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Restriction Of Tort Remedies And The Constraints Of Due Process: The Right To An Adequate Remedy, Tracy A. Thomas

Akron Law Faculty Publications

In the recent proliferation of tort reform statutes, the dangerous clause of remedial jurisdiction stripping has sneaked into the law. Reminiscent of federal statutes in other areas of the law, these jurisdictional provisions strip courts of all power to award punitive or non-pecuniary damages in excess of legislative limits. Many states have acted to restrict frivolous claims and excessive recoveries by cabining “McTorts” and “runaway juries.” Regardless of the merits of these policy questions, the use of the simple expedient of remedial jurisdiction to accomplish these purposes raises significant concerns. By arbitrarily restricting an individual’s right to a meaningful remedy, …

Restriction Of Tort Remedies And The Constraints Of Due Process: The Right To An Adequate Remedy, Tracy A. Thomas

Tracy A. Thomas

In the recent proliferation of tort reform statutes, the dangerous clause of remedial jurisdiction stripping has sneaked into the law. Reminiscent of federal statutes in other areas of the law, these jurisdictional provisions strip courts of all power to award punitive or non-pecuniary damages in excess of legislative limits. Many states have acted to restrict frivolous claims and excessive recoveries by cabining “McTorts” and “runaway juries.” Regardless of the merits of these policy questions, the use of the simple expedient of remedial jurisdiction to accomplish these purposes raises significant concerns. By arbitrarily restricting an individual’s right to a meaningful remedy, …

University Of Akron Symphonic Band Chamber Winds (Nov 6, 2006), Robert D. Jorgensen

Selected Programs of Robert D. Jorgensen

Mr. Jorgensen conducting Symphonic Band Chamber Winds with Charles Guy, tuba soloist.

Faculty Senate Chronicle For November 2, 2006, Richard Stratton

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on November 2, 2006.

Nonquiescent Relaxation In Entangled Polymer Liquids After Step Shear, Shi-Qing Wang, Sham Ravindranath, Pouyan Boukany, Michael Olechnowicz, Roderic P. Quirk, Jimmy Mays

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

Large step shear experiments revealed through particle tracking velocimetry that entangled polymeric liquids display either internal macroscopic movements upon shear cessation or rupturelike behavior during shear. Visible inhomogeneous motions were detected in five samples with the number of entanglements per chain ranging from 20 to 130 at amplitudes of step strain as low as 135%.

Behind The Veil An American Woman's Memoir Of The 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, Debra Johanyak

University of Akron Press Publications

In Behind the Veil, Debra Johanyak weaves the personal with the historical in fascinating detail. Through her own story, a Midwestern woman married to an Iranian man and living in Iran during the hostage crisis, Johanyak provides the reader with sharp insights into similarities as well as differences between the two cultures. The memoir offers a thoughtful perspective on cultural chasms and the bridges we could build to conquer them. —Nahid Rachlin, author of Persian Girls, a memoir, and Jumping Over Fire, a novel

Debra Johanyak, a young American wife with an Iranian husband, gives a moving …

University Of Akron Symphonic Band (Oct 8, 2006), Robert D. Jorgensen

Selected Programs of Robert D. Jorgensen

Mr. Jorgensen conducting with guest conductor, Richard Jackoboice and trombone soloist Edward Zadronzny.

Faculty Senate Chronicle For October 5, 2006, Richard Stratton

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on October 5, 2006.

The Effects Of Tgf-Beta1 And Igf-I On The Biomechanics And Cytoskeleton Of Single Chondrocytes, Nic Leipzig

Chemical, Biomolecular, and Corrosion Engineering Faculty Research

Objective Ascertaining how mechanical forces and growth factors mediate normal and pathologic processes in single chondrocytes can aid in developing strategies for the repair and replacement of articular cartilage destroyed by injury or disease. This study examined effects of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) on the biomechanics and cytoskeleton of single zonal chondrocytes. Method Superficial and middle/deep bovine articular chondrocytes were seeded on tissue culture treated plastic for 3 and 18 h and treated with TGF-β1 (5 ng/mL), IGF-I (100 ng/mL), or a combination of TGF-β1 (5 ng/mL) + IGF-I (100 ng/mL). Single chondrocytes from all …

Designing A Nanotube Using Naturally Occurring Protein Building Blocks, Jie Zheng

Chemical, Biomolecular, and Corrosion Engineering Faculty Research

Here our goal is to carry out nanotube design using naturally occurring protein building blocks. Inspection of the protein structural database reveals the richness of the conformations of proteins, their parts, and their chemistry. Given target functional protein nanotube geometry, our strategy involves scanning a library of candidate building blocks, combinatorially assembling them into the shape and testing its stability. Since self-assembly takes place on time scales not affordable for computations, here we propose a strategy for the very first step in protein nanotube design: we map the candidate building blocks onto a planar sheet and wrap the sheet around …

Interfacial Stick-Slip Transition In Simple Shear Of Entangled Melts, Pouyan E. Boukany, Prashant Tapadia, Shi-Qing Wang

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

This article describes a systematic investigation of a discontinuous interfacial stick-slip transition (SST) in simple shear of monodisperse entangled 1,4-polybutadiene (PBD) and polyisoprene (PIP) melts with different molecular weights and architecture, using a specially designed controlled-force shear rheometer. The magnitude of the transition is found to be determined by the level of chain entanglement. Specifically, the dependence of extrapolation length b on molecular weight as b similar to M-w(3.4) and of the melt viscosity as b similar to eta is consistent with the observations based on capillary rheometric studies [X. Yang et al., Rheol. Acta 37, 415-423 (1998)]. The interfacial …

Akron's "Better Half": Women's Clubs And The Humanization Of The City, 1825-1925, Kathleen L. Endres

University of Akron Press Publications

While the men of Akron busied themselves laying the economic, legal, and industrial foundations, their mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters were equally busy weaving the benevolent and cultural fabric of the growing city. It was a pattern replicated in scores of industrial centers across the nation.

This is the story of how it happened in Akron, Ohio. Akron's "Better Half": Women's Clubs and the Humanization of the City, 1825-1925 looks at how women brought much-needed services to the city, created health institutions that continue today, and built Akron's cultural and literary foundations. Akron's women seldom acted alone; they preferred to …

Pneumatic Tire, Alan Neville Gent, Joseph D. Walter

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

For many years, tire engineers relied on the monograph, 'Mechanics of Pneumatic Tires', for detailed information about the principles of tire design and use. Published originally by the National Bureau of Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce, in 1971, and a later (1981) edition by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), U.S. Department of Transportation, it has long been out of print. No textbook or monograph of comparable range and depth has appeared since. While many chapters of the two editions contain authoritative reviews that are still relevant today, they were prepared in an era when bias ply and belted-bias …

Faculty Senate Chronicle For September 7, 2006, Richard Stratton

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on September 7, 2006.

Book Review, Sharon Hatfield, Never Seen The Moon: The Trials Of Edith Maxwell, Tracy A. Thomas

Akron Law Faculty Publications

In Never Seen the Moon, journalist Sharon Hatfield chronicles the story of school teacher Edith Maxwell accused of murdering her coal-miner father in depression-era Appalachia. Hatfield’s detective work brings together the threads of this story to provide a mystery novel using the headlines and trial transcripts from real life. There are surprises to rival a John Grisham novel as Hatfield tells the legal tale of the young and vibrant Edith battling her raging father. The book journeys through the trials and appeals as two juries of twelve men convict Edith of murder and sentence her to a lifetime in prison. …

Book Review, Sharon Hatfield, Never Seen The Moon: The Trials Of Edith Maxwell, Tracy A. Thomas

Tracy A. Thomas

In Never Seen the Moon, journalist Sharon Hatfield chronicles the story of school teacher Edith Maxwell accused of murdering her coal-miner father in depression-era Appalachia. Hatfield’s detective work brings together the threads of this story to provide a mystery novel using the headlines and trial transcripts from real life. There are surprises to rival a John Grisham novel as Hatfield tells the legal tale of the young and vibrant Edith battling her raging father. The book journeys through the trials and appeals as two juries of twelve men convict Edith of murder and sentence her to a lifetime in prison. …

