CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-COMMERCE CLAUSE-STATE TAXATION OF INTERSTATE COMMERCE

Appellant, a Missouri corporation, was domiciled in Illinois and engaged in interstate trucking of commodities to and from Connecticut. The appellant had twenty-seven employees, office equipment, pick-up trucks and two terminals within Connecticut. Approximately one-third to one-half of appellant\u27s business originated in Connecticut, but a very small percentage of the total mileage traveled by its trucks lay within the state. Appellant was not engaged in intrastate commerce, nor had it been authorized to transact such business. Under the Connecticut Corporation Business Tax Act of 1935 appellant was assessed for taxes and penalties. The statute imposed a franchise tax upon certain corporations for the privilege of carrying on business within the state. The tax was computed by taking a percentage of the entire net income of the corporation, but detailed apportionment provisions related the amount collected to that part of a corporation\u27s business which was attributable to the taxing state. Appellant sought to enjoin collection of the tax. The state court found that the tax applied to the appellant although it was engaged exclusively in interstate business. The federal district court held the enactment unconstitutional. On appeal, the court of appeals reversed, holding that interstate commerce can be required to pay its share of ordinary governmental expense incurred in guaranteeing the privilege and protection which the state affords. The Supreme Court reversed. Held, the privilege of engaging in purely interstate commerce cannot be taxed by a state in the absence of Congressional consent. Spector Motor Service, Inc. v. O\u27Connor, 340 U.S. 602, 71 S.Ct. 508 (1951)

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-CIVIL RIGHTS-DISCHARGE OF TEACHERS FOR SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITY

An action was brought seeking a declaratory judgment as to the constitutionality of New York\u27s Feinberg law. The statute provided that the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York should list organizations found to be subversive. Membership in such organizations was made prima facie disqualification for the position of public school teacher. At the time of suit the Board of Regents had made no listing of subversive groups nor had any teacher been discharged under the provisions of this enactment. The supreme court of New York, special term, held the law unconstitutional; the appellate division reversed. Held, affirmed. The statute is not a denial of due process and does not constitute a bill of attainder, because the legislature has authority to prescribe conditions of employment and removal of public school teachers. Thompson v. Wallin, 301 N.Y. 476, 95 N.E. (2d) 806 (1950)

CORPORATIONS-VOLUNTARY REORGANIZATION UNDER THE PUBLIC UTILITY HOLDING COMPANY ACT OF 1935-VALUATION OF STOCK OPTION WARRANT

Appellant corporation submitted a voluntary reorganization plan to the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to sections II(h)(2) and II(e) of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935. The plan consisted of two parts. The first proposed consolidation of three of the appellant\u27s subsidiaries into a newly formed operational company. The second part provided for dissolution of the appellant corporation, with the holders of securities therein being issued stock in the new corporation to the extent of the value of their interest in the appellant corporation. All the security holders of appellant were allowed participation in the securities of the new corporation except the holders of Class B stock option warrants, which, it was claimed, had no recognizable value. There were outstanding 497,191.5 of such option warrants, each of which entitled the holder to 1 1/6 shares of common stock upon the surrender of one warrant and payment of $50. Since 1932 the common stock had risen to a high of 18½ and had fallen to a low of % on the market. The high for the option warrants in the same period was 5 and the low was ¼. In 1949 the high option warrant market price was ¼ and the low, ¼. The SEC found there was no reasonable expectation that the holders of the option warrants would ever participate in the earnings of the appellant corporation; it approved the plan with minor modifications concerning other securities, and conditioned acceptance upon the order of the district court as allowed by statute. The district court ordered the plans carried out, but appellee, a holder of stock option warrants, secured review by the court of appeals under section 24(a) of the act. The court of appeals, holding that there was no substantial evidence to support the findings of the SEC in light of the market values, ordered the plan to be reconsidered. Held, on appeal to the United States Supreme Court, reversed. Niagara Hudson Power Corporation v. Leventritt, (U.S. 1951) 71 S.Ct. 341

Bostonia. Volume 14

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs

Strong coupling in molecular systems: a simple predictor employing routine optical measurements

We provide a simple method that enables readily acquired experimental data to be used to predict whether or not a candidate molecular material may exhibit strong coupling. Specifically, we explore the relationship between the hybrid molecular/photonic (polaritonic) states and the bulk optical response of the molecular material. For a given material this approach enables a prediction of the maximum extent of strong coupling (vacuum Rabi splitting), irrespective of the nature of the confined light field. We provide formulae for the upper limit of the splitting in terms of the molar absorption coefficient, the attenuation coefficient, the extinction coefficient (imaginary part of the refractive index) and the absorbance. To illustrate this approach we provide a number of examples, we also discuss some of the limitations of our approach

