Government, Big Tech, and Individual Liberty

The thesis is that the first principles of the Founding Fathers express in the Declaration give the proper guidance for dealing with the impact of high tech on individual liberty

The Modular Approach to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Insolvency

Historically, insolvency systems have been designed with larger enterprises in mind. They assume an extensive insolvency estate of significant worth, and the presence of creditors and other stakeholders with sufficient value at stake that they participate in and oversee the process. These assumptions undergird mechanisms by which creditors and other stakeholders may ensure that the insolvency process faithfully serves their interests, for an independent professional to run the business undergoing an insolvency process, and for extensive judicial oversight. These assumptions and features are incongruent with the reality of micro, small, and medium enterprises (\u27MSMEs\u27). Mirroring the general population of businesses and reflecting the particular fragility associated with smaller asset bases and relative absence of risk diversification, the vast majority of businesses entering insolvency proceedings are MSMEs. On MSME insolvency, little or no value is available for distribution to anyone other than secured creditors in a significant proportion of insolvency estates, and secured creditors tend to have effective collection methods under non-insolvency law. Correspondingly, most secured and unsecured creditors, as well as other stakeholders, are rationally disinterested in the insolvency process. In many cases, it is not worthwhile for either the estate or most stakeholders to engage lawyers to represent them in court. Estates may possess inadequate value even to pay an independent insolvency professional. Such incongruence between the design of insolvency regimes and the nature of most of the businesses to which they apply leaves the insolvency process unbalanced, inadequately supervised, non-efficacious, and sometimes, simply unfeasible. Policy-makers and legislators have often responded through ad hoc changes to the ‘standard’ regime, such as by shearing some elements of the insolvency process when applied to smaller businesses, by shortening statutory timelines, and by dispensing with the necessary participation of certain stakeholders. The resulting processes have been marked by arbitrary boundaries, rigid preconditions for availability, and limited effectiveness. This paper systematically rethinks the treatment of distressed MSMEs. At its core is a new ‘Modular Approach’ to MSME insolvency. This approach is modular in two ways: (i) it allows national policy makers to choose from a range of available options including in terms of the involvement of appropriate institutions; (ii) subject to national authorities’ design decisions, the Modular Approach provides an essential ‘core’ process in each case, and allows relevant stakeholders to invoke additional tools (‘modules’) if and when the benefits of wielding those tools in the particular case outweigh the costs. The Modular Approach shares with ‘standard’ insolvency regimes the core objectives of preserving and maximizing the value in the insolvency estate, ensuring distribution over an appropriate period of time of the highest feasible proportion of that value to those entitled to it, providing due accountability for any wrongdoing connected with the insolvency, and enabling discharge of over-indebted natural persons. The Modular Approach differs in the way it pursues these objectives. Its basic assumption is that the parties to a particular insolvency case are best placed to select the tools appropriate to that case. The role of the legal regime should be to provide these tools in a maximally flexible way, while creating the correct incentives for their deployment. Traditionally, legal systems provide particular ‘packages’ or combinations of these tools and label them ‘workout’, ‘liquidation’ and ‘restructuring’. The Modular Approach unpacks those combinations. It assumes a core process, geared towards enabling the entrepreneur to propose a restructuring of the business’ liabilities and to obtain discharge of any unrepayable obligations. The entrepreneur, who may operate through a legal entity or as a sole trader, may access any of the full range of insolvency law mechanisms to enable attainment of these objectives. At the same time, creditors and other stakeholders have the right to adequate notification of each step in the process, coupled with the power to override the entrepreneur’s choices where a sufficient proportion of them consider it appropriate to do so. Judicial involvement is not required as a matter of course, though, again, it may be requested by the stipulated proportion of creditors. The process may obtain and retain momentum by virtue of the presumptions that stakeholders who have not positively objected to a step in the process have consented to that step, and that the non-exercise of procedural rights within the process precludes the relevant stakeholders from objecting to the part of the process to which the unexercised rights relate. Stakeholders are divided into appropriate classes; they must act by stipulated majority by value; and stipulated majorities by value of a class may bind dissenting minorities. The Modular Approach is designed to provide appropriate incentives for the entrepreneur and other stakeholders alike. Entrepreneurs have positive incentives to commence the insolvency process in a timely manner: they do not have to declare the business insolvent; they may, in principle, retain its management; and they have the right to propose how the insolvency should proceed. Entrepreneurs also face negative incentives that discourage non-timely commencement of insolvency proceedings, in that the Modular Approach imposes personal liability for any additional loss suffered by the business’ creditors because of blameworthy delay in commencement. The Modular Approach acknowledges that in many MSME insolvencies, unsecured creditors are rationally disinterested, given their limited economic stake and the very limited likelihood of any recovery in the process. They need not actively participate in the process if, upon due notification, they do not consider it worth the time and expense of participating. As noted, their abstention is deemed approval, and the insolvency process may continue apace. Negative incentives for creditors arise because the non-exercise of procedural rights amounts to a waiver of such rights. Positive incentives arise in creditors’ ability, acting with others who together hold a sufficiently large proportion of the claims against the enterprise, to override the entrepreneur’s choice of tools and to select a destiny for the business different to the one favoured by the entrepreneur. The Modular Approach also responds to differences in the economic, social and legal circumstances of different countries. It does so by guiding national policymakers with respect to the factors relevant to determining the proper boundaries between ‘standard’ and MSME insolvency regimes, and by identifying three functions: management, administrative and judicial. The Approach explains the costs and benefits of assigning those functions to different entities

