Digital Commons Network^™

Environmental Law, Disrupted By Covid-19, Rebecca Bratspies, Vanessa Casado-Pérez, Robin Kundis Craig, Lissa Griffin, Keith Hirokawa, Sarah Krakoff, Katrina Kuh, Jessica Owley, Melissa Powers, Shannon Roesler, Jonathan Rosenbloom, J.B. Ruhl, Erin Ryan, David Takacs

Faculty Scholarship

As we were in the final phases of editing a book on disruption in environmental law, a pandemic swept across the world disrupting daily life and the functioning of society to an extent unprecedented in living memory. The novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 was identified in China in late 2019 and by late February 2020, it had spread to every continent except Antarctica; as of April, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that over 148 million people had been infected worldwide with over 3 million deaths. Scientists and public health experts have raced to understand the virus—how is it …

Whose Water? Corporatization Of A Common Good, Vanessa Casado-Pérez

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter encourages readers to think of agricultural communities in the era of climate change-induced droughts and population growth similar to when western Pennsylvania’s steel industry collapsed in the 1980s. If water must flow uphill to money, it should not leave a dust bowl behind. While this chapter’s proposals to address the effects on community build on examples of water reallocation where those effects have been addressed, both the just-transition literature and the experiences of some of the towns successfully adapting to abrupt changes in their economic tissue can offer lessons for areas suffering big water losses. In addition, privatization …

The Use Doctrine In Trademark Law: Issues From Trade And Transborder Reputation, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

Mindful of the current trend within the United States to revive the focus on the use of trademark to determine a mark’s ability to act as a source indicator, in this paper I highlight how focusing on use can create disparate results by examining the role of use when dealing with well-known marks. Hence, this paper implicates the prescriptions from the harmonized trade regime, especially trademark law. In doing so, the paper outlines larger public policy concerns that will ensue especially considering the role of the use doctrine in the context of international harmonization of protection of well-known trademarks. In …

Correlates Of Social Isolation Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Omolola E. Adepoju, Minji Chae, Lechauncy Woodard, Kendra L. Smith, Luz E. Herrera, Daikwon Han, Daniel L. Howard, Jessica Dobbins, Marcia Ory

Faculty Scholarship

The past year has severely curtailed social interactions among older adults given their high rates of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. This study examined social, behavioral, and medical correlates of social isolation among community-dwelling older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and stratified findings to explore unique differences in two typically neglected populations, African American and Hispanic older adults.

The Case For Corporate Climate Ratings: Nudging Financial Markets, Felix Mormann, Milica Mormann

Faculty Scholarship

Capital markets are cast as both villain and hero in the climate playbill. The trillions of dollars required to combat climate change leave ample room for heroics from the financial sector. For the time being, however, capital continues to flow readily toward fossil fuels and other carbon-intensive industries. Drawing on the results of an empirical study, this Article posits that ratings of corporate climate risk and governance can help overcome pervasive information asymmetries and nudge investors toward more climate-conscious investment choices with welfare-enhancing effects.

In the absence of a meaningful price on carbon, three private ordering initiatives are trying to …

The Public Meaning Thesis: An Originalist Theory Of Constitutional Meaning, Lawrence B. Solum

Faculty Scholarship

Public Meaning Originalism is the predominant form of constitutional originalism. What makes Public Meaning Originalism distinctive is the Public Meaning Thesis—the claim that the best understanding of constitutional meaning focuses on the meaning communicated by the constitutional text to the public at the time each constitutional provision was framed and ratified. This Article provides a precise formulation of the Public Meaning Thesis, supplies reasons for affirming the thesis, and answers objections. The constitutional record strongly supports the claim that the constitutional text was intended to communicate to the public. The Constitution begins with “We the People” and the ratification process …

Carbon Fiber Electrodes For Intracellular Recording And Stimulation, Yu Huan, Jeffrey P. Gill, Hillel J. Chiel

Faculty Scholarship

Objective. To understand neural circuit dynamics, it is critical to manipulate and record many individual neurons. Traditional recording methods, such as glass microelectrodes, can only control a small number of neurons. More recently, devices with high electrode density have been developed, but few of them can be used for intracellular recording or stimulation in intact nervous systems. Carbon fiber electrodes (CFEs) are 8 µm-diameter electrodes that can be assembled into dense arrays (pitches 80 µm). They have good signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and provide stable extracellular recordings both acutely and chronically in neural tissue in vivo (e.g. rat motor cortex). The …

Covid-19 In Pregnancy, Jill E. Miracle, Prakash R. Ganesh, Johnie Rose, Pauline Terebuh, Kurt C. Stange, Andrea Szabo, Heidi L. Gullett, Rachel Pope

Faculty Scholarship

Objective:To define the symptomatology of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy and associations between occupation, sociodemographic factors, and comorbidities with the severity of COVID-19 disease in pregnancy in all trimesters, regardless of hospitalization.Methods:We studied a retrospective cohort of a public health surveillance sample of persons with COVID-19 infection diagnosed during pregnancy. Data was collected March 2020 to August 2020 regarding symptoms, disease severity, comorbidities, obstetric history, and occupation.Results:One hundred sixty-three individuals were identified. Constitutional (64%) and lower respiratory symptoms (61%) were most common. Seventeen individuals (13.6%) were hospitalized, and one person (0.7%) died due to COVID-19. Risk factors for severe disease were …

Absorption Kinetics Of Berberine And Dihydroberberine And Their Impact On Glycemia: A Randomized, Controlled, Crossover Pilot Trial, Jessica M. Moon, Kayla M. Ratliff, Anthony M. Hagele, Richard A. Stecker, Petey W. Mumford, Chad M. Kerksick

Faculty Scholarship

Berberine is a natural alkaloid used to improve glycemia but displays poor bioavailability and increased rates of gastrointestinal distress at higher doses. Recently, dihydroberberine has been developed to combat these challenges. This study was designed to determine the rate and extent to which berberine appeared in human plasma after oral ingestion of a 500 mg dose of berberine (B500) or 100 mg and 200 mg doses of dihydroberberine (D100 and D200). In a randomized, double-blind, crossover fashion, five males (26 ± 2.6 years; 184.2 ± 11.6 cm; 91.8 ± 10.1 kg; 17.1 ± 3.5% fat) completed a four-dose supplementation protocol …

Modernizing Mortgage Law, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

Modern mortgage law is designed for a world that no longer exists. The residential mortgage transaction of today looks nothing like it did during the formative period when the property laws governing mortgages were developed. What was once a local dealing between two individuals and largely for commercial or quasi-commercial purposes has now become a housing- centric financial transaction-turned-asset between multiple distant and often invisible parties that operate as part ofa national market. Yet, although the mortgage transaction has changed, mortgage law has not. Property law rules that once balanced the rights of mortgagors and mortgagees now completely fail to …

Are Vaccine Lotteries Worth The Money?, Christopher Robertson, K. Aleks Schaefer, Daniel Scheitrum

Faculty Scholarship

This research evaluates the effects of the twelve statewide vaccine lottery schemes that were announced as of June 7, 2021 on state vaccination rates. We construct a dataset that matches information on the timing and location of these lotteries with daily, county-level data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on the cumulative number of people who have received at least one dose of an emergency-authorized Covid-19 vaccine. We find that 10 of the 12 statewide lotteries studied (i.e., all but Arkansas and California) generated a positive, statistically significant, and economically meaningful impact on vaccine uptake after thirty days. …

Health Reform Reconstruction, Lindsay F. Wiley, Elizabeth Mccuskey, Matthew B. Lawrence, Erin C. Fuse Brown

Faculty Scholarship

This Article connects the failed, inequitable U.S. coronavirus pandemic response to conceptual and structural constraints that have held back U.S health reform for decades and calls for reconstruction. For more than a half-century, a cramped "iron triangle" ethos has constrained health reform conceptually. Reforms aimed to balance individual interests in cost, quality, and access to health care, while marginalizing equity, solidarity, and public health. In the iron triangle era, reforms unquestioningly accommodated four legally and logistically entrenched fixtures - individualism, fiscal fragmentation, privatization, and federalism - that distort and diffuse any reach toward social justice. The profound racial disparities and …

Regulating Mobility Limitations In The Franchise Relationship As Dependency In The Joint Employment Doctrine, Andrew Elmore

Faculty Scholarship

Franchisors often impose exhaustive operational standards on franchisees, and enforce those standards by restricting the mobility of their franchisees and their franchisees' employees. But courts often ignore mobility limits when applying joint employer doctrine. This Article argues that courts and agencies should be more likely to find, and presume, that franchisors and their franchisees are joint employers under federal and state employment law based on proof that a franchisor restricts the mobility of franchisees or their employees. In so doing, this Article traces how the Chicago School's efficiency arguments in favor of relaxing antitrust law enforcement of vertical restraints developed …

Securities Law: Overview And Contemporary Issues, Neal Newman, Lawrence J. Trautman

Faculty Scholarship

This is not your grandfather’s SEC anymore. Rapid technological change has resulted in novel regulatory issues and challenges, as law and policy struggles to keep pace. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports that “the U.S. capital markets are the deepest, most dynamic, and most liquid in the world. They also have evolved to become increasingly fast and extraordinarily complex. It is our job to be responsive and innovative in the face of significant market developments and trends.” With global markets increasingly interdependent and interconnected and, “as technological advancements and commercial developments have changed how our securities markets operate, …

A Randomized Controlled Trial Of Self-Management For People With Epilepsy And A History Of Negative Health Events (Smart) Targeting Rural And Underserved People With Epilepsy: A Methodologic Report, Farren Briggs, Kristin Cassidy, Carol Blixen, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

Background: Many people living with epilepsy (PLWE) reside in rural communities, and epilepsy self-management may help address some of the gaps in epilepsy care for these communities. A prior randomized control trial of a remotely delivered, Web-based group format 12-week self-management program (SMART) conducted in Northeast Ohio, a primarily urban and suburban community, demonstrated improved outcomes in negative health events such as depression symptoms and quality of life. However, there is a paucity of research addressing the needs of PLWE in rural settings. Methods: The present study leverages collaboration between investigators from 2 mid-western US states (Ohio and Iowa) to …

Accelerating Molecular Property Calculations With Semiempirical Preconditioning, Zehao Zhou, Shane M. Parker

Faculty Scholarship

Computing ab initio molecular linear response properties, e.g., electronic excitation energies and transition moments, requires the solution of large eigenvalue problems or large systems of equations. These large eigenvalue problems or large systems of equations are commonly solved iteratively using Krylov space algorithms, such as the Davidson algorithm for eigenvalue problems. A critical ingredient in Krylov space algorithms is the preconditioner which is used to generate optimal update vectors in each iteration. We propose to use semiempirical approximations as preconditioners to accelerate the calculation of ab initio properties. The crucial advantage to improving the preconditioner is that the converged result …

Editorial: Thrombotic Microangiopathies, Diagnostic And Therapeutic Advances, Robert W. Maitta, Hollie M. Reeves

Faculty Scholarship

Thrombotic microangiopathies (TMAs) as a disease group represent a diagnostic and clinical challenge to practitioners. Presentations, which at times have overlapping symptomatology or have undetermined etiologies, emphasize the need for a constant reassessment of what is known about this disease group in order to determine not only how to best treat patients but also to develop targeted approaches to test for a given etiology. Likewise, in those instances when excluding diagnoses is the only available option, timely adjustment of therapy due to lack of therapeutic response needs to be achieved in the most efficient way. It is with this in …

Integrating Deep Learning With Microfluidics For Biophysical Classification Of Sickle Red Blood Cells Adhered To Laminin, Niksa Praljak, Shamreen Iram, Utku Goreke, Gundeep Singh, Ailis Hill, Umut A. Gurkan, Michael Hinczewski

Faculty Scholarship

Sickle cell disease, a genetic disorder affecting a sizeable global demographic, manifests in sickle red blood cells (sRBCs) with altered shape and biomechanics. sRBCs show heightened adhesive interactions with inflamed endothelium, triggering painful vascular occlusion events. Numerous studies employ microfluidic-assay-based monitoring tools to quantify characteristics of adhered sRBCs from high resolution channel images. The current image analysis workflow relies on detailed morphological characterization and cell counting by a specially trained worker. This is time and labor intensive, and prone to user bias artifacts. Here we establish a morphology based classification scheme to identify two naturally arising sRBC subpopulations—deformable and non-deformable …

Investigation Of The Feasibility Of Ventricular Delivery Of Resveratrol To The Microelectrode Tissue Interface, Youjoung Kim, Evon S. Ereifej, William E. Schwartzman, Seth M. Meade, Keying Chen, Jacob M. Rayyan, He Feng, Varoon Aluri, Natalie N. Mueller, Raman Bhambra, Sahaj Bhambra, Dawn M. Taylor, Jeffrey R. Capadona

Faculty Scholarship

(1) Background: Intracortical microelectrodes (IMEs) are essential to basic brain research and clinical brain–machine interfacing applications. However, the foreign body response to IMEs results in chronic inflammation and an increase in levels of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS). The current study builds on our previous work, by testing a new delivery method of a promising antioxidant as a means of extending intracortical microelectrodes performance. While resveratrol has shown efficacy in improving tissue response, chronic delivery has proven difficult because of its low solubility in water and low bioavailability due to extensive first pass metabolism. (2) Methods: Investigation of an …

Dynamic Ph And Thermal Analysis Of Paper-Based Microchip Electrophoresis, Muhammad Noman Hasan, Ran An, Asya Akkus, Chirag Kharangate, Umut A. Gurkan

Faculty Scholarship

Paper-based microchip electrophoresis has the potential to bring laboratory electrophoresis tests to the point of need. However, high electric potential and current values induce pH and temperature shifts, which may affect biomolecule electrophoretic mobility thus decrease test reproducibility and accuracy of paper-based microfluidic electrophoresis. We have previously developed a microchip electrophoresis system, HemeChip, which has the capability of providing low-cost, rapid, reproducible, and accurate point-of-care (POC) electrophoresis tests for hemoglobin analysis. Here, we report the methodologies we implemented for characterizing HemeChip system pH and temperature during the development process, including utilizing commercially available universal pH indicator and digital camera pH …

Title 42, Asylum, And Politicising Public Health, Michael Ulrich, Sondra S. Crosby

Faculty Scholarship

President Biden has continued the controversial immigration policy of the Trump era known as Title 42, which has caused harm and suffering to scores of asylum seekers under the guise of public health.1 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ordered the policy in March 2020 with the stated purpose of limiting the spread of the coronavirus into the U.S.; though, CDC and public health officials have admitted this policy has no scientific basis and there is no evidence it has protected the public.2,3 Instead, the impetus behind the policy appears to be a desire to keep out or …

Bipolar I And Bipolar Ii Subtypes In Older Age: Results From The Global Aging And Geriatric Experiments In Bipolar Disorder (Gage-Bd) Project, Farren Briggs, Martha Sajatovic, Kaylee Sarna, Joy Yala

Faculty Scholarship

Objectives: The distinction between bipolar I disorder (BD-I) and bipolar II disorder (BD-II) has been a topic of long-lasting debate. This study examined differences between BD-I and BD-II in a large, global sample of OABD, focusing on general functioning, cognition and somatic burden as these domains are often affected in OABD. Methods: Cross-sectional analyses were conducted with data from the Global Aging and Geriatric Experiments in Bipolar Disorder (GAGE-BD) database. The sample included 963 participants aged ≥50 years (714 BD-I, 249 BD-II). Sociodemographic and clinical factors were compared between BD subtypes including adjustment for study cohort. Multivariable analyses were conducted …

Washington Monthly Interviews Vinay Harpalani: Asian Americans And The Pursuit Of Unhappiness, Vinay Harpalani, Reginald C. Oh

Faculty Scholarship

EXCERPT:

