Essays on Intersection of Economics and Judicial Decision-Making

This dissertation consists of two chapters on the economics of judicial decision-making. In chapter 2, using the data from U.S. immigration courts and the Global Terrorism Dataset, I investigate the effect of terrorist attacks on asylum decisions. I find that terrorist attacks within the courts\u27 states reduce the likelihood of granting asylums by 1.9 percent. This effect is driven by Islamic, Right-wing, and Lone-wolf terrorist attacks, and the magnitude of the effect is largest in the case of Islamic terrorist attacks (3.6 %) and smallest in the case of Lone-wolf attacks (1.9 %). Left-wing terrorist attacks have no impact on asylum decisions. Applicants from Latin America and China are the groups bearing the burden of the effects, and there is no evidence indicating that applicants from Muslim majority countries are adversely affected. Analyzing the news coverage of incidents reveals a spill-over of effects on all immigration judges in the U.S. when national news channels cover the incidents. On the other hand, incidents covered by national news do not have a differential impact on the judges within the state of terrorist attacks, which suggests that information dissemination is the channel for spill-overs. Chapter 3 examines the effect of the appellate board’s error correction on asylum decisions by focusing on instances in which the board remands a case back to the judges (for a new round of hearings) due to an erroneous decision in the first round. Using the dates that judges have hearings for cases with error corrections and the date they render a decision for other cases, I show that having hearings for cases remanded in favor of prosecutors (DHS’s attorney) reduced the judges’ leniency towards immigrants by 2.8 percent. To understand the underlying channel through which the asylum decisions are affected, I focus on the appeal rates of the losing party. This analysis reveals that granted (rejected) asylum applications that are decided during exposure to error corrections are 25 % (3.5 %) less likely to be appealed by prosecutors (immigrants), which suggests that increased accuracy in the decisions is a potential mechanism through which receiving error corrections affect asylum decisions

Survey of the diagenesis process and effect these process on reservoir quality of the Kangan formation in South Pars Field

Kangan and Upper Dalan formations are forming reservoir sequence of the South Pars field. Litology of the kangan formation is carbonate and (limestone and dolomite with anhydrite intervals), so digenetic processes were very active in this formation and these processes have changeed the reservoir quality. Importances of the digenetic process are including dissolution, calcite cements, dolomitization, anhydritization, physical and chemical compaction and fracturing

Determining the factors related to diabetes type II with mixed logistic regression

Background and aims: Diabetes type II (non-insulin dependent) which is one of the most prevalent diabetes types in the world emerges in people with the age of above 55 and genetic and environmental factors interfere in this disease. The aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting diabetes type II with generalized mixed linear model. Methods: Population of this study included 2820 people with the age of above 30 residing in Yazd Province who were selected using cluster sampling. To analyze the data, mixed logistic regression model was used in R software. Results: In this study, 25 of men and 24.3 of women had diabetes. The regression analysis showed that age, WHR, family diabetes record, and BMI of 001 were the factors affecting diabetes, while variables of gender, house area, and education were not significant. On the other hand, unknown factors of residence place had high correlation with affliction with diabetes. Conclusion: Based on the results obtained from this study, change of lifestyle and prevention of obesity can prevent affliction with diabetes to a great extent

The Relationship between Dimensions of Personality and Sexual Desire in Females and Males

AbstractThe purpose of the present research was to investigate relationship between dimensions of personality (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness & conscientiousness and sexual desire in females and males, sample includes 140 teachers (70 females & 70 males) that have been chosen via cluster multistage sampling method. Assessment instruments were the Five Factor Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and the Hulbert Index of Sexual Desire (1992). Data was analyzed by using independent t- test, Pearson correlation coefficient and Stepwise multiple regression, Finding demonstrated that there is significant relationship between sexual desire, extraversion, neuroticism and agreeableness in females and males. Sexual Desire had negative correlation with neuroticism, a positive correlation with extraversion. Stepwise regression analysis showed that only extraversion and neuroticism in two steps could explain 26% of variance, five factor model, sexual desir

