Active Virtues

Constitutional theory has long been influenced by the idea that the Supreme Court exercises “passive virtues,” avoiding politically divisive cases that threaten its legitimacy. The Article inverts the logic. Supreme Court Justices (and other judges too) do more than avoid divisive cases that could weaken the Court. They seek “unity” cases—meaning cases where law and politics align—that could strengthen the Court. When judges seek unity cases to enhance their legitimacy, they exercise active virtues. We develop the theory of active virtues and demonstrate its use. Our case studies come from the U.S. Supreme Court and tribunals worldwide, and they involve issues like voting, piracy, and police. Following the case studies, we situate active virtues in a broader theory of judicial power. According to our theory, courts balance divisive and unity cases like investors balance stocks and bonds. This portfolio theory of judicial power illuminates a range of topics, including docket control, activism, the counter-majoritarian difficulty, and the rule of law. Recognizing active virtues may have implications for today’s Supreme Court, which faces a legitimacy crisis

Surface critical behaviour of the Interacting Self-Avoiding Trail on the square lattice

The surface critical behaviour of the interacting self-avoiding trail is examined using transfer matrix methods coupled with finite-size scaling. Particular attention is paid to the critical exponents at the ordinary and special points along the collapse transition line. The phase diagram is also presented.Comment: Journal of Physics A (accepted

Effects of Human Apolipoprotein E3 and E4 Genotypes on Cardiometabolic Disease Risk

Apolipoprotein (apo) E isoforms have specific effects on the etiology of cardiovascular disease (CVD), but data is limited on the effects of these genotypes for the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and related cardiometabolic alterations. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of human apoE3 and E4 genotypes on risk factors for T2DM and cardiac metabolism. Cardiac tissue from human apoE3 (n=8) and E4 (n=8) knock-in (KI) mice were compared to lean (n=11) and diet-induced obese (n=12) B6D2F1 mice to characterize the cardiac metabolic activity of AMPK, as well as for lipid and glycogen levels. Plasma was analyzed for lipid and lipoprotein concentrations, as well as glucose, insulin and HOMA-IR. An ANOVA was used to identify differences between groups. Statistical significance was set at a P\u3c0.05. ApoE3 and E4 mice displayed mild insulin resistance (Table 1) despite for having a body mass similar to the lean mice. In addition, apoE3 mice had a 1.5 fold greater HOMA-IR than apoE4 mice. Interestingly, apoE3 and E4 mice had significantly lower TC, Tg and HDL-C than both lean and obese mice. In apoE3 mice, nonHDL-C was significantly lower than both the lean and obese mice and the apoE4 mice. In apoE3 mice, cardiac cholesterol was greater than both lean and obese controls and apoE4 mice. In contrast, apoE4 mice had 2.5 and 2.9 fold greater cardiac triglyceride levels than the lean and obese mice, respectively. In the absence of an obesogenic diet, apoE3 and E4 mice displayed an insulin resistant metabolic state combined with altered lipid and lipoprotein metabolism that paralleled an increase in cardiac lipid deposition. These alterations in cardiac metabolism may contribute to the increased risk of CVD observed in apoE3 and E4 genotypes

