Experimental Observation of Modulation Instability and Optical Spatial Soliton Arrays in Soft Condensed Matter

In this Letter we report observations of optically induced self-organization of colloidal arrays in the presence of un-patterned counter-propagating evanescent waves. The colloidal arrays formed along the laser propagation-axis are shown to be linked to the break-up of the incident field into optical spatial solitons, the lateral spacing of the arrays being related to modulation instability of the soft condensed matter system.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

The UK Supreme Court's latest look at State Immunity

This article examines the recent UK Supreme Court case of US v Nolan concerning the rights of a dismissed civilian employee of a US military facility in England. It sets out a summary of the court’s findings on European law and ultra vires. It considers the public international law aspects of the appeal and asks if the court’s acceptance that a pleaof state immunity is procedural (and does not therefore affect the state’s underlying duty or obligation) means that the UK approach to the relationship between immunity and Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (access to justice) needs to be re-examined. The UK courts have hitherto heldthat Article 6 is not automatically engaged by a plea of immunity on the basis that such a plea deprives the court of substantive jurisdiction so there can be no denial of access as access does not exist in the first place. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has consistently maintained the opposite view and Nolan may have an impact on appeals touching on this issue pending before the Supreme Court

Enforcing against state assets:the case for restricting private creditor enforcement and how judges in England have used "context" when applying the "commercial purposes" test

This article focuses on some recent cases involving attempts by private creditors to enforce judgments against state assets. It examines how the international law rules on state immunity which permit enforcement but only against assets used for commercial purposes have been applied in domestic courts. In particular it highlights an emerging trend in English cases where “context” has been used to protect state assets from seizure. It considers enforcement against the wider question of sovereign debt restructuring and concludes that, apart from a few exceptions, courts are protecting state assets despite increased pressure from creditors

State Immunity

Prior to the State Immunity Act 1978, the doctrine of state immunity applied in English courts as a matter of common law and precedent. The doctrine is a rule of customary international law and requires a domestic court to respect the immunity of a foreign state from the court's jurisdiction both with respect to suit and enforcement. It is a derogation from the court's jurisdiction justified on the basis of the sovereign equality and independence of states. The late 20th century saw a shift from an absolute to a restrictive doctrine and the arguments today are about the limits of the restrictions. In essence, a state is no longer immune in respect of its commercial activities (acte jure gestionis) but remains immune from domestic litigation for almost all else (acte jure imperii), which may include war crimes and acts of torture (unless classified as a tort and committed in the jurisdiction). Enforcement action against states is limited to the pursuit of assets in use for commercial purposes. The law distinguishes between states as such and separate state entities whose immunity is more restricted. State and diplomatic immunity (the immunity of the individual diplomat or diplomatic premises) must also be distinguished. This article does not cover diplomatic immunity. The immunity of states with respect to criminal proceedings is absolute

Facilitating collaborative supervision in a university speech-language pathology clinic

Clinical education is a key element of graduate school training in the field of speech-language pathology. Graduate students are required to obtain 375 supervised clinical practice hours in order to earn their provisional license and begin their career. Supervision of clinical hours is most often provided by experienced speech-language pathologists with minimal, if any, training in effective supervision practices. Within the field of speech-language pathology, Anderson’s Continuum of Supervision (Anderson, 1988) is the most widely accepted model and provides a structure and sequence for supervisors to follow in order to facilitate the clinical development of their student clinician. Anderson’s model suggests that the collaborative supervision style should be used to transition student clinicians from directive supervision (where they are reliant on the supervisor for direction) to self-supervision, which represents independence. Despite this, and because of a lack of evidenced-based methods and a lack of training opportunities, many supervisors have difficulty implementing the collaborative supervision style. This study examines the effectiveness of an external tool, the Clinician’s Hierarchy for Advancing Treatment (CHAT) (Duthie, 2008), in helping supervisors to implement the collaborative supervision style. This is an exploratory quantitative, quasi-experimental non-equivalent groups study. Students and supervisors were surveyed about their perceptions of the supervisory process following their participation in a semester-long clinical practicum in a university speech-language pathology clinic. Prior to working with a second cohort of students, the supervisor group was trained on the CHAT. This method features a chart which objectively defines levels of client performance and corresponding levels of clinical supports needed for the client to advance in treatment. Supervisors were trained to use this tool to guide student clinicians in the clinical decision-making processes. Implementation of the CHAT occurred across the following semester in the same university clinic with a new group of student clinicians. Supervisors and students were again surveyed at the end of the semester on their experience of the supervisory process to determine if the perception of collaborative supervision had increased with the implementation of the CHAT. The Supervisory Relationship Measure (Pearce et al., 2013) and the Supervisory Relationship Questionnaire (Palomo et al., 2010) were used to survey the student clinicians and supervisors, respectively. Independent-samples, one-tailed t-tests were conducted to determine if there was a significant increase in the perception of collaborative supervision. These analyses were conducted using the Safe Base Subscale score from the surveys, of which items focus on the interactions and relationship between the supervisor and the student clinician as they relate to collaboration. Analysis resulted in insufficient evidence to suggest an increase in the perception of collaborative supervision from the first semester (without CHAT) to the second semester when CHAT was implemented. Additional analyses were also conducted on items that were considered particularly salient to collaborative supervision. Results of item-level analyses were marginally significant for two items from the supervisor surveys, both of which queried the supervisor’s perception of the student’s level of openness and honesty in supervisory conferences. These findings suggest that using an external tool such as the CHAT, may result in student clinicians being more open and honest about their experience of the clinical process in the supervisory conference. It is argued that the objectivity of the external tool prompts more objective conversation between the supervisor and student clinician. The increase in objective conversation, in turn, decreases the judgment and evaluation that students often associate with supervision, thereby creating a safer environment in which to voice their honest reflections

