The Disappearing Settlement: The Contractual Regulation of Smith & Wesson Firearms

Consider three transactions: (1) federal legislation passed by Congress; (2) an order of judgment in a private lawsuit; and (3) a contractual arrangement between private parties. If one were asked to rank those transactions in order of the potential impact they should have on public and social policy, they would probably appear in the order that they are listed. Intuition, experience, and plain common sense might likely lead to the conclusion that legislation has the greatest impact on public policy, private agreements the least,\u27 and final judgments in litigation somewhere in between. Democratic principles provide very good reasons for this ordering. On matters of public policy lawmaking, the legislative process is supposed to provide citizens with the participatory and representative clout guaranteed by the Constitution. Slightly farther down the continuum, the outcome of litigation, while still a matter between private parties, is governed by laws publicly enacted and by judges who are bound to use and interpret those laws. Alternatively, private agreements have none of these restrictions. Although principles of contract law prevent agreements that baldly subvert existing laws or mores, beyond the scope of that restriction, they represent a free-for-all. Parties will (and according to efficiency principles, should) bargain for the most advantageous agreement and tend to think little about the costs to society at large

The Use of Statistics in Experimental Physics

Most mathematicians are aware of the importance of statistics in biological sciences, business, and economics, but are less aware that statistics is used every day in experimental physics. This paper gives three interesting examples of how statistics plays a vital role in physics. These examples use the basic statistical tools of residuals analysis and goodness of fit

Mid-infrared interferometric variability of DG Tau: implications for the inner-disk structure

Context. DG Tau is a low-mass pre-main sequence star, whose strongly accreting protoplanetary disk exhibits a so-far enigmatic behavior: its mid-infrared thermal emission is strongly time-variable, even turning the 10 $\mu$m silicate feature from emission to absorption temporarily. Aims. We look for the reason for the spectral variability at high spatial resolution and at multiple epochs. Methods. We study the temporal variability of the mid-infrared interferometric signal, observed with the VLTI/MIDI instrument at six epochs between 2011 and 2014. We fit a geometric disk model to the observed interferometric signal to obtain spatial information about the disk. We also model the mid-infrared spectra by template fitting to characterize the profile and time dependence of the silicate emission. We use physically motivated radiative transfer modeling to interpret the mid-infrared interferometric spectra. Results. The inner disk (r<1-3 au) spectra exhibit a 10 $\mu$m absorption feature related to amorphous silicate grains. The outer disk (r>1-3 au) spectra show a crystalline silicate feature in emission, similar to the spectra of comet Hale-Bopp. The striking difference between the inner and outer disk spectral feature is highly unusual among T Tauri stars. The mid-infrared variability is dominated by the outer disk. The strength of the silicate feature changed by more than a factor of two. Between 2011 and 2014 the half-light radius of the mid-infrared-emitting region decreased from 1.15 to 0.7 au. Conclusions. For the origin of the absorption we discuss four possible explanations: a cold obscuring envelope, an accretion heated inner disk, a temperature inversion on the disk surface and a misaligned inner geometry. The silicate emission in the outer disk can be explained by dusty material high above the disk plane, whose mass can change with time, possibly due to turbulence in the disk.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figure

Differentiation Potential of Pancreatic Fibroblastoid Cells/Stellate Cells: Effects of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma Ligands

Pancreatic stellate cells have been investigated mostly for their activation process, supposed to support the development of pancreatic disease. Few studies have been presented on reversal of the activation process in vitro. Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) have been used as antidiabetics and have now been reported to exert antifibrotic activity. We tested effects of natural and synthetic ligands of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) on human pancreatic fibroblastoid cells (hPFCs) in search for specificity of action. Ciglitazone, as a prototype of TZDs, was shown to have reversible growth inhibitory effects on human pancreatic fibroblastoid cells/stellate cells. Cells treated with ciglitazone for three days showed enhanced lipid content and induction of proteins involved in lipid metabolism. Collagen synthesis was reduced in hPFC. Interaction of PPARγ with DNA binding sites upon ligand binding was shown by gel shift analysis. These findings point toward a potential for adipocyte differentiation in human pancreatic fibroblastoid cells

Future opportunities and trends for e-infrastructures and life sciences: Going beyond the grid to enable life science data analysis

With the increasingly rapid growth of data in life sciences we are witnessing a major transition in the way research is conducted, from hypothesis-driven studies to data-driven simulations of whole systems. Such approaches necessitate the use of large-scale computational resources and e-infrastructures, such as the European Grid Infrastructure (EGI). EGI, one of key the enablers of the digital European Research Area, is a federation of resource providers set up to deliver sustainable, integrated and secure computing services to European researchers and their international partners. Here we aim to provide the state of the art of Grid/Cloud computing in EU research as viewed from within the field of life sciences, focusing on key infrastructures and projects within the life sciences community. Rather than focusing purely on the technical aspects underlying the currently provided solutions, we outline the design aspects and key characteristics that can be identified across major research approaches. Overall, we aim to provide significant insights into the road ahead by establishing ever-strengthening connections between EGI as a whole and the life sciences community

Optical spectroscopy of EX Lupi during quiescence and outburst: Infall, wind, and dynamics in the accretion flow

We explore the accretion mechanisms in EX Lupi, prototype of EXor variables, during its quiescence and outburst phases. We analyse high-resolution optical spectra taken before, during, and after its 2008 outburst. In quiescence and outburst, the star presents many permitted emission lines, including typical CTTS lines and numerous neutral and ionized metallic lines. During the outburst, the number of emission lines increases to over a thousand, with narrow plus broad component structure (NC+BC). The BC profile is highly variable on short timescales (24-72h). An active chromosphere can explain the metallic lines in quiescence and the outburst NC. The dynamics of the BC line profiles suggest an origin in a hot, dense, non-axisymmetric, and non-uniform accretion column that suffers velocity variations along the line-of-sight on timescales of days. Assuming Keplerian rotation, the emitting region would be located at ~0.1-0.2 AU, consistent with the inner disk rim, but the velocity profiles of the lines reveal a combination of rotation and infall. Line ratios of ions and neutrals can be reproduced with a temperature of T~6500 K for electron densities of a few times 10$^{12}$cm$^{-3}$ in the line-emitting region. The data confirm that the 2008 outburst was an episode of increased accretion, albeit much stronger than previous EX Lupi and typical EXors outbursts. The line profiles are consistent with the infall/rotation of a non-axisymmetric structure that could be produced by clumpy accretion during the outburst phase. A strong inner disk wind appears in the epochs of higher accretion. The rapid recovery of the system after the outburst and the similarity between the pre-outburst and post-outburst states suggest that the accretion channels are similar during the whole period, and only the accretion rate varies, providing a superb environment for studying the accretion processes.Comment: 15 pages plus 26 pages online material, accepted by A&