Violent Crimes and Known Associates: The Residual Clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act

Confusion reigns in federal courts over whether crimes qualify as “violent felonies” for purposes of the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”). The ACCA requires a fifteenyear minimum sentence for felons convicted of possessing a firearm who have three prior convictions for violent felonies. Many offenders receive the ACCA’s mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years based on judges’ guesses that their prior crimes could be committed in a violent manner—instead of based on the statutory crimes for which they were actually convicted. Offenders who do not deserve a minimum sentence of fifteen years may receive it anyway. The courts’ application of the ACCA is also underinclusive. Although the ACCA defines “violent felony” to include all crimes “involving conduct that presents a serious potential risk of bodily injury to another,” a 2008 Supreme Court decision has drastically narrowed the so-called residual clause. Begay v. United States held that crimes fall under the residual clause only if they are “purposeful, violent, and aggressive” as a matter of law. This imprecise, extra-statutory formula has resulted in the exclusion of some seriously risky crimes of recklessness and negligence, and created tension with the nearly identical “crime of violence” definition in the career offender sentencing guideline. This Article is the first to survey ACCA jurisprudence after Begay and the Court’s 2009 decision in Chambers v. United States and to detail the conflict between these decisions, the text of the ACCA, and the Court’s prior precedent. This Article offers lower courts a way to apply the ACCA’s residual clause with greater respect for the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, the statutory text, and precedent. First, courts should narrowly construe Begay’s requirement of “purposeful” conduct to exclude strict liability crimes from the residual clause but include crimes of negligence and recklessness. Second, courts should read Begay’s “aggressive” requirement as a rhetorical flourish without any meaningful distinction from its “violent” requirement. Third, despite Begay’s apparent invitation to do otherwise, courts should strictly follow the “categorical approach” as set forth in Taylor v. United States. The net result of these three steps would be a greater faithfulness to the text of the ACCA: courts applying the residual clause would include only those crimes whose elements require violent conduct while excluding those crimes whose elements do not require violence or any mens rea

Entering the Thicket - Mandamus Review of Texas District Court Witness Disclosure Orders.

In the absence of statutory authorization of interlocutory appeal, the writ of mandamus usually is the sole convenient remedy for an egregious trial court decision prior to judgment. The increasing number of mandamus petitions which annually invade the Texas appellate courts reflects the importance of the writ of mandamus. While once described as the “extraordinary” remedy, it is not uncommon for proceedings in a trial court to cease while a party seeks mandamus review of a controversial discovery ruling. One type of discovery rule which has not escaped mandamus review is the admission or exclusion of the testimony of witnesses whom a party has failed to disclose in response to a discovery request. In the decision of Mother Frances Hospital v. Coats, a Texas court of appeals determined, at least in some cases, mandamus is an appropriate remedy for an erroneous trial court witness disclosure order. This opinion could offer litigants an escape valve from pre-trial witness disclosure orders which threaten the effective presentation of a claim or defense. Conversely this opinion could trigger even more mandamus petitions to the appellate courts, thus contributing to the “thicket” of review mechanisms which interrupt trial processes. Having “entered the thicket” to control or correct even one trial court witness disclosure order, the Texas appellate courts will soon be asked to review in mandamus proceedings on more such orders. Some petitions undoubtedly will attempt to implicate the appellate courts in routine questions more appropriately left to the trial court’s discretion, while other petitions will seek appellate intervention in the erroneous exclusion of critical trial witnesses. The appellate courts must tolerate some abuse of mandamus procedures to ensure, in cases where mandamus is necessary, trial proceedings are fair and equitable to all parties

Who the hell was that? Stories, bodies and actions in the world

This article explores a two-way relationship between stories and the experiential actions of bodies in the world. Through an autoethnographic approach, the article presents a series of interlinked story fragments in an effort to show and evoke a feel for the ways in which stories, bodies, and actions influence and shape each other over time. It offers some reflections on the experiences the stories portray from the perspective of a social constructionist conception of narrative theory and suggest that while stories exert a powerful influence on the actions of our bodies, our bodies intrude on or ‘talk back’ to this process because bodies have an existence beyond stories

Characterization of cytoskeletal and junctional proteins expressed by cells cultured from human arachnoid granulation tissue

