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Conspiracy Theories: Is There A Place For Civil Conspiracy In Products Liability Litigation?, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

A civil conspiracy is a group of two or more persons acting together to achieve an unlawful objective or to achieve a lawful objective by unlawful or criminal means. During the past two decades, plaintiffs have brought numerous civil conspiracy claims against product manufacturers. The defendants in these cases have included manufacturers or producers of tobacco products, asbestos, pharmaceuticals, lead-based paint, multi-rim truck wheels, and gasoline additives. Surprisingly, less than half of the civil conspiracy claims have made it to trial. This unimpressive success rate suggests that courts are not very receptive to civil conspiracy claims even when there is …

Volume Cxxiv, Number 17, April 1, 2007, Lawrence University

The Lawrentian

No abstract provided.

Disparate Distributions Of Chemolithotrophs Containing Form Ia Or Ic Large Subunit Genes For Ribulose-1,5-Bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase In Intertidal Marine And Littoral Lake Sediments, Lisa M. Nigro, Gary M. King

Faculty Publications

The distributions of bacterial form IA and form IC ribulose-1,5- bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO) were investigated using Lowes Cove intertidal mudflat and Damariscotta Lake littoral sediments by PCR amplification of 492-495 bp fragments of the large subunit RuBisCO gene, cbbL. Genomic extracts for amplification were obtained from lake surface (upper 2 mm), mudflat surface (upper 2 mm), subsurface (5-7 cm), and soft-shell clam (Mya arenaria) burrow-wall sediments, as well as from a sulfide-oxidizing mat. Phylogenetic analyses of cbbL clone libraries revealed that Lowes Cove sediments were dominated by form IA cbbL-containing sequences most closely related to cbbL genes of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria …

Bayesian Change-Point Analyses In Ecology, Brian Beckage, Lawrence Joseph, Patrick Belisle, David B. Wolfson, William J. Platt

Faculty Publications

• Ecological and biological processes can change from one state to another once a threshold has been crossed in space or time. Threshold responses to incremental changes in underlying variables can characterize diverse processes from climate change to the desertification of arid lands from overgrazing. • Simultaneously estimating the location of thresholds and associated ecological parameters can be difficult: ecological data are often 'noisy', which can make the identification of the locations of ecological thresholds challenging. • We illustrate this problem using two ecological examples and apply a class of statistical models well-suited to addressing this problem. We first consider …

Ancestral Alleles And Population Origins: Inferences Depend On Mutation Rate, Alan R. Rogers, Stephen Wooding, Chad D. Huff, Mark A. Batzer, Lynn B. Jorde

Faculty Publications

Previous studies have found that at most human loci, ancestral alleles are "African," in the sense that they reach their highest frequency there. Conventional wisdom holds that this reflects a recent African origin of modern humans. This paper challenges that view by showing that the empirical pattern (of elevated allele frequencies within Africa) is not as pervasive as has been thought. We confirm this African bias in a set of mainly protein-coding loci, but find a smaller bias in Alu insertion polymorphisms, and an even smaller bias in noncoding loci. Thus, the strong bias that was originally observed must reflect …

Introduction For The Gene Special Issue Dedicated To The Meeting "Genomic Impact Of Eukaryotic Transposable Elements" At Asilomar, Mark A. Batzer, Prescott L. Deininger, Jerzy Jurka, John V. Moran

Faculty Publications

The issues related to 'Genomic Impact of Eukaryotic Transposable Elements', which took place in Pacific Grove, California between March 31st and April 4th 2006, are discussed. The meeting celebrated the extraordinary contributions of Dr. Carl W. Schmid to the study of repeated DNA sequences and mobile elements. With the advent of recombinant DNA technology, he led the discovery of human Alu elements, and the discovery of their amplification. The idea of the conference was to gather and disseminate information in transposable elements (TEs) on the state-of-the-art tools and approaches. The core sessions from the conference covered research on transposable elements …

Identification And Characterization Of Novel Polymorphic Line-1 Insertions Through Comparison Of Two Human Genome Sequence Assemblies, Miriam K. Konkel, Jianxin Wang, Ping Liang, Mark A. Batzer

