US is not clear at this time, but animal health officials are concerned about potential detrimental impacts on livestock and wildlife

Metatranscriptome of human faecal microbial communities in a cohort of adult men

The gut microbiome is intimately related to human health, but it is not yet known which functional activities are driven by specific microorganisms\u27 ecological configurations or transcription. We report a large-scale investigation of 372 human faecal metatranscriptomes and 929 metagenomes from a subset of 308 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. We identified a metatranscriptomic \u27core\u27 universally transcribed over time and across participants, often by different microorganisms. In contrast to the housekeeping functions enriched in this core, a \u27variable\u27 metatranscriptome included specialized pathways that were differentially expressed both across participants and among microorganisms. Finally, longitudinal metagenomic profiles allowed ecological interaction network reconstruction, which remained stable over the six-month timespan, as did strain tracking within and between participants. These results provide an initial characterization of human faecal microbial ecology into core, subject-specific, microorganism-specific and temporally variable transcription, and they differentiate metagenomically versus metatranscriptomically informative aspects of the human faecal microbiome