17,795 research outputs found

    Grains of Sand or Butterfly Effect: Standing, the Legitimacy of Precedent, and Reflections on \u3cem\u3eHollingsworth\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eWindsor\u3c/em\u3e

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    One test of whether a scholarly work has achieved canonical status is to ask respected scholars in the field which works, setting aside their own, are essential reads. William Fletcher’s article, The Structure of Standing, now in its twenty-fifth year, would almost certainly emerge at the top of any such lists among standing scholars. And yet, while many at this conference have built upon Fletcher’s insights, there remains notable disagreement concerning standing doctrine’s normative foundations. The central dispute concerns whether standing doctrine should be celebrated as furthering a “private-rights,” or instead, condemned as thwarting a “public-rights,” adjudicatory model. In a series of works employing social choice theory, I have presented standing doctrine as furthering a private-rights adjudicatory model. In separate high-profile works, Professors Heather Elliott and Jonathan Siegel have criticized this account, claiming it rests on the “great myth” that the judicial lawmaking is inextricably tied to dispute resolution, with precedent creation merely an incidental byproduct. Instead, Elliott and Siegel contend that the federal judiciary, including especially the Supreme Court, has the primary responsibility of announcing constitutional rules, with case resolutions a justificatory vehicle for performing that task. Siegel further maintains that if, as the social choice model suggests, standing raises the cost to ideological litigants of timing the path of case law to influence developing doctrine, it is no more effective than tossing a “few grains of sand” into the gears of the judicial-lawmaking apparatus. In this Article I respond to these critiques and defend the social choice analysis of standing and the private-rights model on which it rests. First, these and other public-rights scholars fail to appreciate that the private-rights model enhances the normative legitimacy and durability of precedent. If the justification for creating precedent is the present favorable conditions of judicial staffing, then the arguments for respecting the resulting precedent erode when those conditions change, favoring those opposing the precedent. Second, these critiques misread the social choice model of standing to imply that relaxing its limiting conditions undermines the claim that with reasonable assumptions, even if there are no changes in Supreme Court staffing, in the disposition of cases below, in intervening precedent, and in the jurisprudential views of sitting justices, ideological litigants can effect substantive doctrine through favorable case orderings. The opposite is true: Relaxing these limiting conditions has the potential to enhance, not diminish, incentives to manipulate case orderings for maximal doctrinal effect. Third, and finally, expanding the social choice analysis to account for (1) delays in lower federal courts or state courts, (2) the results of changed judicial staffing on the Supreme Court, and (3) the bidirectional nature of constitutional and prudential standing rules more likely generates a butterfly effect, with substantial implications for developing doctrine, than an inconsequential tossing of sand into the works of developing precedent

    Reflections on the Aftermath of Election 2016

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    Parameter Estimation in Semi-Linear Models Using a Maximal Invariant Likelihood Function

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    In this paper, we consider the problem of estimation of semi-linear regression models. Using invariance arguments, Bhowmik and King (2001) have derived the probability density functions of the maximal invariant statistic for the nonlinear component of these models. Using these density functions as likelihood functions allows us to estimate these models in a two-step process. First the nonlinear component parameters are estimated by maximising the maximal invariant likelihood function. Then the nonlinear component, with the parameter values replaced by estimates, is treated as a regressor and ordinary least squares is used to estimate the remaining parameters. We report the results of a simulation study conducted to compare the accuracy of this approach with full maximum likelihood estimation. We find maximising the maximal invariant likelihood function typically results in less biased and lower variance estimates than those from full maximum likelihood.Maximum likelihood estimation, nonlinear modelling, simulation experiment, two-step estimation.

    Multidate mapping of mosquito habitat

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    LANDSAT data from three overpasses formed the data base for a multidate classification of 15 ground cover categories in the margins of Lewis and Clark Lake, a fresh water impoundment between South Dakota and Nebraska. When scaled to match topographic maps of the area, the ground cover classification maps were used as a general indicator of potential mosquito-breeding habitat by distinguishing productive wetlands areas from nonproductive nonwetlands areas. The 12 channel multidate classification was found to have an accuracy 23% higher than the average of the three single date 4 channel classifications

    Southern California partyboat sampling study Quarterly Report No. 4

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    From 1 April through 30 June, 1976, Department personnel made 146 trips aboard southern California partyboats. A total of 18,218 fishes from 76 species was identified and measured. Otoliths were removed from 674 rockfish carcasses for use in age determination studies. The 10 most common species sampled during this quarter represented 85.2% of the total number of fishes measured. These were, in order of importance: bocaccio, Sebastes paucispinis; kelp bass, Paralabrax clathratus; Pacific bonito, Sarda chiliensis; barred sand bass, Paralabrax nebulifer; chilipepper, Sebastes goodei; California barracuda, Sphyraena argentea; olive rockfish; Sebastes serranoides; white croaker, Genyonemus lineatus; ocean whitefish, Caulolatilus princeps; and vermilion rockfish, Sebastes miniatus. Pacific bonito and California barracuda partyboat landings exceeded those of the entire 1975 season, and sampling data indicate the average length of barracuda caught from partyboats was significantly larger than that of the previous season. (15pp.

    Southern California partyboat sampling study Quarterly Report no. 1

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    Estimates of the total yearly catch from the partyboat fishery have been collected and published on a routine basis since 1935. Important data relating to the size and age composition of this segment of the marine sportfishery have been lacking. As a consequence, a southern California partyboat sampling study was initiated on April 1, 1975. The main objective of this sampling is to identify and measure all fishes taken by sportsmen on partyboats with primary emphasis given to California barracuda, Sphyraena argentea; yellowtail, Seriola dorsalis; white seabass, Cynoscion nobilis; and rockfishes, Sebastes spp. (22pp.

    SBML Reaction Finder: Retrieve and extract specific reactions from the BioModels database

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    Summary: The SBML Reaction Finder (SRF) application leverages the deep semantic annotations in the BioModels database to provide efficient retrieval and extraction of individual reactions from SBML models. We hope that the SRF will be useful to quantitative modelers who seek to accelerate their modeling efforts by reusing previously published representations of specific chemical reactions.

Availability and Implementation: The SRF is open source, coded in Java, and distributed under the Mozilla Pubic License Version 1.1. Windows, Macintosh and Linux distributions are available for download at 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sbmlrxnfinder.
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    Southern California partyboat sampling study Quarterly Report no. 3

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    During the period January 1 to March 31, 1976, Department personnel made 139 sampling trips aboard southern California partyboats. A total of 22,122 fishes from 73 species was identified and measured. Otoliths were removed from 1,536 rockfish carcasses representing 31 species for use in age determination. Sampling personnel tagged and released 68 California barracuda, Sphyraena argentea, and 18 sablefish, Anoplopoma fimbria. The five most common species sampled during this period represented approximately 79% of the total number of fishes measured. These were, in order of importance; bocaccio, Sebastes paucispinis; chilipepper, Sebastes goodei; olive rockfish, Sebastes serranoides; greenspotted rockfish, Sebastes chlorostictus; and vermilion rockfish, Sebastes miniatus. Bocaccio alone accounted for 52% of the sampled catch. (15pp.
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