Sword or Shield? Setting Limits on SLUSA’s Ever-Growing Reach

Concerned by the overwhelming presence of vexatious federal securities-fraud class actions, Congress passed the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 to increase the procedural burden plaintiffs would face in filing these nonmeritorious suits. Instead of being deterred, plaintiffs simply brought their suits in state court. Congress responded with the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 (SLUSA), making federal court the exclusive venue for securities-fraud class actions. However, Congress expressly saved from SLUSA\u27s reach claims that were traditionally brought in state court under corporate law through the Delaware carve-out. Though this exemption was meant to protect the historic dual federal-state securities-regulation regime, recent appellate court opinions have stretched SLUSA\u27s reach too far, leaving plaintiffs incapable of bringing many traditional state-law claims essential to the proper policing of corporate law regardless of the forum. This Note addresses the implications of such a broad reading of SLUSA and advocates a two-pronged approach that will simultaneously effectuate SLUSA\u27s purpose while still preserving these important state-law claims. By looking to the heart of a complaint, courts can best effectuate congressional intent both to limit problematic litigation practices and to preserve the important role federalism plays in the securities-law context

Mid-IR period-magnitude relations for AGB stars

Asymptotic Giant Branch variables are found to obey period-luminosity relations in the mid-IR similar to those seen at K_S (2.14 microns), even at 24 microns where emission from circumstellar dust is expected to be dominant. Their loci in the M, logP diagrams are essentially the same for the LMC and for NGC6522 in spite of different ages and metallicities. There is no systematic trend of slope with wavelength. The offsets of the apparent magnitude vs. logP relations imply a difference between the two fields of 3.8 in distance modulus. The colours of the variables confirm that a principal period with log P > 1.75 is a necessary condition for detectable mass-loss. At the longest observed wavelength, 24 microns, many semi-regular variables have dust shells comparable in luminosity to those around Miras. There is a clear bifurcation in LMC colour-magnitude diagrams involving 24 micron magnitudes.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

A finitely presented orderable group with insoluble word problem

We construct a finitely presented (two-sided) totally orderable group with insoluble word problem.Comment: 17 page

Inhibition of monocyte complement receptor enhancement by low molecular weight material from human lung cancers

We have studied the effect of dialysates from lung cancer homogenates to alter both the expression of complement (C3b) receptors per se and also to inhibit leucoattractant-induced enhancement of complement rosettes on monocytes from healthy individuals. Enhancement and enhancement-inhibition by tumour extracts were compared with material derived from normal lung excised from distance from the tumour. There was no significant difference between tumour homogenate (TH) and normal lung homogenate (NLH) in terms of enhancement of complement rosettes per se. In contrast, TH produced a dose- and time-dependent inhibition of leucoattractant-induced enhancement of C3b rosettes which was significantly different from that obtained with NLH. This enhancement-inhibition was observed with four undifferentiated, four squamous and three adenocarcinomas of lung. The degree of enhancement-inhibition was not related to the type of tumour or varying accompanying histological features such as necrosis and the degree of infiltration with inflammatory cells. Following gel filtration on Sephadex G-50 each type of cancer gave a major peak of inhibitory activity which eluted with molecules having an apparent molecular size of approximately 3,000 daltons. A second larger peak (8,000-10,000 daltons) was also detected with extracts from the undifferentiated and adenocarcinomas. These results support previous findings, mainly from experimental animals, indicating that 'anti-macrophage/monocyte principles' are elaborated from certain tumour types

Diversification of a protein kinase cascade: IME-2 is involved in nonself recognition and programmed cell death in Neurospora crassa.

Kinase cascades and the modification of proteins by phosphorylation are major mechanisms for cell signaling and communication, and evolution of these signaling pathways can contribute to new developmental or environmental response pathways. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae kinase Ime2 has been well characterized for its role in meiosis. However, recent studies have revealed alternative functions for Ime2 in both S. cerevisiae and other fungi. In the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa, the IME2 homolog (ime-2) is not required for meiosis. Here we determine that ime-2 interacts genetically with a transcription factor vib-1 during nonself recognition and programmed cell death (PCD). Mutations in vib-1 (Δvib-1) suppress PCD due to nonself recognition events; however, a Δvib-1 Δime-2 mutant restored wild-type levels of cell death. A role for ime-2 in the post-translational processing and localization of a mitochondrial matrix protein was identified, which may implicate mitochondria in N. crassa nonself recognition and PCD. Further, Δvib-1 strains do not produce extracellular proteases, but protease secretion reverted to near wild-type levels in a Δvib-1 Δime-2 strain. Mass spectrometry analysis revealed that the VIB-1 protein is phosphorylated at several sites, including a site that matches the IME-2 consensus. The genetic and biochemical data for ime-2 and vib-1 indicate that IME-2 is a negative regulator of VIB-1 and suggest parallel negative regulation by IME-2 of a cell death pathway in N. crassa that functions in concert with the VIB-1 cell death pathway. Thus, IME2 kinase function has evolved following the divergence of S. cerevisiae and N. crassa and provides insight into the evolution of kinases and their regulatory targets