Freedom Is Not Enough... : Affirmative Action and J.D. Completion Among Underrepresented People of Color

In Fall 2022, the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the future of affirmative action in higher education. Initially, affirmative action policies were adopted to give equal opportunity to communities who have been and continue to be harmed by discriminatory systems and practices. As we wait for the Court’s decision, it is crucial to understand how existent affirmative action bans impact underrepresented people of color’s (uPOC) graduate/professional degree attainment. Data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Center for Reproductive Rights is analyzed to determine whether affirmative action bans decrease the proportion of uPOC completing their law degrees (or enrolling in graduate programs). We utilize a differences-in-differences (DiD) estimation method, which compares pre- and post-ban rates of degree completion (and graduate school enrollment, where applicable) in states that implemented an affirmative action ban to those states without one. Using this technique, we find that the implementation of a ban decreases the proportion of uPOC completing their law degrees and enrolling in graduate programs. These effects are both practically and statistically significant. Despite the partisan controversy surrounding race-conscious admissions, our findings add to empirical research demonstrating the detrimental impact of eliminating affirmative action in college and university admissions

Protecting Diversity: Can We Afford to Throw Out Grutter Before Its Expiration Date?

With landmark affirmative action decisions pending from the United States Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, this paper examines whether the educational benefits that flow from diversity acknowledged in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) persist twenty years later in a law school context. Using data from the American Bar Association (ABA), the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE), we model law school campus diversity as a predictor of attrition, predicted law school GPA, and first-time bar passage among underrepresented law students of color. Campus diversity is operationalized as both a U.S. News-style index and as a factor derived from the Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE). Our findings demonstrate benefits for Black law students across the range of outcomes, likely without concomitant harm to other groups

Fano Effect through Parallel-coupled Double Coulomb Islands

By means of the non-equilibrium Green function and equation of motion method, the electronic transport is theoretically studied through a parallel-coupled double quantum dots(DQD) in the presence of the on-dot Coulomb correlation, with an emphasis put on the quantum interference. It has been found that in the Coulomb blockage regime, the quantum interference between the bonding and antiboding DQD states or that between their Coulomb blockade counterparts may result in the Fano resonance in the conductance spectra, and the Fano peak doublet may be observed under certain non-equilibrium condition. The possibility of manipulating the Fano lineshape is predicted by tuning the dot-lead coupling and magnetic flux threading the ring connecting the dots and leads. Similar to the case without Coulomb interaction, the direction of the asymmetric tail of Fano lineshape can be flipped by the external field. Most importantly, by tuning the magnetic flux, the function of four relevant states can be interchanged, giving rise to the swap effect, which might play a key role as a qubit in the quantum computation.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Resonant Tunneling through Multi-Level and Double Quantum Dots

We study resonant tunneling through quantum-dot systems in the presence of strong Coulomb repulsion and coupling to the metallic leads. Motivated by recent experiments we concentrate on (i) a single dot with two energy levels and (ii) a double dot with one level in each dot. Each level is twofold spin-degenerate. Depending on the level spacing these systems are physical realizations of different Kondo-type models. Using a real-time diagrammatic formulation we evaluate the spectral density and the non-linear conductance. The latter shows a novel triple-peak resonant structure.Comment: 4 pages, ReVTeX, 4 Postscript figure

Evidence for the involvement of tyrosine-69 in the control of stereospecificity of porcine pancreatic phospholipase A2

We have studied the role of Tyr-69 of porcine pancreatic phospholipase A2 in catalysis and substrate binding, using site-directed mutagenesis. A mutant was constructed containing Phe at position 69. Kinetic characterization revealed that the Phe-69 mutant has retained enzymatic activity on monomeric and micellar substrates, and that the mutation has only minor effects on kcat and Km. This shows that Tyr-69 plays no role in the true catalytic events during substrate hydrolysis. In contrast, the mutation has a profound influence on the stereospecificity of the enzyme. Whereas the wild-type phospholipase A2 is only able to catalyse the degradation of sn-3 phospholipids, the Phe-69 mutant hydrolyses both the sn-3 isomers and, at a low (1-2%) rate, the sn-1 isomers. Despite the fact that the stereospecificity of the mutant phospholipase has been altered, Phe-69 phospholipase still requires Ca2+ ions as a cofactor and also retains its specificity for the sn-2 ester bond. Our data suggest that in porcine pancreatic phospholipase A2 the hydroxyl group of Tyr-69 serves to fix and orient the phosphate group of phospholipid monomers by hydrogen bonding. Because no such interaction can occur between the Phe-69 side-chain and the phosphate moiety of the substrate monomer, the mutant enzyme loses part of its stereospecificity but not its positional specificity

Level statistics of XXZ spin chains with a random magnetic field

The level-spacing distribution of a spin 1/2 XXZ chain is numerically studied under random magnetic field. We show explicitly how the level statistics depends on the lattice size L, the anisotropy parameter $\Delta$, and the mean amplitude of the random magnetic field h. In the energy spectrum, quantum integrability competes with nonintegrability derived from the randomness, where the XXZ interaction is modified by the parameter $\Delta$. When $\Delta \ne 0$, the level-spacing distribution mostly shows Wigner-like behavior, while when $\Delta$=0, Poisson-like behavior appears although the system is nonintegrable due to randomness. Poisson-like behavior also appears for $\Delta \ne 0$ in the large h limit. Furthermore, the level-spacing distribution depends on the lattice size L, particularly when the random field is weak.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Suppression of level hybridization due to Coulomb interactions

We investigate an ensemble of systems formed by a ring enclosing a magnetic flux. The ring is coupled to a side stub via a tunneling junction and via Coulomb interaction. We generalize the notion of level hybridization due to the hopping, which is naturally defined only for one-particle problems, to the many-particle case, and we discuss the competition between the level hybridization and the Coulomb interaction. It is shown that strong enough Coulomb interactions can isolate the ring from the stub, thereby increasing the persistent current. Our model describes a strictly canonical system (the number of carriers is the same for all ensemble members). Nevertheless for small Coulomb interactions and a long side stub the model exhibits a persistent current typically associated with a grand canonical ensemble of rings and only if the Coulomb interactions are sufficiently strong does the model exhibit a persistent current which one expects from a canonical ensemble.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, uses iop style files, version as publishe

Unexpected non-Wigner behavior in level-spacing distributions of next-nearest-neighbor coupled XXZ spin chains

The level-spacing distributions of XXZ spin chains with next-nearest-neighbor couplings are studied under periodic boundary conditions. We confirm that integrable XXZ spin chains mostly have the Poisson distribution as expected. On the contrary, the level-spacing distributions of next-nearest-neighbor coupled XXZ chains are given by non-Wigner distributions. It is against the expectations, since the models are nonintegrable.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Physical Review