Digital Commons Network^™

The Culture Differential In Parental Autonomy, Elaine M. Chiu

Faculty Publications

When the laws of a community reflect a dominant culture and yet many of its members are from other minority cultures, there is often conflict. When this conflict occurs in the legal regulation of the parent-child relationship, the consequences are tremendous for the children, the parents, and the State. This Article focuses on the federal statute criminalizing female genital surgeries, and, in doing so, it makes two major claims. The first claim is that the decisions of minority parents are scrutinized and regulated to a greater degree than the decisions of parents from the dominant culture, even when their decisions …

Privacy And Funeral Protests, Christina E. Wells

Faculty Publications

This article examines the free speech implications of funeral protest statutes. Enacted in response to the Westboro Baptist Church, whose members protest at funerals to spread their antigay message, such statutes restrict a broad array of peaceful expressive activity. This Article focuses on the states’ interest underlying these statutes - protecting mourners’ right to be free from unwanted intrusions while at funeral services. Few would argue against protecting funeral services from intrusive protests. These statutes, however, go far beyond that notion and protect mourners from offensive, rather than intrusive, protests. As such, they do not conceive of privacy as protection …

Health Courts?, Philip G. Peters Jr.

Faculty Publications

This article undertakes the first detailed critique of the proposal from Common Good and the Harvard School of Public Health to replace medical malpractice jury trials with adjudication before specialized health courts. Professor Peters concludes that the modest benefits likely to be produced by the current health court proposal are matched by the risks of bias and overreaching that these courts would also present. Missing from the plan is the doctrinal change mostly likely to improve patient safety - hospital enterprise liability. Without enterprise liability, the health court proposal is unlikely to achieve its patient safety goals and, as a …

Does Marriage And Relationship Education Work? A Meta-Analytic Study, Alan J. Hawkins, Victoria L. Blanchard, Scott A. Baldwin, Elizabeth B. Fawcett

Faculty Publications

In this meta-analytic study, the authors examined the efficacy of marriage and relationship education (MRE) on 2 common outcomes: relationship quality and communication skills. A thorough search produced 86 codable reports that yielded 117 studies and more than 500 effect sizes. The effect sizes for relationship quality for experimental studies ranged from d = .30 to .36, while the communication skills effect sizes ranged from d = .43 to .45. Quasi-experimental studies generated smaller effect sizes, but these appeared to be due to pretest group differences. Moderate-dosage programs produced larger effect sizes than did lows-dosage programs. For communication skills, published …

Vocal Tremor And Vibrato In The Same Person: Acoustic And Electromyographic Differences, Christopher Dromey, Marshall E. Smith

Faculty Publications

Objectives: The goal of this study was to measure and describe differences between vocal vibrato and essential tremor of the voice in one individual who exhibited both types of modulation.
Study Design: Case study.
Methods: Recordings of spoken and sung vowels produced by the same individual at three effort levels were examined via analysis of acoustic and laryngeal electromyographic (LEMG) signals.
Results: Modulation rate, periodicity and spectral measures of both audio and muscle activation signals revealed generally slower, more prominent and more regular patterns in sung than spoken conditions.
Conditions: There was not always a clear correspondence between LEMG and …

Nonresident Fathers’ Family Leisure Patterns During Parenting Time With Their Children, Alisha T. Swinton, Patti A. Freeman, Ramon B. Zabriskie, Paul J. Fields

Faculty Publications

The purpose of the study was to examine the leisure patterns of nonresident fathers while spending time with their child(ren), and to examine leisure constraints, leisure facilitators and nonresident fathers’ satisfaction with family leisure activities. Four instruments were used to collect the data. Family leisure involvement was measured using the Family Leisure Activity Profile (FLAP), leisure constraints were measured using the Nonresident Father Leisure Constraint Scale (NFLCS), leisure facilitators were measured using the Nonresident Fathers’ Leisure Facilitator Scale (NFLFS), and family leisure satisfaction was measured using the Family Leisure Satisfaction Scale (FLSS). The sample was nonresident fathers (N = 129) …

The Mental, Emotional, And Bodily Toughness Inventory (Mebtough) [Survey Instrument], Mick G. Mack, Brian G. Ragan

Faculty Publications

The MeBTough is a 43-item, self-report measure of mental toughness. This one-dimensional scale assesses the mental, emotional, and physical (bodily) dimensions of toughness based on the writings of Loehr (1994). Respondents are asked to indicate how often they experience each item on a 4-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (Almost Never) to 4 (Almost Always). Nine of the items are designed to be reverse-scored. Responses to the 43 items are then summed to obtain a total score that can range from 43 to 172. Higher MeBTough scores indicate higher levels of mental toughness.

Where's The Kale? Environmental Availability Of Fruits And Vegetables In Two Racially Dissimilar Communities, Edith M. Williams, Bamidele O. Tayo, Beverly Mclean, Ellen Smit, Christopher T. Sempos, Carlos J. Crespo

Faculty Publications

Minority communities across the United States have limited numbers of stores that offer a variety of fruits and vegetables, creating major barriers to good eating habits and nutritional practices among minority groups such as African Americans. Factors like environmental availability of healthy food options have not been fully investigated as possible sources of current cross-population differences in disease. The present study examined whether a predominantly African American neighborhood had disproportionately less availability of fruits and vegetables than a predominantly non-Hispanic White neighborhood. Availability was judged on the bases of the types of stores available in each community and the specific …

Polymorphisms In Methionine Synthase, Methionine Synthase Reductase And Serine Hydroxymethyltransferase, Folate And Alcohol Intake, And Colon Cancer Risk, Susan E. Steck, Temitope O. Keku, Lesley M. Butler, Joseph Galanko, Beri Massa, Robert C. Millikan, Robert S. Sandler

Faculty Publications

Background/Aims - We examined associations among folate and alcohol intake, SNPs in genes involved in one-carbon metabolism and colon cancer risk.

Methods - Colon cancer cases (294 African Americans and 349 whites) were frequency matched to population controls (437 African Americans and 611 whites) by age, race and sex from 33 North Carolina counties from 1996 to 2000. Folate and alcohol intakes were collected by dietary interview. Five SNPs were genotyped using DNA from whole blood: SHMT C1420T; MTRR A66G; MTR A2756G, and the previously-reported MTHFR C677T and MTHFR A1298C. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% …

Use Of Accelerometers In A Large Field-Based Study Of Children: Protocols, Design Issues, And Effects On Precision, Calum Mattocks, Andy R. Ness, Sam D. Leary, Kate Tilling, Steven N. Blair, Julian Shield, Kevin Deere, Joanne Saunders, Joanne Krikby, George Davey Smith, Jonathan Wells, Nicholas Wareham, John J. Reilly, Chris J. Riddoch

Faculty Publications

Background: Objective methods can improve accuracy of physical activity measurement in field studies but uncertainties remain about their use.

Methods: Children age 11 years from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), were asked to wear a uni-axial accelerometer (MTI Actigraph) for 7 days.

Results: Of 7159 children who attended for assessment, 5595 (78%) provided valid measures. The reliability coefficient for 3 days of recording was .7 and the power to detect a difference of 0.07 SDs (P ≤ .05) was > 90%. Measures tended to be higher on the first day of recording (17 counts/min; 95% CI, …

Physical Activity And Blood Pressure In Childhood: Findings From A Population-Based Study, Sam D. Leary, Andy R. Ness, George Davey Smith, Calum Mattocks, Kevin Deere, Steven N. Blair, Chris J. Riddoch

Faculty Publications

The pathological processes associated with development of cardiovascular disease begin early in life. For example, elevated blood pressure (BP) can be seen in childhood and tracks into adulthood. The relationship between physical activity (PA) and BP in adults is well-established, but findings in children have been inconsistent, with few studies measuring PA mechanically. Children aged 11 to 12 years were recruited from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. 5505 had systolic and diastolic BP measurements, plus valid (at least 10 hours for at least 3 days) accelerometer measures of PA; total PA recorded as average counts per minute …

Analytical Expression For The Impedance Response For A Lithium-Ion Cell, Godfrey Sikha, Ralph E. White

