Nonuniversal power-law spectra in turbulent systems

Turbulence is generally associated with universal power-law spectra in scale ranges without significant drive or damping. Although many examples of turbulent systems do not exhibit such an inertial range, power-law spectra may still be observed. As a simple model for such situations, a modified version of the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation is studied. By means of semi-analytical and numerical studies, one finds power laws with nonuniversal exponents in the spectral range for which the ratio of nonlinear and linear time scales is (roughly) scale-independent.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Cities and climate change: Strategic options for philanthropic support

Now, more than ever, cities are at the front lines of U.S. climate action. As national action stalls, there is still a daunting amount to be done in reducing human-generated climate emissions. Fortunately, this report comes in the wake of a groundswell of initiatives to engage on climate change by cities, countries, and states across the U.S. Several important and thorough reports on the types of mitigation actions cities can take have recently been released. We already have examples of cities taking significant leadership roles in reducing their own climate emissions, from New York and Boston to Austin, Boulder, and Los Angeles - yet U.S. climate emissions continue to rise, and cities have an outsized role to play. The purpose of this project is to review current U.S. city climate activities in order to identify areas where additional investment by foundations could help accelerate city action to reduce urban greenhouse gas emissions. The focus of the inquiry is on aggressive actions cities can take that significantly increase their “level of ambition” to achieve emissions reductions on an accelerated timetable. City strategies on climate adaptation are not encompassed in this project. [TRUNCATED

Politics and Nuclear Power: Energy Policy in Western Europe

With the dramatic changes OPEC precipitated in the structure of world energy markets during the 1970s, energy became a central concern to policymakers throughout the industrialized West. This book examines the responses of public officials in three leading European nations—the Federal Republic of Germany, France, and the Netherlands—to the energy crisis. As the study shows, the proposed energy programs in the three countries shared remarkable similarities; yet the policy outcomes were very different. To explain why, Michael T. Hatch goes beyond the specific content of government energy policy to include an analysis of the policymaking process itself. At the heart of the study is an exploration of the various dimensions of nuclear policy in West Germany. The political consensus on nuclear power that prevailed in the initial years following the energy crisis disintegrated as antinuclear “citizens’ initiatives,” the courts, and trade unions, as well as the traditional political parties, entered the policymaking process. Subsequent government efforts to resolve the political stalemate over nuclear power foundered in a morass of domestic electoral politics and an international debate over nuclear proliferation. Extending the analysis to comparisons with French and Dutch nuclear strategies, Hatch argues that the critical factor in determining nuclear policy was the manner in which the political system structured the nuclear debate. In contrast to West Germany, where the electoral and parliamentary systems enhanced the influence of the antinuclear “Greens,” the electoral system and constellation of political parties in France served to dissipate the influence of the antinuclear forces. Thus in France the nuclear program en-countered few impediments. In the Netherlands, as in West Germany, government policy was paralyzed in the face of antinuclear sentiment across a broad spectrum of Dutch society. Hatch has provided here not only a useful examination of the development of energy policy in western Europe but also a case study of the close interplay between policy and politics. Michael T. Hatch is assistant professor of political science at the University of the Pacific.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_european_politics/1002/thumbnail.jp

Clearly Defining Preclusive Corporate Lock-Ups: A Bright-Line Test for Lock-Up Provisions in Delaware

Merger mania currently grips the United States as corporations scramble to find merger partners to achieve strategic goals. In their quest for a competitive advantage, large corporations are increasingly willing to use hostile takeovers to deny competitors the benefits of a strategic mergers. In response, merging corporations have granted record-breaking lockup. provisions in an attempt to protect their deals. Delaware\u27s current framework for evaluating the validity of lock-up provisions requires courts to apply different levels of scrutiny depending on the form of the transaction. However, Delaware courts have inconsistently applied the correct standard and have failed to identify preclusive lock-ups. Although legal commentators have proposed alternatives to the current doctrine, none have been able to provide a solution without sacrificing the recognized benefits of lock-up provisions. This Comment examines the Delaware courts\u27 inability to evaluate lock-up provisions properly and argues that a bright-line test severely limiting the value of lock-up provisions to three percent of a bidder\u27s offer would solve the current dilemma. Without such a test, Delaware courts are unable to protect the interests of shareholders while still allowing the use of lock-ups to facilitate mergers

An Empirical Typology of the Latent Programmatic Structure of Community College Student Success Programs

The definition and description of student success programs in the literature (e.g., orientation, first-year seminars, learning communities, etc.) suggest underlying programmatic similarities. Yet researchers to date typically depend on ambiguous labels to delimit studies, resulting in loosely related but separate research lines and few generalizable findings. To demonstrate whether or how certain programs are effective there is need for more coherent conceptualizations to identify and describe programs. This is particularly problematic for community colleges where success programs are uniquely tailored relative to other sectors. The study’s purpose is to derive an empirical typology of community college student success programs based on their curricular and programmatic features. Data come from 1047 success programs at 336 U.S.-based respondents to the Community College Institutional Survey. Because programs might be characterized by their focus in different curricular areas and combinations of foci, we used factor mixture modeling, a hybrid of factor analysis and latent class analysis, which provides a model-based classification method that simultaneously accounts for dimensional and categorical data structures. Descriptive findings revealed extensive commonalities among nominal program types. Inferential analysis revealed five factors (types) of program elements, combined in unique ways among four latent program types: success skills programs, comprehensive programs, collaborative academic programs, and minimalist programs. We illustrate how the typology deconstructs nominal categories, may help unify different bodies of research, and affords a common framework and language for researchers and practitioners to identify and conceptualize programs based on what they do rather than by their names

The Scope and Design of Structured Group Learning Experiences at Community Colleges

This study explores through descriptive analysis the similarities of structured group learning experiences such as first-year seminars, learning communities, orientation, success courses, and accelerated developmental education programs, in terms of their design features and implementation at community colleges. The study takes as its conceptual starting point the hypothesis put forth by Hatch and Bohlig (2013) that such cohort- or group-structured programs designed to equip students with skills, knowledge, and support networks for successful college-going, and which often go by different names, may be in fact better characterized as variations or instances of a more general type of program due to the similarities of their programmatic and curricular structure. This article explores program features beyond curricular design to consider target audience, mandatory status, reported participation rates, program duration, credit-bearing status, and the roles of involved personnel, among other features. Using data from the 2012 national administration of the Community College Institutional Survey (CCIS) and the Community College Survey of Student Engagement ([CCSSE], Center for Community College Student Engagement, 2013), we provide evidence that all five programs are indeed similar in important ways, even while revealing important dissimilarities that corroborate the need for more detailed accounting of program features noted in the literature. The findings provide baseline data for practitioners and researchers alike in their efforts to further understand why these high-impact practices work, for whom, and under what circumstances, so as to know how to deploy scarce resources

Policing Guns and Gun Violence: A Toolkit for Practitioners and Advocates

The NNSC, with support from the Joyce Foundation, led a project to develop the exercise of police-led discretion towards incidents involving violence, guns, and high-risk people. In recent years, police departments have expanded the formal use of discretion in attempts to minimize criminal justice contact for first-time, nonviolent offenses, particularly those involving substance abuse, mental health, or youth. Police also exercise discretion in more informal, ad hoc ways with regard to incidents or potential incidents of violence, but that practice is far less common and studied. The NNSC brought together scholars, law enforcement officials, and civil society leaders to outline the space for discretion and unearth lessons and insights from the existing use of discretion in responding to violence and gun crime. The project allowed us to build towards new applications and practices of discretion that minimize harmful criminal justice involvement while advancing public safety and create two resources for the field: a white paper and a toolkit for practitioners and advocates

The Scope and Design of Structured Group Learning Experiences at Community Colleges

This study explores through descriptive analysis the similarities of structured group learning experiences such as first-year seminars, learning communities, orientation, success courses, and accelerated developmental education programs, in terms of their design features and implementation at community colleges. The study takes as its conceptual starting point the hypothesis put forth by Hatch and Bohlig (2013) that such cohort- or group-structured programs designed to equip students with skills, knowledge, and support networks for successful college-going, and which often go by different names, may be in fact better characterized as variations or instances of a more general type of program due to the similarities of their programmatic and curricular structure. This article explores program features beyond curricular design to consider target audience, mandatory status, reported participation rates, program duration, credit-bearing status, and the roles of involved personnel, among other features. Using data from the 2012 national administration of the Community College Institutional Survey (CCIS) and the Community College Survey of Student Engagement ([CCSSE], Center for Community College Student Engagement, 2013), we provide evidence that all five programs are indeed similar in important ways, even while revealing important dissimilarities that corroborate the need for more detailed accounting of program features noted in the literature. The findings provide baseline data for practitioners and researchers alike in their efforts to further understand why these high-impact practices work, for whom, and under what circumstances, so as to know how to deploy scarce resources