Digital Commons Network^™

Effect Of Light On The Biodegradation Of Selective Azo Dyes By Escherichia Coli And Pseudomonas Sp. And Optimization Of Conditions For Decolorization, Muhammad Kashif, Abdul Jabbar, Abdul Ghaffar, Muhammad Yameen, Bushra Munir

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The degradation of two azo dyes; congo red and acid red 27, commonly used in textile industries, was investigated using Pseudomonassp. and Escherichia coli strains isolated from dye contaminated soil sludge. An aqueous medium containing 100 mg/L of dyes were used for the biodegradation experiments. The degradation results as color removal performance were obtained after 5 days incubation. Different factors like azoreductases specificity, pH and effects of a range of wavelengths of light on decolorization efficiencies were studied. Pseudomonassp. showed highest degradation rate for congo red and Escherichia coli showed highest degradation rate for acid red 27. The color of …

Transparently Opaque: Understanding The Lack Of Transparency In Insurance Consumer Protection, Daniel Schwarcz

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Consumer protection in most domains of financial regulation centers on transparency. Broadly construed, transparency involves making relevant information available to consumers as well as others who might act on their behalf, such as academics, journalists, newspapers, consumer organizations or other market watchdogs. By contrast, command and control regulation that affirmatively limits financial firms’ products or pricing is relatively uncommon. This Article describes a remarkable inversion of this pattern: while state insurance regulation frequently employs aggressive command and control consumer protection regulation, it typically does little or nothing to promote transparent markets. Rather, state lawmakers routinely either completely ignore transparency-oriented reforms …

Regulating Systemic Risk In Insurance, Daniel Schwarcz, Steven L. Schwarcz

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As exemplified by the dramatic failure of AIG, insurance companies and their affiliates played a central role in the 2008 global financial crisis. It is therefore not surprising that the Dodd-Frank Act — the United States’ primary legislative response to the crisis — contained an entire title dedicated to insurance regulation, which has traditionally been the responsibility of individual states. The most important insurance-focused reforms in Dodd-Frank empower the Federal Reserve Bank to impose an additional layer of regulatory scrutiny on top of state insurance regulation for a small number of “systemically important” nonbank financial companies, such as AIG. This …

Administering The Tax System We Have, Kristin Hickman

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Traditional perceptions of tax exceptionalism from administrative law doctrines and requirements have been predicated at least in part on the importance of the tax code’s revenue raising function. Yet, Congress increasingly relies on the IRS to administer government programs that have little to do with raising revenue and much more to do with distributing government benefits to the economically disadvantaged, subsidizing approved activities, and regulating outright certain economic sectors like nonprofits, pensions, and now health care. As the attentions of the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service shift away from raising revenue and toward these other matters, the revenue-based justification …

Complex Value Choices At The Environment-Energy Interface, Hari M. Osofsky

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This dilemma of environment-energy decisions that have major positives and negatives from either a health or ecosystem perspective poses an important ethical challenge that this Essay explores. Namely, in many cases, one can value humans, species, and ecosystems, and still not be able to resolve the best way forward. The Essay focuses in particular on a core problem at the environment-energy interface: people demand cheap and reliable energy, which pushes us towards new technology or the massive expansion of existing technology, both of which carry risks and possibilities for a cleaner future. The Essay considers this dilemma in the U.S. …

Hybrid Energy Governance, Hari M. Osofsky, Hannah J. Wiseman

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This Article develops a novel theory of energy governance and uses it to assess how institutional innovation can help meet critical challenges. Energy law is substantively complex and deeply fragmented. Each energy sector - including fuel extraction and pipelines, electricity generation and transmission, and transportation - has its own legal regime and federalism approach; confusion often exists at moments of crisis about how much authority federal, state, and local regulators have in these areas. The complexity and fragmentation of energy law are particularly problematic because the energy system faces major transitions due to emerging technology, more unpredictable and extreme weather …

The Geography Of Solving Global Environmental Problems: Reflections On Polycentric Efforts To Address Climate Change, Hari M. Osofsky

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This essay considers how we might fit local efforts to address climate change, especially those by very small, suburban cities, within models for solving "global problems." While acknowledging the need for more action on climate change at international, national, and state levels, and regional ones in between, this essay explores how different types of cities, as they participate in multilevel networks, can provide models for action and complement efforts to address climate change through the treaty regime. Using a diverse group of suburbs in the Twin Cities metropolitan region making innovative climate change and sustainability efforts as a case example, …

Comparative Law And Economics Of Standard-Essential Patents And Frand Royalties, Thomas F. Cotter

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Standard setting organizations often require their members to declare which of their patents are essential to the practice of a prospective standard, and to agree to license any such standard-essential patents (SEPs) on "fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory" (FRAND) terms. Among the issues that have arisen in recent disputes involving FRAND-encumbered SEPs are (1) whether a FRAND commitment creates a binding contract for the benefit of third parties, obligating the SEP owner to forgo the right to seek injunctive relief for the infringement of the SEP; (2) whether the law of remedies, or other principles of generally applicable civil law such …

Machiavellianism In Healthcare Explored: Differences In Aspiring Managers And Patient Care Professionals, Sandra Collins

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Complex economic factors require healthcare professionals to have multiple skills. Although controversial, some characteristics associated with Machiavellianism may be needed in order to maintain organizational solvency. A study was conducted to determine the differences between aspiring healthcare managers and patient care professionals regarding the Machiavellian tendencies. The results of the study indicate a significant mix of Machiavellian traits exist within both groups which need to be both cultivated and controlled. Efforts should be made to increase some Machiavellian tendencies such as risk-risk taking and creative while extinguishing counterproductive traits that lead to unethical decision making.

A Strange Kind Of Identity Theft: How Competing Definitions Of "Indian" May Deny Individual Identity, Suzianne D. Painter-Thorne

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To the extent we think about it all, most of us believe what our parents tell us about where we came from-about who our grandparents are, who our ancestors were, our ethnic background, our family histories. My own family story includes claims to Scottish, Irish, French, and English ancestry. It also includes the Cherokee great-grandmother so popular in American genealogical stories. I have not undertaken an extensive genealogical search to more accurately pinpoint the threads of my ancestral quilt; I have simply accepted the family lore without much thought to whether it was verifiable.

My family's claimed link to the …

Phenomenology And Hermeneutic Phenomenology: The Philosophy, The Methodologies And Using Hermeneutic Phenomenology To Investigate Lecturers' Experiences Of Curriculum Design, Arthur Sloan, Brian Bowe

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This article investigates the philosophy of phenomenology, continuing to examine and describe it as a methodology. There are different methods of phenomenology, divided by their different perspectives of what phenomenology is: largely grouped into the two types of descriptive and interpretive phenomenology. The focal methodology is hermeneutic phenomenology – one type of phenomenological methodology among interpretive phenomenological methodologies. The context for phenomenology and the location of hermeneutic phenomenology is explained through its historic antecedents. When using phenomenology as a methodology there are criteria for data gathering and data analysis and examples of these are cited in this paper. Also in …

Experimental Study And Analysis Of A Polymer Fiber Bragg Grating Embedded In A Composite Material, Ginu Rajan, Manjusha Ramakrishnan, Yuliya Semenova, Eliathamby Ambikairajah, Gerald Farrell, Gang-Ding Peng

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The characteristics of polymer fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) embedded in composite materials are studied in this paper and are compared with characteristics of their silica counterparts. A polymer FBG of 10 mm length which exhibits a peak reflected wavelength circa 1530 nm is fabricated and characterized for this purpose. A silica FBG with a peak reflected wavelength circa 1553 nm is also embedded in the composite material for a comparison study. The fabricated composite material sample with embedded sensors is subjected to temperature and strain changes and the corresponding effects on the embedded polymer and silica FBGs are studied. The …

Compelled Disclosures, Caroline Mala Corbin

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Courts have faced a wave of compelled disclosure cases recently. By government mandate, tobacco manufacturers must include graphic warnings on their cigarette packages, doctors must show and describe ultrasound images of fetuses to women seeking to abort them, and crisis pregnancy centers must disclose that they do not provide contraception or abortion services. Although applying the same compelled speech doctrine to similar issues, appeals courts have reached very different results in challenges to these laws. Drawing from First Amendment theory, this Article first identifies why compelled disclosures undermine free speech values. It then applies those insights to the specific examples …

The Role Of Mindfulness In The Ongoing Evolution Of Legal Education, Scott L. Rogers

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Mitigating The Impacts Of The Renewable Energy Gold Rush, Amy Wilson Morris, Jessica Owley

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Cultivating Professional Identity & Creating Community: A Tale Of Two Innovations, Jan L. Jacobowitz

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No abstract provided.

Symbolic Politics For Disempowered Communities: State Environmental Justice Policies, Tonya Lewis, Jessica Owley

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No abstract provided.

I Am/I Am Not: On Angela Harris's Race And Essentialism In Feminist Legal Theory, Mary Anne Franks

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In 1990, Angela Harris wrote an article that interrogated the limitations of feminist legal theory. Nearly a quarter of a century later, the insights and challenges Harris offered in Race and Essentialism in Feminist Legal Theory continue to reverberate. The influence of her ideas can be seen in the fractured and passionate conversations about gender, race, and solidarity occurring both inside and outside of academia. In recent years, we have witnessed an explosion of debate of these topics in social media forums such as Twitter and Facebook. Far from being trivial, the intensity and persistence of these conversations suggest a …

Beyond Tax Credits: Smarter Tax Policy For A Cleaner, More Democratic Energy Future, Felix Mormann

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Solar, wind, and other renewable energy technologies have the potential to mitigate climate change, secure America's energy independence, and create millions of green jobs. In the absence of a price on carbon emissions, however, these long-term benefits will not be realized without near-term policy support for renewable energy. This Article assesses the efficiency of federal tax incentives for renewables and proposes policy reform to promote renewable energy more cost-effectively through capital markets and crowdfunding.

Federal support for renewable energy today comes primarily in the form of accelerated depreciation and, critically, tax credits. Empirical evidence reveals that only a fraction of …

The Forkhead Transcription Factor, Foxp3: A Critical Role In Male Fertility In Mice., Jake S Jasurda, Deborah O Jung, Erin D Froeter, David B Schwartz, Torin D Hopkins, Corrie L Farris, Stacey Mcgee, Prema Narayan, Buffy S Ellsworth

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Fertility is dependent on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. Each component of this axis is essential for normal reproductive function. Mice with a mutation in the forkhead transcription factor gene, Foxp3, exhibit autoimmunity and infertility. We have previously shown that Foxp3 mutant mice have significantly reduced expression of pituitary gonadotropins. To address the role of Foxp3 in gonadal function, we examined the gonadal phenotype of these mice. Foxp3 mutant mice have significantly reduced seminal vesicle and testis weights compared with Foxp3(+/Y) littermates. Spermatogenesis in Foxp3 mutant males is arrested prior to spermatid elongation. Activation of luteinizing hormone signaling in Foxp3 mutant mice …

Quantitative Trait Loci Underlying Partial Resistance To Cercospora Sojina Race 2 Detected In Soybean Seedlings In Greenhouse Assays, Hemlata Sharma, David A. Lightfoot

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Cercospora sojina (Hara), an air-borne pathogen, infects soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] leaves causing frog-eye leaf spot (FLS). Three major genes (Rcs1-3) underlie resistance to the major races of FLS but two were not yet mapped. In addition quantitative trait loci provide partial resistance to many strains. FLS race 2 was an isolate first collected in the 1950’s when damaging FLS first arose. ‘Essex’ was partially resistant while ‘Forrest’ was partially susceptible to mixed races of FLS. The objective here was to identify quantitative trait loci underlying resistance to FLS race 2 in the greenhouse using recombinant inbred lines (RILs) …

Hate Speech In Cyberspace, Richard Delgado, Jean Stefancic

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Coauthored with Jean Stefancic Hate Speech in Cyberspace analyzes why hate speech and other expressions of contempt are so ubiquitous on the Internet Building on our previous work on hate speech we identify features of cyberspace that predispose users to communicate in this fashion and suggest a number of remedies

A Qualitative Examination Of Self-Care In Lawyers, Mary E. Wood, Jacklyn E. Nagle, Pamela Bucy Pierson

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It may seem obvious that selfcare is important for wellbeing and success in life However selfcare is not always practiced when work bills and other issues come into play All individuals experience stress in their lives but not all have identified specific strategies to adaptively cope with stress Recent research has established the negative implications of workrelated stress on wellbeing

Success And Failure In Adr: A Dialogue Between Partners, Lela P. Love, Joseph B. Stulberg

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Love and Stulberg critically discuss policy, scholarly, and practice developments in four areas of program development in the area historically referenced as alternative dispute resolution (ADR): the range of process options; the impact of court procedures on ADR program development and practice; the nature of ADR scholarship and training; and the general public's receptiveness to or rejection of the normative principles that structure ADR collaborative processes. Their concluding remarks suggest that the promise of ADR, particularly of the mediation process, remains inspiring to many, even if its effective implementation remains uneven.

