Exclusion of Extreme Jurors and Minority Representation: The Effect of Jury Selection Procedures

We compare two established jury selection procedures meant to safeguard against the inclusion of biased jurors that are also perceived as causing minorities to be under-represented in juries. The Strike and Replace procedure presents potential jurors one-by-one to the parties, while the Struck procedure presents all potential jurors before the parties exercise vetoes. In equilibrium, Struck more effectively excludes extreme jurors than Strike and Replace but leads to a worse representation of minorities. Simulations suggest that the advantage of Struck in terms of excluding extremes is sizable in a wide range of cases. In contrast, Strike and Replace only provides a significantly better representation of minorities if the minority and majority are heavily polarized. When parameters are estimated to match the parties' selection of jurors by race with jury-selection data from Mississippi in trials against black defendants, the procedures' outcomes are substantially different, and the size of the trade-off between objectives can be quantitatively evaluated

A criterion for reflectiveness of normal extensions

We give a new sufficient condition for the normal extensions in an admissible Galois structure to be reflective. We then show that this condition is indeed fulfilled when X is the (protomodular) reflective subcategory of S-special objects of a Barr-exact S-protomodular category C, where S is the class of split epimorphic trivial extensions in C. Next to some concrete examples where the criterion may be applied, we also study the adjunction between a Barr-exact unital category and its abelian core, which we prove to be admissible

Cross-Coupling Reactions of Monosubstituted Tetrazines

A Ag-mediated Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling method for 3-bromo-1,2,4,5-tetrazine with boronic acids is presented. Electronic modification of the 1,1′-bis(diphenylphosphine)ferrocene (dppf) ligand was found to be crucial for good turnover. Using this fast method, a variety of alkyl-, heteroatom-, and halide-substituted aryl- and heteroaryl-tetrazines were prepared (29 examples, up to 87% yield)

The effects of protected areas on the ecological niches of birds and mammals

Protected areas are a cornerstone for biodiversity conservation, and typically support more natural and undisturbed habitats compared to unprotected lands. The effect of protected areas on intra-specific ecological niche has been rarely investigated. Here, we explore potential differences in ecological niche properties of birds and mammals across protected and unprotected areas, and relate such differences to species traits. We combine two decades of survey data of birds and mammals from protected and unprotected areas, and apply robust matching to obtain a set of environmentally comparable protected and unprotected sites. Next, we calculate intra-specific niche volume change and habitat shift between protected and unprotected areas, and use generalized linear mixed models to explain these responses with species traits (habitat specialization, body mass, diet, and red list status). The majority of bird and mammal species (83% and 90%, respectively) show different habitat use when occurring within and outside protected areas, with the magnitude of this shift highly varying across species. A minority of species (16% of birds and 10% of mammals) do not change their niche volume nor shift their habitat between protected and unprotected areas. Variation in niche properties is largely unrelated to species traits. Overall, the varying ecological niche responses of birds and mammals to protected areas underscore that there is no universal niche-based response, and that niche responses to land protection are species-specific.Peer reviewe

Exclusion of Extreme Jurors and Minority Representation: The Effect of Jury Selection Procedures

We compare two established jury selection procedures meant to safeguard against the inclusion of biased jurors that are also perceived as causing minorities to be under-represented in juries. The Strike and Replace procedure presents potential jurors one-by-one to the parties, while the Struck procedure presents all potential jurors before the parties exercise vetoes. In equilibrium, Struck more effectively excludes extreme jurors than Strike and Replace but leads to a worse representation of minorities. Simulations suggest that the advantage of Struck in terms of excluding extremes is sizable in a wide range of cases. In contrast, Strike and Replace only provides a significantly better representation of minorities if the minority and majority are heavily polarized. When parameters are estimated to match the parties' selection of jurors by race with jury-selection data from Mississippi in trials against black defendants, the procedures' outcomes are substantially different, and the size of the trade-off between objectives can be quantitatively evaluated

Sunlight-mediated inactivation of health-relevant microorganisms in water: a review of mechanisms and modeling approaches.

Health-relevant microorganisms present in natural surface waters and engineered treatment systems that are exposed to sunlight can be inactivated by a complex set of interacting mechanisms. The net impact of sunlight depends on the solar spectral irradiance, the susceptibility of the specific microorganism to each mechanism, and the water quality; inactivation rates can vary by orders of magnitude depending on the organism and environmental conditions. Natural organic matter (NOM) has a large influence, as it can attenuate radiation and thus decrease inactivation by endogenous mechanisms. Simultaneously NOM sensitizes the formation of reactive intermediates that can damage microorganisms via exogenous mechanisms. To accurately predict inactivation and design engineered systems that enhance solar inactivation, it is necessary to model these processes, although some details are not yet sufficiently well understood. In this critical review, we summarize the photo-physics, -chemistry, and -biology that underpin sunlight-mediated inactivation, as well as the targets of damage and cellular responses to sunlight exposure. Viruses that are not susceptible to exogenous inactivation are only inactivated if UVB wavelengths (280-320 nm) are present, such as in very clear, open waters or in containers that are transparent to UVB. Bacteria are susceptible to slightly longer wavelengths. Some viruses and bacteria (especially Gram-positive) are susceptible to exogenous inactivation, which can be initiated by visible as well as UV wavelengths. We review approaches to model sunlight-mediated inactivation and illustrate how the environmental conditions can dramatically shift the inactivation rate of organisms. The implications of this mechanistic understanding of solar inactivation are discussed for a range of applications, including recreational water quality, natural treatment systems, solar disinfection of drinking water (SODIS), and enhanced inactivation via the use of sensitizers and photocatalysts. Finally, priorities for future research are identified that will further our understanding of the key role that sunlight disinfection plays in natural systems and the potential to enhance this process in engineered systems

Integrating Research Skills into the German Studies Curriculum

The faculty expected students in the capstone course to complete requirements for a content-rich course and also produce a research paper in German, but discovered that most students did not have the research skills to write such a paper. After participating in the 2017-2018 Center for Undergraduate Research Faculty Working Group on Integrating Research into the Curriculum, they decided to scaffold research skills strategically into five required courses in the German Studies major: GERM 301: High Intermediate German I GERM 302: High Intermediate German II GERM 315: German Literature and the Modern Era GERM 401: Advanced German I GERM 580: Senior Capstone Course: Contemporary German-Speaking EuropeC21 Course Transformation Grant, Office of Academic Affairs, University of Kansa