Digital Commons Network^™

Enhancing Employability For Autistic Graduates: Using Triz Theory To Design Virtual Reality Solutions For Fostering Inclusive Communications In Workplace Environments, Jonathan Proulx Guimond, Jocelyn Kiss, Reyes Consuelo, Miguel Alejandro, Dominique Michaud, Rency Inson Michel, Alexandre Ménard, Isabelle Feillou, Geoffreyjen Edwards, James Hutson, Claude Vincent, Julie Ruel, Sylvain Letscher, Valéry Psyché, Cathia Papi, Martin Caouette

Faculty Scholarship

The underemployment of post-secondary graduates with autism (AP-PSD) is a critical concern. This issue often stems from difficulties in workplace integration and communication. This research explores the potential of virtual reality (VR) systems to alleviate these challenges by simulating work environments. The methodology, rooted in the TRIZ Theory, a problem-solving algorithm, refines the use of VR systems for enhanced adaptability and efficiency. The primary objectives include enhancing employers' understanding of AP-PSD-related issues and identifying significant workplace challenges faced by AP-PSDs. Through literature reviews, surveys, and focus groups, the study investigates the factors impacting AP-PSDs and identifies key components to develop …

Life, Death, And Ai: Exploring Digital Necromancy In Popular Culture—Ethical Considerations, Technological Limitations, And The Pet Cemetery Conundrum, James Hutson, Jay Ratican

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the rise of generative AI, particularly ChatGPT, and the combination of large language models (LLM) with robotics, exemplified by Ameca the Robot. It addresses the need to study the ethical considerations and potential implications of digital necromancy, which involves using AI to reanimate deceased individuals for various purposes. Reasons for desiring to engage with a disembodied or bodied replica of a person include the preservation of memories, emotional closure, cultural heritage and historical preservation, interacting with idols or influential figures, educational and research purposes, and creative expression and artistic endeavors. As such, this article examines historical examples …

What’S Scope 3 Good For?, Madison Condon

Faculty Scholarship

Opposition to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) new rule on updated climate risk reporting has focused on one category of disclosures as particularly objectionable: Scope 3 emissions.⁷ Otherwise known as “supply chain emissions,” Scope 3 emissions have been voluntarily reported by a growing number of companies since the term was invented as part of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol in 2001.⁸ They include all the emissions both up and downstream of a corporations’ own activities: the emissions of the privately-owned factory that produced the shoes Target sells, as well as the emissions you burn while driving to the …

Inhibition Of Wnt/Β‐Catenin Pathway Overcomes Therapeutic Resistance To Abiraterone In Castration‐Resistant Prostate Cancer, Ibrahim M. Atawia, Prem P. Kushwaha, Shiv Verma, Spencer Lin, Eswar Shankar, Sanjay Gupta

Faculty Scholarship

Abiraterone acetate has been clinically approved for the treatment of patients with advanced‐stage prostate cancer. It reduces testosterone production by blocking the enzyme cytochrome P450 17 alpha‐hydroxylase. Despite improved survival outcomes with abiraterone, almost all patients develop therapeutic resistance and disease recurrence, progressing to a more aggressive and lethal phenotype. Bioinformatics analyses predicted activation of canonical Wnt/β‐catenin and involvement of stem cell plasticity in abiraterone‐resistant prostate cancer. Increased expression of androgen receptor (AR) and β‐catenin and their crosstalk causes activation of AR target genes and regulatory networks for which overcoming acquired resistance remains a major challenge. Here we show that …

Microwave Regeneration And Thermal And Oxidative Stability Of Imidazolium Cyanopyrrolide Ionic Liquid For Direct Air Capture Of Carbon Dioxide, Yun-Yang Lee, Eda Cagli, Aidan Klemm, Ruth Dikki

Faculty Scholarship

Understanding the oxidative and thermal degradation of CO2 sorbents is essential for assessing long-term sorbent stability in direct air capture (DAC). The potential degradation pathway of imidazolium cyanopyrrolide, an ionic liquid (IL) functionalized for superior CO2 capacity and selectivity, is evaluated under accelerated degradation conditions to elucidate the secondary reactions that can occur during repetitive absorption-desorption thermal-swing cycles. The combined analysis from various spectroscopic, chromatographic, and thermal gravimetric measurements indicated that radical and SN2 mechanisms in degradation are encouraged by the nucleophilicity of the anion. Thickening of the liquid and gas evolution are accompanied by 50 % reduction in CO2 …

The Six Emotional Dimension (6de) Model: A Multidimensional Approach To Analyzing Human Emotions And Unlocking The Potential Of Emotionally Intelligent Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Via Large Language Models (Llm), Jay Ratican, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

The rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) research, particularly in training large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI's ChatGPT 3.5 and 4, hold significant potential for future applications in education, healthcare, and assisted living. Emotionally intelligent AI systems can provide personalized and adaptive educational experiences, enhancing engagement and educational outcomes. In healthcare, they can offer empathetic mental health support, augmenting existing resources. In assisted living, AI companions can provide emotional support, cognitive stimulation, and monitoring services, promoting independence and safety. However, ethical considerations and privacy safeguards are crucial to ensure responsible deployment. Integrating emotionally intelligent AI in these domains has …

Grid Governance In The Energy-Trilemma Era: Remedying The Democracy Deficit, Daniel E. Walters, Andrew N. Kleit

Faculty Scholarship

Transforming the electric power grid is central to any viable scenario for addressing global climate change, but the process and politics of this transformation are complex. The desire to transform the grid creates an “energy trilemma” involving often conflicting desires for reliability, cost, and decarbonization; and, at least in the short run, it is difficult to avoid making tradeoffs between these different goals. It is somewhat shocking, then, that many crucial decisions about electric power service in the United States are made not by consumers or their utilities, nor by state public utilities commissions or federal regulators. Instead, for much …

Gamestopped: How Robinhood’S Gamestop Trading Halt Reveals The Complexities Of Retail Investor Protection, Neal Newman

Faculty Scholarship

Should brokers have the unfettered right to restrict investor trading? GameStop, a brick-and-mortar video game retailer, had been experiencing declining revenues since 2016. However, GameStop saw its share price climb almost 1000 percent in the span of a one- week period from January 21, 2021 to January 27, 2021 due to retail investors buying significant amounts of GameStop shares during that period. Melvin Capital, a hedge fund, ended up losing billions as they were betting that GameStop shares would lose value instead of increase—a practice referred to as short selling. On January 28, 2021, brokers inexplicably halted trading on GameStop …

The Intersection Of Nfts And Structured Finance, Christopher K. Odinet, Andrea Tosato

Faculty Scholarship

Blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continue to invade financial markets. Whether through partnerships between financial institutions and tech firms or through in-house initiatives at some of the nation’s largest banks, blockchain-based products, services, and transactional structures are a major point of interest. In a recent work by Professor Steven Schwarcz, the growing NFT market is analyzed using the traditional tools of structured finance. Creating a new conceptual model called non-cash-flow monetizations, Professor Schwarcz reveals the risks to investors and markets, if the tokenization of non-traditional and largely illiquid assets proliferates. Having identified the potential harms, he offers …

Even Lawyers Do Not Like Legalese, Eric H. Martinez, Francis Mollica, Edward Gibson

Faculty Scholarship

Significance

The Common Law Inside Social Media, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Integrating Ai-Generative Tools In Web Design Education: Enhancing Student Aesthetic And Creative Copy Capabilities Using Image And Text-Based Ai Generators, Jason Lively, James Hutson, Elizabeth Melick

Faculty Scholarship

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to disrupt all levels of education. The recent advances in the generative capabilities of new chatbots, AI art generators, and large language models have upended the art and design development pipeline. At the same time, the focus has remained on the nature of creativity and the role of humans in the creative process, prompting calls to ban AI art, bring lawsuits over copyright infringement, and demand universal watermarks to identify AI-generative content. Regardless of the outcome of such litigation, AI has already radically altered the workflow for artists and designers. This case study aims to …

Digital Privacy For Reproductive Choice In The Post-Roe Era, Aziz Z. Huq, Rebecca Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

The overruling of Roe v. Wade has unleashed a torrent of regulatory and punitive activity restricting previously lawful reproductive options. But the turn to the expansive criminal law and new schemes of civil liability creates novel concerns, quite distinct from the pre-Roe landscape a half-century ago. Reproductive choice, and its nemesis, turn upon information. For pregnant people, deciding on a choice of medical care entails a search for advice and services. Information is at a pre­mium for them. Meanwhile, efforts to regulate abortion began with clinic closings. But they will quickly extend to civil actions and criminal indictments of patients, …

150th Anniversary Gala Dean Address, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

One hundred fifty years ago tomorrow, eighteen professors and approximately sixty students held the first day of classes at what was then called Boston School of Law. It was 1872. The Civil War had ended less than a decade before. The telephone had not been invented yet. It was a remarkably different time in our nation’s history.

Our law school’s rather humble beginnings did not portend the impressive legacy that it would build over the next 150 years. At the time, the school consisted of only one small lecture hall and an adjacent room for the dean—tight quarters for a …

Diverse Patients’ Attitudes Towards Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In Diagnosis, Christopher Robertson, Andrew Woods, Kelly Bergstrand, Jessica Findley, Cayley Balser, Marvin J. Slepian

Faculty Scholarship

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to improve diagnostic accuracy. Yet people are often reluctant to trust automated systems, and some patient populations may be particularly distrusting. We sought to determine how diverse patient populations feel about the use of AI diagnostic tools, and whether framing and informing the choice affects uptake. To construct and pretest our materials, we conducted structured interviews with a diverse set of actual patients. We then conducted a pre-registered (osf.io/9y26x), randomized, blinded survey experiment in factorial design. A survey firm provided n = 2675 responses, oversampling minoritized populations. Clinical vignettes were randomly manipulated in eight …

The Public Stakes Of Consumer Law: The Environment, The Economy, Health, Disinformation, And Beyond, Rory Van Loo

Faculty Scholarship

This Article shows how consumer law, a field “derided as the law of small problems,”⁴ is more accurately viewed as important for addressing large-scale societal threats. It also offers a more integrated conceptual and institutional approach to consumer law so that the field can have a better chance of fulfilling its societal potential.

Part I of this Article outlines the importance of consumer law. It maps consumer law’s connections to some of the most pressing societal threats: climate change, public health, inequality, and disinformation. Part II focuses on consumer law’s place in the legal academy and government. Currently, important …

The Problem Is The Court, Not The Constitution, Jonathan Feingold

Faculty Scholarship

“But first, we must believe.” So concludes The Antiracist Constitution, where Brandon Hasbrouck confronts an uneasy question: In the quest for racial justice, is the Constitution friend or foe? Even the casual observer knows that constitutional law is no friend to racial justice. In the nineteenth century, Plessy v. Ferguson blessed Jim Crow. In the twentieth century, Washington v. Davis insulated practices that reproduce Jim Crow. Now in the twenty-first century, pending affirmative action litigation invites the Supreme Court to outlaw efforts to remedy Jim Crow.

Utilizing Neurodiverse Workplace Strategies To Support The Growing Population Of Long Covid Cases In A Neuroinclusive Workplace: A Paradigm Shift For Neuroacquired Employees, Piper Hutson, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the emergence of long COVID, a condition in which patients report persistent symptoms after recovering from acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. A review conducted by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) suggests that long COVID may actually consist of four different syndromes: post-intensive care syndrome, post-viral fatigue syndrome, and long-term COVID syndrome. The absence of a clear definition for this condition may lead to under-recognition and under-treatment of the symptoms experienced by those affected. Moreover, existing programs designed for neuro diverse individuals may be adapted to support the growing neuro acquired population. Communication strategies, such …

The Midas Touch: Atuahene's "Stategraft" And Unregulated Artificial Intelligence, Sonia Gipson Rankin

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Bernadette Atuahene’s article, A Theory of Stategraft, develops the new theoretical conception of “stategraft.” Professor Atuahene notes that when state agents have engaged in practices of transferring property from persons to the state in violation of the state’s own laws or basic human rights, it sits at the nexus of illegal behavior and revenue-generating activity for the government. Although there are countless instances of “stategraft,” one particularly salient example is when the state uses artificial intelligence to illegally extract resources from people. This Essay will apply stategraft to an algorithm implemented in Michigan that falsely accused recipients of unemployment …

Civil Procedure Update 2023, Julio C. Romero, Verónica C. Gonzales

Faculty Scholarship

This presentation aims to 1) review recent amendments to the state and federal rules of civil procedure; 2) help you understand the impact of recent federal and state published opinions interpreting and applying the rules of civil procedure; and 3) assess your understanding of the updates.

Less Is More?: Accountability For White-Collar Offenses Through An Abolitionist Framework, Pedro Gerson

Faculty Scholarship

White-collar crime is underenforced: not enough cases are brought, not many convictions are secured, and when they are, those who were convicted usually benefit from leniency not seen in other kinds of criminal wrongdoing. Calls for accountability center on strengthening the traditional tools of criminal law enforcement to reach actors that have so far eluded criminal liability. These responses, however, risk further entrenching the systems that have led the United States to mass incarceration and its many real and tangible harms. In this Article, I question whether an abolitionist framework is possible for white-collar crime. First, I argue that given …

Gender-Based Religious Persecution, Pooja R. Dadhania

Faculty Scholarship

People fleeing gender-based violence in the home face an uphill battle when seeking asylum in the United States. Through the lens of public and private spheres, this Article explores the underutilized religion ground for asylum for cases involving gender-based violence in the home—i.e., the private sphere. This Article argues that if an individual imposes a patriarchal practice on an asylum seeker in the private sphere and justifies that practice using religion, the asylum seeker’s resistance to that practice should constitute religious expression.

The religion ground protects individuals who are persecuted because of their religious beliefs and religious expression. It typically …

Generative Ai And Algorithmic Art: Disrupting The Framing Of Meaning And Rethinking The Subject- Object Dilemma, James Hutson, Morgan Harper-Nichols

Faculty Scholarship

In the revision of treatments of contemporary art in the 21st century, art historians are recognizing 2022 as the dawn of the age of creative artificial intelligence (AI). The emergence of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion in late 2022 immediately disrupted the established practices of the art world, leading to debates about the validity of "AI Art" and the emergence of a new market for NFTs. However, fears regarding the "death of the artist" are unwarranted when considering the historical adoption of new technologies by artists, such as photography. The role of the artist will undoubtedly transform, …

The Poetry Of Prompts: The Collaborative Role Of Generative Artificial Intelligence In The Creation Of Poetry And The Anxiety Of Machine Influence, James Hutson, Ana Schnellmann

Faculty Scholarship

2022 has been heralded as the year of generative artificial intelligence (AI). Generative AI like ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion, along with a host of others, launched late in the year and immediately disrupted the status quo of the literary and art worlds, leading to outcries to ban “AI Art” and spawning an entirely new market of NFTs. Fears over the “death of the artist” and the “death of college composition,” however, are unfounded when considering the historical adoption of emerging technologies by creatives and the reconsideration of authorship that began with post structuralism and the Foucauldian Death of the Author …

Using A “Bystander Bounty” To Encourage The Reporting Of Workplace Sexual Harassment, Jessica K. Fink

Faculty Scholarship

Sexual harassment has become a fact of the modern workplace – something that society laments and regrets, but that rarely shocks the conscience when it comes to light. In fact, both the least and most surprising aspect about workplace sexual harassment is the number of individuals who are aware of it occurring: For every Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, and Louis CK, there have been countless observers who knew about their depravity and who did nothing to stop their behavior. In this way, one obvious approach for reducing harassment at work seems clearly to involve mobilizing these bystanders – encouraging those …

The Case Against The Debt Tax, Vijay Raghavan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Accountable Bureaucrat, Anya Bernstein, Cristina Rodriguez

Faculty Scholarship

Common wisdom has it that bureaucrats are unaccountable to the people they regulate and must therefore be closely supervised by elected officials or (perhaps ironically) the federal courts. For many detractors of the administrative state, as well as many proponents, agency accountability hangs on the concentrated power of the President in particular. This Article presents a different vision. Drawing on in-depth interviews with officials from numerous agencies, we show that everyday administrative practices and relationships themselves support accountability of a kind that neither elections nor judicial review alone can achieve.

Our interviews reveal that agency officials work within structures that …

The Long Shadow Of Inevitable Disclosure, Stacey Dogan, Felicity Slater

Faculty Scholarship

A growing body of evidence has highlighted the human and economic costs associated with contractual restrictions on employee mobility. News accounts describe abusive use of non-compete clauses to prevent low wage workers from seeking better options. Economists, meanwhile, have demonstrated that innovation and economic dynamism may suffer when employers can easily prevent their employees from changing jobs. While state legislatures have attempted to address these concerns by restricting employers' use of non-compete agreements, the Federal Trade Commission recently announced a plan to prohibit them altogether. As policymakers focus attention on contractual limits on employment mobility, however, a more insidious threat …

Understanding Dark Patterns In Home Iot Devices, Monica Kowalczyk, Johanna Gunawan, David Choffnes, Daniel J. Dubois, Woodrow Hartzog, Christo Wilson

Faculty Scholarship

Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices are ubiquitous, but little attention has been paid to how they may incorporate dark patterns despite consumer protections and privacy concerns arising from their unique access to intimate spaces and always-on capabilities. This paper conducts a systematic investigation of dark patterns in 57 popular, diverse smart home devices. We update manual interaction and annotation methods for the IoT context, then analyze dark pattern frequency across device types, manufacturers, and interaction modalities. We find that dark patterns are pervasive in IoT experiences, but manifest in diverse ways across device traits. Speakers, doorbells, and camera devices contain the most …

The Millennial Corporation: Strong Stakeholders, Weak Managers, Michal Barzuza, Quinn Curtis, David H. Webber

Faculty Scholarship

In a prior paper, Shareholder Value(s): Index Fund ESG Activism and The New Millennial Corporate Governance, we argued that the index funds’ sudden shift towards socially-responsible investment, after decades of ignoring or opposing it, was driven by the competition to manage growing Millennial wealth. In our view, the main contribution of that paper was identifying sharp differences between Millennials and prior generations over investment, consumption, and employment. It has now become clear that this contribution has implications far beyond index-fund environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) activism and is in fact completely transforming the corporate world, marking a fundamental shift in …