Reality Check: A Modest Modification to Rationalize Rule 803 Hearsay Exceptions

The Federal Rules of Evidence (or “the Rules”) identify hearsay that is admissible, notwithstanding the classic hearsay prohibition, by delineating categories of hearsay statements that may be admitted into evidence. For example, “dying declarations” of now-unavailable declarants may be admitted in homicide prosecutions or civil cases. “Excited utterances” relating to a startling event also may be admitted for their truth. The purported justification for admitting certain categories of hearsay rests upon the inherent reliability of human statements uttered in certain contexts, as well as litigants’ need for crucial evidence to build cases

Adopting Children with Down Syndrome: A qualitative study of family experiences

The purpose of this study is to qualitatively investigate and compare the family beliefs, values, and perceptions of parenting of families who have adopted children with Down syndrome (DS) to parents who have biological children with DS. Participants in the study included 27 parents of biological children with DS and six parents of adopted children with DS. Participants were interviewed through a digital survey that was distributed through Qualtrics Online Survey Software. Quantitative analysis placed the participants into groups and qualitative analysis was used to identify beliefs, values, and perceptions. Results showed that while both adoptive and biological parents indicated that support services have played an important role in raising their child with DS, 100% of adoptive parents indicated a desire for the creation of additional services/programs to better serve their child with DS and only 63% of biological parents indicated the same desire. There were no significant differences in level of stress seen between the two groups, joys and benefits added to family life, or challenges faced by families. While participants from both groups reported similar values and beliefs that have contributed to their parenting decisions, themes found in motivation differed between biological and adoptive parents

Reality Check: A Modest Modification to Rationalize Rule 803 Hearsay Exceptions

The Federal Rules of Evidence (or “the Rules”) identify hearsay that is admissible, notwithstanding the classic hearsay prohibition, by delineating categories of hearsay statements that may be admitted into evidence. For example, “dying declarations” of now-unavailable declarants may be admitted in homicide prosecutions or civil cases. “Excited utterances” relating to a startling event also may be admitted for their truth. The purported justification for admitting certain categories of hearsay rests upon the inherent reliability of human statements uttered in certain contexts, as well as litigants’ need for crucial evidence to build cases

Reversible motion drive system Patent

Drive system for parabolic tracking antenna with reversible motion and minimal backlas

Comment on "Density of States and Critical Behavior of the Coulomb Glass"

In a recent numerical investigation of the Coulomb glass, Surer et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 067205 (2009)] concluded that their simulation results are consistent with the Efros Shklovskii prediction for the density of states in the three-dimensional case. Here, we show that this statement has no relevance concerning the problem of the asymptotic behavior in the Coulomb gap since it is based on unjustified assumptions. Moreover, for the random-displacement Coulomb glass model, we demonstrate that a part of the density of states data by Surer et al. erroneously exhibit a broad gap. This is related to the staggered occupation being instable contrary to their findings.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letters, 1 page, 1 figur

Social Effects in the Diffusion of solar Photovoltaic Technology in the UK

The main research question in this paper is whether the installation rate of solar pv technology is affected by social spillovers from spatially close households. The installed base, defined as the cumulative number of solar v installations within a neighbourhood by the end of a particular month, serves as a measure for the social effects of interest. Motivated by the technology-specific time lag between the decision to adopt a solar Pv panel and the completion of the installation, the third lag of the installed base serves as main regressor of interest in the panel data model employed. The results suggest small, but positive and significant social effects that can be exploited to promote adoption: at the average installation rate of 0.7 installations per 1,000 owner-occupied households, one more solar PV panel in the postcode district increases the installation rate three months later by one percent. At the average number of 6,629 owner–occupied households within a postcode district, this implies an increase in the number of new installations in the neighbourhood by 0.005. Projects involving a high number of installations could hence promote diffusion. A major limitation of the model is that social spillovers are assumed to spread within defined neighbourhoods, only. spatial econometric methods could allow for social effects across these borders