Inequality and Uncertainty: Theory and Legal Applications

Welfarism is the principle that social policy should be based solely on individual well-being, with no reference to \u27fairness or rights. The propriety of this approach has recently been the subject of extensive debate within legal scholarship. Rather than contributing (directly) to this debate, we identify and analyze a problem within welfarism that has received far too little attentioncall this the ex ante/ex post problem. The problem arises from the combination of uncertainty-an inevitable feature of real policy choice-and a social preference for equality. If the policymaker is not a utilitarian, but rather has a social welfare function that is equity regarding to some degree, then she faces a critical choice. Should she care about the equalization of expected well-being (the ex ante approach), or should she care about the expected equalization of actual well-being (the ex post approach)? Should she focus on the equality of prospects or the prospects for equality? In this Article, we bring the ex ante/ex post problem to the attention of legal academics, provide novel insight into when and why the problem arises, and highlight legal applications where the problem figures prominently. We ultimately conclude that welfarism requires an ex post approach. This is a counterintuitive conclusion, because the ex post approach can conflict with ex ante Pareto superiority. Indeed, this Article demonstrates that the ex post application of every equity-regarding social welfare function-whatever its particular form-must conflict with ex ante Pareto superiority in specific situations. Among other things, then, this Article shows that legal academics who care about equity must abandon either their commitment to welfarism or their commitment to ex ante Pareto superiorit

Inequality and Uncertainty: Theory and Legal Applications

Welfarism is the principle that social policy should be based solely on individual well-being, with no reference to \u27fairness or rights. The propriety of this approach has recently been the subject of extensive debate within legal scholarship. Rather than contributing (directly) to this debate, we identify and analyze a problem within welfarism that has received far too little attentioncall this the ex ante/ex post problem. The problem arises from the combination of uncertainty-an inevitable feature of real policy choice-and a social preference for equality. If the policymaker is not a utilitarian, but rather has a social welfare function that is equity regarding to some degree, then she faces a critical choice. Should she care about the equalization of expected well-being (the ex ante approach), or should she care about the expected equalization of actual well-being (the ex post approach)? Should she focus on the equality of prospects or the prospects for equality? In this Article, we bring the ex ante/ex post problem to the attention of legal academics, provide novel insight into when and why the problem arises, and highlight legal applications where the problem figures prominently. We ultimately conclude that welfarism requires an ex post approach. This is a counterintuitive conclusion, because the ex post approach can conflict with ex ante Pareto superiority. Indeed, this Article demonstrates that the ex post application of every equity-regarding social welfare function-whatever its particular form-must conflict with ex ante Pareto superiority in specific situations. Among other things, then, this Article shows that legal academics who care about equity must abandon either their commitment to welfarism or their commitment to ex ante Pareto superiorit

Do rhinoviruses follow the neutral theory? The role of cross-immunity in maintaining the diversity of the common cold

Journal ArticleOver 100 serotypes of rhinoviruses, one of the primary causes of the common cold, co-circulate in the human population. This high diversity makes it effectively impossible to develop a vaccine, even for those at risk of complications due to asthma or cystic fibrosis

General test for interaction modification

Journal ArticleHow can measurements of population dynamics be used to deduce the mechanisms of interaction in an assemblage of species? We present a technique to use such measurements to distinguish among assemblages of species with no direct interactions, sets of species influenced predominantly by pairwise interactions, and communities with significant interaction modification

Heavy quark jet quenching with collisional plus radiative energy loss and path length fluctuations

With the QGP opacity computed perturbatively and with the global entropy constraints imposed by the observed $dN_{ch}/dy\approx1000$, radiative energy loss alone cannot account for the observed suppression of single non-photonic electrons. We show that collisional energy loss, which previously has been neglected, is comparable to radiative loss for both light and heavy jets and may in fact be the dominant mechanism for bottom quarks. Predictions taking into account both radiative and collisional losses significantly reduce the discrepancy with data. In addition to elastic energy loss, it is critical to include jet path length fluctuations to account for the observed pion suppression.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Hard and Electromagnetic Probes of High-Energy Nuclear Collisions (Hard Probes 2006), Asilomar, Pacific Grove, California, 9-16 Jun 200

PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS OF FREE THROW SHOT TRAJECTORIES IN RELATION TO SHOOTING PERFORMANCE

The purpose of this study was to analyze free throw (FT) shot trajectories of individual basketball players using principal component analysis (PCA) and investigate whether variation in trajectories correlated with FT shooting performance. A markerless motion capture system was used to record three-dimensional FT shot trajectories of seven basketball players during practice. Horizontal and vertical positioning of the wrist joint center of the shooting hand were captured in both the sagittal and frontal planes for all trials. These coordinates were used as the input to the PCA. Positive correlations between the amount of variation accounted for by the first principal component and FT shooting performance (in-game FT%) suggest that players with simpler and less variable (i.e., more deterministic) shooting trajectories are better FT shooters

Subharmonics, Chaos, and Beyond

While studying finite amplitude ultrasonic wave resonance in a one dimensional liquid-filled cavity, which is formed by a narrow band transducer and a plane reflector, subharmonics of the driver's frequency were observed in addition to the expected harmonic structure. Subsequently it was realized that the system was one of the many examples where parametric resonance takes place and in which the observed subharmonics are parametrically generated. Parametric resonance occurs in any physical system which has a periodically modulated natural frequency. The generation mechanism also requires a sufficiently high threshold value of the driving amplitude so that the system becomes increasingly nonlinear in response. The nonlinear features were recently investigated and are the objective of this presentation. An ultrasonic interferometer with optical precision was built. The transducers were compressional undamped quartz and Lithium Niobate crystals ranging from 1-10 Mhz, and driven by a high power amplifier. Both an optical diffraction system and a receive transducer attached to an aligned reflector with lapped flat and parallel surfaces were used to observe the generated frequency components in the cavity

An examination of man-made radio noise at 37HF receiving sites

Man-made radio noise was examined at 37 HF receiving sites spaced at wide intervals around the world. The measurements were made with the goal of understanding the temporal and spectral structure of each example of man-made noise, determining the sources involved, and developing procedures to minimize the impact of man-made noise on signal reception. All measurements were made at the input terminals of receivers at each site as contrasted to the more traditional field-strength measurement of radio noise collected by a monopole antennaPrepared for: the Naval Security Grouphttp://archive.org/details/examinationofman00vincNAApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited