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Tests of Catastrophic Outlier Prediction in Empirical Photometric Redshift Estimation with Redshift Probability Distributions
No full textWe present results of using individual galaxies\u27 redshift probability information derived from a photometric redshift (photo-z) algorithm, SPIDERz, to identify potential catastrophic outliers in photometric redshift determinations. By using two test data sets comprised of COSMOS multi-band photometry spanning a wide redshift range (0 \u3c z \u3c 4) matched with reliable spectroscopic or other redshift determinations we explore the efficacy of a novel method to flag potential catastrophic outliers (those galaxies where ) in an analysis which relies on accurate photometric redshifts. SPIDERz is a custom support vector machine classification algorithm for photo-z analysis that naturally outputs a distribution of redshift probability information for each galaxy in addition to a discrete most probable photo-z value. By applying an analytic technique with flagging criteria to identify the presence of probability distribution features characteristic of catastrophic outlier photo-z estimates, such as multiple redshift probability peaks separated by substantial redshift distances, we can flag potential catastrophic outliers in photo-z determinations. We find that our proposed method can correctly flag large fractions (\u3e50%) of the catastrophic outlier galaxies, while only flagging a small fraction (\u3c5%) of the total non-outlier galaxies, depending on parameter choices. The fraction of non-outlier galaxies flagged varies significantly with redshift and magnitude, however. We examine the performance of this strategy in photo-z determinations using a range of flagging parameter values. These results could potentially be useful for utilization of photometric redshifts in future large-scale surveys where catastrophic outliers are particularly detrimental to the science goals
Filling the California Federal District Court Vacancies
Get PDFPresident Donald Trump frequently argues that confirming federal appellate judges constitutes his quintessential success. The President and the Republican Senate majority have dramatically eclipsed appeals court records by appointing fifty-one conservative, young, and capable appellate court nominees, which leaves merely one vacancy across the country. Nonetheless, these approvals have imposed costs, especially among the plentiful district courts that address seventy-four openings in 677 judicial positions.
The most striking example is the four California districts, which realize seventeen pressing vacancies among sixty posts. The Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO), the federal judiciary’s administrative arm, designates all of them “judicial emergencies,” which means that numerous openings have remained unfilled for a lengthy period of time, many involve substantial caseloads, and the California emergencies comprise almost two-fifths of those throughout the country. Notwithstanding the perilous situation, the White House failed to make any nomination until October 2018, to marshal prospects for eleven other empty seats before a year later, or to confirm one jurist yet. Indeed, all openings lacked nominees until February 2019, mainly because the administration had delayed resending the upper chamber three nominees whom Trump proffered in 2018. The Senate Judiciary Committee has granted merely three nominees a panel hearing, Trump only renamed on February 13, 2020 the other ten Central and Southern District nominees whom the chamber returned to the President on January 3, and the White House has failed to choose nominees for four additional vacancies. Finally, it remains unclear when the Senate will provide chamber floor debates and confirmation votes to the three nominees who secured hearings, much less when the panel will afford the other ten nominees hearings. [..
[Introduction to] El Arte de Pensar sin Riesgos
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El gran desafío de organizar un volumen sobre Clarice Lispector (1920-1977) reside en decir algo que ya no se haya dicho o en trazar una geografía afectiva que nos permita (re)visitar esa escritura que sigue desvelándonos a cien años de su nacimiento. Les contribuyentes de este libro se acercan a la autora desde una perspectiva más íntima, abordan aristas menos públicas y menos conocidas, y tímidamente van delineando retratos de una Clarice más cercana y menos hermética. Expandir la mirada significa entonces no solo incorporar nuevas perspectivas para pensar algunos de los textos conocidos de la escritora, sino también aportar lecturas de otros corpus menos explorados como son las crónicas, la narrativa infantil, su epistolario, sus pinturas y sus traducciones. Estos ensayos evidencian la necesidad que se impone de recuperar a Lispector en el centenario de su nacimiento desde y dentro del contexto latinoamericano, contrarrestando así la apropiación que se viene dando en inglés desde el norte anglo-parlante. Este volumen, además de homenaje, viene a inaugurar este nuevo trayecto.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1383/thumbnail.jp
[Introduction to] EL Affair Moreno
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El affair Moreno es un volumen colectivo que se propone interpretar lo heterogéneo del trabajo de María Moreno. Compuesto por nueve ensayos y seis perfiles aproximativos de Lorena Amaro, Luis Cárcamo-Huechante, Matthew Edwards, Germán Garrido, Karin Grammático, Viviane Mahieux, Francine Masiello, María José Sabo, Julieta Viu, Laura Demaría, Daniel Link, Alan Pauls, Verónica Yattah, Walter Romero y Tania Diz, este libro funciona como un dispositivo para articular los pensamientos teóricos que emergen de su presencia y su escritura.
María Moreno era la única mujer en una mesa del bar La Paz en la que estaban Di Paola, Fogwill, Bizzio y Briante, entre otros. Cuando en 1992 salió El affair Skeffington se me reveló como una poeta superior y cuando publicó El Petiso Orejudo ya no tuve duda alguna de que lo suyo era una escritura absolutamente nueva, donde combinaba investigación, imaginación y periodismo con la autobiografía y la teoría, todo hilvanado por su inteligencia sobrenatural.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1384/thumbnail.jp
[Introduction to] Convenient Criticism: Local Media and Governance in Urban China
Get PDFWhy and how does critical reporting persist at the local level in China despite state mediacontrol, a hallmark of authoritarian rule? Synthesizing ethnographic observation, interviews, survey and content analysis data, Convenient Criticism: Local Media and Governance and Urban China reveals evolving dynamics in local governance and the state-media relationship. Local critical reporting, though limited in scope, occurs because localleaders use media criticism strategically to increase bureaucratic control, address citizen grievances, and improve governance, something that ultimately advances their political careers. This new approach to governance enables the shaping of public opinion while at the same time disciplining subordinate bureaucrats. The Party-state now not only monopolizes propaganda but also expropriates criticism. In other words, we must recognize that media control has evolved within authoritarian politics from the suppression of journalism to its manipulation. Nevertheless, we should not view this in an entirely negative light as these practices enable and invigorate a unique brand of advocacy journalism by China\u27s television journalists -- Provided by publisher.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1390/thumbnail.jp
Reviewing Pesticide Impacts on Frogs to Suggest Management Applications in the Gambles Mill Eco-Corridor
Get PDFFor years, frog populations have been declining due to a variety of anthropogenic sources, including pesticide use. Pesticides work by inhibiting bodily functions in their target pest species, though they frequently have unintentional impacts on other life forms in an ecosystem. Some researchers have evaluated these effects, but their studies mainly focus on finding an LC50 - a concentration that will kill 50% of their test species sample. However, these LC50 levels are often higher than what would be found in nature, and pesticides have been shown to still impact species at lower concentrations. Thus, this study attempted to summarize literature that included these lower concentrations to identify the level at which three target pesticides began to disrupt frog function. The target chemicals were atrazine, carbaryl, and glyphosate, all of which are commonly used pesticides or pesticide bases. This study was done specifically in the context of management for the Gambles Mill Eco-Corridor (referred to as the Eco-Corridor) in Richmond, Virginia, the site of a recent creek restoration project with a focus on storm water management and ecosystem health. To make results more applicable to the study area, four frog species with known or potential ranges in the Eco-Corridor were selected: The Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor), the Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer), the American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeiana), and the Eastern Spadefoot (Scaphiopus holbrookii). The goal of this study was to determine if the selected frog species and pesticides could be connected to provide motivation for the use of frogs as indicator species and contribute insight into water testing requirements for the Eco-Corridor. The results suggested that atrazine is impactful at 0.0025ppm, glyphosate is impactful at 0.018ppm and carbaryl is impactful at 0.07ppm for one or more of the target frog species. These lowest concentrations of concern can be used to set detection thresholds when conducting water quality testing in the Eco-Corridor. This study also discussed potential sources of pesticides for the Eco-Corridor and suggested water quality testing locations. However, the results showed a lack of consistency in literature availability for the target species. Thus, P. crucifer was recommended as an indicator species, largely due to capture availability.
Paper prepared for the Environmental Studies Senior Seminar/Geography Capstone
Pills, Public Nuisance, and Parens Patriae: Questioning the Propriety of the Posture of the Opioid Litigation
Get PDFThe opioid crisis has been in litigation for almost twenty years on various fronts, including criminal prosecutions of pharmaceutical executives, civil lawsuits by individuals against drug manufacturers and physicians, class actions by those affected by opioid abuse, and criminal actions filed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”). In the early 2000s, opioid litigation began with individual plaintiffs filing suit against manufacturers and others for damages allegedly related to opioid use. The litigation has since expanded significantly in terms of the type of plaintiffs and defendants, the nature of the claims being asserted, and the damages attributable to the crisis.
The most current and active litigation is that which is pursued by state attorneys general in both federal and state courts to recover monies expended in their respective jurisdictions in response to the opioid epidemic. Additionally, and to a greater extent, individual municipalities, including cities and counties and even tribes like the Cherokee Nation, have filed similar independent actions against drug manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies. In 2018, more than 400 of the cases filed in courts throughout the United States by individual states, local governments, individuals, and other nongovernmental entities against drug manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies were consolidated and transferred for pre-trial coordination to the Northern District of Ohio by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation under the multi-district litigation (“MDL”) process set forth in 28 U.S.C. § 1407. Since that time, an additional 1500 parties have been added to this consolidated litigation, and there are approximately 330 opioid-related cases pending in various state courts, including fifty-five lawsuits filed by state attorneys general. In fact, in April 2019, plaintiffs’ expert witnesses provided reports that estimated it will cost more than $480 billion to “fix” the crisis.
One clear conclusion that can be drawn from even a cursory review of the nature of the litigation that has arisen over the last twenty years is that nearly every facet of the community, from individuals and families to government entities and corporations, has been affected by the opioid crisis. Another point that cannot be denied is that the prescription drug industry, including manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies, played a significantly culpable role in allowing the crisis to develop into its current magnitude. However, what is also clear is that many, many others played supporting roles in this regard, including, but not limited to, individuals, friends; families; governments, both federal and state; licensing boards; and physicians
Tailoring Copyright to Protect Artists: Why the United States Needs More Elasticity In Its Protection for Fashion Designs
Get PDFFor as long as copyright protection has existed in the United States, protection has never expressly extended to fashion designs because copyright law categorizes fashion designs as “useful articles” that do not receive any protection. In the eighteenth century, this policy perhaps made sense—most clothing was generic, non-decorative, and required little creativity for many of the everyday garments people wore. Clothing in the eighteenth century was commonly made up of useful articles that served very little purpose outside of their utility. However, in today’s society, fashion has transformed into an industry that prizes creativity, ingenuity, innovation, and something more than just utility. Copyright laws have not developed alongside the fashion industry. As a result, almost no fashion designs can receive copyright protection, and other areas of intellectual property law provide little to no protection, especially for smaller, less-established designers. This lack of protection has very real and sometimes very detrimental effects on designers who have the misfortune of a third party stealing their work and reproducing it at low cost. The current hierarchy in the fashion industry favors the well-established designer with the ability to reproduce a stolen design en masse and sell to the world, while the small, independent designer enjoys no recognition and is generally unable to collect for what almost anyone would agree is a morally wrong act
Gender Stereotypes and Gender Identity in Public Schools
Get PDFGiven the changing interpretation of Title IX, both statutory and constitutional arguments supporting the right of public school students to express their gender in any manner contrary to traditional gendered norms have renewed vitality. In the decades since Stonewall, students facing school discipline for nonconforming gender presentation that violated school dress codes have attempted to challenge the dress codes as violating their First Amendment free expression rights. Tracing these arguments is not only helpful as a historical exercise, but also to present alternative arguments under an unsympathetic presidential administration and Supreme Court. In today’s world in which the Trump administration targets transgender students, employees, and service members, one strategy is to embrace gender nonconformity for cisgender, transgender, and nonbinary students all at once, in the hopes that thinking about the expression rights of students will be a more fruitful approach than just relying on Title IX
Restorative Lawyering: A Toolbox That Can Change the Profession
Get PDFI will begin in Part I by delving into two serious issues in the legal profession—professional dissatisfaction and client dissatisfaction. Then, in Part II, I will provide a brief overview of Restorative Justice and three of its key principles: Heal the Harm, Honor and Respect, and Empathy. In Part III, I extrapolate from these three Restorative Justice principles to create a “toolbox”13 of restorative lawyering. I will then explain how restorative lawyering will decrease professional and client dissatisfaction, distinguish restorative lawyering from alternative models, and address possible critiques and concerns