Removal Reform: A Solution for Federal Question Jurisdiction, Forum Shopping, and Duplicative State-Federal Litigation

Federal court procedural, especially jurisdictional ones, need to be governed by clear, effective, and fair rules. Yet twentieth century doctrines and reforms, even when made in the name of pragmatism, have produced decidedly unpragmatic results: a vague and disputed doctrine of federal question jurisdiction that excludes from federal court many cases where federal law controls the outcome, rules that facilitate forum shopping by plaintiffs and make it impossible to predict in advance what law will apply to decide one’s case, and the stunning waste of a system in which the exact same issues are simultaneously litigated in state and federal courts as part of a “race to judgment.” The status quo is, quite simply, broken. This Article contends that we can ameliorate these concerns by permitting removal to federal court whenever the parties are diverse and whenever the defendant’s answer or plaintiff’s reply shows that a case arises under federal law— rather than artificially limiting our vision to the plaintiff’s well-pleaded complaint. Though modest, these reforms could serve as a tonic to many of the status quo’s most striking irrationalities: the criteria for federal question jurisdiction would be expanded to cover many currently excluded cases that turn on federal law, plaintiffs would lose opportunities to forum shop by pinning unwilling defendants in state courts, and the systemic waste of duplicative and concurrent state-federal litigation could be largely eliminated. By broadly addressing these deeply-rooted problems, this Article aims at improving the clarity, rationality, and essential fairness of the rules that govern our federal courts

The Evolution and Function of the Pair-rule Gene fushi tarazu (ftz)

The homeodomain protein Fushi tarazu (Ftz) and its obligate cofactor Ftz-F1, an orphan nuclear receptor, cooperatively bind to DNA and co-regulate the transcription of genes responsible for segmentation in the early Drosophila embryo. Two interesting questions have arisen about these genes. The first question concerns the evolution of Ftz, which changed in arthropods from a Hox protein that likely bound its transcriptional targets with the cofactor Exd, to a pair-rule protein in Drosophila that synergistically binds DNA with its cofactor Ftz-F1. This change in function involved changes in both the expression and protein sequence of Ftz, which are being explored throughout arthropod lineages. To determine if the expression and function of ftz is conserved in Diptera, Ftz and related genes were examined in the mosquito Aedes aegypti using reverse transcriptase - PCR, in situ hybridization, and ectopic expression techniques. The second question probes the mechanisms underlying Drosophila Ftz/Ftz-F1 target site recognition in vivo. To date, direct computational attempts to identify downstream target genes and their enhancers have been inadequate. Towards this end, a microarray analysis was performed comparing wild type and ftz-f1 mutant embryos. This generated a list of Ftz/Ftz-F1 target genes whose expression was lower in ftz-f1 mutants than wild type. To identify genes among this group that are directly regulated by Ftz/Ftz-F1, potential Ftz/Ftz-F1 binding sites around these genes were identified by combining Ftz in vivo ChIP data with a computational search for candidate Ftz-F1 binding sites. Next, to test whether these regions correspond to Ftz/Ftz-F1-dependent enhancers, enhancer-lacZ reporter genes were constructed and their expression was analyzed in wild type and ftz mutant embryos. Of 10 enhancers tested, 8 generated expression patterns that overlap with Ftz and Ftz-F1 expression in early embryos and were lost in ftz mutants. The enhancers found in this study, along with previously identified Ftz/Ftz-F1-dependent enhancers, were analyzed to identify binding motifs for additional transcription factors that might co-regulate gene expression with Ftz/Ftz-F1. Four transcription factors were identified that could potentially be involved in Ftz/Ftz-F1-dependent gene regulation: Deaf-1, Dichaete, Zeste, all transcriptional activators, and GAGA factor, a repressor. Together, these studies identified five new Ftz/Ftz-F1-dependent target genes and seven new Ftz/Ftz-F1-regulated enhancers, and they suggest that other transcription factors may also play roles in the pair-rule gene regulatory system

Laser Powderbed Fusion (LPBF) of tungsten and tungsten alloys for nuclear fusion applications

