Statistical Proof of Racial Discrimination in the Use of Peremptory Challenges: The Impact and Promise of the Miller-El Line of Cases As Reflected in the Experience of One Philadelphia Capital Case

The jurisprudence that has developed in the last twenty-five years under Batson v. Kentucky may be fairly described as indeterminate, unprincipled, and generally ineffective. Scholarly literature points to a variety of reasons for this state of affairs. This Article focuses on one source of the problem— the lack of clarity in the law concerning the evidentiary framework (methodology) needed for a reliable analysis of statistical evidence in Batson cases. United States Supreme Court decisions beginning with Miller-El v. Cockrell (2003) and continuing through Miller-El v. Dretke (2005), Johnson v. California (2005), and Snyder v. Louisiana (2008) clarified a number of issues related to the use of statistical evidence and laid the foundation for the development of a more rigorous and principled methodology for use in Batson cases. In that regard, this line of cases may be usefully compared to the Supreme Court’s Title VII decisions in the 1970s, which laid the foundation for the development of an exhaustive body of evidentiary and methodological law that informs the use of statistical evidence in employment cases. In this Article, we first consider the issues, rulings, and likely impact of the Miller-El line of cases. We then discuss research developed in connection with a recent capital case with complicated Batson issues to both illustrate and build on that foundation in an effort to provide useful guidance for future policymakers and litigants. In the next part, Part II, we provide background information on Batson and the evidentiary issues this paper seeks to address. Part III then introduces the Supreme Court cases that form the centerpiece of our analysis and considers, again, the contribution these cases make to the appropriate use of statistical analysis in Batson claims. This part presents a preliminary evaluation of how some courts have applied the Supreme Court’s guidance in these areas. Part IV focuses on the case of Commonwealth v. Harold Wilson, a capital case from Pennsylvania in which the defendant successfully litigated a complex Batson claim using statistical evidence. The evidence presented in this case can serve as a model of how to present statistical evidence of discrimination in jury selection. The conclusion appears in Part V

Every Road Leads Me Back to You

Illustation of George Macfarlane with frame around picturehttps://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/12390/thumbnail.jp

The effectiveness of nurse-led interventions to prevent childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity: A systematic review of randomised trials

Background: Obesity among children and adolescents continues to rise worldwide. Despite the efforts of the healthcare workforce, limited high-quality evidence has been put forward demonstrating effective childhood obesity interventions. The role of nurses as primary actors in childhood obesity prevention has also been underresearched given the size of the workforce and their growing involvement in chronic disease prevention. Aim: To examine the effectiveness of nurse-led interventions to prevent childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity. Design: A systematic review of randomised trials. Data sources: Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE, Cochrane (CENTRAL), ProQuest Central and SCOPUS were searched from inception to March 2020. Review methods This review was informed by the Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions. Results: Twenty-six publications representing 18 discrete studies were included (nine primary prevention and nine secondary prevention). Nurse-led interventions were conducted in diverse settings, were multifaceted, often involved parents and used education, counselling and motivational interviewing to target behaviour change in children and adolescents’ diet and physical activity. Most studies did not determine that nurse-led interventions were more effective than their comparator(s) in preventing childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity. Conclusions: Nurse-led interventions to prevent juvenile obesity are feasible but have not yet determined effectiveness. With adequate training, nurses could make better use of existing clinical and situational opportunities to assist in the effort to prevent childhood obesity

Results of two multi-chord stellar occultations by dwarf planet (1) Ceres

We report the results of two multi-chord stellar occultations by the dwarf planet (1) Ceres that were observed from Brazil on 2010 August 17, and from the USA on 2013 October 25. Four positive detections were obtained for the 2010 occultation, and nine for the 2013 occultation. Elliptical models were adjusted to the observed chords to obtain Ceres' size and shape. Two limb fitting solutions were studied for each event. The first one is a nominal solution with an indeterminate polar aspect angle. The second one was constrained by the pole coordinates as given by Drummond et al. Assuming a Maclaurin spheroid, we determine an equatorial diameter of 972 $\pm$ 6 km and an apparent oblateness of 0.08 $\pm$ 0.03 as our best solution. These results are compared to all available size and shape determinations for Ceres made so far, and shall be confirmed by the NASA's Dawn space mission.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Multi-ancestry Mendelian randomization of omics traits revealing drug targets of COVID-19 severity

BACKGROUND: Recent omic studies prioritised several drug targets associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity. However, little evidence was provided to systematically estimate the effect of drug targets on COVID-19 severity in multiple ancestries. METHODS: In this study, we applied Mendelian randomization (MR) and colocalization approaches to understand the putative causal effects of 16,059 transcripts and 1608 proteins on COVID-19 severity in European and effects of 610 proteins on COVID-19 severity in African ancestry. We further integrated genetics, clinical and literature evidence to prioritise drug targets. Additional sensitivity analyses including multi-trait colocalization and phenome-wide MR were conducted to test for MR assumptions. FINDINGS: MR and colocalization prioritized four protein targets, FCRL3, ICAM5, ENTPD5 and OAS1 that showed effect on COVID-19 severity in European ancestry. One protein target, SERPINA1 showed a stronger effect in African ancestry but much weaker effect in European ancestry (odds ratio [OR] in Africans=0.369, 95%CI=0.203 to 0.668, P = 9.96 × 10(−4); OR in Europeans=1.021, 95%CI=0.901 to 1.157, P = 0.745), which suggested that increased level of SERPINA1 will reduce COVID-19 risk in African ancestry. One protein, ICAM1 showed suggestive effect on COVID-19 severity in both ancestries (OR in Europeans=1.152, 95%CI=1.063 to 1.249, P = 5.94 × 10(−4); OR in Africans=1.481, 95%CI=1.008 to 2.176; P = 0.045). The OAS1, SERPINA1 and ICAM1 effects were replicated using updated COVID-19 severity data in the two ancestries respectively, where alternative splicing events in OAS1 and ICAM1 also showed marginal effects on COVID-19 severity in Europeans. The phenome-wide MR of the prioritised targets on 622 complex traits provided information on potential beneficial effects on other diseases and suggested little evidence of adverse effects on major complications. INTERPRETATION: Our study identified six proteins as showing putative causal effects on COVID-19 severity. OAS1 and SERPINA1 were targets of existing drugs in trials as potential COVID-19 treatments. ICAM1, ICAM5 and FCRL3 are related to the immune system. Across the six targets, OAS1 has no reliable instrument in African ancestry; SERPINA1, FCRL3, ICAM5 and ENTPD5 showed a different level of putative causal evidence in European and African ancestries, which highlights the importance of more powerful ancestry-specific GWAS and value of multi-ancestry MR in informing the effects of drug targets on COVID-19 across different populations. This study provides a first step towards clinical investigation of beneficial and adverse effects of COVID-19 drug targets. FUNDING: No

Spitzer Observations of L429: A Near-collapse or Collapsing Starless Core

We present Spitzer infrared observations of the starless core L429. The IR images of this core show an absorption feature, caused by the dense core material, at wavelengths <= 70 micron. The core has a steep density profile, and reaches A_V > 35 mag near the center. We show that L429 is either collapsing or in a near-collapse state.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, emulateapj format, accepted for publication in ApJ

Antidepressant and skeletal muscle relaxant effects of the aqueous extract of the Prosopis cineraria