Facilitating collaborative supervision in a university speech-language pathology clinic

Clinical education is a key element of graduate school training in the field of speech-language pathology. Graduate students are required to obtain 375 supervised clinical practice hours in order to earn their provisional license and begin their career. Supervision of clinical hours is most often provided by experienced speech-language pathologists with minimal, if any, training in effective supervision practices. Within the field of speech-language pathology, Anderson’s Continuum of Supervision (Anderson, 1988) is the most widely accepted model and provides a structure and sequence for supervisors to follow in order to facilitate the clinical development of their student clinician. Anderson’s model suggests that the collaborative supervision style should be used to transition student clinicians from directive supervision (where they are reliant on the supervisor for direction) to self-supervision, which represents independence. Despite this, and because of a lack of evidenced-based methods and a lack of training opportunities, many supervisors have difficulty implementing the collaborative supervision style. This study examines the effectiveness of an external tool, the Clinician’s Hierarchy for Advancing Treatment (CHAT) (Duthie, 2008), in helping supervisors to implement the collaborative supervision style. This is an exploratory quantitative, quasi-experimental non-equivalent groups study. Students and supervisors were surveyed about their perceptions of the supervisory process following their participation in a semester-long clinical practicum in a university speech-language pathology clinic. Prior to working with a second cohort of students, the supervisor group was trained on the CHAT. This method features a chart which objectively defines levels of client performance and corresponding levels of clinical supports needed for the client to advance in treatment. Supervisors were trained to use this tool to guide student clinicians in the clinical decision-making processes. Implementation of the CHAT occurred across the following semester in the same university clinic with a new group of student clinicians. Supervisors and students were again surveyed at the end of the semester on their experience of the supervisory process to determine if the perception of collaborative supervision had increased with the implementation of the CHAT. The Supervisory Relationship Measure (Pearce et al., 2013) and the Supervisory Relationship Questionnaire (Palomo et al., 2010) were used to survey the student clinicians and supervisors, respectively. Independent-samples, one-tailed t-tests were conducted to determine if there was a significant increase in the perception of collaborative supervision. These analyses were conducted using the Safe Base Subscale score from the surveys, of which items focus on the interactions and relationship between the supervisor and the student clinician as they relate to collaboration. Analysis resulted in insufficient evidence to suggest an increase in the perception of collaborative supervision from the first semester (without CHAT) to the second semester when CHAT was implemented. Additional analyses were also conducted on items that were considered particularly salient to collaborative supervision. Results of item-level analyses were marginally significant for two items from the supervisor surveys, both of which queried the supervisor’s perception of the student’s level of openness and honesty in supervisory conferences. These findings suggest that using an external tool such as the CHAT, may result in student clinicians being more open and honest about their experience of the clinical process in the supervisory conference. It is argued that the objectivity of the external tool prompts more objective conversation between the supervisor and student clinician. The increase in objective conversation, in turn, decreases the judgment and evaluation that students often associate with supervision, thereby creating a safer environment in which to voice their honest reflections