BACKGROUND: The arachnoid granulations (AGs) are projections of the arachnoid membrane into the dural venous sinuses. They function, along with the extracranial lymphatics, to circulate the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to the systemic venous circulation. Disruption of normal CSF dynamics may result in increased intracranial pressures causing many problems including headaches and visual loss, as in idiopathic intracranial hypertension and hydrocephalus. To study the role of AGs in CSF egress, we have grown cells from human AG tissue in vitro and have characterized their expression of those cytoskeletal and junctional proteins that may function in the regulation of CSF outflow. METHODS: Human AG tissue was obtained at autopsy, and explanted to cell culture dishes coated with fibronectin. Typically, cells migrated from the explanted tissue after 7–10 days in vitro. Second or third passage cells were seeded onto fibronectin-coated coverslips at confluent densities and grown to confluency for 7–10 days. Arachnoidal cells were tested using immunocytochemical methods for the expression of several common cytoskeletal and junctional proteins. Second and third passage cultures were also labeled with the common endothelial markers CD-31 or VE-cadherin (CD144) and their expression was quantified using flow cytometry analysis. RESULTS: Confluent cultures of arachnoidal cells expressed the intermediate filament protein vimentin. Cytokeratin intermediate filaments were expressed variably in a subpopulation of cells. The cultures also expressed the junctional proteins connexin43, desmoplakin 1 and 2, E-cadherin, and zonula occludens-1. Flow cytometry analysis indicated that second and third passage cultures failed to express the endothelial cell markers CD31 or VE-cadherin in significant quantities, thereby showing that these cultures did not consist of endothelial cells from the venous sinus wall. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first report of the in vitro culture of arachnoidal cells grown from human AG tissue. We demonstrated that these cells in vitro continue to express some of the cytoskeletal and junctional proteins characterized previously in human AG tissue, such as proteins involved in the formation of gap junctions, desmosomes, epithelial specific adherens junctions, as well as tight junctions. These junctional proteins in particular may be important in allowing these arachnoidal cells to regulate CSF outflow

Photonic Crystal Waveguides for >90% Light Trapping Efficiency in Luminescent Solar Concentrators

Luminescent solar concentrators are currently limited in their potential concentration factor and solar conversion efficiency by the inherent escape cone losses present in conventional planar dielectric waveguides. We demonstrate that photonic crystal slab waveguides tailored for luminescent solar concentrator applications can exhibit >90% light trapping efficiency. This is achieved by use of quantum dot luminophores embedded within the waveguide that absorb light at photon energies corresponding to photonic crystal leaky modes that couple to incoming sunlight. The luminophores then emit at lower photon energies into photonic crystal bound modes that enable highly efficient light trapping in slab waveguides of wavelength-scale thickness. Photonic crystal waveguides thus nearly eliminate escape cone losses, and overcome the performance limitations of previously proposed wavelength-selective dielectric multilayer filters. We describe designs for hole-array and rod-array photonic crystals comprised of hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide using CdSe/CdS quantum dots. Our analysis suggests that photonic crystal waveguide luminescent solar concentrators using these materials these can achieve light trapping efficiency above 92% and a concentration factor as high as 100

Comorbidity and repeat admission to hospital for adverse drug reactions in older adults: retrospective cohort study

Objectives To identify factors that predict repeat admission to hospital for adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in older adults

Cover Crop Effect on Subsequent Wheat Yield in the Central Great Plains

Crop production systems in the water-limited environment of the semiarid central Great Plains may not have potential to profitably use cover crops because of lowered subsequent wheat (Triticum asestivum L.) yields following the cover crop. Mixtures have reportedly shown less yield-reducing effects on subsequent crops than single-species plantings. This study was conducted to determine winter wheat yields following both mixtures and single-species plantings of spring-planted cover crops. The study was conducted at Akron, CO, and Sidney, NE, during the 2012–2013 and 2013–2014 wheat growing seasons under both rainfed and irrigated conditions. Precipitation storage efficiency before wheat planting, wheat water use, biomass, and yield were measured and water use efficiency and harvest index were calculated for wheat following four single-species cover crops (flax [Linum usitatissimum L.], oat [Avena sativa L.], pea [Pisum sativum ssp. arvense L. Poir], rapeseed [Brassica napus L.]), a 10-species mixture, and a fallow treatment with proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) residue. There was an average 10% reduction in wheat yield following a cover crop compared with following fallow, regardless of whether the cover crop was grown in a mixture or in a single-species planting. Yield reductions were greater under drier conditions. The slope of the wheat water use–yield relationship was not significantly different for wheat following the mixture (11.80 kg ha–1 mm–1) than for wheat following single-species plantings (12.32–13.57 kg ha–1 mm–1). The greater expense associated with a cover crop mixture compared with a single species is not justified

