SEC/DOJ Parallel Proceedings: Contemplating the Propriety of Recent Judicial Trends

The Article examines the simultaneous civil investigation by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and criminal investigation by the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) through the United States Attorney’s Office regarding alleged violations of the federal securities laws. Part II of this Article introduces traditional authority, both statutory and case law, for the SEC and DOJ to conduct parallel proceedings. Part III briefly describes the SEC’s methods and procedures for gathering and sharing information with the DOJ. Part IV describes the rights and privileges afforded to suspects, while Part V describes the rights and privileges that suspects are not afforded despite the obviously unfair situations such suspects must face as a result. Part VI describes the procedures used by targets to combat these unfair situations, with particular attention afforded to the procedure of moving for a stay of the civil proceeding pending the resolution of the criminal proceeding. Part VII analyzes the judicial standards utilized by courts in determining whether to grant the stay of the civil proceeding, focusing on apparent recent judicial trends. Part VIII describes criticism of SEC/DOJ parallel proceedings, as well as the effectiveness of such criticism, while Part IX discusses why such criticism is largely inappropriate

Social density, but not sex ratio, drives ecdysteroid hormone provisioning to eggs by female house crickets (Acheta domesticus)

Social environment profoundly influences the fitness of animals, affecting their probability of survival to adulthood, longevity, and reproductive output. The social conditions experienced by parents at the time of reproduction can predict the social environments that offspring will face. Despite clear challenges in predicting future environmental conditions, adaptive maternal effects provide a mechanism of passing environmental information from parent to offspring and are now considered pervasive in natural systems. Maternal effects have been widely studied in vertebrates, especially in the context of social environment, and are often mediated by steroid hormone (SH) deposition to eggs. In insects, although many species dramatically alter phenotype and life‐history traits in response to social density, the mechanisms of these alterations, and the role of hormone deposition by insect mothers into their eggs, remains unknown. In the experiments described here, we assess the effects of social environment on maternal hormone deposition to eggs in house crickets (Acheta domesticus). Specifically, we tested the hypotheses that variable deposition of ecdysteroid hormones (ESH) to eggs is affected by both maternal (a) social density and (b) social composition. We found that while maternal hormone deposition to eggs does not respond to social composition (sex ratio), it does reflect social density; females provision their eggs with higher ESH doses under low‐density conditions. This finding is consistent with the interpretation that variable ESH provisioning is an adaptive maternal response to social environment and congruent with similar patterns of variable maternal provisioning across the tree of life. Moreover, our results confirm that maternal hormone provisioning may mediate delayed density dependence by introducing a time lag in the response of offspring phenotype to population size.Here we show that female crickets respond to social density in provisioning their eggs with hormones that govern hatchling growth and development. This is the first evidence that we are aware of for hormone provisioning as a mechanism for achieving delayed density dependence in a population.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146319/1/ece34502_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146319/2/ece34502.pd

A comparison of maternal effects and current environment on vital rates of Aphis nerii , the milkweed–oleander aphid

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72485/1/j.1365-2311.2007.00853.x.pd

Solvent similarity index.

The Solvent Similarity Index (SSI) is a quantitative parameter we introduce for the comparison of the solvation properties of any solvent or solvent mixture. The Surface Site Interaction Model for Liquids at Equilibrium (SSIMPLE) was used to calculate the free energy of solvation of a single Surface Site Interaction Point (SSIP) on a solute. The SSIP representation of molecular surfaces was used to calculate the free energy of solvation for all possible solute polarities, generating a unique solvation profile for any solvent or solvent mixture. Quantitative comparison of the solvation profiles of two solvents was used as the basis for calculating the solvation similarity index. Values of SSI were calculated for all pairwise comparisons of 261 pure solvents at 298 K, and the results were used to classify solvents into groups according to their solvation properties. Applications to understanding the solvation properties of binary solvent mixtures and for identification of alternative solvents are illustrated.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/M506485/1

Effects of nitrogen deposition on the interaction between an aphid and its host plant

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71607/1/j.1365-2311.2007.00945.x.pd

The relative strengths of rapid and delayed density dependence acting on a terrestrial herbivore change along a pollution gradient

Animal populations vary in response to a combination of density‐dependent and density‐independent forces, which interact to drive their population dynamics. Understanding how abiotic forces mediate the form and strength of density‐dependent processes remains a central goal of ecology, and is of increasing urgency in a rapidly changing world.Here, we report for the first time that industrial pollution determines the relative strength of rapid and delayed density dependence operating on an animal population. We explored the impacts of pollution and climate on the population dynamics of an eruptive leafmining moth, Phyllonorycter strigulatella, around a coal‐fired power plant near Apatity, north‐western Russia. Populations were monitored at 14 sites over 26 years.The relative strengths of rapid and delayed density dependence varied with distance from the power plant. Specifically, the strength of rapid density dependence increased while the strength of delayed density dependence decreased with increasing distance from the pollution source. Paralleling the increasing strength of rapid density dependence, we observed declines in the densities of P. strigulatella, increases in predation pressure from birds and ants, and declines in an unknown source of mortality (perhaps plant antibiosis) with increasing distance from the power plant.In contrast to the associations with pollution, associations between climate change and leafminer population densities were negligible.Our results may help to explain the outbreaks of insect herbivores that are frequently observed in polluted environments. We show that they can result from the weakening of rapid (stabilizing) density dependence relative to the effects of destabilizing delayed density dependence. Moreover, our results may explain some of the variation reported in published studies of animal populations in polluted habitats. Variable results may emerge in part because of the location of the study sites on different parts of pollution gradients. Finally, in a rapidly changing world, effects of anthropogenic pollution may be as, or more, important than are effects of climate change on the future dynamics of animal populations.Rapid density dependence (diamonds) stabilizes animal populations, whereas delayed density dependence (squares) is destabilizing. The authors report for the first time that a gradient in pollution can influence the relative strengths of rapid and delayed density dependence. The results may help to explain the high incidence of insect outbreaks near pollution sources.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149304/1/jane12930_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149304/2/jane12930.pd

Climate change and an invasive, tropical milkweed: an ecological trap for monarch butterflies

© 2018 by the Ecological Society of America While it is well established that climate change affects species distributions and abundances, the impacts of climate change on species interactions has not been extensively studied. This is particularly important for specialists whose interactions are tightly linked, such as between the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and the plant genus Asclepias, on which it depends. We used open-top chambers (OTCs) to increase temperatures in experimental plots and placed either nonnative Asclepias curassavica or native A. incarnata in each plot along with monarch larvae. We found, under current climatic conditions, adult monarchs had higher survival and mass when feeding on A. curassavica. However, under future conditions, monarchs fared much worse on A. curassavica. The decrease in adult survival and mass was associated with increasing cardenolide concentrations under warmer temperatures. Increased temperatures alone reduced monarch forewing length. Cardenolide concentrations in A. curassavica may have transitioned from beneficial to detrimental as temperature increased. Thus, the increasing cardenolide concentrations may have pushed the larvae over a tipping point into an ecological trap; whereby past environmental cues associated with increased fitness give misleading information. Given the ubiquity of specialist plant–herbivore interactions, the potential for such ecological traps to emerge as temperatures increase may have far-reaching consequences

Trans‐generational parasite protection associated with paternal diet

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110089/1/jane12289.pd

Mycorrhizal abundance affects the expression of plant resistance traits and herbivore performance

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98805/1/jec12111.pd