Using Our Brains: What Cognitive Science Teaches about Teaching Law Students to Be Ethical, Professionally Responsible Lawyers

Throughout our lives, below the level of our consciousness, each of us develops powerful values, intuitions, expectations, and needs that powerfully affect both our perceptions and our judgments. Placed in situations in which we feel threatened, or which implicate our values, our brains, relying on those implicitly learned, emotionally weighted, memories, can downshift, to primitive, self-protective problem solving techniques - fight or flight. Because these processes operate below the radar of our consciousness, we react without reflection or the opportunity for interdiction. Thus, it may be that automatic, “emotional” reaction, rather than thoughtful, reasoned analysis leads to our responses to stressful, questions of ethics and professional responsibility. Lawyers continually face complex, complex problems of great moment to their clients and the community, problems which implicate their professional values. They need to learn to address these problems thoughtfully and effectively while carrying out their professional responsibilities as representatives of their clients, officers of the judicial system, and public citizens, exercising the highest level of moral and ethical judgments. To do so, they need to understand the emotional processes and the content of their intuitions, and have confidence in their ability to act appropriately. Unfortunately, traditional legal education focuses on teaching students legal analysis of a given set of facts, in which the answer is the formation of a legal rule, the role of the lawyer is to achieve the client\u27s stated goal, and neither the lawyer\u27s, nor any third party\u27s, values are relevant. This paper analyzes recent discoveries in cognitive science that explain the brain\u27s learning and problem solving mechanisms, and applies that scientific knowledge to demonstrate why traditional legal education may actually impair the ability to effectively solve complex problems, particularly those freighted with issues of personal values and professional responsibility. It then describes an alternative pedagogy, problem-based learning, that provides valuable insights to teaching law students to become ethical practitioners

Pheromone-induced morphogenesis improves osmoadaptation capacity by activating the HOG MAPK pathway

Environmental and internal conditions expose cells to a multiplicity of stimuli whose consequences are difficult to predict. We investigate the response to mating pheromone of yeast cells adapted to high osmolarity. Events downstream of pheromone binding involve two mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades: the pheromone response (PR) and the cell wall integrity (CWI) response. Although the PR MAPK pathway shares components with a third MAPK pathway, the high osmolarity (HOG) response, each one is normally only activated by its cognate stimulus, a phenomenon called insulation. We found that in cells adapted to high osmolarity, PR activated the HOG pathway in a pheromone- and osmolarity-dependent manner. Activation of HOG by the PR was not due to loss of insulation, but rather a response to a reduction in internal osmolarity, which resulted from an increase in glycerol release caused by the PR. By analyzing single-cell time courses, we found that stimulation of HOG occurred in discrete bursts that coincided with the "shmooing" morphogenetic process. Activation required the polarisome, the CWI MAPK Slt2, and the aquaglyceroporin Fps1. HOG activation resulted in high glycerol turnover, which improved adaptability to rapid changes in osmolarity. Our work shows how a differentiation signal can recruit a second, unrelated sensory pathway to fine-tune yeast response in a complex environment.Fil: Baltanas, Rodrigo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas . Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Bush, Alan. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas . Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Couto, Alicia Susana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Centro de Investigaciones en Hidratos de Carbono; ArgentinaFil: Durrieu, Lucía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas . Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Hohmann, Stefan. University of Gothenburg. Department of Cell and Molecular Biology; SueciaFil: Colman Lerner, Alejandro Ariel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas . Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; Argentin

Using our Brains: What Cognitive Science and Social Psychology Teach us About Teaching Law Students to Make Ethical, Professionally Responsible, Choices

Throughout our lives, below the level of our consciousness, each of us develops values, intuitions, expectations, and needs that powerfully affect both our perceptions and our judgments. Placed in situations in which we feel threatened, or which implicate our values, our brains, relying on those implicitly learned, emotionally weighted, memories, may react automatically, without reflection or the opportunity for reflective interdiction. We can downshift, to primitive, self-protective problem solving techniques. Because these processes operate below the radar of our consciousness, automatic, emotional reaction, rather than thoughtful, reasoned analysis may drive our responses to stressful questions of ethics and professional responsibility

Sources and characteristics of summertime organic aerosol in the Colorado Front Range: perspective from measurements and WRF-Chem modeling

