Digital Commons Network^™

Felon Re-Enfranchisement And The Problem Of “Lost” Rights, Josh Feinzig

Faculty Scholarship

By conditioning the restoration of political rights on financial repayment, states have prevented hundreds of thousands of citizens with felony convictions from participating politically—profoundly altering the shape of the American electorate. Courts have upheld the practice by treating restoration as an exercise of legislative grace to nonmembers of the political community. Critics argue that the practice conditions political participation on wealth status and is therefore subject to heightened review.

This Essay traces the disagreement back to an overlooked first-order question: how should the juridical status of a disenfranchised citizen’s “lost” rights be understood? The conventional position assumes that disenfranchisement casts …

Supervision For Advocacy: Supporting Self-Care, Kathleen J. Farkas, Jaroslaw Richard Romaniuk

Faculty Scholarship

The objective is to examine the intersection of advocacy for social change, the individual’s emotional costs of advocacy, and the use of trauma informed care in supervisory practice to encourage and support advocates and their work. Supervision models exist, but none address the needs of advocates who might become targets for scorn and persecution. The literature on trauma informed care provides a direction to improve the support and supervision of advocates, especially those who use their personal experiences as examples in their work. We reviewed data bases and relevant literature regarding supervision and the principles of trauma informed care. Periodical …

Classrooms Into Courtrooms, Naomi M. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

The federal Department of Education’s (DOE) 2020 Title IX Rule fundamentally transformed the relationship between postsecondary schools (schools) and students. While courts have long warned against turning classrooms into courtrooms, the 2020 Rule nonetheless imposed a mandatory quasi-criminal courtroom procedure for Title IX sexual harassment investigatory proceedings in schools. This transformation is a reflection of the larger trend of importing criminal law norms and due process protections into Title IX school proceedings. It is especially regressive at a time where calls for long-overdue criminal justice reform are reaching a boiling point across the nation. Its effects are especially troubling because …

The Use Doctrine In Trademark Law: Issues From Trade And Transborder Reputation, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

Mindful of the current trend within the United States to revive the focus on the use of trademark to determine a mark’s ability to act as a source indicator, in this paper I highlight how focusing on use can create disparate results by examining the role of use when dealing with well-known marks. Hence, this paper implicates the prescriptions from the harmonized trade regime, especially trademark law. In doing so, the paper outlines larger public policy concerns that will ensue especially considering the role of the use doctrine in the context of international harmonization of protection of well-known trademarks. In …

Absorption Kinetics Of Berberine And Dihydroberberine And Their Impact On Glycemia: A Randomized, Controlled, Crossover Pilot Trial, Jessica M. Moon, Kayla M. Ratliff, Anthony M. Hagele, Richard A. Stecker, Petey W. Mumford, Chad M. Kerksick

Faculty Scholarship

Berberine is a natural alkaloid used to improve glycemia but displays poor bioavailability and increased rates of gastrointestinal distress at higher doses. Recently, dihydroberberine has been developed to combat these challenges. This study was designed to determine the rate and extent to which berberine appeared in human plasma after oral ingestion of a 500 mg dose of berberine (B500) or 100 mg and 200 mg doses of dihydroberberine (D100 and D200). In a randomized, double-blind, crossover fashion, five males (26 ± 2.6 years; 184.2 ± 11.6 cm; 91.8 ± 10.1 kg; 17.1 ± 3.5% fat) completed a four-dose supplementation protocol …

Carbon Fiber Electrodes For Intracellular Recording And Stimulation, Yu Huan, Jeffrey P. Gill, Hillel J. Chiel

Faculty Scholarship

Objective. To understand neural circuit dynamics, it is critical to manipulate and record many individual neurons. Traditional recording methods, such as glass microelectrodes, can only control a small number of neurons. More recently, devices with high electrode density have been developed, but few of them can be used for intracellular recording or stimulation in intact nervous systems. Carbon fiber electrodes (CFEs) are 8 µm-diameter electrodes that can be assembled into dense arrays (pitches 80 µm). They have good signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and provide stable extracellular recordings both acutely and chronically in neural tissue in vivo (e.g. rat motor cortex). The …

Investigation Of The Feasibility Of Ventricular Delivery Of Resveratrol To The Microelectrode Tissue Interface, Youjoung Kim, Evon S. Ereifej, William E. Schwartzman, Seth M. Meade, Keying Chen, Jacob M. Rayyan, He Feng, Varoon Aluri, Natalie N. Mueller, Raman Bhambra, Sahaj Bhambra, Dawn M. Taylor, Jeffrey R. Capadona

Faculty Scholarship

(1) Background: Intracortical microelectrodes (IMEs) are essential to basic brain research and clinical brain–machine interfacing applications. However, the foreign body response to IMEs results in chronic inflammation and an increase in levels of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS). The current study builds on our previous work, by testing a new delivery method of a promising antioxidant as a means of extending intracortical microelectrodes performance. While resveratrol has shown efficacy in improving tissue response, chronic delivery has proven difficult because of its low solubility in water and low bioavailability due to extensive first pass metabolism. (2) Methods: Investigation of an …

Law Review And Finding A Place In The Academy, Jenny E. Carroll

Faculty Scholarship

Membership on the Texas Law Review created opportunities for me, taught me a lot about editorial processes, and served as a reminder that I was a law outsider. The last of these is the focus for this essay, not because it is the most important or because it stands alone (it doesn’t), but because I believe there are other rooms in which to reminisce fondly about law review. Here, I want to speak more honestly about my experience because that experience, as an outsider, has influenced me most as a scholar, teacher, and advocate.

Protecting Sentient Artificial Intelligence: A Survey Of Lay Intuitions On Standing, Personhood, And General Legal Protection, Eric H. Martinez, Christoph Winter

Faculty Scholarship

To what extent, if any, should the law protect sentient artificial intelligence (that is, AI that can feel pleasure or pain)? Here we surveyed United States adults (n = 1,061) on their views regarding granting 1) general legal protection, 2) legal personhood, and 3) standing to bring forth a lawsuit, with respect to sentient AI and eight other groups: humans in the jurisdiction, humans outside the jurisdiction, corporations, unions, non-human animals, the environment, humans living in the near future, and humans living in the far future. Roughly one-third of participants endorsed granting personhood and standing to sentient AI (assuming …

Estimating The Appropriate Size Of Global Pull Incentives For Antibacterial Medicines, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

Antibacterial medicines should be foundational for modern medicine—a key part of the infrastructure of contemporary practice. Recently, however, antibacterials have struggled commercially. Even with “push” incentives (grants paid before regulatory approval), antibacterials have failed on the market because revenues are tied to volume sold. There are policy initiatives under way in the United States and United Kingdom that explore paying for exceptional antibacterials with “pull” incentives (paid after regulatory approval) by delinking the payments from volume via other payment formats such as market entry rewards and subscriptions. This article discusses these initiatives but also proposes an expected net present value …

The Law Of License Plates And Other Inevitabilities Of Free Speech Context Sensitivity, William D. Araiza

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 Relief And The Ordinary Inmate, Jenny E. Carroll

Faculty Scholarship

As scholars and advocates have lamented the deficiencies of remedies pre- and post-conviction for the extraordinary, the “ordinary” are not saddled with slow and deficient remedies -- they have none. This Essay explores this absence of such relief for those unable to make an extraordinary claim during the COVID-19 public health crisis of 2020. For the ordinary men, women, and children held in custody in 2020 and beyond, pretrial detention and sentencing laws make no exception in the face of a potentially fatal contagion or the public health crisis it creates. Yet, the pandemic highlights the reality that systematic flaws …

Trademarks And The Covid-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Analysis Of Trademark Applications Including The Terms "Covid," "Coronavirus," "Quarantine," "Social Distancing," "Six Feet Apart," And "Shelter In Place", Irene Calboli

Faculty Scholarship

True to its nature as a (hopefully) once in a lifetime event, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a tsunami of trademark applications. These include the terms “COVID,” “Coronavirus,” and other medical and pandemic-management related terms. This unprecedented number of applications has been highlighted by several commentators in general terms in the past months. This Article examines these applications in detail. Notably, the Article presents the first and most complete survey of the applications filed between the onset of the pandemic and the end of 2020, which include the following terms: “COVID,” “Coronavirus,” “Quarantine,” “Social Distancing,” “Six Feet Apart,” and …

Rico Had A Birthday! A Fifty-Year Retrospective Of Questions Answered And Open, Randy D. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) came into the world in 1970, a time of great social upheaval that was accompanied by shifting attitudes towards both crime and civil litigation. From the outset, the statute’s complexity, ambiguity, and uncertain purpose have confounded courts and commentators. At least some doubts as to the statute’s meaning and application arise because it has criminal and civil components that subject it to the twin—yet antithetical—social impulses to be “tough on crime” while containing a perceived “litigation explosion.” In this Article, I situate RICO in this larger context and offer that context as …

Free Speech Still Matters, Joel M. Gora

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Servitudes Done "Proper"Ly: Propriety, Not Contract Law, Elizabeth Elia

Faculty Scholarship

The law of servitudes has changed dramatically in the last hundred years. Legal scholars have been successful in documenting these changes in case law, but less successful in articulating a unified set of principles that guide the current law of servitudes. One explanation that received significant attention is the idea that efficient recording systems in the United States have liberated property owners from the constraints of traditional property laws disfavoring servitudes and have allowed these owners the broader freedoms of contract law. However, this explanation, and the sweeping common law reforms that flow from it, have not resonated with courts. …

Optimizing Thermal Block Length During Infrared Neural Inhibition To Minimize Temperature Thresholds, Junqi Zhuo, Matthew T. Mcpheeters, Micael W. Jenkins, Hillel J. Chiel, Michael W. Jenkins

Faculty Scholarship

Objective. Infrared neural inhibition (INI) is a method of blocking the generation or propagation of neural action potentials through laser heating with wavelengths strongly absorbed by water. Recent work has identified that the distance heated along axons, the block length (BL), modulates the temperature needed for inhibition; however, this relationship has not been characterized. This study explores how BL during INI can be optimized towards minimizing its temperature threshold. Approach. To understand the relationship between BL and the temperature required for INI, excised nerves from Aplysia californica were laser-heated over different lengths of axon during electrical stimulation of compound action …

Q: What Is Tort? A: Categorical Hurt, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The End Of Liberty, Adam J. Kolber

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Jury Trial Reinvented, Christopher Robertson, Michael Shammas

Faculty Scholarship

The Framers of the Sixth and Seventh Amendments to the United States Constitution recognized that jury trials were essential for maintaining democratic legitimacy and avoiding epistemic crises. As an institution, the jury trial is purpose-built to engage citizens in the process of deliberative, participatory democracy with ground rules. The jury trial provides a carefully constructed setting aimed at sorting truth from falsehood.
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/="/">Despite its value, the jury trial has been under assault for decades. Concededly, jury trials can sometimes be inefficient, unreliable, unpredictable, and impractical. The COVID–19 pandemic rendered most physical jury trials unworkable but spurred some courts …

Public Health And The Power To Exclude: Immigrant Expulsions At The Border, Sarah R. Sherman-Stokes

Faculty Scholarship

We are presently in the midst of a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, as Courts, and indeed the Biden Administration, are struggling to manage thousands of immigrants waiting to seek asylum in the midst of a global pandemic. Beginning in March of 2020, against the advice of public health experts, the U.S. Government closed the southern U.S.-Mexico border, disproportionately impacting would-be asylum seekers from Central America, who are now immediately expelled from the United States should they reach the border under a process known as “Title 42.” Not only do these expulsions lack a legitimate public health rationale, but they …

Civic Education In Circumstances Of Constitutional Rot And Strong Polarization Rot, Linda C. Mcclain, James E. Fleming

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay argues that civic education is crucial to remedying what Jack Balkin, in The Cycles of Constitutional Time, diagnoses as “constitutional rot” in the United States. A twenty-first century civic education must meet challenges of polarization and growing diversity and inequality and equip people for forms of democratic participation necessary to the health of constitutional democracy. Some commentators have called the insurrection on January 6, 2021, a “Sputnik moment for teaching civics”—seeing a link between the whitesupremacist/conspiracy-theory mob’s actions and the failure to instill civic virtue in “We the People.” To be capable of spurring national reconciliation and renewal, …

Antibiotic Resistance In The Patient With Cancer: Escalating Challenges And Paths Forward, Amila K. Nanayakkara, Helen W. Boucher, Vance G. Fowler Jr., Amanda Jezek, Kevin Outterson, David E. Greenberg

Faculty Scholarship

Infection is the second leading cause of death in patients with cancer. Loss of efficacy in antibiotics due to antibiotic resistance in bacteria is an urgent threat against the continuing success of cancer therapy. In this review, the authors focus on recent updates on the impact of antibiotic resistance in the cancer setting, particularly on the ESKAPE pathogens (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter spp.). This review highlights the health and financial impact of antibiotic resistance in patients with cancer. Furthermore, the authors recommend measures to control …

Antimicrobial Resistance: Is Health Technology Assessment Part Of The Solution Or Part Of The Problem?, Abigail Colson, Alec Morton, Christine Årdal, Kalipso Chalkidou, Sally Davies, Louis Garrison, Mark Jit, Ramanan Laxminarayan, Itamar Megiddo, Chantal Morel, Justice Nonvignon, Kevin Outterson, John Rex, Abdur Razzaque Sarker, Mark Sculpher, Beth Woods, Yue Xiao

Faculty Scholarship

Antimicrobial resistance is a serious challenge to the success and sustainability of our healthcare systems. There has been increasing policy attention given to antimicrobial resistance in the last few years, and increased amounts of funding have been channeled into funding for research and development of antimicrobial agents. Nevertheless, manufacturers doubt whether there will be a market for new antimicrobial technologies sufficient to enable them to recoup their investment. Health technology assessment (HTA) has a critical role in creating confidence that if valuable technologies can be developed they will be reimbursed at a level that captures their true value. We identify …