Fatores que afetam o valor nutritivo da silagens de forrageiras tropicais

Considering the importance of silage as alternative for animal feeding systems, this review aims to present recent results available in literature on factors affecting the nutritive value of silage, especially in tropical forages. Considering the cost of feed, the use of silage as animal feed is an important practice in the sustainability of production systems, especially in dry periods of the year. The ensiling of by-products of industry may be an important tool to reduce the dependence on external inputs, and reduce the environmental contamination by these residues. Changes and losses during ensilage are influenced by the characteristics of the fodder plant and are also associated with management, harvesting and storage practices. The factors that influence the process of ensilage are numerous and act alone or interact with each other, which should be considered to obtain silage of higher quality and more stable. In relation with the application of, enzymatic additives or its association with inoculants, in tropical forage, the results available in the literature are controversial and dependent on local conditions, concentration and type of inoculum, method of application, quality of forage plant, and present microflora, among other factors.Considerando a importância do uso da ensilagem como alternativa dos sistemas de alimentação animal, essa revisão objetiva apresentar resultados recentes disponíveis na literatura sobre alguns fatores que afetam o valor nutritivo da silagem, notadamente de forrageiras tropicais. A utilização de silagem na alimentação animal é uma prática importante na sustentabilidade dos sistemas produtivos, considerando os custos com alimentação animal, principalmente nos períodos seco do ano. A ensilagem de subprodutos da indústria pode ser uma importante ferramenta para diminuir a dependência de insumos externos, além de diminuir a contaminação ambiental por esses resíduos. As mudanças e perdas durante a ensilagem são influenciadas pelas características da planta forrageira e estão também associadas às práticas de manejo, colheita e armazenamento. Os fatores que influenciam no processo de ensilagem são muitos e agem isoladamente ou interagem entre si, que precisam ser considerados para obtenção de silagem de maior qualidade e mais estáveis. Resultados sobre a aplicação de aditivos enzimáticos ou sua associação com inoculantes em forrageiras tropicais são controversos na literatura disponível e dependentes das condições locais, concentração e tipo de inoculante, método de aplicação, qualidade da planta forrageira, microflora pré-existente, entre outros fatores

Carcass characteristics and meat quality of lambs fed high levels of spineless cactus in the diet

The objective was to evaluate the effect of increasing the dietary inclusion of spineless cactus (Nopalea cochenillifera Salm Dyck) on the carcass characteristics and meat quality of confined lambs. Thirty-two male Santa Inês lambs with an average age of 140 days and an initial body weight of 20.4 ± 2.60 kg were used in this study. The lambs were housed in individual stalls for 70 days and individually fed a ration with spineless cactus included at 0, 241, 519, or 753 g/kg of dry matter (DM). The lambs were slaughtered, and characteristics of the carcass and meat were recorded and analysed. Inclusion of spineless cactus had a quadratic effect on the bodyweight at slaughter and on the empty bodyweight of the lambs. The inclusion of 500 g/kg of spineless cactus provided the highest predicted cold carcass weight (16.03 kg). There was a quadratic effect of the inclusion of spineless cactus on the weight of meat cuts and leg composition of lambs. The inclusion of spineless cactus did not influence pH, tenderness, and water-retention capacity of the meat. However, the intramuscular fat content increased 1 mg for every 10 g/kg inclusion of spineless cactus in the diet. Quadratic effects were observed of the inclusion of spineless cactus on the weights of the liver, heart, rumen, blood, skin and internal fat of the lambs. Up to 500 g/kg of spineless cactus could be included in the diet of confined lambs

Scaling of Self-Avoiding Walks in High Dimensions

We examine self-avoiding walks in dimensions 4 to 8 using high-precision Monte-Carlo simulations up to length N=16384, providing the first such results in dimensions $d > 4$ on which we concentrate our analysis. We analyse the scaling behaviour of the partition function and the statistics of nearest-neighbour contacts, as well as the average geometric size of the walks, and compare our results to $1/d$-expansions and to excellent rigorous bounds that exist. In particular, we obtain precise values for the connective constants, $\mu_5=8.838544(3)$, $\mu_6=10.878094(4)$, $\mu_7=12.902817(3)$, $\mu_8=14.919257(2)$ and give a revised estimate of $\mu_4=6.774043(5)$. All of these are by at least one order of magnitude more accurate than those previously given (from other approaches in $d>4$ and all approaches in $d=4$). Our results are consistent with most theoretical predictions, though in $d=5$ we find clear evidence of anomalous $N^{-1/2}$-corrections for the scaling of the geometric size of the walks, which we understand as a non-analytic correction to scaling of the general form $N^{(4-d)/2}$ (not present in pure Gaussian random walks).Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure