Civil Asset Forfeiture in Massachusetts: A Flawed Incentive Structure and its Impact on Indigent Property Owners

All fifty states and the federal government have civil asset forfeiture laws that enable law enforcement agencies to seize property that they suspect has been involved in the commission of a crime. Although there are many benefits to the system, there are also many flaws. The entire structure of the civil asset forfeiture system, at both the federal and state levels, creates incentives for abuse by law enforcement. This Note advocates for a series of changes to the current forfeiture law in Massachusetts, including requiring a heightened burden of proof, providing counsel to indigent property owners, and reforming the incentive structure created by the interaction with federal forfeiture law. These statutory safeguards will help reduce the disproportionate impact that Massachusetts’s forfeiture law has on lower income parties and the general population overall

Welfare Rankings From Multivariate Data, A Non-Parametric Approach

Economic and Social Welfare is inherently multidimensional. However choosing a measure which combines several indicators is difficult and may have unintended and undesireable effects on the incentives for policymakers. We develope a nonparametric empirical method for deriving welfare rankings based on data envelopment which avoids the need to specify a weighting scheme. The results are valid for all possible social welfare functions which share certain cannonical properties. We apply this method to data on human development.Welfare Rankings, Data Envelopment, Human development

Longitudinal investigation of medical student perceptions of a video-based guided study resource used to facilitate an eight week module in medicine

We use an action research approach to evaluate three successive cohorts of medical student perceptions of using a multi-faceted video-based guided study resource which provides academic (skills-based), social (motivation-based) and professional (clinical-based) interventions aimed at facilitating and enriching learning across an eight week module in the second year of the MBChB medical degree. Our findings show that whilst students value these video resources both as a revision tool and an aid to learning during the semester, they have specific critiques about several areas which would improve the project. We interpret our data to evidence a tangible beneficial argument for the use video-based learning objects to support student learning that is reliably reaffirmed by our longitudinal data

Regulation and redistribution in utilities

The consumption of utilities (for example, energy and water), along with that of other goods such as food, clothing, shelter, health and education, is often thought of as something that has particular distributional significance. This concern is reflected by the range of welfare and regulatory measures in place that are designed to guard against non-participation or under-consumption. The pricing of these goods illustrates well the conflicting arguments between economic efficiency and equity. The case for charging VAT on fuel, for example, is essentially an efficiency argument which points to the distortionary effects of a tax system that increases the prices of some goods (for example, double-glazing) and not of others (for example, domestic energy). The counter-argument is based upon notions of equity: that it is unfair to tax a necessity because the effects fall hardest on the living standards of poor households.

CATALYTIC BORYLATION OF C-H BONDS: A ROUTE TO PHOTOPHYSICALLY INTERESTING PYRENE DERIVATIVES

Pyrene derivatives have found use in a wide range of applications that make use of the unique structural, optical and charge-transfer properties of pyrene. Nearly all pyrene derivatives are substituted at the 1-, 3-, 6- and 8-positions, i.e. the sites of electrophilic aromatic substitution. In contrast, derivatives substituted at the 2- and 2,7-postions of pyrene are rare, as their syntheses involve laborious multistep processes. Such derivatives are of interest because they retain the long axis of symmetry and display unusual photophysical properties. Using the regiospecific direct C-H borylation of pyrene with an Ir-based catalyst, prepared in situ via reaction of [Ir(OMe)COD]2 with 4,4’-di-tert-butyl-2,2’-bipyridine, 2,7-bis(Bpin)pyrene 1 and 2-(Bpin)pyrene 2 (pin = OCMe2CMe2O) were synthesized. Straightforward derivatization strategies, converted 1 and 2 into nominally nucleophilic and electrophilic pyrene derivatives, which were further utilized in Suzuki-Miyaura, Sonogashira, Buchwald-Hartwig and Negishi cross-coupling reactions. Using this methodology, a library of 2- and 2,7-substituted pyrenes bearing donor and acceptor groups, including aryl, ethynyl, arylethynyl, alkyl, hydroxy, alkoxy, diarylamino, carboxylic acid and diarylboryl derivatives, was prepared. The solid-state structures of several derivatives obtained by single-crystal X-ray diffraction revealed a diverse range of structures and packing modes. The influence of the substitution position and the nature of the substituent upon pyrene was investigated in a detailed photophysical study. The existence of nodal planes passing through the 2- and 7-positions, perpendicular to the molecular plane, in both the HOMO and LUMO of pyrene accounts for the differing photophysical behaviour of derivatives substituted at 2- and 2,7-positions from those substituted at the 1-position. Finally, the applicability of iridium-catalysed C-H borylation and metal-catalyzed cross-coupling is further demonstrated on a range of interesting substrates

