Digital Commons Network^™

James And Peirce On The Importance Of Individuals: The Differences That Make A Difference, Susan Haack

Articles

No abstract provided.

Resistance To Mild Cold Stress Is Greater In Both Wild-Type And Long-Lived Ghr-Ko Female Mice., Yimin Fang, David Medina, Robert Stockwell, Samuel Mcfadden, Erin R Hascup, Kevin N Hascup, Andrzej Bartke

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Adapting to stress, including cold environmental temperature (eT), is crucial for the survival of mammals, especially small rodents. Long-lived mutant mice have enhanced stress resistance against oxidative and non-oxidative challenges. However, much less is known about the response of those long-lived mice to cold stress. Growth hormone receptor knockout (GHR-KO) mice are long-lived with reduced growth hormone signaling. We wanted to test whether GHR-KO mice have enhanced resistance to cold stress. To examine the response of GHR-KO mice to cold eT, GHR-KO mice were housed at mild cold eT (16 °C) immediately following weaning. Longevity results showed that female GHR-KO …

Shades Of Justice: Racial Profiling Then And Now, F. Michael Higginbotham

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It is not easy these days to talk about race in America, especially in a diverse group across racial lines. This is because people tend to feel strongly about these controversial issues, and when they disagree, they end up calling each other bad names, and that upsets their stomachs; then, they cannot enjoy the good food and drink that often accompany such events. So many simply choose not to attend, burying their heads in the sand. This Essay discusses several controversial aspects of the relevance of slavery law to issues of racial inequality today. Racial profiling has been a consistent …

Startup Biases, Jennifer S. Fan

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This Article provides an original descriptive account of bias in the startup context and explains why litigation is eschewed and what happens when it is used as a mechanism to combat bias in the venture capital ecosystem. Further, this Article identifies two particular phenomena in the startup context that exacerbate gender and racial bias. First, homophily—the idea that like attracts like—abounds and has been part of the DNA of venture capital since its inception. The thick networks that developed as venture capital made its way from the East Coast to the West Coast were limited to an elite group that …

Jury-Related Errors In Copyright, Zahr K. Said

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Copyright law is surprisingly hard. Copyright does not do what laypeople think it does, nor do its terms mean what laypeople expect. Copyright also possesses systemic indeterminacy about what it protects and the extent of that protection. For laypeople, copyright law is decidedly “user-unfriendly.” Nonetheless, copyright law reserves for lay jurors its most-litigated, most difficult, and most consequential question at trial: whether works are “substantially similar” and thus infringing.

Many have criticized this allocation because in the context of copyright law, juries effectively have the power to expand or contract owners’ rights with little oversight or correction. But blaming the …

Acting In Good Faith, Tanya Dean

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No abstract provided.

Guest Column: Paraquat And The Deliberate Production Of Ignorance, Amit Ray, Earl Ray Dorsey

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The article examines how paraquat's manufacturer used "agnotology" - the deliberate production of ignorance for commercial gain - to hide evidence linking the herbicide to Parkinson's disease. Despite decades of toxic effects documented in company studies, the company expanded sales while allegedly suppressing research and discrediting scientists investigating paraquat dangers.

Paraquat, Parkinson's Disease, And Agnotology, Amit Ray, E. Ray Dorsey

Articles

This commentary examines the controversial relationship between paraquat, a widely used herbicide, and Parkinson's disease through the lens of agnotology—the deliberate production of ignorance for commercial gain. Despite numerous animal and epidemiological studies linking paraquat to Parkinson's disease, its use in the United States doubled from 2013 to 2018. The authors reveal how the manufacturer allegedly employed tactics similar to the tobacco industry, including attempts to discredit scientific researchers and suppress unfavorable findings. While over 30 countries have banned paraquat due to health risks, the EPA reauthorized its use in 2021. The paper argues that internal company documents and emerging …

Pilot Study Of The Association Between Microbiome And The Development Of Adverse Posttraumatic Neuropsychiatric Sequelae After Traumatic Stress Exposure, Abigail L. Zeamer, Marie-Claire Salive, Xinming An, Stacey L. House, Francesca L. Beaudoin, Jennifer S. Stevens, Donglin Zeng, Thomas C. Neylan, Gari D. Clifford, Robert A. Swor

Articles

Background Patients exposed to trauma often experience high rates of adverse post-traumatic neuropsychiatric sequelae (APNS). The biologic mechanisms promoting APNS are currently unknown, but the microbiota-gut-brain axis offers an avenue to understanding mechanisms as well as possibilities for intervention. Microbiome composition at the time of trauma exposure has been poorly examined regarding neuropsychiatric outcomes. We aimed to determine whether baseline the gut microbiomes of trauma-exposed emergency department patients who later develop APNS have dysfunctional gut microbiome profiles and discover potential associated mechanisms.

Methods We performed metagenomic analysis on stool samples (n=51) from a subset of adults enrolled in the Advancing …

Fables Of Scarcity In Ip, Zahr K. Said

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In this chapter, I use methods drawn from literary analysis to bear on artificial scarcity and explore how literary and legal storytelling engages in scarcity mongering. I find three particular narrative strategies calculated to compel a conclusion in favor of propertization: the spectacle of need, the diversionary tactic, and the rallying cry. First, I unpack the spectacle of need and its diversionary aspects through several literary accounts of scarcity and starvation. I juxtapose Franz Kafka's “A Hunger Artist,” a story explicitly centered on a wasting body, with J.M. Coetzee's The Life and Times of Michael K. Second, to explore how …

Carceral Socialization As Voter Suppression, Danieli Evans

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In an era of mass incarceration, many people are socialized through interactions with the carceral state. These interactions are poweful learning experiences, and by design, they are contrary to democratic citizenship. Citizenship is about belonging to a community of equals, being entitled to mutual respect and concern. Criminal punishment deliberately harms, subordinates, and stigmatizes. Encounters with the carceral system are powerful experiences of anti-democratic socialization, and they impact peoples' sense of citizenship and trust in government. Accordingly, a large body of social science research shows that eligible voters who have carceral contact are significantly less likely to vote or to …

Brief Of Tribal Nations And Indian Organizations As Amici Curiae In Support Of The Navajo Nation, Dylan R. Hedden-Nicely

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No abstract provided.

Too Good To Be True: Private Placement Life Insurance Policies, Luís C. Calderón Gómez

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In this article, Calderón Gómez examines a tax avoidance scheme involving private placement life insurance policies — large policies that potentially allow wealthy taxpayers to move their traditionally tax-inefficient investments in private equity and hedge funds into a life insurance policy and accumulate, borrow against, and pass on those investment gains effectively tax free — and sketches some possible alternatives to stop the abuse of these policies.

Due Process And Equal Protection In Michigan Anishinaabe Courts, Matthew Fletcher

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In 1968, largely because the United States Constitution does not apply to tribal government activity, Congress enacted the Indian Civil Rights Act–a federal law that requires tribal governments to guarantee due process and equal protection to persons under tribal jurisdiction. In 1978, the Supreme Court held that persons seeking to enforce those federal rights may do so in tribal forums only; federal and state courts are unavailable. Moreover, the Court held that tribes may choose to interpret the meanings of “due process” and “equal protection” in line with tribal laws, including customary laws. Since the advent of the self-determination era …

Three-Dimensional (3d) In Vitro Cell Culture Protocols To Enhance Glioblastoma Research, Janith Wanigasekara, Lara Carroll, Patrick J. Cullen, Brijesh K. Tiwari, James Curtin

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Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture models can help bridge the gap between in vitro cell cultures and in vivo responses by more accurately simulating the natural in vivo environment, shape, tissue stiffness, stressors, gradients and cellular response while avoiding the costs and ethical concerns associated with animal models. The inclusion of the third dimension in 3D cell culture influences the spatial organization of cell surface receptors that interact with other cells and imposes physical restrictions on cells in compared to Two-dimensional (2D) cell cultures. Spheroids’ distinctive cyto-architecture mimics in vivo cellular structure, gene expression, metabolism, proliferation, oxygenation, nutrition absorption, waste excretion, …

Tio2-Mwcnt Nanohybrid: Cytotoxicity, Protein Corona Formation And Cellular Internalisation In Rtg-2 Fish Cell Line, Gabriela Helena Da Silva, Lidiane Silva Franqui, Marcelo A. De Farias, Vera Lucia S.S. De Castro, Hugh Byrne, Diego S.T. Martinez, Regina T.R. Monteiro, Alan Casey

Articles

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (TiO2-MWCNT) nanohydrid has an enhanced photocatalytic activity across the visible light with promising applications in environmental remediation, solar energy devices and antimicrobial technologies. However, it is necessary to evaluate the toxicological effects of TiO2-MWCNT towards safe and sustainable development of nanohybrids. In this work, we studied the cytotoxicity, protein corona formation and cellular internalisation of TiO2-MWCNT on fibroblasts derived from gonadal rainbow trout tissue (RTG-2) for the first time. This nanohydrid did not show any toxicity effect on RTG-2 cells up to 100 mg L-1 after 24 h of exposure as monitored by alamar blue, …

Characterization Of Food Chain Clostridioides Difficile Isolates In Terms Of Ribotype And Antimicrobial Resistance, Pilar Marcos, Aoife Doyle, Paul Whyte, Thomas R. Rogers, Maire Mcelroy, Seamus Fanning, Jesus Maria Frias, Declan Bolton