Genome-wide screening for DNA variants associated with reading and language traits

This research was funded by: Max Planck Society, the University of St Andrews - Grant Number: 018696, US National Institutes of Health - Grant Number: P50 HD027802, Wellcome Trust - Grant Number: 090532/Z/09/Z, and Medical Research Council Hub Grant Grant Number: G0900747 91070Reading and language abilities are heritable traits that are likely to share some genetic influences with each other. To identify pleiotropic genetic variants affecting these traits, we first performed a genome‐wide association scan (GWAS) meta‐analysis using three richly characterized datasets comprising individuals with histories of reading or language problems, and their siblings. GWAS was performed in a total of 1862 participants using the first principal component computed from several quantitative measures of reading‐ and language‐related abilities, both before and after adjustment for performance IQ. We identified novel suggestive associations at the SNPs rs59197085 and rs5995177 (uncorrected P ≈ 10–7 for each SNP), located respectively at the CCDC136/FLNC and RBFOX2 genes. Each of these SNPs then showed evidence for effects across multiple reading and language traits in univariate association testing against the individual traits. FLNC encodes a structural protein involved in cytoskeleton remodelling, while RBFOX2 is an important regulator of alternative splicing in neurons. The CCDC136/FLNC locus showed association with a comparable reading/language measure in an independent sample of 6434 participants from the general population, although involving distinct alleles of the associated SNP. Our datasets will form an important part of on‐going international efforts to identify genes contributing to reading and language skills.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

ACE-ASIA - Regional climatic and atmospheric chemical effects of Asian dust and pollution

Although continental-scale plumes of Asian dust and pollution reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth's surface and perturb the chemistry of the atmosphere, our ability to quantify these effects has been limited by a lack of critical observations, particularly of layers above the surface. Comprehensive surface, airborne, shipboard, and satellite measurements of Asian aerosol chemical composition, size, optical properties, and radiative impacts were performed during the Asian Pacific Regional Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE-Asia) study. Measurements within a massive Chinese dust storm at numerous widely spaced sampling locations revealed the highly complex structure of the atmosphere, in which layers of dust, urban pollution, and biomass-burning smoke may be transported long distances as distinct entities or mixed together. The data allow a first-time assessment of the regional climatic and atmospheric chemical effects of a continental-scale mixture of dust and pollution. Our results show that radiative flux reductions during such episodes are sufficient to cause regional climate change

Transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a Rural Community, Arkansas, 1945–2000

A cluster of tuberculosis cases in a rural community in Arkansas persisted from 1991 to 1999. The cluster had 13 members, 11 linked epidemiologically. Old records identified 24 additional patients for 40 linked case-patients during a 54-year period. Residents of this neighborhood represent a population at high risk who should be considered for tuberculin testing and treatment for latent tuberculosis infection

Possible role of human herpesvirus 8 in the lymphoproliferative disorders in common variable immunodeficiency

Patients who have common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) and granulomatous/lymphocytic interstitial lung disease (GLILD) are at high risk for early mortality and B cell lymphomas. Infection with human herpes virus type 8 (HHV8), a B cell lymphotrophic virus, is linked to lymphoproliferative disorders in people who have secondary immunodeficiencies. Therefore, we determined the prevalence of HHV8 infection in CVID patients with GLILD. Genomic DNA isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells was screened by nested- and real time-quantitative PCR (QRT-PCR) for the presence of HHV8 genome. It was positive in 6/9 CVID patients with GLILD (CVID-GLILD), 1/21 CVID patients without GLILD (CVID-control), and no patients receiving intravenous gamma globulin (n = 13) or normal blood donors (n = 20). Immunohistochemistry (IHC) demonstrated expression of the latency-associated nuclear antigen-1 (LANA-1) in the biopsies of the lung, liver, and bone marrow of four patients with CVID-GLILD. One CVID-GLILD patient developed a B cell lymphoma during the course of the study. QRT-PCR demonstrated high copy number of HHV8 genome and IHC showed diffuse staining for LANA-1 in the malignant lymph node. HHV8 infection may be an important factor in the pathogenesis of the interstitial lung disease and lymphoproliferative disorders in patients with CVID