LANDLORD AND TENANT - ASSUMPTION OF RISK OF DEFECTIVE STAIRWAY IN LANDLORD\u27S CONTROL BY EMPLOYEE OF TENANT

Plaintiff, employee of a tenant in defendant\u27s building, fell and suffered injuries while using a stairway designed for the use of the tenants and their employees. The stairway was in the control of the landlord, and had long been in a defective condition. It was the only means of ingress and egress. In the plaintiff\u27s action against the landlord the trial court granted a non-suit on the ground that plaintiff had voluntarily assumed the risk of the defective stairway by her use thereof. Plaintiff appealed. Held, the question whether the plaintiff had voluntarily assumed the risk is a question for the jury. Di Geso v. Franklin Washington Trust Co., (N. J. L. 1939) 4 A. (2d) 9

SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS - SCHOOL ELECTIONS - TAX LIMITATIONS - BOND ISSUES - QUALIFICATIONS OF ELECTORS UNDER MICHIGAN CONSTITUTION

The plaintiff submitted to the school district electors two propositions: (1) that of increasing the tax limitation from 1.5 per cent to 1.802 per cent of the assessed valuation, and (2) that of bonding the school district in the amount of $182,600 for improvements. Both at the registration of voters, and at the election, the qualifications of the electors were tested by the school code. On the tax limitation question, all registered school electors were permitted to vote. On the question of the bond issue, only those registered electors who owned property assessed for school taxes in the district were permitted to vote. The defendant, president of the school board, refused to issue the bonds on the ground that persons entitled to vote on this issue were wrongfully deprived of their vote. The plaintiff sought mandamus to compel the defendant to execute the bonds. Held, mandamus denied. The qualifications of the electors should have been tested by the provisions of the constitution, and not by the school code. Potter, J., concurred as to the question of the tax limitation, but as to the bonds held that the school code should govern. McAllister, J., dissented, holding that the school code should have governed as to both the tax limitation question and the question of the bond issue, and that the election as held was proper. Dearborn Township School District v. Cahow, 289 Mich. 643, 287 N. W. 484 (1939)

PUBLIC UTILITIES - MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS - POWER OF MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS TO REGULATE PUBLIC UTILITY RATES - FINALITY OF SUCH REGULATION

Since the decision in the case of Munn v. Illinois it has been settled that where property is devoted to a public use and is charged with a public interest, the state may prescribe reasonable rates for such public service. However, the question then arises as to the manner in which the state may prescribe these rates, through what agencies it may act, and the effect on the total picture of rate regulation within a state after there has been action by one of the proper agencies. The answers to these questions depend to a large extent upon the particular statutes in any one state. The extent of this comment is not to offer a compilation of statutes, but rather to present a few illustrative situations, centering for the most part about the actions of municipal corporations in this field

CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE-FEDERAL COURTS - SUBSTITUTION BY SUPREME COURT OF ITS INFERENCES OF FACT FOR THOSE OF THE STATE COURT

The recent cases of Avery v. Alabama and Chambers v. Florida raise the interesting question of the conclusiveness of a fact finding of a state court upon the United States Supreme Court in a criminal trial when the accused claims that one of his constitutional rights has been impaired, and the holding of the state court is to the effect that on the facts presented such right has not been impaired. The case may arise in the United States Supreme Court in either of two ways. It may come up on appeal from a lower federal court denying a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, as in Moore v. Dempsey. Or it may arise under a writ of certiorari to the state court. Certiorari is the most common method, but even if habeas corpus is used, the Supreme Court does not feel itself bound by res judicata, this being stated in Justice Holmes\u27 dissenting opinion to Frank v. Mangum. The Supreme Court has not seemed inclined to state a basis for its action in reaching a different conclusion upon a given state of facts from that reached by the state court. The scope of this comment is to attempt to determine: (1) the basis of federal interference with the findings of fact of the state court; (2) which portion of that fact picture interests the federal Court; (3) in what situations the federal Court will review the findings of fact made by the state courts; and (4) to what extent the federal Court will substitute its own inferences of fact for those of the state court

EVIDENCE - ADMISSIBILITY OF HOSPITAL RECORDS AS BUSINESS ENTRIES

Following the report of the Commonwealth Fund Committee, in which they advocated the adoption of a model act to govern the admission of business entries as evidence, a comparatively small number of states have enacted legislation of this kind, either the model act or an act of similar nature. The extent of this comment is to show: (1) in what states hospital records have been held not to be admissible as business entries, the states where there has been no decision on the subject, and the states where the status of the rule is in doubt; (2) the states where hospital records have been held to be admissible, and whether they are so by virtue of the common law, or only because of statute; (3) the authentication which is necessary; and (4) the purposes for which the record may be used

A model based on clinical parameters to identify myocardial late gadolinium enhancement by magnetic resonance in patients with aortic stenosis: An observational study

Objective With increasing age, the prevalence of aortic stenosis grows exponentially, increasing left heart pressures and potentially leading to myocardial hypertrophy, myocardial fibrosis and adverse outcomes. To identify patients who are at greatest risk, an outpatient model for risk stratification would be of value to better direct patient imaging, frequency of monitoring and expeditious management of aortic stenosis with possible earlier surgical intervention. In this study, a relatively simple model is proposed to identify myocardial fibrosis in patients with a diagnosis of moderate or severe aortic stenosis. Design Patients with moderate to severe aortic stenosis were enrolled into the study; patient characteristics, blood work, medications as well as transthoracic echocardiography and cardiovascular magnetic resonance were used to determine potential identifiers of myocardial fibrosis. Setting The Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK Participants One hundred and thirteen patients in derivation cohort and 26 patients in validation cohort. Main outcome measures Identification of myocardial fibrosis. Results Three blood biomarkers (serum platelets, serum urea, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide) and left ventricular ejection fraction were shown to be capable of identifying myocardial fibrosis. The model was validated in a separate cohort of 26 patients. Conclusions Although further external validation of the model is necessary prior to its use in clinical practice, the proposed clinical model may direct patient care with respect to earlier magnetic resonance imagining, frequency of monitoring and may help in risk stratification for surgical intervention for myocardial fibrosis in patients with aortic stenosis

Ultra-short echo time cardiovascular magnetic resonance of atherosclerotic carotid plaque.

BACKGROUND: Multi-contrast weighted cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) allows detailed plaque characterisation and assessment of plaque vulnerability. The aim of this preliminary study was to show the potential of Ultra-short Echo Time (UTE) subtraction MR in detecting calcification. METHODS: 14 ex-vivo human carotid arteries were scanned using CMR and CT, prior to histological slide preparation. Two images were acquired using a double-echo 3D UTE pulse, one with a long TE and the second with an ultra-short TE, with the same TR. An UTE subtraction (DeltaUTE) image containing only ultra-short T2 (and T2*) signals was obtained by post-processing subtraction of the 2 UTE images. The DeltaUTE image was compared to the conventional 3D T1-weighted sequence and CT scan of the carotid arteries. RESULTS: In atheromatous carotid arteries, there was a 71% agreement between the high signal intensity areas on DeltaUTE images and CT scan. The same areas were represented as low signal intensity on T1W and areas of void on histology, indicating focal calcification. However, in 15% of all the scans there were some incongruent regions of high intensity on DeltaUTE that did not correspond with a high intensity signal on CT, and histology confirmed the absence of calcification. CONCLUSIONS: We have demonstrated that the UTE sequence has potential to identify calcified plaque. Further work is needed to fully understand the UTE findings

Research notes: Sterility mutants in soybeans

In 1975 we selected green, partially sterile plants in farmers\u27 fields when the normal plants had dropped their leaves and were ready for harvest . Seeds were harvested from the off-type plants and planted in the greenhouse (1975-76). The resulting plants which we called F1\u27s were nonnal

Corrigendum to CNTNAP2 variants affect early language development in the general population

Corrigendum to CNTNAP2 variants affect early language development in the general population A. J. O. Whitehouse, D. V. M. Bishop, Q. W. Ang, C. E. Pennell and S. E. Fisher Genes Brain Behav (2011) doi: 10.1111/j.1601-183X.2011.00684.x. The authors have detected a typographical error in the Abstract of this paper. The error is in the fifth sentence, which reads: ‘‘On the basis of these findings, we performed analyses of four-marker haplotypes of rs2710102–rs759178–rs17236239–rs2538976 and identified significant association (haplotype TTAA, P = 0.049; haplotype GCAG,P = .0014).’’ Rather than ‘‘GCAG’’, the final haplotype should read ‘‘CGAG’’. This typographical error was made in the Abstract only and this has no bearing on the results or conclusions of the study, which remain unchanged. Reference Whitehouse, A. J. O., Bishop, D. V. M., Ang, Q. W., Pennell, C. E. & Fisher, S. E. (2011) CNTNAP2 variants affect early language development in the general population. Genes Brain Behav 10, 451–456. doi: 10.1111/j.1601-183X.2011.00684.x

Computation Research

Contains reports on four research projects.Joint Services Electronics Programs (U. S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force) under Contract DA 28-043-AMC-02536(E