An Analysis of Cross-Ideological Expectation Voting on the United States Supreme Court, 2000-2017

Contrasted with the other branches of government, the Supreme Court has long been an institution posing a level of secretiveness equal to its power. Naturally, that has developed a desire, and maybe necessity, to gain a better understanding regarding the principal influences of judicial decision making on America’s highest Court. One phenomenon that has long been of interest to Court observers is the notion of the justice’s voting across established ideological lines. Previous attempts to explain and reconcile cross-ideological votes have focused on the influence of external actors on the Court, its legitimacy, public opinion, and dynamics between justices. Yet, there remains a need to scrutinize the types of cases most likely to produce cross-ideological votes among justices in order to offer explanatory factors as to when a particular cross-ideological vote occurs. Often ignored in the quest to ascertain factors influencing particular justices and the Court as a whole, is the need for a study of case topics and the ability of these topics to correlate to an unexpected vote by a justice. In this thesis, I analyze which legal issues embedded within Supreme Court cases are most likely to produce cross-ideological votes among justices. I then propose a theory for predicting what issue areas are most likely to produce cross-ideological votes among Supreme Court justices in the future. In this research, I find that the issue area of criminal procedure correlates to the largest number of cross-ideological votes by Supreme Court members. Interestingly, I also find that conservative and liberal justices are equally inconsistent in voting concerning criminal procedure cases

Speech Reading Training and Audio-Visual Integration in a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) typically have deficits in communication abilities. Deficits include social, linguistic, and pragmatic difficulties and difficulties in the ability to perceive and integrate audiovisual (AV) stimuli. It is also common for those with ASD to have weaker speech reading skills as compared to typically developing, age-matched peers. Speech reading skills are known to enhance speech perception in naturalistic, noisy environments. In children with ASD, the combination of both poor AV integration and poor speech reading is thought to have significant effects on vocabulary acquisition. Studies have demonstrated that speech reading training can significantly enhance syllable discrimination in noise. However, it has not been investigated whether speech reading training could be generalized to more naturalistic stimuli such as words and in noisy environments. The purpose of the current study was to implement speech training in a child with ASD at the word level using a multiple baseline, changing criterion design. The child identified words in increasingly higher levels of background noise. During the baseline measures, AV speech was presented at a Signal to Noise Ratio, SNR, of 0dB. At the SNR of 0dB, both the speech and noise signals were equal. Speech reading training was implemented at the SNR of +4dB. At +4dB, the speech signal was louder than noise signal, making the task less challenging. The child was asked to watch and listen to the AV speech and choose what word he heard from a four choice list. The participant showed increases in receptive language processing over the course of the four training sessions when compared to the multiple baseline measures. Speech reading training enhanced receptive language processing for words in the SNR of 0dB from the initial pre-training baseline to post-training measure. The results from the study are consistent with previous findings that demonstrate increases in syllable identification after speech training using AV speech and suggest that such gains may also be trained for words in noisy environments

A Comparison of Audit Fee Trends for East Tennessee Based Companies and Similar Companies Based in Similar Regions

Research examines audit fee trends for a decade. The research focuses on audit fees of companies in the East Tennessee Area and compares the audit fees of these companies to similar companies based in similar regions of the United States. Possible causes for the fluctuations of audit fees during the decade are also discussed

