Future Interests - Rule Against Perpetuities - Actual Rather than Possible Facts as Determining Certainty of Vesting

T died testate, leaving a life estate to her children A and B, with the remainder to granddaughter C. The will further provided that if other body heirs of A and B survived their deaths, then such heirs should share equally with C; and if all the grandchildren should die without leaving heirs of their body, then the property was to pass to T\u27s brothers and sisters or their representatives. A and B survived but T died without further issue. Later C also died without issue. X held conveyances deeding to him the interests of the estates of A, B, C, and T. Suit was brought to determine the rights in the land as between X and the representatives of T\u27s brothers and sisters. The trial court transferred the case without ruling. The state supreme court held, the gift did not violate the rule against perpetuities. The perpetuities issue can be determined on the basis of the facts which actually occur, rather than on the basis of those which may happen viewed as of the death of the testator. Alternatively, where there are two contingencies one of which is bound to happen within the period of the rule and the other of which may not, the first may be considered valid. Merchants National Bank v. Curtis, (N.H. 1953) 97 A. (2d) 207

BANKRUPTCY-TEST OF FEASIBILITY UNDER CHAPTER XI ARRANGEMENT

The Slumberland Bedding Company started in business in 1952 with a capitalization of $13,000. Within less than one year the corporation was clearly heavily insolvent, having debts in excess of$85,000 and assets valued at least several thousand dollars less than $42,250. Preferred creditor claims against the assets of the business amounted to more than$32,200. In this rather dismal context a petition for an arrangement under chapter XI of the Bankruptcy Act was filed. A plan was submitted which provided for independent capital to be put into the business to pay certain claims in full and to pay a twenty percent dividend to unsecured creditors. This twenty percent payment was to constitute complete and final satisfaction of all unsecured claims. The plan involved no substantial change which would reasonably tend to make an earning enterprise out of this floundering venture. However, the plan was in the best interest of present creditors since they would receive far more under this plan than they could hope to receive via liquidation; therefore, a majority of creditors approved the plan. But three general creditors petitioned to prevent court confirmation of the plan, basing their claim on the assertion that the arrangement did not comply with the statutory mandate that the plan be feasible. Held, petition denied. The test of feasibility is fulfilled if there is a reasonable assurance that the unsecured creditors will get what is provided for them under the plan. To be feasible a plan need not embrace a probability of future financial and business success for the enterprise. In re Slumberland. Bedding Co., (D.C. Md. 1953) 115 F. Supp. 39

Corporations - Securities Act of 1933 - Stock Sale to Employees as a Public Offer

The Securities and Exchange Commission sued to enjoin defendant corporation from offering stock for sale to its employees without first complying with the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933. Defendant claimed that its offer was not a public offer and therefore it came under a class of transactions which were exempt from the registration requirements. The offer was made to about 500 of the company\u27s 7,000 employees. The company classified the offer as one made only to \u27\u27key employees. The court of appeals affirmed the trial court\u27s judgment for defendant. On certiorari, held, reversed, two justices dissenting. In the absence of a showing that the employees to whom the stock was offered had knowledge making the protection of the act unnecessary, this was a public offer and therefore the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933 had to be fulfilled. Securities & Exchange Commission v. Ralston Purina Co., 346 U.S. 119, 73 S.Ct. 981 (1953)

Assessment in senior secondary physical education. Questions of judgement

The ways in which various aspects of senior physical education courses should be assessed and whether some can, or indeed should be incorporated in external examinations, are matters of longstanding professional debate across Australia and internationally. Differences in current practice across Australasia reflect an ongoing lack of consensus about how assessment requirements and arrangements and particularly, examinations in senior physical education, can best address concerns to ensure validity, reliability, equity and feasibility. An issue never far from such debates is that of ‘professional judgement’ and more specifically, whether and how professional judgement does and/or should ‘come into play’ in assessment. This paper reports on research that has explored new approaches to examination assessment and marking in senior physical education, using digital technologies. It focuses specifically on the ways in which ‘professional judgement’ can be deemed to be inherent to two contrasting methods of assessment used in the project: ‘analytical standardsbased’ assessment and ‘comparative pairs’ assessment. Details of each method of assessment are presented. Data arising directly from assessors’ comments and from analysis which explored intermarker reliability for each method of assessment and compared results generated by internal teacher assessment, standards-based and comparative pairs assessment, is reported. Discussion explores whether the data arising can be seen as lending weight to arguments for (i) more faith to be placed in professional judgement and (ii) for the comparative pairs methods to be more widely employed in examination assessment in senior physical education

Quantum and Fisher Information from the Husimi and Related Distributions

The two principal/immediate influences -- which we seek to interrelate here -- upon the undertaking of this study are papers of Zyczkowski and Slomczy\'nski (J. Phys. A 34, 6689 [2001]) and of Petz and Sudar (J. Math. Phys. 37, 2262 [1996]). In the former work, a metric (the Monge one, specifically) over generalized Husimi distributions was employed to define a distance between two arbitrary density matrices. In the Petz-Sudar work (completing a program of Chentsov), the quantum analogue of the (classically unique) Fisher information (montone) metric of a probability simplex was extended to define an uncountable infinitude of Riemannian (also monotone) metrics on the set of positive definite density matrices. We pose here the questions of what is the specific/unique Fisher information metric for the (classically-defined) Husimi distributions and how does it relate to the infinitude of (quantum) metrics over the density matrices of Petz and Sudar? We find a highly proximate (small relative entropy) relationship between the probability distribution (the quantum Jeffreys' prior) that yields quantum universal data compression, and that which (following Clarke and Barron) gives its classical counterpart. We also investigate the Fisher information metrics corresponding to the escort Husimi, positive-P and certain Gaussian probability distributions, as well as, in some sense, the discrete Wigner pseudoprobability. The comparative noninformativity of prior probability distributions -- recently studied by Srednicki (Phys. Rev. A 71, 052107 [2005]) -- formed by normalizing the volume elements of the various information metrics, is also discussed in our context.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures, slight revisions, to appear in J. Math. Phy

Differences in transcription between free-living and CO_2-activated third-stage larvae of Haemonchus contortus

Background: The disease caused by Haemonchus contortus, a blood-feeding nematode of small ruminants, is of major economic importance worldwide. The infective third-stage larva (L3) of this gastric nematode is enclosed in a cuticle (sheath) and, once ingested with herbage by the host, undergoes an exsheathment process that marks the transition from the free-living (L3) to the parasitic (xL3) stage. This study explored changes in gene transcription associated with this transition and predicted, based on comparative analysis, functional roles for key transcripts in the metabolic pathways linked to larval development. Results: Totals of 101,305 (L3) and 105,553 (xL3) expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were determined using 454 sequencing technology, and then assembled and annotated; the most abundant transcripts encoded transthyretin-like, calcium-binding EF-hand, NAD(P)-binding and nucleotide-binding proteins as well as homologues of Ancylostoma-secreted proteins (ASPs). Using an in silico-subtractive analysis, 560 and 685 sequences were shown to be uniquely represented in the L3 and xL3 stages, respectively; the transcripts encoded ribosomal proteins, collagens and elongation factors (in L3), and mainly peptidases and other enzymes of amino acid catabolism (in xL3). Caenorhabditis elegans orthologues of transcripts that were uniquely transcribed in each L3 and xL3 were predicted to interact with a total of 535 other genes, all of which were involved in embryonic development. Conclusion: The present study indicated that some key transcriptional alterations taking place during the transition from the L3 to the xL3 stage of H. contortus involve genes predicted to be linked to the development of neuronal tissue (L3 and xL3), formation of the cuticle (L3) and digestion of host haemoglobin (xL3). Future efforts using next-generation sequencing and bioinformatic technologies should provide the efficiency and depth of coverage required for the determination of the complete transcriptomes of different developmental stages and/or tissues of H. contortus as well as the genome of this important parasitic nematode. Such advances should lead to a significantly improved understanding of the molecular biology of H. contortus and, from an applied perspective, to novel methods of intervention

Circulating endothelial cell-derived extracellular vesicles mediate the acute phase response and sickness behaviour associated with CNS inflammation.

Brain injury elicits a systemic acute-phase response (APR), which is responsible for co-ordinating the peripheral immunological response to injury. To date, the mechanisms responsible for signalling the presence of injury or disease to selectively activate responses in distant organs were unclear. Circulating endogenous extracellular vesicles (EVs) are increased after brain injury and have the potential to carry targeted injury signals around the body. Here, we examined the potential of EVs, isolated from rats after focal inflammatory brain lesions using IL-1β, to activate a systemic APR in recipient naïve rats, as well as the behavioural consequences of EV transfer. Focal brain lesions increased EV release, and, following isolation and transfer, the EVs were sequestered by the liver where they initiated an APR. Transfer of blood-borne EVs from brain-injured animals was also enough to suppress exploratory behaviours in recipient naïve animals. EVs derived from brain endothelial cell cultures treated with IL-1β also activated an APR and altered behaviour in recipient animals. These experiments reveal that inflammation-induced circulating EVs derived from endothelial cells are able to initiate the APR to brain injury and are sufficient to generate the associated sickness behaviours, and are the first demonstration that EVs are capable of modifying behavioural responses

The Big Bang as a Phase Transition

We study a five-dimensional cosmological model, which suggests that the universe bagan as a discontinuity in a (Higgs-type) scalar field, or alternatively as a conventional four-dimensional phase transition.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures; typo corrected in equation (18); 1 reference added; version to appear in International Journal of Modern Physics

Electron-spectroscopy study of LiC60: Charge transfer and dimer formation

Li−C60 compounds Lix¯C60 were studied for average Li concentration x¯<~1 using photoelectron spectroscopy. Strong evidence is found for the formation of LiC60 dimers, as well as a second phase. The study suggests that the smallest alkali-metal Li bonds to C60 largely ionically for certain configurations. An investigation of the Li 1s level shows that under certain conditions the energetics favor a backdonation of the transferred electron to the Li ion