Lorain, Aspen, and the Future of Section 2 Enforcement

The Sherman Antitrust Act § 2 makes monopolizing or attempting to monopolize a particular trade or aspects of a trade a federal felony. More specifically, Section 2 of the Act addresses a firm\u27s unilateral conduct. Under the administration of former President George W. Bush, a comprehensive guideline titled Competition and Monopoly: Single-Firm Conduct under Section 2 of the Sherman Act ( Bush Guidelines ) was adopted in September of 2008 for enforcing Section 2 violations. Under President Barack Obama\u27s administration, however, the enforcement of antitrust laws is expected to undergo a radical transformation. On May 11, 2009, Christine A. Varney, the Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice\u27s Antitrust Division, announced that the Department would withdraw the previous administration\u27s guidelines for antitrust enforcement, and take enforcement of antitrust abuses in a new and more aggressive direction.[...] Although Varney criticized the Bush Guidelines for its extremely cautious approach in Section 2 enforcements, the Obama administration has yet to produce clear guidelines as to the scope of its enforcement or for how courts should interpret Section 2 claims. This Comment thus proposes an approach to Section 2 enforcement and interpretation for the Obama Administration through a closer adherence to Supreme Court precedent. This Comment then compares and applies the proposed approach to Intel\u27s particular case to illustrate the shift in antitrust enforcement actions and how courts are likely to proceed. Part I summarizes the Sherman Antitrust Act § 2 and the Bush Guidelines for Section 2 enforcement. Part II discusses the antitrust principles articulated by the Supreme Court in two seminal cases, Lorain Journal v. United States, and Aspen Skiing Co. v. Aspen Highlands Skiing Co., the limitations to Lorain and Aspen, and what these cases mean for formulating new antitrust enforcement guidelines. Part III takes Intel\u27s case in point to analyze how such new guidelines may affect the future of antitrust enforcement under the Obama Administration. Part III compares the European Union\u27s treatment of Intel to illustrate where the United States\u27 antitrust policy may be headed. Part III then applies and compares the approach under the Bush Guidelines and the Obama Administration\u27s likely approach from Part II for a specific case analysis on Intel and the personal computer microprocessor industry

Studying the Child Obesity Epidemic with Natural Experiments

We utilize clinical records of successive visits by children to pediatric clinics in Indianapolis to estimate the effects on their body mass of environmental changes near their homes. We compare results for fixed-residence children with those for cross-sectional data. Our environmental factors are fast food restaurants, supermarkets, parks, trails, and violent crimes, and 13 types of recreational amenities derived from the interpretation of annual aerial photographs. We looked for responses to these factors changing within buffers of 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, and 1 mile. We found that cross-sectional estimates are quite different from the Fixed Effects estimates of the impacts of amenities locating near a child. In cross section nearby fast food restaurants were associated with higher BMI and supermarkets with lower BMI. These results were reversed in the FE estimates. The recreational amenities that appear to lower children's BMI were fitness areas, kickball diamonds, and volleyball courts. We estimated that locating these amenities near their homes could reduce the weight of an overweight eight-year old boy by 3 to 6 pounds

Contribution of the Film & Television Industry to the Economies of Oregon and the Portland Metropolitan Area: An Economic Impact Analysis for the Oregon Governor’s Office of Film and Television

Research report on the economic footprint of the TV and Film Industry in Oregon and the Portland Metro Area

Detection of horizontal transfer of individual genes by anomalous oligomer frequencies

Background Understanding the history of life requires that we understand the transfer of genetic material across phylogenetic boundaries. Detecting genes that were acquired by means other than vertical descent is a basic step in that process. Detection by discordant phylogenies is computationally expensive and not always definitive. Many have used easily computed compositional features as an alternative procedure. However, different compositional methods produce different predictions, and the effectiveness of any method is not well established. Results The ability of octamer frequency comparisons to detect genes artificially seeded in cyanobacterial genomes was markedly increased by using as a training set those genes that are highly conserved over all bacteria. Using a subset of octamer frequencies in such tests also increased effectiveness, but this depended on the specific target genome and the source of the contaminating genes. The presence of high frequency octamers and the GC content of the contaminating genes were important considerations. A method comprising best practices from these tests was devised, the Core Gene Similarity (CGS) method, and it performed better than simple octamer frequency analysis, codon bias, or GC contrasts in detecting seeded genes or naturally occurring transposons. From a comparison of predictions with phylogenetic trees, it appears that the effectiveness of the method is confined to horizontal transfer events that have occurred recently in evolutionary time. Conclusions The CGS method may be an improvement over existing surrogate methods to detect genes of foreign origin

Mapping disciplinary differences and equity of academic control to create a space for collaboration

Academics are collaborating more as their research questions are becoming more complex, often reaching beyond the capacity of any one person. However, in many parts of the campus, teamwork is not a traditional work pattern, and team members may not understand the best ways to work together to the benefit of the project. Challenges are particularly possible when there are differences among the disciplines represented on a team and when there are variations in academic control over decision making and research direction setting. Disparities in these two dimensions create potential for miscommunication, conflict, and other negative consequences, which may mean that a collaboration is not successful. This paper explores these dimensions and suggests a space for collaboration; it also describes some benefits and challenges associated within various positions within the framework. Academic teams can use this tool to determine the place they would like to occupy within the collaboration space and structure themselves accordingly before undertaking research.  Les universitaires sont en train de collaborer de plus as leurs questions de recherche deviennent plus complexes, souvent ils dépassent la capacité d'une seule personne. Cependant, dans certains endroits au campus, le travail d'équipe n'est pas une manière traditionnelle de travail et il se peut que les membres ne comprennent pas les meilleures façons de travailler ensemble pour le bénéfice du projet, en particulier quand il y a des différences parmi les disciplines qui sont représentées et l'équité en contrôle académique en ce qui concerne la prise de décision et le choix de la direction de recherche dans les équipes. Les différences en chaque créent la possibilité pour l'erreur de communication, le conflit et d'autres conséquences négatives qui pourraient signifier une collaboration qui n'a pas de succès. Cet article examine ces deux aspects et suggère un endroit de collaboration avec une exploration des avantages et des défis associés à différentes positions dans le système. Les équipes académiques peuvent utiliser cet outil pour déterminer l'endroit qu'ils veulent occuper dans l'espace collaboratif et pour s'organiser en conséquence avant de commencer la recherche

Convincing the Skeptics: Concrete Claims with Supporting Images Persuade Skeptical Consumers to Support Companies Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives

Skepticism has been identified as one of the main impediments to successful CSR communication and previous research has established a robust effect of individual differences in ad skepticism on negative responses to advertising. However, little work has explored how ad skepticism impacts responses to CSR communication. Integrating work on CSR communication and ad skepticism, the present work advances a conceptual model addressing how concrete CSR claims and images supporting those claims can override skeptical consumers’ less favorable response to CSR advertising. Results show that highly skeptical consumers (a) respond less favorably to CSR ads than less skeptical consumers, overall; (b) respond more favorably to CSR ads that contain a combination of concrete (vs. vague) CSR claims and images (vs. no images) supporting those claims; and (c) respond as favorably as less skeptical consumers when ads feature concrete CSR claims with supporting images. Additional results reveal that images are especially effective among highly skeptical consumers because skeptical consumers have a reduced ability to visualize advertising claims. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed