Digital Commons Network^™

The Supreme Court's Facilitation Of White Christian Nationalism, Caroline Mala Corbin

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Doug Jager, a band student of Native-American ancestry, complained about the Christian prayers at his Georgia public school’s football games. Rather than address his concerns, the school lectured him on Christianity and proposed an alternative that appeared neutral yet would result in the continuation of the Christian prayers. In striking down the school’s proposal, Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. understood some of the ramifications of state-sponsored Christianity.

Despite Supreme Court rulings limiting Christian invocations at public-school events, government-sponsored Christian prayers and Christian symbols remain plentiful in the United States. This proliferation of government-sponsored Christianity around the country both reflects and …

Payday, Yonathan A. Arbel

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Legislation lags behind technology all too often. While trillions of dollars are exchanged in online transactions-safely, cheaply, and instantaneously-workers still must wait two weeks to a month to receive payments from their employers. In the modern economy, workers are effectively lending money to their employers, as they wait for earned wages to be paid.

The same worker who taps a credit card to pay for groceries in semiautomated checkout lines depends on dated payroll systems that only transfer payments on a "payday." Workers, especially those living paycheck-to-paycheck, are hard-pressed to meet their daily needs and turn to expensive, short-term credit …

The Unconstitutionality Of Government Propaganda, Caroline Mala Corbin

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Government propaganda-the government's deliberate dissemination of false claims on matters of public interest-has increasingly become a source of concern in the United States. Not only does the current presidential administration disseminate propaganda at a rate unprecedented in the modern era, so that Americans now live in an age of government-created "alternative facts," but the internet and social media have made it possible to find receptive audiences with alarming speed and accuracy. This surge of government propaganda poses troubling questions for the health of our democracy, which requires political accountability and the valid consent of the governed to thrive.

Although the …

How The Internet Unmakes Law, Mary Anne Franks

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No abstract provided.

The Second Amendment's Safe Space, Or The Constitutionlization Of Fragility, Mary Anne Franks

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No abstract provided.

“The Very Essence Of French Cinema”(?): Jacques Feyder’S Return To France, 1944–1948, Barry Nevin

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No abstract provided.

Media Literacy Beyond The National Security Frame, Lili Levi

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No abstract provided.

Antitrust In Attention Markets: Objections And Responses, John M. Newman

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The modern antitrust enterprise finds itself under attack. Critics complain that enforcement agencies have done nothing to stem an ever-rising tide of market concentration and corporate power. At the center of this critique lies Silicon Valley, home of a new generation of tech giants.

This symposium contribution contends that attention markets represent the largest sector of the modern economy to have gone unnoticed by antitrust regulators. If it is to fulfill its congressional mandate, the antitrust enterprise must begin paying attention to attention markets. A number of objections to this straightforward point have been raised, but each collapses under close …

The Court And The Suspect: Human Frailty, The Calculating Criminal, And The Penitent In The Interrogation Room, Scott E. Sundby

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No abstract provided.

Regulating Foreign Commerce Through Multiple Pathways: A Case Study, Kathleen Claussen

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This Essay looks at the regulation of foreign distilled spirits coming into the United States as a lens through which to understand how trade commitments become a part of U.S. law. The experience of distilled spirits in the last forty years demonstrates that trade agreements have the power to create new domestic rules, to lock in rules already on the books, and to be entirely powerless in the face of executive branch intransigence. But this story is just one illustration of competing authorities and unclear allegiances among the branches when it comes to issues of cross-border movement of goods and …

Our Trade Law System, Kathleen Claussen

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No abstract provided.

