Lessons from New Orleans: A Stronger Role for Public Defenders in Spurring Indigent Defense Reform

Excessive caseloads prevent public defenders from fulfilling their ethical obligations and curtail criminal defendants’ right to the effective assistance of counsel. Despite this ethical and constitutional dilemma, legislators have been reluctant to provide adequate funds for indigent defense. And because of the separation of powers, courts have been unable to force legislators’ hands. Against this backdrop, criminal defendants in states that choose not to adequately fund indigent defense face a serious risk of wrongful conviction. The Orleans Public Defenders Office (OPD) provides a case study of public defenders playing a stronger role in spurring legislative reform. In response to a funding crisis in Louisiana, the OPD refused to take new cases beyond constitutionally permissible workloads. This refusal resulted in criminal defendants being put on waiting lists for representation, which garnered national attention, gave rise to class action lawsuits against the state, and created a threat to public safety. These are governance problems that legislators prioritize over funding indigent defense. The OPD’s refusal to take new cases has been somewhat successful: in response to this crisis, the state legislature has provided additional funds to public defenders’ offices in the state. Public defenders are in a unique position to put pressure on legislators. By refusing to take new cases that would cause their workloads to be excessive, public defenders can both maintain their obligations to the profession and ensure constitutional representation for their clients

Local Out-Tournaments with Upset Tournament Strong Components I: Full and Equal {0,1}-Matrix Ranks

A digraph D is a local out-tournament if the outset of every vertex is a tournament. Here, we use local out-tournaments, whose strong components are upset tournaments, to explore the corresponding ranks of the adjacency matrices. Of specific interest is the out-tournament whose adjacency matrix has boolean, nonnegative integer, term, and real rank all equal to the number of vertices, n. Corresponding results for biclique covers and partitions of the digraph are provided

Transitions of cardio-metabolic risk factors in the Americas between 1980 and 2014

Background: Describing the levels and trends of cardio-metabolic risk factors associated with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is vital for monitoring progress, planning prevention and provide evidence to support policy efforts. We aimed to analyse the transition in body-mass index (BMI), obesity, blood pressure, raised blood pressure (RBP) and diabetes in the Americas, 1980-2014. Methods: Pooled analysis of population-based studies with data on anthropometric measurements, biomarkers for diabetes, and blood pressure from adults aged 18+ years. A Bayesian model was used to estimate trends in BMI, RBP (systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg) and diabetes (fasting plasma glucose ≥7.0 mmol/l, history of diabetes, or diabetes treatment) from 1980 to 2014 in 37 countries and 6 sub-regions of the Americas. Findings: 389 population-based surveys from the Americas were available. Comparing the 2014 with the 1980 prevalence estimates, the obesity ratio was the largest in the non-English-speaking Caribbean sub-region (4.71 in men and 2.50 in women) showing that the prevalence in 2014 for men is almost five times larger than it was in 1980. The English-speaking Caribbean sub-region had the largest ratio regarding diabetes (2.14 in men and 2.13 in women). Conversely, the ratio for RBP signals that the frequency of this condition has diminished across the region; the largest decrease was found in North America (0.56 in men and 0.54 in women). Interpretation: Despite the generally high prevalence of cardio-metabolic risk factors across the Americas region, estimates also show a high level of heterogeneity in the transition between countries

Experimental observation of lasing shutdown via asymmetric gain

Using a pair of coupled RLC cavities we experimentally demonstrate that amplification action can be tamed by a spatially inhomogeneous gain. Under specific conditions we observe the counterintuitive phenomenon of stabilization of the system even when the overall gain provided is increased. This behavior is directly related to lasing shutdown via asymmetric pumping, recently proposed in M. Liertzer et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 173901 (2012)]. The analysis of other simple systems reveals the universal nature of the lasing shutdown phenomenon as having its roots in managing impedance matching

Worldwide trends in diabetes since 1980: a pooled analysis of 751 population-based studies with 4·4 million participants

