Digital Commons Network^™

Annual Seqra Review: Project Applicants Winning More Cases, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

New York courts are showing impatience with local governments that withhold or stretch out approval of projects without valid environmental grounds. In seven cases last year under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA),courts overturned municipal actions that rejected projects or delayed approvals. In all, the courts decided 46 cases under SEQRA in 2023. Where the government agency had decided that an environmental impact statement (EIS) was not needed, that choice was upheld in 23 cases and overturned in eight. Where an EIS had been prepared, the EIS was upheld in 11 and found inadequate in only one. The remaining …

Do Private Actors Have Rights Under The Wto? The Motivation For And (Inadequate) Implementation Of Gatt Article X, Adeet Dobhal, Petros C. Mavroidis, Lucas Moreira Jiminez, Sunayana Sasmal, Robert Wolfe

Faculty Scholarship

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Article X has been consistently overlooked in literature even though it is a unique provision in the GATT-regime: it acknowledges standing for private actors who can challenge trade-related administrative action by World Trade Organization (WTO) members. This provision is an unusual instantiation of the need to provide transparency for private actors about state policy. It is equally eccentric in seeming to provide a right for private actors to challenge governments, albeit only before domestic fora. How did the GATT end up with this provision? And are these apparent private rights meaningful in practice? …

The Hidden Monetary State, Gabriel Rauterberg, Joshua Younger

Faculty Scholarship

Money is a motley. While the state enjoys a monopoly on issuing new physical currency, a variety of instruments serve money-like roles in the financial system. The commercial banking system significantly augments the money supply through issuing deposits. Alongside it, a shadow banking system has also developed, offering a range of deposit substitutes.

This Article seeks to cast new light on the U.S. financial system by exploring how, over the course of the twentieth century, federal policymakers engaged in a series of distinct and largely uncoordinated monetary experiments. As we show through historical case studies, federal authorities designed, promoted, and …

Changes In Lean Body Mass With Glucagon-Like Peptide-1-Based Therapies And Mitigation Strategies, Ian J. Neeland

Faculty Scholarship

Weight loss induced by glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) and dual glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R)/glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor agonists is coming closer to the magnitudes achieved with surgery. However, with greater weight loss there is concern about potential side effects on muscle quantity (mass), health and function. There is heterogeneity in the reported effects of GLP-1-based therapies on lean mass changes in clinical trials: in some studies, reductions in lean mass range between 40% and 60% as a proportion of total weight lost, while other studies show lean mass reductions of approximately 15% or less of total weight lost. There …

Liberation Without Law: Queer Workers And The Limits Of Legal Liberalism, Reuel Schiller

Faculty Scholarship

A review of Margot Canaday's book Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America.

A Second Look: Local Labor Markets And The Impact Of Ban The Box Policies After Criminal Legal Involvement, Benjamin David Pyle

Faculty Scholarship

This paper estimates the impact of labor demand on the employment and recidivism outcomes of released prisoners. Higher labor demand at release generates higher earnings and lower recidivism. Reduced recidivism persists after controlling for the observed labor market outcomes of the returning cohort, suggesting that labor demand impacts crime through channels beyond the direct formal employment of returning prisoners. Difference-in-differences based evidence suggests Ban the Box (BTB) policies delaying when employers can ask about criminal records improve labor market outcomes and lower recidivism for misdemeanor defendants. Evidence for felony defendants and returning prisoners is mixed but suggestive of similar patterns.

The Effect Of Early Postnatal Auditory Stimulation On Outcomes In Preterm Infants, Juliann M. Di Fiore, Gloria Liu, Kenneth A. Loparo, Cynthia F. Bearer

Faculty Scholarship

Abstract: Preterm infants are deprived of in utero sensory stimulation during the third trimester, an important period of central nervous system development. As a result, maturational trajectories are often reduced in infants born preterm. One such system affected is the brain including the auditory and respiratory control pathways. During normal pregnancy the intrauterine environment attenuates external auditory stimuli while exposing the fetus to filtered maternal voice, intra-abdominal sounds, and external stimuli. In contrast, during the third trimester of development, preterm infants are exposed to a vastly different soundscape including non-attenuated auditory sounds and a lack of womb related stimuli, both …

Development Of An Online Tool To Support Financial And Legal Planning In Dementia, Irene Tessaro, Sarah M. Hooper, Denise Watt, David Menestres, David Farrell

Faculty Scholarship

Objective: To develop, assess, and refine an online educational tool, Plan for Clarity, to support financial and legal planning in dementia.

