Ethical Issues Arising When a Lawyer Leaves a Firm: Restrictions on Practice

Restriction on covenants not to compete have been a long-time feature of legal practice. Rules prohibiting law firms from restricting lawyers\u27 ability to practice or imposing penalties on lawyers that leave a firm attempt to balance the law firm\u27s interest in survival in a competitive market with the countervailing interests of attorney mobility, and protecting clients\u27 choice of counsel. Restrictions on covenants not to compete should be vigorously enforced, and the exception that allows for the forfeiture of retirement benefits by attorneys that choose to leave a firm should be narrowly applied to only those funds to which the departing attorney is not already entitled

Ethical Issues Arising When a Lawyer Leaves a Firm: Restrictions on Practice

Restriction on covenants not to compete have been a long-time feature of legal practice. Rules prohibiting law firms from restricting lawyers\u27 ability to practice or imposing penalties on lawyers that leave a firm attempt to balance the law firm\u27s interest in survival in a competitive market with the countervailing interests of attorney mobility, and protecting clients\u27 choice of counsel. Restrictions on covenants not to compete should be vigorously enforced, and the exception that allows for the forfeiture of retirement benefits by attorneys that choose to leave a firm should be narrowly applied to only those funds to which the departing attorney is not already entitled

Development of a Yeast Transcription System Using a Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Enzyme Extract and a Drosophila Melanogaster Histidine tRNA Gene

This research problem is directed toward the isolation of an enzyme from the yeast Saccharomyces pombe which endonucleolytically processes the 3\u27 terminus of transfer ribonucleic acids. Plasmids containing tRNA genes were a gift from Dieter Soll, Yale University Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. In order to provide increasing amounts of the cloned gene, the bacterium Escherichia coli HB101 was transformed using standard transformation procedures and methods. The transformed bacteria were cultured, and the plasmids amplified using chloramphenicol. These bacteria were then lysed and cesium chloride-ethidium bromide gradients were run to isolate plasmids containing the desired genes. The plasmids were then used in a transcription assay following the procedure of Klekamp and Weil (1). The purpose of this transcription was to synthesize precursor tRNA genes which would serve as substrates for the detection of S. pombe processing nucleases. The synthesized [α – 32p] labeled precursor tRNAs were purified using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Autoradiographic techniques were employed to identify the location of the precursor on the gel. The precursor was then eluted from the gel. The initial goal of this thesis project is to obtain sufficient quantities of precursor tRNAs to use in the detection of 3\u27 processing nucleases. Following detection, the processing nucleases will be purified by standard enzyme purification techniques

The Marketing Of Body Image: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of Gender Effects In The U.S. And China

Recently, there has been increasing controversy about the use of extremely thin female models and extremely muscular male models in advertising and fashion campaigns.  While this practice has been studied extensively over time, it is again in the forefront as models with low body mass indexes are being kept off runways around the world.  While most consumers understand that these images are nearly unattainable, they do tend to compare themselves with these idealized images resulting in lower satisfaction with their own bodies and lower self-esteem.  While past research most often examines these feelings with respect to women, there is little research on the effect on men and their self-image.  Also, while this has primarily been a “western” problem, it is becoming a problem in “eastern” cultures as western images and advertising campaigns proliferate.  This study examines both U.S. and Chinese men and women’s perceptions of body image.  The findings show cultural differences between the U.S. and Chinese males and females.  The U.S. women were the most affected, while there was no difference by gender between the Chinese men and women.  However, as the Chinese culture becomes more influenced by western ideals, this trend in body image dissatisfaction should increase

Stability of empathy among undergraduate medical students: a longitudinal study at one UK medical school.

BACKGROUND: Empathy is important to patient care. The prevailing view is that empathy declines during university medical education. The significance of that decline has been debated.This paper reports the findings in respect of two questions relating to university medical education: 1. Do men and women medical students differ in empathy? 2. Does empathy change amongst men and women over time? METHODS: The medical course at the University of Cambridge comprises two components: Core Science (Years 1-3) and Clinical (Years 4-6). Data were obtained from repeated questionnaire surveys of medical students from each component over a period of four years: 2007-2010. Participation in the study was voluntary.Empathy was measured using two subscales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index: IRI-EC (affective empathy) and IRI-PT (cognitive empathy). We analysed data separately for men and women from the Core Science and Clinical components. We undertook missing value analyses using logistic regression separately, for each measure of empathy, to examine non-response bias. We used Student's t-tests to examine gender differences and linear mixed effects regression analyses to examine changes over time. To assess the influence of outliers, we repeated the linear mixed effects regression analyses having excluded them. RESULTS: Women displayed statistically significant higher mean scores than men for affective empathy in all 6 years of medical training and for cognitive empathy in 4 out of 6 years - Years 1 and 2 (Core Science component) and Years 4 and 5 (Clinical component).Amongst men, affective empathy declined slightly during both Core Science and Clinical components. Although statistically significant, both of these changes were extremely small. Cognitive empathy was unchanged during either component. Amongst women, neither affective empathy nor cognitive empathy changed during either component of the course.Analysis following removal of outliers showed a statistically significant slight increase in men's cognitive empathy during the Core Science component and slight decline in women's affective empathy during the Clinical component. Again, although statistically significant, these changes were extremely small and do not influence the study's overall conclusions. CONCLUSIONS: Amongst medical students at the University of Cambridge, women are more empathetic than men (a generally observed phenomenon). Men's affective empathy declined slightly across the course overall, whilst women's affective empathy showed no change. Neither men nor women showed any change in cognitive empathy during the course. Although statistically significant, the size of such changes as occurred makes their practical significance questionable. Neither men nor women appear to become meaningfully less empathetic during their medical education at the University of Cambridge.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Good Teaching Starts Here: Applied Learning at the Graduate Teaching Assistant Institute

Increasingly, graduate teaching assistants serve as the primary instructors in undergraduate courses, yet research has shown that training and development for these teaching assistants is often lacking in programs throughout the United States and Canada. Providing mentoring and skill development opportunities for graduate teaching assistants is vital, as many will become the next generation of faculty. This paper discusses the literature on effective training programs, which underscores the importance of consistent feedback from mentors, intrinsic motivation, and practical applications. Afterwards, we examine an existing training program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Specifically, we focus on an institute for teaching assistants that helps graduate students understand applied learning as an effective pedagogical modality and helps them implement applied learning lesson plans tailored to their disciplines. Suggestions for strengthening training programs are discussed.   Il est de plus en plus courant que des assistants à l’enseignement soient chargés de donner des cours de premier cycle universitaire. Cependant, des études ont démontré le manque de formation et de progrès de ces assistants à l’enseignement, aux États-Unis comme au Canada. Il est donc indispensable d’offrir des occasions de mentorat et de perfectionnement à ces assistants, puisqu’un grand nombre d’entre eux deviendront la prochaine cohorte de professeurs. Cet article traite des recherches effectuées sur les programmes de formation efficaces, ce qui souligne l’importance des commentaires des mentors, de la motivation et de la mise en pratique. Ensuite, nous étudions l’évolution d’un programme de formation à l’Université de Wilmington de la Caroline du Nord. Notre étude se concentre sur un institut pour les assistants à l’enseignement, qui leur montre que l’apprentissage appliqué est un outil pédagogique efficace. Par la suite, cet institut les aide à mettre en œuvre un plan de leçon d’apprentissage adapté à leur discipline. L’article s’achève par des suggestions d’amélioration des programmes de formation. &nbsp

Accelerated evolution of 3'avian FOXE1 genes, and thyroid and feather specific expression of chicken FoxE1

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The forkhead transcription factor gene E1 (FOXE1) plays an important role in regulation of thyroid development, palate formation and hair morphogenesis in mammals. However, avian <it>FOXE1 </it>genes have not been characterized and as such, codon evolution of FOXE1 orthologs in a broader evolutionary context of mammals and birds is not known.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study we identified the avian <it>FOXE1 </it>gene in chicken, turkey and zebra finch, all of which consist of a single exon. Chicken and zebra finch <it>FOXE1 </it>are uniquely located on the sex-determining Z chromosome. In situ hybridization shows that chicken <it>FOXE1 </it>is specifically expressed in the developing thyroid. Its expression is initiated at the placode stage and is maintained during the stages of vesicle formation and follicle primordia. Based on this expression pattern, we propose that avian <it>FOXE1 </it>may be involved in regulating the evagination and morphogenesis of thyroid. Chicken <it>FOXE1 </it>is also expressed in growing feathers. Sequence analysis identified two microdeletions in the avian <it>FOXE1 </it>genes, corresponding to the loss of a transferable repression domain and an engrailed homology motif 1 (Eh1) C-terminal to the forkhead domain. The avian <it>FOXE1 </it>proteins exhibit a significant sequence divergence of the C-terminus compared to those of amphibian and mammalian <it>FOXE1</it>. The codon evolution analysis (dN/dS) of <it>FOXE1 </it>shows a significantly increased dN/dS ratio in the avian lineages, consistent with either a relaxed purifying selection or positive selection on a few residues in avian FOXE1 evolution. Further site specific analysis indicates that while relaxed purifying selection is likely to be a predominant cause of accelerated evolution at the 3'-region of avian FOXE1, a few residues might have evolved under positive selection.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We have identified three avian <it>FOXE1 </it>genes based on synteny and sequence similarity as well as characterized the expression pattern of the chicken <it>FOXE1 </it>gene during development. Our evolutionary analyses suggest that while a relaxed purifying selection is likely to be the dominant force driving accelerated evolution of avian <it>FOXE1 </it>genes, a few residues may have evolved adaptively. This study provides a basis for future genetic and comparative biochemical studies of FOXE1.</p

Social Networking Tools in a University Setting: A Students Perspective

ABSTRACT As Professors, we are challenged to reach ever-changing cohorts of college students as they flow through our classes and our lives. Technological advancements happen daily and we need to decide which, if any, to incorporate into our classrooms. Our students constantly check Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other online social networks. Should we be posting course materials to these sites, or using them as communication vehicles? We asked 236 students in two states if they believe there is a use for these sites in the learning process. The answer was a definite NO. Students want to keep their social roles and their student roles separate

A new Method for determining Compound Specific Carbon Isotope of Chlorinated Solvents in Porewater

A new method for the extraction of chlorinated solvents (CSs) from porewater with dimethylacetamide (DMA) used as a solvent and the determination of δ13C by gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-IRMS) with solid-phase microextraction (SPME) are presented. This method was used for the determination of δ13C of chloroethenes and chloromethanes. The extraction of the CSs from porewater with DMA led to a minimal loss of mass of solvent and chlorinated compounds. The accuracy of the method was verified with the analysis of the pure injected compounds using elemental analyser - isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA-IRMS). It has been effectively applied in a study area in saturated soil samples of a pollutant source zone of perchloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE). The limit of quantification of the new method was 0.034 µg/g for PCE and TCE for 10-20 g of soil sample. This new method allows for compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) of CSs in porewater, which can be beneficial in sites where the identification of contamination sources and the behaviour of the contaminants are not clear