The Values of the Administrative State: A Reply to Seidenfeld

I appreciate the opportunity to continue the conversation on democracy in the administrative state that I hoped The Public’s Law would inspire. In his review, Mark Seidenfeld critiques some of the book’s legal reform proposals. He argues that I am too optimistic about the general public’s ability to participate in the administrative process, about administrators’ competence to reason about social values, and about courts’ capacity to police such reasoning. The aspects of my argument Seidenfeld criticizes come at the conclusion of the book’s broader study of the intellectual and institutional history of the administrative state. This history is meant to challenge the received wisdom about what that state is for and how it ought to operate. The Public’s Law argues that the legitimacy of the administrative state is not just a matter of technocratic expertise or finding a workable balance between interest groups. And it’s certainly not just a matter of carrying out the president’s will. Rather, the history of the administrative state shows how the people can use it to reconstruct society in the interest of freedom. I provide a short summary of my book’s historical findings and normative arguments before turning to Seidenfeld’s critique

Advanced management of the Mexican rice borer (Eoreuma loftini) in sugarcane

Insecticide, greenhouse and varietal resistance experiments were conducted in Texas to develop management tactics for the Mexican rice borer, Eoreuma loftini (Dyar), sugarcane. A 3-treatment, large plot aerial application study was set up in 5 commercial sugarcane fields (35-84 acres) to evaluate the utilization of pheromone traps to improve chemical control strategies for E. loftini during 2009 and 2010 growing seasons. A threshold of 20-25 moths/trap/wk was used as an indicator to initiate monitoring for E. loftini larval infestations. Larval infestations were directly related to the no. of moths/trap/wk (R2=0.71). Reductions in borer injury and adult emergence (60% and 40% for novaluron and â-cyfluthrin, respectively) were detected when a threshold of 5% of stalks with treatable larvae was used for timing an insecticide application. Data revealed novaluron treatments increased sugar production by 14%. A greenhouse study assessed the establishment and behavior of E. loftini neonates on two phenological stages of stalkborer resistant (HoCP 85-845) and susceptible (HoCP 00-950) cultivars. Approximately half (55%) of neonates on HoCP 00-950 and 28% on HoCP 85-845 tunneled inside the leaf mid-ribs within 1d of eclosion. Duration of neonate exposure ranged from 3.5 - 6.4 d. This research shows a short window of vulnerability of E. loftini to insecticide applications, and demonstrates the potential to use pheromone traps and new chemistries for enhancing chemical control. A 5-replication field test evaluated stalkborer resistance in 25 sugarcane cultivars. Differences were detected between cultivars in E. loftini injury which ranged from 1.0-20.3% bored. The resistant standard HoCP 85-845 and a South African cultivar, N-21, were the most resistant. HoCP 96-540, which represents the majority of sugarcane acreage in Louisiana, was among the most susceptible. Assessment of stalkborer resistance in sugarcane cultivars is needed as host plant resistance will continue to be important to E. loftini IPM

Mexican Rice Borer (Eoreuma loftini) Pheromone Trap Efficacy and Role in Invasive Species Monitoring and Pest Management

The Mexican rice borer, Eoreuma loftini (Dyar) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), is an invasive pest of sugarcane, Saccharum spp.; rice, Oryza sativa; and other graminaceous crops along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Identification of E. loftini sex pheromones led to the development of pheromone baited traps. Studies were conducted to determine strategies for the use of E. loftini pheromone traps in invasive species monitoring and pest management. A two-year field study demonstrated that E. loftini pheromone traps attract males from distances of up to 100m. A behavioral assay observed that detection of the pheromone by E. loftini males occurs at ≈48m from the source. A network of pheromone traps monitored E. loftini range expansion from 2009–2015. Eoreuma loftini is now present in nine Louisiana Parishes: Calcasieu, Cameron, Beauregard, Allen, Jefferson Davis, Acadia, Vermilion, Evangeline, and St. Landry. Crop surveys observed E. loftini infesting Louisiana rice and sugarcane. The E. loftini population is advancing eastward at 11 km/yr. The population is characterized by high density clusters and may be limited at higher latitudes. E. loftini is causing substantial yield reductions in unprotected commercial rice fields in southwestern Louisiana. Rice which received the Dermacor X-100® (chlorantraniliprole) seed treatment sustained reduced injury. Pheromone trap captures are correlated to larval infestations in adjacent unprotected rice fields. Infestations of E. loftini in Louisiana sugarcane have not reached damaging levels. Sugarcane infested with E. loftini is being transported to sugar mills east of the pest’s known range, however, it has not established in these regions. Studies indicated automated E. loftini pheromone trapping systems have potential to further reduce scouting efforts. This represents the first use of automated pheromone-based monitoring systems for Lepidopterous insect pests in field crops. Field studies indicate new diamide chemistries may improve chemical control of E. loftini in sugarcane. This research expands the use of E. loftini pheromone traps in invasive species monitoring and pest management. Continued monitoring of E. loftini range expansion and the use of pheromone trap-based scouting techniques should be further pursued to mitigate the impact of this pest along the U.S. Gulf Coast

