The Effect of Rules Shifting Supreme Court Jurisdiction from Mandatory to Discretionary - An Empirical Lesson from Taiwan

Theoretical works suggest that granting a supreme court discretion in choosing the cases to be decided on the merits could shift dockets away from traditional case-based adjudication and towards issue-based adjudication. According to this prediction, legislatures can recast supreme courts' roles in society by modifying jurisdictional rules. This study tests this prediction empirically. Using a newly assembled data set on appeals terminated by the Taiwan Supreme Court for the period 1996-2008, we study the effect of jurisdictional-source procedural reform, a switch from mandatory jurisdiction to discretionary jurisdiction in 2003, on the Taiwan Supreme Court's performance. Our study shows that the 2003 reform failed to transform the function of the Court from correcting error to a greater role in leading the development of legal doctrine as intended by the legislature. Our findings suggest that a supreme court can adjust the way it conducts business according to its own preference and the role it defines for itself, which are influenced both by the background against which it operates and the inertia of its members' working habits. Our study informs policy-makers that merely amending procedural rules, without more, is unlikely to change the function of a supreme court. Our findings also suggest that statutorily dictated mandatory jurisdiction may not be implemented by a high court faced with caseload pressure.

Increased resolution: application of single-cell transcriptomic methods in cancer research

The adoption of single-cell transcriptomic research methods has brought forth a new stage in cancer research. The increased cellular resolution granted by these methods over that of bulk transcriptomic methods has allowed researchers to implement new strategies to study cancer biology and oncological therapeutic approaches. From examining tumor microenvironments to verifying robust immune responses in response to cancer vaccination, single-cell transcriptomic methods and their relevant analysis pipelines have proven that they can reliably generate accurate transcriptional data while providing the framework for additional forms of analysis that bulk transcriptomic approaches cannot offer. Improvements and advancements in this field, like the introduction of single-cell spatial transcriptomics, will ensure that single-cell transcriptomics will continue to be heavily implicated in future advancements in cancer research and therapy

Homomorphic Logical Measurements

Shor and Steane ancilla are two well-known methods for fault-tolerant logical measurements, which are successful on small codes and their concatenations. On large quantum low-density-parity-check (LDPC) codes, however, Shor and Steane measurements have impractical time and space overhead respectively. In this work, we widen the choice of ancilla codes by unifying Shor and Steane measurements into a single framework, called homomorphic measurements. For any Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) code with the appropriate ancilla code, one can avoid repetitive measurements or complicated ancilla state preparation procedures such as distillation, which overcomes the difficulties of both Shor and Steane methods. As an example, we utilize the theory of covering spaces to construct homomorphic measurement protocols for arbitrary $X$- or $Z$-type logical Pauli operators on surface codes in general, including the toric code and hyperbolic surface codes. Conventional surface code decoders, such as minimum-weight perfect matching, can be directly applied to our constructions.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, fixed a typo in abstrac

Emission Inventory for PFOS in China: Review of Past Methodologies and Suggestions

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is a persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemical that has the potential for long-range transport in the environment. Its use in a wide variety of consumer products and industrial processes makes a detailed characterization of its emissions sources very challenging. These varied emissions sources all contribute to PFOS' existence within nearly all environmental media. Currently, China is the only country documented to still be producing PFOS, though there is no China PFOS emission inventory available. This study reviews the inventory methodologies for PFOS in other countries to suggest a China-specific methodology framework for a PFOS emission inventory. The suggested framework combines unknowns for PFOS-containing product penetration into the Chinese market with product lifecycle assumptions, centralizing these diverse sources into municipal sewage treatment plants. Releases from industrial sources can be quantified separately using another set of emission factors. Industrial sources likely to be relevant to the Chinese environment are identified

Expression of the human apoE2 isoform in adipocytes: altered cellular processing and impaired adipocyte lipogenesis

Expression of apoE in adipocytes has been shown to have an important role in modulating adipocyte triglyceride (TG) metabolism and gene expression that is independent of circulating and extracellular apoE. The impact of adipocyte expression of common human apoE isoforms was evaluated using adipocytes harvested from human apoE2, -3, and -4 knock-in mice. Expression of the apoE2 isoform was associated with an increase in adipocyte apoE gene expression and apoE synthesis. Newly synthesized apoE2 was unstable in adipocytes and demonstrated increased degradation and decreased secretion. ApoE2-expressing mice were hyperlipidemic, and had increased size of gonadal fat pads and of adipocytes, compared with apoE3 mice. In isolated cells, however, expression of the apoE2 isoform produced defective lipogenesis and increased TG hydrolysis. Incubation of adipose tissue with apoE3-containing TG-rich lipoproteins resulted in a significant increase in TG in adipose tissue from apoE3 and -E4 mice, but not apoE2 mice. Reduced capacity to internalize FFA as lipogenic substrate contributed to defective lipogenesis. Newly synthesized apoE2 is unstable in adipocytes and results in decreased adipocyte TG synthesis and defective FA uptake. These changes recapitulate those observed in apoE knockout adipocytes and have implications for understanding metabolic disturbances in humans expressing the E2 isoform

Synthetic phosphoethanolamine-modified oligosaccharides reveal the importance of glycan length and substitution in biofilm-inspired assemblies

Bacterial biofilm matrices are nanocomposites of proteins and polysaccharides with remarkable mechanical properties. Efforts understanding and tuning the protein component have been extensive, whereas the polysaccharide part remained mostly overlooked. The discovery of phosphoethanolamine (pEtN) modified cellulose in E. coli biofilms revealed that polysaccharide functionalization alters the biofilm properties. To date, the pattern of pEtN cellulose and its mode of interactions with proteins remains elusive. Herein, we report a model system based on synthetic epitomes to explore the role of pEtN in biofilm-inspired assemblies. Nine pEtN-modified oligosaccharides were synthesized with full control over the length, degree and pattern of pEtN substitution. The oligomers were co-assembled with a representative peptide, triggering the formation of fibers in a length dependent manner. We discovered that the pEtN pattern modulates the adhesion of biofilm-inspired matrices, while the peptide component controls its stiffness. Unnatural oligosaccharides tune or disrupt the assembly morphology, revealing interesting targets for polysaccharide engineering to develop tunable bio-inspired materials

Perception of slipperiness and prospective risk of slipping at work

Objectives: Falls are a leading cause of injury at work, and slipping is the predominant cause of falling. Prior research has suggested a modest correlation between objective measures (such as coefficient of friction, COF) and subjective measures of slipperiness (such as worker perceptions) in the workplace. However, the degree of association between subjective measures and the actual risk of slipping at the workplace is unknown. This study examined the association between perception of slipperiness and the risk of slipping. Methods: 475 workers from 36 limited-service restaurants participated in a 12-week prospective cohort study. At baseline, demographic information was collected, participants rated floor slipperiness in eight areas of the restaurant, and work environment factors, such as COF, were measured. Restaurant-level and area-level mean perceptions of slipperiness were calculated. Participants then reported their slip experience at work on a weekly basis for the next 12 weeks. The associations between perception of slipperiness and the rate of slipping were assessed. Results: Adjusting for age, gender, body mass index, education, primary language, mean COF, use of slip-resistant shoes, and restaurant chain, each 1-point increase in mean restaurant-level perception of slipperiness (4-point scale) was associated with a 2.71 times increase in the rate of slipping (95% CI 1.25 to 5.87). Results were similar for area-level perception within the restaurant (rate ratios (RR) 2.92, 95% CI 2.41 to 3.54). Conclusions: Perceptions of slipperiness and the subsequent rate of slipping were strongly associated. These findings suggest that safety professionals, risk managers and employers could use aggregated worker perceptions of slipperiness to identify slipping hazards and, potentially, to assess intervention effectiveness