An Even Keel: The Judicial Example of John Marshall Harlan

Norman Dorsen, who clerked for John Marshall Harlan II, did not adopt the same judicial philosophy as the Justice he worked for. He did, however, develop a strong respect for his one-time mentor. The desire of Justice Harlan to provide balance in all things, "to keep things on an even keel," as Dorsen remembers him saying, well represents the judicial philosophy of Harlan.1 Harlan came from a family of some political and legal prestige, and his upper class background, his commitment to federalism and the separation of powers, and his desire to hold to neutral principles on the Court shaped his judicial philosophy

Environmental (waste) compliance control systems for UK SMEs

While the ‘environment’ is often perceived as a heavily regulated area of business, in reality, directly-regulated businesses represent a small proportion of the business community. This study aimed to evaluate and outline potential improvements to compliance controls for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly those involved in the waste sector. Forty-four SMEs from England were interviewed/audited between April-September 2008. Using a UK-based system as a case-in-point, the Environment Agency’s (EA) Operational Risk Appraisal (‘Opra’)/Compliance Assessment Report (CAR) system was analysed. Environmental compliance performance indicators and an initial assessment methodology for SMEs were developed. The study showed:• Compliance with permitting legislation was poor in many areas.• Regulatory authorities are either unable/failing to implement their enforcement policies or unable/failing to identify non-compliances due to the infrequency or limited nature of their inspections.• Improvements are needed to the EA Opra/CAR system – control measures are not fully taken into account when calculating risk.Recommendations to improve SME compliance controls include using internationally applicable general and specific compliance and non-compliance performance indicators, re-designing the Opra system and using an initial assessment methodology based on understanding the hazardousness of SME categories, compliance levels and operator competency.<br/

Long coherence times for edge spins

We show that in certain one-dimensional spin chains with open boundary conditions, the edge spins retain memory of their initial state for very long times. The long coherence times do not require disorder, only an ordered phase. In the integrable Ising and XYZ chains, the presence of a strong zero mode means the coherence time is infinite, even at infinite temperature. When Ising is perturbed by interactions breaking the integrability, the coherence time remains exponentially long in the perturbing couplings. We show that this is a consequence of an edge "almost" strong zero mode that almost commutes with the Hamiltonian. We compute this operator explicitly, allowing us to estimate accurately the plateau value of edge spin autocorrelator.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures; references adde

“Inter-national” Suffering and Local Medical Counselling: Dr. William G. Niederland (1904–1993) and the Psychiatric Contours of Empathy

While working for the American and West German authorities as a psychiatric expert in the indemnification trials for Holocaust survivors from the 1950s to the 1980s, German-born physician William G. Niederland not only became an advocate for survivors’ claims for compensation, but worked out the psychiatric contours of empathy in modern psycho-traumatology. Historians often assume that he developed his notion of empathy strictly from clinical diagnostic reports and personal experiences, yet Niederland’s encounters with psychiatric and psychological communities remain scantily understood. However, these encounters formed his interests to a great extent and served in his continuing diagnostic endeavours. Niederland reshaped empathy into a methodological tool and elaborated the definition of survivors’ syndrome — for which he became world renowned. His work as a physician in the British Marine Corps inevitably left its traces in his later psychiatric practice. At the centre of this article lies the development of Niederland’s personal and professional career, with a focus on “inter-national” forms of suffering. Beyond such subjective experiences, Niederland can also be seen as one of many émigrés who brought Central European concepts to North America and adapted them to their new medical and psychological milieu. This process remains tangible in Niederland’s views of Karl Jasper’s (1883–1969) and Eugen Bleuler’s (1857–1939) works in general psychopathology. This article traces the knowledge transfer that occurred in the historical development of empathy. Niederland’s call for modifying the physician–survivor relationship is thereby presented in relation to his scientific and popular writings, while drawing attention to his court testimonies in the context of reparation and restitution claims for Nazi atrocities

An improved probabilistic account of counterfactual reasoning

When people want to identify the causes of an event, assign credit or blame, or learn from their mistakes, they often reflect on how things could have gone differently. In this kind of reasoning, one considers a counterfactual world in which some events are different from their real-world counterparts and considers what else would have changed. Researchers have recently proposed several probabilistic models that aim to capture how people do (or should) reason about counterfactuals. We present a new model and show that it accounts better for human inferences than several alternative models. Our model builds on the work of Pearl (2000), and extends his approach in a way that accommodates backtracking inferences and that acknowledges the difference between counterfactual interventions and counterfactual observations. We present six new experiments and analyze data from four experiments carried out by Rips (2010), and the results suggest that the new model provides an accurate account of both mean human judgments and the judgments of individuals

Metastasis suppressor function of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand-R in mice: implications for TRAIL-based therapy in humans?

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a promising candidate for cancer therapy, as it can induce apoptosis specifically in tumor cells but not in normal cells. Although earlier mouse tumor studies revealed a strong tissue dependency of TRAIL and its death receptor in suppressing primary tumorigenesis or experimental metastases, we recently found that TRAIL-R inhibits lymph node metastases without affecting primary tumor formation in a mouse model of multistage skin tumorigenesis. This finding uncouples the role of TRAIL in primary tumorigenesis from metastasis formation, likely by sensitization of previously TRAIL-resistant tumor cells upon detachment, an early step required for metastasis formation. Therefore, TRAIL-R is a novel metastasis suppressor, suggesting that TRAIL-related tumor therapy might be most effective in primary tumors and early metastatic cancers, before selection for TRAIL resistance occurs

An Analysis of the Effect of Molten Salt Thermal Storage on Parabolic Trough Concentrated Solar Power Plant Efficiency

In the development of renewable energy sources, there has been a trend toward increasing and stabilising the power output of Concentrated Solar Power Plants (CSPPs) during times of reduced solar resource through the use of Thermal Energy Storage Devices (TESDs). This study investigates whether the use of a molten salt TESD decreases the efficiency of a parabolic trough CSPP due to additional system energy losses despite prolonging the operational time of the CSPP. A theoretical analysis of a simplified CSPP was made to determine if a TESD would impact the efficiency of the CSPP. This was followed up by a survey of currently active parabolic trough CSPPs both with and without molten salt TESDs. The theoretical analysis illustrated that a TESD would have no effect on the efficiency of a CSPP. However, the survey revealed that the use of a TESD improved the efficiency of a CSPP. The results of the study don't support the theoretical analysis or the hypothesis suggesting that a property has been overlooked. This property is most likely to be that generators tend to operate best within a certain temperature range, and in a CSPP the optimum temperature range cannot be maintained. This results in a generator being selected capable of operating for the longest period with the lowest amount of excess solar energy. When a TESD is implemented, the excess solar energy is stored for later use, prolonging the generator's running time and increasing the useable energy. The realisation of the ability of a TESD to increase the efficiency of a CSPP as well as extending its operating time shows a promising area of development in CSPP technology and increasing its application in electricity generation

A Labor Lawyer\u27s Guide to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990*

On July 26, 1990, in a joyous ceremony on the south lawn of the White House, President George Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 lx into la