The VISTA Science Archive

We describe the VISTA Science Archive (VSA) and its first public release of data from five of the six VISTA Public Surveys. The VSA exists to support the VISTA Surveys through their lifecycle: the VISTA Public Survey consortia can use it during their quality control assessment of survey data products before submission to the ESO Science Archive Facility (ESO SAF); it supports their exploitation of survey data prior to its publication through the ESO SAF; and, subsequently, it provides the wider community with survey science exploitation tools that complement the data product repository functionality of the ESO SAF. This paper has been written in conjunction with the first public release of public survey data through the VSA and is designed to help its users understand the data products available and how the functionality of the VSA supports their varied science goals. We describe the design of the database and outline the database-driven curation processes that take data from nightly pipeline-processed and calibrated FITS files to create science-ready survey datasets. Much of this design, and the codebase implementing it, derives from our earlier WFCAM Science Archive (WSA), so this paper concentrates on the VISTA-specific aspects and on improvements made to the system in the light of experience gained in operating the WSA.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures. Minor edits to fonts and typos after sub-editting. Published in A&

Curating gene sets: challenges and opportunities for integrative analysis.

Genomic data interpretation often requires analyses that move from a gene-by-gene focus to a focus on sets of genes that are associated with biological phenomena such as molecular processes, phenotypes, diseases, drug interactions or environmental conditions. Unique challenges exist in the curation of gene sets beyond the challenges in curation of individual genes. Here we highlight a literature curation workflow whereby gene sets are curated from peer-reviewed published data into GeneWeaver (GW), a data repository and analysis platform. We describe the system features that allow for a flexible yet precise curation procedure. We illustrate the value of curation by gene sets through analysis of independently curated sets that relate to the integrated stress response, showing that sets curated from independent sources all share significant Jaccard similarity. A suite of reproducible analysis tools is provided in GW as services to carry out interactive functional investigation of user-submitted gene sets within the context of over 150 000 gene sets constructed from publicly available resources and published gene lists. A curation interface supports the ability of users to design and maintain curation workflows of gene sets, including assigning, reviewing and releasing gene sets within a curation project context

Advancement in thermal interface materials for future high-performance electronic applications. Part 1.

As electronic assemblies become more compact and increase in processing bandwidth, escalating thermal energy has become more difficult to manage. The major limitation has been nonmetallic joining using poor thermal interface materials (TIM). The interfacial, versus bulk, thermal conductivity of an adhesive is the major loss mechanism and normally accounts for an order magnitude loss in conductivity per equivalent thickness. The next generation TIM requires a sophisticated understanding of material and surface sciences, heat transport at submicron scales, and the manufacturing processes used in packaging of microelectronics and other target applications. Only when this relationship between bond line manufacturing processes, structure, and contact resistance is well-understood on a fundamental level will it be possible to advance the development of miniaturized microsystems. This report examines using thermal and squeeze-flow modeling as approaches to formulate TIMs incorporating nanoscience concepts. Understanding the thermal behavior of bond lines allows focus on the interfacial contact region. In addition, careful study of the thermal transport across these interfaces provides greatly augmented heat transfer paths and allows the formulation of very high resistance interfaces for total thermal isolation of circuits. For example, this will allow the integration of systems that exhibit multiple operational temperatures, such as cryogenically cooled detectors

Drinking and smoking at 3 months postpartum by lactation history

A spontaneous decrease in maternal drinking and smoking often occurs during pregnancy. The present study was conducted to determine if these lower levels of maternal drinking and smoking during pregnancy persist into the postpartum period, and if so, to determine if they are related to breastfeeding. Drinking and smoking were estimated in three cohorts of postpartum women who had been followed since pregnancy. The first group never breastfed their infants; the second group breastfed for less than 1 month; the third group breastfed for more than three months. (Women who weaned between one and three months were not studied.) Drinking and smoking in all three groups decreased sharply during pregnancy but rose again in the 3 months after delivery, though not to levels that were reported before conception. Usual drinking in the third month postpartum did not differ significantly among the three lactation groups. However, women who were still nursing were less likely to report occasional episodes of heavy drinking (binges) in this month than women who had weaned early or never breastfed. Women nursing in the third month postpartum were also significantly less likely to smoke during the month; if smoking, they were less likely to smoke heavily. These differences in postpartum drinking and smoking were not due entirely to habits before conception or to the influence of other potentially confounding variables.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73488/1/j.1365-3016.1990.tb00653.x.pd

Archiving multi-epoch data and the discovery of variables in the near infrared

We present a description of the design and usage of a new synoptic pipeline and database model for time series photometry in the VISTA Data Flow System (VDFS). All UKIRT-WFCAM data and most of the VISTA main survey data will be processed and archived by the VDFS. Much of these data are multi-epoch, useful for finding moving and variable objects. Our new database design allows the users to easily find rare objects of these types amongst the huge volume of data being produced by modern survey telescopes. Its effectiveness is demonstrated through examples using Data Release 5 of the UKIDSS Deep Extragalactic Survey (DXS) and the WFCAM standard star data. The synoptic pipeline provides additional quality control and calibration to these data in the process of generating accurate light-curves. We find that 0.6+-0.1% of stars and 2.3+-0.6% of galaxies in the UKIDSS-DXS with K<15 mag are variable with amplitudes \Delta K>0.015 magComment: 30 pages, 31 figures, MNRAS, in press Minor changes from previous version due to refereeing and proof-readin