Digital Commons Network^™

Feature Papers In Optical Sensors 2022, Vittorio M. N. Passaro, Yuliya Semenova, Benjamin Miller

Articles

Today, optical sensors are the subject of a very significant number of studies and applications. Many well-established technologies, including free-space optics, integrated photonics, and fiber optics approaches, have been developed in recent decades to fabricate and develop increasingly more efficient optical sensors for applications ranging from industrial control to monitoring the environment, biomedical use, and even as part of the Internet of Things.

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

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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 …

Forecasting Covid-19 Cases Using Dynamic Time Warping And Incremental Machine Learning Methods, Luis Miralles-Pechuán, Ankit Kumar, Andres L. Suarez-Cetrulo

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The investment of time and resources for developing better strategies is key to dealing with future pandemics. In this work, we recreated the situation of COVID-19 across the year 2020, when the pandemic started spreading worldwide. We conducted experiments to predict the coronavirus cases for the 50 countries with the most cases during 2020. We compared the performance of state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, such as long-short-term memory networks, against that of online incremental machine learning algorithms. To find the best strategy, we performed experiments to test three different approaches. In the first approach (single-country), we trained each model using data …

Maintaining Connections During The Pandemic: Rural Arts Festivals And Digital Practices, Enya Moore, Bernadette Quinn

Articles

During the COVID lockdowns of 2020/21, the transmission of live or recorded concerts grew exponentially as festival makers embraced digital technologies to a greater degree. Investigating how this digital pivot interrupted festival-making practices is now important given that online and hybrid modes will potentially be used in conjunction with in-person events in the future. This task has relevance for rural areas where digital infrastructures can be under-developed. Yet, place-based, community-organised festivals can play a significant role in sustaining local communities. In this context, we explore the recent digital programming practices of music festivals in West Cork, Ireland. Methodologically, the study …

The World Of International & Comparative Law Journals, Kathleen Claussen

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No abstract provided.

Modification Of Hyaluronic Acid To Enable Click Chemistry Photo-Crosslinking Of Hydrogels With Tailorable Degradation Profiles, Ciara Buckley

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Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a naturally occurring mucopolysaccharide that, due to its inherent bioactivity and extracellular matrix-like structure, has the potential to be utilised extensively in tissue engineering. However, this glycosaminoglycan lacks the properties required for cellular adhesion and photo-crosslinking by UV light, which significantly hinders this polymers applicability. This research presents a method for modifying hyaluronic acid via thiolation and methacrylation to generate a novel photo-crosslinkable polymer with improved physicochemical properties, biocompatibility and the potential to customize biodegradability according to the ratio of monomers used. A decrease in stiffness proportional to increasing thiol concentration was observed when testing the …

Putting The Individual And Context Back Into National Human Resource Development Research: A Systematic Review And Research Agenda, Thomas Garavan, Jia Wang, Ciara Nolan Dr, Yanqing Lai, Fergal O'Brien, Colette Darcy, Gerri Matthews-Smith, Gary Mclean

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Conceptualization of national human resource development (NHRD) emphasizes that it is an ongoing development process of the individual that is shaped by context. However, the extant literature has focused primarily on describing and evaluating NHRD policies and interventions in different countries with limited consideration of NHRD across the lifespan and the interaction of life stage with context. Using ecological systems theory (EST) and a lifespan development perspective (LDP), we present a systematic review of the NHRD literature based on 310 sources. We identify key themes and gaps in research across the lifespan and at distinct levels of the ecological system. …

The Use Of Transport Time Scales As Indicators Of Pollution Persistence In A Macro-Tidal Setting, Guanghai Gao, John J. O'Sullivan, Aisling Corkery, Zeinab Bedri, Gregory M.P. O'Hare, Wim G. Meijer

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An understanding of water exchange processes is essential for assessing water quality management issues in coastal bays. This paper evaluates the impact of water exchange processes on pollution persistence in a macro-tidal semi-closed coastal bay through two transport time scales (TTS), namely residence time and exposure time. The numerical model was calibrated against field-measured data for various tidal conditions. Simulated current speeds and directions were shown to agree well with the field data. By considering different release scenarios of a conservative tracer by the refinement of an integrated hydrodynamic and solute transport model (the EFDC), the two TTS were used …

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 …

Use Of Inner/Outer Sphere Terminology In Electrochemistry—A Hexacyanoferrate Ii/Iii Case Study, John Cassidy, Rafaela Cristina De Carvalho, Tony Betts

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Salts of hexacyanoferrate II/III anions have been widely used as redox couple probe molecules to determine the characteristics of electrode surfaces. Examples include the assessment of electrocatalysts for energy applications and electrocatalysts for the detection of biological or chemical species, as well as the determination of electrochemically active surface areas. An examination of the electrochemical literature, based largely on cyclic voltammetric investigations, reveals a wide range of peak separation and/or heterogeneous electron transfer rate constants, classified sometimes as inner or outer sphere electron transfer processes. Originally developed for the mechanistic interpretation of inorganic transition metal compounds in solution, this terminology …

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

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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

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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.

Effect Of Operating Parameters On Performance Of Finger Millet Pearling Machine, Ranjit Powar, Vijay Aware, Prasad Chavan, Amit K. Jaiswal

Articles

The effect of operational parameters such as feed rate (FR), drum speed (DS), and concave clearance (CC) was studied on the performance of a pearling drum. The pearling drum consists of pearling cylinder, pearling sieve, concave, and outer casing of the drum. The response surface method with CCRD experimental design was used to study the effect of operational parameters on pearling drum. The considered levels for optimizing operational parameters viz., FR, DS, and CC were 40–80 kg/h, 5– 10 m/s, and 3–15 mm, respectively. The maximum pearling efficiency (PE) and minimum grain damage (GD) were found to be 98.40%, and …

Achieving Strong Chemical Interface And Superior Energy-Saving Capability At The Crosslinks Of Rubber Composites Containing Graphene Oxide Using Thiol-Vinyl Click Chemistry, Rui Zhang, Jiaye Li, Zongchao Xu, Stephen Jerrams, Shui Hu, Li Lui, Shipeng Wen, Liqun Zhang

Articles

Rapidly developments in international transportation inevitably lead to an increase in the consumption of energy and resources. Minimizing the rolling resistance of tires in this scenario is a pressing challenge. To lower the rolling resistance of tires, enhancing the interaction between fillers and rubber molecules while improving the dispersion of fillers are required to reduce the internal mutual friction and viscous loss of rubber composites. In this study, graphene oxide (GO) was modified using γ-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTMS) with thiol groups. A modified GO/natural rubber (MGO/NR) masterbatch with a fine dispersion of MGO was then introduced into solution-polymerized styrene butadiene rubber (SSBR) …

The 2023 Scalia Lecture: Beyond Textualism?, William Baude

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No abstract provided.

The Law Of The Sea And Democracy, Tom Ginsburg

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The law of the sea is not an area of international law generally associated with democracy. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is one of the world’s most broadly accepted and effective treaties, incorporating all kinds of States. The central cleavages among these states— coastal vs. maritime powers, developing countries vs. industrialized nations, landlocked vs. those with access to the seas—have only coincidental links to the global division of democracy and dictatorship. Yet, the law of the sea has surprising connections with democracy in that democratic states are enthusiastic users of the UNCLOS system. Furthermore, …

Universities As Knowledge Institutions: A Reply To Professor Jackson, Tom Ginsburg

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No abstract provided.

Privacy Protection, At What Cost? Exploring The Regulatory Resistance To Data Technology In Auto Insurance, Omri Ben-Shahar

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Regulatory and sociological resistance to new market-driven technologies, particularly to those that rely on collection and analysis of personal data, is prevalent even in cases where the technology creates large social value and saves lives. This article is a case study of such tragic technology resistance, focusing on tracking devices in cars which allow auto insurers to monitor how policyholders drive and adjust the premiums accordingly. Growing empirical work reveals that such “usage-based insurance” induces safer driving, reducing fatal accidents by almost one third, and resulting in more affordable and fair premiums. Yet, California prohibits this technology and other states …

The Political Question Doctrine And International Law, Curtis Bradley

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Under the political question doctrine, some issues are deemed to be inappropriate for judicial resolution. The modern version of the doctrine is typically traced to the Supreme Court’s 1962 decision in Baker v. Carr, in which the Court listed six reasons why an issue might be treated as political. Although the doctrine has received significant scholarly attention, most modern commentary has overlooked the historic relationship between the doctrine and international law. As this Essay documents, the political question doctrine emerged in part to allow the political branches, rather than the courts, to make determinations about this country’s—and other countries’—rights and …

How Redundant Are Redundant Encodings? Blindness In The Wild And Racial Disparity When Race Is Unobserved, Jacob Goldin, Lingwei Cheng, Isabel Gallegos, Derek Ouyang, Daniel Ho

Articles

We address two emerging concerns in algorithmic fairness: (i) redundant encodings of race – the notion that machine learning models encode race with probability nearing one as the feature set grows – which is widely noted in theory, with little empirical evidence; and (ii) the lack of race and ethnicity data in many domains, where state-of-the-art remains (Naive) Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding (BISG) that relies on name and geographic information. We leverage a novel and highly granular dataset of over 7.7 million patients’ electronic health records to provide one of the first empirical studies of redundant encodings in a realistic …

Common Good Gun Rights, Darrell Miller

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No abstract provided.

