Do Judges’ Instructions About Eyewitnesses Really Work?: A 2019 Update

Many problems are associated with eyewitness identifications. Perhaps most importantly, eyewitness testimony can predispose jurors toward guilty verdicts,4 and has contributed to wrongful convictions and incarcerations.5 Indeed, 75% of the wrongfully convicted persons released by DNA evidence were convicted based, at least in part, on eyewitness testimony.6 In 2011, New Jersey’s Supreme Court in State v. Henderson approved new judicial instructions in an attempt to educate jurors about the many factors that can influence the accuracy of an eyewitness,7 but subsequent research questions the efficacy of such judicial instructions.8 A special issue of Court Review released right after the Henderson9 decision reviewed the psychological research on eyewitnesses. This included an article on judicial instructions in cases involving eyewitnesses, but research regarding Henderson instructions was too new to be included.10 In the six years since the 2012 review was published, researchers have conducted studies specifically testing the Henderson instructions, including the current study which examined the effects of case facts, judicial instructions (including a proposed verdict form), and mock-jurors’ pre-existing belief in the fallibility of memory on perceptions of the eyewitness and defendant in a case involving eyewitness testimony. This article has two purposes: 1) to provide an up-to-date summary of the laws and research regarding eyewitnesses and eyewitness memory since the 2012 special issue of Court Review and 2) to present the results of a new study testing whether instructions and a verdict form help jurors distinguish between good and bad eyewitnesses. This updated review will ultimately make recommendations for how judges should approach the problem of faulty eyewitnesses and jury instructions—and how jurors interpret their testimony

Study of relativistic bound state wave functions in quasielastic (e,e'p) reactions

The unpolarized response functions of the quasielastic $^{16}O(e,e^\prime p)^{15}N$ reaction are calculated for three different types of relativistic bound state wave functions. The wave functions are obtained from relativistic Hartree, relativistic Hartree-Fock and density dependent relativistic Hartree calculations that reproduce the experimental charge radius of $^{16}$O. The sensitivity of the unpolarized response functions to the single particle structure of the different models is investigated in the relativistic plane wave impulse approximation. Redistributions of the momentum dependence in the longitudinal and transverse response function can be related to the binding energy of the single particle states. The interference responses $R_{LT}$ and $R_{TT}$ reveal a strong sensitivity to the small component of the relativistic bound state wave function.Comment: 18 pages REVTEX, 5 figures include

Metabolic Syndrome and Incident Coronary Heart Disease in Australian Indigenous Populations

This report aims to compare the prediction of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components for morbidity and mortality of coronary heart disease (CHD) in a cohort of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults (TSIs). A total of 2,100 adults (1,283 Aborigines and 817 TSIs) was followed up for 6 years from 2000. Outcome measures were all CHD events (deaths and hospitalizations). Baseline anthropometric measurements, blood pressure (BP), fasting blood lipids and glucose were collected. Smoking and alcohol intake was self-reported. We found MetS was more prevalent in TSI (50.3%) compared to Aborigines (33.0%). Baseline MetS doubled the risk of a CHD event in Aborigines. Increased fasting triglycerides was stronger in predicting CHD (hazard ratio (HR): 2.8) compared with MetS after adjusted for age, sex, tobacco and alcohol consumption, and baseline diabetes and albuminuria for Aborigines but not among TSIs. MetS was not more powerful than its components in predicting CHD event. In Australian Aborigines, the “triglyceridemic waist” phenotype strongly predicts CHD event, whereas among TSI, baseline diabetes mediated the prediction of increased fasting glucose for CHD event

Improving Community Advisory Board Engagement In Precision Medicine Research To Reduce Health Disparities

Community Advisory Boards (CABs) are used in efforts to reduce health disparities; however, there is little documentation in the literature regarding their use in precision medicine research. In this case study, an academic-CAB partnership developed a questionnaire and patient educational materials for two precision smoking cessation interventions that involved use of genetic information. The community-engaged research (CEnR) literature provided a framework for enhancing benefits to CAB members involved in developing research documents for use with a low-income, ethnically diverse population of smokers. The academic partners integrated three CEnR strategies: 1) in-meeting statements acknowledging their desire to learn from community partners, 2) in-meeting written feedback to and from community partners, and 3) a survey to obtain CAB member feedback post-meetings. Strategies 1 and 2 yielded modifications to pertinent study materials, as well as suggestions for improving meeting operations that were then adopted, as appropriate, by the academic partners. The survey indicated that CAB members valued the meeting procedure changes which appeared to have contributed to improvements in attendance and satisfaction with the meetings. Further operationalization of relevant partnership constructs and development of tools for measuring these aspects of community-academic partnerships is warranted to support community engagement in precision medicine research studies

'Sly grog' and 'homebrew': a qualitative examination of illicit alcohol and some of its impacts on Indigenous communities with alcohol restrictions in regional and remote Queensland (Australia)

