The Young and the Redemptionless? Juvenile Offenders Before Miller v. Alabama

The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits excessive criminal sanctions, and the Supreme Court has held that this provision has special application in situations dealing with juvenile offenders. This Commentary looks at the recent Supreme Court case of Montgomery v. Louisiana, in which the Court held that there was a constititutional prohibition of life sentences without parole for juvenile offenders. This Commentary argues that this is the correct result under the Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence but that the Court should also have held that the sole remedy for such constitutional violations is resentencing

Moving Electronic Theses from ETD-db to EPrints : The Best of Both Worlds: A Project Briefing Presented at the CNI Spring 2010 Membership Meeting, Baltimore, MD, April 12, 2010

Caltech Library Services' first digital archive came online in April 2001 using EPrints software from the University of Southampton. We began collecting electronic theses early as well: voluntary deposit of Ph.D. theses began in 2001, and became mandatory in July 2002. The thesis collection was hosted on the ETD-db software platform developed at Virginia Tech. By 2008 it became clear that we needed to consolidate our repository platforms. We decided to move our electronic theses to EPrints Version 3, the platform in use for our institutional repository. We did not, however, want to lose the many unique features of the Virginia Tech ETD-db software, such as thesis-specific workflow, the ability for staff to communicate with thesis authors via email from within the ETD-db interface, and fine-grained, thesis-specific access controls. We also wanted to add new features that were not available in either platform, such as tracking the progress of a thesis through the complex local approval and release process, and the ability to store related documents, such as signed thesis forms and permissions letters, with the thesis but in a "dark" area of the record visible only to repository administrators. This briefing explains what was involved in the transition from ETD-db to EPrints for our thesis collection and how the Caltech Library took advantage of the flexibility of the EPrints platform to meet our requirements. It also suggests ways that other institutions may be able to adopt and build on what we've done, and why EPrints 3 may be a good electronic thesis repository solution for other institutions

Study Examines Sexual Assault Survivor Experiences

The Alaska Department of Public Safety is working with the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center to better understand how sexual assaults reported to the Alaska State Troopers are handled and perceived, and which factors shape the likelihood of achieving justice for sexual assault victim-survivors. A final report including recommendations for practice improvement is expected mid-2020.Questions of justice / SAKI research in Alaska / Understanding experiences and perceptions / Reference

Consumption of a high n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid diet during gradual mild physiological stress in rats.

n-3 Polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3PUFAs) may be beneficial for anxiety and depression under stressful conditions. Studies however, typically utilise physical or sudden physiological stress, while gradual physiological stress is also relevant to human conditions. Using deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA) administration to induce gradual physiological stress, this study investigated the impact of n-3PUFAs under gradual physiological stress in rats. Animals (aged 2 months) (N=8-12/group) received daily injections of DOCA or vehicle and were concurrently fed a high n-3PUFA or control diet for eight weeks. Behavioural measures were taken throughout. Behavioural tests and physiological measures were conducted after six and eight weeks respectively. DOCA administration decreased plasma renin, plasma proteins and relative adrenal weight, and increased water intake, relative kidney weight, and anxiety in the open field. These findings demonstrate disruptions to the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, a result of mild physiological stress, that also impact on anxiety behaviours. No effects of n-3PUFAs were found

Structuring Decisions in Adult Protective Services

A new NCCD Focus article, "Structuring Decisions in Adult Protective Services," describes the value of structured decision frameworks in the growing field of adult protective services (APS). The article highlights findings on risk factors for future adult maltreatment from research literature as well as NCCD's efforts to develop an actuarial-based risk assessment for APS in partnership with the New Hampshire Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services under a grant from the National Institute of Justice

Venturing into a Minefield: Employer Practices in a Post Burwell v. Hobby Lobby State

This project examines the relevant case law and the potential repercussions of the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby decision from June 2014. The ruling allowed closely held, family corporations to have religious freedom rights by granting Hobby Lobby an exemption to the so-called contraception mandate of the Affordable Care Act. This paper argues that the idea of corporate religious freedom is relatively unprecedented, and as such, it has major implications for future decisions made by the Supreme Court. The most profound (and perhaps unintended) consequence of the Burwell ruling is a new balancing act in the legal system itself: religious freedom claims made by one individual versus the identity claims of another

Navigating Heroines Between Scylla and Charybdis: Austen\u27s Narrators

Jane Austen champions practicality and compatibility versus purely romantic or mercenary sentiment in her novels, and through narrative techniques she preserves her heroines from imprudent marriages. Austen\u27s heroines do not fall madly in love at first sight, but rather they acquiesce to marriage through reason and discernment. She endows her heroines with qualities that make them worthy of her interference in the marriage plot: intelligent although inexperienced, possessed of realistic expectations and sensibility and reason, and, importantly, financial instability. She carefully cultivates heroes worthy of her heroines through plot twists. However, to show her dissatisfaction with the limited roles available to the 19th century woman, she denies the reader the opportunity to witness the wedding that concludes her narratives. The narrator demonstrates her approval or disapprobation by choosing what scenes to narrate and what scenes to dramatize, the latter often representative of her disapproval, her silence signifying her acceptance

Investigating the functional coupling between Rad50 ATP active sites

The Mre11/Rad50 complex plays an essential role in the repair of DNA double-strand breaks by initiating the processing of the DNA ends. The MR complex is made up of two subunits of the Mre11 nuclease and two subunits of the Rad50 ATPase. The precise role of Rad50’s ATPase activity is unclear. Some reports suggest that the ATP acts as an allosteric switch that turns on the activity of Mre11, while others suggest ATP is used to power translocation or unwinding of DNA. To test this hypothesis in Rad50, we developed a method to create heterodimeric Rad50 so that that ATP sites can be individually controlled. Using two active site mutations (E505Q and D512A), a heterodimeric Rad50 containing a single functioning ATP active site was generated and purified. Characterization of the single ATP site heterodimer indicates that in the absence of Mre11 and DNA, the two active sites act in an independent fashion. Upon complex formation with Mre11 and DNA, the active sites now display strong coupling, such that DNA no longer acts as an allosteric activator of Rad50 ATP hydrolysis. Additionally, it was found that the MR complex with a single ATP site is no longer able to perform multiple nucleotide excisions during a single binding event. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that the MR complex acts as a motor protein that requires coordination between ATP sites for processive nuclease activity