Digital Commons Network^™

Implementing The Standby Letter For Credit Convention With The Law Of Wyoming, James J. White

Articles

For the first time in American practice, we propose to implement a convention by a federal adoption of law previously enacted by the states – from Wyoming to New York – to implement the Convention on Independent Guarantees and Standby Letters of Credit (“Convention”).1

Chrysler's Bankruptcy: Money Laundering On A Grand Scale, James J. White

Articles

The interesting issue in Chrysler is not the lawyers’ manipulation of the law; it is the politicians’ use of the bankruptcy to launder money. Had the President simply announced that the federal government would give $4 billion to the UAW, the public, even the public in the UAW’s home state of Michigan, would have been up in arms. By laundering the money through the Chapter 11 process, the administration disguised the payment and avoided the outrage.

The Multiple Common Law Roots Of Charitable Immunity: An Essay In Honor Of Richard Epstein's Contributions To Tort Law, Jill R. Horwitz

Articles

Professor Epstein has long promoted replacing tort-based malpractice law with a new regime based on contracts. In Mortal Peril, he grounded his normative arguments in favor of such a shift in the positive, doctrinal history of charitable immunity law. In this essay, in three parts, I critique Professor Epstein’s suggestion that a faulty set of interpretations in charitable immunity law led to our current reliance on tort for malpractice claims. First, I offer an alternative interpretation to Professor Epstein’s claim that one group of 19th and early 20th century cases demonstrates a misguided effort to protect donor wishes. Rather, I …

Crimes On The Gulf, David M. Uhlmann

Articles

The explosion that rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, 2010, killed 11 workers and triggered the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. After six weeks of failed efforts to stop the gushing oil and protect the fragile ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico and the communities along its shores, President Obama pledged on June 1 that “if our laws were broken . . . we will bring those responsible to justice.”

Corporate Law In The Shanghai People's Courts, 1992-2008: Judicial Autonomy In A Contemporary Authoritarian State, Nicholas C. Howson

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In late 2005 China adopted a largely rewritten Company Law that radically increased the role of courts. This study, based on a review of more than 1000 Company Law-related disputes reported between 1992 and 2008 and extensive interactions with PRC officials and sitting judges, evaluates how the Shanghai People's Court system has fared over 15 years in corporate law adjudication. Although the Shanghai People's Courts show generally increasing technical competence and even intimations of political independence, their path toward institutional autonomy is inconsistent. Through 2006, the Shanghai Court system demonstrated significantly increased autonomy. After 2006 and enactment of the new …

If I Had A Hammer: Can Shepardizing, Synthesis, And Other Tools Of Legal Writing Help Build Hope For Law Students?, Edward R. Becker

Articles

Are lawyers mechanics? In 1920, photographer Lewis Hines took a striking photo of a powerhouse mechanic sure-handedly wielding a large wrench to tighten bolts on a steam pump. This picture may bring to mind many things, but I suspect that many legal writing professors in our (past or present) incarnations as practicing attorneys would not look at this image and think, "My job is a lot like that." Similarly, I assume that many of our students do not think of a lawyer's role in this way. Indeed, many of our students might have chosen to pursue a career in law …

State Bystander Responsibility, Monica Hakimi

Articles

International human rights law requires states to protect people from abuses committed by third parties. Decision-makers widely agree that states have such obligations, but no framework exists for identifying when states have them or what they require. The practice is to varying degrees splintered, inconsistent, and conceptually confused. This article presents a generalized framework to fill that void. The article argues that whether a state must protect someone from third-party harm depends on the state's relationship with the third party and on the kind of harm caused. A duty-holding state must take reasonable measures to restrain the abuser. That framework …

The Last Best Hope For Progressivity In Tax, E. J. Mccaffery, James R. Hines Jr.

