Digital Commons Network^™

Lower Courts And Constitutional Comparativism, Roger P. Alford

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Assessing Fourth Amendment Challenges To Dna Extraction Statutes After Samson V. California, Charles J. Nerko

Fordham Law Review

DNA plays an indespensable role in modern law enforcement, and courts uniformly find that DNA extraction statutes targeting criminals satisfy the Fourth Amendment. Courts differ on which Fourth Amendment test--totality of the circumstances or special needs--ought to be employed in this context. This Note concludes the courts should apply Samson v. California's less stringent totality of the circumstances test to analyze DNA extraction statutes in order to maintain the integrity of the special needs test.

Intentional Sex Torts, Deana Pollard Sacks

Fordham Law Review

Intentional tort law generally protects personal autonomy and self-determination vigorously by requiring fair disclosure before consent to physical contact is considered voluntary and valid. A glaring exception exists regarding consent to sexual relations. Although American law historically has provided remedies for fraudulent or other tortious inducement of sexual relations, current sex tort jurisprudence offers virtually no protection. The law’s contemporary “caveat emptor” approach to cases of sexual autonomy infringement is inappropriate because it departs from fundamental principles of intentional tort doctrine. In addition, the current law supports a “false” norm that sexual misappropriation is acceptable. Current law fails to protect …

Sentencing Luxury: The Valuation Debate In Sentencing Traffickers Of Counterfeit Luxury Goods, Jana Nicole Checa Chong

Fordham Law Review

This Note examines the contentious debate that exists regarding the property valuation used by the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines with regard to counterfeiting. Currently, the Sentencing Guidelines employ “street value.” However, many scholars and organizations argue that the alternative use of “retail value” will best assess the harm to the intellectual property owner as well as combat the growing problem of counterfeiting. This Note suggests that amending the Sentencing Guidelines, in order to allow for application of “retail value,” will best combat a growing national and international problem posed by the counterfeit luxury goods market.

Proper Assertion Of The Deliberative Process Privilege: The Agency Head Requirement, Shilpa Narayan

Fordham Law Review

Can any employee of an executive agency assert the deliberative process privilege in order to withhold information in response to a valid request? This Note examines the agency head requirement for assertion of the deliberative process privilege and concludes that only executive officials possessing policy-making authority may invoke the privilege. Such privilege determinations must come from a policy-making official in order to curb abuse and maintain the integrity of executive decisions. Recognition of such a policy-making distinction with regard to the agency head requirement will serve both the Executive’s and the public’s interest in ensuring effective governance.

Development Of Fiber Bend Loss Edge Filter, Pengfei Wang

Doctoral

This PhD thesis addresses several aspects of macrobending loss in single-mode optical fibers. The context for the work is the development of an edge filter for a rapid wavelength measurement system. Based on scalar approximation theory and the beam propagation method, a simulation platform is developed and used to predict the macrobending loss of singlemode fiber with single or multiple coating layers. A single-mode step index fiber macrobending loss edge filter is investigated theoretically in terms of baseline loss, discrimination range and polarization dependent loss (PDL). The theoretical analysis is supported by a range of experimental investigations and results. The …

Voluntarism, Vulnerability, And Criminal Law: A Response To Professors Hills And O'Hear, Ethan J. Leib, Dan Markel, Jennifer M. Collins

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Response addresses the criticisms of our project by Professors Rick Hills and Michael O'Hear. Before we address those challenges, we first want to reiterate our gratitude to the B.U. Law Review for hosting an exchange based on our article, Punishing Family Status (forthcoming BU LR, December 2008), and to Professors Hills and O'Hear for their careful and subtle analysis of that article.