Methods: A Delphi mixed-method study with three rounds of anonymous review by lay and professional stakeholders was designed to reach consensus about the content of the online tool and explore the socio-cultural and behavioral factors that could affect access and use.

Results: Consensus showed that the online tool covered key information, knowledge, and communication skills for financial and legal planning. Study themes: 1) the online tool had to be easy to navigate with relevant, easily understood …

To Revise Or Not Revise? Isolated Margin Positivity In Localized Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma, Victoria S. Wu, Henry J. Stitzel, John B. Ammori, Jeffrey Hardacre, Lee M. Ocuin

Faculty Scholarship

Background: The study determined the proportion of patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) who had margin-positive disease and no other adverse pathologic findings (APF) using institutional and administrative datasets. Methods: Patients with clinical stage I or II PDAC in the National Cancer Database (NCDB 2010–2020) and those who underwent pancreatectomy at the authors’ institution (2010–2021) were identified. Isolated margin positivity (IMP) was defined as a positive surgical margin with no APF (negative nodes, no lymphovascular/perineural invasion). Results: The study included 225 patients from the authors’ institution and 23,598 patients from the NCDB. The margin-positive rates were 21.8% and 20.3%, and the …

Business Innovation As A Force For Good: From Doing Less Harm To Positive Impact Type 1 And Type 2, Chris Laszlo, David Cooperrider, Ronald Fry

Faculty Scholarship

Commitments of “getting to zero” or becoming a regenerative company are raising investor, customer, and employee expectations at a time when businesses are struggling just to reduce negative impacts. Executives are increasingly caught between wanting to build a better world and the reality of managing value-add activities that continue to harm people and the environment. Businesses need to distinguish between three types of innovation impacts to maintain their credibility and legitimacy. The first is doing less harm, where the goal is to minimize social wrongs and reduce ecological footprints. The second is incremental positive impact, where the goal is to …

Appropriateness Of Care: Deep Venous Procedures, Karem C. Harth

Faculty Scholarship

In the past decade, technologies to treat venous pathologies have increased dramatically, to the benefit of an often underserved and overlooked population of patients with venous disease. However, given the rapid release of various technologies, including venous-dedicated stents and thrombectomy devices across varied venous pathologies, evidence-based guidelines have been slow to develop. When discussing appropriateness of care, one needs to consider optimal patient selection, technical approach, medical management, and surveillance protocols, to name a few. All of which, in the venous space, are currently widely varied in practice. The future of deep venous work is limitless, but multicenter, randomized controlled …

The Mrnacalc Webserver Accounts For The N1-Methylpseudouridine Hypochromicity To Enable Precise Nucleoside-Modified Mrna Quantification, Sarah E. Krul, Sean J. Hoehn, Carlos E. Crespo-Hernández

Faculty Scholarship

Nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (mRNA) technologies necessarily incorporate N1-methylpseudouridine into the mRNA molecules to prevent the over-stimulation of cytoplasmic RNA sensors. Despite this modification, mRNA concentrations remain mostly determined through the measurement of UV absorbance at 260 nm wavelength (A260). Herein, we report that the N1-methylpseudouridine absorbs approximately 40% less UV light at 260 nm than uridine, and its incorporation into mRNAs leads to the under-estimation of nucleoside-modified mRNA concentrations, with 5%–15% error, in an mRNA-sequence-dependent manner. We therefore examined the RNA quantification methods and developed the mRNACalc webserver. It accounts for the molar absorption coefficient of modified nucleotides at 260 …

Shea Position Statement On Pandemic Preparedness For Policymakers: Building A Strong And Resilient Healthcare Workforce, Robin L.P. Jump

Faculty Scholarship

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many areas in the United States experienced healthcare personnel (HCP) shortages tied to a variety of factors. Infection prevention programs, in particular, faced increasing workload demands with little opportunity to delegate tasks to others without specific infectious diseases or infection control expertise. Shortages of clinicians providing inpatient care to critically ill patients during the early phase of the pandemic were multifactorial, largely attributed to increasing demands on hospitals to provide care to patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and furloughs.¹ HCP shortages and challenges during later surges, including the Omicron variant-associated surges, were largely attributed to HCP …

Shea Position Statement On Pandemic Preparedness For Policymakers: Introduction And Overview, Robin L.P. Jump

Faculty Scholarship

Throughout history, pandemics and their aftereffects have spurred society to make substantial improvements in healthcare. After the Black Death in 14th century Europe, changes were made to elevate standards of care and nutrition that resulted in improved life expectancy.1 The 1918 influenza pandemic spurred a movement that emphasized public health surveillance and detection of future outbreaks and eventually led to the creation of the World Health Organization Global Influenza Surveillance Network.2 In the present, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed many of the pre-existing problems within the US healthcare system, which included (1) a lack of capacity to manage a large influx …

Excess Prevalence Of Preexisting Chronic Conditions In Older Adults With Incident Epilepsy, Siran M. Koroukian, Hannah L. Fein, Long Vu, Wyatt P. Bensken, Nicholas K. Schiltz, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

Objective: Prior studies have examined chronic conditions in older adults with prevalent epilepsy, but rarely among those with incident epilepsy. Identifying the chronic conditions with which older adults present at epilepsy incidence assists with the evaluation of disease burden in this patient population and informs coordinated care development. The aim of this study was to identify preexisting chronic conditions with excess prevalence in older adults with incident epilepsy compared to those without. Methods: Using a random sample of 4 999 999 fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries aged >65 years, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of epilepsy incidence in 2019. Non-Hispanic Black …

Multiple Changes In Connectivity Between Buccal Ganglia Mechanoafferents And Motor Neurons With Different Functions After Learning That Food Is Inedible In Aplysia, Hillel J. Chiel, Jeffery Gill

Faculty Scholarship

Changes caused by learning that a food is inedible in Aplysia were examined for fast and slow synaptic connections from the buccal ganglia S1 cluster of mechanoafferents to five followers, in response to repeated stimulus trains. Learning affected only fast connections. For these, unique patterns of change were present in each follower, indicating that learning differentially affects the different branches of the mechanoafferents to their followers. In some followers, there were increases in either excitatory or inhibitory connections, and in others, there were decreases. Changes in connectivity resulted from changes in the amplitude of excitation or inhibition, or as a …

School Nutrition Stakeholders Find Utility In Mealsim: An Agent-Based Model, Melissa Pflugh Prescott

Faculty Scholarship

Objective: To obtain feedback from school nutrition stakeholders on an agent-based model simulating school lunch to inform model refinement and future applications. Design: Qualitative study using online discussion groups. Setting: School nutrition professional stakeholders across the US. Participants: Twenty-eight school nutrition stakeholders. Phenomenon of Interest: Perceptions and applicability of MealSim for school nutrition stakeholders to help reduce food waste. Analysis: Deductive approach followed by inductive analysis of discussion group transcripts. Results: Stakeholders appreciated the customizability of the cafeteria characteristics and suggested adding additional characteristics to best represent the school meal system, such as factors relating to school staff supervision of …

Perceptions And Aspirations Of Undergraduate Computer Science Students Towards Generative Ai: A Qualitative Inquiry, James Hutson, Theresa Jeevanjee

Faculty Scholarship

This article presents a comprehensive study conducted during the spring semester of 2024, aimed at exploring undergraduate computer science students’ perceptions, awareness, and understanding of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools within the context of their Artificial Intelligence (AI) courses. The research methodology employed qualitative techniques, including human-subject research and focus groups, to delve into students’ insights on the evolution of AI as delineated in the seminal textbook by Russell and Norvig. The study-initiated discussions on the historical development of AI, prompting students to reflect on the aspects that intrigued them the most, and to identify which historical concepts and methodologies, …

Navigating The Complexities Of Ai: The Critical Role Of Interpretability And Explainability In Ensuring Transparency And Trust, Emily Barnes, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

The interpretability and explainability of deep neural networks (DNNs) are paramount in artificial intelligence (AI), especially when applied to high-stakes fields such as healthcare, finance, and autonomous driving. The need for this study arises from the growing integration of AI into critical areas where transparency, trust, and ethical decision-making are essential. This paper explores the impact of architectural design choices on DNN interpretability, focusing on how different architectural elements like layer types, network depth, connectivity patterns, and attention mechanisms affect model transparency. Methodologically, the study employs a comprehensive review of case studies and experimental results to analyze the balance between …

Navigating The Ethical Terrain Of Ai In Higher Education: Strategies For Mitigating Bias And Promoting Fairness, Emily Barnes, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are transforming higher education by enhancing personalized learning and academic support, yet they pose significant ethical challenges, particularly in terms of inherent biases. This review critically examines the integration of AI in higher education, underscoring the dual aspects of its potential to innovate educational paradigms and the essential need to address ethical implications to avoid perpetuating existing inequalities. The researchers employed a methodological approach that analyzed case studies and literature as primary data collection methods, focusing on strategies to mitigate biases through technical solutions, diverse datasets, and strict adherence to ethical guidelines. Their …

Critical Race Theory Bans And The Changing Canon: Cultural Appropriation In Narrative, Susan Ayres

Faculty Scholarship

Thirty-five states have enacted critical race theory bans at the level of elementary and secondary public education, and seven states have extended these to the university level. One way to resist these attempts to repress a healthy democracy by whitewashing history is through a pedagogy of antiracism, including literary works. The question of what that would look like involves questions of cultural appropriation, which occurs when one takes from another culture, such as a writer creating a narrative about a character outside of the writer’s cultural identity. This Article considers the story of Ota Benga, brought from the Congo to …

Putting The Lawyer First: Framing Well-Being In Law As An Ethical Dilemma, Aric Short

Faculty Scholarship

A disturbingly high percentage of our students continue to be unwell. In the most recent and comprehensive survey of law student well-being in 2021, almost 70% of law students responded that, in the past twelve months, they believed they needed to seek help for emotional or mental health problems. Embedded screening tools in the survey suggested that 34% of respondents were clinically depressed and 54% suffered from clinical anxiety. 44% of respondents reported being drunk in the past thirty days, 33% had engaged in binge drinking in the preceding two weeks, and 38% had smoked marijuana in the past twelve …

Adoption As Substitute For Abortion?, Malinda L. Seymore

Faculty Scholarship

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, Justice Samuel Alito relied on adoption as part of the justification for holding that abortion is not constitutionally protected: “States have increasingly adopted ‘safe haven’ laws, which generally allow women to drop off babies anonymously; and that a woman who puts her newborn up for adoption today has little reason to fear that the baby will not find a suitable home.” Using adoption as an adequate substitute for abortion is a long-standing strategy for the antiabortion movement; but it is often embraced by pro-choice advocates as well. This position is supportable only if the …

The Subfederal In Immigration Polarization, Huyen Pham, Pham Hoang Van

Faculty Scholarship

The framing of subfederal immigration regulation as a red- blue divide is conventional wisdom. As more states, cities, and counties have engaged in the regulation of immigrants within their jurisdictions, it is not particularly surprising to see deep-red states like Texas enacting laws that restrict the rights of immigrants in their jurisdictions (e.g., requiring police within the state to honor detainers issued by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)) or deep-blue states like California enacting laws that protect immigrants’ rights (e.g., issuing driver’s licenses without requiring proof of lawful immigration status).

Rather than only reflecting national polarization on immigration …

Breaking Down Siloes And Building Up Students: The Transformational Possibilities Of Professional Identity Formation, Lindsey P. Gustafson, Aric K. Short, Robin Thorner

Faculty Scholarship

Under the ABA’s sequenced approach to implementation of Standard 303(b)(3), schools should now have developed plans for providing opportunities for professional identity formation and should be implementing them. These plans must provide students with an “intentional exploration of the values, guiding principles, and well-being practices considered foundational to successful legal practice.” In addition, these plans should provide for frequent opportunities for development, “during each year of law school and in a variety of courses and co-curricular and professional development activities.”

Because Standard 303(b)(3) is necessarily tied to the unique character, existing
structures, and available resources of a law school, each …

Present Case Studies Highlighting Practical Implications Of Architectural Design Choices, Emily Barnes, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

The interpretability of deep neural networks (DNNs) has become a crucial focus within artificial intelligence and machine learning, particularly as these models are increasingly used in high-stakes applications such as healthcare, finance, and autonomous driving. This article explores the impact of architectural design choices on the interpretability of DNNs, emphasizing the importance of transparency, trust, and accountability in AI systems. By presenting case studies and experimental results, the article highlights how different architectural elements—such as layer types, network depth, connectivity patterns, and attention mechanisms—affect model interpretability and performance. The discussion is structured into three main sections: real-world applications, architectural trade-offs, …

Repeated Stimulation Of Feeding Mechanoafferents In Aplysia Generates Responses Consistent With The Release Of Food, Hillel J. Chiel

Faculty Scholarship

How does repeated stimulation of mechanoafferents affect feeding motor neurons? Monosynaptic connections from a mechanoafferent population in the Aplysia buccal ganglia to five motor followers with different functions were examined during repeated stimulus trains. The mechanoafferents produced both fast and slow synaptic outputs, which could be excitatory or inhibitory. In contrast, other Aplysia mechanoafferents produce only fast excitation on their followers. In addition, patterns of synaptic connections were different to the different motor followers. Some followers received both fast excitation and fast inhibition, whereas others received exclusively fast excitation. All followers showed strong decreases in fast postsynaptic potential (PSP) amplitude …

Strategic Integration Of Ai In Higher Education And Industry: The Ai8-Point Model, Emily Barnes, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

The AI8-Point Model, derived from extensive experience in technology, AI, and higher education administration, addresses the critical need for cost-effective, high-impact strategies tailored to higher education. Despite the transformative potential of AI in enhancing student engagement, optimizing processes, and improving educational outcomes, institutions often struggle with practical implementation. The AI8-Point Model fills this gap by offering strategies that balance cost and impact. Visualized as a circle divided into four quadrants, the model encompasses phases of student engagement and institutional interaction: pre-enrollment beyond institutional control, pre-enrollment within institutional control, post-enrollment within institutional control, and post-enrollment beyond institutional control. Each quadrant contains …

Immigration Enforcement Creep In Immigrant & Employee Rights, Angela D. Morrison

Faculty Scholarship

As the only agency charged with enforcing the Immigration Reform and Control Act’s antidiscrimination provisions, the Immigrant and Employee Rights (“IER”) section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division plays an important role in protecting worker rights. Yet over the past decade, IER has moved from worker protection to immigration enforcement: a phenomenon this Article terms “immigration enforcement creep.”

This observation is based on ten years of data collected from IER’s settlement agreements, complaints filed, and telephone interventions. The data show that rather than protect noncitizen workers from unlawful discrimination, IER has moved its focus to enforcing immigration laws …

Transforming The Welfare State, One Case At A Time: How Utrecht Makes Customized Social Care Work, Charles F. Sabel, Jonathan Zeitlin, Jan-Kees Helderman

Faculty Scholarship

Advanced welfare states are under pressure to customize services, promptly enough to prevent a cascade of harms. With these goals, the Netherlands in 2015 decentralized social care services to municipalities, and within municipalities to neighborhood teams in continuing contact with clients. The overall results have been disappointing. But the experience of Utrecht, the Netherlands’ fourth-largest city, has been strikingly different. By using hard-to-resolve cases to signal conflicts in rules, obstructive jurisdictional boundaries, and the shortcomings of private service providers, Utrecht is learning to customize and speed delivery of social care through incremental steps. This article explains how Utrecht’s success addresses …