Absence Doesn\u27t Soften the Grass

Seeing that my dog is old and dying, my neighbor said: That’s why I never got one. Truth is, they always die before you do

The First Annual National Moot Court Competition – An Appraisal

Moot courts and mock trials are included in various ways in law curricula in different jurisdictions 1 to aid in the development of legal reasoning and advocacy skills and to prepare students for a career in law. The benefits and advantages of the use of simulation activities as a pedagogical tool are highlighted to a great extent in legal education literature. 2 However, such activities have not been particularly prominent in the curricula of undergraduate law programmes in Ireland to date. While such simulation exercises are seen as a vital component of the training of law students in other jurisdictions, the emphasis in Irish law schools is laid on the theoretical to the detriment of the practical. It is understandable that law schools in jurisdictions such as the United States, where students study law as a postgraduate degree without any further vocational training, place a much greater emphasis on mooting and other simulation activities than Irish law schools. However, Ireland still lags far behind other similar jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, that require vocational training in addition to a law degree for qualification to practice as a barrister or a solicitor, when it comes to the inclusion of simulation activities in undergraduate law curricula. In order to analyse and redress this gap in the curriculum, a project was undertaken in the Socio-Legal Research Centre (SLRC) in Dublin City University (DCU) in 2010. The project had two related aims: 1. to gather empirical research on the use and benefits of simulation activities from Irish undergraduate law students; and 2. to organise and run a National Moot Court Competition. This article provides an analysis of the results of this project, through an account of the current use of moot court activities in undergraduate legal education in Ireland and a description of the process of organising and running the FirstAnnual National Moot Court Competition. Section I of the article analyses the use of moot court activities, and the perceived benefits to law students who undertake such activities, outside of Ireland through a review of literature. This section also describes the current situation in Irish law schools with regard to the inclusion of such activities. Section II then provides details of the First National Moot Court Competition 2010 and the final section provides a conclusion on how future moot court activities should be incorporated into law curricula in Irish universities

The First Annual National Moot Court Competition – An Appraisal

Moot courts and mock trials are included in various ways in law curricula in different jurisdictions 1 to aid in the development of legal reasoning and advocacy skills and to prepare students for a career in law. The benefits and advantages of the use of simulation activities as a pedagogical tool are highlighted to a great extent in legal education literature. 2 However, such activities have not been particularly prominent in the curricula of undergraduate law programmes in Ireland to date. While such simulation exercises are seen as a vital component of the training of law students in other jurisdictions, the emphasis in Irish law schools is laid on the theoretical to the detriment of the practical. It is understandable that law schools in jurisdictions such as the United States, where students study law as a postgraduate degree without any further vocational training, place a much greater emphasis on mooting and other simulation activities than Irish law schools. However, Ireland still lags far behind other similar jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, that require vocational training in addition to a law degree for qualification to practice as a barrister or a solicitor, when it comes to the inclusion of simulation activities in undergraduate law curricula. In order to analyse and redress this gap in the curriculum, a project was undertaken in the Socio-Legal Research Centre (SLRC) in Dublin City University (DCU) in 2010. The project had two related aims: 1. to gather empirical research on the use and benefits of simulation activities from Irish undergraduate law students; and 2. to organise and run a National Moot Court Competition. This article provides an analysis of the results of this project, through an account of the current use of moot court activities in undergraduate legal education in Ireland and a description of the process of organising and running the FirstAnnual National Moot Court Competition. Section I of the article analyses the use of moot court activities, and the perceived benefits to law students who undertake such activities, outside of Ireland through a review of literature. This section also describes the current situation in Irish law schools with regard to the inclusion of such activities. Section II then provides details of the First National Moot Court Competition 2010 and the final section provides a conclusion on how future moot court activities should be incorporated into law curricula in Irish universities

The Place and Efficacy of Simulations in Legal Education: A Preliminary Examination

The American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes once famously said that “[t]he life of law has not been logic; it has been experience”. This paper examines the experiential learning technique of simulation, particularly the use of moot courts and mock trials, in the context of legal education. It provides an overview of extant literature along with an outline of the current place of simulation activities in Irish legal education and the results of a project carried out to examine the efficacy of simulation activities as a teaching and learning tool. The development of formal legal education and the place of mooting within both academic and vocational training are considered within this paper. The combination of the literature review and the findings of the study carried out in the authors’ institution lead to the suggestion that experiential learning techniques, such as moot courts and mock trials, ought to form an integral part of modern law curricula, both in this jurisdiction and in others, both at undergraduate level and beyond

Complete Genome Sequencing of Acinetobacter sp. Strain LoGeW2-3, Isolated from the Pellet of a White Stork, Reveals a Novel Class D Beta-Lactamase Gene

Whole-genome sequencing of Acinetobacter sp. strain LoGeW2-3, isolated from the pellet of a white stork (Ciconia ciconia), reveals the presence of a plasmid of 179,399 bp encoding a CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and associated genes) system of the I-F type, and the chromosomally encoded novel class D beta-lactamase OXA-568

Signed zeros of Gaussian vector fields-density, correlation functions and curvature

We calculate correlation functions of the (signed) density of zeros of Gaussian distributed vector fields. We are able to express correlation functions of arbitrary order through the curvature tensor of a certain abstract Riemann-Cartan or Riemannian manifold. As an application, we discuss one- and two-point functions. The zeros of a two-dimensional Gaussian vector field model the distribution of topological defects in the high-temperature phase of two-dimensional systems with orientational degrees of freedom, such as superfluid films, thin superconductors and liquid crystals.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, uses iopart.cls, improved presentation, to appear in J. Phys.

