Udi Sommer

The knee joint of the dog is frequently the subject of surgery if the cruciate ligaments or the menisci are injured. In the knee joint of the dog we find a ligament, which is spread out between the anterior part of the fossa intercondylaris ossis femoris and the corpus adiposus infrapatellaris. This ligamentum synoviale infrapatellare has not previously been described and represents a homologous structure to the plica synovialis infrapatellaris of human knee joint. Just like the latter and just like the cruciate ligaments it is a rudiment of a septum articulare genu, which is spread out between an articulatio femorotibialis and an articulatio femorofibularis in the early phylogenesis of tetrapods. The ligamentum synoviale infrapatellare of the dog consists of a stratum synoviale and a stratum spinosum, which includes blood vessels, nerves, many collagenous fibres and some elastic fibres. We do not find evidence for sensory nerve endings or corpuscular receptors. Therefore a servering of the ligament during knee joint surgery does not affect the proprioceptive potential of the knee joint.

The spermatheca of the honey bee queen is covered by a single-layered, uniform, polarised epithelium. The apical cell surface is greatly enlarged by protrusions and plasma membrane infoldings, the basal cell surface by numerous interdigitating, long, small processes. Cytoplasmic organelles are chiefly represented by mitochondria. Numerous microtubuli extend throughout the cytoplasm. Golgi and endoplasmic profiles are rare. The cells are subject to senile degeneration: with increasing age, a variety of cytoplasmic inclusions appear, among which are myelinated membranes, dense bodies and dense filamentous aggregates. The spermathecal epithelium does not seem to be involved in exocrine secretion related to nutrition of the long-term stored spermatozoa. The ultra-structure points, however, to ion transport functions and to an engagement in the maintenance of an adequate physicochemical environment ensuring the viability of the spermatozoa. Cellular junctions are represented by luminal zonulae adherentes, focal cell-cell adhering junctions and hemiadhering junctions along the basal plasmalemma. Desmosomal contacts and cytoskeletal intermediate filaments are missing. Along the lateral plasmalemma, gap junctions and septate junctions are found.

We posit a dynamic response model to investigate attitudinal behavior in different national courts. The model allows levels of attitudinal decision making to vary with the voting patterns of individual justices and the nature of the cases they decide. The scores are estimated based on a probability model, which formulizes a basic assumption according to which judicial decisions consist of ideological, strategic and jurisprudential components. We employ Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations to fit our Bayesian model of Supreme Court decision making. This allows for two levels of measurement; at the institutional level, the Dynamic Comparative Attitudinal Measure (DCAM) estimates the overall level to which attitudes influence decision making in each court. At the individual justice level, for each justice we estimate a value pertaining to her Ideological Ideal Point Preference (IIPP). We test the measurements by comparing attitudinal decision making in the Supreme Courts of the United ...

The fine structural distribution of cytoskeletal actin was investigated in the oxyntic gland region and in the pyloric gland region of bovine abomasal mucosa using immunoelectron methods. In all exocrine cell types of the gastric epithelium, actin filaments exhibit a polarized pattern of distribution. In the members of the mucus- and protein-synthesizing cell line, the actin filaments form a prominent barrier to the exocytosis of secretory granules underneath the apical membrane. Therefore, actin is supposed to be involved in the control of exocytosis. The basolateral subplasmalemmal cortex of the exocrine cells, however, shows weaker labeling for actin filaments. In this position actin might be responsible for the movement of epithelial cells along the length of the gastric gland during physiological cell renewal and for the maintenance of the integrity of the epithelial unit and of cell polarization. In parietal cells of bovine abomasum, actin filaments are, in addition, associated with the intracellular canaliculus, but not with the tubulovesicular compartment. We assume that actin filaments reorganize the canalicular membrane after membrane translocations in the course of acid secretion. For the first time, actin filaments were documented in the rare brush cell type of bovine abomasum, where they do not form a terminal web beneath the apical membrane and therefore point out the nonexocrine function of the brush cell type. In all polarized cells of the bovine abomasum, actin filaments underlay the two apical members of the junctional complex, the tight junction and the adherens junction, where they might be involved in the regulation of cell adhesion, cell motility and cell shape determination.

