Despotism In New London, Connecticut? Or Economic Development Along the Thames River? Susette Kelo in Kelo v. New London asks the Supreme Court To Hold Economic Development Unconstitutional under the Public Use Doctrine

Byron Athenian... had his little garage where he used to fix cars. People would hang out there. The area had the Italian Dramatic Club and a Spanish church. This was like an oasis away from the rest of the city. These were doers, not drifters. --Philip Langdon, Eminent Domain Goes to Court, PLANNING, Apr. 2005, at 14. With these words, Richard Humphreville, a cabinetmaker who has operated a shop in the Fort Trumbull area in New London, Connecticut, for 22 years, described his neighborhood. But the City of New London and the New London Development Corporation (NLDC) had a different view of Fort Trumbull: "Twenty percent of the residential properties were vacant," said an attorney for the NLDC, Edward O'Connell. "It was not a thriving area." Id. When Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, announced its plans to build a $270 million facility in New London, the City and the NLDC decided to piggyback on this revitalization of the tax base. The City envisioned a new, 90-acre development project consisting of a 'Riverwalk,' offices, a hotel, and 'upscale' housing, and the City envisioned this project being built right where Richard Humphreville and his neighbors lived. Id. The problem inhered in the holdouts- those who refused to sell their land to New London, which would in turn sell the land to private developers, who would build the project. The City thought it had a solution: acting through the NLDC, it simply condemned the land, and thus created the impetus for a landmark case now before the Supreme Court, Kelo v. New London. Susette Kelo and eight of her neighbors argue that the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbids economic development in non-blighted neighborhoods like hers, because condemning the land in order to transfer it to a private party offends the 'public use' requirement of the Clause ("nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation"). The City and the NLDC argue that courts have always deferred to the decisions of local government in the exercise of eminent domain, and that to hold otherwise would be tantamount to legislation via judicial fiat. The following is an attempt to analyze the parties' claims and to suggest whose view the Court will find more sympathetic, as well as a conclusion as to whose view the Court should find more sympathetic.Master of City and Regional Plannin

Projected Utility of the Ready Set Return Application

Introduction: An application (app) that summarizes best practices may promote standardized care among clinicians treating patients during anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rehabilitation. The purpose of this study was to test the prototype of the Ready Set Return (RSR) app to determine receptiveness for use in clinical practice. Methods: Two mock patient cases were used to familiarize 19 physical therapists and athletic trainers with the RSR app. Then these participants provided feedback about the user experience, features, and content using Likert ratings and free-text fields through an online survey. Results: Most participants (89%-95%) would recommend the RSR app to others and noted that the app would allow them to stay up to date with current practice. Thematic analysis of free-text responses indicated that the app was easy to navigate and that evidence-based progressions and clinical milestones were useful in clinical practice. Users suggested enhancements that included adding patient access and specific treatment options. Discussion: Generalizable findings suggest that clinicians appreciated the details and images of specific tests and measures; automatic test scoring; and standardized benchmarks to progress care. Specific findings suggest the RSR app’s summary of evidence-informed practice may help standardize care, specifically for patients undergoing rehabilitation after ACL reconstruction. Conclusion: This subset of clinicians reacted positively to the prototype and felt that the RSR app would benefit their practice and patients. This feedback will guide the next iteration, advancing from a low-fidelity to high-fidelity prototype

Muscle Activation Differs between Three Different Knee Joint-Angle Positions during a Maximal Isometric Back Squat Exercise

The purpose of this study was to compare muscle activation of the lower limb muscles when performing a maximal isometric back squat exercise over three different positions. Fifteen young, healthy, resistance-trained men performed an isometric back squat at three knee joint angles (20∘, 90∘, and 140∘) in a randomized, counterbalanced fashion. Surface electromyography was used to measure muscle activation of the vastus lateralis (VL), vastus medialis (VM), rectus femoris (RF), biceps femoris (BF), semitendinosus (ST), and gluteusmaximus (GM). In general,muscle activity was the highest at 90∘ for the three quadricepsmuscles, yet differences in muscle activation between knee angles were muscle specific. Activity of the GM was significantly greater at 20∘ and 90∘ compared to 140∘.The BF and ST displayed similar activation at all joint angles. In conclusion, knee position altersmuscles activation of the quadriceps and gluteus maximus muscles. An isometric back squat at 90∘ generates the highest overall muscle activation, yet an isometric back squat at 140∘ generates the lowest overall muscle activation of the VL and GM only

Differential susceptibility of C57BL/6NCr and B6.Cg-Ptprca mice to commensal bacteria after whole body irradiation in translational bone marrow transplant studies

