Digital Commons Network^™

Memorizing Trade Secrets, Timothy Murphy

Articles

The earliest trade secret cases recognized that remembered information raised unique issues in trade secret misappropriation claims. However, courts struggled with exactly how to address remembered information, as opposed to information taken in tangible form. The modern trend, according to one case from the Washington Supreme Court, is to ignore the distinction and treat remembered information the same as information taken in tangible form for purposes of trade secret misappropriation claims. However, this case may have prematurely signaled the demise of remembered information's relevance to a trade secret claim. Particularly during the pandemic era, where increased employee mobility is placing …

Interring The Nondelegation Doctrine; Sepultando A Doutrina Da Não Delegação, Eric Posner, Adrian Vermeule

Articles

A large academic literature discusses the nondelegation doctrine, which is said to bar Congress from enacting excessively broad or excessively discretionary grants of statutory authority to the executive branch or other agents. The bulk of this literature accepts the existence of the doctrine, and argues only about the terms of its application or the competence of the courts to enforce it. In this essay, we argue that there is no such nondelegation doctrine: A statutory grant of authority to the executive branch or other agents never effects a delegation of legislative power Agents acting within the terms of such a …

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.

Nonparty Interests In Contract Law, Omri Ben-Shahar, David Hoffman, Cathy Hwang

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Contract law has one overarching goal: to advance the legitimate interests of the contracting parties. For the most part, scholars, judges, and parties embrace this party primacy norm, recognizing only a few exceptions, such as mandatory rules that bar enforcement of agreements that harm others. This Article describes a distinct species of previously unnoticed contract law rules that advance nonparty interests, which it calls “nonparty defaults.”

In doing so, this Article makes three contributions to the contract law literature. First, it identifies nonparty defaults as a judicial technique. It shows how courts deviate from the party primacy norm with surprising …

Lessons From Disease And Economic Surveillance During Covid-19, Anup Malani

Articles

This paper describes disease and economic surveillance during COVID, along with the uses of that surveillance, and lessons learned about the pandemic from that surveillance. It ends with policy suggestions on how to gather intelligence during the next pandemic in India and how surveillance informs suppression policy. The important themes that I stress are the value of population-level surveillance, understanding the incentives and disincentives for surveillance and reporting, and tailoring policy to the results of surveillance.

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

Articles

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 …

Investigation Of Dielectric And Mechanical Properties Of Lignocellulosic Rice Husk Fibril For High And Medium Voltage Electrical Insulation Applications, T. Rajamanikandan, S. Banumathi, B. Karthikeyan, R. Palanisamy, Mohit Bajaj, Hossam Zawbaa, Salah Kamel

Articles

The insulating material is made from rice husk and epoxy resin which are ecologically friendly and incredibly durable. When coarse Rice husk is mechanically disintegrated, fibrils are formed. By weaving together fibrillated threads, and robust biodegradables, lightweight dielectric fibers are created. Then the Composites are examined utilizing a blend of agave Rice husk fibers (10–35%) and an epoxy resin solution. The Chemical treatment of the Rice husk fibers increases the composites’ mechanical strength and electrical insulating properties. The tensile strength of Rice husk in epoxy composites is increased from 37.84 MPa to 48.32 MPa. The experimental results are compared using …

Can't Get It Out Of My Head: Trade Secrets Liability For Remembered Information, Timothy Murphy

Articles

The earliest trade secrets cases recognized that intentional memorization of trade secret information for the purpose of misappropriating that information should be redressable in a trade secrets action. However, courts did not distinguish between information that was intentionally memorized versus information that was inadvertently remembered. In the early days, trade secrets law was characterized by unfair competition approaches whereby liability would be found only if there was some improper act by the misappropriator. This approach was solidified in the Restatement (First) of Torts, which conditioned misappropriation liability upon a knowledge requirement. The knowledge requirement continued in the later statutory period, …

Strategic Subdelegation, Brian D. Feinstein, Jennifer Nou

Articles

Appointed leaders of administrative agencies routinely record subdelegations of governmental authority to civil servants. That appointees willingly cede authority in this way presents a puzzle, at least at first glance: Why do these appointees assign their power to civil servants insulated by merit protection laws, that is, to employees over whom they have limited control? This article develops and tests a theory to explain this behavior. Using original data on appointee-to-civil servant delegations and a measure of the ideological distance between these two groups of actors, we show that appointees are more willing to vest power in civil servants when …

Moderating The Fediverse: Content Moderation On Distributed Social Media, Alan Rozenshtein

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No abstract provided.

Ai Tools For Lawyers: A Practical Guide, Daniel Schwarcz

Articles

This Article provides practical and specific guidance on how to effectively use AI large language models (LLMs), like GPT-4, Bing Chat, and Bard, in legal research and writing. Focusing on GPT-4—the most advanced LLM that is widely available at the time of this writing—it emphasizes that lawyers can use traditional legal skills to refine and verify LLM legal analysis. In the process, lawyers and law students can effectively turn freely available LLMs into highly productive personal legal assistants.

The Relationship Between Ventilation Rates In Schools And The Indoor Airborne Transmission Potential Of Covid-19, Seamus Harrington, Mark Mulville, Spyros Stravoravdis

Articles

The requirement for natural ventilation strategies in classrooms to perform in respect to both their inherent and adaptive capacity is necessary to mitigate the risk of transmission associated with infectious airborne pathogens such as COVID-19. This paper assesses the performance of ten classrooms considering (a) the designed versus actual ventilation capacity; (b) the probability of airborne disease transmission by unit time resulting from calculated ventilation rates and (c) the reduction of transmission risk associated with mask wearing by all occupants.

Monitored air changes per hour (ACH) range from 0.26–1.7, demonstrating that none of the classrooms meet designed ventilation rate whilst …

Three Faces Of Creditor-On-Creditor Aggression, Douglas Baird

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No abstract provided.

Statistical Discrimination, Sonja Starr

Articles

The Supreme Court has emphatically and repeatedly rejected efforts to justify otherwise-illegal discrimination against individuals by resort to statistical generalizations about groups. But practices that violate this principle are pervasive and largely ignored or even embraced by courts, lawyers, and law scholars. For example, many health care fields, in seeming contravention of antidiscrimination statutes, make use of explicitly racialized diagnostic algorithms that make it harder for Black patients to access care than non-Black patients with identical symptoms. Moreover, the justice system itself has embraced numerous similar practices, including demographic and “sociocultural” adjustments of intellectual-capacity assessments for defendants facing the death …

Efficacious Answers To The Non-Pro Rata Workout, Vincent Buccola

Articles

he lack of comprehensive response to a recent wave of non-pro rata refinancing transactions poses theoretical as well as practical puzzles. Most market participants seem to think that workout negotiations at least presumptively ought to treat creditors in a bond or a loan facility equally. Yet more than two years after it became clear that debtors would consider non-pro rata deals, and despite evidence that clever advisors might be able to circumvent contractual changes addressed to a specific non-pro rata transactional form, no effort to ensure equal treatment generally has taken hold. Why not?

This essay offers an optimistic account …

Rethinking Disclosure Obligations In Securities Regulations: Why Less Is (Much) More, Richard Epstein

Articles

No abstract provided.

Ammonia Cycling And Emerging Inorganic Secondary Aerosols From Arable Agriculture, Vivien Pohl, Alan Gilmer, Vivienne Byers, John Cassidy, Aoife Donnelly, Stig Hellebust, Eoin J. Mcgillicuddy, Eugene Mcgovern, David J. O'Connor

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No abstract provided.

Industry Update October 2022, Elaine Harris

Articles

Company news Bend Bioscience invests in expansion of drug-delivery capabilities Bend Bioscience (OR, USA) and NovaQuest Private Equity, have announced plans on 11 October 2022 to invest in a new facility in Bend, Oregon. The group will focus on developing new R&D partnerships, and early phase manufacturing and development activities based on proprietary particle engineering-based drug-delivery technologies. This new facility will consist of approximately 20,000 square feet of laboratory and processing areas and it is anticipated that manufacturing and analytical capabilities will operational by the end of Q2 2023. Announcing the investment decision, Dan Dobry, Bend Bioscience’s co-founder said “We …

An Investigation Of 3.5 Μm Emission In Er3+-Doped Fluorozirconate Glasses Under 638 Nm Laser Excitation, Haiyan Zhao, Ke Tian, Xin Wang, Dejun Liu, Shunbin Wang, Gerald Farrell, Pengfei Wang

Articles

Intense 3.5 μm mid-infrared emission has been achieved in Er3+-doped ZBYA glasses, which is ascribed to the Er3+: 4F9/2→4I9/2 transition. Based on the absorption spectrum of Er3+ ions, a 638 nm laser was utilized to directly pump the upper level (Er3+: 4F9/2) to achieve 3.5 μm emission with enhanced quantum efficiency. Spectroscopic parameters were predicted by Judd-Ofelt theory. The maximum emission cross-section of the Er3+-doped ZBYA glass was estimated to be 5.5×10-22 cm2 at 3496 nm. Additionally, the fluorescence spectra and energy level lifetimes of ZBYA glass samples with different Er3+ ions doping concentrations were also measured. The theoretical and …

Constructing A Fine Dispersion And Chemical Interface Based On An Electrostatic Self-Assembly And Aqueous Phase Compound In Go/Sio2/Sbr Composites To Achieve High-Wear Resistance In Eco-Friendly Green Tires, Rui Zhang, Jiaye Li, Stephen Jerrams, Shui Hu, Shipeng Wen, Ligun Zhang

Articles

The hazard to the ecosystem caused by rubber microparticles generated from tire abrasion has been a constant concern. Therefore, to protect this ecosystem, the development of a tire tread with high abrasion resistance is especially significant. Herein, γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) was used to modify graphene oxide (GO) and silica (SiO2) to obtain GO and SiO2 with positive charges (NG and NS). Furthermore, NG and NS were electrostatically self-assembled by using maleic anhydride (MAH) hydrolysis, thereby obtaining composite particles (NG-NS) with “bridged structures”. Also, the NG-NS/styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) compounds possessing fine dispersion of NG-NS were prepared by the aqueous compounding method. …

Surface Modification Of Carbonyl Iron Particles Using Dopamine And Silane Coupling Agent For High-Performance Magnetorheological Elastomers, Jiaqing Zhao, Dongliang Li, Baojie Sun, Liang Jiang, Yanfen Zhou, Shipeng Wen, Stephen Jerrams, Jianwei Ma, Shaojuan Chen

Articles

Magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) are smart materials whose mechanical properties can quickly respond to changes in the external magnetic field. This phenomenon is known as the magnetorheological (MR) effect and is the key to the application of magnetorheological elastomers. Previous studies have found that the interface between magnetic particles and elastomers is a critical factor that influencing the MR effect of MREs. To improve the interfacial interaction between silicone rubber (SR) and carbonyl iron (CI) particles, in the MREs considered in this work, CI particles were subjected to surface modification through polydopamine (PDA) deposition and n-dodecyltrimethoxysilane (DTMS) grafting. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy …

A Label-Free Fiber Ring Laser Biosensor For Ultrahigh Sensitivity Detection Of Salmonella Typhimurium, Shi Qiu, Bin Liu, Yuankui Leng, Edward Fox, Xian Zhou, Binbin Yan, Xinzhu Sang, Long Long, Xingdao He, Jinhui Yuan, Gerald Farrell, Qiang Wu

Articles

The rapid detection of low concentrations of Salmonella Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) is an essential preventive measure for food safety and prevention of foodborne illness. The study presented in this paper addresses this critical issue by proposing a single mode-tapered seven core-single mode (STSS) fiber ring laser (FRL) biosensor for S. Typhimurium detection. The experimental results show that the specific detection time of S. Typhimurium is less than 20 min and the wavelength shift can achieve -0.906 nm for an S. Typhimurium solution (10 cells/mL). Furthermore, at a lower concentration of 1 cell/mL applied to the biosensor, a result of -0.183 …

Diethoxycarbonyl-Bodipys As Heavy-Atom-Free Photosensitizers For Holographic Recording In Cellulose Acetate Photopolymer, Aimee Sheehan, Tatsiana Mikulchyk, Catherine S.P. De Castro, Safakath Karuthedath, Wejdan Althobaiti, Metodej Dvoracek, Sabad-E Gul, Hugh Byrne, FréDéRic Laquai, Izabela Naydenova, Mikhail Filatov

Articles

A series of new heavy-atom-free photosensitizers based on 2,6-diethoxycarbonyl-BODIPY scaffold was designed and applied for holographic recording in a photopolymerizable material. Photoinduced electron transfer between the BODIPY and meso-aryl subunits, followed by the formation of BODIPY triplet excited states via spin-orbit charge transfer intersystem crossing (SOCT-ISC) was studied by steady-state and ultrafast pump-probe transient optical spectroscopy. Highly efficient photosensitization was observed for dyads bearing pyrene and anthracene substituents, which exhibited singlet oxygen generation quantum yields () of up to 94%. Charge transfer and SOCT-ISC were observed in non-polar solvent (toluene) due to the increased electron accepting ability of the diethoxycarbonyl-BODIPY. …

A Simple Microcalorimetry System To Determine The Adsorption Behaviour Of Acids In Large Adhesive Bond Gaps Using Base-Initiated Solution Polymerisation Of Ethyl-2-Cyanoacrylate, Kevin Raheem, John Cassidy, Tony Betts, Bernard Ryan

Articles

This work presents the use of a simple microcalorimetry cyanoacrylate (CA) polymerisation system for investigating aspects of CA adhesive cure through gap and adsorption of adhesive acid stabiliser by a range of metal and glass substrates. It is well established that strong acid induced inhibition periods (IPs) are almost directly proportional to the acid concentration in weak base initiated polymerisations of alkyl CAs in tetrahydrofuran (THF). Ethyl cyanoacrylate (ECA) polymerisation IP measurements were used to determine the adsorption of methanesulfonic acid (MSA) in THF or ECA solutions by a range of metal, glass and polypropylene (PP) lap shears surfaces. The …

Experimental And Theoretical Evaluation Of A Commercial Luminescent Dye For Pvt Systems, Kenneth Coldrick, James Walshe, Sarah Mccormack, John Doran, George Amarandei

Articles

Combining photovoltaic (PV) and photo-thermal (PT) energy collection strategies in a single system can enhance solar energy conversion efficiencies, leading to increased economic returns and wider adoption of renewable energy sources. This study focuses on incorporating a commercial luminescent organic dye (BASF Lumogen F Red 305) into ethylene glycol to explore its potential for PVT applications. The optical and electrical characteristics of the working fluid were evaluated at different temperatures under direct solar irradiance. Pristine ethylene glycol reduced the maximum PV cell temperature by 10 °C. The inclusion of luminescent dye at various concentrations further reduced the maximum temperature, with …

Guest Editorial: Building Performance And Sustainable Infrastructure: Unsustainable Return To Practice, Christopher Gorse, Colin Booth, Lloyd Scott

Articles

The abrupt decline in global carbon emissions experienced during the pandemic was not sustainable. Overwhelmingly, this is evidenced by the advanced economies’ swift return to close to pre-pandemic levels and, of greater concern, the total global use of fossil fuels has rebounded to their highest level in history (IEA, 2021; Jackson et al., 2022). Unfortunately, post-pandemic, the anthropic life threating activities have resumed.

Swarm Electrification: A Comprehensive Literature Review, Stephen Sheridan, Keith Sunderland, Jane Courtney

Articles

In the global North, the need to decarbonize power generation is well documented and the challenges faced are endemic to the design of the electrical grids. With networks relying on centralized generation, it can be difficult to replace fossil-fuel power plants with renewable energy sources as generation may be intermittent causing grid instability when there is no ‘spinning reserve’ [1]. In parts of the global south, however, many under-electrified nations have high levels of solar irradiance. This, combined with falling prices for solar panels, is allowing for alternative paths to electrification from costly grid extensions and has resulted in grids …

Trade Policing, Kathleen Claussen

Articles

At the core of U.S. economic governance, there is a novel and under-noticed phenomenon that challenges longstanding frameworks of international law and corporate compliance. This practice, which this Article terms the new "trade policing," has extraordinary reach. Recent regulatory makeovers and pathbreaking statutes empower our trade agencies to target, for the first time, companies, rather than foreign governments, as used to be their purview. Trade police now pursue companies wherever they may be in the world, not just for violating U.S. law but also for violating foreign law in areas as diverse as labor rights and environmental protections. Such a …

Humans In The Loop, Nicholson Price Ii, Rebecca Crootof, Margot Kaminski

Articles

From lethal drones to cancer diagnostics, humans are increasingly working with complex and artificially intelligent algorithms to make decisions which affect human lives, raising questions about how best to regulate these “human in the loop” systems. We make four contributions to the discourse.

First, contrary to the popular narrative, law is already profoundly and often problematically involved in governing human-in-the-loop systems: it regularly affects whether humans are retained in or removed from the loop. Second, we identify “the MABA-MABA trap,” which occurs when policymakers attempt to address concerns about algorithmic incapacities by inserting a human into decision making process. Regardless …

How The Blockchain Undermined Digital Ownership, Aaron Perzanowski

Articles

The shift from a market built around the sale of tangible goods to one premised on the licensing of digital content and services has done significant and lasting damage to the notion of individual ownership. The emergence of blockchain technology, while certainly not necessary to reverse these trends, promised an opportunity to attract investment and demonstrate consumer demand for marketplaces that recognize meaningful digital ownership. Simultaneously, it offered an avenue for alleviating worries about hypothetical widespread reproduction and unchecked distribution of copyrighted works. Instead, many of the most visible blockchain projects in recent years—the proliferation of new cryptocurrencies and the …