cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Fruitless mutant male mosquitoes gain attraction to human odor.

Sexual dimorphism is a phenomenon among animals, insects and plants where the two sexes of a species show differences in body size, physical features or colors. The bushy mane of a male lion, for example, is nowhere to be seen on a female lioness, and only male peacocks have extravagant tails. Most examples of sexual dimorphism, such as elaborate visual displays or courtship behaviors, are linked to mating. However, there are a few species where behavioral differences between the sexes are not connected to mating. Mosquitoes are an example: while female mosquitoes feed on humans, and are attracted to a person’s body heat and odor, male mosquitoes have little interest in biting humans for their blood. Therefore, female mosquitoes are the ones responsible for transmitting the viruses that cause certain blood-borne diseases such as dengue fever or Zika. Determining which genes are linked to feeding behaviors in mosquitoes could allow researchers to genetically engineer females so they no longer bite people, thus stopping the spread of these diseases. Unfortunately, the genes that control mosquito feeding behaviors have not been well studied. In other insects, some of the genes that control mating behaviors that depend on sex have been identified. For example, a gene called fruitless controls courtship behaviors in male flies and silkworms, and is thought to be the ‘master regulator’ of male sexual behavior across insects. Yet it remains to be seen whether the fruitless gene has any effect in mosquitoes, where sex differences relate to feeding habits. To investigate this, Basrur et al. removed the fruitless gene from Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The genetically altered male mosquitoes became unable to mate successfully, but – similar to unmodified males – still preferred sugar water over blood when feeding. Unlike unmodified males, however, the male mosquitoes lacking fruitless were attracted to the body odor of a person’s arm (like females). These results reveal that fruitless, a gene that controls sex-specific mating behaviors in other insects, controls a sex-specific feeding behavior in mosquitoes. The fruitless gene, Basrur et al. speculate, likely gained this role controlling mosquito feeding behavior in the course of evolution. More research is required to fully understand the effects of the fruitless gene in male and female mosquitoes.
The first nonzero eigenvalue of the p-Laplacian on differential forms

we introduce a generalization of the $p$-Laplace operator to act on differential forms and generalize an estimate of Gallot-Meyer for the first nonzero eigenvalue on closed Riemannian manifolds.
Obesity and smoking as risk factors for invasive mechanical ventilation in COVID-19: A retrospective, observational cohort study.

Author(s): Monteiro, Ana C; Suri, Rajat; Emeruwa, Iheanacho O; Stretch, Robert J; Cortes-Lopez, Roxana Y; Sherman, Alexander; Lindsay, Catherine C; Fulcher, Jennifer A; Goodman-Meza, David; Sapru, Anil; Buhr, Russell G; Chang, Steven Y; Wang, Tisha; Qadir, Nida | Abstract: PurposeTo describe the trajectory of respiratory failure in COVID-19 and explore factors associated with risk of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV).Materials and methodsA retrospective, observational cohort study of 112 inpatient adults diagnosed with COVID-19 between March 12 and April 16, 2020. Data were manually extracted from electronic medical records. Multivariable and Univariable regression were used to evaluate association between baseline characteristics, initial serum markers and the outcome of IMV.ResultsOur cohort had median age of 61 (IQR 45-74) and was 66% male. In-hospital mortality was 6% (7/112). ICU mortality was 12.8% (6/47), and 18% (5/28) for those requiring IMV. Obesity (OR 5.82, CI 1.74-19.48), former (OR 8.06, CI 1.51-43.06) and current smoking status (OR 10.33, CI 1.43-74.67) were associated with IMV after adjusting for age, sex, and high prevalence comorbidities by multivariable analysis. Initial absolute lymphocyte count (OR 0.33, CI 0.11-0.96), procalcitonin (OR 1.27, CI 1.02-1.57), IL-6 (OR 1.17, CI 1.03-1.33), ferritin (OR 1.05, CI 1.005-1.11), LDH (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.13-2.17) and CRP (OR 1.13, CI 1.06-1.21), were associated with IMV by univariate analysis.ConclusionsObesity, smoking history, and elevated inflammatory markers were associated with increased need for IMV in patients with COVID-19.
Direct and inverse problems for the nonlinear time-harmonic Maxwell equations in Kerr-type media

In the current paper we consider an inverse boundary value problem of electromagnetism in a nonlinear Kerr medium. We show the unique determination of the electromagnetic material parameters and the nonlinear susceptibility parameters of the medium by making electromagnetic measurements on the boundary. We are interested in the case of the time-harmonic Maxwell equations.
Automatic Subtyping of Individuals with Primary Progressive Aphasia.

Background The classification of patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) into variants is time-consuming, costly, and requires combined expertise by clinical neurologists, neuropsychologists, speech pathologists, and radiologists. Objective The aim of the present study is to determine whether acoustic and linguistic variables provide accurate classification of PPA patients into one of three variants: nonfluent PPA, semantic PPA, and logopenic PPA. Methods In this paper, we present a machine learning model based on deep neural networks (DNN) for the subtyping of patients with PPA into three main variants, using combined acoustic and linguistic information elicited automatically via acoustic and linguistic analysis. The performance of the DNN was compared to the classification accuracy of Random Forests, Support Vector Machines, and Decision Trees, as well as to expert clinicians' classifications. Results The DNN model outperformed the other machine learning models as well as expert clinicians' classifications with 80% classification accuracy. Importantly, 90% of patients with nfvPPA and 95% of patients with lvPPA was identified correctly, providing reliable subtyping of these patients into their corresponding PPA variants. Conclusion We show that the combined speech and language markers from connected speech productions can inform variant subtyping in patients with PPA. The end-to-end automated machine learning approach we present can enable clinicians and researchers to provide an easy, quick, and inexpensive classification of patients with PPA.
Deconstructing Principles Foundational to the Paradox of Freedom - A Comparative Study of United States and German Subversive Party Decisions

Over half a century ago, the legal realists exposed the subjective and indeterminate nature of traditional legal analysis. Further investigation by contemporary realists has not been a source of comfort to those interested in keeping alive the impression that we are governed by the rule of law rather than by subjective pronouncements. Deductive reasoning has been rejected because the syllogistic logic it requires is based on premises that are created rather than given. Inductive reasoning was found to be inappropriate since legal decisions are not solely the result of observation and are based on "legal rules and personal judicial judgment" rather than on empirical evidence alone. Analogical reasoning was questionable since the finding of similarity between any two fact patterns is more psychological than logical.In reaction to the realists' view that legal analysis is predicated on subconscious psychological processes, the legal community has attempted to construct "fundamental reasons of principle on which to base men's actions- which should cut across men's uncontrolled instincts and interests." Thus, the same concern about arbitrary ethical choice in decision making that caused the early positivists to stress legislation as the primary source of law has prompted recent efforts in legal scholarship toward finding objectifying principles that will limit the arbitrariness of judicial decision makers when the result is not dictated by statute or clear precedent.The purpose of this paper is to review some of these recent developments of linguistic theory and to indicate and demonstrate their possible effects on legal analysis through the use of the comparative method. The comparative method, which shows different cultures coming to different solutions for a legal problem, will be used to illustrate the implications of recent linguistic theories on the issue of objectifiable law and, thus, on legal analysis. After recent developments in linguistic theory are summarized, three approaches to the regulation of subversive political parties in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany will be presented. This subject has tested the nature of certain general principles underlying each legal system, and has been analyzed in terms of a paradox of freedom. Put simply, the paradox is whether democracy is justified in denying political rights and privileges to those who, once in power, would be undemocratic. A conventional analysis will be followed by a structuralist analysis. Finally, a deconstructionist approach to the same material will aid in arriving at a fuller understanding of the presuppositions and unspoken premises of decision makers in the American and West German legal systems.
Coercion and Terrorism Prosecutions in the Shadow of Military Detention

In the war on terrorism, the Executive Branch has sometimes opted to use the criminal justice system to prosecute defendants for terrorism-related offenses; and at other times, it has opted to use military force to kill or capture so-called enemy combatants. Arguably, the Executive Branch should be given discretion to choose which approach to use depending on the particular circumstances. Overseas actions might call for military force, while domestic terrorism might call for prosecution (and, upon conviction, punishment). However, military detention is especially harsh, with conditions of confinement worse than those in maximum security prisons, and much uncertainty abounds as to the procedural rights accorded to military detainees - even ones who are U.S. citizens. As a result, the Executive Branch may be able to extract (and may already have extracted) guilty pleas from terrorism defendants by threatening them with military detention if they do not plead guilty. In this Article, I argue against unilateral Executive Branch power to transfer criminal defendants into military detention, precisely because of the opportunity, whether intentional or not, for the government to profit from the coercive potential of such transfers. I use blackmail theory to show why such government conduct should be prohibited, and I use the doctrine of vindictive prosecution to show that a constitutional mechanism already exists for courts to protect defendants against coercive actions by prosecutors.
Threat Power in Sequential Games

