The Implementation of Bankruptcy Code Section 707(b): The Law and the Reality

The introduction of section 707(b) to the bankruptcy code has raised many difficult interpretational issues. This article focuses on those issues concerning the implementation of section 707(b). Under the law, only the courts and the U.S. Trustees are permitted to raise the issue of substantial abuse. Therefore, to determine how section 707(b) is actually being administered, a survey was distributed to the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts and the U.S. Trustees. The results of the survey are integrated into a discussion of the current status of the law and presented in this article. This analysis identifies serious shortcomings with the law that can only be remedied through congressional action. The article concludes with a proposal for solving the problems created by section 707(b)

An Assessment of Water Sources Related to Major Systems of Agricultural Land Use in Kentucky

Recent years have seen a greater public concern about the quality of the nation\u27s water resources. While initial concerns targeted point source pollution, the emphasis in recent years has shifted to non-point source pollution, including the effect of general practices used by fanners in agricultural production systems. Since there was no reliable data base on such effects for Kentucky, the state\u27s General Assembly passed legislation during its 1990 session directing the University ofKentucky\u27s College of Agriculture (UK.CA) to assess the effect of agricultural practices on quality of the state\u27s waters. As part of the efforts undertaken by the UKCA in this regard, an assessment was made of water sources in major agricultural areas to determine the current level of water quality associated with agricultural practices in those areas. This information was needed to evaluate the question of concern: Do nonpoint agricultural practices such as fertilizer and herbicide use and grazing of pastures by livestock pose a threat to the quality of water potentially serving as human drinking water sources

Hubbard model versus t-J model: The one-particle spectrum

The origin of the apparent discrepancies between the one-particle spectra of the Hubbard and t-J models is revealed: Wavefunction corrections, in addition to the three-site terms, should supplement the bare t-J. In this way a quantitative agreement between the two models is obtained, even for the intermediate-$U$ values appropriate for the high-Tc cuprate superconductors. Numerical results for clusters of up to 20 sites are presented. The momentum dependence of the observed intensities in the photoemission spectra of Sr2CuO2Cl2 are well described by this complete strong-coupling approach.Comment: 4 two-column RevTeX pages, including 4 Postscript figures. Uses epsf. Accepted for publication in Physical Review B, Rapid Communicatio

Axonal and neuromuscular synaptic phenotypes in Wld(S), SOD1(G93A) and ostes mutant mice identified by fiber-optic confocal microendoscopy

We used live imaging by fiber-optic confocal microendoscopy (CME) of yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) expression in motor neurons to observe and monitor axonal and neuromuscular synaptic phenotypes in mutant mice. First, we visualized slow degeneration of axons and motor nerve terminals at neuromuscular junctions following sciatic nerve injury in WldS mice with slow Wallerian degeneration. Protection of axotomized motor nerve terminals was much weaker in WldS heterozygotes than in homozygotes. We then induced covert modifiers of axonal and synaptic degeneration in heterozygous WldS mice, by N-ethyl-Nnitrosourea (ENU) mutagenesis, and used CME to identify candidate mutants that either enhanced or suppressed axonal or synaptic degeneration. From 219 of the F1 progeny of ENU-mutagenized BALB/c mice and thy1.2-YFP16/WldS mice, CME revealed six phenodeviants with suppression of synaptic degeneration. Inheritance of synaptic protection was confirmed in three of these founders, with evidence of Mendelian inheritance of a dominant mutation in one of them (designated CEMOP_S5). We next applied CME repeatedly to living WldS mice and to SOD1G93A mice, an animal model of motor neuron disease, and observed degeneration of identified neuromuscular synapses over a 1–4 day period in both of these mutant lines. Finally, we used CME to observe slow axonal regeneration in the ENU-mutant ostes mouse strain. The data show that CME can be used to monitor covert axonal and neuromuscular synaptic pathology and, when combined with mutagenesis, to identify genetic modifiers of its progression in vivo

Deriving snow water equivalent using cosmic-ray neutron sensors from the COSMOS-UK network for modelling snowmelt floods

The COSMOS-UK sensor network has the potential to provide new insights into extreme snowfall and snowmelt events in the UK and to improve the modelling of snowmelt floods. The network consist of approximately 50 measurement sites, each equipped with a Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensor (CRNS). A number of these sites additionally include a “SnowFox” sensor for measuring snow water equivalent (SWE) and an ultrasonic snow depth sensor. Although the CRNS is currently used to produce estimates of soil moisture, it is also sensitive to water held as a snowpack. Moreover, the large (hundreds of metres) footprint of the CRNS potentially allows representative measurements of SWE even for inhomogeneous snowpacks. However, to date, there has been little attempt to produce snow products using the COSMOS-UK network, and soil moisture estimates during snowfall events are simply removed from the record. Here, a method is developed for using the COSMOS-UK network to derive snow products for the UK, where shallow, ephemeral snowpacks are the norm. The challenges posed by noise from the random nature of cosmic ray events, and the problem of separating the snow signal from moisture within the soil, are discussed. A comparison is made of SWE derived from the COSMOS-UK network and modelled using the snow hydrology component of the Grid-to-Grid (G2G) distributed hydrological model, and the effect on simulated river flows discussed

Neurodegenerative Disease Caregivers' 5-HTTLPR Genotype Moderates the Effect of Patients' Empathic Accuracy Deficits on Caregivers' Well-Being.

ObjectiveTo test the hypothesis that a functional polymorphism of the serotonin transporter gene (serotonin-transporter-linked polymorphic region [5-HTTLPR]), which is thought to be associated with differential environmental sensitivity, moderates the association between low levels of empathic accuracy (i.e., ability to recognize emotions in others) in patients with neurodegenerative disease and caregivers' well-being.MethodsParticipants were 54 patients with neurodegenerative disease and their caregivers. Patients' empathic accuracy was measured using a dynamic tracking task in which they continuously rated the emotions of a character in a film; accuracy was determined by comparing patient ratings with those made by an expert panel. Caregivers provided a saliva sample for genotyping. Caregivers' well-being was measured as a latent construct indicated by validated measures of depression, anxiety, and negative affect.ResultsLower levels of patients' empathic accuracy were associated with lower levels of caregivers' well-being. Importantly, caregivers' 5-HTTLPR genotype moderated this association such that lower empathic accuracy in patients predicted lower well-being for caregivers with the short/short genotype (standardized β = 0.66), but not for caregivers with the short/long (standardized β = 0.05) or long/long genotypes (standardized β = -0.21).ConclusionConsistent with previous findings that the short/short variant of 5-HTTLPR is associated with greater sensitivity to environmental influences, caregivers with the short/short variant manifest lower well-being when caring for a patient with low levels of empathic accuracy than caregivers with the other variants. This finding contributes to the authors' understanding of biological factors associated with individual differences in caregiver vulnerability and resilience

Variable strength of forest stand attributes and weather conditions on the questing activity of Ixodes ricinus ticks over years in managed forests

Given the ever-increasing human impact through land use and climate change on the environment, we crucially need to achieve a better understanding of those factors that influence the questing activity of ixodid ticks, a major disease-transmitting vector in temperate forests. We investigated variation in the relative questing nymph densities of Ixodes ricinus in differently managed forest types for three years (2008–2010) in SW Germany by drag sampling. We used a hierarchical Bayesian modeling approach to examine the relative effects of habitat and weather and to consider possible nested structures of habitat and climate forces. The questing activity of nymphs was considerably larger in young forest successional stages of thicket compared with pole wood and timber stages. Questing nymph density increased markedly with milder winter temperatures. Generally, the relative strength of the various environmental forces on questing nymph density differed across years. In particular, winter temperature had a negative effect on tick activity across sites in 2008 in contrast to the overall effect of temperature across years. Our results suggest that forest management practices have important impacts on questing nymph density. Variable weather conditions, however, might override the effects of forest management practices on the fluctuations and dynamics of tick populations and activity over years, in particular, the preceding winter temperatures. Therefore, robust predictions and the detection of possible interactions and nested structures of habitat and climate forces can only be quantified through the collection of long-term data. Such data are particularly important with regard to future scenarios of forest management and climate warming