Concert of Action by Substantial Assistance: Whatever happened to Unconscious Aiding and Abetting?

As one commentator has uncomfortably noted, in the 1980's, courts seemed inclined to develop and use theories of liability, which ensured that the risk of injury and loss was transferred from consumer victims to manufacturers and then, through the price mechanism, to the community-at-large. That was a time when courts seemed to be comfortable applying product liability without fault, and holding manufacturers as "insurers even for those products, which previously would not have been considered 'defective' in design, in manufacture, or in marketing." Since then, courts have scaled the doctrine back

CLS Stands for Critical Legal Studies, If Anyone Remembers

Critical Legal Studies (“CLS”), which started as a Left movement within legal academia, has undergone so many changes, that one may liken it to products of pop culture, such as the television cartoon show, South Park. South Park features a character named Kenny, totally unlike any other cartoon hero, tragic or otherwise. Like Kenny, who is an outsider and who speaks a language unintelligible to all except, astonishingly, his classmates, CLS no longer seems to possess a voice comprehensible to anyone outside its own small circle. Kenny, unlike all other cartoon figures, dies in every episode. Significantly, often Kenny's death has been self-inflicted--though not necessarily intentional--when, for instance, he ignores warnings of imminent danger. Like Kenny, CLS has suffered many often self-inflicted injuries. Like South Park, generally, CLS is certainly colorful, but often little more than that and, as in the cartoon, except for the certainty of Kenny's death and later resurrection, there seems more flash than substance in its existence. We are left to guess whether CLS will prove to be as resilient after apparent death, as Kenny

Advanced Scanning Electron Microscopy Methods and Applications to Integrated Circuit Failure Analysis

Semiconductor device failure analysis using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) has become a standard component of integrated circuit fabrication. Improvements in SEM capabilities and in digital imaging and processing have advanced standard acquisition modes and have promoted new failure analysis methods. The physical basis of various data acquisition modes, both standard and new, and their implementation on a computer controlled SEM image acquisition/processing system are discussed, emphasizing the advantages of each method. Design considerations for an integrated, online failure analysis system are also described. Recent developments in the integration of the information provided by electron beam analysis, conventional integrated circuit (IC) testing, computer-aided design (CAD), and device parameter testing into a single system promise to provide powerful future tools for failure analysis

Nutritional Content, Phytochemical Profiling, and Physical Properties of Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) Seeds for Promotion of Dietary and Food Ingredient Biodiversity

Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank to Donna Henderson, Lynn Pirie, and Jodie Park, from the Rowett Institute Analytical Department for doing the proximate, amino acid, and ICPMS analysis; and to the funders: Scottish Government′s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) and Ministério da Educação Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior Brazil (CAPES). Funding: This research was funded by the Scottish Government′s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) as part of the Strategic Research Programme 2016–2021 Crops 2022, 2, 3 303 and Ministério da Educação Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior–CAPES, Brazil.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Management of gastrointestinal stromal tumours

First Surgical Clinic, Department of Surgery, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Gr. T. Popa” Iasi, Romania, Al XI-lea Congres al Asociației Chirurgilor „Nicolae Anestiadi” din Republica Moldova și cea de-a XXXIII-a Reuniune a Chirurgilor din Moldova „Iacomi-Răzeșu” 27-30 septembrie 2011Tumorile stromale gastrointestinale (GIST) reprezintă cele mai frecvente tumori neepiteliale digestive (10%); ele constituie 3% din tumorile gastrointestinale. GIST-ul care originea în celulele Cajal și exprimă antigenul c-Kit. se localizează cel mai frecvent la nivelul stomacului (50-60%), urmat de intestinul subțire (30%), colon și ano-rect (5%). Metoda: am urmărit prospectiv 32 bolnavi cu GIST tratați în clinica noastră în perioada 2004-2011, confirmați imuno-histochimic. din acești 32 bolnavi, 8 au fost abordați laparoscopic. localizarea tumorilor a fost stomacul - 15, duodenul - 4, intestinul subțire-7, colonul-2 și rectul-4. Toți bolnavii au fost rezecați R0 cu excepția unui singur bolnav la care s-a practicat o rezecție anterioară de rect tip R1. Postoperator, 4 bolnavi au primit Imatinib. Toti bolnavii au fost urmăriți în medie 32 luni înregistrându-se 2 recidive după localizările rectale. Concluzie: diagnosticul preoperator de GIST poate fi bănuit prin metodele imagistice actuale (endoscopie, ecografie, CT, videocapsula). Multe GIST-uri gastrice pot fi rezecate laparoscopic dacă nu sunt localizate pe juxta orificială. și GIST-urile intestinului subțire pot fi rezecate prin abord miniminvaziv. Acest abord este fezabil în centre specializate și nu aduce riscuri suplimentare. Tipul rezecției potenșialul malign după indexul Fletcher sunt factorii cei mai importanți de prognostic. Tratamentul adjuvant este util în formele maligne, recidive, rezecții incomplete.A gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) represents the most common non-epithelial tumour of the digestive tract (about 10%). It originates in the intestinal pacemaker cell (Cajal’s cells) and expresses cell/surface CD 117 also known as c-Kit antigen. GIST tumors develop most frequently in the stomach (about 50-60%), the small bowel (30%), and the colon and anorectum (5%). METHODS: We have prospectively recorded the clinical characteristics, type of surgery, pathological findings, adjuvant treatment, and recurrence of the 32 patients with confirmed GISTs admitted between 2004 and 2011. We present a series of eight consecutive patients with GIST treated with a minimal access approach. RESULTS: The location of the tumor was gastric 15, duodenal 4, small bowel 7, colon 2, and rectal 4. None of our patients had clinical, imagistic, or macroscopic metastases. All the patients had R0 resections, except a patient with local excision and another with R1 anterior resection for rectal GISTs. Postoperatively, 4 patients received Imatinib therapy. The mean follow-up period is 32 months (range 8-58 months); 2 recurrences, both after rectal GISTs. CONCLUSION: Preoperative diagnosis of GIST can be evoked today based on imaging data (endoscopy, ultrasound scan, and CT scan, video capsule, enteroscopy). Many gastric GISTs can be resected laparoscopically. Small bowel GISTs should more often be evaluated laparoscopically and, in many cases, laparoscopic resections or laparoscopic-assisted resections may provide efficient therapy with low morbidity and no compromise to oncology principles. Laparoscopic approach of GISTs are feasible and, in competent hands, bring no additional risks. Fletcher index is the most significant prognostic factor. Imatinib treatment may improve outcomes in incomplete resected or high-risk GISTs

