Digital Commons Network^™

Letter To Council Members Regarding Council Draft 3, Jane C. Ginsburg, June M. Besek

Faculty Scholarship

We understand that the ALI Council will consider Council Draft 3 (CD3) of the Restatement of the Law, Copyright (Copyright Restatement) project at its meeting on October 17-18, 2019. The Council may not appreciate how controversial a project this is: the U.S. Copyright Office, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the American Bar Association’s Section of Intellectual Property Law, the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Copyright and Literary Property, academics and other Advisers and Liaisons have expressed serious concerns about this and previous Council Drafts and Preliminary Drafts; indeed, the Register of Copyrights deplored the project as a …

Employer Losses And Deferred Compensation, David I. Walker

Faculty Scholarship

Most large public companies offer their executives the opportunity to defer the receipt and taxation of their salary or other current compensation until retirement or some other future date, and equity compensation, which also entails deferral of pay and taxation, constitutes a large fraction of the typical executive pay package. Conventional wisdom holds that employer net operating losses (NOLs) improve the joint economics of deferred and equity compensation (henceforth together "deferred compensation") for the parties. However, empirical studies provide little evidence of an association between employer NOLs and deferred compensation use. This paper focuses on two potential explanations for this …

The Missing Regulatory State: Monitoring Businesses In An Age Of Surveillance, Rory Van Loo

Faculty Scholarship

An irony of the information age is that the companies responsible for the most extensive surveillance of individuals in history—large platforms such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google—have themselves remained unusually shielded from being monitored by government regulators. But the legal literature on state information acquisition is dominated by the privacy problems of excess collection from individuals, not businesses. There has been little sustained attention to the problem of insufficient information collection from businesses. This Article articulates the administrative state’s normative framework for monitoring businesses and shows how that framework is increasingly in tension with privacy concerns. One emerging complication is …

The Uniform Commercial Code Survey: Introduction, Jennifer S. Martin, Colin P. Marks, Wayne Barnes

Faculty Scholarship

The survey that follows highlights the most important developments of 2018 dealing with domestic and international sales of goods, personal property leases, payments, letters of credit, documents of title, investment securities, and secured transactions.

Voltage-Gated Potassium Channels Are Critical For Infrared Inhibition Of Action Potentials: An Experimental Study, Junqi Zhuo, Matthew T. Mcpheeters, Michael W. Jenkins, Hillel J. Chiel

Faculty Scholarship

Thermal block of unmyelinated axons may serve as a modality for control, suggesting a means for providing therapies for pain. Computational modeling predicted that potassium channels are necessary for mediating thermal block of propagating compound action potentials (CAPs) with infrared (IR) light. Our study tests that hypothesis. Results suggest that potassium channel blockers disrupt the ability of IR to block propagating CAPs in Aplysia californica nerves, whereas sodium channel blockers appear to have no significant effect. These observations validate the modeling results and suggest potential applications of thermal block to many other unmyelinated axons.

The Paradox Of Minority Attorney Satisfaction, Milan Markovic, Gabrielle Plickert

Faculty Scholarship

A substantial literature documents the challenges faced by minority attorneys in the legal profession, ranging from underrepresentation in prestigious practice settings and lower incomes to discrimination from fellow lawyers, clients, and judges. In light of the foregoing, one would expect minority attorneys to regret their decisions to attend law school and become lawyers. Yet, empirical research indicates that minority attorneys are predominately satisfied with their decision to become attorneys and that their satisfaction is on par with that of white attorneys. How to account for this seeming paradox?

Drawing on data from a large cross-section of Texas lawyers, this is …

Data First, Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S 'Netflix Tax' Part 3 (Electronic Marketplaces), Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Chang Che

Faculty Scholarship

This is the third paper examining the recent amendments to the New Zealand Goods and Services Tax (GST) that are commonly known as the Netflix Tax. A fourth paper will follow.

The importance and complexity of dealing with electronic marketplaces has made an independent paper on electronic marketplaces necessary. Taken together this set of four papers assess the effectiveness of the Netflix provisions, and how they can be enhanced by adopting the technology and vision of Fiji’s VAT Monitoring System (VMS). The Netflix provisions were effective, July 1, 2017.

This paper considers rules that allocate the responsibility for collecting, reporting …

Peace In The Home, Peace In The Nation: Conceptions Of Justice For Rural Women Of Northern Uganda, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

UNM International Studies Institute Fall Lecture Series 2019 "Peacemaking In Africa"

Partnership-Related Relatedness: Measuring Partners' Capital Interests And Profits Interests, Bradley T. Borden

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Timing Of Ergogenic Aids And Micronutrients On Muscle And Exercise Performance, Richard A. Stecker, Patrick S. Harty, Andrew S. Jagim, Darren G. Candow, Chad M. Kerksick

Faculty Scholarship

The timing of macronutrient ingestion in relation to exercise is a purported strategy to augment muscle accretion, muscle and athletic performance, and recovery. To date, the majority of macronutrient nutrient timing research has focused on carbohydrate and protein intake. However, emerging research suggests that the strategic ingestion of various ergogenic aids and micronutrients may also have beneficial effects. Therefore, the purpose of this narrative review is to critically evaluate and summarize the available literature examining the timing of ergogenic aids (caffeine, creatine, nitrates, sodium bicarbonate, beta-alanine) and micronutrients (iron, calcium) on muscle adaptations and exercise performance. In summary, preliminary data …

Partnership-Related Relatedness: Measuring Partners' Capital Interests And Profits Interests, Bradley T. Borden

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Overwriting And Under-Deciding: Addressing The Roberts Court's Shrinking Docket, Meg Penrose

Faculty Scholarship

How do we evaluate a Supreme Court that writes more than it decides? Despite having the lowest decisional output in the modern era, the Roberts Court is the most verbose Supreme Court in history. The current Justices are more likely than past Justices to have their individual say in cases, writing more concurring and dissenting opinions than prior Courts. These opinions are longer, often strongly worded, and rarely add clarity to the underlying decision. The Roberts Court has shifted from being a decisional body to becoming an institution that comments on more cases than it decides.

This article critiques the …

Assigned Counsel Mentoring Programs: Results And Lessons From Two Pilot Projects, Susan Saab Fortney

Faculty Scholarship

Working with a team of three subject matter experts, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association implemented and evaluated two pilot mentoring projects aimed at helping lawyers who serve as assigned counsel. This report discusses the program design, evaluation outcomes, and offers guidance through lessons learned for other jurisdictions interested in introducing assigned counsel mentoring programs. The author of the report was the principal investigator who evaluated the programs.

This project was supported by grant number 2015-AJ-BX-K043 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs to the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. The opinions, findings, and …

The New Data Of Student Debt, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

Where you go to college and what you choose to study has always been important, but, with the help of data science, it may now determine whether you get a student loan. Silicon Valley is increasingly setting its sights on student lending. Financial technology (“fintech”) firms such as SoFi, CommonBond, and Upstart are ever-expanding their online lending activities to help students finance or refinance educational expenses. These online companies are using a wide array of alternative, education-based data points—ranging from applicants’ chosen majors, assessment scores, the college or university they attend, job history, and cohort default rates—to determine creditworthiness. Fintech …

Humanizing Work Requirements For Safety Net Programs, Mary Leto Pareja

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the political and policy appeal of work requirements for public benefit programs and concludes that inclusion of such requirements can be a reasonable design choice, but not in their current form. This Article’s proposals attempt to humanize these highly controversial work requirements while acknowledging the equity concerns they are designed to address. Drawing on expansive definitions of “work” found in guidance published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (“CMS”) and in various state waiver applications, this Article proposes that work requirements be approved for Medicaid (as well as other benefit programs) only if they encompass various …

Supporting Adoption And Guardianship: Evaluation Of The National Quality Improvement Center For Adoption And Guardianship, Nancy Rolock

Faculty Scholarship

The National Quality Improvement Center for Adoption and Guardianship Support and Preservation (QIC-AG) was a five-year project working with eight sites that implemented evidence-based interventions or developed and tested promising practices to achieve long-term, stable permanence in adoptive and guardianship homes.

Characterization Of Cerium (Iii) Ion Binding To Surface‐Immobilized Ef‐Hand Loop I Of Calmodulin, Mingyuan Xu, Zihang Su, Julie N. Renner

Faculty Scholarship

Cerium has a wide range of current and emerging applications, and the binding of cerium ions to solid substrates is important for cerium recovery, or in advanced material synthesis. In this study, we investigate the affinity of a surface-bound peptide derived from the EF-hand loop I of calmodulin for cerium (III) ions and compare the results to a scrambled control. Results obtained via quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation are used to estimate the dissociation constant between the EF-hand loop I peptide and cerium (III) ions (1.3 ± 0.1 μM), which is comparable with other dissociation constants measured for EF-hand peptides …

Let's Talk Protecting Endangered Species, Clifford J. Villa, Ty Bannerman, Will Cavin, Taylor Jones, Ari Biernoff

Faculty Scholarship

The Trump Administration recently changed Endangered Species Act regulations affecting how species are removed from endangered status and streamlining permits for the oil and gas and ranching industries. Environmentalists say the rules weaken protections. How could the new rules change industry and conservation in New Mexico?

Fluorescence Microscopy Of Biophysical Protein Dynamics In Nanoporous Hydrogels, Anuj Saini, Lydia Kisley

Faculty Scholarship

Proteins within nanoporous hydrogels have important biotechnological applications in pharmaceutical purification, tissue engineering, water treatment, biosensors, and medical implants. Yet, oftentimes proteins that are functional in solution lose activity when in contact with soft, nanostructured, condensed phase materials due to perturbations in the folded state, conformation, diffusion, and adsorption dynamics of the protein by the material. Fluorescence microscopy experimentally measures the biophysical dynamics of proteins within hydrogels at the nanoscale and can overcome the limitations of conventional ensemble techniques. An explanation of the benefits of fluorescence is provided, and principles of fluorescence microscope instrumentation and analysis are discussed. Then several …

Charged Nanoparticles Quench The Propulsion Of Active Janus Colloids, Marola W. Issa, Christopher L. Wirth

Faculty Scholarship

Active colloidal particles regularly interact with surfaces in applications ranging from microfluidics to sensing. Recent work has revealed the complex nature of these surface interactions for active particles. Herein, we summarize experiments and simulations that show the impact of charged nanoparticles on the propulsion of an active colloid near a boundary. Adding charged nanoparticles not only decreased the average separation distance of a passive colloid because of depletion attraction as expected but also decreased the apparent propulsion of a Janus colloid to near zero. Complementary agent-based simulations considering the impact of hydrodynamics for active Janus colloids were conducted in the …

Data-Driven I–V Feature Extraction For Photovoltaic Modules, Xuan Ma, Wei-Heng Huang, Jenny Brynjarsdottir, Jennifer L. Braid, Roger H. French

Faculty Scholarship

In research on photovoltaic (PV) device degradation, current-voltage (I-V ) datasets carry a large amount of information in addition to the maximum power point. Performance parameters such as short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage, shunt resistance, series resistance, and fill factor are essential for diagnosing the performance and degradation of solar cells and modules. To enable the scaling of I-V studies to millions of I-V curves, we have developed a data-driven method to extract I-V curve parameters and distributed this method as an open-source package in R. In contrast with the traditional practice of fitting the diode equation to I-V curves individually, …

Stability Of Supersonic Flow With Injection, Bryan E. Schmidt

Faculty Scholarship

Gas injection into supersonic flow past a 5-degree half-angle cone is studied with three injected gases: helium, nitrogen, and RC318. Experiments are performed in a Mach 4 Ludwieg tube with nitrogen as the free stream gas. The injector section is shaped to admit a "tuned" injection rate where the displacement created by injection counteracts the effects created by the injector geometry. A high-speed schlieren imaging system with a framing rate of 290 kHz is used to study the instability in the region of flow downstream of injection, referred to as the injection layer. Measurements of wavelength, convective speed, and frequency …

