Case Study 3: Movement Lawyers and Community Organizers in Litigation: Issues of Finances and Collaboration

This essay represents one of several Case Studies published as the Movement Lawyering Roundtable Symposium by Hofstra Law Review. The Case Studies were developed within a roundtable of movement lawyers, community organizers, and legal ethics experts convened in March, 2018 by the Monroe H. Freedman Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics at Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law. This Case Study addresses the ethical tensions encountered by movement lawyers and community organizers engaged in public interest litigation. The Study consists of three topics, with resulting ethics analyses of the issues that arise in the differing settings. The first involves questions of financing the broad work of a community organizing client, while honoring the mandates of the rule of professional conduct prohibiting a lawyer from offering financial assistance to clients in litigation. The second issue addressed how lawyers might share attorneys’ fees awards with community groups who are ongoing clients. The third issue pivots to questions of how movement lawyers might counsel community organizations about disagreements with other pro bono lawyers representing the clients. Each of these sets of legal ethics issues arises in movement lawyering practice, and can be confounding. This essay seeks to offer guidance to lawyers navigating these sometimes delicate ethical waters

CURRENT STATUS OF AMBEWELA RESERVOIR OF SRI LANKA WITH SPECIALREFERENCE TO WATER POLLUTION

The water pollution trends in the Ambewela reservoir at the uppermost catchment of Kotmale River was assessed through a study on chemical and bio monitoring programme that carried out from March to October 2008.The mean average value (mean ± SD) of the nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and ammonia concentrations in Ambewela reservoir were 0.780 ± 1.386 mg/l, 0.103 ± 0.223mg/l, 0.051 ± 0.061mg/l and 0.218± 0.261 mg/l whereas values for the streams selected from Dambagasthalawa Oya were 0.985 ± 0.902 mg/l, 0.099  ± 0.207mg/l, 0.038 ± 0.026 mg/l and 0.085± 0.077 mg/l respectively. Average Chlorophyll- a values of the reservoir were 17.85 ± 17.858 mg/m3 and 8.30 ± 4.686 mg/m3for other two streams accordingly. Average BOD values of the reservoir were 8.06 ± 3.494 and 4.25 ± 2.251 for other two streams correspondingly.The bio monitoring studies also clearly showed sudden records of huge colonies of  Hydra(approximately 258/cm3) in the reservoir from time to time. This phenomenon was found in relatively dry period that directly coincided with intensified use of agro chemicals. Moreover, steady population of Chironomid (average population density 208/cm3) that is commonly accepted pollution indicator was reported at Ambewela reservoir throughout the study period.Therefore, both chemical and bio monitoring studies indicate eutrophic condition in Ambewela reservoir in which long run might affect on the ecology of the entire ecosystem. Hence prompt mitigatory action should be implemented to avoid further depletion.Key Words: Ambewela Reservoir, Water Pollution, Physico-Chemical Parameters, Chlorophyll –

Efficacy of Hyaluronic Acid Injections versus Steroid Injections on Painful Tendinopathies

Background: Tendinopathies are manifested by pain, swelling, and limited mobility functions. Corticosteroid injections have been a mainstay in the treatment of tendinopathy, and are widely used despite the controversy regarding their usefulness and safety. The peri-tendinous administration of hyaluronic acid (HA) has shown promising results in the management of tendinopathy. Objectives: The aim of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of peri-tendinous injections of hyaluronic acid versus steroid injections on pain reduction in patients with painful tendinopathies. Patients and methods: A prospective study, including a total of 90 patients with tendinopathy who were recruited from the Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Outpatient Clinic at Sohag University Hospital. Demographic data including age, disease duration, and tendon affected were evaluated. Patients were divided into three groups, each group contained 30 patients. First group received peritendinous steroid injection, second group received peritendinous hyaluronic acid injection, and the third group received both peritendinous hyaluronic acid and steroid injections. Groups were compared using in visual analogue scale, tenderness and range of motion after one week, one month and after 3 months from injection. Results: Best improvement was seen in the group of combined hyaluronic acid and steroid; followed by the group of steroid injection alone, which showed early response better than hyaluronic acid alone. Conclusion: Local injection for tendinopathies by combined hyaluronic acid and steroid gives significantly better and more long standing effect compared to either hyaluronic acid or steroid alone. On the other hand, monotherapy showed non-significant difference between steroid and hyaluronic acid

A ROBUST ARBITRARILY HIGH ORDER TRANSPORT METHOD OF THE CHARACTERISTIC TYPE FOR UNSTRUCTURED TETRAHEDRAL GRIDS

We present a robust arbitrarily high order transport method of the characteristic type for unstructured tetrahedral grids. Previously encountered difficulties have been addressed through the reformulation of the method based on coordinate transformations, evaluation of the moments balance relation as a linear system of equations involving the expansion coefficients of the projected basis, and the asymptotic expansion of the integral kernels in the thin cell limit. The proper choice of basis functions for the high-order spatial expansion of the solution is discussed and its effect on problems involving scattering discussed. Numerical tests are presented to illustrate the beneficial effect of these improvements, and the improved robustness they yield

Bioaccumulation of heavy metals in the selected commercially important edible fish species gray mullet (Mugil cephalus) from Negombo estuary

Consumption of fish contaminated with non essential heavy metals such as Pb, Hg and Cd metals which exceed the required limits pose a risk to human health. Bioaccumulations of heavy metals in fish depend on several factors such as increased levels of industrial pollution and domestic solid waste dumping in the estuary. Based on the pollution inputs into the estuary, it is considered that different localities within the estuary are polluted at different rates.The objectives of this study were to determine the non essential heavy metals concentration in fish tissues and assess the seasonal variations in the ecosystem. For this study, fish tissue samples were collected from nine sampling locations along the North (n =3), South (n=2), West (n=2), and East (n=2) parts of the estuary for a period of one year from January to December 2014. Fish tissue heavy metals levels were analyzed employing standard methods. Results revealed that the average concentrations (mg/kg) varied from Pb 0 to 0.15 ± 0.06, Cd 0.35 ± 0.16 to 1.04 ± 0.28 and Hg 0.0005 ± 0.0004 to 0.05 ± 0.046 mg/kg respectively. The detected levels were below the maximum permissible limits for hazardous substances in fish and fishery products for recommendation of FAO. The detected lead, mercury and cadmium contents in fish tissue were below the standard limits defined for each element < 0.5 mg/kg < 0.05 mg/kg and < 0.05 mg/kg respectively. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were observed for Pb and Hg depending on fish tissues. The levels of Pb and Hg metals in muscle tissue were lower than the standard limit for FAO. The value obtained on Cd 1.04 ± 0.28 mg/kg concentration was much higher than the permissible threshold limit observed in the north, south, east and west regions. The most prominent increases in Pb and Cd metal concentrations in fish tissue were found during the October, November and December study of 2014, which corresponded to peak periods from October, November and December which apparently coincided with the second inter monsoon of the island respectively

Coupling of surface temperatures and atmospheric CO_2 concentrations during the Palaeozoic era

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations seem to have been several times modern levels during much of the Palaeozoic era (543–248 million years ago), but decreased during the Carboniferous period to concentrations similar to that of today. Given that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, it has been proposed that surface temperatures were significantly higher during the earlier portions of the Palaeozoic era. A reconstruction of tropical sea surface temperatures based on the δ^(18)O of carbonate fossils indicates, however, that the magnitude of temperature variability throughout this period was small, suggesting that global climate may be independent of variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Here we present estimates of sea surface temperatures that were obtained from fossil brachiopod and mollusc shells using the 'carbonate clumped isotope' method—an approach that, unlike the δ^(18)O method, does not require independent estimates of the isotopic composition of the Palaeozoic ocean. Our results indicate that tropical sea surface temperatures were significantly higher than today during the Early Silurian period (443–423 Myr ago), when carbon dioxide concentrations are thought to have been relatively high, and were broadly similar to today during the Late Carboniferous period (314–300 Myr ago), when carbon dioxide concentrations are thought to have been similar to the present-day value. Our results are consistent with the proposal that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations drive or amplify increased global temperatures

Error analysis of the quartic nodal expansion method for slab geometry

This paper presents an analysis of the quartic polynomial Nodal Expansion Method (NEM) for one-dimensional neutron diffusion calculations. As part of an ongoing effort to develop an adaptive mesh refinement strategy for use in state-of-the-art nodal kinetics codes, we derive a priori error bounds on the computed solution for uniform meshes and validate them using a simple test problem. Predicted error bounds are found to be greater than computed maximum absolute errors by no more than a factor of six allowing mesh size selection to reflect desired accuracy. We also quantify the rapid convergence in the NEM computed solution as a function of mesh size

Oxidative Stress and Anti-Oxidant Markers in Premature Infants with Respiratory Distress Syndrome

BACKGROUND: Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) caused by decreased surfactant and structural lung immaturity. The imbalance between oxidative status and antioxidant defence system was suggested to be an important trigger for lung affection with RDS. AIM: The goal of the current research was to elucidate the significance of the oxidant/ antioxidant status in the pathogenesis of RDS in preterm infants. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This controlled study included 31 preterm neonates with RDS and 36 healthy preterm neonates. Quantification level of oxidative stress biomarkers; malondialdehyde (MDA) &amp; hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) along with antioxidant enzymes activity; catalase (CAT) &amp; superoxide dismutase (SOD) in plasma of healthy premature neonates compared with those with RDS. RESULTS: status of oxidative stress markers (MDA &amp; H2O2) showed a significant increase with decreased levels of antioxidant enzymes activity (CAT &amp; SOD) in neonates with RDS when compared to healthy prematures. CONCLUSION: The results obtained in this study indicate that the increased oxidative stress accompanied by reduced antioxidant defences may play a significant role in the pathogenesis of respiratory distress in preterm newborns

Proving Determinacy of the PharOS Real-Time Operating System

International audienceExecutions in the PharOS real-time system are deterministic in the sense that the sequence of local states for every process is independent of the order in which processes are scheduled. The essential ingredient for achieving this property is that a temporal window of execution is associated with every instruction. Messages become visible to receiving processes only after the time window of the sending message has elapsed. We present a high-level model of PharOS in TLA+ and formally state and prove determinacy using the TLA+ Proof System