Direct Election of the President Without a Constitutional Amendment: A Call for State Action

This article will suggest that this focus on the constitutional amendment process for changing the electoral college has been misdirected. The states, without federal action, possess the capability of implementing the direct popular election of the President. This article will examine the background of electoral college reform and will propose a National Vote Plan to achieve direct popular presidential election independently of the constitutional amendment process

The effect of physical contact on changes in fatigue markers following rugby union field-based training.

Repeated physical contact in rugby union is thought to contribute to post-match fatigue; however, no evidence exists on the effect of contact activity during field-based training on fatigue responses. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of contact during training on fatigue markers in rugby union players. Twenty academy rugby union players participated in the cross-over study. The magnitude of change in upper- and lower-body neuromuscular function (NMF), whole blood creatine kinase concentration [CK] and perception of well-being was assessed pre-training (baseline), immediately and 24 h post-training following contact and non-contact, field-based training. Training load was measured using mean heart rate, session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) and microtechnology (Catapult Optimeye S5). The inclusion of contact during field-based training almost certainly increased mean heart rate (9.7; ±3.9%) and sRPE (42; ±29.2%) and resulted in likely and very likely greater decreases in upper-body NMF (-7.3; ±4.7% versus 2.7; ±5.9%) and perception of well-being (-8.0; ±4.8% versus  -3.4; ±2.2%) 24 h post-training, respectively, and almost certainly greater elevations in [CK] (88.2; ±40.7% versus 3.7; ±8%). The exclusion of contact from field-based training almost certainly increased running intensity (19.8; ±5%) and distance (27.5; ±5.3%), resulting in possibly greater decreases in lower-body NMF (-5.6; ±5.2% versus 2.3; ±2.4%). Practitioners should be aware of the different demands and fatigue responses of contact and non-contact, field-based training and can use this information to appropriately schedule such training in the weekly microcycle

A procedure for the change point problem in parametric models based on phi-divergence test-statistics

This paper studies the change point problem for a general parametric, univariate or multivariate family of distributions. An information theoretic procedure is developed which is based on general divergence measures for testing the hypothesis of the existence of a change. For comparing the accuracy of the new test-statistic a simulation study is performed for the special case of a univariate discrete model. Finally, the procedure proposed in this paper is illustrated through a classical change-point example

Will a catch share for whales improve social welfare?

We critique a proposal to use catch shares to manage transboundary wildlife resources with potentially high non-extractive values, and we focus on the case of whales. Because whales are impure public goods, a policy that fails to capture all nonmarket benefits (due to free riding) could lead to a suboptimal outcome. Even if free riding were overcome, whale shares would face four implementation challenges. First, a whale share could legitimize the international trade in whale meat and expand the whale meat market. Second, a legal whale trade creates monitoring and enforcement challenges similar to those of organizations that manage highly migratory species such as tuna. Third, a whale share could create a new political economy of management that changes incentives and increases costs for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to achieve the current level of conservation. Fourth, a whale share program creates new logistical challenges for quota definition and allocation regardless of whether the market for whale products expands or contracts. Each of these issues, if left unaddressed, could result in lower overall welfare for society than under the status quo

Land use not litter quality is a stronger driver of decomposition in hyperdiverse tropical forest

Funded by Natural Environment Research Council. Grant Number: NE/K016253/1Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Multiple models guide strategies for agricultural nutrient reductions

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136504/1/fee1472_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136504/2/fee1472-sup-0008-WebTable7.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136504/3/fee1472-sup-0004-WebTable3.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136504/4/fee1472.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136504/5/fee1472-sup-0006-WebTable5.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136504/6/fee1472-sup-0002-WebTable1.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136504/7/fee1472-sup-0005-WebTable4.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136504/8/fee1472-sup-0007-WebTable6.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136504/9/fee1472-sup-0003-WebTable2.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136504/10/fee1472-sup-0001-WebFig1.pd

The modelling of feedback in star formation simulations

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: James E. Dale, ‘The modelling of feedback in star formation simulations’, New Astronomy Reviews, Vol. 68, pp. 1-33, October 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The final, published version is available online at doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newar.2015.06.001. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.I review the current state of numerical simulations of stellar feedback in the context of star formation at scales ranging from the formation of individual stars to models of galaxy formation including cosmic reionisation. I survey the wealth of algorithms developed recently to solve the radiative transfer problem and to simulate stellar winds, supernovae and protostellar jets. I discuss the results of these simulations with regard to star formation in molecular clouds, the interaction of different feedback mechanisms with each other and with magnetic fields, and in the wider context of galactic- and cosmological-scale simulations.Peer reviewe

A Complete Survey of the Transient Radio Sky and Implications for Gamma-Ray Bursts, Supernovae, and other Relativistic Explosions

We had previously reported on a survey for radio transients, used to set an upper limit on the number of orphan gamma-ray burst (GRB) radio afterglows, and thus a lower limit on the typical GRB beaming factor. Here we report radio and optical follow-up observations of these possible transients, achieving the first full characterization of the transient radio sky. We find that only two source are likely to be real radio transients, an optically obscured radio supernova (SN) in the nearby galaxy NGC 4216, and a source not associated with a bright host galaxy, which is too radio luminous to be a GRB afterglow. We speculate that this may be a flare from a peculiar active galactic nucleus, or a burst from an unusual Galactic compact object. We place an upper limit of 65 radio transients above 6 mJy over the entire sky at the 95% confidence level. The implications are as follows. First, we derive a limit on the typical beaming of GRBs; we find f_b^{-1} >~ 60, ~5 times higher than our earlier results. Second, we impose an upper limit on the rate of events that eject >~ 10^{51} erg in unconfined relativistic ejecta, whether or not accompanied by detectable emission in wavebands other than the radio. Our estimated rate, <=1000/y/Gpc, is about two orders of magnitude smaller than the rate of core-collapse SNe (and type Ib/c events in particular), indicating that only a minority of such events eject significant amounts of relativistic material, which are required by fireball models of long-soft GRBs. Finally, we show that future wider and/or deeper radio variability surveys are expected to detect numerous orphan radio GRB afterglows. Our survey also illustrates the great potential of sensitive surveys with new instruments to revolutionize the study of nearby SNe (abridged).Comment: Submitted to ApJ. Comments welcom

The SPARC Water Vapor Assessment II: assessment of satellite measurements of upper tropospheric humidity

Nineteen limb-viewing data sets (occultation, passive thermal, and UV scattering) and two nadir upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) data sets are intercompared and also compared to frost-point hygrometer balloon sondes. The upper troposphere considered here covers the pressure range from 300-100 hPa. UTH is a challenging measurement, because concentrations vary between 2-1000 ppmv (parts per million by volume), with sharp changes in vertical gradients near the tropopause. Cloudiness in this region also makes the measurement challenging. The atmospheric temperature is also highly variable ranging from 180-250 K. The assessment of satellite-measured UTH is based on coincident comparisons with balloon frost-point hygrometer sondes, multi-month mapped comparisons, zonal mean time series comparisons, and coincident satellite-to-satellite comparisons. While the satellite fields show similar features in maps and time series, quantitatively they can differ by a factor of 2 in concentration, with strong dependencies on the amount of UTH. Additionally, time-lag response-corrected Vaisala RS92 radiosondes are compared to satellites and the frost-point hygrometer measurements. In summary, most satellite data sets reviewed here show on average similar to 30 % agreement amongst themselves and frost-point data but with an additional similar to 30 % variability about the mean bias. The Vaisala RS92 sonde, even with a time-lag correction, shows poor behavior for pressures less than 200 hPa