Day Gone

As an exploration of the natural world and the otherworldly, Day Gone seeks to define the relationships between disparate places. Through the use of ceramic and supporting materials, the objects serve as a portal to a terra incognita of color, texture, and language. The installation is a catalog of experiences and feelings I hold consciously or unconsciously

Working Class Judges

In recent years, a steady chorus of dignitaries has decried the low pay of federal judges and suggested that the federal judiciary is on the brink of losing its best and its brightest. The persistent nature of these claims should give us pause. Scott Baker\u27s recent study empirically evaluates these claims by examining the relationship between judicial salaries and the work habits and voting patterns of federal appellate judges. If large pay disparities are indeed eroding the quality of the federal bench, Baker theorizes this likely results in more ideological voting, fewer dissents, longer delays in issuing opinions, and a self-selection of judges who are intent on maximizing their influence within the federal judiciary. To test these hypotheses, Baker undertook the formidable task of assembling the requisite datasets, which he then posted on the Internet for other researchers to use. Along with the ingenuity of his research design, we applaud Baker\u27s industry and transparency. Thanks to his efforts, there is now an empirical literature surrounding the debate over federal judicial pay. At the end of his inquiry, Baker concludes that higher judicial salaries would have virtually no effect on the performance of federal appellate judges. The purpose of this Reply is to qualify Baker\u27s interpretation of his results, at least with regard to judges located in the Top Five legal markets of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. In his original analysis, Baker relies upon the average law firm partnership compensation, adjusted for years in practice and region, to estimate the forgone income - and hence opportunity costs - of each federal judge. Baker explicitly anticipated the possibility that this variable would understate the opportunity cost in large legal markets; thus, he included a Top Five variable plus an interaction term, which captures the effect of forgone earnings when a judge is located in one of the nation\u27s five largest legal markets. Baker\u27s discussion, however, does not formally address the significance of the interaction term, which requires some additional steps to properly interpret. Based on our reanalysis of Baker\u27s specifications, it appears that judges in the largest legal markets often behave differently than their smaller market counterparts. Specifically, the lower judicial salaries in Top Five markets strongly correlate with behavior Baker characterizes as ideological or influence-motivated. Conversely, while lower judicial salaries in small markets correlate with longer delays in issuing opinions, the exact opposite effect describes the behavior of judges in Top Five metropolitan areas. Our brief Reply proceeds as follows. Part I provides our reanalysis of Baker\u27s data. Part II establishes an additional comparative context that allows us to speculate why Top Five legal markets may foster a more intense tradeoff of influence versus remuneration. Indeed, as we note, the real or perceived financial tradeoffs are so enormous - and conspicuous - in Top Five markets that federal judges may feel they have been lumped together with a large, faceless working class. We conclude by suggesting that the debate over judicial salaries is rooted in the more general problem of greater income disparity within the American legal profession

Working Class Judges

In recent years, a steady chorus of dignitaries has decried the low pay of federal judges and suggested that the federal judiciary is on the brink of losing its best and its brightest. The persistent nature of these claims should give us pause. Scott Baker\u27s recent study empirically evaluates these claims by examining the relationship between judicial salaries and the work habits and voting patterns of federal appellate judges. If large pay disparities are indeed eroding the quality of the federal bench, Baker theorizes this likely results in more ideological voting, fewer dissents, longer delays in issuing opinions, and a self-selection of judges who are intent on maximizing their influence within the federal judiciary. To test these hypotheses, Baker undertook the formidable task of assembling the requisite datasets, which he then posted on the Internet for other researchers to use. Along with the ingenuity of his research design, we applaud Baker\u27s industry and transparency. Thanks to his efforts, there is now an empirical literature surrounding the debate over federal judicial pay. At the end of his inquiry, Baker concludes that higher judicial salaries would have virtually no effect on the performance of federal appellate judges. The purpose of this Reply is to qualify Baker\u27s interpretation of his results, at least with regard to judges located in the Top Five legal markets of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. In his original analysis, Baker relies upon the average law firm partnership compensation, adjusted for years in practice and region, to estimate the forgone income - and hence opportunity costs - of each federal judge. Baker explicitly anticipated the possibility that this variable would understate the opportunity cost in large legal markets; thus, he included a Top Five variable plus an interaction term, which captures the effect of forgone earnings when a judge is located in one of the nation\u27s five largest legal markets. Baker\u27s discussion, however, does not formally address the significance of the interaction term, which requires some additional steps to properly interpret. Based on our reanalysis of Baker\u27s specifications, it appears that judges in the largest legal markets often behave differently than their smaller market counterparts. Specifically, the lower judicial salaries in Top Five markets strongly correlate with behavior Baker characterizes as ideological or influence-motivated. Conversely, while lower judicial salaries in small markets correlate with longer delays in issuing opinions, the exact opposite effect describes the behavior of judges in Top Five metropolitan areas. Our brief Reply proceeds as follows. Part I provides our reanalysis of Baker\u27s data. Part II establishes an additional comparative context that allows us to speculate why Top Five legal markets may foster a more intense tradeoff of influence versus remuneration. Indeed, as we note, the real or perceived financial tradeoffs are so enormous - and conspicuous - in Top Five markets that federal judges may feel they have been lumped together with a large, faceless working class. We conclude by suggesting that the debate over judicial salaries is rooted in the more general problem of greater income disparity within the American legal profession

