Can Subsidiaries Be Purchasers from Their Parents under the Robinson-Patman Act? A Plea for a Consistent Approach

Should a parent corporation be allowed to discriminate in favor of its wholly-owned subsidiary? Courts have long grappled with this question when interpreting section 2(a) of the Robinson-Patman Act (the Act ). Section 2(a) prohibits price discrimination between different purchasers. If the subsidiary corporation is a different purchaser when it purchases goods from its parent, then the parent violates the Robinson-Patman Act by discriminating in the subsidiary\u27s favor. Many courts, when faced with this issue, have ruled that the parent and subsidiary are per se parts of a single entity. The Fifth Circuit was the first court to adopt this per se approach, in Security Tire & Rubber Co. v. Gates Rubber Co. The analysis in Security Tire, however, is flawed. These flaws make the court\u27s approach questionable. In reviewing the different purchaser issue, this Comment compares three closely related doctrines: The same seller doctrine, the indirect purchaser doctrine, and the intra-enterprise conspiracy doctrine. Comparison of the per se approach to the different purchaser analysis with the approach of the latter three doctrines will illustrate the inherent flaws of the per se approach

Can Subsidiaries Be Purchasers from Their Parents under the Robinson-Patman Act? A Plea for a Consistent Approach

Should a parent corporation be allowed to discriminate in favor of its wholly-owned subsidiary? Courts have long grappled with this question when interpreting section 2(a) of the Robinson-Patman Act (the Act ). Section 2(a) prohibits price discrimination between different purchasers. If the subsidiary corporation is a different purchaser when it purchases goods from its parent, then the parent violates the Robinson-Patman Act by discriminating in the subsidiary\u27s favor. Many courts, when faced with this issue, have ruled that the parent and subsidiary are per se parts of a single entity. The Fifth Circuit was the first court to adopt this per se approach, in Security Tire & Rubber Co. v. Gates Rubber Co. The analysis in Security Tire, however, is flawed. These flaws make the court\u27s approach questionable. In reviewing the different purchaser issue, this Comment compares three closely related doctrines: The same seller doctrine, the indirect purchaser doctrine, and the intra-enterprise conspiracy doctrine. Comparison of the per se approach to the different purchaser analysis with the approach of the latter three doctrines will illustrate the inherent flaws of the per se approach

Reification: A Process to Configure Java Realtime Processors

Real-time systems require stringent requirements both on the processor and the software application. The primary concern is speed and the predictability of execution times. In all real-time applications the developer must identify and calculate the worst case execution times (WCET) of their software. In almost all cases the processor design complexity impacts the analysis when calculating the WCET. Design features which impact this analysis include cache and instruction pipelining. With both cache and pipelining the time taken for a particular instruction can vary depending on cache and pipeline contents. When calculating the WCET the developer must ignore the speed advantages from these enhancements and use the normal instruction timings. This investigation is about a Java processor targeted to run within an FPGA environment (Java soft chip) supporting Java real-time applications. The investigation focuses on a simple processor design that allows simple analysis of WCET. The processor design has no cache and no instruction pipeline enhancements yet achieves higher performance than existing designs with these enhancements. The investigation centers on a process that translates Java byte codes and folds these translated codes into a modified Harvard Micro Controller (HMC). The modifications include better alignment with the application code and take advantage of the FPGA’s parallel capability. A prototyped ontology is used where the top level categories defined by Sowa are expanded to support the process. The proposed HMC and process are used to produce investigation results. Performance testing using the Sobel edge detection algorithm is used to compare the results with the only Java processor claiming real-time abilities

