Digital Commons Network^™

Major Questions About Presidentialism: Untangling The “Chain Of Dependence” Across Administrative Law, Jodi L. Short, Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

A contradiction about the role of the president has emerged between the Roberts Court’s Article II jurisprudence and its Major Questions Doctrine jurisprudence. In its appointment and removal decisions, the Roberts Court claims that the president is the “most democratic and politically accountable official in Government” because the president is “directly accountable to the people through regular elections,” an audacious new interpretation of Article II; and it argues that tight presidential control of agency officials lends democratic legitimacy to the administrative state. We identify these twin arguments about the “directly accountable president” and the “chain of dependence” as the foundation …

A Conversation On The Carceral Home, Ngozi Okidegbe, Kate Weisburd, Emmett Sanders, James Kilgore

Faculty Scholarship

On February 8, 2024, scholars Ngozi Okidegbe, Kate Weisburd, Emmett Sanders, and James Kilgore met virtually at the Boston University School of Law to hold a conversation on Professor Weisburd’s article, The Carceral Home, 103 B.U. L. Rev. 1879 (2023).

Abortion Politics And The Rise Of Movement Jurists, Robert L. Tsai, Mary Ziegler

Faculty Scholarship

This Article employs the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and litigation in its wake as the jumping off point to reconsider the connections between judges, the Constitution, and social movements. That movements influence constitutional law, and that judicial pronouncements in turn are reshaped by politics, is well-established. But, while these accounts of legal change depend upon judges to embrace movement ideas, less has been written about the conditions under which judicial entrenchment can be expected to take place. There may, in fact, be different types of judicial dispositions towards external political phenomena.

In this Article, …

Sports Participation By Athletes With Cardiovascular Disease, Matthew W. Martinez, Michael J. Ackerman, George J. Annas, Aaron L. Baggish, Sharlene M. Day, Kimberly G. Harmon, Jonathan H. Kim, Benjamin D. Levine, Margot Putukian, Rachel Lampert

Faculty Scholarship

Millions of young people participate in competitive sports, with well-documented physical and psychological benefits.1 Athletes may be diagnosed with cardiovascular disease (CVD) during evaluation of symptoms, routine preparticipation screening, or clinically indicated family screening. When this occurs, decisions about return-to-play (RTP) are difficult, especially in circumstances when risk may exist or be unknown. Historically, expert consensus documents such as the Bethesda Conference Proceedings,2 provided a “yes/no” approach to RTP after a diagnosis of a CVD such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) or long QT syndrome (LQTS). These recommendations were made with a paucity of data, and were predicated on a zero-risk …

The Case For Scientific Jury Experiments, Bernard Chao, Christopher Robertson, David Yokum

Faculty Scholarship

For decades, litigators have relied on focus groups. While this approach can help identify issues for further exploration, attorneys often use focus groups to shape trial strategy or even predict outcomes. But focus groups are ill-suited for these applications because they suffer from three basic weaknesses: 1) they cannot explore unconscious decision-making; 2) they use too few mock jurors to provide reliable answers, and 3) they can become echo chambers that only surface a subset of the issues that an actual jury will consider.

Fortunately, recent technical advances in crowdsourcing and insights into human decision-making have opened the door to …

Reactive Amine Functionalized Microelectrode Arrays Provide Short-Term Benefit But Long-Term Detriment To In Vivo Recording Performance, Lindsey N. Druschel, Pierce E. Boucher, George F. Hoeferlin, Dhariyat M. Menendez, Jonathan L. Duncan, Jeffrey R. Capadona

Faculty Scholarship

Intracortical microelectrode arrays (MEAs) are used for recording neural signals. However, indwelling devices result in chronic neuroinflammation, which leads to decreased recording performance through degradation of the device and surrounding tissue. Coating the MEAs with bioactive molecules is being explored to mitigate neuroinflammation. Such approaches often require an intermediate functionalization step such as (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES), which serves as a linker. However, the standalone effect of this intermediate step has not been previously characterized. Here, we investigated the effect of coating MEAs with APTES by comparing APTES-coated to uncoated controls in vivo and ex vivo. First, we measured water contact angles …

Selective Neural Inhibition Via Photobiomodulation Alleviates Behavioral Hypersensitivity Associated With Small Sensory Fiber Activation, Andrew Buzza, Kalista Tapas, Junqi Zhuo, Stephen J. Lewis, Michael W. Jenkins, Michael Moffitt

Faculty Scholarship

Objective: Photobiomodulation at higher irradiances has great potential as a pain-alleviating method that selectively inhibits small diameter nerve fibers and corresponding sensory experiences, such as nociception and heat sensation. The longevity and magnitude of these effects as a function of laser irradiation parameters at the nerve was explored. Methods: In a rodent chronic pain model (spared nerve injury—SNI), light was applied directly at the sural nerve with four delivery schemes: two irradiance levels (7.64 and 2.55 W/cm2) for two durations each, corresponding to either 4.8 or 14.4 J total energy, and the effect on sensory hypersensitivities was evaluated. Results: At …

Anatomy Camp: A Medical Student-Run Outreach Program, Ethan P. Winter, Josika Sammarco, Vivian Hua, Orlando M. Martinez, Tianqi Xiao, Susanne Wish-Baratz

Faculty Scholarship

Anatomy Camp is a medical student-run program for underserved youth from communities near the university. Middle and high school students are invited to visit the medical school for an afternoon of interacting with medical students, informal learning of anatomy and wellness, and becoming inspired to consider medical and STEM professions.

Bacterial Contamination Of Platelet Products, Michael R. Jacobs `, Bowen Zhou, Robert W. Maitta

Faculty Scholarship

Transfusion of bacterially contaminated platelets, although rare, is still a major cause of mortality and morbidity despite the introduction of many methods to limit this over the past 20 years. The methods used include improved donor skin disinfection, diversion of the first part of donations, use of apheresis platelet units rather than whole-blood derived pools, primary and secondary testing by culture or rapid test, and use of pathogen reduction. Primary culture has been in use the US since 2004, using culture 24 h after collection of volumes of 4–8 mL from apheresis collections and whole-blood derived pools inoculated into aerobic …

Pathogenicity Prediction Of Gabaa Receptor Missense Variants, Ya-Juan Wang, Giang H. Vu, Ting-Wei Mu

Faculty Scholarship

Variants in the genes encoding gamma-aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA) receptor subunits are associated with epilepsy. To date, over 1000 clinical variants have been identified in these genes. However, the majority of these variants lack functional studies and their clinical significance is uncertain although accumulating evidence indicates that proteostasis deficiency is the major disease-causing mechanism. Here, we apply two state-of-the-art modeling tools, namely AlphaMissense and Rhapsody to predict the pathogenicity of saturating missense variants in genes that encode the major subunits of GABAA receptors in the central nervous system, including GABRA1, GABRB2, GABRB3, and GABRG2. We demonstrate that the predicted …

Desmoid Tumors: Current Perspective And Treatment, Ankit Mangla, Gary Schwartz

Faculty Scholarship

Desmoid tumors are rare tumors with a tendency to infiltrate locally. The lack of a standard treatment approach makes choosing the most appropriate treatment for patients challenging. Most experts recommend watchful observation for asymptomatic patients as spontaneous regression of tumor is observed in up to 20% of patients. Upfront resection of the desmoid tumor has fallen out of favor due to high morbidity and high relapse rates associated with the tumor. Systemic therapy has evolved over several decades. Where chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were used over the last several decades, tyrosine kinase inhibitors came to the forefront …

“So, Do Not Fear”: Religion And The Prevalence, Persistence, And Severity Of Anxiety Disorders Among Black Americans, Ann W. Nguyen, Nichole Cobb, Kedong Ding

Faculty Scholarship

Background: There is a dearth of scholarship that explicates the effects of religious participation on anxiety disorders among Black Americans. A better understanding of the links between religious participation, a coping resource, and anxiety disorders among Black Americans remains essential, given Black Americans are less likely than their white counterparts to seek professional treatment for mental health problems, leading to greater unmet mental health needs. The aim of this study was to investigate whether religious participation is associated with the prevalence, persistence, and severity of anxiety disorders among Black adults. Methods: We used a national sample of Black adults (N …

Discord In Concordance Cosmology And Anomalously Massive Early Galaxies, Stacy S. Mcgaugh

Faculty Scholarship

Cosmological parameters are constrained by a wide variety of observations. We examine the concordance diagram for modern measurements of the Hubble constant, the shape parameter from the large-scale structure, the cluster baryon fraction, and the age of the universe, all from non-CMB data. There is good agreement for (Formula presented.) and (Formula presented.). This concordance value is indistinguishable from the WMAP3 cosmology but is not consistent with that of Planck: there is a tension in (Formula presented.) as well as (Formula presented.). These tensions have emerged as progressively higher multipoles have been incorporated into CMB fits. This temporal evolution is …

Numerical Study Of The Effects Of Confinement On Large-Scale Fires In Microgravity, Wohan Cui, Ya-Ting Tseng Liao

Faculty Scholarship

Confinement has been shown to play an important role on burning behavior of solid materials in microgravity. Previous studies using small flow ducts (duct height < 7.6 cm) concluded that the flame spread rate is linear to the inverse of the duct height. The underlying physics for this correlation is the combustion thermal expansion that leads to different flow acceleration in different flow duct cross-section areas. In recent NASA microgravity fire experiments, Saffire, wide solid fuel samples were burned in two large flow ducts. In these experiments, the duct heights (30 cm and 50 cm) were significantly larger than the flame standoff distance (∼1 cm) and the effect of thermal expansion was expected to be minimal. However, the experiment results showed that both flame spread rate and pyrolysis length increased more than 95 % when the duct height decreased by 40 %. To understand the underlying physics of the experimental results, two-dimensional transient numerical simulations are performed. The model configuration is based on the Saffire experiments. The model successfully predicts the transient flame development processes and the flame spread rates observed at both duct heights. In addition, a methodology is developed to deduce net heat flux distribution on the sample surface using thermocouple data obtained in the experiments. The deduced heat flux profiles in the experiments and in the numerical results agree qualitatively and quantitively. After the model is validated against the experimental data, a parametric study on the duct height is performed. When duct height decreases, flame spread rate increases. It is found that, at large duct heights (> 20 cm), the inverse of the flame spread rate has a linear dependency on the inverse of the duct height. Analytical analysis of cold flow (without combustion) demonstrates that this relationship is due to the different flow profiles on duct cross-section plane when duct height varies (i.e., a hydrodynamic effect). Effects of duct ceiling radiation properties are also considered. Radiation reflection from the duct ceiling increases the heat input on the sample surface, resulting in …

Risk For Diagnosis Or Treatment Of Mood Or Anxiety Disorders In Adults After Sars-Cov-2 Infection, 2020–2022, Christina X. Wang, Rhea Kohli, Veronica R. Olaker, Pauline Terebuh, Rong Xu, David C. Kaelber, Pamela B. Davis

Faculty Scholarship

COVID-19 is associated with increased risks for mood or anxiety disorders, but it remains uncertain how the association evolves over time or which patient groups are most affected. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using a nationwide database of electronic health records to determine the risk of depressive or anxiety disorder diagnoses after SARS-CoV-2 infection by 3-month blocks from January 2020 to April 2022. The study population comprised 822,756 patients (51.8% female; mean age 42.8 years) with COVID-19 and 2,034,353 patients with other respiratory tract infections (RTIs) (53.5% female, mean age 30.6 years). First time diagnoses of depressive or anxiety …

Life In A Fishbowl: Space And Environmental Enrichment Affect Behaviour Of Betta Splendens, Ronald G. Oldfield, Emily K. Murphy

Faculty Scholarship

The public has expressed growing concern for the well-being of fishes, including popular pet species such as the Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens). In captivity, male Bettas behave aggressively, often causing injuries and death if housed together. As a result, they are typically isolated in small fishbowls, which has been widely criticised as cruel. To investigate the impact of keeping Bettas in these conditions, we recorded the behaviour of individual males in containers of different sizes that were either bare or enriched with gravel, large rocks, and live plants. When male Bettas were housed individually in small bowls (0.5 L) …

