Digital Commons Network^™

A National Putative Father Registry, Wells Conference On Adoption Law, Mary M. Beck

Faculty Publications

This Article will discuss the mechanics of putative father registries, review jurisdictional issues, analyze the policies behind their development, and review relevant case law over the last 5 years.

Doctors & Juries, Philip G. Peters Jr.

Faculty Publications

Legislation is pending in both houses of Congress to transfer medical malpractice cases from civil juries to administrative health courts. The Institute of Medicine also wants to take malpractice cases away from juries through a system of binding early settlement offers. Each of these proposals is premised on the assumption that juries lack the capacity to resolve medical malpractice disputes fairly. This article evaluates that premise. It collects and synthesizes three decades of empirical research on jury decision-making, updating the seminal review done by Neil Vidmar over a decade ago.Four important findings emerge from the data. First, negligence matters. Plaintiffs …

News Reporting And Its Impact On Conflict, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

This symposium seeks to bridge this important gap in our social understanding of conflict by stimulating a sustained discussion among scholars about its contours. The task is important and timely, worthy of effort on both the media and the conflict sides of the equation.

Undermining Individual And Collective Citizenship: The Impact Of Exclusion Laws On The African-American Community, S. David Mitchell

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to expose felon exclusion laws as a method for undermining the individual and collective citizenship rights of the African-American community, and to call for their abolition.

Poly[Di(2-Thiophenyl)Carborane]S: Conducting Polymers With High Electrochemical And Thermal Resistance, Erhong Hao, Bruno Fabre, Frank R. Fronczek, M. Graça H. Vicente

Faculty Publications

The synthesis, X-ray structure and electropolymerization of three new carbon-carbon linked di(2-thiophenyl)carboranes (1o, 1m and 1p) are reported; the resulting polymers bearing icosahedral ortho-, meta- or para-carborane clusters show high thermal and electrochemical stabilities in comparison with unsubstituted polythiophene; the ortho-carborane-containing polymer has the highest conductivity of the new materials. © The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Common Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms Act In Concert To Affect Plasma Levels Of High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol, Victor Spirin, Steffen Schmidt, Alexander Pertsemlidis, Richard S. Cooper, Jonathan C. Cohen, Shamil R. Sunyaev

Faculty Publications

The identification of DNA sequence variants underlying human complex phenotypes remains a significant challenge for several reasons: individual variants can have small phenotypic effects or low population frequencies, and multiple allelic variants may act in concert to affect a trait. We evaluated the combined effect of allelic variants in seven genes involved in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) metabolism, using forward stepwise regression. Analysis of all known common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the seven candidate genes revealed four variants that were associated with incremental changes in HDL cholesterol levels in three independent samples. Conversely, analysis of 660 polymorphisms in eight genes that …

Multiple Genes For Essential-Hypertension Susceptibility On Chromosome 1q, Yen Pei Christy Chang, Xin Liu, James Dae Ok Kim, Morna A. Ikeda, Mamie R. Layton, Alan B. Weder, Richard S. Cooper, Sharon L.R. Kardia, D. C. Rao, Steve C. Hunt, Amy Luke, Eric Boerwinkle, Aravinda Chakravarti

Faculty Publications

Essential hypertension, defined as elevated levels of blood pressure (BP) without any obvious cause, is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, stroke, and renal disease. BP levels and susceptibility to development of essential hypertension are partially determined by genetic factors that are poorly understood. Similar to other efforts to understand complex, non-Mendelian phenotypes, genetic dissection of hypertension-related traits employs genomewide linkage analyses of families and association studies of patient cohorts, to uncover rare and common disease alleles, respectively. Family-based mapping studies of elevated BP cover the large intermediate ground for identification of genes with common variants of significant …

Biology And Host Specificity Of Gall-Inducing Acythopeus Burkhartorum (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), A Biological-Control Agent For The Invasive Weed Coccinia Grandis (Cucurbitaceae) In Guam And Saipan, Anantanarayanan Raman, Zerlene T. Cruz, Rangaswamy Muniappan, Gadi V.P. Reddy

Faculty Publications

An introduced cucurbit Coccinia grandis (Linnaeus) Voigt has grown into problem proportions in Hawaii and the Pacific islands of Guam and Saipan. The biology of Acythopeus burkhartorum OBrien, 1998, a potential biological-control agent of C. grandis, has been described. By inducing the gall a sink for nutrients and by deriving nutrition, A. burkhartorum places C. grandis under stress. Especially during the late larval stage, the weevil displays an unusual behaviour of shredding dry gall tissues with its mandibles to prepare the pupal case and using the shredded sclerenchyma fibres to fill the open and cut ends of the pupal case. …

Supervised Learning Method For The Prediction Of Subcellular Localization Of Proteins Using Amino Acid And Amino Acid Pair Composition, Tanwir Habib, Chaoyang Zhang, Jack Y. Yang, Mary Qu Yang, Youping Deng

Faculty Publications

Background

Occurrence of protein in the cell is an important step in understanding its function. It is highly desirable to predict a protein's subcellular locations automatically from its sequence. Most studied methods for prediction of subcellular localization of proteins are signal peptides, the location by sequence homology, and the correlation between the total amino acid compositions of proteins. Taking amino-acid composition and amino acid pair composition into consideration helps improving the prediction accuracy.

