Wrongful life claims and negligent selection of gametes or embryos in infertility treatments: a quest for coherence.

This article discusses an anomaly in the English law of reproductive liability: that is, an inconsistency between the law's approach to wrongful life claims and its approach to cases of negligent selection of gametes or embryos in infertility treatments (the selection cases). The article begins with an account of the legal position, which brings into view the relevant inconsistency: while the law treats wrongful life claims as non-actionable, it recognises a cause of action in the selection cases, although the selection cases bear a relevant resemblance to wrongful life claims. The article then considers arguments that may be invoked in an attempt to reconcile the above two strands of the law. Three of these counterarguments consist in attempts to distinguish the selection cases from wrongful life claims. It is argued that these attempts fail to reveal a valid basis for treating these situations differently. A fourth possible counterargument levels against the present analysis a charge of reductio ad absurdum. It is shown that this argument suffers from a fundamental flaw caused by confusion between different senses of the term "identity". Finally, the article discusses possible changes to the legal position that could rectify the problem. It argues that one of these changes, which focuses on legal redress for violation of personal autonomy, is particularly apt to resolve the problem at hand, but also highlights the need for further inquiry into the broader implications of introducing this form of redress into the law of torts

Faster Family-wise Error Control for Neuroimaging with a Parametric Bootstrap

In neuroimaging, hundreds to hundreds of thousands of tests are performed across a set of brain regions or all locations in an image. Recent studies have shown that the most common family-wise error (FWE) controlling procedures in imaging, which rely on classical mathematical inequalities or Gaussian random field theory, yield FWE rates that are far from the nominal level. Depending on the approach used, the FWER can be exceedingly small or grossly inflated. Given the widespread use of neuroimaging as a tool for understanding neurological and psychiatric disorders, it is imperative that reliable multiple testing procedures are available. To our knowledge, only permutation joint testing procedures have been shown to reliably control the FWER at the nominal level. However, these procedures are computationally intensive due to the increasingly available large sample sizes and dimensionality of the images, and analyses can take days to complete. Here, we develop a parametric bootstrap joint testing procedure. The parametric bootstrap procedure works directly with the test statistics, which leads to much faster estimation of adjusted \emph{p}-values than resampling-based procedures while reliably controlling the FWER in sample sizes available in many neuroimaging studies. We demonstrate that the procedure controls the FWER in finite samples using simulations, and present region- and voxel-wise analyses to test for sex differences in developmental trajectories of cerebral blood flow

Kepler Studies of Low-Mass Eclipsing Binaries I. Parameters of the Long-Period Binary KIC 6131659

KIC 6131659 is a long-period (17.5 days) eclipsing binary discovered by the Kepler mission. We analyzed six quarters of Kepler data along with supporting ground-based photometric and spectroscopic data to obtain accurate values for the mass and radius of both stars, namely M_1=0.922 +/- 0.007 M_sun, R_1=0.8800 +/- 0.0028 R_sun, and M_2=0.685 +/- 0.005 M_sun, R_2=0.6395 +/- 0.0061 R_sun. There is a well-known issue with low mass (M <<0.8 M_sun) stars (in cases where the mass and radius measurement uncertainties are smaller than two or three percent) where the measured radii are almost always 5 to 15 percent larger than expected from evolutionary models, i.e. the measured radii are all above the model isochrones in a mass-radius plane. In contrast, the two stars in KIC 6131659 were found to sit on the same theoretical isochrone in the mass-radius plane. Until recently, all of the well-studied eclipsing binaries with low-mass stars had periods less than about three days. The stars in such systems may have been inflated by high levels of stellar activity induced by tidal effects in these close binaries. KIC 6131659 shows essentially no evidence of enhanced stellar activity, and our measurements support the hypothesis that the unusual mass-radius relationship observed in most low-mass stars is influenced by strong magnetic activity created by the rapid rotation of the stars in tidally-locked, short-period systems. Finally, using short cadence data, we show that KIC 6131657 has one of the smallest measured non-zero eccentricities of a binary with two main sequence stars, where e cos omega=(4.57 +/-0.02)*10^-5

Legal Rules as a Bias-Counteracting Device

In this paper, I argue that one of the key aspects of law’s conduct-guiding role is to serve as a corrective device against several systematic biases present in the settings of activity that law typically regulates. Following a few preliminary remarks (Section 1), I home in on the relevant problems of bounded rationality, drawing, inter alia, on empirical literature in psychology (Section 2). I highlight several systematic biases and explain how law is structurally suited to counteract some of their instantiations in social life. I discuss several doubts emerging from the fallibility of law and from the prospect of debiasing oneself of one’s own accord (Subsection 2.2. and Section 3). Finally , I consider some of the implications of my claim (Section 4)

The Higher Spin/Vector Model Duality

This paper is mainly a review of the dualities between Vasiliev's higher spin gauge theories in AdS4 and three dimensional large N vector models, with focus on the holographic calculation of correlation functions of higher spin currents. We also present some new results in the computation of parity odd structures in the three point functions in parity violating Vasiliev theories.Comment: 55 pages, 1 figure. Contribution to J. Phys. A special volume on "Higher Spin Theories and AdS/CFT" edited by M. R. Gaberdiel and M. Vasiliev. v2: references adde

CAD in mammography: lesion-level versus case-level analysis of the effects of prompts on human decisions

Object: To understand decision processes in CAD-supported breast screening by analysing how prompts affect readers’ judgements of individual mammographic features (lesions). To this end we analysed hitherto unexamined details of reports completed by mammogram readers in an earlier evaluation of a CAD tool. Material and methods: Assessments of lesions were extracted from 5,839 reports for 59 cancer cases. Statistical analyses of these data focused on what features readers considered when recalling a cancer case and how readers reacted to CAD prompts. Results: About 13.5% of recall decisions were found to be caused by responses to features other than those indicating actual cancer. Effects of CAD: lesions were more likely to be examined if prompted; the presence of a prompt on a cancer increased the probability of both detection and recall especially for less accurate readers in subtler cases; lack of prompts made cancer features less likely to be detected; false prompts made non-cancer features more likely to be classified as cancer. Conclusion: The apparent lack of impact reported for CAD in some studies is plausibly due to CAD systematically affecting readers’ identification of individual features, in a beneficial way for certain combinations of readers and features and a damaging way for others. Mammogram readers do not ignore prompts. Methodologically, assessing CAD by numbers of recalled cancer cases may be misleading

Short-term efficacy of physical interventions in osteoarthritic knee pain. A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised placebo-controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: Treatment efficacy of physical agents in osteoarthritis of the knee (OAK) pain has been largely unknown, and this systematic review was aimed at assessing their short-term efficacies for pain relief. METHODS: Systematic review with meta-analysis of efficacy within 1-4 weeks and at follow up at 1-12 weeks after the end of treatment. RESULTS: 36 randomised placebo-controlled trials (RCTs) were identified with 2434 patients where 1391 patients received active treatment. 33 trials satisfied three or more out of five methodological criteria (Jadad scale). The patient sample had a mean age of 65.1 years and mean baseline pain of 62.9 mm on a 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS). Within 4 weeks of the commencement of treatment manual acupuncture, static magnets and ultrasound therapies did not offer statistically significant short-term pain relief over placebo. Pulsed electromagnetic fields offered a small reduction in pain of 6.9 mm [95% CI: 2.2 to 11.6] (n = 487). Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS, including interferential currents), electro-acupuncture (EA) and low level laser therapy (LLLT) offered clinically relevant pain relieving effects of 18.8 mm [95% CI: 9.6 to 28.1] (n = 414), 21.9 mm [95% CI: 17.3 to 26.5] (n = 73) and 17.7 mm [95% CI: 8.1 to 27.3] (n = 343) on VAS respectively versus placebo control. In a subgroup analysis of trials with assumed optimal doses, short-term efficacy increased to 22.2 mm [95% CI: 18.1 to 26.3] for TENS, and 24.2 mm [95% CI: 17.3 to 31.3] for LLLT on VAS. Follow-up data up to 12 weeks were sparse, but positive effects seemed to persist for at least 4 weeks after the course of LLLT, EA and TENS treatment was stopped. CONCLUSION: TENS, EA and LLLT administered with optimal doses in an intensive 2-4 week treatment regimen, seem to offer clinically relevant short-term pain relief for OAK

Growth rate of Scenedesmus acutus in laboratory cultures exposed to diazinon

The effects of the pesticide, diazinon on growth rate was examined in unialgal cultures of freshwater green algae, Scenedesmus acutus through 96 h acute toxicity tests. S. acutus was exposed to different concentrations of diazinon (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 μl) in the laboratory maintained at 23 ± 1°C and 16:8 light : dark regime. Cell numbers were determined daily and growth rates were calculated for a period of 4 days. The growth rate of S. acutus in the control cultures was higher at 0 to 4 days (40.000 to 276600 individuals), but the growth rate of the treated cultures with diazinon decreased at 2 to 4 days (28000 to 10320 individuals). The results demonstrated adverse effects of diazinon on freshwater green algae (S. acutus). Thus, the application of this pesticide for pest control in agriculture must be done carefully since any disturbance affecting algae with similar or higher sensitivity will have severe repercussions on higher trophic levels.Key words: Acute toxicity, algae, diazinon, growth rate, Scenedesmus acutus