Law and the History of Corporate Responsibility

This working paper focuses on the role of law in the history of corporate responsibility in the U.S. Recourse to the law for setting standards related to corporate conduct and processes has been a frequent dimension in debates about corporate responsibilities. The paper examines ideas and developments in four areas: corporate personhood; corporate purpose; corporate regulation; and corporate governance. Within this framework, the paper explores ways in which the law both reflects and shapes the cultural context in which corporations have evolved and the debates about the responsibilities of the corporation

Community Review of Southern Ocean Satellite Data Needs

This review represents the Southern Ocean community’s satellite data needs for the coming decade. Developed through widespread engagement, and incorporating perspectives from a range of stakeholders (both research and operational), it is designed as an important community-driven strategy paper that provides the rationale and information required for future planning and investment. The Southern Ocean is vast but globally connected, and the communities that require satellite-derived data in the region are diverse. This review includes many observable variables, including sea-ice properties, sea-surface temperature, sea-surface height, atmospheric parameters, marine biology (both micro and macro) and related activities, terrestrial cryospheric connections, sea-surface salinity, and a discussion of coincident and in situ data collection. Recommendations include commitment to data continuity, increase in particular capabilities (sensor types, spatial, temporal), improvements in dissemination of data/products/uncertainties, and innovation in calibration/validation capabilities. Full recommendations are detailed by variable as well as summarized. This review provides a starting point for scientists to understand more about Southern Ocean processes and their global roles, for funders to understand the desires of the community, for commercial operators to safely conduct their activities in the Southern Ocean, and for space agencies to gain greater impact from Southern Ocean-related acquisitions and missions.The authors acknowledge the Climate at the Cryosphere program and the Southern Ocean Observing System for initiating this community effort, WCRP, SCAR, and SCOR for endorsing the effort, and CliC, SOOS, and SCAR for supporting authors’ travel for collaboration on the review. Jamie Shutler’s time on this review was funded by the European Space Agency project OceanFlux Greenhouse Gases Evolution (Contract number 4000112091/14/I-LG)

3D Scanning for Small Budgets: How Local Libraries and Museums Will Play a Role in Creating a 3D Digital Library

Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) University Library has been digitizing and providing access to community and cultural heritage collections since 2006. Varying formats include: audio, video, photographs, slides, negatives, and text (bound, loose). The library provides access to these collections using CONTENTdm. As 3D technologies become increasingly popular in libraries and museums, IUPUI University Library is exploring the workflows and processes as they relate to 3D artifacts. The library is collaborating with Online Resources Inc., a company that specializes in 3D technology to digitize artifacts from the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site. Online Resources has seen the high prices and complexity of systems hinder entrance into 3D data collection. They have made great strides in cost reduction for small budgets, and clarifying the best scanning system for the job. This presentation will demonstrate Creaform’s Go!Scan 3D while discussing collection digitization for small museums. Presenters will share insight on: key terms and features, how to filter to the correct 3D scanner, and how to reduce the cost of 3D scanning. This session will include discussion of how this technology may be implemented at the local level

Microcystin-RR Like Toxin Identified in the Cyanobacterium Anabaena flos-aquae Strain CCAP 1403/13B Culture

Cyanobacteria abound in freshwaters in Ghana, including those used for the supply of drinking water. However, there have been no studies on their toxicity, the toxins they produce and their attending public health effects. As part of research activities to identify cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins associated with four reservoirs (Weija, Kpong, Owabi and Barekese), used for the production of drinking water in Ghana, Anabaena flos-aquae, a toxic cyanobacterium, was cultured in the laboratory with the objective of identifying potential cyanotoxins that may be associated with some of the cyanobacteria commonly found in Ghanaian waters. Cultures were kept in agrowth chamber with continuous illumination at 20 ìmol photon/m2/s and constant aeration at a temperature of 25 oC. High pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of extract from the culture of Anabaena flos-aquae strain CCAP 1403/13B produced a toxin with a retention time similar to microcystin-RR external standard. The concentration of microcystin-RR quantified from Anabaena flos-aquae was 10.6 ìg/g DW. The biomass of lyophilized cells extracted was 52 mg. Anabaena flos-aquae is mainly known to produce neurotoxins, notably anatoxin-a and anatoxin-a(s). Anabaena and Microcystis were reported to be responsible for the lethal poisoning of over 2000 people in Bahia, Brazil through drinking water which resulted in the death of 88 children fromgastro-enteritis over a period of 42 days

Hearing and dementia: from ears to brain

The association between hearing impairment and dementia has emerged as a major public health challenge, with significant opportunities for earlier diagnosis, treatment and prevention. However, the nature of this association has not been defined. We hear with our brains, particularly within the complex soundscapes of everyday life: neurodegenerative pathologies target the auditory brain, and are therefore predicted to damage hearing function early and profoundly. Here we present evidence for this proposition, based on structural and functional features of auditory brain organization that confer vulnerability to neurodegeneration, the extensive, reciprocal interplay between ‘peripheral’ and ‘central’ hearing dysfunction, and recently characterized auditory signatures of canonical neurodegenerative dementias (Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body disease and frontotemporal dementia). Moving beyond any simple dichotomy of ear and brain, we argue for a reappraisal of the role of auditory cognitive dysfunction and the critical coupling of brain to peripheral organs of hearing in the dementias. We call for a clinical assessment of real-world hearing in these diseases that moves beyond pure tone perception to the development of novel auditory ‘cognitive stress tests’ and proximity markers for the early diagnosis of dementia and management strategies that harness retained auditory plasticit

Structure-Based Identification and Characterization of Inhibitors of the Epilepsy-Associated KNa1.1 (KCNT1) Potassium Channel

Drug-resistant epileptic encephalopathies of infancy have been associated with KCNT1 gainof-function mutations, which increase the activity of KNa1.1 sodium-activated potassium channels. Pharmacological inhibition of hyperactive KNa1.1 channels by quinidine has been proposed as a stratified treatment, but mostly this has not been successful, being linked to the low potency and lack of specificity of the drug. Here we describe the use of a previously determined cryo-electron microscopy-derived KNa1.1 structure and mutational analysis to identify how quinidine binds to the channel pore and, using computational methods, screened for compounds predicated to bind to this site. We describe six compounds that inhibited KNa1.1 channels with low- and sub-micromolar potencies, likely also through binding in the intracellular pore vestibule. In hERG inhibition and cytotoxicity assays, two compounds were ineffective. These may provide starting points for the development of new pharmacophores and could become tool compounds to study this channel further

Gamma-Ray Telescopes (in "400 Years of Astronomical Telescopes")

The last half-century has seen dramatic developments in gamma-ray telescopes, from their initial conception and development through to their blossoming into full maturity as a potent research tool in astronomy. Gamma-ray telescopes are leading research in diverse areas such as gamma-ray bursts, blazars, Galactic transients, and the Galactic distribution of aluminum-26.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures/ in "400 Years of Astronomical Telescopes: A Review of History, Science and Technology", ed. B.R. Brandl, R. Stuik, & J.K. Katgert-Merkeli (Exp. Astron. 26, 111-122 [2009]