Digital Commons Network^™

Post-Term Births As A Risk Factor For Small For Gestational Age Births And Infant Mortality In Brazil, Mexico, And Palestinian Refugees: An Analysis Of Electronic Birth Records, Zeina Jamaluddine, Lorena Suarez Idueta, Enny S. Paixao, Julia M. Pescarini, Hala Ghattas Ph.D., Miho Sato, Akihiro Seita, Luis A. Martinez-Juarez, Mauricio L. Barreto, Eric O. Ohuma, Louise T. Day, Oona M.R. Campbell, Hannah Blencowe

Faculty Publications

Background:

Post-term pregnancy, defined as reaching or exceeding 42 + 0 weeks of gestation, is known to be associated with unfavourable birth outcomes. High-income countries have responded to this risk by widely adopting labour induction protocols in late-term, but many low- and middle-income countries have not. However, understanding underlying mechanisms linking post-term births to adverse newborn and infant outcomes remains limited.

Objective:

To investigate the (a) prevalence of post-term, (b) the risk factors associated with post-term (c) the association between post-term births and the risk of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) neonates and of infant mortality in middle-income settings.

Methods:

We used existing …

Population Variability Across Geographical Ranges: Perspectives And Challenges, Cleber Ten Caten, Tad Dallas

Faculty Publications

Populations fluctuate over time and across geographical space, and understanding how different factors contribute to population variability is a central goal in population ecology. There is a particular interest in identifying trends of population variability within geographical ranges as population densities of species can fluctuate substantially across geographical space. A common assumption is that populations vary more near species geographical range edges because of unsuitable environments and higher vulnerability to environmental variability in these areas. However, empirical data rarely support this expectation, suggesting that population variability is not related to its position within species geographical ranges. We propose that performance …

“The Centrality Of ‘Life’ For Johannine Ethics”, Craig R. Koester

Faculty Publications

Jan van der Watt has described ethics as rational and systematic reflection on actions that are deemed positive or negative. Basic questions involve the point of departure and the aim of ethical action. He rightly identifies God as the authoritative center for Johannine ethics and makes two observations that warrant further development. First, as the point of departure, “God is the living God (6:57), the God who is life and gives life,” and Jesus too “is and brings life.” Second, in “line with the task of Jesus, the aim of believers is to give, sustain, and promote life.” “Promoting life …

An Accident On Mount Washington: Now I Understand What It's Like To Have Panic Attacks, Chuck Radis

Faculty Publications

This is the story of how Dr. Radis developed PTSD after a mountaineering accident and how it affected him in his personal life and as a physician as he continued to practice and see patients.

The Impact Of Seasonal Hydrological Disturbances On The Presence And Formation Of Toxic Cyanobacteria Blooms In Coastal Louisiana, Courtney Nicole Hammond, Sibel Bargu, Caitlin R.R. Turner, Matthew Hiatt, John R. White

Faculty Publications

Estuaries in the Gulf, especially Lake Pontchartrain Estuary in southeastern Louisiana, USA, are experiencing significant changes due to climate change and coastal restoration efforts. Lake Pontchartrain Estuary receives nutrient-rich Mississippi River water through a controlled diversion called Bonnet Carré Spillway (BCS), which has been associated with toxic cyanobacterial blooms (cyanoHABs). This study examines the seasonal factors influencing cyanoHABs in the Lake Pontchartrain Estuary when the BCS is closed, addressing gaps in the understanding of HABs related to other physical drivers. Field samples collected in 2021, during the closure of the spillway, revealed significant evidence of seasonal variations in cyanoHAB formation. …

Photogrammetric Determination Of Movement Speed Of Invasive Indo-Pacific Lionfish In The Florida Keys, Neal Kolonay, Cassandra N. Glaspie

Faculty Publications

As a key determinant of how efficiently lionfish (Pterois sp.) locate and capture prey, swimming speed plays a crucial role in shaping the predator-prey interactions and broader ecological dynamics within the invaded ecosystems. Swimming speed on a small temporal and spatial scale is difficult to measure because of the need for precise measurements of both distance and duration of the behavior. Using photogrammetry by way of stereo-camera setups is ideal for analyzing the minutiae of lionfish behaviors because it can include the benefits of remote video traps coupled with precise measurements of movements in three-dimensional space and time. The primary …

Comparison Of Two Benthic Assemblage Sampling Gears For Use On Intertidal Oyster Reefs In Louisiana, Finella M. Campanino, Stephanie K. Archer, Jillian C. Tupitza, Cassandra N. Glaspie, Megan K. La Peyre

