Digital Commons Network^™

Reframing The Dei Case, Veronica Root Martinez

Faculty Scholarship

Corporate firms have long expressed their support for the idea that their organizations should become more demographically diverse while creating a culture that is inclusive of all members of the firm. These firms have traditionally, however, not been successful at improving demographic diversity and true inclusion within the upper echelons of their organizations. The status quo seemed unlikely to move, but expectations for corporate firms were upended after the #MeToo Movement of 2017 and 2018, which was followed by corporate support of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement in 2020. These two social movements, while distinct in many ways, forced firms to rethink …

Autonomy And Disciplinarity: Can Pseudoprofessional Speakers Select Their Own Constitutional Categorization?, Joseph Blocher

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Brief Of Intellectual Property Law Professors And Scholars As Amici Curiae In Support Of The Respondents, Bernard Chao, Kevin Emerson Collins, Christopher A. Cotropia, Charles Duan, Oskar Liivak, Joseph Scott Miller, Arti K. Rai, Michael S. Sinha, S. Sean Tu, Liza Vertinsky

Faculty Scholarship

This amicus brief was written in support of Sanofi (generic pharmaceutical firm). The brief explains why patent claims cannot exceed the scope of what was disclosed in the patent specification. The brief argues that when a patentee invents narrowly, meaning they find and disclose only a limited set of solutions and where they cannot provide a generalizable principle that unites a broader set of solutions, then that inventor has not invented broadly. Accordingly, their claims should be limited to what was explicitly disclosed.

Corporate Governance And Risk-Taking: A Statistical Approach, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

Because prudent corporate governance often requires managers to take risks based on statistically expected outcomes, corporate failures that have a small but finite chance of occurring cannot always be prevented. This Article makes three related claims about risk-taking in corporate governance.

This Article’s first claim is that managers should not automatically be presumed to be at fault for corporate failures that result from risk-taking decisions based on statistical methodologies that reasonably justify the decisions ex ante. Conceptually, the business judgment rule should protect corporate managers for engaging in a reasonable decision-making process, including one that is statistically based. Jurisdictionally, however, …

The Failure Of Market Efficiency, William Magnuson

Faculty Scholarship

Recent years have witnessed the near total triumph of market efficiency as a regulatory goal. Policymakers regularly proclaim their devotion to ensuring efficient capital markets. Courts use market efficiency as a guiding light for crafting legal doctrine. And scholars have explored in great depth the mechanisms of market efficiency and the role of law in promoting it. There is strong evidence that, at least on some metrics, our capital markets are indeed more efficient than they have ever been. But the pursuit of efficiency has come at a cost. By focusing our attention narrowly on economic efficiency concerns—such as competition, …

Taking Office Hours On The Road: How Pop-Up Help Desks Help Students, Mandee Baumer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Food And Drug Regulation: Statutory And Regulatory Supplement (2023), Adam I. Muchmore

Faculty Scholarship

This Statutory and Regulatory Supplement is intended for use with its companion casebook, Food and Drug Regulation: A Statutory Approach (2021). This is not a traditional statutory supplement. Instead, it contains selected, aggressively edited provisions of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), related statutes, and the Code of Federal Regulations. The Supplement includes all provisions assigned as reading in the casebook, as well as a few additional provisions that some professors may wish to cover. The excerpts are designed to be teachable rather than

To Limit Air Pollution's Risks: A Law/Science Success Story, Jamison E. Colburn

Faculty Scholarship

This is the first major study of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in a generation. This study focuses on a unique co-evolution of science and law over more than a half-century of development. Our NAAQSs can be found everywhere from your phone’s air quality index to the trends of cardiovascular and respiratory disease in America. Yet no one has studied the ways in which law and the science of air pollution have reciprocally determined each other through them. Through a study of 26 reviews across seven presidencies and 21 reported opinions adjudicating 106 petitions challenging those reviews/revisions, this …

Access To U.S. Discovery In International Commercial And Investor-State Arbitration, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

A provision of U.S. law — 28 U.S.C. section 1782 has for decades enabled litigants in foreign courts and international tribunals to avail themselves of U.S.-style discovery. Litigants and even so-called other interested parties have access to documentary and testimonial evidence even though the parties and dispute have no connection with the U.S. and such discovery is unavailable in the fora where the proceedings are pending. Use of this powerful evidence-gathering tool section 1782 in proceedings before foreign courts and international tribunals has become commonplace.

