Digital Commons Network^™

Selective Inhibition Of Small-Diameter Axons Using Infrared Light, Emilie H. Lothet, Kendrick M. Shaw, Hui Lu, Junqi Zhuo, Yves T. Wang, Shi Gu, Hillel J. Chiel, Michael W. Jenkins

Faculty Scholarship

Novel clinical treatments to target peripheral nerves are being developed which primarily use electrical current. Recently, infrared (IR) light was shown to inhibit peripheral nerves with high spatial and temporal specificity. Here, for the first time, we demonstrate that IR can selectively and reversibly inhibit small-diameter axons at lower radiant exposures than large-diameter axons. We provide a mathematical rationale, and then demonstrate it experimentally in individual axons of identified neurons in the marine mollusk Aplysia californica, and in axons within the vagus nerve of a mammal, the musk shrew Suncus murinus. The ability to selectively, rapidly, and reversibly control small-diameter …

Interpretation Catalysts In Cyberspace, Rebecca Ingber

Faculty Scholarship

The cybersphere offers a rich space from which to explore the development of international law in a compressed time frame. This piece examines the soft law process over the last decade of the two Tallinn Manuals – handbooks on the international law of cyber warfare and cyber operations – as a valuable lens through which to witness the effects of “interpretation catalysts” on the evolution of international law. In prior work, I identified the concept of interpretation catalysts – discrete triggers for legal interpretation – and their influence on the path that legal evolution takes, including by compelling a decision-making …

Climate Control: Gender And Racial Bias In Engineering?, Su Li, Roberta Rincon, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

The concept of implicit bias is typically studied by behavioral and cognitive psychologists who seek to gain information on brain patterns versus how those patterns show up in the workplace. Thirty years of social science research have documented that although explicit bias against women and other under-represented groups is far less common today, subtle (or implicit) bias remains rampant. There have not been many studies systematically measuring implicit bias in daily interactions (categorized in this paper into four types of bias: Prove-It-Again, Tightrope, Tug of War, and Maternal Wall) and at different stages for workplace process (eg. Hiring, performance evaluations, …

Predictive Models Of Poly(Ethylene-Terephthalate) Film Degradation Under Multi-Factor Accelerated Weathering Exposures, Abdulkerim Gok, David K. Ngendahimana, Cara L. Fagerholm, Roger H. French, Jiayang Sun, Laura S. Bruckman

Faculty Scholarship

Accelerated weathering exposures were performed on poly(ethylene-terephthalate) (PET) films. Longitudinal multi-level predictive models as a function of PET grades and exposure types were developed for the change in yellowness index (YI) and haze (%). Exposures with similar change in YI were modeled using a linear fixed-effects modeling approach. Due to the complex nature of haze formation, measurement uncertainty, and the differences in the samples’ responses, the change in haze (%) depended on individual samples’ responses and a linear mixed-effects modeling approach was used. When compared to fixed-effects models, the addition of random effects in the haze formation models significantly increased …

Brief For The Council Of University Presidents On Legislative Council V Martinez As Amicus Curiae, No. S-1-Sc-36422, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

On April 7, 2017, the Governor exercised an extraordinary line-item veto of portions of the Fiscal Year 2018 appropriation bill eliminating all funding for the Legislature and for higher education in New Mexico. Governor's House Executive Message No. 56 (April 7, 2017), Petitioner's Exhibit D, at 3-7. Amici have a fiduciary responsibility to their institutions to advocate for a resolution quickly to mitigate the many harms caused by this budget crisis. CUP takes no position on the outcome of this action, but Amici do request that this case be decided expeditiously so that other constitutional actors do not waste time …

When Antitrust Becomes Pro-Trust: The Digital Deformation Of U.S. Competition Policy, Frank A. Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Security Clearance Conundrum: The Need For Reform And Judicial Review, Heidi Gilchrist

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Originalist Methodology, Lawrence B. Solum

Faculty Scholarship

This essay sketches an originalist methodology using ideas from legal theory and theoretical linguistics, including the distinctions between interpretation and construction and between semantics and pragmatics. The Essay aims to dispel a number of misconceptions about the methods used by originalists. Among these is the notion that originalists rely on dictionary definitions to determine the communicative content of the constitutional text. Although dictionaries may play some role, the better approach emphasizes primary evidence such as that provided by corpus linguistics. Another misconception is that originalists do not consider context; to the contrary, the investigation of context plays a central role …

Regulating The Packaged Water Industry In Africa: Challenges And Recommendations, Jessica Vapnek, Ashley R. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Payroll Tax Compliance And Blockchain, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Ville Viitasaari

Faculty Scholarship

Bitcoin is an application that runs on blockchain technology. Blockchain is a foundational technology that is bringing in the second era of the Internet – the era where value can be transferred, rather than just information.

Blockchain is developing along a four-stage path similar to that which TCP/IP took. Both are foundational technologies. TCP/IP brought the Internet, and eventually brought significant (transformational) technological changes in business like Amazon.com and Skype. These are changes that could not have been forecast at the beginning of the Internet age.

Blockchain is an immutable distributed ledger. It replaces the inefficient use of multiple centralized …

Precipitation Drives Global Variation In Natural Selection, Ryan A. Martin

Faculty Scholarship

Climate change has the potential to affect the ecology and evolution of every species on Earth. Although the ecological consequences of climate change are increasingly well documented, the effects of climate on the key evolutionary process driving adaptation - natural selection - are largely unknown. We report that aspects of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration, along with the North Atlantic Oscillation, predicted variation in selection across plant and animal populations throughout many terrestrial biomes, whereas temperature explained little variation. By showing that selection was influenced by climate variation, our results indicate that climate change may cause widespread alterations in selection regimes, …

Rise Of The Digital Regulator, Rory Van Loo

Faculty Scholarship

The administrative state is leveraging algorithms to influence individuals’ private decisions. Agencies have begun to write rules to shape for-profit websites such as Expedia and have launched their own online tools such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s mortgage calculator. These digital intermediaries aim to guide people toward better schools, healthier food, and more savings. But enthusiasm for this regulatory paradigm rests on two questionable assumptions. First, digital intermediaries effectively police consumer markets. Second, they require minimal government involvement. Instead, some for-profit online advisers such as travel websites have become what many mortgage brokers were before the 2008 financial crisis. …

Antitrust As Disruptive Innovation In Health Care: Can Limiting State Action Immunity Help Save A Trillion Dollars?, William M. Sage, David A. Hyman

Faculty Scholarship

On February 25, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC that state licensing boards controlled by market participants are subject to federal antitrust law unless they are “actively supervised” by the state itself. The ruling may sound narrow and technical, but the significance of the case can be inferred from the number and prominence of the amici curiae who lined up to support the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners (“North Carolina Board”)—first when the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) internal enforcement action was appealed to the United States Court …

Re-Envisioning Professional Education, Kimberly Austin, Elizabeth Chu, James S. Liebman

Faculty Scholarship

In the dynamic, hyper-connected, and unpredictable 21st century, workplace and career paradigms are rapidly changing. The professions are no exception. Technology has routinized and increased access to the expertise that traditionally set professionals apart from other workers, leading some to forecast professions’ demise. Even if, as we suspect, new forms of complexity and needs for expertise continue to outrun technology, professionals’ lives and careers will diverge dramatically from past norms. In the world we anticipate, the number of theories, diagnoses, and strategies among which each professional — alone or in teams — must make informed and workable judgments will increase …

The Field Of Invention, Saurabh Vishnubhakat

Faculty Scholarship

Federal courts can ill afford to ignore, assume, or improvise a pervasively important administrative power that the Patent Office exercises regularly and effectively: technology classification. This agency-court asymmetry has persisted for decades but has now become unmanageably problematic for two related reasons. First, Supreme Court guidance, patent reform legislation, and academic commentary have all broadly rejected long-standing patent exceptionalism in administrative law, while making the Patent Office a major substitute for federal courts in resolving patent disputes. Still, patent doctrine has been slow to correct, particularly in judicial deference to agency action. Second, criticisms of the patent system are highly …

United States Response To Questionnaire Concerning Copyright: To Be Or Not To Be, Jane C. Ginsburg, June M. Besek, Nathalie Russell

Faculty Scholarship

ALAI-USA is the U.S. branch of ALAI (Association Littèraire et Artistique Internationale). ALAI-USA was started in the 1980's by the late Professor Melville B. Nimmer, and was later expanded by Professor John M. Kernochan.

Blockchain, Bitcoin, And Vat In The Gcc: The Missing Trader Example, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Musaad Alwohaibi

Faculty Scholarship

Blockchain is coming to tax administration and will cause fundamental change. This article considers the potential for blockchain technology as it applies to the introduction of a value added tax in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Blockchain technology disrupts centralized ledgers. Blockchain improves efficiency, security and transparency. Perhaps no centralized ledger system presents more challenges than that of the modern tax administration. The central data storage system of a modern tax authority contains all return, payment, and audit activity for all taxpayers arranged tax-by-tax for three years or longer periods of time.

It is likely that blockchain will come first to …

The Power Of Community Action:Anti‐Payday Loan Ordinances In Three Metropolitan Areas, Nathalie Martin, Robert N. Mayer, Steve Graves

Faculty Scholarship

Local ordinances that restrict payday lending constitute an important strategy in the overall attack on this problematic form of lending. In this report, made possible by the generous support of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, we describe and analyze campaigns in three locales that differ markedly in the opportunities and challenges faced by ordinance advocates. The locales are Santa Clara and San Mateo counties in California (“Silicon Valley”); Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant counties in Texas; and Salt Lake County in Utah. This report finds both commonalities and important variations among these campaigns. While there is no single recipe for a successful …

Hyperbolic Metamaterials-Based Plasmonic Biosensor For Fluid Biopsy With Single Molecule Sensitivity, Kandammathe Valiyaveedu Sreekanth, Mohamed Elkabbash, Yunus Alapan, Efe Ilker Ilker, Michael Hinczewski, Umut A. Gurkan, Giuseppe Strangi

Faculty Scholarship

Plasmonic sensors are one of the most powerful optical biosensors, which can be used for the detection of small numbers of molecules at ultra-low concentrations. However, the detection of dilute analytes of low molecular weight (Da) is still a challenging task using currently available plasmonic biosensors. Here, we demonstrate the detection of both lower and heavier molecular weight biomolecules close to single molecule level using a novel plasmonic biosensor platform based on hyperbolic metamaterials. We show experimentally the extraordinary spectral and angular sensitivities of the biosensor platform, from visible to near infrared (NIR) wavelengths, by exciting the bulk plasmon polaritons …

Online Dispute Resolution: Stinky, Repugnant, Or Drab?, Robert J. Condlin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Private Ordering Defense Of A Company's Right To Use Dual Class Share Structures In Ipos, Bernard S. Sharfman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Toward A Fourth Law Of Robotics: Preserving Attribution, Responsibility, And Explainability In An Algorithmic Society, Frank A. Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Automated Public Sphere, Frank A. Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Scholarship Of Resonance In An Era Of Discord, Frank A. Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of Professionalism: Reappraising Occupational Licensure And Competition Policy, Sandeep Vaheesan, Frank A. Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Baseline Bar, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Contracts, Causation, And Clarity, Daniel P. O'Gorman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Blood Biofuels, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Trust Or Bust: Complications With Tribal Trust Obligations And Environmental Sovereignty, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Gmo/Ge Debate, Joanna K. Sax

Faculty Scholarship

The scientific community and the public sphere are having different debates about the application of genetic engineering to improve our food supply. Many that are deeply steeped in the science view genetically engineered food as a more precise way to accomplish what we have been doing for centuries, which is genetically modifying our food supply. Some members of the public view genetically engineered food with skepticism especially as it relates to health, safety and the environment. A disconnect between the scientific consensus and public perception is not a new phenomenon. This Article attempts to bridge this gap by explaining what …