Rule 15C2-12: A Flawed Regulatory Framework Creates Pitfalls for Municipal Issuers

Despite the increasing growth and complexity of the municipal bond market, it remains subject to minimal regulation. State regulation is non-uniform, and industry custom requires only voluntary disclosure. Although municipal issuers are subject to the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, they are exempt from the registration and disclosure requirements of the Acts. SEC Rule 15c2-12 and its amendments impose an initial disclosure requirement, periodic disclosure and secondary market reporting. The regulatory framework provided by Rule 15c2-12, however, is insufficient for both issuers and investors. This Article examines the disclosure requirements that issuers face in today\u27s municipal bond market

TAKING CHARGE 2016: A Study of the Strategic Budgeting Priorities of the Residents of Lincoln, Nebraska

This report presents the results of the 2016 Taking Charge initiative sponsored by the City of Lincoln. This initiative included an online survey and a half-day, face-to-face, Community Conversation. Most previous Taking Charge activities have focused more narrowly on the immediate concerns of an impending budget proposal (e.g. which specific programs should be funded or discontinued to maintain a balanced budget). This year’s efforts also focused on specific items relevant to the City’s future budget policy priorities. As usual, residents were also given the opportunity to rate the City’s performance and City officials on a variety of performance characteristics. A number of important findings were identified from an examination of more than 2,300 survey responses and the input provided by 58 participants in the Community Conversation. These findings included the following: Current Priorities • With regard to current priorities, the survey and the Community Conversation revealed consistent support for in-home services for seniors, neighborhood snow removal, and neighborhood swimming pools as participants’ top three rated and ranked priorities. • A total of 46% of those answering the question about how to pay for services that the budget would not cover indicated the City should raise taxes. An additional 10% of respondents indicated the City should both cut other programs and raise taxes. The remainder of respondents indicated a preference for balancing the budget. About 23% indicated that preference by stating they balanced the budget during the exercise; 22% indicated wishing to cut programs other than those listed in the exercise. • The least prioritized program, and most recommended for cutting, was parking and abandoned vehicle enforcement. The programs next in line for potential cuts were non-injury traffic accident reporting, the health information and referral call center, and one day of library service. These priorities were consistently reflected in both the survey and Community Conversation results. • Reasons for prioritizing some programs over others included consideration of the number of persons affected by a program; how the program was perceived as affecting quality of life, safety, and the economy; and the extent to which the program served vulnerable or underserved populations. Future Priorities • Regarding future priorities, survey respondents rated and ranked parks and recreation capital replacement and repair as most important, followed by the construction of the south beltway, followed by StarTran service expansion. • Community Conversation participants were less enthusiastic about parks and more supportive of StarTran and the South Beltway construction future priorities. This was not because the Community Conversation elicited new views undermining support for parks. Both before and after the Community Conversation, only 15% of attendees chose parks and recreation capital replacement and repair as their top priority. It seems that there were simply fewer parks supporters at the Community Conversation than there were among survey respondents. • There was an increase in support for the StarTran expansion over the course of the Community Conversation. Prior to the small group conversations, 32% of attendees chose StarTran as their most important future priority. After the small group conversations, 43% chose StarTran as their top priority. • Consistently, the lowest future priority was golf capital maintenance and repair. This sentiment was expressed by both survey respondents and Community Conversation participants. When given additional options for funding golf capital needs, the preference was for options that would not use City general fund dollars (e.g., fundraising or raising of golf fees). • Reasons for prioritizing some programs over others reflected similar values as those used to evaluate current priorities. In addition, residents considered the overall costs and benefits of programs and whether they believed other funding sources could or could not cover a given program. City Performance Ratings • The City had seen a measurable increase in its performance ratings between 2012 and 2015, according to volunteer (non-random) survey respondents. This increase continued between 2015-2016. This year’s survey was not a random-sample survey and cannot be generalized to Lincoln as a whole. The observed increase in positive perceptions could be due to more persons with positive attitudes toward City government visiting the survey each year, or to improvements in public perceptions, or to some combination of both factors. • Open-ended comments about City performance suggested that people have differing opinions about the Mayor’s office, the City Council, and City employees. Comments also quite frequently mentioned roads and the need for specific improvements. While most of the comments mentioning taxes were made in order to express disapproval of raising taxes, some comments argued for taxes in order to cover valued services. • The City has consistently been rated lowest with regards to fair treatment of all areas of town. Open-ended comments reflecting feelings about fairness indicated that a number of people feel that more wealthy neighborhoods are treated with favoritism and receive more or better services. Others commented that neighborhoods affected by certain decisions need to have say in those decisions

Rule 15C2-12: A Flawed Regulatory Framework Creates Pitfalls for Municipal Issuers

This article examines the disclosure requirements that issuers face in today’s municipal bond market. Previous attention has focused on the failure of Rule 15c2-12 and its amendments to protect investors, due to its inherent inadequacies. This article explores the implications for issuers of the inadequacy of this regulation. The article argues that the existing system of state, federal and voluntary regulation is inadequate and creates numerous pitfalls for issuers— specifically, that the non-specificity weaknesses of Rule 15c2-12 impose burdens that issuers must overcome. First, this article outlines the regulatory environment of the municipal bond market, and highlights gaps in regulation. Second, this article addresses how disclosure is beneficial to issuers. Third, this article addresses how the inadequate disclosure scheme dictated by Rule 15c2-12 affects issuers. Finally, this article recommends that the bifurcated nature of security regulation, with one scheme imposed on issuers of corporate securities and another imposed on municipal issuers, be abandoned

Altered Microstructural Caudate Integrity in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder but Not Traumatic Brain Injury

Objective: Given the high prevalence and comorbidity of combat-related PTSD and TBI in Veterans, it is often difficult to disentangle the contributions of each disorder. Examining these pathologies separately may help to understand the neurobiological basis of memory impairment in PTSD and TBI independently of each other. Thus, we investigated whether a) PTSD and TBI are characterized by subcortical structural abnormalities by examining diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics and volume and b) if these abnormalities were specific to PTSD versus TBI. Method We investigated whether individuals with PTSD or TBI display subcortical structural abnormalities in memory regions by examining DTI metrics and volume of the hippocampus and caudate in three groups of Veterans: Veterans with PTSD, Veterans with TBI, and Veterans with neither PTSD nor TBI (Veteran controls). Results: While our results demonstrated no macrostructural differences among the groups in these regions, there were significant alterations in microstructural DTI indices in the caudate for the PTSD group but not the TBI group compared to Veteran controls. Conclusions: The result of increased mean, radial, and axial diffusivity, and decreased fractional anisotropy in the caudate in absence of significant volume atrophy in the PTSD group suggests the presence of subtle abnormalities evident only at a microstructural level. The caudate is thought to play a role in the physiopathology of PTSD, and the habit-like behavioral features of the disorder could be due to striatal-dependent habit learning mechanisms. Thus, DTI appears to be a vital tool to investigate subcortical pathology, greatly enhancing the ability to detect subtle brain changes in complex disorders

Sotigalimab and/or nivolumab with chemotherapy in first-line metastatic pancreatic cancer: clinical and immunologic analyses from the randomized phase 2 PRINCE trial

Chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy has improved the treatment of certain solid tumors, but effective regimens remain elusive for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). We conducted a randomized phase 2 trial evaluating the efficacy of nivolumab (nivo; anti-PD-1) and/or sotigalimab (sotiga; CD40 agonistic antibody) with gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel (chemotherapy) in patients with first-line metastatic PDAC (NCT03214250). In 105 patients analyzed for efficacy, the primary endpoint of 1-year overall survival (OS) was met for nivo/chemo (57.7%, P = 0.006 compared to historical 1-year OS of 35%, n = 34) but was not met for sotiga/chemo (48.1%, P = 0.062, n = 36) or sotiga/nivo/chemo (41.3%, P = 0.223, n = 35). Secondary endpoints were progression-free survival, objective response rate, disease control rate, duration of response and safety. Treatment-related adverse event rates were similar across arms. Multi-omic circulating and tumor biomarker analyses identified distinct immune signatures associated with survival for nivo/chemo and sotiga/chemo. Survival after nivo/chemo correlated with a less suppressive tumor microenvironment and higher numbers of activated, antigen-experienced circulating T cells at baseline. Survival after sotiga/chemo correlated with greater intratumoral CD4 T cell infiltration and circulating differentiated CD4 T cells and antigen-presenting cells. A patient subset benefitting from sotiga/nivo/chemo was not identified. Collectively, these analyses suggest potential treatment-specific correlates of efficacy and may enable biomarker-selected patient populations in subsequent PDAC chemoimmunotherapy trials

ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries.

This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of "big data" (i.e., genetic and epigenetic data, multimodal MRI, and electroencephalography data). These international efforts have yielded the largest neuroimaging studies to date in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More recent ENIGMA WGs have formed to study anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleep and insomnia, eating disorders, irritability, brain injury, antisocial personality and conduct disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Here, we summarize the first decade of ENIGMA's activities and ongoing projects, and describe the successes and challenges encountered along the way. We highlight the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings, offering the opportunity to identify brain systems involved in clinical syndromes across diverse samples and associated genetic, environmental, demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial factors

Systematic review and network meta-analysis with individual participant data on cord management at preterm birth (iCOMP): study protocol

Timing of cord clamping and other cord management strategies may improve outcomes at preterm birth. However, it is unclear whether benefits apply to all preterm subgroups. Previous and current trials compare various policies, including time-based or physiology-based deferred cord clamping, and cord milking. Individual participant data (IPD) enable exploration of different strategies within subgroups. Network meta-analysis (NMA) enables comparison and ranking of all available interventions using a combination of direct and indirect comparisons. (1) To evaluate the effectiveness of cord management strategies for preterm infants on neonatal mortality and morbidity overall and for different participant characteristics using IPD meta-analysis. (2) To evaluate and rank the effect of different cord management strategies for preterm births on mortality and other key outcomes using NMA. Systematic searches of Medline, Embase, clinical trial registries, and other sources for all ongoing and completed randomised controlled trials comparing cord management strategies at preterm birth (before 37 weeks' gestation) have been completed up to 13 February 2019, but will be updated regularly to include additional trials. IPD will be sought for all trials; aggregate summary data will be included where IPD are unavailable. First, deferred clamping and cord milking will be compared with immediate clamping in pairwise IPD meta-analyses. The primary outcome will be death prior to hospital discharge. Effect differences will be explored for prespecified participant subgroups. Second, all identified cord management strategies will be compared and ranked in an IPD NMA for the primary outcome and the key secondary outcomes. Treatment effect differences by participant characteristics will be identified. Inconsistency and heterogeneity will be explored. Ethics approval for this project has been granted by the University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (2018/886). Results will be relevant to clinicians, guideline developers and policy-makers, and will be disseminated via publications, presentations and media releases. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) (ACTRN12619001305112) and International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO, CRD42019136640)

COVID-19 reopening strategies at the county level in the face of uncertainty: Multiple Models for Outbreak Decision Support

Policymakers make decisions about COVID-19 management in the face of considerable uncertainty. We convened multiple modeling teams to evaluate reopening strategies for a mid- sized county in the United States, in a novel process designed to fully express scientific uncertainty while reducing linguistic uncertainty and cognitive biases. For the scenarios considered, the consensus from 17 distinct models was that a second outbreak will occur within 6 months of reopening, unless schools and non-essential workplaces remain closed. Up to half the population could be infected with full workplace reopening; non-essential business closures reduced median cumulative infections by 82%. Intermediate reopening interventions identified no win-win situations; there was a trade-off between public health outcomes and duration of workplace closures. Aggregate results captured twice the uncertainty of individual models, providing a more complete expression of risk for decision-making purposes.Integrative Biolog

ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries

This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of "big data" (i.e., genetic and epigenetic data, multimodal MRI, and electroencephalography data). These international efforts have yielded the largest neuroimaging studies to date in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More recent ENIGMA WGs have formed to study anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleep and insomnia, eating disorders, irritability, brain injury, antisocial personality and conduct disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Here, we summarize the first decade of ENIGMA's activities and ongoing projects, and describe the successes and challenges encountered along the way. We highlight the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings, offering the opportunity to identify brain systems involved in clinical syndromes across diverse samples and associated genetic, environmental, demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial factors