The Courier Conundrum: The High Costs of Prosecuting Low-Level Drug Couriers and What We Can Do About Them

Since the United States declared its “War on Drugs,” federal enforcement of drug-trafficking crimes has led to increased incarceration and longer prison sentences. Many low-level drug couriers and drug mules have suffered disproportionately from these policies; they face mandatory punishments that vastly exceed their culpability. Drug couriers often lack substantial ties to drug-trafficking organizations, which generally recruit vulnerable individuals to act as couriers and mules. By using either threats of violence or promises of relatively small sums of money, these organizations convince recruits to overlook the substantial risks that drug couriers face. The current policies of pursuing harsh punishments for low-level couriers generate significant societal costs. These costs include not only monetary costs but also collateral damage imposed on both the couriers and innocent third parties. Further, these harsh policies fail to generate appreciable benefits or satisfy the goals of either retributive or utilitarian theories of punishment. This Note proposes a legislative amendment to the current importation statute that would create a carveout under which low-level drug couriers could be charged under a separate misdemeanor statute. The proposal lays out a number of criteria that drafters could use to identify lowlevel participants and exempt them from the stiff mandatory minimum sentences and the long-term consequences that accompany a felony drug conviction

Keeping the Cost of Process Change Low through Refactoring

With the increasing adoption of process-aware information systems (PAIS) large process model repositories have emerged. Over time respective models have to be re-aligned to the real world business processes through customization or adaptation. This bears the risk that model redundancies are introduced and complexity is increased. If no continuous investment is made in keeping models simple, changes are becoming increasingly costly and error-prone. Although refactoring techniques are widely used in software engineering to address related problems, this does not yet constitute state-of-the art in business process management. Consequently, process designers either have to refactor process models by hand or can not apply respective techniques at all. In this paper we propose a set of techniques for refactoring large process repositories, which are behaviour-preserving. The proposed refactorings enable process designers to effectively deal with model complexity by making process models easier to change, less error-prone and better understandable

Mini erythema migrans - A sign of early Lyme borreliosis

Background: An erythema migrans (EM) remaining smaller than 5 cm in diameter, called mini EM by us, has not been addressed in detail. Objective: To study the significance of the mini EM as a sign of Lyme borreliosis. Methods: Patients with suspected mini EM were retrospectively selected out of 257 consecutive patients with EM. The diagnosis of mini EM rested on the cultivation of Borrelia burgdorferi. Species and subtype analysis of culture isolates was performed using outer surface protein A (OspA) polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequencing of the OspA gene. Results: There was one patient with definite (0.4%) and another patient with a questionable mini EM. Borrelia garinii OspA type 6 was identified in the patient with the definite and B. burgdorferi sensu lato in the patient with the questionable mini EM. Conclusion: The mini EM represents an important and apparently uncommon sign of early Lyme borreliosis

Seasonal Flight Patterns of Hemiptera in a North Carolina Black Walnut Plantation. 6. Tingidae and Aradidae

The seasonal flight patterns of II species of Tingidae and six species of Aradidae collected in window traps in a North Carolina black walnut plantation are described. Flying height distributions and seasonal flight activities of Corythucha ciliata (Say) and Gargaphia solani Heidemann are considered in detail

Seasonal and Vertical Distributions of Planthoppers (Homoptera: Fulgoroidea) Within a Black Walnut Plantation

Information on the seasonal and vertical distributions of 34 species (eight families) of planthoppers was obtained from window trap collections in a North Carolina black walnut plantation in 15 and 1978. The most commonly collected species were Acanalonia conica (Acanaloniidael. Liburniella ornata (Delphacidae), Oliarus ecologus (Cixiidae), and O. quinquelineatus

Seasonal Flight Patterns of Hemiptera (Excluding Miridae) in a Southern Illinois Black Walnut Plantation

The seasonal flight patterns of 99 species and subspecies of Hemiptera collected in window traps in a southern Illinois black walnut plantation are compared with similar data from a North Carolina black walnut plantation. Flying height distributions and seasonal flight activities of Corythucha juglandis, Orius insidiosus, Piesma cinerea, Acanthocephala terminalis, Alydus eurinus, Sehirus cinctus cinctus, Acrosternum hilare, Brochymena quadripustutata, Euschistus servus, and Euschistus variolarius are considered in detail

Change Support in Process-Aware Information Systems - A Pattern-Based Analysis

In today's dynamic business world the economic success of an enterprise increasingly depends on its ability to react to changes in its environment in a quick and flexible way. Process-aware information systems (PAIS) offer promising perspectives in this respect and are increasingly employed for operationally supporting business processes. To provide effective business process support, flexible PAIS are needed which do not freeze existing business processes, but allow for loosely specified processes, which can be detailed during run-time. In addition, PAIS should enable authorized users to flexibly deviate from the predefined processes if required (e.g., by allowing them to dynamically add, delete, or move process activities) and to evolve business processes over time. At the same time PAIS must ensure consistency and robustness. The emergence of different process support paradigms and the lack of methods for comparing existing change approaches have made it difficult for PAIS engineers to choose the adequate technology. In this paper we suggest a set of changes patterns and change support features to foster the systematic comparison of existing process management technology with respect to process change support. Based on these change patterns and features, we provide a detailed analysis and evaluation of selected systems from both academia and industry. The identified change patterns and change support features facilitate the comparison of change support frameworks, and consequently will support PAIS engineers in selecting the right technology for realizing flexible PAIS. In addition, this work can be used as a reference for implementing more flexible PAIS

Annotated Bibliography of the Ambrosia Beetle \u3ci\u3eXylosandrus Germanus\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

(excerpt) Xylosandrus germanus (Blandford) (= Xyleborus germanus) is an ambrosia beetle that is found in Japan, Korea, the KurU Islands, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, central Europe, and the Cnited States (Nobuchi 1981). It attacks apparently healthy plants and those that are dying or recently dead (Weber 1982). Kaneko (1967) reported X. germanus to be a serious pest on tea (Thea sp.) plants in Japan, and Heidenreich (1%0) reported it on oak (Quercus sp.) trees in Gennany. This beetle seems to be increasing in economic importance on black walnut (Juglans nigra L.) and other hardwood species in the U.S. (Weber 1982)

The Distribution of \u3ci\u3eXylosandrus Germanus\u3c/i\u3e in America North of Mexico (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

Xylosandrus gemzanus (Blandford) (= Xyleborlus germanus), a sexually dimorphic beetle. was first described in 1894 from specimens collected in Japan; it is now also known from Korea. the Kuril Islands, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, central Europe, and the U.S. ( Sobuchi 1981)