Beyond Collaborative Learning: A Comparison Of Small Groups In Face-To-Face And Online Settings, Xiaomei Song

Faculty Scholarship

Small group-based instructional approaches such as case-based learning (CBL) and team-based learning (TBL) are widely used in medical education to promote collaboration and team learning. During the pandemic, many medical schools shifted from face-to-face instruction to online settings. While CBL/TBL are intended to foster collaborative skills, it is unclear how its use evolves in an online setting and whether the online setting impacts students’ perceptions and behaviors in collaboration. This study examined how the change from in-person to online CBL/TBL impacted students’ collaboration. We used a mixed-methods sequential design, first collecting and analyzing retrospective cohort quantitative data with the Class …

Meaningful Research In A Non-Thesis Master's Program: Description Of Nutritionday In A Combined Ms/Di Program, Rosa K. Hand

Faculty Scholarship

The nutritionDay research initiative, sponsored by the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) since 2006, is a global effort to describe nutrition risk and nutrition interventions in hospitals and nursing homes, with the goal that increased awareness of malnutrition will lead to improved patient care.1,2 The nutritionDay coordinating center provides standardized forms that investigators at participating hospitals use to collect data from both the health record and directly from the patient.1 NutritionDay has been a successful initiative, collecting and pooling data from almost 300,000 patients across 72 countries and leading to at least 40 publications.2,3 Participation in nutritionDay …

Nonlinear Ferroelectric Characteristics Of Barium Titanate Nanocrystals Determined Via A Polymer Nanocomposite Approach, Qiong Li, Elshad Allahyarov, Tianxiong Ju, Lei Zhu

Faculty Scholarship

The growing demand for high energy storage materials has garnered substantial attention towards lead-free ferroelectric nanocrystals (NCs), such as BaTiO3 (BTO), for next-generation multilayer ceramic capacitors. Notably, it remains challenging to accurately measure the dielectric constant and polarization-electric field (P-E) hysteresis loop for BTO NCs. Herein, we report on nonlinear ferroelectric characteristics of BTO NCs via a polymer nanocomposite approach. Specifically, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP)/BTO nanocomposite films of 3-10 μm thickness, containing 380 nm tetragonal-phased and 60 nm cubic-phased BTO NCs with uniform particle dispersion, were prepared. Theoretical deconvolution of the broad experimental P-E loops of the PVP/BTO NC composite films …

Biotic Interactions Vary Across Species' Ranges And Are Likely Conserved Through Geological Time, Iulian Gherghel, Ryan Andrew Martin

Faculty Scholarship

Aim: The evolutionary interactions between western spadefoot toads (genus Spea) represent a textbook example of character displacement, facilitated by dietary specialization of one Spea species on fairy shrimp (Anostraca) when all three co-occur. The aim of this study is to understand the covariation between predator (Spea) and prey (Anostraca) range shifts in response to climate change oscillations, and whether biotic interactions can be used to project species distribution models on different time scales when studying species with dietary specialization. Taxon: Amphibia: Spea spp. and Crustacea: Anostraca. Location: North America. Methods: Using multiple modelling techniques, we first estimated the potential distribution …

Illuminating The Landscape Of Sibling Relationship Quality: An Evidence And Gap Map, Megan R. Holmes, Anna E. Bender, Kari A. O'Donnell, Emily K. Miller, Ivan T. Conard

Faculty Scholarship

This paper used an evidence and gap map (EGM) to advance the scientific understanding of sibling relationship quality among children aged 2 to 18 years by synthesizing literature on 277 empirical studies from 1985 to 2022 to delineate patterns of study design, sampling, and measurement. Most existing research has utilized majority of White, middle-to-upper class, and/or two-caregiver family samples. Nearly 85% (n = 235) of studies used quantitative methods to measure sibling relationship quality across eight domains: conflict, warmth/affection, quality, cohesion, hostility, power/control, positive engagement, and conflict management. A total of 122 studies used a measure of sibling relationship quality …

Impact Of Elexacaftor/Tezacaftor/Ivacaftor On Lipid And Fat‐Soluble Vitamin Levels And Association With Body Mass Index, Tanvi Patel, Kimberly Mcbennett, Senthilkumar Sankararaman, Teresa Schindler, Nori Mercuri Minich, Katherine Kutney

Faculty Scholarship

Introduction:Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) modulators improve gastrointestinal absorption of nutrients and may result in changes in body mass index (BMI), serum lipids, and fat-soluble vitamin levels. We hypothesized that serum lipids and vitamin levels would increase with CFTR modulator therapy and that greater increase in lipids and vitamin levels would be related to greater increase in BMI. Methods:A retrospective study was performed to evaluate the impact of elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor (ETI) on nutritional parameters, serum lipids, and fat-soluble vitamin levels. Pre-ETI values (<2 years prior) and post-ETI values (>1 month after) were compared. Linear regression was used to evaluate whether change in BMI is associated …

Lived Experiences: Growing Up With A Seriously Mentally Ill Parent, Deborah Lindell, Elliane Irani

Faculty Scholarship

Introduction: Individuals with serious mental illness often have persistent and disruptive symptoms. These can profoundly affect their children's lives, exposing them to adverse social and psychological conditions. Such conditions can result in traumatic lived experiences during childhood, which can carry over into adulthood, influencing their self-perceptions and shaping their attitudes toward themselves and society. To gain insights into this phenomenon, this study explored the lived experiences of adults who grew up with a parent with serious mental illness and their perceptions of their lives in adulthood. Design: This study used an interpretive phenomenological design. Methods: Participants were invited to voluntarily …

The Automated Fourth Amendment, Maneka Sinha

Faculty Scholarship

Courts routinely defer to police officer judgments in reasonable suspicion and probable cause determinations. Increasingly, though, police officers outsource these threshold judgments to new forms of technology that purport to predict and detect crime and identify those responsible. These policing technologies automate core police determinations about whether crime is occurring and who is responsible. Criminal procedure doctrine has failed to insist on some level of scrutiny of—or skepticism about—the reliability of this technology. Through an original study analyzing numerous state and federal court opinions, this Article exposes the implications of law enforcement’s reliance on these practices given the weighty interests …

When Originalism Failed: Lessons From Tort Law, Donald G. Gifford, Richard C. Boldt, Christopher J. Robinette

Faculty Scholarship

Two recent Supreme Court decisions upended American life. Opinions released on consecutive days in June 2022 overturned the right of reproductive choice nationwide and invalidated a statute regulating the carrying of concealed weapons in New York. The opinions were united by a common methodology. Pursuant to what one scholar terms “thick” originalism, history, as told by the majority, dictated the resolution of constitutional disputes.

This Article explores the use of thick originalism in several celebrated torts cases that raised constitutional issues. These cases illustrate two significant kinds of problems associated with a rigid historical approach to constitutional interpretation. The first …

Teaching Critical Use Of Legal Research Technology, Jennifer E. Chapman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Dystopian Dreams, Utopian Nightmares: Ai And The Permanence Of Racism, Chaz Arnett

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay draws connections between Octavia Butler’s Parable series (Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents), HBO’s Westworld, and Derrick Bell’s Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism to highlight how the reconfiguration and transmutation of race through technological change is facilitated by corresponding shifts in legal doctrine, theory, policy, and practice. It takes the overlapping threads from these three sources, which struggle with the idea of change within larger systems of unavoidable, repetitive destruction, and ties them to the law’s role in helping to shield race through the storms of change …

Silencing Jorge Luis Borges The Wrongful Suppression Of The Di Giovanni Translations, Wes Henricksen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Value Of Constitutional Environmental Rights And Public Trusts, John C. Dernbach

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Nineteenth Amendment And Dobbs, Paula A. Monopoli

Faculty Scholarship

There was a surge in legal scholarship around the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution—the Woman Suffrage Amendment—leading up to its centennial in August 2020. But this scholarly interest around the Nineteenth peaked two years before the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022. This paper revisits the Nineteenth Amendment in light of the Court’s decision in Dobbs. It argues that the Nineteenth should be understood as a ban on sex discrimination that extends beyond the right to vote. The Amendment expands the scope of women’s citizenship as a matter of …