Dirigo Health: A Small Business Perspective

In her commentary Deborah Cook, executive director of the Maine Small Business Alliance, discusses Dirigo Health from the viewpoint of small businesses, whose employees and families, along with the self-employed, represent the largest proportion of uninsured in Maine’s population. She notes that rising costs of health care and insurance are a major threat to the viability of small businesses

»IN VINO METAPHORA«

»In Vino Metaphora« is, in part, a celebration of Nietzsche's overcoming of nihilism. The affirmation of life in the will to power as the source of all value-creating activity is shown to transcend the nihilism of which Nietzsche's critics often accuse him. One of the more important forms of the will to power in this sense is intoxication or the Dionysian. In Nietzsche's early work, the Dionysian was a metaphysical and artistic principle. His later work contrasts Dionysian intoxication with other forms and the Dionysian becomes both a psychological and physiological phenomenon. The paper also compares Nietzsche's view on intoxication with those of Walter Benjamin and discusses both in relation to such phenomena as rock music and the North American experience of the nineteen sixties.»In vino metaphora« pomeni delno slavljenje Nietzschejevega preseganja nihi-lizma. Za afirmacijo življenja v voljo do moči kot izvoru vse dejavnosti, ki ustvarja vrednote se izkaže, da presega nihilizem, ki ga Nietzscheju pogosto očitajo njegovi kritiki. Ena od pomembnejših oblik volje do moči v tem smislu je intoksikacija ali dionizicno. V Nietzschejevem zgodnjem opusu je bilo dionizicno metafizično in umetniško načelo. Njegov kasnejši opus kontrastira dionizicno intoksikacijo z drugimi oblikami in dionizicno postane tako psihološki kot fiziološki pojav. Članek tudi primerja Nietzschejeve poglede o intoksikaciji s pogledi Walter j a Benjamina ter ju obravnava v zvezi s pojavi kakršna sta rock glasba in severnoameriško izkustvo šestdesetih let

State and Local Prevalence of Firearms Ownership: Measurement, Structure, and Trends

Of the readily computed proxies for the prevalence of gun ownership, one, the percentage of suicides committed with a gun, performs consistently better than the others in cross-section comparisons. It is readily computed for states and counties and has a high degree of validity when tested against survey-based estimates. It also appears valid as a proxy for changes over time in gun prevalence, at least at the regional level. Our analysis of this proxy measure for the period 1979-1997 demonstrates that the geographic structure of gun ownership has been highly stable. That structure is closely linked to rural tradition. There is, however, some tendency toward homogenization over this period, with high-prevalence states trending down and low-prevalence states trending up.

USE OF GENOMIC TOOLS TO DISCOVER THE CAUSE OF CHAMPAGNE DILUTION COAT COLOR IN HORSES AND TO MAP THE GENETIC CAUSE OF EXTREME LORDOSIS IN AMERICAN SADDLEBRED HORSES

Champagne dilution of coat color in horses is caused by dominant gene action. Three sire families were identified as segregating for this trait. Genome wide linkage analysis using 104 microsatellite DNA markers was used to map the gene to ECA14 (LOD \u3e 11.0). Four genes, namely SPARC, SLC36A1, SLC36A2 and SLC36A3, were selected from the region implicated by linkage and their exons sequenced. DNA sequences were compared for two homozygotes for Champagne dilution, two heterozygotes and two horses without dilution. A single base change in exon 2 of SLC36A1 was found unique to horses exhibiting Champagne dilution. This change in base 188 of the cDNA from a C to a G (Genbank REFSEQ: Non-champagne EU432176 and Champagne EU432177), is predicted to cause an amino acid change from threonine to arginine in the first transmembrane region. No exceptions to the association of this mutation with the Champagne dilution (CH) allele were identified based on testing 182 additional horses representing 15 breeds, suggesting that this mutation may be the causative for the dilution phenotype. This is the first evidence for a phenotypic effect of mutation of the gene. Identifying this variant also gives breeders a new tool for selecting breeding stock. Extreme lordosis is a condition in which the dorsal to ventral curvature of the back is accentuated. The condition is considered a conformation fault by many Saddlebred breeders and is commonly referred to as swayback, softback or lowback. Previous studies suggested the existence of a hereditary component in American Saddlebred horses. A whole genome association study was performed utilizing the Illumina SNP50 beadchip containing over 59,000 SNPs. A 3 Mb region on ECA20 was found associated with extreme lordosis. The distribution of markers indicated that the trait had a simple Mendelian recessive mode of inheritance. Subsequently, the association was confirmed and the region was narrowed to just over 500 kb by a higher density SNP assay using 47 SNPs selected from the equine SNP database. Identification of this associated region will allow future studies a better opportunity to locate the mutation responsible for the lordotic phenotype in young American Saddlebred Horses

Introduction to the Judicial Symposium

I am pleased to introduce this Judicial Symposium issue of the Akron Law Review. Having twice been elected to Ohio’s Supreme Court, and also having survived the federal judicial-selection process, my “battle scars” alone might qualify me to comment on the Symposium’s broad topic—judicial selection. But my status as an alumna together with my office’s proximity—almost within wireless range of the law school—probably played a larger role than experience and perspective in securing this assignment. The submissions published here pertain to the foundation of the rule of law—public confidence in courts. Each contributor to the Symposium acknowledges the fundamental ideals of any elective or appointive judicial-selection schema—impartiality, accountability and independence. And all four acknowledge the burdening of these ideals by public perceptions regarding election fundraising, political advertising, campaign activities, political and interest groups’ pervasive roles, and elitism of appointing authorities