Will Renunciation of a Bequest or Failure to Claim a Statutory Share Constitute a Taxable Gift

In 1948 the 80th Congress amended the Internal Revenue Code in an effort to eliminate the discrimination theretofore enjoyed by residents of states which had adopted the community property system.\u27 Substantial equalization in the estate and gift tax fields is expected to follow from the marital deduction and gift tax splitting privileges. Moreover, these changes have focused attention upon a problem which caused considerable concern to conservative tax advisors even before the 1948 Tax Amendment. It has long been a doubtful question whether the renunciation of testamentary benefits would be held to constitute a taxable gift. The Act and the proposed regulations make it reasonably clear that a widow will not incur a gift tax as a result of renouncing a bequest or failing to claim her statutory share. But what of a child who (1) renounces a legacy, or (2) fails to claim a statutory share where such right exists because of his parent\u27s failure to mention him in the will? Will he be deemed to have made a taxable gift? The purpose of this note is to analyze the probable basis of gift tax liability in these two latter situations

Effect of social status on behavioral and neural response to stress

Individuals respond differently to traumatic stress. Social status, which plays a key role in how animals experience and interact with their social environment, may influence how individuals respond to stressors. In this study, we used a conditioned defeat model to investigate whether social status alters susceptibility to the behavioral and neural consequences of traumatic stress. Conditioned defeat is a model in Syrian hamsters in which an acute social defeat encounter results in a long term increase in submissive behavior and a loss of normal territorial aggression. To establish social status, we weight matched and paired Syrian hamsters in daily aggressive encounters for two weeks to create dominant/subordinate relationships. We also included controls which were exposed daily to a clean empty cage for the same 14 day period. Twenty-four hours after the final pairing or empty cage exposure, subjects were divided into defeat and no defeat groups. Individuals in the defeat group received three 5 minute social defeats at 5 minute intervals in the cage of a larger aggressive hamster. Individuals in the no defeat group were exposed to the empty cage of a larger aggressive hamster at the same time intervals. In experiment 1, subjects of both groups were tested for conditioned defeat with a non-aggressive intruder 24 hours after social defeat training. In experiment 2, brains were collected 65 minutes following social defeat training and immunohistochemistry was performed for c-Fos protein, a marker of neural activation. We quantified the number of c-Fos immunopositive cells in brain regions known to be involved in stress and aggression, including the ventral medial prefrontal cortex, medial amygdala, and lateral and ventromedial hypothalamus. We found that subordinate animals showed significantly more conditioned defeat behavior than did dominants or controls, and subordinates showed significantly less c-Fos immunoreactivity than did dominants in all these brain regions. These results suggest that decreased neural activity in these brain regions corresponds to an increased susceptibility to conditioned defeat. In sum, social status plays an important role in how animals respond to social stressors and this corresponds to activity in specific brain areas

Large-effect flowering time mutations reveal conditionally adaptive paths through fitness landscapes in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Contrary to previous assumptions that most mutations are deleterious, there is increasing evidence for persistence of large-effect mutations in natural populations. A possible explanation for these observations is that mutant phenotypes and fitness may depend upon the specific environmental conditions to which a mutant is exposed. Here, we tested this hypothesis by growing large-effect flowering time mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana in multiple field sites and seasons to quantify their fitness effects in realistic natural conditions. By constructing environment-specific fitness landscapes based on flowering time and branching architecture, we observed that a subset of mutations increased fitness, but only in specific environments. These mutations increased fitness via different paths: through shifting flowering time, branching, or both. Branching was under stronger selection, but flowering time was more genetically variable, pointing to the importance of indirect selection on mutations through their pleiotropic effects on multiple phenotypes. Finally, mutations in hub genes with greater connectedness in their regulatory networks had greater effects on both phenotypes and fitness. Together, these findings indicate that large-effect mutations may persist in populations because they influence traits that are adaptive only under specific environmental conditions. Understanding their evolutionary dynamics therefore requires measuring their effects in multiple natural environments

Personality\u27s Relationship to Instagram Photo Characteristics and Themes

This study examined the relationship of personality, narcissism, and academic achievement to social media usage among 210 participants (35% Male, 65% Female). Findings demonstrate several relationships between person characteristics and the self- and other-rated behavioral and situational characteristics of posts on Instagram. Overall, personality predicts social media usage and content

GRK6 regulates the hemostatic response to injury through its rate-limiting effects on GPCR signaling in platelets.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) mediate the majority of platelet activation in response to agonists. However, questions remain regarding the mechanisms that provide negative feedback toward activated GPCRs to limit platelet activation and thrombus formation. Here we provide the first evidence that GPCR kinase 6 (GRK6) serves this role in platelets, using GRK6-/- mice generated by CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to examine the consequences of GRK6 knockout on GPCR-dependent signaling. Hemostatic thrombi formed in GRK6-/- mice are larger than in wild-type (WT) controls during the early stages of thrombus formation, with a rapid increase in platelet accumulation at the site of injury. GRK6-/- platelets have increased platelet activation, but in an agonist-selective manner. Responses to PAR4 agonist or adenosine 5\u27-diphosphate stimulation in GRK6-/- platelets are increased compared with WT littermates, whereas the response to thromboxane A2 (TxA2) is normal. Underlying these changes in GRK6-/- platelets is an increase in Ca2+ mobilization, Akt activation, and granule secretion. Furthermore, deletion of GRK6 in human MEG-01 cells causes an increase in Ca2+ response and PAR1 surface expression in response to thrombin. Finally, we show that human platelet activation in response to thrombin causes an increase in binding of GRK6 to PAR1, as well as an increase in the phosphorylation of PAR1. Deletion of GRK6 in MEG-01 cells causes a decrease in PAR1 phosphorylation. Taken together, these data show that GRK6 regulates the hemostatic response to injury through PAR- and P2Y12-mediated effects, helping to limit the rate of platelet activation during thrombus growth and prevent inappropriate platelet activation

Climate change is an important predictor of extinction risk on macroevolutionary timescales

Anthropogenic climate change is increasing rapidly and already impacting biodiversity. Despite its importance in future projections, understanding of the underlying mechanisms by which climate mediates extinction remains limited. We present an integrated approach examining the role of intrinsic traits versus extrinsic climate change in mediating extinction risk for marine invertebrates over the past 485 million years. We found that a combination of physiological traits and the magnitude of climate change is necessary to explain marine invertebrate extinction patterns. Our results suggest that taxa previously identified as extinction resistant may still succumb to extinction if the magnitude of climate change is great enough.</p

Petrogenesis of shield volcanism from the Juan Fernández Ridge, Southeast Pacific: Melting of a low-temperature pyroxenite-bearing mantle plume

The Juan Fernández Ridge (JFR) is an age-progressive volcanic chain (∼800 km long) related to a fixed mantle plume in the Southeast Pacific offshore central Chile. The high 3He/4He ratio (up to 18 times higher than that of the atmosphere) and spatiotemporal 40Ar/39Ar geochronology suggest that the source material of the JFR is derived from the lower mantle and transferred to the surface by a relatively stationary plume. We used new whole-rock geochemical data (major-element, trace-element, and Sr–Nd–Pb isotopic data) for representative samples from the shield-stage of volcanism in the JFR (from O’Higgins Guyot, Alpha Seamount, Robinson Crusoe Island, and Alejandro Selkirk Island) to develop a petrogenetic model with the goal of understanding the temporal and spatial evolution of magmatism along the JFR. The shield-building lavas of JFR consist primarily of tholeiitic to alkalic basalts. Their compositional differences are explained by the fractional crystallization of olivine and clinopyroxene ± plagioclase, magmatic recharge, melt mixing, and olivine accumulation. Radiogenic Sr–Nd–Pb isotopes show a narrow field within the compositional range of the common FOZO mantle. The 206Pb/204Pb and 207Pb/204Pb ratios of JFR lavas are similar to those of other islands on the Nazca Plate (e.g., San Félix and San Ambrosio). However, the JFR lavas are more radiogenic and show a narrower compositional range compared to the Easter Seamount Chain. The low CaO content at a given MgO content, moderate Ti–Ta–Nb ‘TITAN' anomaly, fractionated heavy rare earth element values, and isotopic composition of JFR lavas are consistent with the presence of pyroxenite (recycled oceanic crust) in the mantle source. To estimate source parameters, we used OBS1 software (Kimura and Kawabata, 2015) to calculate the potential temperature (1316°C–1412°C), total degree of melting (3.4–19.2 wt%), and pyroxenite fraction (0.6–18.4 wt%) of the mantle beneath JFR. The temporal changes in the thermal, compositional, and lithologic characteristics of the source material can explain the chemical differences observed between different JFR volcanoes. We propose that shield-stage volcanism in JFR is largely generated by the melting of pyroxenite in a relatively low-temperature mantle plume. As a result, this weak plume containing low mantle He is difficult to image using seismic tomography