The analysis of 2 × 2 ordinal games, in which both players can sequentially move and countermove after an initial outcome is chosen, is extended to repeated play of these games in which one player has ‘threat power’. This power enables this player to threaten the other player with a mutually disadvantageous outcome in order to deter certain moves in the future play of the game. Except for no-conflict games with a mutually best outcome, there are relatively few games in which neither player can threaten the other. Of the games in which one or both players has a threat strategy, those in which one player does enables him to implement an outcome at least as high-ranking for himself as for the other player. In the bulk of games in which both players have threat strategies, threat power is effective—it is always better for a player to have it than for the other player to have it. Where ‘deterrent’ and ‘compellent’ threat power outcomes conflict, deterrent threat power induces a better outcome; conditions for the existence of both kinds of threats in 2 × 2 games, and for the threatener to implement his best outcome in general two-person games, are given. To illustrate the threat-power model, it is applied to the Polish strategic situation in 1980–81. Finally, threat power is compared with other kinds of power that have been proposed in nonrepeated play, and, ominously, ‘Chicken’ is the one game in which threat power is uniquely effective in undermining a nonmyopically stable ‘cooperative’ outcome.
The Essential Role of Organizational Law

The Role and Structure of Organizational Law In every society, the law establishes a set of standard legal entities. In the United States, these entities include the business corporation, the cooperative corporation, the nonprofit corporation, the municipal corporation, the limited liability company, the general partnership, the limited partnership, the private trust, the charitable trust, and marriage. In important respects, the number and nature of these entities is often strikingly similar from one jurisdiction to another, but at the same time, there are conspicuous variations, even among jurisdictions with similar economies. In this essay, we focus on two questions: What are the common features shared by legal entities, and to what extent do these features require specialized legal rules? Our thesis is that the essential feature of organizational law is asset partitioning -- that is, the provision of a mechanism by which creditors of the firm obtain a priority claim in the firm's assets over individual creditors of the firm's managers or HBIs. The idea that partitioning a fixed pool of assets can reduce overall costs of credit by reducing monitoring costs is already familiar. In large part, however, the existing literature focuses on devices for asset partitioning other than organizational law (for example, security interests). Our contribution here is to demonstrate the close relationship between asset partitioning and organizational law.
Towards a Right to Privacy in Transnational Intelligence Networks

Transnational intelligence networks have emerged as an essential tool for combating international terrorism and criminal activity. As with domestic intelligence-gathering, they raise a number of privacy concerns: the risk of false information, the danger that intelligence will be used for illegitimate purposes, and the burden placed on human dignity and individual autonomy by free-wheeling data gathering. Transnational networks, however, exacerbate these privacy problems due to the dispersed nature of government authority and the difficulty of ensuring compliance with privacy duties by each node in the network. This article illustrates the dangers of transnational intelligence sharing with the case of Maher Arar, the Canadian national who was suspected of involvement with Al Qaeda and was sent by U.S. authorities to Syria to be held captive and tortured. Although the privacy dimension of this incident are generally unappreciated, the decision to deport Arar was based on misleading information provided by the Canadian authorities via a transnational intelligence network – the free-flow-of-information agreement between Canadian and U.S. intelligence agencies. The article then turns to the multilateral privacy guarantees that have been built into another transnational intelligence network – the Europol Convention for fighting cross-border crime – and argues for their adoption in transnational networks more generally.
The pros and cons of North American monetary integration

This study examines the major arguments for and against enhanced monetary integration in North America, with particular emphasis on the Canadian perspective. In this context, the question is whether the current floating rate regime should be replaced by greater fixity of exchange rates in relation to the U.S. dollar. While the choice among fixed rate systems is wide in priciple, for practical purposes the Canadian debate centres on the pros and cons of monetary union. Although much of the debate focuses on traditional concerns of macroeconomic stability and policy management, some observers suspect that the floating rate system has retarded the development of high tech manufacturing. The study reviews the core arguments for and against fixed rates and currency union; examines problems associated with nominal rigidities; and assesses the role of exchange rate regimes in the evolution of economic structure. It considers trade-offs among alternative exchange rate regimes, and takes up the political dimension of closer monetary cooperation.
Making an Impact on Juvenile Delinquents: An Approach to Victim Impact Statements that Everyone Can Embrace

The use of victim impact statements occurs in the majority of states' juvenile court proceedings. Many victims' rights advocates celebrate the use of these statements as a valuable means of victim empowerment, as victim impact statements allow victims to convey the personal effects that delinquent acts had on their lives directly to the courts. Yet at the same time, many oppose the use of victim impact statements in juvenile courts because they inhibit judges' ability to focus on delinquent juveniles' rehabilitative needs by infusing the victims' feelings and emotions into the disposition-crafting process. This article suggests that a balance can be struck between these competing concerns by incorporating victim impact statements into the rehabilitative programs prescribed in the dispositions of delinquent youths, instead of using the statements as an influencing force in crafting the dispositions.
Ownership structure and board composition: A multi‐country test of agency theory predictions

