Presidential Signing Statements: Expanding the Assessment ot Include Policy as well as Constitutional Implications

The greatly expanded use of signing statements by President George W. Bush has been very controversial, as many view this as practice as an inappropriate encroachment by the president on the legislative function of Congress. A majority of the arguments made for or against the application of signing statements have focused on legal principles. The problem is that traditional legal, constitutional analysis does not fully address the concerns raised by signing statements. Not only is it unlikely that presidential signing statements violate the Constitution, but legal analysis fails to recognize or appropriately evaluate the policy implications of signing statements. This paper addresses this analytical shortfall, and the benefits of adding a policy dimension to the analytical framework, applying a multi-dimensional analysis to signing statements. This paper first addresses the traditional constitutional arguments. It provides a historical context for both signing statements and the separation of powers principles upon which the constitutional analysis is based. It applies these principles to signing statements, and concludes that they do not violate the Constitution at the time they are made. This conclusion sets the stage for the principal focus of this paper: that a broader analysis is required to fully explore the implications of signing statements. Thus, the majority of the paper is dedicated to identifying the intended purpose of signing statements as policy. By framing the use of signing statements (since President Reagan) using three theories of presidential power and studying internal White House Documents, it is evident that signing statements fail as policy. There are three conclusions to be taken from this paper. First, signing statements are a policy used to expand presidential power and are not a violation of the Constitution. Second, many of the legal interpretations of signing statements are based on policy arguments. The use of the signing statements is a poor policy because they are ineffective and the costs outweigh the benefits. Finally, conventional policy analysis has correlated the constitutionality of a policy with whether or not that policy is good. In truth, a policy can be constitutionally viable but still be a bad policy and vice versa. This expansive view of policy analysis can significantly improve policies by separating policy and legal interpretations

The microstructure and microtexture of zirconium oxide films studied by transmission electron backscatter diffraction and automated crystal orientation mapping with transmission electron microscopy

A detailed characterization of nanostructured thin zirconium oxide films formed during aqueous corrosion of a nuclear-grade zirconium alloy (Zircaloy-4) has been carried out by means of two novel, ultra-high-spatial-resolution grain mapping techniques, namely automated crystal orientation mapping in the transmission electron microscope (TEM) and transmission electron backscatter diffraction (t-EBSD). While the former provided excellent spatial resolution with the ability to identify tetragonal ZrO<sub>2</sub> grains as small as ∼5 nm, the superior angular resolution and unambiguous indexing with t-EBSD enabled verification of the TEM observations. Both techniques revealed that in a stress-free condition (TEM foil prepared by focused ion beam milling), the oxide consists mainly of well-oriented columnar monoclinic grains with a high fraction of transformation twin boundaries, which indicates that the transformation from tetragonal to monoclinic ZrO<sub>2</sub> is a continuous process, and that a significant fraction of the columnar grains transformed from stress-stabilized tetragonal grains with (0 0 1) planes parallel to the metal–oxide interface. The TEM analysis also revealed a small fraction of size-stabilized, equiaxed tetragonal grains throughout the oxide. Those grains were found to show significant misalignment from the expected (0 0 1) growth direction, which explains the limited growth of those grains. The observations are discussed in the context of providing new insights into corrosion mechanisms of zirconium alloys, which is of particular importance for improving service life of fuel assemblies used in water-cooled reactors

The Impact of Community Based Adventure Therapy on Stress and Coping Skills in Adults.

Stress and coping skills are among the most essential components of the mental health counseling field. The use of coping skills (e.g., meditation, physical activities, appropriate uses of leisure) has been identified as an effective strategy for stress management. Adventure therapy has emerged as a modality that can positively augment other therapeutic approaches by improving coping skills and assisting clients in managing stress. As with all therapies, a positive working alliance has been found to be important toward achieving clinical outcomes. This study explored how adventure therapy enhanced learned coping strategies for stress and improved therapeutic alliance. Outcomes from this exploratory research highlighted the potential of adventure therapy to decrease stress, increase coping skills, and build therapeutic rapport with the therapist

A New H4/5 Ordinary Chondrite from North West Saudi Arabia, Al Jawf 001

This research involves the classification and description for the newly discovered ordinary chondrite breccia, Al Jawf 001. Compositional analyses of olivine, pyroxene, and kamacite in each of the major clasts and matrix of the breccia were taken in order to determine its compositional group (H, L, or LL). Percent mean deviations (PMD) of Fe in pyroxenes were calculated for every major clast and matrix, in order to determine the petrologic type of the meteorite. The thermal history was ascertained by pyroxene thermometry and the metallographic cooling rate. The above methods yielded that Al Jawf 001 is an H4/5 chondrite with a peak metamorphic temperature of 750 oC - 850 oC and a cooling rate of 0.1 - 1.0 oC per million years. The high peak metamorphic temperature and slow cooling rate suggest a two-stage cooling-rate history for the H chondrite parent body. Al Jawf 001 provides valuable insight into the history of the H chondrite and adds to the vast amount of information available on ordinary chondrites, increasing our knowledge of the early solar system

Compositional analysis of InAs-GaAs-GaSb heterostructures by low-loss electron energy loss spectroscopy

As an alternative to Core-Loss Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy, Low-Loss EELS is suitable for compositional analysis of complex heterostructures, such as the InAs-GaAs-GaSb system, since in this energy range the edges corresponding to these elements are better defined than in Core-Loss. Furthermore, the analysis of the bulk plasmon peak, which is present in this energy range, also provides information about the composition. In this work, compositional information in an InAs-GaAs-GaSb heterostructure has been obtained from Low-Loss EEL spectra

Cryogenic magnetocaloric effect in the Fe17 molecular nanomagnet

Trabajo presentado al "The 23rd IIR International Congress of Refrigeration" celebrado del 21 al 26 de Agosto del 2011 en Praga.-- Dedicated to Alfred Werner on the 100th Anniversary of his Nobel prize in Chemistry in 1913.We study the magnetothermal properties of magnetically isotropic high-spin molecular nanomagnets containing 17 Fe3+ ions per molecule linked via oxide and hydroxide ions, packed in a crystallographic cubic symmetry. Low-temperature magnetization and heat capacity experiments reveal that each molecular unit carries a net spin ground state as large as S = 35/2 and a magnetic anisotropy as small as D = −0.023 K, while no magnetic order, purely driven by dipolar interactions, is to be expected down to very-low temperatures. These characteristics suggest that the Fe17 molecular nanomagnet can potentially be employed as a sub-Kelvin magnetic refrigerant.This work has been partially supported by Spanish MINECO through grants MAT2009-13977-C03 and PIE201060I012, the EPSRC and The Leverhulme Trust (UK).Peer Reviewe

Tunable dipolar magnetism in high-spin molecular clusters

We report on the Fe17 high-spin molecular cluster and show that this system is an exemplification of nanostructured dipolar magnetism. Each Fe17 molecule, with spin S=35/2 and axial anisotropy as small as D=-0.02K, is the magnetic unit that can be chemically arranged in different packing crystals whilst preserving both spin ground-state and anisotropy. For every configuration, molecular spins are correlated only by dipolar interactions. The ensuing interplay between dipolar energy and anisotropy gives rise to macroscopic behaviors ranging from superparamagnetism to long-range magnetic order at temperatures below 1K.Comment: Replaced with version accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter