LAW AND IDEOLOGY IN THE U.S. COURTS OF APPEALS JUDICIAL REVIEW OF FEDERAL AGENCY DECISIONS

The attitudinal model of judicial behavior dominates judicial politics scholarship, including studies of federal courts and agencies. Extant research finds limited support for legal constraints as determinants of judge behavior when agency decisions are under review. Attitudinal scholars suggest judges substitute their policy preferences in place of agency preferences. Contrarily, the legal model suggests judges defer to agencies because of procedures and doctrine rooted in the rule of law. This study tests hypotheses predicting whether federal agency review decisions in the U.S. Courts of Appeals during 1982-2002 are a function of judges‘ attitudes, namely ideology, or a function of legal constraints, including agency adherence to legally prescribed procedures and agency passing standard-of-review muster. Using logistic regression, I examine the impact of legal and ideological variables on the outcome of judges‘ reviews of agency decisions. Results support several hypotheses. Agency adherence to procedural standards, such as those outlined in the Administrative Procedures Act, increases the likelihood that a review panel will defer to the agency. If review panels and judges answer standard-of-review questions favorably toward agencies, review panels and judges are more likely to support agencies in final case outcomes. Individual judge votes to support agencies are influenced by the ideology of other judges on the review panel: if the ideology of the review panel is in agreement with the agency position, individual judges are more likely to support agencies in final case outcomes. Finally, a judge is more likely to dissent when he/she is in ideological (dis)agreement with the agency position. In sum, results suggest that judges‘ regard for law and regard for their judge colleagues informs decisionmaking. Judges often defer to federal administrative agencies, even when their personal policy preferences are not found to be significantly associated with decisions. Judges‘ ideological preferences appear to be less important in the U.S. Courts of Appeals than previous scholarship indicates, but ideology may influence judges‘ decisions through the ideological composition of the review panel and in dissent behavior. The implication is that the legal model of judicial behavior may be more prominent than the attitudinal model in the U.S. Courts of Appeals

The evolution of Bordetella pertussis has selected for mutations of acr that lead to sensitivity to hydrophobic molecules and fatty acids

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is resurgent in numerous countries worldwide. This has renewed interest in Bordetella pertussis biology and vaccinology. The in vitro growth of B. pertussis has been a source of difficulty, both for the study of the organism and the production of pertussis vaccines. It is inhibited by fatty acids and other hydrophobic molecules. The AcrAB efflux system is present in many different bacteria and in combination with an outer membrane factor exports acriflavine and other small hydrophobic molecules from the cell. Here, we identify that the speciation of B. pertussis has selected for an Acr system that is naturally mutated and displays reduced activity compared to B. bronchiseptica, in which the system appears intact. Replacement of the B. pertussis locus with that of B. bronchiseptica conferred higher levels of resistance to growth inhibition by acriflavine and fatty acids. In addition, we identified that the transcription of the locus is repressed by a LysR-type transcriptional regulator. Palmitate de-represses the expression of the acr locus, dependent on the LysR regulator, strongly suggesting that it is a transcriptional repressor that is regulated by palmitate. It is intriguing that the speciation of B. pertussis has selected for a reduction in activity of the Acr efflux system that typically is regarded as protective to bacteria

Specialty Vegetables in Texas.

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A survey of equipment and instrumentation regarding use, undesirable aspects and new designs desired by northwest optometrists

A survey of equipment and instrumentation regarding use, undesirable aspects and new designs desired by northwest optometrist

Preparing Priests to Lead Parish Schools: Concerns and Recommendations

Canon law recognizes the pastor as the chief educational officer (CEO) of the parish school. However, recent studies demonstrate that seminaries do not prepare seminarians for work in or leadership of Catholic schools, and recent scholarship also demonstrates that an increasing number of seminarians lack the desire to lead a parish school. Our research study examined the post-seminary preparation of priests for leadership of parish schools. We also explored alternative governance models for Catholic schools. We conducted structured interviews with 10 national leaders to explore these two areas of interest. Our findings demonstrate that preparation of newly ordained and veteran priests for parish school leadership is woefully inadequate. Interviewees suggested that the pastor/principal relationship and school finance are two important topics that should be addressed in best practice preparation programs for school leaders. All 10 interviewees had difficulty imagining alternative governance models for schools in which the pastor would not serve as the CEO, but at the same time, some of the participants could see potential benefits of alternative governance models. Based on the findings of our study, we recommend that: (1) seminary programs include an initial introduction to the importance of Catholic schools for evangelization; (2) a new national model for preparing young and veteran priests for school leadership be developed and implemented; (3) existing best practices for alternative governance models be collated and promulgated; and (4) church leaders and stakeholders determine the best governance models for their schools and then prepare the appropriate people for leadership roles accordingly

Fundamental differences in physiology of Bordetella pertussis dependent on the two-component system Bvg revealed by gene essentiality studies.

The identification of genes essential for a bacterium's growth reveals much about its basic physiology under different conditions. Bordetella pertussis, the causative agent of whooping cough, adopts both virulent and avirulent states through the activity of the two-component system, Bvg. The genes essential for B. pertussis growth in vitro were defined using transposon sequencing, for different Bvg-determined growth states. In addition, comparison of the insertion indices of each gene between Bvg phases identified those genes whose mutation exerted a significantly different fitness cost between phases. As expected, many of the genes identified as essential for growth in other bacteria were also essential for B. pertussis. However, the essentiality of some genes was dependent on Bvg. In particular, a number of key cell wall biosynthesis genes, including the entire mre/mrd locus, were essential for growth of the avirulent (Bvg minus) phase but not the virulent (Bvg plus) phase. In addition, cell wall biosynthesis was identified as a fundamental process that when disrupted produced greater fitness costs for the Bvg minus phase compared to the Bvg plus phase. Bvg minus phase growth was more susceptible than Bvg plus phase growth to the cell wall-disrupting antibiotic ampicillin, demonstrating the increased susceptibility of the Bvg minus phase to disruption of cell wall synthesis. This Bvg-dependent conditional essentiality was not due to Bvg-regulation of expression of cell wall biosynthesis genes; suggesting that this fundamental process differs between the Bvg phases in B. pertussis and is more susceptible to disruption in the Bvg minus phase. The ability of a bacterium to modify its cell wall synthesis is important when considering the action of antibiotics, particularly if developing novel drugs targeting cell wall synthesis

Electron Capture at Very Small Scattering Angles from Atomic Hydrogen by 25-125-keV Protons

Differential cross sections for electron capture in collisions between protons and hydrogen atoms have been experimentally determined for incident proton energies of 25, 60, and 125 keV in the center-of-mass scattering-angle range of 0-3 mrad. The experimental results compare more favorably with the results of both a multistate and a two-state calculation than with the results of a continuum distorted-wave-approximation calculation. There is no evidence of a Jackson-Schiff-type minimum

Momentum-Transfer Scaling in Hydrogen-Isotope Collision Systems

The differential cross sections for excitation of atomic hydrogen isotopes to their n=2 states by proton or deutron impact are found to follow a simple scaling relationship. The momentum-transfer-scaled differential excitation cross sections, for a projectile velocity of 1.26 a.u., produce one differential cross-section curve for all four possible hydrogen-isotope collision systems. The experimental results are in excellent agreement with our Glauber-approximation calculations

Draft Nuclear Genome Sequence of the Liquid Hydrocarbon-Accumulating Green Microalga Botryococcus braunii Race B (Showa).

Botryococcus braunii has long been known as a prodigious producer of liquid hydrocarbon oils that can be converted into combustion engine fuels. This draft genome for the B race of B. braunii will allow researchers to unravel important hydrocarbon biosynthetic pathways and identify possible regulatory networks controlling this unusual metabolism