Digital Commons Network^™

Did A Rising Tide Lift All Boats? The Nih Budget And Pediatric Research Portfolio, Daniel P. Gitterman, Robert S. Greenwood, Keith C. Kocis, Rick Mayes, Aaron N. Mckethan

Political Science Faculty Publications

This paper examines National Institutes of Health (NIH) pediatric research spending in absolute terms and relative to the doubling of the NIH overall budget between fiscal years 1998 and 2003. Pediatric spending increased by an average annual rate of 12.8 percent during the doubling period (almost on par with the NIH average annual growth rate of 14.7 percent). However, the proportion of the total NIH budget devoted to the pediatric portfolio declined from 12.3 to 11.3 percent. We offer recommendations for implementing existing commitments to strengthen the pediatric research portfolio and to protect the gains of the doubling period.

Shooting Ourselves In The Foot: Why Mandatory Reporting Of Gunshot Wounds Is A Bad Idea, Merril Pauls, Jocelyn Downie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

A recent position statement by the Ontario Medical Association’s Section on Emergency Medicine called on the Ontario government to pass a law requiring physicians to report gunshot wounds to police. The Ontario government quickly passed a motion to “introduce legislation to require hospitals and physicians to report gunshot wounds and knife injuries to their local police service.” The goals behind the position statement are laudable: “to assess and reduce immediate public risk and to collect data to inform future prevention strategies.” However, mandating that physicians report gunshot wounds is an ill-conceived response to the problem of gun-related violence. It will …

Revisioning The Oversight Of Research Involving Humans In Canada, Jocelyn Downie, Fiona Mcdonald

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

When individuals are asked to participate in research they should be able to assume that the research "is well designed and well executed, that the investigator is competent to undertake the study, that the study will be run efficiently, safely, and ethically and that the deviations from good practice will be identified and corrected." The central question that we focus on in this paper is whether the governance mechanisms that are currently in place to regulate the conduct of research involving humans are adequate to enable those who are approached to participate in research to make these assumptions. This review …

Delimiting The Concept Of Income: The Taxation Of In-Kind Benefits, Kim Brooks

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The issue of which in-kind benefits should be taxed and how these benefits should be valued have concerned tax legislators, administrators, and academics since the introduction of the personal income tax system. Building her theoretical analysis on the income concept advanced by Henry Simons and relying on traditional tax policy notions of equity, neutrality, and administrative practicality, the author asserts that employees must be fully taxed on employer-provided in-kind benefits. To this effect, the article offers guidelines for distinguishing between taxable in-kind benefits and non-taxable conditions of employment. The author argues that the correct method of valuation of in-kind benefits …

Queering Legal Education: A Project Of Theoretical Discovery, Kim Brooks, Debra Parkes

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The article has two parts. Part II discusses the materials we reviewed to inform the development of a queer legal pedagogy. In particular, it examines the categories of queer legal scholarship and highlights the contributions of other outsider scholars to legal education debates. Early in our research, we found limited material on queer legal pedagogy, and we discovered nothing that posited a theoretical approach. We did, however, find rich resources written by other outsiders to law from which some design principles for queer legal pedagogy might be drawn. We should note at the outset that our goal in this Part …

Climate Change And The Wto: Opportunities To Motivate State Action On Climate Change Through The World Trade Organization, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article explores the role of trade in motivating action on climate change, using the specific example of developments within the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The Kyoto Protocol, the first international agreement with legally binding commitments to begin to address climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is expected to come into force in 2004. With it, most of the developed world will be committed to modest reduction targets over the next decade. The two largest per capita emitters, the USA and Australia, have so far opted not to join this modest effort to address climate change, and developing …

Passports And Nationality In International Law, Adam I. Muchmore

Faculty Scholarship

Shifts in state control over territory can have substantial consequences for the nationality of individuals. This Article explores situations where an individual finds that the state which issued him a passport no longer recognizes his nationality. The law of binding state action, a set of broadly-accepted rules regulating state representations to other states, may provide more protection for passport-holders than the “soft” norms of human rights law.

Seeking Truth For Power: Informational Strategy And Regulatory Policymaking, Cary Coglianese, Richard Zeckhauser, Edward A. Parson

Articles

Information is the lifeblood of regulatory policy. The effective use of governmental power depends on information about conditions in the world, strategies for improving those conditions, and the consequences associated with deploying different strategies. Indeed, this need for information has led legislatures to create specialized committee structures, delegate policy authority to expert agencies, and develop administrative procedures that encourage analysis. Although legal scholars have extensively debated procedures and reforms designed to improve the analytic and scientific basis of regulatory policymaking, they have paid relatively little attention to how regulators gain the information they need for making and implementing regulatory policy. …

Benumbed, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

I originally intended to write a column on tort liability and research ethics, and I still plan to do so. But this column is a cri de coeur as I finish another semester teaching law and bioethics. This year, I asked with growing frequency, urgency, and exasperation, "Must law's reverence for autonomy squeeze out the impulse to kindness? Where is the beneficence in bioethics?" These questions assail me every term. Why? Consider Steele v. Hamilton County Community Mental Health Board. Mr. Steele was involuntarily "hospitalized after his family reported that he was 'seeing things and trying to fight imaginary …

Cognitive Impact Of Interactive Multimedia, Yanko F. Michea,

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Technology has been gradually introduced in heath education. One of the most attractive features of this technology-based education is the use of multimedia. In this article we explore the research evidence about the role that multimedia is playing in education. From that analysis we describe the most relevant features of this technology to prepare a common ground of discussion about the evaluation of its impact on educational outcomes. As part of this analysis, we organize current research evidence on the use of technology in medical education, distinguishing diverse variables involved in the process, like knowledge (declarative, procedural), learner characteristics, curricular …

Suffolk University Beacon Yearbook, 2004, Suffolk University

Undergraduate Yearbooks

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Three Northern Manhattan Communities: Case Studies Of Political Empowerment In The Planning And Developing Process, Richard C. Bass, Cuz Potter

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article reviews three development proposals in Northern Manhattan communities, how community boards responded to those proposals, and how the responses affected the outcome of each development. The article begins with a broad overview of the history of community boards' role in urban planning in New York City. It finds that boards have become increasingly influential in new development plans, empowering the communities they represent. The Article goes on to analyze three recent proposals in turn (an expansion of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, a residential development in Central Harlem, and a comprehensive rezoning of East Harlem) according to "zoning," …

Blighting The Way: Urban Renewal, Economic Development, And The Elusive Definition Of Blight, Colin Gordon

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article examines the way municipalities have used increasingly broad interpretations of "blight" to compete for state tax increment financing (TIFs) for economic development purposes. It traces the definition of blight in the context of state and federal urban redevelopment programs from the nineteenth century through the Progressive Era to the advent of TIF laws in the 1980s and 90s. It goes on to discuss the how the concept of "blight" has shifted from a condition of substandard housing to a condition of "sub-optimal" local economic development, in part due to intense competition among municipalities for TIFs. The article concludes …

Winter Count: Taking Stock Of Abortion Rights After Casey And Carhart, Caitlin E. Borgmann

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article outlines the current landscape of the constitutional right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade. Analyzing the court's holdings in Planned Parenthood v. Casey and Stenberg v. Carhart, the author details the ways in which recognition of a government interest in potential life at any stage in a pregnancy, as well as the lofty "undue burden" standard in analyzing policies that hinder access to abortion, have eroded this right. Finally, the author stresses the Supreme Court cases' disparate impact on the abortion rights of low-income and rural dwelling women.

What Lawrence V. Texas Says About The History And Future Of Reproductive Rights, Cynthia Dailard

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article explores the ways in which the court's recognition of a broad zone of personal liberty in Lawrence v. Texas may serve to strengthen a woman's constitutionally protected reproductive rights in future Supreme Court decisions. Part of the author's analysis focuses on using particular Justices' opinions (and dissents) to predict the direction of future challenges to abortion rights in front of the Supreme Court.

Saving Roe Is Not Enough: When Religion Controls Healthcare, Susan Berke Fogel, Lourdes A. Rivera

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article advocates for legislative action against the "religious exemptions" or "conscience clauses" used by religiously-affiliated healthcare facilities, particular in the context of refusing abortion, sterilization, and other reproductive health services. Among other recommendations, the authors call for religious exemptions on the individual rather than institutional level; that the religious exemption be disallowed in rural areas or situations where reasonable alternatives are unavailable; and a requirement that complete, medically accurate information be made available regardless of a religious exemption.

Econometric Analyses Of U.S. Abortion Policy: A Critical View, Jonathan Klick

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article surveys, in non-technical language, various econometric studies on the correlation between changes in access to abortion (whether through legalization, increased public funding, increased safety, etc.) and social phenomena such as sexual activity, crime, and opportunities for women. It argues that many econometrics-based abortion studies are contentious, often yielding varying results depending on the stakes of those commissioning the studies, and often too technical to be useful to policy-makers. As a result of these shortcomings, the author calls for methodological soundness and publication for a more general audience for those social scientists who want to enter the reproductive rights …

Casey And Its Impact On Abortion Regulation, Michael F. Moses

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Given the Supreme Court's shift from a strict scrutiny standard to an "undue burden" standard in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, this article advocates for application of the standard in a way that is deferential to state legislatures. The author finds a number of problems with the holding in Casey for which it seeks judicial and legislative action: the undue burden standard is vague; it is unclear whether the burden should be upon everyone or "some people"; and the holding allows court to strike laws that have not gone into effect, therefore evidence of their impact is "speculative."

Public Service In A Time Of Crisis: A Report And Retrospective On The Legal Community's Response To The Events Of September 11, 2001

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The attacks on September 11, 2001 were unprecedented in scope, and the legal needs that grew out of the attacks were varied and far-reaching. This report summarizes the response of the legal community to these needs. The response was fast, thoughtful, comprehensive, and creative. And as a result, thousands of people were helped and thousands of lawyers were able to use their professional talents and skills in a manner that both led to important services being provided to people in need and resulted in great personal satisfaction. In response to 9/11, the institutions that make up the New York area …

Preparing For The Worst: Re-Envisioning Disaster Legal Relief In The Era Of Homeland Security, Martha F. Davis

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The New York legal community's response to the September 11th disaster provides an excellent example of pro bono assistance in a time of crisis. The New York response featured many well-trained lawyers with extensive resources and organizational efforts from the New York City bar. However, not all communities have the same resources and ability to mobilize for a large pro bono effort in response to a disaster. While the New York response was impressive, a lasting effect on pro bono participation or an improvement in the public's perception of the legal profession has not resulted. This essay explores whether, despite …

Broadening The Holistic Mindset: Incorporating Collateral Consequences And Reenty Into Criminal Defense Lawyering, Michael Pinard

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Over the past two decades, public defender offices across the country have broadened the range of defense services provided to indigent clients. These expanded services, some of which involve representing clients on related non-criminal matters such as housing and public benefits, are included in what is now commonly referred to as "holistic representation."' This form of representation strives to encompass the various underlying issues that often lead to clients’ experiences with the criminal justice system, with the aim of addressing those circumstances and preventing future criminal involvement. Holistic representation signals a paradigmatic shift in defense philosophy and ideology and has …

Playing With Work: Must "Work" Be Treated As A "Major Life Activity" For Purposes Of The Americans With Disability Act?, Daniel A. Mcmillan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Note explores the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”) and how two Supreme Court decisions, Sutton v. United Airlines, Inc. and Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky v. Williams, could ultimately restrict the Act's reach. The ADA protects disabled individuals from discrimination in employment, in access to services by both private and public entities, and in access to telecommunications. The Act defines a disability as “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual.” According to the Note, under traditional agency regulations and case law from the lower courts “work” …

Copyright And Free Expression: Analyzing The Convergence Of Conflicting Normative Frameworks, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

Faculty Scholarship

Recent attempts to expand the domain of copyright law in different parts of the world have necessitated renewed efforts to evaluate the philosophical justifications that are advocated for its existence as an independent institution. Copyright, conceived of as a proprietary institution, reveals an interesting philosophical interaction with other libertarian interests, most notably the right to free expression. This paper seeks to understand the nature of this interaction and the resulting normative decisions. The paper seeks to analyse copyright law and its recent expansions, specifically from the perspective of the human rights discourse. It looks at the historical origins of modern …

The Muddles Over Outsourcing, Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Arvind Panagariya, T.N. Srinivasan

Faculty Scholarship

In the early 1980s, “outsourcing” typically referred to the situation when firms expanded their purchases of manufactured physical inputs, like car companies that purchased window cranks and seat fabrics from outside the firm rather than making them inside. But in 2004, outsourcing took on a different meaning. It referred now to a specific segment of the growing international trade in services. This segment consists of arm’s-length, or what Bhagwati (1984) called “long-distance,” purchase of services abroad, principally, but not necessarily, via electronic mediums such as the telephone, fax and the Internet. Outsourcing can happen both though transactions by firms, like …

Promise Of Welfare Reform: Development Through Devolution On Indian Reservations, Shanta Pandey, Eddie Brown, Leslie Scheuler-Whitaker

Buder Center for American Indian Studies Research

In the 1990s, devolution of authority from federal to states and local governmental institutions in the administration of social welfare policies, programs, and services is seen as an answer to alleviating poverty among low-income families with children. To this effect, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 has granted an option to tribal governments to administer their own Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) services. In this article we provide findings from early experience of tribes within Arizona in their attempt to self-administer TANF services. We collected and analyzed data from multiple sources, including a review …

Heterochromatic Silencing And Hp1 Localization In Drosophila Are Dependent On The Rnai Machinery, Manika Pal-Bhadra, Boris Leibovitch, Sumit Gandhi, Madhusudana Rao Chikka, Utpal Bhadra, James Birchler, Sarah C.R. Elgin

Biology Faculty Research

Genes normally resident in euchromatic domains are silenced when packaged into heterochromatin, as exemplified in Drosophila melanogaster by position effect variegation (PEV). Loss-of-function mutations resulting in suppression of PEV have identified critical components of heterochromatin, including proteins HP1, HP2, and histone H3 lysine 9 methyltransferase. Here, we demonstrate that this silencing is dependent on the RNA interference machinery, using tandem mini-white arrays and white transgenes in heterochromatin to show loss of silencing as a result of mutations in piwi, aubergine, or spindle-E (homeless), which encode RNAi components. These mutations result in reduction of H3 Lys9 methylation and delocalization of HP1 …

With Strings Attached: The Limits On Local Control, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

In a December 2003 decision, a Colorado trial court judge invalidated the state's new school voucher program. The decision was unusual in that the court relied not on traditional separation-of-church-and-state concerns, but instead on a provision of the Colorado state constitution that vests control over public education in local school boards. The court held that by failing to give local school boards any" input whatsoever into the instruction to be offered by the private schools" that accepted voucher students, the state had violated the constitutional provision that grants local boards "control of instruction in the public schools of their respective …

Optical Characterization Of Ceramic Thin Films: Applications In Low-Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel-Cell Materials Research, B. P. Gorman, V. Petrovsky, Harlan U. Anderson, T. Petrovsky

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Characterization of thin film solid oxide fuel-cell materials can be difficult due to the range of porosities in electrodes and electrolytes as well as the nano-sized pores and particles. in this study, optical characterization techniques such as ultraviolet-visible transmission and reflection spectrophotometry are illustrated as methods for achieving information about the film density from the film refractive index as well as the film thickness. These techniques were used to investigate the sintering process of colloidal CeO₂ on sapphire substrates and polymeric precursor-derived ZrO₂:16%Y (YSZ) thin films on silicon over the temperature range 400-1000 °C, and the results …

Climate Change In Arid Environments: Revisiting The Past To Understand The Future, Elena Lioubimtseva

Peer Reviewed Articles

Arid regions are expected to undergo significant changes under a scenario of climate warming, but there is considerable variability and uncertainty in these estimates between different scenarios. The complexities of precipitation changes, vegetation–climate feedbacks and direct physiological effects of CO2 on vegetation present particular challenges for climate change modelling of arid regions. Great uncertainties exist in the prediction of arid ecosystem responses to elevated CO2 and global warming. Palaeodata provide important information about the past frequency, intensity and subregional patterns of change in the world’s deserts that cannot always be captured by the climatic models. However, it is important to …

Climate Law And Economic Policy Instruments: A New Field Of Environmental Law, Benjamin J. Richardson

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.