Additionally, it's worth recapitulating what our bottom-line conclusions are so we can better see if there are any practical disagreements with our critics. Summarizing quickly: we support decriminalization in the cases of parental responsibility laws (based on …

The African-American Child Welfare Act: A Legal Redress For African-American Disproportionality In Child Protection Cases, Jessica Dixon Weaver

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This article proposes a radical change in the way African-American children and families are handled within the legal system when abuse and neglect are at issue. African-American disproportionality in child protection cases is significant for the United States because documentation shows that African-American children are overrepresented in the child welfare system in forty-eight states, although research shows that there is no difference in the occurrence of child abuse and neglect among the races. The first part of the article presents an overview of disproportionality by presenting the national statistics and research, revealing where racial bias and disparate treatment occurs within …

Disney Goes Goofy: Agency, Delegation & Corporate Governance, Marc I. Steinberg, Matthew D. Bivona

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In the wake of the corporate debacles that have occurred in the last decade, there has been an increasing legislative and judicial focus on the reform of corporate governance standards. Such reforms, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, sing the praises of independent directors in effectuating meaningful corporate governance. The Delaware courts as well have emphasized the importance of independent directors in the corporate governance framework.

The Delaware Supreme Court’s decision in Disney seems to be a reaffirmance of the business judgment rule as applied to corporate directors; however, the court’s highly-publicized decision ignores a crucial component of the case: the Delaware …

Vladimir Putin And The Rule Of Law In Russia, Jeffrey D. Kahn

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

During his two terms as President of Russia, did Vladimir Putin further the net development of a legal culture in Russia? This article is based on public lectures given in late 2007 and early 2008 at Oxford University, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), and the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

This article examines three "windows" into the development of Russia's legal culture under Vladimir Putin: (1) the Second Chechen War; (2) Russian membership in the Council of Europe; and, (3) renewed efforts under Putin at codification of law, as evidenced by the creation …

Russia's Criminal Procedure Code Five Years Out, William Burnham, Jeffrey D. Kahn

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

After a long delay in drafting, a new Criminal Procedure Code for Russia was passed in 2001 and went into effect in 2002. The new Code contains some striking innovations, most notably changes at the trial stage, which implement the constitutional requirements of adversarial principles. However, it also retains several throwbacks to the past, particularly its preservation of the formal pretrial investigation, during which evidence is parsed and collected in a dossier, which then dominates the trial of the case. The result is that old and new constantly contend with each other. Implementation of the new adversarial procedures is also …

Rethinking Recycling, Jeffrey M. Gaba

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) establishes the so-called “cradle to grave” regulatory program over hazardous “solid wastes.” Although not obviously wastes, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has consistently asserted jurisdiction to regulate some class of recyclable materials under Subtitle C. It has done this through a regulatory definition of “solid waste” that establishes a complex and confusing scheme that includes, excludes, and exempts recyclable materials from regulatory requirements in an almost incomprehensible fashion. In 2008, EPA added to this complexity by promulgating a new set of conditional exclusions that exempts certain reclaimed materials …

Effect Of Ethanol On Microbial Community Structure And Function During Natural Attenuation Of Benzene, Toluene, And O-Xylene In A Sulfate-Reducing Aquifer, Kevin Feris, Doug Mackay, Nick De Sieyes, Irina Chakraborty, Murray Einarson, Krassimira R. Hristova, Kate M. Scow

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Ethanol (EtOH) is a commonly used fuel oxygenate in reformulated gasoline and is an alternative fuel and fuel supplement. Effects of EtOH release on aquifer microbial ecology and geochemistry have not been well characterized in situ. We performed a controlled field release of petroleum constituents (benzene (B), toluene (T), o-xylene (o-X) at ∼1–3 mg/L each) with and without EtOH (∼500 mg/L). Mixed linear modeling (MLM) assessed effects on the microbial ecology of a naturally sulfidic aquifer and how the microbial community affected B, T, and o-X plume lengths and aquifer geochemistry. Changes in microbial community structure …

Substance Use And Barriers To Treatment Across Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders And Asian Americans, Lauren Michelle Levine

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that Asian Americans have lower rates of substance abuse treatment utilization than Caucasians. However, investigators have recently begun to separate Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders (NH/PI) from Asian Americans. Thus, it remains unclear whether disparities in barriers to treatment utilization differ across NH/Pis and Asian Americans. Data (N = 43,093) from the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), a large, nationally representative survey was used in this study. A chi-square analysis examined whether disparities in barriers and utilization differed between NH/Pis (n = 300) and Asian Americans (n = 1,334). We found that NH/Pis who thought …

Factors Associated With Successful Hispanic Students In Higher Education, Ana G. Linares

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Hispanic population in the United States already constitutes the fastest growing minority group in the United States and by the year 2050 this group will constitute 24% of the total population and one fourth of the national workforce. Because this is a very young population whose median age is 27.2 years old, the education of this group is pivotal to the future of this nation. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived importance of personal and external factors found in the literature as significant in Hispanic college success for a sample of 137 Hispanic college seniors …

The Soap Box Hunting Helps Maintain Deer As A Valued Public Resource, Robert Southwick

Human–Wildlife Interactions

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Costs Associated With Deer–Vehicle Collisions: Human Death And Injury, Vehicle Damage, And Deer Loss, John A. Bissonette, Christine A. Kassar, Lawrence J. Cook

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Collisions between large vertebrates and vehicles along roadways are an increasing concern, not only because of ecological consequences, but also because of associated economic and social costs. We used a large-scale, long-term data set comprising several databases from Utah to summarize and analyze these costs. The overall cost for 13,020 collisions from 1996 to 2001 in Utah was approximately $45,175,454, resulting in an estimated average per year cost of about $7,529,242 and a mean collision cost of $3,470. These figures include human fatality costs of $24 million (53% of total costs); vehicle damage costs of $18 million (39%); loss of …

Sharpshooting Suburban White-Tailed Deer Reduces Deer–Vehicle Collisions, Anthony J. Denicola, Scott C. Williams

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Too many deer–vehicle collisions (DVCs) are one of the primary reasons local governments implement lethal deer management programs. However, there are limited data to demonstrate that a reduction in deer (Odocoileus spp.) densities will result in a decline in DVCs. We conducted sharpshooting programs in 3 suburban communities to reduce deer numbers and to address rising DVCs. Annual or periodic population estimates were conducted using both helicopter snow counts and aerial infrared counts to assess population trends. Management efforts were conducted from 3 to 7 years. Local deer herds were reduced by 54%, 72%, and 76%, with resulting reductions …

Landscape And Traffic Factors Influencing Deer–Vehicle Collisions In An Urban Enviroment, Janet W. Ng, Charlene Nielsen, Colleen Cassady St. Clair

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Deer–vehicle collisions (DVCs) are steadily increasing across North America. The increase is particularly pronounced in urban green spaces where deer (Odocoileus spp.) populations and road densities are high. In the greater city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 333 DVCs occurred from 2002 to 2004. To identify landscape and traffic correlates of these collisions, we built 3 statistical models. The first model assessed the importance of local variables and was based on a spatial precision of the nearest intersection to which collisions were referenced. The second model was based on landscape characteristics and used the nearest township intersection to aggregate collisions. …

Deer–Vehicle Collision Trends At A Suburban Immunocontraception Site, Allen T. Rutberg, Ricky E. Naugle

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Observations of extended estrus seasons in female white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) vaccinated with porcine zona pellucida (PZP) immunocontraceptives have led to speculation that management use of PZP would, perversely, increase the rate of deer–vehicle collisions. To test this hypothesis, we studied PZP-treated female deer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland. PZP-treated female deer did not differ from untreated female deer in risk of death by vehicle collision, and the number of deer killed in vehicle collisions was uncorrelated with the number of deer treated with PZP, whether or not population size was controlled for. …

Physiological Effects Of Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Immunocontraception On White-Tailed Deer, Paul D. Curtis, Milo E. Richmond, Lowell A. Miller, Fred W. Quimby

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Before immunocontraceptives can be considered safe to use on wildlife species, potential health risks should be assessed. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) immunocontraceptive has successfully reduced fertility of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus); however, associated deer physiology has rarely been examined. We conducted gross necropsy examinations, histology, and blood chemistry comparisons on euthanized deer previously vaccinated with immunogenic GnRH (n = 18 females and n = 4 males), or left as untreated controls (n = 7 females and n = 6 males). Granulomas were found at injection sites of most deer, even 3 years post-treatment. There were no significant …

Gnrh Immunocontraception Of Male And Female White-Tailed Deer Fawns, Lowell A. Miller, James P. Gionfriddo, Jack C. Rhyan, Kathleen A. Fagerstone, Donald C. Wagner, Gary J. Killian