Patterns of corporate governance and control differ significantly across countries because of national differences in structures of ownership and composition of boards of directors. Based on agency theory, we examine the relationship between ownership structure and the composition of the board of directors of 390 large manufacturing firms based in Japan, Western Europe and the United States. In particular, we examine how ownership concentration, bank control and state ownership affect the percentage of outside directors on the corporate boards. The results show that, consistent with predictions of agency theory, ownership structure has significant effects on board composition.
Beta Matrix and Common Factors in Stock Returns

We consider the estimation methods for the rank of a beta matrix corresponding to a multifactor model and study which method would be appropriate for data with a large number of assets. Our simulation results indicate that a restricted version of Cragg and Donald’s (1997) Bayesian information criterion estimator is quite reliable for such data. We use this estimator to analyze some selected asset pricing models with U.S. stock returns. Our results indicate that the beta matrix from many models fails to have full column rank, suggesting that risk premiums in these models are underidentified.
Setting the Stage for Public Health: The Role of Litigation in Controlling Obesity

Litigation can be a central strategy in improving public health. It was instrumental in initiating a public health response to tobacco and to other chronic problems. Just as litigation was successful in confronting these public health problems, so can it be with obesity. Litigation as a tool to improve public health is effective only when its strategic focus is environmental rather than discrete. It is effective not only when it eliminates one particular risk but when it alters the social context that shapes the behavior of entire populations.
Environmental Regulation, Investment Timing, and Technology Choice

We test whether environmental regulation affects investment decisions, using Census data for individual paper mills. New mills in states with strict environmental regulations choose cleaner production technologies, with differences in air and water pollution regulation also influencing technology choice. Examining investment allocation across existing plants, we find that abatement and productive investment tend to be scheduled together. However, plants with high abatement investment over the entire period spend significantly less on productive capital. This seems to reflect both environmental investment ‘crowding out’ productive investment within a plant, and firms shifting investment towards plants facing less stringent abatement requirements.
The European Parliament's Political Legitimacy and the Commission's "Misleading Management": Towards a "Parliamentarian" European Union?

This paper studies the basic characteristics of the political legitimacy of the European Parliament (EP) within the supranational political system of the European Union (EU) and argues that an increase in the political legitimacy of the EP might provide a solution to the legitimacy problem at the EU level of supranational governance. The case study of “misleading management” in the European Commission followed be the en masse resignation of its leadership emphasises the increased powers of the EP in the ‘Amsterdam year’ and signals the increased potential of the EP in the institutional politics of the EU. Finally, introducing the “parliamentary model”, this paper outlines a set of mechanisms to increase the accountability of a ‘bureaucratic’ Commission to the EP and favours increased powers in the EP as necessary for its political legitimacy. Kurzfassung In diesem Artikel geht es um die Eckpunkte der politischen Legitimitat des Europaischen Parlaments (EP) innerhalb des supranationalen politischen Systems der Europaischen Union (EU). Es wird argumentiert, das eine Erhohung der politischen Legitimitat des EP eine Losung fur das Legitimitatsproblem auf der EU-Ebene des supranationalen Regierens darstellen konnte. Die Fallstudie zum Mismanagement in der Europaischen Kommission, gefolgt vom totalen Rucktritt ihrer Fuhrung, unterstricht das erhohte Potential des EP in der institutionellen Politik der EU. Zuletzt wird ein "parlamentarisches Modell" und ein Bundel an Mechanismen vorgestellt, um die Verantwortlichkeit der 'burokratischen' Kommission gegenuber dem EP zu erhohen, wobei fur die Erweiterung der Befugnisse des EP als notwendig fur seine politische Legitimitat pladiert wird. The author
The Conversion of Money Lines Into Win Probabilities: Reconciliations and Simplifications

We contribute to the literature on money line betting markets by investigating the relationships between the various methods used to derive subjective win probabilities from money lines. We show th...
American colonial incomes, 1650–1774

New data now allow conjectures on the levels of real and nominal incomes in the 13 American colonies. New England was the poorest region, and the South was the richest. Colonial per capita incomes rose only very slowly if at all, for five reasons: productivity growth was slow; population in the low-income (but subsistence-plus) frontier grew much faster than that in the high-income coastal settlements; child dependency rates were high and probably even rising; the terms of trade were extremely volatile, presumably suppressing investment in export sectors; and the terms of trade rose very slowly, if at all, in the North, although faster in the South. All of this checked the growth of colony-wide per capita income after a seventeenth-century boom. The American colonies led Great Britain in purchasing power per capita from 1700, and possibly from 1650, until 1774, even counting slaves in the population. That is, average purchasing power in America led Britain early, when Americans were British. The common view that American per capita income did not overtake that of Britain until the start of the twentieth century appears to be off the mark by two centuries or more.
Defining Patent Scope by the Novelty of the Idea

Patent law defines novelty by the creation of a new embodiment, not an idea. For example, the Wright brothers are deemed to have invented the airplane because nobody made an airplane before, not because they were the first to think of flying. Patent law then defines monopoly scope through a theory of disclosure of embodiments: despite the airplane being new, the Wright brothers could not patent every airplane, ostensibly because they did not teach how to make every airplane embodiment (such as a jet fighter). Disclosure theory, however, is incoherent. Patent law cannot confine the Wright brothers to the embodiment they actually taught—a barely-flying wooden glider— since doing so would eviscerate incentives. But once we say that patents can cover more, disclosure theory provides no limit. If the Wright brothers could cover some undisclosed airplanes, why not all undisclosed airplanes? I argue in this Article for a different theory. In order to be fairly credited as the inventor of something, the patentee must be the first to articulate the idea of that thing. The Wright brothers could not patent all airplanes under this theory, not because they did not disclose how to build  Assistant Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law. Thanks to Eric Claeys, Kevin Emerson Collins, Timothy Holbrook, Dmitry Karshtedt, Doug Lichtman, Glynn Lunney, Jonathan Masur, Mark Lemley, Adam Mossoff, Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, Josh Sarnoff, Ted Sichelman, and participants at Pat Con 2011, the Works in Progress IP Colloquium, and the Virginia Junior Faculty Forum for comments. Washington University Open Scholarship 1212 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [VOL. 89:1211 every airplane, but because the idea of airplanes was old. By keying patent scope to the novelty of the idea rather than the disclosure of embodiments, my rule provides a fairer and more accurate measure of the patentee’s contribution.
Federalism Accountability: “Agency-Forcing” Measures

This Article takes as its starting point the “agency reference model” for judicial preemption decisions, adopting the foundational premise that courts should take advantage of what federal agencies, which are uniquely positioned to evaluate the impact of state regulation and common law liability upon federal regulatory schemes, have to offer. The Article’s main focus is on the federalism dimension of the debate: Congress’s and federal agencies’ respective ability to serve as loci of meaningful debate with state governmental entities about the impact of federal regulatory schemes on state regulatory interests. Notwithstanding the dismal track record of federal agencies, which seems to be characterized by total neglect of states’ regulatory interests, the Article sides with agencies over Congress and trains its focus on reform of the agency rulemaking process. Given that the 1999 Federalism Executive Order provides a blueprint for timely and meaningful consultation with the states, issuance of federalism impact statements, and robust interchanges during the notice-and-comment period, what is needed now is an effective enforcement mechanism. The Article advocates a variety of “agency-forcing” measures designed to enhance the ability of Congress, the executive, and Copyright © 2009 by Catherine M. Sharkey. † Professor of Law, New York University School of Law. Many thanks to the Duke Law Journal (and Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Chemerinsky) for organizing this Symposium, to Articles Editor Rhead Enion and his fellow editors for superb editorial assistance, and to Symposium panelists and participants for lively discussion. I presented earlier versions of this Article at law faculty workshops and symposia at Case Western Reserve, Cincinnati, DePaul, Fordham, Hamline, Minnesota, NYU, and Ohio State, where I received helpful comments. I am also grateful to Brian Galle, Rick Hills, Michael Livermore, Gillian Metzger, Michael Moreland, Jonathan Nash, Rick Pildes, Richard Revesz, Peter Schuck, and Phil Weiser for discussion and comments. The D’Agostino/Greenberg Fund provided generous summer research support, and Benjamin Heidlage, Jacob Karabell, and Kristen Richer provided excellent research assistance.
An (un)common frame of reference: an American perspective on the jurisprudence of the CESL

This essay examines the ability of the recently proposed Common European Sales Law to meet its goal of increasing cross-border trade across the Common Market, in light of its deeply realist jurisprudence and its extensive reliance on the concepts of trade usage and good commercial practice. It concludes that a more fomalistics tatute that provided menus of clear contract default rules and encouraged a jurisprudential approach similar to that adoptedby New York Courts, would have a better chance than the CESL of increasing cross-border trade, especially among small and medium sizeenterprises.
Probabilistic representation of complexity

Abstract We introduce a framework to study individuals’ behavior in environments that are deterministic, but too complex to permit tractable deterministic representations. An agent in these environments uses a probabilistic model to cope with his inability to think through all contingencies in advance. We interpret this probabilistic model as embodying all patterns the agent perceives, yet allowing for the possibility that there may be important details he had missed. Although the implied behavior is rational, it is consistent with an agent who believes his environment is too complex to warrant precise planning, foregoes finely detailed contingent rules in favor of vaguer plans, and expresses a preference for flexibility.
Punitiveness Towards Users of Illicit Drugs: A Disparity between Actual and Perceived Attitudes

217 Federal Sentencing Reporter, Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 217–221, ISSN 1053-9867 electronic ISSN 1533-8363. ©2012 Vera Institute of Justice. All rights reserved. Please direct requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/fsr.2012.24.3.217. Matthew B. Kugler
Clean Slate: Expanding Expungements and Pardons for Non-violent Federal Offenders

Over the past forty years, the United States Congress has passed legislation expanding the federal criminal code intruding into an area typically reserved to the states. The “tough on crime” rhetoric of the 1980s and 1990s brought with it the enactment of various legislative initiatives: harsh mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent federal offenders, “truth in sentencing” laws that restricted or abolished parole and early release, and strict liability disqualifications from employment and federal benefits based solely on the fact of conviction. The effect of this legislation was the creation of a new criminal class: a federal prison population. However, unlike the states the federal government does not have a legal mechanism in place adequately reintegrating federal offenders back into the American polity. This has contributed to soaring federal incarceration rates, rising government costs for corrections, and a historically high rate of criminal recidivism. This is a price tag the United States can no longer afford to pay. This Article argues that individuals who have served their sentences and abided by the law for some period afterward should be given the opportunity to rid their slates of their criminal histories. Such expungement of criminal convictions for individuals who demonstrate that they will abide by the law are likely to reduce the costs of the criminal justice system and improve the lives of ex-offenders. First, this Article examines post-conviction penalties and contemporary recidivism trends. Second, this Article investigates the law governing federal pardons and judicial expungements, finding that the doctrines and their applications lack consistency, making it difficult for nonviolent offenders to re-enter mainstream society. This Article argues that simply eliminating post-conviction disabilities would be extremely complex and perhaps not practically or politically feasible. Moreover, the two existing federal post-conviction remedies — pardons and judicial expungements — are not designed to, and cannot as a practical matter, provide systematic relief from post-conviction disabilities. Using state post-conviction mechanisms as examples, this Article argues that congressionally sanctioned expungements are an attractive alternative to relieve non-violent offenders of the effects of post-conviction disabilities. I propose that the United States Sentencing Commission (U.S.S.C.) create a Second Chance Advisory Group to determine how best to ameliorate the collateral consequences of federal convictions. With a Second Chance Advisory group, the U.S.S.C. could be used as a vehicle for researching and recommending legislative policy initiatives that will effectively slash incarceration, recidivism, and opportunity costs.
The Use of Residual Income Valuation Methods by U.S. Sell-Side Equity Analysts

ABSTRACT: We investigate the use and performance of residual income (RI) valuation methods by U.S. sell-side equity analysts in a small-sample manner wherein we extract the rich details of analysts' RI valuations from their PDF reports over the period 1998–2013. We observe that RI valuations are much rarer than discounted cash flow (DCF) valuations, and that different RI and DCF valuations are sometimes provided by the same analyst for the same firm in the same report. We find that while some analysts build RI models around net operating income (RNOA-RI) and others around net income (ROE-RI), RNOA-RI valuations are optimistic to the same degree as DCF valuations and contain RNOAs that increase to an economically unlikely terminal year median of 27 percent. In contrast, analysts' ROE-RI valuations are unbiased when done in tandem with a DCF valuation, as are the DCFs that accompany them, and contain ROEs that decline over the forecast horizon to a more plausible terminal year median of 17 percent. We concl...
Using Tort Law to Understand the Causation Prong of Standing

Under current Supreme Court case law, a plaintiff does not have Article III standing to sue in federal court unless that plaintiff can demonstrate “causation.” The term “causation” is ubiquitous within the law. Because of the frequency with which the term appears in various legal contexts, however, the conceptual analysis associated with that term can vary. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has never clearly established the conceptual analysis necessary for making the “causation” determination within standing law. Consequently, there is current confusion on this question. This Article addresses that confusion by relying on causation terms and concepts fully developed within tort law. The term “causation” is associated with the “proximate cause” and “cause in fact” analyses within a standard negligence claim. In the early Supreme Court cases in which the causation prong of standing was introduced, the Court most often used cause in fact language in determining the causation prong of standing. Upon a close inspection of these early Supreme Court cases, however, it seems likely that the Court actually intended a proximate cause analysis. Moreover, a proximate cause analysis is more consistent with the “gatekeeping” function normally attributed to the standing requirement. This Article argues that the causation prong of standing should be interpreted as being analogous to the proximate cause doctrine within negligence law. This interpretation would more closely align with the intuitions that originally prompted the development of the causation prong of standing. Moreover, a proximate cause interpretation would facilitate the development of a clear procedure for determining standing at the outset of litigation, thus fulfilling the “gatekeeping” function attributed to standing.
A Critical Appraisal of the International Legal Tradition of Taslim Olawale Elias

This essay critically examines T. O. Elias's international legal scholarship, especially in so far as he sought to reclaim, or claim, a place in international legal history for Africa. Having found that Africa contributed to the formation of international law, Elias argued in favour of reforming its rules so that they could serve the interests of the newly independent African states. In this respect he influenced many contemporary international lawyers in Africa and elsewhere. In particular, his singling out of sovereignty as a barrier to reforming international law is shared by generations of international legal scholars who have criticized states for placing too high a premium on their sovereignty, thereby placing insuperable barriers to their acceptance of egalitarian goals, expressed by, for example, the international bill of human rights. The essay also contrasts Elias to scholars of international law who took the colonial legacy of international law as a barrier to reforming it so that it was consistent with the interests of so-called post-colonial African states.
Electronic Chattel Paper under Revised Article 9: Updating the Concept of Embodied Rights for Electronic Commerce

When UCC Article 9 was revised in 1998, a new provision governing “electronic chattel paper” (ECP) was added. “Chattel paper” is widely used in certain industries to finance the purchase of equipment, and includes loans and leases. Under former Article 9, chattel paper financers who took possession of the chattel paper could gain priority over other secured lenders who ear-lier perfected by filing, and equipment financers sought assurances they could retain this su-per-priority status if they switched from paper to electronic records. The concept of perfection by “control” of financial assets held in electronic form had been established with the revisions of UCC Article 8 in 1994, but a new model for control of electronic chattel paper was deemed necessary because chattel paper market institutions differed significantly from market institutions covered by the revised Article 8 provisions. Revised Article 9 provides that ECP must consist of a single authoritative copy of the chattel paper record or records which is unique, identifiable, and generally unalterable. This represents a significant innovation in commercial law because it updates the concept of rights embodied in the representation of financial assets, rather than accommodating the growth of account-based systems of tracking ownership of financial assets.
Discussion of Enforceable Accounting Rules and Income Measurement by Early 20th‐Century Railroads

Sivakumar and Waymire examine differences in the properties of U.S. railroads' reported earnings before and after concurrent changes in accounting rules and rate regulations. Although the accounting rules were intended to combat income smoothing, Sivakumar and Waymire find little evidence that income smoothing was reduced after their adoption. However, they find evidence of increased income conservatism, consistent with the notion that railroads were trying to offset stricter rate regulation. The paper contributes to research on the effects of direct (accounting rules) and indirect (rate-setting) regulations on income measures, as well as to accounting research methodology. The conference discussion focused on the institutional and economic
The Impact Of Human Resource Management Practices On Turnover, Productivity, And Corporate Financial Performance

This study comprehensively evaluated the links between systems of High Performance Work Practices and firm performance. Results based on a national sample of nearly one thousand firms indicate that these practices have an economically and statistically significant impact on both intermediate employee outcomes (turnover and productivity) and short- and long-term measures of corporate financial performance. Support for predictions that the impact of High Performance Work Practices on firm performance is in part contingent on their interrelationships and links with competitive strategy was limited. The impact of human resource management (HRM) policies and prac
Mathematics and Theology: Game-Theoretic Implications of God’s Omniscience

In this note I shall offer an operational definition of the omniscience of God-or some other superior beingin a game, demonstrate in a specific instance how this definition can lead to a paradox in the play of a game, and, finally, suggest three ways in which the paradox can be resolved, only one of which is satisfactory. I shall thereby try to show how mathematical reasoning can help to clarify the central question of theology, man's relationship to God. Although only a single two-person, nonzero-sum game will be used to illustrate the consequences I shall derive from my definition of omniscience, I shall state some more general consequences at the end of this essay and also comment briefly on the role mathematics might play in illuminating questions in religion and theology, subjects considered by many to be inaccessible to formalization and rigorous analysis. Consider the following two-person game played between man and God, whom I assume to be on a "collision course:" If both do not compromise, the result will be disastrous (the worst outcome for both). If both compromise, they will reach a satisfactory agreement (the next-best outcome for both). If one player compromises and the other does not, the one who does not prevails (best outcome) over the one who does (next-worst outcome). Although I refer to the players as "man" and "God," this is simply a convenience; man could as well be "woman" or "person," and God could be some more secular "superior being." I shall indicate shortly exactly in what way God is distinguished from man as a player. To facilitate its analysis, the game can be represented in normal, or matrix, form. Let each player have two strategies, "compromise" and "don't compromise," as shown in FIGURE 1. The
Parallel inference for massive distributed spatial data using low-rank models