Articles

We argue that a spending tax, as opposed to an income or wage tax, is the “last best hope” for a return to significantly more progressive marginal tax rates than obtain today. The simple explanation for this central claim looks to incentive effects, especially for “rich people,” as both economists and commentators are inclined to focus. High marginal tax rates under an income tax fall on and hence deter the socially productive activities of work and savings. High marginal rates under a wage tax fall on and hence deter the socially productive activity of work alone. But high marginal rates …

Motion In Augmented Reality Games: An Engine For Creating Plausible Physical Interactions In Augmented Reality Games, Brian Mac Namee, David Beaney, Qingqing Dong

Articles

The next generation of Augmented Reality (AR) games will require real and virtual objects to coexist in motion in immersive game environments. This will require the illusion that real and virtual objects interact physically together in a plausible way. The Motion in Augmented Reality Games (MARG) engine described in this paper has been developed to allow these kinds of game environments. The paper describes the design and implementation of the MARG engine and presents two proof-of-concept AR games that have been developed using it. Evaluations of these games have been performed and are presented to show that the MARG engine …

Forty Years Of Movie Hacking: Considering The Potential Implications Of The Popular Media Representation Of Computer Hackers From 1968 To 2008, Damian Gordon

Articles

Increasingly movies are being produced which feature plots that incorporate elements of computer security and hacking, and cumulatively these movies are creating a public perception as to the nature of computer security. This research examines movies that feature hackers (and hacking) to identify if any common themes emerge from these movies in their representation of these issues. To achieve this, first a corpus of hacking movies is created, and then using a qualitative data analysis technique, guidelines are developed which distinguish those movies that actually have the potential to create a perception with the general public. The resultant dataset is …

(Le)Agility In Humanitarian Aid Supply Chains, Kirstin Scholten, Pamela Sharkey Scott, Brian Fynes

Articles

Purpose - This paper explores the concept of agility in the context of supply chains of humanitarian aid (HA) organizations, particularly Non Government Organizations (NGOs). This responds to the increasing pressure on NGOs to use their resources more strategically if they are to gain donor trust and long term commitment. Design/ Methodology/Approach - A literature based approach that extends the commercial supply chain concept of agility to NGOs is combined with the first exploratory semi structured interviews of these concepts with five NGO supply chain directors. Findings – The commercial concept of agility when responding to disaster relief holds strong …

From Federations To Global Factories: Assessing The Contribution Of The Subsidiary Middle Manager In Today’S Mne, Donal O'Brien, Pamela Sharkey Scott, Pat Gibbons

Articles

The evolution of MNEs (Multinational Enterprises) from rigid and hierarchical structures to more distributed authority and autonomy led to the theoretical justification for conceptualising them as a federative rather than unitary organisations (Ghoshal and Bartlett, 1990). Fundamental to the Federative MNE is the suggestion that subsidiary units, through their own actions, can modify the power base and influence MNE strategy ‘from below’ (Andersson et al., 2007). Considerable research highlights the potential of subsidiary units for knowledge creation and initiative (Birkinshaw, 1997, Rugman and Verbeke, 2001, Williams, 2009), but to date it has failed to confirm that MNEs actually operate as …

Editorial: Nutrition Research Reviews, Katherine Younger

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No abstract provided.

Self Protection From Anti-Viral Responses – Ro52 Promotes Degradation Of The Transcription Factor Irf7 Downstream Of The Viral Toll-Like Receptors, Rowan Higgs, Elisa Lazzari, Claire Wynne, Joan Ní Gabhann, Alexander Espinosa, Marie Wahren-Herlenius, Caroline A. Jefferies

Articles

Ro52 is a member of the TRIM family of single-protein E3 ligases and is also a target for autoantibody production in systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjo¨ gren’s syndrome. We previously demonstrated a novel function of Ro52 in the ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of IRF3 following TLR3/4 stimulation. We now present evidence that Ro52 has a similar role in regulating the stability and activity of IRF7. Endogenous immunoprecipitation of Ro52-bound proteins revealed that IRF7 associates with Ro52, an effect which increases following TLR7 and TLR9 stimulation, suggesting that Ro52 interacts with IRF7 post-pathogen recognition. Furthermore, we show that Ro52 ubiquitinates IRF7 …

Speech Intelligibility From Image Processing, Andrew Hines, Naomi Harte

Articles

Hearing loss research has traditionally been based on perceptual criteria, speech intelligibility and threshold levels. The development of computational models of the auditory-periphery has allowed experimentation via simulation to provide quantitative, repeatable results at a more granular level than would be practical with clinical research on human subjects.

