Hiding in Plain Language: A Solution to the Pandemic Riddle of a Suspended Grand Jury, an Expiring Statute of Limitations, and the Fifth Amendment

Under the statute of limitations applicable to most federal crimes, 18 U.S.C. § 3282(a), “no person shall be prosecuted, tried, or punished for any offense, not capital, unless the indictment is found or the information is instituted within five years next after such offense shall have been committed.” That long-standing, generally uncontroversial procedural statute was thrust into the spotlight in 2020, when courts, prosecutors, and criminal defendants confronted an unprecedented and extraordinary scenario. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many federal district courts suspended grand juries to prevent the spread of the highly contagious life-threatening virus through group congregation. Indeed, to combat the rampant and unabating COVID-19 outbreak in Florida, the District Court for the Southern District of Florida suspended grand juries from March 26, 2020, until November 17, 2020, creating a nearly eight-month period during which prosecutors could not obtain indictments. But, under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, criminal defendants have the right to be prosecuted by indictment. Thus, during the grand jury suspension, the five-year statute of limitations applicable to most federal crimes was expiring on uncharged criminal conduct that ended in 2015 at a time when prosecutors could not comply with the Fifth Amendment. Despite being alerted of this constitutional issue, Congress did not enact legislation giving either the Chief Judge of the United States Supreme Court or the Chief Judges of the United States District Courts authority to suspend statutes of limitations during national emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, that affect the functioning of the courts. The combination of that judicial decision to suspend grand juries and that legislative decision not to suspend statutes of limitations posed a pandemic riddle: how can prosecutors comply with both the statutes of limitations and the Fifth Amendment when there are no grand juries? This Article examines the text of 18 U.S.C. § 3282(a), Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a), and 18 U.S.C. §§ 3288 and 3289; the purposes of statutes of limitations and the Fifth Amendment right to prosecution by indictment; and the related legislative history. Based on that examination, this Article suggests that, for most federal crimes, when defendants assert their Fifth Amendment right to prosecution by indictment during a pandemic (or other national emergency) that suspended grand juries and the statute of limitations on their alleged crimes is expiring, prosecutors can uphold that constitutional right and that statutory privilege as well as the public interest in seeing lawbreakers brought to justice by: (1) filing an information to toll the statute of limitations under 18 U.S.C. § 3282(a); (2) dismissing that information without prejudice under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a) if the defendant does not waive his right to prosecution by indictment; and (3) obtaining a timely indictment within six months of the resumption of grand juries under the savings clauses in 18 U.S.C. §§ 3288 and 3289 for re-prosecutions after the dismissal of a timely filed information. This Article concludes that there already is a mechanism in the federal statute of limitations appliable to most federal crimes that allows prosecutors to constitutionally preserve criminal charges when a national emergency prevents grand juries from finding indictments

Look What I Am Doing: Does Observational Learning Take Place in Evocative Task-Sharing Situations?

Two experiments were conducted to investigate whether physical and observational practice in task-sharing entail comparable implicit motor learning. To this end, the social-transfer-of-learning (SToL) effect was assessed when both participants performed the joint practice task (Experiment 1 \u2013 complete task-sharing), or when one participant observed the other performing half of the practice task (Experiment 2 \u2013 evocative task-sharing). Since the inversion of the spatial relations between responding agent and stimulus position has been shown to prevent SToL, in the present study we assessed it in both complete and evocative task-sharing conditions either when spatial relations were kept constant or changed from the practice to the transfer session. The same pattern of results was found for both complete and evocative task-sharing, thus suggesting that implicit motor learning in evocative task-sharing is equivalent to that obtained in complete task-sharing. We conclude that this motor learning originates from the simulation of the complementary (rather than the imitative) action

Mobile phone text messaging to improve medication adherence in secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.

