The Supreme Court Confirmation Process and Its Implications

In recent history, there has been a trend of increasing partisan polarization throughout most of the American political system. Some of the impacts of this polarization are obvious; however, there is reason to believe that we miss some of the indirect effects of polarization. Accompanying the trend of increased polarization has been an increase in the contentiousness of the Supreme Court confirmation process. I believe that these two trends are related. Furthermore, I argue that these trends have an impact on judicial behavior. This is an issue worth exploring, since the Supreme Court is the most isolated branch of the federal government. The Constitution structured the Supreme Court to ensure that it was as isolated as possible from short-term political pressures and interests. This study attempts to show how it may be possible that those goals are no longer being fully achieved. My first hypothesis in this study is that increases in partisan polarization are a direct cause of the increase in the level of contention during the confirmation process. I then hypothesize that the more contention a justice faces during his or her confirmation process, the more ideologically extreme that justice will then vote on the bench. This means that a nominee appointed by a Republican president will tend to vote even more conservatively than was anticipated following a contentious confirmation process, and vice versa for Democratic appointees. In order to test these hypotheses, I developed a data set for every Supreme Court nominee dating back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt¿s appointments (1937). With this data set, I ran a series of regression models to analyze these relationships. Statistically speaking, the results support my first hypothesis in a fairly robust manner. My regression results for my second hypothesis indicate that the trend I am looking for is present for Republican nominees. For Democratic nominees, the impacts are less robust. Nonetheless, as the results will show, contention during the confirmation process does seem to have some impact on judicial behavior. Following my quantitative analysis, I analyze a series of case studies. These case studies serve to provide tangible examples of these statistical trends as well as to explore what else may be going on during the confirmation process and subsequent judicial decision-making. I use Justices Stevens, Rehnquist, and Alito as the subjects for these case studies. These cases will show that the trends described above do seem to be identifiable at the level of an individual case. These studies further help to indicate other potential impacts on judicial behavior. For example, following Justice Rehnquist¿s move from Associate to Chief Justice, we see a marked change in his behavior. Overall, this study serves as a means of analyzing some of the more indirect impacts of partisan polarization in modern politics. Further, the study offers a means of exploring some of the possible constraints (both conscious and subconscious) that Supreme Court justices may feel while they decide how to cast a vote in a particular case. Given the wide-reaching implications of Supreme Court decisions, it is important to try to grasp a full view of how these decisions are made.

Diagnostic significance of Neospora caninum DNA detected by PCR in cattle serum

A nested PCR that successfully detected Neospora caninum DNA in serum of cattle was used for investigation of selected abortion cases and in a study of healthy pregnant cows at an abattoir. N. caninum DNA was not detected in serum from antibody positive dams that aborted due to N. caninum, but was present in serum of some antibody negative dams that aborted due to other causes. N. caninum DNA was also found in the serum of about half of the animals that aborted of undetermined cause, but was not detected in cow sera from two beef cattle herds in Western Australia with no recent history of abortion. In the abattoir study of 79 dams and their foetuses N. caninum DNA was found in serum of 3 dams and in material from 11 foetuses. The majority of the cows and all foetuses were antibody negative. Our findings suggest that there is no obvious relationship between the presence or absence of N. caninum DNA in serum and the presence of antibodies to N. caninum in dams, the presence of N. caninum DNA in foetuses or abortion due to N. caninum. This is the first report of the detection of N. caninum DNA in serum of cattle rather than the white blood cell fraction. It indicates the presence of free tachyzoites and/or parasite DNA in circulation. The results suggest that persistent infection in the absence of antibodies is a possible outcome of N. caninum infection. Infection of foetuses in the absence of antibodies supports the possibility of persistent infection due to immunotolerance to an early in utero infection. It is therefore important to test for N. caninum DNA as well as antibodies for the detection of exposed and/or infected animals. However, the presence or absence of N. caninum antibodies or DNA did not support nor exclude N. caninum as the cause of abortion. Additional criteria are required for a positive diagnosis of abortion caused by N. caninum.

A Discussion of the Geology and an Isopach Map of the Pennsylvanian System in Wyoming and Adjacent Areas

Pennsylvanian strata in Wyoming and adjacent areas have been the subject of much work and discussion. Most of the work has been due to the economic importance of the system as an oil producer in this region. Oil production from strata of Pennsylvanian age is rather recent history; and therefore, much of the available information is local­ized and incomplete.

Science for the Carpathians: Using Regional Capacity to Cope with Global Change

Emphasizing the global and regional importance of mountain ecosystem services and referring to the anticipated future environmental changes affecting the provision of these services, this chapter takes a closer look at the Carpathian Mountains. In addition to climate change and general effects of globalization, rapid socioeconomic transformations after the fall of the Iron Curtain pose an extra challenge to the sustainable development of the region. Describing the early efforts of organizing mountain science through programs such as UNESCO MAB and UNEP at the global scale, this chapter focuses on the recent history of research coordination for the European mountains, in particular on the activities of the Carpathian Convention and the European Program of the Mountain Research Initiative, which were among main driving factors for the initiation of the Science for the Carpathians (S4C) network. This regional mountain research network was established in 2008 to foster scientific collaboration and communication and to promote applied research and capacity building, which in turn would support sustainable development in the Carpathian Mountains. Forum Carpaticum, a biennial open science conference, has become a central activity of the S4C network counting more than 400 members today.

Space, diffusion and mobility

Given its origins in traditional dialectology, and given advances in our understanding of the social embedding of language variation, it is paradoxical that space should be one of the categories that has received least attention of all in variationist sociolinguistics. Until recently, space has largely been treated as an empty stage on which sociolinguistic processes are enacted. It has been unexamined, untheorized, and its role in shaping and being shaped by variation and change untested. One function of this chapter, therefore, is to assert that space makes a difference, and to begin, in a very hesitant way, to map out what a geographically informed variation analysis might need to address. It also examines variationist interactions with the related concept of mobility. It might be reasonable to think that human geographers would provide some clues on how to proceed. As we will see, they have engaged in a great deal of soul searching about the goals of their discipline, its very existence as a separate field of enquiry, and the directions it should take. Indeed there are remarkable parallels between the recent history of human geographic thought, and interest in language variation across space. Although space has been undertheorized in variation studies, a number of researchers, from the traditional dialectologists through to those interested in the dialectology of mobility and contact, have, of course, been actively engaged in research on geographical variation and language use. Their work will be contextualized here to highlight both the parallels with theory-building in human geography, but also some of the criticisms of earlier approaches which have fed through to human geography, but remain largely unquestioned in variationist practice. The chapter therefore presents a brief theoretical background to space and mobility, before exemplifying these concepts in variationist research through an examination of, for example, the spatial diffusion of linguistic innovations, the spatial configuration of linguistic boundaries and initial steps to examine the consequences of mobility for variationist research.

Indicating Commitment: The Notion of dépense in the Study of Ritual and Religion

By analysing two cases from the recent history of Vaishnavism (a temple festival in Vrindavan; the development of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON), this paper shows that the notion of dépenseas developed by Marcel Mauss, Robert Hertz and Georges Bataille can be applied as an analytical tool in the study of rituals and religion as an indicator of religious commitment. At the same time it is possible to show that, by constructing a kind of macro-economic theory that includes religious behaviour, recent theories of religious economics are part of, and reproduce, a modern discourse of rationality that rules out, rather than understands, forms of irrationality such as unproductive expenditure (dépense).

Role of electrophysiological studies in predicting risk of ventricular arrhythmia in early repolarization syndrome.

BACKGROUND The early repolarization (ER) pattern is associated with an increased risk of arrhythmogenic sudden death. However, strategies for risk stratification of patients with the ER pattern are not fully defined. OBJECTIVES This study sought to determine the role of electrophysiology studies (EPS) in risk stratification of patients with ER syndrome. METHODS In a multicenter study, 81 patients with ER syndrome (age 36 ± 13 years, 60 males) and aborted sudden death due to ventricular fibrillation (VF) were included. EPS were performed following the index VF episode using a standard protocol. Inducibility was defined by the provocation of sustained VF. Patients were followed up by serial implantable cardioverter-defibrillator interrogations. RESULTS Despite a recent history of aborted sudden death, VF was inducible in only 18 of 81 (22%) patients. During follow-up of 7.0 ± 4.9 years, 6 of 18 (33%) patients with inducible VF during EPS experienced VF recurrences, whereas 21 of 63 (33%) patients who were noninducible experienced recurrent VF (p = 0.93). VF storm occurred in 3 patients from the inducible VF group and in 4 patients in the noninducible group. VF inducibility was not associated with maximum J-wave amplitude (VF inducible vs. VF noninducible; 0.23 ± 0.11 mV vs. 0.21 ± 0.11 mV; p = 0.42) or J-wave distribution (inferior, odds ratio [OR]: 0.96 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.33 to 2.81]; p = 0.95; lateral, OR: 1.57 [95% CI: 0.35 to 7.04]; p = 0.56; inferior and lateral, OR: 0.83 [95% CI: 0.27 to 2.55]; p = 0.74), which have previously been demonstrated to predict outcome in patients with an ER pattern. CONCLUSIONS Our findings indicate that current programmed stimulation protocols do not enhance risk stratification in ER syndrome.

Being Open, Being Faithful: The Journey of Interreligious Dialogue

What does Christian identity mean in the face of religious pluralism? In some ways, the frontier of global Christianity lies not in repairing its past divisions so much as bravely facing its future in a world of many other faiths and conflicting convictions. Being Open, Being Faithful is a brief history, astute analysis, and trustworthy guide for Christian encounters in this pluralistic environment. A central argument of this perceptive book is that interreligious dialogue has moved so far as to fundamentally change the attitudes and openness of world religious traditions to each other, promising a future more open and less hostile than one might otherwise think. The book presents and reflects on the recent history of interreligious encounter and dialogue, and it traces the manifold difficulties involved, especially as they are experienced in Roman Catholic and World Council of Churches' engagements with other faiths. Yet, it goes even further: along with the history of such encounters, Being Open, Being Faithful examines the issue of Christian discipleship in the context of interfaith engagement, the operative models, the thorny issue of core theological commitments, and what might be the shape of Christian identity in light of such encounters.

A comparison between multi-proxy and historical data of drift-ice conditions on the East Greenland shelf

The reduction in sea ice along the SE Greenland coast during the last century has severely impacted ice-rafting to this area. In order to reconstruct ice-rafting and oceanographic conditions in the area of Denmark Strait during the last ~150 years, we conducted a multiproxy study on three short (20 cm) sediment cores from outer Kangerdlugssuaq Trough (~300 m water depth). The proxy-based data obtained have been compared with historical and instrumental data to gain a better understanding of the ice sheet-ocean interactions in the area. A robust chronology has been developed based on 210Pb and 137Cs measurements on core PO175GKC#9 (~66.2°N, 32°W) and expanded to the two adjacent cores based on correlations between calcite weight percent records. Our proxy records include sea-ice and phytoplankton biomarkers, and a variety of mineralogical determinations based on the <2 mm sediment fraction, including identification with quantitative x-ray diffraction, ice-rafted debris counts on the 63-150 µm sand fraction, and source identifications based on the composition of Fe oxides in the 45-250 µm fraction. A multivariate statistical analysis indicated significant correlations between our proxy records and historical data, especially with the mean annual temperature data from Stykkishólmur (Iceland) and the storis index (historical observations of sea-ice export via the East Greenland Current). In particular, the biological proxies (calcite weight percent, IP25, and total organic carbon %) showed significant linkage with the storis index. Our records show two distinct intervals in the recent history of the SE Greenland coast. The first of these (ad 1850-1910) shows predominantly perennial sea-ice conditions in the area, while the second (ad 1910-1990) shows more seasonally open water conditions.

Ilusiones territoriales : las imágenes en la construcción del territorio costero santafesino

En este trabajo se intenta un abordaje histórico-geográfico de un caso relacionado con los estudios de la historia reciente y de la geografía cultural. Se pretende una aproximación a cuestiones relativas a la construcción de los territorios, particularmente el fenómeno de suburbanización, que en el caso santafesino comenzó a evidenciarse en la década del 90, con una intensidad creciente hacia la primera década del siglo XXI. Considerando que en los últimos años la imagen visual, ya sea desde los ámbitos publicitarios, la prensa u otros campos, se ha convertido en un poderoso instrumento de construcción de realidad, es objetivo, por tanto, indagar a partir de un enfoque cultural, en los procesos que han construido la imagen del lugar y los imaginarios sobre éste, y cómo dichas imágenes son parte activa en la construcción de ese territorio. ¿Qué muestran? ¿Qué ocultan? Más aún, ¿cómo operan las imágenes que construyen el lugar?

Años ’70 y conflictividad obrera : un ejercicio de medición (Mendoza, 1969-1972)

El siguiente artículo parte de los problemas de índole epistemológica y metodológica que plantea el trabajo con «historia reciente», se distancia de las tendencias de investigación cualitativas aceptadas en la producción académica actual y sugiere que una aproximación cuantitativa permitiría alcanzar conclusiones cualitativas en el estudio de procesos histórico-sociales. En esta línea, y con el objetivo de conocer los procesos de toma de conciencia y construcción de autonomía que explican el hecho social conocido como Mendozazo, este trabajo presenta un ejercicio de medición de la conflictividad obrera en la provincia de Mendoza durante los años ’70.

Combatir al “enemigo interno" : el caso de la provincia de Mendoza (1973-1976)

Hacia mediados de la década del 70, la crisis institucional, la conflictividad social y el fracaso del intento redistribucionista del tercer gobierno peronista, llevaron a que se produjera una generalización de distintos procedimientos autoritarios que incluyeron el accionar represivo paraestatal y otras estrategias tales como reformas legales de corte represivo, un operativo de “limpieza" de militantes de izquierda al interior del peronismo, y modificaciones doctrinarias de reglamentos militares. En este trabajo, desde el campo de la historia reciente, y a partir del uso de fuentes escritas y orales, analizaremos en la trama local, de qué manera dichos factores se inscribieron y articularon en el proceso de represión paraestatal previo a la dictadura, en pos de profundizar en el estudio de las redes de relaciones implicadas en la prácticas coercitivas llevadas a cabo durante el tercer gobierno peronista.

'El problema del pueblo'. La última dictadura y la represión cultural : el caso Lacoste

Este trabajo consiste en una reflexión en torno a la represión cultural desplegada por la última dictadura cívico-militar argentina. El caso del profesor de Letras Luis Oscar Pato Lacoste, secuestrado y desaparecido en octubre de 1976, sirve de ejemplo para abordar la profundidad de la represión dictatorial en el plano cultural como un plan sistemático para la reestructuración y disciplinamiento social como fin último. La recuperación de este caso para la comunidad de Lobos viene de la mano de jóvenes estudiantes y es desde este lugar donde se va a abordar la construcción de la historia reciente y la memoria histórica local. La desaparición de Pato es entendida en un doble plano: la física- corporal y la cultural- representacional. Se cree asimismo importante la construcción y el aporte juvenil a la memoria de la comunidad de un proceso traumático aún no cerrado hoy en tanto impune, derribando el 'acá no ha pasado nada' ó el 'de eso no se habla'.

Proyecto de tesis de maestría : La producción discursiva de los organismos internacionales en América Latina y el Caribe

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo fundamental realizar un aporte a las discusiones político-intelectuales del campo educativo en América Latina y el Caribe en el período que media entre los años 1976 y 1992. Desde una perspectiva del estudio de las ideas político-pedagógicas interesa explorar los contenidos, categorías teóricas, temas y problemáticas que caracterizaron la producción discursiva de los organismos internacionales, en tanto segmento constitutivo del campo intelectual de la educación. En términos empíricos, se estudiarán desde una perspectiva comparada y contrastativa tres producciones documentales fundamentales para América Latina y el Caribe llevadas a cabo por un conjunto de organismos internacionales: el Proyecto Desarrollo y Educación en América Latina y el Caribe (UNESCO-CEPAL-PNUD) de 1976-1981, el Proyecto Principal de Educación para América Latina y el Caribe considerado entre los años 1981-1989 (UNESCO) y por último; el Documento Educación y Conocimiento: ejes de la transformación productiva con equidad de 1992 (UNESCO-CEPAL). En suma, este trabajo pretende efectuar una contribución a la historia reciente del campo intelectual de la educación -que ciertamente cuenta con muy pocas investigaciones al respecto-, partiendo del presupuesto de que el abordaje de los procesos de producción discursiva e innovación conceptual aporta a la comprensión de la conformación y desarrollo del campo educativo.

Lucha obrera, conflicto sindical y organización armada : El caso de la Juventud Trabajadora Peronista de Propulsora Siderúrgica [1973-1976]

El presente trabajo aborda el caso de la Juventud Trabajadora Peronista en la empresa Propulsora Siderúrgica de la localidad de Ensenada en el período 1973-1976, constituyendo éste un período clave en la historia política argentina en tanto significó el retorno del peronismo al poder luego de dieciocho años de proscripción legal. Enmarcada en la extensa constelación de experiencias de la ?nueva izquierda? que irrumpe con fuerza en Argentina a partir de fines de los años sesenta, y específicamente en la amplia experiencia de las fuerzas peronistas revolucionarias dentro de ella, la Juventud Trabajadora Peronista aparece como un espacio político-sindical especialmente rico para el estudio y análisis en el campo de la historia reciente argentina y dentro de ella de las prácticas sindicales radicalizadas. Fundada en 1973, la JTP nace como frente de masas sindical de la organización armada Montoneros. Fundada en el contexto histórico, político y social de retorno de Perón al país y de crisis del gobierno peronista, ésta seráparte de la emergencia de particulares formas de vínculo social en el que se entrecruzan elementos ligados a la práctica de los militantes obreros, sus agrupaciones sindicales, el proceso de radicalización general del período y la singular participación de las organizaciones armadas peronistas. Contemplado el entrecruzamiento entre organizaciones armadas revolucionarias, organizaciones sindicales combativas y la radicalización de sectores de la clase trabajadora, nuestro trabajo enfatiza la capacidad política obrera para imponer condiciones al capital, al gobierno y a sectores burocráticos del sindicalismo. Es en estos tres frentes de combate en los que se verán inmersos los sectores radicalizados de la clase obrera argentina que buscamos poner en un primer plano a lo largo de esta investigación