Pioneers versus Improvers: Enabling Optimal Patent Claim Scope

Arising most commonly as a defense to an infringement claim, enablement requires a patent to describe the claimed invention in sufficient detail to permit a person having ordinary skill in the relevant field to replicate and use the invention without needing to engage in undue experimentation. If a patent claim is not enabled --i.e., if a person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) who studied the patent cannot make or use the invention without undue experimentation--the claim is invalid and can no longer be asserted. This penalty deters patent applicants from claiming more than they invented and allows others to develop improvements without fear of infringement.[...] This Note introduces a cohesive treatment of the enablement doctrine and in doing so, seeks to calibrate the doctrine so that it more properly strikes the balance between pioneers and improvers. To this end, Part I introduces the tests that have troubled scholars and highlights these tests\u27 apparent inconsistencies. Part II proffers a theory that reconciles the tensions in the fragmented case law by expanding patentees\u27 obligations under the enablement requirement. This may appear to have harsh effects, as failure to enable carries the penalty of invalidating the patentee\u27s claim. As I will argue, this is a necessary consequence because the alternative would expand the scope of the patentee\u27s rights beyond her invention, providing her with a windfall at the expense of both improvers and (more significantly) society. These benefits justify the proposed standard, but we need not accept its costs without mitigation. Part III introduces and defends three reforms motivated by an understanding of the costs associated with the standard proposed in Part II. First, the Federal Circuit should reconsider its approach to undue experimentation. To be an effective policy lever, enablement doctrine must account for an array of factual considerations which affect the ease with which skilled persons can make and use the claimed invention, i.e., whether undue experimentation is required. Recognizing this, the Federal Circuit established a multi-factor test for undue experimentation, known as the Wands factors. Courts, however, are not required to consider the Wands factors. Consequently, many courts--including subsequent Federal Circuit panels--have come to rely on just one of these factors as a proxy for the entire multi-factor test. This shortcut leads to outdated views of the PHOSITA and hindsight bias, which contaminate courts\u27 enablement analysis. To avoid this result, the Federal Circuit should reemphasize the role of the PHOSITA and mandate consideration of the Wands factors. Second, the Federal Circuit should resurrect the moribund maxim that claims should be construed narrowly when such construction is necessary to preserve their validity. This maxim would allow courts and parties to litigation to tailor claims to their proper scope as an alternative to the all-or-nothing course of invalidation. Thus, while a patentee\u27s obligations under the proposed enablement standard would be greater, so too would her ability to salvage her claims in the face of a successful enablement defense. Moreover, this option would promote a closer relationship between what a patentee invents and the scope of her patent rights. Finally, current enablement doctrine fails to adequately address the relationship between enablement and later-developed technology. To obtain patent protection, a patentee must enable the embodiments of her invention which fall within the scope of her claims. A critical but unresolved issue is how to treat embodiments that become possible only as a result of technology which arises after the patent application is filed. Because enablement is measured at the time of filing, embodiments that are made possible only after advancements in the art need not be enabled. There is no controversy here. In some cases, however, the Federal Circuit has allowed patent claims to extend to technology developed after filing; in other circumstances, it has declined to do so. This approach inappropriately allows some applicants to capture an invention that they most likely never conceived and certainly ha[ve] not enabled. This final reform disentangles the inconsistent case law and proposes policy levers for isolating after-arising technologies which merit protection from those that do not

Pioneers versus Improvers: Enabling Optimal Patent Claim Scope

Arising most commonly as a defense to an infringement claim, enablement requires a patent to describe the claimed invention in sufficient detail to permit a person having ordinary skill in the relevant field to replicate and use the invention without needing to engage in undue experimentation. If a patent claim is not enabled --i.e., if a person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) who studied the patent cannot make or use the invention without undue experimentation--the claim is invalid and can no longer be asserted. This penalty deters patent applicants from claiming more than they invented and allows others to develop improvements without fear of infringement.[...] This Note introduces a cohesive treatment of the enablement doctrine and in doing so, seeks to calibrate the doctrine so that it more properly strikes the balance between pioneers and improvers. To this end, Part I introduces the tests that have troubled scholars and highlights these tests\u27 apparent inconsistencies. Part II proffers a theory that reconciles the tensions in the fragmented case law by expanding patentees\u27 obligations under the enablement requirement. This may appear to have harsh effects, as failure to enable carries the penalty of invalidating the patentee\u27s claim. As I will argue, this is a necessary consequence because the alternative would expand the scope of the patentee\u27s rights beyond her invention, providing her with a windfall at the expense of both improvers and (more significantly) society. These benefits justify the proposed standard, but we need not accept its costs without mitigation. Part III introduces and defends three reforms motivated by an understanding of the costs associated with the standard proposed in Part II. First, the Federal Circuit should reconsider its approach to undue experimentation. To be an effective policy lever, enablement doctrine must account for an array of factual considerations which affect the ease with which skilled persons can make and use the claimed invention, i.e., whether undue experimentation is required. Recognizing this, the Federal Circuit established a multi-factor test for undue experimentation, known as the Wands factors. Courts, however, are not required to consider the Wands factors. Consequently, many courts--including subsequent Federal Circuit panels--have come to rely on just one of these factors as a proxy for the entire multi-factor test. This shortcut leads to outdated views of the PHOSITA and hindsight bias, which contaminate courts\u27 enablement analysis. To avoid this result, the Federal Circuit should reemphasize the role of the PHOSITA and mandate consideration of the Wands factors. Second, the Federal Circuit should resurrect the moribund maxim that claims should be construed narrowly when such construction is necessary to preserve their validity. This maxim would allow courts and parties to litigation to tailor claims to their proper scope as an alternative to the all-or-nothing course of invalidation. Thus, while a patentee\u27s obligations under the proposed enablement standard would be greater, so too would her ability to salvage her claims in the face of a successful enablement defense. Moreover, this option would promote a closer relationship between what a patentee invents and the scope of her patent rights. Finally, current enablement doctrine fails to adequately address the relationship between enablement and later-developed technology. To obtain patent protection, a patentee must enable the embodiments of her invention which fall within the scope of her claims. A critical but unresolved issue is how to treat embodiments that become possible only as a result of technology which arises after the patent application is filed. Because enablement is measured at the time of filing, embodiments that are made possible only after advancements in the art need not be enabled. There is no controversy here. In some cases, however, the Federal Circuit has allowed patent claims to extend to technology developed after filing; in other circumstances, it has declined to do so. This approach inappropriately allows some applicants to capture an invention that they most likely never conceived and certainly ha[ve] not enabled. This final reform disentangles the inconsistent case law and proposes policy levers for isolating after-arising technologies which merit protection from those that do not

