Digital Commons Network^™

Use Of Electronic Pharmacy Transaction Data And Website Development To Assess Antibiotic Use In Nursing Homes, Sunah Song, Brigid M. Wilson, Robin L.P. Jump

Faculty Scholarship

Background: In 2017, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services required all long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, to have an antibiotic stewardship program. Many nursing homes lack the resources, expertise, or infrastructure to track and analyze antibiotic use measures. Here, we demonstrate that pharmacy invoices are a viable source of data to track and report antibiotic use in nursing homes. Methods: The dispensing pharmacy working with several nursing homes in the same healthcare corporation provided pharmacy invoices from 2014 to 2016 as files formatted as comma separated values. We aggregated these files by aligning elements into a consistent set …

New England State Senates: Case Studies For Revisiting The Indirect Election Of Legislators, Tyler Quinn Yeargain, Quinn Yeargain

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Making A Declaration: The Rise Of Declaratory Judgment Actions And The Insurer As Regulator In The Fight To End Sex Trafficking In The Hotel Industry, Lori N. Ross

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Marijuana Legalization And The Role Of The Massachusetts Legislature, Sean J. Kealy

Faculty Scholarship

The public is often frustrated when Congress or their state legislature is not responsive to their policy priorities. This was especially true during the effort to legalize marijuana in Massachusetts. The legislature consistently refused to take up the issue despite public support. Legalization advocates ultimately bypassed the legislature by turning to the ballot-initiative process on three occasions: first to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, then to legalize medical marijuana, and most recently to legalize recreational marijuana. After the electorate legalized recreational marijuana, the legislature further frustrated advocates, first by delaying implementation of key parts of the law and …

Medical Cannabis And The Age Of Majority, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay considers whether commercial cannabis retailers are adequately constrained in the sale of cannabis to 18- to 21-year-olds. It examines the intersection of the medical cannabis market, recreational cannabis market, and underlying status law regulating late adolescents aged 18 to 21. Because the age of majority licenses full medical decision-making, an 18-year-old can access medical cannabis but not recreational cannabis or alcohol. This Essay proceeds on the assumption that medical cannabis is a construct that has eased the process of achieving a legalized commercial cannabis market. The ambiguity around medical claims is comfortable in the libertarian soil of cannabis …

Health Equity, Federalism, And Cannabis Policy, Nicole Huberfeld

Faculty Scholarship

Cannabis policy is a story of complexity and dynamism laced with tension and inequity. Policy makers’ views are rapidly changing, reflected by many bills sitting before Congress. This Essay considers three of the major bills that have a more comprehensive approach to cannabis. These bills also take different approaches to the flipped federalism that could occur if the federal government were to suddenly decriminalize cannabis. The Essay next considers the state law landscape and compares it to Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, drawing a comparison to learn health equity lessons from recent health reform efforts. Federal legislation is …

Persistent Inequalities, The Pandemic, And The Opportunity To Compete, Rachel F. Moran

Faculty Scholarship

Even before the recent coronavirus pandemic, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status played a powerful role in allocating opportunity—in the public schools and elsewhere. The pandemic laid bare the dimensions of this inequality with a new and alarming clarity. In this essay, I first focus on the landscape of educational inequity that existed before the coronavirus forced public schools to shut down. In particular, I explore patterns of racial and ethnic segregation in America’s schools and evaluate how those patterns relate to additional challenges based on socioeconomic isolation. In addition, I consider the role of language and immigration status in shaping …

International Law For Transboundary Aquifers: A Challenge For Our Times, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

Quarrels between states sharing a transboundary aquifer (TBA) have been relatively minor in comparison with the more boisterous disputes seen in many of the world's shared river basins. Yet, transboundary groundwater can easily serve as the basis for cross-border disagreements. Twice as many TBAs and shared groundwater bodies have been identified globally as compared to transboundary rivers and lakes, and the volume of accessible groundwater exceeds all surface waters by a factor of one hundred. Yet, the number of treaties in force for TBAs is miniscule in comparison with those for transboundary rivers and lakes. Moreover, dozens of nations exploit …

Introduction To The Symposium On Interstate Disputes Over Water Rights, Gabriel Eckstein, James Salzman

Faculty Scholarship

Disagreements over the management and allocation of transboundary freshwater resources have become increasingly prominent in international relations. Serious diplomatic tensions surround management of the Jordan, Mekong, Nile, Rio Grande, Silala, Syr Darya and Amu Darya, and Tigris and Euphrates rivers, to name just the most prominent examples among the world’s more than three hundred shared watercourses. Nor is there any reason to think tensions will subside in the future. Whether disagreements over shared freshwater resources will continue to be resolved peacefully will depend, in part, on the viability, durability, and flexibility of international law to prevent and resolve such disputes. …

When Drills And Pipelines Cross Indigenous Lands In The Americas, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Faculty Scholarship

From the Missouri River, passing through the Sonora Desert, all the way down to the Amazon Forest and the Andean Mountains, drills and pipelines are crossing over indigenous lands. In an energy-thirsty continent, there is no land left to spare, not even tribal land. Many of these energy infrastructure projects involve international investments that are protected by treaties and enforced by arbitral tribunals. At the same time, tribal communities have an internationally recognized right to receive prior and informed consultation before they are affected by projects of this nature. The Article focuses on the clash of rights between energy extraction …

But Is It Good: The Need To Measure, Assess, And Report On Court-Connected Adr, Nancy A. Welsh

Faculty Scholarship

We know that very few civil matters reach disposition through trial—but what do we really know about how civil cases do reach disposition? What number of civil cases reach disposition through settlement? What number of civil cases reach settlement through court-connected “alternative” dispute resolution (ADR)? Do we know enough about the results of courtconnected ADR to be able to detect potential patterns of systemic discrimination? This Article examines what we know from federal and state court systems’ public reporting and finds: 1) only a minority of federal district courts and state court systems report regarding dispositions through settlement; 2) there …

A Scapegoat Theory Of Bivens, Katherine Mims Crocker

Faculty Scholarship

Some scapegoats are innocent. Some warrant blame, but not the amount they are made to bear. Either way, scapegoating can allow in-groups to sidestep social problems by casting blame onto out-groups instead of confronting such problems—and the in-groups’ complicity in perpetuating them—directly.

This Essay suggests that it may be productive to view the Bivens regime’s rise as countering various exercises in scapegoating and its retrenchment as constituting an exercise in scapegoating. The earlier cases can be seen as responding to social structures that have scapegoated racial, economic, and other groups through overaggressive policing, mass incarceration, and inequitable government conduct more …

If Only I Had Known: The Challenges Of Representation, Jenny E. Carroll

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay explores the challenges of that representation and the false dichotomies it creates—dichotomies that carry tremendous burdens for stakeholders—from my perspective as a public defender. It is the only perspective I know, and so it is an incomplete story. I cannot tell the whole story of representation no matter how generous the word count or deadline. I do not know it. Nor can I tell my complete story of what it was to be a representative. But this is a start. My story is written in the first person and tries at once both to be personal and to …

Specialty Bar Associations And The Marketing Of Ethics: The Example Of The Academy Of Adoption Attorneys, Malinda L. Seymore

Faculty Scholarship

In a world of lawyer jokes, memes of sleazy lawyers and the ubiquity of bad lawyers in television shows and movies, lawyers have reason to push back against negative public perceptions of lawyers’ ethics. This article examines the role of specialty bar associations, by using the example of the Academy of Adoption Attorneys, in marketing ethics to the public.

Specialty bar associations have been seen as sites of lawyer socialization and professionalism. Though there are thousands of specialty bar associations with aspirational ethical codes, the Academy of Adoption Attorneys is unusual among such associations in having a mandatory ethics code, …

Federalism, Democracy, And The 2020 Election, Hannah Jacobs Wiseman, Samuel Wiseman, David Landau

Faculty Scholarship

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, the United States has experienced an anti-democratic crisis, with a chief executive attempting to delegitimize the general election and declare victory in an election that all impartial observers stated he lost. In comparative terms, the U.S. election system has been much maligned – it is highly localized and partisan, and lacks the independent, apex institutions such as electoral tribunals that are characteristic of many modern democracies. This brief essay builds off our recent joint work on federalism to argue that state and local governments, which administer elections and have refuted claims of widespread …

Fire Otherwise: Lifeways Enhancing Fire Management In A Changing World, Cynthia Twyford Fowler, Cynthia Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

NA

Fire Otherwise: Lifeways Enhancing Fire Management In A Changing World, Cynthia Twyford Fowler, Cynthia Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

Fire is a daunting human ecological challenge and a major subject in science and policy debates about global trends in land conversion, climate change, and human health. Persistent environmental orthodoxies reduce complex burning traditions to overly simplistic representations of environmental destruction, degradation, and loss while reinforcing existing social inequities involving smallholders. What would a more inclusive and pluralistic fire ecology look like? How and why might we embrace diverse anthropogenic fire regimes and broader understandings of the ways humans interact with fire? Fire otherwise is the support of proactive local and regional efforts to adapt amidst continually changing social and …

Identifying Patient Strengths Instruments And Examining Their Relevance For Chronic Disease Management: A Systematic Review, Kurt C. Stange

Faculty Scholarship

What is already known on this topic? Chronic disease management often focuses on what is wrong with patients rather than recognizing their strengths and resources. However, studies show the value of emphasizing personal strengths to improve outcomes. What is added by this report? How instruments evaluate personal strengths varies, making it especially difficult when determining the use of instruments in clinical populations. This systematic review defines the heterogeneity of constructs that research has used to examine personal strengths as well as the reliability and validity of strengths-related scales. What are the implications for public health practice? Understanding the value of …

Brownfields Cleanup: A Look Back And Ahead Toward Superfund Authority, Clifford Villa

Faculty Scholarship

Did you know that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, through the Superfund program within each of the ten regional offices across the United States, has millions of dollars to spend each year for cleaning up contaminated sites that are not designated “Superfund” sites? Not many people seem to know that, even lawyers who practice in environmental law, or even law professors who teach it. If these elite folks do not know that, then how would ordinary community members know that, people with busy lives who don’t do Superfund for a living? The short answer is, they probably don’t know either.

Transmission Of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (Sars-Cov-2) In A Patient Transport Van, Lucas D. Jones, Ernest R. Chan, Sarah N. Redmond, Jeffrey D. Kovach, Marlin Linger, Peter A. Zimmerman, Curtis J. Donskey

Faculty Scholarship

We report 2 episodes of potential SARS-CoV-2 transmission from infected van drivers to passengers despite masking and physical distancing. Whole-genome sequencing confirmed relatedness of driver and passenger SARS-CoV-2. With the heater operating, fluorescent microspheres were transported by airflow >3 meters from the front to the back of the van.

The Benefit Of Gratitude: Trait Gratitude Is Associated With Effective Economic Decision-Making In The Ultimatum Game, Gewnhi Park, Charlotte Witvliet, Jorge A. Barraza, Benjamin U. Marsha

Faculty Scholarship

The current research investigated the role of gratitude in economic decisions about offers that vary in fairness yet benefit both parties if accepted. Participants completed a trait/dispositional gratitude measure and then were randomly assigned to recall either an event that made them feel grateful (i.e., induced gratitude condition) or the events of a typical day (i.e., neutral condition). After the gratitude induction task, participants played the ultimatum game (UG), deciding whether to accept or reject fair offers (i.e., proposer: responder ratio $5:5) and unfair offers (i.e., proposer: responder ratios of $9:1, $8:2, or $7:3) from different proposers. Results showed that …

Civil Procedure Update 2021 (Handout And Slide Deck), Verónica C. Gonzales, Julio C. Romero

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.

