Thinking About Fairness & Achieving Balance in Mediation

This Article identifies five sources of bias present in mediation practice: (1) categorization, (2) attribution, (3) metaphorical expression, (4) norming, and (5) framing. For each of these cognitive efficiencies, which contribute to bias in mediation, the author provides practice recommendations. Finally, the author suggests that the Article be read as a proposal for further thought and inquiry to improve the fairness of mediators

A Review and Look Ahead at Criminalizing Pregnancy in the Name of State Interest in Fetal Life

Across the United States, and especially in communities that are highly policed and in places hostile to abortion, pregnant people are dying, suffering, being separated from their children and families, and going to jail and prison in purported service of the state interest in fetal life recognized in Roe v. Wade and expanded in Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania v. Casey. This Article focuses on two common practices that cause these harms: criminalizing pregnant people and denying them medical decision-making authority. While these practices are not new, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is accelerating them. With abortion returned to the states without a U.S. constitutional floor, the state interest in fetal life can go largely unchecked with respect to all pregnant people, not just those who need abortions. In this Article, we look back at several cases from the 1990s and early 2000s involving denials of medical decision-making authority and criminalization of pregnant people for substance use during pregnancy. We also discuss contemporary instances of these phenomenon, focusing on Alabama’s Child Chemical Endangerment Act and 1997 Wisconsin Act 292, both of which are currently and fervently used to punish pregnant people for actual or suspected substance use and which fail entirely to advance fetal or parental well-being. Based on our survey of these past and present cases, we reflect on several legal arguments and strategies to demand and restore full personhood for pregnant people. We link pregnancy criminalization to legally cognizable animus, observing that hallmark features of such animus abound when substance use during pregnancy is criminalized. We link environmental injustice to pregnancy criminalization, observing that it is irrational to punish and jail people for “polluting” the micro-environment of the womb in service of an interest in fetal life when all people—particularly the most policed—are perniciously, macro-environmentally exposed to toxins that impact reproduction and pregnancy. We reiterate that informed consent to medical treatment is the bedrock guarantee of healthcare and bodily autonomy—and pregnancy demands rather than diminishes this guarantee—and that drug tests without consent that lead to law enforcement consequences violate both this and the Fourth Amendment. We also very briefly emphasize that mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse or neglect based on a positive drug test fails to protect anyone and that mandatory reporters can challenge this obligation where it frustrates core professional duties. Together, all of these threads intersect to show that criminalizing pregnancy and denying pregnant people medical decision-making authority is about the social control and exclusion that punishment accomplishes. The impulse to control and exclude surely varies intersectionally, corresponding to the expectations and stereotypes about parenting applicable to the punished person or community. But in the end, in every case, no fetal life, no parental life, no family life, and no constitutional right or medical objective is protected or furthered when pregnancy is criminalized and pregnant people are denied medical decision-making authority

Molecular profiling of resident and infiltrating mononuclear phagocytes during rapid adult retinal degeneration using single-cell RNA sequencing.

Neuroinflammation commonly accompanies neurodegeneration, but the specific roles of resident and infiltrating immune cells during degeneration remains controversial. Much of the difficulty in assessing myeloid cell-specific functions during disease progression arises from the inability to clearly distinguish between activated microglia and bone marrow-derived monocytes and macrophages in various stages of differentiation and activation within the central nervous system. Using an inducible model of photoreceptor cell death, we investigated the prevalence of infiltrating monocytes and macrophage subpopulations after the initiation of degeneration in the mouse retina. In vivo retinal imaging revealed infiltration of CCR2+ leukocytes across retinal vessels and into the parenchyma within 48 hours of photoreceptor degeneration. Immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry confirmed and characterized these leukocytes as CD11b+CD45+ cells. Single-cell mRNA sequencing of the entire CD11b+CD45+ population revealed the presence of resting microglia, activated microglia, monocytes, and macrophages as well as 12 distinct subpopulations within these four major cell classes. Our results demonstrate a previously immeasurable degree of molecular heterogeneity in the innate immune response to cell-autonomous degeneration within the central nervous system and highlight the necessity of unbiased high-throughput and high-dimensional molecular techniques like scRNAseq to understand the complex and changing landscape of immune responders during disease progression

Intranasal Inhalation of Oxytocin Improves Face Processing in Developmental Prosopagnosia

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is characterised by a severe, lifelong impairment in face recognition. Little work has attempted to improve face processing in these individuals, but intriguingly, recent evidence suggests oxytocin can improve face processing in both healthy participants and individuals with autism. This study examined whether oxytocin could also improve face processing in individuals with DP. Ten adults with the condition and 10 matched controls were tested using a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind within-subject experimental design (AB-BA). Each participant took part in two testing sessions where they inhaled 24IU of oxytocin or placebo spray and completed two face processing tests: one assessing face memory and the other face perception. Results showed main effects of both participant group and treatment condition in both face processing tests, but the two did not interact. Specifically, the performance of DP participants was significantly lower than control performance under both oxytocin and placebo conditions, but oxytocin improved processing to a similar extent in both groups

1.6 W continuous-wave Raman laser using low-loss synthetic diamond

Low-birefringence (Δn<2x10−6), low-loss (absorption coefficient <0.006cm−1 at 1064nm), single-crystal, synthetic diamond has been exploited in a CW Raman laser. The diamond Raman laser was intracavity pumped within a Nd:YVO4 laser. At the Raman laser wavelength of 1240nm, CW output powers of 1.6W and a slope efficiency with respect to the absorbed diode-laser pump power (at 808nm) of ~18% were measured. In quasi-CW operation, maximum on-time output powers of 2.8W (slope efficiency ~24%) were observed, resulting in an absorbed diode-laser pump power to the Raman laser output power conversion efficiency of 13%

Comparative antiplatelet effects of chlorthalidone and hydrochlorothiazide

Chlorthalidone (CTD) may be superior to hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) in the reduction of adverse cardiovascular events in hypertensive patients. The mechanism of the potential benefit of CTD could be related to antiplatelet effects. The objective of this study was to determine if CTD or HCTZ have antiplatelet effects. This study was a prospective, double-blind, randomized, three-way crossover comparison evaluating the antiplatelet effects of CTD, HCTZ, and aspirin (ASA) in healthy volunteers. The effects of these treatments on platelet activation and aggregation were assessed using a well-established method with five standard platelet agonists. Thirty-four patients completed the three-way crossover comparing pre- and post-treatment changes in platelet activation and aggregation studies. There were statistically significant antiplatelet effects with ASA but not with CTD or HCTZ. Hypokalemia occurred in 0 (0%), 10 (30%), and 6 (18%) of the ASA, CTD, and HCTZ patients, respectively. The results of our study suggest that the benefits of CTD and HCTZ in reducing adverse cardiovascular events in patients with hypertension is not a result of an antiplatelet effect. In our study, hypokalemia with CTD was more prevalent than that reported in a large outcome trial in patients with hypertension. The clinical relevance of this finding is uncertain

An economic analysis of a contingency model utilising vaccination for the control of equine influenza in a non-endemic country

BACKGROUND:Equine influenza (EI) is an infectious respiratory disease of horses that has never been reported in New Zealand (NZ). However, the 2007 EI outbreak in Australia, previously EI free, spurred the NZ government and stakeholders into evaluating alternative EI control strategies in order to economically justify any future decision to eradicate or manage EI. To build on the policy debate, this paper presents an epinomic (epidemiologic and economic) modelling approach to evaluate alternative control strategies. An epidemiologic model to determine how alternative EI control strategies influence the distribution of EI. Model results were then input into a cost-benefit analysis framework, to identify the return and feasibility of alternative EI eradication strategies in NZ. METHODS:The article explores nine alternative eradication scenarios and two baseline strategies. The alternative scenarios consisted of three vaccination strategies (suppressive, protective or targeted) starting at three time points to reflect the commercial breeding-cycle. These alternatives were compared to two breeding-cycle adjusted baselines: movement restriction in the breeding season (August to January) or non-breeding season (February to July). The economic loss parameters were incursion response, impact to the commercial racing industry (breeding, sales and racing), horse morbidity and mortality, and compensation to industry participants. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS:Results suggest that the economic viability of the EI eradication programme is dependent on when within the breeding-cycle the EI outbreak occurs. If an outbreak were to occur, the return on each dollar invested for protective or suppressive vaccination strategies would be between NZD$3.67 to NZD$4.89 and between NZD$3.08 to NZD$3.50 in the breeding and non-breeding seasons, respectively. Therefore, protective or suppressive vaccination strategies could be prioritised, regardless of season. As multiple industry stakeholders benefit from these strategies, the study will enable policy development and to better formulate a user-pays eradication programme

Interdisciplinary Research Teams as Status Systems

Research teams may be studied as social systems organized along dimensions of status, such as rights to evaluate others and to allocate rewards. “Status consistency” is the degree to which salient statuses an individual possesses are at the same level; “status ambiguity” occurs when ranks are unknown or unclear. Relevant dimensions of status are those both within a team and in the larger society, such as gender and ethnicity. Both status inconsistency and status ambiguity interfere with communication, and that reduces team efficiency