Supreme Court Responsiveness: An Analysis of Individual Justice Voting Behavior and the Role of Public Opinion

This study aims to explain why the Supreme Court responds to public mood by analyzing individual justice liberalism and comparing it to public liberalism between the years of 1953 and 2005. Three theories suggesting why the Court may respond to public opinion are discussed, including the replacement, political adjustment, and the attitude change hypotheses. The argument of using Court reversals to determine the ideology of the Court is presented and implemented. Public reaction to Court decisions is analyzed along with the Court’s institutional legitimacy as means to determine the Court’s strategic behavior. Ideology, public mood, the parties controlling the House, Senate, and Presidency, and the overall Court mood are used as independent variables to explain the driving force behind changes in individual justices’ voting behavior. The study concludes that Court mood is the strongest and most significant factor in changes in judicial voting behavior, while public opinion, ideology, and the parties controlling the other institutions of government explain little to none of the variance. In addition to justice replacement, the aggregate attitude change of justices is determined to be the most likely explanation for the Court’s adherence to public opinion

The relations among school status variables, teacher academic and arts curricular emphases, and student academic achievement in grades 1, 3, and 5

The National Center of Education Statistics\u27 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K) data were used to explore the curricular emphasis in schools of varying socioeconomic status in both public and private schools. Data collected between 1998 and 2003 were used in the secondary analyses of curricular emphasis in nine curriculum areas identified in the Teacher Questionnaire were grouped into academic, arts, or physical education. The results from descriptive statistics, correlations, and multiple regressions at each grade indicated differences in academic, arts, and physical education emphases based on public or private schools and school socioeconomic status (SES). Although lower-SES schools had greater academic emphasis in grade 1, this was not found in grades 3 and 5. Low-SES schools in grade 5 had greater academic emphasis in both public and private schools than higher-SES schools. For grades 1 and 3, public schools with high SES, on average, had greater arts emphasis than low-SES schools. For private schools in grade 1, low-SES schools, on average, had greater arts emphasis than high-SES schools. In grade 5, public and private schools had greater arts emphasis, on average, in schools with high SES compared to schools with lower SES. In general, low-SES schools had a physical education emphasis with little difference between low-, middle-, and high-SES in grades 1, 3, and 5. In general, both the academic and arts emphasis variables were related to reading and mathematics achievement, and the relations were statistically significant, but the regression coefficients were small. Academic emphasis only predicted reading and mathematics achievement in grade 1 and in grade 5 reading. Arts emphasis only predicted reading achievement in grade 5. Physical education emphasis predicted reading achievement at grade 3 and mathematics achievement at grade 1. In conclusion, school status variables such as public or private school and school SES indicated differences in academic, arts, and physical education emphases in grades 1, 3, and 5. None of the three curricular emphasis variables predicted both reading and mathematics achievement in grades 1, 3, or 5

Inferring physical conditions in interstellar clouds of H_2

We have developed a code that models the formation, destruction, radiative transfer, and vibrational/rotational excitation of H_2 in a detailed fashion. We discuss how such codes, together with FUSE observations of H_2 in diffuse and translucent lines of sight, may be used to infer various physical parameters. We illustrate the effects of changes in the major physical parameters (UV radiation field, gas density, metallicity), and we point out the extent to which changes in one parameter may be mirrored by changes in another. We provide an analytic formula for the molecular fraction, f_H2, as a function of cloud column density, radiation field, and grain formation rate of H_2. Some diffuse and translucent lines of sight may be concatenations of multiple distinct clouds viewed together. Such situations can give rise to observables that agree with the data, complicating the problem of uniquely identifying one set of physical parameters with a line of sight. Finally, we illustrate the application of our code to an ensemble of data, such as the FUSE survey of H_2 in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC/SMC), in order to constrain the elevated UV radiation field intensity and reduced grain formation rate of H_2 in those low- metallicity environments.Comment: 33 pages (aastex, manuscript), 9 figures (3 color). accepted to Ap

The Social Network Generation And Implications For Human Resource Managers

Tens of millions use social networks on a regular basis.  Social networks encourage the sharing of information, photos, videos, accomplishments, and experiences via the internet.  Their wide-spread and increasing usage especially among young people has been well-documented.  Individuals who have started such networks have become wealthy as sites have gone public.  Businesses are increasingly becoming involved in the networks as they realize the large following that the networks have generated and the fact that such networks can be sources of useful information on which to base decisions.  Social networks and individual members who utilize such networks are becoming increasingly aware that there are advantages and disadvantages to such usage. Network users need to be aware that postings on these networks are being scrutinized in ways those posting the information had not imagined when they signed on.  Firms increasingly are investigating applicant users through the networks. Indeed, human resource managers have more tools and investigation avenues at their disposal now than ever before

Caught In A Severe Thunderstorm, Fuel Is Low, Passenger Having Heart Attack, Hydraulics Are Failing, Instruments Are Iffy, And No Airport Is In Sight: Quick As The Pilot, What Do You Do?

University administrators can take a cue from pilots. Pilots regularly face decision situations where much lies in the balance. So it is with university administrators. The department, college or university itself can be compared to an aircraft. In flight, there are times when the sun shines and winds are favorable: a comfortable flight results and the mission is accomplished. At other times, thunderstorms ravage the skies, fuel may run low, structures and people may fail, and problems arise. So it is with universities and colleges. Sometimes things are great and at other times problems arise that interfere with the institutions role and mission. It is in the parallels of flying and leading an educational institution that allows flying wisdom to be of use

Plasma Formation in the Near Anode Region in Hall Thrusters

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77300/1/AIAA-2005-4059-947.pd