Digital Commons Network^™

An Open-Source Code For Fluid Flow Simulations In Unconventional Fractured Reservoirs, B Wang, C Fidelibus

Faculty Publications

In this article, an open-source code for the simulation of fluid flow, including adsorption, transport, and indirect hydromechanical coupling in unconventional fractured reservoirs is described. The code leverages cutting-edge numerical modeling capabilities like automatic differentiation, stochastic fracture modeling, multicontinuum modeling, and discrete fracture models. In the fluid mass balance equation, specific physical mechanisms, unique to organic-rich source rocks, are included, like an adsorption isotherm, a dynamic permeability-correction function, and an Embedded Discrete Fracture Model (EDFM) with fracture-to-well connectivity. The code is validated against an industrial simulator and applied for a study of the performance of the Barnett shale reservoir, where …

Corporate Governance And Tax Avoidance: Evidence From Governance Reform, Jon Kerr, Richard Price, Francisco J. Román, Miles A. Romney

Faculty Publications

Prior literature struggles to find evidence in U.S. settings to support the Desai and Dharmapala (2006) theory on how corporate governance affects tax avoidance. Most studies rely on equity incentive compensation as their governance proxy. We use a Mexican setting to examine this association and find firms with stronger governance engage in less tax avoidance. We rely on both a hand-collected governance index and governance reform to show improved corporate governance pushes tax avoidance toward a new equilibrium. Supplementary analyses show associations between governance and tax avoidance are greatest for tax-cost-sensitive familyowned firms and non-cross-listed firms with naturally weaker governance. …

Risky Education, Osamudia James

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Auditing Imperative For Automated Hiring, Ifeoma Ajunwa

Faculty Publications

The goal of this Article is neither to argue against or for the use of automated decision-making in employment, nor is it to examine whether automated hiring systems are better than humans at making hiring decisions. For antidiscrimination law, the efficacy of any particular hiring system is a secondary concern to ensuring that any such system does not unlawfully discriminate against protected categories. Therefore, the aim is to suggest collaborative regulatory regimes for automated hiring systems that will ensure that any benefits of automated hiring are not negated by (un)intended outcomes, such as unlawful discrimination on the basis of protected …

You Can Call Me Al: Regulating How Candidates' Names Appear On Ballots, Peter Nemerovski

Faculty Publications

In electoral politics, names matter. Studies and anecdotal evidence show that candidates whose names suggest a certain ethnic heritage— for example, an Irish-sounding surname in Chicago, or a Hispanic name in South Florida—outperform candidates without such names, and that “American-sounding” names and names with positive connotations can give candidates a leg up. Therefore, candidates for public office often seek to run under the name they regard as most electorally advantageous. Election boards, secretaries of state, and ultimately courts are often called upon to decide whether a particular candidate can run for office under a particular name.

This Article looks at …

An Empirical Study Of Gender And Race In Trademark Prosecution, William Michael Schuster, Miriam Marcowitz-Bitton, Deborah R. Gerhardt

Faculty Publications

This Article is the first to empirically examine the extent to which women and minorities succeed in prosecuting trademark applications before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). Trademark registration is an important measure of entrepreneurial activity and progress in business, education, and the arts. To explore how women and minorities are succeeding in this domain, we compared 1.2 million trademark applications over thirty years with demographic information on race and gender.

We analyze whether trademark prosecution reflects systematic underrepresentation of women and minorities similar to those reported in patent and copyright prosecution. We found that trademark data showed …

Shocking Business Bankruptcy Law, Melissa B. Jacoby

Faculty Publications

The intersection of major crises and financial distress generates no shortage of stock stories. This Essay offers one more: how shocks can be used opportunistically in big Chapter 11 cases to unravel bankruptcy law, and to shift the system further away from the objective of responding to overindebtedness.

Barring Married Same-Sex Couples From Joint Adoption: Comparative Perspectives And The Case Of Taiwan, Holning S. Lau

Faculty Publications

Taiwan is the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, but it forbids married same-sex couples from jointly adopting children. This article examines this restriction through the lens of comparative law, which brings into focus two main insights. First, we see that, out of all countries that have legalized same-sex marriage, Taiwan is one of only two that bar married same-sex couples from joint adoption. As this article will explain, the fact that Taiwan’s policy is so anomalous should spur skepticism of the policy’s appropriateness. Second, judicial opinions from around the world contain persuasive reasoning that further calls into …

Law In The Shadows Of Confederate Monuments, Deborah R. Gerhardt

Faculty Publications

Hundreds of Confederate monuments stand across the United States. In recent years, leading historians have come forward to clarify that these statues were erected not just as memorials but to express white supremacist intimidation in times of racially oppressive conduct. As public support for antiracist action grows, many communities are inclined to remove public symbols that cause emotional harm, create constant security risks and dishonor the values of equality and unity. Finding a lawful path to removal is not always clear and easy. The political power brokers who choose whether monuments will stay or go often do not walk daily …

Is The Word “Consumer” Biasing Trademark Law?, Dustin Marlan

Faculty Publications

Our trademark law uses the term “consumer” constantly, reflexively, and unconsciously to label the subject of its purpose—the purchasing public. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, trademark law has “a specialized mission: to help consumers identify goods and services they wish to purchase, as well as those they want to avoid.” As one leading commentator puts it, “trademarks are a property of consumers’ minds,” and “the consumer, we are led to believe, is the measure of all things in trademark law.”

