Introduction

The articles in this issue are drawn from the papers delivered at the conference “Ab Initio: Law in Early America,” held in Philadelphia on June 16–17, 2010—the first conference in nearly fifteen years to focus on law in early America. It was sponsored by the Penn Legal History Consortium, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, the American Society for Legal History, the University of Michigan Law School, and the University of Minnesota Law School, under the direction of Sarah Barringer Gordon, Martha S. Jones, William J. Novak, Daniel K. Richter, Richard J. Ross, and Barbara Y. Welke. For two days, fifteen mostly younger scholars presented their research to a packed house, with formal comments by senior scholars and vigorous discussion with the audience. That earlier conference, “The Many Legalities of Early America,” which convened in Williamsburg in 1996, had illustrated the shift from what was once trumpeted as the “new” legal history to something that never acquired a name, perhaps because it was less self-conscious in its methodology. “Ab Initio” offered the opportunity to ask how the field has changed in the years since

Book Review: Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787. Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier; the First Amendment: The Legacy of George Mason. Edited by T. Daniel Shumate.

Book review: Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787. Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier. New York, N.Y.: Random House/Reader\u27s Digest Press. 1986. Pp. xvi, 331 ; The First Amendment: The Legacy of George Mason. Edited by T. Daniel Shumate. Fairfax, Va.: George Mason University Press. 1985. Pp. 201. Reviewed by: Bruce H Mann

Law, Legalism, and Community Before the American Revolution

The connections between law and community are difficult to identify, let alone explain. It may be best to begin by seeing how law and the ways people used it changed, and then attempt to relate those changes to the surrounding economy and society. One must, of course, be wary of finding what one looks for. Nonetheless, as with objects against a dark background, it is sometimes easier to see things when they move than when they remain still. To illustrate the interactive nature of legal change and community, I will draw on examples from Connecticut before the Revolution - not because I think Connecticut was representative or typical, but because I know something about it. As it happens, there were significant changes in the legal system from the end of the seventeenth century to the eve of the Revolution, both in the ways people used the legal system and in its internal characteristics. There were also perceptible changes in the economy and society of the colony during the same period. The juxtaposition may have been coincidental, but I think not. The changes were linked, however loosely, by the growth of a legalist paradigm, in which the formal legal system supplanted ways of dealing that were rooted in communities and became the standards for all forms of disputing

Book Review: Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787. Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier; the First Amendment: The Legacy of George Mason. Edited by T. Daniel Shumate.

Book review: Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787. Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier. New York, N.Y.: Random House/Reader\u27s Digest Press. 1986. Pp. xvi, 331 ; The First Amendment: The Legacy of George Mason. Edited by T. Daniel Shumate. Fairfax, Va.: George Mason University Press. 1985. Pp. 201. Reviewed by: Bruce H Mann

Genomes of Fasciola hepatica from the Americas Reveal Colonization with Neorickettsia Endobacteria Related to the Agents of Potomac Horse and Human Sennetsu Fevers.

Food borne trematodes (FBTs) are an assemblage of platyhelminth parasites transmitted through the food chain, four of which are recognized as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Fascioliasis stands out among the other NTDs due to its broad and significant impact on both human and animal health, as Fasciola sp., are also considered major pathogens of domesticated ruminants. Here we present a reference genome sequence of the common liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica isolated from sheep, complementing previously reported isolate from cattle. A total of 14,642 genes were predicted from the 1.14 GB genome of the liver fluke. Comparative genomics indicated that F. hepatica Oregon and related food-borne trematodes are metabolically less constrained than schistosomes and cestodes, taking advantage of the richer millieux offered by the hepatobiliary organs. Protease families differentially expanded between diverse trematodes may facilitate migration and survival within the heterogeneous environments and niches within the mammalian host. Surprisingly, the sequencing of Oregon and Uruguay F. hepatica isolates led to the first discovery of an endobacteria in this species. Two contigs from the F. hepatica Oregon assembly were joined to complete the 859,205 bp genome of a novel Neorickettsia endobacterium (nFh) closely related to the etiological agents of human Sennetsu and Potomac horse fevers. Immunohistochemical studies targeting a Neorickettsia surface protein found nFh in specific organs and tissues of the adult trematode including the female reproductive tract, eggs, the Mehlis\u27 gland, seminal vesicle, and oral suckers, suggesting putative routes for fluke-to-fluke and fluke-to-host transmission. The genomes of F. hepatica and nFh will serve as a resource for further exploration of the biology of F. hepatica, and specifically its newly discovered trans-kingdom interaction with nFh and the impact of both species on disease in ruminants and humans

Delays in Leniency Application: Is There Really a Race to the Enforcer's Door?

This paper studies cartels’ strategic behavior in delaying leniency applications, a take-up decision that has been ignored in the previous literature. Using European Commission decisions issued over a 16-year span, we show, contrary to common beliefs and the existing literature, that conspirators often apply for leniency long after a cartel collapses. We estimate hazard and probit models to study the determinants of leniency-application delays. Statistical tests find that delays are symmetrically affected by antitrust policies and macroeconomic fluctuations. Our results shed light on the design of enforcement programs against cartels and other forms of conspiracy

Phenomenology and Cosmology of an Electroweak Pseudo-Dilaton and Electroweak Baryons

In many strongly-interacting models of electroweak symmetry breaking the lowest-lying observable particle is a pseudo-Goldstone boson of approximate scale symmetry, the pseudo-dilaton. Its interactions with Standard Model particles can be described using a low-energy effective nonlinear chiral Lagrangian supplemented by terms that restore approximate scale symmetry, yielding couplings of the pseudo-dilaton that differ from those of a Standard Model Higgs boson by fixed factors. We review the experimental constraints on such a pseudo-dilaton in light of new data from the LHC and elsewhere. The effective nonlinear chiral Lagrangian has Skyrmion solutions that may be identified with the `electroweak baryons' of the underlying strongly-interacting theory, whose nature may be revealed by the properties of the Skyrmions. We discuss the finite-temperature electroweak phase transition in the low-energy effective theory, finding that the possibility of a first-order electroweak phase transition is resurrected. We discuss the evolution of the Universe during this transition and derive an order-of-magnitude lower limit on the abundance of electroweak baryons in the absence of a cosmological asymmetry, which suggests that such an asymmetry would be necessary if the electroweak baryons are to provide the cosmological density of dark matter. We revisit estimates of the corresponding spin-independent dark matter scattering cross section, with a view to direct detection experiments.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures, additional references adde

Inhibition of Progenitor Dendritic Cell Maturation by Plasma from Patients with Peripartum Cardiomyopathy: Role in Pregnancy-associated Heart Disease

Dendritic cells (DCs) play dual roles in innate and adaptive immunity based on their functional maturity, and both innate and adaptive immune responses have been implicated in myocardial tissue remodeling associated with cardiomyopathies. Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a rare disorder which affects women within one month antepartum to five months postpartum. A high occurrence of PPCM in central Haiti (1 in 300 live births) provided the unique opportunity to study the relationship of immune activation and DC maturation to the etiology of this disorder. Plasma samples from two groups (n = 12) of age- and parity-matched Haitian women with or without evidence of PPCM were tested for levels of biomarkers of cardiac tissue remodeling and immune activation. Significantly elevated levels of GM-CSF, endothelin-1, proBNP and CRP and decreased levels of TGF- were measured in PPCM subjects relative to controls. Yet despite these findings, in vitro maturation of normal human cord blood derived progenitor dendritic cells (CBDCs) was significantly reduced (p < 0.001) in the presence of plasma from PPCM patients relative to plasma from post-partum control subjects as determined by expression of CD80, CD86, CD83, CCR7, MHC class II and the ability of these matured CBDCs to induce allo-responses in PBMCs. These results represent the first findings linking inhibition of DC maturation to the dysregulation of normal physiologic cardiac tissue remodeling during pregnancy and the pathogenesis of PPCM