A study of tagging methods for the sea cucumber Cucumaria frondosa in the waters off Maine

The sea cucumber fishery in waters off Maine is developing and has recently experienced great increases in landings, corresponding to expanding export markets. Between 1994 and 1996, reported landings ranged from one to three million pounds (Fig. 1). In 1999, reported landings were over eight million pounds and rose to over nine million in 2000 (Feindel1). Like other developing fisheries, we have little information about the biology and ecology of the sea cucumber off Maine, limited data on the fishery, and little knowledge about the key life history processes that characterize its population dynamics. Therefore, we have a limited understanding of the current status of the resource and the impacts the fishery may have on the stock

CJCR Publishes Volume 23, Issue 3 (Symposium 2022)

Third of three issues to be published in 2022 is now available online; print edition to be released July 18. This post was originally published on the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution website on July 6, 2022. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above

Improving Adult Sex Offender Rehabilitation with Strength-Based Approaches

New approaches in any field require analysis. In forensic psychology, strength-based approaches are a relatively new approach used with a variety of offenders, but most especially with adult sex offenders. The goal of this literature review is to understand, through the unification of many research papers, how and why strength-based approaches provide more efficient programs and reduced recidivism for this population. While including a statistical background of adult sex offenders in Canada and a history of all the models discussed, the central tenet of this paper is that despite considerable academic debate, RNR and CBT models work well, but they work better when combined with strength-based approaches

CJCR Publishes Volume 23, Issue 2 (Summer 2022)

Second of three issues to be published in 2022 is now available online; print edition to be released May 31. This post was originally published on the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution website on May 19, 2022. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above

Twenty Yards From the End Zone: ADR, and the Potential for Greater Levels of Gender Equality in Professional Sports Employment

This Note will highlight the specific instances of gender-based employment discrimination in professional sports and then consider how alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) provides the best avenue to address and correct these imbalances. In particular, this Note will analyze the benefits and drawbacks of ADR and litigation, while simultaneously applying this analysis to the discussion of the gender gap in professional sports employment. Part II will outline several examples of this discrimination, while also briefly detailing the general hiring and wage gaps that exist between men and women. In doing so, this section will examine the hiring practices of three of the major professional sports leagues: MLB, the National Football League (“NFL”), and the National Basketball Association (“NBA”). Part III will focus on the legal options available in cases of gender-based employment discrimination and will also provide the aforementioned comparative review of ADR and litigation as it relates to professional sports employment. Part IV will offer a proposal that is grounded in an ADR-centric approach to help remedy this lack of gender diversity in professional sports work. Finally, Part V will reiterate why ADR provides a better avenue than litigation to solve this issue, while summarizing the specific details of this Note’s proposal and main arguments

Superconductivity in Transition Metal Substituted Iron-Based Superconductors

I report on superconductivity in undoped SrFe2As2 and find that it is caused by lattice strain in the as-grown crystals that can be removed or returned with annealing or pressure, respectively. To study the magnetic/structural transition I measure the evolution of these transitions in solid solutions of the [Ca, Sr, Ba]Fe2As2 series and determine that the Neel temperature is independent of the size of the antiferromagnetically ordered moment. I present the first reported phase diagrams for Ni- and Pt-substitution in SrFe2As2, showing that the simple charge-counting picture of chemical substitution cannot completely describe the onset and offset of the superconducting phase. Finally, I use the transport scattering rate to explain the variation in Tc seen in transition metal substituted 122s. I will show that pair breaking can explain the variation in the optimum transition temperature, and that the rate of suppression of Tc with scattering will show that the pairing symmetry of the iron-based superconductors is a sign-changing, multiband s-wave order parameter that must include both inter- and intraband scattering

Persuasion Factors that Influence the Effectiveness of Cross-Examination of a Forensic Expert

False and misleading forensic testimony is a large contributor to wrongful convictions. Many forensic science disciplines are subjective and have concerning error rates, and forensic experts often testify with unfounded certainty regarding their analyses. These issues, coupled with jurors’ misbeliefs about forensic science, result in criminal convictions despite weak evidence against a defendant. A possible safeguard against false and misleading forensic testimony is cross-examination of a forensic expert. Some cross-examination research suggests that particular types of questioning of an expert witness effectively reduce jurors’ perceptions of the expert’s credibility. Research has identified factors that influence the persuasiveness of expert witnesses. Specifically, Martire and colleagues (2020) created an Expert Persuasion Expectancy Framework that includes eight factors that influence expert persuasiveness. Two of these factors, field and trustworthiness, serve as cues that affect the credibility of the message source (i.e., expert witness). Two other factors, foundation and consistency, serve as message credibility cues (i.e., testimony content). Because source credibility and message credibility are factors that affect persuasion, manipulating these four factors in an expert witness should influence the perceived credibility of the expert and the perceived credibility of the expert’s message—and ultimately affect the persuasiveness of the expert testimony. The current study tested whether highlighting four of Martire’s factors (i.e., consistency, field, foundation, and trustworthiness) in a cross-examination of a forensic expert effectively reduces the persuasiveness of the expert. The current study also tested individual differences (i.e., Need for Cognition, legal authoritarianism, attitudes toward the legal system, attitudes toward forensic science, and legal fiction consumption) as potential moderators of the framework. A total of 563 mock jurors read a trial summary that included a crime description of an aggravated robbery in which the perpetrator left fingerprints at the crime scene, a direct examination of the prosecution’s fingerprint analyst who testified that the latent prints match the defendant’s, and one version of a cross-examination of the fingerprint expert by the defense attorney. For the cross-examination, participants read a transcript in which the defense attorney questioned the forensic expert on his testimony. Sixteen different versions of the cross-examination manipulated the expert’s consistency, field, foundation, and/or trustworthiness. The cross-examination for each condition contained the presence (i.e., manipulation) or absence (i.e., control) of questions that reduced the consistency, field, foundation, and trustworthiness of the expert. After the cross-examination, participants indicated how guilty they believed the defendant was, completed source and message credibility scales, and completed individual difference measures. Results indicated that perceptions of the forensic expert’s field, trustworthiness, consistency, and foundation positively predicted message credibility and field, trustworthiness, and foundation positively predicted expert credibility. Expert and message credibility also predicted guilt ratings. Further, some of these relationships were moderated by attitudes toward forensic science and authoritar¬ianism. Although other individual differences such as Need for Cognition and legal system attitudes did not moderate any of the above relationships, these individual differences did directly affect guilt ratings. These findings have several implications for the legal system. Defense attorneys can use the study’s findings to construct effective cross-examinations of forensic experts. Findings also indicate which individual differences should be considered during jury selection due to their influence on the processing of trial information and evidence. The study’s findings also synthesize the credibility and persuasion literature