Centralized Wisdom - DeRolph v. State and the Rise of Judicial Paternalism

This Comment critically evaluates DeRolph v. State and asserts that the supreme court\u27s decision is dangerous precedent, inasmuch as it dispirits the sacrosanct role a legislature assumes in a democratic society and overtly legitimizes judicial policymaking. This Comment suggests the court\u27s vision of a thorough and efficient school system, via more economic parity, ultimately undermines the General Assembly of the State and will not extricate Ohio schools. Part II explores the current system of financing public schools in the State of Ohio. This section will not delve into the minutia that have come to define school finance, but will instead acclimate the reader to a more holistic perspective of funding public school systems. Part III evaluates DeRolph v. State. Part IV contemplates whether more financial parity among school districts and the concomitant expenditure of additional funds is a realistic approach to ameliorating the state of public schools in Ohio. Part IV also examines the notion of judicial policymaking, its deleterious impact on democratic processes, and maintains that the DeRolph court arrogated its authority. Part V summarizes this Comment and counsels that DeRolph v. State will markedly fail to advance the quality of the Ohio public school system

Centralized Wisdom - DeRolph v. State and the Rise of Judicial Paternalism

This Comment critically evaluates DeRolph v. State and asserts that the supreme court\u27s decision is dangerous precedent, inasmuch as it dispirits the sacrosanct role a legislature assumes in a democratic society and overtly legitimizes judicial policymaking. This Comment suggests the court\u27s vision of a thorough and efficient school system, via more economic parity, ultimately undermines the General Assembly of the State and will not extricate Ohio schools. Part II explores the current system of financing public schools in the State of Ohio. This section will not delve into the minutia that have come to define school finance, but will instead acclimate the reader to a more holistic perspective of funding public school systems. Part III evaluates DeRolph v. State. Part IV contemplates whether more financial parity among school districts and the concomitant expenditure of additional funds is a realistic approach to ameliorating the state of public schools in Ohio. Part IV also examines the notion of judicial policymaking, its deleterious impact on democratic processes, and maintains that the DeRolph court arrogated its authority. Part V summarizes this Comment and counsels that DeRolph v. State will markedly fail to advance the quality of the Ohio public school system

Using stable isotope tracers to assess hydrological flow paths, residence times and landscape influences in a nested mesoscale catchment

International audience?18O measurements in precipitation and stream waters were used to investigate hydrological flow paths and residence times at nested spatial scales in the mesoscale (233 km2) River Feugh catchment in the northeast of Scotland over the 2001-2002 hydrological year. Precipitation ?18O exhibited strong seasonal variation, which although significantly damped within the catchment, was reflected in stream water at six sampling sites. This allowed ?18O variations to be used to infer the relative influence of soil-derived storm flows with a seasonally variable isotopic signature, and groundwater of apparently more constant isotopic composition. Periodic regression analysis was then used to examine the sub-catchment difference using an exponential flow model to provide indicative estimates of mean stream water residence times, which varied between approximately 3 and 14 months. This showed that the effects of increasing scale on estimated mean stream water residence time was minimal beyond that of the smallest (ca. 1 km2) headwater catchment scale. Instead, the interaction of catchment soil cover and topography appeared to be the dominant controlling influence. Where sub-catchments had extensive peat coverage, responsive hydrological pathways produced seasonally variable ?18O signatures in runoff with short mean residence times (ca. 3 months). In contrast, areas dominated by steeper slopes, more freely draining soils and larger groundwater storage in shallow valley-bottom aquifers, deeper flow paths allow for more effective mixing and damping of ?18O indicating longer residence times (>12 months). These insights from ?18O measurements extend the hydrological understanding of the Feugh catchment gained from previous geochemical tracer studies, and demonstrate the utility of isotope tracers in investigating the interaction of hydrological processes and catchment characteristics at larger spatial scales

Suspending the Rule of Law - Temporary Immunity as Violative of Montesquieu\u27s Republican Virtue as Embodied in George Washington

This Note offers a somewhat unique perspective on the notion of clemency. This inquiry contemplates the merit of temporary immunity from civil suits for acts which eventuated outside the scope of one\u27s official responsibilities and argues that such an unprecedented expansion of civil immunity is antithetical to Montesquieu\u27s conception of public virtue as evinced in The Spirit of Laws. This Note also reflects on the iconic role of Washington at the Constitutional Convention as emblematic of quintessential republican virtue. Part II briefly traces the evolution of absolute, qualified, and temporary immunity from an historical perspective. Part III acclimates the reader to Montesquieu and analyzes his influence on the American Constitution. Part IV examines Montesquieu\u27s philosophy on the role of fear in a despotic state, honor in a monarchy, and virtue in a republic. Part V explores the embodiment of republican virtue in George Washington and the Framers\u27 perhaps chimerical hope that future Executives would be likewise unconditionally devoted to republican virtue. Finally, Part VI summarizes the aforementioned sections and concludes that a temporary sovereign immunity for unofficial actions is not welcomed in a state which venerates the ideal of virtue in the public square. Save imperious circumstances, fashioning a new, potentially pretextual immunity for unofficial, purely private actions may redefine the notion of immunity and be utilized to protect the honor of the President as is warranted only in a traditional monarchical form of government

Collision Broadening Using Alkali-Filled, Hollow Core Fibers

The goal of this research was to demonstrate the possibility of collision broadening in a cesium-filled, hollow-core fiber as an alternative to the proven technique of pressure broadening. Theoretically, alkali electrons should relax from the 2P3/2 to the 2P1/2 level and the absorption spectrum should collisionally broaden due to the presence of fiber walls, as opposed to the more common pressure broadening method. An absorption dip located at 852.34nm was recorded in a pressure broadened comparison leg. This data was used as a baseline during analysis of the fiber leg\u27s data. While the fiber was successfully exposed to the cesium under safe, controlled conditions, unexpected fluctuation in both the coupling efficiency and laser power levels resulted in the inability to record an absorption dip in the final data. As a result, an investigation of the fundamental assumptions and theory supporting this experiment was conducted. It was discovered that the current design does not provide an adequate opportunity for cesium to make its way into the fiber core, thus negating the possibility of achieving the desired collision broadening data. Recommendations are made as to how to improve this experiment for future study, founded on both theoretical calculations and experience gained in the lab. This research does not provide evidence of the ability to fill hollow-core fibers with alkali gas. Rather, it exposes the complexity of putting the theory of collisional broadening into practice and provides suggestions on how to succeed in the next attempt

Suspending the Rule of Law - Temporary Immunity as Violative of Montesquieu\u27s Republican Virtue as Embodied in George Washington

This Note offers a somewhat unique perspective on the notion of clemency. This inquiry contemplates the merit of temporary immunity from civil suits for acts which eventuated outside the scope of one\u27s official responsibilities and argues that such an unprecedented expansion of civil immunity is antithetical to Montesquieu\u27s conception of public virtue as evinced in The Spirit of Laws. This Note also reflects on the iconic role of Washington at the Constitutional Convention as emblematic of quintessential republican virtue. Part II briefly traces the evolution of absolute, qualified, and temporary immunity from an historical perspective. Part III acclimates the reader to Montesquieu and analyzes his influence on the American Constitution. Part IV examines Montesquieu\u27s philosophy on the role of fear in a despotic state, honor in a monarchy, and virtue in a republic. Part V explores the embodiment of republican virtue in George Washington and the Framers\u27 perhaps chimerical hope that future Executives would be likewise unconditionally devoted to republican virtue. Finally, Part VI summarizes the aforementioned sections and concludes that a temporary sovereign immunity for unofficial actions is not welcomed in a state which venerates the ideal of virtue in the public square. Save imperious circumstances, fashioning a new, potentially pretextual immunity for unofficial, purely private actions may redefine the notion of immunity and be utilized to protect the honor of the President as is warranted only in a traditional monarchical form of government

Near Infrared Spectroscopy of Young Brown Dwarfs in Upper Scorpius

Spectroscopic follow-up is a pre-requisite for studies of the formation and early evolution of brown dwarfs. Here we present IRTF/SpeX near-infrared spectroscopy of 30 candidate members of the young Upper Scorpius association, selected from our previous survey work. All 24 high confidence members are confirmed as young very low mass objects with spectral types from M5 to L1, 15-20 of them are likely brown dwarfs. This high yield confirms that brown dwarfs in Upper Scorpius can be identified from photometry and proper motions alone, with negligible contamination from field objects (<4%). Out of the 6 candidates with lower confidence, 5 might still be young very low mass members of Upper Scorpius, according to our spectroscopy. We demonstrate that some very low mass class II objects exhibit radically different near infrared (0.6 - 2.5micron) spectra from class III objects, with strong excess emission increasing towards longer wavelengths and partially filled in features at wavelengths shorter than 1.25micron. These characteristics can obscure the contribution of the photosphere within such spectra. Therefore, we caution that near infrared derived spectral types for objects with discs may be unreliable. Furthermore, we show that the same characteristics can be seen to some extent in all class II and even a significant fraction of class III objects (~40%), indicating that some of them are still surrounded by traces of dust and gas. Based on our spectra, we select a sample of objects with spectral types of M5 to L1, whose near-infrared emission represents the photosphere only. We recommend the use of these objects as spectroscopic templates for young brown dwarfs in the future.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, Accepted in MNRA

Network growth model with intrinsic vertex fitness

© 2013 American Physical SocietyWe study a class of network growth models with attachment rules governed by intrinsic node fitness. Both the individual node degree distribution and the degree correlation properties of the network are obtained as functions of the network growth rules. We also find analytical solutions to the inverse, design, problems of matching the growth rules to the required (e.g., power-law) node degree distribution and more generally to the required degree correlation function. We find that the design problems do not always have solutions. Among the specific conditions on the existence of solutions to the design problems is the requirement that the node degree distribution has to be broader than a certain threshold and the fact that factorizability of the correlation functions requires singular distributions of the node fitnesses. More generally, the restrictions on the input distributions and correlations that ensure solvability of the design problems are expressed in terms of the analytical properties of their generating functions