Recent Legal Literature

Clark (ed.): Probate Reports Annotated: with Notes and References; Wharton: The Law of Homicide; Ballard: Cream of the Law; The American Political Science Review

Case-control study of arsenic in drinking water and lung cancer in California and Nevada.

Millions of people are exposed to arsenic in drinking water, which at high concentrations is known to cause lung cancer in humans. At lower concentrations, the risks are unknown. We enrolled 196 lung cancer cases and 359 controls matched on age and gender from western Nevada and Kings County, California in 2002-2005. After adjusting for age, sex, education, smoking and occupational exposures, odds ratios for arsenic concentrations ≥85 µg/L (median = 110 µg/L, mean = 173 µg/L, maximum = 1,460 µg/L) more than 40 years before enrollment were 1.39 (95% CI = 0.55-3.53) in all subjects and 1.61 (95% CI = 0.59-4.38) in smokers. Although odds ratios were greater than 1.0, these increases may have been due to chance given the small number of subjects exposed more than 40 years before enrollment. This study, designed before research in Chile suggested arsenic-related cancer latencies of 40 years or more, illustrates the enormous sample sizes needed to identify arsenic-related health effects in low-exposure countries with mobile populations like the U.S. Nonetheless, our findings suggest that concentrations near 100 µg/L are not associated with markedly high relative risks

The Norse waterways of West Mainland Orkney, Scotland

This study was funded by BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants 2017-18 Round.Norse place-names for farms, individual landscape features and general landscape areas are ubiquitous throughout the Orkney Islands. These have an origin during the mediaeval period AD790–1350 when Orkney was ruled by Scandinavian earls. The oldest referenced maps for the parish of Harray (West Mainland, Orkney) suggests that in the past significant waterways crossed wetlands extending between the Loch of Harray and Houseby in an area associated with the earldom power base at Birsay. Subsequent drainage projects, changes in climate and sea level have since resulted in the loss of the waterways. An investigation of the wetlands using geophysical and geological analysis provided a reconstruction of the palaeo-environments. Comparison with place-names of significance allowed interpretation of possible routeways along navigable waters by shallow-draught Viking-Age vessels. The results allow for re-drawing the map of Norse Orkney and postulation of produce transfer corridors from estates in the south to the power centre at Birsay.PostprintPeer reviewe

Note and Comment

The Effect of Abandonment on the Contract of Affreightment; The constitutionality of Statutory Restriction Upon Sales of Merchandise; Constitutionality of State Laws as to Service of Process on Foreign Corporations; Creditors\u27 Right to Hold Shareholders Liable on Corporate Stock Issued for Property Valued on the Basis of Prospective Profits; Heirs as Grantees with Mixed Estates of Entirety to Parent

Biomass Fuel Use and Cardiac Function in Nepali Women.

BackgroundExposure to household air pollution (HAP) from cooking with biomass fuel affects billions of people. We hypothesized that HAP from woodsmoke, compared to other household fuels, was associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes, of which there have been few studies.MethodsA cross-sectional study was completed in 299 females aged 40-70 years in Kaski District, Nepal, during 2017-18. All participants underwent a standard 12-lead ECG, ankle and brachial systolic blood pressure measurement, and 2D color and Doppler echocardiography. Current stove type was confirmed by inspection. Blood pressure, height, and weight were measured using a standardized protocol. Hypertension was defined as ≥140/90 mmHg or prior diagnosis. Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) was obtained, with diabetes mellitus defined as a prior diagnosis or HbA1C ≥ 6.5%. We used adjusted linear and logistic multivariable regressions to examine the relationship of stove type with cardiac structure and function.ResultsThe majority of women primarily used liquified petroleum gas (LPG) stoves (65%), while 12% used biogas, and 23% used wood-burning cook-stoves. Prevalence of major cardiovascular risk factors was 35% with hypertension, 19% with diabetes mellitus, and 15% current smokers. After adjustment, compared to LPG, wood stove use was associated with increased indexed left atrial volume (β = 3.15, 95% CI 1.22 to 5.09) and increased indexed left ventricular end diastolic volume (β = 7.97, 95% CI 3.11 to 12.83). There was no association between stove type and systemic hypertension, left ventricular mass, systolic dysfunction, diastolic dysfunction, pulmonary hypertension, abnormal ankle-brachial index, or clinically significant ECG abnormalities.ConclusionBiomass fuel use was associated with increased indexed left atrial volume and increased indexed left ventricular diastolic volume in Nepali women, suggesting subclinical adverse cardiac remodeling from HAP in this cross-sectional study. We did not find evidence of an association with hypertension or typical cardiac sequelae of hypertension. Future studies to confirm these results are needed