Background: Indigenous communities in Queensland (Australia) have been subject to Alcohol Management Plans since 2002/03, with significant penalties for breaching restrictions. 'Sly grog' and 'homebrew' provide access to alcohol despite restrictions. This paper describes how this alcohol is made available and the risks and impacts involved. In affected towns and communities across a large area of rural and remote Queensland, interviews and focus groups documented experiences and views of 255 long-standing community members and service providers. Using an inductive framework, transcribed interviews were analysed to identify supply mechanisms, community and service provider responses and impacts experienced. Results: 'Homebrew' was reportedly manufactured in just a few localities, in locally-specific forms bringing locally-specific harms. However, 'sly grog' sourced from licensed premises located long distances from communities, is a widespread concern across the region. 'Sly grog' sellers circumvent retailers' takeaway liquor license conditions, stockpile alcohol outside restricted areas, send hoax messages to divert enforcement and take extraordinary risks to avoid apprehension. Police face significant challenges to enforce restrictions. On-selling of 'sly grog' appears more common in remote communities with total prohibition. Despite different motives for involvement in an illicit trade 'sly grog' consumers and sellers receive similar penalties. Conclusions: There is a need for: (a) a more sophisticated regional approach to managing takeaway alcohol sales from licensed suppliers, (b) targeted penalties for 'sly grog' sellers that reflect its significant community impact, (c) strategies to reduce the demand for alcohol and (d) research to assess the effects of these strategies in reducing harms.Michelle S. Fitts, Jan Robertson, Simon Towle, Chris M. Doran, Robyn McDermott, Adrian Miller, Stephen Margolis, Valmae Ypinazar and Alan R. Cloug

Tissue engineering for total meniscal substitution : Animal study in sheep model

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the use of a novel hyaluronic acid/polycaprolactone material for meniscal tissue engineering and to evaluate the tissue regeneration after the augmentation of the implant with expanded autologous chondrocytes. Two different surgical implantation techniques in a sheep model were evaluated. Methods: Twenty-four skeletally mature sheep were treated with total medial meniscus replacements, while two meniscectomies served as empty controls. The animals were divided into two groups: cell-free scaffold and scaffold seeded with autologous chondrocytes. Two different surgical techniques were compared: in 12 animals, the implant was sutured to the capsule and to the meniscal ligament; in the other 12 animals, also a transtibial fixation of the horns was used. The animals were euthanized after 4 months. The specimens were assessed by gross inspection and histology. Results: All implants showed excellent capsular ingrowth at the periphery. Macroscopically, no difference was observed between cell-seeded and cell-free groups. Better implant appearance and integrity was observed in the group without transosseous horns fixation. Using the latter implantation technique, lower joint degeneration was observed in the cell-seeded group with respect to cell-free implants. The histological analysis indicated cellular infiltration and vascularization throughout the implanted constructs. Cartilaginous tissue formation was significantly more frequent in the cell-seeded constructs. Conclusion: The current study supports the potential of a novel HYAFF/polycaprolactone scaffold for total meniscal substitution. Seeding of the scaffolds with autologous chondrocytes provides some benefit in the extent of fibrocartilaginous tissue repair

Conjunctival cytokine expression in symptomatic moderate dry eye subjects

PURPOSE. To compare ocular surface cytokine expression in healthy controls and subjects with moderate dry eye and to study the ability of interleukin (IL)-1␤ to modulate cytokine expression in cultured human conjunctival epithelial cells (CECs). METHODS. Subjective (symptom questionnaire) and objective (tear osmolality, fluorescein tear break-up time [TBUT]) measures of dry eye were determined in five healthy controls and five subjects with moderate dry eye. Tear clearance rates were measured with a fluorophotometer. Enzyme immunoassay and a cytokine bead assay were used to quantify IL-1␤ in tear fluid. RT-PCR was performed to detect expression of IL-1␤, IL-6, IL-8, growth-related oncogene (GRO)-␤, intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1, tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), and ephrin A5 in conjunctival impression cytology (CIC) samples and in CECs (IOBA-NHC cell line, n ϭ 3; primary cultured CEC, n ϭ 3) exposed to 10 ng/mL IL-1␤ for 6 hours. RESULTS. Subjects with moderate dry eye had significantly higher symptom scores, higher tear osmolality, and shorter TBUT than healthy controls. Subjects with dry eye demonstrated slightly slower tear clearance (13.1% per minute) than healthy controls (15.4% per minute). Very low levels of IL-1␤ protein were detected in the tear fluid of both groups. TRAIL was constitutively expressed in CIC samples, whereas IL-1␤, IL-6, and GRO-␤ were absent. Weak expression of IL-8 (two healthy, four dry eye), ICAM-1 (four healthy, four dry eye), and ephrin A5 (one healthy, two dry eye) was observed. IL-1␤ upregulated its own expression and that of IL-6, IL-8, GRO-␤, and ICAM-1 in cultured CECs but not that of ephrin A5 or TRAIL. CONCLUSIONS. The lack of major differences in ocular surface cytokine expression between the two groups of subjects implies other inflammatory pathways or etiologies are involved in moderate dry eye. Although IL-1␤ modulated the expression of various cytokines in cultured CECs, its absence in tear fluid and CIC samples suggests that IL-1␤ does not play a modulatory role in moderate dry eye. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci