Unilateral Contracts of Employment: Does Contract Law Conflict With Public Policy?

Section II will state cases from each of these groups to show the reasons the courts gave for reaching their decisions and some of the decisions\u27 consequences. Section III will explain how existing contract law should apply both to the initial creation of employment rights and to their subsequent amendment. An explanation of the rights\u27 initial creation is included because in my opinion, it was their misunderstanding of this that misled so many of the courts into allowing the employer to reduce or eliminate the rights unilaterally. Section IV will show that the new contract law the courts in the third group made is inferior to existing contract law for the following reasons: (1) the benefits the courts claimed for it are illusory because existing contract law already provides them; (2) it is unjust because it enables employers to disappoint their employees\u27 reasonable expectations and undercut their justifiable reliance with impunity; and (3) it is bad public policy because it deprives employers of a valuable means of attracting and keeping superior employees, and makes joining a labor union the only way that employees can obtain rights-as opposed to unenforceable promises-of employment security. Section V will show that the law the courts made by misunderstanding existing contract law has these same drawbacks, plus the drawback of operating coercively. Section VI will offer a brief conclusion

CCD Speckle Observations of Binary Stars from the Southern Hemisphere

We present 119 position angle and separation measures of 86 double stars observed by way of speckle interferometry with the University of Toronto Southern Observatory 60 cm telescope at Las Campanas, Chile. Speckle interferograms are recorded with a bare (unintensified) front-illuminated CCD in a fast subarray-readout mode. Position angles and separations are determined by a weighted least-squares fitting algorithm applied to the binary power spectra, and the 180-degree ambiguity in the position angle inherent in this approach is resolved by bispectral analysis. In this configuration the 60 cm telescope exhibits near-diffraction-limited performance. Initial results indicate that our separation measures have a root-mean-square (rms) deviation of 6.6 +/- 1.0 milliarcsecond (mas) and our position angles have an rms deviation of 1.73 +/- 0.26 degrees when judged against the ephemeris positions of a small sample of binaries with previously well-determined orbits (Refer to PDF file for exact formulas)

The National School Lunch Program in Rural Appalachian Tennessee – or Why Implementation of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 was Met with Challenges: A Brief Report

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate challenges faced by high schools in rural Appalachia in implementing the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA). Methodology: We used qualitative, secondary analysis to analyze a collection of thirteen focus groups and 22 interviews conducted in 2013-14 among parents, teachers, and high school students in six counties in rural Appalachian Tennessee (n=98). Results: Five basic themes were identified during the thematic analysis: poor food quality prior to implementation of the HHFKA school nutrition reforms; students’ preference for low-nutrient energy-dense foods; low acceptance of healthier options after implementation of the HHFKA school nutrition reforms; HHFKA school nutrition reforms not tailored to unique needs of under-resourced communities; and students opting out of the National School Lunch Program after implementation of the HHFKA school nutrition reforms. Rural communities face multiple and intersecting challenges in implementing the HHFKA school nutrition reforms. Conclusion: As a result, schools in rural Appalachia may be less likely to derive benefits from these reforms. The ability of rural schools to take advantage of school nutrition reforms to improve student health may depend largely on factors unique to each community or school

Stable transformation of an episomal protein-tagging shuttle vector in the piscine diplomonad Spironucleus vortens

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Diplomonads are common free-living inhabitants of anoxic aquatic environments and are also found as intestinal commensals or parasites of a wide variety of animals. <it>Spironucleus vortens </it>is a putatively commensal diplomonad of angelfish that grows to high cell densities in axenic culture. Genomic sequencing of <it>S. vortens </it>is in progress, yet little information is available regarding molecular and cellular aspects of <it>S. vortens </it>biology beyond descriptive ultrastructural studies. To facilitate the development of <it>S. vortens </it>as an additional diplomonad experimental model, we have constructed and stably transformed an episomal plasmid containing an enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP) tag, an AU1 epitope tag, and a tandem affinity purification (TAP) tag. This construct also contains selectable antibiotic resistance markers for both <it>S. vortens </it>and <it>E. coli</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Stable transformants of <it>S. vortens </it>grew relatively rapidly (within 7 days) after electroporation and were maintained under puromycin selection for over 6 months. We expressed the enhanced GFP variant, eGFP, under transcriptional control of the <it>S. vortens </it>histone H3 promoter, and visually confirmed diffuse GFP expression in over 50% of transformants. Next, we generated a histone H3::GFP fusion using the <it>S. vortens </it>conventional histone H3 gene and its native promoter. This construct was also highly expressed in the majority of <it>S. vortens </it>transformants, in which the H3::GFP fusion localized to the chromatin in both nuclei. Finally, we used fluorescence <it>in situ </it>hybridization (FISH) of the episomal plasmid to show that the transformed plasmid localized to only one nucleus/cell and was present at roughly 10–20 copies per nucleus. Because <it>S. vortens </it>grows to high densities in laboratory culture, it is a feasible diplomonad from which to purify native protein complexes. Thus, we also included a TAP tag in the plasmid constructs to permit future tagging and subsequent purification of protein complexes by affinity chromatography via a two-step purification procedure.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Currently, progress in protistan functional and comparative genomics is hampered by the lack of free-living or commensal protists in axenic culture, as well as a lack of molecular genetic tools with which to study protein function in these organisms. This stable transformation protocol combined with the forthcoming genome sequence allows <it>Spironucleus vortens </it>to serve as a new experimental model for cell biological studies and for comparatively assessing protein functions in related diplomonads such as the human intestinal parasite, <it>Giardia intestinalis</it>.</p

Gene expression of O-GlcNAc cycling enzymes in human breast cancers

O-GlcNAcylation is an abundant, dynamic, and inducible posttranslational modification in which single β-N-acetylglucosamine residues are attached by O-glycosidic linkage to serine or treonine residues. It is suggested that abnormally regulated O-GlcNAcylation may contribute to the pathology of cancer. Cycling of O-GlcNAc residues on intracellular proteins is controlled by two enzymes, O-GlcNAc transferease (OGT), which catalyses the addition of O-GlcNAc residues and nucleocytoplasmic β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (O-GlcNAcase; encoded by MGEA5 gene), an enzyme involved in the removal of O-GlcNAc. In this study, relationship between the mRNA expressions of genes coding O-GlcNAc cycling enzymes in breast ductal carcinomas and clinicopathological parameters were analyzed. The results showed that poorly differentiated tumors (grade II and III) had significantly higher OGT expression than grade I tumors. Contrary, MGEA5 transcript levels were significantly lower in grade II and III in comparison with grade I tumors. The Spearman rank correlation showed the expressions of OGT and MGEA5 in breast cancer was negatively correlated (r = −0.430, P = 0.0002). Lymph node metastasis status was significantly associated with decreased MGEA5 mRNA expression. This result suggests that elevation in O-GlcNAc modification of proteins may be implicated in breast tumor progression and metastasis

Call to adopt a nominal set of astrophysical parameters and constants to improve the accuracy of fundamental physical properties of stars

The increasing precision of astronomical observations of stars and stellar systems is gradually getting to a level where the use of slightly different values of the solar mass, radius and luminosity, as well as different values of fundamental physical constants, can lead to measurable systematic differences in the determination of basic physical properties. An equivalent issue with an inconsistent value of the speed of light was resolved by adopting a nominal value that is constant and has no error associated with it. Analogously, we suggest that the systematic error in stellar parameters may be eliminated by: (1) replacing the solar radius Rsun and luminosity Lsun by the nominal values that are by definition exact and expressed in SI units: 1 RnomSun = 6.95508 x 10^8 m and 1 LnomSun = 3.846 x 10^{26} W; (2) computing stellar masses in terms of Msun by noting that the measurement error of the product G.Msun is 5 orders of magnitude smaller than the error in G; (3) computing stellar masses and temperatures in SI units by using the derived values Msun(2010) = 1.988547 x 10^{30} kg and Tsun(2010) = 5779.57 K; and (4) clearly stating the reference for the values of the fundamental physical constants used. We discuss the need and demonstrate the advantages of such a paradigm shift.Comment: 6 pages, 3 table

OGA heterozygosity suppresses intestinal tumorigenesis in Apc min/+ mice

Emerging evidence suggests that aberrant O-GlcNAcylation is associated with tumorigenesis. Many oncogenic factors are O-GlcNAcylated, which modulates their functions. However, it remains unclear how O-GlcNAcylation and O-GlcNAc cycling enzymes, O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) and O-GlcNAcase (OGA), affect the development of cancer in animal models. In this study, we show that reduced level of OGA attenuates colorectal tumorigenesis induced by Adenomatous polyposis coli (Apc) mutation. The levels of O-GlcNAcylation and O-GlcNAc cycling enzymes were simultaneously upregulated in intestinal adenomas from mice, and in human patients. In two independent microarray data sets, the expression of OGA and OGT was significantly associated with poor cancer-specific survival of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. In addition, OGA heterozygosity, which results in increased levels of O-GlcNAcylation, attenuated intestinal tumor formation in the Apc min/+ background. Apc min/+ OGA +/-mice exhibited a significantly increased survival rate compared with Apc min/+ mice. Consistent with this, Apc min/+ OGA +/-mice expressed lower levels of Wnt target genes than Apc min/+. However, the knockout of OGA did not affect Wnt/??-catenin signaling. Overall, these findings suggest that OGA is crucial for tumor growth in CRC independently of Wnt/??-catenin signaling.open2