The nervous and circulatory systems of a Cretaceous crinoid: preservation, palaeobiology and evolutionary significance

Featherstars, comatulid crinoids that shed their stalk during their ontogeny, are the most species‐rich lineage of modern crinoids and the only ones present in shallow water today. Although they are of considerable palaeontological interest as a ‘success story’ of the Mesozoic Marine Revolution, their fossil record is relatively species‐poor and fragmentary. New Spanish fossils of the Cretaceous featherstar Decameros ricordeanus preserve the shape and configuration of nervous and circulatory anatomy in the form of infilled cavities, which we reconstruct from CT scans. The circulatory system of D. ricordeanus was relatively extensive and complex, implying a pattern of coelomic fluid flow that is unique among crinoids, and the peripheral parts of the nervous system include linkages both to the circulatory system and to the surface of the body. A phylogenetic analysis (the first to include both living and fossil featherstars and which includes characters from internal anatomy) recovers D. ricordeanus among the lineage of featherstars that includes Himerometroidea, Tropiometra and ‘Antedonoidea’, among others. D. ricordeanus is larger than almost any modern featherstar, and its elaborate coelomic morphology appears to be a consequence of positive allometry. All featherstars with coelomic diverticula are shown to belong to a single comatulid subclade, and this feature may constitute a synapomorphy of that group. Some preservation of cavities corresponding to soft tissue is probably not exceptional in fossil crinoids, providing an opportunity to study the diversity and evolution of extinct anatomical systems typically only preserved in Lagerstätten.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154347/1/pala12452.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154347/2/pala12452_am.pd

Comatulid Crinoids in a Changing Ocean: Predation, Respiration, and Shifting Centers of Diversity

The oceans have changed since the appearance of animals in the fossil record about 600 million years ago: mass extinctions and subsequent recoveries have repeatedly altered the composition of the marine biota, tectonic and glacio-eustatic shifts have limited the possible locations and richnesses of marine ecosystems, and organisms have become bigger, more metabolically intensive, and more predatory. Crinoids – suspension feeding echinoderms attached to the substrate by a stalk at some point in their development – were among the principal players in this marine evolutionary drama, and though they were prominent and widespread in shallow waters for much of the Phanerozoic, most lineages have subsequently been restricted to the deep sea by the intensification of shell-crushing predation that began in the Jurassic. The only crinoids remaining in shallow water today are the mostly stalkless comatulids, whose evolutionary success has been attributed to high motility, toxicity, and other anti-predatory features. They are the focus of this dissertation. I first consider respiratory physiology in comatulids and other crinoids. I show that a system of fluid-circulating body cavities in these organisms performs a role in respiration, that this role explains previously enigmatic features of skeletal anatomy in living and fossil comatulids, and that the respiratory demands of stalkless comatulids are probably greater than those of the less mobile, exclusively deep-sea stalked crinoids. Next, I analyze the modern geographic distributions of some anti-predatory features, recovering a curious and statistically robust increase in maximum arm number from the poles to the equator. Abiotic correlates of latitude such as temperature and productivity are poor explanations for this pattern; instead, ecological evidence points toward intense tropical predation as the cause. Finally, I show that neontological and paleontological data independently support an origin of comatulids near what is now the Mediterranean and subsequently elevated dispersal to their modern diversity ‘hotspot’ in the Indo-West Pacific, tracking the destruction and creation of shallow shelf area by tectonic activity. This dissertation suggests novel features of the history of marine life, including a causal link between predation and latitudinal gradients in functional richness and a movement of the marine richness hotspot by dispersal rather than by changing diversification rates. It also corroborates more general hypotheses on the changing marine fauna: the anti-predatory adaptations associated with persistence in shallow water despite intense predation, the importance of predator-prey interactions in the tropics, and the geographic shifts in the center of marine richness over the Cenozoic.PHDEarth and Environmental SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/169725/1/jgsauls_1.pd

Kleine Harlequinade: Synthesizing a Directing Education

As my undergraduate education in opera stage direction comes to a close, I have designed my own final project: It is my intent to research and direct an original production of Antonio Salieri’s short opera Kleine Harlequinade. The opera will be performed in English by UNI School of Music students, with full scenic and costume production values. Salieri, though well known during his lifetime as a contemporary of Mozart, is rarely performed today. This research project will involve a complete analysis of the script and score, a literature review on the operas of Salieri, and the creation of a directing book for the opera including staging and set design. The dissemination of my research will primarily be at the public performances of the opera on March 6 and 7. At the conclusion of the project, I will prepare a short lecture on my findings