Relief from the Collateral Consequences of a Criminal Conviction: A State-By-State Resource Guide

A collection of individual state documents that can be downloaded. Includes state law regarding loss of rights due to a felony conviction, process of restoration, pardon/expungement information, and contact information of corresponding agencies

Of Pardons, Politics and Collar Buttons: Reflections on the President\u27s Duty to be Merciful

A discussion of the President\u27s ability to grant Federal Pardons, and the moral and political factors which influence the exercise of that power. The article proposes that the President has a duty to pardon, not so much as to do justice in particular cases, but to be merciful as a more general obligation of office

Does the detection of X-ray emission from SN1998bw support its association with GRB980425?

We show that the recent identification of X-ray emission from SN1998bw is naturally explained as synchrotron emission from a shock driven into the wind surrounding the progenitor by a mildly relativistic shell ejected by the supernova, the existence of which was inferred earlier from radio observations. X-ray observations imply a shell energy E~10^{49.7}erg, and constrain the initial shell velocity \beta*c and normalized wind mass loss rate, \dot{m}=(\dot{M}/10^{-5}M_sun/yr)/(v_w/10^3 km/s), to satisfy \beta^3*\dot{m}~10^{-1.5}. The inferred energy is consistent with energy estimates based on radio observations provided \dot{m}~0.04, in which case radio observations imply \beta~0.8, consistent with the X-ray constraint \beta^3*\dot{m}~10^{-1.5}. While X-ray observations allow to determine the parameters characterizing the pre-explosion wind and the mildly relativistic shell ejected by SN1998bw, they do not provide evidence for existence of an off-axis "standard" GRB jet associated with SN1998bw, that may have produced GRB980425. However, as recently pointed out in (astro-ph/0310320), the lack of observational signatures typically expected to be produced by such an off-axis jet on a 1yr time scale, may be due to a low \dot{m}<0.1, which implies that an off-axis jet will become observable only on >10yr time scale.Comment: Minor changes. Accepted to ApJ

Cosmic Ray Accelerators in the Large Magellanic Cloud

I point out a correlation between gamma-ray emissivity and the historical star formation rate in the Large Magellanic Cloud ~12.5 Myr ago. This correlation bolsters the view that CRs in the LMC are accelerated by conglomerations of supernova remnants: i.e. superbubbles and supergiant shells.Comment: Research Not

Measurements at the southern magnetic conju- gate region of the fission debris from the starfish nuclear detonation

Measurement of fission products from Star Fish high-altitude nuclear explosion with recording gamma-ray spectromete

Gamma-burst emission from neutron-star accretion

A model for emission of the hard photons of gamma bursts is presented. The model assumes accretion at nearly the Eddington limited rate onto a neutron star without a magnetic field. Initially soft photons are heated as they are compressed between the accreting matter and the star. A large electric field due to relatively small charge separation is required to drag electrons into the star with the nuclei against the flux of photons leaking out through the accreting matter. The photon number is not increased substantially by Bremsstrahlung or any other process. It is suggested that instability in an accretion disc might provide the infalling matter required

21st Century Approaches To Addressing Childhood Diarrhea In Low And Middle-Income Countries: Zinc As A Cornerstone Of New Prevention Strategies

During the 20th century, significant strides were made in curtailing the burden of childhood diarrhea, including advances in vaccine research, the advent of antibiotics, improved water and sanitation, and expanded access to health information across the globe. Despite this progress, today diarrhea ranks second only to pneumonia as a leading cause of mortality in children under five years, with a disproportionate burden of 90% of diarrheal deaths in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, substantial morbidity due to diarrhea persists in young children, with more than 45 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost due to diarrhea in 2015. Long-term consequences of childhood diarrhea include undernutrition, impaired gut function, altered gut microbiota, and compromised cognitive development. The 21st century presents an opportunity to eliminate the health disparity affecting millions of children suffering disproportionately from preventable diarrheal diseases. Recent advances in molecular laboratory technology have enabled detailed assessment of diarrheal burden and etiology, illuminating the highest burden pathogens for focused interventions. Among the top diarrheal pathogens, rotavirus (RV) is the leading cause of diarrhea-attributable death in the first year of life. While we have vaccines against RV, these vaccines consistently underperform in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) with efficacy of 18% to 61% compared to \u3e 85% efficacy in high income countries. Reasons for rotavirus vaccine underperformance remain unclear, and no vaccines are available for other high burden diarrheal pathogens. This requires consideration of complementary and alternative interventions for diarrhea prevention. To assess factors related to rotavirus vaccine performance, we enrolled a 700-infant birth cohort in an urban slum of Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the Performance of Rotavirus and Oral Polio Vaccines in Developing Countries (PROVIDE) study: a randomized controlled trial of a 2-dose monovalent oral rotavirus vaccine (RV1). With a primary outcome of any rotavirus diarrhea (RVD) post-vaccination to one year, we conducted biweekly home-based diarrhea surveillance with rotavirus antigen detection in diarrheal stools by ELISA. We found RV1 efficacy of 51% (95% CI 33.8–63.7) in per protocol analysis. Importantly, among 12 explanatory variables tested for association with RVD, serum zinc concentration (SZC) in infants at week 18 associated with risk of RVD up to one year (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.66–0.91), independent of vaccination status. This finding led to broader investigation of the relationship between zinc status and diarrhea in the PROVIDE cohort. Among 577 PROVIDE infants, 16.5% were zinc deficient at week 18 (SZC \u3c 65μg/dL). By logistic regression, zinc deficient infants had increased odds of diarrhea in the first year of life compared to zinc replete infants (OR 2.76, 95% CI 1.08–7.04), and they were nearly 4 times more likely to have diarrhea of viral etiology (OR 3.94, 95% CI 1.55–10.03). Furthermore, in Kaplan Meier analysis we found a strong correlation between zinc deficiency and time to first episode of viral diarrhea (median survival 27 vs 33 weeks in zinc deficient vs non-deficient infants, p Our results indicate further consideration of zinc as a critical and modifiable co-factor in ameliorating the burden of childhood viral diarrhea. Carefully designed trials of zinc supplementation interventions could determine whether zinc may fill the gap in protection against childhood viral diarrhea, and inquiries into the zinc-diarrhea molecular pathway could elucidate mechanisms for focused development of future interventions