Digital Commons Network^™

Contract Law And The Liberalism Of Fear, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

Liberalism’s concern with human freedom seems related to contractual freedom and thus contract law. There are, however, many strands of liberal thought and which of them best justifies contract is a difficult question. In The Choice Theory of Contracts, Hanoch Dagan and Michael Heller offer a vision of contract based on autonomy. Drawing on the work of Joseph Raz, they argue that extending autonomy should be the law’s primary concern, which requires that we extend the range of contractual choices available. While there is much to admire in their work, I argue that autonomy as conceived by Dagan and Heller …

Odds Of Acute Kidney Injury In Patients Receiving Dipeptidyl Peptidase 4 Inhibitors: A National Cohort Study Within The Department Of Veterans Affairs, Shawn Scott Sutton, Joseph Maggnoli, Tammy H. Cummings, James W. Hardin

Faculty Publications

Preclinical and clinical data of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP‐4) inhibitors have demonstrated discordant data regarding acute kidney injury (AKI). Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the association between DPP‐4 use and AKI. This cohort study utilized data from the Department of Veterans Affairs evaluating patients diagnosed with type 2 (T2) diabetes with a DPP‐4 inhibitor and compared with nondiabetic and diabetic patients. The primary end point is the development of AKI, and statistical analyses were performed to examine the association. DPP‐4 use is associated with a lower odds of AKI compared with diabetics (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 0.39; 95% confidence …

A Novel Eye Tracking Paradigm For Indexing Social Avoidance-Related Behavior In Fragile X Syndrome, Jessica Klusek, Carly Moser, Joseph Schmidt, Leonard Abbeduto, Jane E. Roberts

Faculty Publications

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is characterized by hallmark features of gaze avoidance, reduced social approach, and social anxiety. The development of therapeutics to manage these symptoms has been hindered, in part, by the lack of sensitive outcome measures. This study investigated the utility of a novel eye tracking paradigm for indexing social avoidance-related phenotypes. Adolescent/young adult-aged males with FXS (n=24) and typical development (n=23) participated in the study. Participants viewed faces displaying direct or averted gaze and the first fixation duration on the eyes was recorded as an index of initial stimulus registration. Fixation durations did …

Dietary Inflammatory Index And Non-Communicable Disease Risk: A Narrative Review, Catherine M. Phillips, Ling-Wei Chen, Barbara Heude, Jonathan Y. Bernard, Nicholas C. Harvey, Liesbeth Duijts, Sara M. Mensink-Bout, Kinga Polanska, Giulia Mancano, Matthew Suderman, Nitin Shivappa, James R. Hébert

Faculty Publications

There are over 1,000,000 publications on diet and health and over 480,000 references on inflammation in the National Library of Medicine database. In addition, there have now been over 30,000 peer-reviewed articles published on the relationship between diet, inflammation, and health outcomes. Based on this voluminous literature, it is now recognized that low-grade, chronic systemic inflammation is associated with most non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancers, respiratory and musculoskeletal disorders, as well as impaired neurodevelopment and adverse mental health outcomes. Dietary components modulate inflammatory status. In recent years, the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII^®), a literature-derived …

Post-Treatment Of Nanofiltration Polyamide Membrane Through Alkali-Catalyzed Hydrolysis To Treat Dyes In Model Wastewater, Byung-Moon Jun, Yeomin Yoon, Chang Min Park

Faculty Publications

This research focused on the influence of post-treatment using alkali-catalyzed hydrolysis with a full-aromatic nanofiltration (NF) polyamide membrane and its application to the efficient removal of selected dyes. The post-treated membranes were characterized through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, goniometry, and zeta-potential analysis to analyze the treatment-induced changes in the intrinsic properties of the membrane. Furthermore, the changes in permeability induced by the post-treatment were evaluated via the measurement of water flux, NaCl rejection, and molecular weight cutoff (MWCO) under different pH conditions and post-treatment times. Major changes induced by the post-treatment in terms of physicochemical properties were the enhancement of …

Tumor Microbiome Diversity And Composition Influence Pancreatic Cancer Outcomes, E. Riquelme, Yu Zhang, Liangliang Zhang, M. Montiel, Michelle Zoltan, W. Dong, Pompeyo Quesada, I. Sahin, V. Chandra, Anthony San Lucas, Paul Scheet, Hanwen Xu, Samir M. Hanash, Lei Feng, Jared K. Burks, Kim Anh Do, Christine B. Peterson, Deborah Nejman, Ching Wei D. Tzeng, Michael P. Kim, Cynthia L. Sears

Faculty Publications

Most patients diagnosed with resected pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) survive less than 5 years, but a minor subset survives longer. Here, we dissect the role of the tumor microbiota and the immune system in influencing long-term survival. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we analyzed the tumor microbiome composition in PDAC patients with short-term survival (STS) and long-term survival (LTS). We found higher alpha-diversity in the tumor microbiome of LTS patients and identified an intra-tumoral microbiome signature (Pseudoxanthomonas-Streptomyces-Saccharopolyspora-Bacillus clausii) highly predictive of long-term survivorship in both discovery and validation cohorts. Through human-into-mice fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) experiments from STS, LTS, or control …

Information Diffusion And Social Norms Are Associated With Infant And Young Child Feeding Practices In Bangladesh, Phuong H. Nguyen, Edward A. Frongillo Jr., Sunny S. Kim, Amanda A. Zongrone, Amir Jilani, Lan Mai Tran, Tina Sanghvi, Purnima Menon

Faculty Publications

Background

Interaction within mothers’ social networks can theoretically diffuse messages from interventions and campaigns into norms and practices for infant and young child feeding (IYCF).

Objectives

We hypothesized that mothers’ social networks, diffusion of information, and social norms differed in intensive [intensive interpersonal counseling (IPC), community mobilization (CM), and mass media (MM)] compared with nonintensive (standard IPC and less-intensive CM and MM) intervention areas, were associated with IYCF practices, and partly explained practice improvement.

Methods

We conducted household surveys at endline in 2014 and follow-up in 2016 (n = ∼2000 each round). We used multiple regression to test differences …

Higher Pro-Inflammatory Dietary Score Is Associated With Higher Hyperuricemia Risk: Results From The Case-Controlled Korean Genome And Epidemiology Study_Cardiovascular Disease Association Study, Hye Sun Kim, Minji Kwon, Yi Hyun Lee, Nitin Shivappa, James R. Hebert, Cheongmin Sohn, Woori Na, Mi Kyung Kim

Faculty Publications

In previous studies, the elevated dietary inflammatory index (DII^®) scores have been consistently associated with several chronic diseases. However, the relationship with hyperuricemia remains unknown. The aim of this study was to determine if the DII is associated with hyperuricemia risk. The study included 13,701 participants (men 5102; women 8599) in a large-scale cross-sectional study in South Korea. A validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (SQFFQ) was used to measure dietary intake, and blood samples were obtained to determine hyperuricemia. As the DII score increased, the hyperuricemia risk increased among women (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.03–1.77, p trend = …

Assessing The Efficiency Of Alternative Best Management Practices To Reduce Nonpoint Source Pollution In A Rural Watershed Located In Louisiana, Usa, Bijay K. Pokhrel, Krishna P. Paudel

Faculty Publications

© 2019 by the authors. We conducted biophysical simulations using MapShed to determine the effects of adopting best management practices (BMPs) to reduce nutrients and sediment pollution in a watershed dominated by poultry production in the Saline Bayou Watershed, Louisiana, USA. The reduction of three water pollutants, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment from adopting different BMPs were assessed using a linear programming model with the cost minimization objective. We considered three weather scenarios (dry, normal, and wet) and BMP parameter efficiencies obtained from linear regression models. Optimization results showed that nutrient management and agricultural land retirement reduced most of the phosphorus …

Synergistic Effects Of Temperature And Salinity On The Gene Expression And Physiology Of Crassostrea Virginica, H. R. Jones, K. M. Johnson, M. W. Kelly

Faculty Publications

© 2019 The Author(s). The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, forms reefs that provide critical services to the surrounding ecosystem. These reefs are at risk from climate change, in part because altered rainfall patterns may amplify local fluctuations in salinity, impacting oyster recruitment, survival, and growth. As in other marine organisms, warming water temperatures might interact with these changes in salinity to synergistically influence oyster physiology. In this study, we used comparative transcriptomics, measurements of physiology, and a field assessment to investigate what phenotypic changes C. virginica uses to cope with combined temperature and salinity stress in the Gulf of Mexico. …

The Association Between Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors And 25-Hydroxivitamin D And Related Analytes Among Hispanic/Latino Adults: A Pilot Study, Ramon A. Durazo-Arvizu, Reyna L. Pacheco-Dominguez, Christopher T. Sempos, Holly Kramer, Andrew N. Hoofnagle, Amber Pirzada, Richard S. Cooper, Martha L. Daviglus

Faculty Publications

Although the association of vitamin D levels with cardiovascular risk profiles among Hispanics/Latinos has been studied, little is known about this association among Hispanics/Latinos with chronic conditions. This pilot study determined serum vitamin D and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels in a sample of participants from the University of Illinois at the Chicago Cohort of Patients, Family and Friends (UIC Cohort) and examined their association with traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors. From July 2012 to June 2016, the UIC Cohort study enrolled and conducted clinical examinations on men and women ages 18 years and older, who had one or more diagnosed …

Flood Protection Ecosystem Services In The Coast Of Puerto Rico: Associations Between Extreme Weather, Flood Hazard Mitigation And Gastrointestinal Illness, R. De Jesus Crespo, J. Wu, M. Myer, S. Yee, R. Fulford

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Investigation Of Spectral Variation Of Pine Needles As An Indicator Of Arsenic Content In Soils, Ji Hye Shin, Jaehyung Yu, Lei Wang, Jieun Kim, Sang Mo Koh

Faculty Publications

The spectral response to arsenic (As) stress of pine needles (Pinus densiflora Siebold and Zucc.) from an abandoned lead (Pb)–zinc (Zn) mine was investigated based on chemical and spectroscopic analyses. The correlation analysis between the content of As in needle samples and that of soils and spectral parameters of the needle samples were conducted. The results showed very high correlation between As content in pine needles and soils. The major spectral response of pine needles to the As stress were characterized by the increase in the green and red color reflectance, the decrease in the first derivatives at 1648 nm, …

Cybersecurity Paradigm Shift, The Risk Of Net Neutrality Repeal To Energy Reliability, Public Safety, And Climate Change Solutions, Catherine J. K. Sandoval

Faculty Publications

This Article contends that the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) January 2018 repeal of net neutrality rules creates cybersecurity vulnerabilities for the energy sector and other critical infrastructure. Unbridled from enforceable net neutrality rules, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) create systemic supply chain risks as the Internet has become embedded into the energy sector’s distributed ecosystem. This Article argues that cybersecurity has been primarily viewed from a “hacker paradigm” that obscures systemic threats such as those posed by an ISP since firewalls and traditional cybersecurity techniques do not protect against ISP conduct. The Article contends that the FCC’s failure to consider the …

Deep Learning-Based Structure-Activity Relationship Modeling For Multi-Category Toxicity Classification: A Case Study Of 10k Tox21 Chemicals With High-Throughput Cell-Based Androgen Receptor Bioassay Data, Gabriel Idakwo, Sundar Thangapandian, Joseph Luttrell Iv, Zhaoxian Zhou, Chaoyang Zhang, Ping Gong

Faculty Publications

Deep learning (DL) has attracted the attention of computational toxicologists as it offers a potentially greater power for in silico predictive toxicology than existing shallow learning algorithms. However, contradicting reports have been documented. To further explore the advantages of DL over shallow learning, we conducted this case study using two cell-based androgen receptor (AR) activity datasets with 10K chemicals generated from the Tox21 program. A nested double-loop cross-validation approach was adopted along with a stratified sampling strategy for partitioning chemicals of multiple AR activity classes (i.e., agonist, antagonist, inactive, and inconclusive) at the same distribution rates amongst the training, validation …

Melanopsin-Containing Iprgcs Are Resistant To Excitotoxic Injury And Maintain Functional Non-Image Forming Behaviors After Insult In A Diurnal Rodent Model, Garrett M. Fogo, Dorela D. Shuboni-Mulligan, Andrew J. Gall

Faculty Publications

Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) are critical for the light signaling properties of non-image forming vision. Melanopsin-expressing ipRGCs project to retinorecipient brain regions involved in modulating circadian rhythms. Melanopsin has been shown to play an important role in how animals respond to light, including photoentrainment, masking (i.e., acute behavioral responses to light), and the pupillary light reflex (PLR). Importantly, ipRGCs are resistant to various forms of damage, including ocular hypertension, optic nerve crush, and excitotoxicity via N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) administration. Although these cells are resistant to various forms of injury, the question still remains whether or …

Counterfeit Campaign Speech, Rebecca Green

Faculty Publications

We are entering an era in which computers can manufacture highly-sophisticated images, audio, and video of people doing and saying things they have, in fact, not done or said. In the context of political campaigns, the danger of “counterfeit campaign speech” is existential. Do current laws adequately regulate faked candidate speech? Can counter speech effectively neutralize it? Because it takes place in the vaulted realm of core political speech, would the First Amendment stymie any attempt to outlaw it? Many smart people who have looked at the general problem of deceit in campaigns have concluded that the state has no …

Amphibious Entrepreneurs And The Origins Of Invention, Kurt Sandholtz, Walter W. Powell