Due to rapid data growth, statistical analysis of massive datasets often has to be carried out in a distributed fashion, either because several datasets stored in separate physical locations are all relevant to a given problem, or simply to achieve faster (parallel) computation through a divide-and-conquer scheme. In both cases, the challenge is to obtain valid inference that does not require processing all data at a single central computing node. We show that for a very widely used class of spatial low-rank models, which can be written as a linear combination of spatial basis functions plus a fine-scale-variation component, parallel spatial inference and prediction for massive distributed data can be carried out exactly, meaning that the results are the same as for a traditional, non-distributed analysis. The communication cost of our distributed algorithms does not depend on the number of data points. After extending our results to the spatio-temporal case, we illustrate our methodology by carrying out distributed spatio-temporal particle filtering inference on total precipitable water measured by three different satellite sensor systems.
A Production Theory of Pure Economic Loss

INTRODUCTION 49 I. PURE ECONOMIC LOSS DOCTRINE 54 A. General Rule and Exception 54 B. Proffered Explanations 60 II. CRITIQUE OF THE EXPLANATIONS 63 III. PRODUCTION, UNCERTAINTY, AND PROFITS 71 A. Factors of Production 72 B. Uncertainty and Profit 78 IV. STATEMENT OF THE PRODUCTION THEORY 86 A. Solving the Riddle of Economic Loss 86 B. Fishermen, Entrepreneurs, and Beyond 94 CONCLUSION 103
Sanitary Sewer Overflows: Past, Present, and Future Regulation

Sanitary sewers are an overlooked part of the nation's infrastructure. Most Americans never think twice about what happens to the water that runs down the drain. The public eye turns to sanitary sewers only when untreated waste overflows into the surrounding environment. This paper addresses the past, present, and future of Sanitary Sewer Overflow ("SSO") regulation in the United States. First, it provides a general introduction to SSOs and the history of the SSO problem. Next, it explains the current regulatory scheme employed by EPA and responsible state agencies and discusses how courts have addressed the issue. After examining a municipal case study, it suggests a single modification to the regulatory framework -- the addition of a standard permit condition that would tie enforcement standards to rainfall intensity -- that would make uniform and fair enforcement a more realistic possibility.
Protecting Well‐Known Marks in China: Challenges for Foreign Mark Holders

This article addresses the challenges of extraterritorial trademark protection in China, where the business and legal environments are quite at variance. The decisions surveyed include cases brought by: Anheuser-Busch, Nike, Starbucks, Dell, Bloomberg and so forth, where these companies assert that their well-known marks are being appropriated by local companies for commercial uses in contravention of applicable laws and treaties. The author describes China's progress on protecting intellectual property rights, as well as the administrative and judicial systems who oversee enforcement. The author concludes that while there has been progress in China regarding protection of intellectual property rights, there is much more to be done and mark owners enter this market to some extent at their own risk. The international community's influence on intellectual property rights enforcement in China continues, and this is a positive outcome for mark owners.
Applications of behavioural genetics: outpacing the science?

Human behavioural genetics is an established research discipline of the genomic age, and applications for behavioural genetic information are most likely to emerge in areas such as criminal justice, education, employment and insurance. However, behavioural genetic research into personality traits and antisocial behaviour poses several risks; for example, tentative or preliminary research findings might be misused in legal and commercial settings. Scientific caution, public and media education, expert consultation and confidentiality protection are essential for the responsible use of behavioural genetics.
How does grade configuration impact student achievement in elementary and middle school grades

Abstract Recently, there has been a move towards K-8 schools as opposed to separate elementary and middle schools, especially among urban districts. In this paper, we examine the effect of enrollment in separate elementary and middle schools relative to enrollment in a K-8 school using longitudinal data from an anonymous district in the United States. The choice to enroll in a K-8 or separate elementary and middle schools is potentially endogenous. While previous research has taken steps to address the possible endogeneity when estimating the effects for separate middle schools, previous research has not addressed the possible endogeneity when examining the effect at the elementary level. Without generating an unbiased estimate during the elementary grades, we cannot fully understand the impact of policies that have shifted the grade arrangement of separate elementary and middle schools to K-8 schools. In this paper, we employ a research design that leverages the fact that the anonymous district closed several schools and rezoned their students to other schools with new boundaries. We compare students on the side of the new boundaries who are assigned to a separate middle or elementary school to students on the other side of the new boundaries who are assigned to a K-8 school. When taking into the consideration the effect at the elementary level, our results are much less supportive of a K-8 policy than previous research.
A comment on variance decomposition and nesting effects in two- and three-level designs

Multilevel models are widely used in education and social science research. However, the effects of omitting levels of the hierarchy on the variance decomposition and the clustering effects have not been well documented. This paper discusses how omitting one level in three-level models affects the variance decomposition and clustering in the resulting two-level models. Specifically, I used the ANOVA framework and provided results for simple models that do not include predictors and assumed balanced nested data (or designs). The results are useful for teacher and school effects research as well as for power analysis during the designing stage of a study. The usefulness of the methods is demonstrated using data from Project STAR.