Enhancing 3d Lidar Data Handling, Debra Laefer, Michela Bertolotto, Bianca Schoen-Phelan

Articles

more evident than in the limited capabilities of Spatial Information Systems (SIS) to manipulate data from aerial Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). Currently, multiple software packages are needed to conduct three-dimensional (3D) analysis of LiDAR data. This workflow heavily relies on importing and exporting different file formats, thus potentially losing accuracy and increasing costs. Ideally, all required functionality would be available within a single system. New functionalities in Oracle Spatial combined with our enhanced 3D-indexing for hosting and analysing offer a critical breakthrough in this area.

Assessing The Application Of 3d Collaborative Interfaces Within An Immersive Virtual University, Gavin Mcardle, Bianca Schoen-Phelan, Michela Bortolotto

Articles

The need to stimulate and engage students is of paramount importance within any learning scenario. Despite this, recent developments in online learning have failed to take this requirement into account. As a result e-learning courses which utilise traditional online learning management systems have a higher dropout rate than their classroom based counterparts. The attrition rate is attributed to boredom with the interfaces used to deliver learning material and also to the lack of opportunities to interact socially with others. Furthermore, being in a virtual environment imposes a whole new set of challenges onto users due to the distinct lack of …

Mobile Mapping System Lidar Data Framework, P. Lewis, C. Mcelhinney, Bianca Schoen-Phelan, T. Mccarthy

Articles

Mobile Mapping Systems (MMSs) for infrastructural monitoring and mapping arebecoming more prevalent as the availability and affordability of solutions that generate high accuracy geospatial data has matured.However, no existent methodology or systemexists where all theLiDAR, video, navigation,infrared and multispectraldata sources,collected from thismobile platform are integrated into a single, comprehensivedata management solution. Based on empirical experience there is a need for an MMS-data management framework where these types of data can be dynamically accessed and integratedto enable different projects with varying objectives todynamically accessdifferent MMS-data for, in one example, use in feature extraction algorithms. In this paper we introduce the LiDAR …

Dietary Energy Density As Marker Of Dietary Quality In Swedish Children And Adolescents: The European Youth Heart Study, Emma Patterson, J. Wärnberg, E. Poortvliet, John Kearney, M. Sjöström

Articles

To investigate if dietary energy density is associated with measures of dietary quality (food group, micronutrient and macronutrient intakes) in children and adolescents.

Synthesis And Evaluation Of Azetidinone Analogues Of Combretastatin A-4 As Tubulin Targeting Agents, Niamh O'Boyle, Miriam Carr, Lisa M. Greene, Orla Bergin, Seema M. Nathwani, Thomas Mccabe, David G. Lloyd, Daniela M. Zisterer, Mary J. Meegan

Articles

The synthesis and antiproliferative activity of a new series of rigid analogues of combretastatin A-4 are described which contain the 1,4-diaryl-2-azetidinone (β-lactam) ring system in place of the usual ethylene bridge present in the natural combretastatin stilbene products. These novel compounds are also substituted at position 3 of the β-lactam ring with an aryl ring. A number of analogues showed potent nanomolar activity in human MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines, displayed in vitro inhibition of tubulin polymerization and did not cause significant cytotoxicity in normal murine breast epithelial cells. 4-(4-Methoxyaryl)-substituted compound 32, 4-(3-hydroxy-4-methoxyaryl)-substituted compounds 35 and 41 and …

Are Gender Stereotypes Bad For Women? Rethinking Antidiscrimination Law And Work-Family Conflict, Julie C. Suk

Articles

The conflict between work and family responsibilities remains a significant barrier to women's equality in the American workplace. As many commentators have noted with envy, the United States stands apart from most European countries in its failure to give women a legal right to paid maternity leave.

This Article argues that the United States's potential for reconciling the work-family conflict is undermined by the predominance of antidiscrimination law. The unique trajectory of U.S. antidiscrimination law, designed to combat paternalism and gender stereotypes, has pushed family and medical leave into a single legal regime. But today, due to the costs and …

The False Modesty Of Department Of Revenue V. Davis: Disrupting The Dormant Commerce Clause Through The Traditional Public Function Doctrine, Edward A. Zelinsky

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No abstract provided.

