The Federal Judicial District as Community in Obscenity Cases

Few problems have plagued the courts in the last decade with greater persistence than those associated with obscenity. The concept of obscenity varies from place to place and from time to time, and since it is essentially a subjective concept, it also tends to vary from person to person. The development of a concept of community standard recognizes that diverse viewpoints exist and has resulted in the consideration by courts of the concept of obscenity in light of a local standard rather than a national one. It has also incidentally relieved the Supreme Court of the United States from consideration of obscenity matters on a case-by-case basis-an approach which has been neither practical nor possible for that Court to adopt. The community standard, however, merely shifts the burden of inquiry. It is now the local trier of fact, either judge or jury, which must consider this question in the light of local factors

Estimating the Instantaneous Reproduction Number With Imperfect Data: A Method to Account for Case-Reporting Variation and Serial Interval Uncertainty

During an infectious disease outbreak, public health decision-makers require real-time monitoring of disease transmission to respond quickly and intelligently. In these settings, a key measure of transmission is the instantaneous time-varying reproduction number, $R_t$. Estimation of this number using a Time-Since-Infection model relies on case-notification data and the distribution of the serial interval on the target population. However, in practice, case-notification data may contain measurement error due to variation in case reporting while available serial interval estimates may come from studies on non-representative populations. We propose a new data-driven method that accounts for particular forms of case-reporting measurement error and can incorporate multiple partially representative serial interval estimates into the transmission estimation process. In addition, we provide practical tools for automatically identifying measurement error patterns and determining when measurement error may not be adequately accounted for. We illustrate the potential bias undertaken by methods that ignore these practical concerns through a variety of simulated outbreaks. We then demonstrate the use of our method on data from the COVID-19 pandemic to estimate transmission and explore the relationships between social distancing, temperature, and transmission

Nonsurgical Management of Severe Osteonecrosis of the Knee in an HIV-Positive Patient: A Case Report

Due to the life-prolonging effects of combination antiretroviral therapy, many people with HIV are living longer. However, this enhanced longevity is often mirrored by increased disability resulting from HIV and/or the adverse effects of medication. Management of HIV-positive patients is further complicated by comorbidities related to aging, including bone and joint disorders. In this paper, we describe the nonsurgical management of an HIV-positive patient with premature onset of severe osteonecrosis of the knee. A 50-year-old man who had been HIV-positive for 16 years and on combination antiretroviral therapy for 11 years presented to his family physician with extreme discomfort in his right knee. He was diagnosed with osteonecrosis of the right knee, but resisted total knee arthroplasty because of potential complications under anesthesia related to comorbid advanced liver disease. Instead, a successful combination of non-surgical management strategies was employed by the patient and his health care team

Spitzer reveals what's behind Orion's Bar

We present Spitzer Space Telescope observations of 11 regions SE of the Bright Bar in the Orion Nebula, along a radial from the exciting star theta1OriC, extending from 2.6 to 12.1'. Our Cycle 5 programme obtained deep spectra with matching IRS short-high (SH) and long-high (LH) aperture grid patterns. Most previous IR missions observed only the inner few arcmin. Orion is the benchmark for studies of the ISM particularly for elemental abundances. Spitzer observations provide a unique perspective on the Ne and S abundances by virtue of observing the dominant ionization states of Ne (Ne+, Ne++) and S (S++, S3+) in Orion and H II regions in general. The Ne/H abundance ratio is especially well determined, with a value of (1.01+/-0.08)E-4. We obtained corresponding new ground-based spectra at CTIO. These optical data are used to estimate the electron temperature, electron density, optical extinction, and the S+/S++ ratio at each of our Spitzer positions. That permits an adjustment for the total gas-phase S abundance because no S+ line is observed by Spitzer. The gas-phase S/H abundance ratio is (7.68+/-0.30)E-6. The Ne/S abundance ratio may be determined even when the weaker hydrogen line, H(7-6) here, is not measured. The mean value, adjusted for the optical S+/S++ ratio, is Ne/S = 13.0+/-0.6. We derive the electron density versus distance from theta1OriC for [S III] and [S II]. Both distributions are for the most part decreasing with increasing distance. A dramatic find is the presence of high-ionization Ne++ all the way to the outer optical boundary ~12' from theta1OriC. This IR result is robust, whereas the optical evidence from observations of high-ionization species (e.g. O++) at the outer optical boundary suffers uncertainty because of scattering of emission from the much brighter inner Huygens Region.Comment: 60 pages, 16 figures, 10 tables. MNRAS accepte

Financial advisor ethics: how institutional logics and self-determination influence advisors and their fiduciary duty

In the United States, Registered Investment Advisor firms have a legal and arguably moral duty to provide advice in the best interest of their clients. However, advisors sometimes fall short of their responsibility leading to clients receiving suboptimal advice, paying for services they do not need, or willingly paying for needed advisory services but are underserved. To find solutions, the researcher begins by determining what gives rise to ethical failures among financial advisors. For this purpose, the researcher investigates competing intra-institutional logics at a large U.S.-based financial advisory firm utilizing a Q methodology study and semi-structured interviews. Institutional logics theory and self-determination theory constitute the theoretical lenses used in the thesis. The current state of the literature is robust insofar as works relating to various forms of institutional logics and self-determination theory. However, the institutional logics literature is not so well developed regarding intra-institutional logics, which is the relevant issue here. Regarding self-determination theory, where the availability of relevant literature is deep, the researcher finds room to fill a gap by proposing a novel theoretical contribution to update the current self-determination theory framework model. At its essence, the thesis is a work about professional ethics with financial advisors as the focus. Within works found in the popular press, one can discover many articles dealing with financial advisor ethics. However, based on a systematic literature review, the same cannot be said for peer-reviewed academic works. This PhD research project is intended to help fill this along with the aforementioned gaps. The researcher also touches on agency theory and why it was not chosen as a theoretical lens to examine the organization, even though some might assume it would have been an obvious choice. The emperical contribution derives from findings suggesting that although advisors are intrinsically motivated and care about client wellbeing, they lack sufficient autonomy, are unduly influenced by sales pressure, and are uneasy working in a sales culture that undermines executing their fiduciary responsibilities. The researcher concludes that it is necessary to change the standards for advisor performance evaluations and compensation plans for which recommendations are provided

Acuity, crowding, reading and fixation stability

AbstractPeople with age-related macular disease frequently experience reading difficulty that could be attributed to poor acuity, elevated crowding or unstable fixation associated with peripheral visual field dependence. We examine how the size, location, spacing and instability of retinal images affect the visibility of letters and words at different eccentricities. Fixation instability was simulated in normally sighted observers by randomly jittering single or crowded letters or words along a circular arc of fixed eccentricity. Visual performance was assessed at different levels of instability with forced choice measurements of acuity, crowding and reading speed in a rapid serial visual presentation paradigm. In the periphery: (1) acuity declined; (2) crowding increased for acuity- and eccentricity-corrected targets; and (3), the rate of reading fell with acuity-, crowding- and eccentricity-corrected targets. Acuity and crowding were unaffected by even high levels of image instability. However, reading speed decreased with image instability, even though the visibility of the component letters was unaffected. The results show that reading performance cannot be standardised across the visual field by correcting the size, spacing and eccentricity of letters or words. The results suggest that unstable fixation may contribute to reading difficulties in people with low vision and therefore that rehabilitation may benefit from fixation training

\u3csup\u3e12\u3c/sup\u3eC/\u3csup\u3e13\u3c/sup\u3eC Ratio in Planetary Nebulae from the \u3cem\u3eIUE\u3c/em\u3e Archives

We investigated the abundance ratio of 12C/13C in planetary nebulae by examining emission lines arising from C III 2s2p3Po2,1,0 → 2s21S0. Spectra were retrieved from the International Ultraviolet Explorer archives, and multiple spectra of the same object were co-added to achieve improved signal-to-noise ratio. The 13C hyperfine structure line at 1909.6 Å was detected in NGC 2440. The 12C/13C ratio was found to be ~4.4+/-1.2. In all other objects, we provide an upper limit for the flux of the 1910 Å line. For 23 of these sources, a lower limit for the 12C/13C ratio was established. The impact on our current understanding of stellar evolution is discussed. The resulting high-signal-to-noise ratio C III spectrum helps constrain the atomic physics of the line formation process. Some objects have the measured 1907/1909 Å flux ratio outside the low-electron density theoretical limit for 12C. A mixture of 13C with 12C helps to close the gap somewhat. Nevertheless, some observed 1907/1909 Å flux ratios still appear too high to conform to the currently predicted limits. It is shown that this limit, as well as the 1910/1909 Å flux ratio, are predominantly influenced by using the standard partitioning among the collision strengths for the multiplet 1S0-3PoJ according to the statistical weights. A detailed calculation for the fine-structure collision strengths between these individual levels would be valuable

Preserved retinotopic brain connectivity in macular degeneration

PURPOSE: The eye disease macular degeneration (MD) is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. There is no cure for MD, but several promising treatments aimed at restoring vision at the level of the retina are currently under investigation. These treatments assume that the patient's brain can still process appropriately the retinal input once it is restored, but whether this assumption is correct has yet to be determined. METHODS: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and connective field modelling to determine whether the functional connectivity between the input-deprived portions of primary visual cortex (V1) and early extrastriate areas (V2/3) is still retinotopically organised. Specifically, in both patients with juvenile macular degeneration and age-matched controls with simulated retinal lesions, we assessed the extent to which the V1-referred connective fields of extrastriate voxels, as estimated on the basis of spontaneous fMRI signal fluctuations, adhered to retinotopic organisation. RESULTS: We found that functional connectivity between the input-deprived portions of visual areas V1 and extrastriate cortex is still largely retinotopically organised in MD, although on average less so than in controls. Patients with stable fixation exhibited normal retinotopic connectivity, however, suggesting that for the patients with unstable fixation, eye-movements resulted in spurious, homogeneous signal modulations across the entire input-deprived cortex, which would have hampered our ability to assess their spatial structure of connectivity. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the prolonged loss of visual input due to MD, the cortico-cortical connections of input-deprived visual cortex remain largely intact. This suggests that the restoration of sight in macular degeneration can rely on a largely unchanged retinotopic representation in early visual cortex following loss of central retinal function

A CM construction for curves of genus 2 with p-rank 1

We construct Weil numbers corresponding to genus-2 curves with $p$-rank 1 over the finite field \F_{p^2} of $p^2$ elements. The corresponding curves can be constructed using explicit CM constructions. In one of our algorithms, the group of \F_{p^2}-valued points of the Jacobian has prime order, while another allows for a prescribed embedding degree with respect to a subgroup of prescribed order. The curves are defined over \F_{p^2} out of necessity: we show that curves of $p$-rank 1 over \F_p for large $p$ cannot be efficiently constructed using explicit CM constructions.Comment: 19 page