Digital Commons Network^™

Federal Sentencing During The Interregnum: Defense Practice As The Blakely Dust Settles , Ian Weinstein, Nathaniel Z. Marmur

Faculty Scholarship

Although the long term impact of Blakely v. Washington is not yet clear, no one can doubt that the case raises a host of immediate, significant and perplexing practical questions for federal criminal defense attorneys. The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in a pair of cases raising Blakely issues and oral argument is scheduled for October 4, 2004. It seems likely that the Supreme Court will offer some guidance by Thanksgiving. Until the Court rules, uncertainty will continue as the lower courts interpret Blakely in disparate ways. Once the Court does rule, many hard questions may remain unanswered. This article …

Record High Wolf, Canis Lupus, Pack Density, L. David Mech, Shawn Tracy

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

This report documents a year-around Wolf (Canis lupus) density of 18.2/100 km² and a summer density of 30.8/100 km², in a northeastern Minnesota Wolf pack. The previous record was a summer density of 14.1/100 km², for a Wolf pack on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Paleolimnology And Paleoclimate Studies In Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, Steven M. Colman, J. Platt Bradbury, Joseph G. Rosenbaum

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The subsiding Upper Klamath Lake Basin contains sediments that were continuously deposited in a shallow, freshwater lake for more than 40 000 years. Well dated by radiometric methods and containing volcanic ashes of known age, these sediments constitute a valuable paleoclimate record. Sediment constituents and properties that reflect past climatic conditions in the area include pollen, diatoms, sediment geochemistry, and sediment magnetic properties. Many of these proxy measurements are also useful for comparing natural conditions in the lake to conditions following human settlement. Because of its location, the paleoclimate record from Upper Klamath Lake is valuable for comparisons to offshore …

Sjsj, Volume 3, Issue 1, Seattle Journal For Social Justice

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Genetic Identification Of Spotted Owls, Barred Owls, And Their Hybrids: Legal Implications Of Hybrid Identity, Susan M. Haig, Thomas D. Mullins, Eric D. Forsman, Pepper W. Trail, Liv Wennerberg

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Recent population expansion of Barred Owls (Strix varia) into western North America has led to concern that they may compete with and further harm the Northern Spotted Owl (S. occidentalis caurina), which is already listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). Because they hybridize, there is a legal need under the ESA for forensic identification of both species and their hybrids. We used mitochondrial control-region DNA and amplified fragment-length polymorphism (AFLP) analyses to assess maternal and biparental gene flow in this hybridization process. Mitochondrial DNA sequences (524 base pairs) indicated large divergence between …

The Probable Importance Of Snow And Sediment Shielding On Cosmogenic Ages Of North-Central Colorado Pinedale And Pre-Pinedale Moraines, Larry Benson, Richard Madole, William Phillips, Gary Landis, Terry Thomas, Peter Kubik

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Eight uncorrected ³⁶Cl ages for Pinedale boulders in north-central Colorado fall in the range 16.5 to 20.9 kyr. ¹⁰Be age determinations on four of five boulders are in close agreement (<6% difference) with ³⁶Cl determinations. Hypothetical corrections for snow shielding increased the ³⁶Cl ages of Pinedale boulder surfaces by an average of ~12%. Most ages for pre-Pinedale (Bull Lake) boulders fall within marine-isotope stage (MIS) 5, a time when continental and Sierran ice accumulations were small or nonexistent. Under the assumption that these boulders were deposited on moraines that formed before the end of MIS 6 (~140 kyr …

An Association Of Benthic Foraminifera And Gypsum In Holocene Sediments Of Estuarine Chesapeake Bay, Usa, John Cann, Thomas Cronin

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Two cores of Holocene sediments recovered from the Cape Charles Channel of Chesapeake Bay yielded radiocarbon ages of about 6.8 to 5.8 ka for the lower intervals. Fossil foraminifera preserved in these lower sediments are dominated by species of Elphidium, which make up about 90% of the assemblage throughout, and probably signify deposition in hypersaline waters. Buccella frigida and Ammonia beccarii are the only other species commonly present. Hypersalinity of bottom waters seems to have been maintained by water-density stratification in a basin-like section of the channel. In core PTXT -4-P-I transition to modem Chesapeake conditions, in which numbers …

Introduction To Special Section: Preparing For The San Andreas Fault Observatory At Depth, Stephen Hickman, Mark D. Zoback, William Ellsworth

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) is a comprehensive project to drill into the hypocentral zone of repeating M ~ 2 earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault at a depth of about 3 km. The goals of SAFOD are to establish a multi-stage geophysical observatory in close proximity to these repeating earthquakes, to carry out a comprehensive suite of downhole measurements in order to study the physical and chemical conditions under which earthquakes occur and to exhume rock and fluid samples for extensive laboratory studies. In the vicinity of SAFOD, the San Andreas is moving through a combination …

Stress-Induced, Time-Dependent Fracture Closure At Hydrothermal Conditions, N. M. Beeler, S. H. Hickman

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Time-dependent closure of fractures in quartz was measured in situ at 22–530 °C temperature and 0.1–150 MPa water pressure. Unlike previous crack healing and rock permeability studies, in this study, fracture aperture is monitored directly and continuously using a windowed pressure vessel, a long-working-distance microscope, and reflectedlight interferometry. Thus the fracture volume and geometry can be measured as a function of time, temperature, and water pressure. Relatively uniform closure occurs rapidly at temperatures and pressures where quartz becomes significantly soluble in water. During closure the aperture is reduced by as much as 80% in a few hours. We infer that …

In Situ Stress, Fracture, And Fluid Flow Analysis In Well 38c-9: An Enhanced Geothermal System In The Coso Geothermal Field, Judith M. Sheridan, Stephen H. Hickman

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Geoscientists from the Coso Operating Company, EGI-Utah, GeoMechanics International, and the United States Geological Survey are cooperating in a multi-year study to develop an Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) in the Coso Geothermal Field. Key to the creation of an EGS is an understanding of the relationship among natural fracture distribution, fluid flow, and the ambient tectonic stresses that exist within the resource in order to design a hydraulic and thermal stimulation of an east-flank injection well, the first step in the creation of a heat exchanger at depth. Well datasets from the east flank of the Coso Geothermal Field are …

Uranium-Series Coral Ages From The Us Atlantic Coastal Plain–The ‘‘80 Ka Problem’’ Revisited, John F. Wehmiller, Kathleen R. Simmons, Hai Cheng, R. Lawrence Edwards, Jamie Martin-Mcnaughton, Linda L. York, David E. Krantz, Chuan-Chou Shen

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Uranium series coral ages for emergent units from the passive continental margin US Atlantic Coastal Plain (ACP) suggest sea level above present levels at the end of marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 5, contradicting age-elevation relations based on marine isotopic or coral reef models of ice equivalent sea level. We have reexamined this problem by obtaining high precision ²³⁰Th/²³⁸U and ²³¹Pa/²³⁵U thermal ionization mass spectrometric ages for recently collected and carefully cleaned ACPcorals, many in situ. We recognize samples that show no evidence for diagenesis on the basis of uranium isotopic composition and age …

Phylogenetic Analyses Of Texas Isolates Indicate An Evolving Subtype Of The Clade B Feline Immunodeficiency Viruses, Eric A. Weaver, Ellen W. Collisson, Margaret Slater, Guan Zhu

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Rigorous phylogenetic analyses were used to compare the nucleotide sequences of feline immunodeficiency virus strains isolated from Texas and throughout the world. The envelope V3-V4 sequences and capsid gene of the Texas isolates formed a cluster between subtypes B and E. Statistical comparisons with other published sequences confirmed that the Texas group is a unique cluster, possibly a new subtype, arising from subtype B.

Forest Harvest Can Increase Subsequent Forest Fire Severity, Carter Stone, Andrew T. Hudak, Penelope Morgan

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The USDA Forest Service is progressing from a land management strategy oriented around timber extraction towards one oriented around maintaining healthy forested lands. The healthy Forest Initiative promotes the idea of broadscale forest thinning and fuel treatments as an effective means for mitigating hazardous fuel conditions and, by extension, fire risk. Fuels mitigation is proactive while fire suppression is reactive and expensive. Costs associated with suppressing large wildfires, as occur in the western USA with annual regularity, are astronomical and routinely exceed fire suppression budgets. It is not difficult to demonstrate that treating forest fuels is more cost effective than …

"Oskar Blumenthal And The Lessing Theater In Berlin, 1888-1904", William Grange Prof. Dr.

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Oskar Blumenthal (1852-1917) was Berlin’s most feared theatre critic in the early years of the new German Reich. He had the audacity of referring to Goethe as “an egghead” who had no understanding of what made plays effective for audiences, and in other critiques he ridiculed Kleist, Hebbel, and other “important” playwrights—prompting an adversary publicly to call him a “one-man lynch mob.” In the 1880s Blumenthal himself began writing plays, and he was so successful that many self-appointed cultural guardians accused him of damaging the German theatre beyond repair. His became the most frequently performed plays on any German stage …

Field Validation Of Burned Area Reflectance Classification (Barc) Products For Post Fire Assessment, Andrew T. Hudak, Pete Robichaud, Jeffrey S. Evans, Jess Clark, Keith Lannom, Penelope Morgan, Carter Stone

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The USFS Remote Sensing Applications Center (RSAC) and the USGS EROS Data Center (EDC) produce Burned Area Reflectance Classification (BARC) maps for use by Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) teams in rapid response to wildfires. BAER teams desire maps indicative of soil burn severity, but photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic vegetation also influences the spectral properties of post-fire imagery. Our objective was to assess burn severity both remotely and on the ground at six 2003 wildfires. We analyzed fire effects data from 34 field sites located across the full range of burn severities observed at the Black Mountain Two, Cooney Ridge, Robert, …

Holocene Loess Deposition And Soil Formation As Competing Processes, Matanuska Valley, Southern Alaska, Daniel R. Muhs, John P. Mcgeehin, Jossh Beann, Eric Fisher

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Although loess–paleosol sequences are among the most important records of Quaternary climate change and past dust deposition cycles, few modern examples of such sedimentation systems have been studied. Stratigraphic studies and 22 new accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon ages from the Matanuska Valley in southern Alaska show that loess deposition there began sometime after ~6500 ¹⁴C yr B.P. and has continued to the present. The silts are produced through grinding by the Matanuska and Knik glaciers, deposited as outwash, entrained by strong winds, and redeposited as loess. Over a downwind distance of ~40 km, loess thickness, sand content, and sand-pluscoarse- …

Invertebrate Egg Banks Of Restored, Natural, And Drained Wetlands In The Prairie Pothole Region Of The United States, Robert A. Gleason, Ned H. Euliss Jr., Daniel E. Hubbard, Walter G. Duffy

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Analogous to ‘seed banks,’ ‘egg banks’ are important for seasonal succession and maintenance of invertebrate species diversity throughout wet and dry cycles in the prairie pothole region. Further, recruitment of invertebrates from relic egg banks in the sediments and dispersal of eggs into wetlands is believed to be important for reestablishment of invertebrates in recently restored wetlands. Although tens-of thousands of wetlands have been restored in the prairie pothole region of the United States, studies have not been conducted to evaluate the recovery of invertebrate egg banks in restored wetlands. We used taxon richness and abundance as indicators of potential …

Journal Of Actuarial Practice - Volume 11 (2004) - Contents And Masthead

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

Contents

Editorial Policy: Topics suitable for this journal include AIDS, annuity products, asset-liability matching, cash-flow testing, casualty rate making, credibility theory, credit insurance, disability insurance, expense analysis, experience studies, FASB issues, financial reporting, group insurance, health insurance, individual risk taking, insurance regulations, international issues, investments, liability insurance, loss reserves, marketing, pensions, pricing issues, product development, reinsurance, reserving issues, risk-based capital, risk theory, social insurance, solvency issues, taxation, valuation issues, and workers' compensation

Review Process

Editor - Colin Ramsay, University of Nebraska

Associate Editors: Robert Brown, University of Waterloo ○ Cecil Bykerk, Mutual of Omaha ○ Ruy Cardoso, …

The Actuarial Value Of Life Insurance Backdating, James M. Carson, Krzysztof Ostaszewski

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

Backdating is a common (and legal) practice in the U.S. whereby a life insurance contract bears a policy date that is prior to the actual application date. This practice often results in the opportunity for some insureds to reduce the annual premium paid. Using cash flow projections and U.S. mortality, lapse, and interest rate data, we provide a model of the actuarial value of term life insurance backdating. Results indicate that the benefits to the applicant of backdating a term life insurance policy increase as the applicant age (and hence premium) increases. Increasing mortality, lapse, and interest rates, as well …

Decision Tree Analysis Of Terminated Life Insurance Policies, Robert Keng Heong Lian, Yuan Wu, Hian Chye Koh

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

Statistical methods such as regression and survival analysis have traditionally been used to investigate the factors affecting the duration of terminated life insurance policies. This study explores a different approach: it uses a more recently developed data mining technique called decision trees. By sequentially partitioning the data to maximize differences in the dependent variable (duration in this study), the decision trees technique is good at identifying data segments with significant differences in the dependent variable. This identification can be useful when a company is trying to understand the factors driving or associated with the termination of life insurance policies. Decision …

Rapid Calculation Of The Price Of Guaranteed Minimum Death Benefit Ratchet Options Embedded In Annuities, Eric R. Ulm

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

This paper presents a new method of obtaining quick and accurate values and deltas for discrete look back options using Taylor series expansions. This method is applied to the case of ratchet guaranteed minimum death benefits attached to annuity contracts, and the method is extended to include annuities where a fixed fund is attached to the variable account. Finally, both the speed and the accuracy of the method are compared to Monte Carlo simulation and the exact analytic solution. The Taylor expansion method is shown to be faster and, in most cases, more accurate than the alternative methods.