Faculty Publications

Background: Estuarine biodiversity plays a vital role in supporting ecosystem functions yet remains threatened by climate change and anthropogenic activity. Tracking and identifying estuarine biodiversity trends helps management ensure long-term provisions of human and environmental benefits by contributing to the estimation of habitat loss and the monitoring of restoration and conservation progress. However, results obtained using different sampling gears and different biodiversity metrics may lead researchers to reach different conclusions, which can lead to uncertainty in the actual state of the ecosystem-level biodiversity. Sampling benthic biodiversity in complex estuarine habitats, such as oyster reefs, is particularly challenging because no one …

A Silence After Slaughter-House: Nineteenth-Century State Constitutional Substantive Rights, Liberties, And Privileges, Charles W. "Rocky" Rhodes

Faculty Publications

In rejecting federal constitutional challenges to the Louisiana legislature’s exclusive butchering grant in the Slaughter-House Cases, the United States Supreme Court opined that it was the states’ obligation to protect fundamental privileges, such as rights to acquire and possess property, engage in trade and commerce, and pursue happiness, subject only to those restraints necessary for the public good. But the states met this charge with silence. State courts across the nation consistently parroted Slaughter-House’s reasoning, even while occasionally acknowledging the decision did not bind their interpretation of state constitutional provisions guaranteeing fundamental rights, liberties, privileges, and immunities. Although two states …

Evergreening's Empirical Chasm, Erika Lietzan

Faculty Publications

For more than two decades, policymakers have been told that pharmaceutical innovators companies engage in a practice that is called, disparagingly, “evergreening.” The basic idea is that companies introduce new versions of their drugs that have later expiring patents or regulatory exclusivity. This way, the claim goes, the companies effectively block generic entry for years or decades longer than Congress intended and than is socially desirable. Initially these claims were supported by poorly researched anecdotes. In the last decade, some scholars and advocacy organizations have published papers that purport to provide empirical support for the “evergreening” accusation. But these empirical …

The Gift Of Exit Financing, Robert W. Miller

Faculty Publications

Aggressive liability management exercises have spilled over into bankruptcy court and exit financing is often the prize in the center of the arena. Debtors no longer rely upon gifting, the traditional strategy for buying plan support. Instead, they can replicate gifting's benefits in a more defensible package by funneling discounted subscription rights to chosen constituencies as part of exit financing.

Recognizing exit financing's distortive power, courts responded by evaluating the quality of negotiations and reviewing precedent transactions. Meanwhile, commentators suggest heightened monitoring and informal guardrails. All of these approaches ignore the shortcomings of judicial valuation. Market testing is the only …

Choosing To Use Good Language In The "Adr" Field, John Lande

Faculty Publications

On October 30, 2024, Debra Berman posted a message on a listserv encouraging colleagues to drop the word “alternative” from “ADR.” Her post quickly prompted 24 responses. This article summarizes the listserv discussion about the term “ADR,” and demonstrates serious misconceptions embodied in popular concepts of “BATNA” and “facilitative” and “evaluative” mediation as well as other problematic language that we frequently use.

Language is a shared resource that can enable people to understand each other accurately and to improve our ideas and techniques. This article describes the many ways that language has huge effects on people’s thoughts and actions, and …

International Law And The Rise Of Populism, Shruti Rana, Peter G. Danchin, Jeremy Farrall, Jolyon Ford, Imogen Saunders

Faculty Publications

Contemporary legal scholarship seeks to diagnose populist antagonism towards national and international law and warn about the challenges it poses to the cooperation needed to respond to global threats. What this scholarship overlooks, however, is the role that major shifts in international legal normativity and conceptions of global governance have themselves played in incubating the conditions far the rise of populism. Against the prevailing literature, this Article argues that the key to unlocking this puzzle is recognition that populism, rather than constituting an external social pathology, is a mode of politics arising internal to the intellectual history and practice of …

Historical Practice At The Founding, Ryan Snyder

Faculty Publications

In recent years, the Supreme Court has increasingly relied on historical practice—actions other than judicial decisions that implement the law after its adoption. That creates tension with the Court’s professed adherence to originalism—the view that a law’s meaning is fixed at the time of its adoption. To resolve this tension, the Court and many scholars have embraced theories such as “liquidation,” which argue that the Founders themselves used practice to update or change the law’s meaning over time. But until now, no one has systematically examined whether the Founders accepted those theories.

This Article provides the first comprehensive analysis of …

Complex Models Of Sequence Evolution Improve Fit, But Not Gene Tree Discordance, For Tetrapod Mitogenomes, Benjamin S. Toups, Robert C. Thomson, Jeremy M. Brown

Faculty Publications

Variation in gene tree estimates is widely observed in empirical phylogenomic data and is often assumed to be the result of biological processes. However, a recent study using tetrapod mitochondrial genomes to control for biological sources of variation due to their haploid, uniparentally inherited, and non-recombining nature found that levels of discordance among mitochondrial gene trees were comparable to those found in studies that assume only biological sources of variation. Additionally, they found that several of the models of sequence evolution chosen to infer gene trees were doing an inadequate job of fitting the sequence data. These results indicated that …

Bioagricorridors: Uban Ecosystem Networks To Enhance Biological Diversity, Ecosystem Services And Food Production In Barcelona, Spain, Fabio Capra-Ribeiro, Filippo Vegezzi

Faculty Publications

Urbanisation and environmental degradation pose significant challenges to biodiversity, ecosystem services, and food pro- duction. The Bioagricorridors strategy addresses this by inte- grating agroecology in the urban environment, emphasising the continuity principle to connect diverse ecosystems through green infrastructure. Employing a mapping strategy, bioagricorridors bridge theory and space, using maps as communication tools and deep mapping to explore multi-layered, digital cartographic representations. This approach aids in addressing pressing urban conditions, enhancing genetic diversity, and improving soil and water quality. The exploration uses Barcelona as a case study, a city marked by historical urban planning shifts and landscape fragmentation. Taking into …

A Systematic Review Of Environmentally Persistent Free Radical (Epfr) Formation, Characteristics, And Health Effects: Are There Sufficient Data For Risk Assessment?, Avinash Kumar, Divine Nde, Chuqi Guo, Rashmi Pathak, Fox Foley, Syed Ahmad, Prakash Dangal, Farhana Hasan, Myron Lard, Ankit Aryal, Martine E. Mathieu-Campbell, Jennifer Irving, Oluwafeyikemi Ogunmusi, Jennifer Richmond-Bryant, Slawomir Lomnicki, Lavrent Khachatryan, Stephania A. Cormier, Tammy R. Dugas

Faculty Publications

Environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) are stable free radicals formed on particulate matter (PM) through processes such as combustion and pyrolysis. These free radicals are generated on transition metal oxide surfaces in the presence of aromatic precursors. Exposure to EPFRs occurs primarily via inhalation of PM deriving from combustion, traffic, industrial activities, and both indoor and outdoor burning. Other environmental factors that might generate EPFRs are radon, electronic and tobacco cigarettes. EPFRs exhibit unexpectedly long half-lives, ranging from several weeks to, in some cases, several years. EPFRs may be carbon-centered, oxygen-centered or mixed, identified by g-values exhibited in electron paramagnetic …

What ‘Unexplored’ Means: Mapping Regions With Digitized Natural History Records To Look For ‘Biodiversity Blindspots’, Laymon Ball, Sheila Rodríguez-Machado, Diego Paredes-Burneo, Samantha Rutledge, David A. Boyd, David Vander Pluym, Spenser Babb-Biernacki, Austin S. Chipps, Rafet Öztürk, Yahya Terzi, Prosanta Chakrabarty

Faculty Publications

We examined global records of accessible natural history voucher collections (with publicly available data and reliable locality data) for terrestrial and freshwater vascular plants, fungi, freshwater fishes, birds, mammals, and herpetofauna (amphibians and reptiles) and highlight areas of the world that would be considered undersampled and sometimes called ‘unexplored’ (i.e., have relatively low, or no evidence of, past sampling efforts) under typical Western-scientific descriptions. We also question what ‘unexplored’ may mean in these contexts and explain how replacing the term in favor of more nuanced phrasing (e.g., ‘biodiversity blindspots,’ which emphasizes the lack of publicly available data about specimens) can …

A Patent System For Temple Grandin, Andrew Chin

Faculty Publications

This article explores the intersection of neurodiversity and innovation through the lens of Temple Grandin’s contributions to livestock handling systems and her philosophical alignment with the U.S. patent system. Drawing on cognitive research by Simon Baron-Cohen, archaeological insights from Penny Spikins, and personal reflections, I argue that autistic cognitive styles—characterized by heightened “folk physics” aptitudes and visual thinking—have historically driven technological progress. Grandin’s patented inventions, motivated by sensory-based empathy for animals, exemplify how neurodivergent inventors seek to embed their conceptions of ethical utility into the nation’s technological infrastructure. The article critiques modern patent litigation trends, advocating instead for a system …

