Digital Commons Network^™

Use And Awareness Of Heated Tobacco Products In Europe, Silvano Gallus, Alessandra Lugo, Xiaoqiu Liu, Elisa Borroni, Luke Clancy, Giuseppe Gorini, Maria José Lopez, Anna Odone, Krzysztof Przewozniak, Olena Tigova, Piet A. Van Den Brandt, Constantine Vardavas, Esteve Fernandez, Tackshs Project Investigators

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Background: Heated tobacco products (HTP) are new forms of tobacco consumption with limited information available on their use among the general population. Our objective was to analyze the prevalence and associations of use of HTP across 11 countries in Europe.

Methods: Within the TackSHS Project, in 2017-2018 we conducted a cross-sectional study with information on HTP use in the following countries: Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain. In each country, face-to-face interviews were performed on a representative sample of around 1,000 subjects aged ≥15 years, for a total of 10,839 subjects.

Results: Overall, 27.8% …

Original Discrimination: How The Supreme Court Disadvantages Plaintiff States, Heather Elliott

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The U.S. Supreme Court is famously the nation's top appellate court, but Article III also makes the Court a trial court, giving it original jurisdiction over several categories of cases. One of those categories suits by states against other states-remains exclusive. Thus, when Texas sought to overturn the 202o presidential election by suing four swing states, it had only one court in which to sue. The Court properly rebuffed Texas's claim for lack of standing, but the Justices give even meritorious claims by state plaintiffs short shrift. They have made clear that these suits detract from the Court's appellate role …

Moral Reflections On Twenty-First Century Tax Policy Trends, Susan Pace Hamill

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Focusing on individual taxpayers, this article offers moral reflections on state and local, and federal tax policy trends during the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Although tax policy decisions are made by politicians (who often rely on economists), determining the best tax policy is ultimately an ethical issue and serves as a barometer revealing the true moral compass of any community. I started thinking about ethical tax policy while studying theology at the Beeson Divinity School, a conservative evangelical seminary that is part of Samford University. At Beeson, I noticed for the first time the gap between "walk …

Federalism By Deception: The Implied Limits On Congressional Power, Bryan K. Fair

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The purpose of this Article is to lay bare federalism by deception and the theory of implied limits on federal power. Other scholars have recently noted the rise of anti-federalist viewpoints in modern cases. I go a step further to demonstrate how Supreme Court Justices have embraced anti-federal ideology, but have cited Federalist sources, including Marshall, to announce unenumerated limits on federal legislative power.

What Is Consumer Protection For?, Luke Herrine

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When law and economics barreled its way into consumer protection scholarship two score years ago, it brought with it the consumer sovereignty framework: an approach to analysis in which actual markets are compared to an ideal market in which consumers optimize exogenous welfare functions by choosing between optimally competitive sellers. Even after two decades of behavioralist critique and even with increasingly critical perspectives taking root since the Global Financial Crisis, this consumer sovereignty ideal continues to serve as both a descriptive and normative baseline for consumer protection scholarship.

This Article argues that it is time to reconsider the consumer sovereignty …

Are Children's Rights Enough?, Clare Ryan

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No abstract provided.

"Show Me Your Gun": A Way Forward On Waiting Periods Annual Survey: Gun Reform Symposium, Fredrick Vars

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Bringing Predictability To The Chaos Of Punitive Damages, Benjamin Mcmichael, W. Kip Viscusi

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Punitive damages remain unique in the American legal system. Awarded in the civil context with none of the protections offered in criminal law, courts levy punitive damages to punish and deter. The Supreme Court of the United States has clearly stated that courts may only seek to achieve these two goals when imposing punitive damages. A closer reading of the Court's punitive damages jurisprudence, however, reveals another goal that has largely been ignored: predictability. Unlike punishment and deterrence, predictability is not a purpose for which to award punitive damages. Instead, the Court requires that, when awarded, the level of punitive …

Contracts In The Age Of Smart Readers, Yonathan A. Arbel, Becher, Shmuel I.

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Law's Gaze, John Felipe Acevedo

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Volunteer Prosecutors, Russell M. Gold

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Retiring Social Security's (Non)Payment At Death After Eight Decades Essay, Alberto Lopez

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Why Govern Broken Tools?, Ryan Calo

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In Assessing the Governance of Digital Contact Tracing in Response to COVID-19: Results of a Multi-National Study, Brian Hutler et al. ably compare two approaches to the governance of digital contract tracing (DCT). In this brief essay, I want to examine to what extent governance actually played a meaningful role in the failure of DCT. If DCT failed primarily for other reasons, then the authors’ normative suggestion to pursue “a new governance approach … for designing and implementing DCT technology going forward” may be misplaced.

A Study Of Tax Lawyers Discussing Duties, Michael Hatfield, Michelle Kwon

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This Article reports the first qualitative empirical study of U.S. tax lawyers. We interviewed women lawyers who were tax planning specialists. Though this is the first such study of U.S. tax lawyers, this methodology has been used often to study the professional ethics of other tax practitioners around the world. We had three research questions that we sought to answer through dynamic conversations on topics such as the distinctions between good and bad tax plans and good and bad tax lawyers and also the joys and stresses of tax practice. Our first research question was as to the make-up of …

Election Law And Election Subversion, Lisa Marshall Manheim

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Scholars of American election law used to take the rule of law as a given. The legal system, while highly imperfect, appeared sturdy, steady, and functional. Recent election cycles—culminating in dramatic attempts at election subversion—have revealed this assumption beginning to break down. Without the rule of law as a dependable constant, the study of election law quickly expands. Legal experts now are simultaneously occupied with: first, the substance of election laws; second, the design of election institutions; and third, the threat of participants unlawfully undermining elections from within. This Essay identifies and contextualizes the rule-of-law pivot that is reflected in …

Nontraditional Investors, Jennifer S. Fan

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In recent years, nontraditional investors have become a major player in the startup ecosystem. Under the regulatory regime of U.S. securities law, those in the public realm are heavily regulated, while those in the private realm are largely left alone. This public-private divide, which is a fundamental organizing principle of securities law, has eroded with the rise of nontraditional investors. While legal scholars have addressed the impact of some of these nontraditional investors individually, their collective impact on deal terms, deal timelines, due diligence, and board configuration has not been discussed in a holistic manner; neither has their impact on …

The Benefits Of Integrating Statutory Construction And Analysis In A First-Year Legal Writing Course, Lauren E. Sancken, Mireille Butler

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Teaching statutory analysis to first-year law school students not only reinforces important principles of legal analysis and writing (from gaining a better understanding of the hierarchy of legal authorities to continuing to practice IRAC/CRAC methods of organization), but it also prepares students better for the actual practice of law.

The Output-Welfare Fallacy: A Modern Antitrust Paradox, John M. Newman

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A fallacy lies at the core of modern antitrust. The same scholars who successfully advanced a singular consumer-welfare goal simultaneously argued that output effects should be the exclusive criterion for analysis. This output-welfare framework entered mainstream discourse, was endorsed by enforcers and judges, and played a pivotal role in the Supreme Court's recent Ohio v. American Express opinion. Yet despite its centrality, outputism has largely escaped notice.
/="/">When exposed to systematic evaluation, the previously assumed link between output and welfare breaks down. A wide variety of conduct can push output and welfare in opposite directions. Moreover, purely outputist analysis …

Vermin Of Proof: Arguments For The Admissibility Of Animal Model Studies As Proof Of Causation In Toxic Tort Litigation, Kristen Ranges, Jessica Owley

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Toxic torts is a body of law that aims to compensate individuals for harms they suffer from exposure to hazardous substances. To successfully bring a toxic tort claim, a plaintiff must prove the main elements of a general tort cause of action: duty, breach, causation, and damages. Causation in a toxic tort case is particularly challenging to prove given the nature of toxic substances. To prove the toxicant in question caused the damages alleged, plaintiffs often present expert testimony based on scientific studies. Animal model studies, in particular, can help factfinders understand the health implications of the toxicants at issue. …

Platforms As Blackacres, Thomas E. Kadri

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While writing this Article, I interviewed a journalist who writes stories about harmful technologies. To do this work, he gathers information from websites to reveal trends that online platforms would prefer to hide. His team has exposed how Facebook threatens people's privacy and safety, how Amazon hides cheaper deals from consumers, and how Google diverts political speech from our inboxes. You'd think the journalist might want credit for telling these important stories, but he instead insisted on anonymity when we talked because his lawyer was worried he'd be confessing to breaking the law-to committing the crime and tort of cyber-trespass. …

