3,011 research outputs found
Judicial Deference and Political Power in Fourteenth Amendment and Dormant Commerce Clause Cases
The Supreme Court lacks a coherent approach to deciding how much to defer to state legislatures when reviewing allegedly unconstitutional legislation. The Court grants very little deference to state legislatures in dormant Commerce Clause cases but significant deference to state legislatures in Fourteenth Amendment cases. The Court has never acknowledged this divergence, let alone justified it. Scholars have also failed to note this divergence or explore whether it can be justified. By ignoring this divergence, the Court and scholars have ignored a situation that exacerbates existing power imbalances and fails to recognize a more promising approach to judicial deference.
This Article argues that the Court should base its level of deference to legislatures on the political power of the plaintiff challenging the law, engaging in more active review when plaintiffs lack political power and more passive review when plaintiffs are politically powerful. Following this approach, the Court should defer to state legislatures more in dormant Commerce Clause cases and less in Fourteenth Amendment cases—precisely the opposite of its current practice
Non-Gaussian fluctuations in stochastic models with absorbing barriers
The dynamics of a one-dimensional stochastic model is studied in presence of
an absorbing boundary. The distribution of fluctuations is analytically
characterized within the generalized van Kampen expansion, accounting for
higher order corrections beyond the conventional Gaussian approximation. The
theory is shown to successfully capture the non Gaussian traits of the sought
distribution returning an excellent agreement with the simulations, for {\it
all times} and arbitrarily {\it close} to the absorbing barrier. At large
times, a compact analytical solution for the distribution of fluctuations is
also obtained, bridging the gap with previous investigations, within the van
Kampen picture and without resorting to alternative strategies, as elsewhere
hypothesized.Comment: 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Can a microscopic stochastic model explain the emergence of pain cycles in patients?
A stochastic model is here introduced to investigate the molecular mechanisms
which trigger the perception of pain. The action of analgesic drug compounds is
discussed in a dynamical context, where the competition with inactive species
is explicitly accounted for. Finite size effects inevitably perturb the
mean-field dynamics: Oscillations in the amount of bound receptors
spontaneously manifest, driven by the noise which is intrinsic to the system
under scrutiny. These effects are investigated both numerically, via stochastic
simulations and analytically, through a large-size expansion. The claim that
our findings could provide a consistent interpretative framework to explain the
emergence of cyclic behaviors in response to analgesic treatments, is
substantiated.Comment: J. Stat. Mech. (Proceedings UPON2008
Towards a Business Intelligence Maturity Model for Healthcare
Healthcare is a very complex, knowledge-driven industry. Electronic health record implementations have created massive amounts of clinical and financial data. The accumulation of data is outpacing the ability of organizations to leverage the data for improving financial and clinical efficiencies and quality of care. It is believed that careful and attentive use of business intelligence (BI) in healthcare can transform data into knowledge that can improve patient outcomes and operational efficiency. BI maturity models are a way of identifying strengths and weaknesses of the information maturity of a business. This paper presents a comprehensive review of existing BI maturity models to determine their adequacy for use in healthcare. The review identifies gaps in existing BI maturity models and presents requirements for a healthcare-specific maturity model. The results of this study will be used to develop a BI maturity model that addresses the complex characteristics and needs of healthcare organizations
Partnerships in Service Learning and Civic Engagement
Developing campus-community partnerships is a core element of well-designed and
effective civic engagement, including service learning and participatory action research. A structural model, SOFAR, is presented that differentiates campus into administrators, faculty, and students, and that differentiates community into organizational staff and residents (or clients, consumers, advocates). Partnerships are presented as being a subset of relationships between persons. The quality of these dyadic relationships is analyzed in terms of the degree to which the interactions possess closeness, equity, and integrity, and the degree to which the outcomes of those interactions are exploitive, transactional, or transformational. Implications are then offered for how this analysis can improve practice and research
Status of Simulation-Based Training in Departments of Surgery in the United States
Background: Surgical simulation is particularly attractive because it allows training in a safe, controlled, and standardized environment. However, the status of surgical simulation among Departments of Surgery (DoS) in the United States is unknown. The objective of this study was to characterize the status of simulation-based training in DoS in the United States. Materials and methods: A Qualtrics online survey was sent to 177 chairs of DoS in the United States in March 2018 regarding the utilization of surgical simulation in their department. Questions in the survey were focused on simulation capacities and activities as well as chairs' perception of the value and purpose of simulation. Results: A total of 87 of 177 chairs responded to the survey (49% response rate). Most programs had either 20-50 trainees (42 of 87; 48%) or more than 50 trainees (37 of 87; 43%). Most chairs reported having a simulation center in their institution (85 of 87; 98%) or department (60 of 86; 70%) with a formal simulation curriculum for their trainees (83 of 87; 95%). Ninety percent (78 of 87) of DoS had protected time for simulation education for their residents, with most residents engaging in activities weekly or monthly (65 of 85; 76%). Although most chairs felt simulation improves patient safety (72 of 84; 86%) and is useful for practicing surgeons (68 of 84; 81%), only 40% reported that faculty use simulation to maintain technical skills and only 17% reported that faculty use simulation to address high complication rates. Conclusions: The vast majority of the DoS in the United States have established simulation activities for their trainees. However, engagement of faculty in simulation to maintain or improve their skills remains low
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Technical considerations in repowering a nuclear plant for fossil fueled operation
Repowering involves replacement of the reactor by a fossil fuel source of steam. This source can be a conventional fossil fueled boiler or the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) on a gas turbine exhaust. The existing steam turbine plant is used to the extent possible. Alternative fuels for repowering a nuclear plant are coal, natural gas and oil. In today`s world oil is not usually an alternative. Selection of coal or natural gas is largely a matter of availability of the fuel near the location of the plant. Both the fossil boiler and the HRSG produce steam at higher pressures and temperatures than the throttle conditions for a saturated steam nuclear turbine. It is necessary to match the steam conditions from the new source to the existing turbine as closely as possible. Technical approaches to achieve a match range from using a topping turbine at the front end of the cycle to attemperation of the throttle steam with feedwater. The electrical output from the repowered plant is usually greater than that of the original nuclear fueled design. This requires consideration of the ability to use the excess electricity. Interfacing of the new facility with the existing turbine plant requires consideration of facility layout and design. Site factors must also be considered, especially for a coal fired boiler, since rail and coal handling facilities must be added to a site for which these were not considered. Additional site factors that require consideration are ash handling and disposal
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