BACKGROUND: Worldwide at least 100 million people are thought to have prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD). This population has a five times greater chance of suffering a recurrent cardiovascular event than people without known CVD. Secondary CVD prevention is defined as action aimed to reduce the probability of recurrence of such events. Drug interventions have been shown to be cost-effective in reducing this risk and are recommended in international guidelines. However, adherence to recommended treatments remains sub-optimal. In order to influence non-adherence, there is a need to develop scalable and cost-effective behaviour-change interventions. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of mobile phone text messaging in patients with established arterial occlusive events on adherence to treatment, fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events, and adverse effects. SEARCH METHODS: We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, the Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Science on Web of Science on 7 November 2016, and two clinical trial registers on 12 November 2016. We contacted authors of included studies for missing information and searched reference lists of relevant papers. We applied no language or date restrictions. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised trials with at least 50% of the participants with established arterial occlusive events. We included trials investigating interventions using short message service (SMS) or multimedia messaging service (MMS) with the aim to improve adherence to medication for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular events. Eligible comparators were no intervention or other modes of communication. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We used standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane. In addition, we attempted to contact all authors on how the SMS were developed. MAIN RESULTS: We included seven trials (reported in 13 reports) with 1310 participants randomised. Follow-up ranged from one month to 12 months. Due to heterogeneity in the methods, population and outcome measures, we were unable to conduct meta-analysis on these studies. All seven studies reported on adherence, but using different methods and scales. Six out of seven trials showed a beneficial effect of mobile phone text messaging for medication adherence. Dale 2015a, reported significantly greater medication adherence score in the intervention group (Mean Difference (MD) 0.58, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.19 to 0.97; 123 participants randomised) at six months. Khonsari 2015 reported less adherence in the control group (Relative Risk (RR) 4.09, 95% CI 1.82 to 9.18; 62 participants randomised) at eight weeks. Pandey 2014 (34 participants randomised) assessed medication adherence through self-reported logs with 90% adherence in the intervention group compared to 70% in the control group at 12 months. Park 2014a (90 participants randomised) reported a greater increase of the medication adherence score in the control group, but also measured adherence with an event monitoring system for a number of medications with adherence levels ranging from 84.1% adherence to 86.2% in the intervention group and 79.7% to 85.7% in the control group at 30 days. Quilici 2013, reported reduced odds of non-adherence in the intervention group (Odds Ratio (OR) 0.43, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.86, 521 participants randomised) at 30 days. Fang 2016, reported that participants given SMS alone had reduced odds of being non-adherent compared to telephone reminders (OR 0.40 95% CI 0.18 to 0.63; 280 patients randomised). Kamal 2015 reported higher levels of adherence in the intervention arm (adjusted MD 0.54, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.85; 200 participants randomised). Khonsari 2015 was the only study to report fatal cardiovascular events and only reported two events, both in the control arm. No study reported on the other primary outcomes. No study reported repetitive thumb injury or road traffic crashes or other adverse events that were related to the intervention.Four authors replied to our questionnaire on SMS development. No study reported examining causes of non-adherence or provided SMS tailored to individual patient characteristics.The included studies were small, heterogeneous and included participants recruited directly after acute events. All studies were assessed as having high risk of bias across at least one domain. Most of the studies came from high-income countries, with two studies conducted in an upper middle-income country (China, Malaysia), and one study from a lower middle-income country (Pakistan). The quality of the evidence was found to be very low. There was no obvious conflicts of interest from authors, although only two declared their funding. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: While the results of this systematic review are promising, there is insufficient evidence to draw conclusions on the effectiveness of text message-based interventions for adherence to medications for secondary prevention of CVD. Sufficiently powered, high-quality randomised trials are needed, particularly in low- and middle-income countries

Interactive Responses of Solanum Dulcamara to Drought and Insect Feeding are Herbivore Species-Specific

In nature, plants are frequently subjected to multiple biotic and abiotic stresses, resulting in a convergence of adaptive responses. We hypothesised that hormonal signalling regulating defences to different herbivores may interact with drought responses, causing distinct resistance phenotypes. To test this, we studied the hormonal and transcriptomic responses of Solanum dulcamara subjected to drought and herbivory by the generalist Spodoptera exigua (beet armyworm; BAW) or the specialist Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Colorado potato beetle; CPB). Bioassays showed that the performance of BAW, but not CPB, decreased on plants under drought compared to controls. While drought did not alter BAW-induced hormonal responses, it enhanced the CPB-induced accumulation of jasmonic acid and salicylic acid (SA), and suppressed ethylene (ET) emission. Microarray analyses showed that under drought, BAW herbivory enhanced several herbivore-induced responses, including cell-wall remodelling and the metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids, and secondary metabolites. In contrast, CPB herbivory enhanced several photosynthesis-related and pathogen responses in drought-stressed plants. This may divert resources away from defence production and increase leaf nutritive value. In conclusion, while BAW suffers from the drought-enhanced defences, CPB may benefit from the effects of enhanced SA and reduced ET signalling. This suggests that the fine-tuned interaction between the plant and its specialist herbivore is sustained under drought

Impactos do lançamento de efluentes na qualidade das águas do rio Catolé Grande / Impacts of laundering of effluents in the quality of the waters of the Catolé Grande river

Este estudo teve por objetivo avaliar a variação da qualidade da água em três diferentes pontos do rio Catolé Grande, Itapetinga- BA com diferenças na contribuição de lançamentos de efluentes urbanos e/ou industriais e em diferentes épocas de estudo, frente a parâmetros de análise da qualidade de água. Foram realizadas amostragem nos pontos localizados antes, durante e após o perímetro urbano sendo que em cada amostra foram realizadas as análises de turbidez, condutividade elétrica, pH, temperatura, sólidos totais, sólidos fixos, sólidos voláteis, oxigênio dissolvido e demanda bioquímica de oxigênio. As variáveis avaliadas foram comparadas com a legislação vigente. Para verificar se houve diferença significativa das variáveis de qualidade da água nos três diferentes pontos analisados procedeu-se o teste de Tukey a 5% de probabilidade, com auxílio do software SAEG. Em todas as épocas avaliadas somente os valores de DBO encontraram-se acima dos limites impostos pela legislação vigente a CONAMA 357/05 (BRASIL, 2005) (acima de 5 mg/L). Foi possível concluir que há variabilidade de qualidade da água do rio Catolé Grande ao longo do trecho estudado, sendo reflexo da contribuição da cidade no lançamento de despejos ao curso d’água

