Digital Commons Network^™

Shareholder Primacy Versus Shareholder Accountability, William Wilson Bratton

Articles

When corporations inflict injuries in the course of business, shareholders wielding environmental, social, and governance ("ESG") principles can, and now sometimes do, intervene to correct the matter. In the emerging fact pattern, corporate social accountability expands out of its historic collectivized frame to become an internal subject matter-a corporate governance topic. As a result, shareholder accountability surfaces as a policy question for the first time. The Big Three index fund managers, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, responded to the accountability question with ESG activism. In so doing, they defected against corporate legal theory's central tenet, shareholder primacy. Shareholder primacy builds …

Two-Dimensional Dual Jets—A Comprehensive Review Of Experimental And Numerical Analyses, Paula J. Murphy, Sajad Alimohammadi, Séamus M. O'Shaughnessy

Articles

A dual jet system, comprising a wall jet flowing tangential to a solid wall and a parallel offset jet, possesses a unique flow field that has proven advantageous in many industrial applications. Despite this, investigations of dual jets are severely underrepresented in the published literature, meaning their flow and heat transfer characteristics are yet to be fully understood. Many published studies dedicated to the characterization of dual jet flows are entirely numerical in nature, and significant discrepancies exist among the reported findings. This can be attributed to the distinct lack of experimental data related to dual jet flows, which has …

Numeracy-Meets: Supporting The Teaching Of Numeracy To Vulnerable Adult Groups, Fiona Faulkner, Mark Prendergast, Niamh O'Meara, Kathy O'Sullivan, Annette Forster

Articles

A key commitment of the Adult Literacy for Life Strategy (2021) is to reduce the number of adults in Ireland with unmet numeracy needs from 25% to 12%. One of the main challenges in achieving this is the varied provision of adult numeracy education. Many numeracy practitioners are either employed part time or are volunteers with few opportunities for professional development and networking with their peers. This paper details the design, implementation, and evaluation of a professional development model that aimed to support adult practitioners’ in developing their learners’ numeracy skills. This was done through the development of a new …

Review Of Brianna E. Robertson-Kirkland, Venanzio Rauzzini And The Birth Of A New Style In English Singing: Scandalous Lessons (New York And Abingdon: Routledge, 2022). Isbn: 978-1-032-20029-3, 244pp, £39.99 (Paperback)., Rachel Talbot

Articles

A Review of Brianna E. Robertson-Kirkland, Venanzio Rauzzini and the Birth of a New Style in English Singing: Scandalous Lessons (New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2022). ISBN: 978-1-032-20029-3, 244pp, £39.99 (paperback)

Gdpr Compliance Via Software Evolution: Weaving Security Controls In Software Design, Vanessa Ayala-Rivera, A. Omar Portillo-Dominguez, Liliana Pasquale

Articles

Software should comply with international privacy laws, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, implementing appropriate technical controls is often an error-prone and time-consuming process. This is partly due to the limited knowledge of software engineers about privacy and security. This paper proposes SoCo, a semi-automated approach to support organizations in achieving software compliance with the GDPR data protection principles. To do so, SoCo supports engineers in identifying and integrating appropriate technical controls in sequence diagrams during the design phase. SoCo includes a technique to assist engineers to identify data processing activities in software applications modeled as sequence diagrams …

Progressing Children's Right To Be Heard In Public Decision-Making: Perspectives On Using Social And Digital Media To Facilitate Children's Participation, Kevin Lalor, Brian O'Neill, Thuy Dinh

Articles

Children's right to be heard is expressed in Article 12 of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Mechanisms and methods to facilitate the inclusion of young people's views have been developed by youth workers, advocates and policy-makers and include diverse consultation approaches, including surveys, polls, consultation meetings and formal structures such as youth parliaments. Even though social and digital media are now pervasive in the lives of children, the potential to use these as tools to facilitate youth consultation is still surprisingly at an early stage of development. This paper presents findings from a national mixed-method study …

Kinetic Modelling Of Anthocyanins And Vitamin C Degradation In A Maqui-Citrus Beverage During Storage For Different Sweeteners And Pasteurization Treatments, Diego Hernández-Prieto, Francisco J. Salar, Alberto Garre, Pablo S. Fernández, Cristina García-Viguera, Jesús Frías

Articles

Kinetic models to describe the degradation of anthocyanins (first-order model) and vitamin C (system of ordinary differential equations) in a novel beverage, has been used as a tool to identify the most relevant variables for the degradation kinetics and to support shelf-life estimation. The models were based on an empirical dataset, accounting for the effect of a prior processing treatment (HHP at 400 MPa- 180s; HHP at 600 MPa-180s; thermal treatment at 85 °C for 15s), storage temperature (4 or 20 °C), and the use of two different sweeteners (sucralose or stevia). Using model selection (based on AIC), we conclude …

Rejoinder To Book Review Of "Rural Transformations And Rural Crime", Matt Bowden, Alistair Harkness

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A review of a book we edited, Rural Transformations and Rural Crime (Bowden & Harkness, 2022) was published in Volume 32, Issue 3 of Rural Society (Scott, 2023) in December 2023. The review makes two key but highly misleading charges. The first is an intimation that rural criminology is dominated by a clique of scholars; and second that the book by and large lacks critical analysis to the reviewer's liking. The reviewer provides a glimpse of a broad analysis of the field and adopts an independently minded position. Indeed, some observations and claims are made that should rightly be part …

Stenotrophomonas Riyadhensis Sp. Nov., Isolated From A Hospital Floor Swab, Guerrino Macori, Ahmed Ali Al-Qahtani, Leonard Koolman, Sahar Althawadi, Maysoon Mutabaqani, Rustom Bashtawi, Sulaiman Aljumaa, Reem Saad Almaghrabi, Séamus Fanning

Articles

During the analysis of a collection of Pseudomonas strains linked to an outbreak in an intensive care unit at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in 2019, one isolate (CFS3442T) was identified phenotypically as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. However, whole-genome sequencing revealed its true identity as a member of the genus Stenotrophomonas, distinct from both P. aeruginosa and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. The isolate demonstrated: (i) a significant phylogenetic distance from P. aeruginosa; (ii) considerable genomic differences from several S. maltophilia reference strains and other Stenotrophomonas species; and (iii) unique phenotypic characteristics. Based on the combined geno- and phenotypic data, we propose that …

Micromixing Strategies For Efficient Mixing Processes: A Comprehensive Review, Delara Soltani, Tim Persoons, Sajad Alimohammadi

Articles

The demand for rapid, high-quality, and controlled mixing at the microscale has led to the development of various types of micromixers. Micromixers are commonly categorised as active, or passive based on whether they utilise external energy to enhance mixing. Passive micromixers utilise a complex geometry to enhance the diffusion coefficient at lower Reynolds numbers and induce chaotic advection at higher Reynolds numbers for effectively mixing fluids without external energy. Active micromixers, on the other hand, achieve precise, fast, and controllable mixing by employing external energy sources such as pressure, electric, magnetic, or acoustic fields. Some active methods such as magnetic …

Generation, Characterisation And Identification Of Bioactive Peptides From Mesopelagic Fish Protein Hydrolysates Using In Silico And In Vitro Approaches, Maria Hayes, Azza Naik, Leticia Mora, Bruno Iñarra, Jone Ibarruri, Carlos Bald, Thibault Cariou, David Reid, Michael Gallagher, Ragnhild Dragøy, Jorge Galino, Alba Deyà, Sissel Albrektsen, Lars Thoresen, Runar G. Solstad

Articles

This study generated bioactive hydrolysates using the enzyme Alcalase and autolysis from mesopelagic fish, including Maurolicus muelleri and Benthosema glaciale. Generated hydrolysates were investigated for their bioactivities using in vitro bioassays, and bioactive peptides were identified using mass spectrometry in active hydrolysates with cyclooxygenase, dipeptidyl peptidase IV and antioxidant activities. In silico analysis was employed to rank identified peptide sequences in terms of overall bioactivity using programmes including Peptide Ranker, PrepAIP, Umami-MRNN and AntiDMPpred. Seven peptides predicted to have anti-inflammatory, anti-type 2 diabetes or Umami potential using in silico strategies were chemically synthesised, and their anti-inflammatory activities were confirmed using …

