48,637 research outputs found
A New Battleground for Free Speech: The Impact of Snyder v. Phelps
[Excerpt] âOn September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States put forth a set of constitutional amendments, ten of which would later become the Bill of Rights. The first of these amendments states, âCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech . . . . In subsequent caselaw, the U.S. Supreme Court has applied this prohibition to the federal government, as well as state governments through the Fourteenth Amendment. Although this appears to be a simple standard to follow, history has proven otherwise, and the deviations taken have been the subject of much debate.
Minority Shareholders and Direct Suits in Closely Held Corporations Where Derivative Suits Are Impractical: Durham v. Durham
[Excerpt] âSuppose A, B, and C are the sole shareholders and directors of a corporation. A and B have used corporate funds for their own personal use and such use has depleted the corporationâs assets. C now wishes to commence a legal proceeding to recover the damages. Should C be forced to recover through a derivative suit brought on behalf of the corporation just because the depletion of the corporate assets affected all of the shareholders and not just C? Not necessarily.
In Durham v. Durham, the Supreme Court of New Hampshire permitted a minority shareholder, in a closely held corporation, to bring a direct suit against a corporationâs officers, even though the injury suffered was incurred by the entire corporation. Prior to this decision, New Hampshire had only addressed the requirements for bringing a direct suit in a regular, or widely held, corporation. In allowing the direct suit, the Durham court followed a minority view and adopted a standard provided by the American Law Instituteâs (ALI) Principles of Corporate Governance. Many jurisdictions have declined to take this step. Rather, those jurisdictions insist that shareholders meet derivative pleading requirements set forth by their respective state laws, reasoning that such requirements create uniformity and predictability essential to corporate decision making. In addition, many of the states that refuse to allow direct suits by a shareholder against a closely held corporation expressly reject the standard provided by the ALI.
This Note examines both the minority and majority views and justifies New Hampshireâs decision to allow minority shareholders to bypass derivative pleading requirements and bring a direct action allowing them to recover personally. This Note further suggests that in the context of closely held corporations, direct actions may provide minority shareholders their only chance to receive adequate compensation for injuries they have suffered.
The remainder of this Section explains the differences between derivative and direct suits, as well as differences between widely held and closely held corporations. Part II will set forth the facts, arguments, and holding from Durham and explain why that decision was warranted. Part III will discuss cases from jurisdictions which decline to adopt the ALI standard and refuse to allow direct actions in closely held corporations. Part IV will provide an analysis of the two conflicting views and suggest that those jurisdictions that have rejected the ALIâs proposal should reconsider. Finally, Part V will briefly conclude.
The Euclidean Mousetrap: Schopenhauerâs Criticism of the Synthetic Method in Geometry
In his doctoral dissertation On the Principle of Sufficient Reason, Arthur Schopenhauer there outlines a critique of Euclidean geometry on the basis of the changing nature of mathematics, and hence of demonstration, as a result of Kantian idealism. According to Schopenhauer, Euclid treats geometry synthetically, proceeding from the simple to the complex, from the known to the unknown, âsynthesizingâ later proofs on the basis of earlier ones. Such a method, although proving the case logically, nevertheless fails to attain the raison dâĂȘtre of the entity. In order to obtain this, a separate method is required, which Schopenhauer refers to as âanalysis,â thus echoing a method already in practice among the early Greek geometers, with however some significant differences. In this essay, I here discuss Schopenhauerâs criticism of synthesis in Euclidâs Elements, and the nature and relevance of his own method of analysis
Exploring intraspecific life history patterns in sharks
Marine ecosystems compose the major source (85%) of world fisheries production (Garcia and Newton, 1997). Although only a few fish species tend to dominate fishery catches (Jennings et al., 2001), a large diversity of fishes
representing varied taxonomic levels, ecological guilds, and life histories is commonly taken. Recently, 66% of
global marine resources were determined to be either fully, heavily, or over-exploited (Botsford et al., 1997).
Considering the current state of many fisheries, the large diversity of species taken globally, and the general lack of resources to adequately assess many stocks, it has become important to develop shortcuts that may provide
methods fisheries scientists can use to determine which stocks are in danger of overexploitation and which recovery plans are appropriate when biological data are limited (Stobutzki et al., 2001)
A Measure of Control for Secondary Cytokine-Induced Injury of Articular Cartilage: A Computational Study
In previous works, the author and collaborators establish a mathematical
model for injury response in articular cartilage. In this paper we use
mathematical software and computational techniques, applied to an existing
model to explore in more detail how the behavior of cartilage cells is
influenced by several of, what are believed to be, the most significant
mechanisms underlying cartilage injury response at the cellular level. We
introduce a control parameter, the radius of attenuation, and present some new
simulations that shed light on how inflammation associated with cartilage
injuries impacts the metabolic activity of cartilage cells. The details
presented in the work can help to elucidate targets for more effective
therapies in the preventative treatment of post-traumatic osteoarthritis
Dynamical SUSY Breaking in Intersecting Brane Models
We present a simple mechanism by which supersymmetry can be dynamically
broken in intersecting brane models, naturally generating an exponentially
small scale. Rather than utilize either non-Abelian gauge dynamics or
D-instantons, our mechanism uses worldsheet instantons to generate the small
scale in a hidden sector.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, References adde
Quantum algorithms for subset finding
Recently, Ambainis gave an O(N^(2/3))-query quantum walk algorithm for
element distinctness, and more generally, an O(N^(L/(L+1)))-query algorithm for
finding L equal numbers. We point out that this algorithm actually solves a
much more general problem, the problem of finding a subset of size L that
satisfies any given property. We review the algorithm and give a considerably
simplified analysis of its query complexity. We present several applications,
including two algorithms for the problem of finding an L-clique in an N-vertex
graph. One of these algorithms uses O(N^(2L/(L+1))) edge queries, and the other
uses \tilde{O}(N^((5L-2)/(2L+4))), which is an improvement for L <= 5. The
latter algorithm generalizes a recent result of Magniez, Santha, and Szegedy,
who considered the case L=3 (finding a triangle). We also pose two open
problems regarding continuous time quantum walk and lower bounds.Comment: 7 pages; note added on related results in quant-ph/031013
Whence philosophy of biology?
A consensus exists among contemporary philosophers of biology about the history of their field. According to the received view, mainstream philosophy of science in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s focused on physics and general epistemology, neglecting analyses of the âspecial sciencesâ, including biology. The subdiscipline of philosophy of biology emerged (and could only have emerged) after the decline of logical positivism in the 1960s and 70s. In this paper, I present bibliometric data from four major philosophy of science journals (Erkenntnis, Philosophy of Science, Synthese, and the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science), covering 1930-1959, which challenge this view
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