Making Corporate Law More Communitarian: A Proposed Response to the Roberts Court\u27s Personification of Corporations

Both Citizens United and Hobby Lobby are notable for the Roberts Court’s personification of the corporation. In Citizens United, the United States Supreme Court expanded corporate speech rights in a political context; in Hobby Lobby, it accorded religious rights to corporations in an unprecedented manner. This article explains how the Court’s expansion of corporate personification has ignored both traditional corporate law doctrine regarding shareholder primacy and the fundamental distinction in corporate law between the corporate entity and the shareholders who control it. The article takes a communitarian approach to corporate law analysis, recognizing that corporations play useful roles as intermediate communities that can organize collective efforts and advance the common good. But the co-authors—one an expert in corporate law and the other a widely published communitarian scholar—regard both Citizens United and Hobby Lobby as anticommunitarian in at least two respects. First, both cases strike down carefully calibrated efforts (a portion of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law in one instance and of the Affordable Care Act in the other) to advance the common good, in the name of newly minted corporate “rights.” Second, these rights are afforded to corporations without commensurate responsibilities and without concern for the interests of those (other than management) who might be adversely affected by the protected corporate conduct. This article voices concern that the newly empowered and unrestrained corporate “monster” might engage in rent-seeking conduct unhindered by the normal constraints on human behavior. It suggests legislation conducive to restraining that conduct so that corporations might be obliged to behave in a more humane manner. The article therefore proposes two types of legislation at the state level: (1) mandatory corporate constituency statutes that require corporate directors to consider the effect of corporate conduct on employees, suppliers, communities, and other parties; (2) enhanced disclosure requirements, so that shareholders and others have a more complete understanding of how corporate funds are employed for political purposes. The authors hope that such measures will help redress an unhealthy imbalance between corporate rights and responsibilities

System and method for forward error correction

A system and method are provided for transferring a packet across a data link. The packet may include a stream of data symbols which is delimited by one or more framing symbols. Corruptions of the framing symbol which result in valid data symbols may be mapped to invalid symbols. If it is desired to transfer one of the valid data symbols that has been mapped to an invalid symbol, the data symbol may be replaced with an unused symbol. At the receiving end, these unused symbols are replaced with the corresponding valid data symbols. The data stream of the packet may be encoded with forward error correction information to detect and correct errors in the data stream

System and method for transferring data on a data link

A system and method are provided for transferring a packet across a data link. The packet may include a stream of data symbols which is delimited by one or more framing symbols. Corruptions of the framing symbol which result in valid data symbols may be mapped to invalid symbols. If it is desired to transfer one of the valid data symbols that has been mapped to an invalid symbol, the data symbol may be replaced with an unused symbol. At the receiving end, these unused symbols are replaced with the corresponding valid data symbols. The data stream of the packet may be encoded with forward error correction information to detect and correct errors in the data stream

Dimensional Communalities of the Deciduous Teeth

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67921/2/10.1177_00220345770560101601.pd

Dimensional Correspondences Between Deciduous and Permanent Teeth

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67360/2/10.1177_00220345770560101801.pd

Definition of Naturally Processed Peptides Reveals Convergent Presentation of Autoantigenic Topoisomerase I Epitopes in Scleroderma.

ObjectiveAutoimmune responses to DNA topoisomerase I (topo I) are found in a subset of scleroderma patients who are at high risk for interstitial lung disease (ILD) and mortality. Anti-topo I antibodies (ATAs) are associated with specific HLA-DRB1 alleles, and the frequency of HLA-DR-restricted topo I-specific CD4+ T cells is associated with the presence, severity, and progression of ILD. Although this strongly implicates the presentation of topo I peptides by HLA-DR in scleroderma pathogenesis, the processing and presentation of topo I has not been studied.MethodsWe developed a natural antigen processing assay (NAPA) to identify putative CD4+ T cell epitopes of topo I presented by monocyte-derived dendritic cells (mo-DCs) from 6 ATA-positive patients with scleroderma. Mo-DCs were pulsed with topo I protein, HLA-DR-peptide complexes were isolated, and eluted peptides were analyzed by mass spectrometry. We then examined the ability of these naturally presented peptides to induce CD4+ T cell activation in 11 ATA-positive and 11 ATA-negative scleroderma patients.ResultsWe found that a common set of 10 topo I epitopes was presented by Mo-DCs from scleroderma patients with diverse HLA-DR variants. Sequence analysis revealed shared peptide-binding motifs within the HLA-DRβ chains of ATA-positive patients and a subset of topo I epitopes with distinct sets of anchor residues capable of binding to multiple different HLA-DR variants. The NAPA-derived epitopes elicited robust CD4+ T cell responses in 73% of ATA-positive patients (8 of 11), and the number of epitopes recognized correlated with ILD severity (P = 0.025).ConclusionThese findings mechanistically implicate the presentation of a convergent set of topo I epitopes in the development of scleroderma

Reliability and Maintainability Analysis of a High Air Pressure Compressor Facility

This paper discusses a Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) independent assessment conducted to support the refurbishment of the Compressor Station at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). The paper discusses the methodologies used by the assessment team to derive the repair by replacement (RR) strategies to improve the reliability and availability of the Compressor Station (Ref.1). This includes a RAPTOR simulation model that was used to generate the statistical data analysis needed to derive a 15-year investment plan to support the refurbishment of the facility. To summarize, study results clearly indicate that the air compressors are well past their design life. The major failures of Compressors indicate that significant latent failure causes are present. Given the occurrence of these high-cost failures following compressor overhauls, future major failures should be anticipated if compressors are not replaced. Given the results from the RR analysis, the study team recommended a compressor replacement strategy. Based on the data analysis, the RR strategy will lead to sustainable operations through significant improvements in reliability, availability, and the probability of meeting the air demand with acceptable investment cost that should translate, in the long run, into major cost savings. For example, the probability of meeting air demand improved from 79.7 percent for the Base Case to 97.3 percent. Expressed in terms of a reduction in the probability of failing to meet demand (1 in 5 days to 1 in 37 days), the improvement is about 700 percent. Similarly, compressor replacement improved the operational availability of the facility from 97.5 percent to 99.8 percent. Expressed in terms of a reduction in system unavailability (1 in 40 to 1 in 500), the improvement is better than 1000 percent (an order of magnitude improvement). It is worthy to note that the methodologies, tools, and techniques used in the LaRC study can be used to evaluate similar high value equipment components and facilities. Also, lessons learned in data collection and maintenance practices derived from the observations, findings, and recommendations of the study are extremely important in the evaluation and sustainment of new compressor facilities

theta-Defensins: Cyclic Peptides with Endless Potential

theta-Defensins, the only cyclic peptides of animal origin, have been isolated from the leukocytes of rhesus macaques and baboons. Their biogenesis is unusual because each peptide is an 18-residue chimera formed by the head-to-tail splicing of nonapeptides derived from two separate precursors. theta-Defensins have multiple arginines and a ladder-like tridisulfide array spanning their two antiparallel beta-strands. Human theta-defensin genes contain a premature stop codon that prevents effective translation of the needed precursors; consequently, these peptides are not present in human leukocytes. Synthetic theta-defensins with sequences that correspond to those encoded within the human pseudogenes are called retrocyclins. Retrocyclin-1 inhibits the cellular entry of HIV-1, HSV, and influenza A virus. The rhesus theta-defensin RTD-1 protects mice from an experimental severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection, and retrocyclin- 1 protects mice from infection by Bacillus anthracis spores. The small size, unique structure, and multiple host defense activities of theta-defensins make them intriguing potential therapeutic agents

Domain Restriction Zones: An Evolution of the Military Exclusion Zone

Since the early part of the twenty-first century, US adversaries have expanded their military capabilities within and their access to new warfighting domains. When faced with the growth of adversaries’ asymmetric capabilities, the means, tactics, and strategies previously used by the US military lose their proportional effectiveness. To avoid such degradation of capability, the operational concept of the military exclusion zone (MEZ) should be revised to suit the modern battlespace while also addressing the shifts in national policy that encourage diplomacy over military force. The concept and development of domain restriction zones (DRZs) increase the relevancy of traditional MEZs in the modern battlespace, allowing them to address problems associated with cross-domain and multidomain capabilities. The growth of adversary capabilities provides a clear rationale for the implementation of DRZs through all levels of force application within the competition continuum

Effect of Like-Sexed Siblings on Crown Dimensions

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66997/2/10.1177_00220345770560073001.pd