Montana Electronic Precipitation Map

A new average annual precipitation map (AAP) has been developed for Montana using GIS techniques including universal Kriging and elevation dependent linear regression. The map can be updated with new base periods or used for different parameters. The current map uses the 1981-2010 AAP base period and universal Kriging. Results were compared to hand drawn maps to assure appropriate location of isohyets. Stations adjacent to Montana in Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alberta, and British Columbia were used to assure compatibility along the border and provide the capability to develop a comparable map for drainages flowing into Montana. Isohyetal lines were set at 2-in increments < 20 in AAP and 10-in increments > 20 in. Approximately 1400 stations were used for analysis of which ~ 1100 were in Montana and 300 in areas adjacent to Montana. AAP was estimated at snow courses using correlation between April 1 snow water equivalent and AAP from SNOTEL stations in their area. NWS Climatological stations and NRCS SNOTEL stations provided majority of locations having current AAP. Data from an old NWS storage precipitation gage network, NRCS storage gages, and RAWS stations were also incorporated as well as a few stations from individuals, USGS, USDA Forest Service, and others. To assure that precipitation at elevations above and below the data sites was applied correctly, synthetic points were developed using linear elevation-precipitation relationships from nearby measured sites. Maps will be available through Montana DEQ or Montana NRIS web sites electronically

Short-range host preference in snowberry maggot flies depends on life history stage

Closely related animal species are often incompletely isolated reproductively and occasionally hybridize. Many host-specific insects are primarily isolated by the reproductive barrier of host choice and provide model systems to study gene flow in sympatry. Understanding conditions that alter barriers like host choice can help us understand reproductive isolation between these species. Hybridization occurs between microsympatric populations of apple and snowberry maggots in Bellingham, Washington which are also not isolated by mating season or assortative mating. I exposed apple and snowberry maggots to their natal fruits in two-way choice experiments to measure their short-range host preferences. I tested snowberry flies at different life stages to determine whether host preference is constant throughout their lives. Virgin flies show no preference for their natal hosts and rarely oviposit. After mating, female snowberry flies strongly prefer their natal host and oviposit solely in snowberries. Young synovigenic females may balance the costs of exploring nearby novel hosts and occasionally mating with heterospecific males with the benefits of finding nutrients to develop their eggs and mates to fertilize them. Mated females will spend most of their time on their natal host where males will follow them. As a result, hybridization between apple and snowberry maggot populations is most likely in the early season before females have mated and started ovipositing in their natal hosts. The fate of evolutionary interactions between species depends on the life history dynamics of the reproductive barriers that isolate them. Future studies should consider strength of reproductive isolation in this context

Limited Predictability of Amino Acid Substitutions in Seasonal Influenza Viruses

Seasonal influenza viruses repeatedly infect humans in part because they rapidly change their antigenic properties and evade host immune responses, necessitating frequent updates of the vaccine composition. Accurate predictions of strains circulating in the future could therefore improve the vaccine match. Here, we studied the predictability of frequency dynamics and fixation of amino acid substitutions. Current frequency was the strongest predictor of eventual fixation, as expected in neutral evolution. Other properties, such as occurrence in previously characterized epitopes or high Local Branching Index (LBI) had little predictive power. Parallel evolution was found to be moderately predictive of fixation. Although the LBI had little power to predict frequency dynamics, it was still successful at picking strains representative of future populations. The latter is due to a tendency of the LBI to be high for consensus-like sequences that are closer to the future than the average sequence. Simulations of models of adapting populations, in contrast, show clear signals of predictability. This indicates that the evolution of influenza HA and NA, while driven by strong selection pressure to change, is poorly described by common models of directional selection such as traveling fitness waves

A design approach for constructed wetlands for storm water and point-source wastewater treatment

Proceedings of the 2003 Georgia Water Resources Conference, held April 23-24, 2003, at the University of Georgia.Constructed wetlands can mitigate ecological risks to aquatic receiving systems by decreasing concentrations and toxicity of contaminants associated with storm water and point-source wastewater. This paper describes an approach to constructed wetland design for treatment of copper and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). In constructed wetland microcosm systems, total copper was decreased from 46 mg/L to 12 mg/L (73% removal). Five-day BOD decreased by >50% (approximately 20 mg/L to <10 mg/L) in secondary treated wastewater. This design approach was successful in treating wastewaters to meet regulatory discharge limits