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Immunocontraceptive vaccines based on gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) have been tested in adult white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), but their effects on fawns are unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine if early immunization against GnRH would induce a long-lasting immune response in fawns, and if it would delay or prevent sexual development. We gave primary and subsequent booster injections of a KLH-GnRH/Freund’s vaccine to 6 male and 6 female fawns. This vaccine contained the same active ingredients as GonaCon™ vaccine, but it contained Freund’s adjuvant instead of AdjuVac™ adjuvant. Two 450-μg injections were given 1 month apart …

Demographics Of Non-Hunted White-Tailed Deer Populations In Suburban Areas, Anthony J. Denicola, Dwayne R. Etter, Thomas Almendinger

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Burgeoning deer populations in urban and suburban areas, along with the inherent problems stemming from this increase, are becoming increasingly widespread. To address these problems, wildlife biologists need quality baseline data of herd composition for harvest and treatment forecasts for management and fertility control research programs. In this study, we provide white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) population data from 4 areas where localized suburban white-tailed deer populations were substantially reduced utilizing sharpshooting as a management tool. In each area, legal hunting was nonexistent for >10 years preceding the sharpshooting program. The areas ranged in size from 300 ha to …

Locations Of Deer–Vehicle Collisions Are Unrelated To Traffic Volume Or Posted Speed Limit, John A. Bissonette, Christine A. Kassar

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Consensus is lacking regarding the influence of vehicle speed and traffic volume on deer–vehicle collision (DVC) rates. Yet, annual average daily traffic fl ow (AADT) and posted speed limit (PSL) typically are used to measure these variables. To resolve this conflict, we studied the effects of traffic volume and vehicle speed on DVCs in Utah. Our results showed no relationship between AADT or PSL and DVC occurrence. There are at least 3 explanations for our results: (1) no causal relationship exists; (2) AADT and PSL, as measured, actually explain little of the variation; and (3) data quality problems exist. We …

Deer–Vehicle Collision Statistics And Mitigation Information: Online Sources, Terry A. Messmer, Destiny R. Messmer

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Although good data are lacking, published estimates suggest that >1.5 million deer– vehicle collisions (DVCs) occur annually in the United States. The estimated losses exceed 1 billion dollars. In some states, DVCs are a major cause of reportable accidents. Federal, state, and private partners have cooperated in monitoring trends in DVCs and implementing mitigation measures. Most of this information about such measures is readily available via the Internet. The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with a broad overview of and a guide to the information currently available online to mitigate DVCs.

Book Review The Double-Crested Cormorant: Issues And Management, Valerie M. Burton

Human–Wildlife Interactions

No abstract provided.

The Soap Box Help Me, I Need To Know, Roger D. Applegate

Human–Wildlife Interactions

No abstract provided.

Commentary Impacts Of The Black Bear Supplemental Feeding Program On Ecology In Western Washington, Georg J. Ziegltrum

Human–Wildlife Interactions

No abstract provided.

Population And Spatial Dynamics Of Resident Canada Geese In Southeastern Nebraska, Scott R. Groepper, P. Joseph Gabig, Mark P. Vrtiska, Jason M. Gilsdorf, Scott E. Hygnstrom, Larkin A. Powell

Human–Wildlife Interactions

In response to increasing populations, damage complaints, and a desire to understand population and spatial dynamics, we studied population size, survival rates, home ranges, movements, and site fidelity of female resident Canada geese (Branta canadensis) at 18 study sites within 23 km of Lincoln, Nebraska, during 1991–1994. Based on mean flock size (x̄ = 93) and number of collared geese in flocks (x̄ = 13), the estimated population of resident Canada geese was nearly 4,000. Estimated monthly survival for female Canada geese was 0.94, mean home range was 25 km², and mean maximum distance moved between …

The Well-Being Of Nations: Linking Together Trust, Cooperation, And Democracy, William Tov, Ed Diener

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The theme of this chapter is that cooperative and trusting social relationships tend to enhance people’s subjective well-being (happiness and life satisfaction), and that in turn positive feelings of well-being tend to augment cooperation and trust. Extensive empirical work now supports the fact that sociability, interpersonal warmth, community involvement, and interpersonal trust are heightened by positive emotions. New analyses based on the World Value Survey show that nations that are high on subjective well-being (SWB) also tend to be high on generalized trust, volunteerism, and democratic attitudes. Additional analyses indicate that the association of SWB to volunteerism and democratic attitudes …