Vibrational Spectroscopy Of Liquid Biopsies For Prostate Cancer Diagnosis, Dinesh Medipally, Daniel Cullen, Valérie Untereiner, G.D. Sockalingum, Adrian Maguire, T.N.Q. Nguyen, Jane Bryant, Emma Noone, Shirley Bradshaw, Marie Finn, Mary Dunne, Aoife M. Shannon, John Armstrong, Aidan Meade, Fiona Lyng

Articles

Background: Screening for prostate cancer with prostate specific antigen and digital rectal examination allows early diagnosis of prostate malignancy but has been associated with poor sensitivity and specificity. There is also a considerable risk of over-diagnosis and overtreatment, which highlights the need for better tools for diagnosis of prostate cancer. This study investigates the potential of high throughput Raman and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy of liquid biopsies for rapid and accurate diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Methods: Blood samples (plasma and lymphocytes) were obtained from healthy control subjects and prostate cancer patients. FTIR and Raman spectra were recorded from plasma …

Dietary Fat Intakes In Irish Children: Changes Between 2005 And 2019, Aileen O’Connor, Maria Buffini, Anne Nugent, Laura Kehoe, Albert Flynn, Janette Walton, John Kearney, Breige Mcnulty

Articles

Objective:To examine current dietary fat intakes and compliance in Irish childrenand to examine changes in intakes from 2005 to 2019.Design:Analyses were based on data from the Irish National Children’s FoodSurvey (NCFS) and the NSFS II, two cross-sectional studies that collected detailedfood and beverage intake data through 7-day and 4-day weighed food diaries,respectively.Setting:NCFS and NCFS II, Republic of Ireland.Participants:A nationally representative sample of 594 (NCFS) and 600 (NCFS II)children aged 5–12 years. Current intakes from the NCFS II were compared withthose previously reported in the NCFS (www.iuna.net).Results:Current intakes of total fat, SFA, MUFA, PUFA andtransfat as a percentageof total energy are …

Extraction Of Protein From Four Different Seaweeds Using Three Different Physical Pre-Treatment Strategies, Jack O'Connor, Steve Meaney, Gwilym A. Williams, Maria Hayes

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Seaweeds are a rich source of protein and can contain up to 47% on the dry weight basis. It ischallenging to extract proteins from the raw biomass of seaweed due to resilient cell-wall complexes.Four species of macroalgae were used in this study-two brown,Fucus vesiculosusandAlaria esculenta,and two red,Palmaria palmataandChondrus crispus. Three treatments were applied individually tothe macroalgal species: (I) high-pressure processing (HPP); (II) laboratory autoclave processing and(III) a classical sonication and salting out method. The protein, ash and lipid contents of the resultingextracts were estimated. Yields of protein recovered ranged from 3.2% forFucus vesiculosuspre-treatedwith high pressure processing to 28.9% protein recovered …

Knowledge, Attitude And Practices (Kap) Towards Diet And Health Among International Students In Dublin: A Cross-Sectional Study, Xiyao Liu, Haoyue Chen, Qianling Zhou, Huifeng Zhang, Phensiri Asawasirisap, John Kearney

Articles

International students may have difficulties in dietary acculturation. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of diet and health during the acculturation of international students. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among a convenience sample of 473 international students in Dublin. Knowledge, attitude and practices towards diet and health were evaluated by a questionnaire with open- and closed-ended questions. It was found that 45.3% of participants had a broad concept of a healthy diet, while few knew its specific contents. Furthermore, 75.3% of participants could explain the term functional food, and among them, 62.1% knew the appropriate …

Going Bare In The Law Of Assignments: When Is An Assignment Champertous?, Anthony J. Sebok

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The article critiques the legal distinction between champerty and assignment, arguing that the focus should be on the assignor's motives rather than the assignee's identity. It challenges Dr. David Capper's approach to defining "bare assignments" and proposes that assignments should not be prohibited based solely on the assignee's identity unless they facilitate abus

From The Frontlines Of The Modern Movement To End Forced Arbitration And Restore Jury Rights, F. Paul Bland, Myriam E. Gilles, Tanuja Gupta

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No abstract provided.

Giving Back A Fraudulent Transfer: A Defense To Liability?, David G. Carlson

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In Whitlock v. Lowe (In re Deberry) (5th Cir. 2019), the Fifth Circuit court of appeals found it obvious that if a transferee gives back fraudulently transferred funds (which the debtor then dissipates), the transferee has a complete defense to liability to the transferor’s bankruptcy trustee. This puts the Fifth Circuit at odds with the Sixth and Seventh Circuits, where the prepetition give-back counted as no defense. This article concludes that a more nuanced position should mediate between these extremes, based on an “innocent donee” defense retrieved from Nineteenth Century precedent. The article emphasizes that if bad faith transferees for …

The Role Of State And Federal Law In Energy Condemnations, Stewart E. Sterk

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When an energy provider condemns fee interests or easements to permit construction of transmission lines, what roles do state and federal law play in determining the "just compensation" available to affected landowners? That question has arisen in a number of different factual contexts. Usually, condemnors seek to avoid state law rules that provide for compensation beyond what they believe represents the market value of the property they seek to acquire. For instance, condemnors may seek an offset for benefits the condemnation generates for neighboring land owned by the condemnee. Condemnors may also seek to avoid state rules that entitle condemnees …

My Palate Hung With Starlight: A Gastrocritical Reading Of Seamus Heaney’S Poetry, Anke Klitzing

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Nobel-prize winning poet Seamus Heaney is celebrated for his rich verses recalling his home in the Northern Irish countryside of County Derry. Yet while the imaginative links to nature in his poetry have already been critically explored, little attention has been paid so far to his rendering of local food and foodways. From ploughing, digging potatoes and butter-churning to picking blackberries, Heaney sketches not only the everyday activities of mid-20th century rural Ireland, but also the social dynamics of community and identity and the socio-cultural symbiosis embedded in those practices. Larger questions of love, life and death also infiltrate the …

An Explorative Case-Study Of The Use Of Peerwise To Foster Student Centred, And Peer Supported, Learning In A First-Year Business Module, Anna Dynan, Barry Ryan

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Peer based learning is not a new concept in business studies in higher education; however, the integration of technology enabled and asynchronous peer learning has limited reported use and even less evidence based evaluation. In this explorative case study, the online tool PeerWise was used to scaffold and support an asynchronous peer-learning environment for a group of 212 first year business studies students. Students were required to create, answer and rate multiple choice questions on topics aligned to their curriculum within the peer constructed PeerWise question database. While there was no statistically significant correlation between PeerWise engagement and final module …

A Generalisable Bottom-Up Methodology For Deriving A Residential Stock Model From Large Empirical Databases, Ciara Ahern, Brian Norton

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Specifying representative reference buildings as a prerequisite for calculating cost-optimal energy performance requirements for buildings and building elements. Appropriate characterisation is prerequisite data for an overall national building energy consumption model to produce valid outcomes. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are issued in the EU, for dwellings whenever they are constructed, sold or leased. Where acquiring data for an EPC would be prohibitively costly, nationally applicable default-values are employed for the building envelope thermal transmittance coefficients. Significant levels of retrofits led to the default-values used now being higher than is typical in reality, leading to characterisations of reference dwellings based on …

Addiction-Informed Immigration Reform, Rebecca Sharpless

Articles

Immigration law fails to align with the contemporary understanding of substance addiction as a medical condition. The Immigration and Nationality Act regards noncitizens who suffer from drug or alcohol substance use disorder as immoral and undesirable. Addiction is a ground of exclusion and deportation and can prevent the finding of "good moral character" needed for certain immigration applications. Substance use disorder can lead to criminal behavior that lands noncitizens, including lawful permanent residents, in removal proceedings with no defense. The time has come for immigration law to catch up to today's understanding of addiction. The damage done by failing to …

A Hidden Technological Assumption In Patent Law: The Case Of Gene Patents And The Disclosure Requirement, Or Cohen Sasson

Articles

The disclosure requirement in patent law is designed to reveal knowledge regarding a patented invention to allow proper understanding and utilization of that invention. The contention offered here is the presence of an inherent incompatibility between the disclosure requirement and genetic inventions. Genetic inventions are highly contingent on genetic statistical data (GSD), which is gathered during the commercial phase of a genetic invention. GSD are essential for various purposes, which at least some should be satisfied by the disclosure. However, since GSD can be gathered only at the postapplication period, GSD are not disclosed through the disclosure requirement. Therefore, there …

The Lawyer As Accomplice: Cannabis, Uber, Airbnb, And The Ethics Of Advising “Disruptive” Businesses, Charles M. Yablon

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This Article examines the legal and ethical problems of corporate lawyers who advise businesses that operate just beyond the edge of legality. These include manufacturers and sellers of cannabis products (a felony under federal law, even if ostensibly permitted by state statutes) as well as a substantial number of startup companies, like Uber and Airbnb, whose “disruptive” business models involve deliberately violating local laws and ordinances, many of which carry criminal penalties. Under the current Model Rules of Professional Conduct, a lawyer “shall not counsel a client to engage, or assist a client, in conduct that the lawyer knows is …

Size Matters: The Impact Of Training Size In Taxonomically-Enriched Word Embeddings, Alfredo Maldonado, Filip Klubicka, John D. Kelleher

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Word embeddings trained on natural corpora (e.g., newspaper collections, Wikipedia or the Web) excel in capturing thematic similarity (“topical relatedness”) on word pairs such as ‘coffee’ and ‘cup’ or ’bus’ and ‘road’. However, they are less successful on pairs showing taxonomic similarity, like ‘cup’ and ‘mug’ (near synonyms) or ‘bus’ and ‘train’ (types of public transport). Moreover, purely taxonomy-based embeddings (e.g. those trained on a random-walk of WordNet’s structure) outperform natural-corpus embeddings in taxonomic similarity but underperform them in thematic similarity. Previous work suggests that performance gains in both types of similarity can be achieved by enriching natural-corpus embeddings with …

Assessing The Quality Of Mobile Graphical User Interfaces Using Multi-Objective Optimization, Soui, Makram, Mabrouka Chouchane, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer, Marouane Kessentini, Khaled Ghedira

Articles

Aesthetic defects are a violation of quality attributes that are symptoms of bad interface design programming decisions. They lead to deteriorating the perceived usability of mobile user interfaces and negatively impact the Users eXperience (UX) with the mobile app. Most existing studies relied on a subjective evaluation of aesthetic defects depending on end-users feedback, which makes the manual evaluation of mobile user interfaces human-centric, time-consuming, and error-prone. Therefore, recent studies have dedicated their effort to focus on the definition of mathematical formulas that each targets a specific structural quality of the interface. As the UX is tightly dependent on the …

Fine-Scale Haplotype Structure Reveals Strong Signatures Of Positive Selection In A Recombining Bacterial Pathogen, Brian Arnold, Mashaal Sohail, Crista B. Wadsworth, Jukka Corander, William P. Hanage, Shamil Sunyaev, Yonatan H. Grad

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Identifying genetic variation in bacteria that has been shaped by ecological differences remains an important challenge. For recombining bacteria, the sign and strength of linkage provide a unique lens into ongoing selection. We show that derived alleles linkage, a pattern that cannot be explained by limited recombination or neutrality as these couplings are significantly stronger for nonsynonymous alleles than synonymous alleles. This general pattern is driven by a small fraction of highly diverse genes, many of which exhibit evidence of interspecies horizontal gene transfer and an excess of intermediate frequency alleles. Extensive simulations show that two distinct forms of positive …

Nonprofit College Crash: Enforcing Board Fiduciaries Through Increased Accountability And Transparency In The Irs Form 990 Procedure, Kaleb Paul Byars

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Since 1997, the United States has experienced a steady increase in college closings. Private, nonprofit colleges are the most prevalent among these affected institutions. A 2017 study confirmed that 177 colleges failed a U.S. Education Department test for “financial responsibility.” Of these 177 colleges, well over half are private nonprofits. Further, several colleges have closed since the study was completed. It is reasonable to conclude the financial irresponsibility of these schools contributes to their closures. ...

Part I describes fiduciary duties of nonprofit board members and instances of their failure. Part II discusses inadequate nonprofit oversight and provides information regarding …

Potential Liability For Physicians Using Artificial Intelligence, W. Nicholson Price Ii, Sara Gerke, I Glenn Cohen

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly making inroads into medical practice, especially in forms that rely on machine learning, with a mix of hope and hype. Multiple AI-based products have now been approved or cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and health systems and hospitals are increasingly deploying AI-based systems. For example, medical AI can support clinical decisions, such as recommending drugs or dosages or interpreting radiological images.2 One key difference from most traditional clinical decision support software is that some medical AI may communicate results or recommendations to the care team without being able to communicate the …