Using Future Value Analysis to Select an Optimal Portfolio of Force Protection Initiatives

With the recent increase in terrorist activity, force protection has become a key issue for the Department of Defense, Leading the research for new ideas and concepts in force protection for the US Air Force is the Air Force Force Protection Battlelab (FPB). The FPB is charged with searching out force protection ideas and selecting those most worthy for future consideration. In 2002, a Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) hierarchy was created to help the FPB select those ideas that provided the most value to the Air Force and its force protection goals. This research effort uses the Future Value Analysis (FVA) approach, a decision-making methodology, to provide a more accurate project selection tool to the FPB. FVA incorporates the ideals of multi-attribute utility theory, specifically using the VFT process, as well as linear programming optimization techniques, to provide an optimal portfolio of initiatives for the FPB to pursue. FVA provides a solution that optimizes the value of initiatives selected, while remaining within the organizational constraints of the FPB. This research provides a proof of implementation for the FVA process in the force protection environment

Quasi-Constitutional Law: Clear Statement Rules as Constitu

In one of the most celebrated law review articles of all time, Karl Llewellyn argued that the traditional canons of statutory construction are not reliable guides to predicting judicial interpretations, because for every canon supporting one interpretation there is a counter-canon cutting against that interpretation. He accomplished his tour de force in large part by focusing upon the referential canons-rules referring the Court to an outside or preexisting source to determine statutory meaning\u27-and upon the linguistic canons-general conventions of language, grammar, and syntax. Llewellyn did not explore in any detail the substantive canons, the clear statement rules or presumptions of statutory interpretation that reflect substantive values drawn from the common law, federal statutes, or the United States Constitution. Much the same exercise could be performed in connection with the substantive canons-for every canon there is a counter-canon-but with this difference: The substantive canons do reflect some overall tendency or slant in the Court\u27s interpretation of statutes. That is, unlike the linguistic canons or the referential canons, the substantive canons are not policy neutral. They represent value choices by the Court. A modern Karl Llewellyn might quarrel that, if the substantive canons are malleable (just as the linguistic and referential canons are), how can they be said to have any systematic effect on the Court\u27s results in statutory cases? We agree that the malleability of the canons prevents them from constraining the Court or forcing certain results in statutory interpretation through deductive reasoning from first canonical principles. Yet we also think that the substantive canons are connected in an important way with the results the Court reaches in statutory cases, though not in the cause-effect (canons produce results) way traditionally assumed and effectively criticized by Llewellyn. Rather the opposite occurs: The canons are one means by which the Court expresses the value choices that it is making or strategies it is taking when it interprets statutes (thus, results produce canons). The canons are constructed, and reconstructed, over time. The precise way in which a Court deploys substantive canons of statutory construction reflects an underlying ideology, or mix of values and strategies that the Court brings to statutory interpretation

X-Ray Emission from M32: X-Ray Binaries or a micro-AGN?

We have analysed archival {\it ROSAT} PSPC data for M32 in order to study the x-ray emission from this nearest elliptical galaxy. We fit spectra from three long exposures with Raymond-Smith, thermal bremsstrahlung, and power-law models. All models give excellent fits. The thermal fits have kT$\approx$4 keV, the Raymond-Smith iron abundance is $0.4^{+0.7}_{-0.3}$ Solar, the power-law fit has $\alpha$=1.6$\pm$0.1, and all fits have $N_H$ consistent with the Galactic column. The source is centered on M32 to an accuracy of 9$''$, and unresolved at 27$''$ FWHM ($\sim$90 pc). M32 is x-ray variable by a factor of 3--5 on timescales of a decade down to minutes, with evidence for a possible period of $\sim$1.3 days. There are two plausible interpretations for these results: 1) Emission due to low-mass x-ray binaries; 2) Emission due to accretion onto a massive central black hole. Both of these possibilities are supported by arguments based on previous studies of M32 and other old stellar systems; the {\it ROSAT} PSPC data do not allow us to unambiguously choose between them. Observations with the {\it ROSAT} HRI and with {\it ASCA} are required to determine which of these two very different physical models is correct.Comment: 9 pages, 5 PostScript figures, uses AASTeX style files, Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter

Legislation Scholarship and Pedagogy in the Post-Legal Process Era

Legal academe\u27s approach to the systematic study of legislation resembles Congress\u27 attitude toward balancing the federal budget: everyone agrees that it is a good thing, but laments that it is not done. A growing body of opinion bemoans legislation\u27s second class status as an academic discipline and advocates substantially enhanced scholarly interest in the subject. We join this collective lament and endorse a more systematic and creative approach to teaching and writing about legislation

The Supreme Court, 1993 Term: Law As Equilibrium: Foreword

With the confirmation of Justice Stephen Breyer to the United States Supreme Court, the legal process school has quietly attained what every Supreme Court litigator seeks: a majority on the Court. Along with Justice Breyer, Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, and Ginsburg are all alumni of Henry Hart\u27s and Albert Sacks\u27s Harvard Law School courses on The Legal Process. As such, they have been schooled in legal process\u27s emphasis on the creation of law by interacting institutions, the purposiveness of law and these institutions, and the mediating role of procedure. Perhaps it should not be surprising, then, that the Supreme Court\u27s I993 Term was replete with these themes, even before Justice Breyer clinched a numerical majority for Hart and Sacks

SIMULATION AND RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY TO OPTIMIZE WINTER WHEAT RESPONSE TO GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

Future climate changes can have a major impact on crop production. But, whatever the climatic changes, crop production can be adapted to climate change by implementing alternative management practices and developing new genotypes that will take full advantage of the future climatic conditions. Since the classical agronomic research approach is not possible in identifying these new agronomic technologies for the future climatic conditions, we used response surface methodology (RSM) in connection with the CERES-Wheat crop model and the HADCM2 climate simulation model to identify optimal configuration of plant traits and management practices that maximize yield of winter wheat under high CO2 environments. The simulations were conducted for three Nebraska locations (Havelock, Dickens and Alliance), which were considered representative of winter wheat growing areas in the central Great Plains. At all locations, the identified optimal winter wheat cultivar under high CO2 conditions had a larger number of tillers, larger kernel size, shorter days to flower, grew faster and had more kernels per square meter than the check variety under normal CO2 conditions, while the optimal planting dates were later and planting densities were lower than under normal conditions. We concluded that RSM used in conjunction with crop and climate simulation models was a useful approach to understanding the complex relationship between wheat genotypes, climate and management practices

Energy efficient engine ICLS Nacelle detail design report

The results of the detail design of the Nacelle for the General Electric Energy Efficient Engine (E3) Integrated Core Low Spool (ICLS) test vehicles are presented. A slave nacelle is designed for the ICLS test. Cost and reliability are the important factors considered. The slave nacelle simulates the internal flow lines of the actual Flight Propulsion System (FPS) but has no external fairing. The aerodynamic differences between the ICLS and FPS nacelles are presented, followed by the structural description and analysis of the various nacelle components

ARE SPATIAL MODELS NEEDED WITH ADEQUATELY BLOCKED FIELD TRIALS?

The use of nearest neighbors and spatial models (SPAT) to analyze field trial data has become commonplace in recent years. These two types of analyses improve precision compared to ANOVA when trials are poorly blocked, but results are less clear in well-blocked trials. We examined data from wheat trials containing 60 cultivars, conducted at five locations, where each location was set up as an alpha lattice design. We compared the relative efficiency of detecting cultivar differences for spatial models and nearest neighbors analyses (NNA) to ANOVA, fit of the models, and correlations of ranked cultivars. Though the SPAT and NNA generally outperformed the ANOVA, the selection of desirable cultivars remained relatively unchanged when using a well-blocked design analyzed with an ANOVA