Evidentiary Privilege: Help for Corporations? The Supreme Court Rejects the Control Group Test: Strengthens the Work-Product Doctrine

Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U.S. 383 (1981). The attorney-client privilege, and its application to corporations, has long been a source of confusion in the federal courts. The disorder stems from the competing interests arising between the liberal scope of discovery and the secrecy important to the attorney-client privilege. The attorney-client privilege has been viewed as an exception to the general rule that the scope of discovery is to be liberally construed in order to provide all parties with information essential to proper litigation on all facts. Even as an exception, however, the privilege has importance of its own in the dissemination of information. Although confidential communications may be relevant, their disclosure may impair the social good derived from the proper performance of the functions of lawyers for their clients. Only a fully informed lawyer can render effective legal advice. Unless clients are certain information they supply to their attorneys will not be discovered and used against them, it is unlikely lawyers will receive full information. Another recognized exception to the broad scope of discovery is the work-product doctrine. Absent an adverse party\u27s substantial need for materials in preparation of his case, the doctrine protects against disclosure of any memoranda, notes, or working papers created by an attorney in anticipation of litigation. In addition, an attorney need not reveal his mental impressions, conclusions, opinions, or legal theories concerning the litigation. The work-product doctrine is based primarily on the right of a lawyer to enjoy privacy while preparing a case for litigation. While still an important function in the fair-administration of justice, the work-product doctrine, like the attorney-client privilege, runs head on against the goals of liberal discovery

Strain controlled oxygen vacancy formation and ordering in CaMnO3_3

We use first-principles calculations to investigate the stability of bi-axially strained \textit{Pnma} perovskite CaMnO$_3$ towards the formation of oxygen vacancies. Our motivation is provided by promising indications that novel material properties can be engineered by application of strain through coherent heteroepitaxy in thin films. While it is usually assumed that such epitaxial strain is accommodated primarily by changes in intrinsic lattice constants, point defect formation is also a likely strain relaxation mechanism. This is particularly true at the large strain magnitudes ($>$4%) which first-principles calculations often suggest are required to induce new functionalities. We find a strong dependence of oxygen vacancy defect formation energy on strain, with tensile strain lowering the formation energy consistent with the increasing molar volume with increasing oxygen deficiency. In addition, we find that strain differentiates the formation energy for different lattice sites, suggesting its use as a route to engineering vacancy ordering in epitaxial thin films.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Novel insights into proteomic technologies and their clinical perspective

A report on the Proteomic Forum 2009 conference, Berlin, Germany, 29 March to 2 April, 2009

Gene expression: degrade to derepress

Chromatin immunoprecipitation and sequencing (ChIP‐seq) provides a static snap‐shot of DNA‐associated proteins which fails to reflect the dynamics of the DNA‐bound proteome. Now, Catic and co‐workers combine ubiquitin ChIP‐seq and proteasome inhibitors to map sites of DNA‐associated protein degradation on a genome‐wide scale. They identify an ubiquitin ligase which targets a transcriptional repressor for destruction by the proteasome, thus activating transcription of specific genes. These findings reveal that the ubiquitin proteasome system actively regulates transcription

Structural phases driven by oxygen vacancies at the La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/SrTiO3 hetero-interface

An oxygen vacancy driven structural response at the epitaxial interface between La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 films and SrTiO3 substrates is reported. A combined scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy study reveal the presence of an elongated out-of-plane lattice parameter, coupled to oxygen vacancies and reduced manganese oxidation state at the La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 side of the interface. Density functional theory calculations support that the measured interface structure is a disordered oxygen deficient brownmillerite structure. The effect of oxygen vacancy mobility is assessed, revealing an ordering of the vacancies with time

Using Biomechanical Optimization to Interpret Dancers\u27 Pose Selection for a Partnered Spin

Swing dancing is a high tempo, athletic form of dancing. In performing their physically rigorous jumps, lifts, and spins, dancers often talk about using the laws of physics. However, they do not have mathematical evidence to support these claims. Our goal was to determine whether expert swing dancers physically optimize their pose for a partnered spin. In a partnered spin, two dancers connect hands and spin around a single vertical axis. A biomechanical model built in Mathematica allowed comparisons of mathematically produced optimal poses to live dancers with the use of a motion capture system. We hypothesized that expert swing dancers would achieve a higher fraction of their optimal acceleration than beginners. We were unable to determine a statistically significant difference between the posses of expert and beginner dancers. However, the optimal pose predicted by the model was intuitively reasonable

A responsabilidade civil objetiva pelos danos causados por defeito no produto

TCC(graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro de Ciências Jurídicas. Direito.Com o advento da sociedade industrial e a consequente acentuação das tendências de uniformidade e de despersonalização das relações sociais e do anonimato do indivíduo inserto na massa, tomou-se necessária a criação de um novo sistema de responsabilidade civil, com sustento em concepções solidárias e humanistas. Essa nova realidade social provocou modificações profundas nas condutas e nas expectativas dos consumidores. A objetivação da responsabilidade surge como resposta jurídica a essas mudanças. Nessa perspectiva de maior proteção ao ressarcimento dos danos causados ao consumidor, a proposta dessa monograma situa-se na análise do surgimento da responsabilidade objetiva e das características e disposições a ela concernentes no nosso ordenamento. Para atingir os objetivos propostos utilizou- se o método indutivo e a técnica de pesquisa bibliográfica. No primeiro capítulo faz-se a análise da fundamentação ética e dos elementos e características da responsabilidade civil