The ASACUSA (atomic spectroscopy and collisions using slow antiprotons) Cusp experiment requires the production of dense positron plasmas with a high repetition rate to produce a beam of antihydrogen. In this work, details of the positron production apparatus used for the first observation of the antihydrogen beam, and subsequent measurements, are described in detail. This apparatus replaced the previous compact trap design resulting in an improvement in the positron accumulation rate by a factor of $52\pm 3$.

Methods for reducing the radius, temperature and space charge of a non-neutral plasma are usually reported for conditions which approximate an ideal Penning Malmberg trap. Here, we show that (i) similar methods are still effective under surprisingly adverse circumstances: we perform strong drive regime (SDR) compression and SDREVC in a strong magnetic mirror field using only 3 out of 4 rotating wall petals. In addition, we demonstrate (ii) an alternative to SDREVC, using e-kick instead of evaporative cooling (EVC) and (iii) an upper limit for how much plasma can be cooled to $T<20\ \mathrm {K}$ using EVC. This limit depends on the space charge, not on the number of particles or the plasma density.

It is quite well known that South Carolina sent four aristocrats to represent her in the 1787 Constitutional Convention. It is less well known that one of the four merited a listing in Burke's Peerage. In fact, while much has been written about Charles Pinckney, C. C. Pinckney, and John Rutledge, the fourth member of the delegation has been the subject of a few biographical sketches and virtually nothing more. And yet Pierce Butler was not an insignificant member of the delegation or of the Convention. Indeed, several positive claims to fame that can be established in his behalf suggest the need for a more realistic assessment of his role in the 1787 Convention. This paper is designed as a first step in that direction.

As part of a multi-wavelength study, we report on a 50 ks Chandra/ACIS observation of the Guitar Nebula, a bow shock nebula associated with the radio pulsar B2224+65. We see a “hot spot” at the tip of the bow shock. We also notice a “jet” of X-ray emission at position angle (PA) −69°. However, the proper motion of the pulsar and the axis of optical emission is at PA 52°.1. We discuss the resulting interpretations of the relativistic pulsar wind and the surrounding ISM.

Decorsin is an antagonist of integrin αIIb β3 and a potent platelet aggregation inhibitor. A synthetic gene encoding decorsin, originally isolated from the leech Macrobdella decora, was designed, constructed, and expressed in Escherichia coli. The synthetic gene was fused to the stII signal sequence and expressed under the transcriptional control of the E. coli alkaline phosphatase promoter. The protein was purified by size-exclusion filtration of the periplasmic contents followed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Purified recombinant decorsin was found to be indistinguishable from leech-derived decorsin based on amino acid composition, mass spectral analysis, and biological activity assays. Complete sequential assignments of 1H and proton bound 13C resonances were established. Stereospecific assignments of 21 of 25 nondegenerate β-methylene groups were determined. The RGD adhesion site recognized by integrin receptors was found at the apex of a most exposed hairpin loop. The dynamic behavior of decorsin was analyzed using several independent NMR parameters. Although the loop containing the RGD sequence is the most flexible one in decorsin, the conformation of the RGD site itself is more restricted than in other proteins with similar activities.

In this research note I seek to determine whether a significantly predicting social background model for analyzing the votes of Supreme Court justices is time-bound. I argue that an affirmative result poses serious questions for past uses of such models, none of which has controlled for the possibility that time is a confounding variable. A model that significantly predicted the votes of the justices in the Court's 1903–1968 terms was constructed. Analysis with this model for two periods—from 1903 to 1935, and from 1936 to 1968—established that the model was not timeneutral. Appropriate theoretical implications are drawn.

In the period from 1947 to 1976, the United States Supreme Court has denied certiorari in more than half the cases involving conflict with Supreme Court precedent or intercircuit conflict. In both instances, the denial rate has been higher in the Burger Court than in the Vinson and Warren Courts and denial has been greater for intercircuit conflict cases than for cases in which the ruling in the lower court was in conflict with one or more Supreme Court precedents. When conflict was conceptualized as a predictor of decision and examined along with federal government as petitioning party, economic issues, and civil liberty issues, it was found to have 4 to 7 times the predictive power of the other variables combined for the Vinson and Warren Courts. For the Burger Court, the petitioning party variable was found to be a better predictor than conflict, but conflict was a much better predictor than the subject variables. Discriminant function models using the four predictor variables were able to account for up to 36.9% of the variance in the Supreme Court's certiorari decisions, almost all of which was the result of the contributions made by the conflict and party factors.

This paper presents preliminary findings from a study designed to fill a gap in political scientists' knowledge about the extent to which the Supreme Court grants or denies plenary review when conflict with one or more of its precedents is claimed. The findings are that the presence of conflict promoted the granting of review between 1961 and 1976, including the Warren Court terms (1961–68), even in the face of controls for litigant status, civil liberty issues, and constitutional issues, but that it was a poorer predictor during the Burger Court terms (1969–76).

In making review decisions, Supreme Court justices are predisposed to support underdogs and upperdogs. disproportionately but, also, are motivated to hide any "bias" that may be at work in determining votes.

In balancing these two values, justices may be expected to vote their "bias" more frequently (1) when that vote will determine outcome, and (2) when the "bias" will be harder to detect. The latter goal may be served by voting the "bias" more frequently in close cases and less frequently otherwise.

In an analysis of the voting patterns of five justices in the decade 1947–56, I found that two liberal and two conservative justices conformed to these expectations. A fifth, or control justice, defined as neither liberal nor conservative, did not pattern his votes in the manner predicted for liberals and conservatives. This relationship held when four projected intervening variables were controlled individually and collectively.

In making his televised announcement on the nominations of Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist for seats on the Supreme Court, Richard Nixon observed that he was merely fulfilling a campaign promise. For, he said: “… during my campaign for the Presidency, I pledged to nominate to the Supreme Court individuals who shared my judicial philosophy which is basically a conservative philosophy. … As a judicial conservative, I believe some Court decisions have gone too far in the past in weakening the peace forces as against the criminal forces in our society” (New York Times, 1971: 24C). In 1968, Mr. Nixon said: ”We need more strict constructionists on the highest court of the United States. In my view, the duty of a Justice of the Supreme Court is to interpret the law, not to make the law, and the men I support will share that view“ (U.S. News & World Report, 1968: 42).