Iqbal Plausibility in Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Litigation

This Article studied the actual effect of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal on the cohort of more than 264 federal pharmaceutical and medical device cases of every type, released from the day of the decision in Iqbal through August 31, 2010. The results of this study of more than 15 months of case law suggest that Iqbal is not having a dramatic impact on this cohort, although its impact cannot be conclusively dismissed as inconsequential either. There have been aggressive applications of Iqbal on occasion. In the 21.2% of the time when Iqbal appears facially to be impactful, a closer examination reveals that this observed effect is, in large measure, decreasing in incidence, coupled with an ability for correction, and frequently avoidable through accessible sources of information. Moreover, it is possible that those perceived effects may be phantoms, because repeated, longstanding, and frequently cited federal precedent among the lower federal courts may well have led to functionally identical results even without Iqbal‘s emergence

Thinking (and Thinking…) About Perfection: A Test of the Perfectionism Cognitions Theory

The current body of work examined the link between perfectionism cognitions and depressive symptoms and, importantly, tested a central mechanism by which rumination acts as an intervening pathway in this relationship. These relationships form the underlying framework of the Perfectionism Cognitions Theory (Flett et al., 2016), which, to date, had not been empirically tested. The current body of work consisted of two separate studies. Study 1 used a community sample of adults (N = 175, 53.3% men, Mage = 28.3 years old). Results of structural equation modeling in Study 1 offered support for the Perfectionism Cognitions Theory. It was found that rumination represented an indirect pathway explaining the relationship between perfectionism cognitions and depressive symptoms. Study 2 used a sample of emerging adult students (N = 53, 84.9% women, Mage = 19.9 years old) to test the Perfectionism Cognitions Theory. Study 2 also closely examined the link between perfectionism cognitions and cognitive flexibility, a behavioural index of rumination that was measured by performance on a set-shifting task. Results of a test of indirect effects in Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 by supporting the Perfectionism Cognitions Theory and showing evidence that rumination represents a mechanism by which perfectionism cognitions are related to poorer well-being. Results of regression analysis did not show a link between perfectionism cognitions and set-shifting, but perfectionism cognitions were related to self-reported cognitive flexibility. Together, the findings support Flett et al.’s (2016) Perfectionism Cognition Theory and have important implications for research and practice

Classifying Networks For Network Coding

Network coding is a relatively recent development in the realm of maximizing information transfer in communications and computer networks. Traditional networks operate by simply storing and forwarding data along. Network coding, however, allows intermediate network nodes to combine data using arithmetic operations. In many instances, this can lead to more efficient use of network resources. Since there is a significant throughput input in some networks, some studies have been done on what kinds of networks will benefit from coding. A coding advantage is defined as a situation where a network coded graph has a lower cost to send given information per unit time session than the same un-coded graph. It has been proven that for two simple single-sender-single-receiver communication sessions that a graph must have one of two special graph-theoretic structures called the butterfly and grail in order to yield a coding advantage. We decided to focus our efforts on a different traffic scenario: a multicast session with a single sender and multiple receivers. Through our research we proved that a multicast-version of the butterfly network structure is needed within a single session multicast with two sinks and one source in order to gain a coding advantage. We also performed a simulation-based study in order to study the structures of multicast sessions with a larger number of receivers. The study involved the random generation of networks using several graph generation techniques. We also considered a variety of different edge-weighting constraints. Given a particular graph with set edge weights, the coding advantage problem was modeled as a linear program and run through the simulator to determine if a coding advantage was gained. Based on visual inspection of these results, it appears that variations of the multicast butterfly are ultimately the dominant structure allowing for a coding advantage. We also found that many types of random networks only very rarely resulted in a coding advantage. Only the graphs generated using the rectangular grid method showed a coding advantage, with a coding advantage percentage of 0.005% for 4 sinks in a 30 node network, with the coding advantage percentage going up as the number of sinks within the network increased

The short-time Dynamics of the Critical Potts Model

The universal behaviour of the short-time dynamics of the three state Potts model in two dimensions at criticality is investigated with Monte Carlo methods. The initial increase of the order is observed. The new dynamic exponent $\theta$ as well as exponent $z$ and $\beta/\nu$ are determined. The measurements are carried out in the very beginning of the time evolution. The spatial correlation length is found to be very short compared with the lattice size.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

If not for profit, for what and how? Interuniversity Attraction Pole (IAP) on Social Enterprise (SOCENT) 2012-2017 and Social Entrepreneurship: Effectuation and Bricolage Approaches to Venture Establishment in West Africa

Abstract Abstract Abstract Abstract How can a social entrepreneur overcome resource constraints in an uncertain environment? According t

Cell-Type Specific Changes in Glial Morphology and Glucocorticoid Expression During Stress and Aging in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex.

Repeated exposure to stressors is known to produce large-scale remodeling of neurons within the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Recent work suggests stress-related forms of structural plasticity can interact with aging to drive distinct patterns of pyramidal cell morphological changes. However, little is known about how other cellular components within PFC might be affected by these challenges. Here, we examined the effects of stress exposure and aging on medial prefrontal cortical glial subpopulations. Interestingly, we found no changes in glial morphology with stress exposure but a profound morphological change with aging. Furthermore, we found an upregulation of non-nuclear glucocorticoid receptors (GR) with aging, while nuclear levels remained largely unaffected. Both changes are selective for microglia, with no stress or aging effect found in astrocytes. Lastly, we show that the changes found within microglia inversely correlated with the density of dendritic spines on layer III pyramidal cells. These findings suggest microglia play a selective role in synaptic health within the aging brain

The short-time behaviour of a kinetic Ashkin-Teller model on the critical line

We simulate the kinetic Ashkin-Teller model with both ordered and disordered initial states, evolving in contact with a heat-bath at the critical temperature. The power law scaling behaviour for the magnetic order and electric order are observed in the early time stage. The values of the critical exponent $\theta$ vary along the critical line. Another dynamical exponent $z$ is also obtained in the process.Comment: 14 pages LaTeX with 4 figures in postscrip

The PLAC1-homology region of the ZP domain is sufficient for protein polymerisation

BACKGROUND: Hundreds of extracellular proteins polymerise into filaments and matrices by using zona pellucida (ZP) domains. ZP domain proteins perform highly diverse functions, ranging from structural to receptorial, and mutations in their genes are responsible for a number of severe human diseases. Recently, PLAC1, Oosp1-3, Papillote and CG16798 proteins were identified that share sequence homology with the N-terminal half of the ZP domain (ZP-N), but not with its C-terminal half (ZP-C). The functional significance of this partial conservation is unknown. RESULTS: By exploiting a highly engineered bacterial strain, we expressed in soluble form the PLAC1-homology region of mammalian sperm receptor ZP3 as a fusion to maltose binding protein. Mass spectrometry showed that the 4 conserved Cys residues within the ZP-N moiety of the fusion protein adopt the same disulfide bond connectivity as in full-length native ZP3, indicating that it is correctly folded, and electron microscopy and biochemical analyses revealed that it assembles into filaments. CONCLUSION: These findings provide a function for PLAC1-like proteins and, by showing that ZP-N is a biologically active folding unit, prompt a re-evaluation of the architecture of the ZP domain and its polymers. Furthermore, they suggest that ZP-C might play a regulatory role in the assembly of ZP domain protein complexes

Integrative analysis of extracellular and intracellular bladder cancer cell line proteome with transcriptome: improving coverage and validity of -omics findings

Characterization of disease-associated proteins improves our understanding of disease pathophysiology. Obtaining a comprehensive coverage of the proteome is challenging, mainly due to limited statistical power and an inability to verify hundreds of putative biomarkers. In an effort to address these issues, we investigated the value of parallel analysis of compartment-specific proteomes with an assessment of findings by cross-strategy and cross-omics (proteomics-transcriptomics) agreement. The validity of the individual datasets and of a “verified” dataset based on crossstrategy/omics agreement was defined following their comparison with published literature. The proteomic analysis of the cell extract, Endoplasmic Reticulum/Golgi apparatus and conditioned medium of T24 vs. its metastatic subclone T24M bladder cancer cells allowed the identification of 253, 217 and 256 significant changes, respectively. Integration of these findings with transcriptomics resulted in 253 “verified” proteins based on the agreement of at least 2 strategies. This approach revealed findings of higher validity, as supported by a higher level of agreement in the literature data than those of individual datasets. As an example, the coverage and shortlisting of targets in the IL-8 signalling pathway are discussed. Collectively, an integrative analysis appears a safer way to evaluate -omics datasets and ultimately generate models from valid observations