Consumption of a recommended serving of wheat bran cereals significantly increases human faecal butyrate levels in healthy volunteers and reduces markers of inflammation ex vivo.

Wheat bran cereals are an important source of dietary fibre. The aim of the study was to investigate if a high intake (120 g) of fibre rich breakfast cereal (which delivers the UK Government guidelines for fibre intake in one serving but is three-fold higher than the manufacturers recommended serving) has additional potential health benefits compared to the recommended serving (40 g, containing 11 g of dietary fibre). To assess this, the study determined the short chain fatty acid (SCFA) profiles in human faecal, urine and plasma samples after consumption of two different servings of fibre-rich cereal. Inhibition of prostanoid production was measured (ex vivo) in human colonic fibroblast cells after cytokine (IL-1β) inflammation stimulation. Eight healthy volunteers, 18-55 years old; BMI (18-30 kg/m2) consumed the wheat bran-rich "ready to eat cereal", at both the high (120 g) serving and recommended (40 g) serving. Faecal, urine and plasma samples were collected at baseline, throughout the five-hour intervention period and approximately 24 hours following consumption. Faecal butyrate showed the largest increase (p < 0.05) of more than a two-fold change following the consumption of the recommended serving of wheat bran cereal (from 13.95 ± 9.17 to 31.63 ± 20.53 mM) and no significant change following the higher serving (from 21.96 ± 11.03 to 22.9 ± 12.69 mM). ANOVA analysis also found a weak serving effect (p = 0.046) of the portion size (high vs. recommended) only for butyrate in urine 24 hours after consumption of the bran cereal. The physiological nutritionally relevant concentrations of faecal SCFAs, as determined in the volunteers' faecal samples showed significant anti-inflammatory activity or the individual faecal SCFAs; acetate (p < 0.001), propionate (p < 0.001) and butyrate (p < 0.01), as well as in combination. Plasma folate was also increased after consumption of both wheat bran servings and was significant (p = 0.037) at the three-hour time point following consumption of the high wheat bran serving. The consumption of the recommended serving (40 g) of wheat bran cereal increased the total microbial SCFAs levels (from 96.88 to 136.96 mM) compared to the higher serving (120 g) (from 110.5 to 117.64 mM) suggesting that the intake of the higher portion size is likely to promote a faecal bulking effect and thereby decrease colonic SCFA levels. These data indicate that consumption of the recommended serving of wheat bran cereal serving would therefore be sufficient to promote microbial butyrate formation, reduce colonic inflammation and increase plasma folate levels in humans

Atomic-scale confinement of optical fields

In the presence of matter there is no fundamental limit preventing confinement of visible light even down to atomic scales. Achieving such confinement and the corresponding intensity enhancement inevitably requires simultaneous control over atomic-scale details of material structures and over the optical modes that such structures support. By means of self-assembly we have obtained side-by-side aligned gold nanorod dimers with robust atomically-defined gaps reaching below 0.5 nm. The existence of atomically-confined light fields in these gaps is demonstrated by observing extreme Coulomb splitting of corresponding symmetric and anti-symmetric dimer eigenmodes of more than 800 meV in white-light scattering experiments. Our results open new perspectives for atomically-resolved spectroscopic imaging, deeply nonlinear optics, ultra-sensing, cavity optomechanics as well as for the realization of novel quantum-optical devices

Ultrafast nano-focusing with full optical waveform control

The spatial confinement and temporal control of an optical excitation on nanometer length scales and femtosecond time scales has been a long-standing challenge in optics. It would provide spectroscopic access to the elementary optical excitations in matter on their natural length and time scales and enable applications from ultrafast nano-opto-electronics to single molecule quantum coherent control. Previous approaches have largely focused on using surface plasmon polariton (SPP) resonant nanostructures or SPP waveguides to generate nanometer localized excitations. However, these implementations generally suffer from mode mismatch between the far-field propagating light and the near-field confinement. In addition, the spatial localization in itself may depend on the spectral phase and amplitude of the driving laser pulse thus limiting the degrees of freedom available to independently control the nano-optical waveform. Here we utilize femtosecond broadband SPP coupling, by laterally chirped fan gratings, onto the shaft of a monolithic noble metal tip, leading to adiabatic SPP compression and localization at the tip apex. In combination with spectral pulse shaping with feedback on the intrinsic nonlinear response of the tip apex, we demonstrate the continuous micro- to nano-scale self-similar mode matched transformation of the propagating femtosecond SPP field into a 20 nm spatially and 16 fs temporally confined light pulse at the tip apex. Furthermore, with the essentially wavelength and phase independent 3D focusing mechanism we show the generation of arbitrary optical waveforms nanofocused at the tip. This unique femtosecond nano-torch with high nano-scale power delivery in free space and full spectral and temporal control opens the door for the extension of the powerful nonlinear and ultrafast vibrational and electronic spectroscopies to the nanoscale.Comment: Contains manuscript with 4 figures as well as supplementary material with 2 figure