Who Gets in? The Quest for Diversity after Grutter

Transcript of The 2004 James McCormick Mitchell Lecture. On March 8, 2004, the University at Buffalo Law School hosted its annual Mitchell Lecture,1 a panel discussion entitled, Who Gets In? The Quest for Diversity After Grutter. The Mitchell Committee decided to focus this year\u27s lecture on innovative proposals to ensure diversity in law school admissions in light of the Supreme Court\u27s ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, which confirmed that race and ethnicity could be taken into consideration in admission decisions for diversity purposes. Noting that much of the debate about Grutter thus far has emphasized the decision\u27s constitutionality or its implications for affirmative action, the Committee sought to have a different kind of conversation, one that explored new approaches to admissions that might aid law schools in admitting more diverse student bodies. To this end, the Committee invited five leading scholars, whose work, either analytical or empirical, could change or deepen understandings about the potential for and the obstacles to diversity in law school admissions post-Grutter. Their short presentations (each speaker had only twelve minutes to speak), which provoked a lively discussion, are presented in this edited transcript of the event together with selected excerpts from the question and answer period

Who Gets In? The Quest for Diversity after \u3cem\u3eGrutter\u3c/em\u3e

On March 8, 2004, the University at Buffalo Law School hosted its annual Mitchell Lecture,1 a panel discussion entitled, Who Gets In? The Quest for Diversity After Grutter. The Mitchell Committee decided to focus this year\u27s lecture on innovative proposals to ensure diversity in law school admissions in light of the Supreme Court\u27s ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, which confirmed that race and ethnicity could be taken into consideration in admission decisions for diversity purposes. Noting that much of the debate about Grutter thus far has emphasized the decision\u27s constitutionality or its implications for affirmative action, the Committee sought to have a different kind of conversation, one that explored new approaches to admissions that might aid law schools in admitting more diverse student bodies. To this end, the Committee invited five leading scholars, whose work, either analytical or empirical, could change or deepen understandings about the potential for and the obstacles to diversity in law school admissions post-Grutter. Their short presentations (each speaker had only twelve minutes to speak), which provoked a lively discussion, are presented in this edited transcript of the event together with selected excerpts from the question and answer period

Observations of loading-unloading process at Saturn distant magnetotail

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Cost-Effective Use of Silver Dressings for the Treatment of Hard-to-Heal Chronic Venous Leg Ulcers

Aim To estimate the cost-effectiveness of silver dressings using a health economic model based on time-to-wound-healing in hard-to-heal chronic venous leg ulcers (VLUs). Background Chronic venous ulceration affects 1–3% of the adult population and typically has a protracted course of healing, resulting in considerable costs to the healthcare system. The pathogenesis of VLUs includes excessive and prolonged inflammation which is often related to critical colonisation and early infection. The use of silver dressings to control this bioburden and improve wound healing rates remains controversial. Methods A decision tree was constructed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of treatment with silver compared with non-silver dressings for four weeks in a primary care setting. The outcomes: ‘Healed ulcer’, ‘Healing ulcer’ or ‘No improvement’ were developed, reflecting the relative reduction in ulcer area from baseline to four weeks of treatment. A data set from a recent meta-analysis, based on four RCTs, was applied to the model. Results Treatment with silver dressings for an initial four weeks was found to give a total cost saving (£141.57) compared with treatment with non-silver dressings. In addition, patients treated with silver dressings had a faster wound closure compared with those who had been treated with non-silver dressings. Conclusion The use of silver dressings improves healing time and can lead to overall cost savings. These results can be used to guide healthcare decision makers in evaluating the economic aspects of treatment with silver dressings in hard-to-heal chronic VLUs

Discovery of a new Local Group Dwarf Galaxy Candidate in UNIONS: Bo\"otes V

We present the discovery of Bo\"otes V, a new ultra-faint dwarf galaxy candidate. This satellite is detected as a resolved overdensity of stars during an ongoing search for new Local Group dwarf galaxy candidates in the UNIONS photometric dataset. It has a physical half-light radius of 26.9$^{+7.5}_{-5.4}$ pc, a $V$-band magnitude of $-$4.5 $\pm$ 0.4 mag, and resides at a heliocentric distance of approximately 100 kpc. We use Gaia DR3 astrometry to identify member stars, characterize the systemic proper motion, and confirm the reality of this faint stellar system. The brightest star in this system was followed up using Gemini GMOS-N long-slit spectroscopy and is measured to have a metallicity of [Fe/H] $=$ $-$2.85 $\pm$ 0.10 dex and a heliocentric radial velocity of $v_r$ = 5.1 $\pm$ 13.4 km s$^{-1}$. Bo\"otes V is larger (in terms of scale radius), more distant, and more metal-poor than the vast majority of globular clusters. It is likely that Bo\"otes V is an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy, though future spectroscopic studies will be necessary to definitively classify this object.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in the AAS Journals. Please note that this paper was submitted in coordination with the work of William Cerny et al. 2022. These authors independently discovered this same satellite so our two research groups have coordinated the submission of these discovery paper

Interface properties and built-in potential profile of a LaCrO3_3/SrTiO3_3 superlattice determined by standing-wave excited photoemission spectroscopy

LaCrO$_3$ (LCO) / SrTiO$_3$ (STO) heterojunctions are intriguing due to a polar discontinuity along (001), two distinct and controllable interface structures [(LaO)$^+$/(TiO$_2$)$^0$ and (SrO)$^0$/(CrO$_2$)$^-$], and interface-induced polarization. In this study, we have used soft- and hard x-ray standing-wave excited photoemission spectroscopy (SW-XPS) to generate a quantitative determination of the elemental depth profiles and interface properties, band alignments, and the depth distribution of the interface-induced built-in potentials in the two constituent oxides. We observe an alternating charged interface configuration: a positively charged (LaO)$^+$/(TiO$_2$)$^0$ intermediate layer at the LCO$_\textbf{top}$/STO$_\textbf{bottom}$ interface and a negatively charged (SrO)$^0$/(CrO$_2$)$^-$ intermediate layer at the STO$_\textbf{top}$/LCO$_\textbf{bottom}$ interface. Using core-level SW data, we have determined the depth distribution of species, including through the interfaces, and these results are in excellent agreement with scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy (STEM-EELS) mapping of local structure and composition. SW-XPS also enabled deconvolution of the LCO-contributed and STO- contributed matrix-element-weighted density of states (MEWDOSs) from the valence band (VB) spectra for the LCO/STO superlattice (SL). Monitoring the VB edges of the deconvoluted MEWDOS shifts with a change in probing profile, the alternating charge- induced built-in potentials are observed in both constituent oxides. Finally, using a two-step simulation approach involving first core-level binding energy shifts and then valence-band modeling, the built-in potential gradients across the SL are resolved in detail and represented by the depth distribution of VB edges.Comment: Main text: 29 pages, 5 figures; Supplementary Information: 20 pages, 10 figure

Restoring Pre-Industrial CO\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e Levels While Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

© 2020 by the authors. Unless humanity achieves United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and restores the relatively stable climate of pre-industrial CO2 levels (as early as 2140), species extinctions, starvation, drought/floods, and violence will exacerbate mass migrations. This paper presents conceptual designs and techno-economic analyses to calculate sustainable limits for growing high-protein seafood and macroalgae-for-biofuel. We review the availability of wet solid waste and outline the mass balance of carbon and plant nutrients passing through a hydrothermal liquefaction process. The paper reviews the availability of dry solid waste and dry biomass for bioenergy with CO2 capture and storage (BECCS) while generating Allam Cycle electricity. Sufficient wet-waste biomass supports quickly building hydrothermal liquefaction facilities. Macroalgae-for-biofuel technology can be developed and straightforwardly implemented on SDG-achieving high protein seafood infrastructure. The analyses indicate a potential for (1) 0.5 billion tonnes/yr of seafood; (2) 20 million barrels/day of biofuel from solid waste; (3) more biocrude oil from macroalgae than current fossil oil; and (4) sequestration of 28 to 38 billion tonnes/yr of bio-CO2. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) costs are between 25–33% of those for BECCS with pre-2019 technology or the projected cost of air-capture CDR

The discovery of the faintest known Milky Way satellite using UNIONS

We present the discovery of Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1, the least luminous known satellite of the Milky Way, which is estimated to have an absolute V-band magnitude of $+2.2^{+0.4}_{-0.3}$ mag, equivalent to a total stellar mass of 16$^{+6}_{-5}$ M$_{\odot}$. Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1 was uncovered in the deep, wide-field Ultraviolet Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS) and is consistent with an old ($\tau > 11$ Gyr), metal-poor ([Fe/H] $\sim -2.2$) stellar population at a heliocentric distance of $\sim$ 10 kpc. Despite being compact ($r_{\text{h}} = 3\pm1$ pc) and composed of so few stars, we confirm the reality of Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1 with Keck II/DEIMOS follow-up spectroscopy and identify 11 radial velocity members, 8 of which have full astrometric data from $Gaia$ and are co-moving based on their proper motions. Based on these 11 radial velocity members, we derive an intrinsic velocity dispersion of $3.7^{+1.4}_{-1.0}$ km s$^{-1}$ but some caveats preclude this value from being interpreted as a direct indicator of the underlying gravitational potential at this time. Primarily, the exclusion of the largest velocity outlier from the member list drops the velocity dispersion to $1.9^{+1.4}_{-1.1}$ km s$^{-1}$, and the subsequent removal of an additional outlier star produces an unresolved velocity dispersion. While the presence of binary stars may be inflating the measurement, the possibility of a significant velocity dispersion makes Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1 a high priority candidate for multi-epoch spectroscopic follow-ups to deduce to true nature of this incredibly faint satellite.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables; Accepted for publication in Ap

Ethnic Variation in Inflammatory Profile in Tuberculosis

PMCID: PMC3701709This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited