Ring Around the Jury: Reviewing Florida\u27s Capital Sentencing Framework in Hurst v. Florida

This commentary discusses Hurst v. Florida, a case in which the Supreme court will review Florida\u27s death sentencing scheme to determine whether it violates the Sixth of Eighth Amendments. The author argues that Florida\u27s capital sentencing framework violates the Sixth Amendment. A jury, rather than a judge, better reflects society\u27s moral views, which are critical to weigh when deciding whether to impose the death penalty

Household budgets and women's incomes

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 28While explaining proposed studies of aspects of "household economics" to prospective informants in two different African societies, I have been advised very quickly that "Among us, a man and his wife do not share the same purse, and that "Over here, we have a men's side and a women's side. This paper explores some of the problems of applying a "household" methodology to the study of African rural economies. It focuses on one type of household study, namely budget analysis, and suggests that the classic assumption of the household as an undifferentiated decision-making unit applies poorly to many African kinship systems. The first part of the paper is a brief discussion of household methodology and its application to Africa. The second part is devoted to an analysis of the relationship between men's and women's incomes in the rural economy of the Beti of Southern Cameroun

The economic position of Beti widows, past and present

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 2

The Provident Societies in the rural economy of Yaoundé, 1945-1960

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 3

The raw, the cooked, and the half-baked: a note on the division of labor by sex

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 4

Women's work in the economy of the Cocoa belt: a comparison

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 7This paper is an empirical study of the cultural context and historical development of the division of labor by sex in two farming systems of the West African cocoa belt: the Yoruba of Western Nigeria and the Beti of South-Central Cameroun. Both societies are patrilineal. Both peoples inhabited the forest zone before the period of colonial rule, so that their hoe-farming systems had already adjusted to the forest environment before the cocoa era. The two societies differ, however, in overall political structure. The Yoruba had a centralised form of city-state government, while the Beti were organised in small village communities under autonomous headmen. The major difference which forms the theme of this paper is the different division of labor by sex in the indigenous economy. In a rough categorization of African farming systems, according to which sex does most of the work, the Yoruba would be classified as a male farming system, the Beti as a female farming system. [TRUNCATED

The Last Piece of the Puzzle: Providing High-Quality, Affordable Health Coverage to All Children Through National Health Reform

Provides an overview of the gaps in health coverage for children and outlines elements healthcare reform should include, such as child-specific Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program packages, simplified enrollment procedures, and new funding

Increased flood frequency and magnitude decreases density of a stream-breeding salamander in urbanized watersheds

Background/Question/Methods
As urbanization increases across the globe, more ecologists have taken note of its consequences to stream systems. Sufficient data have been collected to document repeated patterns in urbanized streams for many abiotic parameters, aquatic insects, and fish. For example, we now know that urbanized streams experience more frequent and intense spates as a result of increased runoff form impervious surfaces in the urban watershed. The spates eventually lead to a more incised and wider stream bed. Such abiotic shifts consistently result in decreased aquatic invertebrate and fish diversity. More recently, stream-breeding salamanders have been observed to decrease in density in urban areas. We monitored the density of southern two-lined salamanders for the duration of two cohorts in 12 streams in western Georgia, USA. We then used path analysis to determine the relationships between land-use change, abiotic shifts in the stream environment, and larval salamander density. 

Results/Conclusions
We found that southern two-lined salamanders in the streams we monitored exhibited no change in reproductive output between urban and reference habitats. However, repeated sampling throughout the larval period revealed a large decline in density of larvae in urban areas prior to metamorphosis, while a similar decline was not seen in reference habitats. We evaluated several hypotheses that might explain the observed decline in urban areas, and a model in which increased impervious surface causes an increase in spate frequency and magnitude, which then leads to decreased larval density had the most support. This is the first attempt to compare multiple plausible hypotheses as to why salamander density and diversity decreases in urban habitats. By describing larval density at the beginning and end of the larval period, and by identifying a likely mechanism for the observed decline in density, species-specific and stream restoration efforts can be enhanced.
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A Look at the Private Option in Arkansas

In September 2013, Arkansas became the first state in the nation to receive approval from the federal government for a Section 1115 demonstration waiver to require most adults who are newly eligible for coverage through the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion to enroll in Marketplace plans. The initiative, often referred to as the "private option," has allowed Arkansas to cover close to 220,000 Medicaid beneficiaries with commercial provider networks and strengthen its Marketplace. An additional 25,000 medically frail adults are covered through the state's fee-for-service system, bringing to 245,000 the number of newly eligible adults covered in Arkansas as of June 30, 2015. As a result of this coverage, Arkansas has been able to drive down its uninsured rate and reduce uncompensated care costs. The future of the private option is the source of extensive discussion within Arkansas, and it continues to be watched closely by policymakers within the state and around the country. Drawing on a dozen interviews with state officials, providers, insurance carriers, and advocates, as well as early data on coverage, reduced uncompensated care costs, and other topics, this issue brief provides an initial look at implementation