Background One of the global targets for non-communicable diseases is to halt, by 2025, the rise in the age-standardised adult prevalence of diabetes at its 2010 levels. We aimed to estimate worldwide trends in diabetes, how likely it is for countries to achieve the global target, and how changes in prevalence, together with population growth and ageing, are affecting the number of adults with diabetes. Methods We pooled data from population-based studies that had collected data on diabetes through measurement of its biomarkers. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in diabetes prevalence—defined as fasting plasma glucose of 7·0 mmol/L or higher, or history of diagnosis with diabetes, or use of insulin or oral hypoglycaemic drugs—in 200 countries and territories in 21 regions, by sex and from 1980 to 2014. We also calculated the posterior probability of meeting the global diabetes target if post-2000 trends continue. Findings We used data from 751 studies including 4 372 000 adults from 146 of the 200 countries we make estimates for. Global age-standardised diabetes prevalence increased from 4·3% (95% credible interval 2·4–7·0) in 1980 to 9·0% (7·2–11·1) in 2014 in men, and from 5·0% (2·9–7·9) to 7·9% (6·4–9·7) in women. The number of adults with diabetes in the world increased from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014 (28·5% due to the rise in prevalence, 39·7% due to population growth and ageing, and 31·8% due to interaction of these two factors). Age-standardised adult diabetes prevalence in 2014 was lowest in northwestern Europe, and highest in Polynesia and Micronesia, at nearly 25%, followed by Melanesia and the Middle East and north Africa. Between 1980 and 2014 there was little change in age-standardised diabetes prevalence in adult women in continental western Europe, although crude prevalence rose because of ageing of the population. By contrast, age-standardised adult prevalence rose by 15 percentage points in men and women in Polynesia and Micronesia. In 2014, American Samoa had the highest national prevalence of diabetes (>30% in both sexes), with age-standardised adult prevalence also higher than 25% in some other islands in Polynesia and Micronesia. If post-2000 trends continue, the probability of meeting the global target of halting the rise in the prevalence of diabetes by 2025 at the 2010 level worldwide is lower than 1% for men and is 1% for women. Only nine countries for men and 29 countries for women, mostly in western Europe, have a 50% or higher probability of meeting the global target. Interpretation Since 1980, age-standardised diabetes prevalence in adults has increased, or at best remained unchanged, in every country. Together with population growth and ageing, this rise has led to a near quadrupling of the number of adults with diabetes worldwide. The burden of diabetes, both in terms of prevalence and number of adults affected, has increased faster in low-income and middle-income countries than in high-income countries. Funding Wellcome Trust

Minimal dataset for post-registration surveillance of new drugs in hemophilia: communication from the SSC of the ISTH

Clinical epidemiolog

ALMA Observations of Asymmetric Molecular Gas Emission from a Protoplanetary Disk in the Orion Nebula

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of molecular line emission from d216-0939, one of the largest and most massive protoplanetary disks in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). We model the spectrally resolved HCO$^+$ (4--3), CO (3--2), and HCN (4--3) lines observed at 0\farcs5 resolution to fit the temperature and density structure of the disk. We also weakly detect and spectrally resolve the CS (7--6) line but do not model it. The abundances we derive for CO and HCO$^+$ are generally consistent with expected values from chemical modeling of protoplanetary disks, while the HCN abundance is higher than expected. We dynamically measure the mass of the central star to be $2.17\pm0.07\,M_\odot$ which is inconsistent with the previously determined spectral type of K5. We also report the detection of a spatially unresolved high-velocity blue-shifted excess emission feature with a measurable positional offset from the central star, consistent with a Keplerian orbit at $60\pm20\,\mathrm{au}$. Using the integrated flux of the feature in HCO$^+$ (4--3), we estimate the total H$_2$ gas mass of this feature to be at least $1.8-8\,M_\mathrm{Jupiter}$, depending on the assumed temperature. The feature is due to a local temperature and/or density enhancement consistent with either a hydrodynamic vortex or the expected signature of the envelope of a forming protoplanet within the disk.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A

Developmental and Degenerative Cardiac Defects in the Taiwanese Mouse Model of Severe Spinal Muscular Atrophy

We would like to acknowledge the Microscopy and Histology Core Facility at the University of Aberdeen, Kevin Mackenzie, Debbie Wilkinson, Gillian Milne and Lucy Wight, for the use of their facilities. G.K.M. was funded by a research award from RGA awarded to S.H.P. E.S. was funded by a University of Aberdeen Elphinstone PhD Studentship and a research award from the Euan Macdonald Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Research. H.K.S. was funded by a Euan Macdonald Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Research PhD Studentship. S.H.P. is funded by Tenovus (Scotland), SMA Trust and Prinses Beatrix Spierfonds. T.H.G. is funded by SMA Trust (UK SMA Research Consortium Award), Muscular Dystrophy UK, and Anatomical Society (PhD Studentship).Peer reviewedPostprin