1025 research outputs found
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Jonathan Holloway
No full textLaw is a recent interest of mine, one which developed after I began college. As an economics major, I was initially introduced to the law through a research project I worked on that focused on the law and economics movement, a field that applies economic theory and method to the practice of law. As I became more and more interested in the law, I began thinking about a career in that field, but to be honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted to commit myself to three years of law school following graduation from SU. Happily, my experiences working as an intern for the judges at the Northumberland County Court of Common Pleas helped me overcome my reluctance.
The Adams Center for Law and Society provided one of the most important experiences I’ve had as an undergraduate at SU. As an Adams Center Scholar for the spring of 2012, I had the privilege of interning at the Northumberland County Court of Common Pleas for an entire semester.
During that time, I sat in on various types of hearings, as well as civil proceedings and criminal trials. I worked closely with Judge William Harvey Wiest, as well as with President Judge Robert Sacavage and Judge Charles H. Saylor, frequently meeting with them in their chambers to discuss different proceedings that were underway at the court house. These men were some of the smartest people I have ever met and it was a privilege to learn from them.
Having judges and their law clerks available to answer questions was a tremendous resource for me, as was my ongoing interaction with public defenders, the district attorney and local law enforcement personnel. All of these individuals contributed to giving me a perspective on law which cannot be learned in the classroom. Participating in discussions with the various members of the court workgroup offered a great way to learn the process of law and gain an understanding of how it is interpreted.
Over the course of my internship, as I gained more experience, the judges showed me how to brief cases for them and even invited me to help them write opinions in some cases. My understanding of law and the operations of the court were pretty minimal before this internship opportunity came along. Now, I have a good working knowledge of the criminal code, legal procedure, and what goes on in the courtroom, as well as behind the scenes in a county courthouse.
My experience as an Adams Center Scholar was invaluable in any number of ways—especially in terms of helping me decide on a career in law and preparing me for law school. It’s something I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life.https://scholarlycommons.susqu.edu/adams_scholars/1010/thumbnail.jp
Becoming a Nazi Town: Culture and Politics in Göttingen between the World Wars
No full textBecoming a Nazi Town reveals the ways in which ordinary Germans changed their cultural lives and their politics from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s. Casting the origins of Nazism in a new light, David Imhoof charts the process by which Weimar and Nazi culture flowed into each other. He analyzes this dramatic transition by looking closely at three examples of everyday cultural life in the mid-sized German city of Göttingen: sharpshooting, an opera festival, and cinema. Imhoof draws on individual and community experiences over a series of interwar periods to highlight and connect shifts in culture, politics, and everyday life. He demonstrates how Nazi leaders crafted cultural policies based in part on homegrown cultural practices of the 1920s and argues that overdrawn distinctions between “Weimar” and “Nazi” culture did not always conform to most Germans’ daily lives. Further, Imhoof presents experiences in Göttingen as a reflection of the common reality of many German towns beyond the capital city of Berlin.https://scholarlycommons.susqu.edu/facultybooks/1003/thumbnail.jp
Matt Wyman
No full textThrough the Adams Center at SU, I was able to secure an internship with the Snyder County District Attorney. The experience was of incalculable value. It gave me an opportunity to observe and, in many instances, participate in the daily dealings of individuals working in the legal profession and the justice system more broadly. Through my tenure as an intern at the district attorney’s office, I was able to observe both the rewarding aspects of a law career, as well as the more troublesome or stressful circumstances that may face a legal professional at any given point in time. As someone who intends to pursue a career in law, I was grateful for the opportunity to gain insight as to how the world of a legal professional unfolds on a daily basis.
My tasks at the district attorney’s office were varied, and each allowed me to get a look at the skills essential to a practicing attorney. Some of my work was office-based, such as researching legal cases pertaining to certain topics and writing briefs on these cases. I would also occasionally assist the District Attorney’s paralegal and secretaries with various tasks such as filing, paperwork and paper shredding. I was also responsible for a long-term research project throughout the semester in which I gathered data regarding all of the Snyder County DUI offenders from the years 2010 and 2011. I used this data to observe whether or not underage drinking offenses were a precursor for individuals who commited DUI offenses on a repetitive basis. The district attorney expressed the desire to in the future create a program which will target repeat DUI offenders based on my findings from this research project.
On days in which court proceedings were held, I was able to accompany the district attorney into the courtroom and view firsthand various proceedings including criminal trials, jury selection, bench hearings, bail revocation hearings and juvenile adjudication hearings. Also on a few occasions, I traveled with the district attorney to the office of District Judge Lori Hackenburg, where I observed a series of preliminary hearings. While all aspects of my internship were valuable, I felt that the observance of courtroom proceedings was of most value because it allowed for me to observe the formal rules and customs utilized throughout various court proceedings, and it allowed me to observe how legal professionals present themselves in a formal court setting.https://scholarlycommons.susqu.edu/adams_scholars/1017/thumbnail.jp
The Jack Bank: A Memoir of a South African Childhood
No full textA mesmerizing, powerful, and deeply moving memoir about one coming-of-age against a backdrop of a subcontinent in transition, Glen Retief’s THE JACK BANK explores what it was like for a privileged white boy to grow up in a pitiless society. His unflinching story of South Africa in the late 1970s to early 1990s explores not only issues of race and sexuality, but abuse, violence, and retribution. Some of the adults Retief trusted most were warm to him but brutal to the rest of the world. A family friend who taught Retief how to use police lingo on toy walkie-talkies turned out to be Dirk Coetzee, the most notorious South African death squad leader, who later confessed to killing hundreds of human rights activists and dumping their bodies in crocodile-infested rivers. The government military-style boarding school that Retief was sent to was the scene for tender and sweet love, but also for stints of severe hazing and outright torture. The title of the book comes from dormitory life at the school, where an older student charged with supervising younger boys invents the Jack Bank—where “jacks,” or beatings, can be “deposited” and tapped to escape the next cruelty session. Retief explores the jack bank as a metaphor both for the way apartheid worked—young white boys were dehumanized, so they’d turn into vicious oppressors—and as a window into the human condition, where violence so frequently seems to earn compound interest. Retief reveals enthralling images of his family life in the Kruger National Park, where his father worked as a conservationist. In one gripping chapter, he and his siblings are held hostage by a lion while camping, as their helpless parents tell him to sit still. Later in the book, at college, Retief’s struggles with his place in a violent society are complicated by a growing realization that he is gay—an inner conflict that, paradoxically, provides him with philosophical clarity. Of particular historical interest in The Jack Bank is Retief’s description of his years successfully lobbying the liberation movements to ban homophobic discrimination in the postapartheid Bill of Rights: the first country in the world to do so. But The Jack Bank isn’t just about a world being turned upside down. Retief is interested in the human heart, its conflicts and yearnings. In the book’s riveting conclusion, he writes, “At some level, of course, this is not important. . . just one more horror story in this collapsing country, this world full of [jack banks].”https://scholarlycommons.susqu.edu/facultybooks/1007/thumbnail.jp
Return Migration and Selective Citizenship: A Study of Returning Chinese Professional Migrants from the United States
Get PDFThis study examines one of the largest online communities of returning Chinese professional migrants and explores migrants\u27 choices and interpretations of citizenship. It proposes the concept of selective citizenship, showing how migrants negotiate complex citizenship requirements and choose nationality based on the international hierarchy of nation-states and on individual needs. Selecting or changing nationality is also a way for migrants to adapt to local conditions and assert their own identity and autonomy. Selective citizenship thus challenges the popular and idealized dual nationality model and reminds us of the importance of full considerations of historical and local contexts
MicroRNA expression signature in human abdominal aortic aneurysms
Get PDFBackground: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a dilatation of the aorta affecting most frequently elderly men. Histologically AAAs are characterized by inflammation, vascular smooth muscle cell apoptosis, and extracellular matrix degradation. The mechanisms of AAA formation, progression, and rupture are currently poorly understood. A previous mRNA expression study revealed a large number of differentially expressed genes between AAA and non-aneurysmal control aortas. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs that are post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression, could provide a mechanism for the differential expression of genes in AAA. Methods: To determine differences in miRNA levels between AAA (n = 5) and control (n = 5) infrarenal aortic tissues, a microarray study was carried out. Results were adjusted using Benjamini-Hochberg correction (adjusted p\u3c 0.05). Real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) assays with an independent set of 36 AAA and seven control tissues were used for validation. Potential gene targets were retrieved from miRNA target prediction databases Pictar, TargetScan, and MiRTarget2. Networks from the target gene set were generated and examined using the network analysis programs, CytoScape® and Ingenuity Pathway Core Analysis®. Results: A microarray study identified eight miRNAs with significantly different expression levels between AAA and controls (adjusted p \u3c 0.05). Real-time qRT-PCR assays validated the findings for five of the eight miRNAs. A total of 222 predicted miRNA target genes known to be differentially expressed in AAA based on a prior mRNA microarray study were identified. Bioinformatic analyses revealed that several target genes are involved in apoptosis and activation of T cells. Conclusions: Our genome-wide approach revealed several differentially expressed miRNAs in human AAA tissue suggesting that miRNAs play a role in AAA pathogenesis. Keywords: Apoptosis, Microarray analysis, Vascular biology, miRNA-mRNA analysis, Network analysi
The SAM Domain of Human TEL2 Can Abrogate Transcriptional Output from TEL1 (ETV-6) and ETS1/ETS2
Get PDFRegulation of gene expression downstream of the Receptor Tyrosine Kinase signaling pathway in Drosophila relies on a transcriptional effector network featuring two conserved Ets family proteins, Yan and Pointed, known as TEL1 (ETV6) and ETS1/ETS2, respectively, in mammals. As in Drosophila, both TEL1 and ETS1/ETS2 operate as Ras pathway transcriptional effectors and misregulated activity of either factor has been implicated in many human leukemias and solid tumors. Providing essential regulation to the Drosophila network, direct interactions with the SAM domain protein Mae attenuate both Yan-mediated repression and PointedP2-mediated transcriptional activation. Given the critical contributions of Mae to the Drosophila circuitry, we investigated whether the human Ets factors TEL1 and ETS1/ETS2 could be subject to analogous regulation. Here we demonstrate that the SAM domain of human TEL2 can inhibit the transcriptional activities of ETS1/2 and TEL1. Drosophila Mae can also attenuate human ETS1/ETS2 function, suggesting there could be cross-species conservation of underlying mechanism. In contrast, Mae is not an effective inhibitor of TEL1, suggesting the mode of TEL2SAM-mediated inhibition of TEL1 may be distinct from how Drosophila Mae antagonizes Yan. Together our results reveal both further similarities and new differences between the mammalian and Drosophila networks and more broadly suggest that SAM domain-mediated interactions could provide an effective mechanism for modulating output from the TEL1 and ETS1/2 oncogenes