Modified walking suture technique in rhytidectomy in a Shar-Pei dog

Excessive facial skin folds is observed in several breeds of dogs and the weight exerted on the eyelids accents or promotes entropion, trichiasis and ptosis. Thus, this study reported a case of the 8-months-old male Shar-pei weighting 21.5kg was presented with an obstructed visual axis, eye discharge, fetid odor in facial folds around the jaw and the neck. It was indicated the surgical resection of the folds and correction of the upper and lower entropion. In this case, the association of Hotz-Celsus technique with rhytidectomy shaped in semiarchs, using the anchoring points with the modified walking suture, was effective in correcting the entropion and unblocking the visual axis with minimal scarring and preservation of the breed standard in 12 months follow up after surgery

Correction: Whole-blood expression of inflammasome- and glucocorticoid-related mRNAs correctly separates treatment-resistant depressed patients from drug-free and responsive patients in the BIODEP study

We have corrected this Article post-publication, because Dr. Cattaneo’s affiliation details were originally incorrect (she was affiliated with three institutions but is in fact only linked to one: Biological Psychiatry Unit, IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia). These changes reflect in both the PDF and HTML versions of this Article

Syndromic (phenotypic) diarrhea in early infancy

Syndromic diarrhea (SD), also known as phenotypic diarrhea (PD) or tricho-hepato-enteric syndrome (THE), is a congenital enteropathy presenting with early-onset of severe diarrhea requiring parenteral nutrition (PN). To date, no epidemiological data are available. The estimated prevalence is approximately 1/300,000–400,000 live births in Western Europe. Ethnic origin does not appear to be associated with SD. Infants are born small for gestational age and present with facial dysmorphism including prominent forehead and cheeks, broad nasal root and hypertelorism. Hairs are woolly, easily removed and poorly pigmented. Severe and persistent diarrhea starts within the first 6 months of life (≤ 1 month in most cases) and is accompanied by severe malabsorption leading to early and relentless protein energy malnutrition with failure to thrive. Liver disease affects about half of patients with extensive fibrosis or cirrhosis. There is currently no specific biochemical profile, though a functional T-cell immune deficiency with defective antibody production was reported. Microscopic analysis of the hair show twisted hair (pili torti), aniso- and poilkilotrichosis, and trichorrhexis nodosa. Histopathological analysis of small intestine biopsy shows non-specific villous atrophy with low or no mononuclear cell infiltration of the lamina propria, and no specific histological abnormalities involving the epithelium. The etiology remains unknown. The frequent association of the disorder with parental consanguinity and/or affected siblings suggests a genetic origin with an autosomal recessive mode of transmission. Early management consists of total PN. Some infants have a rather milder phenotype with partial PN dependency or require only enteral feeding. Prognosis of this syndrome is poor, but most patients now survive, and about half of the patients may be weaned from PN at adolescence, but experience failure to thrive and final short stature

Gene Regulation of Intestinal Porcine Epithelial Cells IPEC-J2 Is Dependent on the Site of Deoxynivalenol Toxicological Action

The intestinal epithelial cell layer represents the border between the luminal and systemic side of the gut. The decision between absorption and exclusion of substances is the quintessential function of the gut and varies along the gut axis. Consequently, potentially toxic substances may reach the basolateral domain of the epithelial cell layer via blood stream. The mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) is a Fusarium derived secondary metabolite known to enter the blood stream and displaying a striking toxicity on the basolateral side of polarised epithelial cell layers in vitro. Here we analysed potential mechanisms of apical and basolateral DON toxicity reflected in the gene expression. We used the jejunum-derived, polarised intestinal porcine epithelial cell line IPEC-J2 as an in vitro cell culture model. Luminal and systemic DON challenge of the epithelial cell layer was mimicked by a DON application from the apical or basolateral compartment of membrane inserts for 72 h. We compared the genome-wide gene expression of untreated and DON-treated IPEC-J2 cells with the GeneChip® Porcine Genome Array of Affymetrix. Low basolateral DON (200 ng/mL) application triggered 10 times more gene transcripts in comparison to the corresponding apical application (2539 versus 267) despite the intactness of the challenged cell layer as measured by transepithelial electrical resistance. Analysis of the regulated genes by bioinformatic resource DAVID identified several groups of biochemical pathways modulated by concentration and orientation of DON application. Selected genes representing pathways of the cellular metabolism, information processing and structural design were analysed in detail by quantitative PCR. Our findings clearly show that apical and basolateral challenge of epithelial cell layers trigger different gene response profiles paralleled with a higher susceptibility towards basolateral challenge. The evaluation of toxicological potentials of mycotoxins should take this difference in gene regulation dependent on route of application into account