Improved space radiation shielding methods

The computing software that was used to perform the charged particle radiation transport analysis and shielding design for the Mariner Jupiter/Saturn 1977 spacecraft is described. Electron fluences, energy spectra and dose rates obtained with this software are presented and compared with independent computer calculations

Racial and Economic Disparities and the Correlation to Adverse Events in Minority Populations in the United States

The United States is a multiracial, multiethnic society. The major racial/ethnic categories in American society are white, African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American. Racism, an insidious social problem in the United States since the founding of the country, is the belief that members of one or more races are inferior to members of other races. Racism in the United States has been directed primarily by the white majority against racial and ethnic minorities. Historically, the white majority has singled out racial/ethnic minority groups for differential and unequal treatment in the areas of housing, employment, education, and criminal justice. As a 20-year old young African American male, these racial disparities directly affect my future success and my peer group. Since the presidential election in 2016, racism in America has become more accepted, overt, and tolerated. Criminal justice experts distinguish between legal and extralegal factors to explain racial disparities in criminal justice. Legal factors include seriousness of the offense and prior criminal record. These are legitimate reasons for disparities because they pertain to an individual\u27s criminal behavior. Extralegal factors include race, class, and gender. These are not legitimate factors upon which to base decisions because they relate to group membership rather than criminal behavior

Seeking a Second Opinion: A Call for Congressional Evaluation of Anti-assignment Provisions in Employee Health Plans

In the health insurance context, anti-assignment provisions are contractual clauses that restrict an insured individual’s ability to assign rights due under a health plan to another party, such as a medical provider. As these provisions have become increasingly prevalent in employersponsored health plan agreements, they have effectively stripped medical providers of enforcement and litigation rights previously utilized under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA)—the relevant federal regulation governing employee benefit plans, including health insurance plans. This Note examines these effects in light of ERISA’s intended protections of employees participating in employer-sponsored benefit plans and considers whether congressional intervention is warranted to address the respective impacts as a result. This Note contends that while persuasive arguments exist both in support of a need for reform and for sufficiency of the status quo, arguments around these dueling views tend to draw on merely anecdotal evidence and theoretical economic contestations. Accordingly, this Note argues that Congress should develop empirical evidence to determine whether intervention is needed and proposes plausible long-term amendments to ERISA, should they be warranted, along with interim solutions to help address problematic impacts while such study is conducted

9th Circuit Orders Retrial Over “Stairway to Heaven” Copyright Infringement Case

A three-judge panel on the 9th Circuit unanimously overturned the district court’s 2016 decision in the “Stairway to Heaven” copyright infringement case. The case involved two songs: Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and Spirit’s “Taurus.” The jury found that the opening guitar melody of “Stairway” was not “extrinsically similar” to a portion of the instrumental-song “Spirit.” However, for reasons discussed below, the case was remanded for a new trial. This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on October 14, 2018. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above

Evaluation of a Program to Reduce Bullying in an Elementary School

Bullying is one of the most pervasive challenges in schools across the world. This investigation is an evaluation of a school’s attempt to address the large number of incidents of bullying. Materials from the Bully Free Classroom (BFC) by Allan Beane (2009) served as the intervention curriculum for 21, fifth grade students and six teachers. A 14-week (with the exception of school breaks), six lesson intervention was implemented with three groups of students: two groups identified as perpetrators and one group of victims. Teachers received training on bullying knowledge and how to appropriately report bullying-related incidents. Pre and post measures of bullying knowledge, frequency ratings of bullying and prosocial behaviors observed, and discipline referrals for bullying served as the dependent measures for the student participants. Results support the use of the intervention as the mean number of discipline referrals for participants of bully status significantly decreased, student ratings for negative behaviors significantly decreased, student knowledge of bullying significantly increased, and teacher’s ratings of the frequency of bullying decreased while school climate ratings became more positive. Moderate to large effect sizes are interpreted to provide strong support for a recommendation for school-wide adoption of the program. The scope and nature of the intervention plan is discussed in relation to recommended features of bully prevention and intervention programs and recommendations are made for implementation of this intervention

Between God and Man: Community\u27s Place in Virtue, Practical Reason, and Transcendent Good

Talbot Brewer\u27s Retrieval of Ethics and Robert Adams\u27s Finite and Infinite Goods present distinct theories in ethics and metaethics. Brewer begins with the fundamental ethical perspective of the practical deliberator who experiences his practical deliberations as a continuous, unified, and constantly revised activity which begins with inchoate intimations of goodness and proceeds better or worse to understand and pursue the goodness which pervades his evaluative outlook. From this Brewer aims to account for how we achieve excellence in practical deliberation and arrive at a more tenable and self-consistent evaluative outlook which informs our ethical deliberations. Alternately, Adams begins in the linguistic community and the role suggested by our ordinary language which \u27good\u27 must play to account for the diversity of its predications and suggested instantiations. From this a deeply metaphysical account is developed of ordinary goods as, in a sense, parasitic on a transcendent and infinite good to which their intelligibility is oand upon which traditional moral notions of obligation and the like are appealingly based. This thesis argues that each theory, though similar, has distinct strengths and weaknesses which might complement each other in a synthetic theory strengthened by both. Adams\u27s transcendent Good, while it secures objectivity and maximal sharedness, lacks a criterion for higher and lower order goods. Brewer\u27s epistemology couched in practical reason, while establishing an intriguing picture of the good human life, lacks a firm grounding outside the individual to avoid subjectivism. My solution is to push the two theories together with a dialectical criterion for Adams and a notion of the transcendent community for Brewer

GfK Group

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