Arrested Development: Political Barriers to Modern Pretrial Reform

Across the United States, pretrial incarceration is a major driver of climbing jail populations. One specific reform, called pretrial services is being instituted to some degree all across the country; however, most Americans still do not have access to these reforms. This paper will examine the distribution of pretrial reform and the partisan factors that influence access to pretrial services. Using both state-level analysis and county-level analysis of Virginia, this paper shows that areas with higher proportions of Republican voters are less likely to have pretrial services. The final chapter shows that this effect is partially explainable in Virginia due to the fact that more conservative counties are less likely to cooperate with other nearby counties and prefer to cooperate with other conservative counties. These findings imply that pretrial reform must be viewed as not simply a criminal justice or procedural problem, but as a distinctly political issue. States like Virginia that desire more widespread reform should alter inducements to encourage county cooperation for conservative districts to ensure that pretrial services is available to all citizens

Supersymmetric Gauge Field Theory and String Theory

Designed as a sequel to the authors' Introduction to Gauge Field Theory, Supersymmetric Gauge Field Theory and String Theory introduces first-year graduate students to supersymmetric theories, including supergravity and superstring theories. Starting with the necessary background in quantum field theory, the book covers the three key topics of high-energy physics. The emphasis is on practical calculations rather than abstract generalities or phenomenological results. Where possible, the authors show how to calculate, connecting the theoretical with the phenomenological. While the field continues to advance and grow, this book addresses the basic theory at the core and will likely remain relevant even if more advanced ideas change

Cosmology in Gauge Field Theory and String Theory

Cosmology in Gauge Field Theory and String Theory focuses on the cosmological implications of the gauge theories of particle physics and of string theory. The book first examines the universe's series of phase transitions in which the successive gauge symmetries of the higher-temperature phase were spontaneously broken after the big bang, discussing relics of these phase transitions, more generic relics (baryons, neutrinos, axions), and supersymmetric particles (neutralinos and gravitinos). The author next studies supersymmetric theory, supergravity theory, and the constraints on the underlying field theory of the universe's inflationary era. The book concludes with a discussion of black hole solutions of the supergravity theory that approximates string theory at low energies and the insight that string theory affords into the microscopic origin of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Cosmology in Gauge Field Theory and String Theory provides a modern introduction to these important problems from a particle physicist's perspective. It is intended as an introductory textbook for a first course on the subject at a graduate level

Introduction to Gauge Field Theory Revised Edition

Introduction to Gauge Field Theory provides comprehensive coverage of modern relativistic quantum field theory, emphasizing the details of actual calculations rather than the phenomenology of the applications. Forming a foundation in the subject, the book assumes knowledge of relativistic quantum mechanics, but not of quantum field theory. The boo

Assessing and Reporting Non-Cognitive Skills: A Cross-Canada Survey

Canadian educational jurisdictions require teachers to assess and report upon aspects of student performance beyond academic achievement. These skills and competencies are often called “non-cognitive skills” (NCS). This study used document analysis to determine which NCS are assessed across provinces, identifying commonalities, variations in the skills assessed, and how these skills are reported. While substantial variability was found in the labelling of these skills, the assessments of collaboration, responsibility, organization, and independence commonly appeared. Further, these skills are typically reported upon using a 3 or 4-point rating scale. Of interest, provinces typically used economic arguments to justify their inclusion of NCS in students’ report cards

Relative rates of B meson decays into psi(2S) and J/psi mesons

We report on a study of the relative rates of B meson decays into psi(2S) and J/psi mesons using 1.3 fb^-1 of pbar p collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV recorded by the D0 detector operating at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We observe the channels B^0_s -> psi(2S)phi, B^0_s -> J/psi phi, B^+/- -> psi(2S) K^+/-, and B^+/- -> J/psi K^+/- and we measure the relative branching fractions for these channels to be B(B^0_s -> psi(2S)phi)/B(B^0_s -> J/psi phi) = 0.55 +/- 0.11 (stat) +/- 0.07 (syst) +/- 0.06 (B), B(B^+/- -> psi(2S) K^+/-)/B(B^+/- -> J/psi K^+/-) = 0.65 +/- 0.04 (stat) +/- 0.03 (syst) +/- 0.07 (B) where the final error corresponds to the uncertainty in the J/psi and psi(2S) branching ratio into two muons

Understanding Uncontested Prosecutor Elections

Prosecutors are very powerful players in the criminal justice system. One of the few checks on their power is their periodic obligation to stand for election. But very few prosecutor elections are contested, and even fewer are competitive. As a result, voters are not able to hold prosecutors accountable for their decisions. The problem with uncontested elections has been widely recognized, but little understood. The legal literature has lamented the lack of choice for voters, but any suggested solutions have been based on only anecdote or simple descriptive analyses of election data. Using a logistic regression analysis, this Article estimates the individual effects of a number of variables on prosecutor elections. It finds that several factors that have been previously identified as contributing to an uncontested election are not, in fact, what drives uncontested elections for prosecutors. Instead, the factors with the largest effect are whether an incumbent runs and the population of the district. It also identifies two features of state election law that contribute to the dearth of contested elections. The Article concludes by noting that these factors suggest specific policy changes that could help to increase the number of contested and competitive elections—thus ensuring that voters can help guide important criminal justice decisions in their communities

Measurement of the inclusive jet cross section in ppˉp \bar{p} collisions at s=1.96TeV\sqrt{s}=1.96 {\rm TeV}

We report on a measurement of the inclusive jet cross section in $p \bar{p}$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy $\sqrt s=$1.96 TeV using data collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.70 fb$^{-1}$. The data cover jet transverse momenta from 50 GeV to 600 GeV and jet rapidities in the range -2.4 to 2.4. Detailed studies of correlations between systematic uncertainties in transverse momentum and rapidity are presented, and the cross section measurements are found to be in good agreement with next-to-leading order QCD calculations

Search for Large extra spatial dimensions in the dielectron and diphoton channels in ppˉ\bm{p\bar{p}} collisions at s=\bm{\sqrt{s}=}1.96 TeV

We report on a search for large extra spatial dimensions in the dielectron and diphoton channels using a data sample of 1.05 \invfb of \ppb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV collected by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The invariant mass spectrum of the data agrees well with the prediction of the standard model. We find 95% C.L. lower limits on the effective Planck scale between 2.1 and 1.3 TeV for 2 to 7 extra dimensions

Party Differences in Response to Interest Group Signals

Interest groups often seek to influence the progression of bills through Congress by calling on legislators to support a bill by becoming a cosponsor. Groups rarely do this alone. Rather, a chorus of interest groups calls for cosponsors. Legislators can use this coalition as a heuristic for if supporting a bill is electorally advantageous. I examine the effectiveness of interest group position taking through the lens of partisan differences in the interest group environment. I find that Democrats face both a higher number of signals and fewer "repeat players" and that they are less likely to cosponsor as a result of an ideologically diverse coalition. This suggests that Democrats use interest group signals less readily than Republicans and are more sensitive to changes in the makeup of an interest group coalition.Master of Art