Deviancy, Dependency, and Disability: The Forgotten History of Eugenics and Mass Incarceration

Three widely discussed explanations of the punitive carceral state are racism, harsh drug laws, and prosecutorial overreach. These three narratives, however, only partially explain how our correctional system expanded to its current overcrowded state. Neglected in our discussion of mass incarceration is our largely forgotten history of the long-term, wholesale institutionalization of the disabled. This form of mass detention, motivated by a continuing application of eugenics and persistent class-based discrimination, is an important part of our history of imprisonment, one that has shaped key contours of our current supersized correctional system. Only by fully exploring this forgotten narrative of long-term detention and isolation will policy makers be able to understand, diagnose, and solve the crisis of mass incarceration

Reports of Batson\u27s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated: How the Batson Doctrine Enforces a Normative Framework of Legal Ethics

In this article, I aim to explain how the Batson procedure enforces a normative framework of legal ethics, a theory which I hope will be of use to both criminal law professors and scholars of legal ethics. Despite many recent prudential attacks against the Batson procedure and the peremptory challenge, I contend that Batson has a largely unarticulated ethical component, one that invokes a lawyer’s professional responsibility. Accordingly, using legal ethics as a lens through which to interpret Batson sheds new light on the doctrine. Batson’s ethical imperative affects the norms of the legal profession itself. By fostering a non-discrimination norm as part of the norm of professionalization, Batson both improves the actions of lawyer and judges during jury selection while at the same time constructing and compelling an aspirational code of ethics. This article has several goals. First, I propose a legal ethics theory of Batson, as the Batson doctrine is a vehicle through which the legal system achieves a major aspiration of professionally responsible behavior. Second, I provide a measured look at the anxiety surrounding the Batson procedure and the peremptory challenge, starting with its most recent history, and explain how my theory of legal ethics can resolve many of the Batson grievances. Finally, I will examine why Batson is so important and look at some of the additional implications of my legal ethics approach. I conclude that Batson’s framework of legal ethics assists in the goal of furthering the moral integrity of the legal profession

Sleep quality influences subsequent motor skill acquisition

While the influence of sleep on motor memory consolidation has been extensively investigated, its relation to initial skill acquisition is less well understood. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of sleep quality and quantity on subsequent motor skill acquisition in young adults without sleep disorders. Fifty-five healthy adults (mean age = 23.8 years; 34 women) wore actigraph wristbands for 4 nights, which provided data on sleep patterns before the experiment, and then returned to the laboratory to engage in a motor sequence learning task (explicit 5-item finger sequence tapping task). Indicators of sleep quality and quantity were then regressed on a measure of motor skill acquisition (Gains Within Training, GWT). Wake After Sleep Onset (WASO; i.e., the total amount of time the participants spent awake after falling asleep) was significantly and negatively related to GWT. This effect was not because of general arousal level, which was measured immediately before the motor task. Conversely, there was no relationship between GWT and sleep duration or self-reported sleep quality. These results indicate that sleep quality, as assessed by WASO and objectively measured with actigraphy before the motor task, significantly impacts motor skill acquisition in young healthy adults without sleep disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).Accepted manuscrip

The potential roles of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)-MET pathway inhibitors in cancer treatment

MET is located on chromosome 7q31 and is a proto-oncogene that encodes for hepa-tocyte growth factor (HGF) receptor, a member of the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) family. HGF, also known as scatter factor (SF), is the only known ligand for MET. MET is a master regulator of cell growth and division (mitogenesis), mobility (motogenesis), and differentiation (morphogenesis); it plays an important role in normal development and tissue regeneration. The HGF-MET axis is frequently dysregulated in cancer by MET gene amplification, translocation, and mutation, or by MET or HGF protein overexpression. MET dysregulation is associated with an increased propensity for metastatic disease and poor overall prognosis across multiple tumor types. Targeting the dysregulated HGF-MET pathway is an area of active research; a number of monoclonal antibodies to HGF and MET, as well as small molecule inhibitors of MET, are under development. This review summarizes the key biological features of the HGF-MET axis, its dysregulation in cancer, and the therapeutic agents targeting the HGF-MET axis, which are in development. © 2014 Parikh et al

UPDATE ON VACCINE DEVELOPMENT FOR RENAL CELL CANCER.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remains a significant health concern that frequently presents as metastatic disease at the time of initial diagnosis. Current first-line therapeutics in the advanced stage setting include anti-angiogenic drugs that have yielded high rates of objective clinical response, however these tend to be transient in nature, with many patients becoming refractory to chronic treatment with these agents. Adjuvant immunotherapies remain viable candidates to sustain disease-free and overall patient survival. In particular, vaccines designed to optimize the activation, maintenance and recruitment of specific immunity within/into the tumor site continue to evolve. Based on the integration of increasingly refined immunomonitoring systems in both translational models and clinical trials, allowing for the improved understanding of treatment mechanism(s) of action, further refined (combinational) vaccine protocols are currently being developed and evaluated. This review will provide a brief history of RCC vaccine development, discussing the successes and deficiencies in such approaches, before providing a rationale for developing combinational vaccine approaches that may provide improved clinical benefits to patients with RCC

On spin-rotation contribution to nuclear spin conversion in C_{3v}-symmetry molecules. Application to CH_3F

The symmetrized contribution of E-type spin-rotation interaction to conversion between spin modifications of E- and A_1-types in molecules with C_{3v}-symmetry is considered. Using the high-J descending of collisional broadening for accidental rotational resonances between these spin modifications, it was possible to co-ordinate the theoretical description of the conversion with (updated) experimental data for two carbon-substituted isotopes of fluoromethane. As a result, both E-type spin-rotation constants are obtained. They are roughly one and a half times more than the corresponding constants for (deutero)methane.Comment: 13 pages with single-spacing, REVTeX, no figures, accepted for publication in <J. Phys. B

Synthetic DNA immunotherapy in biochemically relapsed prostate cancer

Background: INO-5150 (PSA and PSMA) +/- INO-9012 (IL-12), a synthetic DNA immunotherapy, was assessed for safety, immunogenicity and efficacy in biochemically recurrent prostate cancer patients (pts). Methods: Phase I, open-label, multi-center study in the US included pts with rising PSA after surgery and/or RT, PSA doubling time (PSADT) \u3e3 months (mos), testosterone \u3e150 ng/dL and no concurrent ADT. Safety, immunogenicity and efficacy (PSA kinetics, PFS) were evaluated in 4 treatment arms of 15 pts each. Arms A: 2mg INO-5150, B: 8.5 mg INO-5150, C: 2mg INO-5150 + 1mg INO-9012 and D: 8.5mg INO-5150 + 1mg INO-9012. Pts received 4 IM doses of vaccine followed by electroporation on day 0, wks 3, 12 and 24 and were followed for 72 wks. Results: 50/61 (82%) pts completed all visits and treatments were well tolerated with no safety concerns. Median PFS for overall population [N = 61, baseline (D0) PSADT range (mos) 1.5-217.1, median 9.8] and for a subset of pts with D0 PSADT ≤12mos (N = 36) has not yet been reached (FU 3-19 mos). 86% of pts with D0 PSADT ≤12 mos were progression free through 19mos FU. 27 out of 36 (75%) pts with D0 PSADT≤ 12 mos had disease stabilization at wks 27 evidenced by significant improvement in log2PSA change over time (slope) and PSADT from D0 (Slope=0.19 declined to 0.1, PSADT=5.3 improved to 10.1 mos, p = \u3c0.0001). This effect was maintained at wk 72 (Slope=0.09, PSADT=10.6, p = \u3c0.0001). Immunogenicity was observed in 77% (47/61) of pts by multiple immunologic assessments. Patient immunogenicity to INO-5150 as determined by CD38 and Perforin + CD8 T cell immune reactivity correlated with attenuated % PSA rise compared to pts without reactivity (p = 0.05, n = 50). Conclusions: INO-5150 +/- INO-9012 was safe, well tolerated and immunogenic. Clinical efficacy was observed in the patients with D0 PSADT≤ 12 mos as evidenced by a significant dampening of log2PSA change over time and increased PSADT up to 72 weeks FU. Additional genomic analyses are ongoing to further elucidate the correlation of immunologic efficacy and clinical benefit. (NCT02514213)

Sub-collision hyperfine structure of nonlinear-optical resonance with field scanning

Some experimental evidences for methane are produced that the simple transition from frequency scanning of nonlinear-optical resonances to magnetic one may be accompanied with transition from sub-Doppler collisionally broadened structure to sub-collision hyperfine one. It is conditioned by nonlinearity of splitting of hyperfine sublevel for molecules in the adiabatically varied magnetic field and respectively breaking the analogy of magnetic and frequency scannings. The exact calculation of the resonance structure is considered for molecules with only one spin subsystem. The approximately spin-additive calculation of the structure is given for sufficiently fast rotating molecules with greater number of spin subsystems. Within the same approximation an example of hyperfine doubling in the magnetic and electric spectra of nonlinear-optical resonance is considered for fluoromethane.Comment: 56 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in J. Mol. Spectrosc