Abstract. The evolution of organic aerosols (OAs) and their precursors in the boundary layer (BL) of the Colorado Front Range during the Front Range Air Pollution and Photochemistry Éxperiment (FRAPPÉ, July–August 2014) was analyzed by in situ measurements and chemical transport modeling. Measurements indicated significant production of secondary OA (SOA), with enhancement ratio of OA with respect to carbon monoxide (CO) reaching 0.085±0.003 µg m−3 ppbv−1. At background mixing ratios of CO, up to  ∼  1.8 µg m−3 background OA was observed, suggesting significant non-combustion contribution to OA in the Front Range. The mean concentration of OA in plumes with a high influence of oil and natural gas (O&G) emissions was  ∼  40 % higher than in urban-influenced plumes. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) confirmed a dominant contribution of secondary, oxygenated OA (OOA) in the boundary layer instead of fresh, hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA). Combinations of primary OA (POA) volatility assumptions, aging of semi-volatile species, and different emission estimates from the O&G sector were used in the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) simulation scenarios. The assumption of semi-volatile POA resulted in greater than a factor of 10 lower POA concentrations compared to PMF-resolved HOA. Including top-down modified O&G emissions resulted in substantially better agreements in modeled ethane, toluene, hydroxyl radical, and ozone compared to measurements in the high-O&G-influenced plumes. By including emissions from the O&G sector using the top-down approach, it was estimated that the O&G sector contributed to  <  5 % of total OA, but up to 38 % of anthropogenic SOA (aSOA) in the region. The best agreement between the measured and simulated median OA was achieved by limiting the extent of biogenic hydrocarbon aging and consequently biogenic SOA (bSOA) production. Despite a lower production of bSOA in this scenario, contribution of bSOA to total SOA remained high at 40–54 %. Future studies aiming at a better emissions characterization of POA and intermediate-volatility organic compounds (IVOCs) from the O&G sector are valuable

Camelot

Camelot, by Alan Jay Lerner, is a musical based on the King Arthur Legend. Presented in April, May, 1976.https://collected.jcu.edu/plays/1071/thumbnail.jp

Law & Lawyering in the Work Place: Building Better Lawyers by Teaching Students to Exercise Critical Judgment as Creative Problem Solver

This article is about the evolution of that course from the earliest planning through its presentation. Hopefully, having the two of us involved in the day-to-day teaching of the course would send the message to our students that collaboration was a positive aspect of the learning and lawyering processes. Additionally, we hoped that the students would see that “academic” and “clinical” faculty are partners in their legal education

Teaching Law And Educating Lawyers: Closing The Gap Through Multidisciplinary Experiential Learning

Interdisciplinary legal education found its roots nearly a century ago, but recently there has been a renewed trend both in the literature and in practice to increase interdisciplinary opportunities in clinical and scholarly activities. In the classroom, proponents have argued that interdisciplinary education is essential to understanding the cultural and social contexts in which legal conflicts arise. Additionally, scholars praise the interdisciplinary model – in both teaching and practice – for its tendency to generate a higher level of thinking from those considering problems from diverse viewpoints. The use of interdisciplinary models also promotes mutual respect between professionals from different disciplines, a working knowledge of the domain of another discipline, enhanced communication through learning both the mechanisms and vocabulary of other professions, and increased understanding another discipline’s “rules, beliefs, and ethical principles.” Finally, creating an interdisciplinary framework can enhance the efficacy of the lawyer’s problem solving efforts through providing a means by which goals, strategies, and unique insights of different “helping professions” can be united in pursuit of a common purpose.The value that interdisciplinary approaches offer is often sharply countered by the challenges it creates. The most common challenges are those created by perceived or actual role boundaries within individual professions and the process of professional socialization that occurs during traditional legal training. Although this first criticism is challenging, it is not impossible to overcome. The second barrier to productive interdisciplinary work is also mutable, and reversing a socialization process that disfavors interdisciplinary experiences should therefore be a primary focus of legal educators. This paper proposes that  interdisciplinary advocacy for children involved in the child welfare system provides an intense experiential learning process, which engages students in a mutually dependent relationship with students from other disciplines and promotes long-term appreciation and facility for interdisciplinary work. It describes this experience in the context of one such clinic, providing a model for the development of future interdisciplinary endeavors

Intravesical rAd-IFNα/Syn3 for Patients With High-Grade, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin-Refractory or Relapsed Non-Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer: A Phase II Randomized Study.

Purpose Many patients with high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) are either refractory to bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) treatment or may experience disease relapse. We assessed the efficacy and safety of recombinant adenovirus interferon alfa with Syn3 (rAd-IFNα/Syn3), a replication-deficient recombinant adenovirus gene transfer vector, for patients with high-grade (HG) BCG-refractory or relapsed NMIBC. Methods In this open-label, multicenter (n = 13), parallel-arm, phase II study ( ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01687244), 43 patients with HG BCG-refractory or relapsed NMIBC received intravesical rAd-IFNα/Syn3 (randomly assigned 1:1 to 1 × 10(11) viral particles (vp)/mL or 3 × 10(11) vp/mL). Patients who responded at months 3, 6, and 9 were retreated at months 4, 7, and 10. The primary end point was 12-month HG recurrence-free survival (RFS). All patients who received at least one dose were included in efficacy and safety analyses. Results Forty patients received rAd-IFNα/Syn3 (1 × 10(11) vp/mL, n = 21; 3 × 10(11) vp/mL, n = 19) between November 5, 2012, and April 8, 2015. Fourteen patients (35.0%; 90% CI, 22.6% to 49.2%) remained free of HG recurrence 12 months after initial treatment. Comparable 12-month HG RFS was noted for both doses. Of these 14 patients, two experienced recurrence at 21 and 28 months, respectively, after treatment initiation, and one died as a result of an upper tract tumor at 17 months without a recurrence. rAd-IFNα/Syn3 was well tolerated; no grade four or five adverse events (AEs) occurred, and no patient discontinued treatment because of an adverse event. The most frequently reported drug-related AEs were micturition urgency (n = 16; 40%), dysuria (n = 16; 40%), fatigue (n = 13; 32.5%), pollakiuria (n = 11; 28%), and hematuria and nocturia (n = 10 each; 25%). Conclusion rAd-IFNα/Syn3 was well tolerated. It demonstrated promising efficacy for patients with HG NMIBC after BCG therapy who were unable or unwilling to undergo radical cystectomy

Minimum-Uncertainty Angular Wave Packets and Quantized Mean Values

Uncertainty relations between a bounded coordinate operator and a conjugate momentum operator frequently appear in quantum mechanics. We prove that physically reasonable minimum-uncertainty solutions to such relations have quantized expectation values of the conjugate momentum. This implies, for example, that the mean angular momentum is quantized for any minimum-uncertainty state obtained from any uncertainty relation involving the angular-momentum operator and a conjugate coordinate. Experiments specifically seeking to create minimum-uncertainty states localized in angular coordinates therefore must produce packets with integer angular momentum.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review

DNA damage and cell cycle events implicate cerebellar dentate nucleus neurons as targets of Alzheimer's disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although the cerebellum is considered to be predominantly involved in fine motor control, emerging evidence documents its participation in language, impulsive behavior and higher cognitive functions. While the specific connections of the cerebellar deep nuclei (CDN) that are responsible for these functions are still being worked out, their deficiency has been termed "cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome" - a syndrome that bears a striking similarity to many of the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Using ectopic cell cycle events and DNA damage markers as indexes of cellular distress, we have explored the neuropathological involvement of the CDN in human AD.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We examined the human cerebellar dentate nucleus in 22 AD cases and 19 controls for the presence of neuronal cell cycle events and DNA damage using immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Both techniques revealed several instances of highly significant correlations. By contrast, neither amyloid plaque nor neurofibrillary tangle pathology was detected in this region, consistent with previous reports of human cerebellar pathology. Five cases of early stage AD were examined and while cell cycle and DNA damage markers were well advanced in the hippocampus of all five, few indicators of either cell cycle events (1 case) or a DNA damage response (1 case) were found in CDN. This implies that CDN neurons are most likely affected later in the course of AD. Clinical-pathological correlations revealed that cases with moderate to high levels of cell cycle activity in their CDN are highly likely to show deficits in unorthodox cerebellar functions including speech, language and motor planning.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results reveal that the CDN neurons are under cellular stress in AD and suggest that some of the non-motor symptoms found in patients with AD may be partly cerebellar in origin.</p