Punitive Damages and the Processing of Tort Claims

Punitive damages are one of the most controversial aspects of tort litigation and have been the subject of various theoretical, empirical, and experimental studies. One criticism of punitive damages refers to the effect that they have on civil litigation processes. In particular, Polinsky (1997) argues that the uncertainty and unpredictability that punitive damage claims inject into a case may increase both the rate and amount of settlements, thus implying that punitive damages carry systemic consequences for the general processing of tort claims. This paper represents the first, empirical examination of this implication. With one of the largest and most comprehensive data sets of tort litigation (over 25,000 cases filed from 1994 through 1997 in several counties in Georgia), we examine the effect of the decision to seek punitive damages on several major decision points in the tort litigation process in a series of logit regression models. With extensive control variables for type of case, the presence or absence of caps on damages, and other potentially important variables, we find that seeking punitive damages has no statistically significant effect on most phases of the tort litigation process.Torts, Litigation, Punitive Damages, Settlement Rates

Testing Two Assumptions About Federalism and Tort Reform

In, 1996 both the United States House of Representatives and Senate passed legislation that, if enacted, would preempt state tort laws in significant ways. Why would a Congress otherwise apparently committed to vesting states with greater policymaking autonomy call for federal control of tort law? Tort policymaking has traditionally been done at the state level. One assumption underlying this distribution of power is that states are better able than the national government to fashion tort rules appropriate for local conditions and circumstances. In other words, states are thought to have a special competence in crafting tort rules responsive to local needs. Some advocates for tort reform at the federal level maintain, however, that states are incapable or unlikely to develop tort rules – especially in the realm of product liability – consistent with national economic policy. Federal tort reform is needed, so the argument goes, to counter pressures that exist at the state level to use tort law as a vehicle for redistributing wealth from nonresident defendants to resident plaintiffs. Our paper examines these two, contradictory assumptions about state competence in the realm of tort policymaking. First we explore the proposition that states are incompetent to formulate sensible tort law policy, especially in the area of product liability. Second, we employ social scientific research methodology to question whether states have special competence to formulate tort policy

Buildings energy performance and real estate market value: An application of the spatial auto regressive (SAR) model

The paper explores the role of the buildings energy performance in the definition of the real estate market value, taking in consideration the presence of spatial auto-correlation. At this regard, it is necessary to put in evidence that a great heterogeneity exists on the Italian territory with reference to buildings ener-gy performance; for this reason, being able to identify a class of most performing estimation models, suitable to separate the spatial effects from the influence of the building components - including the energy rating - on the value, seems to be an interesting goal. In particular, this work illustrates an experiment based on the Spatial Auto Regressive (SAR) model implemented on a sample of residential units located in the city of Turin and represents a first step of a more wide research program

SPARC is a new myeloid-derived suppressor cell marker licensing suppressive activities

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) are well-known key negative regulators of the immune response during tumor growth, however scattered is the knowledge of their capacity to influence and adapt to the different tumor microenvironments and of the markers that identify those capacities. Here we show that the secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) identifies in both human and mouse MDSC with immune suppressive capacity and pro-tumoral activities including the induction of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and angiogenesis. In mice the genetic deletion of SPARC reduced MDSC immune suppression and reverted EMT. Sparc−/− MDSC were less suppressive overall and the granulocytic fraction was more prone to extrude neutrophil extracellular traps (NET). Surprisingly, arginase-I and NOS2, whose expression can be controlled by STAT3, were not down-regulated in Sparc−/− MDSC, although less suppressive than wild type (WT) counterpart. Flow cytometry analysis showed equal phosphorylation of STAT3 but reduced ROS production that was associated with reduced nuclear translocation of the NF-kB p50 subunit in Sparc−/− than WT MDSC. The limited p50 in nuclei reduce the formation of the immunosuppressive p50:p50 homodimers in favor of the p65:p50 inflammatory heterodimers. Supporting this hypothesis, the production of TNF by Sparc−/− MDSC was significantly higher than by WT MDSC. Although associated with tumor-induced chronic inflammation, TNF, if produced at high doses, becomes a key factor in mediating tumor rejection. Therefore, it is foreseeable that an unbalance in TNF production could skew MDSC toward an inflammatory, anti-tumor phenotype. Notably, TNF is also required for inflammation-driven NETosis. The high level of TNF in Sparc−/− MDSC might explain their increased spontaneous NET formation as that we detected both in vitro and in vivo, in association with signs of endothelial damage. We propose SPARC as a new potential marker of MDSC, in both human and mouse, with the additional feature of controlling MDSC suppressive activity while preventing an excessive inflammatory state through the control of NF-kB signaling pathway

A Mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana with a Reduced Response to Fusicoccin. I

Because fusicoccin (FC) has the the capacity to promote solute uptake, a selective procedure for isolating mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana with a reduced response to the toxin has been developed. The procedure is based on the incubation of A. thaliana seedlings in a solution containing the cation Paraquat (Pq) at a concentration that per se does not produce bleaching of the leaves upon illumination but does in the presence of FC because of the increased uptake of the toxic cation. Using this procedure, we identified, among the progenies of 2010 M1 ethyl methanesulfonate-mutagenized plants, two mutants that stay green after exposure to FC and Pq. Some properties and inheritance of one of the two mutants (5\u20132) are described. Morphology of mutant plants is almost indistinguishable from that of the wild type. However, 5\u20132 seeds germinate and produce viable seedlings in the presence of FC plus the aminoglycoside antibiotic hygromycin B: plants of the mutant do not wilt when exposed to FC and stomata do not open or open only partially. In the presence of FC, the mutant appears less responsive than the wild type as far as the increment in fresh weight, the enlargement of leaf disc area, or the stimulation of H+ extrusion is concerned. Inheritance of the trait is monogenic dominant or semidominant, depending on the test used

A high-resolution aeromagnetic survey over the Cape Roberts Rift Basin: Correlations with seismic reflection and magnetic susceptibility log data

A high-resolution aeromagnetic survey (altitude 125 m asl, spacing 500 m , area 800 km2) was carried out in 1994 offshore of Cape Roberts by the GITARA (German ITalian Aeromagnetic Research in Antarctica) Group. The availability from drilling of whole-core physical properties logs for magnetic susceptibility, P-wave velocity and density/porosity data allows new insights to be inferred from reprocessed and reviewed HRAM aeromagnetic data. Aeromagnetic data have been reprocessed to image with greater detail the structural framework along the western flank of the Victoria Land Basin. New processing includes 2D Werner and 3D Euler deconvolution, the production of maps of the maximum horizontal gradient of pseudo-gravity, and 2D, 3D modelling. Magnetic trends and anomalies are discussed in conjunction with now available drilling results from the CRP, existing bathymetric data and recently published interpretations of a multichannel seismic reflection survey

An alternative encapsulation approach for production of active chitosan-propolis beads

Encapsulation is a promising technology to carry natural active substances, preventing their loss and maintaining their stability until use. Beads of chitosan-containing propolis have been prepared using a mono-pore filter device, which permits the encapsulation of natural polyphenols avoiding heat treatments, high shear rates and the use of toxic solvents. Beads proved to be active against Bacillis cereus, Escherichia coli, Listeria innocua, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Yarrovia lipolytica and three moulds strains; the highest effect was found against Staphylococcus aureus (MIC 0.8 mg beads mL-1). Results in liquid cultures of S. aureus evidenced that beads were able to release the flavonoids from propolis: the diffusion of the active compounds is a key factor in the exploitation of the microbial activity. The obtained chitosan-propolis beads represent an example of natural antimicrobial delivery system that could be used to prevent the growth of pathogenic/spoilage bacteria in food applications