Approximating The Bias And Variance Of Chain Ladder Estimates Under A Compound Poisson Model, Janagan Yogaranpan, Sue Clarke, Shauna Ferris, John Pollard

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

We consider the problem of estimating the outstanding claims produced by a homogeneous general insurance portfolio. The specific model considered in this paper is one where the number of claims in any loss period follows a Poisson distribution, settlement delays follow the same multinomial distribution, and settlements are single lump sums that are independent identically distributed random variables. Simulations using this model reveal that the development ratios and the outstanding claims estimates produced using the chain ladder method are positively biased. We obtain approximate formulas for the biases using Taylor series expansions of the random variables about their means. The …

Product Innovation In Financial Services: A Survey, Christopher O'Brien

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

This paper considers product innovation in insurance and other financial services, an area where actuaries have an important role. It considers the proposition that there is no unique formula for success and that what works well in one situation may not work well in another. It first examines the sources of ideas for new products and, in particular, the role played by consumers, which is generally regarded as weak. It then looks at how ideas are implemented, with particular importance attributed to cross-functional teams and the formality of the product development process. Then it considers how success is measured (with …

Great Plains Ecosystems: Past, Present, And Future, Fred B. Samson, Fritz L. Knopf, Wayne Ostlie

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Little questions exists that the main bodies of North American prairie (i.e., the tall-grass, mixed, and shortgrass) are among the most endangered resources on the continent. The purpose of this paper is to provide a past and present biological base- line by which to understand North American prairies and to provide a platform for future conservation. Events both immediate to the end of the Pleistocene and historic suggest that the present grassland conditions are different from those within which most of the grassland organisms evolved. Our analysis suggests that few grassland landscapes remain adequate in area and distribution to sustain …

Effects Of Management Practices On Grassland Birds: American Bittern, Jill A. Dechant, Marriah L. Sondreal, Douglas H. Johnson, Lawrence D. Igl, Christopher M. Goldade, Amy L. Zimmerman, Betty R. Euliss

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Information on the habitat requirements and effects of habitat management on grassland birds were summarized from information in more than 4,000 published and unpublished papers. A range map is provided to indicate the relative densities of the species in North America, based on Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data. Although birds frequently are observed outside the breeding range indicated, the maps are intended to show areas where managers might concentrate their attention. It may be ineffectual to manage habitat at a site for a species that rarely occurs in an area. The species account begins with a brief capsule statement, which …

Executive Power Essentialism And Foreign Affairs, Martin S. Flaherty

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Comparison Of Three Methods Of Size Grading Channel Catfish Stockers, Bartholomew W. Green, David L. Heikes, Andrew E. Goodwin

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The stocking of size-graded catfish into production ponds should increase production efficiency, but grading large numbers of fish with existing technology is laborious. We evaluated the effectiveness of a mechanical grader recently developed at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) relative to that of box and sock graders and assessed injuries sustained by stocker channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus during grading. Three 0.25-acre ponds were stocked at 11,777 lb/acre. Initial total length (TL) ranged from 6.3 to 15.7 in, and initial weight of individuals ranged from 0.04 to 1.10 lb. The fish population in each pond was divided into …

Spin-Dependent Tunneling From Clean And Oxidized Co Surfaces, Kirill D. Belashchenko, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Mark Van Schilfgaarde, Derek A. Stewart, I. I. Oleynik, Sitaram S. Jaswal

Kirill Belashchenko Publications

Transmission through a sufficiently thick vacuum barrier is factorized in the product of two ‘‘surface transmission functions’’ and a vacuum decay factor. Based on this factorization, we study the spin polarization of the tunneling current from clean and oxidized (1 1 1) FCC Co surfaces through vacuum into Al. The conductance is calculated using the principal-layer Green’s function approach within the tight-binding LMTO scheme. We find that for typical vacuum barrier thicknesses the tunneling current from the clean surface is dominated by minority-spin electrons. A monolayer of oxygen on top of the surface completely changes the shape of k_{ll …}

Magneto-Thermal Behavior Of A Granular Fecl2–Fe Heterostructure, Sarbeswar Sahoo, Christian Binek, Wolfgang Kleemann

Christian Binek Publications

A granular system consisting of ferromagnetic single-domain Fe particles in an antiferromagnetic FeCl₂ matrix was prepared by coevaporation in an ultra-high vacuum environment. The structural and magnetic properties were investigated by X-ray diffractometry and superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry, respectively. The heterostructure combines the properties of superparamagnetic Fe granules and the antiferromagnetism of the FeCl₂ matrix. In addition, dipolar interaction-induced giant moments are observed below the Néel temperature of the FeCl₂ matrix. The thermomagnetic properties of the giant moments are studied.

Ianr Recognition Luncheon, John Owens

John Owens: Speeches and Appearances

What a pleasure it is to come together here to recognize and celebrate Outstanding work of members of our IANR community. It is even more of a treat to have three reasons to celebrate today as we recognize excellence with two IANR Exemplary Service Awards, two Dinsdale Family Faculty Awards, and the IANR Team Award.