An overture for well-tempered regulators: four variations on a LETR theme

This paper is a development of the Association of Law Teachers� annual Lord Upjohn lecture, delivered on 29 January 2015 at City Law School, London, by the principal investigators of the Legal Education and Training Review�s (LETR) research team. In it, each of the authors takes a different theme arising from the LETR Report, and explores its implications and application, focusing on research and innovation; access and flexibility; deprofessionalisation, and, finally, reflecting on the way the Report addressed themes of common training, oversupply and access to justice. As our title indicates, the paper comprises both individual performances and performance as a consort, and we hope that in this way, we enact one of our key themes: the social nature of legal education and its regulation

A Visual Representation and the Prediction of Emotion

Many scholars believe that news images affect public opinion about political and social issues. Previous research has shown that emotionally evocative visual news texts improve learning and memory for information as well as affect audience perspectives on relevant issues. However, the majority of these studies do not address in detail what combinations of characteristics create emotionally compelling images. Through content analysis of news photographs and both quantitative and qualitative measurement of viewer’s response to those images, this study begins to define what visual characteristics contribute significantly to emotional impact. The results of the content analysis also contribute to our understanding of what types of photographs appear most frequently in the news. The results show that features generally characterized by communication researchers as improving memory and learning: extreme negativity and deviation from normal visual experience were not well represented among the sample of 400 photographs from the Associated Press Photo Archive. Although the majority of photographs (65%) did have negative themes, only 5% of the images showed any kind of violence. Ten percent displayed the outcome of a non-violent disaster. The large majority of pictures were also photographed using vertical camera axes and straight angles. A sample of images from the iv content analysis was used as stimuli in the viewer-response portion of the study. Measures of the content served as independent variables in two regression analyses. The dependent variables were viewers’ level of either positive or negative affect. Significant predictors of negative affect included the presence of violence, the effects of violence, and the effects of disaster. Negative emotional displays by the subject(s) of the image, and unusual juxtapositions of people and/or objects also predicted negative affect. A separate regression analysis was conducted for positive affect. The presence of violence, unusual juxtapositions of objects, and negative emotional displays had significant, but negative, relationships with positive affect. Positive emotional displays and viewing the more central subjects in the image from the front significantly and directly predicted positive affect. Finally, the degree of closeness among subjects in the image also significantly predicted positive affect. Analysis of open-ended responses generally supports these results

THE DISCIPLINARY PROCESSES OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION

The legal profession in England and Wales has a long established approach to the regulation of lawyers’ behaviour. This is built on investigation and prosecution of disciplinary breaches by the professional bodies, with more serious cases being brought before disciplinary tribunals. These tribunals have wide disciplinary powers, including the ultimate sanction of striking off or disbarring offenders or re-admitting offenders after a period of time. The establishment of the Legal Services Board (LSB), with regulatory oversight for the legal professions, by the Legal Services Act 2007 focused attention on approaches to regulation and led to a switch in the emphasis of regulation from the individual to firms (or ‘entities’). The appointment of independent regulators of the professions suggested that there might be significant changes in regulatory philosophy and strategy. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) acquired powers to administer small fines on individual solicitors. It also promised to practise ‘risk based regulation’. It adopted a system of ‘outcomes focused regulation’ (OFR) based on a structure of auditing systems and processes. It was anticipated that these changes would drive changes in professional regulation. This research establishes a baseline for assessing these changes. It locates the work of the disciplinary tribunals for solicitors and barristers in the wider context of legal services regulation. It then provides a detailed analysis of all the disciplinary tribunal cases for the main legal professions heard in 2008. This analysis focuses on processes of investigation and prosecution, on the characteristics of respondents before the disciplinary tribunals, such as age, sex and institutional affiliations, the processing of cases and the imposition of sanctions

Retinoic acid induces the differentiation of B cell hybridomas from patients with common variable immunodeficiency.

Human-human B cell hybridomas constructed from B lymphocytes of common variable immunodeficiency (CVI) patients and the nonsecreting cell line WIL2/729 HF consistently secrete low levels of Ig and appear to retain a defect characteristic of the CVI patient's B cells. We assessed the differentiative capacity of retinoic acid (RA) on these hybridomas, as well as on hybridomas constructed from normal B cells and from patients with selective IgA deficiency. RA at concentrations varying between 10(-5) and 10(-9) M augmented IgM secretion 4-20-fold from four of four CVI hybridomas tested, but did not affect Ig secretion from normal or IgA-deficiency hybridomas. In support of this elevated Ig secretion, RA enhanced the de novo synthesis of biosynthetically labeled light (kappa) and heavy (mu) Ig (up to 4- and 15-fold, respectively) in the CVI hybridoma line JK32.1. The increase in IgM synthesis/secretion could not be accounted for by RA-induced alteration in the cell cycle. In inducing this increase in IgM production, RA was found to affect two aspects of Ig gene expression: (a) the steady-state levels of heavy and light chain mRNAs were enhanced, and (b) the processing of mu heavy chain transcripts to the secreted mRNA form became favored over the membrane mRNA form. We also show that expression of Leu-17 (CD38), a surface marker that is re-expressed in the late pre-plasma stage of B cell development, was increased by RA from less than 20% to greater than 90% of the total cell population, with a concomitant 4-10-fold augmentation in the mean fluorescence intensity. Changes in both Leu-17 expression and de novo Ig synthesis were prominent by 24 h, but could be observed as early as 8 h after induction. Taken together, our study demonstrates that RA affects a marked alteration in the differentiated state of the CVI hybridoma clones. This finding suggests that retinoids can enhance the functional capabilities of B cells with defects in maturation and support further studies to evaluate their clinical potential in CVI

Detectable HIV Viral Load in Kenya: Data from a Population-Based Survey.

IntroductionAt the individual level, there is clear evidence that Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) transmission can be substantially reduced by lowering viral load. However there are few data describing population-level HIV viremia especially in high-burden settings with substantial under-diagnosis of HIV infection. The 2nd Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey (KAIS 2012) provided a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage on viremia and to examine the risks for failure to suppress viral replication. We report population-level HIV viral load suppression using data from KAIS 2012.MethodsBetween October 2012 to February 2013, KAIS 2012 surveyed household members, administered questionnaires and drew serum samples to test for HIV and, for those found to be infected with HIV, plasma viral load (PVL) was measured. Our principal outcome was unsuppressed HIV viremia, defined as a PVL ≥ 550 copies/mL. The exposure variables included current treatment with ART, prior history of an HIV diagnosis, and engagement in HIV care. All point estimates were adjusted to account for the KAIS 2012 cluster sampling design and survey non-response.ResultsOverall, 61·2% (95% CI: 56·4-66·1) of HIV-infected Kenyans aged 15-64 years had not achieved virological suppression. The base10 median (interquartile range [IQR]) and mean (95% CI) VL was 4,633 copies/mL (0-51,596) and 81,750 copies/mL (59,366-104,134), respectively. Among 266 persons taking ART, 26.1% (95% CI: 20.0-32.1) had detectable viremia. Non-ART use, younger age, and lack of awareness of HIV status were independently associated with significantly higher odds of detectable viral load. In multivariate analysis for the sub-sample of patients on ART, detectable viremia was independently associated with younger age and sub-optimal adherence to ART.DiscussionThis report adds to the limited data of nationally-representative surveys to report population- level virological suppression. We established heterogeneity across the ten administrative and HIV programmatic regions on levels of detectable viral load. Timely initiation of ART and retention in care are crucial for the elimination of transmission of HIV through sex, needle and syringe use or from mother to child. Further refinement of geospatial mapping of populations with highest risk of transmission is necessary

The Eavesdropper\u27s Dilemma

This paper examines the problem of surreptitious Internet interception from the eavesdropper\u27s point of view. We introduce the notion of fidelity in digital eavesdropping. In particular, we formalize several kinds of network noise that might degrade fidelity, most notably confusion, and show that reliable network interception may not be as simple as previously thought or even always possible. Finally, we suggest requirements for high fidelity network interception, and show how systems that do not meet these requirements can be vulnerable to countermeasures, which in some cases can be performed entirely by a third party without the cooperation or even knowledge of the communicating parties

On the Reliability of Current Generation Network Eavesdropping Tools

This paper analyzes the problem of interception of Internet traffic from the eavesdropper\u27s point of view. We examine the reliability and accuracy of transcripts, and show that obtaining high fidelity transcripts is harder than previously assumed. Even in highly favorable situations, such as capturing unencrypted traffic using standard protocols, simple -- and entirely unilateral -- countermeasures are shown to be sufficient to prevent accurate traffic analysis in many Internet interception configurations. In particular, these countermeasures were successful against every available eavesdropping system we tested. Central to our approach is a new class of techniques that we call confusion, which, unlike cryptography or steganography, does not require cooperation by the communicating parties and, in some case, can be employed entirely by a third party not involved in the communication at all

Ageing and menopause considerations for women with HIV in the UK

OBJECTIVES: Treatment rollout has dramatically improved life expectancy for people with HIV and AIDS. Women represent a substantial proportion of patients in the UK (approximately one-third of patients in care are female according to the HIV Annual Report 2014). This study examines psychosocial and biomedical issues for women diagnosed with HIV in the UK, comparing those above and below 45 years of age to examine menopause and ageing issues. METHODS: Consecutive clinic attenders in a large outpatient London HIV clinic were invited to participate in the study. Data were available for 170 (68%) women. In 57 women above the age of 45 data were available regarding menopause detailed insights. RESULTS: Compared with women aged under 45, women >45 years old were significantly less likely to be in a relationship (P=0.01), had higher anxiety scores (P=0.002), more likely to be classified as moderate to severe (25.9% vs 9.1%; χ(2)=6.1, P=0.01). There were no differences in terms of suicidal ideation, which was high for both groups of women (56.6%). Older women had higher psychological symptoms on the MSAS scale form and significantly higher PHQ-9 depression levels. A higher proportion of older women scored above the cut-off point for moderate to severe depression (9.2% vs 21.8%; χ(2)=3.7, P=0.048). Fewer older women had no mental health challenges (26.1% vs 42.4%) and more had multiple comorbidities (P=0.07). CONCLUSIONS: The vast majority of women reported experiencing a variety of physical and psychological menopause-related symptoms and there was a high suicide ideation rate in both groups of women. Over half of the group of menopausal women recorded distressing symptoms such as hot flushes, sweating, decreased sexual desire, back pain, night sweats, avoiding intimacy, involuntary urination and skin changes, yet few sought help. Age-specific, psychosexual and menopause services should be routinely available for women with HIV