The High Court on constitutional law: the 2013 statistics

Introduction: This article presents statistical information about the High Court’s decision making for 2013 at both an institutional and individual level, with an emphasis on constitutional cases as a subset of the total. The results have been compiled using the same methodology employed in studies of earlier years. Likewise, we maintain our customary advice to readers about the inevitable limitations that must apply to the results of an empirical study of the decisions of any final court over the space of a single calendar year. In particular, the fact that constitutional cases comprise just a portion of the High Court’s annual work means that we strive to make observations leaning more towards circumspection than boldness. Nevertheless, taking stock of the cases handed down by the Court in the preceding year and the way in which the justices have, as individuals within the institution, decided their outcomes is illuminating. As ever, we are careful not to attribute greater or lesser ‘influence’ to particular individuals simply through tracking the rates of consensus, dissent and co-authorship experienced within the Court

The High Court on constitutional law: the 2011 statistics

This article presents statistical information about the High Court’s decision making for 2011 at both an institutional and individual level, with an emphasis on constitutional cases as a subset of the total. The authors emphasise the importance of acknowledging the limitations that inhere in an empirical study of the decision-making of the High Court over just one year. In particular, care must be taken not to invest too much significance in the percentage calculations given the modesty of the sample size, especially in respect of the smaller set of constitutional cases. Nevertheless, this annual exercise remains worthwhile in that it offers assistance to those followers of the Court’s decisions who are interested in the way in which the dynamics between its individual members translate into institutional outcomes. It provides simple empirical data about the functioning of the Court that may otherwise be left merely to impression. The authors endeavour to draw readers’ attention to trends and patterns observed in earlier years where these enhance understanding of the significance of these results. As it turns out, the results of our 2011 survey of decision-making on the Court provide a clear demonstration of the value of looking at the Court on a yearly basis. They are, in several key respects, notably different from those of the immediately preceding years. Statistical representations of the way in which the High Court and its Justices decided the cases of any given year are only a supplement, rather than any kind of substitute, for scholarship that subjects the legal reasoning contained in the cases to substantive analysis or examines the impact of the Court’s decisions upon government and the community. The authors also refrain entirely from making the exercise one from which they presume to make inferences about the particular working relationships amongst the Court’s members. The results are drawn only from what may be observed from the public record of the Court’s decided cases. This remains inadequate source material from which to assess, for example, the level of influence which any Justice has amongst his or her colleagues

Ligand selectivity: binding at the protein-protein interface of Keap1 and NEMO

This dissertation comprises identifying the structural determinants of binding selectivity as demonstrated in three systems. The first system involves the structure determination of Keap1-small molecule fragment complexes to locate binding surfaces. The second system involves the structural determination of a NEMO/IKKbeta complex to serve as a platform for future fragment binding validation studies. The third system involves the structural investigation of a bacterial phosphoglycosyltransferase found in Campylobacter concisus to find the active site. Keap1 binding of Nrf2 is a regulatory mechanism to inhibit the transcription factor activity of Nrf2 to upregulate Nucleoporin p62 (p62). Nucleoporin p62 is a regulator of tau protein aggregates in Alzheimer's disease. The determination of binding hot spots in the Keap1 active site could serve as a starting point for the development of inhibitors as a treatment method for Alzheimer’s disease. To achieve this, I have developed a crystal form of Keap1 that allows for fragment-based study of binding in the active site via small molecule fragment screening and X-ray crystallography. Analysis of collected data has resulted in the solution of four structures, one containing a peptide fragment and three containing small molecule fragments that occupy a region of binding within the Keap1 active site, demonstrating the utility of the crystal form and affording information on binding hot spots. Nuclear factor κ-light-chain enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) is a transcription factor and has been linked to cancer, inflammation, and immune dysfunction. The enzyme complex IκB kinase (IKK) is a regulator of NF-κB and consists of three subunits: IKK-α, IKK-β, and NEMO. If NEMO activity is abrogated, IKK is unable to activate NF-κB, making it a promising therapeutic target. My research has found crystallization conditions and performed trials of phase determination on an N terminal IKKβ-binding construct of NEMO containing previously uncharacterized regions of this protein. Glycosylation is a commonly occurring post-translational modification that affects a number of processes including protein folding, trafficking, cell-cell interactions and host immune response. The phosphoglycosyl transferase PglC is an essential part of the Campylobacter glycosylation pathway and a possible antibacterial target. My research determined the crystallization conditions and has developed complexes and protein constructs for phase determination of this single-pass transmembrane protein and will in the future provide a platform for structure-based inhibition of this protein

Writing Moonlight: An Analysis of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Opus 27 No. 2 in C Sharp Minor

