Multiplicative Auditory Spatial Receptive Fields Created by a Hierarchy of Population Codes

A multiplicative combination of tuning to interaural time difference (ITD) and interaural level difference (ILD) contributes to the generation of spatially selective auditory neurons in the owl's midbrain. Previous analyses of multiplicative responses in the owl have not taken into consideration the frequency-dependence of ITD and ILD cues that occur under natural listening conditions. Here, we present a model for the responses of ITD- and ILD-sensitive neurons in the barn owl's inferior colliculus which satisfies constraints raised by experimental data on frequency convergence, multiplicative interaction of ITD and ILD, and response properties of afferent neurons. We propose that multiplication between ITD- and ILD-dependent signals occurs only within frequency channels and that frequency integration occurs using a linear-threshold mechanism. The model reproduces the experimentally observed nonlinear responses to ITD and ILD in the inferior colliculus, with greater accuracy than previous models. We show that linear-threshold frequency integration allows the system to represent multiple sound sources with natural sound localization cues, whereas multiplicative frequency integration does not. Nonlinear responses in the owl's inferior colliculus can thus be generated using a combination of cellular and network mechanisms, showing that multiple elements of previous theories can be combined in a single system

On the naturalness of Einstein's equation

We compute all 2-covariant tensors naturally constructed from a semiriemannian metric which are divergence-free and have weight greater than -2. As a consequence, it follows a characterization of the Einstein tensor as the only, up to a constant factor, 2-covariant tensor naturally constructed from a semiriemannian metric which is divergence-free and has weight 0 (i.e., is independent of the unit of scale). Since these two conditions are also satisfied by the energy-momentum tensor of a relativistic space-time, we discuss in detail how these theorems lead to the field equation of General Relativity.Comment: 12 pages, added references, corrected typo

Inhomogeneous charge textures stabilized by electron-phonon interactions in the t-J model

We study the effect of diagonal and off-diagonal electron-phonon coupling in the ground state properties of the t-J model. Adiabatic and quantum phonons are considered using Lanczos techniques. Charge tiles and stripe phases with mobile holes (localized holes) are observed at intermediate (large) values of the diagonal electron-phonon coupling. The stripes are stabilized by half-breathing modes, while the tiles arise due to the development of extended breathing modes. Off-diagonal terms destabilize the charge inhomogeneous structures with mobile holes by renormalizing the diagonal coupling but do not produce new phases. Buckling modes are also studied and they seem to induce a gradual phase separation between hole rich and hole poor regions. The pairing correlations are strongly suppressed when the holes are localized. However, in charge inhomogeneous states with mobile holes no dramatic changes, compared with the uniform state, are observed in the pairing correlations indicating that D-wave pairing and moderate electron-phonon interactions can coexist.Comment: minor changes; to appear in Physical Review

The Maryland Legal Aid Bureau: Decades of Service and Reform

In a legal and judicial career that spans nearly five decades, few issues have affected retiring Chief Judge Robert Mack Bell more than access for the poor to civil justice. As a student at Harvard University in the late 1960s, he would work at the Boston Legal Aid Society. As a young lawyer at a prominent Baltimore law firm, he did community and poverty law work and impressed his colleagues as one committed to the use of the law not only to serve his clients, but also to improve society. The zeal of Chief Judge Bell for supporting access to civil legal services was mirrored by the growth during his career of the powerful and influential Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, Inc. In fall of 2011, the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau celebrated its centennial. From its modest beginning in the Baltimore legal community as a charitable endeavor, to its growth into a major law office serving Maryland\u27s poor, the agency\u27s history is a unique story in the American legal experience

When the Wall Has Fallen: Decades of Failure in the Supervision of Capital Juries

Since the return of capital punishment after Furman v. Georgia nearly three decades ago, the Supreme Court of the United States has struggled to control the administration of capital punishment when those decisions are made or recommended by a citizen jury. Although there is no constitutional requirement that a jury participate in the death penalty process, most states do provide, through their capital punishment statutes, that a jury will participate in the decision. The preference for jury sentencing in these circumstances reflects a reluctance to leave power over life solely in the hands of one judge. Still, some scholars have long criticized juries for administering punishment. Of particular concern to the Supreme Court has been the problem of jury discretion in capital cases. Finding ways to control the deliberations of the capital jury to prevent them from rendering decisions which are as arbitrary as being struck by lighting has been the primary focus of the Supreme Court at least since the early 1970\u27s. If one considers the plurality opinion in Furman as a great wall erected to prevent continued movement toward implementation of arbitrary and capricious death sentences, the public movement which followed to reinstate capital punishment affected the mortar with which the wall was erected. The jurisprudence that followed the calls for control over the arbitrary behavior of the capital jury has wavered in recent years from the commitment to place controls over the death penalty, and to insure it is a true last resort for the worst of the worst. The rise in crime that occurred during the early seventies combined with the political rhetoric that emerged from partisan politics made the Supreme Court and the death penalty fair game for controversy. A shift in the political climate along with a change in the leadership and the personnel of the Supreme Court made the fragile wall of protection erected in Furman increasingly vulnerable to attack. Shifts in the Supreme Court majority have led to grave concerns about the fairness of capital punishment in the decades following Furman. With aggressive state action to pass new death penalty statutes in order to resume executions, inevitably the Court has become less protective of the values advanced in the Furman opinions. One of the primary casualties of the post-Furman decline in constitutional protection advances in the form of various controls on juries that decide capital cases. Decisions during the 1980\u27s regarding what a capital jury may consider, what they may not hear, and what type of statutory instructions and forms must guide them demonstrated some promise that Furman concerns would, at times, be seriously regulated. However, over the last several decades the Court has issued opinions which indicate that it is more concerned with state autonomy in administering the death penalty than the defendant focused concerns of Furman. In my view, instructions to the capital jury are the primary vehicle of procedural protection against unjust imposition of the death penalty. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has approached its capital punishment jurisprudence without due regard to the scientific research that is available regarding how consideration of death sentences is different from other jury decisions. This article is an attempt to discuss what went wrong with the Supreme Court\u27s jurisprudence regulating capital juries and proposes some solutions that direct how the Court might increase scrutiny of jury instructions when reaching life and death decisions

From Fugitives to Ferguson: Repairing Historical and Structural Defects in Legally Sanctioned Use of Deadly Force

This Article proposes a number of solutions to help make policing more professional and accountable. Anderson discusses the troubling structural connection between slavery and law enforcement, and argues that courts’ use-of-force cases have not adequately incentivized safer policing. Instead, he suggests police officers should lose their qualified immunity in circumstances either by way of judicial enforcement or legislation

Big Brother or Little Brother? Surrendering Seizure Privacy for the Benefits of Communication Technology

Over two centuries have passed since Benjamin Franklin quipped that we should defend privacy over security if people wanted either privacy or security. Although his axiom did not become a rule of law in its original form, its principles found voice in the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution\u27s Bill of Rights. To a lesser extent, provisions against the quartering of troops in private homes found in the Third Amendment also support the idea that what a government can require you to do, or who you must have behind the doors of your home, is an area of grave importance for privacy purposes. By our behavior as a nation, have we indicated a rejection of the liberty Franklin was writing about in our modern times? In no area has the rapid rise of technology affected our lives more than in the area of communication through computers and other devices, like so called smart telephones. As long as people have been communicating, there has been a desire for others to be interested in hearing what they say. Sometimes the speaker or writer desires an audience and the speaker\u27s freedom to communicate desires protection. At other times, people intend to keep their private words private while others desire to know their thoughts and intentions. This human desire, the right to be let alone, has both practical and legal limitations. Obviously society has its own right to protect its members from violence and keep the peace by legislating and enforcing criminal law. When technology comes into existence, law enforcement often uses it first to engage in the competitive enterprise [to] ferret out crime. Further, the technology itself may make it impossible to permit people who desire to keep information private from achieving that goal. Among the reasons that keeping matters private has become more difficult is that the law simply cannot keep up with the rapid rise in communications technology

Punitive Damages vs. The Death Penalty: In Search of a Unified Approach to Jury Discretion and Due Process of Law

The role of the jury in awarding monetary damages to plaintiffs in a wide range of civil cases has captured the attention of the media, contemporary non-fiction writers, and reform-minded politicians in recent years. Particular attention has been focused on huge jury awards, which has led many commentators to criticize the wisdom of permitting juries to move so much money from one place to another. Although the right to a jury trial, and with it the exercise of broad judicial discretion, is constitutionally based, many reform efforts have moved toward removing juries from cases both as to the subject matter of cases and the amount of money they can award. This article is an attempt to examine what reasonable reforms should be made to jury discretion, particularly with regard to the jury\u27s consideration of punitive damages. My hope is to advance a process that will strike a balance between jury discretion and the valid concerns of those who perceive a need to protect against arbitrary and unfair damages verdicts. Others have also insightfully written in this area, but my approach builds on the structure for controlling jury discretion fashioned by the American Law Institute (“ALI”) in its important work dealing with capital juries

From Fugitives to Ferguson: Repairing Historical and Structural Defects in Legally Sanctioned Use of Deadly Force

The lawful use of lethal force to subdue suspected wrongdoers has a long tradition in our nation. There is certainly nothing wrong with securing, incapacitating, or even killing violent persons who pose a serious threat to the lives of innocent individuals. One of the important roles of government is to protect people from harm and keep the peace. Recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, have highlighted the tension between the officers on the beat and citizens on the street. These tensions are not likely to subside unless there are major structural changes in the way the police do their job and the perception of officers in the community. Police are often perceived as getting special privileges in the courts, even when they engage in wrongdoing. This is particularly true in African-American neighborhoods, which seem to distrust police. Similar to other components of the judicial system that give rise to racial concerns such as obtaining confessions or selecting a jury -concerns that police officers receive special treatment instills little confidence in police for minority communities. Some of that distrust comes from the troubling application of the Fourth Amendment in the urban setting