Digital Commons Network^™

Federal Circuit’S Filing Requirements: A Trap For Even The Experts, Dennis D. Crouch

Faculty Publications

The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has established itself as the most procedurally demanding appellate court in the federal system, routinely issuing notices of non-compliance even to the nation's most experienced practitioners. This essay examines the pervasive nature of filing errors in Federal Circuit appeals, analyzing examples from recent cases involving prestigious law firms and institutions. Despite the court's 2023 memo detailing "Common Filing Errors," practitioners continue to struggle with requirements ranging from form completion and addenda formatting to confidentiality designations and caption compliance. The article argues that the prevalence of these issues among highly qualified counsel suggests a systemic …

Case Statement: Who Is Missing In Public History Workspaces? Developing Bipoc Career Pathways, Lindsey Passenger Wieck

Faculty Publications

The work of developing BIPOC career pathways in public history is regularly in my work as a faculty member, program director, and internship supervisor at St. Mary’s University. St. Mary’s is an HSI (Hispanic-Serving Institution) with a diverse student population, more than half of whom identify as Hispanic or Latino and more than 40% as first-generation college students. Our graduate program also regularly has students using veteran benefits, many seeking a new career direction after retiring from military service (a demographic that includes both BIPOC and white students).

Associations Between Social Determinants Of Health And Mental Health Disorders Among U.S. Population: A Cross-Sectional Study, S. Tanarsuwongkul

Faculty Publications

Aims

The impact of social determinants of health (SDOH) on mental health is increasingly realized. A comprehensive study examining the associations of SDOH with mental health disorders has yet to be accomplished. This study evaluated the associations between five domains of SDOH and the SDOH summary score and mental health disorders in the United States.

Methods

We analyzed data from a diverse group of participants enrolled in the All of Us research programme, a research programme to gather data from one million people living in the United States, in a cross-sectional design. The primary exposure was SDOH based on Healthy …

Gotta Take My Avatar Shopping: Impacts Of Interactive Virtual Shopping In Esport, Yongjin Hwang, Keshav Gupta

Faculty Publications

Purpose

Esports game developers are incorporating interactive virtual shopping (IVS) experiences into their products to facilitate consumer–brand interactions. Despite the potential influence of IVS, existing research lacks an understanding of its impact on consumers’ overall affect– particularly game enjoyment, a critical factor in sustaining engagement with esports products – and on attitudinal change toward brands in the real world.

Design/methodology/approach

An experiment was designed to examine the impact of shopping in the virtually interactive esports marketplace on game enjoyment. Mediating effects of positive change in brand attitude, perceived realism and character attachment and the moderating effect of self-avatar gender congruity …

Transfer Learning For Thickener Control, Samuel Arce Munoz, John Hedengren

Faculty Publications

Thickener control is a key area of focus in the minerals processing industry, particularly due to its crucial role in water recovery, which is essential for sustainable resource management. The highly nonlinear nature of thickener dynamics presents significant challenges in modeling and optimization, making it a strong candidate for advanced surrogate modeling techniques. However, traditional data-driven approaches often require extensive datasets, which are frequently unavailable, especially in new plants or unexplored operational domains. Developing data-driven models without enough data representative of the dynamics of the system could result in incorrect predictions and consequently, unstable response of the controller. This paper …

Public Trials And Plain Error, Stephen Smith

Faculty Publications

Courts are divided on the question of how Sixth Amendment public trial violations should be evaluated on appeal when a criminal defendant fails to object at trial to a courtroom closure. Typically, failing to object triggers plain error review on appeal, which demands a higher threshold of harm to obtain reversal compared to when an objection has been made at trial. Should this type of review also apply in its usual form to public trial errors? The article concludes that it should, despite the fact that public trial violations are considered “structural,” and, when properly preserved, do not require a …

Co-Development Of A Gamified Physical Education Movement Competence Intervention With School Stakeholders, Jenna Rice, Lawrence Foweather, Jonathan Foulkes, Ceriann Magill, An V. De Meester, David F. Stodden Ph.D., Matthieu Lenoir, Katie Fitton Davies

Faculty Publications

Movement competence (MC) and emotional intelligence (EI) are positively associated and important for child development. Intervention research is needed to determine causal relationships between these outcomes. Gamification is a pedagogical model that may enhance MC and EI, but implementing interventions in schools is complex and requires multi-stakeholder involvement to ensure feasibility, acceptability and sustainability. However, methodological evidence to inform co-development work within physical education (PE) is lacking and further research is required. This study describes the process of co-developing a gamified PE intervention with school stakeholders to increase MC and EI among primary-aged children. A total of 91 children and …

Organizational Readiness For Implementation: A Qualitative Assessment To Explain Survey Responses, Maria Mcclam, Lauren Workman, Timothy J. Walker, Emanuelle M. Dias, Derek W. Craig, Joe R. Padila, Andrea E. Lamont, Abraham Wandersman, Maria E. Fernandez

Faculty Publications

Background

One factor considered essential to successful implementation is organizational readiness. The purpose of this study was to explore ways to improve the measurement of organizational readiness, and in particular to refine a preliminary measure based on the Readiness = Motivation x innovation Specific Capacity x General Capacity (R = MC2) heuristic. We assessed the experiences of staff in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) implementing evidence-based interventions (EBIs) designed to increase colorectal cancer screening (CRCS) who previously completed the survey and aimed to understand their perspectives on why our data were positively skewed.

Methods

We conducted a series of qualitative …

"It Would Ruin My Life”:Pacific Islander Male Adolescents’ Perceptions Of Mental Health Help-Seeking Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Focus Group Study, Melia Fonoimoana Garrett, Elizabeth Cutrer, G. E. Kawika Allen, Ellie Young, Kristopher J. Urbina, Isabel Medina Hull

Faculty Publications

Given rising mental health concerns among Pacific Islander (PI) adolescents, this population remains underserved by available mental health resources. This interpretative phenomenological analysis with focus groups (IPA-FG) examined the lived experiences and perceptions of 19 male PI adolescents (ages 14–16) from Native Hawaiian, Maori, Samoan, and Tongan backgrounds regarding mental health help-seeking behaviors. Four overarching themes emerged: stigma and judgment, cultural misalignment in professional services, impact of disclosure and perceived punitive consequences, and a complex ecosystem of trusted relationships as mental health support. Notably, participants expressed belief that disclosing mental health challenges would “ruin their lives” and held misconceptions about …

Injunctive Restraint, Cassandra Burke Robertson

Faculty Publications

Preliminary injunctions against government action have evolved from extraordinary remedies into routine instruments of political contestation, with both Republican and Democratic administrations finding their initiatives halted by nationwide judicial orders. These injunctions serve vital functions in our constitutional system—preventing irreparable harm to fundamental rights and providing necessary checks on executive power in an era of congressional gridlock. Yet their increasing use has generated legitimate institutional concerns, particularly when a single district judge, often selected through strategic forum shopping, can unilaterally suspend national policies of significant importance. This Article examines this tension between the necessary role of nationwide injunctions in protecting …

Causation’S Due Process Dimensions, Cassandra Burke Robertson, Charles W. "Rocky" Rhodes

Faculty Publications

For decades, courts have grappled with the tension between compensating victims of mass harms and maintaining fairness to defendants when causation is difficult to prove. This Article argues that the Supreme Court’s due process jurisprudence provides a relevant framework for navigating this tension. We contend that the Court over the last three decades has established a consistent due process approach in punitive damages and personal jurisdiction cases, which is rooted in antecedents tracing to the nineteenth century and relies on a nexus of interests that balances individual rights, state interests, and federalism concerns. This framework, we argue, has significant implications …

Biofilm-Based Biomonitoring Of Treated Wastewater Using Bacillus Thuringiensis: Toward Sustainable Water Reuse, Bidisha Roy Sengupta, Kefa K. Onchoke, Olabisi O. Ogunlewe, Robert Friedfeld

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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.

Patient Autonomy, Public Safety, And Drivers With Cognitive Decline, Sharona Hoffman, Cassandra Burke Robertson

Faculty Publications

With a growing elderly population, cognitive decline in drivers has become a significant public safety concern. Currently, over thirty-two million individuals who are seventy or older have driver’s licenses, and that number is growing quickly. In addition, almost ten percent of U.S. seniors (those sixty-five and older) have dementia, and an additional twenty-two percent have mild cognitive impairment. Between a quarter and a half of individuals with mild to moderate dementia still drive. As cognitive abilities such as memory, attention, and decision-making skills deteriorate, a driver's ability to operate a vehicle safely can be compromised. This not only puts the …

Reimagining Compliance: Explainable Ai Models For Financial Regulatory Audits, Hrishikesh Desai

Faculty Publications

This chapter develops an analytical model for Explainable AI (XAI) designed to support major types of banking regulatory compliance audits. Financial institutions increasingly rely on AI for efficiency in compliance tasks, but the opacity of complex models creates challenges in meeting regulatory transparency requirements. The proposed mathematical framework incorporates explainability as a quantifiable constraint in the optimization of AI models across five critical audit categories: CAMELS examinations, BSA/AML compliance, Consumer Compliance, IT Audits, and Internal Audits. By quantifying explainability through information- theoretic measures and Shapley values, the model balances predictive performance with regulatory requirements. The methodology is validated through a …

The Importance Of Fauna-Mediated Sediment O2 Consumption In The Ngom Hypoxic Zone, Hannah Beck, Kanchan Maiti

Faculty Publications

The northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM) coastal shelf adjacent to the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers system experiences strong seasonal hypoxia in the late summer and coupled physical-biological models suggest that hypoxia formation in the NGOM is sensitive to benthic biogeochemical processes. However, the processes driving sediment oxygen consumption and their relationship to bottom oxygen concentration remain enigmatic. This study for the first time concurrently measured in situ total oxygen uptake (TOU) and diffusive oxygen uptake (DOU) during two different hypoxia seasons. The relatively large DOU: TOU ratio of 0.33 ± 0.07 observed during this study suggests more significant benthic infauna …

Flood Risk And Mitigation Calculator Tool To Support Decision-Making For Enhancing Community Resilience: A Case Study Of The U.S.A. Gulf Coastal Region, Rubayet Bin Mostafiz, Ayat Al Assi, Arash Taghinezhad, Carol J. Friedland, Robert V. Rohli, Md Adilur Rahim, Christopher T. Emrich, Melanie Gall, Eric Johnson

Faculty Publications

Real-estate websites make it easy to find and access information about a home. Information on property value, square footage, number of rooms, quality of schools, crime rates, and more is readily available. Some of these platforms have begun integrating climate-related risks in generic ways. However, this information provides limited if any actionable value and is unlikely to guide people’s decision-making on buying or renting a home, deciding where to vacation, or investing in a property. Making residents aware of the natural hazard risks to which their homes may be exposed is an important component of making communities more resilient. Both …

Trajectory Of Coastal Wetland Soil Physical And Microbial Properties 6+ Years After Thin Layer Placement Sediment Amendment, Jacob Z. Cheng, Jacob F. Berkowitz, John R. White

Faculty Publications

The intentional thin layer placement (TLP) of dredged sediment is an increasingly popular approach to maintaining marsh elevation and restoring degraded marshes, which can improve conditions for vegetation establishment. Prior TLP restoration projects, assessed shortly after construction, evaluated soil, hydrology, plant, and faunal responses. However, few long-term studies (>3 yrs) investigate TLP-induced shifts in soil properties and especially properties related to biogeochemical cycling. In response, this study revisited a salt marsh 6+ years after TLP restoration and determined both soil physiochemical and microbial properties related to plant growth (nitrogen (N) mineralization) and water quality improvement (denitrification). Data were compared …

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. …

Corrigendum: Diatom Transcriptional And Physiological Responses To Changes In Iron Bioavailability Across Ocean Provinces (Frontiers In Marine Science, (2017), 4, (360), 10.3389/Fmars.2017.00360), Natalie R. Cohen, Kelsey A. Ellis, Robert H. Lampe, Heather Mcnair, Benjamin S. Twining, Maria T. Maldonado, Mark A. Brzezinski, Fedor I. Kuzminov, Kimberlee Thamatrakoln, Claire P. Till, Kenneth W. Bruland, William G. Sunda, Sibel Bargu, Adrian Marchetti

Faculty Publications

In the published article, there was an error in Figure 3 as published. The initial (T0) phytoplankton community composition at site C2 was incorrectly displayed, with prasinophytes erroneously appearing as relatively abundant taxa. The corrected Figure 3 appears below. The average transcript proportions of phytoplankton taxa (outer charts) and diatom genera (inner charts) from initial seawater (T0) and during the first time point (T1; see Supplementary Table 1) within the Fe addition (Fe) and DFB addition (DFB) treatments at each site. Note that for site O5, the T2 control (Ctl) treatment is provided as the Fe-limited comparison. A text correction …

Drop Dynamics During Condensation On Superhydrophobic Surfaces In Vapor Shear Flow, Shaur Humayun, R. Daniel Maynes, Julie Crockett, Brian D. Iverson

Faculty Publications

Accurate models for predicting drop dynamics, such as maximum drop departure sizes, are crucial for estimating heat transfer rates during condensation on superhydrophobic (SH) surfaces. Previous studies have focused on examining the heat transfer rates for SH surfaces under the influence of gravity or vapor flowing over the surface. This study investigates the impact of surface solid fraction and texture scale on drop mobility in a condensing environment with a humid air flow. Experiments recorded condensation with varying surface feature sizes from micro- to nano scale under different flow rates. Video analysis detected the drop-size distribution and maximum drop departure …

Sources Of Influence In Marriage And Parenting For Interfaith Couples, William D. Stanford, Justin J. Hendricks, Ted G. Futris, Loren D. Marks, David C. Dollahite

Faculty Publications

Interfaith marriages are increasingly common, yet research on their family dynamics and sources of influence in family functioning remains limited. Relatedly, although research highlights religion’s influence on family processes, most studies only include same-faith couples. Subsequently, we qualitatively explored the experiences of 32 happily married interfaith couples, examining their sources of guidance in marriage and parenting, reasons for rejecting influences, and the role of religion in their family functioning. We identified one theme of rejecting outside influence and five key themes/sources of influence: one another/themselves, family, friends, media/professionals, and spiritual sources. Findings emphasize similarities between interfaith couples and American families …

Price Transparency And Patient Engagement: Social Messaging Matters, Jace B. Garrett, Keaton C. Helquist, Steven D. Smith, William B. Tayler

Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVES: To examine the effects of price transparency and prosocial messaging on price-protected consumers’ health care choices as a potential cost-saving strategy to manage rising US health care expenditures.

STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. Participants were recruited to complete a basic questionnaire via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program. Participants’ selections were subsequently collected and analyzed.

METHODS: Participants (N = 567) selected a sleep study provider from 5 options, with manipulations including financial responsibility, provision of price information, and a prosocial message encouraging high-value options.

RESULTS: Price transparency increased the selection of lower-cost options among participants who were solely responsible for paying for …

The Excessive Fines Clause In The Federal Courts: A Quarter-Century Of Narrowing, Michael M. O'Hear

Faculty Publications

The Eighth Amendment prohibits “excessive fines,” but what exactly does “excessive” mean? The question has taken on some urgency in recent years as American legislatures have sharply increased the economic penalties associated with criminal convictions. In 1998, in United States v. Bajakajian, the Supreme Court for the first time established a test of sorts to determine whether an economic penalty is “excessive” in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The test was not without its ambiguities but offered some potentially robust protection against the rising tide of fines, fees, forfeiture, and restitution. However, the promise of Bajakajian has been undermined …

Housing Sexual Harassment: A Department Of Justice Case Study, Rigel C. Oliveri

Faculty Publications

Sexual harassment in housing-when tenants or prospective tenants are sexually harassed by their landlords, housing providers, or other people associated with their housing-is a clear national problem. In 2019 the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced an initiative to bring attention to this issue, as well as a shared commitment to increased enforcement against harassers.

This enforcement push provides an opportunity for study. In particular, there are now a significant number of complaints and other litigation documents posted to the DOJ's website that provide a convenient and robust sample for analysis. The …

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 …

Comparative Lessons For Enhancing Representation In The U.S. Judiciary - And Countering Democratic Decline, Shruti Rana

Faculty Publications

At this precarious moment for democratic institutions and the rule of law in the United States, this Essay draws upon efforts to build more representative judiciaries in other countries and in international fora to identify promising strategies for enhancing representation in the U.S. judiciary, particularly with respect to gender and parity. 23 It argues that efforts to enhance judicial representation and parity in the United States could benefit from incorporating and building upon international legal principles and the practices of international courts, institutions, and organizations with respect to parity and representation. Crucially, at the same time, efforts to ensure greater …

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 …

Tax Base Diversification As An Enforcement Tool, David Gamage, Brian Galle, Yulia Kuchumova

Faculty Publications

We examine when it is optimal to employ sales or VAT-type taxes as complements to a labor income tax. We find a Ramsey-type result in which each tax instrument should be imposed in inverse proportion to the combined elasticity of real and avoidance responses to the respective tax. Contrary to some prior results, we find that sales-type taxes are optimally non-zero across a variety of settings, and in particular when the (weighted) elasticity of taxable income with respect to the wage tax is greater than the cross-elasticity of taxable income with respect to the sales tax. We argue this parameter …

303 Creative, Exclusive Private Enforcement, And Blue-State Revenge, Charles W. "Rocky" Rhodes, Howard W. Wasserman

Faculty Publications

Red states have made exclusive private enforcement schemes targeting locally unpopular but constitutionally protected conduct a cornerstone of culture-war legal strategy. Laws such the Texas Heartbeat Act (“S.B. 8”) in 2021 and anti-“WOKE” laws forego public enforcement in favor of private enforcement; this precludes federal rights-holders from vindicating their rights through pre-enforcement offensive litigation in federal court against the government or government officials responsible for enforcing the law. This threatens rights-holders with defending a state-court wave of costly and burdensome litigation to adjudicate the law’s constitutional validity.

Blue states and liberal scholars and advocates have sought a progressive counterpart targeting …