Family Values In The Jewish Tradition, J. David Bleich

Articles

In Family Values in the Jewish Tradition, Professor J. David Bleich presents Judaism as a religion of law. He describes the family unit, "both as a social unit and as a legal institution," and how it helps to provide comfort, companionship, and stability. He discusses the role of reproduction within the family unit, artificial insemination, and the homosexual act (not the homosexual as a person). Professor Bleich concludes with a discussion of the phrase, "be fruitful and multiply." He notes that this phrase is understood as both a commandment and a blessing.

Rethinking Guardianship (Again): Substituted Decision Making As A Violation Of The Integration Mandated Of Title Ii Of The Americans With Disabilities Act, Leslie Salzman

Articles

In every state, when an adult has a diminished capacity to make decisions about personal affairs or property management, a court may transfer the individual’s right to make decisions to a guardian. This Article argues that, in most cases, it would be preferable to support decision making rather than supplant it through guardianship, and then seeks to locate a right to receive such support as a less restrictive alternative to the substituted decision making that characterizes guardianship.

Building on the reasoning in Olmstead v. L.C. and subsequent decisions interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act’s integration mandate, this Article argues that …

Introduction To The South Dakota Law Review's 2010 Symposium Issue, Marci A. Hamilton

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No abstract provided.

The End Of Probate, Stewart E. Sterk

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No abstract provided.

Assessment Of The Accuracy Of An Ultrasound Elastography Liver Scanning System Using A Pva-Cryogel Phantom With Optimal Acoustic And Mechanical Properties, S. Cournane, Louise Cannon, Jacinta Browne, Andrew Fagan

Articles

The accuracy of a transient elastography liver-scanning ultrasound system was assessed using a novel application of PVA-cryogel as a tissue-mimicking material with acoustic and shear elasticity properties optimized to best represent those of liver tissue. Although the liver scanning system has been shown to offer a safer alternative for diagnosing liver cirrhosis through stiffness measurement, as compared to the liver needle biopsy exam, the scanner’s accuracy has not been fully established. The Young’s elastic modulus values of 5-6wt% PVA cryogel phantoms, also containing glycerol and 0.3μm Al2O3 and 3μm Al2O3, were measured using a ‘gold standard’ mechanical testing technique and …

No Longer, But Not Yet: Tweens And The Mediating Of Liminal Selves Through Metaconsumption, Kevina Cody, Katrina Lawlor, Pauline Mcclaren

Articles

Using the anthropological theory of liminality as a lens of analysis, the following paper outlines specific elements of a research project exploring the consumer culture of a liminal group – tweens. The lived experience of a tween is explored using a multi-method approach incorporating personal diaries, in-depth interviews and accompanied shopping trips. Outcomes of one aspect of this longitudinal research project – the theory of metaconsumption - are presented, suggesting an important divergent theoretical path from the ‘effects’ - dominated consumer socialization approach to researching young people and their relationships with consumption. We conclude that those in a shadowed reality, …

Race, Sex And Genes At Work: Uncovering The Lessons Of Norman-Bloodsaw, Elizabeth Pendo

Articles

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 20081 ("GINA") is the first federal, uniform protection against the use of genetic information in both the workplace and health insurance. Signed into law on May 21, 2008, GINA prohibits an employer or health insurer from acquiring or using an individual's genetic information, with some exceptions.

One of the goals of GINA is to eradicate actual, or perceived, discrimination based on genetic information in the workplace and in health insurance. Although the threat of genetic discrimination is often discussed in universal terms - as something that could happen to any of us -the use …

Taking It To The Streets: A Public Right-Of-Way Project For Disability Law, Elizabeth Pendo

Articles

I teach a course in Disability Discrimination Law, which is designed as a civil rights course focused on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). When the ADA was passed in 1990, it was celebrated by many as one of the most significant civil-rights victories of this century. The ADA was enacted to "provide clear, strong, consistent, [and] enforceable standards [for] addressing discrimination against individuals with disabilities" and prohibits discrimination in employment, public services and transportation, privatelyowned places of public accommodations, and telecommunications. Although the ADA is not the first federal law addressing disability, its passage made clear that the continued …