The First Step Act and Individualized Review: Must Judges Apply the 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) Factors to Section 404 Petitioners?

In 2010, the U.S. Congress amended the notorious mandatory minimum sentencing structure for crack cocaine offenses in response to the decades of harm it had caused. As the amendment was not retroactive, Congress passed the First Step Act of 2018 to allow prisoners incarcerated before 2010 to petition their original sentencing court for discretionary relief based on the new penalties. However, what exactly these courts must do when deciding whether to grant relief has divided the circuits. Some circuits require an up-to-date consideration of defendants’ individual mitigating circumstances and whether their sentences are the minimum necessary to satisfy the purposes of sentencing, as courts must do at initial sentencing under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). Other circuits permit such consideration but refuse to require it, finding a mandatory approach at odds with the discretionary nature of the First Step Act itself. This Note discusses the text and intent of the First Step Act, including the historical context reflected by the legislation, as well as the importance of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). It then examines the reasoning employed by each side in deciding whether to require consideration of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) in First Step Act proceedings. Ultimately, this Note concludes that the First Step Act should be read to require consideration of § 3553(a) because that approach better promotes the purpose of the Act without contravening its text and provides considerable benefits in practice

Are object affordances fully automatic? A case of covert attention

Inspired in part by Gibson's (1979) ecological approach to perception, current neurocognitive theories of action suggest that the simple viewing of an object can automatically elicit motor programs for specific acts. However, the degree to which such affordances should be considered truly automatic is unknown. Here we explored the generation of motor plans afforded by pairs of cue objects that were viewed peripherally under different attentional states. Participants focused centrally while attending to just one of two peripheral cue objects that together had a strong significance for pinching, grasping, or both. They were instructed to ignore the objects and instead give power or precision grip responses to subsequent changes in background color. The data showed a significant interaction between type of response and type of object, indicating that object affordances are perceived even in nonfoveal vision. Critically, the generation of affordances was modulated by the locus of attention: Motor preparation was biased toward the attended object when two different categories of object appeared in the same trial, but the generation of affordances was also influenced by unattended stimuli. This finding demonstrates that object-action priming is not completely automatic, instead being constrained by processes of perceptual selection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)

Biofeedback Therapy application with EEG signal visualization and the optimization of success factor algorithm

In this paper the biofeedback therapy application is presented. The application is implemented in desired biofeedback system based on RaspberyPI. The EEG signal is taken using popular headset with forehead probe and ear reference one. A patient is trying to focus on desired task and should keep attention level above threshold, the threshold is given and monitor by therapist. The success factor during one therapy session should be more than about 80%, so therapist have to control the threshold. The application consists algorithm for automatic threshold correction based on interview with experienced therapist

Tool For Measuring End To End Latency

A system, method, and computer readable media for measuring end to end (e2e) latency in a video calling system is disclosed. The latency measuring system includes a video calling system having at least two user devices that may be connected over a network, one or more external cameras, a device producing luminescence and a computing device. The camera is placed in front of each of the user devices and is configured to record the video call in both the devices. The luminescence device may be turned on for a short moment during the recording of the video call. The system is configured to capture an original time, a self-view time and a remote time and to calculate the e2e and the e2s latency to support matching each frame. The method allows evolution of the e2e and e2s latencies on a per-frame basis, thereby providing better statistics of video call quality. KEYWORDS: video calling, latency measuring system, frame rate, image processing, QR code, end to end latency, e2e, self-view latency, e2s

Legislative veto in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland in comparison of the foreign political solutions

Moim głównym celem jest porównanie rozwiązań dotyczących weta ustawodawczego w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej i zagranicznych porządkach prawnych: Stanów Zjednoczonych, Republiki Federalnej Niemiec i Republiki Litewskiej. Dokonuję kompleksowej analizy tych instytucji. Przejrzyście omawiam mechanizm weta prezydenckiego w Polsce i analizuję regulacje w pozostałych państwach, jednocześnie porównując przyjęte w nich rozwiązania do tych ujętych w Konstytucji RP.My main purpose is to analyze the constitutional solutions of legislative veto in the Republic of Poland and to compare it with solutions present in the United States of America, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Lithuania. I clearly analyze the mechanism of presidential veto in Poland. Then, I perform the analysis of the legislative veto's solutions in every of these countries. Finally, I compare that mechanism in Poland with political solutions present in mentioned countries

Investigating autophagy as a target in asthma and understanding how autophagy can modulate allergen-induced airway remodelling

University of Technology Sydney. Graduate School of Health.: Airway remodelling is an untreatable hallmark of asthma. Autophagy, the cellular homeostatic recycling mechanism has emerged as a factor playing a role in asthma and potentially airway remodelling. : To explore the involvement of autophagy in asthmatic airway remodelling and test autophagy inhibition as a novel therapeutic target in asthmatics. : Autophagy protein expression was measured in the airways of both human and mouse asthmatic tissue by immunohistochemistry. Autophagy inhibitors chloroquine (CQ) and bafilomycin A1 (BafA1) were tested in murine asthma models. Relevant lung function, cell counts, histological staining and protein expression were supported by in vitro experiments. : We have found increased autophagy protein expression involved in asthmatic airway remodelling in human and mice tissue. Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) concomitantly induces remodelling changes and the upregulation of autophagy. Autophagy inhibition reduced the pathophysiological symptoms of asthma. : Autophagy contributes to airway remodelling in asthma and autophagy modulation is a promising approach in developing therapies that target remodelling

Muzułmańska chusta a idea laickości we współczesnej Francji

"Wprowadzenie zasady rozdziału Kościoła od państwa na podstawie prawa z 9 grudnia 1905 roku we Francji zostało poprzedzone długotrwałą debatą polityczną środowisk świeckich i katolickich. O fundamentalnym znaczeniu koncepcji republiki laickiej we francuskiej doktrynie politycznej świadczy również umieszczenie jej w preambułach zarówno Konstytucji IV Republiki z 1946 r., jak i V Republiki z 1958 r., gdzie podkreślono, że Francja jest państwem niepodzielnym, świeckim, demokratycznym i socjalnym."(...

Francja wobec imigracji muzułmańskiej w XX wieku

"Obecność wielomilionowej mniejszości muzułmańskiej we Francji jest wynikiem francuskich ambicji kolonialnych oraz łagodnej i niekonsekwentnej polityki imigracyjnej. Ta ostatnia do końca lat 60. XX w. w dużej mierze opierała się na zasadzie laissez-faire. Sprzyjały temu brak zainteresowania środowisk politycznych tematem imigracji i przekonanie o tymczasowej obecności cudzoziemców na francuskiej ziemi. Do napływu emigrantów z kolonii przyczyniły się gospodarcze i demograficzne potrzeby francuskiej metropolii. Szczególnie po obu wojnach światowych w XX w., które pozostawiły Francję w trudnej sytuacji ekonomicznej, rząd francuski zdecydował się skorzystać z taniej siły roboczej pochodzącej z terytoriów zamorskich."(...

HER-2 Expression in Immunohistochemistry Has No Prognostic Significance in Gastric Cancer Patients

The role of HER-2 expression as a prognostic factor in gastric cancer (GC) is still controversial. The aim of the study was to asses HER-2 status, its correlations with clinicopathological parameters, and prognostic impact in GC patients. Tumor samples were collected from 78 patients who had undergone curative surgery. In order to evaluate the intensity of immunohistochemical (IHC) reactions two scales were applied: the immunoreactive score according to Remmele modified by the authors and standardised Hercep test score modified for GC by Hofmann et al. The HER-2 overexpression was detected by IHC in 23 (29.5%) tumors in Hercep test (score 2+/3+) and in 24 (30.7%) in IRS scale (IRS 4–12). The overexpression of HER-2 was associated with poorly differentiated tumors, but this correlation was not significant (P = 0.064). No relationship was found between HER-2 expression and primary tumor size and degree of spread to regional lymph nodes. Both univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that TNM stage and patient's age were the crucial negative prognostic factors. No correlation was observed between patient survival and expression of HER-2 estimated using both scales. This research did not confirm HER-2 expression (evaluated with immunohistochemistry) value as a prognostic tool in GC

Manual chronostasis: Tactile perception precedes physical contact

When saccading to a silent clock, observers sometimes think that the second hand has paused momentarily. This effect has been termed chronostasis and occurs because observers overestimate the time that they have seen the object of an eye movement. They seem to extrapolate its appearance back to just prior to the onset of the saccade rather than the time that it is actually fixated on the retina. Here, we describe a similar effect following an arm movement: subjects overestimate the time that their hand has been in contact with a newly touched object. The illusion's magnitude suggests backward extrapolation of tactile perception to a moment during the preceding reach. The illusion does not occur if the arm movement triggers a change in a continuously visible visual target: the time of onset of the change is estimated correctly. We hypothesize that chronostasis-like effects occur when movement produces uncertainty about the onset of a sensory event. Under these circumstances, the time at which neurons with receptive fields that shift in the temporal vicinity of a movement change their mappings may be used as a time marker for the onset of perceptual properties that are only established later