The Criminalization of Bootlegging: Unnecessary and Unwise

In 1994 the United States extended copyright-like protection to live musical performances by adopting 17 U.S. C. §1101, which authorizes civil remedies that are the same as those for copyright infringement, and 18 U.S.C. §2319A, which subjects violators to fines and prison terms. These new statutes, referred to jointly as the anti-bootlegging statute, led to raids of record stores and sting operations aimed at persons involved in the manufacture and distribution of live concert recordings. This Comment argues that the benefit to society of having these live recordings in circulation outweighs the minimal economic damage incurred by the music industry. Furthermore, the music industry has always had the ability to address this perceived problem through non-legal measures, that is by releasing live concert recordings and thereby eliminating the incentives for unauthorized recording and distribution. Therefore, the statute should be repealed. In its place a legal regime should be created that recognizes the presumption that fans and royaltypaying independent record companies have a right to record and distribute recordings of live concert performances

Constitutionalism as a Political Culture

Translator\u27s Forward: These are not happy times in Japan. Its economy, at one time the most dynamic on the planet, has been in the dumps for over a decade. The population is both aging and declining. A lost generation of young Japanese has come of age amid diminished, and diminishing, expectations. The government, controlled as always by the Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP ), is rigid, bloated, corrupt, and deeply in debt. And there is no real reason to believe that the next decade will bring improvement in any of these areas. Not surprisingly, as Japan\u27s economic juggernaut has faltered, the tone of Japanese writing on Japan has moved from self-celebration to self-doubt. It was against this background that in 2000 Kamiya Masako compiled a collection of essays entitled Rereading the Japanese National Constitution. Included in the collection was Professor Annen\u27s Constitutionalism as a Political Culture. Professor Annen\u27s essay stands out because it confirms the widely held suspicion that the commitment of the Japanese people to their national constitution is tenuous at best. He argues that the peace and prosperity of postwar Japan made the Constitution a tolerable, if only marginal, piece of Japan\u27s social and political fabric. With prosperity fading and patience with Japan\u27s security arrangements growing thin, Annen asks whether the Constitution itself could become a casualty. He answers the question more or less in the affinmative. For an American reader, both the discussion and the conclusion are stunning. While Americans may disagree over any number of political issues, the discourse always assumes the continued validity and vitality of the United States Constitution. It is simply unthinkable that the Constitution would be discarded due to changing economic conditions or public apathy. Indeed, the Constitution and the national identity are so firmly intertwined that to abandon the former would be to extinguish the latter. Not so in Japan. There are two explanations for the shallow roots of constitutionalism in Japan. First, Japan, unlike the United States, has a long national history that predates its constitution. For example, the genealogy of Japan\u27s Imperial family can reliably be traced back almost two thousand years. Japan\u27s political infrastructure was sufficiently developed by 710 A.D. that a great Imperial capital could be built at Nara. More recently, Japan was reunified in 1600 by the military government of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Thus the Constitution, promulgated in 1889, is a real latecomer

Specific detection of methionine 27 mutation in histone 3 variants (H3K27M) in fixed tissue from high-grade astrocytomas

Studies in pediatric high-grade astrocytomas (HGA) by our group and others have uncovered recurrent somatic mutations affecting highly conserved residues in histone 3 (H3) variants. One of these mutations leads to analogous p.Lys27Met (K27M) mutations in both H3.3 and H3.1 variants, is associated with rapid fatal outcome, and occurs specifically in HGA of the midline in children and young adults. This includes diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (80 %) and thalamic or spinal HGA (>90 %), which are surgically challenging locations with often limited tumor material available and critical need for specific histopathological markers. Here, we analyzed formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues from 143 pediatric HGA and 297 other primary brain tumors or normal brain. Immunohistochemical staining for H3K27M was compared to tumor genotype, and also compared to H3 tri-methylated lysine 27 (H3K27me3) staining, previously shown to be drastically decreased in samples carrying this mutation. There was a 100 % concordance between genotype and immunohistochemical analysis of H3K27M in tumor samples. Mutant H3K27M was expressed in the majority of tumor cells, indicating limited intra-tumor heterogeneity for this specific mutation within the limits of our dataset. Both H3.1 and H3.3K27M mutants were recognized by this antibody while non-neoplastic elements, such as endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells or lymphocytes, did not stain. H3K27me3 immunoreactivity was largely mutually exclusive with H3K27M positivity. These results demonstrate that mutant H3K27M can be specifically identified with high specificity and sensitivity using an H3K27M antibody and immunohistochemistry. Use of this antibody in the clinical setting will prove very useful for diagnosis, especially in the context of small biopsies in challenging midline tumors and will help orient care in the context of the extremely poor prognosis associated with this mutation. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00401-014-1337-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

A Randomized-Trial Evaluation of the Effect of Whose Future Is It Anyway? on Self-Determination

Promoting student involvement in planning has become best practice in the field of transition. Research documents the positive impact of such efforts on greater student involvement. Research also suggests that promoting student involvement results in greater student self-determination, but a causal link has not been established. This study used a randomized- trial, placebo control group design to study the impact of intervention with the Whose Future Is It Anyway? process on self-determination. The authors also examined the impact of intervention on transition knowledge and skills. Results indicated that instruction using the Whose Future Is It Anyway? process resulted in significant, positive differences in self- determination when compared with a placebo-control group and that students who received instruction gained transition knowledge and skills.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Violence against primary school children with disabilities in Uganda: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: 150 million children live with disabilities globally, and a recent systematic review found 3 to 4 times the levels of violence versus non-disabled children in high income countries. However, almost nothing is known about violence against disabled children in lower income countries. We aim to explore the prevalence, patterns and risk factors for physical, sexual and emotional violence among disabled children attending primary school in Luwero District, Uganda. METHODS: We performed a secondary analysis of data from the baseline survey of the Good Schools Study. 3706 children and young adolescents aged 11-14 were randomly sampled from 42 primary schools. Descriptive statistics were computed and logistic regression models fitted. RESULTS: 8.8% of boys and 7.6% of girls reported a disability. Levels of violence against both disabled and non-disabled children were extremely high. Disabled girls report slightly more physical (99.1% vs 94.6%, p = 0.010) and considerably more sexual violence (23.6% vs 12.3%, p = 0.002) than non-disabled girls; for disabled and non-disabled boys, levels are not statistically different. The school environment is one of the main venues at which violence is occurring, but patterns differ by sex. Risk factors for violence are similar between disabled and non-disabled students. CONCLUSIONS: In Uganda, disabled girls are at particular risk of violence, notably sexual violence. Schools may be a promising venue for intervention delivery. Further research on the epidemiology and prevention of violence against disabled and non-disabled children in low income countries is urgently needed

Functional Neuromuscular Junctions Formed by Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Motor Neurons

A key objective of stem cell biology is to create physiologically relevant cells suitable for modeling disease pathologies in vitro. Much progress towards this goal has been made in the area of motor neuron (MN) disease through the development of methods to direct spinal MN formation from both embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells. Previous studies have characterized these neurons with respect to their molecular and intrinsic functional properties. However, the synaptic activity of stem cell-derived MNs remains less well defined. In this study, we report the development of low-density co-culture conditions that encourage the formation of active neuromuscular synapses between stem cell-derived MNs and muscle cells in vitro. Fluorescence microscopy reveals the expression of numerous synaptic proteins at these contacts, while dual patch clamp recording detects both spontaneous and multi-quantal evoked synaptic responses similar to those observed in vivo. Together, these findings demonstrate that stem cell-derived MNs innervate muscle cells in a functionally relevant manner. This dual recording approach further offers a sensitive and quantitative assay platform to probe disorders of synaptic dysfunction associated with MN disease

Saltatory remodeling of Hox chromatin in response to rostrocaudal patterning signals

Hox genes controlling motor neuron subtype identity are expressed in rostrocaudal patterns that are spatially and temporally collinear with their chromosomal organization. Here we demonstrate that Hox chromatin is subdivided into discrete domains that are controlled by rostrocaudal patterning signals that trigger rapid, domain-wide clearance of repressive histone H3 Lys27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) polycomb modifications. Treatment of differentiating mouse neural progenitors with retinoic acid leads to activation and binding of retinoic acid receptors (RARs) to the Hox1–Hox5 chromatin domains, which is followed by a rapid domain-wide removal of H3K27me3 and acquisition of cervical spinal identity. Wnt and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signals induce expression of the Cdx2 transcription factor that binds and clears H3K27me3 from the Hox1–Hox9 chromatin domains, leading to specification of brachial or thoracic spinal identity. We propose that rapid clearance of repressive modifications in response to transient patterning signals encodes global rostrocaudal neural identity and that maintenance of these chromatin domains ensures the transmission of positional identity to postmitotic motor neurons later in development.Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable TrustNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant P01 NS055923)Smith Family Foundatio

Interaction of microtubules and actin during the post-fusion phase of exocytosis

Exocytosis is the intracellular trafficking step where a secretory vesicle fuses with the plasma membrane to release vesicle content. Actin and microtubules both play a role in exocytosis; however, their interplay is not understood. Here we study the interaction of actin and microtubules during exocytosis in lung alveolar type II (ATII) cells that secrete surfactant from large secretory vesicles. Surfactant extrusion is facilitated by an actin coat that forms on the vesicle shortly after fusion pore opening. Actin coat compression allows hydrophobic surfactant to be released from the vesicle. We show that microtubules are localized close to actin coats and stay close to the coats during their compression. Inhibition of microtubule polymerization by colchicine and nocodazole affected the kinetics of actin coat formation and the extent of actin polymerisation on fused vesicles. In addition, microtubule and actin cross-linking protein IQGAP1 localized to fused secretory vesicles and IQGAP1 silencing influenced actin polymerisation after vesicle fusion. This study demonstrates that microtubules can influence actin coat formation and actin polymerization on secretory vesicles during exocytosis

Type-specific dendritic integration in mouse retinal ganglion cells

Neural computation relies on the integration of synaptic inputs across a neuron’s dendritic arbour. However, it is far from understood how different cell types tune this process to establish cell-type specific computations. Here, using two-photon imaging of dendritic Ca2+ signals, electrical recordings of somatic voltage and biophysical modelling, we demonstrate that four morphologically distinct types of mouse retinal ganglion cells with overlapping excitatory synaptic input (transient Off alpha, transient Off mini, sustained Off, and F-mini Off) exhibit type-specific dendritic integration profiles: in contrast to the other types, dendrites of transient Off alpha cells were spatially independent, with little receptive field overlap. The temporal correlation of dendritic signals varied also extensively, with the highest and lowest correlation in transient Off mini and transient Off alpha cells, respectively. We show that differences between cell types can likely be explained by differences in backpropagation efficiency, arising from the specific combinations of dendritic morphology and ion channel densities