Comment: DNA as Property: Implications on the Constitutionality of DNA Dragnets

Joe Smith is a maintenance worker at County Hospital. One morning he reported to work to find an array of law enforcement vehicles and personnel scattered about the premises. He proceeded to his locker to prepare for work and was confronted by a policeman. Apparently an elderly female patient was sexually assaulted late one night during the previous week. The police officer informed Joe that all male employees were required to give a blood sample to rule out their implication in the assault. Joe was apprehensive and stated that because he worked first shift, he could not possibly have been involved. The police officer told Joe that a warrant would be obtained if he resisted. Reluctantly, Joe agreed, though he did not understand how a sample of his blood could help this investigation. Was Joe required to give this blood sample, and further, should he have been afforded any constitutional protections?\u

(In)equitable Subrogation: The Federal Circuit’s Irrational and Unworkable Progress Payment Framework in Balboa

American taxpayers spend more than $100 billion per year on federal construction projects. Yet massive construction delays, huge budget overruns, and unorganized contractors increase the cost of construction for the federal government. Passed in 1935, the Miller Act attempted to protect the federal government in the event that the contractor defaulted or was unable to complete the project. By requiring contractors to enlist third party “sureties” as guarantors on projects, the Miller Act provides the government with the assurance that another party will step in to complete projects if need be. Contractors are typically paid via periodic progress payments, with monthly invoices paid for work completed. If a contractor defaults, forcing a surety to take over on the project, the doctrine of equitable subrogation entitles the surety to all remaining progress payments due to the contractor. Fearing that default may be imminent and eager to receive any payments it can, a surety may be inclined to warn the federal government of imminent contractor default, at the same time that the contractor assures the federal government that it can perform. A series of Federal Circuit cases allows the surety to sue the federal government to recover progress payments that were already made to the contractor, even though those payments were made prior to the contractor defaulting, in accordance with federal regulations. Given an opportunity to reduce this risk of double payment, the Federal Circuit instead created an incoherent and unworkable progress-payment framework in Balboa Insurance Co. v. United States, complicating a government official’s regulatory mandate to provide progress payments to contractors. The court misinterpreted a standard that is normally extremely deferential to the federal government, and created a complex eight-factor behemoth that unreasonably burdens the federal government. This Note proposes new regulations to replace Balboa, which focuses on whether the federal government received reasonable assurances from the contractor that it would complete performance

Ground Beetles of Islands in the Western Basin of Lake Erie and the Adjacent Mainland (Coleoptera: Carabidae, Including Cicindelini)

We report 241 species representing 63 genera of ground beetles from the islands of the western basin of Lake Erie and selected mainland sites from a 1991-93 survey, plus specimens examined in public and private collections, and previously published sources. Most species are generally distributed; however, a restricted population of Sphaeroderus schaumii schaumii we rediscovered is no doubt imperiled. Comparison of wing morphotype frequencies of the Lake Erie island species with mainland populations from studies in Ohio and Michigan support a hypothesis that vagility is of increased import in the islands. Regression and correlation analysis show a positive relationship between species number and island area, no correlation between species number and distance from the mainland and an improved fit for a multiple regression which includes collecting effort

The Lewis Strain Gauge Laboratory: Status and plans

An in-house lab was established for developing, testing, and evaluating high-temperature strain gauges and to aid in in-house applications of high-temperature strain instrumentation. The lab is automated to provide computer control of oven temperatures, imposed strain, and data sampling

Constraining f(R) Gravity as a Scalar Tensor Theory

We search for viable f(R) theories of gravity, making use of the equivalence between such theories and scalar-tensor gravity. We find that models can be made consistent with solar system constraints either by giving the scalar a high mass or by exploiting the so-called chameleon effect. However, in both cases, it appears likely that any late-time cosmic acceleration will be observationally indistinguishable from acceleration caused by a cosmological constant. We also explore further observational constraints from, e.g., big bang nucleosynthesis and inflation.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

A new test of conservation laws and Lorentz invariance in relativistic gravity

General relativity predicts that energy and momentum conservation laws hold and that preferred frames do not exist. The parametrised post-Newtonian formalism (PPN) phenomenologically quantifies possible deviations from general relativity. The PPN parameter alpha_3 (which identically vanishes in general relativity) plays a dual role in that it is associated both with a violation of the momentum conservation law, and with the existence of a preferred frame. By considering the effects of alpha_3 neq 0 in certain binary pulsar systems, it is shown that alpha_3 < 2.2 x 10^-20 (90% CL). This limit improves on previous results by several orders of magnitude, and shows that pulsar tests of alpha_3 rank (together with Hughes-Drever-type tests of local Lorentz invariance) among the most precise null experiments of physics.Comment: Submitted to Classical Quantum Gravity, LaTeX, requires ioplppt.sty, no figure

K-Chameleon and the Coincidence Problem

In this paper we present a hybrid model of k-essence and chameleon, named as k-chameleon. In this model, due to the chameleon mechanism, the directly strong coupling between the k-chameleon field and matters (cold dark matters and baryons) is allowed. In the radiation dominated epoch, the interaction between the k-chameleon field and background matters can be neglected, the behavior of the k-chameleon therefore is the same as that of the ordinary k-essence. After the onset of matter domination, the strong coupling between the k-chameleon and matters dramatically changes the result of the ordinary k-essence. We find that during the matter-dominated epoch, only two kinds of attractors may exist: one is the familiar {\bf K} attractor and the other is a completely {\em new}, dubbed {\bf C} attractor. Once the universe is attracted into the {\bf C} attractor, the fraction energy densities of the k-chameleon $\Omega_{\phi}$ and dust matter $\Omega_m$ are fixed and comparable, and the universe will undergo a power-law accelerated expansion. One can adjust the model so that the {\bf K} attractor do not appear. Thus, the k-chameleon model provides a natural solution to the cosmological coincidence problem.Comment: Revtex, 17 pages; v2: 18 pages, two figures, more comments and references added, to appear in PRD, v3: published versio