A Jurisprudence of Ideology

Chief Justice Rehnquist figures prominently in recent historic environmental case law addressed by the Supreme Court. Although generally critical of federal environmental laws, the skepticism stemmed from an interest in the protection of state rights and protection of private property rights rather than a general challenge to federal regulation. His jurisprudence reflects three “guideposts” to consider environmental concerns: limiting the scope of federal power, protecting state sovereignty from encroachment by the federal government, and protecting the rights of private property owners against intrusions resulting from regulation by government. In limiting the scope of federal power, Rehnquist specifically supported limitations on congressional authority to legislate under the Commerce Clause and supported the expansion of the non-delegation doctrine which vests all legislative powers in Congress. Looking to the language of environmental statutes, he often interpreted these narrowly which led to a rejection of implied private rights of action. Under the third guidepost, protecting private property rights, he typically interpreted environmental statutes narrowly. This resulted in a conclusion that state efforts to protect land and resources constituted regulatory takings, compensable by the government to private landowners

Justice Rehnquist and the Dismantling of Environmental Law

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was uniquely situated to have a profound impact on the development of federal environmental law - both because of the overlap of his tenure with the development of the field of environmental law and because of his four-decade tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court, more than one-half of which was as Chief Justice. Before his death on September 3, 2005, Rehnquist heard the vast majority of the Court`s environmental cases during the modern environmental era, penning opinions in 25% of them, and affording him an opportunity to shape environmental law, especially during its formative years, that no Justice is likely to match. This Article discusses how Justice (and then Chief Justice) Rehnquist interpreted federal constitutional and public law in the opinions he wrote in environmental cases. It concludes that Rehnquist`s environmental opinions reflect a three tiered agenda. First, if a case involved a constitutional or statutory property rights question, Justice Rehnquist almost always chose to protect property rights over competing environmental concerns. Second, in the absence of a property rights issue, Rehnquist almost always decided cases so as to protect state sovereignty, sometimes but not invariably with pro-environmental results. Third, in cases lacking a property rights or state sovereignty component, he almost always decided them in a way that curtailed federal power, and with it, the effectiveness of environmental law. The Article, which is part of a larger ongoing study of Justice Rehnquist`s environmental law jurisprudence, explores the extent to which Justice Rehnquist\u27s three-tiered approach has already weakened environmental law and whether that approach is likely to contribute to further diminishment of effective environmental protection under the pollution control and natural resource management legislation in the future

A Jurisprudence of Ideology

Chief Justice Rehnquist figures prominently in recent historic environmental case law addressed by the Supreme Court. Although generally critical of federal environmental laws, the skepticism stemmed from an interest in the protection of state rights and protection of private property rights rather than a general challenge to federal regulation. His jurisprudence reflects three “guideposts” to consider environmental concerns: limiting the scope of federal power, protecting state sovereignty from encroachment by the federal government, and protecting the rights of private property owners against intrusions resulting from regulation by government. In limiting the scope of federal power, Rehnquist specifically supported limitations on congressional authority to legislate under the Commerce Clause and supported the expansion of the non-delegation doctrine which vests all legislative powers in Congress. Looking to the language of environmental statutes, he often interpreted these narrowly which led to a rejection of implied private rights of action. Under the third guidepost, protecting private property rights, he typically interpreted environmental statutes narrowly. This resulted in a conclusion that state efforts to protect land and resources constituted regulatory takings, compensable by the government to private landowners

Justice Rehnquist and the Dismantling of Environmental Law

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was uniquely situated to have a profound impact on the development of federal environmental law - both because of the overlap of his tenure with the development of the field of environmental law and because of his four-decade tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court, more than one-half of which was as Chief Justice. Before his death on September 3, 2005, Rehnquist heard the vast majority of the Court`s environmental cases during the modern environmental era, penning opinions in 25% of them, and affording him an opportunity to shape environmental law, especially during its formative years, that no Justice is likely to match. This Article discusses how Justice (and then Chief Justice) Rehnquist interpreted federal constitutional and public law in the opinions he wrote in environmental cases. It concludes that Rehnquist`s environmental opinions reflect a three tiered agenda. First, if a case involved a constitutional or statutory property rights question, Justice Rehnquist almost always chose to protect property rights over competing environmental concerns. Second, in the absence of a property rights issue, Rehnquist almost always decided cases so as to protect state sovereignty, sometimes but not invariably with pro-environmental results. Third, in cases lacking a property rights or state sovereignty component, he almost always decided them in a way that curtailed federal power, and with it, the effectiveness of environmental law. The Article, which is part of a larger ongoing study of Justice Rehnquist`s environmental law jurisprudence, explores the extent to which Justice Rehnquist\u27s three-tiered approach has already weakened environmental law and whether that approach is likely to contribute to further diminishment of effective environmental protection under the pollution control and natural resource management legislation in the future

An implicit finite difference approximation to the one-dimensional transport equation

The properties of an implicit three-level finite difference scheme are investigated. The modified equivalent partial differential equation is used to determine the speed and amplitude characteristics of the scheme, and these are used to determine the optimal value of the weighting between a central difference and an upwind biased difference. Results of numerical experiments that confirm that the predicted value of the weight does minimise the error are presented

Utilizing remote sensing of thematic mapper data to improve our understanding of estuarine processes and their influence on the productivity of estuarine-dependent fisheries

The land-water interface of coastal marshes may influence the production of estuarine-dependent fisheries more than the area of these marshes. To test this hypothesis, a spatial model was created to explore the dynamic relationship between marshland-water interface and level of disintegration in the decaying coastal marshes of Louisiana's Barataria, Terrebonne, and Timbalier basins. Calibrating the model with Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite imagery, a parabolic relationship was found between land-water interface and marsh disintegration. Aggregated simulation data suggest that interface in the study area will soon reach its maximum and then decline. A statistically significant positive linear relationship was found between brown shrimp catch and total interface length over the past 28 years. This relationship suggests that shrimp yields will decline when interface declines, possibly beginning about 1995

Communication interventions to promote the public's awareness of antibiotics: a systematic review.

BackgroundInappropriate antibiotic use is implicated in antibiotic resistance and resultant morbidity and mortality. Overuse is particularly prevalent for outpatient respiratory infections, and perceived patient expectations likely contribute. Thus, various educational programs have been implemented to educate the public.MethodsWe systematically identified public-directed interventions to promote antibiotic awareness in the United States. PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase, CINAHL, and Scopus were queried for articles published from January 1996 through January 2016. Two investigators independently assessed titles and abstracts of retrieved articles for subsequent full-text review. References of selected articles and three review articles were likewise screened for inclusion. Identified educational interventions were coded for target audience, content, distribution site, communication method, and major outcomes.ResultsOur search yielded 1,106 articles; 34 met inclusion criteria. Due to overlap in interventions studied, 29 distinct educational interventions were identified. Messages were primarily delivered in outpatient clinics (N = 24, 83%) and community sites (N = 12, 41%). The majority included clinician education. Antibiotic prescription rates were assessed for 22 interventions (76%). Patient knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs (KAB) were assessed for 10 interventions (34%). Similar rates of success between antibiotic prescription rates and patient KAB were reported (73 and 70%, respectively). Patient interventions that did not include clinician education were successful to increase KAB but were not shown to decrease antibiotic prescribing. Three interventions targeted reductions in Streptococcus pneumoniae resistance; none were successful.ConclusionsMessaging programs varied in their designs, and many were multifaceted in their approach. These interventions can change patient perspectives regarding antibiotic use, though it is unclear if clinician education is also necessary to reduce antibiotic prescribing. Further investigations are needed to determine the relative influence of interventions focusing on patients and physicians and to determine whether these changes can influence rates of antibiotic resistance long-term

Utilizing remote sensing of Thematic Mapper data to improve our understanding of estuarine processes and their influence on the productivity of estuarine-dependent fisheries

The purpose of the project is to refine and validate a probabilistic spatial computer model through the analyses of thematic mapper imagery. The model is designed to determine how the interface between marshland and water changes as marshland is converted to water in a disintegrating marsh. Coastal marshland in Louisiana is disintegrating at the rate of approximately 40 sq mi a year, and an evaluation of the potential impact of this loss on the landings of estuarine-dependent fisheries is needed by fisheries managers. Understanding how marshland-water interface changes as coastal marshland is lost is essential to the process of evaluating fisheries effects, because several studies suggest that the production of estuarine-dependent fish and shellfish may be more closely related to the interface between marshland and water than to acreage of marshland. The need to address this practical problem has provided an opportunity to apply some scientifically interesting new techniques to the analyses of satellite imagery. Progress with the development of these techniques is the subject of this report

Working Futures 2017-2027 : Long-run labour market and skills projections headline report

This report provides a concise overview of Working Futures 2017-2027 results for the UK. It presents historical trends and future prospects by sector for the UK and its constituent nations and the English regions. The prime focus of Working Futures is on the demand for skills as measured by employment by occupation and qualification, although the supply side is also considered. Its prime objective is to provide useful labour market information that can help to inform policy development and strategy around skills, careers and employment, for both policy makers and a much wider audience. The results are intended to provide a sound statistical foundation for reflection and debate among all those with an interest in the demand for and supply of skills. It is aimed at the general reader and focuses on the key messages from this very detailed study. It complements the more detailed outputs and results from the project available from the gov.uk website2 and cover sectors, occupations, geography and qualifications

Differential Regulation of Strand-Specific Transcripts from Arabidopsis Centromeric Satellite Repeats

Centromeres interact with the spindle apparatus to enable chromosome disjunction and typically contain thousands of tandemly arranged satellite repeats interspersed with retrotransposons. While their role has been obscure, centromeric repeats are epigenetically modified and centromere specification has a strong epigenetic component. In the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, long heterochromatic repeats are transcribed and contribute to centromere function via RNA interference (RNAi). In the higher plant Arabidopsis thaliana, as in mammalian cells, centromeric satellite repeats are short (180 base pairs), are found in thousands of tandem copies, and are methylated. We have found transcripts from both strands of canonical, bulk Arabidopsis repeats. At least one subfamily of 180–base pair repeats is transcribed from only one strand and regulated by RNAi and histone modification. A second subfamily of repeats is also silenced, but silencing is lost on both strands in mutants in the CpG DNA methyltransferase MET1, the histone deacetylase HDA6/SIL1, or the chromatin remodeling ATPase DDM1. This regulation is due to transcription from Athila2 retrotransposons, which integrate in both orientations relative to the repeats, and differs between strains of Arabidopsis. Silencing lost in met1 or hda6 is reestablished in backcrosses to wild-type, but silencing lost in RNAi mutants and ddm1 is not. Twenty-four–nucleotide small interfering RNAs from centromeric repeats are retained in met1 and hda6, but not in ddm1, and may have a role in this epigenetic inheritance. Histone H3 lysine-9 dimethylation is associated with both classes of repeats. We propose roles for transcribed repeats in the epigenetic inheritance and evolution of centromeres