Caveat Vendor: A Call to Reform the Scope of Rights of Withdrawal for Off-Premises Contracts Under U.S. Consumer Protection Laws with Respect to the Auction of Art

As sales of art at auction become increasingly popular and accessible, an overlooked consumer right may cause sellers of art to get “burned.” At its core, the auction process is intended to establish the price of a difficult-to-value object of art, therefore, the underlying philosophy of an auction is that sales are final. However, cooling-off rules in U.S. off-premises contracts are broad enough that auction house contracts can potentially fall within the ambit of these rules, giving rise to the consumer’s right to cancel the contract. Arguably, permitting consumers to cancel in remorse undermines the premise of an auction and may be detrimental to the market value of the artwork, the auctioneer’s business, and by extension the consumer. Cooling-off rules are ineffective in the context of art auctions because these rules were not drafted with an understanding of the mechanics of the auction process or the characteristics of the art market, including the subjective value of art. In fact, applying these rules to art transactions would be consumer protection overreach. These rules were designed to redress high pressure sales techniques used by door-to-door salesmen who cornered vulnerable consumers at home. By contrast, the relationship between an auction house and a consignor or winning bidder is very different: the balance of bargaining power favors the consumer. Further, for the auction process to be effective, the consumer cannot be permitted to walk away from the sale out of remorse. Despite some ambiguity in the U.S. legal framework, it is important to not assume that these cooling-off rules do not apply to auction house contracts. Such a mistake could extend the prescribed cooling-off period indefinitely, thus aggravating the costs of administering returns. Ultimately, the art world will be handicapped by the uncertainty of the application of these rules, therefore, the time for reform is now. It is upon stakeholders in the artworld, who have industry expertise that regulators and legislators are unlikely to have, to proactively petition the Federal Trade Commission to develop new approaches to the right to withdraw as it relates to art transactions

Theatrical Scenic Design: Creating the Physical World of the Play

Scenic design is an important component of any theatrical production as almost every production will have some form of a set, however minimal. Scenery can be abstract, photo-realistic, or anywhere in between. The primary function of the scenic design is to provide the audience with some context of location(s) for the theatrical work. However, the most important element of any scenic design is to impart a point of view about the story and the world of the play, sharing an emotional and textural experience to the production – Are there moments of surprise, something that suddenly appears that wasn’t previously there? Does the physical world of the play transform to reveal new layers to the story? As a scenic designer, you must be creative, innovative and visionary all while working within the director’s vision. Additionally, scenic designers must understand how to take their artistic vision and make it into a reality through the work executed by the scene shop staff and artisans. For the 10 th Annual Faculty Research & Creative Activities Symposium, I will share my design process from page-to-stage, and present two contrasting examples of my scenic design work from the past year – Kate DiCamillo’s The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane adapted for the stage by Dwayne Hartford at Filament Theatre in Portage Park, and Fulfillment Center by Abe Koogler at A Red Orchid Theatre in Old Town. Afterwards, I will lead the participants in a short design exercise I use in order to “find my way in” to the story

Metamaterial metal-based bolometers

We demonstrate metamaterial metal-based bolometers, which take advantage of resonant absorption in that a spectral and/or polarization filter can be built into the bolometer. Our proof-of-principle gold-nanostructure-based devices operate around 1.5 \mum wavelength and exhibit room-temperature time constants of about 134 \mus. The ultimate detectivity is limited by Johnson noise, enabling room-temperature detection of 1 nW light levels within 1 Hz bandwidth. Graded bolometer arrays might allow for integrated spectrometers with several octaves bandwidth without the need for gratings or prisms and for integrated polarization analysis without external polarization optics

Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians: Is There Still a Disconnect Between Professional Education and Professional Responsibilities

In 1993, based on the proficiencies for bibliographic instruction librarians (1986), Diana Shonrock and Craig Mulder investigated if and where librarians were acquiring these proficiencies. In 2007, ACRL approved a revised set of proficiencies: Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators. The authors recreated the 1993 study, using the revised set of proficiencies. Librarians find the new set of proficiencies to be more relevant to their jobs than the older set of proficiencies; however, they are still most likely to acquire the proficiencies primarily outside their library school education

Place leadership and regional economic development: a framework for cross-regional analysis

This paper examines the leadership of places – cities, regions, communities – in Australia, Finland, Germany, Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom and explores the capacity of vignettes to generate new, theoretical and empirical insights. It uses vignettes to identify the features of place leadership evident in 12 case studies across six nations. The research finds significant commonalities in place leadership with respect to the importance attached to boundary spanning, the role of government officials in responding to the prospect of regional decline or growth and how the nature of the challenge confronting a locality determines the adequacy of the response

A prospective observational study of mycophenolate mofetil treatment in progressive diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis of recent onset.

OBJECTIVE: A prospective observational study of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) treatment in patients with diffuse progressive cutaneous systemic sclerosis (SSc) of recent onset. METHODS: Twenty-five previously untreated consecutive patients with recent-onset (\u3c 24 mo) diffuse progressive cutaneous SSc received MMF as the only disease-modifying therapy. Modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) and affected body surface area (BSA) were compared from initiation of MMF to study end. Pulmonary function tests performed at the same institution before therapy and at study end were available in 15 patients. Histopathology and real-time PCR assessment of fibrosis-related gene expression were performed before and after treatment in skin biopsies from 3 patients. RESULTS: At 18.2 ± 8.73 months of MMF therapy (median 2000 mg/day) the mRSS decreased from 24.56 ± 8.62 to 14.52 ± 10.9 (p = 0.0004) and the affected BSA from 36% ± 16% to 14% ± 13.3% (p = 0.00001). Pulmonary function tests remained stable from initiation of MMF to the end of the study. Skin histopathology showed a remarkable reduction in accumulation of fibrotic tissue. Real-time PCR of skin biopsies demonstrated a marked decrease in expression of fibrosis-related genes. CONCLUSION: Patients with diffuse progressive cutaneous SSc of recent onset treated with MMF experienced marked improvement in skin involvement and stabilization of pulmonary function. Skin biopsies from 3 patients demonstrated histopathological improvement and decreased expression of fibrosis-related genes

Moment tensor inversions of icequakes on Gornergletscher, Switzerland

We have determined seismic source mechanisms for shallow and intermediate-depth icequake clusters recorded on the glacier Gornergletscher, Switzerland, during the summers of 2004 and 2006. The selected seismic events are part of a large data set of over 80,000 seismic events acquired with a dense seismic network deployed in order to study the yearly rapid drainage of Gornersee lake, a nearby ice-marginal lake. Using simple frequency and distance scaling and Green’s functions for a homogeneous half-space, we calculated moment tensor solutions for icequakes with M_w-1.5 using a full-waveform inversion method usually applied to moderate seismic events (M_w>4) recorded at local to regional distances (≈50–700 km). Inversions from typical shallow events are shown to represent tensile crack openings. This explains well the dominating Rayleigh waves and compressive first motions observed at all recording seismograms. As these characteristics can be observed in most icequake signals, we believe that the vast majority of icequakes recorded in the 2 yr is due to tensile faulting, most likely caused by surface crevasse openings. We also identified a shallow cluster with somewhat atypical waveforms in that they show less dominant Rayleigh waves and quadrantal radiation patterns of first motions. Their moment tensors are dominated by a large double-couple component, which is strong evidence for shear faulting. Although less than a dozen such icequakes have been identified, this is a substantial result as it shows that shear faulting in glacier ice is generally possible even in the absence of extreme flow changes such as during glacier surges. A third source of icequakes was located at 100 m depth. These sources can be represented by tensile crack openings. Because of the high-hydrostatic pressure within the ice at these depths, these events are most likely related to the presence of water lenses that reduce the effective stress to allow for tensile faulting