Book Review: in Pursuit of Justice: Reflections of a State Supreme Court Justice. by Joseph R. Grodin.

Book review: In Pursuit of Justice: Reflections of a State Supreme Court Justice. By Joseph R. Grodin. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA.: University of California Press. 1989. Pp. xxi, 208. Reviewed by: Mark S. Pulliam

Book Review: Democratic Theories and the Constitution. by Martin Edelman.

Book review: Democratic Theories and the Constitution. By Martin Edelman. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1984. Pp. 399. Reviewed by: Mark S. Pulliam

Predictors of the Treatment Retention and Quality of Recovery from Opioid Use Disorder Using Buprenorphine in Medication-Assisted Treatment: A Pilot Study of the Effects of Hope, Grit, and Readiness to Change

Opioid misuse remains at epidemic proportions in the United States and other countries. Buprenorphine has been found effective in treating opioid use disorder (OUD). Understanding the roles of personal characteristics and readiness to change in addiction treatment retention and quality of recovery could be beneficial in office-based medication-assisted treatment for OUD. Researchers have explored OUD treatment methods and outcomes and have examined various predictive factors in treatment results, including demographic, socioeconomic, and psychological variables. However, few characteristics have been found to be consistent indicators of treatment retention and recovery quality. The constructs of hope agency, hope pathways, grit, and readiness to change as predictors of treatment retention and recovery quality in office-based OUD programs and how these constructs relate to clinical application and future research were examined in this study. Data analysis indicated that hope agency, hope pathways, and grit were predictive of recovery quality but not of treatment retention. Readiness to change was not predictive of recovery quality or retention. The clinical implication is that identifying predictive personal characteristics can lead to enhanced treatment planning and better treatment outcomes. As a pilot study, the sample size was too small to establish statistical significance. However, these findings contribute to OUD treatment literature and highlight the need for additional research in this area, possibly validating these findings in larger populations

Book Review: Democratic Theories and the Constitution. by Martin Edelman.

Book review: Democratic Theories and the Constitution. By Martin Edelman. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1984. Pp. 399. Reviewed by: Mark S. Pulliam

Slab tears and intermediate‐depth seismicity

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2013. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 40 (2013): 4244-4248, doi:10.1002/grl.50830.Active tectonic regions where plate boundaries transition from subduction to strike slip can take several forms, such as triple junctions, acute, and obtuse corners. Well‐documented slab tears that are associated with high rates of intermediate‐depth seismicity are considered here: Gibraltar arc, the southern and northern ends of the Lesser Antilles arc, and the northern end of Tonga trench. Seismicity at each of these locations occurs, at times, in the form of swarms or clusters, and various authors have proposed that each marks an active locus of tear propagation. The swarms and clusters start at the top of the slab below the asthenospheric wedge and extend 30–60 km vertically downward within the slab. We propose that these swarms and clusters are generated by fluid‐related embrittlement of mantle rocks. Focal mechanisms of these swarms generally fit the shear motion that is thought to be associated with the tearing process

Climate and nitrogen controls on the geography and timescales of terrestrial biogeochemical cycling

We used the terrestrial ecosystem model “Century” to evaluate the relative roles of water and nitrogen limitation of net primary productivity, spatially and in response to climate variability. Within ecology, there has been considerable confusion and controversy over the large-scale significance of limitation of net primary production (NPP) by nutrients versus biophysical quantities (e.g., heat, water, and sunlight) with considerable evidence supporting both views. The Century model, run to a quasi-steady state condition, predicts “equilibration” of water with nutrient limitation, because carbon fixation and nitrogen fluxes (inputs and losses) are controlled by water fluxes, and the capture of nitrogen into organic matter is governed by carbon fixation. Patterns in the coupled water, nitrogen, and carbon cycles are modified substantially by ecosystem type or species-specific controls over resource use efficiency (water and nitrogen used per unit NPP), detrital chemistry, and soil water holding capacity. We also examined the coupling between water and nutrients during several temperature perturbation experiments. Model experiments forced by satellite-observed temperatures suggest that climate anomalies can result in significant changes to terrestrial carbon dynamics. The cooling associated with the Mount Pinatubo eruption aerosol injection may have transiently increased terrestrial carbon storage. However, because processes in the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles have different response times, model behavior during the return to steady state following perturbation was complex and extended for decades after 1- to 5-year perturbations. Thus consequences of climate anomalies are influenced by the climatic conditions of the preceding years, and climate-carbon correlations may not be simple to interpret

Seismic evidence for a slab tear at the Puerto Rico Trench

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2013. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 105 (2013): 2915-2923, doi:10.1002/jgrb.50227.The fore‐arc region of the northeast Caribbean plate north of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands has been the site of numerous seismic swarms since at least 1976. A 6 month deployment of five ocean bottom seismographs recorded two such tightly clustered swarms, along with additional events. Joint analyses of the ocean bottom seismographs and land‐based seismic data reveal that the swarms are located at depths of 50–150 km. Focal mechanism solutions, found by jointly fitting P wave first‐motion polarities and S/P amplitude ratios, indicate that the broadly distributed events outside the swarm generally have strike‐ and dip‐slip mechanisms at depths of 50–100 km, while events at depths of 100–150 km have oblique mechanisms. A stress inversion reveals two distinct stress regimes: The slab segment east of 65°W longitude is dominated by trench‐normal tensile stresses at shallower depths (50–100 km) and by trench‐parallel tensile stresses at deeper depths (100–150 km), whereas the slab segment west of 65°W longitude has tensile stresses that are consistently trench normal throughout the depth range at which events were observed (50–100 km). The simple stress pattern in the western segment implies relatively straightforward subduction of an unimpeded slab, while the stress pattern observed in the eastern segment, shallow trench‐normal tension and deeper trench‐normal compression, is consistent with flexure of the slab due to rollback. These results support the hypothesis that the subducting North American plate is tearing at or near these swarms. The 35 year record of seismic swarms at this location and the recent increase in seismicity suggest that the tear is still propagating

Mass Spectrometry in the Home and Garden

Identification of active components in a variety of chemical products used directly by consumers is described at both trace and bulk levels using mass spectrometry. The combination of external ambient ionization with a portable mass spectrometer capable of tandem mass spectrometry provides high chemical specificity and sensitivity as well as allowing on-site monitoring. These experiments were done using a custom-built portable ion trap mass spectrometer in combination with the ambient ionization methods of paper spray, leaf spray, and low temperature plasma ionization. Bactericides, garden chemicals, air fresheners, and other products were examined. Herbicide applied to suburban lawns was detected in situ on single leaves 5 d after application

Characteristics of Mantle Fabrics beneath the South-Central United States: Constraints from Shear-Wave Splitting Measurements

New shear-wave splitting measurements at permanent broadband seismic stations in the south-central United States reveal the orientation and degree of polarization of mantle fabrics, and provide constraints on models for the formation of these fabrics. For stations on the stable North American craton, correspondence between observed polarization direction of the fast wave and the trend of Proterozoic and Paleozoic structures associated with rifts and orogenic belts implies a lithospheric origin for the observed anisotropy. The largest splitting times (up to 1.6 s) are observed at stations located in the ocean-continent transition zone, in which the fast directions are parallel to the Gulf of Mexico continental margin. The parallelism and the geometry of the keel of the craton beneath the study area suggest that asthenospheric flow around the keel of the North American craton, lithospheric fabrics developed during Mesozoic rifting, or a combination of these factors are responsible for the observed anisotropy on stations above the transitional crust