5 Seventy-five years ago, the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg and the "subsequent proceedings" addressed the age-old service member's defense: the defense of superior orders. The ...article then leaps forward to a contemporary analysis of the defense of superior orders in U.S. law and provides practical recommendations for judge advocates (JAs) to train their formations.6 From 1914 until 1944, U.S. Service members could assert the defense of superior orders as a complete defense to a crime so long as they could demonstrate they acted in accordance with superior orders.7 Alongside the other milestones of the Nuremberg trials, such as individual responsibility for violations of jus cogens8 and war crimes, the IMT and "subsequent proceedings" addressed the defense of superior orders, navigated the assertion of the defense, and established a standard that endures to today. The International Military Tribunal and The London Charter Before victory, the Allied Powers publicly expressed their intention to hold their adversaries accountable for their violations of the law of armed conflict (LOAC).9 World War II (WWII) atrocities such as the Holocaust, Malmedy Massacre, and many more demonstrated the propensity of opposing forces to commit evil acts against service members and civilians during armed conflict. The Nuremberg IMT judges did not excuse any of the twenty-one Nuremberg defendants' crimes based upon the defense of superior orders.14 The judgment at Nuremberg IMT appeared to contain a persuasive precedent of strict application of Article 8 and, therefore, only permitted evidence concerning obedience to orders as possible mitigation in sentencing.15 What may be more significant and offer a more profound legacy, however, are the subsequent proceedings convened under Control Council No. 10 and the two trials that occurred under that U.S. law.
Peptide nucleic acid fluorescence in situ hybridization (PNA FISH) is a molecular diagnostic tool for the rapid detection of pathogens directly from liquid media. The aim of this study was to ...prospectively evaluate PNA FISH assays in comparison with culture-based matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) identification, as a reference method, for both blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cultures, during a 1-year investigation. On the basis of the Gram stain microscopy results, four different PNA FISH commercially available assays were used (‘Staphylococcus aureus/CNS’, ‘Enterococcus faecalis/OE’, ‘GNR Traffic Light’ and ‘Yeasts Traffic Light’ PNA FISH assays, AdvanDx). The four PNA FISH assays were applied to 956 positive blood cultures (921 for bacteria and 35 for yeasts) and 11 CSF cultures. Among the 921 blood samples positive for bacteria, PNA FISH gave concordant results with MALDI-TOF MS in 908/921 (98.64%) samples, showing an agreement of 99.4% in the case of monomicrobial infections. As regards yeasts, the PNA FISH assay showed a 100% agreement with the result obtained by MALDI-TOF MS. When PNA FISH assays were tested on the 11 CSF cultures, the results agreed with the reference method in all cases (100%). PNA FISH assays provided species identification at least one work-day before the MALDI-TOF MS culture-based identification. PNA FISH assays showed an excellent efficacy in the prompt identification of main pathogens, yielding a significant reduction in reporting time and leading to more appropriate patient management and therapy in cases of sepsis and severe infections.
Background: This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) detection in advanced breast cancer patients. Patients and methods: We tested 80 patients for ...CTC levels before starting a new treatment and after 4, 8 weeks, at the first clinical evaluation and every 2 months thereafter. CTCs were detected using the CellSearch System™. Results: Forty-nine patients had ≥5 CTCs at baseline. At the multivariate analysis, baseline number of CTCs was significantly associated with progression-free survival hazard ratio (HR) 2.5; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2–5.4. The risk of progression for patients with CTCs ≥5 at last available blood draw was five times the risk of patients with 0–4 CTCs at the same time point (HR 5.3; 95% CI 2.8–10.4). Patients with rising or persistent ≥5 CTCs at last available blood draw showed a statistically significant higher risk of progression with respect to patients with <5 CTCs at both blood draws (HR 6.4; 95% CI 2.8–14.6). Conclusion: CTCs basal value is a predictive indicator of prognosis and changes in CTC levels during therapy may indicate a clinical response. Testing CTC levels during targeted treatments might substitute other measurement parameters for response evaluation.
The study investigated the genetic diversity of human astroviruses (HAstVs) detected in children hospitalized with gastroenteritis in Italy in 2008–2009. A total of 1321 faecal samples were collected ...in Parma (northern Italy), Bari (southern Italy), and Palermo (Sicily) and screened for the presence of HAstVs. RT–PCR amplification of a portion at the 5′-end of ORF2 allowed the detection of HAstVs in 3·95% of the patients. Four different genotypes (HAstV-1, HAstV-2, HAstV-4, HAstV-5) were found to be circulating during the study period, with HAstV-1 being the predominant type. Interestingly, a novel lineage, proposed as HAstV-2d, was found to have emerged in Parma in 2009. Investigating the genetic variability of HAstVs will be important for understanding the epidemiological trends and evolution of these viruses.
Surveillance of noroviruses in Italy identified the novel GII.17 human norovirus strain, Kawasaki 2014, in February 2015. This novel strain emerged as a major cause of gastroenteritis in Asia during ...2014/15, replacing the pandemic GII.4 norovirus strain Sydney 2012, but being reported only sporadically elsewhere. This novel strain is undergoing fast diversification and continuous monitoring is important to understand the evolution of noroviruses and to implement the future strategies on norovirus vaccines.
Abstract Global surveillance for norovirus identified in 2012 the emergence of a novel pandemic GII.4 variant, termed Sydney 2012. In Italy, the novel pandemic variant was identified as early as ...November 2011 but became predominant only in the winter season 2012–2013. Upon sequencing and comparison with strains of global origin, the early Sydney 2012 strains were found to differ from those spreading in 2012–2013 in the capsid (ORF2) putative epitopes B, C and D, segregating into a distinct phylogenetic clade. At least three residues (333, 340 and 393, in epitopes B, C and D, respectively) of the VP1 varied among Sydney 2012 strains of different clades. These findings suggest that the spread of the pandemic variant in Italy during the winter season 2012–2013 was due to the introduction of strains distinct from those circulating at low frequency in the former winter season and that similar strains were also circulating elsewhere worldwide.
PDF
