The Ban Has Lifted: Now Is the Time to Change the Accredited-Investor Standard

Lifting the ban on general advertising and general solicitation will ultimately change how emerging companies receive funding. With greater access to previously untapped investors, more new businesses will be able to get on their feet and be successful. This success depends on the regulation of these offerings to ensure they are free of fraud and that investors maintain confidence in the market. As the standard currently stands, it is likely that the removal of the ban will result in a regulatory gap, which may take advantage of several investors. The accredited investor standard should be changed to reflect not only individual wealth, but also financial sophistication. It should require disclosure of the risks up front and a diversification requirement. This will ensure a “meeting of the minds” between the issuer and the investor and produce a more stable market for privateplacement offerings

Admission of Guilt: Sinking Teeth Into the SEC’s Sweetheart Deals, 3 J. Marshall Global Mkt. L.J. 27 (2014)

Throughout its existence, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has allowed defendants to settle cases without admitting to the allegations of wrongdoing. This “neither admit nor deny” policy has received heavy criticism by judges, Congress, and the public, especially in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. On June 18, 2013, SEC Chairman Mary Jo White announced the agency’s intention to require admissions of guilt in certain cases. While Chairman White did not articulate a clear standard of when admissions would be required, she did say that the agency would focus on the egregiousness of the defendant’s conduct and the harm to investors. This Article develops a model to help determine which settlements should require admissions of wrongdoing. This proposed model balances the costs of requiring admissions in resources and litigation expenses with the social benefits of requiring admissions both in ensuring that the defendants are responsible for their actions and allowing the public to distinguish between technical violators and the more culpable offenders

Pheno-data:Using tomatoes to rethink data and data practice for ecological worlds

Notions of data increasingly revolve around digital representations prioritizing the efficiency and productivity of global economic-systems, often side-lining tangible and local information that is crucial for ‘more-than-human’ worlds. To challenge this, we propose the concept of “Pheno-data,” which aims to embody the livingness of the lifeworld through the evolving characteristics and responses of organisms. We also introduce, “Pheno-fication”, as a means to access Pheno-data, and use tomatoes to exemplify the process. Through a fabulation workshop, we integrate these concepts into design practice in order to tangibly explore their potential for shifting perspectives from an anthropocentric to an ecological viewpoint

Investigating materiality for a renewed focus on data design practice

This paper attempts to question reductionist processes of data science that help sustain digital economies and proposes a new perspective for data practice through design. It follows recent discussions about the materiality of data in design and proposes a new notion of data materiality that unfolds its ethical and ecological aspects from a philosophical point of view. This is presented as an opportunity to envision how data can be enacted as data practice within a system. We provide an example that illustrates different kinds of data and data practices, and how ethical and ecological challenges can emerge in a system. We show how systemic challenges can be alleviated within this new notion of data, demonstrating why recovering data materiality is crucial for an ecological future. We finally argue that designers play a significant role in this context, producing practical examples that extend theoretical discussions on data materiality.general public, scientific community, industry, civil society, policy maker

Environmental Policy Update 2012: Development Strategies and Environmental Policy in East Africa

The seven chapters that comprise this report explore ways to integrate sustainability goals and objectives into Ethiopia's current development strategies

Detection of Diatomic Carbon in 2I/Borisov

2I/Borisov is the first-ever observed interstellar comet (and the second detected interstellar object (ISO)). It was discovered on 2019 August 30 and has a heliocentric orbital eccentricity of ~3.35, corresponding to a hyperbolic orbit that is unbound to the Sun. Given that it is an ISO, it is of interest to compare its properties—such as composition and activity—with the comets in our solar system. This study reports low-resolution optical spectra of 2I/Borisov. The spectra were obtained by the MDM Observatory Hiltner 2.4 m telescope/Ohio State Multi-Object Spectrograph (on 2019 October 31.5 and November 4.5, UT). The wavelength coverage spanned from 3700 to 9200 Å. The dust continuum reflectance spectra of 2I/Borisov show that the spectral slope is steeper in the blue end of the spectrum (compared to the red). The spectra of 2I/Borisov clearly show CN emission at 3880 Å, as well as C2 emission at both 4750 and 5150 Å. Using a Haser model to covert the observed fluxes into estimates for the molecular production rates, we find Q(CN) = 2.4 ± 0.2 × 10²⁴ s⁻¹, and Q(C₂) = (5.5 ± 0.4) × 10²³ s⁻¹ at the heliocentric distance of 2.145 au. Our Q(CN) estimate is consistent with contemporaneous observations, and the Q(C₂) estimate is generally below the upper limits of previous studies. We derived the ratio Q(C₂)/Q(CN) = 0.2 ± 0.1, which indicates that 2I/Borisov is depleted in carbon-chain species, but is not empty. This feature is not rare for the comets in our solar system, especially in the class of Jupiter-family comets

Immunity to self co-generates regulatory T cells

Immune responses to self are kept in check by tolerance mechanisms, including suppression by regulatory T cells (Tregs). The defective generation of Tregs specific for self-antigens may lead to autoimmune disease. We identified a novel population of human CD4^+^ Tregs, characterized by high surface expression of CD52, which is co-generated in response to autoantigen. Blood CD4^+^CD52^hi^ T cells were generated preferentially in response to low-dose autoantigen and suppressed proliferation and interferon-[gamma] production by other T cells. Depletion of resting CD4^+^CD52^hi^ T cells enhanced the T-cell response to autoantigen. CD4^+^CD52^hi^ Tregs were neither derived from nor distinguished by markers of conventional resting CD4^+^CD25^+^ Tregs. In response to the pancreatic islet autoantigens glutamic acid decarboxylase, the generation of CD4^+^CD52^hi^ Tregs was impaired in individuals with and at-risk for type 1 diabetes, compared to healthy controls and individuals with type 2 diabetes. CD4^+^CD52^hi^ Tregs co-generated to self-antigen may therefore contribute to immune homeostasis and protect against autoimmune disease

Archives in DNA:Exploring implications of an emerging bio-digital technology through design fiction

Continuing developments in DNA-based digital data storage systems promise us a sustainable, techno-utopian future; propositioning bio-digital solutions addressing the ever-increasing global data production, and inadequacies of conventional storage infrastructure to meet the demand. Distinct attributes of DNA make it an attractive archival medium. With its ability to retain high density of digital information cheaply, and to do so over multi-lifespans, DNA-based storage systems are seen as able to radically shape how we archive and use data, across wide-ranging applications. However, while the stakeholders continue to refine and race towards commercialization of the emerging technology, its sociocultural and ethical implications remain unexplored, limiting opportunities to generate insights on how such systems could be better designed and experienced. This workshop begins to explore what our DNA-mediated archival futures may hold. We learn about the fundamental principles governing the new technology and create stories about its pervasion in our lives, mediated through design fiction and structured discourse

Designing with the more-than-human:Temporalities of thinking with care

This one-day workshop brings together HCI researchers, designers, and practitioners to engage with more-than-human temporalities in the context of designing with care. We invite participants to experiment and think with more-than-human time experiences as a starting point to integrate emergent methodologies and practices for more-than-human discourses in design. By using living and once-living media (e.g., fungi, plant and insect specimens, biodesigned artefacts) as starting points for investigating more-than-human temporalities, participants will discuss how a pluralistic temporal approach can offer to the discourse of designing-with nonhuman entities, and how this aligns with emerging HCI research trajectories and concerns