Spacs, Pipes, And Common Investors, Frank Fagan, Saul Levmore

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Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, or SPACs, have come to play a large role in bringing together small and large investors in the acquisition and expansion of private companies. A pessimistic version of this relatively recent alternative to conventional initial public offerings (IPOs), and other methods of investing in companies ready to expand, is that clever sharks take advantage of overly optimistic and ill-informed small investors. This Article offers a very different view. It shows that common investors need someone to locate good investment opportunities, and then they often benefit if another well-informed party can credibly vouch for the entity that …

The Comparative Constitutional Of Democratic Backsliding: A Report On The State Of The Field, Aziz Huq, Tom Ginsburg

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No abstract provided.

Legal Origins And Human Rights Law, Adam Chilton, Mila Versteeg

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A widely studied topic in comparative law is the extent to which countries’ legal origins—and especially whether they are a civil or common law system—are associated with the substance of their contemporary laws. We contribute to this line of research by using data from a range of sources to explore whether common law and civil law countries have different substantive legal commitments in an area where the enduring influence of legal origins remains unclear: human rights law. We specifically explore differences between common law and civil law countries along five dimensions. We find that, compared to countries with common law …

Review Of Daniel Farber, Inequality And Regulation: Designing Rules To Address Race, Poverty, And Environmental Justice, David Weisbach

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No abstract provided.

A Symposium To Mark The Publication, By New York University Press, Of Ian O’Donnell’S Prison Life: Pain, Resistance, And Purpose, Rosemary Gido, Derek S. Jeffreys, Cormac Behan, Kimmett Edgar, Bethany E. Schmidt, Gorazd Mesko, Mary K. Stohr, Ashley T. Rubin

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Recognizing the major scholarly contributions to criminology by the noted Irish criminologist, Ian O’Donnell, The Prison Journal invited seven contemporary corrections and punishment scholars to offer insights into O’Donnell’s new book, Prison Life: Pain, Resistance, and Purpose. Offering contextually rich descriptions of prisoner life, the text features four case study prisons—H Blocks, Northern Ireland; Eastham Unit, Texas; Isir Bet, Ethiopia; and ADX Florence, Colorado, in pivotal time periods and through an individual's custodial career in each institution. The symposium discussants focus on O’Donnell's conceptual framework—the degree of prison integration, system and staff regulation, and legitimacy—and how these reflect the key …

What’S Law Got To Do With It? How The Degree Of Legalization Affects The Durability Of Post-Conflict Autonomy Agreements, Felix Schulte, Gene Carolan

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Research has identified several factors that impact the sustainability of post-conflict territorial autonomy arrangements (TAA), including previous levels of violence, economic development in a given territory, or the strategic importance thereof. We argue that a hitherto neglected variable lies in the legal form of the autonomy agreement – that is, the degree to which it has been ‘legalized’ by the language and processes prescribed in the agreement. Based on a qualitative evaluation, we assess the legalization degree of 236 TAA signed between 1990 and 2019. Survival analyses and Cox regression models show that a higher degree of legalization has a …

Maintaining Connections During The Pandemic: Rural Arts Festivals And Digital Practices, Enya Moore, Bernadette Quinn

Articles

During the COVID lockdowns of 2020/21, the transmission of live or recorded concerts grew exponentially as festival makers embraced digital technologies to a greater degree. Investigating how this digital pivot interrupted festival-making practices is now important given that online and hybrid modes will potentially be used in conjunction with in-person events in the future. This task has relevance for rural areas where digital infrastructures can be under-developed. Yet, place-based, community-organised festivals can play a significant role in sustaining local communities. In this context, we explore the recent digital programming practices of music festivals in West Cork, Ireland. Methodologically, the study …

Finally, It Seems To Be Working – The Evolving Valuation Effect Of The European Union’S Emissions Trading System, Benjamin Lynch, Martha O'Hagan-Luff

Articles

This research examines the market reaction to the publication of firm-specific environmental news for participating firms in the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) during its third phase. Our sample of 123 publicly listed participating firms, located in 21 European countries, accounted for 45.43% of emissions in the EU ETS in 2020. Using an event study methodology during the period 2014–2021, we find that positive news was rewarded with increased returns for publication events related to the latter years of the phase (2017–2020) while it had an insignificant impact for earlier year (2013–2016). This indicates that the EU ETS …

Vulnerable Customers' Perception Of Corporate Social Responsibility In The Banking Sector In A Post-Crisis Context, Diego Monferrer Tirado, Lidia Vidal-Melia, John Cardiff, Keith Quille

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This research aims to determine to what extent corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions developed by bank entities in Spain improve the vulnerable customers' emotions and quality perception of the banking service. Consequently, this increases the quality of their relationship regarding satisfaction, trust and engagement.