Faculty Publications

In this chapter, we examine entrepreneurs who carry ideas, technologies, values, and assumptions between previously unrelated spheres of economic or cultural activity, and in the process, change the existing order of things. We label such individuals amphibious entrepreneurs and explore their characteristics via four case studies. Their stories suggest a distinct species within the genus of entrepreneur: more pragmatic than heroic, and as likely to invent by not knowing any better as by calculative creation. We discuss their role in creating interstitial spaces, contrast them to other boundary-spanning actors, and identify directions for future research at the intersection of social …

Equine Arteritis Virus Long-Term Persistence Is Orchestrated By Cd8+ T Lymphocyte Transcription Factors, Inhibitory Receptors, And The Cxcl16/Cxcr6 Axis, Mariano Carossino, Nikolaus Osterrieder, Pouya Dini, Theodore S. Kalbfleisch, Alan T. Loynachan, Igor F. Canisso, R. Frank Cook, Peter J. Timoney, Udeni B. R. Balasuriya

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Two New Species Of Shrew-Rats (Rhynchomys: Muridae: Rodentia) From Luzon Island, Philippines, Eric A. Rickart, Danilo S. Balete, Robert M. Timm, Phillip A. Alviola, Jacob A. Esselstyn, Lawrence R. Heaney

Faculty Publications

The murine genus Rhynchomys includes the large-bodied Philippine "shrew-rats," highly specialized members of the vermivorous clade of Philippine murids. Four species are recognized, all of which are endemic to Luzon Island: R. soricoides from mountains within the Central Cordillera, R. isarogensis from Mt. Isarog on the Bicol Peninsula, R. banahao from Mt. Banahaw in south-central Luzon, and R. tapulao from Mt. Tapulao in the Zambales Mountains. Field surveys in 2006 and 2008 revealed two additional populations of Rhynchomys, one from Mt. Labo (1,544 m), a dormant stratovolcano at the base of the Bicol Peninsula, the other from Mt. Mingan (1,901 …

Gender Assignment To Spanish Pseudowords By Monolingual And Basque-Spanish Bilingual Children, Rocio Pérez-Tattam, Maria José Ezeizabarrena, Hans Stadthagen-González, Virginia C. Mueller Gathercole

Faculty Publications

This study examines gender marking in the Spanish of Basque-Spanish bilingual children. We analyze data collected via a production task designed to elicit 48 DPs, controlling for gender of referents and for number and types of morphological cues to grammatical gender. The goals were to determine the extent to which participants rely on biological cues (female referent =>FEM gender, male referent =>MASC gender) and morpho-phonological cues (-a ending =>FEM, -o ending =>MASC, others =>MASC or FEM) to assign gender to pseudowords/novel words; and whether bilinguals’ language dominance (Spanish strong/weak) has an effect. Data were collected …

Acercándonos A Los Postmodernos: Fe Y Postmodernidad, Felix H. Cortez

Faculty Publications

Paper presented at the Congreso de Jóvenes Universitarios y Profesionales Panamá, Panamá, 18 al 21 de Julio de 2019

Implications Of Poultry Litter Usage For Electricity Production, Qiuzhou Ma, Krishna P. Paudel, Doleswar Bhandari, Chandra Theegala, Molly Cisneros

Faculty Publications

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Poultry litter has the potential to cause water quality problems if it is not applied properly to the land as a crop nutrient. Based on the data available from a survey of Louisiana poultry producers, we find that it is not cost effective to transport poultry litter farther than 38.6 km from the production facilities for crop nutrient purposes. This limited breakeven distance restricts the movement of poultry litter and points to a need to identify an alternative disposal method. We review common methods of producing electricity from poultry litter. We identify the minimum cost solution …

Rf Energy Harvesting Wireless Communication: Rf Environment, Device Hardware And Practical Issues, Yu Luo, Lina Pu, Guodong Wang, Yanxiao Zhao

Faculty Publications

Radio frequency (RF) based wireless power transfer provides an attractive solution to extend the lifetime of power-constrained wireless sensor networks. Through harvesting RF energy from surrounding environments or dedicated energy sources, low-power wireless devices can be self-sustaining and environment-friendly. These features make the RF energy harvesting wireless communication (RF-EHWC) technique attractive to a wide range of applications. The objective of this article is to investigate the latest research activities on the practical RF-EHWC design. The distribution of RF energy in the real environment, the hardware design of RF-EHWC devices and the practical issues in the implementation of RF-EHWC networks are …

Wide-Ranging Temporal Variation In Transoceanic Movement And Population Mixing Of Bluefin Tuna In The North Atlantic Ocean, Michael A. Dance

Faculty Publications

Uncertainty regarding the movement and population exchange of Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) from the two primary spawning areas (Gulf of Mexico, Mediterranean Sea) is increasingly implicated as a major impediment for the conservation of this species. Here, two mixture methods were applied to natural chemical markers (delta O-18 and delta C-13) in otoliths (ear stones) to comprehensively investigate the nature and degree of transoceanic movement and mixing of eastern and western populations in several areas of the North Atlantic Ocean that potentially represent mixing hotspots. Areas investigated occurred on both sides of the 45 degrees W management boundary as …

Entomology In The 21st Century: Tackling Insect Invasions, Promoting Advancements In Technology, And Using Effective Science Communication - 2018 Student Debates, Casey Parker, Lina Bernaola, Benjamin W. Lee, Dane Elmquist, Abigail Cohen, Adrian Marshall, James Hepler, Adrian Pekarcik, Emily Justus, Kendall King, Tae Young Lee, Carlos Esquivel, Kayleigh Hauri, Christopher Mccullough, Whitney Hadden, Max Ragozzino, Morgan Roth, James Villegas, Emily Kraus, Michael Becker, Megan Mulcahy, Rui Chen, Priyanka Mittapelly, C. Scott Clem, Rachel Skinner, Tanya Josek, Daniel Pearlstein, Jonathan Tetlie, Anh Tran, Anthony Auletta, Edwin Benkert, Dylan Tussey

Faculty Publications

The 2018 student debates of the Entomological Society of America were held at the Joint Annual Meeting for the Entomological Societies of America, Canada, and British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. Three unbiased introductory speakers and six debate teams discussed and debated topics under the theme aEntomology in the 21st Century: Tackling Insect Invasions, Promoting Advancements in Technology, and Using Effective Science Communication'. This year's debate topics included: 1) What is the most harmful invasive insect species in the world? 2) How can scientists diffuse the stigma or scare factor surrounding issues that become controversial such as genetically modified organisms, agricultural …

Fictional Pleas, Thea B. Johnson

Faculty Publications

A fictional plea is one in which the defendant pleads guilty to a crime he has not committed with the knowledge of the defense attorney, prosecutor and judge. With fictional pleas, the plea of conviction is totally detached from the original factual allegations against the defendant. As criminal justice actors become increasingly troubled by the impact of collateral consequences on defendants, the fictional plea serves as an appealing response to this concern. It allows the parties to achieve parallel aims: the prosecutor holds the defendant accountable in the criminal system, while the defendant avoids devastating non-criminal consequences. In this context, …

Temporal And Spatial Dynamics Of Competitive Parapatry In Chewing Lice, Mark S. Hafner

Faculty Publications

We synthesize observations from 1979 to 2016 of a contact zone involving two subspecies of pocket gophers (Thomomys bottae connectens and T. b. opulentus) and their respective chewing lice (Geomydoecus aurei and G. centralis) along the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico, U.S.A., to test predictions about the dynamics of the zone. Historically, the natural flood cycle of the Rio Grande prevented contact between the two subspecies of pocket gophers. Flood control measures completed in the 1930s permitted contact, thus establishing the hybrid zone between the pocket gophers and the contact zone between their lice (without hybridization). Since that time, …

Low-Intensity Exercise Induces Acute Shifts In Liver And Skeletal Muscle Substrate Metabolism But Not Chronic Adaptations In Tissue Oxidative Capacity, S E. Fuller, T Y. Huang, J Simon, H M. Batdorf, S E. Fuller, M C. Scott, C M. Waskom, J M. Brown, S J. Burke, J J. Collier, R C. Noland

Faculty Publications

Adaptations in hepatic and skeletal muscle substrate metabolism following acute and chronic (6 wk; 5 days/wk; 1 h/day) low-intensity treadmill exercise were tested in healthy male C57BL/6J mice. Low-intensity exercise maximizes lipid utilization; therefore, we hypothesized pathways involved in lipid metabolism would be most robustly affected. Acute exercise nearly depleted liver glycogen immediately postexercise (0 h), whereas hepatic triglyceride (TAG) stores increased in the early stages after exercise (0-3 h). Also, hepatic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator-1 alpha (PGC-1 alpha) gene expression and fat oxidation (mitochondrial and peroxisomal) increased immediately postexercise (0 h), whereas carbohydrate and amino acid oxidation in liver …

“You Shall Not Kill” Or “You Shall Not Murder”? The Meaning Of Ratsakh In The Sixth Commandment, Jiří Moskala

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.