Articles

The aim of this study was to characterize C. difficile isolates from the farm, abattoir, and retail outlets in Ireland in terms of ribotype and antibiotic resistance (vancomycin, erythromycin, metronidazole, moxifloxacin, clindamycin, and rifampicin) using PCR and E-test methods, respectively. The most common ribotype in all stages of the food chain (including retail foods) was 078 and a variant (RT078/4). Less commonly reported (014/0, 002/1, 049, and 205) and novel (RT530, 547, and 683) ribotypes were also detected, but at lower frequencies. Approximately 72% (26/36 tested) of the isolates tested were resistant to at least one antibiotic, with the majority …

Women’S Stories Transforming Understandings Of Abortion, Amy M. Walsh

Articles

Wind energy harvesting for electricity generation has a significant role in overcoming the challenges involved with climate change and the energy resource implications involved with population growth and political unrest. Indeed, there has been significant growth in wind energy capacity worldwide with turbine capacity growing significantly over the last two decades. This confidence is echoed in the wind power market and global wind energy statistics. However, wind energy capture and utilisation has always been challenging. Appreciation of the wind as a resource makes for difficulties in modelling and the sensitivities of how the wind resource maps to energy production results …

Hmm, You Seem Confused! Tracking Interlocutor Confusion For Situated Task-Oriented Hri, Na Li, Robert J. Ross

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Our research seeks to develop a long-lasting and high-quality en- gagement between the user and the social robot, which in turn requires a more sophisticated alignment of the user and the system than is currently commonly available. Close monitoring of inter- locutors’ states, and we argue their confusion state in particular, and adjusting dialogue policies based on this state of confusion is needed for successful joint activity. In this paper, we present an ini- tial study of a human-robot conversation scenarios using a Pepper robot to investigate the confusion states of users. A Wizard-of-Oz (WoZ) HRI experiment is illustrated in …

Stories That Kill: Masculinity And Capital Prosecutors' Closing Arguments, Pamela A. Wilkins

Articles

The American death penalty is a punishment by, for, and about men: Both historically and today, most capital prosecutors are men, most capital defendants are men, and killing itself is strongly coded male. Yet despite—or perhaps because of—the overwhelming maleness of the institution of capital punishment, the subject of masculinity is largely absent from legal discourse about the death penalty. This Article addresses that gap in the legal discourse by applying the insights of masculinities theory, an offshoot of feminist theory, to capital prosecutors’ closing arguments. This Article hypothesizes that capital prosecutors’ masculinity is strongly influenced both by white Southern …

An “Essential” Solution: Reworking The Essential Facilities Doctrine To Address Big Tech’S Harm To The Marketplace Of Ideas, Kaleb Byars

Articles

Google’s mission statement is undoubtedly altruistic. The Internet overflows with information, and users could not navigate the Internet if an entity did not logically organize that information. On the other hand, should democratic societies accept the convenience that Google and the other Big Tech firms provide if that convenience impairs the marketplace of ideas? Big Tech censorship is at the forefront of current news and congressional consideration. At both ends of the political spectrum, parties agree

Big Tech censorship harms the marketplace of ideas. Republican congresspersons argue Big Tech supports liberal ideas and censors conservative voices, websites, and advertisements. Democratic …

Imi 2023 Digest, Padmaja Sankaridurg, David A. Berntsen, Mark A. Bullimore, Pauline Cho, Daniel Ian Flitcroft, Timothy J. Gawne, Kate Gifford, Monica Jong, Lisa A. Ostrin Lisa A. Ostrin, Jacinto Santodomingo-Rubido, Christine Wildsoet, James S. Wolffsohn

Articles

Myopia is a dynamic and rapidly moving field, with ongoing research providing a better understanding of the etiology leading to novel myopia control strategies. In 2019, the International Myopia Institute (IMI) assembled and published a series of white papers across relevant topics and updated the evidence with a digest in 2021. Here, we summarize findings across key topics from the previous 2 years. Studies in animal models have continued to explore how wavelength and intensity of light influence eye growth and have examined new pharmacologic agents and scleral cross-linking as potential strategies for slowing myopia. In children, the term premyopia …

Recent Advances In Whiskey Analysis For Authentication, Discrimination, And Quality Control, Chioke A. Okolo, Kieran N. Kilcawley, Christine O'Connor

Articles

In order to safeguard authentic whiskey products from fraudulent or counterfeit practices, high throughput solutions that provide robust, rapid, and reliable solutions are required. The implementation of some analytical strategies is quite challenging or costly in routine analysis. Qualitative screening of whiskey products has been explored, but due to the nonspecificity of the chemical compounds, a more quantitative confirmatory technique is required to validate the result of the whiskey analysis. Hence, combining analytical and chemometric methods has been fundamental in whiskey sample differentiation and classification. A comprehensive update on the most relevant and current analytical techniques, including spectroscopic, chromatographic, and …

Characterisation Of Cartilage Damage Via Fusing Mid-Infrared, Near-Infrared, And Raman Spectroscopic Data, Rubina Shaikh Dr, Valeria Tafintseva, Ervin Nippolainen, Vesa Virtanen, Johanne Solheim, Boris Zimmermann, Simo Saarakkala, Juhu Toyras, Achim Kohler, Isaac O. Afara

Articles

Mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIR), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR), and Raman spectroscopy are all well-established analytical techniques in biomedical applications. Since they provide complementary chemical information, we aimed to determine whether combining them amplifies their strengths and mitigates their weaknesses. This study investigates the feasibility of the fusion of MIR, NIR, and Raman spectroscopic data for characterising articular cartilage integrity. Osteochondral specimens from bovine patellae were subjected to mechanical and enzymatic damage, and then MIR, NIR, and Raman data were acquired from the damaged and control specimens. We assessed the capacity of individual spectroscopic methods to classify the samples into damage or control …

Review Of The International Play Policies And Their Contribution To Supporting A Child's Right To Play, Fiona Armstrong, David Gaul

Articles

Play is recognised as a fundamental children's right protected by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Despite legal and constitutional requirements for ensuring children's right to play, there are few international policies dedicated to play. This paper seeks to use a critical discourse analysis lens to compare the current international policies dedicated to play and identify examples of good practice and perceived barriers to the successful development and implementation of play policies.

Nanomaterials-Based Biosensors For The Detection Of Prostate Cancer Biomarkers: Recent Trends And Future Perspective, Baljit Singh, Shiliang Ma, Tony O. Hara, Sargun Singh

Articles

Cancer is among the leading causes of death and an important barrier to improving life expectancy globally. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide. The detection of biomarkers in body fluids is the key topic for the diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer. Despite advances in prostate cancer detection methods, therapeutic agents and new biomarkers, prostate cancer remains a serious challenge. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is widely recognized as an important biomarker for the diagnosis of prostate cancer although researchers have also investigated the use of alternative biomarkers. Design and development of novel biosensors for prostate cancer …

Assessing Antimicrobial And Metal Resistance Genes In Escherichia Coli From Domestic Groundwater Supplies In Rural Ireland, Luisa Andrade

Articles

Natural ecosystems can become significant reservoirs and/or pathways for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) dissemination, with the potential to affect nearby microbiological, animal, and ultimately human communities. This is further accentuated in environments that provide direct human exposure, such as drinking water. To date, however, few studies have investigated AMR dissemination potential and the presence of co-selective stressors (e. g., metals/metalloids) in groundwater environments of human health significance. Accordingly, the present study analysed samples from rural (drinking) groundwater supplies (i.e., private wells) in the Republic of Ireland, where land use is dominated by livestock grazing activities. In total, 48 Escherichia coli isolates …

Our Federalism And Our Democracy: Complements Or Foes?, Aziz Huq

Articles

This Essay reflects on the relationship between “federalism” and “national democracy.” More specifically, it considers the way in which the operation of formal state institutions can change the quality of national bodies necessary to democratic politics. State-level action can reduce the quality of national democracy even if it is motivated by national partisan forces. For example, state-level instruments can influence the possibility that national institutions either do or do not experience capture by minority factions, and are instead capable of roughly tracking the ebb and flow of majoritarian preferences over time. Without state institutions, national actors would lack instruments to …

Private Enforcement In The States, Austin Peters, Diego Zambrano, Neel Guha, Jeffrey Xia

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Scholarship on U.S. litigation and civil procedure has scarcely studied the role of private enforcement in the states. Over the past two decades, scholars have established that, almost uniquely in the world, the U.S. often relies on private parties rather than administrative agencies to enforce important statutory provisions. Take your pick of any area in American governance, and you will find private rights of action: environmental law, civil rights, employment discrimination, antitrust, consumer protection, business competition, securities fraud, and so on. In each of these areas, Congress has deliberately empowered private plaintiffs instead of, or in addition to, government agencies. …

Nonparty Interests In Contract Law, Omri Ben-Shahar, David Hoffman, Cathy Hwang

Articles

Contract law has one overarching goal: to advance the legitimate interests of the contracting parties. For the most part, scholars, judges, and parties embrace this party primacy norm, recognizing only a few exceptions, such as mandatory rules that bar enforcement of agreements that harm others. This Article describes a distinct species of previously unnoticed contract law rules that advance nonparty interests, which it calls “nonparty defaults.”

In doing so, this Article makes three contributions to the contract law literature. First, it identifies nonparty defaults as a judicial technique. It shows how courts deviate from the party primacy norm with surprising …