Title Guaranty Funds: Symptom, Cure or Nostrum?

This article is an adaption of an address given at a dinner held jointly by the Indiana Bar Title Insurance Corporation and the National Attorneys\u27 Title Assurance Fund, as a part of the annual meeting of the Indiana State Bar Association, October 29, 1970

Ancillary Costs in the Purchase of Homes

The basic legal doctrine governing the transfer of land is relatively simple. Or, to be more accurate, it is not especially difficult to comply with the minimum requirements of the law. Theoretically, the grantor must merely execute and deliver a conventional document. In practice, however, land transfers are sufficiently complex to require the services of a number of persons besides the immediate parties. Real estate brokers, attorneys, mortgage lenders, public officials, and others play their parts and generally demand compensation. It follows that in the sale of land two distinct costs must be met: first, the gross purchase price; and second, the ancillary charges imposed on the buyer and seller by the other participants in the transaction. We have substantially reliable information about the first of these. But about the second, little or nothing satisfactory is known. This hiatus is a matter of wonder in the light of the considerable practical significance of ancillary costs. Although charges in individual transactions are frequently small in amount, relative to the sales price, estimates of the aggregate vary from one to three billion dollars per year. The totals given are the products of informed guesses, but it is suspected that error, if any, is the product of over-conservatism. Analysts disagree about what charges to consider and are apt to entirely ignore items of importance. It is impossible to determine the resulting margin of error, but enough money is involved to warrant at least some inquiry into the amount

Title Guaranty Funds: Symptom, Cure or Nostrum?

This article is an adaption of an address given at a dinner held jointly by the Indiana Bar Title Insurance Corporation and the National Attorneys\u27 Title Assurance Fund, as a part of the annual meeting of the Indiana State Bar Association, October 29, 1970

Health care and the cross-section of US stock returns

Health care costs represent a large and growing component of business and consumer expenditures in the US. Medical inflation represents these costs, and it differs from aggregate inflation and other market factors with respect to its rate of growth, statistical properties and the extent to which it can be hedged by households and firms. Using multiple model specifications for the 25-year period from 1985 to 2009, we find medical inflation is robustly priced in the cross-section of US stock returns. It commands a risk premium of between 31 and 51 basis points per annum per unit change in beta. Medical inflation is also unique in that it represents the only inflationary component that robustly explains the cross-section of stock returns in this manner and is not subsumed by other common factors in the literature. These results quantify the health care industry’s unique and significant role in the US economy and stock market, further rationalizing the substantial attention this industry receives

Criminogenic Features of Apartment Complexes: Preliminary Findings

This study used epidemiological methods to compare high crime apartment complexes to low crime apartment complexes along multiple dimensions, including management practices and the immediate spatial context of the complexes.Funded by Grant No. 2005-IJ-CX-0030 awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of JusticeStudy / Why rental housing is ideal for studies of place management / Disorder calls for service / Independent variables: ORCA / Odds ratios from logistic regression / But shouldn’t place management reduce crime? / A Dynamic Approach to Place Management and Crim

Interleukin-4 in the Generation of the AERD Phenotype: Implications for Molecular Mechanisms Driving Therapeutic Benefit of Aspirin Desensitization

Aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) is explained in part by over-expression of 5-lipoxygenase, leukotriene C4 synthase (LTC4S) and the cysteinyl leukotriene (CysLT) receptors (CysLT1 and 2), resulting in constitutive over-production of CysLTs and the hyperresponsiveness to CysLTs that occurs with aspirin ingestion. Increased levels of IL-4 have been found in the sinus mucosa and nasal polyps of AERD subjects. Previous studies demonstrated that IL-4 is primarily responsible for the upregulation of LTC4S by mast cells and the upregulation of CysLT1 and 2 receptors on many immune cell types. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) acts to prevent CysLT secretion by inhibiting mast cell and eosinophil activation. PGE2 concentrations are reduced in AERD reflecting diminished expression of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2. IL-4 can inhibit basal and stimulated expression of COX-2 and microsomal PGE synthase 1 leading to decreased capacity for PGE2 secretion. Thus, IL-4 plays an important pathogenic role in generating the phenotype of AERD. This review will examine the evidence supporting this hypothesis and describe a model of how aspirin desensitization provides therapeutic benefit for AERD patients

Minding the Terrazzo Gap between Athletes and Nonathletes: Representativeness, Integration, and Academic Performance at the U.S. Air Force Academy

The tension between focusing on collegiate athletic or academic performance has persisted for decades. A recent study finds that recruited athletes in college athletic programs underperform academically, earning lower grades than predicted. It postulates that increased representativeness and integration efforts will enhance the academic value of college athletes’ experience. The U.S. Air Force Academy system presents a natural experiment of whether such efforts can affect student-athlete academic performance. In this setting, we find that student-athletes perform comparably to nonathletes after controlling for predicted academic performance

The role of the Cucumber mosaic virus 2b protein in viral movement and symptom induction

The Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) 2b protein is a counter-defense factor and symptom determinant. Conserved domains in the 2b protein sequence were mutated in the 2b gene of strain Fny-CMV. The effects of these mutations were assessed by infection of Nicotiana tabacum, N. benthamiana, and Arabidopsis thaliana (ecotype Col-0) with mutant viruses and by expression of mutant 2b transgenes in A. thaliana. We confirmed that two nuclear localization signals were required for symptom induction and found that the N-terminal domain was essential for symptom induction. The C-terminal domain and two serine residues within a putative phosphorylation domain modulated symptom severity. Further infection studies were conducted using Fny-CMVΔ2b, a mutant that cannot express the 2b protein and that induces no symptoms in N. tabacum, N. benthamiana, or A. thaliana ecotype Col-0. Surprisingly, in plants of A. thaliana ecotype C24, Fny-CMVΔ2b induced severe symptoms similar to those induced by the wild-type virus. However, C24 plants infected with the mutant virus recovered from disease while those infected with the wild-type virus did not. Expression of 2b transgenes from either Fny-CMV or from LS-CMV (a mild strain) in Col-0 plants enhanced systemic movement of Fny-CMVΔ2b and permitted symptom induction by Fny-CMVΔ2b. Taken together, the results indicate that the 2b protein itself is an important symptom determinant in certain hosts. However, they also suggest that the protein may somehow synergize symptom induction by other CMV-encoded factors