An Innovative Three-Step Method For Identifying Exemplars, Kurt C. Stange

Faculty Scholarship

Purpose: To improve practices in rapidly changing environments, it is helpful to learn from relevant innovators. This article describes a well-defined and adaptable method for discovering innovative cases that inform best practices or positive/negative deviant research. Methods: As part of a national study of innovation in primary care settings, we developed a three-step method for identifying exemplar practices and applied that method to finding a sample of relevant innovators for in-depth case studies from which to draw transportable lessons about improving primary care practice. Results: Relevant, information-rich cases are uncovered using cycles of identification, sampling, and assessment. This cycle is …

Le Accademie Bolognese E Romana: Reconsidering Center-Periphery Pedagogy, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

This article seeks a reevaluation of the relationship between the Carracci Accademia degli’Incamminati and the Accademia di San Luca in Rome with regards to structure, goals and pedagogy. For although the perceived pedagogical goals of the Carracci, especially the prosaic Annibale, and the most well-known Scholastic academician associated with the Roman Accademia, Federico Zuccaro, have traditionally been viewed as conflicting, the early history of the academy in Rome can be seen to parallel the Bolognese. Each was established to address the uncertain and evolving nature of the profession seen in each city, leading to a demand for a new type …

Minding The Gaps In Lawyers' Rules Of Professional Conduct, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Law And Economics And The Legacy Of Guido Calabresi, Wendy J. Gordon, Alain Marciano, Giovanni B. Ramello

Faculty Scholarship

In 1991, the American Law and Economics Association identified Guido Calabresi, Ronald Coase, Henry Manne and Richard Posner as the founders of the 'law and economics' movement. The European Journal of Law and Economics has already devoted a special issue to each of the last three. It is now Calabresi's turn. The order has no particular meaning and the current issue in Calabresi's honor does not depend on a desire to complete the list. Rather, we waited for a very special occasion to celebrate Calabresi's work - the publication of his latest book, The Future of Law and Economics (2016).

Law And Economics Versus Economic Analysis Of Law, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

I agree with Calabresi's general distinction between Economic Analysis of Law and Law and Economics. However, these broad categories may obscure important differences between types of law and economics scholarship. I would distinguish positive economic analysis from normative economic analysis, and positivist legal analysis from nonpositivist analysis. The four categories generated by these distinctions provide a more fine-grained map of the styles of reasoning in law and economics, and has implications for the future of law and economics.

Mistaken About Mistakes, Kathryn Zeiler

Faculty Scholarship

Theoretical work in behavioral economics aims to modify assumptions of standard neoclassical models of individual decision-making to better comport with observed behavior. The alternative assumptions fall into at least two categories: nonstandard preferences and psychological mistakes. Applications of behavioral economics models in law, however, tend to assume that deviations from standard neoclassical models are meant to build in psychological mistakes that produce regrettable choices. Often follow-on policy prescriptions suggest interventions that either help individuals choose correctly or go further to substitute the “correct” choices for those that mistake-prone individuals might choose in error. Such policy prescriptions are ill suited in …

Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale In Tardive Dyskinesia: Minimal Clinically Important Difference, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

Background: A minimal clinically important difference has not been established for the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale in patients with tardive dyskinesia. Valbenazine is a vesicular monoamine transporter 2 inhibitor approved for the treatment of tardive dyskinesia in adults. Efficacy in randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials was defined as the change from baseline in Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale total score (sum of items 1-7). Objectives: To estimate an minimal clinically important difference for the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale using valbenazine trial data and an anchor-based method. Methods: Data were pooled from three 6-week double-blind, placebo-controlled trials: KINECT (NCT01688037), KINECT 2 (NCT01733121), and …

Designing Development Programs For Non-Traditional Antibacterial Agents, John H. Rex, Holly Fernandez Lynch, I. Glen Cohen, Jonathan J. Darrow, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

In the face of rising rates of antibacterial resistance, many responses are being pursued in parallel, including ‘non-traditional’ antibacterial agents (agents that are not small-molecule drugs and/or do not act by directly targeting bacterial components necessary for bacterial growth). In this Perspective, we argue that the distinction between traditional and nontraditional agents has only limited relevance for regulatory purposes. Rather, most agents in both categories can and should be developed using standard measures of clinical efficacy demonstrated with non-inferiority or superiority trial designs according to existing regulatory frameworks. There may, however, be products with non-traditional goals focused on population-level benefits …