TARGET: A Digitizing And Trigger ASIC For The Cherenkov Telescope Array

The future ground-based gamma-ray observatory Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will feature multiple types of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, each with thousands of pixels. To be affordable, camera concepts for these telescopes have to feature low cost per channel and at the same time meet the requirements for CTA in order to achieve the desired scientific goals. We present the concept of the TeV Array Readout Electronics with GSa/s sampling and Event Trigger (TARGET) Application Specific Circuit (ASIC), envisaged to be used in the cameras of various CTA telescopes, e.g. the Gamma-ray Cherenkov Telescope (GCT), a proposed 2-Mirror Small-Sized Telescope, and the Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope (SCT), a proposed Medium-Sized Telescope. In the latest version of this readout concept the sampling and trigger parts are split into dedicated ASICs, TARGET C and T5TEA, both providing 16 parallel input channels. TARGET C features a tunable sampling rate (usually 1 GSa/s), a 16k sample deep buffer for each channel and on-demand digitization and transmission of waveforms with typical spans of ~100 ns. The trigger ASIC, T5TEA, provides 4 low voltage differential signal (LVDS) trigger outputs and can generate a pedestal voltage independently for each channel. Trigger signals are generated by T5TEA based on the analog sum of the input in four independent groups of four adjacent channels and compared to a threshold set by the user. Thus, T5TEA generates four LVDS trigger outputs, as well as 16 pedestal voltages fed to TARGET C independently for each channel. We show preliminary results of the characterization and testing of TARGET C and T5TEA.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy (Gamma2016

Developing User‐Friendly Habitat Suitability Tools from Regional Stream Fish Survey Data

We developed user‐friendly fish habitat suitability tools (plots) for fishery managers in Michigan; these tools are based on driving habitat variables and fish population estimates for several hundred stream sites throughout the state. We generated contour plots to show patterns in fish biomass for over 60 common species (and for 120 species grouped at the family level) in relation to axes of catchment area and low‐flow yield (90% exceedance flow divided by catchment area) and also in relation to axes of mean and weekly range of July temperatures. The plots showed distinct patterns in fish habitat suitability at each level of biological organization studied and were useful for quantitatively comparing river sites. We demonstrate how these plots can be used to support stream management, and we provide examples pertaining to resource assessment, trout stocking, angling regulations, chemical reclamation of marginal trout streams, indicator species, instream flow protection, and habitat restoration. These straightforward and effective tools are electronically available so that managers can easily access and incorporate them into decision protocols and presentations.Received April 9, 2010; accepted November 8, 2010Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141005/1/nafm0041.pd

Investigating organic aerosol loading in the remote marine environment

Aerosol loading in the marine environment is investigated using aerosol composition measurements from several research ship campaigns (ICEALOT, MAP, RHaMBLe, VOCALS and OOMPH), observations of total AOD column from satellite (MODIS) and ship-based instruments (Maritime Aerosol Network, MAN), and a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem). This work represents the most comprehensive evaluation of oceanic OM emission inventories to date, by employing aerosol composition measurements obtained from campaigns with wide spatial and temporal coverage. The model underestimates AOD over the remote ocean on average by 0.02 (21 %), compared to satellite observations, but provides an unbiased simulation of ground-based Maritime Aerosol Network (MAN) observations. Comparison with cruise data demonstrates that the GEOS-Chem simulation of marine sulfate, with the mean observed values ranging between 0.22 μg m−3 and 1.34 μg m−3, is generally unbiased, however surface organic matter (OM) concentrations, with the mean observed concentrations between 0.07 μg m−3 and 0.77 μg m−3, are underestimated by a factor of 2–5 for the standard model run. Addition of a sub-micron marine OM source of approximately 9 TgC yr−1 brings the model into agreement with the ship-based measurements, however this additional OM source does not explain the model underestimate of marine AOD. The model underestimate of marine AOD is therefore likely the result of a combination of satellite retrieval bias and a missing marine aerosol source (which exhibits a different spatial pattern than existing aerosol in the model)

Hormone-regulated expression and distribution of versican in mouse uterine tissues

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Remodeling of the extracellular matrix is one of the most striking features observed in the uterus during the estrous cycle and after hormone replacement. Versican (VER) is a hyaluronan-binding proteoglycan that undergoes RNA alternative splicing, generating four distinct isoforms. This study analyzed the synthesis and distribution of VER in mouse uterine tissues during the estrous cycle, in ovariectomized (OVX) animals and after 17beta-estradiol (E2) and medroxyprogesterone (MPA) treatments, either alone or in combination.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Uteri from mice in all phases of the estrous cycle, and animals subjected to ovariectomy and hormone replacement were collected for immunoperoxidase staining for versican, as well as PCR and quantitative Real Time PCR.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In diestrus and proestrus, VER was exclusively expressed in the endometrial stroma. In estrus and metaestrus, VER was present in both endometrial stroma and myometrium. In OVX mice, VER immunoreaction was abolished in all uterine tissues. VER expression was restored by E2, MPA and E2+MPA treatments. Real Time PCR analysis showed that VER expression increases considerably in the MPA-treated group. Analysis of mRNA identified isoforms V0, V1 and V3 in the mouse uterus.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results show that the expression of versican in uterine tissues is modulated by ovarian steroid hormones, in a tissue-specific manner. VER is induced in the myometrium exclusively by E2, whereas MPA induces VER deposition only in the endometrial stroma.</p