Abstract Background The mouse is an important and widely utilized animal model for bone marrow transplant (BMT) translational studies. Here, we document the course of an unexpected increase in mortality of congenic mice that underwent BMT. Methods Thirty five BMTs were analyzed for survival differences utilizing the Log Rank test. Affected animals were evaluated by physical examination, necropsy, histopathology, serology for antibodies to infectious disease, and bacterial cultures. Results Severe bacteremia was identified as the main cause of death. Gastrointestinal (GI) damage was observed in histopathology. The bacteremia was most likely caused by the translocation of bacteria from the GI tract and immunosuppression caused by the myeloablative irradiation. Variability in groups of animals affected was caused by increased levels of gamma and X-ray radiation and the differing sensitivity of the two nearly genetically identical mouse strains used in the studies. Conclusion Our retrospective analysis of thirty five murine BMTs performed in three different laboratories, identified C57BL/6NCr (Ly5.1) as being more radiation sensitive than B6.Cg-Ptprca/NCr (Ly5.2). This is the first report documenting a measurable difference in radiation sensitivity and its effects between an inbred strain of mice and its congenic counterpart eventually succumbing to sepsis after BMT.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112743/1/12967_2007_Article_240.pd

Planetary Construction Zones in Occultation: Discovery of an Extrasolar Ring System Transiting a Young Sun-like Star and Future Prospects for Detecting Eclipses by Circumsecondary and Circumplanetary Disks

The large relative sizes of circumstellar and circumplanetary disks imply that they might be seen in eclipse in stellar light curves. We estimate that a survey of ~10^4 young (~10 Myr old) post-accretion pre-MS stars monitored for ~10 years should yield at least a few deep eclipses from circumplanetary disks and disks surrounding low mass companion stars. We present photometric and spectroscopic data for a pre-MS K5 star (1SWASP J140747.93-394542.6), a newly discovered ~0.9 Msun member of the ~16 Myr-old Upper Cen-Lup subgroup of Sco-Cen at a kinematic distance of 128 pc. SuperWASP and ASAS light curves for this star show a remarkably long, deep, and complex eclipse event centered on 29 April 2007. At least 5 multi-day dimming events of >0.5 mag are identified, with a >3.3 mag deep eclipse bracketed by two pairs of ~1 mag eclipses symmetrically occurring +-12 days and +-26 days before and after. Hence, significant dimming of the star was taking place on and off over at least a ~54 day period in 2007, and a strong >1 mag dimming event occurred over a ~12 day span. We place a firm lower limit on the period of 850 days (i.e. the orbital radius of the eclipser must be >1.7 AU and orbital velocity must be <22 km/s). The shape of the light curve is similar to the lop-sided eclipses of the Be star EE Cep. We suspect that this new star is being eclipsed by a low-mass object orbited by a dense inner disk, girded by at least 3 dusty rings of lower optical depth. Between these rings are at least two annuli of near-zero optical depth (i.e. gaps), possibly cleared out by planets or moons, depending on the nature of the secondary. For possible periods in the range 2.33-200 yr, the estimated total ring mass is ~8-0.4 Mmoon (if the rings have optical opacity similar to Saturn's rings), and the edge of the outermost detected ring has orbital radius ~0.4-0.09 AU.Comment: Astronomical Journal, in press, 13 figure

Amyloid-β(1-42) Rapidly Forms Protofibrils and Oligomers by Distinct Pathways in Low Concentrations of Sodium Dodecylsulfate

Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) is characterized by large numbers of senile plaques in the brain that consist of fibrillar aggregates of 40- and 42-residue amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides. However, the degree of dementia in AD correlates better with the concentration of soluble Aβ species assayed biochemically than with histologically determined plaque counts, and several investigators now propose that soluble aggregates of Aβ are the neurotoxic agents that cause memory deficits and neuronal loss. These endogenous aggregates are minor components in brain extracts from AD patients and transgenic mice that express human Aβ, but several species have been detected by gel electrophoresis in sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) and isolated by size exclusion chromatography (SEC). Endogenous Aβ aggregation is stimulated at cellular interfaces rich in lipid rafts, and anionic micelles that promote Aβ aggregation in vitro may be good models of these interfaces. We previously found that micelles formed in dilute SDS (2 mM) promote Aβ(1−40) fiber formation by supporting peptide interaction on the surface of a single micelle complex. In contrast, here we report that monomeric Aβ(1−42) undergoes an immediate conversion to a predominant β-structured conformation in 2 mM SDS which does not proceed to amyloid fibrils. The conformational change is instead rapidly followed by the near quantitative conversion of the 4 kDa monomer SDS gel band to 8−14 kDa bands consistent with dimers through tetramers. Removal of SDS by dialysis gave a shift in the predominant SDS gel bands to 30−60 kDa. While these oligomers resemble the endogenous aggregates, they are less stable. In particular, they do not elute as discrete species on SEC, and they are completed disaggregated by boiling in 1% SDS. It appears that endogenous oligomeric Aβ aggregates are stabilized by undefined processes that have not yet been incorporated into in vitro Aβ aggregation procedures