Faculty Publications

Mobile elements represent a relatively new class of markers for the study of human evolution. Long interspersed elements (LINEs) belong to a group of retrotransposons comprising approximately 21% of the human genome. Young LINE-1 (L1) elements that have integrated recently into the human genome can be polymorphic for insertion presence/absence in different human populations at particular chromosomal locations. To identify putative novel L1 insertion polymorphisms, we computationally compared two draft assemblies of the whole human genome (Public and Celera Human Genome assemblies). We identified a total of 148 potential polymorphic L1 insertion loci, among which 73 were candidates for novel …

Utb/Tsc Commencement – Spring 2007, University Of Texas At Brownsville, Texas Southmost College

Brownsville Archives - Legacy Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Utpa Commencement – Spring 2007, University Of Texas-Pan American

Edinburg Archives - Legacy Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

A Pilot Study Of Atomoxetine In Young Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder., Christopher J. Kratochvil, Brigette S. Vaughan, Michelle L. Mayfield-Jorgensen, John S. March, Scott H. Kollins, Desiree W. Murray, Hima Ravi, Laurence L. Greenhill, Lisa A. Kotler, Natalya Paykina, Patricia Biggins, Julie Stoner

Journal Articles: Psychiatry

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness and tolerability of atomoxetine during acute treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 5 and 6 year olds.

METHOD: Twenty two children (male n = 19, 86%) with ADHD were treated with atomoxetine for 8 weeks in a three-site, open-label pilot study. Dosing was flexible, with titration to a maximum of 1.8 mg/kg per day. Parent education on behavior management was provided as part of each pharmacotherapy visit.

RESULTS: Subjects demonstrated a mean decrease of 20.68 points (SD = 12.80, p < 0.001)) on the ADHD Rating Scale-IV (ADHD-IV-RS) total score, 10.18 (SD = 7.48, p < 0.001) on the inattentive subscale and 10.50 (SD = 7.04, p < 0.001) on the hyperactive/impulsive subscale. Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S) was improved in 82% of the children (95% CI, 66-98%) and Children's Global Assessment (CGAS) scores improved 18.91 points on average (SD = 12.20, p < 0.001). The mean final dose of atomoxetine was 1.25 mg/kg per day (SD = 0.35 mg/kg per day). Mood lability was the most commonly reported adverse event (n = 12, 54.5%). Eleven subjects (50%) reported decreased appetite and a mean weight loss of 1.04 kg (SD = 0.80 kg) (p < 0.001) was observed for the group. Vital sign changes were mild and not clinically significant. There were no discontinuations due to adverse events or lack of efficacy.

CONCLUSION: Atomoxetine was generally effective for reducing core ADHD …

Compassion And Integrity In Health Professions Education, Randy D. Danielsen, James F. Cawley

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Issues related to professionalism have come to the fore in health professions education. Strategies designed to evaluate and increase components of professionalism are now of interest to educators. Skills in improving levels of professionalism can be accurately assessed and taught. Professionalism encompasses attributes of compassion and integrity. Tools to measure indices of compassion have been developed. There are three critical stages in which attributes of compassion and integrity can be assessed: prior to admission, during education, and graduation standards. One effective means of transferring skills related to professionalism is modeling. Health professions educators need to be more aware of the …

Are People Getting Crazier?, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Terrorism, murder, suicide, drunken driving, addictive gambling, pornography, and religiously inspired violence all provide plenty of evidence that behavioral and emotional problems that are ultimately destructive to self and others are often at the root of so many global, national, and local crises. All these troubles in the world prompt several basic and fundamental questions.

Globalization And The Pan-American Highway: Converns For The Panama-Columbia Border Region Of Darién-Chocó And Its Peoples, Daniel Suman

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Louisiana Agriculture Spring, 2007, Lsu Agcenter

Louisiana Agriculture

No abstract provided.

Formation Of Tellurium Nanocrystals During Anaerobic Growth Of Bacteria That Use Te Oxyanions As Respiratory Electron Acceptors, Shaun M. Baesman, Thomas D. Bullen, James Dewald, Donghui Zhang, Seamus Curran, Farhana S. Islam, Terry J. Beveridge, Ronald S. Oremland

Faculty Publications

Certain toxic elements support the metabolism of diverse prokaryotes by serving as respiratory electron acceptors for growth. Here, we demonstrate that two anaerobes previously shown to be capable of respiring oxyanions of selenium also achieve growth by reduction of either tellurate [Te(VI)] or tellurite [Te(IV)] to elemental tellurium [Te(0)]. This reduction achieves a sizeable stable-Te-isotopic fractionation (isotopic enrichment factor [ε] = -0.4 to -1.0 per ml per atomic mass unit) and results in the formation of unique crystalline Te(0) nanoarchitectures as end products. The Te(0) crystals occur internally within but mainly externally from the cells, and each microorganism forms a …

Interspecific Spawning Between A Recent Immigrant And An Endemic Damselfish (Pisces: Pomacentridae) In The Hawaiian Islands, Karen P. Maruska, Kimberly A. Peyton

Faculty Publications

The Indo-Pacific damselfish Abudefduf vaigiensis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825) was first observed in the Hawaiian Islands in the early 1990s and is now clearly established as a breeding population in the Islands. Sightings of fish with color patterns intermediate between those of A. vaigiensis and the very similar endemic Hawaiian sergeant, Abudefduf abdominalis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825), suggest that hybridization of the two has occurred naturally. This study provides direct evidence of crossbreeding from observations and video footage of two separate spawnings in nearshore waters of O'ahu and a third spawning in a public aquarium display tank. Reproductive behaviors were …

Induction Of Host Chemotactic Response By Encephalitozoon Spp., Jeffrey Fischer, Jeffrey West, Nnenaya Agochukwu, Colby Suire, Hollie Hale-Donze

Faculty Publications

Microsporidians are a group of emerging pathogens typically associated with chronic diarrhea in immunocompromised individuals. The number of reports of infections with these organisms and the disseminated pathology is growing as diagnostic tools become more readily available. However, little is known about the innate immune response induced by and generated against these parasites. Using a coculture chemotaxis system, primary human macrophages were infected with Encephalitozoon cuniculi or Encephalitozoon intestinalis, and the recruitment of naïve monocytes was monitored. Encephalitozoon spp. induced an average threefold increase in migration of naïve cells 48 h postinfection, which corresponded to optimal infection of monocyte-derived- macrophages. …

Comparative Bacterial Diversity In Recent Hawaiian Volcanic Deposits Of Different Ages, Vicente Gomez-Alvarez, Gary M. King, Klaus Nüsslein

Faculty Publications

Volcanic activity creates new landforms that can change dramatically over time as a consequence of biotic succession. Nonetheless, volcanic deposits present severe constraints for microbial colonization and activity. We have characterized bacterial diversity on four recent deposits at Kilauea volcano, Hawaii (KVD). Much of the diversity was either closely related to uncultured organisms or distinct from any reported 16S rRNA gene sequences. Diversity indices suggested that diversity was highest in a moderately vegetated 210-year-old ash deposit (1790-KVD), and lowest for a 79-year-old lava flow (1921-KVD). Diversity for a 41-year-old tephra deposit (1959-KVD) and a 300-year-old rainforest (1700-KVD) reached intermediate values. …

Corin I555(P568) Allele Is Associated With Enhanced Cardiac Hypertrophic Response To Increased Systemic Afterload, J. Eduardo Rame, Mark H. Drazner, Wendy Post, Ronald Peshock, Joao Lima, Richard S. Cooper, Daniel L. Dries

Faculty Publications

Corin activates pro-A-type naturetic peptide and pro-B-type naturetic peptide into biologically active molecules. We recently identified a minor allele in the corin gene defined by 2 highly linked single nucleotide polymorphisms (T555I and Q568P), which was associated with hypertension in blacks. Because of the direct antihypertrophic effects of the natriuretic peptide system, we hypothesized that the minor corin I555(P568) allele would be associated with an enhanced hypertrophic response to pressure overload. The relationship between systolic blood pressure and indexed left ventricular mass, derived from cardiac MRI, was analyzed in the Dallas Heart Study as a function of corin allele status. …

