The Invalidity of a Plea of Guilty to a Criminal Offense Made by Video Teleconferencing When the Defendant Is Not Present in Open Court

A guilty plea by a defendant is more than an admission of conduct; it is the nail in the coffin that closes the case and results in conviction. Despite the critical importance of this moment, Arkansas district and circuit courts are more commonly taking guilty pleas from defendants by video teleconferencing (VTC) instead of requiring defendants to be physically present in the courtroom. This essay sets forth three separate arguments in support of the notion that a guilty plea to a criminal offense by VTC without the defendant being present in open court is invalid as a matter of Arkansas law and unconstitutional as a matter of due process. Specifically, pleading guilty by VTC is improper under Arkansas law because there are no statutes or court rules explicitly permitting a defendant to plead guilty to a criminal offense by VTC. Moreover, Arkansas statute and court rules require a defendant\u27s presence in open court in order to plead guilty to a felony offense. Finally, regarding due process considerations, a defendant\u27s actual presence in the courtroom is necessary because of the critical nature of the guilty plea. In particular, the limitations inherent in VTC communication render it a poor substitute for face-to-face communication between the defendant and judge because VTC cannot completely transmit nonverbal communication. In conclusion, the authors assert that any changes in the procedure for taking guilty pleas should be taken out of the hands of county sheriffs and bailiffs, and put into the hands of the Arkansas Supreme Court in its rule-making capacity

Effect of Dietary Components on Larval Life History Characteristics in the Medfly (Ceratitis capitata: Diptera, Tephritidae)

Background: The ability to respond to heterogenous nutritional resources is an important factor in the adaptive radiation of insects such as the highly polyphagous Medfly. Here we examined the breadth of the Medfly’s capacity to respond to different developmental conditions, by experimentally altering diet components as a proxy for host quality and novelty. Methodology/Principal Findings: We tested responses of larval life history to diets containing protein and carbohydrate components found in and outside the natural host range of this species. A 40% reduction in the quantity of protein caused a significant increase in egg to adult mortality by 26.5%±6% in comparison to the standard baseline diet. Proteins and carbohydrates had differential effects on larval versus pupal development and survival. Addition of a novel protein source, casein (i.e. milk protein), to the diet increased larval mortality by 19.4%±3% and also lengthened the duration of larval development by 1.93±0.5 days in comparison to the standard diet. Alteration of dietary carbohydrate, by replacing the baseline starch with simple sugars, increased mortality specifically within the pupal stage (by 28.2%±8% and 26.2%±9% for glucose and maltose diets, respectively). Development in the presence of the novel carbohydrate lactose (milk sugar) was successful, though on this diet there was a decrease of 29.8±1.6 µg in mean pupal weight in comparison to pupae reared on the baseline diet. Conclusions: The results confirm that laboratory reared Medfly retain the ability to survive development through a wide range of fluctuations in the nutritional environment. We highlight new facets of the responses of different stages of holometabolous life histories to key dietary components. The results are relevant to colonisation scenarios and key to the biology of this highly invasive species

Paediatric radiology seen from Africa. Part I: providing diagnostic imaging to a young population

Article approval pendingPaediatric radiology requires dedicated equipment, specific precautions related to ionising radiation, and specialist knowledge. Developing countries face difficulties in providing adequate imaging services for children. In many African countries, children represent an increasing proportion of the population, and additional challenges follow from extreme living conditions, poverty, lack of parental care, and exposure to tuberculosis, HIV, pneumonia, diarrhoea and violent trauma. Imaging plays a critical role in the treatment of these children, but is expensive and difficult to provide. The World Health Organisation initiatives, of which the World Health Imaging System for Radiography (WHIS-RAD) unit is one result, needs to expand into other areas such as the provision of maintenance servicing. New initiatives by groups such as Rotary and the World Health Imaging Alliance to install WHIS-RAD units in developing countries and provide digital solutions, need support. Paediatric radiologists are needed to offer their services for reporting, consultation and quality assurance for free by way of teleradiology. Societies for paediatric radiology are needed to focus on providing a volunteer teleradiology reporting group, information on child safety for basic imaging, guidelines for investigations specific to the disease spectrum, and solutions for optimising imaging in children

Profiles of Global Gene Expression in Ionizing-Radiation–Damaged Human Diploid Fibroblasts Reveal Synchronization behind the G(1) Checkpoint in a G(0)-like State of Quiescence

Cell cycle arrest and stereotypic transcriptional responses to DNA damage induced by ionizing radiation (IR) were quantified in telomerase-expressing human diploid fibroblasts. Analysis of cytotoxicity demonstrated that 1.5 Gy IR inactivated colony formation by 40–45% in three fibroblast lines; this dose was used in all subsequent analyses. Fibroblasts exhibited > 90% arrest of progression from G(2) to M at 2 hr post-IR and a similarly severe arrest of progression from G(1) to S at 6 and 12 hr post-IR. Normal rates of DNA synthesis and mitosis 6 and 12 hr post-IR caused the S and M compartments to empty by > 70% at 24 hr. Global gene expression was analyzed in IR-treated cells. A microarray analysis algorithm, EPIG, identified nine IR-responsive patterns of gene expression that were common to the three fibroblast lines, including a dominant p53-dependent G(1) checkpoint response. Many p53 target genes, such as CDKN1A, GADD45, BTG2, and PLK3, were significantly up-regulated at 2 hr post-IR. Many genes whose expression is regulated by E2F family transcription factors, including CDK2, CCNE1, CDC6, CDC2, MCM2, were significantly down-regulated at 24 hr post-IR. Numerous genes that participate in DNA metabolism were also markedly repressed in arrested fibroblasts apparently as a result of cell synchronization behind the G(1) checkpoint. However, cluster and principal component analyses of gene expression revealed a profile 24 hr post-IR with similarity to that of G(0) growth quiescence. The results reveal a highly stereotypic pattern of response to IR in human diploid fibroblasts that reflects primarily synchronization behind the G(1) checkpoint but with prominent induction of additional markers of G(0) quiescence such as GAS1

CyberKnife for hilar lung tumors: report of clinical response and toxicity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>To report clinical efficacy and toxicity of fractionated CyberKnife radiosurgery for the treatment of hilar lung tumors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Patients presenting with primary and metastatic hilar lung tumors, treated using the CyberKnife system with Synchrony fiducial tracking technology, were retrospectively reviewed. Hilar location was defined as abutting or invading a mainstem bronchus. Fiducial markers were implanted by conventional bronchoscopy within or adjacent to tumors to serve as targeting references. A prescribed dose of 30 to 40 Gy to the gross tumor volume (GTV) was delivered in 5 fractions. Clinical examination and PET/CT imaging were performed at 3 to 6-month follow-up intervals.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twenty patients were accrued over a 4 year period. Three had primary hilar lung tumors and 17 had hilar lung metastases. The median GTV was 73 cc (range 23-324 cc). The median dose to the GTV was 35 Gy (range, 30 - 40 Gy), delivered in 5 fractions over 5 to 8 days (median, 6 days). The resulting mean maximum point doses delivered to the esophagus and mainstem bronchus were 25 Gy (range, 11 - 39 Gy) and 42 Gy (range, 30 - 49 Gy), respectively. Of the 17 evaluable patients with 3 - 6 month follow-up, 4 patients had a partial response and 13 patients had stable disease. AAT t a median follow-up of 10 months, the 1-year Kaplan-Meier local control and overall survival estimates were 63% and 54%, respectively. Toxicities included one patient experiencing grade II radiation esophagitis and one patient experiencing grade III radiation pneumonitis. One patient with gross endobronchial tumor within the mainstem bronchus developed a bronchial fistula and died after receiving a maximum bronchus dose of 49 Gy.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>CyberKnife radiosurgery is an effective palliative treatment option for hilar lung tumors, but local control is poor at one year. Maximum point doses to critical structures may be used as a guide for limiting toxicities. Preliminary results suggest that dose escalation alone is unlikely to enhance the therapeutic ratio of hilar lung tumors and novel approaches, such as further defining the patient population or employing the use of radiation sensitizers, should be investigated.</p

Using Population Genetic Theory and DNA Sequences for Species Detection and Identification in Asexual Organisms

It is widely agreed that species are fundamental units of biology, but there is little agreement on a definition of species or on an operational criterion for delimiting species that is applicable to all organisms.We focus on asexual eukaryotes as the simplest case for investigating species and speciation. We describe a model of speciation in asexual organisms based on basic principles of population and evolutionary genetics. The resulting species are independently evolving populations as described by the evolutionary species concept or the general lineage species concept. Based on this model, we describe a procedure for using gene sequences from small samples of individuals to assign them to the same or different species. Using this method of species delimitation, we demonstrate the existence of species as independent evolutionary units in seven groups of invertebrates, fungi, and protists that reproduce asexually most or all of the time.This wide evolutionary sampling establishes the general existence of species and speciation in asexual organisms. The method is well suited for measuring species diversity when phenotypic data are insufficient to distinguish species, or are not available, as in DNA barcoding and environmental sequencing. We argue that it is also widely applicable to sexual organisms

