Digital Commons Network^™

Michigan's Minority Graduates In Practice: Answers To Methodological Queries, Richard O. Lempert, David L. Chambers, Terry K. Adams

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Before making a few remarks in response to those who commented on our article (Lempert, Chambers, and Adams 2000), we would like to express our gratitude to the editors of Law and Social Inquiry for securing these commentaries and to the people who wrote them. The comments both highlight the potential uses to which our research and similar studies may be put and give us the opportunity to address methodological concerns and questions that other readers of our article may share with those who commented on it. The responses to our work are of two types. Professors Nelson, Payne, and …

Dna As Evidence: Viewing Science Through The Prism Of The Law, Peter Donnelly, Richard D. Friedman

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In this article, we analyze a problem related to DNA evidence that is likely to be of great and increasing significance in the near future. This is the problem of whether, and how, to present evidence that the suspect has been identified through a DNA database search. In our view, the two well-known reports on DNA evidence issued by the National Research Council (NRC) have been badly mistaken in their analysis of this problem. The mistakes are significant because the reports have carried great authority with American courts; moreover, the DNA Advisory Board of the FBI has endorsed the second …

Re-Examining The Role Of Patents In Appropriating The Value Of Dna Sequences, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

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As public and private sector initiatives race to complete the sequence of the human genome, patent issues have played a prominent role in speculations about the significance of this achievement. How much of the genome will be subject to the control of patent holders, and what will this mean for future research and the development of products for the improvement of human health? Is a patent system developed to establish rights in mechanical inventions of an earlier era up to the task of resolving competing claims to the genome on behalf of the many sequential innovators who elucidate its sequence …

Copyright At The Supreme Court: A Jurisprudence Of Deference, Marci A. Hamilton

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No abstract provided.

Making Bricks Without Straw: The Naacp Legal Defense Fund And The Development Of Civil Rights Law In Alabama 1940-1980, U. W. Clemon, Bryan K. Fair

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No abstract provided.

Forty Years And Five Nays--The Nays Have It: Morrison's Blurred Political Accountability And The Defeat Of The Civil Rights Provision Of The Violence Against Women Act, Alberto B. Lopez

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No abstract provided.

A Circus Among The Circuits: Would The Truly Famous And Diluted Performer Please Stand Up? The Federal Trademark Dilution Act And Its Challenges, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

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Sometimes, nothing is more painful than the truth. Congress passed the celebrated Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995 (“the Act” or the “Dilution Act”) with great hope that it would create a uniform anti-dilution law, end forum shopping, and encourage trademark owners to build brand equity with more ease. Congress was overwhelmingly in favor the Act, and thus passed it with little debate, leaving behind a sparse congressional record. In its haste to pass the Act, Congress failed to address whether the Act extends to product design marks; whether the Act requires proof of actual economic harm, or if likelihood …

Federalism In The Era Of International Standards: Federal And State Government Regulation Of Merchant Vessels In The United States (Part Iv), Craig H. Allen

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No abstract provided.

The Myth Of The Win-Win: Misdiagnosis In The Business Of Reassembling Nature, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

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This Article starts with a closer than customary look at the most serious obstacle to the ambitious campaign of environmental restoration that is the focus of this Symposium. That obstacle is the human brain.

The Article contends that human cognitive processes are marvelous designers of serviceable self-deceptions. In the war on nature that we witnessed in the twentieth century the most functional of these is the firm belief in a non-zero sum world. This is the conviction that gains from economic development could be enjoyed without sacrifice of the natural world.

This is a convenient, powerful, and serviceable myth although …

Thickness Variation Of Self-Processing Acrylamide-Based Photopolymer And Reflection Holography, F. O'Neill, Justin Lawrence, J. Sheridan

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There are many types of holographic recording material. The acrylamide-based recording material examined here has one significant advantage: it is self-processing. This simplifies the recording process and enables holographic interferometry to be carried out without the need for complex realignment procedures. However, the effect that the polymerization process has on the grating thickness must be examined. This question is fundamental to the material's use in holographic optical elements, as thickness variations affect the replay conditions of the produced elements. This paper presents a study of this thickness variation and reports for the first time the production of reflection holographic gratings …

Development Of A Quality Control Procedure For Force Platforms, Jacinta Browne, Neil O'Hare

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A force platform is a technical method of quantitatively assessing balance indirectly. The use of force platforms in physiotherapy departments has become more prominent over the last few years. However, the main drawback in the use of force platforms is the lack of comprehensive calibration procedures, which casts doubt on the results obtained with these systems. Existing calibration tests are limited to testing the spatial accuracy of the force platform. This paper describes a comprehensive quality control test procedure which was developed. It is proposed that the developed quality control test procedure could be used to test all types of …

Development Of A Novel Method For Assessing Balance: The Quantitative Posturography System, Jacinta Browne, Neil O'Hare

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Balance is the ability to maintain equilibrium while sitting or standing. There are a number of different methods, which are used to assess balance: technical methods such as Sway Magnetometry, Ataxia Meter and Force Platforms and clinical methods such as Functional Reach Test, Berg Balance Test and Fall Risk Index. The most frequently used technical method is the force platform. There are two types of Force Platform a static and a dynamic Force Platform of which the dynamic Force Platform has been found to be more sensitive at detecting impaired balance. The Quantitative Posturography System (QPS) described in this paper …

A Scene Similarity Metric For Matching Configurations Of Image Objects, James Carswell

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This paper proposes a novel solution to querying image databases by matching raster features to imagery completely in the raster/spatial domain using the shape of single features together with their spatial relations as the matching primitives. The core feature-based matching module combines a revised least-squares matching algorithm, to accomplish the matching process on binary images, with a unique implementation of a feature library that organizes and links query objects with their images in the database, thus enabling fast and efficient real-time retrieval of relevant imagery. The purpose is to extend this previous work of ours, which matches on the shape …

Introducing Negotiation And Drafting Into The Contracts Classroom, Carol Chomsky, Maury Landsman

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It is by now almost a commonplace to say that the first year of law school should include skills-focused opportunities in addition to the massive doses of legal doctrine and analysis that form the core of the first year curriculum. 1 Understanding contracts only through the lens of litigated disputes gives students a very limited picture of what lawyers do with respect to contracts and little opportunity to develop the skills of effective representation and artful and precise drafting needed to avoid such litigation. Moreover, the necessary emphasis on contract doctrine may obscure the degree to which many contract-related problems …

Reassignment Under The Americans With Disabilities Act: Reasonable Accommodation, Affirmative Action, Or Both?, Stephen F. Befort, Tracey Holmes Donesky

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One of Congress's principal motivations for enacting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 1 was to help disabled individuals enter into and remain in the American workplace. In the ADA's "findings and purposes" section, Congress stated that "the Nation's proper goals regarding individuals with disabilities are to assure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for such individuals." 2 The legislative history is filled with the statements of senators and representatives supporting the Act as a vehicle for bringing individuals with disabilities "into the economic and social mainstream of American life." 3 Legislators viewed the ADA as …

Institutionalizing Economic Justice: A Latcrit Perspective On The Imperatives Of Linking The Reconstruction Of "Community" To The Transformation Of Legal Structures That Institutionalize The Depoliticization And Fragmentation Of Labor/Community Solidarity, Elizabeth M. Iglesias

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No abstract provided.

Legal Resources On Elder Abuse In The Institutional Setting, Robin Schard

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No abstract provided.

From Poor Law To Immigration Law: Changing Visions Of Territorial Community In Antebellum Massachusetts, Kunal Parker

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No abstract provided.

Clash Of The Titans: Regulating The Competition Between Established And Emerging Electronic Payment Systems, Jane Kaufman Winn

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This article equates the providers of traditional electronic payment services with the Titans of Greek mythology, and the providers of new electronic payment technologies with the Olympians. Professor Winn concludes, however, that unlike the Titans of Greek mythology, these modern Titans appear to be winning in their battle with the upstart Olympians. This article describes the fundamental characteristics of payment systems, reviews the applicable law, and describes the new technologies that were, until quite recently, expected to displace older electronic payment systems. Professor Winn finds that consumers and merchants, by and large, are happy with the existing regulatory structure. And, …

The Inevitable Infidelities Of Constitutional Translation: The Case Of The New Deal, John O. Mcginnis

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No abstract provided.

Performance Of Distributed Cfar Test Under Various Clutter Amplitudes, Chandrakanth H. Gowda, R. Viswanathan

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We evaluate the performances of several distributed constant false-alarm rate (CFAR) tests operating in different background clutter conditions. The analysis considers the detection of Rayleigh target in various clutters with the possibility of differing clutter power levels in the test cells of distributed radars. Numerical results studied for a two-radar system show how the false-alarm rate of the maximum order statistic (MOS) test changes with differences in the clutter power levels of the test cells. The analysis for the detection of Rayleigh target in Rayleigh clutter indicates that, with the power levels of differing test cells, the OR fusion rule …

Sketch-Based Image Queries In Topographic Databases, James Carswell

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In this paper we present the development of a system prototype for sketch-based queries for the content-based retrieval of digital images from topographic databases. We discuss our overall strategy and associated algorithmic and implementation aspects, and present associated database design issues. The query tools devised in this research are employing user-provided sketches of the shape and spatial configuration of the object(s) which should appear in the images to be retrieved. Our matching tool is inspired by least-squares matching (lsm), and represents an extension of lsm to function with a variety of raster representations. Our strategy makes use of a hierarchical …

Demonstration Quality Scanning Digital Camera, Andrew Davidhazy

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This is a report on how a simple Kodak Snapshot scanner was "gutted" and the remains adapted to a traditional 35mm camera to demonstrate image plane scanning photography, as well as panoramic and peripheral photography.

Simplified Stroboscopic System For Motion Pattern Photography, Andrew Davidhazy

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Stroboscopic photography of objects in motion is a fascinating application in photography. Usually performed with sophisticated and expensive flashing stroboscopic lights, this article describes an approach more within the means of most photographers.

Franchisor Liability For The Torts Of Its Franchisees: The Case For Substituting Liability As A Guarantor For The Current Vicarious Liability, John L. Hanks

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The author reviews the justifications for applying the law of vicarious liability in the franchising context and concludes that its application is often inefficient and arbitrary. He argues that the employee-independent contractor dichotomy used by courts to determine franchisor liability is not well-suited to franchising, where the relationship encompasses both concepts. He proposes that vicarious liability not be applied in the franchising context. Instead, the courts by case law or state legislatures by statute should impose a guarantor status on franchisors that would expose them to liability for the torts of the franchisees only if the franchisee was unavailable to …

Supermajority Rules As A Constitutional Solution, John O. Mcginnis, Michael B. Rappaport

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No abstract provided.

Full-Spectral Color Calculations In Realistic Image Synthesis, Garrett Johnson, Mark Fairchild

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Color imaging and computer graphics share many of the same problems. Color reproduction systems increasingly lean toward spectral image capture and reproduction, in an attempt to create images that match the originals under any given viewing condition. We set out to use a synthetic image generation technique to create images with full spectral radiometric data at each pixel, for use in color imaging systems analysis. While working on this task, we realized that the standard RGB color model used in computer graphics suffered from the same problems as the typical imaging system. These problems manifest as color errors, which are …

Visual Determination Of Hue Suprathreshold Color-Difference Tolerances Using Crt-Generated Stimuli, Ethan Montag, Roy Berns

Articles

Suprathreshold hue color-difference tolerances were measured at four color centers using CRT-generated stimuli. The tolerances, defined using CIELAB, were measured using two different methods of presentation. In the Absolute Experiment, the stimuli were presented at luminance levels that matched those of the previous object-color experiments, so that the CRT stimuli were nearly metameric to the originals. In the Relative Experiment, the white point of the monitor was defined as L* = 100 at a corresponding chromaticity to the object-color viewing environment, but at a lower luminance level. The results from these two experiments followed the same general trends; however, they …

End-To-End Color Printer Calibration By Total Least Squares Regression, Minghui Xia, Eli Saber, Gaurav Sharma

Articles

Neugebauer (1937) modeling plays an important role in obtaining end-to-end device characterization profiles for halftone color printer calibration. This paper proposes total least square (TLS) regression methods to estimate the parameters of various Neugebauer models. Compared to the traditional least squares (LS) based methods, the TLS approach is physically more appropriate for the printer modeling problem because it accounts for errors in the measured reflectance of both the primaries and the modeled samples. A TLS method based on print measurements from single-colorant step-wedges is first developed. The method is then extended to incorporate multicolorant print measurements using an iterative algorithm. …

A Corporate-Wide Ergonomics Programme: Implementation And Evaluation, Colin Drury, Richard Broderick, Charles Weidman

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The challenge of introducing an ergonomics programme into a diverse and relatively loosely-structured corporation is considered. A programme based on a defined multi-step problem-solving process was developed and implemented. An audit of this programme was undertaken in nine divisions, covering each division headquarters and 157 workplaces in 11 plants. From the audit a set of future needs was derived, with changes in the organization, the ergonomic analysis methods, and the specification of solutions.