Results

We constructed a dataset of protein sequences from SWISS-PROT database and segmented them into 12 classes based on their subcellular locations. SVM modules were trained to …

Management Challenges In A Maturing Industry: A Teaching Case Study Of Melon Farming In Latin America, Roger A. Hinson, Carl E. Motsenbocker, John V. Westra

Faculty Publications

This is a horticulture case study of the export market for melons (Cucumis melo) from Central America to the United States. Melons have provided growers an excellent production and marketing opportunity since the early 1980s. "Off-season" shipments have changed from a consumer novelty to a commodity. The case documents how this producer entered the industry and became a dominant firm using a cost leadership strategy that included adopting advanced production technology and generating large sales volume to take advantage of its opportunity. As the product moved through the cycle from new product to mature market, there were changes in behavior …

Benefits Of Urea-Molasses Block Supplementation And Symptomatic And Tactical Anthelmintic Treatments Of Communally Grazed Indigenous Goats In The Bulwer Area, Kwazulu-Natal Province, South Africa, A. F. Vatta, J. F. De Villier, S. A. Gumede, R. C. Krecek, N. P. Mapeyi, R. A. Pearson, M. F. Smith, M. O. Stenson, L. J.S. Harrison

Faculty Publications

This study was carried out with the cooperation of farmers owning communally grazed indigenous goats in southwestern KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, where farmers had identified poor reproductive performance in their herds as one of their major problems. The aim was to quantify the effects of 3 interventions and the interaction between these interventions on goat productivity and gastrointestinal nematode infection. The interventions were: urea-molasses block supplementation during the dry winter seasons of 2004 and 2005, tactical anthelmintic treatment with ivermectin (400 μg/kg) during the wet summer period (on 3 January 2005) and symptomatic treatment with ivermectin (400 μg/kg) of all …

Antioxidant Activity And Phenolic Composition In 'Beauregard' Sweetpotato Are Affected By Root Size And Leaf Age, Malkeet S. Padda, D. H. Picha

Faculty Publications

Phenolic acids are considered important antioxidants that may help to prevent many human chronic diseases. The antioxidant activity and phenolic content of sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.] roots and leaves of different sizes and ages, respectively, were quantified. Small roots (≈4 g root weight) had a higher antioxidant activity and phenolic content compared with full-sized marketable roots (≈300 g root weight). Phenolic content in marketable roots was significantly higher in the cortex tissue than in the internal pith tissue. The highest total phenolic content [chlorogenic acid equivalents (10.3 mg·g-1 dry weight)] and antioxidant activity [Trolox equivalents (9.7 mg·g-1 dry weight)] …

Al-Qaeda And The Law Of War, A. Mark Weisburd

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Rise And Fall Of Private Sector Unionism: What Next For The Nlra?, Jeffrey M. Hirsch, Barry T. Hirsch

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Individual Health Insurance Mandates And Financial Distress: A Few Notes From The Debtor-Creditor Research And Debates, Melissa B. Jacoby

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Testing The Testimonial Concept And Exceptions To Confrontation: "A Little Child Shall Lead Them", Robert P. Mosteller

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

In-Situ Optimized Pwas Phased Arrays For Lamb Wave Structural Health Monitoring, Lingyu Yu, Victor Giurgiutiu

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Change In Physical Activity Participation Among Adolescent Girls From 8th To 12th Grade, Russell R. Pate, Marsha Dowda, Jennifer R. O'Neill, Dianne S. Ward

Faculty Publications

Background: Physical activity levels of girls decline in adolescence, but little is known about changes in participation in specific types of physical activity. This study examined change in participation in specific activities during adolescence in girls. Methods: Girls (N=398, age 13.6 ± 0.6 y at baseline, 58.5% African American) from 31 middle and 24 high schools in South Carolina completed the 3-Day Physical Activity Recall (3DPAR) in 8th, 9th, and 12th grades. Girls reported their predominant activity and its intensity level in each 30-min time block on the previous 3 d. Results: Vigorous physical activity declined from 45.4% …

The Constitutional Relevance Of The Employer-Sovereign Relationship: Examining The Due Process Rights Of Government Employees In Light Of The Public Employee Speech Doctrine, Patrick Garry

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A New First Amendment Model For Evaluating Content-Based Regulation Of Internet Pornography: Revising The Strict Scrutiny Model To Better Reflect The Realities Of The Modern Media Age, Patrick Garry

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Effectiveness Of Media Ratings Systems In Preventing Children’S Exposure To Violent And Sexually Explicit Media Content: An Empirical Study, Patrick Garry, Candice J. Spurlin

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment And Non-Political Speech: Exploring A Constitutional Model That Focuses On The Existence Of Alternative Channels Of Communication, Patrick Garry

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Eight Ways To Defeat Or Minimize Erisa Reimbursement Claims, Roger Baron

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Politics Of Deference And Inclusion: Toward A Uniform Framework For The Analysis Of ‘Fundamental Alteration’ Under The Ada, Kerri Lynn Stone

Faculty Publications

In 2001, a disabled professional golfer prevailed in his claim to use a golf cart on the PGA Tour in the Supreme Court case of PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin. While the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) mandates that essential and reasonable accommodations be made for plaintiffs like Martin, it does not require any actions that would fundamentally alter the nature of a defendant’s “goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations.” This article surveys federal opinions that undertook the fundamental alteration query posed by Titles II and III of the ADA in the five years since Martin was decided, and …

On Terrorism And Whistleblowing, Michael P. Scharf, Colin T. Mclaughlin

Faculty Publications

At a Bio-Terrorism Conference at Case Western Reserve University School of Law on March 31, 2006, the government participants were asked what they would do if a superior instructed them not to disclose information to the public about the likely grave health affects of an ongoing bio-terrorist attack. In response, they indicated that they would be reluctant to become a "whistleblower." This is not surprising since, despite the federal and state laws that purport to facilitate such whistleblowing for the public good, government whistleblowers routinely have faced loss of promotion, harassment, firing, and in some instances criminal prosecution when they …

Chaos In The Courtroom, Controlling Disruptive Defendants And Contumacious Counsel In War Crimes Trials, Michael P. Scharf

Faculty Publications

During the eight month-long Dujail trial (October 2005-August 2006), Saddam Hussein, his seven co-defendants, and their dozen lawyers regularly disparaged the judges, interrupted witness testimony with outbursts, turned cross examination into political diatribes, and staged frequent walk-outs and boycotts. Drawn from the author's September 2006 lecture to the staff of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, this article examines some of history's previous messy trials and the strategies judges have employed with varying degrees of success to respond to disruptive conduct by trial participants. It then describes the various tactics employed by the …

Characteristics Of Reduced Fat Milks As Influenced By The Incorporation Of Folic Acid, K. Achanta, C. A. Boeneke, K. J. Aryana

Faculty Publications

Folic acid plays an important role in the prevention of neural tube defects (e.g., spina bifida and anencephaly), heart defects, facial clefts, urinary abnormalities, and limb deficiencies. Milk and milk products serve as a potential source for folic acid fortification because of the presence of folate-binding proteins that seem to be involved in folate bioavailability. Although milk is not a good source of folic acid, fortification could help in the prevention of the above-mentioned defects. The objective of this study was to examine the physicochemical characteristics of reduced fat milks fortified with folic acid. Reduced fat milks were prepared using …

Visual Representations Of The Spatial Relationship Between Bermuda High Strengths And Hurricane Tracks, Jason T. Knowles, Michael Leitner

Faculty Publications

The 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons dramatically demonstrated the magnitude of the societal significance of hurricanes, negatively impacting on all scales from the personal to the national. Although definitive identification of the forcing mechanisms controlling hurricane tracks and landfall patterns remains elusive, increasing evidence supports the hypothesis that the increase in hurricane activity along the Gulf Coast is due to a southwestward shift in the position of the Bermuda High. This research uses multiple visualization techniques to explore the spatial correlation between Bermuda High strengths - as interpreted from the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index - and hurricane tracks. Using …

Foster Parent Pre-Service Training Programs: A Content Analysis Of Four Common Curricula, Jason B. Whiting Phd, Paul Huber, Alice Koech

Faculty Publications

This study compares four curricula commonly used in the pre-service training of US foster parents. Stufflebeam's (1983) CIPP model for program evaluation was used to guide a content analysis of each curriculum, with specific attention to the content and training methodology used. The content was examined to determine if it covered topics identified as germane to the task of fostering children. The instructional methodology of each program was compared with established andragogical adult education techniques. Results indicated that each curriculum varied in content and method of instruction, although there were many areas of overlap. Suggestions for curriculum selection criteria are …

Acute Stretch Perception Alteration Contributes To The Success Of The Pnf "Contract-Relax" Stretch, J. Brent Feland, Sterling C. Hilton, J. Ty Hopkins, Iain Hunter, Ulrike H. Mitchell, J. William Myrer

Faculty Publications

Context: Some researchers have suggested that an alteration of stretch perception could be responsible for the success of the contract-relax (CR) stretch, a stretch technique derived from proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF). Objective: This study was conducted to determine if the alteration of the stretch perception is a possible explanation for the range of motion (ROM) gains of the CR stretch. Participants: Eighteen subjects performed two stretches in randomized order: the slow stretch and the CR stretch. Main Outcome Measure: The stretch intensity was controlled. The stretch force was measured and compared between the slow stretch and CR stretch. Results: There …