bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Shrinking the Accountability Deficit in Capital Charging
Authors: Thaxton Sherod 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
The price of capital trials, appeals, and clemency proceedings have skyrocketed since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted its moratorium on the death penalty, but this has not translated to more reliable case outcomes—the rate of serious reversible error and wrongful convictions has steadily increased during the same time period. The overly aggressive use of the death penalty by prosecutors has not only been convincingly linked to these high reversal rates, but may also increase crime, decrease the likelihood of arrests for homicides, and lead to heightened risks of miscarriages of justice for non‐capital defendants. It follows that limiting hawkish prosecutorial decision‐making in potentially capital cases may be particularly effective in reducing the prevalence of error and reducing unnecessary expense. Curbing the virtually unfettered discretion of prosecutors is not a new idea, but extant proposals tend to suffer from shortcomings that are likely to render them impractical or ineffective. Any viable legal intervention must increase prosecutorial accountability for inadequate charge‐screening in capital cases while still permitting prosecutors to retain discretion in seeking the death penalty. This essay describes a reform that consists of two primary components: (1) an advisory (i.e., non‐binding) opinion from a reviewing authority assessing the appropriateness of a prosecutor’s decision to seek the death penalty in a case based on the totality of evidence, and (2) financial and administrative cost-shifting mechanisms capable of disincentivizing prosecutorial overreaching in capital charging.
Prosecutors and Trials
Authors: Heinze Alexander 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
This chapter captures the role of the prosecutor or an equivalent authority during the trial phase. The object of the analysis—the trial phase—is generally divided into the following stages: opening stage, presentation of evidence, closing stage, and judgment/sentence. In exceptional cases, the stage of jury selection is added. The perspective of the analysis is twofold: in the first half of the chapter, the prosecutor’s role at these stages is described from a normative perspective. Here, the stages mentioned are broken down into selected prosecutorial measures and procedural facets in various legal systems and procedural models. The legal systems and procedural models analyzed have been chosen to represent either the common law tradition (the United States, England, and Wales) or civil law tradition (Germany and France). In the second part of the chapter, the prosecutor’s role is analyzed from an ethical perspective. It displays both the features and normative foundations of prosecutorial ethics and describes certain types of prosecutorial misconduct that may occur in the previously mentioned stages of a trial. The findings and observations of the chapter are combined in a conclusion at the end of the chapter. Upon identifying the multiple roles of the prosecutor at trial, the chapter proves that prosecutorial work at trial is influenced by two role-related factors: role duality and role ambiguity.
Prosecutors Post-Conviction
Authors: Garrett Brandon L. 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
In recent years, the involvement of prosecutors in post-conviction proceedings has begun to change from a strictly adversarial to a more investigative and remedial posture. Particularly in the United States, prosecutors’ offices have taken the affirmative responsibility to conduct post-conviction investigations of closed cases. A growing number of exonerations occur because prosecutors themselves agree to review new evidence of innocence or locate it themselves. Prosecutors have created specialized conviction integrity units tasked with reviewing such cold cases. They have created units to conduct other types of audits and reviews to investigate systemic issues, including regarding forensic evidence and police misconduct. They have even, in some offices, conducted investigations of their own conduct. Although most offices may follow a traditional model in which work largely consists in defending final convictions, there has been a notable trend towards experimentation with reconception of the post-conviction role of prosecutors. This chapter describes each of those changes and describes their implications for post-conviction criminal procedure.
Socioeconomic Inequalities and Digital Skills
Authors: Dodel Matías 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
This article discusses the links between socioeconomic inequalities and digital skills, understood here as the digital abilities, competences, and knowledge critical to participate fully in contemporary societies. The article starts by discussing what digital skills are and how they have been conceptualized in the literature. The article then describes digital skills’ roles in shaping and being shaped by socioeconomic inequalities such as age; gender; education; race, ethnicity, and sensorial disabilities–based disparities; and material access to the internet. Afterward, a summary of the evidence concerning how digital skills mediate the impact of structural disparities in tangible outcomes is presented, describing issues such as educational and occupational outcomes, subjective well-being, capital-enhancing consequences of internet use, and online safety and privacy. Finally, the article summarizes the key findings and outlines directions for future research on digital skills and socioeconomic inequalities, signaling the need to improve the measurement of digital skills and the scarce assessment of which policies work to foster and democratize them.
Transnational Food Law
Authors: Canfield Matthew 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Transnational food law is a growing field of practice that has emerged with the globalization of food and agricultural systems. This chapter analyzes the role of food and agriculture as a legally constitutive site of struggle. As both a basic need and an economic commodity, food is an object around which struggles over the organization of markets, the authority of legal institutions, and the regulation of powerful actors have consistently fomented. After surveying the role of agrarian struggles in shaping early international law, this chapter analyzes the contentious regulatory space of transnational food security governance. It argues that contemporary governance is shaped by competing paradigms—a “productivist” and “food sovereignty” paradigm—which transnational actors struggle to translate across a variety of regulatory institutions, arenas, and processes. This chapter thereby demonstrates how food and agricultural governance remain a critical space of struggle over the democratic and regulatory possibilities of global governance.
The Standardization of Oil and Gas Law: Transnational Layers of Governance
Authors: Saidov Djakhongir 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
This chapter investigates the main sources governing international oil and gas operations around the world, with a view to examining whether we are witnessing the emergence of transnational petroleum law (lex petrolea). The chapter explores the nature of governance in the petroleum industry and the extent to which the oil and gas industry is self-governed or governed by the state-made law. It assesses the degree of standardization of governance to determine whether it is so high as to give rise to the emergence of lex petrolea. The main focus is on sources, specific to the oil and gas industry, such as: model contracts, industry usages, standards, and guidelines promulgated by industry organizations and associations. This chapter argues that lex petrolea is not yet a mature legal order. Its sources are best characterized as transnational layers of governance of the international exploration and production operations. As to the relationship between the alleged lex petrolea and the state-made law, it is demonstrated that the two are vitally important to and mutually dependent on each other.
Out of Site: Transnational Legal Culture(s)
Authors: Dedek Helge 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Since the inadequacy of the traditional theoretical frameworks for the study of the “global transformation of modernity” (Beck) was becoming more and more evident in the last decades of the twentieth century, “culture” has figured prominently in many literatures that engage with the post-national condition. Yet in legal academia, despite studying similar phenomena of displacement, fragmentation and hybridization, cultural analysis perspectives have traditionally played a rather marginal role in the discourse on globalization and transnationalization. Although some authors have indeed attempted to operationalize the concept of culture in grappling with effects of legal globalization, the emerging field of “transnational law” never took a significant “cultural turn”. This chapter retraces this disciplinary development and reflects on the use of “culture” in transnational law discourse. While not advocating a more prominent role for the notoriously difficult concept of culture, this brief survey serves as a reminder that the same substantive and theoretical choices that kept transnational law from drawing more heavily on cultural analysis and traditional, “social fact” legal pluralism also may limit its scope and create theoretical blind spots. Not determined by a distinct “body of law” but rather understood as a developing discourse within a discipline in the process of coming into its own, transnational law and its gatekeepers have to decide just how methodologically and substantively inclusive, interdisciplinary, and critical they want it to be.
“Africa Needs Many Lawyers Trained for the Need of Their Peoples”: Struggles over Legal Education in Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana
Authors: Harrington John , Manji Ambreena 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the setting up of university law schools in many African nations led to often bitter battles over the purpose of legal education. The stakes in these struggles were high. Deliberately neglected under colonial rule, legal education was an important focus for the leaders of new states, including Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana. It was also a significant focus for expatriate British scholars and American foundations seeking to shape the development of new universities in Africa. Disputes centered on whether training would have a wholly academic basis and be taught exclusively in the University of Ghana or be provided in addition through a dedicated law school with a more practical ethos. This debate became entangled in a wider confrontation over academic freedom between Nkrumah’s increasing authoritarian government and the university, and indeed in wider political and class struggles in Ghana as a whole. Tensions came to a head in the period between 1962 and 1964 when the American Dean of Law was deported along with other staff over allegations of their seditious intent. This chapter documents these complex struggles, identifying the broader political stakes within them, picking out the main, rival philosophies of legal education which animated them, and relating all of these to the broader historical conjuncture of decolonization. Drawing on a review of archival materials from the time, the chapter shows that debates over legal education had a significance going beyond the confines of the law faculty. They engaged questions of African nationalism, development and social progress, the ambivalent legacy of British rule and the growing influence of the United States in these territories.
Language
Authors: Webb Heather 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Focusing on the stagings of linguistic and personal encounters that emerge in Paradiso, but with the broad context of Dante’s work in mind, this chapter seeks to construct a picture of Dante’s view of language that accounts for a variety of modes of eloquence, from the textual to the emphatically verbal to the depiction of non-verbal communication. The Commedia stages an immense range of encounters and situations in which words and bodies are configured to meet and adapt to the new, performing a plurality of ways of seeing, hearing, reading, and recognizing the individual who speaks, gestures, or otherwise shows themselves as subject. For Dante, this chapter suggests, language communicates and constitutes selves and communities not by virtue of stability but indeed thanks to its ability to constantly transform itself.
James and Peirce
Authors: Tiercelin Claudine 
Published: April 2021

