Wisconsin Supreme Court and Legislative History

Legislative history has been directly mentioned more than 1,800 times in the body of Wisconsin Supreme Court opinions. In 1927, the Wisconsin Legislature established the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) to maintain files of drafting records for each proposed bill. Since the late 1990s, the files have been available electronically to make the information more accessible to lawyers appearing in Wisconsin courts

Free Shoes for Primary and Secondary Schools: Playing by the Rules of Title IX

Many credit Title IX with providing opportunities for girls to participate in athletics in greater numbers. The National Federation of State High School Associations show that the number of girls participating increased from 294,015 in 1971-1972 to 2,908,390 in 2004-2005, almost a tenfold increase. In the same time period the number of boys participating increased by 443,000. Girls participation has dramatically increased so the big picture is focused. Now attention is being drawn to some of the smaller aspects of Title IX compliance. Shoe deals sidestep rules on equality in schools. Thus ran the headline in the Oregonian. The journalist went on say that, Nike, Adidas and Reebok sponsor about 300 high school basketball teams nationwide... about 75 per cent of the high school teams sponsored by Nike... are boys teams... That figure is driven by a market in which boys buy far more basketball merchandise than girls do. A follow-up story appeared the following Sunday telling readers that When private donors give shoes or other perks to boys teams... the school \u27shall ensure that teams of the other sex receive equivalent benefits or services.\u27 Another story appeared in the Indianapolis Star on July 6, 2006. It became known that one of the prep basketball stars who was in Indianapolis for the Nike basketball camp because he is a future pro has shoes and gear provided by Nike for his Medford Oregon high school team. However, the girls\u27 teams at the same school have to pay for their own shoes which sell for as much as $150. The mother of one of the girls has complained, was rebuffed by the school officials so she took her story to the media to bring attention to the situation. When a company offers to give a school\u27s basketball team free shoes or any other kind of equipment or gear, it may seem like a welcome gift. First, the gift would save the players or the school money because neither has to buy the shoes, uniforms or other equipment that has been donated. Second, the gift may be in recognition that the school\u27s athletic program is successful and has star players that are of interest to the donor company. The athlete may provide an endorsement in the future, but in the course of their high school or college career, they would be wearing or using the company\u27s specific brand. But what happens when the company gives the gift only to the girls\u27 team or only to the boys\u27 team and not the other gender in either case? The statutes and regulations of Title IX step in and give guidance to primary and secondary schools. This article will consider the applicable statutory and regulatory language concerning gifts of shoes and other equipment; the administrative policies and judicial interpretations that have been applied to the statutory and regulatory language; and the efforts that have been made to educate the administrators of school districts, booster organizations and parents about gifts of free gear and equipment

A Study of the Relationship of Adolescent Self-Esteem with Parental and Peer Attachment

This study examined adolescent attachment to parents and peers and its relation to their self-esteem. Attachment to parents and peers was operationalized with the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPP A) by Greensberg and Armsden ( 1987) and self-esteem was operationalized by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE). A convenient, volunteer sample was used from a high school in a suburban area of St. Charles County, Missouri. The 127 adolescents ranged in age from 15 to 19 with an average age of 16 years. The sample included 120 Caucasians (94.4%), 5 African Americans (4%), 1 Hispanic (.8%), and 1 Asian (.8%). The participants were administered the IPPA and RSE in a normal classroom setting by their teacher only after their parent permission forms were returned. Parent and peer attachment were found to be significant predictors of adolescent self- esteem. Girls showed a higher level of parental attachment to their mothers compared to the boys, while boys showed a higher level of parental attachment to their fathers than the girls. Girls also reflected a higher degree of peer attachment than the boys. Implications and findings of the results will be further discussed

Differential Phase Estimation with the SeaMARC II Bathymetric Sidescan Sonar System

A maximum-likelihood estimator is used to extract differential phase measurements from noisy seafloor echoes received at pairs of transducers mounted on either side of the SeaMARC II bathymetricsidescan sonar system. Carrier frequencies for each side are about 1 kHz apart, and echoes from a transmitted pulse 2 ms long are analyzed. For each side, phase difference sequences are derived from the full complex data consisting of base-banded and digitized quadrature components of the received echoes. With less bias and a lower variance, this method is shown to be more efficient than a uniform mean estimator. It also does not exhibit the angular or time ambiguities commonly found in the histogram method used in the SeaMARC II system. A figure for the estimation uncertainty of the phasedifference is presented, and results are obtained for both real and simulated data. Based on this error estimate and an empirical verification derived through coherent ping stacking, a single filter length of 100 ms is chosen for data processing application

Nanosecond time transfer via shuttle laser ranging experiment

A method is described to use a proposed shuttle laser ranging experiment to transfer time with nanosecond precision. All that need be added to the original experiment are low cost ground stations and an atomic clock on the shuttle. It is shown that global time transfer can be accomplished with 1 ns precision and transfer up to distances of 2000 km can be accomplished with better than 100 ps precision

EVALUATION OF THERMAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF DEMONSTRATION WALL UTILIZING PHASE CHANGE CEMENTITIOUS MATERIALS

International project PoroPCM involves partners from Germany, Czech Republic, Spain and Japan with the objective to develop new multifunctional Phase Change Materials modified porous cementitious nanocomposite (PoroPCM). Such material can be utilized for storing heat energy in the insulation layer of buildings compared to commonly used insulation materials since the phase change increases heat capacity. This enhanced feature reduces the amount of energy necessary for running the heating/cooling system. For the testing of the newly developed phase change cementitious composite a demonstration wall will be developed and tested for its thermal as well as mechanical performance. The topic of the paper is the description of the properties of the new phase change cementitious nanocomposite. The main emphasis of the paper is the description of the demonstration wall behaviour under typical environmental conditions. The wall design is supported by numerical simulation of the wall physical parameters. The numerical modelling involves the definition of suitable numerical models for the simulation of the thermal properties of the new phase change nanocomposite. The numerical model is then used to demonstrate the performance of the wall layer design. The presented pilot results show efficiency increase of the insulation material in the range 15–70%. Also modelling of wind resistance of the layered structure is included. The developed wall design and PoroPCM material will be tested and verified by a large scale test in the final year of the project