The Supreme Court Confirmation Process and Its Implications

In recent history, there has been a trend of increasing partisan polarization throughout most of the American political system. Some of the impacts of this polarization are obvious; however, there is reason to believe that we miss some of the indirect effects of polarization. Accompanying the trend of increased polarization has been an increase in the contentiousness of the Supreme Court confirmation process. I believe that these two trends are related. Furthermore, I argue that these trends have an impact on judicial behavior. This is an issue worth exploring, since the Supreme Court is the most isolated branch of the federal government. The Constitution structured the Supreme Court to ensure that it was as isolated as possible from short-term political pressures and interests. This study attempts to show how it may be possible that those goals are no longer being fully achieved. My first hypothesis in this study is that increases in partisan polarization are a direct cause of the increase in the level of contention during the confirmation process. I then hypothesize that the more contention a justice faces during his or her confirmation process, the more ideologically extreme that justice will then vote on the bench. This means that a nominee appointed by a Republican president will tend to vote even more conservatively than was anticipated following a contentious confirmation process, and vice versa for Democratic appointees. In order to test these hypotheses, I developed a data set for every Supreme Court nominee dating back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt¿s appointments (1937). With this data set, I ran a series of regression models to analyze these relationships. Statistically speaking, the results support my first hypothesis in a fairly robust manner. My regression results for my second hypothesis indicate that the trend I am looking for is present for Republican nominees. For Democratic nominees, the impacts are less robust. Nonetheless, as the results will show, contention during the confirmation process does seem to have some impact on judicial behavior. Following my quantitative analysis, I analyze a series of case studies. These case studies serve to provide tangible examples of these statistical trends as well as to explore what else may be going on during the confirmation process and subsequent judicial decision-making. I use Justices Stevens, Rehnquist, and Alito as the subjects for these case studies. These cases will show that the trends described above do seem to be identifiable at the level of an individual case. These studies further help to indicate other potential impacts on judicial behavior. For example, following Justice Rehnquist¿s move from Associate to Chief Justice, we see a marked change in his behavior. Overall, this study serves as a means of analyzing some of the more indirect impacts of partisan polarization in modern politics. Further, the study offers a means of exploring some of the possible constraints (both conscious and subconscious) that Supreme Court justices may feel while they decide how to cast a vote in a particular case. Given the wide-reaching implications of Supreme Court decisions, it is important to try to grasp a full view of how these decisions are made

Determination of Carthamin in Safflower(Carthamus tinctorius L)by RP-HPLC

经从红花 (CarthamustinctoriusL)中分离纯化、HPLC检测、质谱鉴定得红花红色素纯品 ,并用其作为标准品 ,采用反相高效液相色谱法 ,测定了不同产地红花和商业红花产品中红花红色素的含量。该方法准确性高、重现性好 ,平均回收率为98.1%。The carthamin,extracted from the safflower(Carthamus tinctorius L),was purified and identified byMS.Itwas then used as a standard for the reversed phase high performance liquid chromatographic determiˉnation of carthamin in safflower collected fromdifferentareas and in commercial safflower products.HPLC sepˉaration was carried out on an Alltima C 18 column(5μm,150×4.6mm)with a mixture of acetonitrile,methanol and water(30∶10∶60by volume)at pH=3as mobile phase.The linear range was0.05～0.2g/Lwith a correlation coefficient of0.999.The average recovery and RSD were98.1%and1.9%,respecˉtively

Optimization of separation methods and culture system of chicken embryonic stem cells in vitro

背景:胚胎干细胞是从动物早期胚胎的内细胞团或原始生殖细胞分离出来的具有发育全能性的一种未分化的无限增殖细胞系。而鸡胚胎干细胞则是从X期鸡胚的胚盘分离而来。目的:优化鸡胚胎干细胞分离方法和离体培养体系。方法:采用滤纸纸环-发环的方法从X期鸡胚分离胚盘细胞,并采用STO细胞作为饲养层和大鼠肝细胞(brl)条件培养基(CM)+细胞因子作为离体培养体系对分离的胚盘细胞进行培养。结果与结论:滤纸纸环-发环法获得的完整胚盘率为75%~85%,克隆形成率约为50%。brl-CM+饲养层培养体系,鸡胚胎干细胞可传至7代,而brl-CM+饲养层+细胞因子培养体系,鸡胚胎干细胞可传至25代。分离到的鸡胚胎干细胞,经碱性磷酸酶染色、SSEA-1染色鉴定,表明鸡胚胎干细胞处于未分化状态。提示,实验不仅优化了鸡胚胎的分离方法,获得完整且杂质少的胚盘,而且进一步优化了鸡胚胎干细胞体外培养体系。BACKGROUND:Embryonic stem cells are undifferentiated permanent cell line derived from inner cell mass cells and primordial germ cells of animal's early embryos.Chicken embryonic stem cells are derived from the blastodermal of a X-stage embryo.OBJECTIVE:To optim the separation method and in vitro cultural system of chicken embryonic stem cells.METHODS:The X-stage chicken embryos were isolated by using a small square of ?lter paper with a hole punched in the center,and the blastodermal cells were isolated by using the hair loop.STO cells were used to make feeder layer;at the same time,BRL-CM and cytokine were also used for chicken embryonic stem cells in vitro cultural system.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The filter paper loop and the hair loop could obtain complete the blastoderm,and the successful percentage was 75%-85%.The colony formation rate was about 50%.After culture in the BRL-CM + feeder layer + cytokine culture system,the passage of CES cells is the seventh generation;BRL-CM + feeder layer + cytokines,cultured chicken embryonic stem cells could passage to the 25th generation.Isolated chicken embryonic stem cells were in an undifferentiated state detected by alkaline phosphatase staining and SSEA-1 staining.The findings indicate that this experiment not only optimized the isolation method of chicken embryonic stem cells to obtain complete and pure embryos,but also further improved the in vitro culture system of chicken embryonic stem cells.国家973项目(2009CB941600)资助;国家自然科学基金项目(31072101)资助---

Determination of Yellow Pigments in Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L) by RP-HPLC

本文分离纯化了红花(CarthamustinctoriusL)中SaffloweryellowA,Safflo-minA,SaffloweryellowB,SafflominC四种红花黄色素,并用所纯化的红花黄色素做标准品,用反相高效液相色谱法,梯度洗脱,同时测定了不同产地红花中四种红花黄色素的含量。该方的法准确度高,重现性好。A HPLC method for the determination of yellow pigments in safflowers collected in different regions was investigated.Safflower yellow A,safflomin A,safflower yellow B and safflomin C were isolated as standards.Separation of yellow pigments was carried out on a reversed-phase column by a gradient elution.The method developed was rapid and accurate

H_2SO_4-HNO_3体系中锌精矿浸出与四氯乙烯萃硫的耦合

研究锌精矿在H2 SO4 HNO3体系中浸出与四氯乙烯萃取硫磺的耦合过程。考察了浸出时间、四氯乙烯的加入对锌浸出的影响。结果表明 ,在 85℃ ,氧气压力 0 1MPa ,H2 SO4 浓度 1 8mol/L ,HNO3浓度 0 2mol/L条件下 ,加入 2 0mL四氯乙烯萃取硫磺时 ,锌浸出率在 3h内达到 99 7% ,与常规浸出相比 ,浸出时间缩短了 5 0 % ,耦合效果明显