The origin and the differentiation of oxyntic cells in fetal bovine abomasum were investigated using transmission electron and light microscopic methods. In the oxyntic gland region oxyntic cell precursors and immature oxyntic cells appear as early as at the end of the first trimester of gestation--much earlier than described in any other mammalian animal species. Immature oxyntic cells are characterized by long apical microvilli, by their triangular-shaped light cytoplasm rich in large and numerous mitochondria, by the existence of vesicular profiles and by the incipient invagination of the apical plasma membrane forming a primitive intracellular canaliculus expanding into central areas of the cell. The oxyntic cell represents the first exocrine cell type developing from secretory granule-containing cells in the base of the primitive gastric glands.

For the first time, proliferative cells in the abomasal mucosa of 30 bovine foetuses with a crown-rump length of 34 to 1000 mm (approximately 45-250 days of gestation) were detected using the antibody MIB-1 against the (human) nuclear-associated protein Ki-67. At the beginning of mucosal development, the epithelium is stratified and MIB-1 positive cells are scattered all over the epithelium. With the formation of gastric pit/gland invaginations, the proliferative cells are mostly confined to the basal half or third of the gastric pit/gland unit, both in the regio glandulae propriae and in the regio glandulae pyloricae. From the 27th week in the regio glandulae propriae and the 30th week in the pyloric gland region, respectively, the proliferative cells move upwards and are situated in the bottom of the pit and the upper part of the gland, whereas the base of the gland is free of labelling.

What is the international organization of national constitutional courts? This article develops a theoretical framework to analyze this question and tests it empirically with original data of translated opinions. Justices of different nations form an emerging epistemic community, which is congealed due to common practices as well as to competition and selectiveness throughout the judicial career. Opinions translated into English as the lingua franca are pivotal for communication within this epistemic community. Through engaging in a transnational judicial dialogue, and particularly as far as this dialogue concerns legal citations, this community uses international law as a key guide to finding equilibrium solutions at national and international levels. Five sources of international law overwhelmingly dominate. In addition, we find evidence in the collegial game within the different courts for the existence of a transnational epistemic community of Supreme Court justices.

Past research indicates that amicus briefs influence the Supreme Court's decision to issue a writ of certiorari, however we know relatively little about the reasons that lead interest groups to file such briefs. We seek to explain how organized interests make decisions about whether or not to file amicus curiae briefs during case selection, and examine the factors that influence the total number of amicus briefs filed in each case. We find that certain factors influence amicus activity during this early stage of decision-making including the presence of the solicitor general as amicus curiae, case salience, and the issue areas involved in litigation.

Abstract: This article analyzes decision making in national security cases on the Israeli Supreme Court and draws broader comparative conclusions. In the post-9/11 era, security has topped the national agendas in numerous established democracies, with repercussions involving their courts. Analyses of decision making on national security in Western judiciaries may benefit from lessons from the Israeli Court, which has been a pivotal player in this domain.

Abstract: This project studies the Supreme Court's Rule of Four by examining the behavior of justices in a sequential voting context. Specifically, we analyze how voting order influences the extent to which a justice would choose to become a cert pivot who grants certiorari. According to Lax (2003), only the justices who are immediately adjacent to the median justice can be defined as cert pivots.

What variables lead judicial and nonjudicial decision-making bodies to intro- duce policy change? In the theoretical framework proposed, the path- dependent nature of law has a differential impact on courts and legislatures. Likewise, certain political institutions including elections and political account- ability lead those bodies to introduce policy change under dissimilar circum- stances. Global trends, however, affect both institutional paths equally. We test this theory with data for the repeal of sodomy laws in all countries from 1972–2002. Results from two disparate multivariate models overwhelmingly confirm our predictions. The unique institutional position of courts of last resort allows them to be less constrained than legislatures by either legal status quo or political accountability. Globalization, on the other hand, has a com- parable effect on both. This work is path breaking in offering a theoretical framework explaining policy change via different institutional paths, system- atically testing the framework comparatively and with respect to a policy issue still on the agenda in many countries.

Justices on the US Supreme Court are rational and therefore strategic policymakers. Yet, how rational are they? How far into the future would their strategic considerations reach? Due to potential influence on both policy and doctrine, ceteris paribus they find opinion authorship desirable; when selecting cases, in addition to thinking about legal issues and the final disposition, justices strategically consider opinion crafting.To overcome the measurement error inherent to the estimation of rational behavior of the type proposed here, the Simulation Extrapolation protocol is introduced.There is strong support for the notion of doctrine-minded justices at cert.The social implications of such rational behavior are far-reaching; employing this strategy, over the course of her time in office, a justice would be able to considerably influence several policy and legal issues. In closing, implications of strategic behavior on the individual-justice level for the constitutional position of the Court within American society are discussed.

Complementing the burgeoning literature on agenda setting on the Supreme Court of the United States, this article addresses a key question heretofore overlooked—Is the justices’ choice to review a decision independent of the selection of cases for review by the litigants? We argue that the certiorari process cannot be modeled as an independent one; rather, it is inextricably linked with and essentially contingent on the behavior of litigants who bring the case to the Supreme Court. This dependence of the Court is important both at the level of theory and at the empirical level and ignoring it entails bias in the estimation process. Using an original database, which includes the universe of religion free exercise cases decided at the courts of appeals from 1968–2006, we find significant selection effects. Factors that influence decisions on certiorari are dependent on the behavior of petitioners and should be modeled as such.

Plurality decisions on the Supreme Court represent extreme dissensus where no clear major- ity is formed for any one controlling rationale for the final disposition. Studying these deci- sions is important because they erode the Court’s credibility and authority as a source of legal leadership, and because they provide broader lessons about judicial decision making. This article presents the first systematic analysis of plurality decisions. We test three possible expla- nations for plurality decisions—a lack of social consensus, “hard” cases, and strategic inter- actions during opinion writing. We find splintering increases when the Court reviews politi- cally salient and constitutional issues, and when there was dissensus on the lower court, while it decreases when the chief assigns the opinion and when the Court is ideologically heteroge- neous.

What are the predictors of right guarantees at the level of individual countries? We examine this question within the context of what factors lead certain countries, but not others, to have legislation prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace between 1972-2002. In the theoretical framework, a combination of domestic forces (past inclusion of minorities, culture and democratic conditions) and global trends (regulation by supranational bodies and globalization) predict guarantees of rights. To test the theory, GEE time-series cross-sectional analyses are performed on data from 161 countries. The results, which are robust to changes in model specification and alternative measurement schemes, confirm our key hypotheses. We conclude by discussing the implications of this research for the study of rights generally.

Ever since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, which is widely viewed as a watershed event in the current financial crisis, the U.S. housing market still faces considerable destabilizing pressures. Foreclosure filings reached a histori- cal high in July 2009, registering a year-over-year increase of more than thirty percent. Most recently, sales of foreclosed homes accounted for twenty-five percent of all residential sales in the third quarter of 2010.1 It appears that the scope and sever- ity of the current crisis in housing could only be matched by what hap- pened during the Great Depression when nearly 50 percent of urban homeowners became delinquent by January 1934.2
In the current recession, govern- ments at various levels have rushed to prevent the worsening of the housing market. The measures adopted vary. Many states put in place temporary mortgage morato- ria through state laws. Likewise, the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 increased loan guaran- tees of the Federal Housing Admin- istration by $300 billion in order to encourage lenders to refinance delinquent home mortgages.3 In this article, we focus on one branch of government, the judiciary, and study how it responds to housing crises by examining the case of the 1930s and 1940s. The financial environments for foreclosures were different in the 1930s and today. Yet, a closer examination of the role of courts in the housing crisis during the Great Depression should improve our
understanding of the operation of courts in times of crisis in general4 and particularly in times of financial crisis.5 In addition, by focusing on state Supreme Court decision-mak- ing, this article enhances our under- standing of how state courts operate within their unique institutional, structural and legal settings, and spe- cifically the role those courts assume during crises. Finally, while recogniz- ing certain differences between the 1930s and the current crisis, the find- ings of our study offer some valuable historical lessons.

A large share of decision makers in modern democratic systems are appointed. To what degree do those officials represent con- stituents? Representation in this case is determined in part by the extent to which constituents influence the appointment process. This article examines the influence of women’s organized inter- ests and constituency preferences on Supreme Court confirmation votes. With topics such as sexual harassment, privacy, and Roe v. Wade looming large, gender politics became a salient issue during confirmation battles in the late 1980s and early 1990s and has remained so since. Original data from the contentious appoint- ments of Justices David Souter, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Sonia Sotomayor are analyzed. Results confirm that women’s organized interests and popular preferences have an impact on contentious nominations. Implications for popular influ- ences on appointments and for representation in government writ large are discussed.

