Litigation Trustees Not Allowed to Wear Their “Non-Bankruptcy Hats” to Avoid Swap Transactions as Fraudulent Conveyances

(Excerpt) The Bankruptcy Code provides bankruptcy trustees with avoidance powers that allow the trustees to undo certain pre- and post-petition actions. The purpose of this power to allow the recovering property or interests transferred by the debtor in order to maximize the value of the bankruptcy estate for the benefit of the creditor and to provide more equitable distribution to creditors. Among these avoidance powers is the power to avoid fraudulent transfers/conveyances. In particular, the bankruptcy trustee may avoid a transfer (1) as an actually fraudulent transfer if it was made with the actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud the debtor’s creditors; or (2) as a constructively fraudulent transfer if it was made for less than reasonably equivalent value when the debtor (a) was insolvent at the time of the transfer or rendered insolvent by the transfer, (b) was engaged in a business for which the debtor had unreasonably small capital, or (c) intended to incur debts beyond its capacity to pay. However, these avoidance powers are subject to various limitations under the Bankruptcy Code. For example, section 546(g) of the Bankruptcy Code includes a safe-harbor provision that prohibits a bankruptcy trustee using most of his avoidance powers to avoid a transfer that was made under or in connection with a swap agreement. To determine the scope and purpose of the safe harbor provision, courts have examined the legislative history of section 546(g) and recently determined the scope of the safe-harbor provision with respect to the bankruptcy trustee. Through the analysis of Congress’ legislative history, courts have found that the scope of section 546(g)’s safe-harbor provision is to promote stability in financial markets. As a result, the bankruptcy trustee generally cannot avoid a transaction made under or in connection with a swap agreement. Recently, bankruptcy trustees tried to circumvent this prohibition by arguing that section 546(g) only applies to bankruptcy trustees representing the estate and not to creditor representatives. This issue was litigated in Whyte v. Barclays Bank PLC, (“Barclays”), where the litigation trustee sought to avoid the novation of SemGroup\u27s NYMEX portfolio on the ground that the transaction with Barclays was a fraudulent conveyance, asserting his claim not being brought under the Bankruptcy Code, but was rather being brought as claim under by New York’s Debtor-Creditor Law that had been assigned to the trustee by the individual creditors under the confirmed chapter 11 plan. As such, the plan was designed to circumvent the safe-harbor provision section 546(g) of the Bankruptcy Code; however, the court found this to be impermissible under the principles of federal preemption because such a finding would declare section 546(g) a nullity. However, in light of the Barclays decision, other recent decisions interpreting section 546(e) have come to a seemingly opposite conclusion. As a result, this Article seeks to discuss the impact of the Barclays decision on the interpretation of section 546(g) of the Bankruptcy Code in light of the conflicting decisions interpreting section 546(e). Part A will briefly mention the language of section 546(g), its limitations on power of bankruptcy trustees to avoid actually fraudulent transactions and Congress’s purpose in enacting section 546(g). Part B will discuss the Barclays decision with respect to the scope of section 546(g). Part C will discuss how bankruptcy courts have decided not to follow the Barclays decision when interpreting section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code and how other recent court decisions have distinguished the Barclays decision and the impact this could have on the way future courts will interpret section 546(g). Finally, Part D will conclude with a summary of the implications and significance of the Barclays decision in light of the recent court decisions interpreting section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code

On SIR epidemic models with generally distributed infectious periods: number of secondary cases and probability of infection

Recently, Clancy [SIR epidemic models with general infectious period distribution, Statist. Prob. Lett. 85 (2014) 1–5] has shown how SIR epidemics in which individuals’ infection periods are not necessarily exponentially distributed may be modeled in terms of a piecewise-deterministic Markov process (PDMP). In this paper, we present a more detailed description of the underlying PDMP, from which we analyze the population transmission number and the infection probability of a certain susceptible individual

Sports, executive functions and academic performance: a comparison between martial arts, team sports, and sedentary children

It is well known that curricular physical activity benefits children’s executive functions and academic performance. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether there is an influence of extracurricular sports on executive functions and academic performance. However, it is less known which specific types of the sport better enhance executive functions in children; to investigate this issue, this study compared the performance on executive functions tasks and academic performance in one hundred and two boys and girls with an average age of 11.84 years recruited from Italian schools and gyms (N = 102), who participated in martial arts or team sports or were sedentary children. Executive functions were measured with the tests: Attenzione e Concentrazione, Digit Span test, Tower of London, IOWA Gambling task BVN 5-11, and BVN 12-18. Results demonstrated that children practicing martial arts showed better executive functioning and higher school marks than those involved in team sports or not involved in any sports. Furthermore, participants aged 12 to 15 years old outperformed in cool and hot executive functions tasks and had a better academic perfor-mance. Thus, the present findings supported the view that regular practice of extracurricular sports enhances executive functions development and consequently influences academic performance

Exact solutions of an elliptic Calogero--Sutherland model

A model describing N particles on a line interacting pairwise via an elliptic function potential in the presence of an external field is partially solved in the quantum case in a totally algebraic way. As an example, the ground state and the lowest excitations are calculated explicitly for N=2.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, typeset with RevTeX 4b3 and AMS-LaTe

Preferencias hacia el origen de un alimento étnico y la influencia de variables psicográficas

En los últimos años, el conocimiento y consumo de comidas y/o alimentos étnicos se ha difundido en el ámbito nacional. Diversos factores, entre los que destaca la inmigración, han sido decisivos en su comercialización. El mantener las costumbres alimentarias de su país de origen hace que los inmigrantes conformen segmentos de consumidores que generan una demanda específica en el mercado. Mediante un experimento de elección, se investigan las preferencias de los consumidores latinoamericanos con respecto a un alimento esencial en sus dietas, la harina de maíz. Para permitir que las preferencias puedan diferir entre individuos, se estima un modelo logit mixto. Entre las posibles fuentes explicativas de la heterogeneidad de preferencias, se contrasta la influencia de factores psicográficos, tales como los valores personales, la fobia a los alimentos nuevos y el etnocentrismo del consumidor. Así, se ha encontrado que los consumidores más neo-fóbicos y los más orientados hacia el desarrollo personal, tienden a ser más sensibles a variaciones en el precio; y los más etnocentristas manifiestan mayor preferencia hacia la harina de su país de origen.Experimento de elección, logit mixto, consumidores latinoamericanos, alimentos étnicos, características psicográficas., Agricultural and Food Policy, Q13, M31.,

Maternal circulating leukocytes display early chemotactic responsiveness during late gestation

Abstract Background Parturition has been widely described as an immunological response; however, it is unknown how this is triggered. We hypothesized that an early event in parturition is an increased responsiveness of peripheral leukocytes to chemotactic stimuli expressed by reproductive tissues, and this precedes expression of tissue chemotactic activity, uterine activation and the systemic progesterone/estradiol shift. Methods Tissues and blood were collected from pregnant Long-Evans rats on gestational days (GD) 17, 20 and 22 (term gestation). We employed a validated Boyden chamber assay, flow cytometry, quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Results We found that GD20 maternal peripheral leukocytes migrated more than those from GD17 when these were tested with GD22 uterus and cervix extracts. Leukocytes on GD20 also displayed a significant increase in chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (Ccl2) gene expression and this correlated with an increase in peripheral granulocyte proportions and a decrease in B cell and monocyte proportions. Tissue chemotactic activity and specific chemokines (CCL2, chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 1/CXCL1, and CXCL10) were mostly unchanged from GD17 to GD20 and increased only on GD22. CXCL10 peaked on GD20 in cervical tissues. As expected, prostaglandin F2α receptor and oxytocin receptor gene expression increased dramatically between GD20 and 22. Progesterone concentrations fell and estradiol-17β concentrations increased in peripheral serum, cervical and uterine tissue extracts between GD20 and 22. Conclusion Maternal circulating leukocytes display early chemotactic responsiveness, which leads to their infiltration into the uterus where they may participate in the process of parturition

Dependence on the Identification of the Scale Energy Parameter Q 2 in the Quark Distribution Functions for a DIS Production of Za

We discuss the Z-production in a DIS (Deep Inelastic Scattering) process e + p → e + Z + X using the Parton Model, within the context of the Standard Model. In contrast with deep inelastic eP-scattering (e + p → e + X), where the choice of Q2, as the transferred momentum squared, is unambiguous; whereas in the case of boson production , the transferred momentum squared, at quark level, depends on the reaction mechanism (where is the EW interaction taking place). We suggest a proposal based on kinematics of the process considered and the usual criterion for Q2 , which leads to a simple and practical prescription to calculate Z-production via ep-DIS. We also introduce different options in order o perform the convolution of the parton distribution functions (PDFs) and the scattering amplitude of he quark processes. Our aim in this work is to analyze and show how large could be the dependence of the total cross section rates on different possible prescriptions used for the identification of the scale energy parameter Q2 . We present results for the total cross section as a function of the total energy √s of the system ep, in the range 300 <√s ≤ 1300 Ge