Is the veil of ignorance only a concept about risk? An experiment

We implement the Rawlsian thought experiment of a veil of ignorance in the laboratory which introduces risk and possibly social preferences. We find that both men and women react to the risk introduced by the veil of ignorance. Only the women additionally exhibit social preferences that reflect an increased concern for equality. Our results for women imply that maximin preferences can also be derived from a combination of some, not necessarily infinite risk aversion and social preferences. This result contrasts the Utilitarians' claim that maximin preferences necessarily represent preferences with infinite risk aversion.veil of ignorance; social preferences; equality; efficiency; experiment

Nondestructive testing of railroad wheels and rails by ultrasonics

Quality control of wheels and rails can be improved by using ultrasonic technique developed for measuring stresses in metallic materials. In addition, parts already in use can be tested and replaced if they are found to be unsafe. Test equipment includes two transducers

An experimental test of the deterrence hypothesis

Crime has to be punished, but does punishment reduce crime? We conduct a neutrally framed laboratory experiment to test the deterrence hypothesis, namely that crime is weakly decreasing in deterrent incentives, i.e. severity and probability of punishment. In our experiment, subjects can steal from another participant's payoff. Deterrent incentives vary across and within sessions. The across subject analysis clearly rejects the deterrence hypothesis: except for very high levels of incentives, subjects steal more the stronger the incentives. We observe two types of subjects: selfish subjects who act according to the deterrence hypothesis and fair-minded subjects for whom deterrent incentives backfire.deterrence; law and economics; incentives; crowding out; experiment

Ultrasonic measurement of stress in 2219-T87 aluminum plate

The basic relationship of ultrasonic signal velocity to directional subsurface stress is reviewed. Inappropriateness of dependency on a single correlative value of constant for a three dimensional stress field in metallic materials is discussed. Implementation of conventional ultrasonic nondestructive testing capabilities integrated to provide a composite technique for the measurement of orthogonal stress components is described, and the procedures for performing the preparatory calibration and subsequent stress field measurements are presented. In conclusion, the prime effect of stress on ultrasonic signal velocity occurs only in the direction of material excitation or particle motion

Recalibrating Patent Venue

For most of patent law’s 200-plus year history, patent holders could sue only in the district inhabited by the defendant. In 1990, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided that the scope of permissible venue extended to all districts with personal jurisdiction over the defendant. In recent years, patentees have flocked to certain districts, fueling the widespread perception that patentees, particularly those that do not practice their patents, called non-practicing entities (“NPEs”), are abusing forum. Responsive to these concerns, Congress and the courts have moved to reinstate a more restrictive rule, culminating in the Supreme Court’s 2017 TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC decision to limit venue to locations of the defendant. Yet, incredibly, to date there has been no measure of the overall pervasiveness of forum shopping and whether TC Heartland or any other venue reform will change this phenomenon. We address this gap by estimating the differential impacts of reform on filing patterns. We find, based on an analysis of approximately 1500 patent and non-patent cases filed in 2015 that about 86% of patent cases—a striking share—were brought outside of the defendant’s home district. This practice is not limited to non-practicing entities, however; corporations, universities, and individuals all filed outside of defendant districts. Things would have been different if venue were reformed, but much depends on how reform is implemented. If the Supreme Court’s decision to restrict venue to where the defendant resides or has an established place of business were already in effect, an estimated 58% of 2015 cases would have had to have been filed in a different venue. If the Congressional proposal to change venue to include home districts with research or manufacturing connections to the case had been in effect, about half the NPE cases in our sample would have needed to be refiled in another district, but only 14% of the operating company cases would. Cases would have become less concentrated in a single district, with the top district, Delaware, capturing 20–24% of cases, but the top three districts, the District of Delaware, the Eastern District of Texas, and the Northern District of California, would still have the majority of cases. Regardless of the reform, we expect smaller defendants to get more from venue relief than larger defendants because of their relatively smaller footprints. Among NPEs, universities, individuals, and small companies should be impacted to a lesser extent than patent assertion entities (“PAEs”), considerably so if the VENUE Act were enacted

Towards leading isospin breaking effects in mesonic masses with O(a)O(a) improved Wilson fermions

We present an exploratory study of leading isospin breaking effects in mesonic masses using $O(a)$ improved Wilson fermions. Isospin symmetry is explicitly broken by distinct masses and electric charges of the up and down quarks. In order to be able to make use of existing isosymmetric QCD gauge ensembles we apply reweighting techniques. The path integral describing QCD+QED is expanded perturbatively in powers of the light quarks' mass deviations and the electromagnetic coupling. We employ QED$_{\mathrm{L}}$ as a finite volume formulation of QED.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, proceedings to poster presented at 35th annual International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 18-24 June 2017, Granada, Spai

Investigating the impact of early intervention on an internationally adopted child [abstract]

Abstract only availableInternational adoption (IA) has grown rapidly in the United States within the last decade. In the past fourteen years, 150,000 children have been internationally adopted and in the past ten years, international adoption rates have increased by 271% (Glennen et al, 2005). Parents of the recent adoptee need to become increasingly aware of the special needs of IA children because of the possibilities of developmental delay that their child will most likely face. It has been discovered through many studies that IA children are at risk for abnormalities in growth stunting, abnormal behaviors, and significant delays in motor, speech, and language development, especially in pragmatics (Mason and Narad, 2005). Several studies investigated the health status of IA children and found higher rates of infections, untreated medical conditions and physical deformities. These risks may include infections and illnesses such as hepatitis B, HIV, intestinal parasites, and fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Vince is a child adopted from the Ukraine at twenty months of age who was diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). A child born with FAS will be at risk for attention deficit disorders, hyperactivity, fine-motor impairment, hearing impairment, visual impairment, behavior problems and speech and language disorders. These disorders will most often be accompanied by stunted growth and congenital abnormalities including distinct facial and cranial features. Many medical evaluations are recommended for IA children, especially hearing screenings and speech and language development evaluations. We examined Vince on several measures including a hearing screening, speech and langauge evaluations, as well as an orthopedic evaluation.School of Health Professions Undergraduate Research Mentorshi