Completely Unguided Discretion: Admitting Non-Statutory Aggravating and Non-Statutory Mitigating Evidence in Capital Sentencing Trials

[Excerpt] “As an attorney practicing exclusively in the area of death penalty defense at the trial level for the last ten years, my perspective on the problems inherent in the system seems vastly different from that presented in academic research and even in case law. While most of the recent changes in death penalty law have focused on the right of the defendant to have sentencing enhancing elements of an offense proven to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, much of the evidence presented in an actual death penalty jury trial is non-statutory aggravation and non-statutory mitigation. Generally, non-statutory aggravating evidence shows the impact of the crime on the victim’s family or involves prior bad acts of the defendant. Non-statutory mitigating evidence involves the defendant’s background, good character, and ability to adjust to a jail setting or anything about his involvement in the crime, which is mitigating. These types of evidence are admitted at the discretion of the trial judge, often without any instructional guidance for the jury. Little attention has been given to why it is constitutionally acceptable for the sentencing phase of a capital trial to be an evidentiary free-for-all and to whether this is an unconstitutional exercise of state power.

bERLinPro Booster Cavity Design, Fabrication and Test Plans

The bERLinPro project, a 100 mA, 50 MeV superconducting RF SRF Energy Recovery Linac ERL is under construction at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin for the purpose of studying the technical challenges and physics of operating a high current, c.w., 1.3 GHz ERL. This machine will utilize three unique SRF cryomodules for the injector, booster and linac module respectively. The booster cryomodule will contain three 2 cell SRF cavities, based on the original design by Cornell University, and will be equipped with twin 115 kW RF power couplers in order to provide the appropriate acceleration to the high current electron beam. This paper will review the status of the fabrication of the 4 booster cavities that have been built for this project by Jefferson Laboratory and look at the challenges presented by the incorporation of fundamental power couplers capable of delivering 115 kW. The test plan for the cavities and couplers will be given along with a brief overview of the cryomodule desig

Levinas and the New Woman Writers: Narrating the Ethics of Alterity

This study applies the ethical theories of Emmanuel Levinas to the novels and short stories of the major New Woman novelists of the fin de siècle in England. Chapter One introduces the study and its theoretical framework. Chapter Two discusses how New Woman writers confront their protagonists with ethical dilemmas framed as face-to-face encounters that can be read as the moment of ethics formation. They also gesture toward openness and indeterminacy through their use of carnivalesque characters. In Chapter Three, Levinas’s concepts of the said and the saying illuminate readings of polemical passages that interrogate the function of language to oppress or empower women. Chapter Four reads dreams, visions, allegories, and proems as mythic references to a golden age past that reframe the idea of feminine altruism. Chapter Five employs Levinas’s vision of the tragic artist to read New Woman Kunstlerroman. Chapter Six, the conclusion to the study, summarizes the underlying framework, the process that initiated the study, and considers implications for further research

First Horizontal Test Results of the HZB SRF Photoinjector for bERLinPro

The bERLinPro project, a small superconducting RF SRF c.w. energy recovery linac ERL is being built at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin in order to develop the technology required for operation of a high current, 100 mA, 50 MeV ERL. The electron source for the accelerator is a 1.4 cell SRF photoinjector fitted with a multi alkali photocathode. As part of the HZB photoinjector development program three different SRF photoinjectors will be fabricated and tested. The photoinjector described herein is the second cavity that has been fabricated, and the first photoinjector designed for use with a multi alkali photocathode. The photoinjector has been built and tested at JLab and subsequently shipped to HZB for testing in the horizontal test cryostat HoBiCaT prior to installation in the photoinjector cryomodule. This cryomodule will be used to measure the photocathode operation in a dedicated experiment called GunLab, the precursor to installation in the bERLinPro hall. This paper will report on the final results of the cavity installed in the helium vessel in the vertical testing dewar at Jefferson Lab as well as the first horizontal test in HoBiCa

Self-esteem in adolescent girls: The interaction of sleep, puberty, and age.

Adolescence is a period of dramatic physical, social, and emotional development and of increased vulnerability for development of psychological problems, especially in girls. Alterations in sleep composition, behavior, and timing are particularly dramatic, often leading to chronic sleepiness that amplifies other psychological issues. The present study investigated the relationship between pubertal changes, sleep changes, and self-esteem changes in a cross-sectional sample of adolescent girls all attending a single sex middle school. Sleep time decreased, circadian phase became delayed, sleepiness increased, and self-esteem decreased from 6th to 8th grade, as anticipated. A novel finding was an interaction between sleep quality, pubertal status, and self-esteem. There was no difference in self-esteem between good and poor sleeping pre-menarcheal girls. However, post-menarche, poor sleepers had dramatically lower self-esteem than good sleepers. This highlights the possibility that intervention in sleep might provide a window of opportunity to assist self-esteem in this vulnerable population

Fertility and early pregnancy outcomes after conservative treatment for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia

BACKGROUND: Cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN) typically occurs in young women of reproductive age. Although several studies have reported the impact that cervical conservative treatment may have on obstetric outcomes, there is much less evidence for fertility and early pregnancy outcomes. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of cervical treatment for CIN (excisional or ablative) on fertility and early pregnancy outcomes. SEARCH METHODS: We searched in January 2015 the following databases: the Cochrane Gynaecological Cancer Specialised Register, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; The Cochrane Library, Issue 12, 2014), MEDLINE (up to November week 3, 2014) and EMBASE (up to week 52, 2014). SELECTION CRITERIA: We included all studies reporting on fertility and early pregnancy outcomes (less than 24 weeks of gestation) in women with a history of CIN treatment (excisional or ablative) as compared to women that had not received treatment. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Studies were classified according to the treatment method used and the fertility or early pregnancy endpoint. Pooled risk ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using a random-effects model and inter-study heterogeneity was assessed with I(2). Two review authors (MK, AM) independently assessed the eligibility of retrieved papers and risk of bias. The two review authors then compared their results and any disagreements were resolved by discussion. If still unresolved, a third review author (MA) was involved until consensus was reached. MAIN RESULTS: Fifteen studies (2,223,592 participants - 25,008 treated and 2,198,584 untreated) that fulfilled the inclusion criteria for this review were identified from the literature search. The meta-analysis demonstrated that treatment for CIN did not adversely affect the chances of conception. The overall pregnancy rate was higher for treated (43%) versus untreated women (38%; RR 1.29, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.64; 4 studies, 38,050 participants, very low quality), although the inter-study heterogeneity was considerable (P < 0.01). The pregnancy rates in treated and untreated women with an intention to conceive (88% versus 95%, RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.80 to 1.08; 2 studies, 70 participants, very low quality) and the number of women requiring more than 12 months to conceive (14% versus 9%, RR 1.45, 95% CI 0.89 to 2.37; 3 studies, 1348 participants, very low quality) were no different. Although the total miscarriage rate (4.6% versus 2.8%, RR 1.04, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.21; 10 studies, 39,504 participants, low quality) and first trimester miscarriage rate (9.8% versus 8.4%, RR 1.16, 95% CI 0.80 to 1.69, 4 studies, 1103 participants, low quality) was similar for treated and untreated women, CIN treatment was associated with an increased risk of second trimester miscarriage, (1.6% versus 0.4%, RR 2.60, 95% CI 1.45 to 4.67; 8 studies, 2,182,268 participants, low quality). The number of ectopic pregnancies (1.6% versus 0.8%, RR 1.89, 95% CI 1.50 to 2.39; 6 studies, 38,193 participants, low quality) and terminations (12.2% versus 7.4%, RR 1.71, 95% CI 1.31 to 2.22; 7 studies, 38,208 participants, low quality) were also higher in treated women.The results should be interpreted with caution. The included studies were often small with heterogenous design. Most of these studies were retrospective and of low or very low quality (GRADE assessment) and were therefore prone to bias. Subgroup analyses for the individual treatment methods and comparison groups and analysis to stratify for the cone length was not possible. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis suggests that treatment for CIN does not adversely affect fertility, although treatment was associated with an increased risk of miscarriage in the second trimester. These results should be interpreted with caution as the included studies were non-randomised and many were of low or very low quality and therefore at high risk of bias. Research should explore mechanisms that may explain the increase in mid-trimester miscarriage risk and stratify this impact of treatment by the length of the cone and the treatment method used

Oxygen Atom Transfer to Half-Sandwich Complexes of Iridium and Rhodium

The oxidation chemistry of half-sandwich iridium and rhodium complexes was explored. Iridium(Cp*) and rhodium(Cp*) complexes were prepared with various bidentate ligands and then reacted with oxygen atom transfer reagents. While oxidative degradation of the organic ligands was observed when using the oxygen atom transfer reagents iodosylbenzene and dimethyldioxirane, clean products were obtained when using a soluble derivative of iodosylbenzene, 2-tert-butylsulfonyliodosylbenzene (sPhIO). Oxidation reactions with sPhIO were typically conducted at low temperatures to increase the chance of observing reactive intermediates. It was found that the bidentate ligand 2-phenylpyridine was susceptible to insertion reactions at both metal centers. Oxygen atom insertion was observed into the rhodium-carbon bond of coordinated 2-phenylpyridine in a rhodium(Cp*) complex. Oxygen atom insertion was not observed in the analogous iridium complex; instead, an isoelectronic nitrene insertion into the iridium-carbon bond of 2-phenylpyridine occurred upon oxygen atom transfer to a coordinated nitrile ligand of the iridium(Cp*) complex. Subsequent oxygen atom transfer to the nitrene insertion compound occurred, but the iridium product could not be identified. The possible intermediacy of high-valent iridium and rhodium complexes is discussed. In addition, model iridium complexes were prepared with oxidized phenylpyridine ligands. Their reactivity suggested deactivation pathways involving the bidentate ligands of common water oxidation catalysts.Doctor of Philosoph

Thesis Show Statement

During my early teenage and young adult years, I had problems finding my identity. I kept falling short of my goals and failing at who I wanted to become as I constantly tried to reconcile my inner self with the images produced by the external world. In my mid-twenties I began to reevaluate my immediate surroundings and discovered that as I grew in awareness my friends and family remained stagnant. I finally came to terms with myself by setting more realistic goals that had nothing to do with mass media's expectations. Once realizing how much mass media has defined and sculpted my sense of self, I was able to separate out the illusory expectations from the more realistic possibilities. It was at that point I started comparing the person I knew before with the one I had become. What I realized didn't surprise me, but it did scare me. I realized who I was before had everything to do with mass media~ besides the natural characteristics taken from my&nbsp; parents, at least half of who I was, I didn't own. No wonder I kept failing, all my expectations came from television, commercials, print ads, pop music, and movies. "Who made Who" goes a step further and proposes the following questions: Do you own your identity? No, not if you were born in the last twenty years during which time the mass media has become an entity without boundaries or biases. Are our toy companies and mass media simply reflecting who we are, or are we becoming who they want us to be? All three pieces, along with the still images, deal with the various ways mass media inflicts itself upon and defines our lives.</p