Bigotry, Prophecy, Religion, And The Race Analogy In Marriage And Civil Rights Battles: Responding To Commentaries On Who's The Bigot?, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most rewarding parts of writing a book is that it opens the door for constructive conversation with thoughtful and perceptive readers like the scholars who generously contributed to this book symposium. Their various essays touch on and offer powerful insights about the core concerns that I had when I wrote Who’s the Bigot? Learning from Conicts over Marriage and Civil Rights Law. They offer thoughtful empirical and normative observations and surface useful questions about important future investigations. Were I able to write a next chapter—or a sequel—all these commentaries would shape its content. As it is, I …

Intracortical Microelectrode Array Unit Yield Under Chronic Conditions: A Comparative Evaluation, Jeffrey R. Capadona

Faculty Scholarship

While microelectrode arrays (MEAs) offer the promise of elucidating functional neural circuitry and serve as the basis for a cortical neuroprosthesis, the challenge of designing and demon-strating chronically reliable technology remains. Numerous studies report “chronic” data but the actual time spans and performance measures corresponding to the experimental work vary. In this study, we reviewed the experimental durations that constitute chronic studies across a range of MEA types and animal species to gain an understanding of the widespread variability in reported study duration. For rodents, which are the most commonly used animal model in chronic studies, we examined active electrode …

Molecular Diagnosis Of Sars-Cov-2: Assessing And Interpreting Nucleic Acid And Antigen Tests, Peter A. Zimmerman, Christopher L. King, Mahmoud Ghannoum, Robert A. Bonomo, Gary W. Procop

Faculty Scholarship

In this review, we summarize the current status of nucleic acid and antigen testing required for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease. Nucleic acid amplification (NAAT) and antigen-detection (Ag) tests occupy a critically important frontline of defense against SARS-CoV-2 in clinical and public health settings. In early stages of this outbreak, we observed that identifying the causative agent of a new illness of unknown origin was greatly accelerated by characterizing the nucleic acid signature of the novel coronavirus. Results from nucleic acid sequencing led to the development of highly sensitive RT-PCR testing for use in clinical settings and to informing …

Brief For American Indian Law Scholars As Amicus Curiae, Stephen C., Et Al V. Bureau Of Indian Education, Et Al.,, Barbara L. Creel, Tierra N. Marks, Randolph H. Barnhouse

Faculty Scholarship

Indian Civil Rights/Education Lawsuit

View this and other court documents at Turtle Talk.

Congress’s declared federal policy is “to fulfill the Federal Government’s unique and continuing trust relationship with and responsibility to the Indian people for the education of Indian children.” 25 U.S.C. § 2000. This federal policy is the touchstone of the federal government’s trust obligation to Indian families and their children. When the BIA (through the BIE) fails to protect the rights of Indian children to “educational opportunities that equal or exceed those for all other students in the United States,” courts have a vital role to …

A Convergent Functional Genomics Analysis To Identify Biological Regulators Mediating Effects Of Creatine Supplementation, Diego A. Bonilla, Yurany Moreno, Eric S. Rawson, Diego A. Forero, Jeffrey R. Stout, Chad M. Kerksick, Michael D. Roberts, Richard B. Kreider

Faculty Scholarship

Creatine (Cr) and phosphocreatine (PCr) are physiologically essential molecules for life, given they serve as rapid and localized support of energy- and mechanical-dependent processes. This evolutionary advantage is based on the action of creatine kinase (CK) isozymes that connect places of ATP synthesis with sites of ATP consumption (the CK/PCr system). Supplementation with creatine monohydrate (CrM) can enhance this system, resulting in well-known ergogenic effects and potential health or therapeutic benefits. In spite of our vast knowledge about these molecules, no integrative analysis of molecular mechanisms under a systems biology approach has been performed to date; thus, we aimed to …

Impact Of Glucosamine Supplementation On Gut Health, Jessica M. Moon, Peter Finnegan, Richard A. Stecker, Hanna Lee, Kayla M. Ratliff, Ralf Jäger, Martin Purpura, Carolyn M. Slupsky, Mario L. Marco, Craig J. Wissent, Jason Theodosakis, Chad Kerksick

Faculty Scholarship

Glucosamine (GLU) is a natural compound found in cartilage, and supplementation with glucosamine has been shown to improve joint heath and has been linked to reduced mortality rates. GLU is poorly absorbed and may exhibit functional properties in the gut. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of glucosamine on gastrointestinal function as well as changes in fecal microbiota and metabolome. Healthy males (n = 6) and females (n = 5) (33.4 ± 7.7 years, 174.1 ± 12.0 cm, 76.5 ± 12.9 kg, 25.2 ± 3.1 kg/m2, n = 11) completed two supplementation protocols that each spanned …