Diverse Magazine Interviews Sonia Gipson-Rankin: Law Schools Respond To The Movement For Social Justice, Sonia Gipson Rankin, Pearl Stewart

Faculty Scholarship

At the University of New Mexico Law School, Professor Sonia Gipson Rankin describes three activities organized in spring 2020 to address the national protest movement – a virtual teach-in; a social justice book club; and a startup student organization, Law Students for Equity & Inclusion. The teach-in included a panel of professors and students who discussed police killings of African Americans, the U.S. history of racial violence, protest and related topics.

Rankin notes that relevant courses such as “Race and the Law,” “Indian Law” and “Refugee Law” were regularly being offered at the UNM School of Law for decades and …

Metabolic Basis Of Creatine In Health And Disease: A Bioinformatics-Assisted Review, Diego A. Bonilla, Richard B. Kreider, Jeffrey R. Stout, Diego A. Foreno, Chad M. Kerksick, Michael D. Roberts, Eric S. Rawson

Faculty Scholarship

Creatine (Cr) is a ubiquitous molecule that is synthesized mainly in the liver, kidneys, and pancreas. Most of the Cr pool is found in tissues with high-energy demands. Cr enters target cells through a specific symporter called Na+/Cl--dependent Cr transporter (CRT). Once within cells, creatine kinase (CK) catalyzes the reversible transphosphorylation reaction between [Mg2+:ATP4-]2- and Cr to produce phosphocreatine (PCr) and [Mg2+:ADP3-]-. We aimed to perform a comprehensive and bioinformatics-assisted review of the most recent research findings regarding Cr metabolism. Specifically, several public databases, repositories, and bioinformatics tools were utilized for this endeavor. Topics of biological complexity ranging from structural …

Settling Data Protection Law: Multistate Actions And National Policymaking, Elysa M. Dishman

Faculty Scholarship

Data privacy and cybersecurity law in the United States is as unsettled as it is unsettling. By failing to pass comprehensive data protection legislation, Congress has settled for uncertainty. And the authority of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce and seek remedies in this area has been challenged by litigants, including a case currently pending in the U.S. Supreme Court. Nevertheless, FTC enforcement settlements play a vital role in data regulation. These settlements include corporate structural reforms that become de facto regulations by shaping corporate practices nationwide.

State attorneys general (AGs) have become increasingly prominent data policymakers through enforcement …

Understanding How Relational Health Effects Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration Among Low-Income, Black, Indigenous, Men Of Color Exposed To Adverse Childhood Experiences: An Exploratory Study, Laura A. Voith, Hyunjune Lee, Katie N. Russell, Amy E. Korsch-Williams

Faculty Scholarship

Relational health has emerged as a consistent factor that can mitigate the effects of trauma among children; however, less is known about relational health with adults, particularly related to intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration among racially and socioeconomically marginalized men. The Exploratory Sequential Design, Taxonomy Development Model was used. Semi-structured interviews (N = 11) and narrative analysis were conducted in Phase I. In Phase II, variables approximating the key themes that emerged in Phase I were selected from an existing dataset (N = 67), and relationships were examined using bivariate associations. The sample consisted of low-income Black, Indigenous, men of …

The Covid Ceiling: Super-Moms Are Struggling, Verónica C. Gonzales

Faculty Scholarship

COVID Ceiling is the unique combination of identity, discipline, and academic work requirements with care crisis and public health crisis that is contributing to the current and soon larger wave of mental health crises.

Bits And Bonds: The International Law And Economics Of Sovereign Debt, Stratos Pahis

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Law Enforcement's Lochner, Miriam H. Baer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Technological Tethereds: Potential Impact Of Untrustworthy Artificial Intelligence In Criminal Justice Risk Assessment Instruments, Sonia M. Gipson Rankin

Faculty Scholarship

Issues of racial inequality and violence are front and center in today’s society, as are issues surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). This Article, written by a law professor who is also a computer scientist, takes a deep dive into understanding how and why hacked and rogue AI creates unlawful and unfair outcomes, particularly for persons of color.

Black Americans are disproportionally featured in criminal justice, and their stories are obfuscated. The seemingly endless back-to-back murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and heartbreakingly countless others have finally shaken the United States from its slumbering journey towards intentional criminal justice …