Comparison of satellite-derived dynamical quantities for the stratosphere of the Southern Hemisphere

As part of the international Middle Atmosphere Program (MAP), a project was instituted to study the dynamics of the Middle Atmosphere in the Southern Hemisphere (MASH). A pre-MASH workshop was held with two aims: comparison of Southern Hemisphere dynamical quantities derived from various archives of satellite data; and assessing the impact of different base-level height information on such derived quantities. The dynamical quantities examined included geopotential height, zonal wind, potential vorticity, eddy heat and momentum fluxes, and Eliassen-Palm fluxes. It was found that while there was usually qualitative agreement between the different sets of fields, substantial quantitative differences were evident, particularly in high latitudes. The fidelity of the base-level analysis was found to be of prime importance in calculating derived quantities - especially the Eliassen-Palm flux divergence and potential vorticity. Improvements in base-level analyses are recommended. In particular, quality controls should be introduced to remove spurious localized features from analyses, and information from all Antarctic radiosondes should be utilized where possible. Caution in drawing quantitative inferences from satellite data for the middle atmosphere of the Southern Hemisphere is advised

Comparison of satellite derived dynamical quantities in the stratosphere of the Southern Hemisphere

The proceedings are summarized from a pre-MASH planning workshop on the intercomparison of Southern Hemisphere observations, analyses and derived dynamical quantities held in Williamsburg, Virginia during April 1986. The aims of this workshop were primarily twofold: (1) comparison of Southern Hemisphere dynamical quantities derived from various satellite data archives (e.g., from limb scanners and nadir sounders); and (2) assessing the impact of different base-level height information on such derived quantities. These tasks are viewed as especially important in the Southern Hemisphere because of the paucity of conventional measurements. A further strong impetus for the MASH program comes from the recent discovery of the springtime ozone hold over Antarctica. Insight gained from validation studies such as the one reported here will contribute to an improved understanding of the role of meteorology in the development and evolution of the hold, in its interannual variability, and in its interhemispheric differences. The dynamical quantities examined in this workshop included geopotential height, zonal wind, potential vorticity, eddy heat and momentum fluxes, and Eliassen-Palm fluxes. The time periods and data sources constituting the MASH comparisons are summarized

The New Legal Realism

The last decade has witnessed the birth of the New Legal Realism - an effort to go beyond the old realism by testing competing hypotheses about the role of law and politics in judicial decisions, with reference to large sets and statistical analysis. The New Legal Realists have uncovered a Standard Model of Judicial Behavior, demonstrating significant differences between Republican appointees and Democratic appointees, and showing that such differences can be diminished or heightened by panel composition. The New Legal Realists have also started to find that race, sex, and other demographic characteristics sometimes have effects on judicial judgments. At the same time, many gaps remain. Numerous areas of law remain unstudied; certain characteristics of judges have yet to be investigated; and in some ways, the existing work is theoretically thin. The New Legal Realism has clear jurisprudential implications, bearing as it does on competing accounts of legal reasoning, including Ronald Dworkin's suggestion that such reasoning is a search for 'integrity.' Discussion is devoted to the relationship between the New Legal Realism and some of the perennial normative questions in administrative law.

The Real World of Arbitrariness Review

The Administrative Procedure Act instructs federal courts to invalidate agency decisions that are 'arbitrary' or 'capricious.' In its 1983 decision in the State Farm case, the Supreme Court firmly endorsed the idea that arbitrariness review requires courts to take a 'hard look' at agency decisions. The hard look doctrine has been defended as a second-best substitute for insistence on the original constitutional safeguards; close judicial scrutiny is said to discipline agency decisions and to constrain the illegitimate exercise of discretion. In the last two decades, however, hard look review has been challenged on the plausible but admittedly speculative ground that judges' policy preferences affect judicial decisions about whether agency decisions are 'arbitrary.' This study, based on an extensive data set, finds that the speculation is correct. Democratic appointees are far more likely to vote to invalidate, as arbitrary, conservative agency decisions than liberal agency decisions. Republican appointees are far more likely to invalidate, as arbitrary, liberal agency decisions than conservative agency decisions. Significant panel effects are also observed. Democratic appointees show especially liberal voting patterns on all-Democratic panels; Republican appointees show especially conservative voting patterns on all-Republican panels. Our central findings do not show that judicial votes are dominated by political considerations, but they do raise grave doubts about the claim that hard look review is operating as a neutral safeguard against the errors and biases of federal agencies. Because judicial policy commitments are playing a large role, there is a strong argument for reducing the role of those commitments, and perhaps for softening hard look review.

Do Judges Make Regulatory Policy? An Empirical Investigation of Chevron

In the last quarter-century, the Supreme Court has legitimated agency authority to interpret regulatory legislation, above all in Chevron U.S.A., Inc v Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc, the most-cited case in modern public law. Chevron recognizes that the resolution of statutory ambiguities often requires judgments of policy; its call for judicial deference to reasonable interpretations was widely expected to have eliminated the role of policy judgments in judicial review of agency interpretations of law. But this expectation has not been realized. On the Supreme Court, conservative justices vote to validate agency decisions less often than liberal justices. Moreover, the most conservative members of the Supreme Court show significantly increased validation of agency interpretations after President Bush succeeded President Clinton, and the least conservative members of the Court show significantly decreased validation rates in the same period. In a similar vein, the most conservative members of the Court are less likely to validate liberal agency interpretations than conservative ones and the least conservative members of the Court show the opposite pattern. Similar patterns can be found on federal appellate courts. In lower court decisions involving the EPA and the NLRB from 1990 to 2004, Republican appointees demonstrated a greater willingness to invalidate liberal agency decisions and those of Democratic administrations. These differences are greatly amplified when Republican appointees sit with two Republican appointees and when Democratic appointees sit with two Democratic appointees.

BikeNet: Preventing theft, building community

This report discusses the Save the Bike Project and the BikeNet App, and the ways it helps prevent and recover stolen bikes.Ope

Out of Bounds: A Visual Exploration of the Glitch

This practice-led research aims to present a body of artwork that responds to glitches found in contemporary action video games. By utilising the visual capabilities of a virtual reality headset, I have produced a series of artworks that showcase the sensory effects that a glitch has on a player’s game world. The artwork that I have developed translates the materiality of traditional drawing into a digital space to visualise the qualities of glitches

A Critical Study of William Nevill\u27s The Castell of Pleasure; the Delusions of Amor.

Few English poems have been neglected more than William Nevilll\u27s The Castell of. Pleasure. Following Henry Pepwell\u27 s reprint ( 1518) of Wynkyn de Worde\u27 s original edition, the poem has been reprinted only twice. Scholarly criticism of the poem is even rarer than are its editions

Lizard Brained

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College

Mesomechanics of fabric reinforced composites

Fiber reinforced plastic composites are an attractive alternative to traditional materials because of, among other things, the ability to concurrently design the materials and ratios to fit a specific need. One method of fiber reinforcement is through the used of woven fabrics, which provide more balanced overall strengths and durability during fabrication. The weaving and interlacing of the fibers, however, adds a level of complexity when predicting material properties and strengths using micromechanical models. Traditional models have mostly been based on classical thin lamination theory, and this method is limited in its scope and applicability for woven fabric composites. This research sought to develop a novel procedure for predicting the overall material properties (a complete set) and internal stresses for a plain weave fabric composite. The new model is based on periodic microstructure, taking advantage of the sinusoidal weaving nature of the plain weave geometry. The new application of periodic microstructure combines the power and comprehensiveness of the finite element method with the ease of use and speed of a micromechanical model based in classical lamination theory. All of the relevant equations and relationships pertaining to the application of periodic microstructure to a plain weave fabric composite were developed. The analytical weave geometry of Ito and Chou and the experimentally determined geometry developed by the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (Army Corps of Engineers), along with the derived equations, were inputs into a Mathcad program that calculates the effective stiffness matrix of the representative volume element (RVE) as well as the point wise stresses at any location within the RVE volume. Results were compared with existing experimental and finite element data, with excellent correlation in both cases