The aqueous leaves extract of Prosopis cineraria (AEPC) is used traditionally for the treatment of various CNS disorder. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extract for antidepressant and skeletal muscle relaxant activity. The antidepressant effect of the extract was evaluated using Forced swim test (FST). The immobility periods of control and treated mice were recorded. The antidepressant-like effect of tested compound was compared to that of imipramine (15 mg/kg. p.o). Muscle relaxant property was studied using rotarod apparatus and total fall off time for standard and control group was recorded. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of saponins, flavonoids, alkaloids, glycosides, tannins and phenolic compounds. The leaf extract at doses of 200 mg/kg significantly decreased the duration of immobility time in FST. The efficacy of tested extract was found to be comparable to that of imipramine. Our results suggested that the aqueous extract of Prosopis cineraria leaves exerts antidepressant-like effect.O extrato aquoso de folhas de Prosopis cineraria (AEPC) é utilizado, tradicionalmente, para o tratamento de várias disfunções do SNC. O propósito desse estudo foi avaliar o extrato quanto às atividades antidepressiva e relaxante muscular esquelética. O efeito antidepressivo do extrato foi avaliado usando o teste do nado forçado (FST). Registraram-se os períodos de imobilidade dos camundongos controle e dos tratados. O efeito antidepressivo do composto testado foi comparado com a imipramina ((15 mg/kg. p.o). A propriedade relaxante muscular foi estudada usando o cilindro giratório e o tempo total de queda para os grupos padrão e controle foram registrados. A triagem fitoquímica revelou a presença de saponinas, flavonoides, alcaloides, glicosídeos, taninos e compostos fenólicos. O extrato da folha em doses de 200 mg/kg diminui significativamente a duração do tempo de imobilidade no FST. A eficácia do extrato testado foi comparável àquela da imipramina. Nossos resultados sugeriram que o extrato aquoso das folhas da Prosopis cineraria exerce efeito semelhante ao antidepressivo

Intergenerational Communication – an interdisciplinary mapping review of research between 1996 and 2017

Concerns have been raised regarding the limited opportunities for intergenerational communication both outside and within the family. This “mapping review” draws together empirical literature in the topic published since 1996. Three hundred and twenty-four published studies met inclusion criteria, based on abstract review. The contents of each study were subjected to thematic analysis and nine broad themes emerged. These were (1) Dynamics of relationships, (2) Health & Well-being, (3) Learning & Literacy, (4) Attitudes, (5) Culture, (6) Digital, (7) Space, (8) Professional Development, and (9) Gender & Sexual Orientation. Studies commonly intersected disciplinary research areas. There was a marked rise across three key academic journals since 2007. An emergent finding was that a third of the studies relate to programs addressing intergenerational interventions, but many of these were primarily descriptive and failed to specify a primary outcome. Review implications and future research directions are discussed

Nominalization and Alternations in Biomedical Language

Background: This paper presents data on alternations in the argument structure of common domain-specific verbs and their associated verbal nominalizations in the PennBioIE corpus. Alternation is the term in theoretical linguistics for variations in the surface syntactic form of verbs, e.g. the different forms of stimulate in FSH stimulates follicular development and follicular development is stimulated by FSH. The data is used to assess the implications of alternations for biomedical text mining systems and to test the fit of the sublanguage model to biomedical texts. Methodology/Principal Findings: We examined 1,872 tokens of the ten most common domain-specific verbs or their zerorelated nouns in the PennBioIE corpus and labelled them for the presence or absence of three alternations. We then annotated the arguments of 746 tokens of the nominalizations related to these verbs and counted alternations related to the presence or absence of arguments and to the syntactic position of non-absent arguments. We found that alternations are quite common both for verbs and for nominalizations. We also found a previously undescribed alternation involving an adjectival present participle. Conclusions/Significance: We found that even in this semantically restricted domain, alternations are quite common, and alternations involving nominalizations are exceptionally diverse. Nonetheless, the sublanguage model applies to biomedica

In Vivo CD8+ T-Cell Suppression of SIV Viremia Is Not Mediated by CTL Clearance of Productively Infected Cells

The CD8+ T-cell is a key mediator of antiviral immunity, potentially contributing to control of pathogenic lentiviral infection through both innate and adaptive mechanisms. We studied viral dynamics during antiretroviral treatment of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infected rhesus macaques following CD8+ T-cell depletion to test the importance of adaptive cytotoxic effects in clearance of cells productively infected with SIV. As previously described, plasma viral load (VL) increased following CD8+ T-cell depletion and was proportional to the magnitude of CD8+ T-cell depletion in the GALT, confirming a direct relationship between CD8+ T-cell loss and viral replication. Surprisingly, first phase plasma virus decay following administration of antiretroviral drugs was not slower in CD8+ T-cell depleted animals compared with controls indicating that the short lifespan of the average productively infected cell is not a reflection of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) killing. Our findings support a dominant role for non-cytotoxic effects of CD8+ T-cells on control of pathogenic lentiviral infection and suggest that cytotoxic effects, if present, are limited to early, pre-productive stages of the viral life cycle. These observations have important implications for future strategies to augment immune control of HIV