Of politics,self-preservation,and symbolism: An investigation of jurisdiction-stripping and legislative redistricting

Jurisdiction-stripping has long been a questionable component of Congress's power to supervise the judiciary's policymaking role. It has gained notoriety in recent debates surrounding judicial involvement in areas including religious establishment and privacy issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Most scholarship equates the advocacy of jurisdiction-stripping measures with symbolic position-taking that is unmotivated by the goal of traditional policy success. This work, a quantitative case study of the first such measure to pass the House of Representative since Reconstruction, seeks to isolate legislative motivations for exerting jurisdictional controls against the Supreme Court. Legislators’ votes on this measure were multifaceted. While those decisions were guided in part by the symbolic and representational considerations that traditionally underlie the advocacy of such legislation, there is also evidence more substantive motivations played a part. The study highlights the evolving objectives of jurisdiction-stripping's advocates and, more broadly, Congress's objectives vis-à-vis the courts.     

Leadership of highly creative people in highly creative fields: A historiometric study of scientific leaders

In recent years there has been a marked increase in the study of the influence of leadership on creativity, and the effects of this relationship on organizational performance. While a number of explanations have been broached with regard to the positive effects of leadership on creativity, many of these studies propose different, and often contradictory, methods for leaders to achieve these positive effects on creativity within their organizations and work groups. Additionally, little work has been done examining the effects of leadership on highly creative people in fields requiring creativity. The purpose of this study is to examine two existing leadership theories with regard to their viability as models to explain creative performance of eminent scientists. Eminent scientists represent a population of leaders of highly creative individuals in a field that values the production of innovative ideas and products as a marker of performance. Ninety-three excerpts from the biographies of scientists were content coded for leader behaviors and performance criteria. The results of this analysis indicate that a model based on strategic planning and product championing may serve to explain the positive effects of leadership on creativity in a highly creative population.     

The critique of intelligent design: Epicurus,Marx, Darwin,and Freud and the materialist defense of science

A new version of the age-old controversy between religion and science has been launched by today’s intelligent design movement. Although ostensibly concerned simply with combating Darwinism, this new creationism seeks to drive a “wedge” into the materialist view of the world, originating with the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus and manifested in modern times by Darwin, Marx, and Freud. Intelligent design proponents thus can be seen as challenging not only natural and physical science but social science as well. In this article, we attempt to explain the long history of this controversy, stretching over millennia, and to defend science (especially social science) against the criticisms of intelligent design proponents – by defending science’s materialist roots.

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Health insurance literacy: A mixed methods study of college students

Objective: This study examines the health insurance literacy, or the ability to use health insurance effectively, of college students. Participants: A total of 455 students from a large, public university completed an online questionnaire in November 2016. Methods: A questionnaire examined students’ knowledge of commonly encountered health insurance terms and ability to apply that knowledge to determine cost-sharing in a clinical setting. Results: The majority of students were able to correctly identify the most commonly encountered terms, but could not identify terms related to plan types and options. Eighty-eight percent of students could not determine their cost-sharing for two presented scenarios. Approximately half of the students indicated they had been confused about their health insurance plan, with one-quarter of students stopping or delaying medical care due to confusion. Conclusions: Outreach and education for students should target specific deficits in knowledge such as those identified in this study.     

DESIGNED TO FAIL: THE MEDICARE AUCTION FOR DURABLE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT

We examine the theoretical properties of the auction for Medicare Durable Medical Equipment. Two unique features of the Medicare auction are (1) winners are paid the median winning bid and (2) bids are nonbinding. We show that median pricing results in allocation inefficiencies as some high‐cost firms potentially displace low‐cost firms as winners. Further, the auction may leave demand unfulfilled as some winners refuse to supply because the price is set below their cost. We also introduce a model of nonbinding bids that establishes the rationality of a lowball bid strategy employed by many bidders in the actual Medicare auctions and recently replicated in Caltech experiments. We contrast the median‐price auction with the standard clearing‐price auction where each firm bids true costs as a dominant strategy, resulting in competitive equilibrium prices and full efficiency. (JEL D44, I11, H57)     

Shyness,Preference for Solitude,and Adolescent Internalizing: The Roles of Maternal,Paternal, and Best‐Friend Support

The researchers examined differential outcomes related to two distinct motivations for withdrawal (preference for solitude and shyness) as well as the possibility that support from important others (mothers, fathers, and best friends) attenuate any such links. Adolescents (159 males, 171 females) reported on their motivations to withdraw, internalizing symptoms, and relationship quality in eighth grade, as well as their anxiety and depression in ninth grade. Using structural equation modeling, the authors found that maternal support weakened the association between shyness and internalizing problems; friend support weakened the association between preference for solitude and depression; and friend support strengthened the association between shyness and depression. Results suggest that shy adolescents may not derive the same benefits from supportive friendships as their typical peers.     

Generating Dynamic Democratic Discussions: An Analysis of Teaching With U.S. Presidential Debates

Researchers have found that when young people participate in discussions of controversial political issues, they often become more politically engaged and informed (Hess, 2009 Hess, Diana E. (2009). Controversy in the classroom: The democratic power of discussion. New York, NY: Routledge.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Nonetheless, some educators avoid fostering such discussions because they can become heated and distract from academic learning (Hess, 2002 Hess, Diana E. (2002). Discussing controversial public issues in secondary social studies classrooms: Learning from skilled teachers. Theory &; Research in Social Education, 30(1), 10–41.[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). Presidential elections, including the highly publicized debates, provide substantial material for discussions of major national and international issues, but no published research has examined how educators can leverage these events to generate productive civic learning experiences. In this article, we analyze data collected in seven high school classrooms during the 2012 presidential election to examine the challenges and opportunities associated with generating substantive, dynamic discussions of presidential debates. Our findings indicate that students enjoyed learning about candidates' different perspectives and that certain strategies were especially helpful for fostering substantive discussions: (a) scaffolding students' preparation for discussion; (b) providing opportunities for students to address open-ended questions; (c) redirecting students' engagement in competitive, interpersonal dynamics to learning about public issues; and (d) countering students' partisan tendencies. We discuss implications for practice and research and present a conceptual framework for generating dynamic, substantive democratic discussions.     

Large body size for metamorphic wood frogs in urban stormwater wetlands

Constructed wetlands in urban environments may be used by urban amphibian populations for breeding. Yet, few studies have examined the performance of young-of-the-year from created wetlands even though the success of terrestrial life stages is directly linked to the performance of individuals at the egg and larval stage. We assessed how early-stage amphibians developing within constructed stormwater wetlands compared in body size (one metric of performance) to those in nearby natural wetlands. We conducted surveys for wood frog, Lithobates sylvaticus, larvae and young-of-the-year metamorphs at 13 wetlands located in the City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and compared metamorph size (a useful metric for fitness and reproductive success) between constructed stormwater and two types of natural wetlands. We related body size to within-wetland parameters (reflecting water chemistry, thermal regimes and physical characteristics) and used an information-theoretic approach to identify predictors of metamorph body size. Abundances of egg masses, larvae and metamorphs were generally lower at stormwater than natural wetlands. Metamorphs exhibited larger body size in stormwater wetlands compared to natural wetlands. Low metamorph abundances and cool, stable water temperatures best explained large body size in stormwater metamorphs. We propose that with increasing urbanization and associated construction of artificial wetlands, size benefits in early developmental stages may help individuals cope with reduced habitat suitability in the terrestrial environment.     

The effects of urbanization on North American amphibian species: Identifying new directions for urban conservation

Urbanization is a pervasive and growing threat to amphibian populations globally. Although the number of studies is increasing, many aspects of basic amphibian biology have not been investigated in urban settings. We reviewed 32 urban studies from North America and quantified the number of species studied and their response to urbanization. We examined existing research on breeding habitats, life-history stages, movement patterns, and habitat use relative to urbanization. We found amphibians as a whole respond negatively to urbanization (69 reported responses were negative, 6 were positive and 35 showed no effect). We caution, however, that many North American species still lack or are associated with conflicting information regarding species-specific responses (e.g., 89 potential responses were unknown). Approximately 40% of all anuran and 14% of caudate species in North America were investigated in the literature; however, the most diverse genera (e.g., Plethodon and Eurycea) were the most understudied likely due to their cryptic terrestrial lifestyles and biases in sampling protocols that assess wetland habitats via call surveys. Research on movement and small scale habitat use was deficient. Adult, juvenile, tadpole, and egg mass life-history stages commonly served as direct measures of species presence and abundance; however, such data do not accurately reflect recruitment into subsequent age classes and population persistence. The lack of data on many North American species may be contributing to poor management of urban amphibian populations and their habitats.     

Considerations on jury size and composition using lower probabilities

The use of lower probabilities is considered for inferences in basic jury scenarios to study aspects of the size of juries and their composition if society consists of subpopulations. The use of lower probability seems natural in law, as it leads to robust inference in the sense of providing a defendant with the benefit of the doubt. The method presented in this paper focusses on how representative a jury is for the whole population, using a novel concept of a second ’imaginary’ jury together with exchangeability assumptions. It has the advantage that there is an explicit absence of any assumption with regard to guilt of a defendant. Although the concept of a jury in law is central in the presentation, the novel approach and the conclusions of this paper hold for representative decision making processes in many fields, and it also provides a new perspective to stratified sampling.