Financial Crises and Legislation

Scholars frequently assert that financial legislation in the United States is primarily crisis driven. This “crisis-legislation hypothesis” is often cited as an explanation for various supposed shortcomings of US financial legislation, including that it is poorly conceived and inadequate to the problems it aims to address. Other scholars embrace the hypothesis, but from the perspective that crises are the needed impetus to prompt constructive reforms. Despite the prevalence of this hypothesis, however, its threshold assumption—that Congress passes major financial legislation only when financial crises arise—has never been analyzed empirically. This article provides that analysis. We first devise a new system for assessing legislative importance based on the notion of citation indexing, the principle at the heart of algorithms employed by modern search engines such as Google. Using a suite of legislative importance metrics, we show that the crisis-legislation hypothesis strongly fits for securities laws but far less so for banking laws. We conclude, therefore, that reformers would be ill-advised to push for government interventions in the banking system only following crises and that those seeking to understand dysfunction in US bank regulation will need to pursue fuller explanations

Acyl—acyl carrier protein and pool sizes during steady-state fatty acid synthesis by isolated spinach chloroplasts

isolated spinach chloroplast

Phylogenetic profiling of the Arabidopsis thaliana proteome: what proteins distinguish plants from other organisms?

BACKGROUND: The availability of the complete genome sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana together with those of other organisms provides an opportunity to decipher the genetic factors that define plant form and function. To begin this task, we have classified the nuclear protein-coding genes of Arabidopsis thaliana on the basis of their pattern of sequence similarity to organisms across the three domains of life. RESULTS: We identified 3,848 Arabidopsis proteins that are likely to be found solely within the plant lineage. More than half of these plant-specific proteins are of unknown function, emphasizing the general lack of knowledge of processes unique to plants. Plant-specific proteins that are membrane-associated and/or targeted to the mitochondria or chloroplasts are the most poorly characterized. Analyses of microarray data indicate that genes coding for plant-specific proteins, but not evolutionarily conserved proteins, are more likely to be expressed in an organ-specific manner. A large proportion (13%) of plant-specific proteins are transcription factors, whereas other basic cellular processes are under-represented, suggesting that evolution of plant-specific control of gene expression contributed to making plants different from other eukaryotes. CONCLUSIONS: We identified and characterized the Arabidopsis proteins that are most likely to be plant-specific. Our results provide a genome-wide assessment that supports the hypothesis that evolution of higher plant complexity and diversity is related to the evolution of regulatory mechanisms. Because proteins that are unique to the green plant lineage will not be studied in other model systems, they should be attractive priorities for future studies

T Cells of Different Developmental Stages Differ in Sensitivity to Apoptosis Induced by Extracellular NAD

Extracellular nucleotides such as ATP and NAD can profoundly affect the functions of lymphocytes, macrophages, and other cells. We have recently shown that extracellular NAD induces rapid apoptosis in naive T cells by a mechanism involving the ADP-ribosylation of cell surface molecules. In the present paper, we describe that T cells of different developmental stages differ in their sensitivity to NAD-induced apoptosis. Thymocytes were less susceptible than peripheral lymph node T cells, and freshly activated cells were more resistant than resting cells. Sensitivity to NAD-induced apoptosis generally correlated with expression of the ADP-ribosyltransferase ART2.2, which is not expressed on thymocytes and shed from peripheral T cells upon activation. Our findings suggest that NAD-induced apoptosis does not play a role during thymic selection of T cells, but rather may play a role by preventing the activation of unwanted bystander T cells during an immune response, and thus may participate in the control of autoimmunity

Der Einsiedlerkrebs - Ein Tier mit Persönlich- keit? Auswirkungen von Stressfaktoren bei Pa- gurus bernhardus (Crustacea: Decapoda)

Personality in animals has been studied on many different species and is based on the observation and inve- stigation of behavioural traits. The common hermit crab, Pagurus bernhardus, indigenous to the mud flats in the North Sea, is known to feel pain and to directly react to negative experiences. To investigate if such reaction is specific regarding individuals, or if this reaction occurs randomly, two different environmental stressors have been simulated on 78 hermit crabs. After each stressor, time was measured until the hermit crab emerged its forelimbs out of the shell. 32 hermit crabs did not show similar responses in both trials, while 46 hermit crabs responded similar. Thus, the study provides evidence that hermit crabs do not respond due to a certain personality but react randomly to different stressors.Die Persönlichkeit von Tieren wurde an vielen verschiedenen Arten untersucht und basiert auf der Beobachtung und Untersuchung von Verhaltensmerkmalen. Der im Wattenmeer der Nordsee beheimatete Einsiedlerkrebs Pagurus bernhardus ist dafür bekannt, Schmerzen zu empfinden und auf negative Erfahrungen direkt zu reagieren. Um zu untersuchen, ob eine solche Reaktion spezifisch für Individuen ist oder ob diese Reaktion zufällig auftritt, wurden an 78 Einsiedlerkrebsen zwei verschiedene Umweltstressoren simuliert. Nach jedem Stressor wurde die Zeit gemessen, bis der Einsiedlerkrebs seine Vordergliedmaßen aus der Schale hervorbrachte. 32 Einsiedlerkrebse zeigten in beiden Studien keine ähnlichen Reaktionen, während 46 Einsiedlerkrebse ähnlich reagierten. Somit liefert die Studie den Beweis, dass Einsiedlerkrebse nicht aufgrund einer bestimmten Persönlichkeit, sondern zufällig auf verschiedene Stressoren reagieren.Peer Reviewe