Standardization and the production of justice in summary criminal courts: a post human analysis

Since the 1980s, successive governments have become increasingly distrustful of professional judgment in those services which remain funded by the state, including the criminal justice system. Against this background, governments sought to increase efficiency in summary criminal courts. One way that this seems to have occurred is via the use of standardized forms in case progression. During 2013, Welsh conducted empirical research in which the reliance placed on standardized case management forms became apparent. We argue, drawing on post-humanist vocabularies to inform our analytic framework, that such documents may have shifted the temporality of summary criminal justice, which has the (perhaps unintended) consequence of (further) marginalizing defendant participation and limiting the types of legal issue that are litigated. These documents and processes, therefore, participate in the development of a particularized, and temporally situated, form of ‘justice’

Solar Farms in Georgia: Why We Need To Start Thinking About the End

Despite the lack of a renewable energy mandate or a statewide carbon-cutting goal, Georgia’s renewable energy development, particularly utility-scale solar installations, is expected to increase exponentially. In the rush to join this renewable energy development surge, utilities, solar developers, and local governments must prudently consider how to manage this growth wisely and prevent avoidable costs in preparing for the inevitable decommissioning of these solar installations. Although Georgia is one of the nation’s leading states for solar power with its abundant land and sunshine, it lacks statewide policies addressing decommissioning concerns. A statewide decommissioning policy that requires some form of decommissioning plan and financial assurance can protect developers from unanticipated litigation that could detrimentally affect solar development. This Note examines the potential challenges utilities, developers, and local governments may face at the decommissioning stage and proposes a statewide decommissioning policy that would protect Georgia’s economy and communities with a predictable regulatory environment

Does Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation as an Adjunct to Traditional Physical Therapy Improve Post-Operative Mobility After Total Knee Arthroplasty in Comparison to Traditional PT Alone in Patients 50-85 Years Old?

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this selective Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) review is to determine whether or not neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) as an adjunct to traditional physical therapy (PT) improves post-operative mobility including walking and stairclimbing ability following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in comparison to traditional PT alone in patients 50-85 years old. STUDY DESIGN: Review of three English language primary studies published after 1999. DATA SOURCES: Three randomized controlled trials comparing traditional PT with PT and adjuvant NMES following TKA in patients 50-85 years old found using PubMed and EBSCOhost Web. OUTCOMES MEASURED: Clinical outcome was measured in each of the three studies through various assessments of post-operative mobility including a six-minute walk test (6MWT), stair-climbing test (SCT), tug up-and-go test (TUG), and walking distance. Each study assessed post-operative improvement from baseline after the respective intervention was introduced. RESULTS: The study by Petterson et al. revealed no statistically significant difference between interventional and control groups of the RCT cohort, but significant improvements were noted between the RCT and standard of care cohorts. Both RCTs completed by Avramidis et al. and Stevens-Lapsley demonstrated that adjunctive NMES was an effective means to minimize deficits in quadriceps muscle strength and muscle atrophy thereby increasing functional recovery following TKA surgery. CONCLUSION: The results of the RCTs reviewed suggest NMES is an effective adjunct to traditional PT regimens and permits greater gains in muscle strength and attenuates quadriceps muscle atrophy which allows for more significant functional gains in walking and stair-climbing ability following TKA. Further research needs to be completed to assess appropriate duration and intensity of NMES as well as the potential benefit of pre-operative use ofs NMES

High ions towards white dwarfs: circumstellar line shifts and stellar temperature

Based on a compilation of OVI, CIV, SiIV and NV data from IUE, FUSE, GHRS, STIS, and COS, we derive an anti- correlation between the stellar temperature and the high ion velocity shift w.r.t. to the photosphere, with positive (resp. negative) velocity shifts for the cooler (resp. hotter) white dwarfs. This trend probably reflects more than a single process, however such a dependence on the WD's temperature again favors a CS origin for a very large fraction of those ion absorptions, previously observed with IUE, HST-STIS, HST-GHRS, FUSE, and now COS, selecting objects for which absorption line radial velocities, stellar effective temperature and photospheric velocity can be found in the literature. Interestingly, and gas in near-equilibrium in the star vicinity. It is also probably significant that the temperature that corresponds to a null radial velocity, i.e. \simeq 50,000K, also corresponds to the threshold below which there is a dichotomy between pure or heavy elements atmospheres as well as some temperature estimates for and a form of balance between radiation pressure and gravitation. This is consistent with ubiquitous evaporation of orbiting dusty material. Together with the fact that the fraction of stars with (red-or blue-) shifted lines and the fraction of stars known to possess heavy species in their atmosphere are of the same order, such a velocity-temperature relationship is consistent with quasi-continuous evaporation of orbiting CS dusty material, followed by accretion and settling down in the photosphere. In view of these results, ion measurements close to the photospheric or the IS velocity should be interpreted with caution, especially for stars at intermediate temperatures. While tracing CS gas, they may be erroneously attributed to photospheric material or to the ISM, explaining the difficulty of finding a coherent pattern of the high ions in the local IS 3D distribution.Comment: Accepted by A&A. Body of paper identical to v1. This submission has a more appropriate truncation of the original abstrac

Body composition, IGF1 status, and physical functionality in nonagenarians: implications for osteosarcopenia

OBJECTIVES: Body composition alterations occur during aging. The purpose of the present analysis was to explore the functional consequences of the overlap of sarcopenia and osteoporosis, and the potential role of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) in their development in the oldest old. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Eighty-seven nonagenarians from the Louisiana Healthy Aging Study were included. MEASURES: The definition of sarcopenia was based on appendicular lean mass (ALM). Osteoporosis was diagnosed based on bone mineral density (BMD) T score. Four phenotypes were compared: (1) healthy body composition, that is, nonosteoporotic nonsarcopenic (CO, control group), (2) osteoporotic (O, low BMD T score), (3) sarcopenic (S, low ALM), and (4) osteosarcopenic (OS, low BMD T score and low ALM). Sex- and age-specific IGF1-Standard Deviation Scores (SDS) were calculated. The Continuous Scale-Physical Functional Performance (CS-PFP) test was performed. RESULTS: In OS men, IGF1-SDS values (-0.61 ±0.37 vs -0.04 ± 0.52, P = .02) were lower than those in CO males (control group), whereas IGF1-SDS were similar in the 4 body composition phenotypes in women. In men only, ALM was positively associated with IGF1-SDS values (P = .01) independent of age and C-reactive protein concentration. Regarding bone health, we found no association between IGF1-SDS values and BMD. IGF1-SDS was not associated with functional performance (CS-PFP) in men and women. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS: IGF1 sensitivity in skeletal muscle and bone may differ by sex in the oldest old. IGF1 status did not appear to affect physical functionality. Determinants and clinical and functional characteristics of osteosarcopenia need to be further investigated in order to define conclusive diagnostic criteria