SESAME, a third generation synchrotron light source for the Middle East region

Developed under the auspices of UNESCO, SESAME is being established as an autonomous international research centre in the Middle East/Mediterranean region. It will have as its centrepiece a 2.5 GeV third Generation synchrotron light source with 13 straight sections for insertion devices and an emittance of 26.6 nm-rad. It will provide intense radiation from the IR to hard X-rays to a community that is expected to exceed 1000 users a few years after the start of operation in 2008

Silencing the Appellant\u27s Voice: The Antitherapeutic Per Curiam Affirmance

This Article will analyze the antitherapeutic impact of the per curium affirmance (PCA) in two steps. First, delving into the psychology of procedural justice, this Article will explain how litigants value voice, or the ability to tell their stories, as well as validation, or the sense that the decisionmaker has heard their words and taken them seriously. Second, this Article, through the use of narrative, will show how a PCA had a negative psychological impact on an actual appellant in a criminal case. The Article will conclude by proposing an alternative to the antitherapeutic PCA

Silencing the Appellant\u27s Voice: The Antitherapeutic Per Curiam Affirmance

This Article will analyze the antitherapeutic impact of the per curium affirmance (PCA) in two steps. First, delving into the psychology of procedural justice, this Article will explain how litigants value voice, or the ability to tell their stories, as well as validation, or the sense that the decisionmaker has heard their words and taken them seriously. Second, this Article, through the use of narrative, will show how a PCA had a negative psychological impact on an actual appellant in a criminal case. The Article will conclude by proposing an alternative to the antitherapeutic PCA

What Goes Around Comes Around: The Circulation of Proverbs in Contemporary Life

In this collection of essays, prominent folklorists look at varied modern uses and contexts of proverbs and proverbial speech, some traditional and conventional, others new and unexpected. After the editors\u27 introduction discussing the history and status of attempts to define proverbs, describing their contemporary circulation, and acknowledging the especially important work of paremiologist Wolfgang Meider, the contributions examine the continuing pervasiveness and idiomatic relevance of proverbs in modern culture.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/1032/thumbnail.jp

Community rotorcraft air transportation benefits and opportunities

Information about rotorcraft that will assist community planners in assessing and planning for the use of rotorcraft transportation in their communities is provided. Information useful to helicopter researchers, manufacturers, and operators concerning helicopter opportunities and benefits is also given. Three primary topics are discussed: the current status and future projections of rotorcraft technology, and the comparison of that technology with other transportation vehicles; the community benefits of promising rotorcraft transportation opportunities; and the integration and interfacing considerations between rotorcraft and other transportation vehicles. Helicopter applications in a number of business and public service fields are examined in various geographical settings

A Five-Year Retroactive Analysis of Cut Score Impact: California’s Proposed Supervised Provisional License Program

A five-year cohort of 39,737 examinees who sat for the California Bar Exam (“CBX”) between 2014-18 was analyzed using a simulation model based on actual exam results to evaluate how the minimum passing scores (“cut score”) of 1440, 1390, 1350, 1330, and 1300, if used as qualifying scores for a provisional licensing program, would affect the number of previous examinees, by race and ethnicity, who would qualify to participate within retroactive groupings of five-year, four-year, three-year, two-year, and one-year examinee cohorts.The result of the simulation models indicated that selecting a qualifying score lower than the current California cut score of 1390 will significantly increase both the overall number of eligible participants and the diversity of the group eligible to participate in the proposed alternate licensing program.This study follows an initial study of 85,727 examinees of the CBX from 2009-18 titled, Examining the California Cut Score: An Empirical Analysis of Minimum Competency, Public Protection, Disparate Impact, and National Standards that determined maintaining a high cut score does not result in greater public protection as measured by disciplinary statistics, but does result in excluding minorities from admission to the bar and the practice of law at rates disproportionately higher than Whites

Examining the California Cut Score: An Empirical Analysis of Minimum Competency, Public Protection, Disparate Impact, and National Standards

The selection of a minimum bar exam passing score (“cut score”) shapes the representation of racial and ethnic minorities in the legal profession and the quality of access to justice in the state. California and national policy makers have not had the benefit of detailed exam performance data that analyzes the effect of the cut score on race and ethnicity. Because policy makers consider the cut score an important public protection mechanism, this study also explored whether the selection of higher cut scores better protected the public from attorneys who do not have the minimum competence to practice law. To conduct the analysis, the study used two data sets. The first data set included 85,727 examinees who sat for 21 administrations of the CBX from 2009-18 and the race and ethnicity of each examinee. The second data set included the ABA discipline data from up to 48 U.S. jurisdictions from 2013-18 and the cut scores in each jurisdiction. Using the first data set,the study determined how the selection of a minimum cut score (1) widens or narrows the racial and ethnic impacts of the bar exam and/or (2) alters the racial and ethnic composition of new attorneys joining the legal profession. Both historical actual and simulated cut scores were analyzed. Using the second data set, this study examined a third factor: the relationship, if any, between minimum cut scores and rates of attorney discipline. This analysis determined that initial and eventual passing rates differed significantly between racial and ethnic groups, and this gap was wider at higher simulated cut scores. A simulation analysis using actual examinee scores confirmed that selecting a lower cut score would have significantly narrowed the achievement gap between Whites and racial and ethnic minorities and would have increased the number of newly admitted minority attorneys in California. For example, at 1440, the achievement gap between Whites and Blacks was 27.4 percentage points. But at a simulated cut score of 1300, the achievement gap between these two groups would have been only 14.5 percentage points. This 12.9 percentage point difference in the achievement gap at 1440 and 1300 demonstrates a disparate effect of the higher cut scores. Using the second data set about disciplinary statistics, the study determined that no relationship exists between the selection of a cut score and the number of complaints, formal charges, or disciplinary actions taken against attorneys in the jurisdictions studied. California’s recent decision to lower the cut score from 1440 to 1390 moved California from having the second-highest cut score to the fourth-highest cut score in the country. However, the report data established that at 1390 California will continue to produce significantly disparate pass rates on the basis of race and ethnicity when compared to the national norm of 1350, the New York standard of 1330, and the simulated model of 1300. This study establishes that maintaining a high cut score does not result in greater public protection as measured by disciplinary statistics but does result in excluding minorities from admission to the bar and the practice of law at rates disproportionately higher than Whites

An infrared integrated optic astronomical beam combiner for stellar interferometry at 3-4 microns

Integrated-optic, astronomical, two-beam and three-beam, interferometric combiners have been designed and fabricated for operation in the L band (3 - 4 microns) for the first time. The devices have been realized in titanium-indiffused, x-cut lithium niobate substrates, and on-chip electro-optic fringe scanning has been demonstrated. White light fringes were produced in the laboratory using the two-beam combiner integrated with an on-chip Y-splitter.Comment: This paper was published in Optics Express and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under la

The biosocial event : responding to innovation in the life sciences

Innovation in the life sciences calls for reflection on how sociologies separate and relate life processes and social processes. To this end we introduce the concept of the ‘biosocial event’. Some life processes and social processes have more mutual relevance than others. Some of these relationships are more negotiable than others. We show that levels of relevance and negotiability are not static but can change within existing relationships. Such changes, or biosocial events, lie at the heart of much unplanned biosocial novelty and much deliberate innovation. We illustrate and explore the concept through two examples – meningitis infection and epidemic, and the use of sonic ‘teen deterrents’ in urban settings. We then consider its value in developing sociological practice oriented to critically constructive engagement with innovation in the life sciences