Community Justice Initiatives in the Galena District Court

This article examines a community outreach program in rural Alaska whereby an Alaska Court System judge uses restorative justice principles in village sentencing hearings.[Introduction] / Community Involvement / Restorative Community Outreach in the Yukon-Koyukuk Region / Using Talking Circles to Generate Community Recommendations / ConclusionYe

Alvarado Revisited: A Missing Element in Alaska’s Quest to Provide Impartial Juries for Rural Alaskans

In Alvarado v. State, the Alaska Supreme Court declared that an impartial jury is a cross section of the community and that the community where the events at issue transpired must be represented in the jury. This decision spurred changes to jury selection procedures and the creation of Criminal Rule 18, an effort to ensure defendants from remote villages are judged by a jury representative of these rural areas. The Alaska Court of Appeals recently addressed an issue of first impression regarding the application of Criminal Rule 18. In Joseph v. State, the defendant was convicted of murdering his girlfriend in the tiny Native village of Rampart. His trial was conducted in Fairbanks by a jury selected from an area that does not include Rampart or any other similar Native village. Criminal Rule 18 allowed the defendant a limited time to transfer his trial to Nenana, which more closely resembles the characteristics of Rampart. However, the defendant was never informed of this right. His trial counsel believed trial location was a decision for the attorney and did not see a need to request the change. In a memorandum opinion that creates no binding precedent, the Court of Appeals agreed with this view and held it did not violate the defendant’s due process rights not to be informed of the opportunity to have his case heard at an alternative trial site. This Article challenges that view, arguing it fails to safeguard the spirit and purpose of the constitutional right to an impartial jury. To remote villagers in Bush Alaska whose customs, culture, and ways of life are vastly different than in larger cities within the state, the opportunity to be judged by those sharing similarities is of upmost importance. Consequently, decisions of trial venue, for purposes of Criminal Rule 18, should be knowingly made or waived by the defendant

Restorative Justice: Theory, Processes, and Application in Rural Alaska

An exploration of the principles behind using restorative justice as an alternate form of sentencing in criminal cases, with a focus particularly on how restorative justice might be of benefit in rural Alaska. Includes a bibliography. A sidebar, "Restorative Justice Programs and Sentencing", looks at amendments to Alaska Rules of Criminal Procedure 11(i) and Delinquency Rules 21(d)(3) and 23(f) which describe the requirements for referral to a restorative justice program as part of the sentencing process.[Introduction] / Restorative Justice / Restorative Processes / Victim-Offender Mediation / Conferencing / Circles / Restorative Processes in Rural Alaska / Conclusion / SIDEBARS / Restorative Justice Programs and Sentencing / Change to Alaska Criminal Rule 11 / Restorative Justice ReferencesYe

The Anchorage, Alaska Municipal Pretrial Diversion Program: An Initial Assessment

Pretrial diversion programs have the potential to prevent future criminal behavior through intervention and community based services. This may be particularly true for specific populations of offenders such as those with mental illness, substance abuse disorder, and those with co-occuring disorders. Pretrial diversion programs take low-level offenders out of the jail population, both reducing system overpopulation and costs of incarceration. The programs also provide speedy case processing for minor crimes resulting in savings to the court system and personnel. Pretrial diversion can help an offender avoid a criminal conviction and potentially avoid future criminal violations. Results indicate that most Anchorage pretrial defendants comply with and complete the pretrial conditions in a very short time period, an additional savings in case processing time. This research details the initial assessment of the Anchorage Municipal Prosecutor Pretrial Diversion program. This assessment examines system savings in time and money, as well as policy implications for the justice system that may assist other jurisdictions as they consider implementing a pretrial diversion program

The Anchorage, Alaska Municipal Pretrial Diversion Program: Initial Outcome Assessment

This report provides an initial outcome assessment of the Anchorage Municipal Pretrial Diversion Program, a voluntary program aimed at diverting first-time offenders in certain criminal and traffic cases from traditional case processing, with successful complion of the terms of the program resulting in dismissal of charges. Pretrial diversion agreements under AMC 08.05.060 typically require the defendant to pay a fine or do community work service, usually within a month. The initial assessment examines offender completion under the program, adherence to conditions of probation, and time and cost savings for the Anchorage Municipal Prosecutor's Office.Office of the Anchorage Municipal Prosecutor, Municipality of Anchorage, AKAcknowledgments / Section I: Executive Summary / Counts and Charges of Defendants Offered Pretrial Diversion / Demographic Variations Among Defendants Offered Pretrial Diversion / Conditions of Pretrial Diversion / Length of Time for Pretrial Diversion Processes / Number of Court Hearings and Estimated Time Spent / Section II: Introduction / Section III: Literature Review / Descriptions of Pretrial Diversion / Pretrial Diversion in the United States / Description of Pretrial Diversion in Anchorage / Section IV: Methods / Data Collection / Section VI: Findings / Counts and Charges of Defendants Offered Pretrial Diversion / Demographic Variations Among Defendants Offered Pretrial Diversion / Conditions of Pretrial Diversion / Length of Time for Pretrial Diversion Processes / Number of Court Hearings and Estimated Time Spent / Section VII: Conclusion / References / Appendix: Anchorage Municipal Pretrial Diversion Data Collection For