Detection of Microbial Translocation in HIV and SIV Infection Using the Limulus Amebocyte Lysate Assay is Masked by Serum and Plasma

Objective: Microbial translocation (MT) is thought to be a major contributor to the pathogenesis of HIV-related immune activation, and circulating lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Gram-negative bacteria is the principle measurement of this process. However, related research has been impeded by inconsistent LPS test results. Methods: Specimens were obtained from HIV-infected adults enrolled in the PEARLS study (ACTG A5175) and HIV-HCV co-infected participants enrolled in a study of liver disease staging using MRI elastography. Pig-tailed macaque specimens were obtained from SIV-infected and –uninfected animals. Samples were tested for LPS using the LAL assay with diazo-coupling modifications to improve sensitive detection. Results: When exogenous LPS was added to macaque plasma, >25% inhibition of LPS detection was found in 10/10 (100%) samples at 20% plasma concentration compared to control; in contrast 5/10 (50%) samples at 2% plasma concentration (p = 0.07) and 0/10 (0%) at 0.1% plasma concentration (p = 0.004) showed >25% inhibition of LPS detection. Similarly, when LPS was added to human serum, >25% inhibition of LPS detection was found in 5/12 (42%) of samples at 2% serum concentration compared to control, while 0/12 (0%) of samples in 0.1% serum showed >25% inhibition of LPS detection (p = 0.07). Likewise, LPS detection in human sera without exogenous LPS was improved by dilution: LPS was detected in 2/12 (17%) human samples in 2% serum, ranging from 3,436–4,736 pg/mL, compared to 9/12 (75%) samples in 0.1% serum, ranging from 123 pg/mL –60,131 pg/mL (p = 0.016). In a separate validation cohort of HIV-HCV co-infected participants sampled at two different times on the same day, LPS measured in 0.2% plasma and with diazo-coupling was closely correlated between the first and second samples (R = 0.66, p<0.05). Conclusions: Undiluted serum and plasma mask LPS detection. The extent of MT may be substantially underestimated

A global threats overview for Numeniini populations: synthesising expert knowledge for a group of declining migratory birds

The Numeniini is a tribe of thirteen wader species (Scolopacidae, Charadriiformes) of which seven are near-threatened or globally threatened, including two critically endangered. To help inform conservation management and policy responses, we present the results of an expert assessment of the threats that members of this taxonomic group face across migratory flyways. Most threats are increasing in intensity, particularly in non-breeding areas, where habitat loss resulting from residential and commercial development, aquaculture, mining, transport, disturbance, problematic invasive species, pollution and climate change were regarded as having the greatest detrimental impact. Fewer threats (mining, disturbance, problematic native species and climate change) were identified as widely affecting breeding areas. Numeniini populations face the greatest number of non-breeding threats in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, especially those associated with coastal reclamation; related threats were also identified across the Central and Atlantic Americas, and East Atlantic flyways. Threats on the breeding grounds were greatest in Central and Atlantic Americas, East Atlantic and West Asian flyways. Three priority actions were associated with monitoring and research: to monitor breeding population trends (which for species breeding in remote areas may best be achieved through surveys at key non-breeding sites), to deploy tracking technologies to identify migratory connectivity, and to monitor land-cover change across breeding and non-breeding areas. Two priority actions were focused on conservation and policy responses: to identify and effectively protect key non-breeding sites across all flyways (particularly in the East Asian - Australasian Flyway), and to implement successful conservation interventions at a sufficient scale across human-dominated landscapes for species’ recovery to be achieved. If implemented urgently, these measures in combination have the potential to alter the current population declines of many Numeniini species and provide a template for the conservation of other groups of threatened species

Prolyl hydroxylase-1 regulates hepatocyte apoptosis in an NF-kB-dependent manner

Hepatocyte death is an important contributing factor in a number of diseases of the liver. PHD1 confers hypoxic sensitivity upon transcription factors including the hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB). Reduced PHD1 activity is linked to decreased apoptosis. Here, we investigated the underlying mechanism(s) in hepatocytes. Basal NF-κB activity was elevated in PHD1(-/-) hepatocytes compared to wild type controls. ChIP-seq analysis confirmed enhanced binding of NF-κB to chromatin in regions proximal to the promoters of genes involved in the regulation of apoptosis. Inhibition of NF-κB (but not knock-out of HIF-1 or HIF-2) reversed the anti-apoptotic effects of pharmacologic hydroxylase inhibition. We hypothesize that PHD1 inhibition leads to altered expression of NF-κB-dependent genes resulting in reduced apoptosis. This study provides new information relating to the possible mechanism of therapeutic action of hydroxylase inhibitors that has been reported in pre-clinical models of intestinal and hepatic disease.status: publishe