The State of the Judiciary: A Corporate Perspective

The rule of law depends on highly talented, independent judges who conscientiously strive to ensure that the law is consistently applied in a principled and predictable manner. This Essay addresses two potential threats to judicial independence and the rule of law that we believe warrant special attention at this time. First, inadequate judicial salaries pose a threat to the quality and independence of the judiciary. Judges\u27 real pay has declined substantially over the past generation, even as the compensation of other callings within the legal profession has risen dramatically. This growing disparity in pay has prompted an increasing number of experienced judges to leave the bench and has discouraged many of our most talented and experienced lawyers from accepting judicial nomination. Furthermore, as judicial compensation has declined, judicial appointees have increasingly come to the bench from the public rather than the private sector. This trend likely does not bode well for a balanced judiciary. We believe that judicial compensation should be increased substantially at both the federal and state levels. Second, the central role the jury has come to play in American tort law undermines the consistency and predictability that are the hallmarks of the rule of law. When juries, rather than judges, determine basic issues of liability as opposed to resolving issues of fact, similarly situated litigants may receive widely varying results from different juries. In addition, empirical studies indicate that juries treat corporate defendants differently from similarly situated individual defendants, holding corporations to a higher standard of care and assessing significantly higher damages against corporations when they find liability. The direct and indirect costs of such inconsistent and discriminatory treatment harm not only corporations, but also employees, shareholders, and consumers. Judges can and should play a greater role in resolving liability questions in tort disputes in order to restore clarity, consistency, predictability, and accountability to this area of the law

Brief Note: Limnetic Larval Fish in the Nearshore Zone of the South Shore of the Central Basin of Lake Erie

Author Institution: Center for Lake Erie Area Research, The Ohio State University ; Department of Biology, John Carroll Universit

Web-based data collection: detailed methods of a questionnaire and data gathering tool

There have been dramatic advances in the development of web-based data collection instruments. This paper outlines a systematic web-based approach to facilitate this process through locally developed code and to describe the results of using this process after two years of data collection. We provide a detailed example of a web-based method that we developed for a study in Starr County, Texas, assessing high school students' work and health status. This web-based application includes data instrument design, data entry and management, and data tables needed to store the results that attempt to maximize the advantages of this data collection method. The software also efficiently produces a coding manual, web-based statistical summary and crosstab reports, as well as input templates for use by statistical packages. Overall, web-based data entry using a dynamic approach proved to be a very efficient and effective data collection system. This data collection method expedited data processing and analysis and eliminated the need for cumbersome and expensive transfer and tracking of forms, data entry, and verification. The code has been made available for non-profit use only to the public health research community as a free download [1]

Maternal Geohelminth Infections Are Associated with an Increased Susceptibility to Geohelminth Infection in Children: A Case-Control Study

Background: Children of mothers infected with soil-transmitted helminths (STH) may have an increased susceptibility to STH infection. Methods and Findings: We did a case-control study nested in a birth cohort in Ecuador. Data from 1,004 children aged 7 months to 3 years were analyzed. Cases were defined as children with Ascaris lumbricoides and/or Trichuris trichiura, controls without. Exposure was defined as maternal infection with A. lumbricoides and/or T. trichiura, detected during the third trimester of pregnancy. The analysis was restricted to households with a documented infection to control for infection risk. Children of mothers with STH infections had a greater risk of infection compared to children of uninfected mothers (adjusted OR 2.61, 95% CI: 1.88–3.63, p,0.001). This effect was particularly strong in children of mothers with both STH infections (adjusted OR: 5.91, 95% CI: 3.55–9.81, p,0.001). Newborns of infected mothers had greater levels of plasma IL-10 than those of uninfected mothers (p = 0.033), and there was evidence that cord blood IL-10 was increased among newborns who became infected later in childhood (p = 0.060). Conclusion: Our data suggest that maternal STH infections increase susceptibility to infection during early childhood, an effect that was associated with elevated IL-10 in cord plasma

Advanced sensors technology survey

This project assesses the state-of-the-art in advanced or 'smart' sensors technology for NASA Life Sciences research applications with an emphasis on those sensors with potential applications on the space station freedom (SSF). The objectives are: (1) to conduct literature reviews on relevant advanced sensor technology; (2) to interview various scientists and engineers in industry, academia, and government who are knowledgeable on this topic; (3) to provide viewpoints and opinions regarding the potential applications of this technology on the SSF; and (4) to provide summary charts of relevant technologies and centers where these technologies are being developed

Factors in Debris Accumulation at Bridge Piers

Debris accumulation at bridge piers has been a significant problem at a number of bridge sites in Indiana, increasing risks of upstream flooding, scour, and stream instability. The current study aimed at identifying factors contributing to debris accumulation in order to formulate guidelines for the design of new bridges that would minimize their occurrence or impact. Three related approaches were taken: i) a systematic study of the available underwater bridge inspections reports, ii) a program of periodic visits and visual examination of bridge sites that were thought to be prone to debris accumulation, and iii) continued video monitoring of three bridge sites, and analysis of video images recorded during debris-transporting events. The available underwater bridge inspection reports spanned a period of 10 years and covered 370 structures. Heavy debris accumulation was observed at ¡Ö20% of these sites, with the heaviest accumulations being concentrated in southwestern Indiana. Almost all of the sites in south-central and southern Indiana experienced at least moderate debris accumulation at one time. Sites with estimated volume of debris accumulation greater than 1000 cubic yards (¡®mega¡¯ sites), sites where heavy debris accumulation was observed during more than one inspection (¡®chronic¡¯ sites), and sites with at most minor debris accumulation during more than one inspection (¡®lite¡¯ sites) were examined in greater detail with regards to their crosssectional geometry and the placement of the piers, and the specific location of debris accumulation. A program of periodic site inspections was undertaken that eventually covered 22 sites, including 4 ¡®mega¡¯ sites and 6 ¡®chronic¡¯ sites. The sites were visited at intervals of 3 ¨C 4 months over a 16-month period, and visually examined with regards to the occurrence and location of any debris accumulation, and other features, such as the presence of upstream bridges, that might be related to debris accumulation. These observations were combined with cross-section information from underwater bridge inspection reports to corroborate or refine the conclusions drawn from the broader study of underwater bridge inspection reports. Issues that could not be resolved from the bridge inspection reports, such as the behavior over time of debris accumulation, and the relationship to hydrologic events, were of particular interest in the periodic-site inspections. Although some sites suffered what might be classed as ¡®heavy¡¯ accumulation during the study period, no ¡®mega¡¯ accumulation occurred at any site, suggesting that average recurrence intervals for such events are more than 16 months, at least for larger rivers. Finally, video monitoring of debris-transporting events was conducted at three sites including one ¡®mega¡¯ site. This yielded the most detailed information regarding aspects that were visible above the water surface. This included including the variation of debris ¡®discharge¡¯ and amount of debris accumulated with time, typical debris trajectories, and even direct evidence of disaggregation of already accumulated debris. At two of the sites, extensive debris accumulations, possibly approaching ¡®mega¡¯ class at one site, were recorded. In contrast, little debris accumulation was noted at the third site in spite of quite heavy debris transport during at least one large flow event. For larger, longer-duration flow events, debris transport seemed to be concentrated towards the earlier rising part, such as the first 12 ¨C 18 hours, of the event. Little correlation between the lateral location within the stream where debris transport is high and the thalweg in the immediate vicinity of the bridge crossing was found. On the basis of the observations made during the study, recommended practices are suggested for designing bridges with the aim of minimizing debris accumulation