Criminal Justice Collapse: The Constitution After Hurricane Katrina

The New Orleans criminal justice system collapsed after Hurricane Katrina, resulting in a constitutional crisis. Eight thousand people, mostly indigent and charged with misdemeanors such as public drunkenness or failure to pay traffic tickets, languished indefinitely in state prisons. The court system shut its doors, the police department fell into disarray, few prosecutors remained, and a handful of public defenders could not meet with, much less represent, the thousands detained. This dire situation persisted for many months, long after the system should have been able to recover. We present a narrative of the collapse of the New Orleans area criminal system after Hurricane Katrina. Not only did this perfect storm illuminate how unprepared our local criminal systems may remain for a severe natural disaster or terrorist attack, but it raised unique and underexplored constitutional questions. We argue that constitutional criminal procedure failed to serve its protective role during this emergency, while deferential rules rooted in federalism had the unanticipated effect of hindering provision of critical federal emergency assistance, and perhaps most important, longstanding local neglect rendered the system vulnerable to collapse. We conclude by imagining systems designed to safeguard the provision of criminal justice during emergencies

Criminal Justice Collapse: The Constitution After Hurricane Katrina

The New Orleans criminal justice system collapsed after Hurricane Katrina, resulting in a constitutional crisis. Eight thousand people, mostly indigent and charged with misdemeanors such as public drunkenness or failure to pay traffic tickets, languished indefinitely in state prisons. The court system shut its doors, the police department fell into disarray, few prosecutors remained, and a handful of public defenders could not meet with, much less represent, the thousands detained. This dire situation persisted for many months, long after the system should have been able to recover. We present a narrative of the collapse of the New Orleans area criminal system after Hurricane Katrina. Not only did this perfect storm illuminate how unprepared our local criminal systems may remain for a severe natural disaster or terrorist attack, but it raised unique and underexplored constitutional questions. We argue that constitutional criminal procedure failed to serve its protective role during this emergency, while deferential rules rooted in federalism had the unanticipated effect of hindering provision of critical federal emergency assistance, and perhaps most important, longstanding local neglect rendered the system vulnerable to collapse. We conclude by imagining systems designed to safeguard the provision of criminal justice during emergencies

Probabilistic analysis of the response of plates subjected to near-field blast loading

Accurate prediction of the response of structures subjected to close proximity blast loads is a pressing engineering concern; the landscape of global terror has shifted away from large and indiscriminate bombings towards much smaller and more targeted attacks (e.g. against critical infrastructure and/or transport). In such close-proximity blast events (in the so-called ‘nearfield’), interaction between the expanding detonation products and air shock gives rise to complex hydrodynamic features which introduce localised variations in the pressure field. The resultant loading (typically defined in terms of specific impulse since loading durations act on timescales considerably shorter than structural response) is therefore highly uncertain, and even nominally identical experiments produce loading distributions with a high degree of local variability. Current predictive approaches either grossly simplify or neglect entirely the inherent ‘fuzziness’ of nearfield blast loading, to the extent where it is currently unknown what effect this has on structural response, how sensitive plate structures are to uncertainties in loading distribution, and how this varies with plate properties and loading condition (e.g. charge mass and stand-off distance). This paper presents a numerical study aimed at answering these questions, where specific impulse distributions are probabilistically simulated with varying degrees of localised variations and mapped onto a range of different plates. This work aims to shed light on the fundamentally stochastic nature of close-proximity blast, with a view to implementing the findings in fast running engineering models for prediction of plate response under near-field blast loading

Newborn Screening for Primary Congenital Hypothyroidism: Estimating Test Performance at Different TSH Thresholds

CONTEXT: Active surveillance of primary congenital hypothyroidism (CH) in a multi-ethnic population with established newborn bloodspot screening. OBJECTIVE: To estimate performance of newborn screening for CH at different test thresholds; to calculate incidence of primary CH. DESIGN: Prospective surveillance undertaken from June 2011 to June 2012 with three-year follow-up of outcomes. Relative likelihood ratios (rLRs) estimated to compare bloodspot thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) test thresholds of 6mU/L and 8mU/L, with the nationally recommended standard of 10mU/L for a presumptive positive result. SETTING: UK National Health Service. PATIENTS: Clinician notification of children aged under five years investigated following clinical presentation or presumptive positive screening result. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Permanent primary CH status determined by clinician report of continuing thyroxine requirement at three-year follow-up. RESULTS: 629 newborns (58.3% girls; 58.7% white ethnicity) were investigated following presumptive positive screening result and 21 children (52.4% girls; 52.4% white) after clinical presentation; 432 remained on treatment at three-year follow-up. Permanent CH incidence was 5.3 (95%CI 4.8, 5.8) per 10,000 infants. Using locally-applied thresholds, sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value were 96.76%, 99.97% and 66.88% respectively. Compared with TSH threshold of 10mU/L, positive rLRs for 8mU/L and 6mU/L were 1.20 (95%CI 0.82, 1.75) and 0.52 (95%CI 0.38, 0.72), and negative rLRs 0.11 (95%CI 0.03, 0.36) and 0.11 (95%CI 0.06, 0.20) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Screening programme performance is good, however a TSH threshold of 8mU/L appears superior to the current national standard (10mU/L) and requires further evaluation. Further research should explore the implications of transient CH for screening policy

Growth of epitaxial graphene: Theory and experiment

A detailed review of the literature for the last 5-10 years on epitaxial growth of graphene is presented. Both experimental and theoretical aspects related to growth on transition metals and on silicon carbide are thoroughly reviewed. Thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of growth on all these materials, where possible, are discussed. To make this text useful for a wider audience, a range of important experimental techniques that have been used over the last decade to grow (e.g. CVD, TPG and segregation) and characterize (STM, LEEM, etc.) graphene are reviewed, and a critical survey of most important theoretical techniques is given. Finally, we critically discuss various unsolved problems related to growth and its mechanism which we believe require proper attention in future research

Users’ experiences of lighting controls: a case-study

The aim of this paper is to elucidate how occupants perceive their lit environments in a university setting and how they interact with lighting controls using qualitative methods. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with academic teaching and research staff. Thematic analysis identified four main themes: control and choice, connection with the outdoors, concentration, and comfort. Participants were largely able to control and adapt their lighting using small power lighting in office spaces and they perceived this as beneficial to comfort and concentration. Participants expressed frustration with the light switches in classrooms, a lack of consistency in lighting controls across the university buildings was particularly notable. Installers should consider how piecemeal upgrades on large estates affect the perception of buildings where occupiers face multiple control systems. The management of the lighting in classroom spaces including the type and location of blinds, lack of regular window cleaning in some buildings and difficulty in minimising light on projection screens in upgraded classrooms were cited as areas for improvement. Wider implications for lighting control and management highlighted by this study include most notably that a lack of end users consultation has serious consequences on their perception of lighting upgrades and their willingness to employ “workarounds”

Recent development and research at the University of Sheffield blast lab in Buxton, UK

The Blast and Impact Dynamics Lab in Buxton, UK has recently undergone a significant refurbishment due to investment by the University of Sheffield and funding from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through a Strategic Equipment Grant. This has complimented development in measurement techniques funded through standard EPSRC grants and commercial blast testing undertaken by Blastech Ltd. a spin out company of the University of Sheffield

Newborn screening for primary congenital hypothyroidism: estimating test performance at different TSH thresholds

Public Health Englan

The barley amo1 locus is tightly linked to the starch synthase IIIa gene and negatively regulates expression of granule-bound starch synthetic genes

In this study of barley starch synthesis, the interaction between mutations at the sex6 locus and the amo1 locus has been characterized. Four barley genotypes, the wild type, sex6, amo1, and the amo1sex6 double mutant, were generated by backcrossing the sex6 mutation present in Himalaya292 into the amo1 ‘high amylose Glacier’. The wild type, amo1, and sex6 genotypes gave starch phenotypes consistent with previous studies. However, the amo1sex6 double mutant yielded an unexpected phenotype, a significant increase in starch content relative to the sex6 phenotype. Amylose content (as a percentage of starch) was not increased above the level observed for the sex6 mutation alone; however, on a per seed basis, grain from lines containing the amo1 mutation (amo1 mutants and amo1sex6 double mutants) synthesize significantly more amylose than the wild-type lines and sex6 mutants. The level of granule-bound starch synthase I (GBSSI) protein in starch granules is increased in lines containing the amo1 mutation (amo1 and amo1sex6). In the amo1 genotype, starch synthase I (SSI), SSIIa, starch branching enzyme IIa (SBEIIa), and SBEIIb also markedly increased in the starch granules. Genetic mapping studies indicate that the ssIIIa gene is tightly linked to the amo1 locus, and the SSIIIa protein from the amo1 mutant has a leucine to arginine residue substitution in a conserved domain. Zymogram analysis indicates that the amo1 phenotype is not a consequence of total loss of enzymatic activity although it remains possible that the amo1 phenotype is underpinned by a more subtle change. It is therefore proposed that amo1 may be a negative regulator of other genes of starch synthesis