Digital Commons Network^™

What Is A Fair Price For Objector Blackmail? Class Actions, Objectors, And The 2018 Amendments To Rule 23, Elizabeth Cabraser, Adam N. Steinman

Faculty Scholarship

As part of a symposium addressing what the next 50 years might hold for class actions, mass torts, and MDLs, this Article examines a recent amendment to Rule 23 that offers a new solution to the persistent problem of strategic objections. Most significantly, Rule 23 now requires the district judge to approve any payments made to class members in exchange for withdrawing or forgoing challenges to a class action settlement. Although the new provision is still in its infancy, it has already been deployed to thwart improper objector behavior and to bring for-pay objection practice out of the shadows. The …

The Folly Of Credit As Pandemic Relief, Pamela Foohey, Dalié Jiménez, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

Within weeks of the coronavirus pandemic appearing in the United States, the American economy came to a grinding halt. The unprecedented modern health crisis and the collapsing economy forced Congress to make a critical choice about how to help American families survive financially. Congress had two basic options. It could enact policies that provided direct and meaningful financial support to people, without the necessity of later repayment. Or it could pursue policies that temporarily relieved people from their financial obligations, but required that they eventually pay amounts subject to payment moratoria later.

In passing the CARES Act, Congress primarily chose …

Litigating Epa Rules: A Fifty-Year Retrospective Of Environmental Rulemaking In The Courts, Cary Coglianese, Daniel E. Walters

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A New Compact For Sexual Privacy, Danielle K. Citron

Faculty Scholarship

Intimate life is under constant surveillance. Firms track people’s periods, hot flashes, abortions, sexual assaults, sex toy use, sexual fantasies, and nude photos. Individuals hardly appreciate the extent of the monitoring, and even if they did, little can be done to curtail it. What is big business for firms is a big risk for individuals. The handling of intimate data undermines the values that sexual privacy secures—autonomy, dignity, intimacy, and equality. It can imperil people’s job, housing, insurance, and other crucial opportunities. More often, women and minorities shoulder a disproportionate amount of the burden.

Privacy law is failing us. Our …

Reconsidering The Rationale For The Duration Of Data Exclusivity, Jonathan Kimball, Srividhya Ragavan, Sophia Vegas

Faculty Scholarship

The paper’s focus is the singular one question of whether the 12-years of exclusivity that was needed in 2008 remains justified in 2019 given that technological advancement reduces the cost and the time for drug discovery? Basically, new and emerging technologies are deployed every day to enhance efficiencies and reduce the time it takes to bring a drug to the market. The paper asserts that as new technologies are adopted and advances in scientific understanding are leveraged, it results in shorter drug development timelines. This factum, the paper asserts should have a bearing to reduce the period of exclusivity granted …

Resveratrol Delivery From Implanted Cyclodextrin Polymers Provides Sustained Antioxidant Effect On Implanted Neural Probes, Rebecca M. Haley, Jeffrey R. Capadona, Horst A. Von Recum, Evon S. Ereifej

Faculty Scholarship

Intracortical microelectrodes are valuable tools used to study and treat neurological diseases. Due in large part to the oxidative stress and inflammatory response occurring after electrode implantation, the signal quality of these electrodes decreases over time. To alleviate this response, resveratrol, a natural antioxidant which elicits neuroprotective effects through reduction of oxidative stress, was utilized. This work compares traditional systemic delivery of resveratrol to the novel cyclodextrin polymer (pCD) local delivery approach presented herein, both in vitro and in vivo. The pCD displayed an extended resveratrol release for 100 days, as well as 60 days of free radical scavenging activity …

Covid-19: Launching Neurosurgery Into The Era Of Telehealth In The United States, Christina Huang Wright, James Wright, Berje Shammassian

Faculty Scholarship

The authors discuss the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of telehealth in the United States.