A Sine-Based Dichotomous Key For Primate Identification, Jacquelyn W. Zimmerman

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Paired Ig-Like Receptors Bind To Bacteria And Shape Tlr-Mediated Cytokine Production, Masafumi Nakayama, David M. Underhill, Timothy W. Petersen, Bin Li, Toshio Kitamura, Toshiyuki Takai, Alan Aderem

Faculty Publications

The innate immune system uses a wide variety of pattern recognition receptors including TLRs, scavenger receptors, and lectins to identify potential pathogens. A carefully regulated balance between activation and inhibition must be kept to avoid detrimental and inappropriate inflammatory responses. In this study, we identify murine-paired Ig-like receptor (PIR)-B, and its human orthologs Ig-like transcript 2 and Ig-like transcript 5 as novel receptors for Staphylococcus aureus. PIR-B contains four ITIM motifs and is thought to be an inhibitory receptor. Expression of these receptors enables NIH3T3 cells to bind S. aureus. In mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages, masking of PIR-B by anti-PIR …

A Sine-Based Dichotomous Key For Primate Identification, Scott W. Herke, Jinchuan Xing, David A. Ray, Jacquelyn W. Zimmerman, Richard Cordaux, Mark A. Batzer

Faculty Publications

For DNA samples or 'divorced' tissues, identifying the organism from which they were taken generally requires some type of analytical method. The ideal approach would be robust even in the hands of a novice, requiring minimal equipment, time, and effort. Genotyping SINEs (Short INterspersed Elements) is such an approach as it requires only PCR-related equipment, and the analysis consists solely of interpreting fragment sizes in agarose gels. Modern primate genomes are known to contain lineage-specific insertions of Alu elements (a primate-specific SINE); thus, to demonstrate the utility of this approach, we used members of the Alu family to identify DNA …

Different Evolutionary Fates Of Recently Integrated Human And Chimpanzee Line-1 Retrotransposons, Jungnam Lee, Richard Cordaux, Kyudong Han, Jianxin Wang, Dale J. Hedges, Ping Liang, Mark A. Batzer

Faculty Publications

The long interspersed element-1 (LINE-1 or L1) is a highly successful retrotransposon in mammals. L1 elements have continued to actively propagate subsequent to the human-chimpanzee divergence, ∼ 6 million years ago, resulting in species-specific inserts. Here, we report a detailed characterization of chimpanzee-specific L1 subfamily diversity and a comparison with their human-specific counterparts. Our results indicate that L1 elements have experienced different evolutionary fates in humans and chimpanzees within the past ∼ 6 million years. Although the species-specific L1 copy numbers are on the same order in both species (1200-2000 copies), the number of retrotransposition-competent elements appears to be much …

Percolation In A Hierarchical Random Graph, D A Dawson, L G Gorostiza

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Life Lessons: Perspectives On The Student-Athlete Experience, Furman University

Furman Magazine

No abstract provided.

Cannick Earns Recognition For Work In Oral Cancer Research, Furman University

Furman Magazine

No abstract provided.

Furman Alumni News, Furman University

Furman Magazine

No abstract provided.

Spring 2007, University Of North Dakota Alumni Association

ALL: UND Alumni Review Master List

Spring 2007 issue of "The University of North Dakota Alumni Review." 38 pages

Volume 90, Number 2

Lawrence Today, Volume 87, Number 3, Spring 2007, Lawrence University

Alumni Magazines

No abstract provided.

Forty Years Of Transplantation At Loma Linda, Loma Linda University

Scope

In this issue . . .

2 | Transplantation at Loma Linda
It’s been 40 years since the first kidney transplant at Loma Linda

7 | Remembering Baby Fae
Leonard L. Bailey, MD, tells the story of Baby Fae

12 | Everyday heroes
The pediatric trauma team exists to save young lives

16 | Same family, different sides
Circumstances put classmates on opposite sides of a grim 1943 battle

20 | Telehealth: miles away but face to face
Health care professionals and educators use telehealth technologies to serve outlying communities

24 | Newscope
News about Loma Linda...