An analysis of the first movement of one of Beethoven’s most popular sonatas, the Moonlight Sonata, by a chemical engineering major who is a relative outsider to music. Analysis proceeds systematically: line by line and stanza by stanza. The goal of this analysis is elucidation of Beethoven’s methods for producing the atmosphere of haunting desire which pervades the piece

Algorithm to layout (ATL) systems for VLSI design

PhD ThesisThe complexities involved in custom VLSI design together with the failure of CAD techniques to keep pace with advances in the fabrication technology have resulted in a design bottleneck. Powerful tools are required to exploit the processing potential offered by the densities now available. Describing a system in a high level algorithmic notation makes writing, understanding, modification, and verification of a design description easier. It also removes some of the emphasis on the physical issues of VLSI design, and focus attention on formulating a correct and well structured design. This thesis examines how current trends in CAD techniques might influence the evolution of advanced Algorithm To Layout (ATL) systems. The envisaged features of an example system are specified. Particular attention is given to the implementation of one its features COPTS (Compilation Of Occam Programs To Schematics). COPTS is capable of generating schematic diagrams from which an actual layout can be derived. It takes a description written in a subset of Occam and generates a high level schematic diagram depicting its realisation as a VLSI system. This diagram provides the designer with feedback on the relative placement and interconnection of the operators used in the source code. It also gives a visual representation of the parallelism defined in the Occam description. Such diagrams are a valuable aid in documenting the implementation of a design. Occam has also been selected as the input to the design system that COPTS is a feature of. The choice of Occam was made on the assumption that the most appropriate algorithmic notation for such a design system will be a suitable high level programming language. This is in contrast to current automated VLSI design systems, which typically use a hardware des~ription language for input. These special purpose languages currently concentrate on handling structural/behavioural information and have limited ability to express algorithms. Using a language such as Occam allows a designer to write a behavioural description which can be compiled and executed as a simulator, or prototype, of the system. The programmability introduced into the design process enables designers to concentrate on a design's underlying algorithm. The choice of this algorithm is the most crucial decision since it determines the performance and area of the silicon implementation. The thesis is divided into four sections, each of several chapters. The first section considers VLSI design complexity, compares the expert systems and silicon compilation approaches to tackling it, and examines its parallels with software complexity. The second section reviews the advantages of using a conventional programming language for VLSI system descriptions. A number of alternative high level programming languages are considered for application in VLSI design. The third section defines the overall ATL system COPTS is envisaged to be part of, and considers the schematic representation of Occam programs. The final section presents a summary of the overall project and suggestions for future work on realising the full ATL system

Overall Effectiveness Measurement at Engine Temperatures with Reactive Film Cooling and Surface Curvature

The thesis presented here details the design, construction and initial testing of rig for use with high temperature film cooling testing. The film cooling rig was supplied with hot mainstream gas from a well-stirred reactor operating on a propane/air mixture capable of multiple equivalence ratios. The Hastelloy test plates contained an internal cooling channel to allow for overall effectiveness measurements. Thermocouples on both the freestream and internal surfaces of the test plate provided temperature differences for heat flux calculations. The test plates had a quarter circle leading edge with a tapered trailing edge to provide surface curvature for the film cooling studies. The height of the test channel could be adjusted for multiple Mach numbers to be set for the mainstream flow. Using a plate containing five rows of holes in trenches and two rows of showerhead holes, methodology was developed for collecting and analyzing the necessary data to obtain net heat flux reduction and overall effectiveness results. This methodology was then applied to the same plate to gather comparative results for reacting versus non-reacting film cooling

Two essays on mutual fund performance

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on May 15, 2013).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. Xuemin (Sterling) YanIncludes bibliographical references.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2012."May 2012"In these two essays, I examine the relation between mutual fund characteristics and fund performance. In the first essay, I test the impact of liquidity and liquidity risk on mutual fund returns. I find that equity funds with the most illiquid holdings outperform those with the most liquid holdings by as much as 4.40 percent annually. Funds with high liquidity beta only marginally outperform those with low liquidity beta on average. However, this outperformance is significantly stronger after excluding periods of extreme market illiquidity. Testing the liquidity and liquidity risk effects jointly reveals that both independently positively influence fund returns. In the second essay, I test the relation between fund fees and fund performance. Theory suggests that mutual fund fees should be positively related to before-fee returns (Berk and Green (2004)), while recent empirical work documents a negative relation (Gil-Bazo and Ruiz-Verdu (2009)). I find that the previously identified negative relation is not robust to alternative empirical specifications. Portfolio sorting and regression analysis with controls for fund characteristics find a positive relation between before-fee returns and expense ratios. I also find a positive relation between before-fee returns and management fees, the fee used to compensate fund managers. Extending the analysis to proxies for manager skill, I find a positive relation between fees and both trading skill and active share of holdings.Includes bibliographical reference