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This is a brief overview of the worldline and memes of Yurii Reshetnyak (1929–1921), the Russian leader of geometric analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We implement the Boolean valued analysis of Banach spaces. The realizations of Banach spaces in a Boolean valued universe are lattice normed spaces. We present the basic techniques of studying these objects as well as the Boolean valued approach to injective Banach lattices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why are hate crime cases so rarely prosecuted? Most states and the federal government have hate crime laws on their books, yet available data indicate few prosecutions in most jurisdictions. Drawing on case files and interviews with police and prosecutors in one jurisdiction, three institutional impediments to hate crime prosecution are identified: evidentiary inflation, by which law enforcement uses a higher burden of proof than what is required by statute; loose coupling between police departments and prosecutors' offices; and cultural distance between law enforcement and victims. Findings also reveal that advocacy groups and media can successfully increase the visibility of cases and draw the attention of prosecutors. The findings align with aspects of legal endogeneity theory and enhance our understanding of the role of organizations in constructing the meaning of law. The results also help explain why some laws are rarely enforced, even when they have support from key personnel in an organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excited State Intramolecular Proton Transfer (ESIPT), originally discovered and explored in depth in a number of extensive photophysical studies, is more recently rediscovered as a powerful synthetic tool, offering rapid access to complex polyheterocycles. In our prior work we have employed ESIPT in aromatic o-keto amines and amides, leading to diverse primary photoproducts—complex quinolinols or azacanes possessing a fused lactam moiety—which could additionally be modified in short, high-yielding postphotochemical reactions to further grow complexity of the heterocyclic core scaffold and/or to decorate it with additional functional groups. Given that sulfonamides are generally known as privileged substructures, in this study we pursued two goals: (i) To explore whether sulfonamides could behave as proton donors in the context of ESIPT-initiated photoinduced reactions; (ii) To assess the scope of subsequent complexity-building photochemical and postphotochemical steps, which give access to polyheterocyclic molecular cores with fused cyclic sulfonamide moieties. In this work we show that this is indeed the case. Simple sulfonamide-containing photoprecursors produced the sought-after heterocyclic products in experimentally simple photochemical reactions accompanied by significant step-normalized complexity increases as corroborated by the Böttcher complexity scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a brief overview of the worldline and memes of Sergei Sobolev (1908–1989), a cofounder of distribution theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although diversifying the criminal justice apparatus may yield more equitable outcomes, empirical tests of how prosecutors' race affects their decisions are limited. Informed by Internalized Racism Theory (IRT), we hypothesized that Black prosecutors would be most punitive toward Black defendants, followed by Latino/a defendants, and least toward White and Asian defendants. Employing hierarchical logistic modelling, we analyzed data from a large prosecutorial office to examine the extent to which prosecutors' race is associated with racial disparities in custodial plea offers and charge reductions. We found notable support for our hypotheses. In cases disposed of by Black prosecutors, Black and Latino/defendants are significantly more likely to receive custodial plea offers than are similarly-situated White and Asian defendants. Although the direction of the relationship with charge reductions was in line with our hypotheses, no significant effects were detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We implement the Boolean valued analysis of Baer -algebras and Jordan–Banach algebras. These algebras transform into - and -factors. Presentation of the factors as operator algebras leads to Kaplansky–Hilbert modules. We overview the basic properties of these objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plant homeodomain (PHD) finger is a major epigenetic reader that recognizes methylated and unmodified histone H3 tails. A set of PHD fingers capable of binding to proteins other than histone H3 and DNA has been identified. PHD fingers can bind to the H3-like sequences of eukaryotic and viral proteins, named histone mimetics, and these interactions can disturb normal cell signaling programs. Dual interaction with histone and DNA enhances the association of zinc finger modules with chromatin. Plant homeodomain (PHD) fingers comprise a large and well-established family of epigenetic readers that recognize histone H3. A typical PHD finger binds to the unmodified or methylated amino-terminal tail of H3. This interaction is highly specific and can be regulated by post-translational