What’s HUD Got to Do With It?: How HUD’s Disparate Impact Rule May Save the Fair Housing Act’s Disparate Impact Standard

Since 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari three times on the question of whether disparate impact liability is cognizable under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). The first two times, the parties settled. The question is before the Court once again in Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., and this time the parties seem unlikely to settle. Disparate impact liability in the civil rights context entails liability for actions that have a discriminatory effect, regardless of an actor’s motive. Under the FHA, this can translate into liability for actions that make housing disproportionately unavailable for persons of a protected class or actions that tend to increase or maintain segregated housing patterns. All eleven federal circuit courts that have addressed the question agree that disparate impact claims are cognizable under the FHA. In addition, in the spring of 2013, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) promulgated a rule that standardizes the burdens of proof for disparate impact claims under the FHA and specifically states for the first time in a formal administrative rule that disparate impact claims are cognizable under the FHA. The promulgation of HUD’s disparate impact rule means that this time around the Supreme Court must give heightened deference to an interpretation of the FHA that authorizes disparate impact claims. This Note argues that despite the near-unanimity of the circuit courts’ interpretation of the FHA, the fate of disparate impact claims under the FHA was anything but certain prior to the promulgation of the HUD rule. The HUD rule makes it much more likely that the FHA disparate impact standard will survive, and this Note argues that it should

Physical and chemical differentiation of the luminous star-forming region W49A - Results from the JCMT Spectral Legacy Survey

The massive and luminous star-forming region W49A is a well known Galactic candidate to probe the physical conditions and chemistry similar to those expected in external starburst galaxies. We aim to probe the physical and chemical structure of W49A on a spatial scale of ~0.8 pc based on the JCMT Spectral Legacy Survey, which covers the frequency range between 330 and 373 GHz. The wide 2x2 arcminutes field and the high spectral resolution of the HARP instrument on JCMT provides information on the spatial structure and kinematics of the cloud. For species where multiple transitions are available, we estimate excitation temperatures and column densities. We detected 255 transitions corresponding to 60 species in the 330-373 GHz range at the center position of W49A. Excitation conditions can be probed for 16 molecules. The chemical composition suggests the importance of shock-, PDR-, and hot core chemistry. Many molecular lines show a significant spatial extent across the maps including high density tracers (e.g. HCN, HNC, CS, HCO+) and tracers of UV-irradiation (e.g. CN and C2H). Large variations are seen between the sub-regions with mostly blue-shifted emission toward the Eastern tail, mostly red-shifted emission toward the Northern clump, and emission peaking around the expected source velocity toward the South-west clump. A comparison of column density ratios of characteristic species observed toward W49A to Galactic PDRs suggests that while the chemistry toward the W49A center is driven by a combination of UV-irradiation and shocks, UV-irradiation dominates for the Northern Clump, Eastern tail, and South-west clump regions. A comparison to a starburst galaxy and an AGN suggests similar C2H, CN, and H2CO abundances (with respect to the dense gas tracer 34CS) between the ~0.8 pc scale probed for W49A and the >1 kpc regions in external galaxies with global star-formation.Comment: Proposed for acceptance in A&A, abstract abridge

Identification and expression analysis of CBF/DREB1 and COR15 genes in mutants of Brassica oleracea var. botrytis with enhanced proline production and frost resistance.

Frost resistant mutants of Brassica oleracea var. botrytis were investigated for the presence of CBF/DREB1 and COR15a gene products and induced frost resistance. Total RNA of clones was isolated after 3 h, 6 h, 24 h and 14 d acclimation at 4 °C and proteins and free proline were isolated after 14 d acclimation. cDNA was produced using RT-PCR and the first CBF gene in B. oleracea detected and did quantify. Through SDS-PAGE and Western blotting, the COR15a protein was detected for the first time in B. oleracea. The results confirmed the first report of the presence of BoCBF/DREB1 in B. oleracea and this only appeared under cold acclimation. The sequence analysis of predicted amino acids revealed a very high homology (90%) with CBF sequences of other Brassica species (BnCBF5/DREB1, BrDREB1 and BjDREB1B) and homology reduced to 67% when compared to plants other than Brassicas. BoCBF/DREB1 transcript levels increased up to 24 h acclimation and then declined. Some mutants showed BoCBF/DREB1 expression at 3 h while others only after 6 h and 24 h acclimation. The genotypes showed positive significant correlation between BoCBF/DREB1 expression and frost resistance (R(2) = 0.9343). The proline level under acclimation increased about 8 fold and demonstrated positive and significant correlation with BoCBF/DREB1 expression. Proline also showed positive and significant correlation with frost resistance under cold acclimation but very not under non-acclimation. All clones were positive for COR15a protein after 14 d cold acclimation and expression correlated with frost resistance. Under non-acclimation COR15a was constitutively expressed in 3 mutants

The genealogy of judgement: towards a deep history of academic freedom

The classical conception of academic freedom associated with Wilhelm von Humboldt and the rise of the modern university has a quite specific cultural foundation that centres on the controversial mental faculty of 'judgement'. This article traces the roots of 'judgement' back to the Protestant Reformation, through its heyday as the signature feature of German idealism, and to its gradual loss of salience as both a philosophical and a psychological concept. This trajectory has been accompanied by a general shrinking in the scope of academic freedom from the promulgation of world-views to the offering of expert opinion

Wave heating from proto-neutron star convection and the core-collapse supernova explosion mechanism

Our understanding of the core-collapse supernova explosion mechanism is incomplete. While the favoured scenario is delayed revival of the stalled shock by neutrino heating, it is difficult to reliably compute explosion outcomes and energies, which depend sensitively on the complex radiation hydrodynamics of the post-shock region. The dynamics of the (non-)explosion depend sensitively on how energy is transported from inside and near the proto-neutron star (PNS) to material just behind the supernova shock. Although most of the PNS energy is lost in the form of neutrinos, hydrodynamic and hydromagnetic waves can also carry energy from the PNS to the shock. We show that gravity waves excited by core PNS convection can couple with outgoing acoustic waves that present an appreciable source of energy and pressure in the post-shock region. Using one-dimensional simulations, we estimate the gravity wave energy flux excited by PNS convection and the fraction of this energy transmitted upwards to the post-shock region as acoustic waves. We find wave energy fluxes near 10⁵¹ergs⁻¹ are likely to persist for ∼1s post-bounce. The wave pressure on the shock may exceed 10 per cent of the thermal pressure, potentially contributing to shock revival and, subsequently, a successful and energetic explosion. We also discuss how future simulations can better capture the effects of waves, and more accurately quantify wave heating rates

Effects of thickness on supersonic performance of a wing-body configuration employing a warped highly swept arrow wing

Effects of airfoil section shape and thickness on supersonic performance characteristics of wing body configuration employing warped highly swept arrow win

Neutrino-Accelerated Hot Hydrogen Burning

We examine the effects of significant electron anti-neutrino fluxes on hydrogen burning. Specifically, we find that the bottleneck weak nuclear reactions in the traditional pp-chain and the hot CNO cycle can be accelerated by anti-neutrino capture, increasing the energy generation rate. We also discuss how anti-neutrino capture reactions can alter the conditions for break out into the rp-process. We speculate on the impact of these considerations for the evolution and dynamics of collapsing very- and super- massive compact objects.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, submitted to ApJ; minor content chang

On some numerical difficulties in integrating the equations for one-dimensional nonequilibrium nozzle flow

Numerical difficulties in integrating equations for one dimensional nonequilibrium nozzle flow of ga