The Grizzly, September 13, 2007

Ursinus Implements Swipe, Message Systems for Better Student Safety on Campus • Strassburger Goes to Dubai • Why Don\u27t You Escape Velocity? • Residence Life Sponsors Alcohol Education Program for Freshmen • Beyond the Condom: Guide to Safe Sex • Faculty Spotlight: Yoshitomo Yamashita • Wismer Hall: Too Hard to Handle? • Ursinus Recycling 101 • Opinions: Should We Lower the Drinking Age?; On Patriot Day • Rank \u27em • UC Volleyball Spikes to Success • Men\u27s Soccer Stumbles in Home Openerhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1742/thumbnail.jp

Development Roadmap for an Adjustable X-Ray Optics Observatory

We are developing adjustable X-ray optics to use on a mission such as SMART-X (see posters 38.02, 38.03 and Presentation 30.03). To satisfy the science problems expected to be posed by the next decadal survey, we anticipate requiring effective area greater than 1 square meter and Chandra-like angular resolution: approximately equal to 0.5 inches. To achieve such precise resolution we are developing adjustable mirror technology for X-ray astronomy application. This uses a thin film of piezoelectric material deposited on the back surface of the mirror to correct for figure distortions, including manufacturing errors and deflections due to gravity and thermal effects. We present here a plan to raise this technology from its current Level 2, to Level 6, by 2018

Immunoglobulin, glucocorticoid, or combination therapy for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children: a propensity-weighted cohort study

Background: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a hyperinflammatory condition associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, has emerged as a serious illness in children worldwide. Immunoglobulin or glucocorticoids, or both, are currently recommended treatments. Methods: The Best Available Treatment Study evaluated immunomodulatory treatments for MIS-C in an international observational cohort. Analysis of the first 614 patients was previously reported. In this propensity-weighted cohort study, clinical and outcome data from children with suspected or proven MIS-C were collected onto a web-based Research Electronic Data Capture database. After excluding neonates and incomplete or duplicate records, inverse probability weighting was used to compare primary treatments with intravenous immunoglobulin, intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids, or glucocorticoids alone, using intravenous immunoglobulin as the reference treatment. Primary outcomes were a composite of inotropic or ventilator support from the second day after treatment initiation, or death, and time to improvement on an ordinal clinical severity scale. Secondary outcomes included treatment escalation, clinical deterioration, fever, and coronary artery aneurysm occurrence and resolution. This study is registered with the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN69546370. Findings: We enrolled 2101 children (aged 0 months to 19 years) with clinically diagnosed MIS-C from 39 countries between June 14, 2020, and April 25, 2022, and, following exclusions, 2009 patients were included for analysis (median age 8·0 years [IQR 4·2–11·4], 1191 [59·3%] male and 818 [40·7%] female, and 825 [41·1%] White). 680 (33·8%) patients received primary treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin, 698 (34·7%) with intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids, 487 (24·2%) with glucocorticoids alone; 59 (2·9%) patients received other combinations, including biologicals, and 85 (4·2%) patients received no immunomodulators. There were no significant differences between treatments for primary outcomes for the 1586 patients with complete baseline and outcome data that were considered for primary analysis. Adjusted odds ratios for ventilation, inotropic support, or death were 1·09 (95% CI 0·75–1·58; corrected p value=1·00) for intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids and 0·93 (0·58–1·47; corrected p value=1·00) for glucocorticoids alone, versus intravenous immunoglobulin alone. Adjusted average hazard ratios for time to improvement were 1·04 (95% CI 0·91–1·20; corrected p value=1·00) for intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids, and 0·84 (0·70–1·00; corrected p value=0·22) for glucocorticoids alone, versus intravenous immunoglobulin alone. Treatment escalation was less frequent for intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids (OR 0·15 [95% CI 0·11–0·20]; p<0·0001) and glucocorticoids alone (0·68 [0·50–0·93]; p=0·014) versus intravenous immunoglobulin alone. Persistent fever (from day 2 onward) was less common with intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids compared with either intravenous immunoglobulin alone (OR 0·50 [95% CI 0·38–0·67]; p<0·0001) or glucocorticoids alone (0·63 [0·45–0·88]; p=0·0058). Coronary artery aneurysm occurrence and resolution did not differ significantly between treatment groups. Interpretation: Recovery rates, including occurrence and resolution of coronary artery aneurysms, were similar for primary treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin when compared to glucocorticoids or intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids. Initial treatment with glucocorticoids appears to be a safe alternative to immunoglobulin or combined therapy, and might be advantageous in view of the cost and limited availability of intravenous immunoglobulin in many countries. Funding: Imperial College London, the European Union's Horizon 2020, Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Foundation, UK National Institute for Health and Care Research, and National Institutes of Health

'Vernacular Voices: Black British Poetry'

ABSTRACT Black British poetry is the province of experimenting with voice and recording rhythms beyond the iambic pentameter. Not only in performance poetry and through the spoken word, but also on the page, black British poetry constitutes and preserves a sound archive of distinct linguistic varieties. In Slave Song (1984) and Coolie Odyssey (1988), David Dabydeen employs a form of Guyanese Creole in order to linguistically render and thus commemorate the experience of slaves and indentured labourers, respectively, with the earlier collection providing annotated translations into Standard English. James Berry, Louise Bennett, and Valerie Bloom adapt Jamaican Patois to celebrate Jamaican folk culture and at times to represent and record experiences and linguistic interactions in the postcolonial metropolis. Grace Nichols and John Agard use modified forms of Guyanese Creole, with Nichols frequently constructing gendered voices whilst Agard often celebrates linguistic playfulness. The borders between linguistic varieties are by no means absolute or static, as the emergence and marked growth of ‘London Jamaican’ (Mark Sebba) indicates. Asian British writer Daljit Nagra takes liberties with English for different reasons. Rather than having recourse to established Creole languages, and blending them with Standard English, his heteroglot poems frequently emulate ‘Punglish’, the English of migrants whose first language is Punjabi. Whilst it is the language prestige of London Jamaican that has been significantly enhanced since the 1990s, a fact not only confirmed by linguistic research but also by its transethnic uses both in the streets and on the page, Nagra’s substantial success and the mainstream attention he receives also indicate the clout of vernacular voices in poetry. They have the potential to connect with oral traditions and cultural memories, to record linguistic varieties, and to endow ‘street cred’ to authors and texts. In this chapter, these double-voiced poetic languages are also read as signs of resistance against residual monologic ideologies of Englishness. © Book proposal (02/2016): The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing p. 27 of 4

Immunoglobulin, glucocorticoid, or combination therapy for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children: a propensity-weighted cohort study

Background Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a hyperinflammatory condition associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, has emerged as a serious illness in children worldwide. Immunoglobulin or glucocorticoids, or both, are currently recommended treatments. Methods The Best Available Treatment Study evaluated immunomodulatory treatments for MIS-C in an international observational cohort. Analysis of the first 614 patients was previously reported. In this propensity-weighted cohort study, clinical and outcome data from children with suspected or proven MIS-C were collected onto a web-based Research Electronic Data Capture database. After excluding neonates and incomplete or duplicate records, inverse probability weighting was used to compare primary treatments with intravenous immunoglobulin, intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids, or glucocorticoids alone, using intravenous immunoglobulin as the reference treatment. Primary outcomes were a composite of inotropic or ventilator support from the second day after treatment initiation, or death, and time to improvement on an ordinal clinical severity scale. Secondary outcomes included treatment escalation, clinical deterioration, fever, and coronary artery aneurysm occurrence and resolution. This study is registered with the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN69546370. Findings We enrolled 2101 children (aged 0 months to 19 years) with clinically diagnosed MIS-C from 39 countries between June 14, 2020, and April 25, 2022, and, following exclusions, 2009 patients were included for analysis (median age 8·0 years [IQR 4·2–11·4], 1191 [59·3%] male and 818 [40·7%] female, and 825 [41·1%] White). 680 (33·8%) patients received primary treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin, 698 (34·7%) with intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids, 487 (24·2%) with glucocorticoids alone; 59 (2·9%) patients received other combinations, including biologicals, and 85 (4·2%) patients received no immunomodulators. There were no significant differences between treatments for primary outcomes for the 1586 patients with complete baseline and outcome data that were considered for primary analysis. Adjusted odds ratios for ventilation, inotropic support, or death were 1·09 (95% CI 0·75–1·58; corrected p value=1·00) for intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids and 0·93 (0·58–1·47; corrected p value=1·00) for glucocorticoids alone, versus intravenous immunoglobulin alone. Adjusted average hazard ratios for time to improvement were 1·04 (95% CI 0·91–1·20; corrected p value=1·00) for intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids, and 0·84 (0·70–1·00; corrected p value=0·22) for glucocorticoids alone, versus intravenous immunoglobulin alone. Treatment escalation was less frequent for intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids (OR 0·15 [95% CI 0·11–0·20]; p<0·0001) and glucocorticoids alone (0·68 [0·50–0·93]; p=0·014) versus intravenous immunoglobulin alone. Persistent fever (from day 2 onward) was less common with intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids compared with either intravenous immunoglobulin alone (OR 0·50 [95% CI 0·38–0·67]; p<0·0001) or glucocorticoids alone (0·63 [0·45–0·88]; p=0·0058). Coronary artery aneurysm occurrence and resolution did not differ significantly between treatment groups. Interpretation Recovery rates, including occurrence and resolution of coronary artery aneurysms, were similar for primary treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin when compared to glucocorticoids or intravenous immunoglobulin plus glucocorticoids. Initial treatment with glucocorticoids appears to be a safe alternative to immunoglobulin or combined therapy, and might be advantageous in view of the cost and limited availability of intravenous immunoglobulin in many countries. Funding Imperial College London, the European Union's Horizon 2020, Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Foundation, UK National Institute for Health and Care Research, and National Institutes of Health

Genomic investigations of unexplained acute hepatitis in children

Since its first identification in Scotland, over 1,000 cases of unexplained paediatric hepatitis in children have been reported worldwide, including 278 cases in the UK1. Here we report an investigation of 38 cases, 66 age-matched immunocompetent controls and 21 immunocompromised comparator participants, using a combination of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and immunohistochemical methods. We detected high levels of adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2) DNA in the liver, blood, plasma or stool from 27 of 28 cases. We found low levels of adenovirus (HAdV) and human herpesvirus 6B (HHV-6B) in 23 of 31 and 16 of 23, respectively, of the cases tested. By contrast, AAV2 was infrequently detected and at low titre in the blood or the liver from control children with HAdV, even when profoundly immunosuppressed. AAV2, HAdV and HHV-6 phylogeny excluded the emergence of novel strains in cases. Histological analyses of explanted livers showed enrichment for T cells and B lineage cells. Proteomic comparison of liver tissue from cases and healthy controls identified increased expression of HLA class 2, immunoglobulin variable regions and complement proteins. HAdV and AAV2 proteins were not detected in the livers. Instead, we identified AAV2 DNA complexes reflecting both HAdV-mediated and HHV-6B-mediated replication. We hypothesize that high levels of abnormal AAV2 replication products aided by HAdV and, in severe cases, HHV-6B may have triggered immune-mediated hepatic disease in genetically and immunologically predisposed children