Comment on the Definition of Eligible Organization for Purposes of Coverage of Certain Preventive Services Under the Affordable Care Act

This comment letter was submitted by U.C. Berkeley corporate law professors in response to a request for comment by the Health and Human Services Department on the definition of eligible organization under the Affordable Care Act in light of the Supreme Court\u27s decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. Eligible organizations will be permitted under the Hobby Lobby decision to assert the religious principles of their shareholders to exempt themselves from the Affordable Care Act\u27s contraceptive mandate for employees. In Hobby Lobby, the Supreme Court held that the nexus of identity between several closely-held, for-profit corporations and their shareholders holding “a sincere religious belief that life begins at conception” was sufficiently close to justify granting such corporations an exemption from the Affordable Care Act\u27s contraceptive mandate pursuant to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. More specifically, the Court ascertained that the overall interests of the corporations and their natural-person shareholders were sufficiently identical to warrant ascribing the religious commitments of the shareholders to their corporations. Notably, the Court stopped short of articulating a diagnostic test for determining when a sufficient overlap of interests exists; instead, it concluded that well-established principles in state corporate law should provide such guidance. We believe that state corporate law does in fact provide the diagnostic test the Court desires for determining when it is appropriate to disregard the distinct identity of a corporation for the identity of its shareholders. This test is rooted in the long-standing case law that constitutes the alter ego doctrine (commonly referred to as “veil piercing”). To sustain a claim of veil piercing, state corporate law uniformly requires there to be “unity of ownership and interest” between the corporation and its shareholders. If a corporation is operated as the effective alter ego of its shareholders to such an extent that its separate corporate existence ceases to exist as a practical matter, then a veil piercing claim can be established that effectively attributes the corporation’s legal rights and obligations to its shareholders, and vice versa. A veil piercing conclusion effectively holds that there is no practical difference between the corporation and the shareholders themselves. We therefore propose that for purposes of defining an “eligible organization” under Hobby Lobby, the HHS and other federal organizations should follow the corporate law doctrine of veil piercing. Indeed, to make this doctrine administratively feasible, we further suggest that shareholders of a corporation should have to certify that they and the corporation have a unity in identity and interests, and therefore the corporation should be viewed as the shareholders’ alter ego

Electrochemical titrations and reaction time courses monitored in situ by magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy

Magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectra, at ultraviolet–visible or near-infrared wavelengths (185–2000 nm), contain the same transitions observed in conventional absorbance spectroscopy, but their bisignate nature and more stringent selection rules provide greatly enhanced resolution. Thus, they have proved to be invaluable in the study of many transition metal-containing proteins. For mainly technical reasons, MCD has been limited almost exclusively to the measurement of static samples. But the ability to employ the resolving power of MCD to follow changes at transition metal sites would be a potentially significant advance. We describe here the development of a cuvette holder that allows reagent injection and sample mixing within the 50-mm-diameter ambient temperature bore of an energized superconducting solenoid. This has allowed us, for the first time, to monitor time-resolved MCD resulting from in situ chemical manipulation of a metalloprotein sample. Furthermore, we report the parallel development of an electrochemical cell using a three-electrode configuration with physically separated working and counter electrodes, allowing true potentiometric titration to be performed within the bore of the MCD solenoid

A Face Versus Non-Face Context Influences Amygdala Responses to Masked Fearful Eye Whites

The structure of the mask stimulus is crucial in backward masking studies and we recently demonstrated such an effect when masking faces. Specifically, we showed that activity of the amygdala is increased to fearful facial expressions masked with neutral faces and decreased to fearful expressions masked with a pattern mask—but critically both masked conditions discriminated fearful expressions from happy expressions. Given this finding, we sought to test whether masked fearful eye whites would produce a similar profile of amygdala response in a face vs non-face context. During functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning sessions, 30 participants viewed fearful or happy eye whites masked with either neutral faces or pattern images. Results indicated amygdala activity was increased to fearful vs happy eye whites in the face mask condition, but decreased to fearful vs happy eye whites in the pattern mask condition—effectively replicating and expanding our previous report. Our data support the idea that the amygdala is responsive to fearful eye whites, but that the nature of this activity observed in a backward masking design depends on the mask stimulus

MinION Analysis and Reference Consortium: Phase 1 data release and analysis

The advent of a miniaturized DNA sequencing device with a high-throughput contextual sequencing capability embodies the next generation of large scale sequencing tools. The MinION™ Access Programme (MAP) was initiated by Oxford Nanopore Technologies™ in April 2014, giving public access to their USB-attached miniature sequencing device. The MinION Analysis and Reference Consortium (MARC) was formed by a subset of MAP participants, with the aim of evaluating and providing standard protocols and reference data to the community. Envisaged as a multi-phased project, this study provides the global community with the Phase 1 data from MARC, where the reproducibility of the performance of the MinION was evaluated at multiple sites. Five laboratories on two continents generated data using a control strain of Escherichia coli K-12, preparing and sequencing samples according to a revised ONT protocol. Here, we provide the details of the protocol used, along with a preliminary analysis of the characteristics of typical runs including the consistency, rate, volume and quality of data produced. Further analysis of the Phase 1 data presented here, and additional experiments in Phase 2 of E. coli from MARC are already underway to identify ways to improve and enhance MinION performance

The number of transmission channels through a single-molecule junction

We calculate transmission eigenvalue distributions for Pt-benzene-Pt and Pt-butadiene-Pt junctions using realistic state-of-the-art many-body techniques. An effective field theory of interacting $\pi$-electrons is used to include screening and van der Waals interactions with the metal electrodes. We find that the number of dominant transmission channels in a molecular junction is equal to the degeneracy of the molecular orbital closest to the metal Fermi level.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Feasibility, acceptability and diagnostic test accuracy of frailty screening instruments in community-dwelling older people within the Australian general practice setting: a study protocol for a cross-sectional study

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Introduction Frailty is one of the most challenging aspects of population ageing due to its association with increased risk of poor health outcomes and quality of life. General practice provides an ideal setting for the prevention and management of frailty via the implementation of preventive measures such as early identification through screening. Methods and analysis Our study will evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and diagnostic test accuracy of several screening instruments in diagnosing frailty among community-dwelling Australians aged 75+ years who have recently made an appointment to see their general practitioner (GP). We will recruit 240 participants across 2 general practice sites within South Australia. We will invite eligible patients to participate and consent to the study via mail. Consenting participants will attend a screening appointment to undertake the index tests: 2 self-reported (Reported Edmonton Frail Scale and Kihon Checklist) and 5 (Frail Scale, Groningen Frailty Index, Program on Research for Integrating Services for the Maintenance of Autonomy (PRISMA-7), Edmonton Frail Scale and Gait Speed Test) administered by a practice nurse (a Registered Nurse working in general practice). We will randomise test order to reduce bias. Psychosocial measures will also be collected via questionnaire at the appointment. A blinded researcher will then administer two reference standards (the Frailty Phenotype and Adelaide Frailty Index). We will determine frailty by a cut-point of 3 of 5 criteria for the Phenotype and 9 of 42 items for the AFI. We will determine accuracy by analysis of sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and likelihood ratios. We will assess feasibility and acceptability by: 1) collecting data about the instruments prior to collection; 2) interviewing screeners after data collection; 3) conducting a pilot survey with a 10% sample of participants. Ethics and dissemination The Torrens University Higher Research Ethics Committee has approved this study. We will disseminate findings via publication in peer-reviewed journals and presentation at relevant conferences

SnTox3 Acts in Effector Triggered Susceptibility to Induce Disease on Wheat Carrying the Snn3 Gene

The necrotrophic fungus Stagonospora nodorum produces multiple proteinaceous host-selective toxins (HSTs) which act in effector triggered susceptibility. Here, we report the molecular cloning and functional characterization of the SnTox3-encoding gene, designated SnTox3, as well as the initial characterization of the SnTox3 protein. SnTox3 is a 693 bp intron-free gene with little obvious homology to other known genes. The predicted immature SnTox3 protein is 25.8 kDa in size. A 20 amino acid signal sequence as well as a possible pro sequence are predicted. Six cysteine residues are predicted to form disulfide bonds and are shown to be important for SnTox3 activity. Using heterologous expression in Pichia pastoris and transformation into an avirulent S. nodorum isolate, we show that SnTox3 encodes the SnTox3 protein and that SnTox3 interacts with the wheat susceptibility gene Snn3. In addition, the avirulent S. nodorum isolate transformed with SnTox3 was virulent on host lines expressing the Snn3 gene. SnTox3-disrupted mutants were deficient in the production of SnTox3 and avirulent on the Snn3 differential wheat line BG220. An analysis of genetic diversity revealed that SnTox3 is present in 60.1% of a worldwide collection of 923 isolates and occurs as eleven nucleotide haplotypes resulting in four amino acid haplotypes. The cloning of SnTox3 provides a fundamental tool for the investigation of the S. nodorum–wheat interaction, as well as vital information for the general characterization of necrotroph–plant interactions