Digital Commons Network^™

The Price Of Criminal Law, Russell M. Gold

Articles

Should tax dollars pay for more criminal law, better public schools, or a new community center? Different counties will answer the question differently, but facing these tradeoffs is profoundly important to democratic governance. Nonetheless, because the criminal legal system diffuses power and hides and offioads costs, officials and voters do not have to honestly consider that question. These structural features place a hidden thumb on the scale that gives counties more criminal enforcement than they pay for. That is a problem. Too much enforcement is particularly pernicious in criminal law: Incarceration inflicts tremendous suffering, especially in poor communities of color. …

Children's Autonomy Rights Online, Clare Ryan

Articles

No abstract provided.

Action Recognition For Human–Robot Teaming: Exploring Mutual Performance Monitoring Possibilities, Shakra Mehak, John D. Kelleher, Michael Guilfoyle, Maria Chiara Leva

Articles

Human–robot teaming (HrT) is being adopted in an increasing range of industries and work environments. Effective HrT relies on the success of complex and dynamic human–robot interaction. Although it may be optimal for robots to possess all the social and emotional skills to function as productive team members, certain cognitive capabilities can enable them to develop attitude-based competencies for optimizing teams. Despite the extensive research into the human–human team structure, the domain of HrT research remains relatively limited. In this sense, incorporating established human–human teaming (HhT) elements may prove practical. One key element is mutual performance monitoring (MPM), which involves …

Analyzing Operator States And The Impact Of Ai-Enhanced Decision Support In Control Rooms: A Human-In-The-Loop Specialized Reinforcement Learning Framework For Intervention Strategies, Ammar N. Abbas, Chidera W. Amazu, Joseph Mietkiewicz, Houda Briwa, Andres Alonso Perez, Gabriele Baldissone, Micaela Demichela, Georgios C. Chasparis, John D. Kelleher, Maria Chiara Leva

Articles

In complex industrial and chemical process control rooms, effective decision-making is crucial for safety and efficiency. The experiments in this paper evaluate the impact and applications of an AI-based decision support system integrated into an improved human-machine interface, using dynamic influence diagrams, a hidden Markov model, and deep reinforcement learning. The enhanced support system aims to reduce operator workload, improve situational awareness, and provide different intervention strategies to the operator adapted to the current state of both the system and human performance. Such a system can be particularly useful in cases of information overload when many alarms and inputs are …

Tying Law For The Digital Age, Daniel A. Crane

Articles

Tying arrangements, a central concern of antitrust policy since the early days of the Sherman and Clayton Acts, have come into renewed focus with re-spect to the practices of dominant technology companies. Unfortunately, tying law’s doctrinal structure is a self-contradictory and incoherent wreck. A con-ventional view holds that this mess is due to errant Supreme Court precedents, never fully corrected, that expressed hostility to tying based on faulty economic understanding. That is only part of the story. Examination of tying law’s origins and development shows that tying doctrine was built on a now-dated paradigm of what constitutes a tying arrangement. …

A Law At War With Itself: Character Evidence And The Doctrine Of Chances, Len Niehoff, Shannon Hickey

Articles

Certain legal principles have raging within them a kind of civil war. Important but abstract policy concerns pull the doctrine in one direction; common sense and practical experience pull it in another. Casualties ensue.

Perhaps no body of legal doctrine better exemplifies this sort of internal conflict than the general ban on character evidence, as embodied in Federal Rule of Evidence 404(a)(1). That rule states: “Evidence of a person’s character or character trait is not admissible to prove that on a particular occasion the person acted in accordance with that character or trait.” The rule has deep roots in the …

The Joy Of The Fight: What Litigators Can Learn From The Martial Arts, Len Niehoff, Tim Lynch

Articles

You walk into a martial arts training studio (in Japanese styles, a dojo) and you scan the room. Everything going on here looks, well, unpleasant. In one corner, you observe a group of students performing kata, choreographed sequences of kicks, punches, and blocks that simulate the experience of fighting multiple opponents. Sweat pours off them. In another corner, you see two students engaged in sparring exercises, or kumite. The sharp, smacking noise of one student striking the protective pads worn by another carries across the room. In a third corner, you notice students doing push-ups, working their muscles until their …

Cognitive Dissonance In The Antebellum South About The Lawfulness Of Slavery, Peter K. Westen

Articles

The institution of slavery, by its nature, was necessarily grounded in law. For whenever a society adjudges one class of persons as free and another as enslaved, law-like norms must exist to identify and distinguish the free from the enslaved. And whenever a society institutionalizes slavery, law-like norms must exist to establish the privileges and disabilities possessed by masters, by the enslaved, and by third persons in relation to masters and slaves. Such master-slave norms may not always be enforced. But, until societies disavow or disremember them, they constitute standards of right and wrong that master-slave societies profess to embrace. …

Channeling A Federal Right To Education Through State Constitutions And Courts, Nicole Sunderlin, Evan Caminker

Articles

Professor Black attributes the ubiquitous adoption of education clauses in state constitutions in the immediate pre- and especially post-Reconstruction era to a “constitutional compromise” struck by Congress and the states. The State Citizenship commitment was designed to enhance the republican nature of both levels of governance by ensuring broader access to political participation through voting and broader access to public education to inform and support democratic deliberation. The education component of this commitment was uniquely secured, argues Black, through a state-federal compromise using two complementary mechanisms: first, by mandating states to embrace a state constitutional obligation to provide basic educational …

Should Digital Services Taxes Be Creditable?, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Articles

The impending collapse of pillar 1 of the OECD’s base erosion and profit-shifting 2.0 project means that many countries are likely to join Austria, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom in enacting digital services taxes. There is a moratorium on new DSTs that has been extended until the end of 2024, but any extension beyond that is unlikely because the elimination of DSTs was premised on pillar 1 coming into effect, and that cannot happen without U.S. ratification of the multilateral tax convention (MLC). It is safe to predict that there will not be 67 votes in the Senate …

A Fractured Supreme Court: Select Criminal Law And Procedure Cases From The Supreme Court’S 2023-24 Term, Eve Brensike Primus, Jordan Schuler

Articles

In its 2023-2024 Term, the Supreme Court outlined the contours of when a former President of the United States would be immune from criminal prosecution; issued important decisions interpreting the scope of the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, the Double Jeopardy Clause, the Confrontation Clause, and the Second Amendment right to bear arms; decided a number of important statutory interpretation cases; and continued to avoid Fourth Amendment issues, only addressing them in the context of a malicious prosecution charge. Perhaps more striking than the Court’s decisions in these cases, though, was the Justices’ lack of consensus. Of the 16 criminal …

Truth Bounties: A Market Solution To Fake News, Yonathan A. Arbel, Michael D. Gilbert

Articles

False information poses a threat to individuals, groups, and society. Many people struggle to judge the veracity of the information around them, whether that information travels through newspapers, talk radio, TV, or social media. Concerned with the spread of misinformation and harmful falsehoods, much of the policy, popular, and scholarly conversation today revolves around proposals to expand the regulation of individuals, platforms, and the media. While more regulation may seem inevitable, it faces constitutional and political hurdles. Furthermore, regulation can have undesirable side effects and be ripe for abuse by powerful actors, public and private.

This Article presents an alternative …

Enhancing Control Room Operator Decision Making, Joseph Mietkiewicz, Ammar N. Abbas, Chidera W. Amazu, Gabriele Baldissone, Anders L. Madsen, Micaela Demichela, Maria Chiara Leva

Articles

In the dynamic and complex environment of industrial control rooms, operators are often inundated with numerous tasks and alerts, leading to a state known as task overload. This condition can result in decision fatigue and increased reliance on cognitive biases, which may compromise the decision-making process. To mitigate these risks, the implementation of decision support systems (DSSs) is essential. These systems are designed to aid operators in making swift, well-informed decisions, especially when their judgment may be faltering. Our research presents an artificial intelligence (AI)-based framework utilizing dynamic influence diagrams and reinforcement learning to develop a powerful decision support system. …

Exploring The Influence Of Human System Interfaces: Introducing Support Tools And An Experimental Study, Chidera W. Amazu, Joseph Mietkiewicz, Ammar N. Abbas, Houda Briwa, Andres Alonso-Perez, Gabriele Baldissone, Davide Fissore, Micaela Demichela, Maria Chiara Leva

Articles

Situational awareness and decision support tools such as procedures and alarm systems are vital for effective interaction among control room operators, especially in safety-critical situations. In safety-critical environments such as process plants, there remains a gap in evaluating specific tools during actual operations, or ”work-as-done.” Additionally, the underlying factors that might impact operators' cognitive states and performance concerning safety have not been thoroughly explored. The need for such an evaluation is further bolstered by current interaction configurations where operators are more passive than active, thus reducing their cognitive performance. Therefore, this experimental study addresses the highlighted evaluation gap by introducing …

Mental Workload Classification And Tasks Detection In Multitasking: Deep Learning Insights From Eeg Study, Miloš Pušica, Aneta Kartali, Luka Bojović, Ivan Gligorijević, Jelena Jovanović, Maria Chiara Leva, Bogdan Mijović

Articles

While the term task load (TL) refers to external task demands, the amount of work, or the number of tasks to be performed, mental workload (MWL) refers to the individual's effort, mental capacity, or cognitive resources utilized while performing a task. MWL in multitasking scenarios is often closely linked with the quantity of tasks a person is handling within a given timeframe. In this study, we challenge this hypothesis from the perspective of electroencephalography (EEG) using a deep learning approach. We conducted an EEG experiment with 50 participants performing NASA Multi-Attribute Task Battery II (MATB-II) under 4 different task load …

A Review On Machine Learning Methods For Customer Churn Prediction And Recommendations For Business Practitioners, Awais Manzoor, M. Atif Qureshi, Etain Kidney, Luca Longo

Articles

Due to market deregulation and globalisation, competitive environments in various sectors continuously evolve, leading to increased customer churn. Effectively anticipating and mitigating customer churn is vital for businesses to retain their customer base and sustain business growth. This research scrutinizes 212 published articles from 2015 to 2023, delving into customer churn prediction using machine learning methods. Distinctive in its scope, this work covers key stages of churn prediction models comprehensively, contrary to published reviews, which focus on some aspects of churn prediction, such as model development, feature engineering and model evaluation using traditional machine learning-based evaluation metrics. The review emphasises …

Consent Searches As Police Violence, David B. Owens

Articles

Henderson and Krishnamurthi’s new paper—A Wolf in Sheep’s Attire: How Consent Enfeebles Our Fourth Amendment (hereinafter Sheep’s Attire)— powerfully advocates for reform to the consent doctrine. The paper is thoughtful, well-intentioned, and useful for challenging core assumptions about the law to help us evaluate how it should work. The piece is also fun to read as the authors breathe real-world insight into old doctrine. In the end, though the article flirts with a categorical rule about consent searches, and while the authors “think it categorically unreasonable for police to ask individuals to forgo their rights” in the context …

Synthesis Of Cationic Liposome Nanoparticles Using A Thin Film Dispersed Hydration And Extrusion Method, Alessandro Cazzolla, Julie Rose Mae Mondala, Janith Wanigasekara, Joanna Carroll, Noah Daly, Brijesh Tiwari, Alan Casey, James F. Curtin

Articles

Liposome nanoparticles can carry a wide range of therapeutic molecules including small molecules and nucleic acid-based therapeutics. Potential benefits include translocation across physiological barriers, reduced systemic toxicity, and enhanced pharmacokinetic parameters such as absorption, distribution, selective release and optimal elimination kinetics. Liposome nanoparticles can be generated with a wide range of natural and synthetic lipid-based molecules that confer desirable properties depending on the desired therapeutic application Nel et al (2023), Large (2021), Elkhoury (2020). This protocol article seeks to detail the procedures involved in the production of cationic liposomes using thin-film dispersed hydration method with an estimated uniform size of …

Review Of Detection Limits For Various Techniques For Bacterial Detection In Food Samples, Xinyi Zhao Nanolab Research Centre, Abhijnan Bhat, Christine O’Connor School Of Food Science And Environmental Health, James Curtin Faculty Of Engineering And Built Environment, Baljit Singh, Micra Biodiagnostics Technology Gateway And Health, Engineering & Materials Sciences (Hems) Research Hub, Furong Tian Nanolab Research Centre

Articles

Foodborne illnesses can be infectious and dangerous, and most of them are caused by bacteria. Some common food-related bacteria species exist widely in nature and pose a serious threat to both humans and animals; they can cause poisoning, diseases, disabilities and even death. Rapid, reliable and cost-effective methods for bacterial detection are of paramount importance in food safety and environmental monitoring. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), lateral flow immunochromatographic assay (LFIA) and electrochemical methods have been widely used in food safety and environmental monitoring. In this paper, the recent developments (2013–2023) covering PCR, LFIA and electrochemical methods for various bacterial species …

America's Next "Stop Model!": Model Deletion, Jevan Hutson, Ben Winters

Articles

This Essay explores the emergence of model deletion- the compelled destruction or dispossession of certain data, algorithms, models, and associated work products created or shaped by illegal means- as a remedy, right, and requirement for harmful applications of Al and ML systems. Part I examines model deletion's emergence as a consumer protection remedy and its conception as a positive right and regulatory requirement. Part II considers the constellation of federal and state actors, such as federal and state enforcement agencies and legislative bodies, who might seek model deletion to address particular Al and ML harms. Part III underscores the need …

The Meme Stock Fenzy: Origins And Implications, Dhruv Aggarwal, Albert H. Choi, Yoon-Ho Alex Lee

Articles

In 2021, several publicly traded companies, such as GameStop, Bed Bath & Beyond, and AMC, became “meme stocks,” experiencing a sharp rise in their stock prices through a dramatic influx of retail investors into their shareholder base. Analyses of the meme stock surge and its implications for corporate governance have focused on the idiosyncratic creation of online communities around particular stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this Article, we argue that the emergence of meme stocks is part of longer-running and more structural digital transformations in trading, investing, and governance. On the trading front, the abolition of commissions by major …

Sins And Omissions: Slavery And The Bill Of Rights, Richard Primus

Articles

According to the conventional story, the Constitutional Convention declined to include a bill of rights in the Constitution because it trusted the enumeration of congressional powers to do the necessary work of limiting the federal government. That conventional story is historically unfounded. It is not supported by contemporary evidence, and it was roundly disbelieved at the time. Although it is not possible to know for certain why (really, for what mix of reasons) the Framers omitted a bill of rights, it seems likely that one major reason was that formulating a bill of rights would have provoked a bitter fight …

Generating A Template For An Educational Software Development Methodology For Novice Computing Undergraduates: An Integrative Review, Catherine Higgins, Ciaran O'Leary, Claire Mcavinia, Barry J. Ryan

Articles

Aim/Purpose The teaching of appropriate problem-solving techniques to novice learners in undergraduate software development education is often poorly defined when compared to the delivery of programming techniques. Given the global need for qualified designers of information technology, the purpose of this research is to produce a foundational template for an educational software development methodology grounded in the established literature. This template can be used by third-level educators and researchers to develop robust educational method-ologies to cultivate structured problem solving and software development habits in their students while systematically teaching the intricacies of software crea-tion. Background While software development methodologies are …

Exploring Safety Of Machineries And Training: An Overview Of Current Literature Applied To Manufacturing Environments, Maria Elena Del Giudice, Mahnaz Sharafkhani, Mario Di Nardo, Teresa Murino, Maria Chiara Leva

Articles

A machine is described as an assembly that has a drive system installed or is planned to have a drive system installed and that is constituted of linked elements or components, at least one of which moves, that are connected for a particular application (ISO12100). Different types of risks are present in machines, and exposure to them can cause harm or even death. When risk has been adequately reduced, machinery safety considers a machine's ability to complete its intended duty throughout its life cycle. A literature review was carried out using “safety of machinery” as a keyword, which produced an …

Mental Workload As A Predictor Of Atco's Performance: Lessons Learnt From Atm Task-Related Experiments, Enrique Muñoz-De-Escalona, Maria Chiara Leva, José Juan Cañas

Articles

Air Traffic Controllers' (ATCos) mental workload is likely to remain the specific greatest functional limitation on the capacity of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. Developing computational models to monitor mental workload and task complexity is essential for enabling ATCOs and ATM systems to adapt to varying task demands. Most methodologies have computed task complexity based on basic parameters such as air-traffic density; however, literature research has shown that it also depends on many other factors. In this paper, we present a study in which we explored the possibility of predicting task complexity and performance through mental workload measurements of …

Foreclosure Sales As Fraudulent Transfers, David G. Carlson

Articles

The Supreme Court has declared that noncollusive, regularly conducted foreclosure sales are not “constructive” fraudulent transfers voidable by a bankruptcy trustee Uniform state legislation ratifies this instinct for private creditor enforcements. But collusive or irregular foreclosure sales or sales that are intended to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors are subject to creditor attack, even though unsecured creditors are not proper parties to the foreclosure process. In such cases, unsecured creditors can cloud the title obtained from foreclosure in the cases of collusion, irregularity or fraudulent intent. This article examines precisely when foreclosure sales can be avoided by unsecured creditors of …

Analysis Of Delta In-Out For Irish Natural Gas Distribution Network, Utkarsha Chavan, Anthony Reynolds, Michael Carr, L. Walsh

Articles

This article investigates the issue of Unaccounted for Gas (UAG) in the natural gas distribution network of Ireland, focusing on the DeltaIO (i.e. the difference between the gas entering and leaving the network). The study applies the DeltaIO methodology developed for Italian distribution networks to Gas Networks Ireland (GNI), the sole Distribution System Operator (DSO) in Ireland. The analysis covers the period from 2013 to 2019 and provides insights into the magnitude and trends of UAG in the Irish context. The results show that GNI's DeltaIO ranges from 0.93% to 1.57%, with an average of 1.15%. Comparisons with large Italian …

High-Precision Digital Light Processing (Dlp) Printing Of Microstructures For Microfluidics Applications Based On A Machine Learning Approach, Xinhui Wang, Jinghang Liu, Ruihai Dong, Michael D. Gilchrist, Nan Zhang

Articles

Digital light processing (DLP) is renowned for its precision, but the challenge lies in the identification of optimal print parameters to minimise print errors and enhance overall print accuracy. This study introduces a groundbreaking approach by integrating 'Random Forest' (RF) models with DLP printing to construct a predictive model for printing errors to achieve unparalleled precision. We conducted experiments using common commercial resins to print, resulting in a comprehensive dataset of 690 experimental datasets. Consequently, we validated this approach by fabricating Y-type microfluidic structures with a minimum feature size printing of 2 µm and herringbone mixer structures with feature sizes …

Improving The Affirmative Disclosure Of Agency Legal Materials, Bernard W. Bell, Cary Coglianese, Michael E. Herz, Margaret B. Kwoka, Orly Lobel

Articles

It is axiomatic that in a democratic society the law must be broadly accessible. Administrative agencies produce a plethora of materials imposing legal obligations on commercial or individual actors in the private sector. Other materials bind the agencies themselves in ways that affect the rights or interests of private parties. Still other materials provide the public with information about how agencies interpret and apply the statutes and rules they administer, or how agencies seek to deploy their discretion or take other actions that can affect private individuals or organizations. This Article focuses on improving the public availability of all of …

Gene Expression Of Kynurenine Pathway Enzymes In Depression And Following Electroconvulsive Therapy, Karen M. Ryan, Myles Corrigan, Therese M. Murphy, Declan M. Mcloughlin, Andrew Harkin

Articles

Objective: This study aimed to investigate changes in mRNA expression of the kynurenine pathway (KP) enzymes tryptophan 2, 3-dioxygenase (TDO), indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase 1 and 2 (IDO1, IDO2), kynurenine aminotransferase 1 and 2 (KAT1, KAT2), kynurenine monooxygenase (KMO) and kynureninase (KYNU) in medicated patients with depression (n = 74) compared to age- and sex-matched healthy controls (n = 55) and in patients with depression after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Associations with mood score (24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, HAM-D24), plasma KP metabolites and selected glucocorticoid and inflammatory immune markers known to regulate KP enzyme expression were also explored. Methods: HAM-D24 was …