Is Pro Bono Practice In Legal “Backwaters” Beyond The Scope of The Model Rules?

[Excerpt] While many private sector attorneys offer pro bono legal services that reflect the same level of diligence and skill characteristic of the work done on behalf of their paying clients, the egregious failures described in the MC v. GC case and those that occur in many unreported matters highlight the dangers of pro bono initiatives designed to bridge the “access to justice gap.” As used here, the term “justice gap” refers to the chasm between the need for legal representation in civil disputes and public interest attorneys available to serve poor and working class clients. Justice gap pro bono programs connect low-income individuals in need of legal assistance in matters such as eviction prevention, family disputes, and consumer debt collection cases with attorneys from large law firms that typically specialize in commercial litigation and corporate transactions. Though well intentioned, justice gap pro bono initiatives that succeed do so in spite of the impediments to ethical representation that pervade this method of legal service delivery. The market forces and “informal collegial control” that shape attorney conduct in the for-profit setting are often absent within the world of pro bono service. Moreover, the ethics rules that should govern pro bono attorneys offer inadequate guidance to lawyers grappling with the unique concerns of pro bono lawyering practiced in a for-profit context

Widening Participation in Golf: Barriers to Participation and GolfMark

This research was commissioned by the EGU and R&A in 2010. The aims of the research project were threefold: 1) To review the academic literature on barriers to participation in sport, especially golf; 2) To survey clubs, members and nomadic golfers to describe their perceptions of GolfMark and the issues it intends to address; 3) To gather in-depth data from a range of golf clubs to help understand how different club cultures may lead to the exclusion of underrepresented demographic groups

Formal representation of proper names in accordance with a descriptive theory of reference

In this paper I present a way of formally representing proper names in accordance with a description theory of reference-fixing and show that such a representation makes it possible to retain the claim about the rigidity of proper names and is not vulnerable to Kripke’s modal objection

Interpreting Iron Age settlement landscapes of Wigtownshire

This thesis explores the process of archaeological interpretation by considering how we can interpret the Iron Age settlement in Wigtownshire, SW Scotland. Traditional images of Iron Age warfaring hierarchical societies have persisted through the use of well-established classifications, such as ‘fort’ or ‘roundhouse’ and by the uncritical acceptance of the definition and identification of ‘settlement’ in the archaeological record. Alternative interpretations of Iron Age settlement landscapes are possible by considering a variety of other observations, which traditional classifications ignore, such as the landscape context of specific monuments. This thesis presents a critical review of these alternative interpretations and other more traditional classifications used to define Iron Age settlement and illustrates how multiple narratives of the past can co-exist. This thesis emphasises the essential part classification plays in archaeological interpretation. Interpretation is a complex and ongoing process and it is important to be aware of the assumptions that we make and how these may affect further interpretations of the archaeological evidence. Common standardised classifications stress the importance of certain morphological characteristics over other observations and the interpretations of the archaeological evidence are therefore restricted. Traditional approaches neglect the importance of context, which is integral to the interpretation of the archaeology on many levels. Understudied, but archaeologically rich, Wigtownshire is an ideal case-study. Rather than limiting the discussion of archaeological features by only comparing them through traditional ‘typologies’, here experiential observations of the evidence – within their landscape context – offer an alternative approach by which the iron Age in Wigtownshire can be considered. A flexible process of classification is advocated – dependent upon the research questions that are addressed in particular studies. My approach to the re-evaluation of the Iron Age settlement in Wigtownshire is also influenced by a critique of the definition of the term ‘settlement’ in archaeology. The identification of ‘domestic’ practices in contrast to ‘ritualised’ ones in the Iron Age evidence is questioned and from a variety of perspectives the complex processes of settlement in the Iron Age are explored

Differences in attitude towards mathematics between successful regular class children and children with learning problems in mathematics

Possible differences in attitude towards mathematics were studied between Year seven successful regular class children and Year seven children with learning problems in mathematics. A comparison was also made between the Year seven children with learning problems and a younger chronological age group (Year 5) who were performing at approximately the same level in mathematics. A sample of 180 students (30 Year 5 males, 30 Year 5 females, 30 Year 7 regular class males, 30 Year 7 regular class females, 30 Year 7 learning problems males and 30 Year 7 learning problems females) was selected from students in seven local Primary Schools. Student mathematical achievement was determined by the Progressive Achievement Tests in Mathematics (Level 2a). Mean differences across the six groups of students were calculated on three attitude subscales. These scales measured school-related affect (attitude to school); subject-related affect (attitude to mathematics) and academic self-concept (attitude towards self about mathematical ability). Stepdown F tests were used to determine the relative importance of each affect variable. The research study sought to determine if academic self-concept was the primary affect variable differentiating the groups. It was hypothesised that differences in subject-related affect and school-related affect would not be significant after academic self-concept was partialled from the relationship. Findings indicate that significant differences exist between groups in terms of academic self-concept, subject-related affect and school-related affect when these variables were assessed univariately: The significant finding was that when attempting to examine differences between groups in mathematics, all three affect variables should be considered. This is due to the the school-related affect variable being found to add significantly to the differences between groups even when student academic self-concept was partialled from the analysis. No significant difference was found between students in terms of gender on any affect measure

All the superhero’s names

In this paper I concern myself with The Superman Puzzle (the phenomenon of the substitution failure of co-referential proper names in simple sentences). I argue that the descriptive content associated with proper names, besides determining the proper name’s reference, function as truth-conditionally relevant adjuncts which can be used to express a manner, reason, goal, time or purpose of action. In that way a sentence with a proper name "NN is doing something" could be understood as "NN is doing something as NN" (which means "as-so-and-so"). I argue that the substitution of names can fail on modified readings because the different descriptive content of proper names modifies the main predicate differently. Here I present a formal representation of modified predicates which allows one to model intuitively the different truth-conditions of sentences from The Puzzle

Epigenomes in Cardiovascular Disease.

If unifying principles could be revealed for how the same genome encodes different eukaryotic cells and for how genetic variability and environmental input are integrated to impact cardiovascular health, grand challenges in basic cell biology and translational medicine may succumb to experimental dissection. A rich body of work in model systems has implicated chromatin-modifying enzymes, DNA methylation, noncoding RNAs, and other transcriptome-shaping factors in adult health and in the development, progression, and mitigation of cardiovascular disease. Meanwhile, deployment of epigenomic tools, powered by next-generation sequencing technologies in cardiovascular models and human populations, has enabled description of epigenomic landscapes underpinning cellular function in the cardiovascular system. This essay aims to unpack the conceptual framework in which epigenomes are studied and to stimulate discussion on how principles of chromatin function may inform investigations of cardiovascular disease and the development of new therapies