modifications (PTMs) in H3 and other domains present in the protein. However, a set of PHD fingers has recently been shown to bind non-histone proteins, H3 mimetics, and DNA. In this review, we highlight the molecular mechanisms by which PHD fingers interact with ligands other than the amino terminus of H3 and discuss similarities and differences in engagement with histone and non-histone binding partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We overview the main ideas and techniques of the functional-analytical approach to some extremal problems of convex geometry that stem from the Queen Dido problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant homeodomain (PHD) fingers are structurally conserved zinc fingers that selectively bind unmodified or methylated at lysine 4 histone H3 tails. This binding stabilizes transcription factors and chromatin-modifying proteins at specific genomic sites, which is required for vital cellular processes, including gene expression and DNA repair. Several PHD fingers have recently been shown to recognize other regions of H3 or histone H4. In this review, we detail molecular mechanisms and structural features of the noncanonical histone recognition, discuss biological implications of the atypical interactions, highlight therapeutic potential of PHD fingers, and compare inhibition strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a brief overview of the worldline, contributions, and memes of Aleksandr Alexandrov (1912–1999), the first and foremost Russian geometer of the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mostly covering 2018 to 2022 This Highlight article describes a personal selection of recent misassigned structures of natural products and their revision with the aid of DU8ML, a machine learning-augmented DFT computational method for fast and accurate calculations of solution NMR chemical shifts and spin–spin coupling constants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the consequences of hate crime victimization primarily focuses on adverse health and economic effects with limited attention devoted to the socio-behavioral impact of crime. Informed by Intersectionality Theory (Crenshaw, 1989) and relying on 400 in-person structured interviews with LGBTQ Latine immigrant victims of crime in Miami, this research finds that 23% of victims had to change housing, 13% began avoiding queer venues/friends, and 35% started acting stereotypically "straight" because of the crime. New immigrant victims were more likely to experience forced relocation due to crime. Victims were more likely to adopt heteronormative behavior/appearance as a result of victimization if they were non-Cuban-American, had higher income, and were more closeted. Findings suggest that coming out can be an important crime control strategy. The paper concludes with a discussion about the benefits and limitations of adopting the intersectionality perspective in quantitative research, and three-stage venue-based sampling used to recruit participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unusual polyenols that defied chemical principles were reassigned as the nucleosides, adenosine and uridine, using a combination of chemical intuition underpinned by Computer Assisted Structure Elucidation (CASE) and DFT methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: This study offers a localized test of the bifurcation hypothesis, which suggests that jurisdictions adopting decarceral policies for lower‐level offenses often do so at the expense of increased punitiveness toward more serious offenses. Relying on fresh data from Florida, we examine how adopting a new diversion program targeting low‐level traffic offenses affects overall prosecutorial diversion decisions. The new program is associated with an estimated 8% decrease in the odds of diversion to existing programs. Analyses of marginal effects suggest that the new program reduced diversion for more serious offenses by up to 43%. Although having a prior record disadvantaged defendants overall, defendants with more prior arrests experienced less of a diversion penalty after the new program; but defendants with more prior prison sentences were treated even more punitively after program implementation. Policy Implications: In support of the bifurcation hypothesis, the effects of a new prosecutor‐led diversion program for low‐level offenses were attenuated by decreased diversion usage for other programs targeting more serious offenses. New diversion policies should focus on the adoption of programs that expand the pool of divertible cases rather than focusing only on minor offenses. Prosecutors should also critically examine prior record considerations in diversion offers, which disqualify defendants from many diversion programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An erased Kantorovich space is the lattice ordered additive group of a Kantorovich space. We study the special role of erased Kantorovich spaces in extending positive, dominated, and lattice homomorphisms and also the existence of unbounded polar-preserving group homomorphisms. Our method of study is Boolean-valued analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dearomative cycloadditions offer rapid access to complex 3D molecular architectures, commonly via a