Martinez Guzman v. Second Judicial Dist. Court, 136 Nev. Adv. Op. 12 (Mar. 26, 2020)

The Court clarified the ambiguity of the meaning “territorial jurisdiction,” a term of art found in NRS 172.105. The Court held that NRS 172.105 incorporates Nevada’s venue statutes and grants a grand jury the authority to “inquire into a [criminal] offense so long as the district court that empaneled the grand jury may appropriately adjudicate the defendant’s guilt for that particular offense.

A History of Nonviolence: Insecurity and the Normative Power of the Imagined in Costa Rica

Crime, violence, and insecurity are among the most important social topics in contemporary Costa Rica. These three issues play a central role in the media, politics, and everyday life, and the impression has emerged that security has changed for the worse and that society is now threatened permanently. However, crime statistics do not support this perception. The paper thus asks why violence and crime generate such huge fear in society. The thesis is that the Costa Rican national identity—with Costa Rica constructed as a nonviolent nation— impedes a realistic discussion about the phenomena and their causes, and simultaneously provides a platform for sensationalism and the social construction of fear.Costa Rica, violence, crime, national identity, public discourse

A Free Energy Model of Boron Carbide

The assessed phase diagram of the boron-carbon system contains a single non-stoichiometric boron-carbide phase of rhombohedral symmetry with a broad, thermodynamically improbable, low temperature composition range. We combine first principles total energy calculations with phenomenological thermodynamic modeling to propose a revised low temperature phase diagram that contains two boron-carbide phases of differing symmetries and compositions. One structure has composition B4C and consists of B11C icosahedra and C-B-C chains, with the placement of carbon on the icosahedron breaking rhombohedral symmetry. This phase is destabilized above 600K by the configurational entropy of alternate carbon substitutions. The other structure, of ideal composition B13C2, has a broad composition range at high temperature, with rhombohedral symmetry throughout, as observed experimentally.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, submitted to J. Stat. Phys. August 9th, 201

The possible values of critical points between strongly congruence-proper varieties of algebras

We denote by Conc(A) the semilattice of all finitely generated congruences of an (universal) algebra A, and we define Conc(V) as the class of all isomorphic copies of all Conc(A), for A in V, for any variety V of algebras. Let V and W be locally finite varieties of algebras such that for each finite algebra A in V there are, up to isomorphism, only finitely many B in W such that A and B have isomorphic congruence lattices, and every such B is finite. If Conc(V) is not contained in Conc(W), then there exists a semilattice of cardinality aleph 2 in Conc(V)-Conc(W). Our result extends to quasivarieties of first-order structures, with finitely many relation symbols, and relative congruence lattices. In particular, if W is a finitely generated variety of algebras, then this occurs in case W omits the tame congruence theory types 1 and 5; which, in turn, occurs in case W satisfies a nontrivial congruence identity. The bound aleph 2 is sharp

LCS Tool : A Computational Platform for Lagrangian Coherent Structures

We give an algorithmic introduction to Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs) using a newly developed computational engine, LCS Tool. LCSs are most repelling, attracting and shearing material lines that form the centerpieces of observed tracer patterns in two-dimensional unsteady dynamical systems. LCS Tool implements the latest geodesic theory of LCSs for two-dimensional flows, uncovering key transport barriers in unsteady flow velocity data as explicit solutions of differential equations. After a review of the underlying theory, we explain the steps and numerical methods used by LCS Tool, and illustrate its capabilities on three unsteady fluid flow examples

On the stabilizing influence of silt on sand beds

In marine environments, sediments from different sources are stirred and dispersed, generating beds that are composed of mixed and layered sediments of differing grain sizes. Traditional engineering formulations used to predict erosion thresholds are however, generally for unimodal sediment distributions, and so may be inadequate for commonly occurring coastal sediments. We tested the transport behavior of deposited and mixed sediment beds consisting of a simplified two-grain fraction (silt (D50  =  55 µm) and sand (D50 =  300 µm)) in a laboratory-based annular flume with the objective of investigating the parameters controlling the stability of a sediment bed. To mimic recent deposition of particles following large storm events and the longer-term result of the incorporation of fines in coarse sediment, we designed two suites of experiments: (1) “the layering experiment”: in which a sandy bed was covered by a thin layer of silt of varying thickness (0.2–3 mm; 0.5–3.7 wt %, dry weight in a layer 10 cm deep); and (2) “the mixing experiment” where the bed was composed of sand homogeneously mixed with small amounts of silt (0.07–0.7 wt %, dry weight). To initiate erosion and to detect a possible stabilizing effect in both settings, we increased the flow speeds in increments up to 0.30 m/s. Results showed that the sediment bed (or the underlying sand bed in the case of the layering experiment) stabilized with increasing silt composition. The increasing sediment stability was defined by a shift of the initial threshold conditions towards higher flow speeds, combined with, in the case of the mixed bed, decreasing erosion rates. Our results show that even extremely low concentrations of silt play a stabilizing role (1.4% silt (wt %) on a layered sediment bed of 10 cm thickness). In the case of a mixed sediment bed, 0.18% silt (wt %, in a sample of 10 cm depth) stabilized the bed. Both cases show that the depositional history of the sediment fractions can change the erosion characteristics of the seabed. These observations are summarized in a conceptual model that suggests that, in addition to the effect on surface roughness, silt stabilizes the sand bed by pore-space plugging and reducing the inflow in the bed, and hence increases the bed stability. Measurements of hydraulic conductivity on similar bed assemblages qualitatively supported this conclusion by showing that silt could decrease the permeability by up to 22% in the case of a layered bed and by up to 70% in the case of a mixed bed

Computer Assisted Instruction & the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines

The current study presents the results of one mixed-method analysis of theimplementation of communicative online activities into beginning Spanishclasses, their effects on class performance, and evaluation of the studentgeneratedwork from the online module. Results show that althoughstatistically there may be some doubt as to the effectiveness of an additionof a WebCT/Blackboard ® component into a beginning Spanish program,the environment did provide opportunities for students to demonstratelanguage proficiency. It is the analysis of student writing samplesgathered from the hybrid course, using a rubric based on the ACTFLWriting Proficiency Guidelines, that adds depth and breadth to the study.The article also addresses common issues that arise in traditionalanalyses of technology implementations, and suggests ways that theACTFL Writing Proficiency Guidelines can be useful in the evaluation ofstudent work in qualitative research