In the Supreme Court of the United States, Dennis Hollingsworth, et al., petitioners, v. Kristin M. Perry, et al., respondents ::on petition for a writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit : brief of Indiana, Michigan, Virginia, Alaska, Arizona, Idaho and 9 other states as amici curiae in support of the petition /

Appeal to the United States Supreme Court from the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case questions the propriety of Ninth Circuit's decision invalidating results of California's Proposition 8, whereby California voters restricted the definition of marriage to the legal union of one man and one woman

A survival analysis of public guaranteed loans: does financial intermediary matter?

This paper investigates the risk of failure of loans guaranteed by public credit guarantee schemes. We analyse the determinants of the time to default of approximately 15,000 loans guaranteed by the Italian Central Guarantee Fund between 2007 and 2009. Using the Cox proportional hazards model, we test the role of the financial intermediary that requests the guarantee on a firm’s behalf, while distinguishing between banks and mutual guarantee institutions (MGIs) and controlling for a set of variables that characterise each guaranteed loan. The findings confirm that loans are more likely to default when a bank—rather than an MGI—is involved in the guarantee process. Considering some elements (e.g. age, size and sector) that affect opacity among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), banks seem to perform better than MGIs in screening and monitoring loans requested by firms in the manufacturing sector

Geographic variation of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, and hepatocellular carcinoma in the United States.

Intrahepatic (ICC) and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (ECC) are tumors that arise from cholangiocytes in the bile duct, but ICCs are coded as primary liver cancers while ECCs are coded as biliary tract cancers. The etiology of these tumors is not well understood. It has been suggested that the etiology of ICC is more similar to that of another type of liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), than to the etiology of ECC. If this is true, geographic incidence patterns and trends in ICC incidence should be more similar to that of HCC than ECC.To examine this hypothesis, data from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries Cancer in North America data file were analyzed. Incidence rates and joinpoint trends were calculated by demographic subgroup. County-level incidence rates were mapped.Overall incidence rates, racial distribution, male:female ratio, and peak ages were more similar between ICC and ECC than with HCC. During 2000-2009, average annual incidence rates of ECC increased. During 2005-2009, average annual ICC incidence rates also increased. High rates for all three cancer sites were found in the Pacific region, particularly Hawaii and Alaska. Rates of ICC and ECC were also high in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, while rates of HCC were high in the South.Demographic patterns and geographical variation were more closely related between ICC and ECC than HCC, suggesting that the etiology of ICC and ECC may be similar. Increasing rates of both tumors suggest that further etiology studies are warranted

Modeled United States county-level extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma incidence rates, 2000–2009.

<p>Modeled United States county-level extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma incidence rates, 2000–2009.</p

Hepatocellular carcinoma, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma incidence trends, 1998–2009.

<p>^aAPC = annual percent change.</p><p>^bAAPC = average annual percent change.</p><p>*Significant at p<0.05.</p><p>Hepatocellular carcinoma, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma incidence trends, 1998–2009.</p

Modeled United States county-level hepatocellular carcinoma incidence rates, 2000–2009.

<p>Modeled United States county-level hepatocellular carcinoma incidence rates, 2000–2009.</p

Modeled United States county-level intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma incidence rates, 2000–2009.

<p>Modeled United States county-level intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma incidence rates, 2000–2009.</p