Harmonizing the Policy of the Bankruptcy Code and Article 9

In a true sense bankruptcy law--at least as represented by the 1978 Code--is in conflict, not in harmony, with Article 9. To a considerable degree (perhaps more than they realize) debtors and unsecured creditors got things they wanted from Congress by the adoption of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978. It is doubtful that that Act could have been passed in any Congress before or since. In many ways, the rights of the debtor and of the unsecured creditors have been cut back since the adoption of the Bankruptcy Reform Act

Harmonizing the Policy of the Bankruptcy Code and Article 9

In a true sense bankruptcy law--at least as represented by the 1978 Code--is in conflict, not in harmony, with Article 9. To a considerable degree (perhaps more than they realize) debtors and unsecured creditors got things they wanted from Congress by the adoption of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978. It is doubtful that that Act could have been passed in any Congress before or since. In many ways, the rights of the debtor and of the unsecured creditors have been cut back since the adoption of the Bankruptcy Reform Act

The Aqueous Phase Yield Of Alkyl Nitrates From Roo+No: Implications For Photochemical Production In Seawater

Alkyl nitrates have been observed in remote oceanic regions of the troposphere and in the surface ocean. The mechanism for their production in the oceans is not known. A likely source is the reaction of ROO + NO (where R is an alkyl group). Steady-state laboratory experiments show that alkyl nitrates are produced in the aqueous phase via this reaction, with branching ratios of 0.23 +/- 0.04, 0.67 +/- 0.03, and 0.71 +/- 0.04 for methyl, ethyl, and propyl nitrate respectively. The branching ratios in aqueous solution are significantly higher than in the gas phase. Irradiation of surface seawaters yield rates of alkyl nitrate production on the order of 10(-18) mol cm(-3) s(-1), suggesting that the reaction of ROO and NO is an important source of alkyl nitrates in seawater

Rurality or distance to care and the risk of homelessness among Afghanistan and Iraq veterans

INTRODUCTION: To date, no studies have examined the relationship of rurality and distance to nearest VA facility to risk of homelessness. METHODS: We examined differences in the rate of homelessness within a year of a Veteran's first encounter with the VA following last military separation based on rurality and distance to the nearest VA facility using multivariable log-binomial regressions. RESULTS: In our cohort of 708,120 Veterans, 73% were determined to have a forwarding address in urban areas, 59.2% and 86.7% lived within 40 miles of the nearest VA medical center (VAMC), respectively. Veterans living in a rural area and those living between 20+ miles away from the nearest VAMC were at a lower risk for homelessness. CONCLUSIONS: Our unique dataset allowed us to explore the relationship between geography and homelessness. These results are important to policy makers in understanding the risk factors for homelessness among Veterans and planning interventions

Early, intensive marine resource exploitation by Middle Stone Age humans at Ysterfontein 1 rockshelter, South Africa

Modern human behavioral innovations from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) include the earliest indicators of full coastal adaptation evidenced by shell middens, yet many MSA middens remain poorly dated. We apply ²³⁰Th/U burial dating to ostrich eggshells (OES) from Ysterfontein 1 (YFT1, Western Cape, South Africa), a stratified MSA shell midden. ²³⁰Th/U burial ages of YFT1 OES are relatively precise (median ± 2.7%), consistent with other age constraints, and preserve stratigraphic principles. Bayesian age–depth modeling indicates YFT1 was deposited between 119.9 to 113.1 thousand years ago (ka) (95% CI of model ages), and the entire 3.8 m thick midden may have accumulated within ∼2,300 y. Stable carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopes of OES indicate that during occupation the local environment was dominated by C₃ vegetation and was initially significantly wetter than at present but became drier and cooler with time. Integrating archaeological evidence with OES ²³⁰Th/U ages and stable isotopes shows the following: 1) YFT1 is the oldest shell midden known, providing minimum constraints on full coastal adaptation by ∼120 ka; 2) despite rapid sea-level drop and other climatic changes during occupation, relative shellfish proportions and sizes remain similar, suggesting adaptive foraging along a changing coastline; 3) the YFT1 lithic technocomplex is similar to other west coast assemblages but distinct from potentially synchronous industries along the southern African coast, suggesting human populations were fragmented between seasonal rainfall zones; and 4) accumulation rates (up to 1.8 m/ka) are much higher than previously observed for dated, stratified MSA middens, implying more intense site occupation akin to Later Stone Age middens

Why Dose Frequency Affects Spoken Vocabulary in Preschoolers With Down Syndrome

In an earlier randomized clinical trial, daily communication and language therapy resulted in more favorable spoken vocabulary outcomes than weekly therapy sessions in a subgroup of initially nonverbal preschoolers with intellectual disabilities that included only children with Down syndrome (DS). In this reanalysis of the dataset involving only the participants with DS, we found that more therapy led to larger spoken vocabularies at posttreatment because it increased children’s canonical syllabic communication and receptive vocabulary growth early in the treatment phase

Implementation process brief: Integrated family planning and HIV services at the community level in Kenya

Enabling women living with HIV to use contraception effectively can decrease unintended pregnancies and in turn reduce maternal mortality and vertical transmission of HIV. This brief describes the implementation process and intervention tested under the Evidence Project for delivering integrated FP and HIV services at the community level in Kenya. It outlines the implementation steps, best practices, and lessons learned of an intervention that was tested within the existing community health structure. Community health volunteers were trained to offer FP as part of their routine services to women living with HIV, and community health units were prepared to sustain those services. This brief complements a research report that offers evidence of the feasibility, quality of care, and acceptability, of using community health volunteers to integrate FP into existing HIV/AIDS services for women living with HIV at the community-level in Busia County, Kenya. The report also provides an incremental cost-analysis to estimate the additional health system cost for integrating the provision of pills and condoms into community health volunteers’ existing activities, and the recurrent cost of maintaining these additional services

Did Bankruptcy Reform Fail? An Empirical Study of Consumer Debtors

Just three years ago, Congress enacted controversial amendments to the Bankruptcy Code. The proponents claimed that the changes would drive the can pay debtors (of which there were supposedly many) from the bankruptcy courts with tough new income-based eligibility requirements. And indeed, after the enactment of the amendments, the number of people filing for bankruptcy plunged. In this Article - the initial report of the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project - the authors analyze the first national, random sample of post-amendments bankruptcy filers. Contrary to the advocates\u27 claim that high-income filers would be driven from the system and, by implication, that those remaining would have more modest incomes, the data show no change in the income levels of bankruptcy filers after the amendments. These findings thus cast doubt on the suggestion that those purged from the bankruptcy courts - approximately 800,000 in 2007 alone based on trend extrapolation - were high-income deadbeats; they instead appear to have been ordinary American families in serious financial distress. The data also show that debtors filing for bankruptcy in 2007 have even greater debt loads than their counterparts from 2001, a development that seems to track a national trend of increasing consumer debt. The findings thus align with at least two predictions of some legal scholars. The first is that the bankruptcy reform bill was not aimed at high-income abusers but was instead a general assault on all debtors, regardless of their financial circumstances. The second is that debtors are waiting longer - and incurring more debt - before ultimately seeking bankruptcy relief, consistent with the so-called sweat box theory of credit card lending

The way the ball bounces: visual and auditory perception of elasticity and control of the bounce pass

Abstract. Human observers may perceive not only spatial and temporal dimensions of the environment, but also dynamic physical properties that are useful for the control of behavior. A study is presented in which visual and auditory perception of elasticity in bouncing objects, which was specified by kinematic (spatiotemporaI) patterns of object motion, were examined. In experiment 1, observers could perceive the elasticity of a bouncing ball and were able to regulate the impulse applied to the ball in a bounce pass. In experiments 2 and 3, it was demonstrated that visual perception of elasticity was based on relative height information, when it was available, and on the duration of a single period under other conditions. Observers did not make effective use of velocity information. In experiment 4, visual and auditory period information were compared and equivalent performance in both modalities was found. The results are interpreted as support for the view that dynamic properties of environmental events are perceived by means of kinematic information

Interpreting Data: A Reply to Professor Pardo

Professor Pardo has published a pointed critique to our Report, raising three major complaints. First, he claims that we make two predicating assumptions in our study that are flawed. Second, he contends that we misunderstand the means test and fail to appreciate with sufficient nuance its operative effect. Third, he maintains that our Report suffers from methodological problems. We can address the two impugned assumptions quickly. The first one - that BAPCPA\u27s means test is the sole causal agent driving 800,000 putative filers from the bankruptcy courts - is not one we make. The second - regarding the income profiles of the missing 800,000 bankruptcy filers - is actually somewhat consistent with predictions Professor Pardo himself makes elsewhere in his critique. The thrust of Professor Pardo\u27s commentary, however, is his second point - that we simply don\u27t get the means test - and so we begin our response by addressing this contention. We then discuss our methodology, which we believe is quite robust, before finally elaborating on why we are sanguine in dismissing his complaints with the two assumptions he claims we make