Economic Efficiency, Distributive Justice and Liability Rules

The main purpose of this paper is to show that the conflict between the considerations involving economic efficiency and those of distributive justice, in the context of assigning liability, is not as sharp as is generally believed to be the case. The condition of negligence liability which characterizes efficiency in the context of liability rules has an all-or-none character. Negligence liability requires that if one party is negligent and the other is not then the liability for the entire accident loss must fall on the negligent party. Thus within the framework of standard liability rules efficiency requirements preclude any non-efficiency considerations in cases where one party is negligent and the other is not. In this paper it is shown that a part of accident loss plays no part in providing appropriate incentives to the parties for taking due care and can therefore be apportioned on non-efficiency considerations. For a systematic analysis of efficiency requirements, a notion more general than that of a liability rule, namely, that of a decomposed liability rule is introduced. A complete characterization of efficient decomposed liability rules is provided in the paper. One important implication of the characterization theorems of this paper is that by decomposing accident loss in two parts, the scope for distributive considerations can be significantly broadened without sacrificing economic efficiency.Tort Law, Liability Rules, Decomposed liability Rules, Efficient Rules, Nash Equilibria, Negligence Liability, Distributive Justice

Effects of Wood Preservatives on Physical Properties of Wood II. Effects of Different Salt Loadings of Copper-Chrome-Arsenic Composition

Effect of different salt loadings of copper-chrome-arsenic (CCA) preservative on shrinkage, swelling, and equilibrium moisture content at various relative humidities has been reported for Pinus roxburghii and Mangifera indica. At very low salt retentions, treated wood shows excessive shrinkage and swelling, which reaches a maximum and then falls off with increasing salt loadings. The two woods differ as to the position of these maxima. At higher retention levels, shrinkage and swelling are reduced, but the wood becomes more hygroscopic. The increased hygroscopicity is probably due to CCA salt and the additional water is held by the salt molecules deposited in the cell lumens. At low salt retentions, equilibrium moisture content is lowered at all relative humidities. The general sigmoid character of the adsorption curves is maintained at all levels of retentions

Cystic tuberculosis of the scapula in a young boy: a case report and review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Tuberculosis of the flat bones is rare and only a small percentage involves the scapular bone.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report a rare case of tuberculosis of the scapula in a 14-year-old. Diagnostic clues include lytic areas with low density seen in the body of the scapula involving a glenoid margin associated with typical clinical features. Treatment should include a regimen of four antitubercular drugs along with surgical debridement if required.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although rare, tuberculosis should be suspected in patients presenting with a chronic sinus in the scapular region, particularly in the developing world.</p

Farm level technical efficiency for pulse production in India

Pulses are complementary to cereals both in production as well as in consumption. During the production process, pulses help in improving sustainability by (i) fixing the atmospheric nitrogen into the soil (ii) consuming less water and (iii) controlling diseases and pests. On consumption front, pulses reduce malnutrition and improve human health being a rich and most viable source of protein for vegetarians and poor people. Realizing the importance of pulses, the government of India announces various schemes and programs from time to time to promote the cultivation of pulses in the country. However, pulse production in India has not achieved the targeted level. The paper analyses the production trend of pulses over the last decade and identifies the gap between the targets and achievements. Plot level data from cost of cultivation scheme across major pulses growing states has been used to estimate technical efficiencies of the pulses using data envelopment analysis. The paper also highlights the yield gap of the pulses across major pulse growing states and suggests suitable measures for improving farm level profitability and sustainability by increasing technical efficiency. The study postulated the hypothesis that technical efficiency of the pulses is low and the yield potential of the pulses are not fully harnessed. The results revealed that increase of technical efficiency by 1% will reduce the yield gap by 9 kg per ha and increase total pulse production of the country by 225 thousand tons

Structure of DNA-Functionalized Dendrimer Nanoparticles

Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations have been carried out to reveal the characteristic features of ethylenediamine (EDA) cored protonated poly amido amine (PAMAM) dendrimers of generation 3 (G3) and 4 (G4) that are functionalized with single stranded DNAs (ssDNAs). The four ssDNA strands that are attached via alkythiolate [-S (CH2)6-] linker molecule to the free amine groups on the surface of the PAMAM dendrimers observed to undergo a rapid conformational change during the 25 ns long simulation period. From the RMSD values of ssDNAs, we find relative stability in the case of purine rich ssDNA strands than pyrimidine rich ssDNA strands. The degree of wrapping of ssDNA strands on the dendrimer molecule was found to be influenced by the charge ratio of DNA and the dendrimer. As G4 dendrimer contains relatively more positive charge than G3 dendrimer, we observe extensive wrapping of ssDNAs on the G4 dendrimer. The ssDNA strands along with the linkers are seen to penetrate the surface of the dendrimer molecule and approach closer to the center of the dendrimer indicating the soft sphere nature of the dendrimer molecule. The effective radius of DNA-functionalized dendrimer nanoparticle was found to be independent of base composition of ssDNAs and was observed to be around 19.5 {\AA} and 22.4 {\AA} when we used G3 and G4 PAMAM dendrimer as the core of the nanoparticle respectively. The observed effective radius of DNA-functionalized dendrimer molecule apparently indicates the significant shrinkage in the structure that has taken place in dendrimer, linker and DNA strands. As a whole our results describe the characteristic features of DNA-functionalized dendrimer nanoparticle and can be used as strong inputs to design effectively the DNA-dendrimer nanoparticle self-assembly for their active biological applications.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, 3 Table

Chaperonin Containing T-Complex Polypeptide Subunit Eta (CCT-eta) Is a Specific Regulator of Fibroblast Motility and Contractility

Integumentary wounds in mammalian fetuses heal without scar; this scarless wound healing is intrinsic to fetal tissues and is notable for absence of the contraction seen in postnatal (adult) wounds. The precise molecular signals determining the scarless phenotype remain unclear. We have previously reported that the eta subunit of the chaperonin containing T-complex polypeptide (CCT-eta) is specifically reduced in healing fetal wounds in a rabbit model. In this study, we examine the role of CCT-eta in fibroblast motility and contractility, properties essential to wound healing and scar formation. We demonstrate that CCT-eta (but not CCT-beta) is underexpressed in fetal fibroblasts compared to adult fibroblasts. An in vitro wound healing assay demonstrated that adult fibroblasts showed increased cell migration in response to epidermal growth factor (EGF) and platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) stimulation, whereas fetal fibroblasts were unresponsive. Downregulation of CCT-eta in adult fibroblasts with short inhibitory RNA (siRNA) reduced cellular motility, both basal and growth factor-induced; in contrast, siRNA against CCT-beta had no such effect. Adult fibroblasts were more inherently contractile than fetal fibroblasts by cellular traction force microscopy; this contractility was increased by treatment with EGF and PDGF. CCT-eta siRNA inhibited the PDGF-induction of adult fibroblast contractility, whereas CCT-beta siRNA had no such effect. In each of these instances, the effect of downregulating CCT-eta was to modulate the behavior of adult fibroblasts so as to more closely approximate the characteristics of fetal fibroblasts. We next examined the effect of CCT-eta modulation on alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) expression, a gene product well known to play a critical role in adult wound healing. Fetal fibroblasts were found to constitutively express less α-SMA than adult cells. Reduction of CCT-eta with siRNA had minimal effect on cellular beta-actin but markedly decreased α-SMA; in contrast, reduction of CCT-beta had minimal effect on either actin isoform. Direct inhibition of α-SMA with siRNA reduced both basal and growth factor-induced fibroblast motility. These results indicate that CCT-eta is a specific regulator of fibroblast motility and contractility and may be a key determinant of the scarless wound healing phenotype by means of its specific regulation of α-SMA expression

High Resolution Methylome Map of Rat Indicates Role of Intragenic DNA Methylation in Identification of Coding Region

DNA methylation is crucial for gene regulation and maintenance of genomic stability. Rat has been a key model system in understanding mammalian systemic physiology, however detailed rat methylome remains uncharacterized till date. Here, we present the first high resolution methylome of rat liver generated using Methylated DNA immunoprecipitation and high throughput sequencing (MeDIP-Seq) approach. We observed that within the DNA/RNA repeat elements, simple repeats harbor the highest degree of methylation. Promoter hypomethylation and exon hypermethylation were common features in both RefSeq genes and expressed genes (as evaluated by proteomic approach). We also found that although CpG islands were generally hypomethylated, about 6% of them were methylated and a large proportion (37%) of methylated islands fell within the exons. Notably, we obeserved significant differences in methylation of terminal exons (UTRs); methylation being more pronounced in coding/partially coding exons compared to the non-coding exons. Further, events like alternate exon splicing (cassette exon) and intron retentions were marked by DNA methylation and these regions are retained in the final transcript. Thus, we suggest that DNA methylation could play a crucial role in marking coding regions thereby regulating alternative splicing. Apart from generating the first high resolution methylome map of rat liver tissue, the present study provides several critical insights into methylome organization and extends our understanding of interplay between epigenome, gene expression and genome stability

Track E Implementation Science, Health Systems and Economics

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138412/1/jia218443.pd