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The Play’s the Thing: A Response to Judge Benjamin Beaton
Get PDFIn a recent speech, later published as an essay, the Hon. Benjamin Beaton of the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky shared his critical suggestions against the use of the honorific “Your Honor,” preferring instead the more neutral title “judge.” Judge Beaton’s reason for this preference stems from a fear that the current practice of judicial titles emphasizes status over function, which may inflate the individual judge’s ego while miscommunicating to the public that judges make, rather than find, law. This position, however, is misguided. Judicial titles emphasize the authority of the law through the authority of the judge. This Essay suggests that the law’s rhetoric is not merely a project of reason, but of aesthetics. That is to say: whether we are persuaded that a determination has the quality of law is not only made by our rational decision-making, but also by the aesthetics of the decision-making process. Titles, like other forms of what Confucius called li and what John Adams described as “signs,” communicate the roles tied to the legal process while also evoking the qualities necessary for the role in order for the passion for recognition to be exercised and, hopefully, satisfied by the exercise of the public office for the public benefit. The point of titles, then, is to persuade all the participants in the legal process of the authority of the law and that the legal drama––the legal “play”––is, indeed, the thing
Is Knowledge Power? Women’s Education and Political Empowerment in Latin America and the Caribbean
No full textThis project explores the relationship between women’s educational attainment and political empowerment in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Using Lieberman’s Nested Analysis (LNA), this project employs mixed methods to uncover the contextual nuances between the two variables. The quantitative analysis draws data from the “Educational Attainment” and “Political Empowerment” subindices of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) across twenty-six countries in LAC over ten years. Despite the widespread idea that increasing women’s education can facilitate political empowerment, there was no statistically significant relationship between the two. The combination of regression analysis with qualitative case studies of Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil reveals that education is a necessary, but not sufficient determinant of women’s political empowerment in LAC. Gender quotas with placement mandates and enforcement mechanisms are found to be effective in increasing political empowerment. This study reveals the complex nature of combating the gender gap, especially within the diverse context of LAC
Chaparral fern gametophytes experience microclimates with more moisture and more moderate temperatures than fern sporophytes
No full textThe chaparral shrublands of southern California are characterized by long, dry summers and cool, wet winters. Previous studies have revealed strategies that fern sporophytes use to survive seasonal drought in the chaparral ecosystem. However, the environmental and physiological factors facilitating survival in the smaller independent fern gametophyte generation remain unknown. Unlike vascular fern sporophytes, fern gametophytes lack complex tissues to support water acquisition and retention. In this study, we propose that microclimate conditions at the soil surface extend the water availability period for fern gametophytes. We hypothesize that the soil-surface microclimate surrounding the fern gametophytes is more humid than the microclimate surrounding the sporophytes. We measured microclimate conditions in situ during early summer, including vapor pressure difference at the leaf (VPDleaf) and leaf temperature. We compared microclimate conditions adjacent gametophyte thalli at the soil surface to conditions adjacent sporophyte leaves. Fern gametophyte thalli and sporophyte leaves experienced significant differences in VPDleaf and leaf temperature throughout the early summer drought. Fern gametophytes experienced higher moisture and more moderate temperature than sporophyte leaves (p \u3e 0.05, n = XXX paired samples). However, fern and moss gametophytes experienced no significant difference in microclimate (p \u3e 0.05, n = XXX paired samples). Furthermore, fern gametophytes frequently experienced negative VPDleaf early in the summer drought, which means that water condensed on the gametophyte thalli. This prolonged period of partial hydration and gradual drying may also facilitate desiccation tolerance in chaparral fern gametophytes. Future studies will further elucidate the environmental limits of survival in fern gametophytes
Trabecular Bone Failure Analysis Under Quasi-static Impact
No full textFractography has traditionally been used to analyze materials such as glass and ceramics under failure, however, our lab has helped pioneer the application of fractographic analysis to more complicated materials such as bone, in this case 6 porcine trabecular bones. To prepare the bones for analysis, we first dissected to clear away extraneous tissue that would obscure fracture surfaces. Then the bones underwent quasi-static impact, to allow the bone time to react to the stress, with a gravity driven impact device with a blunt tip. After breaking, the bones were then treated with a procedure that included multiple rounds of dying with different concentrations of Basic Fuchsin dye and ethanol, then put through vacuum filtration. We found that the trabecular layer had both brittle and ductile breakage, evidence of both tensile and compressive strength of the trabecular layer, specifically certain trabeculae were found to have past the point of plastic deformation and curled along the direction of applied tensile stress. Furthermore, we also found that the offset, the difference in the fracture of the top and the bottom cortical layer, had a correlation to the thickness of the trabecular layer, such that bones with very thin trabecular layers had almost no offset and those with sufficient thickness demonstrated Hertzian cone offset. All of this combines to demonstrate that the trabecular layer does much more than act as a cushion between the two cortical layers and contributes not only tensile and compressive strength, but demonstrates some load transferring capabilities
Effectiveness of Frog Skin Secretions Against UV-B Radiation
No full textAs an increasing number of their species face possible extinction, amphibian populations have been steadily declining over the past decades (IUCN). While various factors have been suggested or proven to be partially responsible for this reduction, increased ultraviolet B radiation (UVBR) appears to be one of the more prominent explanations, especially when considering the continual thinning of the Earth’s ozone layer due to anthropogenic climate change. However, it has also been discovered that skin secretions, which are reported to function as a component of amphibians’ innate immune systems, may have an effect on UVBR (Cramp and Franklin). With this in mind, we wondered if the skin secretions of two local frog species, California tree frogs (Pseudacris cadaverina) and Pacific tree frogs (Pseudacris regilla), might be indicative of this. We hypothesized that a small glass slide consisting of an individual frog’s secretory layer would have a lower ultraviolet radiation reading than that of an unaltered glass slide, suggesting that a frog’s secretions protect it from a quantifiable amount of harmful UVBR. Using a consistently positioned UV meter, six frogs of each species were collected and tested independently at the streambank in Arroyo Sequit Park. Wavelengths of an individual’s secretions were recorded five separate times, with control measurements being taken before and after each trial. While nearly all secretions from both sampled species saw a slight decrease in UVBR levels when compared to the control readings, our findings were not significant enough to support our hypothesis, possibly suggesting that amphibians’ skin secretions act as only a minimal deterrent to ultraviolet radiation
The Word is Humility : Why the Supreme Court Needed to Adopt a Code of Judicial Ethics
Get PDFThe Supreme Court is one of our most precious institutions. However, for the last few years, American confidence in the Court has dropped to a new low. Less than 40% of Americans have confidence in the Court and its decisions. Recent revelations regarding luxury trips, gifts, and exclusive access for certain individuals to the Justices have raised questions about whether the Justices understand their basic ethical duties and can act in a fair and impartial manner. As commentators have noted, the Supreme Court stood as the only court in America that was not governed by an ethical code. The question is why and whether that needed to change? Although there are many reasons for the Court to have adopted an ethical code, one stands out as particularly important—the need for judicial humility. Since ancient times, humility has been a basic quality for judges. It helps ensure that judges understand the need to act fairly and to be perceived as acting impartially. This Article discusses the need for an enforceable ethical code. Despite the fact that the Supreme Court recently adopted what it labeled a “Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States,” this code is more an outline of aspirational standards than an actual code of conduct. The so-called “code” lacks an enforcement mechanism. Thus, while it may be modeled on the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, without an enforcement mechanism, it is—at best—a recognition by the Court that it, too, should meet certain minimum ethical standards