The Insanity of the Mens Rea Model: Due Process and the Abolition of the Insanity Defense

Full-text available at SSRN. See link in this record.In the last 15 years a flurry of legislative activity has taken place as states have attempted to redefine the insanity defense. This article focuses on those states who chose not just to refine the definition of insanity, but to completely abolish it as an affirmative defense. During the 2006 Supreme Court term many believed that the Court would answer the question of whether the Due Process Clause protects the right of the accused to present an affirmative defense of insanity. Unfortunately, the Court chose to not to answer the question. Although scholars have poured over the Clark v. Arizona decision, there is very little discussion about whether the abolition of the insanity defense does in fact violate the Due Process Clause. This article addresses that question. The article argues that mens rea includes not just the intent to act, but moral blameworthiness. As such, an affirmative defense of insanity cannot be constitutionally abolished. The article traces the history of mens rea and establishes that blameworthiness has been a component of mens rea since the 12th century and certainly exited at common law. As common law is the basis for defining due process protections, moral blameworthiness, as a component of mens rea, is constitutionally protected. The article examines the state court opinions that have upheld the abolition of the affirmative defense of insanity and explains how they fail to either understand the duality of mens rea or apply it in a helpful way. The next section addresses the Supreme Court opinion in Clark. Despite the Court passing on the opportunity to rule on the issue, the opinion establishes that the Court is open to the idea that an insanity defense is constitutionally required. Finally, the article provides the analysis of mens rea and due process that the Court should have made and concludes that an affirmative defense of insanity cannot be constitutionally abolished

Mixed-Grass Prairie Canopy Structure and Spectral Reflectance Vary with Topographic Position

Managers of the nearly 0.5 million ha of public lands in North and South Dakota, USA rely heavily on manual measurements of canopy height in autumn to ensure conservation of grassland structure for wildlife and forage for livestock. However, more comprehensive assessment of vegetation structure could be achieved for mixed-grass prairie by integrating field survey, topographic position (summit, mid and toeslope) and spectral reflectance data. Thus, we examined the variation of mixed-grass prairie structural attributes (canopy leaf area, standing crop mass, canopy height, nitrogen, and water content) and spectral vegetation indices (VIs) with variation in topographic position at the Grand River National Grassland (GRNG), South Dakota. We conducted the study on a 36,000-ha herbaceous area within the GRNG, where randomly selected plots (1 km2 in size) were geolocated and included summit, mid and toeslope positions. We tested for effects of topographic position on measured vegetation attributes and VIs calculated from Landsat TM and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data collected in July 2010. Leaf area, standing crop mass, canopy height, nitrogen, and water content were lower at summits than at toeslopes. The simple ratio of Landsat Band 7/Band 1 (SR71) was the VI most highly correlated with canopy standing crop and height at plot and landscape scales. Results suggest field and remote sensing-based grassland assessment techniques could more comprehensively target low structure areas at minimal expense by layering modeled imagery over a landscape stratified into topographic position groups

Mixed-Grass Prairie Canopy Structure and Spectral Reflectance Vary with Topographic Position

Managers of the nearly 0.5 million ha of public lands in North and South Dakota, USA rely heavily on manual measurements of canopy height in autumn to ensure conservation of grassland structure for wildlife and forage for livestock. However, more comprehensive assessment of vegetation structure could be achieved for mixed-grass prairie by integrating field survey, topographic position (summit, mid and toeslope) and spectral reflectance data. Thus, we examined the variation of mixed-grass prairie structural attributes (canopy leaf area, standing crop mass, canopy height, nitrogen, and water content) and spectral vegetation indices (VIs) with variation in topographic position at the Grand River National Grassland (GRNG), South Dakota. We conducted the study on a 36,000-ha herbaceous area within the GRNG, where randomly selected plots (1 km2 in size) were geolocated and included summit, mid and toeslope positions. We tested for effects of topographic position on measured vegetation attributes and VIs calculated from Landsat TM and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data collected in July 2010. Leaf area, standing crop mass, canopy height, nitrogen, and water content were lower at summits than at toeslopes. The simple ratio of Landsat Band 7/Band 1 (SR71) was the VI most highly correlated with canopy standing crop and height at plot and landscape scales. Results suggest field and remote sensing-based grassland assessment techniques could more comprehensively target low structure areas at minimal expense by layering modeled imagery over a landscape stratified into topographic position groups

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a universal parenting skills programme in deprived communities : multicentre randomised controlled trial

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and cost utility of a universally provided early years parenting programme. Design: Multicentre randomised controlled trial with cost-effectiveness analysis. Setting: Early years centres in four deprived areas of South Wales. Participants: Families with children aged between 2 and 4 years. 286 families were recruited and randomly allocated to the intervention or waiting list control. Intervention: The Family Links Nurturing Programme (FLNP), a 10-week course with weekly 2 h facilitated group sessions. Main outcome measures: Negative and supportive parenting, child and parental well-being and costs assessed before the intervention, following the course (3 months) and at 9 months using standardised measures. Results: There were no significant differences in primary or secondary outcomes between trial arms at 3 or 9 months. With ‘+’ indicating improvement, difference in change in negative parenting score at 9 months was +0.90 (95%CI −1.90 to 3.69); in supportive parenting, +0.17 (95%CI −0.61 to 0.94); and 12 of the 17 secondary outcomes showed a non-significant positive effect in the FLNP arm. Based on changes in parental well-being (SF-12), the cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained was estimated to be £34 913 (range 21 485–46 578) over 5 years and £18 954 (range 11 664–25 287) over 10 years. Probability of cost per QALY gained below £30 000 was 47% at 5 years and 57% at 10 years. Attendance was low: 34% of intervention families attended no sessions (n=48); only 47% completed the course (n=68). Also, 19% of control families attended a parenting programme before 9-month follow-up. Conclusions: Our trial has not found evidence of clinical or cost utility for the FLNP in a universal setting. However, low levels of exposure and contamination mean that uncertainty remains. Trial registration: The trial is registered with Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN13919732

Publishing Makerspace: A New Approach to Scholarly Publishing

This article describes the concept of the Publishing Makerspace, which is a publishing environment that is reconfigured as a place where all the components of a scholarly project—books and e‐books, virtual and physical exhibits, visualizations, live performance and film—can be integrated using a collaborative process. This place enables the creation of a multimodal publishing environment that fully integrates digital content with manuscripts and “traditional” scholarly content. Starting with an overview of the history of the team that devised this approach and its membership, the article describes the problem that the authors have identified with current approaches to multimodal publishing and outlines a workshop model for engaging in a reconfiguration of the publishing process, including a description of a new publishing and knowledge making ecosystem that includes librarians, publishers, and other collaborators

Breast Cancer Before Age 40 Years

Approximately 7% of women with breast cancer are diagnosed before the age of 40 years, and this disease accounts for more than 40% of all cancer in women in this age group. Survival rates are worse when compared to those in older women, and multivariate analysis has shown younger age to be an independent predictor of adverse outcome. Inherited syndromes, specifically BRCA1 and BRCA2, must be considered when developing treatment algorithms for younger women. Chemotherapy, endocrine, and local therapies have the potential to significantly impact both the physiologic health—including future fertility, premature menopause, and bone health—and the psychological health of young women as they face a diagnosis of breast cancer

Pregnancy rates and outcomes amongst women with cystic fibrosis in the UK : comparisons with the general population before and after the introduction of disease modifying treatment, 2003-17

Acknowledgements We thank the UK CF Registry team and the UK CF centres and clinics for submitting data to the Registry. Special thanks to the people with cystic fibrosis and their families who have agreed for their UK CF Registry data to be used for research. Funding The study was funded by a Welsh Government Research for Patient and Public Benefit grant. The funder was not involved in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or the writing of the report. DT-R is funded by the MRC on a Clinician Scientist Fellowship (MR/P008577/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Filaggrin gene defects are associated with eczema, wheeze, and nasal disease during infancy:Prospective study

This prospective cohort study describes associations between the presence of filaggrin gene mutations and eczema, rhinitis and wheeze from as early as age six months, raising new questions regarding underlying mechanisms and timing of interventions

Interventions to prevent obesity in children aged 5 to 11 years old

Objectives: This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows:. The overall aim of the review is to determine the effectiveness of interventions to prevent obesity in 5 to 11-year-old children. The four objectives are:. to evaluate the effects of interventions that aim to modify dietary intake on changes in zBMI score, BMI and serious adverse events among children; to evaluate the effects of interventions that aim to modify physical activity, sedentary behaviour, sleep, play and/or structured exercise on changes in zBMI score, BMI and serious adverse events among children; to evaluate the combined effects of interventions that aim to modify both dietary intake and physical activity/movement behaviours on changes in zBMI score, BMI and serious adverse events among children; to compare the effects of interventions that aim to modify dietary interventions with those that aim to modify physical activity/movement behaviours on changes in zBMI score, BMI and serious adverse events among children. The secondary objectives are designed to explore if, how, and why the effectiveness of interventions on zBMI/BMI varies depending on the following PROGRESS factors. Place of residence Race/ethnicity/culture/language Occupation Gender/sex Religion Education Socioeconomic status Social capital. The PROGRESS acronym is intended to ensure that there is explicit consideration of health inequity, the unfair difference in disease burden, when conducting research and adapting research evidence to inform the design of new interventions (O'Neill 2014). The PROGRESS acronym describes factors that contribute to health inequity. Recent work on race and religion in the UK suggests that consideration of these factors is critical to the design of new interventions (Rai 2019). We will also collect, from RCTs, information about the costs of interventions so that policymakers can use the review as a source of information from which they may prepare cost-effectiveness analyses

Alternative processing of human HTT mRNA with implications for Huntington's disease therapeutics

Huntington disease is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in exon 1 of the huntingtin gene (HTT) that is translated into a polyglutamine stretch in the huntingtin protein (HTT). We previously showed that HTT mRNA carrying an expanded CAG repeat was incompletely spliced to generate HTT1a, an exon 1 only transcript, which was translated to produce the highly aggregation-prone and pathogenic exon 1 HTT protein. This occurred in all knock-in mouse models of Huntington's disease and could be detected in patient cell lines and post-mortem brains. To extend these findings to a model system expressing human HTT, we took advantage of YAC128 mice that are transgenic for a yeast artificial chromosome carrying human HTT with an expanded CAG repeat. We discovered that the HTT1a transcript could be detected throughout the brains of YAC128 mice. We implemented RNAscope to visualise HTT transcripts at the single molecule level and found that full-length HTT and HTT1a were retained together in large nuclear RNA clusters, as well as being present as single transcripts in the cytoplasm. Homogeneous time-resolved fluorescence analysis demonstrated that the HTT1a transcript had been translated to produce the exon 1 HTT protein. The levels of exon 1 HTT in YAC128 mice, correlated with HTT aggregation, supportive of the hypothesis that exon 1 HTT initiates the aggregation process. Huntingtin-lowering strategies are a major focus of therapeutic development for Huntington's disease. These approaches often target full-length HTT alone and would not be expected to reduce pathogenic exon 1 HTT levels. We have established YAC128 mouse embryonic fibroblast lines and shown that, together with our QuantiGene multiplex assay, these provide an effective screening tool for agents that target HTT transcripts. The effects of current targeting strategies on nuclear RNA clusters are unknown, structures that may have a pathogenic role, or alternatively could be protective by retaining HTT1a in the nucleus and preventing it from being translated. In light of recently halted antisense oligonucleotide trials, it is vital that agents targeting HTT1a are developed, and that the effects of HTT-lowering strategies on the subcellular levels of all HTT transcripts and their various HTT protein isoforms are understood