Paper Ballots with Digital Transparency: Kenya's Pioneering Election

In 2022, Kenyan electoral authorities took the radical decision to digitally publish handwritten result forms from over 46,000 polling stations, allowing any Kenyan with an Internet connection to tabulate results. Unlike Brazil and the United States, they avoided electronic voting machines but opted for paper ballots alongside digital transparency. This combination may have contributed to the notably peaceful election seen. Kenya is a digital leader in Africa and a pioneer of digital technology in finance. But previous elections have suffered from a lack of trust in the electoral process, leading to violent unrest and the nullification of results by the Supreme Court of Kenya. In 2022, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya (IEBC) leveraged widespread digital connectivity for voting processes, including the release of raw local tallies soon after voting closed. Access to such results led to initial confusion during tallying by media outlets but the results survived a challenge by the losing party in the Supreme Court. A consortium of civil society organisations, led by startup Ushahidi, simultaneously collected and responded to crowdsourced data and queries from partners and the public, tagging misinformation and violent threats plus escalating inflammatory material for action by authorities. There was minimal violence before and after the election. Despite post-result infighting between IEBC commissioners, the Supreme Court challenge, and the extremely expensive nature of the process, the use of digital transparency provides a viable model for other digitally connected democracies in Africa. Electoral integrity is essential for a functioning democracy. Paper voting can be combined with digital technology to facilitate voter identification, transmission of results, and real-time publication thereof. Crowdsourced on-the-ground reports can also foster accountability and combat misinformation. Such electoral technology in Africa is in its infancy and should be supported with technical skills and funding to improve its speed, security, reliability, and functionality

POPULATION ECOLOGY OF THE NORTHERN SLIMY SALAMANDER (PLETHODON GLUTINOSUS) IN EAST-CENTRAL ILLINOIS

The importance of plethodontid salamanders in forested habitats has been recognized for decades and more recently plethodontids have been touted as a model taxon for monitoring ecosystem integrity and recovery. However, basic demographic data that are crucial to conservation and management plans are currently lacking for many species and regions. The objectives of our study were to characterize the population density, biomass, and capture success of a peripheral population of Plethodon glutinosus to provide a comparison for eastern populations and set a baseline for future monitoring of Midwestern populations. We estimated the population density of P. glutinosus at our site to be 0.41 salamanders/m2, with an estimated biomass of 0.70 g/m2. We did not find any evidence for temperature or precipitation affecting capture success. Our results showed that our density estimate falls within the range of other population ecology studies of Plethodon and sets a baseline for other peripheral Midwestern populations

History, Sociology, Modernity : How Connect?

Special Issue on 'The State of Scottish History: Past, Present and Future'Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Teach phenomenology the bomb: Starship Troopers, the technologized body, and humanitarian warfare

Paul Verhoeven's SF films are often concerned with how the future body will be reshaped as a technological device. Starship Troopers strangely departs from Verhoeven's own work, other SF films, and current directions in cultural theory by seeing the future body as one that is more organic than mechanical. Drawing upon and challenging ideas developed by Paul Virilio, this article argues that Starship Troopers' departure from the notion of the 'post-human' mechanized body needs to be understood not as a nostalgic reassertion of de-technologized subjectivity. Rather, Verhoeven's film sees the idea of the pure body as a dangerous anachronism. And, this article further argues, Starship Troopers suggests that narratives of human salvation - such as those that arose during Nato's interventions in the Balkans - often conceal an appetite for territorial conquest