Civic Duties And Cultural Change, Daniel B. Rice

Faculty Publications

What duties do Americans owe the state? Today, this question seems almost incomprehensible. Compulsions in the common interest are received coolly in our rights-obsessed culture, and the Supreme Court has never announced a framework for identifying the burdens of citizenship. Yet the concept of civic duty has played a central role in America’s constitutional tradition. From shoveling snow to repairing roads to fighting overseas, private individuals have long been forced to serve the public in ways menial and profound. Strangely, the discourse of obligation that legitimated numerous compulsions has faded from professional view. Judges’ mawkish tributes to liberty pay no …

Assessing The Past And Future Of Article Iii, Section 12 Of The South Dakota Constitution, Neil Fulton, Madison Gosch

Faculty Publications

The framers of South Dakota’s Constitution feared corruption among public officials. This inspired them to implement structural checks on corruption in that organic document. One result of that effort was Article III, Section 12. That provision prohibited legislators from entering contracts authorized during their term. It further prohibited legislators from occupying other public offices during the legislative service or being appointed to offices created or given increased compensation during their term. The expansion of state government’s reach over time and a recent reinterpretation of Article III, Section 12 raises the question of how well it aligns with current circumstances. This …

Identifying All Matches Of A Rigid Object In An Input Image Using Visible Triangles, Abdullah N. Arslan

Faculty Publications

It has been suggested that for objects identifiable by their corners, every triangle formed by these corner points can serve as a reference for detecting other corner points. This approach enables effective rigid object detection, including partial matches. However, when there are many corner points, the implementation becomes impractical due to excessive memory requirements. To overcome this, we propose a new algorithm that leverages Delaunay triangulation, considering only the triangles generated by the Delaunay triangulation to reduce the complexity of the original approach. Our algorithm is significantly faster and requires significantly less memory, offering a viable solution for large problem …

Mapping Glams: Creating A National Dataset Of Glams To Develop A Categorical Climate-Change Risk Assessment Scale, Edward Benoitiii, Jill Trepanier, Jennifer Vanos, Emily Fisher, Kaitlyn Bailey, Annie Waddell, Haley Moore, Mandy Hatman, Mary Sidwell, Symonne Russell, Virginia Seger, Paige Boutte, Amanda Latta, Zoe Mohammad, Kyriel Felton, Erin Deliman, Breanna Benson-Pearce, Wendy Johnson, Allyson Russell, Baillie Pretzer, Christopher Reeder, Melissa Mcconnell, Lisa Dahlke, Kaitlynn Melear, Lillian Bodi, Savannah T. Lyle, Zach Lannes, Gwen L. Wells, Benjamin A. Teincuff, Jason M. Straight, Tiffany Rockwell, Shane T. Manthei, Jennifer L. Benner

Faculty Publications

Introduction. The PROTECCT-GLAM project aims to assess and address climate risks for U.S. galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs). The project team began with creating a national dataset of GLAMs. Method. The project team used existing datasets that required different auditing and manipulation techniques to align its data. Following the data normalization, the master file included 77,960 entries. Analysis and Results. The project team used ArcGIS Pro to analyze a dataset of galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) for risk from sea level rise, finding 16,877 GLAMs within 30 kilometres of the U.S. coast, with California, New York, Maryland, Florida, …

Advances In Tropical Climatology–A Review, Flávia D.S. Moraes, Craig Ramseyer, Paul W. Miller, Jill C. Trepanier

Faculty Publications

Understanding tropical climatology is essential to comprehending the atmospheric connections between the tropics and extratropical latitudes weather and climate events. In this review paper, we emphasize the advances in key areas of tropical climatology knowledge since the end of the 20th century and offer a summary, assessment, and discussion of previously published literature. Among the key areas analyzed here, we explore the advances in tropical oceanic and atmospheric variability, such as El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Madden-Julian Oscillation, and how those teleconnection events have helped us to better understand variabilities in tropical monsoons, tropical cyclones, and drought events. We also …

An Early Web History Of Vaccine Skeptical Digital Rhetorics, Miles C. Coleman, Will Mari

