Report of the Delaware Criminal Law Recodification Project

In 1973, during the “first wave” of American criminal law recodification efforts following the publication of the Model Penal Code, Delaware adopted a new criminal code. While it represented a dramatic improvement over the law it replaced, its initial clarity and utility were greatly diminished by subsequent piecemeal legislation. Delaware’s current criminal code is lengthy, inconsistent, and replete with duplicative and outdated offenses that impose disproportional punishments. This process of criminal code deterioration is not unique to Delaware and plagues other U.S. jurisdictions. In 2015, however, stakeholders in Delaware’s criminal justice system initiated a code revision process, commissioning the authors to draft a Proposed Code and commentary to address these issues, and resulting in this Report. By utilizing modern code drafting techniques and other innovations, the Proposed Code comprehensively, yet concisely, states the rules governing criminal liability in Delaware in a way that is easy to read and understand, and responds to twenty-first-century challenges and norms. While focusing on Delaware, the Proposed Code also illustrates how modernized criminal codes could be drafted for other jurisdictions, and can serve as a stimulus and a model for a “second wave” of American criminal law recodifications.The Proposed Code’s primary goals are to ensure proportional punishment and eliminate inconsistencies in current law. To further these objectives it relies on various methods. For instance, it utilizes general grade adjustments – such as felony recidivism, hate crimes, and offenses committed against vulnerable persons – to increase the maximum punishment for any offense in the Special Part. Yet, it carefully limits the number of adjustments that can be applied to a single offense. The Proposed Code also keeps basic offense definitions simple, by regularly employing offense-specific grading provisions to demarcate additional offense elements (in addition to using them to specify maximum punishment). This dual function of grading provisions is also instrumental for consolidating multiple offenses, or degrees of offenses. For instance, the Proposed Code’s assault section consolidates nearly a dozen current law offenses (including three degrees of assault), many of which overlap and conflict. In addition to these methods, the Proposed Code uses numerous substantive and structural code drafting innovations. For example, the Code refines the distinctions between defenses, affirmative defenses, general defenses, and exceptions to liability. Some “affirmative defenses” in current law are actually general defenses, and have been treated as such in the Proposed Code; others have been appropriately converted into exceptions. The remainder has been re-labeled simply as “defenses,” serving the same function as in current law, but without its ambiguities. The Proposed Code also provides a comprehensive index of defined terms in a single section. Each term’s substantive definition, however, appears at the end of the Chapter that either introduces or most heavily relies upon it. Taken together, these features aid in locating and using the Proposed Code’s definitions. Besides, the Code employs descriptive headings, and organizes offense and defense elements using subsections as much as practicable, thereby enhancing readability. Additionally, the Proposed Code attends to contemporary problems not envisioned by current law. For example, the Code addresses present-day activities such as “sexting,” and prevents the unintended possibility of their prosecution as child pornography (a serious felony), limiting liability to a low level misdemeanor. The Code also dispenses with current law’s references to conflicting distributive principles of deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation among its “general purposes.” In combination with the Proposed Code’s focus on proportional grading, this approach is consistent with modern criminal law theory and the first amendment to the Model Penal Code in 2007 that defined desert as its primary distributive principle. Notably, the Code also introduces a novel approach to minimum mandatory punishments, requiring that the predicate offense be committed with at least “knowing” culpability (in addition to other factors, such as relatively high grades and defined categories of offenses). In effect, this requirement “splits” individual offenses requiring lower levels of culpability such as recklessness, and applying minimum punishment only if the offenses were committed knowingly or intentionally. This Report consists of two Volumes. Volume 1 begins with an executive summary, followed by a detailed explanation of the project’s history, the principles guiding the drafting of the Proposed Code, and illustrations of these principles’ function in the context of Delaware criminal law. The heart of Volume 1 is the text of the Proposed Code itself. The final part of Volume 1 contains a Summary Grading Table that groups all offenses covered by the Proposed Code according to their grade, and assists in the evaluation of the Proposed Code’s proportionality judgments. It also contains two “conversion tables” that allow the reader to see how current law relates to the proposed provisions. Volume 2 contains extensive commentary explaining each section of the Proposed Code and addressing the proposed disposition of current law. The authors hope that this Report will prove useful for scholars engaged in recodification projects and jurisdictions considering criminal code revisions. (Subsequent political discussions in Delaware have since altered the proposed Delaware code from what is contained herein.

Do film festivals attract tourists?

Hosting film festivals has become a prevailing practice to promote culture or festival tourism. Empirical studies on the relationship between cultural attendance and tourism demands, however, were mainly comprised of investigations of data of one or very few countries. In this study, by conducting dynamic panel data analysis, with secondary data across 80 countries collected, the effects of hosting film festivals on the number of inbound tourists were examined. While results informed the economic value of hosting film festivals, the positive effect was found to be more significant when festivals were hosted in art countries

Does wage rank affect employees' well-being?

How do workers make wage comparisons? Both an experimental study and an analysis of 16,000 British employees are reported. Satisfaction and well-being levels are shown to depend on more than simple relative pay. They depend upon the ordinal rank of an individual's wage within a comparison group. “Rank” itself thus seems to matter to human beings. Moreover, consistent with psychological theory, quits in a workplace are correlated with pay distribution skewness

High star formation rates as the origin of turbulence in early and modern disk galaxies

High spatial and spectral resolution observations of star formation and kinematics in early galaxies have shown that two-thirds are massive rotating disk galaxies with the remainder being less massive non-rotating objects. The line of sight averaged velocity dispersions are typically five times higher than in today's disk galaxies. This has suggested that gravitationally-unstable, gas-rich disks in the early Universe are fuelled by cold, dense accreting gas flowing along cosmic filaments and penetrating hot galactic gas halos. However these accreting flows have not been observed, and cosmic accretion cannot power the observed level of turbulence. Here we report on a new sample of rare high-velocity-dispersion disk galaxies we have discovered in the nearby Universe where cold accretion is unlikely to drive their high star-formation rates. We find that the velocity dispersion is most fundamentally correlated with their star-formation rates, and not their mass nor gas fraction, which leads to a new picture where star formation itself is the energetic driver of galaxy disk turbulence at all cosmic epochs.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, Supplimentary Info available at: http://pulsar.swin.edu.au/~agreen/nature/sigma_mean_arXiv.pdf. Accepted for publication in Natur

Multitrait genetic association analysis identifies 50 new risk loci for gastro-oesophageal reflux, seven new loci for Barrett’s oesophagus and provides insights into clinical heterogeneity in reflux diagnosis

Objective: Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD) has heterogeneous aetiology primarily attributable to its symptom-based definitions. GERD genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have shown strong genetic overlaps with established risk factors such as obesity and depression. We hypothesised that the shared genetic architecture between GERD and these risk factors can be leveraged to (1) identify new GERD and Barrett's oesophagus (BE) risk loci and (2) explore potentially heterogeneous pathways leading to GERD and oesophageal complications. Design: We applied multitrait GWAS models combining GERD (78 707 cases; 288 734 controls) and genetically correlated traits including education attainment, depression and body mass index. We also used multitrait analysis to identify BE risk loci. Top hits were replicated in 23andMe (462 753 GERD cases, 24 099 BE cases, 1 484 025 controls). We additionally dissected the GERD loci into obesity-driven and depression-driven subgroups. These subgroups were investigated to determine how they relate to tissue-specific gene expression and to risk of serious oesophageal disease (BE and/or oesophageal adenocarcinoma, EA). Results: We identified 88 loci associated with GERD, with 59 replicating in 23andMe after multiple testing corrections. Our BE analysis identified seven novel loci. Additionally we showed that only the obesity-driven GERD loci (but not the depression-driven loci) were associated with genes enriched in oesophageal tissues and successfully predicted BE/EA. Conclusion: Our multitrait model identified many novel risk loci for GERD and BE. We present strong evidence for a genetic underpinning of disease heterogeneity in GERD and show that GERD loci associated with depressive symptoms are not strong predictors of BE/EA relative to obesity-driven GERD loci

Understanding the treatment benefit of hyperimmune anti-influenza intravenous immunoglobulin (Flu-IVIG) for severe human influenza

Background: Antibody-based therapies for respiratory viruses are of increasing importance. The INSIGHT 006 trial administered anti-influenza hyperimmune intravenous immunoglobulin (Flu-IVIG) to patients hospitalized with influenza. Flu-IVIG treatment improved outcomes in patients with influenza B but showed no benefit for influenza A. Methods: To probe potential mechanisms of Flu-IVIG utility, sera collected from patients hospitalized with influenza A or B viruses (IAV or IBV) were analyzed for antibody isotype/subclass and Fcγ receptor (FcγR) binding by ELISA, bead-based multiplex, and NK cell activation assays. Results: Influenza-specific FcγR-binding antibodies were elevated in Flu-IVIG–infused IBV- and IAV-infected patients. In IBV-infected participants (n = 62), increased IgG3 and FcγR binding were associated with more favorable outcomes. Flu-IVIG therapy also improved the odds of a more favorable outcome in patients with low levels of anti-IBV Fc-functional antibody. Higher FcγR-binding antibody was associated with less favorable outcomes in IAV-infected patients (n = 50), and Flu-IVIG worsened the odds of a favorable outcome in participants with low levels of anti-IAV Fc-functional antibody. Conclusion: These detailed serological analyses provide insights into antibody features and mechanisms required for a successful humoral response against influenza, suggesting that IBV-specific, but not IAV-specific, antibodies with Fc-mediated functions may assist in improving influenza outcome. This work will inform development of improved influenza immunotherapies

ABCB1 (MDR1) polymorphisms and ovarian cancer progression and survival: A comprehensive analysis from the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium and The Cancer Genome Atlas

<b>Objective</b> <i>ABCB1</i> encodes the multi-drug efflux pump P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and has been implicated in multi-drug resistance. We comprehensively evaluated this gene and flanking regions for an association with clinical outcome in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC).<p></p> <b>Methods</b> The best candidates from fine-mapping analysis of 21 <i>ABCB1</i> SNPs tagging C1236T (rs1128503), G2677T/A (rs2032582), and C3435T (rs1045642) were analysed in 4616 European invasive EOC patients from thirteen Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (OCAC) studies and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Additionally we analysed 1,562 imputed SNPs around ABCB1 in patients receiving cytoreductive surgery and either ‘standard’ first-line paclitaxel–carboplatin chemotherapy (n = 1158) or any first-line chemotherapy regimen (n = 2867). We also evaluated ABCB1 expression in primary tumours from 143 EOC patients.<p></p> <b>Result</b> Fine-mapping revealed that rs1128503, rs2032582, and rs1045642 were the best candidates in optimally debulked patients. However, we observed no significant association between any SNP and either progression-free survival or overall survival in analysis of data from 14 studies. There was a marginal association between rs1128503 and overall survival in patients with nil residual disease (HR 0.88, 95% CI 0.77–1.01; p = 0.07). In contrast, <i>ABCB1</i> expression in the primary tumour may confer worse prognosis in patients with sub-optimally debulked tumours.<p></p> <b>Conclusion</b> Our study represents the largest analysis of <i>ABCB1</i> SNPs and EOC progression and survival to date, but has not identified additional signals, or validated reported associations with progression-free survival for rs1128503, rs2032582, and rs1045642. However, we cannot rule out the possibility of a subtle effect of rs1128503, or other SNPs linked to it, on overall survival.<p></p&gt

Reproducibility of adenosine stress cardiovascular magnetic resonance in multi-vessel symptomatic coronary artery disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Purpose</p> <p>First-pass perfusion cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is increasingly being utilized in both clinical practice and research. However, the reproducibility of this technique remains incompletely evaluated, particularly in patients with severe coronary artery disease (CAD). The purpose of this study was to determine the inter-study reproducibility of adenosine stress CMR in patients with symptomatic multi-vessel CAD and those at low risk for CAD.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty patients (10 with CAD, 10 low risk CAD) underwent two CMR scans 8 ± 2 days apart. Basal, mid and apical left ventricular short axis slices were acquired using gadolinium 0.05 mmol/kg at peak stress (adenosine, 140 μ/kg/min, 4 min) and rest. Myocardial perfusion was evaluated qualitatively by assessing the number of ischemic segments, and semi-quantitatively by determining the myocardial perfusion reserve index (MPRi) using a normalized upslope method. Inter-study and observer reproducibility were assessed--the latter being defined by the coefficient of variation (CoV), which was calculated from the standard deviation of the differences of the measurements, divided by the mean. Additionally, the percentage of myocardial segments with perfect agreement and inter- and intra-observer MPRi correlation between studies, were also determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The CoV for the number of ischemic segments was 31% with a mean difference of -0.15 ± 0.88 segments and 91% perfect agreement between studies. MPRi was lower in patients with CAD (1.13 ± 0.21) compared to those with low risk CAD (1.59 ± 0.58), p = 0.02. The reproducibility of MPRi was 19% with no significant difference between patients with CAD and those with low risk CAD (p = 0.850). Observer reproducibility for MPRi was high: inter-observer CoV 9%, r = 0.93 and intra-observer CoV 5%, r = 0.94. For trials using perfusion CMR as an endpoint, an estimated sample size of 12 subjects would be required to detect a two-segment change in the number of ischemic segments (power 0.9, α 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Adenosine stress CMR, by qualitative and semi-quantitative normalized upslope analyses are reproducible techniques in both patients with multi-vessel CAD and those without known CAD. The robust inter-study reproducibility of perfusion CMR supports its clinical and research application.</p