The Reliability of the Adversarial System to Assess the Scientific Validity of Forensic Evidence

This Article was prepared as a companion to the Fordham Law Review Reed Symposium on Forensic Expert Testimony, Daubert, and Rule 702, held on October 27, 2017, at Boston College School of Law. The Symposium took place under the sponsorship of the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules. For an overview of the Symposium, see Daniel J. Capra, Foreword: Symposium on Forensic Testimony, Daubert, and Rule 702, 86 Fordham L. Rev. 1459 (2018)

Whistleblowing Intention in Sport: Perceptions, Antecedent Conditions, and Cost-Benefit Analysis

The increased prevalence of whistleblowing in sport has precipitated the need to understand the antecedent conditions that underpin whistleblowing intentions. The act of whistleblowing centers on reporting an illegal (or unethical) act by an observer who possesses inside information of the wrongdoing. Sport offers a unique lens through which to study whistleblowing since the context does not follow traditional models of the practice, particularly regarding the antecedent conditions. Employing qualitative methods grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior, Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Attribution Theory, Organizational Commitment on Prosocial Behavior, and Cognitive Moral Development theoretical frameworks, the ideas that whistleblowing antecedent conditions in sport are self-serving and based on non-altruistic intentions were evaluated. As well, by applying benefit-to-cost differential and affiliation models, this research bridged the gap in the literature by initially revealing the complexities of whistleblowing among a sample of collegiate sport executives. Moreover, the qualitative measures aided in developing testable hypotheses on the relationship between antecedent conditions (e.g., altruism, prosocial behavior, revenge, competitive advantage, and personal advancement) and whistleblowing intentions while also providing potential barriers that impede the whistleblowing process. Sport-specific theory on ethical decision-making was strengthened contributing to a better understanding of the whistleblowing in sport

Heterogeneity in susceptibility dictates the order of epidemiological models

The fundamental models of epidemiology describe the progression of an infectious disease through a population using compartmentalized differential equations, but do not incorporate population-level heterogeneity in infection susceptibility. We show that variation strongly influences the rate of infection, while the infection process simultaneously sculpts the susceptibility distribution. These joint dynamics influence the force of infection and are, in turn, influenced by the shape of the initial variability. Intriguingly, we find that certain susceptibility distributions (the exponential and the gamma) are unchanged through the course of the outbreak, and lead naturally to power-law behavior in the force of infection; other distributions often tend towards these "eigen-distributions" through the process of contagion. The power-law behavior fundamentally alters predictions of the long-term infection rate, and suggests that first-order epidemic models that are parameterized in the exponential-like phase may systematically and significantly over-estimate the final severity of the outbreak

Timing and Magnitude of Drought Impacts on Carbon Uptake Across a Grassland Biome

Although drought is known to negatively impact grassland functioning, the timing and magnitude of these impacts within a growing season remains unresolved. Previous small-scale assessments indicate grasslands may only respond to drought during narrow periods within a year; however, large-scale assessments are now needed to uncover the general patterns and determinants of this timing. We combined remote sensing datasets of gross primary productivity and weather to assess the timing and magnitude of grassland responses to drought at 5 km2 temporal resolution across two expansive ecoregions of the western US Great Plains biome: the C4-dominated shortgrass steppe and the C3-dominated northern mixed prairies. Across over 700,000 pixel-year combinations covering more than 600,000 km2, we studied how the driest years between 2003-2020 altered the daily and bi-weekly dynamics of grassland carbon (C) uptake. Reductions to C uptake intensified into the early summer during drought and peaked in mid- and late June in both ecoregions. Stimulation of spring C uptake during drought was small and insufficient to compensate for losses during summer. Thus, total grassland C uptake was consistently reduced by drought across both ecoregions; however, reductions were twice as large across the more southern and warmer shortgrass steppe. Across the biome, increased summer vapor pressure deficit was strongly linked to peak reductions in vegetation greenness during drought. Rising vapor pressure deficit will likely exacerbate reductions in C uptake during drought across the western US Great Plains, with these reductions greatest during the warmest months and in the warmest locations. High spatiotemporal resolution analyses of grassland response to drought over large areas provide both generalizable insights and new opportunities for basic and applied ecosystem science in these water-limited ecoregions amid climate change

Archived time-series of Atlantic Ocean meteorological variables and surface fluxes

Includes ErrataTime-series of monthly averages of latent, sensible and radiational heat fluxes and momentum fluxes at the surfaces of the North and South Atlantic Oceans were calculated from ship weather observations. These fluxes, together with values of meteorological variables have been averaged over entire Marsden squares (10X10° squares) for all months from January 1948 through December 1972. The method of computing fluxes from ship weather observations, listing of variables averaged, addition of sea-ice coverage of sub-polar regions, correction of albedos for the presence of sea ice, correction of infrared radiational exchange for humidity conditions of the upper atmosphere, and format of the data on magnetic tapes are described. Statistics of the fluxes and variables have been computed. Standard data tapes containing these time series and statistics are available.Prepared for Climate Dynamics Research Program~ Division of Atmospheric Sciences, National Science Foundation under Grant ATM 77-01475 A01

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution collection of Climatology and Air/Sea Interaction (CASI) data

Scientists at Woods Hole routinely collect and analyze a considerable amount of data relating to the oceans of the world. Of the many different kinds of data, one particular subset concerns those events occurring at the sea surface. A large number of sea surface environmental observations have been collected at Woods Hole. These data, and the subsequent analyses generated from the Air/Sea Heat Flux and the Climatology study projects, have been collected and archived. This document describes the W.H.O.I./ Climatology and Air/Sea Interaction (WHOI/CASI) data collection and provides an initial index to its various components.Prepared for the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-74-C-0262; NR 083-004 and for the National Science Foundation (Climate Dynamics Program, Atmospheric Sciences Division) under Grant ATM 77-014?5