When Does Government Limit the Impact of Voter Initiatives?

Citizens use the initiative process to make new laws. Many winning initiatives, however, are altered or ignored after Election Day. We examine why this is, paying particular attention to several widely-ignored properties of the post-election phase of the initiative process. One such property is the fact that initiative implementation can require numerous governmental actors to comply with an initiative’s policy instructions. Knowing such properties, the question then becomes: When do governmental actors comply with winning initiatives? We clarify when compliance is full, partial, or not at all. Our findings provide a template for scholars and observers to better distinguish cases where governmental actors\u27 policy preferences replace initiative content as a determinant of a winning initiative\u27s policy impact from cases where an initiative’s content affects policy despite powerful opponents’ objections. Our work implies that the consequences of this form of democracy are more predictable, but less direct, than often presumed

Optical Theorem and the Inversion of Cross Section Data for Atom Scattering from Defects on Surfaces

The information content and properties of the cross section for atom scattering from a defect on a flat surface are investigated. Using the Sudden approximation, a simple expression is obtained that relates the cross section to the underlying atom/defect interaction potential. An approximate inversion formula is given, that determines the shape function of the defect from the scattering data. Another inversion formula approximately determines the potential due to a weak corrugation in the case of substitutional disorder. An Optical Theorem, derived in the framework of the Sudden approximation, plays a central role in deriving the equations that conveniently relate the interaction potential to the cross section. Also essential for the result is the equivalence of the operational definition for the cross section for scattering by a defect, given by Poelsema and Comsa, and the formal definition from quantum scattering theory. This equivalence is established here. The inversion result is applied to determine the shape function of an Ag atom on Pt(111) from scattering data.Comment: 29 pages, 9 Postscript figures, more info available at http://www.fh.huji.ac.il/~dan

He Scattering from Random Adsorbates, Disordered Compact Islands and Fractal Submonolayers: Intensity Manifestations of Surface Disorder

A theoretical study is made on He scattering from three fundamental classes of disordered ad-layers: (a) Translationally random adsorbates, (b) disordered compact islands and (c) fractal submonolayers. The implications of the results to experimental studies of He scattering from disordered surfaces are discussed, and a combined experimental-theoretical study is made for Ag submonolayers on Pt(111). Some of the main theoretical findings are: (1) Structural aspects of the calculated intensities from translationally random clusters were found to be strongly correlated with those of individual clusters. (2) Low intensity Bragg interference peaks appear even for scattering from very small ad-islands, and contain information on the ad-island local electron structure. (3) For fractal islands, just as for islands with a different structure, the off-specular intensity depends on the parameters of the He/Ag interaction, and does not follow a universal power law as previously proposed in the literature. In the experimental-theoretical study of Ag on Pt(111), we use first experimental He scattering data from low-coverage (single adsorbate) systems to determine an empirical He/Ag-Pt potential of good quality. Then, we carry out He scattering calculations for high coverage and compare with experiments. The conclusions are that the actual experimental phase corresponds to small compact Ag clusters of narrow size distribution, translationally disordered on the surface.Comment: 36 double-spaced pages, 10 figures; accepted by J. Chem. Phys., scheduled to appear March 8. More info available at http://www.fh.huji.ac.il/~dani

The impact of the state of the troposphere on the response to stratospheric heating in a simplified GCM

Previous studies have made use of simplified general circulation models (sGCMs) to investigate the atmospheric response to various forcings. In particular, several studies have investigated the tropospheric response to changes in stratospheric temperature. This is potentially relevant for many climate forcings. Here the impact of changing the tropospheric climatology on the modeled response to perturbations in stratospheric temperature is investigated by the introduction of topography into the model and altering the tropospheric jet structure. The results highlight the need for very long integrations so as to determine accurately the magnitude of response. It is found that introducing topography into the model and thus removing the zonally symmetric nature of the model’s boundary conditions reduces the magnitude of response to stratospheric heating. However, this reduction is of comparable size to the variability in the magnitude of response between different ensemble members of the same 5000-day experiment. Investigations into the impact of varying tropospheric jet structure reveal a trend with lower-latitude/narrower jets having a much larger magnitude response to stratospheric heating than higher-latitude/wider jets. The jet structures that respond more strongly to stratospheric heating also exhibit longer time scale variability in their control run simulations, consistent with the idea that a feedback between the eddies and the mean flow is both responsible for the persistence of the control run variability and important in producing the tropospheric response to stratospheric temperature perturbations

Legislatures, Initiatives, and Representation: Comparing the Effects of Institutions on Policy Outcomes

This research compares policy outcome resulting from the legislative process and the direct ballot process to estimate the effect of political institutions on preference aggregation and policy outcomes. Using data from California statewide elections, we analyzing policies which were considered in both processes and for which the two processes led to different outcomes. We conclude that features of the legislature, especially party, may lead legislators to vote against their district majority preference, and therefore lead legislative and direct ballot outcomes to diverge

Defendant\u27s Exhibit 053: Marilyn Sheppard Trace Evidence Report

Report of experiments and specimen testing performed at the Cuyahoga County Coroner\u27s Laboratorieshttps://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/defendant_exhibits_2000/1002/thumbnail.jp

Causation in Death after Trauma with Pre-Existing Cardiac Disease

Adoption of commonly used words as synonyms for more precise terminology accepted for use within a profession leads to confusion when two or more professions employ the same word with different connotations. Thus, cause of death implies to the physician the etiology of the condition responsible for the terminal morbid process. In this respect, the physician considers the cause of death as the ultimate result of interaction of several conditions rather than a single entity

Morality of Contraceptives Based on When Personhood Begins

The use of contraceptives has been controversial in recent days, especially concerning the government mandate for insurance and health care companies to financially cover contraceptives for their policy holders. The term ‘contraceptive’ includes anything that deliberately prevents conception or impregnation, including condoms, birth control pills, intrauterine methods, and barrier methods (Merriam-Webster, 2013). The morality of contraception largely hinges on the belief of when personhood begins

Morality of Contraceptives Based on When Personhood Begins

The use of contraceptives has been controversial in recent days, especially concerning the government mandate for insurance and health care companies to financially cover contraceptives for their policy holders. The term ‘contraceptive’ includes anything that deliberately prevents conception or impregnation, including condoms, birth control pills, intrauterine methods, and barrier methods (Merriam-Webster, 2013). The morality of contraception largely hinges on the belief of when personhood begins