Digital Commons Network^™

Human Coronaviruses Are Uncommon In Patients With Gastrointestinal Illness, Frank Esper, Zhen Ou, Yung T. Huang

Faculty Scholarship

BACKGROUND: Coronaviruses infect numerous animal species causing a variety of illnesses including respiratory, neurologic and enteric disease. Human coronaviruses (HCoV) are mainly associated with respiratory tract disease but have been implicated in enteric disease. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the frequency of coronaviruses in stool samples from children and adults with gastrointestinal illness by RT-PCR. STUDY DESIGN: Clinical samples submitted for infectious diarrhea testing were collected from December 2007 through March 2008. RNA extraction and RT-PCR was performed for stools negative for Clostridium difficile using primer sets against HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63, and HCoV-HKU1. Clinical data from samples positive for coronaviruses were reviewed …

The Statute Of Frauds And Oral Promises Of Job Security The Tenuous Distinction Between Performance And Excusable Nonperformance, Daniel P. O'Gorman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Responsible Business: Self-Governance And Law In Transnational Economic Transactions Edited By Olaf Dilling, Martin Herberg And Gerd Winter, Laura M. Spitz

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Holding The World Bank Accountable For The Leakage Of Funds From Africa’S Health Sector, Fatma E. Marouf

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the accountability of international financial institutions (IFIs), such as the World Bank, for human rights violations related to the massive leakage of funds from sub-Saharan Africa’s health sector. The article begins by summarizing the quantitative results of Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys performed in six African countries, all showing disturbingly high levels of leakage in the health sector. It then addresses the inadequacy of good governance and anticorruption programs in remedying this problem. After explaining how the World Bank’s Inspection Panel may serve as an accountability mechanism for addressing the leakage of funds, discussing violations of specific Bank …

The Twist Of Long Terms: Judicial Elections, Role Fidelity, And American Tort Law, Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

The received wisdom is that American judges rejected strict liability through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To the contrary, a majority of state courts adopted Rylands v. Fletcher and strict liability for hazardous or unnatural activities after a series of flooding tragedies in the late nineteenth century. Federal judges and appointed state judges generally ignored or rejected Rylands, while elected state judges overwhelmingly adopted Rylands or a similar strict liability rule.

In moving from fault to strict liability, these judges were essentially responding to increased public fears of industrial or man-made hazards. Elected courts were more populist: they were …

The Italian Job — Voice Over Internet Protocol Mtic Fraud In Italy, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

On February 8, 2010 a speculative paper on the likelihood that fraudsters proficient in missing trader intra-community (MTIC) fraud might move into voice over internet protocol (VoIP) was submitted to the Boston University School of Law Working Paper Series.

Prior to that paper there was very little (if any) public discussion of VoIP MTIC. There were no assessments, no arrests, and not a hint of litigation. Fifteen days later, and before final publication the financial press exploded with coverage of a massive VoIP MTIC fraud (the Operazione “phuncards-broker” investigation). The Wall Street Journal reported: An [Italian] judge…ordered the arrest of …

Defining And Measuring The Patient-Centered Medical Home, Kurt C. Stange, Susan A. Flocke

Faculty Scholarship

The patient-centeredmedical home(PCMH) is four things: 1) the fundamental tenets of primary care: first contact access, comprehensiveness, integration/coordination, and relationships involving sustained partnership; 2) new ways of organizing practice; 3) development of practices' internal capabilities, and 4) related health care system and reimbursement changes. All of these are focused on improving the health of whole people, families, communities and populations, and on increasing the value of healthcare. The value of the fundamental tenets of primary care is well established. This value includes higher health care quality, better whole-person and population health, lower cost and reduced inequalities compared to healthcare systems …

Multihospital Outbreak Of Clostridium Difficile Infection, Cleveland, Ohio, Usa, Robin L.P. Jump, Ajay K. Sethi, Curtis J. Donskey

Faculty Scholarship

To determine whether a multihospital Clostridium difficile outbreak was associated with epidemic strains and whether use of particular fl uoroquinolones was associated with increased infection rates, we cultured feces from C. difficile-infected patients. Use of fl uoroquionolones with enhanced antianaerobic activity was not associated with increased infection rates.

Compassion-Focused Reappraisal, Benefit-Focused Reappraisal, And Rumination After An Interpersonal Offense: Emotion-Regulation Implications For Subjective Emotion, Linguistic Responses, And Physiology, Charlotte Witvliet, Ross W. Knoll, Nova G. Hinman, Paul Deyoung

Faculty Scholarship

This repeated measures psychophysiology experiment studied three responses to a past interpersonal offense (38 females and 33 males). We compared rumination with two offense reappraisal strategies. Compassion-focused reappraisal emphasized the offender's humanity, and interpreted the transgression as evidence of the offender's need for positive transformation. Benefit-focused reappraisal emphasized insights gained or strengths shown in facing the offense. Supporting the manipulations, compassion-focused reappraisal stimulated the most empathy and forgiveness, whereas benefit-focused reappraisal prompted the most benefit language and gratitude. Both reappraisals decreased aroused, negative emotion, and related facial muscle tension at the brow (corrugator). Both reappraisals increased happiness and positive emotion …

Discipline And Nourish: On Constructing Commons, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Scholarship has examined many possible ways to encourage the creation and dissemination of art, works of authorship, ideas, and inventions: rights of exclusion (copyrights and patents), prizes, governmental subsidies, private subsidies (including both foundations and patronage), reputation, and so forth. Legal scholars have long recognized that copyright and patent are not the only options. And while some legal academics have mentioned the possibility of groups of users and creators interacting on a voluntary but structured basis, legal scholars did not give much sustained attention to such possibilities until fairly recently.

A Unified Theory Of International Law, The State, And The Individual: Transnational Legal Harmonization In The Context Of Economic And Legal Globalization, James D. Wilets

Faculty Scholarship

This Article presents an original theory of international law which reconciles the norm-making processes occurring at the international, state, and individual levels. It is the central thesis of this paper that economic globalization is not happening in a vacuum, but it is rather engendering legal globalization, much in the way that centralized regulation followed trans-state economic globalization within the United States and Europe.

Traditional definitions of international law do not address this phenomenon and consider these new forms of transnational norm creation as simply exceptions to the general rule that international law is created by nation-states within the framework of …

Curriculum Mapping: Bringing Evidence-Based Frameworks To Legal Education, Debra Moss Curtis, David M. Moss

Faculty Scholarship

This article explains the concept of curriculum mapping as used in the education profession and explains how it was applied in a mapping initiative at the NSU Law Center. Curriculum mapping is a process by which education professionals “document their own curriculum, then share and examine each other’s curriculums for gaps, overlaps, redundancies and new learning, creating a coherent, consistent, curriculum within and across areas that is ultimately aligned to standards and responsive to student data and other initiatives.” While this process has been used for many years in other areas of education, it is fairly new to legal education. …

How To Use A Tube Top And A Dress Code To Demystify The Predictive Writing Process And Build A Framework Of Hope During The First Weeks Of Class, Camille Lamar

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

New Groups And Old Doctrine: Rethinking Congressional Power To Enforce The Equal Protection Clause, William Araiza

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Report & Recommendations Legal Scholar Team, Margaret E. Montoya, Tucker Culbertson, Marc-Tizoc González

Faculty Scholarship

The Report’s Recommendations for next steps reflect and incorporate the multiple experiences, false starts, insights, frustrations and new beginnings that represent the various ways that diversity works within the different sectors of the legal profession. We have included Recommendations that are already being used as well as some that are ambitious and aspirational. Within each of the four sectors of the profession, the recommendations are broadly categorized, but not prioritized. We recognize that every individual or organization will have its own priorities based on its unique circumstances. We do encourage the Report’s users to select and prioritize recommendations for next …

The Unity Of Interpretation, Lawrence B. Solum

Faculty Scholarship

What is interpretation? One can imagine a range of answers to this question. One answer might begin with the observation that the English word “interpretation” is used to refer to a variety of human activities. Translators at the United Nations interpret remarks made in French when they offer an English translation. Literary critics interpret novels when they investigate the deep and sometimes unconscious motivations of the author. Conductors interpret a score when they make decisions about meter, tempo, and dynamic range. Actors interpret a screenplay when they improvise new lines based on their understanding of the characters. Judges interpret statutes …

"A Little Happier": David Leonard As Co-Author, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Virtual Intermediaries In The Lodging Industry: Consumption Tax Problems In The U.S. And Japan, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Marketplace technology is (inadvertently) chipping away at the effectiveness of consumption taxes – the Japanese Consumption Tax (CT), the European value added tax (VAT), and the American sales tax (ST) are all affected. Frequently a technology-patch or a law change can repair the tax-damage, but sometimes even though a patch or a change is known the design of the levy (or the politics behind the design) impedes application. This paper assesses these consumption taxes by considering the impact that virtual travel agents have had on revenue yields. The paper draws specific conclusions for the Japanese CT, because this consumption tax …

Protecting New Mexico’S Waters: A Blueprint For The Future, Denise D. Fort

Faculty Scholarship

Aquatic species are imperiled by water diversions, introduced species, pollution and now climate change. In the western U.S., water law rewards the withdrawal and use of water, rather than leaving water instream for ecological, recreational and other purposes. New Mexico has no statutory protections for environmental flows and is increasing its diversions of water from rivers. This paper discusses the status of instream flows in the state and proposes policies to better protect the state’s waters.

Review Essay: Antebellum American Thought And Politics'', Max Skidmore

Faculty Scholarship

Review Essay of the following works: American Sovereigns: The People and America's Constitutional Tradition Before the Civil War. Christian G. Fritz, : Cambridge University Press , 2008 The Missouri Compromise and Its Aftermath: Slavery and the Meaning of America. Robert Pierce Forbes, : University of North Carolina Press , 2007 Vindicating Lincoln: Defending the Politics of Our Greatest President. Thomas L. Krannawitter, : Rowman and Littlefield , 2008

Combating Antimicrobial Resistance: Regulatory Strategies And Institutional Capacity, William M. Sage, David A. Hyman

Faculty Scholarship

Amnesia is a common, important, but rarely noted side effect of antibiotics. Apart from medical historians, few recall the severe morbidity and mortality once associated with acute bacterial infection. However, decades of antibiotic overuse and misuse have compromised the long-term availability and efficacy of these life-saving therapies. If designed and implemented appropriately, regulation can reduce the risk of bacterial infection, reserve antibiotics for circumstances where they are necessary, and rationalize the use of the most powerful agents. Regulation of antibiotic resistance can be justified, and should be guided, by both efficiency and fairness. A range of regulatory options are available--some …

Consumer Assent To Standard Form Contracts And The Voting Analogy, Wayne Barnes

Faculty Scholarship

Standard form contract are ubiquitous, whether signed in the real world or clicked in the online world. Consumers are constantly entering into standard form contracts with the merchants they transact with in order to buy goods or services. Consumers, however, are usually aware of only the basic terms in the form like price, subject matter, and quantity. Consumers otherwise rarely read the form contracts that they sign. However, traditional contract law and the duty to read provide that the consumer is bound to all the terms contained in the form contract, both the known terms and the unread and unknown …

The Remnants Of Exaction Takings, Timothy M. Mulvaney

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the ability of local governments to impose discretionary permit conditions, or "exactions, " to offset the burdens that new development places upon existing infrastructure and the environment. Over fifteen years ago, in Nollan v. California Coastal Commission and Dolan v. City of Tigard, a deeply divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment significantly restricts this governmental authority, for the clause requires the judiciary to apply a more stringent level of scrutiny in reviewing permit conditions than is accorded outright permit denials. These "regulatory takings " decisions provide land use regulators with …

Plea Bargaining As A Legal Transplant: A Good Idea For Troubled Criminal Justice Systems, Cynthia Alkon

Faculty Scholarship

Countries struggling with overburdened criminal justice systems often decide to introduce U.S.-style plea bargaining as part of a larger process of criminal procedure reform. Plea bargaining, however, is not simply a technical change in process. Policymakers and rule of law assistance providers should consider the consequences of this new procedure beyond simple case processing. The introduction of plea bargaining requires legal professional to adapt to a new way of doing their jobs. It potentially changes how defendants and victims view the system. It also carries the potential to change how the general public views the legal system. This can be …

The Political Economy Of Data Protection, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Information is the lifeblood of a knowledge-based economy. The control of data and the ability to translate them into meaningful information is indispensable to businesspeople, policymakers, scientists, engineers, researchers, students, and consumers. Having useful, and at times exclusive, information improves productivity, advances education and training, and helps create a more informed citizenry. In the past two decades, those who collected or obtained access to a large amount of data began to explore ways to use the collected data as an income stream. Because the then-existing laws did not offer adequate protection for that particular purpose, they actively lobbied for stronger …

Pesticide Risk Indicators: Unidentified Inert Ingredients Compromise Their Integrity And Utility, Michael D. Surgan, Madison Condon, Caroline Cox

Faculty Scholarship

Pesticide Risk Indicators (PRIs) are widely used to evaluate and compare the potential health and environmental risks of pesticide use and to guide pest control policies and practices. They are applied to agricultural, landscape and structural pest management by governmental agencies, private institutions and individuals. PRIs typically assess only the potential risks associated with the active ingredients because, with few exceptions, pesticide manufacturers disclose only the identity of the active ingredients which generally comprise only a minor portion of pesticide products. We show that when inert ingredients are identified and assessed by the same process as the active ingredient, the …

Civil Rights And The Wartime Supreme Court, Dawinder S. Sidhu

Faculty Scholarship

The following essay was written for our Race and the Supreme Court event by Dawinder S. Sidhu, a founding director of the Discrimination and National Security Initiative at Harvard University. Mr. Sidhu’s work focuses on discrimination against Muslim-Americans and those perceived to be Muslim, and he is coauthor of a book published in 2009 titled Civil Rights in Wartime.

Maternal Investment Influences Expression Of Resource Polymorphism In Amphibians: Implications For The Evolution Of Novel Resource-Use Phenotypes, Ryan A. Martin

Faculty Scholarship

Maternal effects - where an individual's phenotype is influenced by the phenotype or environment of its mother - are taxonomically and ecologically widespread. Yet, their role in the origin of novel, complex traits remains unclear. Here we investigate the role of maternal effects in influencing the induction of a novel resource-use phenotype. Spadefoot toad tadpoles, Spea multiplicata, often deviate from their normal development and produce a morphologically distinctive carnivore-morph phenotype, which specializes on anostracan fairy shrimp. We evaluated whether maternal investment influences expression of this novel phenotype. We found that larger females invested in larger eggs, which, in turn, produced …

Judicial Evaluation Of Expert Opinions: Recent Developments, David J. Stout

Faculty Scholarship

The paper addresses the basic rules of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Rule 702 under both federal and New Mexico law. The paper attempts to distill in summary form the essential principles of the Alberico scientific validity analysis. The focus is on the validity analysis because of its centrality to the admissibility of scientific opinion evidence. Third, it examines the two recent New Mexico decisions that further explain important issues relating to expert opinion evidence.

Testimony Before The U.S. Sentencing Commission On The Tribal Law And Order Act, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

Under longstanding policy, the U.S. Sentencing Commission takes the position that tribal court convictions ought not be counted for purposes of evaluating a convicted defendant's criminal history. Because in some cases this policy underestimates a defendant's criminal history, it undermines the utilitarian and retributive purposes of federal sentencing. The Tribal Law and Order Act, currently pending in Congress and supported by the President, should cause the United States Sentencing Commission to reconsider its position on tribal convictions. The Act would provide clear federal authorization for tribal court felony sentences of up to three years per offense as long as tribal …