Ascertaining invasive breast cancer cases; the validity of administrative and self-reported data sources in Australia

Background: Statutory State-based cancer registries are considered the ‘gold standard’ for researchers identifying cancer cases in Australia, but research using self-report or administrative health datasets (e.g. hospital records) may not have linkage to a Cancer Registry and need to identify cases. This study investigated the validity of administrative and self-reported data compared with records in a State-wide Cancer Registry in identifying invasive breast cancer cases. Methods: Cases of invasive breast cancer recorded on the New South Wales (NSW) Cancer Registry between July 2004 and December 2008 (the study period) were identified for women in the 45 and Up Study. Registry cases were separately compared with suspected cases ascertained from: i) administrative hospital separations records; ii) outpatient medical service claims; iii) prescription medicines claims; and iv) the 45 and Up Study baseline survey. Ascertainment flags included diagnosis codes, surgeries (e.g. lumpectomy), services (e.g. radiotherapy), and medicines used for breast cancer, as well as self-reported diagnosis. Positive predictive value (PPV), sensitivity and specificity were calculated for flags within individual datasets, and for combinations of flags across multiple datasets. Results: Of 143,010 women in the 45 and Up Study, 2039 (1.4%) had an invasive breast tumour recorded on the NSW Cancer Registry during the study period. All of the breast cancer flags examined had high specificity (\u3e97.5%). Of the flags from individual datasets, hospital-derived ‘lumpectomy and diagnosis of invasive breast cancer’ and ‘(lumpectomy or mastectomy) and diagnosis of invasive breast cancer’ had the greatest PPV (89% and 88%, respectively); the later having greater sensitivity (59% and 82%, respectively). The flag with the highest sensitivity and PPV ≥ 85% was \u27diagnosis of invasive breast cancer\u27 (both 86%). Self-reported breast cancer diagnosis had a PPV of 50% and sensitivity of 85%, and breast radiotherapy had a PPV of 73% and a sensitivity of 58% compared with Cancer Registry records. The combination of flags with the greatest PPV and sensitivity was ‘(lumpectomy or mastectomy) and (diagnosis of invasive breast cancer or breast radiotherapy)’ (PPV and sensitivity 83%). Conclusions: In the absence of Cancer Registry data, administrative and self-reported data can be used to accurately identify cases of invasive breast cancer for sample identification, removing cases from a sample, or risk adjustment. Invasive breast cancer can be accurately identified using hospital-derived diagnosis alone or in combination with surgeries and breast radiotherapy

Architecture of Kepler's Multi-transiting Systems: II. New investigations with twice as many candidates

We report on the orbital architectures of Kepler systems having multiple planet candidates identified in the analysis of data from the first six quarters of Kepler data and reported by Batalha et al. (2013). These data show 899 transiting planet candidates in 365 multiple-planet systems and provide a powerful means to study the statistical properties of planetary systems. Using a generic mass-radius relationship, we find that only two pairs of planets in these candidate systems (out of 761 pairs total) appear to be on Hill-unstable orbits, indicating ~96% of the candidate planetary systems are correctly interpreted as true systems. We find that planet pairs show little statistical preference to be near mean-motion resonances. We identify an asymmetry in the distribution of period ratios near first-order resonances (e.g., 2:1, 3:2), with an excess of planet pairs lying wide of resonance and relatively few lying narrow of resonance. Finally, based upon the transit duration ratios of adjacent planets in each system, we find that the interior planet tends to have a smaller transit impact parameter than the exterior planet does. This finding suggests that the mode of the mutual inclinations of planetary orbital planes is in the range 1.0-2.2 degrees, for the packed systems of small planets probed by these observations.Comment: Accepted to Ap