Effects Of Clergy Reporting Laws On Child Maltreatment Report Rates, Frank E. Vandervort, Vincent J. Palusci

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Child maltreatment (CM) reporting laws and policies have an important role in the identification, treatment, and prevention of CM in the United States (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [US DHHS], 2012). Abuse by a member of the clergy “is not only a personal and emotional betrayal, but [also] a spiritual betrayal, with secrecy amplified by the unprecedented and systemic cover-up committed by the Church hierarchy” (Coyne, 2011, p. 15). Recent controversies have resulted in the consideration of changes in mandated U.S. reporting laws that include increasing requirements for clergy and extension to additional professions (Freeh, Sporkin, & Sullivan, …

Understanding Insurance Anti-Discrimination Laws, Ronen Avraham, Kyle D. Logue, Daniel Schwarcz

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Insurance companies are in the business of discrimination. Insurers attempt to segregate insureds into separate risk pools based on the differences in their risk profiles, first, so that different premiums can be charged to the different groups based on their differing risks and, second, to incentivize risk reduction by insureds. This is why we let insurers discriminate. There are limits, however, to the types of discrimination that are permissible for insurers. But what exactly are those limits and how are they justified? To answer these questions, this Article (a) articulates the leading fairness and efficiency arguments for and against limiting …

Towards A Universal Framework For Insurance Anti-Discrimination Laws, Ronen Avraham, Kyle D. Logue, Daniel Schwarcz

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Discrimination in insurance is principally regulated at the state level. Surprisingly, there is a great deal of variation across coverage lines and policyholder characteristics in how and the extent to which risk classification by insurers is limited. Some statutes expressly permit insurers to consider certain characteristics, while other characteristics are forbidden or limited in various ways. What explains this variation across coverage lines and policyholder characteristics? Drawing on a unique, hand-collected data-set consisting of the laws regulating insurer risk classification in fifty-one U.S. jurisdictions, this Article argues that much of the variation in state-level regulation of risk classification can in …

Contemporary Practice Of The United States Relating To International Law, January 2014, Kristina Daugirdas, Julian Davis Mortenson

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• Progress Is Made Implementing U.S.-Russia Framework for Eliminating Syrian Chemical Weapons • United States Advocates for Syrian Peace Conference • United States Extends Deadline for Signing of Bilateral Security Agreement with Afghanistan • China Announces New Air Defense Identification Zone over East China Sea, Prompting U.S. Response • United States and Six Other States Reach Interim Agreement on Iranian Nuclear Program

Supplementation With Three Different Macular Carotenoid Formulations In Patients With Early Age-Related Macular Degeneration., James Loughman, Sarah Sabour-Pickett, Stephen Beatty, Eithne Connolly, Jim Stack, Alan Howard, Ronald Klein, Barbara Klein, Stacy Meuer, Chelsea Myers, Kwadwo Akuffo, John Nolan

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Purpose: To investigate the impact of three different macular carotenoid formulations on macular pigment optical density and visual performance in subjects with early age-related macular degeneration. Methods: Fifty-two subjects were supplemented and followed for 12 months, 17 of them were in intervention Group 1 (20 mg/day lutein and 2 mg/day zeaxanthin); 21 in Group 2 (10 mg/day meso-zeaxanthin, 10 mg/day lutein, and 2 mg/day zeaxanthin); and 14 in Group 3 (17 mg/day meso-zeaxanthin, 3 mg/day lutein, and 2 mg/day zeaxanthin). The macular pigment optical density was measured using customized heterochromatic flicker photometry, and visual function was assessed using corrected distance …

Access To Optometric Education: Challenges In Sub-Saharan Africa, James Loughman, V.R. Moodley, Brien Holden, K. Naidoo

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Access to education was identified as a key international priority by UNESCO as far back as 1998 when it called for “equality of access”. The profession of optometry has been challenged to educate practitioners in increasing numbers in order to meet the eye care needs. The World Health Organization reported that globally, an estimated 285 million people are visually impaired and in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) uncorrected refractive error is the main cause of visual impairment. The number of optometrists trained on the continent is currently insufficient to meet these eye care needs with limited access to education remaining a …