Anesthesia Management of Bullous Emphysema in Patient Candidate for Craniotomy

Introduction: Manypatients withemphysemawill develop cystic air spaces in the lung parenchymaknownas bullae. Positive pressureventilation increases the pressure in a bulla and increases the risk of rupture and tension pneumothorax. Therefore, anesthesiamanagement, for surgeries other than lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS), is challenging in these patients.Case Presentation: A 62-year-old male patient was brought to the emergency department due to a fall resulting in head trauma anda leak of CSF from a previous surgical site of a CP (cerebellopontine) angle tumor. The chest CT scan depicted bilateral bullae in thelungs. Anesthesia was induced and maintained with an inhalational method using Sevoflurane and spontaneous mask ventilation.Conclusions: Patients with bilateral bullae could be managed with spontaneous ventilation; one of the safe choices is inhalationalinduction and maintenance with Sevoflurane

Immediate results and six-month outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention in a referral heart center in Isfahan, Iran

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of data in our society on the outcomes, complications, and prognostic factors in patients with coronary artery disease who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We evaluated the success rate, early and late outcomes, and prognostic factors in a referral university center in Isfahan, IRAN. &nbsp;&nbsp; METHODS: This prospective cohort study was conducted in Chamran University Hospital in Isfahan (IRAN) from March 2010 to February 2011. Patients consequently were included if they have the indication for emergent or elective PCI. Outcomes included procedural success, complications, and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) during hospitalization and 6 months follow-up. &nbsp;&nbsp; RESULTS: A total of 282 patients (74.1% females) with mean age of 57.0&plusmn;3.2 years were studied. Most of the patients (89.7%) underwent elective PCI. Angiographic and procedure success rates were 95.7% and 94.6%, respectively. In-hospital MACE included two cases of death (0.7%) and one MI (0.3%); 2/29 (6.9%) of the emergent PCI and 1/253 (0.4%) of the elective PCI cases. MACE during follow-up included three cases of death (1.0%) and two MI (0.7%); 2/252 (0.8%) of the elective PCI and 1/28 (3.5%) of the emergent PCI cases. The overall MACE was calculated as 8 cases (2.8%) which included 5/29 (17.2%) of the emergent and 3/253 (1.1%) of the elective cases; P &lt; 0.001. In multivariate analysis, none of the factors including gender, age, emergency of the procedure, lesion type, number of stenotic vessels, or stent type were associated with total MACE (P &gt; 0.05). &nbsp;&nbsp; CONCLUSION: PCI is performed with an acceptable success rate in our center in Isfahan and mortality and complications are within the range reported by other highly specialized centers in IRAN. Further studies with larger sample size are needed to find predictive factors.Keywords: Percutaneous coronary intervention, Myocardial infarction, Acute coronary syndrome, Reperfusion therapy, Outcome, Mortality.</p

Gap Junctions: The Claymore for Cancerous Cells

Introduction: Gap junctions play an important role in the cell proliferation in mammalian cells as well as carcinogenesis. However, there are controversial issues about their role in cancer pathogenesis. This study was designed to evaluate genotoxicity and cytotoxicity of Carbenoxolone (CBX) as a prototype of inter-cellular gap junction blocker in MCF7 and BT20 human breast cancer cells. Methods: The MCF7and BT20 human breast cancer cell lines were cultivated, and treated at designated confluency with different doses of CBX. Cellular cytotoxicity was examined using standard colorimetric assay associated with cell viability tests. Gene expression evaluation was carried out using real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: MCF7 and BT20 cells were significantly affected by CBX in a dose dependent manner in cell viability assays. Despite varying expression of genes, down regulation of pro- and anti-apoptotic genes was observed in these cells. Conclusion: Based upon this investigation, it can be concluded that CBX could affect both low and high proliferative types of breast cancer cell lines and disproportionate down regulation of both pre- and anti-apoptotic genes may be related to interacting biomolecules, perhaps via gap junctions

Surface water treatment process; a review on various methods

This review paper focuses on process of water treatment plants (WTP) using three different methods. It is focused on the comparing differences between traditional and new developed WTP models. For traditional system, settlement process is selected and it is compared with a new system including Lamella tube. Sungai Terip water treatment plant was selected as case study since both traditional (Settlement process) and modern technology (Dissolved Air Flotation, DAF) used. The raw water was collected from Sungai dam which was an earth dam. After aeration it is distributed to three different WTPs. The processes were reviewed and compared in order to find their efficiencies