Title VI - Depositions

Title VI expands Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure to permit the Government to depose its witnesses in certain limited classes of cases. Previously only the defendant had been accorded this right. Upon the motion of either party at any time after a criminal indictment or information has been filed, the court may order that the testimony of the party\u27s witnesses be taken by deposition if due to exceptional circumstances it is in the interest of justice that such testimony be taken and preserved. Such exceptional circumstances were intended by Congress to include the existence of a substantial risk that the witness will die, become seriously ill, be killed or injured, hide or leave the jurisdiction, be kidnapped, bribed or improperly influenced. A motion by the Government must contain a certification by the Attorney General or his designee that the proceeding for which the deposition is taken is directed against a person believed to have participated in an organized criminal activity

Title VII - Litigation Concerning Sources of Evidence

There are two operative provisions of title VII, both of which mitigate previous judicially imposed restrictions on governmental collection and presentation of evidence in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding in or before any court, grand jury, department, officer, agency, regulatory body, or other authority of the United States.” The first purports to set aside the Supreme Court\u27s holding in the 1968 case of Alderman v. United States, in which the Court held that, in cases involving unlawful electronic surveillance, the government must make full disclosure to the defendant of all records in its possession which contain any of his conversation or involving conversations which took place on premises owned by him. In so ruling, the Court specifically rejected the Government\u27s contention that once a defendant has established his standing to contest admission of the evidence and the illegality of the Government\u27s action, a court should then screen the Government\u27s files in camera and deliver to the defendant only material which might prove arguably relevant in establishing the causal relationship between the unlawful surveillance and the evidence being challenged. The purpose of the second provision is to establish a rule of law that no court may consider any claim that evidence offered to prove a crime is inadmissible on the ground that it was obtained by the exploitation of an unlawful act if the alleged unlawful act occurred more than five years prior to the crime being proved. Title VII is one of the more controversial sections of the Act. These provisions represent congressional unwillingness to abide the protracted procedural delays which have resulted primarily from motions to suppress evidence obtained by the Government via alleged illegal electronic surveillance. The Senate Committee Report on S. 30 noted that when an organized crime leader is brought into court, an alternative to tampering with the witnesses as a means of avoiding or delaying prosecution is to challenge the admissibility of the evidence. Motions to suppress evidence generally entail a long and costly process, especially so in cases involving alleged illegal electronic surveillance.” The Senate Committee referred to a procedural crisis caused by the filing of motions to suppress, which was worsened by the Alderman requirement for full disclosure. Furthermore, where such disclosure is made, it is claimed that several undesirable results are possible, including the chilling effect it may have on other pending investigations and prosecutions, the damage which the reputations of innocent third parties may suffer, and the difficulty it may create in recruitment of confidential informants

What Are They Doing Anyway?: Library as Place and Student Use of a University Library

Objective - To determine student use of library spaces, the authors recorded student location and behaviors within the Library, to inform future space design. Methods - The case study method was used with both quantitative and qualitative measures. The authors had two objectives to guide this assessment of library spaces: 1) To determine what library spaces are being used by students and whether students are working individually, communally, or collaboratively and 2) To determine whether students use these spaces for learning activities and/or social engagement. Results - After data collection and analysis, the authors determined students are using individual or communal spaces almost equally as compared with collaborative group spaces. Data also revealed peak area usage and times. Conclusion - Observed student individual and social work habits indicate further need for spaces with ample electrical outlets and moveable tables. Further study is recommended to see whether additional seating and renovated spaces continue to enhance informal learning communities at URI and whether the Library is becoming a “third place” on campus

Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Contributes to Ischemia- and Reperfusion-Induced Endothelial Activation in Isolated Hearts

During myocardial reperfusion, polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) adhesion involving the intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) may lead to aggravation and prolongation of reperfusion injury. We studied the role of early tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) cleavage and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activation on ICAM-1 expression and venular adhesion of PMN in isolated hearts after ischemia (15 minutes) and reperfusion (30 to 480 minutes). NF-κB activation (electromobility shift assay) was found after 30 minutes of reperfusion and up to 240 minutes. ICAM-1 mRNA, assessed by Northern blot, increased during the same interval. Functional effect of newly synthesized adhesion molecules was found by quantification (in situ fluorescence microscopy) of PMN, given as bolus after ischemia, which became adherent to small coronary venules (10 to 50 mm in diameter). After 480 minutes of reperfusion, ICAM-1–dependent PMN adhesion increased 2.5-fold compared with PMN adhesion obtained during acute reperfusion. To study the influence of NF-κB on PMN adhesion, we inhibited NF-κB activation by transfection of NF-κB decoy oligonucleotides into isolated hearts using HJV-liposomes. Decoy NF-κB but not control oligonucleotides blocked ICAM-1 upregulation and inhibited the subacute increase in PMN adhesion. Similar effects were obtained using BB 1101 (10 μg), an inhibitor of TNF-α cleavage enzyme. These data suggest that ischemia and reperfusion in isolated hearts cause liberation of TNF-α, activation of NF-κB, and upregulation of ICAM-1, an adhesion molecule involved in inflammatory response after ischemia and reperfusion

The Newsman\u27s Privilege: Protection of Confidential Associations and Private Communications

The purpose of this comment is to determine whether the confidential associations and-or private communications of a newsman are privileged

Genetic ancestry of participants in the National Children's Study.

BackgroundThe National Children's Study (NCS) is a prospective epidemiological study in the USA tasked with identifying a nationally representative sample of 100,000 children, and following them from their gestation until they are 21 years of age. The objective of the study is to measure environmental and genetic influences on growth, development, and health. Determination of the ancestry of these NCS participants is important for assessing the diversity of study participants and for examining the effect of ancestry on various health outcomes.ResultsWe estimated the genetic ancestry of a convenience sample of 641 parents enrolled at the 7 original NCS Vanguard sites, by analyzing 30,000 markers on exome arrays, using the 1000 Genomes Project superpopulations as reference populations, and compared this with the measures of self-reported ethnicity and race. For 99% of the individuals, self-reported ethnicity and race agreed with the predicted superpopulation. NCS individuals self-reporting as Asian had genetic ancestry of either South Asian or East Asian groups, while those reporting as either Hispanic White or Hispanic Other had similar genetic ancestry. Of the 33 individuals who self-reported as Multiracial or Non-Hispanic Other, 33% matched the South Asian or East Asian groups, while these groups represented only 4.4% of the other reported categories.ConclusionsOur data suggest that self-reported ethnicity and race have some limitations in accurately capturing Hispanic and South Asian populations. Overall, however, our data indicate that despite the complexity of the US population, individuals know their ancestral origins, and that self-reported ethnicity and race is a reliable indicator of genetic ancestry

Consanguinity and rare mutations outside of MCCC genes underlie nonspecific phenotypes of MCCD.

Purpose3-Methylcrotonyl-CoA carboxylase deficiency (MCCD) is an autosomal recessive disorder of leucine catabolism that has a highly variable clinical phenotype, ranging from acute metabolic acidosis to nonspecific symptoms such as developmental delay, failure to thrive, hemiparesis, muscular hypotonia, and multiple sclerosis. Implementation of newborn screening for MCCD has resulted in broadening the range of phenotypic expression to include asymptomatic adults. The purpose of this study was to identify factors underlying the varying phenotypes of MCCD.MethodsWe performed exome sequencing on DNA from 33 cases and 108 healthy controls. We examined these data for associations between either MCC mutational status, genetic ancestry, or consanguinity and the absence or presence/specificity of clinical symptoms in MCCD cases.ResultsWe determined that individuals with nonspecific clinical phenotypes are highly inbred compared with cases that are asymptomatic and healthy controls. For 5 of these 10 individuals, we discovered a homozygous damaging mutation in a disease gene that is likely to underlie their nonspecific clinical phenotypes previously attributed to MCCD.ConclusionOur study shows that nonspecific phenotypes attributed to MCCD are associated with consanguinity and are likely not due to mutations in the MCC enzyme but result from rare homozygous mutations in other disease genes.Genet Med 17 8, 660-667

Comparison of Large-Scale Vented Deflagration Tests to CFD Simulations for Partially Congested Enclosures

PresentationThis paper presents a comparison between the results from a test program carried out to characterize the blast load environment within BakerRisk’s Deflagration Load Generator (DLG) test rig, and predictions made using the FLACS computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The test data was also compared to internal peak pressure predictions made using the National Fire Protection Association’s Standard on Explosion Protection by Deflagration Venting (NFPA 68) [1]. The purpose of these tests was to provide data for comparison with standard methods used to predict internal blast loads in a vented deflagration. The tests also provided a characterization of the internal DLG blast load environment for equipment qualification testing. The DLG test rig is 48 feet wide × 24 feet deep × 12 feet tall and is enclosed by three solid walls, a roof, and floor, with venting through one of the long walls (i.e., 48-foot by 12-foot). During testing, the venting face of the rig was sealed with a 6 mil (0.15 mm) thick plastic vapor barrier to allow for the formation of a near-stoichiometric propane-air mixture throughout the rig. The flammable gas cloud was ignited near the center of the rear wall. Congestion inside the rig was provided by a regular array of vertical cylinders (2-inch outer diameter) that occupied the rear half of the rig; the front half of the rig was uncongested (i.e., as would be the case for equipment qualification testing). Forty-three pressure transducers were deployed internal and external to the rig to measure blast pressure histories. Three series of tests were conducted with congestion levels varying from an area blockage ratio (ABR) of 11% in Test Series A to ABR values of 7.6% and 4.2%, respectively, in Test Series B and C. The obstacle-to-enclosure surface area ratio (Ar), a perameter used within the NFPA 68 correlations to quantify congestion, was equal to 0.45, 0.32, and 0.17 for test series A, B and C, respectively. The peak pressures and impulses for each test are provided, along with pressure histories internal and external to the rig for selected tests. Comparisons of the test data t