In his last public address prior to departure, the recently retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice, Mishael Cheshin, emphasized that the prevention of corruption was the single most important thing he would like to leave as his legacy. In more than one case, Cheshin did not shy from acting upon this principle. A prime example is The Movement for Quality Government in Israel v. PM Sharon.1
In October 2003 the Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ) delivered a lengthy opinion concerning the appointment of Mr Tzahi Hanegbi, to the position of minister of public security in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s recently formed cabinet. Despite petitioners’ contentions and the criminal proceedings against Hanegbi, respondents (Prime Minister Sharon, the attorney-general and Mr. Hanegbi) stressed Hanegbi’s proven executive skills and failed to see how this appointment was repugnant to the rule prohibiting a conflict of interests. Seven months prior to the final decision, in March 2003, the case was heard by a three-justice panel. This panel, which consisted of Justices Rivlin, Cheshin and Beinisch, applied for expansion in August of that year. An expanded seven-justice panel heard oral arguments in late August and on 9 October Justice Rivlin delivered the majority opinion. Interestingly, a majority of the original panel dissented from the decision of the expanded panel.

The U.S. Supreme Court has the prerogative to set its own agenda. The consequentiality of this decision and the little institutional constraints involved induce justices to select cases strategically. They exercise their gate-keeping capacity with future consequences in mind. Based on original material from the Blackmun Files, this paper examines strategic thinking of a broader scope than the type traditionally described in the literature. On top of dispositional outcomes, the strategic behavior analyzed concerns doctrinal output and policy implications. Thus, strategic conduct during certiorari is attached to a broader institutional context that incorporates various goals of individual justices, the collegial game, the other branches and time. In closing, implications for the constitutional position of the Court are discussed.

The research presented here examines the implications of the immigration of Israelis to America in terms of their identity, and what we can learn from their parenting experience about Israeli identity more broadly. Immigrant families are becoming an increasingly common element of American society with important political implications for the United States as well as for their homelands. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the number of immigrants living in the United States reached a record high of 37.9 million in 2007, a figure comparable in its proportions to those from the Turn of the Twentieth Century. What is more, approximately one in every ten people identifying themselves as Israeli resides in the United States on a permanent basis. Yet, despite the growing significance of this group, scholars have not thoroughly explored the challenges immigrant families face and the political implications related. Based on a series of in-depth interviews and workshops with Israelis, who live in the big metropolitan areas in North America, we examine how political and national identities are influenced by immigration. To examine this question, we focus on the parenting experience. We investigate the processes of identity evolution and formation as those are reflected in the experience of emigrants as parents, and then draw conclusions about Israeli identity more broadly.

How do voting rules affect agenda setting behavior in political in- stitutions? Using the United States Supreme Court as our focus of examination, we develop a voting game that takes into considera- tion the Court’s sequential voting process. Contrary to the existing literature’s conclusion, we find that six, rather than two, of the nine justices may cast the fourth and pivotal vote for certiorari. Fur- thermore, justices’ position in the voting sequence - determined by seniority in the U.S. Court - influences their likelihood of being a cert pivot. Our three-level mixed-effects empirical analysis demon- strates that the order of voting significantly influences the likelihood of cert. The findings suggest that besides the usual suspects such as ideology, institutional design and voting rules should be accorded an independent role in future analysis of decision making in general and judicial agenda setting in particular.

Where connections between demography and politics are examined in the literature, it is largely in the context of the effects of male aspects of demography on phenomena such as political violence. This project aims to place the study of demographic variables’ influence on politics, particularly on democracy, squarely within the scope of political and social sciences—and—to focus on the effects of woman-related demographics, namely fertility rates. I test the hypothesis that demographic variables—female-related predictors in particular—have an independent effect on political structure. Comparing different countries over time, when fertility rates decline, we observe a growth in democracy. In the theoretical framework developed, it is family structure, and the economic and political status of women that account for this change at the macro and micro levels. Findings based on data for over 140 countries over 3 decades are robust when controlling not only for alternative effects, but also for reverse causality and data limitations.

With the ever-growing significance of international law both domestically and internationally, courts mediate much of the give-and-take between the international system and the national political arenas, thus acting in settings where global and local are mixed. Such a pivotal position, I argue, lends courts the ability to maximize a twofold utility; firstly, on the international level judicial institutions play an increasingly important role and form what is essentially a transnational epistemic community. Secondly, on the domestic level, courts capitalize on this pivotal position to become increasingly central in the decision making process, forming alliances with other domestic players, and thereby securing the implementation of judicial rulings. Utilities on those two levels are inextricably linked. A case study of decisions of the Israeli Supreme Court concerning the security fence Israel built around the Occupied Palestinian Territories is offered here as an empirical test for the Court-Pivot Dual Utility Model.