Digital Commons Network^™

Regulation Through Boilerplate: An Apologia (Reviewing Margaret Jane Radin, Boilerplate: The Fine Print, Vanishing Rights, And The Rule Of Law (2013)), Omri Ben-Shahar

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No abstract provided.

The Shadow Powers Of Article I, Alison Lacroix

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No abstract provided.

Improved Protocols For Vibrational Spectroscopic Analysis Of Body Fluids, Franck Bonnier, François Petitjean, Matthew Baker, Hugh Byrne

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The applications of vibrational spectroscopy to the examination of human blood serum are explored. Although FTIR spectra can be recorded in aqueous solutions at (gelatin) concentrations as low as 100mg/L, the high-wavenumber region remains obscured by water absorption. Using Raman spectroscopy, high quality spectra of gelatine solutions as low as 10mg/L can be achieved, also covering the high-wavenumber regions. In human serum, spectral profiles are weak and partially obscured by water features. Dried deposits are shown to be physically and chemically inhomogeneous resulting in reduced measurement reproducibility. Concentration of the serum using commercially available centrifugal filter devices results in an …

In-Package Atmospheric Pressure Cold Plasma Treatment Of Cherry Tomatoes, N. Misra, Kevin Keener, Paula Bourke, J Mosnier, Patrick J. Cullen

Articles

Cold plasma is increasingly under research for decontamination of foods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. The effect of cold plasma on food quality, however, remains under researched. This study investigates the effects of cold plasma generated within a sealed package from a dielectric barrier discharge on the physical quality parameters and respiration rates of cherry tomatoes. Respiration rates and weight loss were monitored continuously, while other parameters are reported at the end of storage period. Differences among weight loss, pH and firmness for control and treated cherry tomatoes were insignificant towards the end of storage life. Changes in respiration rates …

What Next For Social Enterprise In Ireland, Gerard Doyle

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No abstract provided.

Incentives For Reporting Disease Outbreaks, Ramanan Laxminarayan, Julian Reif, Anup Malani

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Background: Countries face conflicting incentives to report infectious disease outbreaks. Reports of outbreaks can prompt other countries to impose trade and travel restrictions, which has the potential to discourage reporting. However, reports can also b

The Puzzling Presumption Of Reviewability, Nicholas Bagley

Articles

The presumption in favor of judicial review of agency action is a cornerstone of administrative law, accepted by courts and commentators alike as both legally appropriate and obviously desirable. Yet the presumption is puzzling. As with any canon of statutory construction that serves a substantive end, it should find a source in history, positive law, the Constitution, or sound policy considerations. None of these, however, offers a plausible justification for the presumption. As for history, the sort of judicial review that the presumption favors - appellate-style arbitrariness review - was not only unheard of prior to the twentieth century, but …

Examining The Practice Of Developing Human Rights Indicators To Facilitate Accountability For The Human Right To Water And Sanitation, Benjamin Mason Meier, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, Georgia Lyn Kayser, Urooj Quezon Amjad, Jamie Bartram

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Flowing from the evolution of international legal obligations for water and sanitation, human rights practice has shifted to address state accountability for a human right to water and sanitation through the development of human rights indicators. This policy note focuses on efforts to develop indicators for state reporting to human rights treaty bodies, with human rights norms framing national reports and treaty bodies employing indicators to monitor the progressive realization of the human right to water and sanitation. In supporting evidence-based treaty monitoring through the United Nations (UN), both the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special …

The Puzzling Presumption Of Reviewability, Nicholas Bagley

Articles

The presumption in favor of judicial review of agency action is a cornerstone of administrative law, accepted by courts and commentators alike as both legally appropriate and obviously desirable. Yet the presumption is puzzling. As with any canon of statutory construction that serves a substantive end, it should find a source in history, positive law, the Constitution, or sound policy considerations. None of these, however, offers a plausible justification for the presumption. As for history, the sort of judicial review that the presumption favors - appellate-style arbitrariness review - was not only unheard of prior to the twentieth century, but …

Enacted Legislative Findings And The Deference Problem, Daniel A. Crane

Articles

The constitutionality of federal legislation sometimes turns on the presence and sufficiency of congressional findings of predicate facts, such as the effects of conduct on interstate commerce, state discrimination justifying the abrogation of sovereign immunity, or market failures justifying intrusions on free speech. Sometimes a congressional committee makes these findings in legislative history. Other times, Congress recites its findings in a statutory preamble, thus enacting its findings as law. Surprisingly, the Supreme Court has not distinguished between enacted and unenacted findings in deciding how much deference to accord congressional findings. This is striking because the difference between enactedness and unenactedness …

Street Diversion And Decarceration, Mary Fan

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States seeking more cost-effective approaches than imprisoning drug offenders have explored innovations such as drug courts and deferred prosecution. These treatment-based programs generally involve giving diversion discretion to prosecutors and judges, actors further down the criminal processing chain than police. The important vantage of police at the gateway of entry into the criminal system has been underutilized. [para] The article explores developing the capacity of police to take a public health approach to drug offending by engaging in street diversion to treatment rather than criminal processing. This approach entails giving police therapeutic discretion—the power to sort who gets treatment rather …

Litigation Investment And Legal Ethics: What Are The Real Issues?, Anthony J. Sebok

Articles

One of the foundational principles of legal ethics is that the lawyer owes an obligation of undivided loyalty to the client, and no other interests or relationships can be permitted to interfere with the lawyer's exercise of independent professional judgment on behalf of the client. The strongest objections to litigation investment by third parties is that it may compromise a lawyer's independence. This article examines this objection in the context of a recent report from the Ethics Committee of the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association and argues that it misses the real legal …

Using Acrylamide Based Photopolymers For Fabrication Of Holographic Optical Elements In Solar Energy Applications, Hoda Akbari, Izabela Naydenova, Suzanne Martin

Articles

A holographic device is under development that aims to improve light collection in solar cells. The aim is to explore the potential of using photopolymer Holographic Optical Elements (HOE) to collect light from a moving source, such as the sun, and re-direct it for concentration by a holographic lens.. A working range of 45 degrees is targeted for such a device to be useful in solar applications without tracking. A photopolymer HOE is capable of efficiently re-directing light, but the angular selectivity of a single grating is usually of the order of one degree at the thicknesses required for high …

In-Package Nonthermal Plasma Degradation Of Pesticides On Fresh Produce, N. Misra, Shashi Pankaj, Tony Walsh, Finbarr O'Regan, Paula Bourke, Patrick J. Cullen

Articles

In-package nonthermal plasma (NTP) technology is a novel technology for the decontamination of foods and biological materials. This study presents the first report on the potential of the technology for the degradation of pesticide residues. A cocktail of pesticides, namely Azoxystrobin, Cyprodinil, Fludioxonil and Pyriproxyfen was tested on strawberries. The concentrations of these pesticides were monitored in priori and post- plasma treatment using GC-MS/MS. An applied voltage and time dependent degradation of the pesticides was observed for treatment voltages of 60, 70 and 80 kV and treatment durations ranging from 1 to 5 min, followed by 24 h in-pack storage. …

Nanoscale Growth Of Cds And Pbs Semiconductor Within Calix[4]Arene Langmuir-Blodgett Lb Film For Ion Sensing Application, Faridah Lisa Supian, Tim H. Richardson, Alexei V. Nabok, Mary Deasy, M. Syahriman M. Azmi

Articles

The characteristics of cadmium sulphide (CdS) and lead sulphide (PbS) nanoparticles, grown inside Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) multilayer films of 5,11,17,23-tetra-tert-butyl-25,27-dicarboxymethoxy-26,28-dihydroxycalix [arene (I), have been studied using ellipsometry, UV-visible spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Multilayer films were formed by transferring a floating Langmuir monolayer of I onto substrates using LB deposition and water subphase containing Pb2+ or Cd2+ ions. The nanoparticles were fabricated by exposing cadmium-or lead-containing multilayer films of I (20-80 monolayers thick) to hydrogen sulphide (H2S) gas for 12 hours. By Gaussian fitting of the absorbance - energy spectra, the size of the clusters and their dispersion were found …

Does The Logic Of Collective Action Explain Federalism Doctrine?, Aziz Huq

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No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Soft Contact Lens Wear And Two Weeks Cessation Of Lens Wear On Corneal Curvature, Aoife Lloyd Mckernan, Veronica O'Dwyer, Luisa Simo Mannion

Articles

Abstract

Introduction

Accurate corneal measurements are crucial in corneal refractive surgery (CRS) to ensure successful outcomes. Soft contact lens (SCL) wear may result in changes to corneal curvature and structure. United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pre-operative guidelines recommend that prior to CRS, SCL wearers cease SCL wear for “at least two weeks before examination and treatment”[1]. Corneal curvature changes induced by SCL wear may take longer than two weeks to resolve.

Purpose

To examine the effect of SCL wear on corneal curvature before and following two weeks SCL wear cessation. To explore the possible impact of different SCL …

A Photonic Crystal Fiber Based Polarimetric Sensor For Cure Monitoring Of Magneto-Rheological Smart Composite Material, Manjusha Ramakrishnan, Ginu Rajan, Yuliya Semenova, Y. Zhou, Stephen Jerrams, Gerald Farrell

Articles

A buffer stripped high birefringent photonic crystal fibre based polarimetric sensor is developed for monitoring the curing process of magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) smart composite material. Using the developed sensor, different phases of the MRE curing process are clearly visible from the phase shift variation of the embedded polarisation maintaining photonic crystal fibre (PM-PCF) sensor. During the curing process, the buffer stripped PM-PCF exhibits a stress/strain induced phase shift variation from 0 to 1.98 rad. This is a significantly large phase change, which can be used to very clearly identify the different stages in the curing process. For comparison, a fibre …

Making An Impact: New Directions For Arts And Humanities Research, Ellen Hazelkorn

Articles

The severity of the global economic crisis has put the spotlight firmly on measuring academic and research performance and productivity, and assessing its contribution, value, impact and benefit. While traditionally, research output and impact was measured by peer-publications and citations, there is increased emphasis on a “market-driven approach”, which favours the bio-, medical and technological sciences, and helped reinforce a disciplinary hierarchy in which arts and humanities research (A&HR) has struggled for attention. This article charts the changing policy environment across Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway. It draws on evidence from the HERAVALUE project which studied how different stakeholders value …

Motivations Of Social Entrepreneurs: Blurring The Social Contribution And Profits Dichotomy, Karla Aileen Boluk, Ziene Mottiar

Articles

Research has typically identified social entrepreneurs as characteristically superior to conventional entrepreneurs as they are motivated by making a contribution to society rather than by profits. Yet, few published papers investigate the motives of social entrepreneurs and explore if there are indeed any additional motivations aside from community interests. The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the additional motives, aside from the social interests that motivate social entrepreneurs. This paper does so by using an inductive approach and specifically carrying out a re-examination of two pieces of research examining social entrepreneurship that were carried out independently by the …

The Collision Between The First Amendment And Securities Fraud, Wendy Gerwick Couture

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This Article seeks to correct the imbalance that occurs when the First Amendment and securities fraud collide. Under current precedent, securities analysts, credit rating agencies, and financial journalists are subject to differing liability standards depending on whether they are sued for defamation or for securities fraud. Under New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, First Amendment protections apply in the defamation context in order to prevent the chilling of valuable speech, yet courts have declined to extend these protections to the securities fraud context. This imbalance threatens to chill valuable speech about public companies. To prevent the dangerous chilling effect of …

Taming A Wandering Attention: Short-Form Mindfulness Training In Student Cohorts, Alexandra B. Morrison, Merissa Goolsarram, Scott L. Rogers, Amishi P. Jha

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No abstract provided.

Pensioners, Bondholders, And Unfair Discrimination In Municipal Bankruptcy, Andrew B. Dawson

Articles

Detroit recently confirmed its plan of debt adjustment under which the city has endeavored to adjust its pension obligations. The court's confirmation order and oral opinion on the record present what is perhaps the most significant decision regarding a key question facing any city attempting to adjust pensions in bankruptcy: can a city propose to pay its pension claimants significantly more than its other unsecured creditors? This question involves interpreting the Bankruptcy Code's unfair discrimination rule.

The Detroit bankruptcy court applied a novel interpretation of unfair discrimination, eschewing the relatively thin body of case law interpreting this rule, and suggesting …

Creating A Culture Of Compliance: Why Departmentalization May Not Be The Answer, Michele M. Destefano

Articles

Over the past few decades, as corporate criminal liability rules, sentencing guidelines, and settlement incentives have changed, therehas been increased emphasis on and resources devoted to thecompliance function at large publicly held companies. In this article, Professor DeStefano traces the development of the compliance function at large corporations and questions the recent mandate by certain governmental entities that malfeasant corporations designate a chief compliance officer and separate the compliance gatekeeping function from the legal department so that this chief compliance officer does not report to the general counsel. She categorizes the types of arguments made for and against departmentalization and …

Bastards! . . .. And The Welfare Plantation, Zanita E. Fenton

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No abstract provided.

Experimental Design Of Photo-Fenton Reactions For The Treatment Of Car Wash Wastewater Effluents By Response Surface Methodological Analysis, Maha Tony, Zeinab Bedri

Articles

Establishing a treatment process for practical and economic disposal of car wash wastewater has become an urgent environmental concern. Photo-Fenton’s process as one of the advanced oxidation processes is a potentially useful oxidation process in treating such wastewater. Lab-scale experiments with UV source, coupled with Fenton’s reagent, showed that hydrocarbon oil is degradable through such a process. The feasibility of photo-Fenton’s process to treat wastewater from a car wash is investigated in the present study. A factorial design based on the response surface methodology was applied to optimize the photo-Fenton oxidation process conditions using chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction as …

Cold Comfort Food: A Systematic Examination Of The Rituals And Rights Of The Last Meal, Sarah Gerwig-Moore

Articles

Last meals are a resilient ritual accompanying executions in the United States. Yet states vary considerably in the ways they administer last meals. This paper explores the recent decision in Texas to abolish the tradition altogether. It seeks to understand, through consultation of historical and contemporary sources, what the ritual signifies. We then go on to analyze execution procedures in all 35 of the states that allowed executions in 2010, and show that last meal allowances are paradoxically at their most expansive in states traditionally associated with high rates of capital punishment (Texas now being the exception to that rule.) …

Assessing System Resilience And Ecosystem Services In Large River Basins, Barbara Cosens

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No abstract provided.

Shattering The One-Way Mirror: Discovery In Immigration Court, Geoffrey Heeren

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No abstract provided.

Ambient Measurements Of Biological Aerosol Particles Near Killarney, Ireland: A Comparison Between Real-Time Fluorescence And Microscopy Techniques, D. A. Healy, J. A. Huffmann, David O'Connor, C. Pohlker, U. Poschil, J. R. Sodeau

Articles

Primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs) can contribute significantly to the coarse particle burden in many environments. PBAPs can thus influence climate and precipitation systems as cloud nuclei and can spread disease to humans, animals, and plants. Measurement data and techniques for PBAPs in natural environments at high time- and size resolution are, however, sparse, and so large uncertainties remain in the role that biological particles play in the Earth system. In this study two commercial real-time fluorescence particle sensors and a Sporewatch single-stage particle impactor were operated continuously from 2 August to 2 September 2010 at a rural sampling location …