2007 Homicide Report: An Analysis of Homicides in Oakland from January through December, 2007

In past years Urban Strategies Council has produced quarterly or biannual reports on homicides in Oakland using detailed data provided by the Oakland Police Department's Homicide Section. Due to staffing shortages, the Oakland police Department is no longer able to provide this detailed data to the Council. As a result the 2007 Homicide Report uses data gleaned from public sources and some aggregated tables from the OPD's official report. From these data we have created this report on the characteristics of the 127 homicides that occurred in Oakland from January 1 through December 31, 2007. This report presents annual data from 2007 and shows how characteristics of homicides in Oakland changed from 2006 to 2007 and how 2007 homicides compare with the five -- year averages from 2003-2007.This report summarizes available information such as victim demographic characteristics (suspect details are less complete and less precise), locations and times of the incidents. Comparing 2007 data to a five-year average of homicides helps to provide a context for understanding whether there are emerging patterns that differ substantially from the patterns in prior years.This year sees the inclusion of some additional types of data relating to the nature of the homicides taking place in Oakland such as premises and types of weapons involved

GLObal Backscatter Experiment (GLOBE) Pacific survey mission

NASA conducted the GLObal Backscatter Experiment (GLOBE) Survey Mission over the near coastal and remote Pacific Ocean during 6 to 30 Nov. 1989 (GLOBE 1) and 13 May to 5 Jun. 1990 (GLOBE 2). These missions studied the optical, physical, and chemical properties of atmospheric aerosols. Particular emphasis was given to the magnitude and spatial variability of aerosol backscatter coefficients at mid-infrared wavelengths, and to the remote middle and upper troposphere, where these aerosol properties are poorly understood. Survey instruments were selected to provide either direct beta measurements at the key wavelengths, empirical links with long term or global scale aerosol climatologies, or aerosol microphysics data required to model any of these quantities. The survey deployment included both long distance 6 to 8 hour transit flights and detailed 4 to 6 hour local flights. Several general features were observed from preliminary Survey data analyses. Validation and intercomparison results have shown good agreement, usually better than a factor of two. Atmospheric aerosols frequently exhibited a three layer vertical structure, with (1) high and fairly uniform backscatter in the shallow cloud capped marine boundary layer; (2) moderate and highly variable backscatter in a deeper overlaying cloud pumped layer; and (3) low, regionally uniform, but seasonally and latitudinally variable backscatter in the middle and upper troposphere. The survey missions represent two isolated snapshots of a small portion of the global aerosol system. Consequently, Survey results can best be understood by synthesizing them with the more comprehensive GLOBE data base, which is being compiled at NASA-Marshall

Quantification of the inevitable: the influence of soil macrofauna on soil water movement in rehabilitated open-cut mined lands

Recolonisation of soil by macrofauna (especially ants, termites and earthworms) in rehabilitated open-cut mine sites is inevitable and, in terms of habitat restoration and function, typically of great value. In these highly disturbed landscapes, soil invertebrates play a major role in soil development (macropore configuration, nutrient cycling, bioturbation, etc.) and can influence hydrological processes such as infiltration, seepage, runoff generation and soil erosion. Understanding and quantifying these ecosystem processes is important in rehabilitation design, establishment and subsequent management to ensure progress to the desired end goal, especially in waste cover systems designed to prevent water reaching and transporting underlying hazardous waste materials. However, the soil macrofauna is typically overlooked during hydrological modelling, possibly due to uncertainties on the extent of their influence, which can lead to failure of waste cover systems or rehabilitation activities. We propose that scientific experiments under controlled conditions and field trials on post-mining lands are required to quantify (i) macrofauna–soil structure interactions, (ii) functional dynamics of macrofauna taxa,and (iii) their effects on macrofauna and soil development over time. Such knowledge would provide crucial information for soil water models, which would increase confidence in mine waste cover design recommendations and eventually lead to higher likelihood of rehabilitation success of open-cut mining land

Invariant manifolds and the geometry of front propagation in fluid flows

Recent theoretical and experimental work has demonstrated the existence of one-sided, invariant barriers to the propagation of reaction-diffusion fronts in quasi-two-dimensional periodically-driven fluid flows. These barriers were called burning invariant manifolds (BIMs). We provide a detailed theoretical analysis of BIMs, providing criteria for their existence, a classification of their stability, a formalization of their barrier property, and mechanisms by which the barriers can be circumvented. This analysis assumes the sharp front limit and negligible feedback of the front on the fluid velocity. A low-dimensional dynamical systems analysis provides the core of our results.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures. To appear in Chaos Focus Issue: Chemo-Hydrodynamic Patterns and Instabilities (2012

