Satellite remote sensing facility for oceanograhic applications

The project organization, design process, and construction of a Remote Sensing Facility at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at LaJolla, California are described. The facility is capable of receiving, processing, and displaying oceanographic data received from satellites. Data are primarily imaging data representing the multispectral ocean emissions and reflectances, and are accumulated during 8 to 10 minute satellite passes over the California coast. The most important feature of the facility is the reception and processing of satellite data in real time, allowing investigators to direct ships to areas of interest for on-site verifications and experiments

Embedded Experts on Real Juries: A Delicate Balance

“Experts” appear in the modern American courtroom on the jury as well as in the witness box, posing a dilemma for the legal system by offering a potentially valuable resource and an uncontrolled source of influence. Courts give ambiguous guidance to jurors on how they should handle their expertise in the deliberation room. On the one hand, jurors are told that they should “decide what the facts are from the evidence presented here in court.” By direct implication, then, jurors should not use outside information to evaluate the evidence. Jurors are also told, however, that they should “consider all of the evidence in the light of reason, common sense, and experience.” And indeed, all decision makers, including jurors, are unavoidably influenced by their own backgrounds and experiences as they evaluate evidence and reach decisions. In this Article we examine the actual and desirable behavior during deliberations of jurors with specialized expertise. We draw on three sources to assess how often citizens with specialized knowledge serve as jurors, how they behave when they do, and how legal professionals view the appropriateness of the contributions juror-experts may make. Our sources include: (1) a survey of 167 experienced trial attorneys who reported on their recent trial experience with juror “experts”; (2) the actual deliberations of jurors in fifty civil trials from the Arizona Jury Project, which revealed how real jurors use their expertise in the jury room; and (3) a survey of 128 judges and attorneys who evaluated examples of “expert” juror behavior. Some scholars suggest that jurors with specialized expertise should be excused for cause. In light of our findings, we conclude that such drastic intervention is unwarranted and would inappropriately undermine the increasing heterogeneity on the jury that the elimination of occupational exemptions has worked to promote. We instead advocate a tempered response to the growing presence of juror expertise in the jury room

Loss of Obstetric Services in Rural Appalachia: A Qualitative Study of Community Perceptions

Background: As rural hospitals across the United States increasingly downsize or close, the availability of inpatient obstetric services continues to decline in rural areas. In rural Appalachia, the termination of obstetric services threatens to exacerbate the existing risk of adverse birth outcomes for women and infants, yet less is known about how the cessation of these services affects the broader community. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explain how the loss of local obstetric services affects perceptions of healthcare among multi-generational residents of a remote, rural Appalachian community in western North Carolina. Methods: An interdisciplinary team of researchers conducted a thematic analysis of health-related oral history interviews (n=14) that were collected from local residents of a rural, western North Carolina community during the summer of 2019. Results: The closure of a local hospital’s labor and delivery department fostered 1) frustration with the decline in hospital services, 2) perceived increases in barriers to accessing healthcare, and 3) increased medical mistrust. Implications: Findings suggest that the loss of obstetric services in this rural Appalachian community could have broad, negative health implications for all residents, regardless of their age, sex, or ability to bear children. Community-specific strategies are needed to foster trust in the remaining healthcare providers and to increase access to care for local residents. Results serve as formative research to support the development of interventions and policies that effectively respond to all community members’ needs and concerns following the loss of obstetric services in remote Appalachian communities

A locus for inherited focal segmental glomerulosclerosis maps to chromosome 19q13

A locus for inherited focal segmental glomerulosclerosis maps to chromosome 19q13. Rapid Communication. We performed a genome-wide linkage analysis search for a genetic locus responsible for kidney dysfunction in a large family. This inherited condition, characterized by proteinuria, progressive renal insufficiency, and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, follows autosomal dominant inheritance. We show with a high degree of certainty (maximum 2-point lod score 12.28) that the gene responsible for this condition is located on chromosome 19q13

Alexander Bonner "Moses" Latta, Nineteenth-Century Inventor and Entrepreneur

Biograph

Juror Questions During Trial: A Window into Juror Thinking

The jury has undergone a dramatic transformation from its earliest incarnation when jurors acted as witnesses, investigators, and tribunal. In the modern American jury trial, the parties determine what jurors learn during the proceedings. Jurors of today, assigned the role of audience members until deliberations begin, typically speak in the courtroom only during jury selection and through their verdict at the end of the trial. In light of their enforced silence throughout the trial, jurors have no opportunity to clarify or check on their interpretation of the evidence and they provide few external indications about their thinking as the trial unfolds. Although post- trial juror interviews and jury simulations contribute to our understanding of how jurors react to evidence, these indirect sources are not the on-line reactions of jurors during trial. The modern veil on juror participation that conceals juror thinking during trial, however, is being lifted partially in a small, but increasing, number of American courtrooms. In these courtrooms, jurors are permitted to submit questions for witnesses during trial. The questions that the jurors submit provide a unique window into juror thinking during the trial