Economic Value of Preemergence Herbicides in Soybeans

With the widespread epidemic of herbicide resistance in weeds, and relatively low cash market prices, the economic sustainability of weed management programs in soybeans is of critical importance. Growers in Southern Illinois and across the Midwest face a wide variety of competitive weeds, with some populations expressing resistance to multiple herbicides, which can make it difficult and costly to select an effective herbicide program. Over-reliance on broad-spectrum herbicides such as glyphosate has helped to create this shift in herbicide resistant weeds. Utilizing data collected in southern Illinois during the 2016 and 2017 growing seasons by Matt Geiger, we will test the economic sustainability of various herbicide programs common in Southern Illinois. A regression model was used to assign yield benefits or reductions to six different soybean systems and their respective herbicide programs. Economic return on investment was greatest when using preemergence (PRE) followed by postemergence (POST) herbicide programs across all soybean systems. Treatment costs were comparable for all soybean systems, implying that weed control and yield was most important

Labeling Violence

In recent years, federal and state-level criminal justice reforms have softened the punitive responses to crime that defined the quarter-century from 1980–2005. The main beneficiaries of these reforms have been non-violent criminals, who are increasingly eligible for pre- and post-charge diversion, expungement, early release from custody and early discharge from community supervision. For those convicted of violent offenses, not much has changed: sentences remain long; opportunities for release remain few; and conditions of post-release supervision are tightly enforced, leading to high rates of return to prison. The justification for a harsh response to violent crime is that such crime inflicts significant harm and represents a dramatic deviation from standards of acceptable behavior. In fact, “violent” behavior—that is, behavior that is intended to cause, or does in fact cause, physical injury to another person—is hardly anomalous. Across the life-course, and particularly in youth and young adulthood, such behaviors frequently occur among a broad spectrum of the population and rarely lead to criminal conviction. This Article explores why only some behavior is labeled violent, and what implications this fact has for sentencing and correctional management of people convicted of violent crimes, and for the broader management of the criminal justice system. “I think the big point is that there are not two kinds of humans: one the kind that commits crimes and gets imprisoned and another the kind that does not commit crimes . . . . I think there is but one kind of human beings, all of whom are a mix of good and bad, all of whom do a mix of good and bad things. As for the bad things, comparatively few of them have been labeled criminal. There is an infinite number of ways not declared crimes in which, without justification, we inflict pain and sorrow upon and exploit one another and destroy the thin envelope of air and water and soil in which we live.” —Hon. James E. Doyle, U.S. District Judg

The Promises and Perils of Evidence-Based Corrections

Public beliefs about the best way to respond to crime change over time, and have been doing so at a rapid pace in recent years. After more than forty years of ever more severe penal policies, the punitive sentiment that fueled the growth of mass incarceration in the United States appears to be softening. Across the country, prison growth has slowed and, in some places, has even reversed. Many new laws and policies have enabled this change. The most prominent of these implement or reflect what have been called “evidence-based practices” designed to reduce prison populations and their associated fiscal and human costs. These practices—which broadly include the use of actuarial risk assessment tools, the development of deterrence-based sanctioning programs, and the adoption of new supervision techniques—are based on criminological research about “what works” to reduce convicted individuals’ odds of committing future crimes. Because evidence-based practices focus on reducing crime and recidivism, they are usually promoted as progressive tools for making the criminal justice system more humane. And while many have the potential to do just that, evidence-based practices are not inherently benign with respect to their effect on mass incarceration and the breadth of the penal state. In their reliance on aggregate data and classification, many such practices have as much in common with the “new penology” that enabled mass incarceration as with the neorehabilitationism they are ordinarily thought to represent. Without denying the contribution that such practices are making to current reform efforts, this Article seeks to highlight the unintended ways in which evidence-based tools could be used to expand, rather than reduce, state correctional control over justice-involved individuals. It explains what evidence-based practices are, why they have gained traction, and how they fit into existing paradigms for understanding the role of the criminal justice system in the lives of those subject to its control. Finally, it calls on policymakers and practitioners to implement these practices in ways that ensure they are used to improve the quality and fairness of the criminal justice system and not to reinforce the institutional constructs that have sustained the growth of the penal state

Confidentiality and Disclosure: What the New ABA Criminal Justice Standards (Don\u27t) Say about the Duties of Defense Counsel

Although the duty to keep client confidences is one of a defense lawyer\u27s defining characteristics, there are times when a lawyer will disclose otherwise confidential information to protect the safety of third parties, convey information to successor counsel, or defend against claims of ineffective assistance. Although disclosure in such instances is sometimes mandated by state professional ethics codes, more often the decision to disclose is left to the discretion of the individual lawyer. One of the few formal resources that offers guidance to defense counsel in making disclosure decisions is the American Bar Association\u27s Criminal Justice Standards for the Defense Function. This Essay discusses several aspects of proposed changes to the Standards, suggesting that the Proposed Standards could be strengthened by directly confronting practical questions they now avoid, such as what to tell the client about the limits of confidentiality: whether, when, and to whom disclosure should be made when in anticipation of physical harm or criminal conduct by the client; and the degree to which confidences should be revealed following the conclusion of representation

Measuring Change: From Rates of Recidivism to Markers of Desistance

Reducing the incidence of crime is a primary task of the criminal justice system and one for which it rightly should be held accountable. The system’s success is frequently judged by the recidivism rates of those who are subject to various criminal justice interventions, from treatment programs to imprisonment. This Article suggests that, however popular, recidivism alone is a poor metric for gauging the success of criminal justice interventions or of those who participate in them. This is true primarily because recidivism is a binary measure, and behavioral change is a multi-faceted process. Accepting recidivism as a valid, stand-alone metric imposes on the criminal justice system a responsibility beyond its capacity, demanding that its success turn on transforming even the most serious and intractable of offenders into fully law-abiding citizens. Instead of measuring success by simple rates of recidivism, policymakers should seek more nuanced metrics. One such alternative is readily available: markers of desistance. Desistance, which in this context means the process by which individuals move from a life that is crime-involved to one that is not, is evidenced not just by whether a person re-offends but also by whether there are increasing intervals between offenses and patterns of de-escalating behavior. These easily obtainable metrics, which are already widely relied on by criminologists, can yield more nuanced information about the degree to which criminal justice interventions correlate with positive (or negative) life changes. They also resemble more closely the ways in which other fields that address behavioral change such as education attempt to measure change over time. Measuring the success of criminal justice interventions by reference to their effects on desistance would mean seeking evidence of progress, not perfection. Such an approach would allow criminal justice agencies to be held accountable for promoting positive change without asking them to do the impossible, thereby creating new pathways by which the criminal justice system could be recognized for achieving real and measurable progress in crime reduction

Biosphärenreservat Rhön: Partizipation im Ökosystemaren Ansatz und historischer Rückblick

Im Herbst 2004 und Sommer 2005 waren im Biosphärenreservat Rhön Interviewer der Universitäten Freiburg und Kaiserslautern unterwegs und befragten Experten in den Biosphärenreservats-Verwaltungsstellen, Forstämtern, Tourismus-, Naturschutz- und Jagdverbänden sowie weitere Akteure. Dies geschah im Rahmen eines Forschungsvorhabens im Auftrag des Bundesamtes für Naturschutz (BfN), welches der Frage nachging, wie sich die Vorgaben des „Ökosystemaren Ansatzes der CBD“, in drei Biosphärenreservaten, darunter die Rhön, widerspiegeln.2 Der Ökosystemare Ansatz ist ein internationales Grundsatzpapier, das Leitlinien vorgibt, an denen sich wirtschaftlich Handelnde beim Eingriff in Ökosysteme orientieren sollen. Er ist Teil des „Übereinkommen über die Biologische Vielfalt“ oder Biodiversitätskonvention (Convention on Biological Diversity, CBD), mit der weltweit der Verlust der biologischen Vielfalt bekämpft werden soll. Die grundlegende Idee der Konvention, dass hierbei Gesellschaft und Umwelt gleichrangig behandelt werden sollen, führte zu ihren drei Haupt-Zielen: Schutz der biologischen Vielfalt – Nachhaltige Nutzung der biologischen Vielfalt – Gerechte Verteilung der Gewinne, die aus der Nutzung der biologischen Vielfalt entstehen. Ein Instrument, um dies zu erreichen, soll der Ökosystemare Ansatz sein

Experimental assessment of the speed of light perturbation in free-fall absolute gravimeters

Precision absolute gravity measurements are growing in importance, especially in the context of the new definition of the kilogram. For the case of free-fall absolute gravimeters with a Michelson-type interferometer tracking the position of a free falling body, one of the effects that needs to be taken into account is the speed of light perturbation due to the finite speed of propagation of light. This effect has been extensively discussed in the past, and there is at present a disagreement between different studies. In this work, we present the analysis of new data and confirm the result expected from the theoretical analysis applied nowadays in free-fall gravimeters. We also review the standard derivations of this effect (by using phase shift or Doppler effect arguments) and show their equivalence

Chronic Bilateral Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis as an Unusual Presentation of Congenital Panhypopituitarism due to Pituitary Hypoplasia in a 17-Year-Old Female

We report an interesting case of a 17-year-old normal-statured female who was diagnosed with congenital panhypopituitarism due to pituitary hypoplasia at the presentation of bilateral slipped capital femoral epiphysis. We emphasized the importance of endocrinologic evaluation in patients with atypical slipped capital femoral epiphysis to prevent potential complication of adrenal crisis during surgery. This case also demonstrates growth without growth hormone which resulted in a delay in diagnosis of congenital hypopituitarism in this patient