Mental Health in Sports Media

This paper looks at the increasingly popular conversation surrounding mental health in sports. It provides a glimpse into how common the struggle of mental health can be for many high-level athletes while also examining the narrative and expectations that society and the media have created. The paper also provides examples of prominent athletes from a variety of different sports and delves into their personal mental health experiences in the eyes of the media. The goal of this paper is to show the progression and change of how the media portrays mental health amongst athletes in today’s ever-changing world

Environmental Protection Agreements in Japan and the United States

In an environmental protection agreement, local government regulatory authorities and the regulated industry enter into a binding written agreement that specifies limits on pollution and supplements the applicable regulatory requirements. They have been utilized in Japan for over twenty years. This Comment discusses the content and practical uses of these agreements as they have been used in Japan, and postulates their legal status under three theories: that such agreements are relational social contracts; that they are informal administrative guidance; and that they are civil contracts. The legal character of environmental protection agreements in Japan has never been well-defined, primarily because of lack of litigation. Therefore, this Comment analogizes from the manner in which courts in both Japan and the United States have treated similar land use development agreements. It concludes that environmental protection agreements in the United States could be a valuable supplement to the current regulatory system, as long as agreements are truly voluntary and that some justifiable relationship exists between the conditions imposed and the public good

Corporations- Allocation of Subsidiary\u27s Tax Benefit from Consolidated Return

Defendant parent corporation received from its subsidiary 3,556,992 dollars in tax benefits which had accrued to the subsidiary from filing a consolidated income tax return. By agreement between parent and subsidiary, the profit-making corporation was to pay the losing corporation the savings created by the consolidated return. The working relationship of the two assured the subsidiary profits and the parent losses. Consequently, nearly all tax benefit inevitably flowed to the parent. Plaintiffs, the subsidiary\u27s minority stockholders, sought a refunding of benefits allocated to defendant, claiming that the agreement was unfair and alleging that the defendant, as the subsidiary\u27s majority shareholder, had violated its fiduciary obligation to minority shareholders. The Supreme Court, finding no violation, dismissed the complaint. On appeal to the Appellate Division, held, reversed. The subsidiary\u27s majority shareholder owes its minority shareholders a fiduciary duty not to part with all or nearly all the tax benefit resulting from a consolidated return; since the agreement between the parent (majority shareholder) and the subsidiary violates this obligation, the allocation agreement is unenforceable. Case v. New York Cent. R.R., 19 App. Div. 2d 383, 243 N.Y.S.2d 620 (1963)

The Report of the President\u27s Cabinet Committee on Private Pension Plan Regulation: An Appraisal

The growth of private employee pension plans in the American economy is astonishing. From 1953 to the end of 1964, the accumulation of assets of private pension funds has grown from 16.9 billion dollars to 75 billion dollars, with a projected accumulation of 225 billion dollars by 1980. At present, private retirement plans cover approximately 25 million workers, which is one-half of all employees in private non-farm establishments. Moreover, unions increasingly stress both the creation of pension plans where none exist and increased benefits from current plans. Thus, during the recent United Auto Workers negotiations the union sought and received extensive increases in benefit payments. Finally, unions are also attempting to establish pooled joint retirement funds where smaller companies are involved, thereby permitting employers who previously could not afford to maintain funds to provide pension benefits for their employees

Cytokine mediated CD4+ T-cell dysregulation in early rheumatoid arthritis

PhD ThesisBackground A 12-gene signature in CD4+ T-cells had discriminatory utility for early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients compared with disease controls. This signature is enriched for STAT-3 target genes whose expression correlates with paired circulating IL-6. I hypothesise that pre-exposure of CD4+ T-cells to IL-6 mediates STAT-3 activation and aberrant effector function following T-cell receptor (TCR) stimulation, providing a mechanism of antigen non-specific immune dysfunction in early RA. Methods A model for cytokine pre-exposure was developed, in which naïve (CD45RA+) and antigen experienced (CD45RA-) CD4+ T-cells from healthy human donors were cultured with IL-6 and equimolar soluble IL-6R for 3 days, before being washed and stimulated with anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 for 6 days. RNA was extracted at multiple experimental time-points and global gene expression profiling undertaken. Phenotype and proliferation were assessed by flow cytometry, measuring cell surface markers and proliferation dyes. Whether the observed consequences of IL-6 pre-exposure reflected transcriptional and phenotypic characteristics of CD4+ T-cells isolated from patients with early RA was explored. Results The effects of IL-6 pre-exposure were seen most prominently in naïve CD4+ T-cells, potentially related to IL-6 receptor expression. Pre-exposure of healthy control naïve CD4+ T-cells to physiological levels of IL-6 caused significant STAT-3 target gene induction, mirroring genes previously found to distinguish RA patients from disease controls. Following TCR-stimulation, a distinctive set of genes differentially expressed in IL-6 pre-exposed cells were associated with to cell proliferation and survival. This is consistent with altered effector phenotype of IL-6 preexposed cells characterised by dose-dependent enhancement in activation and proliferative capacity. CD4+ T-cells from early RA patients showed no difference in proliferation compared to healthy controls, although our group has observed that a higher proportion are committed to the cell cycle as measured by ki67 expression. Conclusion These findings highlight that cytokine “pre-priming” during the early disease state may have consequences for naïve CD4+ T-cell effector function, impacting the transition to disease chronicity in early RA.Arthritis Research U