Full Faith and Credit for Divorce Decrees -- Present Doctrine and Possible Changes

The recognition of divorce decrees has perhaps created more concern in the United States than any other legal issue. At least this is a matter that has frequently been the subject of public discussions and articles in national magazines in the last decade and a half. The laymen who have participated in these events probably have not realized the technical legal problems involved. However, they have at least by their discussions and writings demonstrated that migratory divorces and respect for them raise problems of national significance. Moreover, there is an abundance of legal articles by judges, lawyers, law teachers and law students dealing with the validity and extra-territorial respect to be accorded foreign decrees of divorce. Both favorable and unfavorable reactions to the present status of divorce law are to be found in these articles. But even with all of this wide-spread interest the Supreme Court of the United States has taken the most prominent role. Not only has much of the Court\u27s time been devoted to extra-state credit for divorce decrees, but the burden of prescribing policies and criteria has been shouldered by this tribunal. It is the purpose of this article to consider this problem which has been the subject of such widespread interest and concern. Attention will first be focused on some of the policies which appear to underlie the rules that have been developed to govern full faith and credit for decrees of divorce. Moreover, a review of the working rules which are now followed will be given, as well as the bases upon which full faith and credit is given or withheld. In the later portions of the article alternative approaches to certain problems will be discussed, as well as their feasibility. And lastly, mention will be made of the ways in which these possibilities could be put into effect

Outcome of Diagnostic Tests Using Samples from Patients with Culture-Proven Human Monocytic Ehrlichiosis: Implications for Surveillance

We describe the concordance among results from various laboratory tests using samples derived from nine culture-proven cases of human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME) caused by Ehrlichia chaffeensis. A class-specific indirect immunofluorescence assay for immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG, using E. chaffeensis antigen, identified 44 and 33% of the isolation-confirmed HME patients on the basis of samples obtained at initial clinical presentation, respectively; detection of morulae in blood smears was similarly insensitive (22% positive). PCR amplifications of ehrlichial DNA targeting the 16S rRNA gene, the variable-length PCR target gene, and the groESL operon were positive for whole blood specimens obtained from all patients at initial presentation. As most case definitions of HME require a serologic response with compatible illness for a categorization of even probable disease, PCR would have been required to confirm the diagnosis of HME in all nine of these patients without the submission of a convalescent-phase serum sample. These data suggest that many, if not most, cases of HME in patients who present early in the course of the disease may be missed and underscore the limitations of serologically based surveillance systems

Tuberculosis control in South African gold mines: mathematical modeling of a trial of community-wide isoniazid preventive therapy.

A recent major cluster randomized trial of screening, active disease treatment, and mass isoniazid preventive therapy for 9 months during 2006-2011 among South African gold miners showed reduced individual-level tuberculosis incidence but no detectable population-level impact. We fitted a dynamic mathematical model to trial data and explored 1) factors contributing to the lack of population-level impact, 2) the best-achievable impact if all implementation characteristics were increased to the highest level achieved during the trial ("optimized intervention"), and 3) how tuberculosis might be better controlled with additional interventions (improving diagnostics, reducing treatment delay, providing isoniazid preventive therapy continuously to human immunodeficiency virus-positive people, or scaling up antiretroviral treatment coverage) individually and in combination. We found the following: 1) The model suggests that a small proportion of latent infections among human immunodeficiency virus-positive people were cured, which could have been a key factor explaining the lack of detectable population-level impact. 2) The optimized implementation increased impact by only 10%. 3) Implementing additional interventions individually and in combination led to up to 30% and 75% reductions, respectively, in tuberculosis incidence after 10 years. Tuberculosis control requires a combination prevention approach, including health systems strengthening to minimize treatment delay, improving diagnostics, increased antiretroviral treatment coverage, and effective preventive treatment regimens

Flying Squirrel–associated Typhus, United States

In March 2002, typhus fever was diagnosed in two patients residing in West Virginia and Georgia. Both patients were hospitalized with severe febrile illnesses, and both had been recently exposed to or had physical contact with flying squirrels or flying squirrel nests. Laboratory results indicated Rickettsia prowazekii infection

Flying Squirrel–associated Typhus, United States

In March 2002, typhus fever was diagnosed in two patients residing in West Virginia and Georgia. Both patients were hospitalized with severe febrile illnesses, and both had been recently exposed to or had physical contact with flying squirrels or flying squirrel nests. Laboratory results indicated Rickettsia prowazekii infection

Rickettsia parkeri in Amblyomma americanum Ticks, Tennessee and Georgia, USA

To determine the geographic distribution of the newly recognized human pathogen Rickettsia parkeri, we looked for this organism in ticks from Tennessee and Georgia, USA. Using PCR and sequence analysis, we identified R. parkeri in 2 Amblyomma americanum ticks. This rickettsiosis may be underdiagnosed in the eastern United States

The Impossibility of a Perfectly Competitive Labor Market

Using the institutional theory of transaction cost, I demonstrate that the assumptions of the competitive labor market model are internally contradictory and lead to the conclusion that on purely theoretical grounds a perfectly competitive labor market is a logical impossibility. By extension, the familiar diagram of wage determination by supply and demand is also a logical impossibility and the neoclassical labor demand curve is not a well-defined construct. The reason is that the perfectly competitive market model presumes zero transaction cost and with zero transaction cost all labor is hired as independent contractors, implying multi-person firms, the employment relationship, and labor market disappear. With positive transaction cost, on the other hand, employment contracts are incomplete and the labor supply curve to the firm is upward sloping, again causing the labor demand curve to be ill-defined. As a result, theory suggests that wage rates are always and everywhere an amalgam of an administered and bargained price. Working Paper 06-0