CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-COMMERCE CLAUSE-STATE TAXATION OF INTERSTATE AIR CARRIERS

Plaintiff, an interstate air carrier, was incorporated in Delaware, and the home port of its planes was in Minnesota. It conducted regularly scheduled flights in and between twelve states. No landings were ever made in Delaware. Nebraska, one of the states in which landings were made by plaintiff, levied an ad valorem tax on a proportion of the Hight equipment of the plaintiff measured by the proportion of the total use of the equipment that was attributable to Nebraska. Plaintiff contended that the commerce clause of the United States Constitution precluded Nebraska from imposing any tax whatever upon such Hight equipment used in interstate commerce. In an original action for a declaratory judgment, held, the tax is valid. Mid-Continent Airlines, Inc. v. Nebraska State Board of Equalization and Assessment, 157 Neb. 425, 59 N.W. (2d) 746 (1953)

REAL PROPERTY-EASEMENTS BY PRESCRIPTION-USE OF PRESUMPTION

Plaintiffs sought to enjoin defendants from using a driveway located on plaintiffs\u27 property. Defendants counterclaimed to have an easement by prescription declared. The parties occupied adjacent city lots. Defendants\u27 predecessor began using the driveway in 1920 without seeking permission from plaintiffs\u27 predecessor. The respective predecessors were on friendly terms at the inception of the user. Defendants and their predecessors made minor repairs to the driveway and claimed at the trial that they had constantly used it as their own. In 1936, two years after plaintiffs acquired full title to their lot, their predecessor executed an abortive quit-claim deed to the driveway to defendants\u27 predecessor. The prescriptive period in the state was twenty years. The trial court granted the counterclaim. On appeal, held, reversed. Defendants\u27 evidence failed to overcome the presumption of permissive user that arises upon a showing that the user had its origin in neighborly accommodation. Although the abortive quitclaim deed of 1936 may have initiated an adverse user, the prescriptive period had not expired before commencement of this action. Lunt v. Kitchens, (Utah 1953) 260 P. (2d) 535

Do Historically Black Colleges and Universities Enhance the College Attendance of African American Youths?

Recently, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have become the center of intense policy debates. Do HBCUs enhance the college attendance of African American youths? Previous research has been inconclusive. Among other improvements, our study adjusts for the relative availability of HBCU enrollment opportunities in each state. We find that African Americans are more likely to choose HBCUs over other colleges if more HBCU openings are available. However, more HBCU openings don\u27t increase overall African American enrollment. As we have shown elsewhere, attendance at an HBCU does enhance African American students\u27 college graduation rates

Federal Procedure - Venue in Third-Party Tort Actions Against the United States

Plaintiff sustained serious injuries when he was struck by a mail pouch thrown from defendant\u27s moving train by a United States mail clerk. Action was was brought against the railroad in the District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, whereupon the railroad filed a third-party complaint against the United States, alleging negligence on the part of the mail clerk. The United States moved for a dismissal on the ground that both plaintiffs residence and the situs of the injury were in the Eastern District of Oklahoma; since the venue provisions of Title 28, U.S.C. (1952) §1402(b) prescribe that tort actions against the United States may be brought only in the district where the plaintiff resides or where the act or omission complained of occurred, the United States had not consented to be sued in the Western District. The motion was denied, and judgments were rendered against both the railroad and the United States. On appeal, held, affirmed. A third-party action being ancillary in nature, its venue might be derived from that of the original action. United States v. Acord, (10th Cir. 1954) 209 F. (2d) 709

Husband and Wife -- Personal Tort Actions Between Spouses -- Statutory Construction

Following an interlocutory divorce decree, and while the parties were living apart from one another, defendant allegedly assaulted the plaintiff. The trial court dismissed her complaint on the ground that no action could be brought by one spouse against the other for personal torts committed during coverture. On appeal, held, reversed, three judges dissenting and one concurring. The Judicial Code and the Husband and Wife Statutes of Utah, when considered together, entitle a married woman to maintain an action against her husband for injuries intentionally inflicted upon her. Taylor v. Patten, 2 Utah (2d) 404, 275 P. (2d) 696 (1954)

Using Auxiliary Data to Guide the Recruitment of Sites for Randomized Controlled Trials

Sampling methods such as Stratified Random Sampling can be used to select representative samples of schools for randomized controlled trials of educational interventions. However, these methods may still yield external validity bias when participation by schools is voluntary and participation decisions are associated with unobserved variables. This paper offers a new sampling method called Stratified Random Sampling with Quotas. Under this method, quotas are set to avoid including too many schools of a particular type, as defined by auxiliary variables that are unobserved in the sampling frame, but whose population distribution can be estimated from external data. Our simulations find that when the auxiliary variables affect whether or not a school participates in the study, quotas set based on those variables reduce external validity bias. These results suggest that when auxiliary data are available on strong impact moderators for the target population, these data can be used to address non-ignorable self-selection by schools into randomized controlled trials