Energy-Efficient Dynamic Directional Modulation With Electrically Small Antennas, Adam Narbudowicz, Abel Zandamela, Nicola Marchetti, Max Ammann

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This letter proposes a compact and energy-efficient directional modulation scheme for small and power constrained devices (e.g., Internet of Things wireless sensors). The scheme uses a uniform circular array of monopole antennas, with a single radiofrequency chain and antenna active at a time. The antennas can be located in close proximity, offering significant size reduction. Furthermore, the schemewas demonstrated to operate successfully with an array of 0.6 λ diameter. The system does not generate additional artificial noise, limiting interference to other systems. Finally, the antenna switching sequence can be randomly generated and without fine-tuned synchronization with the transmitter.

Regional Variations And Temporal Trends Of Childhood Myopia Prevalence In Africa: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Emmnuel Kobia Acquah, Daniel Ian Flitcroft, Prince Kwaku Akowuah, Gareth Lingham, James Loughman

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Purpose: To provide contemporary and future estimates of childhood myopia prevalence in Africa.

Methods: A systematic online literature search was conducted for articles on childhood (≤18 years) myopia (spherical equivalent [SE] ≤ −0.50D; high myopia: SE ≤ −6.00D) in Africa. Population-or school-based cross-sectional studies published from 1 Jan 2000 to 30 May 2021 were included. Meta-analysis using Freeman–Tukey double arcsine transformation was performed to estimate the prevalence of childhood myopia and high myopia. Myopia prevalence from subgroup analyses for age groups and settings were used as baseline for generating a prediction model using linear regression.

Results: Forty-two studies from 19 …

Copper(Ii) And Silver(I)‑1,10‑Phenanthroline‑5,6‑Dione Complexes Interact With Double‑Stranded Dna: Further Evidence Of Their Apparent Multi‑Modal Activity Towards Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Anna Clara Milesi Galdino, Lívia Viganor, Matheus Mendonça Pereira, Michael Devereux, Malachy Mccann, Marta Helena Branquinha, Zara Molphy, Sinéad O'Carroll, Conor Bain, Georgia Menounou, Andrew Kellett, André Luis Souza Dos Santos

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Tackling microbial resistance requires continuous efforts for the development of new molecules with novel mechanisms of action and potent antimicrobial activity. Our group has previously identified metal-based compounds, [Ag(1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione)2]ClO4 (Ag-phendione) and [Cu(1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione)3](ClO4)2.4H2O (Cu-phendione), with efficient antimicrobial action against multidrug-resistant species. Herein, we investigated the ability of Ag-phendione and Cu-phendione to bind with double-stranded DNA using a combination of in silico and in vitro approaches. Molecular docking revealed that both phendione derivatives can interact with the DNA by hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions. Cu-phendione exhibited the highest binding affinity to either major (− 7.9 kcal/mol) or minor (− 7.2 kcal/mol) …

Advancing Competency In Managing Risk And Knowledge: Steps Toward Operationalisation Of The Risk-Knowledge Infinity Cycle (Rki Cycle) - Part 1: Improving Effectiveness Of Risk-Based Decision Making (Rbdm), Martin Lipa, Paige Kane, Anne Greene

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To date, literature on the Risk-Knowledge Infinity Cycle (RKI Cycle) has mainly been theoretical. This paper series intent is to focus on the operationalisation of the RKI Cycle by describing a series of steps – the “How to” – for RKI Cycle deployment, to help move the RKI Cycle from theory to practice. The first paper in this series focuses on how the RKI Cycle can support effective Risk-Based Decision Making (RBDM).

Bodipy–Pyrene Donor–Acceptor Sensitizers For Triplet–Triplet Annihilation Upconversion: The Impact Of The Bodipy-Core On Upconversion Efficiency, Natalia Kiseleva, Mikhail Filatov, Jan C. Fischer, Milian Kaiser, Marius Jakoby, Dimitry Busko, Ian A. Howard, Bryce Richards, Andrey Turshatov

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Triplet–triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC) is an important type of optical process with applications in biophotonics, solar energy harvesting and photochemistry. In most of the TTA-UC systems, the formation of triplet excited states takes place via spin–orbital interactions promoted by heavy atoms. Given the crucial role of heavy atoms (especially noble metals, such as Pd and Pt) in promoting intersystem crossing (ISC) and, therefore, in production of UC luminescence, the feasibility of using more readily available and inexpensive sensitizers without heavy atoms remains a challenge. Here, we investigated sensitization of TTA-UC using BODIPY–pyrene heavy-atom-free donor–acceptor dyads with different numbers of alkyl …

Analysis Of Copper(Ii) Using The Ascorbate/Oxygen System – A Valuable Undergraduate Resource, Sean Tobin, John Cassidy, Kevin Kurian, Tony Betts

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In deionised water, ascorbic acid (AH−), through oxidation by oxygen in the presence of copper(II), was found to degrade with zero-order kinetics. The magnitude of the reaction rate varied directly with the copper(II) concentration. At a higher pH (7.4), the same reaction was found to be pseudo-first order. Once again, the magnitude of the rate increased linearly with copper(II) concentration at a micromolar level. Dissolved oxygen levels, in excess AH− and trace copper(II), displayed similar kinetics under both conditions. Monitoring of either AH− levels or dissolved oxygen concentration was found to be a useful novel undergraduate practical laboratory for trace …

A Modified Spectroscopic Approach For The Real-Time Detection Of Pollen And Fungal Spores At A Semi-Urban Site Using The Wibs-4+, Part I, Emma Markey, Jerry Hourihane Clancy, Moisés Martínez-Bracero, Finnian Neeson, Roland Sarda-Estève, Dominique Baisnée, Eoin Mcgillicuddy, Gavin Sewell, David J. O’Connor

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The real-time monitoring of primary biological aerosol particles (PBAP) such as pollen and fungal spores has receivedmuch attention in recent years as a result of their health and climatic effects. In this study, theWideband Integrated Bioaerosol Sensor (WIBS) 4+ model was evaluated for its ability to sample and detect ambient fungal spore and pollen concentrations, compared to the traditional Hirst volumetric method. Although the determination of total pollen and fungal spore ambient concentrations are of interest, the selective detection of individual pollen/fungal spore types are often of greater allergenic/agricultural concern. To aid in this endeavour, modifications were made to the …

Disarmament, Demobilization, And Reintegration In Colombia: Lost Human Rights Opportunities For Ex-Combatants With Disabilities, Minerva Rivas Velarde, Janet E. Lord, Michael Ashley Stein, Thomas Shakespeare

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This article examines whether and how the circumstances of Colombian ex-combatants with disabilities were recognized in the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) processes in the period following the adoption of the 2016 peace agreement. Our results suggest severe procedural and substantive shortcomings during the drafting of the peace agreement and the implementation of the DDR processes that exacerbated the exclusion of ex-combatants with disabilities from available opportunities for their social, economic, and political reintegration. We conclude that a better understanding of the disabling impact of conflict and the exp

The Elastic Corporate Form In International Law, Julian Arato

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The corporate form is being distorted by international law. Surprisingly, this is occurring in the law of foreign investment, where one would expect the stability and efficiency of corporate formalities to matter most. The main driver is a highly enforceable mode of treaty-based arbitration known as investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), which affords foreign investors a private right of action to sue sovereign states. Questions of corporate law come up regularly in ISDS. But when addressing them, tribunals have varied widely in their respect for core formalities. This is undermining the basic relationships among all corporate stakeholders—including shareholders, management, creditors, governments, …

Legal Writing Mechanics: A Bibliography, Margaret Hannon

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Great legal writing is about more than mechanics. But careful attention to legal writing mechanics is nevertheless critical for effective, clear, and persuasive writing. Proper grammar, usage, and correct punctuation makes analysis clearer and therefore more effective. It also shows the reader that the writer has paid close attention to detail, which makes the reader more likely to find the writer credible. Relatedly, communicating in plain language is critical to making sure that “readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information.” And proper citation—or even better, stylish citation—helps the reader easily understand what …