AbstractAfter presenting some parallels between James and Peirce, as regards their views on psychology, truth, ethics, and even realism, some differences between both philosophers are pointed out: whether they favor concrete individuals rather than the community of inquirers, favor life rather than knowledge, take or do not take all aspects of the sceptical challenge seriously, and are committed or not committed to a strong realistic (rather than nominalistic) metaphysics. Such differences, or even oppositions, may have more to do with what they took as decisive in philosophy and, more generally, with their respective conceptions of our ethical priorities.
The mobile SAR signal N-hydroxypipecolic acid induces NPR1-dependent transcriptional reprogramming and immune priming
Authors: Yildiz Ipek , Mantz Melissa , Hartmann Michael , Zeier Tatyana , Kessel Jana , Thurow Corinna , Gatz Christiane , Petzsch Patrick , Köhrer Karl , Zeier Jürgen 
Published: April 2021

AbstractN-hydroxypipecolic acid (NHP) accumulates in the plant foliage in response to a localized microbial attack and induces systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in distant leaf tissue. Previous studies indicated that pathogen inoculation of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) systemically activates SAR-related transcriptional reprogramming and a primed immune status in strict dependence of FLAVIN-DEPENDENT MONOOXYGENASE 1 (FMO1), which mediates the endogenous biosynthesis of NHP. Here, we show that elevations of NHP by exogenous treatment are sufficient to induce a SAR-reminiscent transcriptional response that mobilizes key components of immune surveillance and signal transduction. Exogenous NHP primes Arabidopsis wild-type and NHP-deficient fmo1 plants for a boosted induction of pathogen-triggered defenses, such as the biosynthesis of the stress hormone salicylic acid (SA), accumulation of the phytoalexin camalexin and branched-chain amino acids, as well as expression of defense-related genes. NHP also sensitizes the foliage systemically for enhanced SA-inducible gene expression. NHP-triggered SAR, transcriptional reprogramming, and defense priming are fortified by SA accumulation, and require the function of the transcriptional coregulator NON-EXPRESSOR OF PR GENES1 (NPR1). Our results suggest that NPR1 transduces NHP-activated immune signaling modes with predominantly SA-dependent and minor SA-independent features. They further support the notion that NHP functions as a mobile immune regulator capable of moving independently of active SA signaling between leaves to systemically activate immune responses.
The SvFUL2 transcription factor is required for inflorescence determinacy and timely flowering in Setaria viridis
Authors: Yang Jiani , Bertolini Edoardo , Braud Max , Preciado Jesus , Chepote Adriana , Jiang Hui , Eveland Andrea L 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Inflorescence architecture in cereal crops directly impacts yield potential through regulation of seed number and harvesting ability. Extensive architectural diversity found in inflorescences of grass species is due to spatial and temporal activity and determinacy of meristems, which control the number and arrangement of branches and flowers, and underlie plasticity. Timing of the floral transition is also intimately associated with inflorescence development and architecture, yet little is known about the intersecting pathways and how they are rewired during development. Here, we show that a single mutation in a gene encoding an AP1/FUL-like MADS-box transcription factor significantly delays flowering time and disrupts multiple levels of meristem determinacy in panicles of the C4 model panicoid grass, Setaria viridis. Previous reports of AP1/FUL-like genes in cereals have revealed extensive functional redundancy, and in panicoid grasses, no associated inflorescence phenotypes have been described. In S. viridis, perturbation of SvFul2, both through chemical mutagenesis and gene editing, converted a normally determinate inflorescence habit to an indeterminate one, and also repressed determinacy in axillary branch and floral meristems. Our analysis of gene networks connected to disruption of SvFul2 identified regulatory hubs at the intersection of floral transition and inflorescence determinacy, providing insights into the optimization of cereal crop architecture.
Post-Golgi trafficking of rice storage proteins requires the small GTPase Rab7 activation complex MON1–CCZ1
Authors: Pan Tian , Wang Yihua , Jing Ruonan , Wang Yongfei , Wei Zhongyan , Zhang Binglei , Lei Cailin , Qi Yanzhou , Wang Fan , Bao Xiuhao , Yan Mengyuan , Zhang Yu , Zhang Pengcheng , Yu Mingzhou , Wan Gexing , Chen Yu , Yang Wenkun , Zhu Jianping , Zhu Yun , Zhu Shanshan , Cheng Zhijun , Zhang Xin , Jiang Ling , Ren Yulong , Wan Jianmin 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Protein storage vacuoles (PSVs) are unique organelles that accumulate storage proteins in plant seeds. Although morphological evidence points to the existence of multiple PSV-trafficking pathways for storage protein targeting, the molecular mechanisms that regulate these processes remain mostly unknown. Here, we report the functional characterization of the rice (Oryza sativa) glutelin precursor accumulation7 (gpa7) mutant, which over-accumulates 57-kDa glutelin precursors in dry seeds. Cytological and immunocytochemistry studies revealed that the gpa7 mutant exhibits abnormal accumulation of storage prevacuolar compartment-like structures, accompanied by the partial mistargeting of glutelins to the extracellular space. The gpa7 mutant was altered in the CCZ1 locus, which encodes the rice homolog of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) CALCIUM CAFFEINE ZINC SENSITIVITY1a (CCZ1a) and CCZ1b. Biochemical evidence showed that rice CCZ1 interacts with MONENSIN SENSITIVITY1 (MON1) and that these proteins function together as the Rat brain 5 (Rab5) effector and the Rab7 guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF). Notably, loss of CCZ1 function promoted the endosomal localization of vacuolar protein sorting-associated protein 9 (VPS9), which is the GEF for Rab5 in plants. Together, our results indicate that the MON1–CCZ1 complex is involved in post-Golgi trafficking of rice storage protein through a Rab5- and Rab7-dependent pathway.
All-cause and cause-specific mortality in systemic lupus erythematosus: a population-based study
Authors: Moghaddam Bahar , Marozoff Shelby , Li Lingyi , Sayre Eric C , Zubieta J Antonio Aviña- 
Published: April 2021

