Massachusetts\u27 New Predatory Lending Law and the Expanding Rift Between Federal and State Lending Protection

Predatory lending practices in the mortgage industry cost Americans an estimated $9.1 billion each year. Predatory lending steals hard-earned equity from individuals and disproportionately affects minorities, low-income families, the elderly, and their respective communities. On August 9, 2004, the Massachusetts legislature approved legislation to combat this growing problem. This recent legislation provides strong protection against predatory lending. Despite this positive step, nationally-chartered institutions remain virtually unregulated as a result of weak federal protections and the unwillingness of federal agencies to investigate or prosecute predatory lending practices. This Note concludes that true reform in lending requires a greater delegation of regulatory authority to the states or, in the alternative, stronger federal protections that match the efforts of states such as Massachusetts

Plant Food Processing Tools at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe

Plant Food Processing Tools at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe reconstructs plant food processing at this key Pre-Pottery Neolithic (9600-8000 BC) site, with an emphasis on cereals, legumes and herbs as food sources, on grinding and pounding tools for their processing, and on the vessels implied in the consumption of meals and beverages. Functional investigations on grinding and pounding tools and on stone containers through use-wear and residue analyses are at the core of the book. Their corpus amounts to more than 7000 objects, constituting thus the largest collection published so far from the Neolithic of Upper Mesopotamia. The spectrum of tools and of processed plants is very broad, but porridges made of cereals, legumes and herbs, and beers predominate over bread-like food. The find contexts show that cooking took place around the well-known monumental buildings, while the large quantity of tools suggests feasting in addition to daily meals

Plant Food Processing Tools at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe

Plant Food Processing Tools at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe reconstructs plant food processing at this key Pre-Pottery Neolithic (9600-8000 BC) site, with an emphasis on cereals, legumes and herbs as food sources, on grinding and pounding tools for their processing, and on the vessels implied in the consumption of meals and beverages. Functional investigations on grinding and pounding tools and on stone containers through use-wear and residue analyses are at the core of the book. Their corpus amounts to more than 7000 objects, constituting thus the largest collection published so far from the Neolithic of Upper Mesopotamia. The spectrum of tools and of processed plants is very broad, but porridges made of cereals, legumes and herbs, and beers predominate over bread-like food. The find contexts show that cooking took place around the well-known monumental buildings, while the large quantity of tools suggests feasting in addition to daily meals

Less Debt, More Equity: Lowering Student Debt While Closing the Black-White Wealth Gap

The dramatic increase in wealth inequality over the past several decades now forms the backdrop for many of today's most pressing public policy debates. Currently, the top 1 percent of U.S. households controls 42 percent of the nation's wealth, and nearly half of the wealth accumulated over the past 30 years has gone to the top 0.1 percent. Simultaneously, the wealth held by the bottom 90 percent of U.S. households continues to shrink, just as people of color are a growing percentage of the U.S. population. These trends have converged to produce a wealth divide that is apparent not just by class, but by race as well. The average white family owns $13 for every$1 owned by a typical Black family, and $10 for every$1 owned by the typical Latino family.This analysis uses the Racial Wealth Audit, a framework developed by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy (IASP) to assess the impact of public policy on the wealth gap between white and Black households. We use the framework to model the impact of various student debt relief policies to identify the approaches most likely to reduce inequities in wealth by race, as opposed to exacerbating existing inequities. We focus specifically on the Black-white wealth gap both because of the historic roots of inequality described above, and because student debt (in the form of borrowing rates and levels) seems to be contributing to wealth disparities between Black and white young adults, in particular

Südwestasien. Erstellung einer Referenzkollektion für makro- und mikroskopische Abnutzungsspuren an Reibsteinen Vorderasiens. Die Arbeiten des Jahres 2020

The project focuses on macro- and microscopical traceology to produce an image database as a reference collection for functional analysis of grinding and pounding tools from southwestern Asia. Wear patterns are produced through long-term experiments with replicas, which are compared to original artifacts from several excavation projects. Another aim is to develop quantification methods for wear, which would offer insights into the duration of use of grinding gear

Zellgängige Peptide zur Inhibition des Wnt/β-Catenin Signalweges

Der Wnt/β-Catenin Signalweg kontrolliert fundamentale Prozesse der Embryonalentwicklung sowie die Homöostase im adulten Gewebe. Fehlregulation durch konstitutive Aktivierung resultiert in übermäßiger Proliferation und fördert die Entstehung von Krebs. Die Inhibition des Signalweges ist sehr anspruchsvoll, da dieser durch Protein-Protein-Interaktionen (PPIs) reguliert wird, die nur schwer mit niedermolekularen Verbindungen moduliert werden können. Peptide weisen gute Bindungseigenschaften für flache und ausgedehnte Interaktionsflächen auf und bilden die Grundlage neuartiger Strategien zur Adressierung von PPIs. In dieser Arbeit wurde eine Strategie zur Optimierung der Bioverfügbarkeit eines stapled peptides zur Inhibition der β-Catenin/TCF-Interaktion entwickelt. Aus der vergleichenden Analyse mit bekannten zellgängigen Peptiden und stapled peptides wurde durch feine Nuancierung von Hydrophobizität, Nettoladung und Ladungsverteilung NLS StAx h erhalten. NLS StAx h inhibiert sowohl selektiv die Interaktion zwischen β Catenin und TCF, als auch spezifisch die Proliferation und Migration von Darmkrebszellen. In einem ex vivo Darmkrebsmodell wurde außerdem nachgewiesen, dass die mit Darmkrebs assoziierte abnormale Genexpression auf das Basallevel reduziert wurde. NLS-StAx-h ist damit die erste Verbindung, die eine gute zelluläre Aufnahme mit einer effizienten Hemmung der β-Catenin/TCF-Wechselwirkung kombiniert

Improving the Success of Non-Traditional Students in an Introductory Computing Course

This Work in Progress Research to Practice paper presents a redesign of an introduction to computing course at a public, minority serving institution in the United States with a majority of non-traditional students. The course redesign was motivated by the desire to improve the success of the students in this course and in the major. Active learning during class and required attendance were the major components of the course redesign. The course policies included flexibility for the occasional absences that are expected with non-traditional students. A comparison of student performance in the experimental and control sections indicated that the requirement of active participation during class is not detrimental to students’ performance in the course

Utilization of Volatile Fatty Acids from Microalgae for the Production of High Added Value Compounds

Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA) are small organic compounds that have attracted much attention lately, due to their use as a carbon source for microorganisms involved in the production of bioactive compounds, biodegradable materials and energy. Low cost production of VFA from different types of waste streams can occur via dark fermentation, offering a promising approach for the production of biofuels and biochemicals with simultaneous reduction of waste volume. VFA can be subsequently utilized in fermentation processes and efficiently transformed into bioactive compounds that can be used in the food and nutraceutical industry for the development of functional foods with scientifically sustained claims. Microalgae are oleaginous microorganisms that are able to grow in heterotrophic cultures supported by VFA as a carbon source and accumulate high amounts of valuable products, such as omega-3 fatty acids and exopolysaccharides. This article reviews the different types of waste streams in concert with their potential to produce VFA, the possible factors that affect the VFA production process and the utilization of the resulting VFA in microalgae fermentation processes. The biology of VFA utilization, the potential products and the downstream processes are discussed in detail.VOLATILE, a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, under the grant agreement no. 720777. The Greek State Scholarships (Postdoc-Research Scholarships IKY). The Hellenic Foundation of Research and Innovation (ELIDEK) financial support (ELIDEK Scholarships for Ph.D. Students)