Collateral Damage: Drug Enforcement & Its Impact on the Deportation of Legal Permanent Residents

The United States’ legislation and jurisprudence regulating the deportation of legal permanent residents is harsh by many standards. The harshness of the legal regime is particularly acute as it relates to minor drug crimes. Under current U.S. law, possession of a single pill of Xanax leads to mandatory detention and can even lead to deportation. This Note explores the impact that the United States’ drug policy has had on deportation law, the current legislative regime surrounding drug-based deportations, the changing landscape of drug enforcement, and the lack of meaningful protection that current legislation and jurisprudence affords permanent residents facing deportation due to minor drug crimes. Finally, this Note argues that the harshest aspects of the United States’ drug-based deportation laws can be mitigated, either via the legislature or the judiciary, so that only truly dangerous criminal non-citizens face the prospect of mandatory detention and deportation

The Marvels of Modern Technology : Constitutional Rights, Technology, and Statutory Interpretation Collide in \u3cem\u3eUnited States v. Chiaradio\u3c/em\u3e

On July 11, 2012, in United States v. Chiaradio, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that a defendant possessing child pornography on two networked computers had committed two separate crimes of possession and distribution of child pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B). The court, however, should have shown restraint in its analysis to avoid creating dangerous precedent. In her concurring opinion, Chief Judge Lynch argued for a narrow holding, emphasizing the statute’s ambiguity as applied to more complex, modern scenarios. The First Circuit’s decision highlights how courts struggle to apply older statutes to rapidly evolving technology. The legislature is in the best position to strike the ideal balance between the constitutional rights of the accused and protecting the public. A deferential judicial opinion by the First Circuit in Chiaradio would have been a powerful message to Congress of the ambiguity of section 2552(a)(4)(B)

Oral History Interview: Wilber A. Henson

This interview is one of a series conducted concerning West Virginia coal mining. Born in Amhurst County, Virginia, Mr. Henson worked as a coal miner in the Beckley, West Virginia area since 1941. In 1975, he was residing in Beckley, West Virginia. This interview deals exclusively with Mr. Henson\u27s recollections of working in the early coal mines. Subjects include: wages, equipment, safety, drilling, roofing, and ventilation.https://mds.marshall.edu/oral_history/1190/thumbnail.jp

Monodisperse self-assembly in a model with protein-like interactions

We study the self-assembly behaviour of patchy particles with `protein-like' interactions that can be considered as a minimal model for the assembly of viral capsids and other shell-like protein complexes. We thoroughly explore the thermodynamics and dynamics of self assembly as a function of the parameters of the model and find robust assembly of all target structures considered. Optimal assembly occurs in the region of parameter space where a free energy barrier regulates the rate of nucleation, thus preventing the premature exhaustion of the supply of monomers that can lead to the formation of incomplete shells. The interactions also need to be specific enough to prevent the assembly of malformed shells, but whilst maintaining kinetic accessibility. Free-energy landscapes computed for our model have a funnel-like topography guiding the system to form the target structure, and show that the torsional component of the interparticle interactions prevents the formation of disordered aggregates that would otherwise act as kinetic traps.Comment: 11 pages; 10 figure

Reversible self-assembly of patchy particles into monodisperse icosahedral clusters

We systematically study the design of simple patchy sphere models that reversibly self-assemble into monodisperse icosahedral clusters. We find that the optimal patch width is a compromise between structural specificity (the patches must be narrow enough to energetically select the desired clusters) and kinetic accessibility (they must be sufficiently wide to avoid kinetic traps). Similarly, for good yields the temperature must be low enough for the clusters to be thermodynamically stable, but the clusters must also have enough thermal energy to allow incorrectly formed bonds to be broken. Ordered clusters can form through a number of different dynamic pathways, including direct nucleation and indirect pathways involving large disordered intermediates. The latter pathway is related to a reentrant liquid-to-gas transition that occurs for intermediate patch widths upon lowering the temperature. We also find that the assembly process is robust to inaccurate patch placement up to a certain threshold, and that it is possible to replace the five discrete patches with a single ring patch with no significant loss in yield.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure

Older Emergency Department Drivers: Patterns, Behaviors, and Willingness to Enroll in a Safe Driver Program

Objective: Our objective was to assess the reported driving patterns of older emergency department (ED) drivers and the factors that might lead them to enroll in a safe driving program.Methods: We conducted a prospective, cross-sectional survey of a convenience sample of ED patients 65-years-old and up regarding their driving patterns, behaviors and willingness to enroll in a safe driving program.Results: We surveyed 138 patients. Most (73%) reported driving within the last year, and 88% of these believe they could not manage without driving. Eleven percent of ED older drivers have been in a motor vehicle crash (MVC) in the past year (95% CI 6-20%), compared to 2.5% of all seniors. Our survey findings suggest that 88% of older ED drivers avoid at least some high-risk driving situations and 65% are unwilling to enroll in a safe driver program unless it lowers their automobile insurance rates. At the same time, most older ED drivers underestimate their risk of being involved in (75%) or dying from (74%) a MVC.Conclusion: Overall, there are a significant number of older people for whom driving remains a vital yet risky daily function. Most of these drivers have little interest in information regarding safe driving programs while in the ED. Those willing to learn about such programs would prefer to take home the information regarding the program rather than have any staff member discuss it while in the ED. [West J Emerg Med. 2011;12(1):51-55.

Molluscicidal Activity of Selected Plant Extracts against Adult and Juvenile Biomphalaria Pfeifferi

Human Schistosomiasis is a debilitating infection whose transmission depends solely on the presence of snail intermediate hosts. It is a major public health problem second only to malaria in terms of morbidity and mortality and predominant in tropical and subtropical countries. Globally, over 240 million people are infected and close to 600milion are at risk.Strategies for Control of Schistosomiasis include; Chemotherapy with praziquantel, mollusciciding with Niclosamide, health education, community participation, provision of clean water and improved sanitation. Chemotherapy and use of synthetic molluscicides faces serious drawbacks of being costly, poses negative impact on environment and development of resistant strains of intermediate host snails and parasites. Plant extracts that are effective against host snails and non-toxic to non-target organisms could provide an alternative molluscicide to the current Niclosamide.This study evaluated molluscicidal activity of aqueous and methanol extracts against juvenile and adult Biomphalaria pfeifferi in vitro.Assesment of snail susceptibility to extracts was done by immersion method in accordance to WHO protocal.10 adult and juvenile snails were exposed separately to serial dilutions of 10, 20, 50, 100 and 150ppm (mg/l) of both aqueous and methanol extracts for 48 hours. Mean mortality of snails was subjected to probit analysis to determine the lethal dose (LD50) that killed 50% of the snails. The most active extracts on both juvenile and adults were Phytolacca dodecandra (LD50 8.78 and 12.58ppm) and Solannum linaeanum (LD50 16.81 and 23.25ppm) respectively.This was followed by Solanum americanum (LD50 36.17 and 38.00ppm) and Annona squamosa (LD50 51.96 and 59.00ppm) respectively. The least active extracts were Piper nigrum (LD50 74.13 and 89.95ppm) and Rhizophora mucranata LD50 94.56 and 109.82 ppm) respectively. Average mortality of Phytolacca dodecandra and solanum linaeanum was significantly similar (p ˃ 0.05) to that of niclosamide the currently used molluscicde.Since a good molluscicide should kill snails at a concentration of 100ppm or lower, this study demonstrated potency of four plant species from Kenya with molluscicidal activity against the intermediate hosts of Schistosoma mansoni. Keywords: Schistosomiasis, Biomphalaria pfeifferi, Schistosoma mansoni, Molluscicide, Phytolacca dodecandra, Solanum linaeanum, Solanum americanum, Annona squamosa