Abstract

Objective
To investigate all-cause and cause-specific mortality in SLE patients between two time periods, 1997–2005 and 2006–14.

Methods
We used an administrative health database from the province of British Columbia, Canada to match all incident SLE patients to 10 non-SLE individuals on sex, age and index date. Cohorts were divided into two subgroups, according to diagnosis year: early cohort 1997–2005 and late cohort 2006–14. The outcome was death [all-cause, renal disease, cancer, infection, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and other]. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% CIs were estimated using univariate and multivariable Cox models.

Results
Among 6092 SLE patients and 60 920 non-SLE individuals, there were 451 and 1910 deaths, respectively. The fully adjusted all-cause mortality HR (95% CI) in the overall SLE cohort was 1.85 (1.66, 2.06), with no statistically significant improvement between early and late cohorts [1.95 (1.69, 2.26) vs 1.74 (1.49, 2.04)]. There was excess mortality from renal disease [3.04 (2.29, 4.05)], infections [2.74 (2.19, 3.43)] and CVD [2.05 (1.77, 2.38)], but not cancer [1.18 (0.96, 1.46)], in the overall SLE cohort. There was no statistically significant improvement in cause-specific mortality between early and late cohorts for renal disease [3.57 (2.37, 5.36) vs 2.65 (1.78, 3.93)], infection [2.94 (2.17, 3.98) vs 2.54 (1.84, 3.51)] and CVD [1.95 (1.60, 2.38) vs 2.18 (1.76, 2.71)]. There was no increase in cancer-related mortality in either cohort [1.27 (0.96, 1.69) vs 1.10 (0.82, 1.48)].

Conclusion
This population-based study demonstrates a persisting mortality gap in all-cause and cause-specific deaths in SLE patients, compared with the general population.
Pure red cell aplasia in systemic lupus erythematosus, a nationwide retrospective cohort and review of the literature
Authors: Lobbes Hervé , Mahévas Matthieu , Alviset Sophie , Galicier Lionel , Costedoat-Chalumeau Nathalie , Amoura Zahir , Alric Laurent , Hot Arnaud , Durupt Stéphane , Michel Marc , Godeau Bertrand 
Published: April 2021

Abstract

Objectives
To characterize the clinical and biological course, management and response to treatment in SLE-associated pure red cell aplasia (PRCA).

Methods
This was a nationwide, multicentre, retrospective cohort study. From 2006 to 2018, we included adults with a diagnosis of PRCA supported by bone marrow examination and SLE or biologic manifestations of SLE after ruling out parvovirus B19 infection.

Results
We enrolled 24 patients (20 women). SLE was diagnosed before PRCA for 14 patients (median delay 81 months). At PRCA diagnosis, mean age, haemoglobin level, and reticulocyte and differential erythroblast count were 39.2 (13.2) years, 62 ( 20) g/l, 9.1 (7.6) × 109/l and 2.8 ( 2.5)%, respectively. Eleven (45%) patients experienced multiple PRCA flares (median 6, range 2–11). CS therapy resulted in only three complete sustained responses, and 19 (79%) patients required immunosuppressive agents with highly variable regimens. After a median follow-up of 76 months (range 13–173), 17 (71%) patients showed complete response for PRCA, 5 (21%) partial response and 2 (8%) treatment failure. In total, 21 (87%) patients required red blood cell transfusion; 5 had a diagnosis of transfusion-related iron overload. Eighteen (75%) patients experienced severe infectious events requiring hospitalization.

Conclusion
SLE-associated PRCA is a severe condition. Repeated red blood cell transfusions and several lines of immunosuppressant therapy are mostly required, with high risk of severe infectious events and iron overload. Despite sustained response for PRCA and SLE obtained in most patients, the best therapeutic strategy remains to be determined.