Among the most controversial issues in the U.S. law of international arbitration in recent years …

Debt Textualism And Creditor-On-Creditor Violence: A Modest Plea To Keep The Faith, Eric L. Talley, Sneha Pandya

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, we argue that debt textualism played a key role in laying the groundwork for our present malaise by encouraging contracts to become increasingly bloated, complex, and rigid up to the point of buckling completely. The dense contractual landscape wrought by debt textualism, when freshly populated with a calculating coterie of financial mercenaries, has transformed corporate lending markets into an elaborate and costly contest of Hunger Games-worthy contractual “gotcha” where (a) lenders scour loan agreements for unappreciated loopholes to undercut borrowers; (b) borrowers do the same in an attempt to counteract lenders; and (c) permutated coalitions from …

Waste And Chemical Management In A 4°C World, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Many chemicals and hazardous substances are kept in places that can withstand ordinary rain, but not severe storms or floods. If these events occur and the chemicals are released, people and the environment may be endangered. This Article discusses the hazards posed to chemical and waste disposal facilities by extreme weather events that would be worsened as a result of climate change, and how U.S. laws do (or do not) deal with these hazards; and considers how the law would need to change to cope with what would happen to these facilities in a potentially 4°C world. It is adapted …

The Logic And Limits Of The Federal Reserve Act, Lev Menand

Faculty Scholarship

The Federal Reserve is a monetary authority subject to minimal executive and judicial oversight. It also has the power to create money, which permits it to disburse funds without drawing on the U.S. Treasury. Since 2008, it has leveraged this power to an unprecedented extent. It has rescued teetering financial conglomerates, purchased trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities, and opened numerous ad hoc lending facilities to support ordinary businesses, nonprofits, and municipalities.

This Article identifies the causes and consequences of the Federal Reserve's expanded footprint by recovering the logic and limits of its enabling act. It argues that to understand …

Remarks On Manifesting Justice: Wrongly Convicted Women Reclaim Their Rights, Amber Baylor, Valena Beety, Susan P. Sturm

Faculty Scholarship

The following are remarks from a panel discussion co-hosted by the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law and the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law on the book Manifesting Justice: Wrongly Convicted Women Reclaim Their Rights.

Disabling Travel: Quantifying The Harm Of Inaccessible Hotels To Disabled People, Kristen L. Popham, Elizabeth F. Emens, Jasmine E. Harris

Faculty Scholarship

During its 2023–2024 term, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide a case with significant implications for the future of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In Acheson Hotels v. Laufer, the Court will determine whether a civil rights “tester” plaintiff has Article III standing to sue a hotel for failing to provide information about the hotel’s accessibility online — in violation of Department of Justice (DOJ) regulations applying the ADA’s requirement of “reasonable modifications in policies, practices, or procedures” — when the plaintiff did not intend to book a hotel reservation. Plaintiff-Respondent Deborah Laufer has not only challenged the …

Briggs V. Southwestern Energy Production: Hydraulic Fracturing And Subsurface Trespass, Thomas W. Merrill, Henry E. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

The tort of trespass to land has proven to be controversial as applied to airplane overflights (and more recently to drones) as well as to oil and gas production using hydraulic fracking technology. The key to applying trespass to intrusions above and below the surface of land is to distinguish between possession of land and the right to possess land. Surface owners have the right to possess the column of space above and below the surface (a kind of option value), but only to the extent that this space is subject to possible effective possession. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in …

Use Of An Invertebrate Animal Model (Aplysia Californica) To Develop Novel Neural Interfaces For Neuromodulation, Junqi Zhuo, Jeffrey P. Gill, Michael W. Jenkins, Hillel J. Chiel

Faculty Scholarship

New tools for monitoring and manipulating neural activity have been developed with steadily improving functionality, specificity, and reliability, which are critical both for mapping neural circuits and treating neurological diseases. This review focuses on the use of an invertebrate animal, the marine mollusk Aplysia californica, in the development of novel neurotechniques. We review the basic physiological properties of Aplysia neurons and discuss the specific aspects that make it advantageous for developing novel neural interfaces: First, Aplysia nerves consist only of unmyelinated axons with various diameters, providing a particularly useful model of the unmyelinated C fibers in vertebrates that are known …

Moral Status And The Oversight Of Research Involving Chimeric Animals, Patricia Marshall, Kaitlynn P. Craig

Faculty Scholarship

The use of nonhuman animals in research has long been a source of bioethical and scientific debate. We consider the oversight and use of nonhuman animals in chimeric research. We conducted interviews with twelve members of embryonic stem cell research oversight committees, nine members of institutional animal care and use committees, and fourteen scientists involved in human–nonhuman-animal chimeric research in different areas of the United States. Interviews addressed animal welfare and conceptual issues associated with moral status and humanization of nonhuman animals that contain human cells. Our findings suggest that concepts of enhanced moral status and consciousness are not very …

Multispectral Imaging For Microchip Electrophoresis Enables Point-Of-Care Newborn Hemoglobin Variant Screening, Ran An, Yuning Huang, Anne Rocheleau, Qiaochu Zhang, Yuncheng Man, Zoe Sekyonda, Amma Owusu-Ansah, Umut A. Gurkan

Faculty Scholarship

Hemoglobin (Hb) disorders affect nearly 7% of the world's population. Globally, around 400,000 babies are born annually with sickle cell disease (SCD), primarily in sub-Saharan Africa where morbidity and mortality rates are high. Screening, early diagnosis, and monitoring are not widely accessible due to technical challenges and cost. We hypothesized that multispectral imaging will allow sensitive hemoglobin variant identification in existing affordable paper-based Hb electrophoresis. To test this hypothesis, we developed the first integrated point-of-care multispectral Hb variant test: Gazelle-Multispectral. Here, we evaluated the accuracy of Gazelle-Multispectral for Hb variant newborn screening in 265 newborns with known hemoglobin variants including …

Biomechanical And Sensory Feedback Regularize The Behavior Of Different Locomotor Central Pattern Generators, Kaiyu Deng, Hillel J. Chiel, Roger D. Quinn

Faculty Scholarship

This work presents an in-depth numerical investigation into a hypothesized two-layer central pattern generator (CPG) that controls mammalian walking and how different parameter choices might affect the stepping of a simulated neuromechanical model. Particular attention is paid to the functional role of features that have not received a great deal of attention in previous work: the weak cross-excitatory connectivity within the rhythm generator and the synapse strength between the two layers. Sensitivity evaluations of deafferented CPG models and the combined neuromechanical model are performed. Locomotion frequency is increased in two different ways for both models to investigate whether the model’s …

The Role Of Virtual Reality In Art Therapy To Mitigate Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd) Symptoms, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

Traditional art therapy sessions are designed for face-to-face engagement with patients as with other mental health services such as counseling. However, the pandemic of 2019 severely limited access to these services and, initially, led to widespread cancelation and postponement until the nature of COVID-19 could be better understood. When treatment resumed, video conferencing was the preferred method of holding therapy sessions one-on-one to diagnose patients and provide services. Similar approaches were taken in art therapy with less efficacy given the hands-on nature of the required activities. With the rise of virtual reality (VR) as a more widely accessible technology since …

Variational And Phase Response Analysis For Limit Cycles With Hard Boundaries, With Applications To Neuromechanical Control Problems, Jeffery P. Gill, Hillel J. Chiel, Peter J. Thomas, Peter J. Thomas

Faculty Scholarship

Motor systems show an overall robustness, but because they are highly nonlinear, understanding how they achieve robustness is difficult. In many rhythmic systems, robustness against perturbations involves response of both the shape and the timing of the trajectory. This makes the study of robustness even more challenging. To understand how a motor system produces robust behaviors in a variable environment, we consider a neuromechanical model of motor patterns in the feeding apparatus of the marine mollusk Aplysia californica (Shaw et al. in J Comput Neurosci 38(1):25–51, 2015; Lyttle et al. in Biol Cybern 111(1):25–47, 2017). We established in (Wang et …

Behavior Of Concrete Reinforced With Date Palm Fibers, Elias Ali

Faculty Scholarship

In recent decades, researchers have begun to investigate innovative sustainable construction materials for the development of greener and more environmentally friendly infrastructures. The main purpose of this article is to investigate the possibility of employing date palm tree waste as a natural fiber alternative for conventional steel and polypropylene fibers (PPFs) in concrete. Date palm fibers are a common agricultural waste in Middle Eastern nations, particularly Saudi Arabia. As a result, this research examined the engineering properties of high‐strength concrete using date palm fibers, as well as the performance of traditional steel and PPF concrete. The concrete samples were made …

Using Artificial Intelligence In The Law Review Submissions Process, Brenda M. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

The use of artificial intelligence to help editors examine law review submissions may provide a way to improve an overburdened system. This Article is the first to explore the promise and pitfalls of using artificial intelligence in the law review submissions process. Technology-assisted review of submissions offers many possible benefits. It can simplify preemption checks, prevent plagiarism, detect failure to comply with formatting requirements, and identify missing citations. These efficiencies may allow editors to address serious flaws in the current selection process, including the use of heuristics that may result in discriminatory outcomes and dependence on lower-ranked journals to conduct …

Gamification In Education: A Study Of Design-Based Learning In Operationalizing A Game Studio For Serious Games, James Hutson, Ben Fulcher, Joe Weber

Faculty Scholarship

The gamification of learning has proven educational benefits, especially in secondary education. Studies confirm the successful engagement of students with improved time on task, motivation and learning outcomes. At the same time, there remains little research on games and learning at the postsecondary level of education where traditional pedagogies remain the norm. Studies that have been conducted remain almost exclusively restricted to science programs, including medicine and engineering. Moreover, postsecondary subject-matter experts who have created their own gamified experiences often are forced to do so on an ad hoc basis either on their own, teaching themselves game engines, or with …

Defective Thyroglobulin: Cell Biology Of Disease, Xiaohan Zhang, Crystal Young, Yoshiaki Morishita, Kookjoo Kim, Omer O. Kabil, Oliver B. Clarke, Bruno Di Jeso, Peter Arvan

Faculty Scholarship

The primary functional units of the thyroid gland are follicles of various sizes comprised of a monolayer of epithelial cells (thyrocytes) surrounding an apical extracellular cavity known as the follicle lumen. In the normal thyroid gland, the follicle lumen is filled with secreted protein (referred to as colloid), comprised nearly exclusively of thyroglobulin with a half-life ranging from days to weeks. At the cellular boundary of the follicle lumen, secreted thyroglobulin becomes iodinated, resulting from the coordinated activities of enzymes localized to the thyrocyte apical plasma membrane. Thyroglobulin appearance in evolution is essentially synchronous with the appearance of the follicular …

Algorithmic Governance From The Bottom Up, Hannah Bloch-Wehba

Faculty Scholarship

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are both a blessing and a curse for governance. In theory, algorithmic governance makes government more efficient, more accurate, and more fair. But the emergence of automation in governance also rests on public-private collaborations that expand both public and private power, aggravate transparency and accountability gaps, and create significant obstacles for those seeking algorithmic justice. In response, a nascent body of law proposes technocratic policy changes to foster algorithmic accountability, ethics, and transparency.

This Article examines an alternative vision of algorithmic governance, one advanced primarily by social and labor movements instead of technocrats and firms. …

Running On Empty: Ford V. Montana And The Folly Of Minimum Contacts, James P. George

Faculty Scholarship

Jurisdictional contests are in disarray. Criticisms date back to the issuance of International Shoe Co. v. Washington but the breakdown may be best illustrated in two recent Supreme Court opinions, the first rejecting California’s “sliding scale” that mixes general and specific contacts, the second using the discredited sliding scale to hold Ford amenable in states where accidents occurred.

California’s sliding scale is one variety of the contacts-relatedness tests, used in lower courts to have general contacts bolster weaker specific contacts. Some states—Montana and Minnesota for example—use the opposite extreme requiring a causal connection in defendant’s forum contacts, often using foreseeability …

The Impact Of Obesity And Adipokines On Breast And Gynecologic Malignancies, Surabhi Tewari, Roberto Vargas, Ofer Reizes

Faculty Scholarship

The link between obesity and multiple disease comorbidities is well established. In 2003, Calle and colleagues presented the relationship between obesity and several cancer types, including breast, ovarian, and endometrial malignancies. Nearly, 20% of cancer-related deaths in females can be accounted for by obesity. Identifying obesity as a risk factor for cancer led to a focus on the role of fat-secreted cytokines, known as adipokines, on carcinogenesis and tumor progression. Early studies indicated that the adipokine leptin increases cell proliferation, invasion, and inhibition of apoptosis in multiple cancer types. As a greater appreciation of the obesity–cancer link has amassed, we …

Reproductive Biology Of Gazella Arabica: Predictors Of Offspring Weight And Short- And Long-Term Offspring Survival, Ryan A. Martin

Faculty Scholarship

Reproductive traits are central to organismal fitness, and so the factors influencing patterns of reproduction and offspring survival are at the heart of biology. Making use of breeding data collected over 16 years at the King Khalid Wildlife Research Centre in Saudi Arabia, we investigated the reproductive biology of Arabian gazelles Gazella arabica. Offspring survival was mainly a function of birth weight, with heavier offspring having higher survival rates than lighter offspring. However, while sons were heavier than daughters, daughters had higher survival rates. We could not find evidence that giving birth to sons negatively impacts offspring weight in the …

Tech Work In St. Louis: Past, Present, And Future, Howard Wall

Faculty Scholarship

In Summary, the findings in this report confirm the necessity and urgency for improved data collection and advocacy for the St. Louis data economy. In order for the MSA to become a nationally recognized tech hub to attract and retain competitive tech talent, the St. Louis Metro will need to aggressively address the industry disparities in diverse representation, pay gaps, and occupational growth. Additional data collection and ongoing research will allow the region to report more comprehensively on these metrics, as well as expand into more targeted industry analyses like the Big 15 Emerging Technologies identified by TechSTL.