Not so welcoming? United States cross-border insolvency assistance

Examines the recognition of and assistance for foreign insolvency proceedings offered by the US courts under the US Code Title 11 Ch.15 (Bankruptcy Code), with particular reference to the approach to determining a centre of main interests, leading to refusal of recognition of Cayman Islands proceedings, in Re Basis Yield Alpha Fund (Master) and Re Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Master Fund Ltd (In Provisional Liquidation). Suggests that the approach under Ch.15 is more restrictive than the previous approach in the US, noting examples from case law under the previous provisions.

A new era in United States cooperation in international insolvency adminstrations?

Cross-border insolvency laws are increasingly being influenced by the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-border Insolvency provisions. The United States has recently enacted domestic legislation based on these provisions by way of Ch 15 of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act 2005, which inserted Ch 15 into USC, Title 11. This article briefly explains the provisions of this United States legislation and draws attention to the important case law commenting and explaining same. It further attempts to alert local practitioners to the changes, benefits and detriments they may encounter when acting pursuant to this legislation.

Simultaneous volatility transmissions and spillover effects: U.S. and Hong Kong stock and futures markets

Contemporaneous transmission effects across volatilities of the Hong Kong Stock and Index futures markets and futures volume of trade are tested by employing a structural systems approach. Competing measures of volatility spillover, constructed from the overnight U.S. S&P500 index futures, are tested and found to impact on the Hong Kong asset return volatility and volume of trade patterns. The examples utilize intra-day 15-min sampled data from this medium-sized Asia Pacific equity and derivative exchange. Both the intra- and inter-day patterns in the Hong Kong market are allowed for in the estimation process.

PPARγ ligands, 15-deoxy-Δ12,14-prostaglandin J2 and rosiglitazone regulate human cultured airway smooth muscle proliferation through different mechanisms

1. The influence of two peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) ligands, a thiazolidinedione, rosiglitazone (RG) and the prostaglandin D2 metabolite 15-deoxy-Δ12,14-prostaglandin J2 (15d-PGJ2) on the proliferation of human cultured airway smooth muscle (HASM) was examined.

2. The increases in HASM cell number in response to basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF, 300 pm) or thrombin (0.3 U ml−1) were significantly inhibited by either RG (1–10 μm) or 15d-PGJ2 (1–10 μm). The effects of RG, but not 15d-PGJ2, were reversed by the selective PPARγ antagonist GW9662 (1 μm).

3. Neither RG nor 15d-PGJ2 (10 μm) decreased cell viability, or induced apoptosis, suggesting that the regulation of cell number was due to inhibition of proliferation, rather than increased cell death.

4. Flow-cytometric analysis of HASM cell cycle distribution 24 h after bFGF addition showed that RG prevented the progression of cells from G1 to S phase. In contrast, 15d-PGJ2 caused an increase in the proportion of cells in S phase, and a decrease in G2/M, compared to bFGF alone.

5. Neither RG nor 15d-PGJ2 inhibited ERK phosphorylation measured 6 h post mitogen addition. The bFGF-mediated increase in cyclin D1 protein levels after 8 h was reduced in the presence of 15d-PGJ2, but not RG.

6. Although both RG and 15d-PGJ2 can inhibit proliferation of HASM irrespective of the mitogen used, only the antiproliferative effects of RG appear to be PPARγ-dependent. The different antimitogenic mechanisms of 15d-PGJ2 and synthetic ligands for PPARγ may be exploited to optimise the potential for these compounds to inhibit airway remodelling in asthma.

Biotechnology in U.S. agriculture: Trade consequences for dairy products

The emergence of synthetic bovine Somatotropin (bST) is one of the most widely discussed advances in biotechnology. Its potential impacts on milk production around the world could be significant. However, the exact economic impacts of bST in any one region depends on a number of factors, some of which are still highly controversial.

This article sets out to estimate the economic impacts of the adoption of bST in the United States, the single largest milk producer in the Western world. A quarterly econometric model of the U.S. dairy sector is used to forecast the total production, consumption, and excess supply of milk to 1995. The preliminary results indicate that under the assumption of a gradual rate of adoption and a 15 percent milk production response, the United States could be exporting as much milk as New Zealand by 1995. Should the production response rate or the adoption rate be higher, the United States could indeed become a major competitor in the world dairy market by 1995.

Although such a development could adversely impact on other dairy exporters, such as New Zealand, the precise economic impacts on world prices and trade would depend crucially on the position that other major dairy producers, especially the EC, adopt with respect to the use of bST.

Identification of a gene for an ancient cytokine, interleukin 15-like, in mammals; interleukins 2 and 15 co-evolved with this third family member, all sharing binding motifs for IL-15Rα

Interleukins 2 and 15 (IL-2 and IL-15) are highly differentiated but related cytokines with overlapping, yet also distinct functions, and established benefits for medical drug use. The present study identified a gene for an ancient third IL-2/15 family member in reptiles and mammals, interleukin 15-like (IL-15L), which hitherto was only reported in fish. IL-15L genes with intact open reading frames (ORFs) and evidence of transcription, and a recent past of purifying selection, were found for cattle, horse, sheep, pig and rabbit. In human and mouse the IL-15L ORF is incapacitated. Although deduced IL-15L proteins share only ~21 % overall amino acid identity with IL-15, they share many of the IL-15 residues important for binding to receptor chain IL-15Rα, and recombinant bovine IL-15L was shown to interact with IL-15Rα indeed. Comparison of sequence motifs indicates that capacity for binding IL-15Rα is an ancestral characteristic of the IL-2/15/15L family, in accordance with a recent study which showed that in fish both IL-2 and IL-15 can bind IL-15Rα. Evidence reveals that the species lineage leading to mammals started out with three similar cytokines IL-2, IL-15 and IL-15L, and that later in evolution (1) IL-2 and IL-2Rα receptor chain acquired a new and specific binding mode and (2) IL-15L was lost in several but not all groups of mammals. The present study forms an important step forward in understanding this potent family of cytokines, and may help to improve future strategies for their application in veterinarian and human medicine.

Defence against code injection attacks

Code injection attacks are considered serious threats to the Internet users. In this type of attack the attacker injects malicious codes in the user programs to change or divert the execution flows. In this paper we explore the contemporary defence strategies against code injection attacks (CIAs) and underline their limitations. To overcome these limitations, we suggest a number of countermeasure mechanisms for protecting from CIAs. Our key idea relies on the multiplexing technique to preserve the exact return code to ensure the integrity of program execution trace of shell code. This technique also maintains a FIFO (first in first out) queue to defeat the conflict state when multiple caller method makes a call simultaneously. Finally, our technique can provide better performance, in terms of protection and speed, in some point compared to the CFI (control flow integrity) as well as CPM (code pointer masking) techniques.