Faculty Publications

An analytical expression to predict the impedance response of a dual insertion electrode cell (insertion electrodes separated by an ionically conducting membrane) is presented. The expression accounts for the reaction kinetics and double-layer adsorption processes at the electrode-electrolyte interface, transport of electroactive species in the electrolyte phase, and insertion of species in the solid phase of the insertion electrodes. The accuracy of the analytical expression is validated by comparing the impedance response predicted by the expression to the corresponding numerical solution. The analytical expression is used to predict the impedance response of a lithium-ion cell consisting of a porous LiCoO …

Open Adoption, Inheritance, And The "Uncleing" Principle, E. Gary Spitko

Faculty Publications

This article critiques current inheritance law relating to adopted children in light of the purposes of modern adoption law and the increasing prevalence of open adoptions. The article proposes an uncling principle to determine intestate inheritance rights in cases of open adoption in which a birth parent has maintained a qualifying functional relationship with the adopted-out child subsequent to the adoption. When applicable, the uncling principle would treat the adopted-out child and her birth parent as potential heirs of one another. Unlike the presently dominant all-or-nothing approach to inheritance rights arising from adoption, however, the proposal would not under any …

Judging Vanessa: Norm Setting And Deviance In The Law Of Motherhood, Michelle Oberman

Faculty Publications

This article undertakes an ethnographic approach to the study of legal and societal norms surrounding motherhood in the U.S. It builds upon my more conventional legal and epidemiological work on maternal filicide by telling the stories, both legal and personal, of Vanessa, a woman I interviewed in the course of writing my most recent book, When Mothers Kill: Interviews from Prison. (NYU Press, 2008). In re-telling Vanessa's story, the current article exposes the limitations in the current binary classification of mothers as either good or bad. Of broader interest, I have elected to re-tell Vanessa's story by placing myself in …

Using Wheelchair Sports To Complement Disability Awareness Curriculum Among College Students, Neil R. Lundberg, Ramon Zabriskie, Kevin M. Smith, Keith W. Barney

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a campus-wide intramural wheelchair sports program on attitudes toward people with disabilities. The sample consisted of 126 participants at a large, western university. A quasi-experimental pre-post design was used. Results indicated that there was a significant decrease in discomfort in interaction with people with disabilities after participation in the program. Additional findings indicated that recreation majors who were required to have some disability awareness training in their coursework had statistically lower pre- and post-test scores than other majors and demonstrated the greatest change in attitude toward people with disabilities. …

How Are Preferences Revealed?, John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian

Faculty Publications

Revealed preferences are tastes that rationalize an economic agent's observed actions. Normative preferences represent the agent's actual interests. It sometimes makes sense to assume that revealed preferences are identical to normative preferences. But there are many cases where this assumption is violated. We identify five factors that increase the likelihood of a disparity between revealed preferences and normative preferences: passive choice, complexity, limited personal experience, third-party marketing, and intertemporal choice. We then discuss six approaches that jointly contribute to the identification of normative preferences: structural estimation, active decisions, asymptotic choice, aggregated revealed preferences, reported preferences, and informed preferences. Each …

The Perfect Compromise: Bridging The Gap Between At-Will Employment And Just Cause, Nicole Buonocore Porter

Faculty Publications

The debate [between the at-will employment rule and termination for just cause] has been raging for years, but it is not the primary purpose of this Article to rehash the debate over the value of employment at-will. Instead of taking sides, I find fault with both at-will employment and the just cause standard. Accordingly, the main purpose of this Article is to provide the perfect compromise between at-will employment and the just cause standard.

Under this proposed statute (which I have named the "Employment Termination Equity Act (ETEA)"), employers would be free to terminate without the burden of proving just …

Self-Policing In A Targeted Enforcement Regime, Sarah L. Stafford

Faculty Publications

This paper adds to the debate over whether self-policing can increase environmental protection by considering an issue that has been ignored in previous models—that self-policing may influence future enforcement. The model combines self-policing with targeted enforcement and allows for both deliberate and inadvertent violations. As expected, rewarding self-policers with more lenient future enforcement increases auditing, remediation, and disclosure of inadvertent violations. Self-policing can also serve as a complement to deliberate compliance and can thus further increase environmental performance. However, under reasonable conditions, self-policing can be a substitute for deliberate compliance and could therefore be detrimental to environmental protection.

Judicial Nullification? Judicial Compliance And Non-Compliance With Jury Improvement Efforts, Paula Hannaford-Agor

Faculty Publications

The present article explores the formal and informal factors that contribute to variation in state and local jury trial practices, and especially judicial compliance with mandatory practices and prohibitions. Part II describes the State-of­ the-States Survey of Jury Improvement Efforts, its methodology, and its basic findings concerning the variation in use of different trial practices. Part III discusses how various formal and informal factors affect the judicial use of those practices. Because the practice of permitting jurors to submit written questions to witnesses has received greater attention, and generated greater debate and dissension in both case law and state and …

Not-So-Independent Agencies: Party Polarization And The Limits Of Institutional Design, Neal Devins, David E. Lewis

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

God, Gaia, The Taxpayer, And The Lorax: Standing, Justiciability, And Separation Of Powers After Massachusetts And Hein, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court considered standing in two high-profile cases during the October 2006 term: Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation and Massachusetts v. EPA. Both were 5-4 decisions in which the Court decided along traditional, ideological lines, and both decisions may provide an indication of the future direction of the Supreme Court.

In Hein, a five-Justice majority denied taxpayer standing to challenge the Bush Administration's so-called "faith-based initiatives" as a violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. In Massachusetts, the Court broke new ground as it took several steps in a decidedly "liberal" direction. The five Justice …

Water Marketing As An Adaptive Response To The Threat Of Climate Change, Jonathan H. Adler

Faculty Publications

Whereas there has been substantial research on the potential effect of climate change upon water resources, there has been relatively little consideration of the role of institutional arrangements in mitigating (or exacerbating) the potential effects of warming-induced changes in water supplies. Climate change increases the urgency with which water managers and policymakers must address water supply concerns, moving toward water supply institutions and policies that are sufficiently flexible, adaptive, and robust to deal with the uncertain water future. As the LPCC has concluded, "changes in water management practices will have a very significant impact on how climate change affects the …

Primer For U.S. Lawyers On European Union Government And Law, Charles H. Koch Jr.

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Domestic Incorporation Of Human Rights Law And The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities, Janet E. Lord, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

This Article reviews the processes by which domestic-level transposition of international human rights norms may occur as a consequence of human rights treaty ratification, or other means of incorporation. Specifically, we consider the transformative vision of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD or Convention) as a vehicle for fostering national-level disability law and policy changes. In doing so, we outline the challenges and opportunities presented by this new phase in disability rights advocacy, and we draw conclusions that bear generally upon human rights practice and scholarship. We contend that the role of human rights in domestic …

Law And Governance In The 21st Century Regulatory State, Jason M. Solomon

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Corporate Therapeutics At The Securities And Exchange Commission, Jayne W. Barnard

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Assessing Clinical Trial Eligibility With Logic Expression Queries, Deryle W. Lonsdale, C. Tutison, Craig G. Parker, David W. Embley

Faculty Publications

This paper introduces a system that processes clinical trials using a combination of natural language processing and database techniques. We process web-based clinical trial recruitment pages to extract semantic information reflecting eligibility criteria for potential participants. From this information we then formulate a query that can match criteria against medical data in patient records. The resulting system reflects a tight coupling of web-based information extraction, natural language processing, medical informatic approaches to clinical knowledge representation, and large-scale database technologies. We present an evaluation of the system and future directions for further system development.

Carrying A Good Joke Too Far, Peter A. Alces, Jason M. Hopkins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

In Search Of Removal Jurisdiction, Scott Dodson

Faculty Publications

The ubiquitous and somewhat careless use of the term “jurisdictional” by courts has spawned confusion over what is and is not jurisdictional in a variety of contexts, including removal. The issue has critical implications for litigants. Yet it lacks scholarly coverage and is the subject of deep divisions in the lower courts. In this article, I develop an initial framework for tackling the jurisdictional/procedural characterization issues of the removal statute. I build upon the groundwork laid by prior precedent and modify it to account for the quasi-jurisdictional nature of removal and its impact on the federal-state balance of power. I …

The Child Protection Pretense: States' Continued Consignment Of Newborn Babies To Unfit Parents, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.