Nanoarrays for the generation of complex optical wave-forms

Light beams with unusual forms of wavefront offer a host of useful features to extend the repertoire of those developing new optical techniques. Complex, non-uniform wavefront structures offer a wide range of optomechanical applications, from microparticle rotation, traction and sorting, through to contactless microfluidic motors. Beams combining transverse nodal structures with orbital angular momentum, or vector beams with novel polarization profiles, also present new opportunities for imaging and the optical transmission of information, including quantum entanglement effects. Whilst there are numerous well-proven methods for generating light with complex wave-forms, most current methods work on the basis of modifying a conventional Hermite-Gaussian beam, by passage through suitably tailored optical elements. It has generally been considered impossible to directly generate wave-front structured beams either by spontaneous or stimulated emission from individual atoms, ions or molecules. However, newly emerged principles have shown that emitter arrays, cast in an appropriately specified geometry, can overcome the obstacles: one possibility is a construct based on the electronic excitation of nanofabricated circular arrays. Recent experimental work has extended this concept to a phase-imprinted ring of apertures holographically encoded in a diffractive mask, generated by a programmed spatial light modulator. These latest advances are potentially paving the way for creating new sources of structured light

Benefits and Challenges of Support Facilitation in an Inclusive Classroom

The purpose of this inquiry was to determine the benefits and challenges of support facilitation in an inclusive classroom. To answer our inquiry questions, we (UNF ESE teacher candidates) collected data on general education (GE) teachers and the varying exceptional (VE) teachers’ perceptions of support facilitation at Coastal Middle School through surveys, observational walkthroughs, and teacher interviews. From the data, we discovered benefits and challenges in four overarching categories: teachers’ perceptions, collaboration, instruction, and student engagement themes. As a result of the data, we recommended that Coastal Middle School outline clear and explicit roles for both the GE teacher and the special education teacher during the co-planning and co-teaching process, train the teachers on how to co-plan together, inform them of co-teaching methods they can use, and to create a schedule where the VE teacher only needs to focus on one class during each period

City of Oakland 2008 Homicide Report

To advance community and policymaker understanding of the trends in homicides, the Urban Strategies Council is collecting and analyzing data on the characteristics of victims and suspects involved in Oakland homicides; identifying geographic changes in the homicide patterns, and examining social and economic conditions in which the homicides occurred. This is a report on the 125 homicides that took place in Oakland in 2008. This report includes basic statistics on victim demographics, locations and times. It also includes comparisons to homicides in in 2007 and over the 5-year period of 2004-2008 and maps of the locations of the homicides

Stability and the Evolvability of Function in a Model Protein

Functional proteins must fold with some minimal stability to a structure that can perform a biochemical task. Here we use a simple model to investigate the relationship between the stability requirement and the capacity of a protein to evolve the function of binding to a ligand. Although our model contains no built-in tradeoff between stability and function, proteins evolved function more efficiently when the stability requirement was relaxed. Proteins with both high stability and high function evolved more efficiently when the stability requirement was gradually increased than when there was constant selection for high stability. These results show that in our model, the evolution of function is enhanced by allowing proteins to explore sequences corresponding to marginally stable structures, and that it is easier to improve stability while maintaining high function than to improve function while maintaining high stability. Our model also demonstrates that even in the absence of a fundamental biophysical tradeoff between stability and function, the speed with which function can evolve is limited by the stability requirement imposed on the protein.Comment: Biophysical Journal in pres

Alternative transfection methods for Sf9 cells in vaccine development

Current CHO and HEK293 platform processes are suitable for a majority of gene-based and protein-based vaccine candidates, but do not always provide adequate production of virus-like particles (VLPs) as observed by inconsistent and low titers. Thus, alternative production platforms are being considered. One option that we are exploring is the use of insect cells as an alternative host, specifically Sf9, since they are biologically well suited to produce VLP’s for mosquito-borne viruses. We first considered a Baculovirus infection method, and successfully produced all components of two VLP’s in our system. However, during initial studies of this process, we encountered issues with the assembly of the VLPs due to the low pH of Sf9 cultures (Figure 1). Thus, we pH adapted Sf9 cells to 7.0 and determined optimal bioreactor parameters to control pH throughout the process. With the capability to maintain cells at this higher pH, the Baculovirus/Sf9 platform looks promising. However, there are additional manufacturing complications to consider. There are concerns with Baculovirus contamination of dual-use equipment and more extensive and costly processing downstream to address viral inactivation and isolation. Thus, we are also considering a transient transfection process. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract