Salomon Redux: The Moralities of Business

In this Essay, we revisit the Salomon case and its related litigation not only from a legal standpoint but also from a broader moral perspective. 4 In the second Part, we offer a detailed context for and account of the Salomon litigation. The third Part focuses on the historical roots of the corporation and the judicial arguments in Salomon. In the fourth Part, we explore the moral and legal consequences of the Salomon decision. Throughout the Essay, our ambition will be not only to give the Salomon case a more contextual and richer spin but also to tackle the relationship between legal principles and moral obligations in the commercial world. Taking our cue from Ambrose Bierce, we explore whether the corporation is merely “[a]n ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility,” or whether it can be appreciated as something in which individual responsibility and profit-making can be combined

Salomon Redux: The Moralities of Business

In this Essay, we revisit the Salomon case and its related litigation not only from a legal standpoint but also from a broader moral perspective. 4 In the second Part, we offer a detailed context for and account of the Salomon litigation. The third Part focuses on the historical roots of the corporation and the judicial arguments in Salomon. In the fourth Part, we explore the moral and legal consequences of the Salomon decision. Throughout the Essay, our ambition will be not only to give the Salomon case a more contextual and richer spin but also to tackle the relationship between legal principles and moral obligations in the commercial world. Taking our cue from Ambrose Bierce, we explore whether the corporation is merely “[a]n ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility,” or whether it can be appreciated as something in which individual responsibility and profit-making can be combined

Improvement of rat islet viability during transplantation: validation of pharmacological approach to induce VEGF overexpression:

Delayed and insufficient revascularization during islet transplantation deprives islets of oxygen and nutrients, resulting in graft failure. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) could play a critical role in islet revascularization. We aimed to develop pharmacological strategies for VEGF overexpression in pancreatic islets using the iron chelator deferoxamine (DFO), thus avoiding obstacles or safety risks associated with gene therapy. Rat pancreatic islets were infected in vivo using an adenovirus (ADE) encoding human VEGF gene (4.10(8) pfu/pancreas) or were incubated in the presence of DFO (10 mumol/L). In vitro viability, functionality, and the secretion of VEGF were evaluated in islets 1 and 3 days after treatment. Infected islets or islets incubated with DFO were transplanted into the liver of syngenic diabetic rats and the graft efficiency was estimated in vivo by measuring body weight, glycemia, C-peptide secretion, and animal survival over a period of 2 months. DFO induced transient VEGF overexpression over 3 days, whereas infection with ADE resulted in prolonged VEGF overexpression lasting 14 days; however, this was toxic and decreased islet viability and functionality. The in vivo study showed a decrease in rat deaths after the transplantation of islets treated with DFO or ADE compared with the sham and control group. ADE treatment improved body weight and C-peptide levels. Gene therapy and DFO improved metabolic control in diabetic rats after transplantation, but this effect was limited in the presence of DFO. The pharmacological approach is an interesting strategy for improving graft efficiency during transplantation, but this approach needs to be improved with drugs that are more specific

Prognostic role of p27Kip1 and apoptosis in human breast cancer

Human breast carcinoma is biologically heterogeneous, and its clinical course may vary from an indolent slowly progressive one to a course associated with rapid progression and metastatic spread. It is important to establish prognostic factors which will define subgroups of patients with low vs high risk of recurrence so as to better define the need for additional therapy. Additional characterization of the molecular make-up of breast cancer phenotypes should provide important insights into the biology of breast cancer. In the present study, we investigated apoptosis, expression of p27Kip1 and p53 retrospectively in 181 human breast cancer specimens. In addition, their relevance to the biological behaviour of breast cancer was examined. Our studies found a significant association among high histological grade, high p53, low apoptosis and low p27. Our results also demonstrated that, in human breast cancer, low levels of p27 and apoptotic index (AI) strongly correlated with the presence of lymph node metastasis and decreased patient survival. In node-negative patients, however, p27 also had prognostic value for relapse-free and overall survival in multivariate analysis. Furthermore p27 and AI had predictive value for the benefits of chemotherapy. These latter observations should prompt prospective randomized studies designed to investigate the predictive role of p27 and AI in determining who should receive chemotherapy in node-negative patients. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig

Always on My Mind? Recognition of Attractive Faces May Not Depend on Attention

Little research has examined what happens to attention and memory as a whole when humans see someone attractive. Hence, we investigated whether attractive stimuli gather more attention and are better remembered than unattractive stimuli. Participants took part in an attention task – in which matrices containing attractive and unattractive male naturalistic photographs were presented to 54 females, and measures of eye-gaze location and fixation duration using an eye-tracker were taken – followed by a recognition task. Eye-gaze was higher for the attractive stimuli compared to unattractive stimuli. Also, attractive photographs produced more hits and false recognitions than unattractive photographs which may indicate that regardless of attention allocation, attractive photographs produce more correct but also more false recognitions. We present an evolutionary explanation for this, as attending to more attractive faces but not always remembering them accurately and differentially compared with unseen attractive faces, may help females secure mates with higher reproductive value

The seeds of divergence: the economy of French North America, 1688 to 1760

Generally, Canada has been ignored in the literature on the colonial origins of divergence with most of the attention going to the United States. Late nineteenth century estimates of income per capita show that Canada was relatively poorer than the United States and that within Canada, the French and Catholic population of Quebec was considerably poorer. Was this gap long standing? Some evidence has been advanced for earlier periods, but it is quite limited and not well-suited for comparison with other societies. This thesis aims to contribute both to Canadian economic history and to comparative work on inequality across nations during the early modern period. With the use of novel prices and wages from Quebec—which was then the largest settlement in Canada and under French rule—a price index, a series of real wages and a measurement of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are constructed. They are used to shed light both on the course of economic development until the French were defeated by the British in 1760 and on standards of living in that colony relative to the mother country, France, as well as the American colonies. The work is divided into three components. The first component relates to the construction of a price index. The absence of such an index has been a thorn in the side of Canadian historians as it has limited the ability of historians to obtain real values of wages, output and living standards. This index shows that prices did not follow any trend and remained at a stable level. However, there were episodes of wide swings—mostly due to wars and the monetary experiment of playing card money. The creation of this index lays the foundation of the next component. The second component constructs a standardized real wage series in the form of welfare ratios (a consumption basket divided by nominal wage rate multiplied by length of work year) to compare Canada with France, England and Colonial America. Two measures are derived. The first relies on a “bare bones” definition of consumption with a large share of land-intensive goods. This measure indicates that Canada was poorer than England and Colonial America and not appreciably richer than France. However, this measure overestimates the relative position of Canada to the Old World because of the strong presence of land-intensive goods. A second measure is created using a “respectable” definition of consumption in which the basket includes a larger share of manufactured goods and capital-intensive goods. This second basket better reflects differences in living standards since the abundance of land in Canada (and Colonial America) made it easy to achieve bare subsistence, but the scarcity of capital and skilled labor made the consumption of luxuries and manufactured goods (clothing, lighting, imported goods) highly expensive. With this measure, the advantage of New France over France evaporates and turns slightly negative. In comparison with Britain and Colonial America, the gap widens appreciably. This element is the most important for future research. By showing a reversal because of a shift to a different type of basket, it shows that Old World and New World comparisons are very sensitive to how we measure the cost of living. Furthermore, there are no sustained improvements in living standards over the period regardless of the measure used. Gaps in living standards observed later in the nineteenth century existed as far back as the seventeenth century. In a wider American perspective that includes the Spanish colonies, Canada fares better. The third component computes a new series for Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is to avoid problems associated with using real wages in the form of welfare ratios which assume a constant labor supply. This assumption is hard to defend in the case of Colonial Canada as there were many signs of increasing industriousness during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The GDP series suggest no long-run trend in living standards (from 1688 to circa 1765). The long peace era of 1713 to 1740 was marked by modest economic growth which offset a steady decline that had started in 1688, but by 1760 (as a result of constant warfare) living standards had sunk below their 1688 levels. These developments are accompanied by observations that suggest that other indicators of living standard declined. The flat-lining of incomes is accompanied by substantial increases in the amount of time worked, rising mortality and rising infant mortality. In addition, comparisons of incomes with the American colonies confirm the results obtained with wages— Canada was considerably poorer. At the end, a long conclusion is provides an exploratory discussion of why Canada would have diverged early on. In structural terms, it is argued that the French colony was plagued by the problem of a small population which prohibited the existence of scale effects. In combination with the fact that it was dispersed throughout the territory, the small population of New France limited the scope for specialization and economies of scale. However, this problem was in part created, and in part aggravated, by institutional factors like seigneurial tenure. The colonial origins of French America’s divergence from the rest of North America are thus partly institutional

Optimization of pancreatic islets revascularization after transplantation,pharmacological approach or gene therapy?

Une revascularisation rapide et efficace des îlots pancréatiques au cours de la transplantation est essentielle pour la survie et la fonctionnalité du greffon à long terme. Le Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), un puissant facteur de croissance vasculaire, pourrait être un facteur clé dans la modulation de la revascularisation des îlots après la transplantation. Le but de ce travail était d'étudier l'effet de l'infection adénovirale ou de la déferoxamine (DFO), un chélateur du fer, sur la viabilité, la fonctionnalité et l'expression du VEGF sur les cellules b et les îlots pancréatiques in vitro et sur la revascularisation des îlots et le contrôle métabolique de rats diabétiques après transplantation. In vitro, la DFO et l'infection adénovirale induisent une surexpression du VEGF qui dure respectivement 3 et 14 jours. La DFO pour une concentration de 10 mol/L'permet une préservation de la viabilité, une stimulation de la fonctionnalité et est anti-apoptotique sur les cellules b et les îlots pancréatiques. Par contre, l'infection adénovirale est pro-apoptotique et induit une diminution de la fonctionnalité et de l'expression de l'ARNm de l'insuline dans les cellules b et les îlots pancréatiques. Finalement, l'étude in vivo confirment les données in vitro, montrant une stimulation de la revascularisation des îlots et une amélioration du contrôle métabolique chez le rat diabétique pour une pré-incubation des îlots pendant 3 jours en présence de DFO. De même, l'étude in vivo confirme l'effet délétère de l'infection adénovirale sur le contrôle métabolique par rapport à une transplantation classique malgré une stimulation de la revascularisation. En conclusion, l'approche pharmacologique de surexpression du VEGF par la DFO semble être un outil plus prometteur qu une infection adénovirale du gène du VEGF pour améliorer la viabilité du greffon après transplantation.Rapid and adequate revascularisation of transplanted islets is important for islet survival and function during transplantation.Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), a major angiogenic growth factor, may be a key factor in modulating the revascularization of islets after transplantation. The aim of this work was to study the effect of adenoviral infection or deferoxamine (DFO), an iron chelator, on b cells and pancreatic islets viability, functionality and VEGF expression in vitro and on islets revascularisation and on metabolic control of diabetics rats after transplantation. In vitro, DFO and adenoviral infection induce VEGF overexpression during respectively 3 and 14 days. DFO, for a concentration of 10 mol/L, allows a preservation of b cells and pancreatic islets viability, a stimulation of functionality and present an anti-apoptotic effect. Adenoviral infection is pro-apoptotique and induces a reduction of functionality and expression of insulin mRNA in b cells and islets. Finally, the in vivo study confirms the in vitro data, showing a stimulation of islets revascularization and an improvement of metabolic control of diabetics rats for a pre-incubation of islets during 3 days in the presence of DFO. Also, the in vivo study confirms the deleterious effect of adenoviral infection on metabolic control in comparison with a classical transplantation, despite a stimulation of islets revascularisation. In conclusion, the pharmacological approach of VEGF overexpression using DFO seemed more promising to improve islets vascularization after transplantation than adenoviral infection with human VEGF 165 gene