Reforming SEC ALJ Proceedings

This Note considers the current constitutional challenges to SEC administrative proceedings and suggests process reforms to enhance fairness for respondents. Challenges have developed since the Dodd-Frank Act expanded the SEC’s ability to use administrative proceedings. Arguments that there is a pre-existing flaw in the method of appointing administrative law judges provide the most potential for success. The Tenth Circuit’s December 2016 decision against the SEC in Bandimere has created a split, diverging from the D.C. Circuit’s analysis of that question in Lucia. Resolution by the Supreme Court may be inevitable. Even if the challengers do ultimately succeed, this will not improve substantially the fairness or efficiency of the process. The SEC’s recent rule changes consist of only limited reform of its rules of practice governing administrative proceedings. This Note suggests addressing fairness and efficiency issues directly, by reforming the SEC’s criteria for selecting cases to pursue in front of its administrative law judges, introducing a right of removal where the SEC alleges fraud, and establishing an affirmative obligation to ensure that the SEC identifies material and potentially undermining evidence to respondents

Rsp5 Ubiquitin Ligase Is Required for Protein Trafficking in Saccharomyces cerevisiae COPI Mutants

Retrograde trafficking from the Golgi to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) depends on the formation of vesicles coated with the multiprotein complex COPI. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae ubiquitinated derivatives of several COPI subunits have been identified. The importance of this modification of COPI proteins is unknown. With the exception of the Sec27 protein (β’COP) neither the ubiquitin ligase responsible for ubiquitination of COPI subunits nor the importance of this modification are known. Here we find that the ubiquitin ligase mutation, rsp5-1, has a negative effect that is additive with ret1-1 and sec28Δ mutations, in genes encoding α- and ε-COP, respectively. The double ret1-1 rsp5-1 mutant is also more severely defective in the Golgi-to-ER trafficking compared to the single ret1-1, secreting more of the ER chaperone Kar2p, localizing Rer1p mostly to the vacuole, and increasing sensitivity to neomycin. Overexpression of ubiquitin in ret1-1 rsp5-1 mutant suppresses vacuolar accumulation of Rer1p. We found that the effect of rsp5 mutation on the Golgi-to-ER trafficking is similar to that of sla1Δ mutation in a gene encoding actin cytoskeleton proteins, an Rsp5p substrate. Additionally, Rsp5 and Sla1 proteins were found by co-immunoprecipitation in a complex containing COPI subunits. Together, our results show that Rsp5 ligase plays a role in regulating retrograde Golgi-to-ER trafficking

Singularity Formation in Chemotaxis--A Conjecture of Nagai

Consider the initial-boundary value problem for the system (S)ut = uxx - (uvx)x, vt= u- av on an interval [0,1] for t \u3e 0, where a \u3e 0 with ux(0,t) = ux(1,t)= 0. Suppose \mu, v0 are positive constants. The corresponding spatially homogeneous global solution U(t) = \mu, V(t) = \mu a + (v0 - \mu a)\exp(-at) is stable in the sense that if (\mu\u27,v0\u27 ) are positive constants, the corresponding spatially homogeneous solution will be uniformly close to (U(\cdot),V(\cdot)). We consider, in sequence space, an approximate system (S\u27) which is related to (S) in the following sense: The chemotactic term (uvx)x is replaced by the inverse Fourier transform of the finite part of the convolution integral for the Fourier transform of (uvx)x. (Here the finite part of the convolution on the line at a point x of two functions, f,g, is defined as $\int_0^x(f(y)g(y-x)\,dy$.) We prove the following: If \mu \u3e a, then in every neighborhood of (\mu,v0 ) there are (spatially nonconstant) initial data for which the solution of problem (S\u27) blows up in finite time in the sense that the solution must leave L2 (0,1)\times H1 (0,1) in finite time T. Moreover, the solution components u(\cdot,t),v(\cdot,t) each leave L2 (0,1).If \mu \u3e a, then in every neighborhood of (\mu,v0 ) there are (spatially nonconstant) initial data for which the solution of problem (S) on (0,1) \times (0,Tmax ) must blow up in finite time in the sense that the coefficients of the cosine series for (u,v) become unbounded in the sequence product space $\ell^1\times\ell^1_1$. A consequence of (2) states that in every neighborhood of (\mu,v0 ), there are solutions of (S) which, if they are sufficiently regular, will blow up in finite time. (Nagai and Nakaki [Nonlinear Anal., 58 (2004), pp. 657--681] showed that for the original system such solutions are unstable in the sense that if \mu \u3e a, then in every neighborhood of (\mu,\mu a), there are spatially nonconstant solutions which blow up in finite or infinite time. They conjectured that the blow-up time must be finite.) Using a recent regularity result of Nagai and Nakaki, we prove this conjecture

Participatory Monitoring and Accountability and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Learning Report of the Participate Network

Accountability describes the rights and responsibilities that exist between people and the institutions that affect their lives, including government, civil society and the private sector. Relationships of power and authority are central to how accountability is experienced. Where governance processes lack openness and engagement with the public, trust diminishes and societies can fracture. This report is intended as a learning document, both to record key lessons and important insights from Participate’s Participatory Monitoring and Accountability for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) work, and to prompt and encourage future learning and inquiry for any other organisations using participatory approaches to contribute to transformation and social justice. The Participatory Monitoring and Accountability for the SDGs programme was funded by the government of South Korea, and supported by UNICEF. Three pilot projects were conducted in: Egypt (Centre for Development Services, CDS); Ghana (Radio Ada, Ghana Community Radio Network GCRN), and ASSWA; and South Africa (Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation, SLF) and the Delft Safety Group.Government of the Republic of KoreaUNICEFUND

Ontology for autonomous robotics

Creating a standard for knowledge representation and reasoning in autonomous robotics is an urgent task if we consider recent advances in robotics as well as predictions about the insertion of robots in human daily life. Indeed, this will impact the way information is exchanged between multiple robots or between robots and humans and how they can all understand it without ambiguity. Indeed, Human Robot Interaction (HRI) represents the interaction of at least two cognition models (Human and Robot). Such interaction informs task composition, task assignment, communication, cooperation and coordination in a dynamic environment, requiring a flexible representation. Hence, this paper presents the IEEE RAS Autonomous Robotics (AuR) Study Group, which is a spin-off of the IEEE Ontologies for Robotics and Automation (ORA) Working Group, and its ongoing work to develop the first IEEE-RAS ontology standard for autonomous robotics. In particular, this paper reports on the current version of the ontology for autonomous robotics as well as on its first implementation successfully validated for a human-robot interaction scenario, demonstrating the developed ontology’s strengths which include semantic interoperability and capability to relate ontologies from different fields for knowledge sharing and interactions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Water usage studies in water quality surveillance

This paper will review the role of water usage studies in water quality surveillance programmes using an example from Kampala, Uganda