Revocation and Revival of Wills in Virginia

Kate Miller Levring executed two wills, the first in 1954, the second in 1955. The latter contained an express revocation clause. Following her death the second will which was last traced to her possession could not be found, thus giving rise to a strong presumption that she had destroyed it with intent to revoke. In an inter-partes proceeding, the executor named in the first will, offered that will for probate. Probate was contested by certain next of kin of the deceased. The only evidence introduced was a statement by the decedent that she planned to make certain undisclosed changes in her second will by a new will rather than by a codicil. The pre- siding judge of the Probate Court, Chancellor Brockenbrough Lamb of the Chancery Court of the City of Richmond, admitted the 1954 will to probate as the true last will of the decedent, on proof that it was executed in conformity with the statute of wills. At the instance of the contestants an appeal has been granted by the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. How should the court rule? The question presented to the court is whether the 1954 will was revoked, and if so, was it revived by the subsequent revocation of the revoking instrument? This question cannot be fully appreciated without an understanding of the history of the revival of wills in England and in Virginia. This involves a survey of the judge-made rules and the statute designed to change those rules. This development will be illustrated by the use of supposititious cases

Usury in the Purchase of Negotiable Paper

This monograph attempts to explore the nature of certain transactions in negotiable paper. In the transactions under consideration the plaintiff admittedly would qualify as a holder in due course under section 62 of the Negotiable Instruments Law, hereafter referred to as the NIL. In Lynchburg National Bank v. Scott, 91 Va. 652 (1895), it was held that the maker\u27s defense of usury between himself and the payee was not good against a subsequent holder in due course. The validity of that holding is not questioned here. It is important to distinguish the defense asserted in the unusual situations discussed herein from that in the Scott case, supra. In both, violation of the statute against usury was the defense; in the former, however, the defendant claimed that the plaintiff, a holder in due course, was a participant, though unwilling, in a usurious transaction and was therefore subject to the civil sanctions provided in the usury statute. Since emphasis will be placed on the case law in Virginia with only brief reference to decisions from other states, the reader, if interested, will find helpful discussions in Annot., 43 L.R.A. (N.S.) 211 (1913) ; Annot., 5 A.L.R. 1447 (1920); 55 Am. Jur., Usury §§26 and 27 (1939); 29 A. & E. Enc. Law 473-78 (2d ed. 1896); 1 Daniel, Negotiable Instruments c. 23 (6th ed. 1919); Weinstein, When a Bill or Note Represents an Usurious Contract, 5 Tul. L. Rev. 211 (1931)

A three solar cell system based on a self-supporting, transparent AlGaAs top solar cell

Development of a three solar cell stack can lead to practical efficiencies greater than 30 percent (1x,AM0). A theoretical efficiency limitation of 43.7 percent at AM0 and one sun is predicted by this model. Including expected losses, a practical system efficiency of 36.8 percent is anticipated. These calculations are based on a 1.93eV/1.43eV/0.89eV energy band gap combination. AlGaAs/GaAs/GaInAsP materials can be used with a six-terminal wiring configuration. The key issues for multijunction solar cells are the top and middle solar cell performance and the sub-bandgap transparency. AstroPower has developed a technique to fabricate AlGaAs solar cells on rugged, self-supporting, transparent AlGaAs substrates. Top solar cell efficiencies greater than 11 percent AM0 have been achieved. State-of-the-art GaAs or InP devices will be used for the middle solar cell. GaInAsP will be used to fabricate the bottom solar cell. This material is lattice-matched to InP and offers a wide range of bandgaps for optimization of the three solar cell stack. Liquid phase epitaxy is being used to grow the quaternary material. Initial solar cells have shown open-circuit voltages of 462 mV for a bandgap of 0.92eV. Design rules for the multijunction three solar cell stack are discussed. The progress in the development of the self-supporting AlGaAs top solar cell and the GaInAsP bottom solar cell is presented

Mechanically-stacked tandem solar cells with GaAsP on GaP and silicon

Preliminary results are encouraging for the achievement of high conversion efficiencies using a GaAsP top solar cell mechanically stacked on a conventional silicon solar cell. A realistic maximum of 29.4 percent is suggested when both the top and bottom solar cells are state of the art. Practical system efficiencies greater than 25 percent are attainable in the near future with the use of a state of the art bottom solar cell

The Cystic Duct Remnant: An Unusual Case of a Biliary Intraluminal Filling Defect

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72892/1/j.1572-0241.1988.tb06086.x.pd

A metalloproteomic analysis of interactions between plasma proteins and zinc: elevated fatty acid levels affect zinc distribution

Serum albumin is a highly abundant plasma protein associated with the transport of metal ions, pharmaceuticals, fatty acids and a variety of small molecules in the blood. Once thought of as a molecular ‘sponge’, mounting evidence suggests that the albumin-facilitated transport of chemically diverse entities is not independent. One such example is the transport of Zn2+ ions and non-esterified ‘free’ fatty acids (FFAs) by albumin, both of which bind at high affinity sites located in close proximity. Our previous research suggests that their transport in blood plasma is linked via an allosteric mechanism on serum albumin. In direct competition, albumin-bound FFAs significantly decrease the binding capacity of albumin for Zn2+, with one of the predicted consequences being a change in plasma/serum zinc speciation. Using liquid chromatography (LC), ICP-MS and fluorescence assays, our work provides a quantitative assessment of this phenomenon, and finds that in the presence of high FFA concentrations encountered in various physiological conditions, a significant proportion of albumin-bound Zn2+ is re-distributed amongst plasma/serum proteins. Using peptide mass fingerprinting and immunodetection, we identify candidate acceptor proteins for Zn2+ liberated from albumin. These include histidine-rich glycoprotein (HRG), a multifunctional protein associated with the regulation of blood coagulation, and members of the complement system involved in the innate immune response. Our findings highlight how FFA-mediated changes in extracellular metal speciation might contribute to the progression of certain pathological conditions

Decoherence and dephasing errors caused by D.C. Stark effect in rapid ion transport

We investigate the error due to D.C. Stark effect for quantum information processing for trapped ion quantum computers using the scalable architecture proposed in J. Res. Natl. Inst. Stan. 103, 259 (1998) and Nature 417, 709 (2002). As the operation speed increases, dephasing and decoherence due to the D.C. Stark effect becomes prominent as a large electric field is applied for transporting ions rapidly. We estimate the relative significance of the decoherence and dephasing effects and find that the latter is dominant. We find that the minimum possible of dephasing is quadratic in the time of flight, and an inverse cubic in the operational time scale. From these relations, we obtain the operational speed-range at which the shifts caused by D.C. Stark effect, no matter follow which trajectory the ion is transported, are no longer negligible. Without phase correction, the maximum speed a qubit can be transferred across a 100 micron-long trap, without excessive error, in about 10 ns for Calcium ion and 50 ps for Beryllium ion. In practice, the accumulated error is difficult to be tracked and calculated, our work gives an estimation to the range of speed limit imposed by D.C. Stark effect.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure. v2: Title is changed in this version to make our argument more focused. Introduction is rewritten. A new section IV is added to make our point more prominent. v3: Title is changed to make our argument more specific. Abstract, introduction, and summary are revise

Application of Otolith Chemical Signatures to Estimate Population Connectivity of Red Snapper In the Western Gulf of Mexico

Otolith chemical signatures of Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus from six nursery regions were used to estimate the sources of recruits to four sampling regions in the western Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) and to estimate whether postsettlement mixing of Red Snapper occurs between the U.S. and Mexican portions of the western Gulf. In a previous study, region-specific otolith signatures (element : Ca ratios: Ba:Ca, Mg:Ca, Mn:Ca, Sr:Ca, and Li:Ca; stable isotope delta values: δ13C and δ18O) were developed based on age-0 Red Snapper (2005–2007 year-classes) sampled from the six nursery areas. In the present study, subadult and adult Red Snapper (ages 1–3) belonging to those same year-classes were collected from four sampling regions within the western Gulf (two regions in U.S. waters; two regions along the Mexican continental shelf) during summer in 2006–2008. Left sagittal otoliths were used to age subadults and adults to the corresponding nursery year-classes, and right sagittal otoliths were cored for chemical analysis. Off the southwestern U.S. coast, the sampled age-1–3 Red Snapper included locally derived recruits as well as recruits from the northwestern Gulf nursery region. However, analytical results were inconclusive with respect to estimating the connectivity between Red Snapper populations in U.S. and Mexican waters of the western Gulf