The Judicialization of Federal Administrative Law Judges: Implications for Policymaking

Students of the American federal administrative legal process have long debated the question of whether those persons charged with the responsibility for developing and conducting the formal hearing process and for making initial decisions in agency adjudication should act more like judges or more like administrators. Advocates of the judicial model of behavior seek to inject into the administrative process certain values inherent and traditional in Anglo-American courts. These values particularly, although not exclusively, include the protection of the personal, property and procedural rights of private citizens which have been developed by judges acting in their traditional capacities as makers of common law and interpreters of the federal constitution and statutory law. They include a suspicion of activity of governmental officials acting within broad grants of discretionary authority and a belief that an adversarial dispute settlement process is more rational and more resistant to personal bias and self-interest. Conversely, the advocates of the administrative model of behavior are primarily concerned with the social rather than the individual perspective. According to their value system, effective implementation of the programs of government must come first and all administrative functions (including adjudication) must therefore conform to whatever organizational or managerial requirements are necessary for progress toward politically defined goals. To sum up the differences in a rather simplistic but nonetheless realistic way, the judicialists emphasize procedure and fair process, while administrationists emphasize the policy itself and the institutional nature of decision making as a function of organization. This essay asks three questions. First, has public policy, as expressed through statutes and administrative regulation, Civil Service Commission personnel administration policies, and articulated positions of professional interest groups, shaped the occupation of federal hearing examiner according to a specific model of behavior, to wit: the judicial model, the administrative model, or some combination of the two? Second, how important is the federal hearing examiner in the policymaking process? Third, assuming that we find a specific behavioral model to be dominant and also that we find hearing examiners to be important in policy formulation, what implications do these findings have for the nature, substance and process of administrative policy formulations

Observation of a continuous phase transition in a shape-memory alloy

Elastic neutron-scattering, inelastic x-ray scattering, specific-heat, and pressure-dependent electrical transport measurements have been made on single crystals of AuZn and Au_{0.52}Zn_{0.48} above and below their martensitic transition temperatures (T_M=64K and 45K, respectively). In each composition, elastic neutron scattering detects new commensurate Bragg peaks (modulation) appearing at Q = (1.33,0.67,0) at temperatures corresponding to each sample's T_M. Although the new Bragg peaks appear in a discontinuous manner in the Au_{0.52}Zn_{0.48} sample, they appear in a continuous manner in AuZn. Surprising us, the temperature dependence of the AuZn Bragg peak intensity and the specific-heat jump near the transition temperature are in favorable accord with a mean-field approximation. A Landau-theory-based fit to the pressure dependence of the transition temperature suggests the presence of a critical endpoint in the AuZn phase diagram located at T_M*=2.7K and p*=3.1GPa, with a quantum saturation temperature \theta_s=48.3 +/- 3.7K.Comment: 6 figure

Feasibility of shape memory alloy in a tuneable mass damper to reduce excessive in-service vibration

The applications of shape memory alloy (SMA) in vibration reduction are benefited by its superelasticity and thermomechanical properties. This study is a part of a series of research projects focused on reduction of timber floor vibration. In this study, the feasibility of this tuneable mass damper is tested for in-service vibration reduction. At first, the effect of temperature ranging from 11 °C to 120 °C on the dynamic characteristics of SMA was investigated under different pre-stressed levels. At higher temperatures, the damping ratio reduces while stiffness increases, and vice versa with decreasing temperature. SMA is sensitive to temperature when the pre-stressed level is near the phase transformation stress. Next, the analytical model of timber floor system was built and idealised as a two-degree-of-freedom system. Thirdly, a series of lab tests were carried out, and a damper consisting of an SMA bar was added on a cantilever beam with different natural frequencies, which represents floor system in the model. The results show that the vibration response of the system can be significantly reduced by the damper developed in this project, when the damper has resonance with the system. The mass of the system was then changed so as to make the damper out-of-tuned; the damper was then retuned by cooling/heating on SMA. After retuning of the damper, the response of the system was effectively reduced, which demonstrates the effectiveness and feasibility of employing SMA in the damper system

Solar neutrino results in Super-Kamiokande-III

The results of the third phase of the Super-Kamiokande solar neutrino measurement are presented and compared to the first and second phase results. With improved detector calibrations, a full detector simulation, and improved analysis methods, the systematic uncertainty on the total neutrino flux is estimated to be ?2.1%, which is about two thirds of the systematic uncertainty for the first phase of Super-Kamiokande. The observed 8B solar flux in the 5.0 to 20 MeV total electron energy region is 2.32+/-0.04 (stat.)+/-0.05 (sys.) *10^6 cm^-2sec^-1, in agreement with previous measurements. A combined oscillation analysis is carried out using SK-I, II, and III data, and the results are also combined with the results of other solar neutrino experiments. The best-fit oscillation parameters are obtained to be sin^2 {\theta}12 = 0.30+0.02-0.01(tan^2 {\theta}12 = 0.42+0.04 -0.02) and {\Delta}m2_21 = 6.2+1.1-1.9 *10^-5eV^2. Combined with KamLAND results, the best-fit oscillation parameters are found to be sin^2 {\theta}12 = 0.31+/-0.01(tan^2 {\theta}12 = 0.44+/-0.03) and {\Delta}m2_21 = 7.6?0.2*10^-5eV^2 . The 8B neutrino flux obtained from global solar neutrino experiments is 5.3+/-0.2(stat.+sys.)*10^6cm^-2s^-1, while the 8B flux becomes 5.1+/-0.1(stat.+sys.)*10^6cm^-2s^-1 by adding KamLAND result. In a three-flavor analysis combining all solar neutrino experiments, the upper limit of sin^2 {\theta}13 is 0.060 at 95% C.L.. After combination with KamLAND results, the upper limit of sin^2 {\theta}13 is found to be 0.059 at 95% C.L..Comment: 19 pages, 33 figures in the main text. The appendix section on errata is added in v

HIV-1 infection among women in Israel, 2010–2018

Introduction Although women comprise 33% of the HIV-1-carriers in Israel, they have not previously been considered a risk group requiring special attention. Immigration waves from countries in Africa and in East Europe may have changed the local landscape of women diagnosed with HIV-1. Here, we aimed to assess viral and demographic characteristics of HIV-1-positive women identified in Israel between 2010 and 2018. Methods All > 16 year-old, HIV-1-infected women, diagnosed in Israel in 2010–2018, (n = 763) registered in the National HIV reference laboratory were included in this cross-sectional study. Demographic and clinical characteristics were extracted from the database. Viral subtypes and transmitted drug resistance mutations (TDRM) were determined in 337 (44.2%) randomly selected samples collected from treatment-naive women. Results Median age at diagnosis was 38 years. Most (73.3%) women were immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) (41.2%, 314) or sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (32.2%, 246) and carried subtype A (79.7%) or C (90.3%), respectively. Only 11.4% (87) were Israeli-born women. Over the years, the prevalence of women from SSA decreased while that of women from FSU increased significantly (p < 0.001). The median CD4+ cell count was 263 cells/mm3, and higher (391 cells/mm3) in Israeli-born women. TDRM were identified in 10.4% of the tested samples; 1.8, 3 and 7.1% had protease inhibitors (PI), nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI) TDRM, respectively. The prevalence of women with NNRTI TDRM significantly increased from 4.9% in 2010–2012 to 13.3% in 2016–2018. Israeli-born women had the highest prevalence (16.3%) of NNRTI TDRM (p = 0.014). NRTI A62 (5.6%), NNRTI E138 and K103 (5.6 and 4.2%, respectively) were the most prominent mutated sites. Conclusions Most HIV-1-positive women diagnosed in Israel in 2010–2018 were immigrants, with the relative ratio of FSU immigrants increasing in recent years. The high proportion of women diagnosed with resistance mutations, particularly, the yearly increase in the frequency of NNRTI mutations, support the national policy of resistance testing at baseline

Into the Labyrinth: Tales of Organizational Nomadism

Labyrinths and mazes have constituted significant spaces for tales of transformation, from prehistoric designs through the myth of the Minotaur and the pilgrimage design in Chartres cathedral to contemporary novels and pictorial representations. Labyrinths and labyrinthine designs can also commonly be found in present-day organizations. This text, based on an ethnographic study as well as on an analysis of academic discourse, explores their significance as symbol and as physical structure. Drawing upon the notion of transitional space, it presents labyrinths as an indelible part of human experience, an archetype, and a sensemaking tool for understanding and explaining organizational complexity. The unavoidable presence of labyrinthine structures is presented as a counterpoise to the reductionist tendency towards simplification, streamlining and staying on-message, allowing or demanding space for reflection, doubt and uncertainty

No association between glucocorticoid receptor polymorphisms and long-term respiratory outcome after very preterm birth

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