The Outrageous Government Conduct Defense: An Interpretive Argument for Its Application by SCOTUS

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Due Process Clause protects defendants from Outrageous Government Conduct (“OGC”) via the OGC defense, but the Court has not yet been presented with a set of facts it believes warrants its application. As a result, the Court has not set forth such criteria for application of the OGC defense, leaving the lower courts to apply their own standards. While some critics contend there is no use for the OGC defense due to the availability of the entrapment defense, this Note will uncover why this is not the case. More specifically, this Note will (i) advocate for the application of the OGC defense to appropriate facts and circumstances, (ii) outline the facts and circumstances where the lower federal, as well as state, courts have applied the OGC defense, and (iii) argue for the Supreme Court’s clarification of standards to guide lower courts’ application of the facts and circumstances that constitute OGC, i.e., where law enforcement action rises to the level of a violation of Fifth Amendment Due Process protection

Two specific mutations are prevalent causes of recessive retinitis pigmentosa in North American patients of Jewish ancestry.

PURPOSE: Retinitis pigmentosa is a Mendelian disease with a very elevated genetic heterogeneity. Most mutations are responsible for less than 1% of cases, making molecular diagnosis a multigene screening procedure. In this study, we assessed whether direct testing of specific alleles could be a valuable screening approach in cases characterized by prevalent founder mutations. METHODS: We screened 275 North American patients with recessive/isolate retinitis pigmentosa for two mutations: an Alu insertion in the MAK gene and the p.Lys42Glu missense in the DHDDS gene. All patients were unrelated; 35 reported Jewish ancestry and the remainder reported mixed ethnicity. RESULTS: We identified the MAK and DHDDS mutations homozygously in only 2.1% and 0.8%, respectively, of patients of mixed ethnicity, but in 25.7% and 8.6%, respectively, of cases reporting Jewish ancestry. Haplotype analyses revealed that inheritance of the MAK mutation was attributable to a founder effect. CONCLUSION: In contrast to most mutations associated with retinitis pigmentosa-which are, in general, extremely rare-the two alleles investigated here cause disease in approximately one-third of North American patients reporting Jewish ancestry. Therefore, their screening constitutes an alternative procedure to large-scale tests for patients belonging to this ethnic group, especially in time-sensitive situations.Genet Med 17 4, 285-290

Detecting autozygosity through runs of homozygosity: A comparison of three autozygosity detection algorithms

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A central aim for studying runs of homozygosity (ROHs) in genome-wide SNP data is to detect the effects of autozygosity (stretches of the two homologous chromosomes within the same individual that are identical by descent) on phenotypes. However, it is unknown which current ROH detection program, and which set of parameters within a given program, is optimal for differentiating ROHs that are truly autozygous from ROHs that are homozygous at the marker level but vary at unmeasured variants between the markers.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>We simulated 120 Mb of sequence data in order to know the true state of autozygosity. We then extracted common variants from this sequence to mimic the properties of SNP platforms and performed ROH analyses using three popular ROH detection programs, PLINK, GERMLINE, and BEAGLE. We varied detection thresholds for each program (e.g., prior probabilities, lengths of ROHs) to understand their effects on detecting known autozygosity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Within the optimal thresholds for each program, PLINK outperformed GERMLINE and BEAGLE in detecting autozygosity from distant common ancestors. PLINK's sliding window algorithm worked best when using SNP data pruned for linkage disequilibrium (LD).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results provide both general and specific recommendations for maximizing autozygosity detection in genome-wide SNP data, and should apply equally well to research on whole-genome autozygosity burden or to research on whether specific autozygous regions are predictive using association mapping methods.</p

Modelling accidental releases of dangerous gases into the lower troposphere from mobile sources

The article reports the results of different methods of modelling releases and dispersion of dangerous gases or vapours in cases of major accidents from road and rail transportation in urban zones. Transport accidents of dangerous substances are increasingly frequent and can cause serious injuries in densely inhabited areas or pollution of the environment. For quantitative risk assessment and mitigation planning, consequence modelling is necessary. The modelling of dangerous substance dispersion by standard methods does not fully represent the behaviour of toxic or flammable clouds in obstructed areas such as street canyons. Therefore the predictions from common software packages as ALOHA, EFFECTS, TerEx should be augmented with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models or physical modelling in aerodynamic tunnels, and further studies are planned to do this. The goal of this article is to present the results of the first approach of modelling using these standard methods and to demonstrate the importance of the next development stage in the area of transport accident modelling of releases and dispersions of dangerous substances in urban zones in cases of major accident or terrorist attacks

ANALYSIS OF THE ν2\nu_2 BAND OF THE FCO2_2 RADICAL: PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Kolesnikova, Varga, Beckers, Simeckova, Zelinger, Nova Striteska, Kania, Willner, and Urban, J. Chem Phys 128, 224 (2008)Author Institution: Laboratoire Inter Universitaire des Systemes Atmospheriques; CNRS, Universites Paris 12 et 7, 61 Av du General de Gaulle, 94010 Creteil; Cedex France; VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Faculty of; Safety Engineering, Lum\irova 13, CZ-70030, Ostrava 3 - Vyskovice, Czech Republic; Institute of Thermomechanics, v.v.i., Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Dolejskova 5; CZ-18200 Prague 8, Czech Republic; Inorg. Chemistry, University of Wuppertal, D-42119 Wuppertal, GERMANY; J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical; Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Dolejskova 3, CZ-18223 Prague 8; Czech Republic; VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Faculty; of Safety Engineering, Lum\irova 13, CZ-70030, Ostrava 3 - Vyskovice, Czech Republic; Institute of Thermomechanics, v.v.i, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Dolejskova 5; CZ-18200 Prague 8, Czech Republic.The unique fluoroformyloxyl radical (FCO$_2$) is assumed to participate in atmospheric processes such as the degradation of hydrofluorocarbons that have been considered as chlorofluorocarbon substitutes. Despite this atmospheric interest, the molecular and spectroscopic properties of FCO$_2$ have not yet sufficiently been explored. The high resolution FT IR gas phase spectrum of the fluoroformyloxyl (FCO$_2$) radical was recorded in the 650 - 1500~cm$^{-1}$ spectral range at the University of Wuppertal. Using this spectrum and the ground state parameters achieved recently we carried out the first high resolution study of the $\nu_2$ $A$-type band (C-F stretching mode) centered at 970.209 cm$^{-1}$. The analysis was difficult because the band is congested. In addition the spin doublets are difficult to identify except for high K$_a$ values. However, we could take advantage of the fact that only K$_a$=odd values are observable for symmetry reasons. The line position calculation accounts for the spin rotation doubling and for the Fermi-type resonances linking the 2$^1$ and 5$^2$ spin rotation energy levels