Tungsten is a candidate material for the plasma facing components (PFCs) within a nuclear fusion reactor as a result of its high melting point (3420°C), high thermal conductivity (170 Wm−1 K−1), and high density (19.4 gcm−3). These allow the components to survive the operating temperatures as well as providing effective radiation shielding and conduction of heat through the components. The comparatively low activation of tungsten means that longterm waste storage does not need to be considered and recycling methods are possible after 75 years. There are difficulties associated with the processing of tungsten, however, as a result of its high melting point and intrinsic brittleness (Ductile–Brittle Transition Temperature (DBTT) ~ 400 °C). Conventionally, powder metallurgy methods including sintering have been used, but as final machining is challenging, the complexity of component geometries has been limited. The simple shape of the current divertor monoblock design is largely dictated by manufacturing issues. Interstitial impurity elements had been shown to significantly worsen the mechanical behaviour of tungsten. It was considered likely that cracking would be an issue for LPBF tungsten due to the high cooling rate, the residual oxygen content and its sensitivity to thermal shock. Thus, this study was designed as a feasibility study to investigate the potential of LPBF processing of tungsten. While high densities (98 % theoretical density) were achieved, there was a significant issue with cracking. The cracking was found to be hot cracking of the grain boundaries and was caused by segregation of oxygen causing embrittlement. The effect of raw material quality on LPBF processability was also investigated and it was found building with spherical powder resulted in improved part quality with 8.8 % higher densities achieved. This was determined to be due to a higher effective laser absorptivity determined through penetration depth measurements into the build plate. As it had been shown that LPBF processing of unalloyed tungsten resulted in significant cracking, methods to improve the manufacturability were investigated; the use of bed heating at 400 °C and 600 °C and alloying with 10 w.t.% Ta, through elemental powder blending were trialled. The parts produced with bed heating were found to have a modified cracking structure with a central region which had finer cracking. However, they suffered from extensive oxidation, which resulted in an increase in porosity. The single scan tracks showed significant issues with surface tension which prevented accurate measurement. Alloying with tantalum was found to be more successful with a significant reduction in cracking. It was shown that within the W-Ta alloy oxygen did not segregate to the grain boundaries and instead formed discrete clusters through the material. This was found to have a maximum load three times higher than that of unalloyed tungsten during small punch testing but was still significantly weaker than conventionally produced pure tungsten. While improvements were made to LPBF processing of tungsten and its alloys, significant improvement would be needed to have a process sufficiently robust for fusion components particularly with regard to oxygen embrittlement. It is likely specialised hardware would need to be designed in order to effectively solve this issue

Evolution of the Karyopherin-β Family of Nucleocytoplasmic Transport Factors; Ancient Origins and Continued Specialization

Macromolecular transport across the nuclear envelope (NE) is achieved through nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) and requires karyopherin-βs (KAP-βs), a family of soluble receptors, for recognition of embedded transport signals within cargo. We recently demonstrated, through proteomic analysis of trypanosomes, that NPC architecture is likely highly conserved across the Eukaryota, which in turn suggests conservation of the transport mechanisms. To determine if KAP-β diversity was similarly established early in eukaryotic evolution or if it was subsequently layered onto a conserved NPC, we chose to identify KAP-β sequences in a diverse range of eukaryotes and to investigate their evolutionary history.Thirty six predicted proteomes were scanned for candidate KAP-β family members. These resulting sequences were resolved into fifteen KAP-β subfamilies which, due to broad supergroup representation, were most likely represented in the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA). Candidate members of each KAP-β subfamily were found in all eukaryotic supergroups, except XPO6, which is absent from Archaeplastida. Phylogenetic reconstruction revealed the likely evolutionary relationships between these different subfamilies. Many species contain more than one representative of each KAP-β subfamily; many duplications are apparently taxon-specific but others result from duplications occurring earlier in eukaryotic history.At least fifteen KAP-β subfamilies were established early in eukaryote evolution and likely before the LECA. In addition we identified expansions at multiple stages within eukaryote evolution, including a multicellular plant-specific KAP-β, together with frequent secondary losses. Taken with evidence for early establishment of NPC architecture, these data demonstrate that multiple pathways for nucleocytoplasmic transport were established prior to the radiation of modern eukaryotes but that selective pressure continues to sculpt the KAP-β family