Note and Comment

The Law School; Unauthorized Operation by Physician; The Kansas Oil Refinery Bill; Garnishment of Public Corporations; The rule in Wild\u27s Case Today; Effect of a complicated Form of Ballot on the Elector\u27s Freedom of Choice; Situs of Debts for Garnishment; Malicious Interference With the Contract of Employmen

Primordial helium recombination III: Thomson scattering, isotope shifts, and cumulative results

Upcoming precision measurements of the temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at high multipoles will need to be complemented by a more complete understanding of recombination, which determines the damping of anisotropies on these scales. This is the third in a series of papers describing an accurate theory of HeI and HeII recombination. Here we describe the effect of Thomson scattering, the $^3$He isotope shift, the contribution of rare decays, collisional processes, and peculiar motion. These effects are found to be negligible: Thomson and $^3$He scattering modify the free electron fraction $x_e$ at the level of several $\times 10^{-4}$. The uncertainty in the $2^3P^o-1^1S$ rate is significant, and for conservative estimates gives uncertainties in $x_e$ of order $10^{-3}$. We describe several convergence tests for the atomic level code and its inputs, derive an overall $C_\ell$ error budget, and relate shifts in $x_e(z)$ to the changes in $C_\ell$, which are at the level of 0.5% at $\ell =3000$. Finally, we summarize the main corrections developed thus far. The remaining uncertainty from known effects is $\sim 0.3$ in $x_e$.Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures, to be submitted to PR

Book Reviews

Nims: The Law of Unfair Business Competition; Moore: A Treatise on Facts or the Weight and Value of Evidence; Reeder: Rate Regulation, as Affected by the Distribution of Governmental Powers in the Constitutions; Reeves: A Treatise on the Law of Real Property; Lorenzen: Cases on the Conflict of Law

Note and Comment

Constitutional Privileges in the Philippine Islands; A Laudatory Publication as a Cause of Action; The Cy-Pres Doctrine; Duty of Vendee to See to Investment of Funds; the Power to Declare a forfeiture and Sell Property Used in Violation of a Statute; Dying Declarations; Juvenile Courts and Jury Trials for Neglected, Delinquent, Children

AVIAN SPECIATION IN THE PANTEPUI: THE CASE OF THE RORAIMAN ANTBIRD (PERCNOSTOLA [SCHISTOCICHLA] ‘‘LEUCOSTIGMA’’ SATURATA)

This is the published version. Copyright Central Ornithology Publication OfficeWe document the first records for Guyana of Roraiman Antbird (Percnostola [Schistocichla] “leucostigma” saturata), an endemic of the tepui highlands of southeastern Venezuela, northern Brazil and western Guyana. This form is well differentiated from nominate leucostigma (Spot-winged Antbird) of the Guianan lowlands in morphology, vocalizations, and genetics, and replaces it both altitudinally and ecologically. The two taxa are distributed parapatrically on the continuously forested northeastern slopes of the eastern tepuis, and they almost certainly come into contact, yet there is no evidence of intermediacy. We recommend that saturata be treated as a distinct species of Percnostola, and consider its' origin in the light of various models of speciation in the tepuis