An Empirical Evaluation of Proposed Civil Rules for Multidistrict Litigation

The Civil Rules Committee of the Judicial Conference of theUnited States recently began considering the need for specificrules regarding multidistrict litigation (MDL) proceedings. Thepossibility of creating rules specifically for MDL originates withrecently proposed legislation prompted by groups typically tiedto the defense bar. One area the Civil Rules Committee isconsidering concerns the use of fact sheets in MDL proceedings.These party-negotiated questionnaires—directed at bothparties to the case—inform judges and attorneys about thescope of the proceeding. Understanding whether these casemanagement tools are currently being used and how they workwith other tools, such as bellwether trials, in MDL proceedingswill help inform a discussion of the need for specific MDL rules.Despite their importance, very little published, empirical worklooks at fact sheets in MDL proceedings. This is the firstcomprehensive study of the use of fact sheets.Using a sample of 116 mass tort proceedings—typicallyinvolving products liability—centralized through MDLbetween 2008 and 2018, we examine when fact sheets wereordered, what the procedures for complying with the casemanagement order were, what information was collected, andwhat effect fact sheets had on the termination of theproceedings. The proceedings ranged between 3 and 40,533actions and were open a minimum of 118 days and a maximumof 3811 days. Actions terminated within the proceeding at least 98% of the time, but little available information existsregarding how the actions terminated. These proceedings werecentralized in forty districts. We find that fact sheets wereordered more than half the time and were most likely to be usedin the largest proceedings. The information in fact sheets wasused in proceedings in several ways, including to identify casesfor bellwether trials and winnowing cases. Using fact sheets,moreover, led to quicker termination of the proceeding, all elsebeing equal. Our sample of proceedings suggests judges use factsheets to organize products liability proceedings when judgesperceive they are merited, after considering the size of theproceeding or the nature of the litigation. The frequency withwhich judges already employ fact sheets and the variation inuses call into question both the need for a rule and how to writeone without tying the hands of transferee judges. Many issuesregarding how fact sheets are used remain to be studied morein-depth. We encourage future studies regarding how factsheets are used across MDL proceedings

Whither Notice Pleading?: Pleading Practice in the Days Before Twombly

Most scholars mark the end of notice pleading in federal civil cases at the time of the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly or, at the latest, at the Court’s 2009 decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal. Scholars have noted occasional departures from the notice pleading standard in more complex civil cases, but notice pleading has been thought to remain the prevalent practice in simple negligence cases. This Article examines two sets of complaints filed in federal district courts in 2006 in cases alleging injuries from simple automobile accidents. We find that notice pleading practice, as indicated by Form 11 in the Appendix of Forms that accompany the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, had already been abandoned in these routine cases before Twombly in favor of narrative pleading that provides a fuller expression of the factual context of the claim. If pleading practice did not follow the notice pleading standard before Twombly in simple negligence cases that had the benefit of specific Form 11 guidance, it is doubtful that attorneys adhered to notice pleading practice in other more complex federal civil cases. In this regard, our findings also raise doubts about the utility of Form 11. In discussing our findings, we also briefly explore the psychology of pleading and whether the emergence of narrative pleading was an unintended consequence of a series of amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure starting in the mid-1980s and intended to allow more effective judicial management of litigation. While the Twombly/Iqbal plausibility standard certainly presents a higher standard than notice pleading, the trend is clear: pleading additional facts beyond the requirements of notice pleading predated Twombly or Iqbal and lower courts had already started to abandon the notice pleading standard

Overdiagnosis and overimaging: an ethical issue for radiological protection

Aims and objectives: This study aimed to analyse the key factors that influence the overimaging using X-ray such as self-referral, defensive medicine and duplicate imaging studies and to emphasize the ethical problem that derives from it. Materials and methods: In this study, we focused on the more frequent sources of overdiagnosis such as the total-body CT, proposed in the form of screening in both public and private sector, the choice of the most sensitive test for each pathology such as pulmonary embolism, ultrasound investigations mostly of the thyroid and of the prostate and MR examinations, especially of the musculoskeletal system. Results: The direct follow of overdiagnosis and overimaging is the increase in the risk of contrast media infusion, radiant damage, and costs in the worldwide healthcare system. The theme of the costs of overdiagnosis is strongly related to inappropriate or poorly appropriate imaging examination. Conclusions: We underline the ethical imperatives of trust and right conduct, because the major ethical problems in radiology emerge in the justification of medical exposures of patients in the practice. A close cooperation and collaboration across all the physicians responsible for patient care in requiring imaging examination is also important, balancing possible ionizing radiation disadvantages and patient benefits in terms of care

Translocação do inseticida tiametoxam+lambdacialotrina da folha para a haste de plantas de soja.

Foram realizados dois experimentos com objetivo de avaliar a translocação do inseticida tiametoxam+lambdacialotrina da folha para a haste da planta de soja, utilizando o percevejo Edessa meditabunda como bioindicador. Em casa-de-vegetação, plantas de soja da cultivar BRS 284, no estágio R5, foram tratadas com 1,667 mL/L de Engeo Pleno® (tiametoxam+lambdacialotrina), pelo método de imersão da folha. Foi utilizado o delineamento inteiramente casualizado, com unidades experimentais compostas por 3 adultos do percevejo confinados na haste da planta de soja. No EXPERIMENTO A foram estudados 4 tratamentos com 4 repetições. Nos tratamentos T1A e T2A todas as folhas foram tratadas com o inseticida e a haste foi infestada na sua metade superior e inferior, respectivamente. T3A e T4A não receberam inseticida e a haste foi infestada na sua metade superior e inferior, respectivamente. Os resultados mostram que ocorre translocação do inseticida da folha para a haste, em quantidade suficiente para causar mortalidade superior a 93% (T1A) e 83% (T2A), aos 9-12 DAI (dias após a infestação). No EXPERIMENTO B foram estudados 6 tratamentos com 6 repetições. Em T1B e T2B foram tratadas as folhas da metade superior da planta e foi infestada a haste da sua metade superior e inferior, respectivamente. Em T3B e T4B foram tratadas as folhas da metade inferior da planta e foi infestada a sua metade superior e inferior, respectivamente. T5B e T6B não receberam inseticida e a planta foi infestada na sua metade superior e inferior, respectivamente. Neste experimento, as maiores mortalidades foram observadas aos 10 DAI, nos tratamentos em que os insetos foram confinados na mesma metade da planta que recebeu o inseticida, T1B (77%) e T4B (70%) não diferindo de T3B (63%) em que os insetos foram confinados acima do ponto de aplicação do inseticida. Enquanto que em T2B a mortalidade foi inferior a 17%. Assim conclui-se que o produto transloca da folha para a haste e apresenta movimento ascendente

Efeito sistêmico de inseticida (tiametoxam+ lambda-cialotrina) em planta de soja.

O trabalho teve por objetivo avaliar o efeito sistêmico do inseticida tiametoxam+lambda-cialotrina em plantas de soja. Foi realizado um experimento emR4 e outro em R5.3,com delineamento inteiramente casualizado,6tratamentos e 5repetições, sendo cada repetição constituída por 3adultos de E. heros e um vaso com planta de soja. Os tratamentos foram compostos pela combinação de 2locais de pulverização detiametoxam+lambda-cialotrina (Engeo Pleno)(metade superior e metade inferior da planta)e 2locais de infestação com percevejos (metade superior e metade inferior da planta): T1 -aplicação e infestação superior; T2 - aplicação superior e infestação inferior; T3 - aplicação inferior e infestação superior; T4 - aplicação e infestação inferior; T5 -sem aplicação e infestação superior; T6 - sem aplicação e infestação inferior. Avaliação da mortalidade dos insetos foi realizada aos 1, 4, 8 e 11 dias após a infestação (DAI). Nos dois estádios avaliados (R4 e R5.3) houve mortalidade dos insetos da metade superior de plantas que receberam o inseticida na metade inferior (T3), indicando que há efeito sistêmico ascendente. A partir de 8 DAI a mortalidade do tratamento T3 não diferiu daqueles em que houve exposição direta (T1 e T4), nos quais foi observada a maior mortalidade de insetos. Já para o tratamento (T2) em que os insetos foram confinados na metade inferior de plantas pulverizadas na sua metade superior a mortalidade não diferiu das testemunhas, indicando não haver efeito sistêmico descendente para o produto estudado

Peaceful coexistence: agile developer perspectives on software architecture.

This study aims to explore the relationship between agility and architecture by surveying 72 software developers at IBM. Results suggest that software architecture and agility are not like oil and water. In particular, Agile developers perceived architectures as important and supportive (rather than in contrast or neutral) to agile values. This kind of positive perception of software architectural principles and practice bodes well for future efforts to integrate agile and architecture practices

QuickXsort: Efficient Sorting with n log n - 1.399n +o(n) Comparisons on Average

In this paper we generalize the idea of QuickHeapsort leading to the notion of QuickXsort. Given some external sorting algorithm X, QuickXsort yields an internal sorting algorithm if X satisfies certain natural conditions. With QuickWeakHeapsort and QuickMergesort we present two examples for the QuickXsort-construction. Both are efficient algorithms that incur approximately n log n - 1.26n +o(n) comparisons on the average. A worst case of n log n + O(n) comparisons can be achieved without significantly affecting the average case. Furthermore, we describe an implementation of MergeInsertion for small n. Taking MergeInsertion as a base case for QuickMergesort, we establish a worst-case efficient sorting algorithm calling for n log n - 1.3999n + o(n) comparisons on average. QuickMergesort with constant size base cases shows the best performance on practical inputs: when sorting integers it is slower by only 15% to STL-Introsort

An EpiDoc ontological perspective: the epigraphs of the Castello Ursino Civic Museum of Catania via CIDOC CRM

The rich epigraphic heritage of the Castello Ursino Civic Museum of Catania has been studied by the EpiCUM project that encoded it in EpiDoc TEI XML, an XML based standard digital representation for cultural heritage contents. The project made the epigraphic heritage available in a digital museum: under the guise of the ‘Voci di Pietra’ exhibition, a selection of epigraphs were presented, implementing innovative presentation modalities thanks to a smart use of technological and digital means. Information contained in the epigraphs was semantically reorganized in a unique homogeneous container, the EpiONT ontology, constructed according to the Linked Open Data paradigm and to consolidated international standards. The encoding of the ancient texts, by the TEI standard and its EpiDoc subset, is wedded to the paradigmatic semantic web model for museums and cultural heritage. The EpiONT ontology is currently populated by 580 epigraphs collected in the Castello Ursino Civic Museum. Designed according to the CIDOC CRM standard, it makes use of the SKOS vocabularies of the EAGLE project concerning material, execution technique, type of inscription, and type of support of an epigraph. The EpiONT ontology additionally can handle any uncertainty in the origin and place of discovery of the epigraphs