A pilot randomized controlled trial to promote healthful fish consumption during pregnancy: The Food for Thought Study

Background: Nutritionists advise pregnant women to eat fish to obtain adequate docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an essential nutrient important for optimal brain development. However, concern exists that this advice will lead to excess intake of methylmercury, a developmental neurotoxicant. Objective: Conduct a pilot intervention to increase consumption of high-DHA, low-mercury fish in pregnancy. Methods: In April-October 2010 we recruited 61 women in the greater Boston, MA area at 12–22 weeks gestation who consumed = 200mg/d of DHA from fish, compared with 33% in the Advice arm (p=0.005) and 53% in the Advice+GC arm (p=0.0002). We did not detect any differences in mercury intake or in biomarker levels of mercury and DHA between groups. Conclusions: An educational intervention increased consumption of fish and DHA but not mercury. Future studies are needed to determine intervention effects on pregnancy and childhood health outcomes. Trial registration Registered on clinicaltrials.gov as NCT0112676

CHROMIC AND IRON OXIDES AS FECAL MARKERS TO IDENTIFY INDIVIDUAL WHOOPING CRANES

The whooping crane (Grus americana) is listed as endangered under the IUCN Red List, the United States Endangered Species Act, and the Canadian Species at Risk Act (BirdLife International 2012, CWS and USFWS 2007). A major focus of recovery efforts for this endangered species is reintroduction to establish new populations (CWS and USFWS 2007). Captive populations are critical as a source of individuals for reintroduction efforts and also serve as insurance populations. Currently, there are a total of 157 whooping cranes held in captive breeding centers across North America, with the largest at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (PWRC) in Laurel, Maryland. Birds produced in this facility are currently being released as part of efforts to establish the Eastern Migratory Population (EMP, Urbanek et al. 2005) and in an effort to establish a non-migratory population in Louisiana. In the past decade, PWRC has produced and released annually an average of 18 birds into the wild; however, reproductive performance of birds at this facility is lower than desired. PWRC had a 60% fertility rate for eggs laid from 2000 through 2010 (J. N. Chandler, personal communication, 2011). Furthermore, reproductive onset in this captive population appears to be delayed compared to wild populations. In wild populations, reproductive onset (production of sperm and eggs) normally occurs ~5 years of age in both males and females, ~2 years after initial pair formation occurs (Ellis et al., 1996), while some females in the EMP have laid eggs earlier than 5 years of age (Converse et al. 2011). However, PWRC females in some cases do not start to lay eggs until 7 years of age (Mirande et al. 1996). Currently, the PWRC population consists of a total of 74 whooping cranes, including 22 pairs. Six of these pairs (27%) are consistently infertile (i.e., no production of fertile eggs) and 3 other pairs (14%) have low fertility (30- 45% fertility in eggs laid), which is variable from year to year. Six pairs (27%) are recently formed and have not produced eggs, and so have unknown fertility. This leaves only 7 pairs (33%) which contribute maximally to PWRC’s chick production (J. N. Chandler, personal communication, 2011). Because of the challenges occurring within this captive colony, PWRC and Smithsonian National Zoo have initiated a joint research project to identify potential underlying causes of poor reproduction in captive whooping cranes

Etiology of Severe Non-malaria Febrile Illness in Northern Tanzania: A Prospective Cohort Study.

The syndrome of fever is a commonly presenting complaint among persons seeking healthcare in low-resource areas, yet the public health community has not approached fever in a comprehensive manner. In many areas, malaria is over-diagnosed, and patients without malaria have poor outcomes. We prospectively studied a cohort of 870 pediatric and adult febrile admissions to two hospitals in northern Tanzania over the period of one year using conventional standard diagnostic tests to establish fever etiology. Malaria was the clinical diagnosis for 528 (60.7%), but was the actual cause of fever in only 14 (1.6%). By contrast, bacterial, mycobacterial, and fungal bloodstream infections accounted for 85 (9.8%), 14 (1.6%), and 25 (2.9%) febrile admissions, respectively. Acute bacterial zoonoses were identified among 118 (26.2%) of febrile admissions; 16 (13.6%) had brucellosis, 40 (33.9%) leptospirosis, 24 (20.3%) had Q fever, 36 (30.5%) had spotted fever group rickettsioses, and 2 (1.8%) had typhus group rickettsioses. In addition, 55 (7.9%) participants had a confirmed acute arbovirus infection, all due to chikungunya. No patient had a bacterial zoonosis or an arbovirus infection included in the admission differential diagnosis. Malaria was uncommon and over-diagnosed, whereas invasive infections were underappreciated. Bacterial zoonoses and arbovirus infections were highly prevalent yet overlooked. An integrated approach to the syndrome of fever in resource-limited areas is needed to improve patient outcomes and to rationally target disease control efforts