State Motor Vehicle Franchise Legislation: A Survey and Due Process Challenge to Board Composition

This Note briefly traces the rise of the franchise as the primary automobile distribution device, the problems that confronted early dealers, and their subsequent inability to secure judicial relief. After examining dealers\u27 efforts in the legislatures and the resulting statutes this Note points out several infirmities that exist regarding state automobile franchise regulation. The Note then focuses upon a particular constitutional challenge to state automobile franchise legislation. Finally, the Note concludes that such legislation is either genuinely ineffective or leads to the anomalous result that dealers assume more powerful positions with respect to their manufacturers through unconstitutional means. Based upon these conclusions, the Note proposes reform and/or abolition of state and federal regulation of manufacturer-dealer franchise relationships

Prediction of skin penetration using machine learning methods

Improving predictions of the skin permeability coefficient is a difficult problem. It is also an important issue with the increasing use of skin patches as a means of drug delivery. In this work, we applyK-nearest-neighbour regression, single layer networks, mixture of experts and Gaussian processes to predict the permeability coefficient. We obtain a considerable improvement over the quantitative structureactivity relationship (QSARs) predictors. We show that using five features, which are molecular weight, solubility parameter, lipophilicity, the number of hydrogen bonding acceptor and donor groups, can produce better predictions than the one using only lipophilicity and the molecular weight. The Gaussian process regression with five compound features gives the best performance in this work

Benthic-Pelagic Coupling in Northern Gulf of Mexico Estuaries: Do Benthos Feed Directly on Phytoplankton?

Few of the dominant benthic taxa of the northern Gulf of Mexico feed directly on phytoplankton. Rather, most of them feed on near-bottom seston and detritus. This is in contrast to models for Chesapeake Bay and San Francisco Bay. We found that detritivores represented over 80% of the macrobenthic organisms and over 90% of the biomass in Gulf of Mexico estuaries. The paucity of benthos that consumed phytoplankton led us to hypothesize that macrobenthos in Gulf of Mexico estuaries had less effect on plankton communities than was documented in U.S. east coast and west coast estuaries, where benthic communities consumed much of the water-column production. We provided as evidence gut-contents analyses of dominant taxa, the feeding morphology of suspension feeders (especially clams), and the lack of vertical mixing or strong turbulent flow that is necessary for benthos to remove substantial portions of the phytoplankton

Contribution of Fdh3 and Glr1 to Glutathione Redox State, Stress Adaptation and Virulence in Candida albicans

Acknowledgments: We thank Aaron Mitchell and Dominique Sanglard for providing the C. albicans protein kinase and transposon mutant libraries, and Louise Walker for the strain CAMY203.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

NMR elastometry of fluid membranes in the mesoscopic regime

In solid-state 2H NMR of fluid lipid bilayers, quasielastic deformations at MHz frequencies are detected as a square-law dependence of the nuclear spin-lattice (R1Z) relaxation rates and order parameters (SCD). The signature square-law slope is found to decrease progressively with the mole fraction of cholesterol and with the acyl chain length, due to a stiffening of the membrane. The correspondence to thermal vesicle fluctuations and molecular dynamics simulations implies that a broad distribution of modes is present, ranging from the membrane size down to the molecular dimensions

17Beta-estradiol Increases Basal But not Bradykinin-stimulated Release of Active t-PA in Young Postmenopausal Women

Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition potentiates basal and bradykinin-stimulated tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) release to a greater extent in women than in men. This study tested the hypothesis that 17beta-estradiol enhances the effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition on t-PA release in young postmenopausal women. We conducted a double-blind, prospective, crossover study in 14 young postmenopausal women (mean age 48.2+/-2.3 years) who were randomized to receive 17beta-estradiol (1 mg/d) or matching placebo for 4 weeks. At the end of each treatment period, we measured the effect of intraarterial infusion of bradykinin, methacholine, and nitroprusside on forearm blood flow and net t-PA release, before and during intraarterial enalaprilat (0.33 microg/min/100 mL forearm volume). 17Beta-estradiol significantly reduced baseline venous plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 antigen (4.4+/-1.4 versus 10.4+/-2.5 ng/mL, P=0.001) and t-PA antigen (5.5+/-0.6 versus 7.5+/-1.3 ng/mL, P=0.022) compared with placebo. 17Beta-estradiol increased basal forearm vascular release of active t-PA compared with placebo (1.2+/-0.3 IU/mL/min versus 0.4+/-0.1 IU/mL/min respectively, P=0.032), without increasing t-PA antigen release (P=0.761). Enalaprilat significantly increased basal net t-PA antigen release (from -0.8+/-1.0 to 3.2+/-1.2 ng/min/100 mL, P=0.012), but not the release of active t-PA, during either placebo or 17beta-estradiol. Enalaprilat potentiated bradykinin-stimulated vasodilation and t-PA antigen and activity release similarly during placebo and 17beta-estradiol treatment. 17Beta-estradiol treatment does not alter the effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition on basal t-PA antigen or on bradykinin-stimulated t-PA antigen or activity release. 17Beta-estradiol increases basal release of active t-PA in young postmenopausal women, consistent with enhanced vascular fibrinolytic function

Effects of Farrowing Stall Layout and Number of Heat Lamps on Sow and Piglet Production Performance

Most farrowing facilities in the United States use stalls and heat lamps to improve sow and piglet productivity. This study investigated these factors by comparing production outcomes for three different farrowing stall layouts (traditional, expanded creep area, expanded sow area) and use of one or two heat lamps. Data were collected on 427 sows and their litters over one year. Results showed no statistical differences due to experimental treatment for any of the production metrics recorded, excluding percent stillborn. Parity one sows had fewer piglets born alive (p \u3c 0.001), lower percent mortality (p = 0.001) and over-lay (p = 0.003), and a greater number of piglets weaned (p \u3c 0.001) with lower average daily weight gain (ADG) (p \u3c 0.001) and more uniform litters (p = 0.001) as compared to higher parity sows. Farrowing turn, associated with group/seasonal changes, had a significant impact on most of the production metrics measured. Number of piglets born influenced the percent stillborn (p \u3c 0.001). Adjusted litter size had a significant impact on percent mortality (p \u3c 0.001), percent over-lay (p \u3c 0.001), and number of piglets weaned (p \u3c 0.001). As the number of piglets weaned per litter increased, both piglet ADG and litter uniformity decreased (p \u3c 0.001). This information can be used to guide producers in farrowing facility design