sp2‐to‐sp3 rehybridization of two atoms of an aromatic ring. Here we report that the 6e π‐system of a benzenoid aromatic pendant could be exhaustively depleted within a single photochemical cascade. An implementation of this approach involves the initial dearomative [4+2] cycloaddition of the Excited State Intramolecular Proton Transfer (ESIPT)‐generated azaxylylene, followed by two consecutive [2+2] cycloadditions of auxiliary π moieties strategically positioned in the photoprecursor. Such photochemical cascade fully dearomatizes the benzenoid aromatic ring, saturating all six sp2 atoms to yield a complex sp3‐rich scaffold with high control of its 3D molecular shape, rendering it a robust platform for rapid systematic mapping of underexplored chemical space. Significant growth of molecular complexity—starting with a modular synthesis of photoprecursors from readily available building blocks—is quantified by Böttcher score calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers and public officials tend to agree that until a vaccine is readily available, stopping SARS-CoV-2 transmission is the name of the game. Testing is the key to preventing the spread, especially by asymptomatic individuals. With testing capacity restricted, group testing is an appealing alternative for comprehensive screening and has recently received FDA emergency authorization. This technique tests pools of individual samples, thereby often requiring fewer testing resources while potentially providing multiple folds of speedup. We approach group testing from a data science perspective and offer two contributions. First, we provide an extensive empirical comparison of modern group testing techniques based on simulated data. Second, we propose a simple one-round method based on l1-norm sparse recovery, which outperforms current state-of-the-art approaches at certain disease prevalence rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We investigate path dependence and barriers to the acceptance and implementation of reform-minded prosecution, which focuses on reducing unnecessary incarceration, promoting fairness, engaging with the community, and improving accountability in the criminal justice system. Method: Using semistructured interviews with 47 prosecutors in two Florida jurisdictions, both with newly elected state attorneys, we explore reform-minded prosecution priorities and barriers to their effective implementation. Results: Findings suggest that though reform-minded priorities are present in the study prosecutor's offices, existing prosecutorial norms, case-focused decision-making, policy ambiguities, and communication challenges serve as barriers to their effective implementation. Conclusions: The study highlights the role that line agents play in determining the success of reform-minded prosecution. It also identifies key barriers to reform that reform-minded prosecutors must overcome if they are to achieve meaningful changes toward greater effectiveness, transparency, and impartiality in prosecution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of a study conducted by the authors in 12 Georgian companies, which examined the psychological relevance of the position of employees in senior positions. According to the authors, the staff of the surveyed companies is recruited only as a result of checking their professional level and, in general, Georgian companies do not pay attention to the psychological characteristics of the applicants. According to the authors, there should be centers in Georgia that determine the psychological types of able-bodied population, the assessment, and recommendations of which should be taken into account by the employer when hiring staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under consideration are the construction and properties of some special class of second other tangent sets on using the technique of nonstandard analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the influence of the type of defense counsel on prosecutorial and judicial decisions in domestic violence cases. We found that the type of defense counsel mattered more in sentencing compared with previous decision points. Cases handled by private attorneys were less likely to experience charge reductions at screening and be dismissed. However, decision patterns are reversed postarraignment, where charges start to decrease at a higher rate for cases represented by private counsel. Defendants represented by private lawyers were less likely to plead guilty, but they were also markedly less likely to face incarceration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contains two main results that are obtained by using Boolean valued analysis. The first asserts that a universally complete vector lattice without locally one-dimensional bands can be decomposed into a direct sum of two vector sublattices that are laterally complete and invariant under all band projections and there exists a band preserving linear isomorphism of each of these sublattices onto the original lattice. The second result establishes a counterpart of the Ando Theorem on the joint characterization of ALp and c0 (Γ) for the class of the so-called B -cyclic Banach lattices, using the Boolean valued transfer for injective Banach lattices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Binding of the Spp1 PHD finger to histone H3K4me3 is sensitive to adjacent post-translational modifications in the histone tail. This commentary discusses the findings of He and colleagues [Biochem. J. 476, 1957-1973] which show that the PHD finger binds to H3K4me3 in a selective manner which is conserved in the Saccharomyces pombe and mammalian orthologues of Spp1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural misassignments of natural products are prevalent in the literature. Developing methods and theoretical concepts to assist those undertaking structural elucidation is therefore of paramount importance, such that biologists and synthetic chemists avoid pursuing phantom chemical entities. Herein described is a strategy for predicting the isolabilities of oxygen‐substituted bridgehead natural products based on calculations of olefin strain energies, NMR chemical shifts and coupling constants (DU8+). This approach provides corroborating evidence for the structures of certain bridgehead alkene natural products while leading to the reassignment of several other structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural misassignments of natural products are prevalent in the literature. Developing methods and theoretical concepts to assist those undertaking structural elucidation is therefore of paramount importance, such that biologists and synthetic chemists avoid pursuing phantom chemical entities. Herein described is a strategy for predicting the isolabilities of oxygen‐substituted bridgehead natural products based on calculations of olefin strain energies, NMR chemical shifts and coupling constants (DU8+). This approach provides corroborating evidence for the structures of certain bridgehead alkene natural products while leading to the reassignment of several other structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

the proposed structure of arneroma B has been revised from a cyclopentadienone to a 2,4-disubstituted furan. The reassignment has been confirmed by total synthesis of the revised structure. [Display omitted] • Molecular formula reassigned by MS. • Structure reassignment by NMR. • Confirmed by synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have demonstrated antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticancer, and cardioprotective activities of dietary polyphenols, but due to diverse structures and subclasses of polyphenols, little is known about their mechanisms of action. The study by Yamaguchi et al. published in JBC provides mechanistic insights into how dietary polyphenols confer histone-binding ability on certain proteins and motivates the research community to further explore health benefits of polyphenols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today the special attention is paid to development of innovative capacity of the higher education. Innovative educational technologies mean purposeful, intelligent change of pedagogical activity (and managements of this activity) through development and introduction in educational institutions pedagogical and administrative innovations: new content of training, education, management; new ways of work, new means, new forms of organization. This article shows the understanding of innovations in the higher education of Georgia and through consideration the main characteristics forming "a portrait of innovative educational institution". Various levels of innovations depending on degree of novelty of elements of educational practice are allocated. Constructive characteristics of innovations, which can act as criteria of innovations in education are described. Activity, design, competence-based innovative educational approaches and technologies corresponding to them are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study challenges the common notion that plea bargaining is necessarily beneficial to defendants. It examines the factors influencing the likelihood of taking a misdemeanor case to trial, and the probability of acquittal upon reaching trial. Defendants charged with more serious crimes, persons crimes, crimes with victims, and represented by private attorneys were more likely to go to trial than to be pleaded out. By contrast, very few factors influenced trial outcomes, and the effect of race was fairly weak. Perhaps most important is the finding that two in five cases going to trial resulted in acquittal, showing that guilt is not a foregone conclusion which may provide leverage to defendants in the plea-bargaining process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Although social scientists and legal scholars have made valuable headway in identifying and explaining the relationships between myriad demographic, social, and legal factors and case outcomes, a sizable gap in understanding remains with respect to how cases evolve across decision points and how charges change for different racial and ethnic groups at individual decision points and cumulatively. This gap is partially addressed in this study through the examination of charge decreases, increases, and no change at three essential decision points—case screening for prosecution, arraignment, and final disposition. The results show that, overall, screening and disposition were much more dynamic decision points than was arraignment and that one third of cases experienced a charge decrease at some point. Even though racial differences in charge reductions at case screening were not large, at arraignment and disposition, as well as cumulatively, Black and Latino defendants were less likely than White defendants to have charges decreased. Conversely, Asian defendants experienced even more favorable outcomes than White defendants as they were more likely to have charges reduced and less likely to experience an increase. These findings are framed in the context of focal concerns, cumulative disadvantage, and “charge reasonableness” arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reader domains that recognize methylated lysine and arginine residues on histones play a role in the recruitment, stabilization, and regulation of chromatin regulatory proteins. Targeting reader proteins with small molecule and peptidomimetic inhibitors has enabled the elucidation of the structure and function of specific domains and uncovered their role in diseases. Recent progress towards chemical probes that target readers of lysine methylation, including the Royal family and plant homeodomains (PHD), is discussed here. We highlight recently developed covalent cyclic peptide inhibitors of a plant homeodomain. Additionally, inhibitors targeting previously untargeted Tudor domains and chromodomains are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the presence of different nucleophilic Knoevenagel competitors, cyclic and acyclic ketones have been shown to undergo highly chemoselective aldol reactions with aldehydes. In doing so, the substrate breadth for this emerging methodology has been significantly broadened. The method is also no longer beholden to proline-based catalyst templates, e.g., commercially available O-t-Bu-L-threonine is advantageous for acyclic ketones. The key insight was to exploit water-based mediums under conventional (in-water) and non-conventional (deep eutectic solvents) conditions. With few exceptions, high aldol-to-Knoevenagel chemoselectivity (>10:1) and good product profiles (yield, dr, and ee) were observed, but only in DESs (deep eutectic solvents) in conjunction with ball milling did short reaction times occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atom- and step-economy in photoassisted diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) is achieved with a versatile oxalyl linker offering rapid access to complex alkaloid mimics in very few experimentally simple steps: (i) it allows for fast tethering of the photoactive core to the unsaturated pendants, especially important in the case of (hetero)aromatic amines -- essentially a one-pot reaction with no isolation of intermediates; (ii) the α-dicarbonyl tether acts as a chromophore enhancer, extending the conjugation chain and facilitating the "harvest" of the lower energy photons for the primary and secondary photoreactions; (iii) it enhances the quantum yield of intersystem crossing (ISC), i.e., it is capable of sensitizing secondary photochemical processes in the cascade; and (iv) the tether forms an additional heterocyclic moiety, imidazolidine-4,5-dione, a known pharmacophore. The overall photoassisted cascade is an efficient complexity-building process as quantified by computed step-normalized complexity indices, leading to extended polyheterocyclic molecular architectures comparable in complexity to natural products such as paclitaxel while requiring only 2-4 simple synthetic steps from readily available chemical feedstock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NMR data for 90+ natural sesquiterpenes possessing triquinane cores were examined with the help of a relatively fast parametric/DFT hybrid computational method, DU8+. Thirteen of these compounds, i.e., approximately 14% of the sample, required structure correction. This rate of misassignment is similar to the percentage of misassigned halogenated sesquiterpenes reported previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inequality is a characteristic of societies worldwide, and many groups face disparities across a range of domains from economy to health to justice. While inequality is a complex problem in which many of these domains are interconnected, most research examines only one area, or at most the effect of one area on another. This paper details an innovative approach to studying inequality using an indicators methodology. The Equality Indicators are comprised of 96 measures of inequality and how it changes annually across six themes: Economy, Education, Health, Housing, Justice, and Services. It compares the experiences of those most likely to be adversely affected by inequalities to those of less disadvantaged groups. Here, we detail the development of the tool, its structure, data sources, and scoring system, followed by baseline findings from New York City, where we combined administrative and secondary public survey data with the data from a new public survey conducted for this study. We found substantial inequalities across all six themes, although they were most pronounced in Health and Justice. While we are not able to make direct comparisons of indicators in a given year, the intention of the tool is to track change over time; in future years we will be able to compare change or lack thereof across indicators and domains. The current findings across areas, however, suggest that New York City is characterized by vast inequalities, where disadvantaged groups are twice as likely as others to experience negative outcomes in fundamental areas of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Halogenated natural products constitute diverse and promising feedstock for molecular pharmaceuticals. However, their solution-structure elucidation by NMR presents several challenges, including the lack of fast methods to compute 13C chemical shifts for carbons bearing heavy atoms. We show that parametric corrections to DFT-computed chemical shifts in conjunction with rff-computed spin-spin coupling constants allow for fast and reliable screening of a large number of reported halogenated natural products, resulting in expedient structure validation or revision. In this paper, we examine more than 100 structures of halogenated terpenoids and other natural products with the new parametric approach and demonstrate that the accuracy of the combined method is sufficient to identify misassignments and suggest revisions in most cases (16 structures are revised). As the 1D ¹H and 13C NMR data are ubiquitous and most routinely used in solution structure elucidation, this fast and efficient two-criterion method (nuclear spin-spin coupling and 13C chemical shifts) which we term DU8+ is recommended as the first essential step in structure assignment and validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a survey of some recent applications of Boolean-valued models of set theory to the study of order-bounded operators in vector lattices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structure revision of a recently reported spirodecane sesquiterpene, cordycepol A, from fungi Cordyceps ophioglossoides was enabled by fast and accurate calculations of nuclear spin-spin coupling constants (SSCCs) with a relativistic force field (DU8c) parametric method. Two other reported cordycepols, B and C, are also identified as misassigned. Calculations of accurate SSCCs, which contain a wealth of structural information, offer a chemically intuitive tool for structure elucidation, rendering the whole structure revision process more guided and intentional, while augmenting in a synergistic way the calculations of chemical shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minority overrepresentation in the criminal justice system has long been an important topic of research and policy debate. In New York City, recent changes in the Rockefeller Drug Laws and the controversy around police stop-and-frisk practices have placed an even greater emphasis on the need for studying the possible impact of defendants’ race and ethnicity on criminal justice outcomes. Relatively little contemporary research, though, examines plea-bargaining outcomes. Using unique data on misdemeanor marijuana cases, this study examines the impact of defendants’ race on prosecutors’ decisions to make (a) plea offers for a lesser charge and (b) sentence offers for non-custodial punishments. Preliminary findings indicated that black defendants were less likely to receive reduced charge offers, and both black and Latino defendants were more likely to receive custodial sentence offers. However, these disparities were largely explained by legal factors, evidence, arrest circumstances, and court actor characteristics, though black defendants were still more likely to receive custodial sentence offers after including these controls. No differences were found between white and Asian defendants. Implications for research and prosecutorial practices are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

2-(o-Amidophenyl)oxa- and -thiazolines undergo excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT), generating aza-o-xylylenes capable of intramolecular [4+2] and [4+4] cycloadditions with tethered unsaturated pendants. Facile hydrolysis of the primary photoproducts, spiro-oxazolidines and thiazolidines, under mild conditions unmasks a phenone functionality. Variations in linkers allow for access to diverse core scaffolds in the primary photoproducts, rendering the approach compatible with the philosophy of diversityoriented synthesis. Chiral oxazolines, readily available from the corresponding amino alcohols, yield enantioenriched keto-polyheterocycles of complex topologies with enantiomeric excess values up to 90%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photogenerated aza-o-xylylenes undergo intramolecular cycloaddition reactions to tethered oxazoles, with primary photoproducts featuring a reactive cyclic imine moiety suitable for multicomponent postphotochemical transformations. For example, the reaction of these imine photoproducts with bromoacetyl bromide leads to a key 1,4-dielectrophilic synthon, offering access to diverse polyheterocyclic molecular architectures. This reaction sequence is accompanied by rapid growth complexity in a very few simple synthetic steps, and is in keeping with the philosophy of diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arrests and arrest records play an important role in the criminal justice system. Police agencies customarily use suspects' prior record for investigative purposes, and courts use this information to set bail. Yet many arrest practices, and particularly stop-and-frisk, have long been criticized for disproportionately targeting young black and Latino men, and for their overall negative effect on communities of color. Not surprisingly then, arrest practices have received much attention, including among legal scholars and social scientists. However, what effect a prior arrest record has on other decision points, including prosecutorial decision making, is relatively unknown. In particular, we have a limited understanding about the relationship between prior arrest and plea bargaining. In this Article, we present three arguments--legal, moral, and cost arguments--to demonstrate the negative consequences of arrests and arrest records. We use a unique empirical study of the relationship between prior arrests and plea offers in the New York County District Attorney's Office, to support two propositions: (a) arrests should be viewed as a last resort to be used whenever issuing warnings, citations, or summonses would be inadequate safeguards of public safety; and (b) prosecutors' offices should not use prior arrest as a factor by default when making plea offer determinations unless they are able to show that using prior conviction record alone would not be sufficient to serve the purposes of justice, safety, and fairness. We argue that using nonconviction prior arrest in determining punishment in subsequent nonrelated cases is contrary to the principles of the presumption of innocence, race-neutral decision making, and wise criminal justice expenditure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using computational methods and chemical intuition, the proposed structure of janthinolide A is shown to be incorrect. It is further shown that the material described as janthinolide A is highly likely to be janthinolide C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) is a chief epigenetic regulator. In a new article, Chen et al . describe the crystal structure of the heterotetrameric PRC2 holo complex, which provides important mechanistic insights into the organization of its subunits and the association of PRC2 with chromatin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previously, we reported a reliable DU8 method for natural bond orbital (NBO)-aided parametric scaling of Fermi contacts to achieve fast and accurate prediction of proton-proton spin-spin coupling constants (SSCC) in ¹H NMR. As sophisticated NMR experiments for precise measurements of carbon-proton SSCCs are becoming more user-friendly and broadly utilized by the organic chemistry community to guide and inform the process of structure determination of complex organic compounds, we have now developed a fast and accurate method for computing 13C-¹H SSCCs. Fermi contacts computed with the DU8 basis set are scaled using selected NBO parameters in conjunction with empirical scaling coefficients. The method is optimized for inexpensive B3LYP/6-31G(d) geometries. The parametric scaling is based on a carefully selected training set of 274 (³J), 193 (²J), and 143 (¹J) experimental 13C-¹H spin-spin coupling constants reported in the literature. The DU8 basis set, optimized for computing Fermi contacts, which by design had evolved from optimization of a collection of inexpensive 3-21G*, 4-21G, and 6-31G(d) bases, offers very short computational (wall) times even for relatively large organic molecules containing 15-20 carbon atoms. The most informative SSCCs for structure determination, i.e., ³J, were computed with an accuracy of 0.41 Hz (rmsd). The new unified approach for computing ¹H-¹H and 13C-¹H SSCCs is termed "DU8c". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of cases in the United States are disposed of through plea bargaining; however, this important discretionary point has received relatively little attention from researchers compared with trial and jury proceedings, and other discretionary points such as arrest and sentencing. Additionally, although evidence is considered an important factor in determining case outcomes, its influence on prosecutors' decisions regarding plea offers is less clear. In this study, we examined the potential impact of evidentiary factors, as well as other legal and extralegal factors, on two plea bargaining decisions, plea-to-a-lesser charge offers and sentence offers, using data on felony drug cases processed by the New York County District Attorney's office. We found that prosecutors made more punitive charge offers when they had audio/video evidence, eyewitness identification(s), prerecorded buy money used by an undercover officer in a buy-and-bust operation, or had recovered currency. Of all evidence factors analyzed, only the recovery of currency predicted sentence offers. By contrast, three other factors--defendants' detention status, the presence of multiple plea offers, and prior prison sentence--had a much greater impact on charge and sentence offers. Although additional research is needed, it is possible that evidence has a greater impact at the initial stages of a case, particularly on the decision about whether to accept a case for prosecution, than it does on subsequent prosecutorial decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An obituary for mathematician and retired college professor Edward Nelson is presented.