Antibody Testing For Covid-19: Can It Be Used As A Screening Tool In Areas With Low Prevalence?, Sweta Mathur

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Steam Treatment For Rapid Decontamination Of N95 Respirators And Medical Face Masks, Sarah N. Redmond, Lucas D. Jones, Curtis J. Donskey

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Management Of Patients With Cerebellar Ataxia During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Aasef G. Shaikh

Faculty Scholarship

The current worldwide severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought some medical systems to the brink of collapse. This crisis is also negatively impacting the care of patients with non-COVID-19 conditions, including those with cerebellar ataxia (CA). Older patients with CA and those with immune-mediated ataxias on immunosuppressive medication are potentially at high risk of developing serious complications of the infection, although it is also possible that immunosuppressive agents may provide a defense against cytokine storm. This has implications for even greater attention to preventing contracting the disease through physical distancing …

Adapting To Uncertainty: Nursing Responsiveness To Covid-19, Scott Emory Moore

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Changes In Gastroenterology And Endoscopy Practices In Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic: Results From A North American Survey, Zachary L. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

Digestive manifestations appear to be common in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19). Gastroenterologists will invariably come into contact with infected patients, and the risk of intraprocedural exposure is well established. Recommendations have been issued to guide personal protective equipment (PPE) use and the triage of procedural urgency, among other operational considerations. In response, institutions providing gastroenterology and endoscopy services have taken urgent action to protect patients and staff, but the uptake and extent of these practice changes in North America is unknown. We conducted a survey of gastroenterology and endoscopy practices to assess the response to the COVID-19 pandemic …

Effectiveness Of Ultraviolet-C Light And A High-Level Disinfection Cabinet For Decontamination Of N95 Respirators, Curtis J. Donskey

Faculty Scholarship

Background: Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) including N95 respirators are an urgent concern in the setting of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Decontamination of PPE could be useful to maintain adequate supplies, but there is uncertainty regarding the efficacy of decontamination technologies. Methods: A modification of the American Society for Testing and Materials standard quantitative carrier disk test method (ASTM E-2197-11) was used to examine the effectiveness of 3 methods, including ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light, a high-level disinfection cabinet that generates aerosolized peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide, and dry heat at 70°C for 30 minutes. We assessed the decontamination of 3 …

How Big Data And Artificial Intelligence Can Help Better Manage The Covid-19 Pandemic, Giovanni Damiani

Faculty Scholarship

SARS-CoV2 is a novel coronavirus, responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic declared by the World Health Organization. Thanks to the latest advancements in the field of molecular and computational techniques and information and communication technologies (ICTs), artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data can help in handling the huge, unprecedented amount of data derived from public health surveillance, real-time epidemic outbreaks monitoring, trend now-casting/forecasting, regular situation briefing and updating from governmental institutions and organisms, and health facility utilization information. The present review is aimed at overviewing the potential applications of AI and Big Data in the global effort to manage the pandemic. …

Convictions As Guilt, Anna Roberts

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Racial-Spatial Politics: Policing Black Citizens In White Spaces And A 21st-Century Uprising, Andrea S. Boyles

Faculty Scholarship

I had been at the library for hours, going over the last edits on my first book (Boyles 2015), when I received a distressing phone call: a police officer had killed a Black male teenager in the city of Ferguson. The caller said protesters were assembling at the scene and suggested that I go there immediately. Well, I responded accordingly. I went, ultimately embarking on an unanticipated, extraordinary three-year empirical journey. As a sociologist and critical criminologist, I had been researching and writing about conflict between Black citizens and police in the suburbs of the St. Louis region for five …

The Debt Collection Pandemic, Pamela Foohey, Dalié Jiménez, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

As of May 2020, the United States' reaction to the unique and alarming threat of COVID-19 has partially succeeded in slowing the virus’s spread. Saving people’s lives, however, came at a severe economic cost. Americans’ economic anxiety understandably spiked. In addition to worrying about meeting basic expenses, people’s anxieties about money necessarily included what might happen if they could not cover already outstanding debts. The nearly 70 million Americans with debts already in collection faced heightened anxiety about their inability to pay.

The coronavirus pandemic is set to metastasize into a debt collection pandemic. The federal government can and should …

Bringing Transparency And Accountability (With A Dash Of Competition) To Court-Connected Dispute Resolution, Nancy A. Welsh

Faculty Scholarship

Among the various dispute resolution processes, mediation is the most widely institutionalized in American courts. As a result, this Article focuses primarily, although not exclusively, on the data collected and disseminated regarding court-connected mediation. The Article begins with a brief description of the institutionalization of mediation and other dispute resolution processes in the federal judicial system and in select U.S. state court systems. This narrative reveals substantial reference to the availability of mediation but a dizzying patchwork in terms of institutionalization and a significant lack of system-wide information in some states. The Article then focuses on the data that these …

Police Sexual Violence: Police Brutality, #Metoo, And Masculinities, Dara Purvis, Melissa Blanco

Faculty Scholarship

A woman alleges that she was raped by a police officer while in police custody. The police officer acknowledges that he had sexual intercourse with the woman but argues that she consented to the interaction. Despite the clear power imbalance and troubling context of the sexual activity, in a majority of U.S. states, if the police officer convinces even one member of a jury that their activity was consensual, then the officer cannot be convicted. Consent is a defense to allegations of sexual assault—even when the alleged assault occurs while the victim is in the custody of the perpetrator.

Allegations …

Discovery Of A Redox Thiol Switch: Implications For Cellular Energy Metabolism, Xing-Huang Gao, Jing Wu, Ilya Bederman, Zhaofeng Gao, Dawid Krokowski, Steven M. Chirieleison, Derek Abbott, Benlian Wang, Mark Cameron, Mark R. Chance, Belinda Willard, Maria Hatzoglou

Faculty Scholarship

The redox-based modifications of cysteine residues in proteins regulate their function in many biological processes. The gas molecule H2S has been shown to persulfidate redox sensitive cysteine residues resulting in an H2S-modified proteome known as the sulfhydrome. Tandem Mass Tags (TMT) multiplexing strategies for large-scale proteomic analyses have become increasingly prevalent in detecting cysteine modifications. Here we developed a TMT-based proteomics approach for selectively trapping and tagging cysteine persulfides in the cellular proteomes. We revealed the natural protein sulfhydrome of two human cell lines, and identified insulin as a novel substrate in pancreatic beta cells. Moreover, we showed that under …

Presidential Ideology And Immigrant Detention, Catherine Y. Kim, Amy Semet

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Why We (Probably) Must Deliberately Infect, Adam J. Kolber

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

It's Not The Heat, It's The Humidity: Effectiveness Of A Rice Cooker-Steamer For Decontamination Of Cloth And Surgical Face Masks And N95 Respirators, Sarah N. Redmond, Lucas D. Jones, Curtis J. Donskey

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

What Constitutes Urgent Endoscopy? A Social Media Snapshot Of Gastroenterologists' Views During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Zachary L. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

Background and study aims: There is a consensus among gastroenterology organizations that elective endoscopic procedures should be deferred during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the decision to perform urgent procedures and to defer entirely elective procedures is mostly evident, there is a wide "middle ground" of time-sensitive but not technically urgent or emergent endoscopic interventions. We aimed to survey gastroenterologists worldwide using Twitter to help elucidate these definitions using commonly encountered clinical scenarios during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A 16-question survey was designed by the authors to include common clinical scenarios that do not have clear guidelines regarding the timing or …

L’Utilizzo Del Tourniquet Nelle Emorragie Da Trauma In Ambito Civile: Una Revisione Narrativa Della Letteratura (Tourniquet In Traumatic Haemorrhage In Civilian Settings: A Narrative Literature Review), Celeste Marie Alfes

Faculty Scholarship

Introduzione: L’emorragia arteriosa è una delle principali cause di morte in ambito civile e militare. Nonostante la pressione manual diretta del sito emorragico sia ancora lo standard di riferimento per il controllo del sanguinamento, l’applicazione precoce, in ambito extra-ospedaliero di tourniquet si è dimostrata capace di ridurre le morti con bassi rischi di complicanze. L’obiettivo dello studio è quello di sintetizzare i metodi di utilizzo, le condizioni dei pazienti, gli esiti e le complicazioni relative alle applicazioni del tourniquet. Materiali e Metodi: È stata condotta una revisione narrativa della letteratura tramite PubMed. Risultati: Dieci articoli inclusi hanno fornito informazioni su …

Social Work, Ethics And Vulnerable Groups In The Time Of Coronavirus And Covid-19, Kathleen J. Farkas, Jaroslaw Richard Romaniuk

Faculty Scholarship

The profession of social work is dedicated to the betterment of society and to the protection of marginalized and vulnerable groups. The profession’s mission is detailed in the set of seven core values: service; social justice; dignity and work of the person; importance of human relationships; integrity; and competence. Relationships between people and among groups are the primary tools of social work assessment, intervention and evaluation. In the time of coronavirus and COVID-19, there are many challenges for professional practitioners to adhere to social work’s core values as well as to maintain their own health and welfare in a time …

Practice Recommendations For Lung Cancer Radiotherapy During The Covid-19 Pandemic: An Estro-Astro Consensus Statement, Gregory Videtic

Faculty Scholarship

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused radiotherapy resource pressures and led to increased risks for lung cancer patients and healthcare staff. An international group of experts in lung cancer radiotherapy established this practice recommendation pertaining to whether and how to adapt radiotherapy for lung cancer in the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: For this ESTRO & ASTRO endorsed project, 32 experts in lung cancer radiotherapy contributed to a modified Delphi consensus process. We assessed potential adaptations of radiotherapy in two pandemic scenarios. The first, an early pandemic scenario of risk mitigation, is characterized by an altered risk-benefit ratio of radiotherapy for lung …

Hysteresis Effects And Roughness Suppression Efficacy Of Polyethylenimine Additive In Cu Electrodeposition In Ethaline, Nora A. Shaheen, Ijjada Mahesh, Rohan Akolkar

Faculty Scholarship

Deep eutectic solvents (DES) are environmentally-friendly electrolytes that are gaining interest for electrodeposition and energy storage applications. In these applications, metal electrodeposits with smooth, nondendritic morphology are desired and thus effective strategies for suppressing roughness evolution are critically needed. A commonly employed and rather effective strategy for suppressing roughness evolution in metal electrodeposition is the use of electrolyte additives; however, the availability of such additives in DES electrolytes is limited and so is the understanding of the mechanisms through which additives suppress roughness amplification in DES media. In the present contribution, we demonstrate that polyethylenimine (PEI) is an effective electrolyte …

Covid-19 Pandemic Through The Lens Of A Gastroenterology Fellow, Raj Shah, Sagarika Satyavada, Mayada Ismail, Michael Kurin, Zachary L. Smith, Gregory S. Cooper, Amitabh Chak

Faculty Scholarship

On Tuesday, March 10, 2020, an institutional e-mail sent from our hospital president confirmed the first 3 cases of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in our healthcare system. Twenty-four hours later, we learned that one of our co-fellows had been exposed and was forced into self-quarantine. Suddenly, what had seemed to be a distant problem hit close to home. As we sat around the “fellows’ room” (socially distanced as much as possible in the luxurious expanse that is common to fellows’ quarters), the uncertainty about our future raised several questions. How would we be impacted as we journeyed through …

Join With Me, Won't You? Civic Engagement, Covid-19, And The Millennial Generation Of Law Professors, Joseph A. Schremmer

Faculty Scholarship

My goals in this essay are to place legal education’s COVID-19 crisis into this broader context and illuminate the unique opportunity that millennial law professors have to create the conditions for more robust community participation within and outside of our law schools. Part I summarizes the decline of civic engagement and social capital in preceding decades and its consequences for law, public discourse, and quality of life. Part II outlines how this deficit of social capital exacerbates the challenges facing law schools and professors in delivering legal education and constructing community during the coronavirus pandemic. Part III explores the unique …