The Case for For-Profit Charities

Nonprofit firms may not distribute profits to owners but instead must retain them or reinvest them. Nonprofits that are charitable organizations under § 501(c)(3) of the tax code may receive donations from individuals who are allowed to deduct their donations from their income for tax purposes. We argue that the law should not link tax benefits to corporate form in this way. There may be good arguments for recognizing the nonprofit form and good arguments for providing tax subsidies to charities or donors to charities, but there is no good argument for making those tax subsidies available only to charities that adopt the nonprofit form. Consequently, the for-profit charity may well be a desirable institution. Currently, no such entity exists, but the reason is surely discriminatory tax treatment; the charitable activities of many commercial firms suggest that in the absence of discriminatory tax treatment for-profit charities would flourish. Current tax benefits for charitable nonprofits should be extended to for-profit charities, and to the charitable activities of for-profit commercial firms

Does Accuracy Improve the Information Value of Trials?

We develop a model where products liability trials provide information to consumers who are not parties to the litigation. Consumers use this information to take precautions against dangerous products. A critical assumption is that consumers cannot differentiate between firms that have never been sued and firms that have been sued but settled out of court. In this framework, we show that perfectly accurate courts do not maximize information to consumers and thus welfare, contrary to Kaplow and Shavell (1994). More accurate courts provide more information only if producers go to trial. Greater accuracy, however, encourages producers of dangerous products to settle and hide their type. When courts are perfectly accurate, all low quality producers settle. And given the lack of any information from trials about bad types, consumers (rationally) fail to take precautions. If consumer precautions are relatively more efficient than producer precautions, our conclusion stands even when firms can invest in improving the safety of their products.

The Political Economy of Property Exemption Laws

Exemption laws enable people who default on loans to protect certain assets from liquidation. Every state has its own set of exemption laws, and they vary widely. The 1978 federal bankruptcy law contains a set of national exemptions, which debtors in bankruptcy are permitted to use instead of their state\u27s exemptions unless the state has formally opted out of the federal system. We contend that states\u27 decisions to opt out shed light on their exemption levels. We find that states are more likely to opt out if their state exemption is lower than the federal exemption and that states are more likely to opt out if they also have a high bankruptcy filing rate and transfer little money to the poor. These latter findings suggest that studies that examine the impact of exemptions on, for example, the bankruptcy rate should not treat exemption levels as exogenous variables

Relapsing cytomegalovirus infection in solid organ transplant recipients

Efforts to prevent relapsed cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease among solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients present clinical challenges. Historically, SOT recipients treated with short courses of ganciclovir, without documented clearance of viremia, had relapse rates of 23–33%. Current treatment often includes much longer courses of valganciclovir, and persistence of viremia at the end of treatment is rare. We sought to determine the rate and risk factors for relapse under those treatment conditions. Records of 1760 SOT recipients from January 2003 to June 2007 were reviewed; 105 cases of CMV viremia were identified. Relapse occurred in 20/105 (19%); 50% had end-organ disease at the time of relapse. Most patients received approximately 3 months of valganciclovir. Clearance of viremia was documented in 19/20 patients with relapse. Multivariable analysis identified receipt of a thoracic organ and diabetes mellitus as risk factors for relapse. Despite long treatment courses with valganciclovir and documented clearance of viremia, CMV relapse remains common among SOT recipients. Better understanding of the epidemiology of CMV among SOT recipients and validation of risk factors for disease relapse should be the focus of future prospective trials. Such trials should include different treatment durations and extended monitoring for relapse.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73013/1/j.1399-3062.2009.00443.x.pd

A Gray-Level Dynamic Range Modification Technique for Image Feature Extraction Using Fuzzy Membership Function

The features of an image must be unique so it is necessary to use certain techniques to ensure them. One of the common techniques is to modify the gray dynamic range of an image. In principle, the gray level dynamic range modification maps the gray level ranges from the input image to the new gray level range as an output image using a specific function. Fuzzy Membership Function (MF) is one kind of membership function that applies the Fuzzy Logic concept. This study uses Trapezoidal MF to map the gray dynamic range of each RGB component to produce a feature of an RGB image. The aim of this study is how to ensure the uniqueness of image features through the setting of Trapezoidal MF parameters to obtain the new dynamic range of gray levels that minimize the possibility of other features other than the selected feature. To test the performance of the proposed method, it also tries to be applied to the signature image. Mean Absolute Error (MAE) calculations between feature labels are performed to test authentication between signatures. The results obtained are for comparison of samples of signature images derived from the same source having a much smaller MAE than the comparison of samples of signature images originating from different sources

EFFECTS OF AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF GLYCYRRHIZA GLABRA LINN. AND DIOSMETIN ON MODULATION OF SPATIAL MEMORY THROUGH ACETYLCHOLINESTERASE AND BRAIN-DERIVED NEUROTROPHIC FACTOR IN ETHANOL-INDUCED COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT MODEL RATS

Objective: The objective of this research was to evaluate the cognitive impairment due to excessive consumption of alcohol and memory enhancement action of Glycyrrhiza glabra Linn. (AEGGL) and diosmetin (Dm). Methods: In this study, 36 adult male Wistar rats were divided into the six groups (n=6) and eight-arm radial maze, narrow beam test, and open field behavior parameters were assessed on day 1, 10, and 21. After the 21 days of experiment, animals were sacrificed, and blood samples were collected for serum acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) estimation. We have also analyzed the morphology of CA3 region of the hippocampus. Results: The results of this study suggested that AEGGL and Dm treatment could be the potential drugs for ethanol-induced cognitive impairment. Conclusion: Ethanol-induced cognitive impairment was recovered by AEGGL and Dm treatment, we suggested that this might be due to anticholinesterase activity and increased synthesis of BDNF levels in the brain. Further, researches are warranted to understand the exact mechanism of action of drugs

Surgical Infection Prophylaxis for Left Ventricular Assist Device Implantation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86804/1/j.1540-8191.2011.01262.x.pd

Risk Factors for Arthralgias or Myalgias Associated with Quinupristin‐Dalfopristin Therapy

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90134/1/phco.23.2.159.32078.pd

Issues Faced in a Remote Instrumentation Laboratory

An Online Lab is a multi-university shared laboratory environment, where students can exercise their knowledge as they would do in a physical lab. The idea is to have maximum resource utilization and collaboration between universities by sharing of ideas. This kind of remote laboratory negates the economic issues to set up a laboratory and allows every student to have an experience of real laboratory. As part of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) Robotics Lab project a study on state of art of remote labs was conducted. This paper discusses some key issues in the design and operation of such remote labs. The lab should be remotely usable by a large student body, with varied levels of sophistication, all the way from elementary learners, to PhD students doing research. In addition, the high design load implies that the architecture should be highly parallel, and structurally reliable