Regulation by Selective Enforcement: The SEC and Initial Coin Offerings

The Securities and Exchange Commission regulates the securities markets. However, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) do not require the usual disclosure to the Securities and Exchange Commission when securities are sold to the public. Prior to ICOs, courts typically used the Supreme Court’s Howeytest to determine whether an investment is a security. The vagueness of this test resulted in the Securities and Exchange Commission using Regulation by Selective Enforcement. In selecting significant actions, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been able to publicize cases with facts favorable to treating ICOs as securities. Regulation by Selective Enforcement has successfully established the Security and Exchange Commission’s authority over ICOs. However, major legal issues still remain and by only sanctioning more recent ICOs, the early movers retain power. This Article concludes that although the Security and Exchange Commission has taken steps to regulate ICOs, it has yet to totally resolve when a token is a security

The Discretionary Function Exception in the Second Circuit

In a society governed by the rule of law, what is the responsibility of a government to rectify its own errors when those errors injure its citizens? In the Anglo-American legal tradition, this question has been debated at least since the Magna Carta, and it remains a vexed one. The answer to this question is especially elusive with respect to governmentinflicted personal injuries remediable only with money damages, a form of liability rule that has always been subject to broad areas of immunity for government, for its officials, and for both. In the United States, federal and state laws have waived many of these immunities

The relationship between tumour budding, the tumour microenvironment and survival in patients with primary operable colorectal cancer

Background: Tumour budding has been reported to reflect invasiveness, metastasis and unfavourable prognosis in colorectal cancer. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between tumour budding and clinicopathological characteristics, tumour microenvironment and survival in patients with primary operable colorectal cancer. Methods: A total of 303 patients from a prospective data set of patients with primary operable colorectal cancer were included in the study. The presence of budding was determined through assessment of all tumour-containing H&E slides and the number of tumour buds was counted using a 10 high-powered field method. Routine pathologic sections were used to assess: tumour necrosis, the tumour inflammatory cell infiltrate using Klintrup–Makinen (KM) grade and tumour stroma percentage (TSP) combined as the Glasgow Microenvironment Score (GMS). Results: High-grade tumour budding was present in 39% of all tumours and in 28% of node-negative tumours respectively. High-grade budding was significantly associated with T stage (P<0.001), N stage (P<0.001), TNM stage (P<0.001), serosal involvement (P<0.001), venous invasion (P<0.005), KM grade (P=0.022), high tumour stroma (P<0.001) and GMS (P<0.001). Tumour budding was associated with reduced cancer-specific survival (CSS) (HR=4.03; 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.50–6.52; P<0.001), independent of age (HR=1.47; 95% CI, 1.13–1.90; P=0.004), TNM stage (HR=1.52; 95% CI, 1.02–2.25; P=0.040), venous invasion (HR=1.73; 95% CI, 1.13–2.64; P=0.012) and GMS (HR=1.54; 95% CI, 1.15–2.07; P=0.004). Conclusions: The presence of tumour budding was associated with elements of the tumour microenvironment and was an independent adverse prognostic factor in patients with primary operable colorectal cancer. Specifically high tumour budding stratifies effectively the prognostic value of tumour stage, venous invasion and GMS. Taken together, tumour budding should be assessed routinely in patients with primary operable colorectal cancer

Doppler-free Yb Spectroscopy with Fluorescence Spot Technique

We demonstrate a simple technique to measure the resonant frequency of the 398.9 nm 1S0 - 1P1 transition for the different Yb isotopes. The technique, that works by observing and aligning fluorescence spots, has enabled us to measure transition frequencies and isotope shifts with an accuracy of 60 MHz. We provide wavelength measurements for the transition that differ from previously published work. Our technique also allows for the determination of Doppler shifted transition frequencies for photoionisation experiments when the atomic beam and laser beam are not perpendicular and furthermore allows us to determine the average velocity of the atoms along the direction of atomic beam

Evaluation of 4 Outcomes Measures in Microtia Treatment: Exposures, Infections, Aesthetics, and Psychosocial Ramifications.

BackgroundIn craniofacial microsomia, microtia and canal atresia pose formidable reconstructive challenges. We review our institutional experience in treating microtia and atresia to identify variables associated with 4 outcomes measures: complications, surgical revisions, aesthetic outcomes, and psychosocial function.MethodsCraniofacial microsomia patients treated at the University of California Los Angeles Craniofacial Clinic between 2008 and 2014 greater than 13 years of age (n = 68) were reviewed for microtia and atresia treatment and outcomes.ResultsIn total, 91.2% of patients diagnosed with craniofacial microsomia presented with microtia, affecting 75 ears. Both a male and right-sided predominance were observed. Fifty-six patients (90.3%) underwent autologous external ear reconstruction at an average age of 8.5 years. Age, type of incision, and size of cartilage framework did not predict total number of surgeries or complications. Severity of ear anomalies correlated with increased number of surgeries (P < 0.001) and decreased aesthetic outcomes (P < 0.001) but not complications. In total, 87.1% of patients with microtia had documented hearing loss, of which the majority were conductive and 18.5% were mixed sensorineural and conductive. Hearing deficits were addressed in 70.4% of patients with external hearing aids, bone anchored hearing aids, or canaloplasty. Of all variables, improvement of psychosocial function was correlated only to hearing loss treatment of any type (P = 0.01).ConclusionsOn evaluation of surgical and patient characteristics, severity of microtia predicted the total number of surgical revisions performed and aesthetic ratings. In addition, we found that the only factor that correlated with improved patient and parent-reported psychosocial outcomes was treatment of hearing loss

Evaluation of simulated O-3 production efficiency during the KORUS-AQ campaign: Implications for anthropogenic NOx emissions in Korea

We examine O3 production and its sensitivity to precursor gases and boundary layer mixing in Korea by using a 3-D global chemistry transport model and extensive observations during the KORea-US cooperative Air Quality field study in Korea, which occurred in May–June 2016. During the campaign, observed aromatic species onboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft, especially toluene, showed high mixing ratios of up to 10 ppbv, emphasizing the importance of aromatic chemistry in O3 production. To examine the role of VOCs and NOx in O3 chemistry, we first implement a detailed aromatic chemistry scheme in the model, which reduces the normalized mean bias of simulated O3 mixing ratios from –26% to –13%. Aromatic chemistry also increases the average net O3 production in Korea by 37%. Corrections of daytime PBL heights, which are overestimated in the model compared to lidar observations, increase the net O3 production rate by ~10%. In addition, increasing NOx emissions by 50% in the model shows best performance in reproducing O3 production characteristics, which implies that NOx emissions are underestimated in the current emissions inventory. Sensitivity tests show that a 30% decrease in anthropogenic NOx emissions in Korea increases the O3 production efficiency throughout the country, making rural regions ~2 times more efficient in producing O3 per NOx consumed. Simulated O3 levels overall decrease in the peninsula except for urban and other industrial areas, with the largest increase (~6 ppbv) in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA). However, with simultaneous reductions in both NOx and VOCs emissions by 30%, O3 decreases in most of the country, including the SMA. This implies the importance of concurrent emission reductions for both NOx and VOCs in order to effectively reduce O3 levels in Korea

Asymptotically Hyperbolic Non Constant Mean Curvature Solutions of the Einstein Constraint Equations

We describe how the iterative technique used by Isenberg and Moncrief to verify the existence of large sets of non constant mean curvature solutions of the Einstein constraints on closed manifolds can be adapted to verify the existence of large sets of asymptotically hyperbolic non constant mean curvature solutions of the Einstein constraints.Comment: 19 pages, TeX, no figure

System For Data Acquisition From High Voltage Terminals

An inexpensive data acquisition system has been designed to provide high voltage isolation for data acquisition in analog, digital, and pulse modes. The telemetry system uses GaAs light sources, fiber optics, and phototransistors to accomplish the data transmission. Prewired logic boards have been adapted to accomplish the timing and logic functions. Seven decades of digital data are transmitted error free, pulse data can be transmitted at rates up to 1 MHz, and analog data are transmitted with 0.05% full scale accuracy. © 1972 The American Institute of Physics

Isolating Triggered Star Formation

Galaxy pairs provide a potentially powerful means of studying triggered star formation from galaxy interactions. We use a large cosmological N-body simulation coupled with a well-tested semi-analytic substructure model to demonstrate that the majority of galaxies in close pairs reside within cluster or group-size halos and therefore represent a biased population, poorly suited for direct comparison to ``field'' galaxies. Thus, the frequent observation that some types of galaxies in pairs have redder colors than ``field'' galaxies is primarily a selection effect. We select galaxy pairs that are isolated in their dark matter halos with respect to other massive subhalos (N=2 halos) and a control sample of isolated galaxies (N=1 halos) for comparison. We then apply these selection criteria to a volume-limited subset of the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey with M_Bj <= -19 and obtain the first clean measure of the typical fraction of galaxies affected by triggered star formation and the average elevation in the star formation rate. We find that 24% (30.5%) of these L^\star and sub-L^{\star} galaxies in isolated 50 (30) kpc/h pairs exhibit star formation that is boosted by a factor of >~ 5 above their average past value, while only 10% of isolated galaxies in the control sample show this level of enhancement. Thus, 14% (20 %) of the galaxies in these close pairs show clear triggered star formation. The isolation criteria we develop provide a means to constrain star formation and feedback prescriptions in hydrodynamic simulations and a very general method of understanding the importance of triggered star formation in a cosmological context. (Abridged.)Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, emulateapj format, accepted by Ap