Much criticism has been rightly levied against trademark law’s treatment of the consumer as passive, ignorant, and gullible. For …

A Survey Of Open Source Statistical Software (Osss) And Their Data Processing Functionalities, Gao Niu, Richard S. Segall, Zichen Zhao, Zhijian Wu

Faculty Publications

This paper discusses the definitions of open source software, free software and freeware, and the concept of big data. The authors then introduce R and Python as the two most popular open source statistical software (OSSS). Additional OSSS, such as JASP, PSPP, GRETL, SOFA Statistics, Octave, KNIME, and Scilab, are also introduced in this paper with function descriptions and modeling examples. They further discuss OSSS's capability in artificial intelligence application and modeling and Popular OSSS-based machine learning libraries and systems. The paper intends to provide a reference for readers to make proper selections of open source software when statistical analysis …

Environmental Crimes And Green Victimization, Averi R. Fegadel

Faculty Publications

The field of criminology continues to give little attention to the behaviors and crimes that adversely impact the environment although decades of research has highlighted these crimes result in greater social harms, losses, and deaths compared to traditional street crimes. Moreover, these crimes are met with little consequences despite several laws and regulations charged with protecting the environment and public welfare. As a result, residents of minority and poor communities are faced with social, racial, and economic inequalities. This draws attention to the green victimization of marginalized groups and underrepresented populations worldwide. In the United States, these groups include Native …

Follow The Scientists? How Beliefs About The Practice Of Science Shaped Covid-19 Views, Thomas G. Safford, Emily H. Whitmore, Lawrence C. Hamilton

Faculty Publications

“Follow the science” became the mantra for responding to COVID-19 pandemic. However, for the public this also meant “follow the scientists,” and this led to uneasiness as some viewed scientists as not credible. We investigate how beliefs about the way scientists develop their findings affect pandemic-related views. Our analysis shows that beliefs about scientists’ objectivity predict views regrading coronavirus-related risks, behavioral changes, and policy priorities. While political party identity also predicts views about COVID-19-related concerns, these vary by political leaders whose approaches embraced versus dismissed science based strategies, highlighting the importance of perceptions of scientists in shaping pandemic related attitudes …

Workshop Outcomes Report: 1st International Workshop On Seismic Resilience Of Arctic Infrastructure And Social Systems, Majid Ghayoomi, Katharine Duderstadt, Alexander Kholodov, Alexander Shiklomanov, Matthew Turner, Elham Ajorlou

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Victims, Right?, Anna Roberts

Faculty Publications

In criminal contexts, a “victim” is typically defined as someone who has been harmed by a crime. Yet the word commonly appears in legal contexts that precede the adjudication of whether a crime has occurred. Each U.S. state guarantees “victims’ rights,” including many that apply pre-adjudication; ongoing “Marsy’s Law” efforts seek to expand and constitutionalize them nationwide. At trial, advocates, judges, and jury instructions employ this word even though the existence or not of crime (and thus of a crime victim) is a central question to be decided. This usage matters in part because of its possible consequences: it risks …

Ethical Compass: Three Different Judicial Treatments For Settlement Fever, Elayne E. Greenberg

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

This is the first of a three-part series that examines different aspects of the settlement fever that has stricken our justice system. What can we learn from judicial decisions about how individual judges assess the settlement means that lawyers, in consultation with their clients, have chosen to resolve their case?

Rejecting Honorary Whiteness: Asian Americans And The Attack On Race-Conscious Admissions, Philip Lee

Faculty Publications

Since the 1960s, Asian Americans have been labeled by the dominant society as the “model minority.” This status is commonly juxtaposed against so-called “problem” minorities such as African Americans and Latinx Americans. In theory, the model minority narrative serves as living proof that racial barriers to social and economic development no longer exist in America. If Asians can succeed against all odds, the reasoning goes, so can everyone else. Further, if a member of a minority group fails, it is because of their own lack of diligence and ambition, and not some supposed systemic unfairness. However, the model minority narrative …

Addressing Racial Inequities In The Criminal Justice System Through A Reconstruction Sentencing Approach, Jelani Jefferson Exum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Justice reform is having a moment. Across the nation and in the federal government, legislation has passed “to reduce the scale of incarceration and the impact of collateral consequences of a felony conviction.” While some of these reforms were the result of fiscal concerns over mass incarceration, others were in response to the criminal justice reckoning brought on by events of 2020 and intensified calls for racial justice. In the summer of 2020 media attention on the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sparked nationwide and global protests and accompanying antiracism pledges by individuals and institutions. This …

From Academic Freedom To Cancel Culture: Silencing Black Women In The Legal Academy, Renee Nicole Allen

Faculty Publications

In 1988, Black women law professors formed the Northeast Corridor Collective of Black Women Law Professors, a network of Black women in the legal academy. They supported one another’s scholarship, shared personal experiences of systemic gendered racism, and helped one another navigate the law school white space. A few years later, their stories were transformed into articles that appeared in a symposium edition of the Berkeley Women’s Law Journal. Since then, Black women and women of color have published articles and books about their experiences with presumed incompetence, outsider status, and silence. The story of Black women in the legal …

Unshackling Plea Bargaining From Racial Bias, Elayne E. Greenberg

Faculty Publications

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, [but] if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

Dr. Maya Angelou

When an African American male defendant tries to plea bargain an equitable justice outcome, he finds that the deep-rooted racial bias that casts African American men as dangerous, criminal and animalistic, compromises his justice rights. Plea bargaining has become the preferred process used to secure convictions for upwards of 97 percent of cases because of its efficiency. This efficiency, however, comes at a cost. The structure and process of plea bargaining makes it more likely that the historical racial …

Enterprise Group Restructuring: Dutch Options And United States Enforcement, G. Ray Warner, Michael Veder

Faculty Publications

On 1 January 2021 the Dutch Wet Homologatie Onderhands Akoord, also referred to as the Dutch scheme, entered into force. The Dutch scheme represents a robust restructuring framework that incorporates many of the main restructuring concepts from both the English scheme of arrangement and US chapter 11. It also adds a few new restructuring tools that will make it easier to restructure enterprise group debt by expressly providing that a restructuring plan may include the release of group guarantees and by adopting liberal jurisdictional rules that should permit proceedings to be opened in the Netherlands for all members of …

Modeling And Simulation Techniques Used In High Strain Rate Projectile Impact, Derek G. Spear, Anthony N. Palazotto, Ryan A. Kemnitz

Faculty Publications

A series of computational models and simulations were conducted for determining the dynamic responses of a solid metal projectile impacting a target under a prescribed high strain rate loading scenario in three-dimensional space. The focus of this study was placed on two different modeling techniques within finite element analysis available in the Abaqus software suite. The first analysis technique relied heavily on more traditional Lagrangian analysis methods utilizing a fixed mesh, while still taking advantage of the finite difference integration present under the explicit analysis approach. A symmetry reduced model using the Lagrangian coordinate system was also developed for comparison …

Varieties Of Adventists After 1844: Emerging From “Fanaticism Of Every Kind” Into “The Order Of Heaven”, David J. B. Trim

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Case Study Of Avocado, Berry, And Apple Trade Through Nafta, Jose A. Lopez, Hovhannes Mnatsakanyan

Faculty Publications

A Source-Differentiated Almost Ideal Demand System (SDAIDS) model was estimated for berries, apples, and avocadoes imported through NAFTA prior to the new USMCA. Elasticity estimates are useful for measuring consumers’ responsiveness to changes in fresh-fruit prices or expenditures. This study found the demands for berries, apples, and avocadoes were price inelastic; and that cases of substitute fresh-fruit imports were more frequent than complements. The study also assessed expected changes in US fresh-fruit imports through NAFTA in the wake of a tariff on Mexican fresh fruits as frequently propagated by politicians in the news. The combined direct and indirect impacts from …

Visions Of Childhood, Notions Of Rurality, And Anti-Bias Education: Emerging Educators Strive For Praxis, Emily Nemeth, Heather Hill

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Data Science In Undergraduate Life Science Education: A Need For Instructor Skills Training, Nathan C. Emery, Erika Crispo, Sarah R. Supp, Kaitlin J. Farrell, Andrew J. Kerkhoff

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Statistical Analysis Of Drug Seizures And Opioid Overdose Deaths In Ohio From 2014 To 2018, David White, Lam Tran, Lin Ma

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Bright Chromenylium Polymethine Dyes Enable Fast, Four-Color "In Vivo" Imaging With Shortwave Infrared Detection, Emily D. Cosco, Bernardo A. Arús, Anthony L. Spearman, Timothy Luke Atallah, Irene Lim

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Data Science In Undergraduate Life Science Education: A Need For Instructor Skills Training, Nathan C. Emery, Erika Crispo, Sarah R. Supp, Kaitlin J. Farrell, Andrew J. Kerkhoff

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Estimating The Movements Of Terrestrial Animal Populations Using Broad-Scale Occurrence Data, Sarah R. Supp, Gil Bohrer, John Fieberg, Frank A. La Sorte

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.