Recent Legal Literature

Dallas: Analytical Tables of the Law of Evidence, for use with Stephen\u27s Digest of the Law of Evidence; Taylor: The American Law of Landlord and Tenan

Pumping the Brakes on Robot Cars: Current Urban Traveler Willingness to Consider Driverless Vehicles

A growing literature suggests that widespread travel conducted through driverless connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) accessed as a service, in contrast to those personally owned, could have significant impacts on the sustainability of urban transportation. However, it is unclear how the general public currently considers willingness to travel in driverless vehicles, and if they would be more comfortable doing so in one personally owned or one accessed as a service. To address this, we collected travel survey data by intercepting respondents on discretionary or social trips to four popular destinations in a medium-size U.S. city in the spring of 2017. After collecting data on how the respondent reached the survey site and the trip’s origin and destination, survey administrators then asked if respondents would have been willing to make their current trip in either a personally-owned driverless vehicle or through a driverless vehicle service. Over one-third expressed willingness to use both forms, while 31% were unwilling to use either. For those that considered only one, slightly more favored the personally-owned model. Consideration of an existing mobility service was consistently a positive and significant predictor of those that expressed willingness to travel in a driverless vehicle, while traveling downtown negatively and significantly influenced consideration of at least one form of driverless vehicle. These findings highlight the diverse public views about the prospect of integration of CAVs in transportation systems and raise questions about the assumption that travelers to central city locations would be early adopters of automated vehicle mobility services.The research reported here was supported in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), SPEED Program Grant No. 83594901the University of Michigan Energy Institute (UMEI) and University of Michigan Dow Sustainability Fellows progra

Detection and Identification of Molecular Water Pollutants by Laser Raman Spectroscopy

Laser Raman spectroscopy is evolving into a primary tool for the Identification of molecular water pollutants. This study pushes the limits of detectivity of carbon disulfide and benzene to ~ 20 ppm in water solutions using a high-resolution Raman spectrometer, cooled detectors, and photon counting techniques. The primary limiting factors were found to be the low throughput and the scattered light performance of the monochromator as well as insufficient laser energy. An optomized design for a pollution-measuring instrument is suggested, and a prototype has been built which is useful with any value of excitation energy short of sample degrading. The present instrument scans spectrum windows with fixed preselecting filters followed by a small single monochromator with high throughput. No detector cooling or refinements in signal processing were attempted. The resulting detectivity with 20 mw of laser power was only 1000 ppm. However, the scattered light background or optical noise is unmeasurable except at the laser frequency, where it was a maximum of six percent of full scale measured against the 992 cm-1 Raman band of benzene. Equipped with an ion laser a practical field instrument capable of detectivity of 1 ppm will cost about $20,000. The instrument described herein can be built for$4,000, less laser

“Till the muddle in my mind have cleared awa”: can we help shape policy using systems modelling?

This paper considers how some well-documented deficiencies of mental models make it difficult to create effective policies, and suggests that systems modelling can begin to address this issue. To illustrate the argument three short cases are presented. These relate to specific domains but demonstrate how systems modelling can illuminate different general phenomena: effects on labour costs (unintended consequences and feedback); fishery management (accumulation and non-linearity) and child protection (worldviews and sense-making). Six levers for increasing the use of systems modelling in the policy arena are then discussed. The paper closes by emphasising the opportunities for systems modellers in the Anthropocene Era

All plug-in electric vehicles are not the same: Predictors of preference for a plug-in hybrid versus a battery-electric vehicle

This study analyzes data from a survey of drivers (n = 1080) administered in late 2013 to assess factors that influence potential car buyers to consider two different types of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in the United States: plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The results indicate distinct profiles of respondents preferring PHEVs, which have a gasoline backup engine, versus battery BEVs, which rely solely on a battery for power. Respondents interested in selecting a PHEV consider it more for its economic benefits, such as reduced gasoline and maintenance expenditures. Respondents preferring a BEV are drawn to its environmental and technological appeal. The absence of range anxiety for PHEV is a major factor influencing potential PEV buyers

Health insurance is associated with decreased odds for undiagnosed prediabetes and type 2 diabetes in American adults

Over a third of adults in the United States have prediabetes, and many of those with prediabetes will progress to type 2 diabetes within 3–5 years. Health insurance status may factor into a proper diagnosis of prediabetes and diabetes. This study sought to determine the associations between health insurance and undiagnosed prediabetes and diabetes in a national sample of American adults. Publicly available data from 13,029 adults aged 18–64 years from the 2005–2016 waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were analyzed. Health insurance type (Medicaid, Private, Other, None) was self-reported. Prediabetes and diabetes status were assessed with measures of self-report, glycohemoglobin, fasting plasma glucose, and two-hour glucose. Covariate-adjusted logistic models were used for the analyses. Overall, 5976 (45.8%) participants had undiagnosed prediabetes, while 897 (6.8%) had undiagnosed diabetes. Having health insurance was associated with decreased odds ratios for undiagnosed prediabetes: 0.87 (95% confidence interval (CI: 0.79, 0.95)) for private insurance, 0.84 (CI: 0.73, 0.95) for other insurance, and 0.78 (CI: 0.67, 0.90) for Medicaid. Moreover, having private health insurance was associated with 0.82 (CI: 0.67, 0.99) decreased odds for undiagnosed diabetes. Health insurance coverage and screening opportunities for uninsured individuals may reduce prediabetes and diabetes misclassifications

The association of parity with osteoarthritis and knee replacement in the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study

SummaryObjectiveWe evaluated the association of parity to both risk of knee replacement (KR) and knee osteoarthritis (OA).DesignThe NIH-funded Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study (MOST) is a longitudinal observational study of persons age 50–79 years with either symptomatic knee OA or at elevated risk of disease. Baseline and 30-month knee radiographic OA (ROA) was defined as Kellgren/Lawrence (K/L) grade ≥2 or KR. Women were grouped based by number of births: 0; 1 (reference group); 2; 3; 4; and 5 or more. We examined the relation of parity to the incidence over 30 months of ROA and KR using a Poisson regression model. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to control for correlation between two knees within a subject. We adjusted for age, BMI, race, education, occupation, baseline estrogen use, clinical site, injury, and for KR analyses WOMAC pain and use of pain medication.ResultsAmong 1618 women who reported parity information, mean age was 62.6 years, mean BMI 30.7 kg/m2, mean WOMAC pain subscale score 3.7 at baseline. There were 115 KRs and 134 cases of incident knee ROA over 30 months. The relative risk of incident KR was 2.7 times as high (95% CI: 1.0, 7.3) and relative risk of incident knee ROA was 2.6 times as high (95% CI: 1.2, 5.3) among women with five to 12 children compared with those with one birth.ConclusionParity in women at risk for OA is associated with both incident ROA and KR, particularly for those with more than four children

On ordinal utility, cardinal utility, and random utility

Though the Random Utility Model (RUM) was conceived  entirely in terms of ordinal utility, the apparatus throughwhich it is widely practised exhibits properties of  cardinal utility.  The adoption of cardinal utility as a  working operation of ordinal is perfectly valid, provided  interpretations drawn from that operation remain faithful  to ordinal utility.  The paper considers whether the latterrequirement holds true for several measurements commonly  derived from RUM.  In particular it is found that  measurements of consumer surplus change may depart from  ordinal utility, and exploit the cardinality inherent in  the practical apparatus.