Porous Fiber Formation In Polymer-Solvent System Undergoing Solvent Evaporation, Pratyush Dayal, Thein Kyu

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

Temporal evolution of the fiber morphology during dry spinning has been investigated in the framework of Cahn-Hilliard equation [J. Chem. Phys. 28, 258 (1958)] pertaining to the concentration order parameter or volume fraction given by the Flory-Huggins free energy of mixing [P. J. Flory, Principles of Polymer Chemistry (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1953), p. 672] in conjunction with the solvent evaporation rate. To guide the solvent evaporation induced phase separation, equilibrium phase diagram of the starting polymer solution was established on the basis of the Flory-Huggins free energy of mixing. The quasi-steady-state approximation has been adopted to account for …

High-Voltage Parallel Writing On Iron Nitride Thin Films, N. Farkas, J. D. Ehrman, Edward A. Evans, R. D. Ramsier, J. A. Dagata

Chemical, Biomolecular, and Corrosion Engineering Faculty Research

We report large area patterning of sputter-deposited FeN thin films by a high-voltage parallel writing technique that was recently developed to modify ZrN surfaces. Systematically patterned 15-100-nm-thick FeN films consisting of features with well-defined sizes and shapes are obtained by applying high dc voltages between a stamp and the samples. During the process the oxide dissolves, exposing the substrate beneath. This controlled breakdown eliminates the need for any postexposure etching. The single-step imprinting method presented here provides an emerging route to fabricate isolated FeN geometrical structures on silicon substrates for magnetic applications. (c) 2006 American Vacuum Society.

Breakup Of Spiral And Concentric Ringed Spherulites In Polymer Crystallization, Haijun Xu, Hao-Wen Chiu, Yoshifumi Okabe, Thein Kyu

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

Recently, the breakup of spiral and concentric ringed spherulites has been observed experimentally in isothermal crystallization of poly(vinylidene fluoride) in its blends with ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer. To elucidate the phenomenon of spiral breakup in polymer spherulites, a theoretical simulation has been undertaken in the framework of the phase field model of solidification based on time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equations (TDGL model C) pertaining to the conserved concentration and nonconserved phase field order parameters. The concentration order parameter was described in terms of the Landau-type potential, while the crystal order parameter was expressed in terms of an asymmetric double-well potential to account …

Crystal-Liquid Crystal Binary Phase Diagrams, P Dayal, Ra Matkar, Thein Kyu

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

We propose a new theoretical scheme for the binary phase diagrams of crystal-liquid crystal mixtures by a combination of a phase field model of solidification, the Flory-Huggins theory for liquid-liquid mixing and Maier-Saupe-McMillan (FH-MSM) model for nematic and smectic liquid crystal orderings. The phase field theory describes the crystal phase transition of anisotropic organic crystal and/or side chain liquid crystalline polymer crystals while the FH-MSM model explains isotropic, nematic and smectic-A phase transitions. Self-consistent calculations reveal several possible phase diagram topologies of the binary crystal-liquid crystal mixtures. The calculated phase diagrams were found to accord well to the reported experimental …

Sexual Politics: The Gay Person In America Today, Shannon Gilreath

University of Akron Press Publications

Contemporary and controversial, Shannon Gilreath's Sexual Politics is an important update to the continuing debate over the place of the gay person in American law, politics, and religion. Gilreath skillfully navigates a number of complex issues, including the delicate balance between sexual privacy and public equality, the entwining of religion and U.S. law and politics, and gay marriage. He offers astute academic observations and a depth of personal reflections to create an unmatched critique of the gay person in American society. Ultimately, Gilreath argues for the further emergence of a gay and lesbian ethos of public attentiveness and the practice …

Notorious Murders, Black Lanterns, And Moveable Goods: Transformation Of Edinburgh's Underworld In The Early Nineteeth Century, Deborah A. Symonds

University of Akron Press Publications

The year 1828, when William Burke, William Hare, and their wives murdered nearly a score of Edinburgh’s poor and sold their bodies, is a time when entrepreneurial criminals in Edinburgh’s Old Town flourished. Young thieves ransacked a warehouse for tea, women pretending to be prostitutes lifted gentlemen’s watches, and fine linens disappeared from washerwomen’s houses. What Symonds reveals is a shadow economy where the most numerous of all criminals and thieves practice their trade not out of poverty and misery, but because it is their means of earning a living. Laborers and immigrants struggled to make a few pennies, and …

Cadherin2 (N-Cadherin) Plays An Essential Role In Zebrafish Cardiovascular Development, Brian Bagatto, Jessie Francl, Bei Liu, Qin Liu

Biology Faculty Research

Background: Cadherins are cell surface adhesion molecules that play important roles in development of vertebrate tissues and organs. We studied cadherin2 expression in developing zebrafish heart using in situ hybridization and immunocytochemical methods, and we found that cadherin2 was strongly expressed by the myocardium of the embryonic zebrafish. To gain insight into cadherin2 role in the formation and function of the heart, we analyzed cardiac differentiation and performance in a cadherin2 mutant, glass onion (glo).

Faculty Senate Chronicle For May 4, 2006, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on May 4, 2006.

Thomas Boyd: Lost Author Of The" Lost Generation", Brian Bruce

University of Akron Press Publications

Mentored by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis and published under the renowned Scribner editor Maxwell Perkins, Thomas Boyd attained only modest success as a novelist and biographer. He is known most widely for his World War I novel Through the Wheat, which critics, praising its realistic depiction of war and battle, compared to The Red Badge of Courage. How does a writer like Boyd, with his prominent literary friends, political ideals, professional aspirations, complicated personal life, and early death, fall so easily into obscurity? In this first full biography of Thomas Boyd, Brian Bruce explores the events of Boyd's …

Faculty Senate Chronicle For April 6, 2006, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on April 6, 2006.

Preparing New Students For Legal Practice In A "Flat World", Martin H. Belsky

Akron Law Faculty Publications

I went to a law school [Columbia University] specifically because of their international program and became involved with almost all aspects of that program--which they called “transnational law.” I also did graduate work in International Affairs and Law. I was, and am, committed to incorporating transnational law concepts into the law school program. And I have had administrative responsibilities that have made me take a pragmatic approach to reaching that goal.

During this workshop, we have heard many ideas about bringing transnational law and issues into the first year curriculum. We have heard descriptions of the actions of individual faculty …

Elizabeth Cady Stanton On The Federal Marriage Amendment: A Letter To The President, Tracy A. Thomas

Akron Law Faculty Publications

This essay written from a historical, first-person perspective explores the parallels between the current movement for a Federal Marriage Amendment and that of the nineteenth century through the lens of feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Using the archival sources of Stanton’s articles and speeches from 1880 to 1902, the paper identifies her key arguments opposing a constitutional standard of marriage. The paper then juxtaposes Stanton’s arguments against the 2004 Federal Marriage Amendment to reveal the continued relevance and import of her insights.

Stanton’s analytical platform attacked the core pretexts of federalism and gender that fueled the proposed marriage amendment in her …

Elizabeth Cady Stanton On The Federal Marriage Amendment: A Letter To The President, Tracy A. Thomas

Tracy A. Thomas

This essay written from a historical, first-person perspective explores the parallels between the current movement for a Federal Marriage Amendment and that of the nineteenth century through the lens of feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Using the archival sources of Stanton’s articles and speeches from 1880 to 1902, the paper identifies her key arguments opposing a constitutional standard of marriage. The paper then juxtaposes Stanton’s arguments against the 2004 Federal Marriage Amendment to reveal the continued relevance and import of her insights. Stanton’s analytical platform attacked the core pretexts of federalism and gender that fueled the proposed marriage amendment in her …

Faculty Senate Chronicle For March 9, 2006, Rose Marie Konet

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on March 9, 2006.