There are, however, several problems with depicting Asian Americans as victims of affirmative action. First, it is necessary to distinguish between affirmative action and negative action. Affirmative action refers to admissions policies that use the race of an underrepresented racial group as a “plus factor” in admissions. According to the law professor Vinay Harpalani, negative action “refers to policies or practices which disadvantage Asian Americans” in comparison to whites. If schools like Harvard covertly impose a higher standard for Asian Americans than for whites, the problem is negative action, not affirmative action. And if Harvard’s admissions decisions are …

Testing The Strong Equivalence Principle. Ii. Relating The External Field Effect In Galaxy Rotation Curves To The Large-Scale Structure Of The Universe, Stacy S. Mcgaugh

Faculty Scholarship

Theories of modified gravity generically violate the strong equivalence principle, so that the internal dynamics of a self-gravitating system in freefall depends on the strength of the external gravitational field (the external field effect). We fit rotation curves (RCs) from the SPARC database with a model inspired by Milgromian dynamics (MOND), which relates the outer shape of an RC to the external Newtonian field from the large-scale baryonic matter distribution through a dimensionless parameter e N. We obtain a > 4σ statistical detection of the external field effect (i.e. e N > 0 on average), confirming previous results. We then locate the …

The Washington Post Interviews Vinay Harpalani: The Courts Have Served As An Anti-Democratic Force For Much Of U.S. History, Vinay Harpalani, David A. Love

Faculty Scholarship

Certainly there are examples in which the high court has upheld the rights of the marginalized and disadvantaged. However, as Vinay Harpalani, associate professor of law at the University of New Mexico, has noted, “even when the U.S. Supreme Court makes rulings that seem to favor people of color, those rulings usually serve the interests of wealthy, elite White Americans.”

Harpalani cited how the Brown decision stemmed in part from Cold War strategy and the need for the United States to appeal to people in African, Asian and Latin American countries. “Racial segregation at home did not bode well …

Forum Selection Clauses, Non-Signatories, And Personal Jurisdiction, Robin Effron, John F. Coyle

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Black On Black Representation, Alexis Hoag

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Waive Ip Rights & Save Lives, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

In October of 2020, when India and South Africa proposed a waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS agreement, it was meant to increase local manufacturing capacity in these countries. The waiver was proposed as a tool to kick-start prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19. While there is an imminent need to meet a growing supply-demand gap for all medical products, COVID-19 related products are urgently required in poorer nations to contain the pandemic. The waiver has an additional role to play in the larger trade schema. In enabling vaccination of populations across the globe, the waiver would be critical …

Binational Reflections On Pathways To Groundwater Security In The Mexico-United States Borderlands, Rosario Sanchez, Jose Agustin Brena-Naranjo, Alfonso Rivera, Randall T. Hanson, Antonio Hernandez-Espriu, Rick J. Hogeboom, Anita Milman, Jude A. Benavides, Adrian Pedrozo-Acuna, Julio Cesar Soriano-Monzalvo, Sharon B. Megdal, Gabriel Eckstein, Laura Rodriguez

Faculty Scholarship

Shared groundwater resources between Mexico and the United States are facing unprecedented stressors. We reflect on how to improve water security for groundwater systems in the border region. Our reflection begins with the state of groundwater knowledge, and the challenges groundwater resources face from a physical, societal and institutional perspective. We conclude that the extent of ongoing cooperation frameworks, joint and remaining research efforts, from which alternative strategies can emerge, still need to be developed. The way forward offers a variety of cooperation models as the future offers rather complex, shared and multidisciplinary water challenges to the Mexico–US borderlands.

To Remove Or Not To Remove - Is That The Question In 1933 Act Securities Cases?, Tanya Pierce

Faculty Scholarship

Litigants spend immense time and money fighting over procedure. That fact is especially true for procedural rules concerning where a case may be heard—which, in the context of class actions, can determine the viability of claims almost regardless of their underlying merit. The potential for class certification, which tends to be greater in state than in federal courts, can transform claims that alone are too small to even justify suing into threats so large that defendants routinely use the words “judicial blackmail” to describe them. This paper focuses on a growing conflict between federal statutory removal provisions that arises in …