Faculty Publications

Vaccine hesitancy is a public health threat stoked by vaccine skeptical rhetorics that circulate via the Web. While there is a body of work that studies the digital rhetorical tactics of vaccine skeptics, most of this work focuses on the Web rhetorics of the “Web 2.0” era, leaving the “Web 1.0” era relatively understudied and, in turn, foreclosing opportunities to look back before moving forward in the current moment. In efforts to yield glimpses into the antecedents of digital culture that have shaped contemporary vaccine skeptical discourses, in this article, we draw on systematically sourced website “snapshots” of vaccine skeptical …

Rheological Characterization And Printability Of Sodium Alginate–Gelatin Hydrogel For 3d Cultures And Bioprinting, Mohan Kumar Dey, Ram V. Devireddy

Faculty Publications

The development of biocompatible hydrogels for 3D bioprinting is essential for creating functional tissue models and advancing preclinical drug testing. This study investigates the formulation, printability, mechanical properties, and biocompatibility of a novel Alg-Gel hydrogel blend (alginate and gelatin) for use in extrusion-based 3D bioprinting. A range of hydrogel compositions were evaluated for their rheological behavior, including shear-thinning properties, storage modulus, and compressive modulus, which are crucial for maintaining structural integrity during printing and supporting cell viability. The printability assessment of the 7% alginate–8% gelatin hydrogel demonstrated that the 27T tapered needle achieved the highest normalized Printability Index (POInormalized = …

International Society Of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Β-Hydroxy-Β-Methylbutyrate (Hmb), John A. Rathmacher, Lisa M. Pitchford, Jeffrey R. Stout, Jeremy R. Townsend, Ralf Jäger, Richard B. Kreider, Bill I. Campbell, Chad M. Kerksick, Patrick S. Harty, Darren G. Candow, Brandon M. Roberts, Shawn M. Arent Ph.D., Cscs*D, Fissn, Facsm, Fnak, Douglas S. Kalman, Jose Antonio

Faculty Publications

Position Statement: The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) bases the following position stand on an analysis of the literature regarding the effects of β-Hydroxy-β-Methylbutyrate (HMB). The following 12 points have been approved by the Research Committee of the Society: 1. HMB is a metabolite of the amino acid leucine that is naturally produced in both humans and other animals. Two forms of HMB have been studied: Calcium HMB (HMB-Ca) and a free acid form of HMB (HMB-FA). HMB-FA appears to lead to increased appearance of HMB in the bloodstream when compared to HMB-Ca, though recent results are mixed. 2. …

The Ever-Present Nature Of Christ In The Title Of Jehovah, Dan Belnap

Faculty Publications

In January 2000 the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bore testimony to the world of the reality, humanity, and divinity of Jesus Christ in a document titled “The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles.” Among its many truths was the following: “He [Christ] was the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament.”1 Though this was not the first time Church leadership had declared Christ to be Jehovah, the pronouncement does reemphasize this teaching. It also emphasizes the centrality of Christ in the Old Testament. In fact, the …

Emergency Oversight, Catherine Baylin Duryea

Faculty Publications

This Article examines one of the most pressing questions in administrative law: How much judicial oversight should administrative agencies face during an emergency? This issue was particularly salient during the COVID epidemic, but it is not new. The Second World War saw a significant expansion and consolidation of the power of administrative agencies as well as experimentation with the appropriate oversight role for courts. This Article analyzes one such experiment: judicial oversight of agencies implementing wartime anti-inflationary measures, i.e., price controls and rationing. During the war, Congress created a specialized court, the Emergency Court of Appeals (ECA), to hear disputes …

The Criminal System Under Racial Capitalism, Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal

Faculty Publications

In 2021, major segments of the business lobby converged around a consensus for criminal system reform. As the United States experienced historic levels of labor market tightness, business groups argued for removing “barriers” to employment that system-involved people face. Just a few months later, the orientation of business to the criminal system was decidedly more mixed. By March 2022, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country’s most powerful business lobby, had stepped to the forefront of the national moral panic around retail theft, launching a vigorous campaign to defend and even strengthen criminal punishment across the country.

Anchoring its analysis …

Ready Or Not, The Deadline Is Coming! Getting Onboard With Accessible Course Content, Karen Edwards, Lena Pinkston

Faculty Publications

People with disabilities often have less engagement with and access to online resources (Lissitsa & Madar, 2018). Accordingly, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Final Rule (89 FR 31320, 2024) for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) requires many public educational institutions and others to comply with the Web Content Accessibility (WCAG) Guidelines Version 2.1 AA by April 24, 2026. Compliance officers and technology specialists across the country have been working to make sure institutional websites and apps meet the Guidelines. Despite spirited debate during the rulemaking process, the updated rule also requires instructional content within …