Nutritional correlates of koala persistence in a low-density population

It is widely postulated that nutritional factors drive bottom-up, resource-based patterns in herbivore ecology and distribution. There is, however, much controversy over the roles of different plant constituents and how these influence individual herbivores and herbivore populations. The density of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) populations varies widely and many attribute population trends to variation in the nutritional quality of the eucalypt leaves of their diet, but there is little evidence to support this hypothesis. We used a nested design that involved sampling of trees at two spatial scales to investigate how leaf chemistry influences free-living koalas from a low-density population in south east New South Wales, Australia. Using koala faecal pellets as a proxy for koala visitation to trees, we found an interaction between toxins and nutrients in leaves at a small spatial scale, whereby koalas preferred trees with leaves of higher concentrations of available nitrogen but lower concentrations of sideroxylonals (secondary metabolites found exclusively in eucalypts) compared to neighbouring trees of the same species. We argue that taxonomic and phenotypic diversity is likely to be important when foraging in habitats of low nutritional quality in providing diet choice to tradeoff nutrients and toxins and minimise movement costs. Our findings suggest that immediate nutritional concerns are an important priority of folivores in low-quality habitats and imply that nutritional limitations play an important role in constraining folivore populations. We show that, with a careful experimental design, it is possible to make inferences about populations of herbivores that exist at extremely low densities and thus achieve a better understanding about how plant composition influences herbivore ecology and persistence.IW and WF received a grant from New South Wales (NSW) Department of Environment, Climate Change & Water

Dynamic changes in eIF4F-mRNA interactions revealed by global analyses of environmental stress responses

BACKGROUND: Translation factors eIF4E and eIF4G form eIF4F, which interacts with the messenger RNA (mRNA) 5' cap to promote ribosome recruitment and translation initiation. Variations in the association of eIF4F with individual mRNAs likely contribute to differences in translation initiation frequencies between mRNAs. As translation initiation is globally reprogrammed by environmental stresses, we were interested in determining whether eIF4F interactions with individual mRNAs are reprogrammed and how this may contribute to global environmental stress responses. RESULTS: Using a tagged-factor protein capture and RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) approach, we have assessed how mRNA associations with eIF4E, eIF4G1 and eIF4G2 change globally in response to three defined stresses that each cause a rapid attenuation of protein synthesis: oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide and nutrient stresses caused by amino acid or glucose withdrawal. We find that acute stress leads to dynamic and unexpected changes in eIF4F-mRNA interactions that are shared among each factor and across the stresses imposed. eIF4F-mRNA interactions stabilised by stress are predominantly associated with translational repression, while more actively initiating mRNAs become relatively depleted for eIF4F. Simultaneously, other mRNAs are insulated from these stress-induced changes in eIF4F association. CONCLUSION: Dynamic eIF4F-mRNA interaction changes are part of a coordinated early translational control response shared across environmental stresses. Our data are compatible with a model where multiple mRNA closed-loop complexes form with differing stability. Hence, unexpectedly, in the absence of other stabilising factors, rapid translation initiation on mRNAs correlates with less stable eIF4F interactions

Global warming and recurrent mass bleaching of corals

During 2015–2016, record temperatures triggered a pan-tropical episode of coral bleaching, the third global-scale event since mass bleaching was first documented in the 1980s. Here we examine how and why the severity of recurrent major bleaching events has varied at multiple scales, using aerial and underwater surveys of Australian reefs combined with satellite-derived sea surface temperatures. The distinctive geographic footprints of recurrent bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in 1998, 2002 and 2016 were determined by the spatial pattern of sea temperatures in each year. Water quality and fishing pressure had minimal effect on the unprecedented bleaching in 2016, suggesting that local protection of reefs affords little or no resistance to extreme heat. Similarly, past exposure to bleaching in 1998 and 2002 did not lessen the severity of bleaching in 2016. Consequently, immediate global action to curb future warming is essential to secure a future for coral reefs

Altered Metabolism of Growth Hormone Receptor Mutant Mice: A Combined NMR Metabonomics and Microarray Study

Growth hormone is an important regulator of post-natal growth and metabolism. We have investigated the metabolic consequences of altered growth hormone signaling in mutant mice that have truncations at position 569 and 391 of the intracellular domain of the growth hormone receptor, and thus exhibit either low (around 30% maximum) or no growth hormone-dependent STATS signaling respectively. These mutants result in altered liver metabolism, obesity and insulin resistance