Administering Suspect Classes

It has been over forty years since the Supreme Court declared a class suspect under the Equal Protection Clause. In that time, the Court has denied suspect-class status—and the special judicial protections associated with it—to the elderly, the disabled, and the poor, and it has avoided suspect-class determinations when addressing laws that discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community. Administrative agencies, however, have stepped in to provide marginalized groups with some protections through their interpretation of civil rights laws. The Court has shown hostility to those agency interpretations, often in opaque decisions that seem to rest on principles of judicial supremacy as much as substantive constitutional principles. This Article argues that the Court’s hostility to agencies’ role in this area is misguided. Courts should defer to administrative agencies when they protect suspect classes on the basis of reasonable interpretations of civil rights statutes. The principle of judicial supremacy is not relevant: the Court’s abandonment of suspect classes appears driven by the Justices’ concern that the judiciary is intervening too much into the political process rather than a genuine belief that the groups in question do not qualify for suspect status. Given that this court-centered institutional concern does not apply to agencies, it is entirely appropriate for administrative officials to step in to fill the gap in protecting vulnerable minorities. Further, agencies are better positioned than other institutions to calibrate the protection of groups according to the societal context and the need for intervention

For Better, or For Worse: Photographing in a Digitally Cluttered Crowd

In recent years, smartphones have been utilized to photograph treasured moments. However, some are unaware they are distracting others in events such as weddings. The distracting smartphone user could potentially obstruct professional wedding photographers and hinder them from capturing priceless shots. The purpose of this thesis is to research the motive behind the addictive nature of smartphones and potentially decrease the number of smartphone pictures taken during the wedding ceremonies. The goal of this study is to bring awareness to the problem and to create a mobile application, which could then reduce the intrusiveness of smartphones during weddings. The researcher will observe wedding ceremonies in the United States, interview several wedding planners and other photographers to see if they have any suggestions for correcting “guest photographers,” and survey the general public to note their experience with cellphones at weddings

Two new Miocene limpets (Fissurellidae) from southern California, with notes on other fossil occurrences of the family in northwestern North America

Two new fissurellid limpets (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Fissurellidae), Fissurella? stantoni n. sp. and Scelidotoma aldersoni n. sp., are described from Miocene deposits in southern California. Fissurella? stantoni is described from a single specimen from the middle Miocene Topanga Canyon Formation in the Santa Monica Mountains, Los Angeles County, California. Scelidotoma aldersoni is described from two specimens, one from the middle Miocene Topanga Canyon Formation, and another provisionally (cf.) identified specimen of an internal mold from the middle Miocene “Vaqueros” Formation on Santa Cruz Island, Santa Barbara County, southern California. Other unreported fossil occurrences of Scelidotoma are a juvenile specimen attributed only to genus collected in the middle Eocene Crescent Formation in Washington state and S. bella from the Pliocene part of the San Diego Formation, San Diego County, California. The Scelidotoma occurrences extend the chronostratigraphic range of S. bella from the Holocene (living) to the middle Pliocene, and the range of the genus back to the middle Eocene

Kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom force-reflecting Kraft Master

Presented here are kinematic equations for a six degree of freedom force-reflecting hand controller. The forward kinematics solution is developed and shown in simplified form. The Jacobian matrix, which uses terms from the forward kinematics solution, is derived. Both of these kinematic solutions require joint angle inputs. A calibration method is presented to determine the hand controller joint angles given the respective potentiometer readings. The kinematic relationship describing the mechanical coupling between the hand and controller shoulder and elbow joints is given. These kinematic equations may be used in an algorithm to control the hand controller as a telerobotic system component. The purpose of the hand controller is two-fold: operator commands to the telerobotic system are entered using the hand controller, and contact forces and moments from the task are reflected to the operator via the hand controller

Kinematic equations for control of the redundant eight-degree-of-freedom advanced research manipulator 2

The forward position and velocity kinematics for the redundant eight-degree-of-freedom Advanced Research Manipulator 2 (ARM2) are presented. Inverse position and velocity kinematic solutions are also presented. The approach in this paper is to specify two of the unknowns and solve for the remaining six unknowns. Two unknowns can be specified with two restrictions. First, the elbow joint angle and rate cannot be specified because they are known from the end-effector position and velocity. Second, one unknown must be specified from the four-jointed wrist, and the second from joints that translate the wrist, elbow joint excluded. There are eight solutions to the inverse position problem. The inverse velocity solution is unique, assuming the Jacobian matrix is not singular. A discussion of singularities is based on specifying two joint rates and analyzing the reduced Jacobian matrix. When this matrix is singular, the generalized inverse may be used as an alternate solution. Computer simulations were developed to verify the equations. Examples demonstrate agreement between forward and inverse solutions

Forward and inverse kinematics of double universal joint robot wrists

A robot wrist consisting of two universal joints can eliminate the wrist singularity problem found on many individual robots. Forward and inverse position and velocity kinematics are presented for such a wrist having three degrees of freedom. Denavit-Hartenberg parameters are derived to find the transforms required for the kinematic equations. The Omni-Wrist, a commercial double universal joint robot wrist, is studied in detail. There are four levels of kinematic parameters identified for this wrist; three forward and three inverse maps are presented for both position and velocity. These equations relate the hand coordinate frame to the wrist base frame. They are sufficient for control of the wrist standing alone. When the wrist is attached to a manipulator arm; the offset between the two universal joints complicates the solution of the overall kinematics problem. All wrist coordinate frame origins are not coincident, which prevents decoupling of position and orientation for manipulator inverse kinematics

Gower as Data: Exploring the Application of Machine Learning to Gower’s Middle English Corpus

Distant reading, a digital humanities method in wide use, involves processing and analyzing a large amount of text through computer programs. In treating texts as data, these methods can highlight trends in diction, themes, and linguistic patterns that individual readers may miss or critical traditions may obscure. Though several scholars have undertaken projects using topic models and text mining on Middle English texts, the nonstandard orthography of Middle English makes this process more challenging than for our counterparts in later literature. This collaborative project uses Gower’s Confessio Amantis as a small, fixed corpus for analysis. We employ natural language processing to reexamine the Confessio’s themes, adding data analysis to the more traditional close reading strategies of Gower scholarship. We use Gower’s work as a case study both to help reduce the potential variants across textual versions and to more deeply investigate the corpus than distant reading normally allows. Here, we share our initial findings as well as our methodologies. We hope to share resources that will allow other scholars to engage in similar types of projects