Polyploidy Did Not Predate the Evolution of Nodulation in All Legumes

BACKGROUND: Several lines of evidence indicate that polyploidy occurred by around 54 million years ago, early in the history of legume evolution, but it has not been known whether this event was confined to the papilionoid subfamily (Papilionoideae; e.g. beans, medics, lupins) or occurred earlier. Determining the timing of the polyploidy event is important for understanding whether polyploidy might have contributed to rapid diversification and radiation of the legumes near the origin of the family; and whether polyploidy might have provided genetic material that enabled the evolution of a novel organ, the nitrogen-fixing nodule. Although symbioses with nitrogen-fixing partners have evolved in several lineages in the rosid I clade, nodules are widespread only in legume taxa, being nearly universal in the papilionoids and in the mimosoid subfamily (e.g., mimosas, acacias)--which diverged from the papilionoid legumes around 58 million years ago, soon after the origin of the legumes. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using transcriptome sequence data from Chamaecrista fasciculata, a nodulating member of the mimosoid clade, we tested whether this species underwent polyploidy within the timeframe of legume diversification. Analysis of gene family branching orders and synonymous-site divergence data from C. fasciculata, Glycine max (soybean), Medicago truncatula, and Vitis vinifera (grape; an outgroup to the rosid taxa) establish that the polyploidy event known from soybean and Medicago occurred after the separation of the mimosoid and papilionoid clades, and at or shortly before the Papilionoideae radiation. CONCLUSIONS: The ancestral legume genome was not fundamentally polyploid. Moreover, because there has not been an independent instance of polyploidy in the Chamaecrista lineage there is no necessary connection between polyploidy and nodulation in legumes. Chamaecrista may serve as a useful model in the legumes that lacks a paleopolyploid history, at least relative to the widely studied papilionoid models

Quantification of Renal Stone Contrast with Ultrasound in Human Subjects

Purpose: Greater visual contrast between calculi and tissue would improve ultrasound (US) imaging of urolithiasis and potentially expand clinical use. The color Doppler twinkling artifact has been suggested to provide enhanced contrast of stones compared with brightness mode (B-mode) imaging, but results are variable. This work provides the first quantitative measure of stone contrast in humans for B-mode and color Doppler mode, forming the basis to improve US for the detection of stones. Materials and Methods: Using a research ultrasound system, B-mode imaging was tuned for detecting stones by applying a single transmit angle and reduced signal compression. Stone twinkling with color Doppler was tuned by using low-frequency transmit pulses, longer pulse durations, and a high-pulse repetition frequency. Data were captured from 32 subjects, with 297 B-mode and Doppler images analyzed from 21 subjects exhibiting twinkling signals. The signal to clutter ratio (i.e., stone to background tissue) (SCR) was used to compare the contrast of a stone on B-mode with color Doppler, and the contrast between stone twinkling and blood-flow signals within the kidney. Results: The stone was the brightest object in only 54% of B-mode images and 100% of Doppler images containing stone twinkling. On average, stones were isoechoic with the tissue clutter on B-mode (SCR = 0 dB). Stone twinkling averaged 37 times greater contrast than B-mode (16 dB, p < 0.0001) and 3.5 times greater contrast than blood-flow signals (5.5 dB, p = 0.088). Conclusions: This study provides the first quantitative measure of US stone to tissue contrast in humans. Stone twinkling contrast is significantly greater than the contrast of a stone on B-mode. There was also a trend of stone twinkling signals having greater contrast than blood-flow signals in the kidney. Dedicated optimization of B-mode and color Doppler stone imaging could improve US detection of stones

Reprogramming human T cell function and specificity with non-viral genome targeting.

Decades of work have aimed to genetically reprogram T cells for therapeutic purposes1,2 using recombinant viral vectors, which do not target transgenes to specific genomic sites3,4. The need for viral vectors has slowed down research and clinical use as their manufacturing and testing is lengthy and expensive. Genome editing brought the promise of specific and efficient insertion of large transgenes into target cells using homology-directed repair5,6. Here we developed a CRISPR-Cas9 genome-targeting system that does not require viral vectors, allowing rapid and efficient insertion of large DNA sequences (greater than one&nbsp;kilobase) at specific sites in the genomes of primary human T cells, while preserving cell viability and function. This permits individual or multiplexed modification of endogenous genes. First, we applied this strategy to correct a pathogenic IL2RA mutation in cells from patients with monogenic autoimmune disease, and demonstrate improved signalling function. Second, we replaced the endogenous T cell receptor (TCR) locus with a new TCR that redirected T cells to a cancer antigen. The resulting TCR-engineered T cells specifically recognized tumour antigens and mounted productive anti-tumour cell responses in vitro and in vivo. Together, these studies provide preclinical evidence that non-viral genome targeting can enable rapid and flexible experimental manipulation and therapeutic engineering of primary human immune cells

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo