Corporations — Status of Nonvoting Stock in Nebraska

The Supreme Court of Nebraska has never had occasion to determine whether or not nonvoting preferred stock may be issued by a corporation in this state. The answer to this problem must depend upon the meaning of Article 12, section 5 of the Nebraska Constitution, which states: “The Legislature shall provide by law that in all elections for directors or managers of incorporated companies every stockholder shall have the right to vote in person or proxy for the number of shares owned by him, for as many persons as there are directors or managers to be elected or to cumulate said shares and give one candidate as many votes as the number of directors multiplied by the number of his shares shall equal, or to distribute them upon the same principle among as many candidates as he shall think fit, and such directors or managers shall not be elected in any other manner; except that any mutual or co-operative company or association may, in its articles of incorporation, limit the number of shares of stock any stockholder may own, the transfer of said stock, and the right of each stockholder or member to one vote only in the meetings of such company or association.” In compliance with this constitutional requirement, section 21-135 of the Revised Statutes of Nebraska, was passed by the legislature. This statute, and the above mentioned section of the constitution, are capable of two interpretations: (1) that they simply secure to stockholders the right of cumulative voting, or (2) that they secure the right of cumulative voting plus a requirement that all stock issued by corporations in this state must have voting rights

Strict Liability Crimes

Before the middle of the 19th century it was generally stated that a criminal conviction could not be had without proof of mens rea. By and large, the modern concept of criminal law still accepts this basic principle. However, a well-recognized exception to the general rule has developed in connection with so called public welfare offenses or public torts. In such offenses, the usual requirement of proof of criminal intent has been dispensed with and strict liability has been imposed. It should be stated at the outset that the present discussion of strict liability crimes is not concerned with doctrines such as statutory rape or the felony-murder and misdemeanor-manslaughter rules. In a sense strict liability is attached to crimes falling within the purview of these doctrines, but in each event, the act to which strict liability is attached is morally wrong in and of itself. The present discussion is limited to acts which may entail no wrongful intent or moral guilt, but nevertheless are considered criminal offenses

Recent Cases: Domestic Relations — Wife\u27s Right to Support While Living With Husband — Equity Jurisdiction

Plaintiff, although continuing to reside with her husband, brought an action in equity against him for maintenance and support money. Held: where husband and wife are not separated and the purpose of the marriage relation is being carried out, an action in equity for support money cannot be maintained. Had the plaintiff petitioned for a divorce from bed and board, a Nebraska statute giving the court discretion to award money for support and maintenance even though no divorce is granted and, apparently, regardless of whether or not the wife is living with her husband, might have been applicable. However, in lieu of proceeding under this statute, plaintiff sought to maintain an action of an equitable nature to compel the husband to discharge his legal duty to support her in a manner in keeping with his means, position, and station in life. In bringing this suit, plaintiff relied upon the case of Earle v. Earle, which, previous to the enactment of the above-mentioned statute, had held that there was an inherent power in equity to grant alimony. In failing to avail herself of the statute, the plaintiff ran into the uncertainties of equity jurisdiction

A cohort study risk factor analysis for endemic disease in pre-weaned dairy heifer calves

Dairy heifer calves experience high levels of contagious disease during their preweaning period, which may result in poor welfare, reduced performance or mortality. We determined risk factors for disease in a cohort study of 492 heifers recruited from 11 commercial UK dairy farms. Every animal received a weekly examination by a veterinarian from birth to nine weeks using the Wisconsin scoring system. Multivariable models were constructed using a hierarchical model with calf nested within farm. Outcome variables for each disease included a binary outcome (yes/no), disease duration and a composite disease score (CDS) including both severity and duration. Diarrhoea, bovine respiratory disease (BRD) and umbilical disease were recorded in 48.2%, 45.9% and 28.7% of calves, respectively. A higher heifer calving intensity in the week of birth reduced the CDS for diarrhoea, with a marginal benefit of improved passive transfer (serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) measured at recruitment). The CDS for BRD was reduced by housing in fixed groups, higher mean temperature in month of birth, increasing milk solids fed, increasing IgG, and higher plasma IGF-1 at recruitment. Conversely, higher calving intensity and higher temperature both increased the CDS for umbilical disease, whereas high IGF-1 was again protective. Although good passive transfer reduced the severity of BRD, it was not significant in models for diarrhoea and umbilical disease, emphasising the need to optimise other aspects of management. Measuring IGF-1 in the first week was a useful additional indicator for disease risk

Simple, Direct Routes to Polymer Brush Traps and Nanostructures for Studies of Diffusional Transport in Supported Lipid Bilayers

Patterned poly(oligo ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (POEGMEMA) brush structures may be formed by using a combination of atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and UV photopatterning. UV photolysis is used to selectively dechlorinate films of 4-(chloromethyl)phenyltrichlorosilane (CMPTS) adsorbed on silica surfaces, by exposure either through a mask or using a two-beam interferometer. Exposure through a mask yields patterns of carboxylic acid-terminated adsorbates. POEGMEMA may be grown from intact Cl initiators that were masked during exposure. Corrals, traps, and other structures formed in this way enable the patterning of proteins, vesicles, and, following vesicle rupture, supported lipid bilayers (SLBs). Bilayers adsorbed on the carboxylic acid-terminated surfaces formed by C–Cl bond photolysis in CMPTS exhibit high mobility. SLBs do not form on POEGMEMA. Using traps consisting of carboxylic acid-functionalized regions enclosed by POEGMEMA structures, electrophoresis may be observed in lipid bilayers containing a small amount of a fluorescent dye. Segregation of dye at one end of the traps was measured by fluorescence microscopy. The increase in the fluorescence intensity was found to be proportional to the trap length, while the time taken to reach the maximum value was inversely proportional to the trap length, indicating uniform, rapid diffusion in all of the traps. Nanostructured materials were formed using interferometric lithography. Channels were defined by exposure of CMPTS films to maxima in the interferogram, and POEGMEMA walls were formed by ATRP. As for the micrometer-scale patterns, bilayers did not form on the POEGMEMA structures, and high lipid mobilities were measured in the polymer-free regions of the channels

The vitamin D binding protein axis modifies disease severity in Lymphangioleiomyomatosis

Background: Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare disease of women. Decline in lung function is variable making appropriate targeting of therapy difficult. We used unbiased serum proteomics to identify markers associated with outcome in LAM. Methods: 101 women with LAM and 22 healthy controls were recruited from the National Centre for LAM (Nottingham, UK). 152 DNA and serum samples with linked lung function and outcome data were obtained from patients in the NHLBI LAM Registry (USA). Proteomic analysis was performed on a discovery cohort of 50 LAM and 20 control sera using a SCIEX SWATH mass spectrometric workflow. Protein levels were quantitated by ELISA and SNPs in GC encoding Vitamin D Binding Protein (VTDB) genotyped. Results: Proteomic analysis showed VTDB was 2.6 fold lower in LAM than controls. Serum VTDB was lower in progressive compared with stable LAM (p=0.001) and correlated with diffusing capacity (p=0.01). Median time to death or lung transplant was reduced by 46 months in those with CC genotypes at rs4588 and 38 months in those with non-A containing haplotypes at rs7041/4588 (p=0.014 and 0.008 respectively). Conclusions: The VTDB axis is associated with disease severity and outcome, and GC genotype could help predict transplant free survival in LAM

The structure of a resuscitation-promoting factor domain from Mycobacterium tuberculosis shows homology to lysozymes

Resuscitation-promoting factor (RPF) proteins reactivate stationary-phase cultures of (G+C)-rich Gram-positive bacteria including the causative agent of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We report the solution structure of the RPF domain from M. tuberculosis Rv1009 (RpfB) solved by heteronuclear multidimensional NMR. Structural homology with various glycoside hydrolases suggested that RpfB cleaved oligosaccharides. Biochemical studies indicate that a conserved active site glutamate is important for resuscitation activity. These data, as well as the presence of a clear binding pocket for a large molecule, indicate that oligosaccharide cleavage is probably the signal for revival from dormancy

The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury I: Bright UV Stars in the Bulge of M31

As part of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) multi-cycle program, we observed a 12' \times 6.5' area of the bulge of M31 with the WFC3/UVIS filters F275W and F336W. From these data we have assembled a sample of \sim4000 UV-bright, old stars, vastly larger than previously available. We use updated Padova stellar evolutionary tracks to classify these hot stars into three classes: Post-AGB stars (P-AGB), Post-Early AGB (PE-AGB) stars and AGB-manqu\'e stars. P-AGB stars are the end result of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase and are expected in a wide range of stellar populations, whereas PE-AGB and AGB-manqu\'e (together referred to as the hot post-horizontal branch; HP-HB) stars are the result of insufficient envelope masses to allow a full AGB phase, and are expected to be particularly prominent at high helium or {\alpha} abundances when the mass loss on the RGB is high. Our data support previous claims that most UV-bright sources in the bulge are likely hot (extreme) horizontal branch stars (EHB) and their progeny. We construct the first radial profiles of these stellar populations, and show that they are highly centrally concentrated, even more so than the integrated UV or optical light. However, we find that this UV-bright population does not dominate the total UV luminosity at any radius, as we are detecting only the progeny of the EHB stars that are the likely source of the UVX. We calculate that only a few percent of MS stars in the central bulge can have gone through the HP-HB phase and that this percentage decreases strongly with distance from the center. We also find that the surface density of hot UV-bright stars has the same radial variation as that of low-mass X-ray binaries. We discuss age, metallicity, and abundance variations as possible explanations for the observed radial variation in the UV-bright population.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap