Thomas v. Eighth Judicial Dist. Ct., 133 Nev. Adv. Op. 63 (Sept. 14, 2017)

When a defendant requests and is granted a mistrial, jeopardy will attach if a prosecutor’s conduct is so egregious that it results in prejudice to the defendant that cannot be remedied by anything short of a mistrial

Sayedzada v. State, 134 Nev. Adv. Op. 38 (May 24, 2018)

The Court held that a party waives the right challenge a juror’s presence on appeal when the argument is based on facts known during voir dire; the party consciously made the decision to not pursue, or abandoned, a challenge for cause; and the party accepted the juror’s presence on the jury. The Court then examined the issue of juror bias, and explained the differences between actual, implied, and inferable bias

State v. Sample, 134 Nev. Adv. Op. 23 (Apr. 5, 2018)

Gregory Frank Allen Sample (“Sample”) was arrested for driving under the influence. He had failed a preliminary breath test (“PBT”). The results of the failed PBT were used to obtain a search warrant for an evidentiary blood draw. The district court suppressed the PBT results because it concluded that the results were obtained in violation of Sample’s Fourth Amendment rights. The district court also suppressed the evidentiary blood draw because it was the fruit of an illegal search. The Court held that the district court erred in invalidating the telephonic search warrant and that the evidentiary blood draw should not have been suppressed because there was probable cause to support the search warrant, even without the PBT evidence

Dep’t of Health & Human Serv.’s v. Samantha Inc., 133 Nev. Adv. Op. 100 (Dec. 14, 2017)

Under the Nevada Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the right to petition for judicial review is limited to contested cases. When Nevada’s Department of Health and Human Services (the Department) denies an applicant a registration certificate to operate a medical marijuana dispensary, it is not a contested case under the APA. Since it is not a contested case, the applicant cannot petition the court for judicial review

Granada-Ruiz v. Eighth Judicial Dist. Court, 134 Nev. Adv. Op. 57 (Aug. 2, 2018) (en banc)

The Court concluded that double jeopardy did not prohibit the appellant’s retrial because he had implied consent to the district court’s declaration of a mistrial. Further, it held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding manifest necessity to declare a mistrial. Thus, the Court denied the appellant’s petition for a writ of mandamus that would direct the district court to grant his motion to dismiss and bar his re-prosecution

Using forensic toxicology screening to enhance medicolegal death investigations

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office performed an evidence-based review of natural deaths certified without autopsy or toxicology testing. 315 such cases from 2020 and 2021 were selected. This study reviewed the deaths to determine if the cause of death was drug-related versus natural disease. Blood samples were screened by liquid chromatography-quadrupole mass spectrometry with time-of-flight detection, a high-resolution mass spectrometry technique. The analytes detected were evaluated for contribution to the cause resulting in a change in manner of death from natural to accident or suicide. Confirmatory analysis was performed where appropriate and results were reported to the forensic pathologist for evaluation and amendment of the death certificate as appropriate. As a result of the screening and confirmatory work, 18 cases (5.7%) were identified where significant drugs were detected and thus the cause and manner of death were amended. One case was amended from natural to suicide after a conversation with the family about the toxicology findings, and the remaining cases were amended to a manner of accident. The confirmed substances that were deemed responsible for the deaths included both prescription medications and illicit drugs. These findings suggest that appropriate toxicology screening will assist with determination of cause and manner of death, even in cases that may have not been traditionally examined

An Exploratory, Randomized, Crossover MRI Study of Microbicide Delivery with the SILCS Diaphragm Compared to a Vaginal Applicator

Background—Microbicide gels studied for HIV prevention often are delivered via a single-use vaginal applicator. Using a contraceptive diaphragm such as the SILCS diaphragm for gel delivery could have advantages, including lower cost and additional pregnancy prevention. Study Design—We performed an exploratory, nonblinded, randomized, crossover study among healthy, sexually active, nonpregnant women. Using BufferGel®, we evaluated three microbicide delivery methods for gel distribution and retention: SILCS single-sided gel delivery, SILCS double-sided gel delivery and a vaginal applicator (without SILCS). Magnetic resonance images were taken at baseline, after gel insertion, and immediately and 6 h after simulated intercourse. Three women completed all gel delivery methods described in this article. Results—Magnetic resonance imaging analysis indicated similar gel spread in the vagina among all three methods. SILCS single-sided gel application resulted in the most consistent longitudinal coverage; SILCS double-sided gel application was the most consistent in the transverse dimension. Conclusions—Gel coverage was similar with all three methods. These results suggest that the SILCS microbicide delivery system is comparable to vaginal applicators for delivery of gel products intravaginally

Assessing the potential impact of transmission during prolonged viral shedding on the effect of lockdown relaxation on COVID-19.

A key parameter in epidemiological modeling which characterizes the spread of an infectious disease is the generation time, or more generally the distribution of infectiousness as a function of time since infection. There is increasing evidence supporting a prolonged viral shedding window for COVID-19, but the transmissibility in this phase is unclear. Based on this, we develop a generalized Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Resistant (SEIR) model including an additional compartment of chronically infected individuals who can stay infectious for a longer duration than the reported generation time, but with infectivity reduced to varying degrees. Using the incidence and fatality data from different countries, we first show that such an assumption also yields a plausible model in explaining the data observed prior to the easing of the lockdown measures (relaxation). We then test the predictive power of this model for different durations and levels of prolonged infectiousness using the incidence data after the introduction of relaxation in Switzerland, and compare it with a model without the chronically infected population to represent the models conventionally used. We show that in case of a gradual easing on the lockdown measures, the predictions of the model including the chronically infected population vary considerably from those obtained under a model in which prolonged infectiousness is not taken into account. Although the existence of a chronically infected population still remains largely hypothetical, we believe that our results provide tentative evidence to consider a chronically infected population as an alternative modeling approach to better interpret the transmission dynamics of COVID-19

Locating the Youngest HII Regions in M82 with 7 mm Continuum Maps

We present 7mm Very Large Array continuum images of the starburst galaxy M82. On arcsecond scales, two-thirds of the 7mm continuum consists of free-free emission from HII regions. In the subarcsecond resolution map, we identify 14 compact sources, including 9 bright HII regions with N_Lyc > 10^51 sec^-1. Four of the HII regions have rising spectra, implying emission measures > 10^8 cm^-6 pc. Except for one compact source with peculiar features, all other compact radio sources are found in dust lanes and do not have optical or near-infrared continuum counterparts. Four regions of extended, high brightness (EM > 10^7 cm-6 pc) radio emission are found in our high resolution map, including some as large as ~2", or 30 pc, representing either associations of small HII regions, or sheetlike structures of denser gas. The good correlation between 7 mm emission and Spitzer IRAC 8 micron continuum-removed PAH feature suggests that PAH emission may track the recently formed OB stars. We find an excellent correlation between molecular gas and star formation, particularly dense gas traced by HCN, down to the ~ 45 pc scale in M82. We also find star formation efficiencies (SFEs) of 1-10% on the same scale, based on CO maps. The highest SFE are found in regions with the highest dense gas fractions.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in A