What’S In A Name? Esg Mutual Funds And The Sec’S Names Rule, Jill Fisch, Adriana Robertson

Articles

As investor money flows into environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) mutual funds, regulators have raised growing concerns about greenwashing—specifically that a fund’s name will falsely suggest that the fund invests in companies that meet certain ESG standards. To address these concerns, the Securities & Exchange Commission (“SEC”) proposed amendments to the Investment Company Act (“Names Rule”). The amendments extend the scope of the Names Rule to funds whose names include terms such as ESG, green, or sustainable. If adopted, they will require such funds to invest at least 80% of the value of their assets in companies that meet the …

Discretionary Investing By ‘Passive’ S&P 500 Funds, Adriana Robertson, Peter Molk

Articles

So-called passive index funds—investment funds that are designed to track a prespecified underlying index—have become a dominant force in the investing landscape, collectively controlling over $12 trillion in assets. It is widely assumed that these funds are obligated to follow their underlying index, and that fund managers cannot, or do not, select portfolios that devi- ate from the index’s holdings. As a result, various critics have attacked these funds, raising concerns about their corporate governance incentives and their influence on market efficiency.

We show this assumption is overly simplistic. To do so, we examine funds that track the most prominent …

Administrative Enslavement, Adam Davidson

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No abstract provided.

Succession’S Chappaquiddick Moment, Richard Mcadams

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No abstract provided.

Tailwiz: Empowering Domain Experts With Easy-To-Use, Task-Specific Natural Language Processing Models, Austin Peters, Tim Daj, Jonah Gelbach, David Freeman, Daniel Khang

Articles

Experts outside the field of machine learning (ML) are interested in using ML techniques to analyze their textual data, but they are inhibited by a lack of convenient natural language processing (NLP) tools. To address this issue, we present tailwiz, an easy-to-use Python tool, powered by supervised fine-tuning of NLP models. tailwiz caters to domain experts by abstracting away technical ML knowledge and running conveniently on personal computers, the preferred mode of computation among domain experts. We show that tailwiz outperforms domain experts’ current textual analysis techniques on a majority of real-world tasks, up to a 384.8% F1 increase (46.18% …

Foreign Affairs, Nondelegation, And The Major Questions Doctrine, Curtis Bradley, Jack Goldsmith

Articles

Some of the Supreme Court Justices and scholars who support a reinvigoration of the nondelegation doctrine would allow for an exception for grants of authority relating to foreign affairs. Others have criticized such an exception as unprincipled or as reflecting improper “foreign affairs exceptionalism.” This Article argues against a foreign affairs exception to the nondelegation doctrine but contends that the doctrine should be applied less strictly when a statutory authorization relates to an area of independent presidential power. The President has more independent power relating to foreign affairs than domestic affairs, so this limitation on the nondelegation doctrine will do …

The Limits Of Diplomacy By Treaty: Evidence From China's Bilateral Investment Treaty Program, Adam Chilton, Weijia Rao

Articles

The web of over 3000 Bilateral Investment Treaties (“BITs”) is the primary body of international law regulating cross-border investments. Research suggests that these treaties may have had a limited impact on promoting new investments, but that they still may have helped to improve countries’ political relationships. In this paper, we document that this pattern was reversed for one of the most prolific signers of BITs: China. Using a stacked-event research design, we find that Chinese BITs are associated with an increase in Bilateral Foreign Direct Investment Flows but a divergence in voting patterns at the United Nations. We then explore …

The Warren Court V. The Roberts Court, Geoffrey Stone

Articles

No abstract provided.

What Brown Taught Us About The Constitution, David Strauss

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No abstract provided.

Falsely Shouting Fire, Genevieve Lakier, Evelyn Douek

Articles

Research on legal diffusion typically focuses on laws’ initial adoption and ignores their later evolution. We develop a typology of three subsequent diffusion patterns: convergence, when countries revise laws to move closer to leading regulators; customization, when countries revise laws to move away from leading regulators; and stagnation, when countries cease legislating, leaving initially adopted laws in place. We then propose a general theory suggesting that economic size and geographic distance from leading regulators predict which of the three patterns countries follow. We explore this theory with case studies on the dynamic diffusion of antitrust laws in Russia, Colombia, and …

Structural Logics Of Presidential Disqualification: An Essay On Trump V. Anderson, Aziz Huq

Articles

No abstract provided.

Opening Dialogue, Lee Bollinger, Geoffrey Stone

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No abstract provided.

3d Ct Scan Metrology For Solder Void Formation Analysis In Ball Grid Array Electronic Chips, Karl Walsh, Nima E. Gorji

Articles

The miniaturization of silicon chips and the complexity of device functionality has driven the electronic packaging industry to find new methods to enhance the reliability of chips at a smaller size. Solutions such as Ball Grid Array (BGA) packages have contributed to the miniaturization of integrated circuits (ICs) and the reduction in their overall size. However, void formation in the solder joint is a weakness that can affect the robustness of the solder joint integrity, both mechanically and electrically. To detect these voids, metrology methods such as 3D Computed tomography (CT)-scan are used. 3D CT-scans can identify submicron-sized void defects …

The Necessary And Proper Stewardship Of Judicial Data, Aziz Huq, Zachary Clopton

Articles

Governments and commercial firms create profit and social gain by exploiting large pools of data. One source of valuable data, however, lies in public hands yet remains largely untapped. While the deep reservoirs of data produced by Congress and federal agencies have long been available for public use, the data produced by the federal judiciary is only loosely regulated, imperfectly available to the public at large, and largely ignored by scholars.

The ordinary process of litigation in federal courts generates an enormous volume of data. Especially after recent developments in large language models, this data holds immense potential. It can …

Labor Mobility And The Problems Of Modern Policing, John Rappaport, Jonathan Masur, Aurelie Ouss

Articles

We document and discuss the implications of a striking feature of modern American policing: the stasis of police labor forces. Using an original employment dataset assembled through public records requests, we show that, after the first few years on a job, officers rarely change employers, and intermediate officer ranks are filled almost exclusively through promotion rather than lateral hiring. Policing is like a sports league, if you removed trades and free agency and left only the draft in place.

We identify both nonlegal and legal causes of this phenomenon—ranging from geographic monopolies to statutory and collectively bargained rules about pensions, …

Comparing Population-Level Humoral And Cellular Immunity To Sars-Cov-2 In Bangalore, India, Anup Malani, Jayashree Aiyar, Andrea Sant, Neha Kamran, Manoj Mohanan, Saloni Taneja, Bartek Woda, Wanran Zhao, Anu Acharya

Articles

Two types of immunity, humoral and cellular, offer protection against COVID. Humoral protection, contributed by circulating neutralizing antibodies, can provide immediate protection but decays more quickly than cellular immunity and can lose effectiveness in the face of mutation and drift in the SARS‑ CoV‑2 spike protein. Therefore, population‑level seroprevalence surveys used to estimate population‑ level immunity may underestimate the degree to which a population is protected against COVID. In early 2021, before India began its vaccination campaign, we tested for humoral and cellular immunity to SARS‑Cov‑2 in representative samples of slum and non‑slum populations in Bangalore, India. We found that …

What Do Oral Contraceptive Pills Have To Do With Human Rights Abuses In Sport?, Michele Krech, Katrina Karkazis

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No abstract provided.

Standing And Probabilistic Injury, Curtis Bradley, Ernest Young

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Standing to sue often turns on questions of probability. For example, public law plaintiffs must show that they are likely to be affected by allegedly unlawful government surveillance or environmental policies, and consumers may wish to sue private defendants over false credit reporting or data breaches that may or may not cause them financial or reputational harm in the future. This Article offers a framework for resolving a wide range of these “probabilistic standing” issues. Our core claim is that courts and commentators ask too much of standing doctrine in probabilistic cases. First, scholars sometimes seek a unified theory of …

The Role (And Limits) Of Developmental Neuroscience In Determining Adolescents’ Autonomy Rights: The Case For Reproductive And Voting Rights, Emily Buss, Julie Maslowsky, Laura Wray-Lake

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No abstract provided.