Epidemiological overview of multidimensional chromosomal and genome toxicity of cannabis exposure in congenital anomalies and cancer development

Cannabis and cannabinoids are implicated in multiple genotoxic, epigenotoxic and chromosomal-toxic mechanisms and interact with several morphogenic pathways, likely underpinning previous reports of links between cannabis and congenital anomalies and heritable tumours. However the effects of cannabinoid genotoxicity have not been assessed on whole populations and formal consideration of effects as a broadly acting genotoxin remain unexplored. Our study addressed these knowledge gaps in USA datasets. Cancer data from CDC, drug exposure data from National Survey of Drug Use and Health 2003–2017 and congenital anomaly data from National Birth Defects Prevention Network were used. We show that cannabis, THC cannabigerol and cannabichromene exposure fulfill causal criteria towards first Principal Components of both: (A) Down syndrome, Trisomies 18 and 13, Turner syndrome, Deletion 22q11.2, and (B) thyroid, liver, breast and pancreatic cancers and acute myeloid leukaemia, have mostly medium to large effect sizes, are robust to adjustment for ethnicity, other drugs and income in inverse probability-weighted models, show prominent non-linear effects, have 55/56 e-Values \u3e 1.25, and are exacerbated by cannabis liberalization (P = 9.67 × 10–43, 2.66 × 10–15). The results confirm experimental studies showing that cannabinoids are an important cause of community-wide genotoxicity impacting both birth defect and cancer epidemiology at the chromosomal hundred-megabase level

Cannabinoid exposure as a major driver of pediatric acute lymphoid Leukaemia rates across the USA: Combined geospatial, multiple imputation and causal inference study

Background: Acute lymphoid leukaemia (ALL) is the commonest childhood cancer whose incidence is rising in many nations. In the USA, between 1975 and 2016, ALL rates (ALLRs) rose 93.51% from 1.91 to 3.70/100,000 \u3c 20 years. ALL is more common in Caucasian-Americans than amongst minorities. The cause of both the rise and the ethnic differential is unclear, however, prenatal cannabis exposure was previously linked with elevated childhood leukaemia rates. We investigated epidemiologically if cannabis use impacted nationally on ALLRs, its ethnic effects, and if the relationship was causal. Methods: State data on overall, and ethnic ALLR from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results databank of the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) were combined with drug (cigarettes, alcoholism, cannabis, analgesics, cocaine) use data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health; 74.1% response rate. Income and ethnicity data was from the US Census bureau. Cannabinoid concentration was from the Drug Enforcement Agency Data. Data was analyzed in R by robust and spatiotemporal regression. Results: In bivariate analyses a dose-response relationship was demonstrated between ALLR and Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), cocaine and cannabis exposure, with the effect of cannabis being strongest (β-estimate = 3.33(95%C.I. 1.97, 4.68), P = 1.92 × 10− 6). A strong effect of cannabis use quintile on ALLR was noted (Chi.Sq. = 613.79, P = 3.04 × 10− 70). In inverse probability weighted robust regression adjusted for other substances, income and ethnicity, cannabis was independently significant (β-estimate = 4.75(0.48, 9.02), P = 0.0389). In a spatiotemporal model adjusted for all drugs, income, and ethnicity, cannabigerol exposure was significant (β-estimate = 0.26(0.01, 0.52), P = 0.0444), an effect increased by spatial lagging (THC: β-estimate = 0.47(0.12, 0.82), P = 0.0083). After missing data imputation ethnic cannabis exposure was significant (β-estimate = 0.64(0.55, 0.72), P = 3.1 × 10− 40). 33/35 minimum e-Values ranged from 1.25 to 3.94 × 1036 indicative of a causal relationship. Relaxation of cannabis legal paradigms had higher ALLR (Chi.Squ.Trend = 775.12, P = 2.14 × 10− 112). Cannabis legal states had higher ALLR (2.395 ± 0.039 v. 2.127 ± 0.008 / 100,000, P = 5.05 × 10− 10). Conclusions: Data show that ALLR is associated with cannabis consumption across space-time, is associated with the cannabinoids, THC, cannabigerol, cannabinol, cannabichromene, and cannabidiol, contributes to ethnic differentials, demonstrates prominent quintile effects, satisfies criteria for causality and is exacerbated by cannabis legalization

A geospatiotemporal and causal inference epidemiological exploration of substance and cannabinoid exposure as drivers of rising US pediatric cancer rates

Background: Age-adjusted US total pediatric cancer incidence rates (TPCIR) rose 49% 1975–2015 for unknown reasons. Prenatal cannabis exposure has been linked with several pediatric cancers which together comprise the majority of pediatric cancer types. We investigated whether cannabis use was related spatiotemporally and causally to TPCIR. Methods: State-based age-adjusted TPCIR data was taken from the CDC Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results cancer database 2003–2017. Drug exposure was taken from the nationally-representative National Survey of Drug Use and Health, response rate 74.1%. Drugs included were: tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, opioid analgesics and cocaine. This was supplemented by cannabinoid concentration data from the Drug Enforcement Agency and ethnicity and median household income data from US Census. Results: TPCIR rose while all drug use nationally fell, except for cannabis which rose. TPCIR in the highest cannabis use quintile was greater than in the lowest (β-estimate = 1.31 (95%C.I. 0.82, 1.80), P = 1.80 × 10− 7) and the time:highest two quintiles interaction was significant (β-estimate = 0.1395 (0.82, 1.80), P = 1.00 × 10− 14). In robust inverse probability weighted additive regression models cannabis was independently associated with TPCIR (β-estimate = 9.55 (3.95, 15.15), P = 0.0016). In interactive geospatiotemporal models including all drug, ethnic and income variables cannabis use was independently significant (β-estimate = 45.67 (18.77, 72.56), P = 0.0009). In geospatial models temporally lagged to 1,2,4 and 6 years interactive terms including cannabis were significant. Cannabis interactive terms at one and two degrees of spatial lagging were significant (from β-estimate = 3954.04 (1565.01, 6343.09), P = 0.0012). The interaction between the cannabinoids THC and cannabigerol was significant at zero, 2 and 6 years lag (from β-estimate = 46.22 (30.06, 62.38), P = 2.10 × 10− 8). Cannabis legalization was associated with higher TPCIR (β-estimate = 1.51 (0.68, 2.35), P = 0.0004) and cannabis-liberal regimes were associated with higher time:TPCIR interaction (β-estimate = 1.87 × 10− 4, (2.9 × 10− 5, 2.45 × 10− 4), P = 0.0208). 33/56 minimum e-Values were \u3e 5 and 6 were infinite. Conclusion: Data confirm a close relationship across space and lagged time between cannabis and TPCIR which was robust to adjustment, supported by inverse probability weighting procedures and accompanied by high e-Values making confounding unlikely and establishing the causal relationship. Cannabis-liberal jurisdictions were associated with higher rates of TPCIR and a faster rate of TPCIR increase. Data inform the broader general consideration of cannabinoid-induced genotoxicity

Re-Emergence of the Harmful Algal Bloom Species Alexandrium Monilatum in the Chesapeake Bay: Assessing Bloom Dynamics and Potential Health Impacts

Effective management of harmful algal blooms (HABs) within a region requires an understanding of species-specific HAB spatial and temporal distributions, bloom dynamics, as well as potential health impacts. In 2007, the southern Chesapeake Bay witnessed its first blooms of the HAB species Alexandrium monilatum. Since then, A. monilatum has bloomed in the region almost annually. A. monilatum produces the toxin ‘goniodomin A’ and is suspected in local mass mortalities of oyster larvae (Crassostrea virginica) grown for aquaculture and restoration projects. Representatives from Virginia’s multimillion dollar oyster aquaculture industry recently expressed great concern over A. monilatum impacts to their businesses; field and lab studies were designed to address these concerns. Sediment samples were collected from the southwest portion of the Chesapeake Bay in a systematic grid-sampling design to assess cyst (resting cell stage) distributions. Cysts were present in low densities at most sites, and cyst densities were high where blooms had been recorded in previous years. HAB toxicity bioassay methods developed at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science were modified to investigate adverse health impacts of five different A. monilatum cell density treatments on sub-adult oysters (~40-70 mm). Oysters delayed grazing when exposed to high densities (\u3e1000 cells/mL) of A. monilatum. Data from the 2015 bloom season and additional bioassays will be presented. Results from these studies could aid in the prediction of A. monilatum bloom severity and health effects on wild and aquacultured oysters, enabling development of best management practices to minimize impacts to the Virginia oyster industry