Digital Commons Network^™

Sex Work By Law: Bedford's Impact On The Municipal Regulation Of Sex Work, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The recent Ontario trial decision in Bedford suggests three interrelated principles that municipal law makers should consider when formulating bylaws aimed at regulating sex work. These principles, if upheld on appeal, will inform the constitutionality of both current and prospective bylaws regulating sex work in Canadian cities.

In Bedford, Justice Himel concluded that the constitutionality of laws regulating the sex trade must be determined in a legal context which recognizes the violence faced by sex workers. She confirmed that laws that indirectly make sex work more dangerous and harmful must be consistent with those principles that our legal system, through …

Beyond Belief: Prayer As Communication In Religious Information Seeking, David H. Michels

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Prayer role in information seeking has been largely neglected in LIS research. I propose that respondents understood prayer as communication with God. I compared their descriptions of prayer to God with research on interpersonal communication for information seeking. Prayer, for these respondents, met both cognitive and affective information needs.

Le rôle de la prière dans la recherche d’information est un sujet largement négligé en bibliothéconomie et en science de l’information. L’auteur admet que les répondants perçoivent la prière comme un acte de communication avec Dieu. La description des prières a ensuite été comparée à la recherche sur les communications interpersonnelles …

Restorative Justice, Euthanasia, And Assisted Suicide: A New Arena For Restorative Justice And A New Path For End Of Life Law And Policy In Canada, Jennifer Llewellyn, Jocelyn Downie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article examines the current Canadian legal approach to euthanasia and assisted suicide, highlights some of the problems with it, and offers a novel alternative to the current traditionally criminalized prohibitive regime. The authors first describe a restorative justice approach and explain the differences between such an approach and the traditional approach currently in use. They then explain how a restorative justice approach could be implemented in the arena of assisted death, acknowledging the potential challenges in implementation. The authors conclude that taking a restorative justice approach to euthanasia and assisted suicide could enable movement in the seemingly intractable public …

Confusion Worse Confounded: A Comment On 'Withdrawl Of Clinical Trials Policy By Canadian Research Institute Is A 'Lost Opportunity For Increased Transparency', Jocelyn Downie, Francoise Baylis

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

According to a recent BMJ article on CIHR's decision to "disappear" its policy on clinical trial registration, "Ian Graham, CIHR's vice president Knowledge Translation and Public Outreach, stated the CIHR policy was removed 'as the overlap [with Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2)] will cause confusion and inconsistent application of the requirements.'"

Ironically, this explanation is itself confusing and inconsistent with previous decisions made by CIHR. There are at least three areas in which CIHR policy/guidelines overlapped with TCPS 2 (registration and results disclosure of trials, research involving Aboriginal People, and research involving human pluripotent …

The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 – Reflections On Challenges For Flag State Implementation, Moira Mcconnell

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper begins by providing a brief overview of the International Labour Organization’s Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006), noting that this Convention, often called the “Seafarers’ bill of rights”, seeks to achieve both social and labour rights (“decent work”) for seafarers and fair competition (achieving a level-playing field) for shipowners. It has been described as the “fourth pillar” of the international maritime regulatory regime complementing the major International Maritime Organization conventions. The paper provides a brief update on international efforts to achieve the 30/33 formula needed to bring the Convention into force [at present, the tonnage element, 33% …

Patenting Genes And Genetic Methods: What’S At Stake?, Eileen M. Kane

Faculty Scholarship

The emergence of genetic medicine following decades of molecular biology research has been accompanied by the procurement of patent rights to many medically significant genes and methods for their use. The intellectual force of reductionism in the life sciences – to explain biological phenomena with molecular precision – generates direct conflicts with patent law’s exclusion of basic knowledge from patenting: laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas must remain in the public domain. This is a period of renewed attention to the issue of patentable subject matter in the life sciences, with a particular focus on genetic patenting. Patents …

Sex Work By Law: Bedford's Impact On The Municipal Regulation Of Sex Work, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The recent Ontario trial decision in Bedford suggests three interrelated principles that municipal law makers should consider when formulating bylaws aimed at regulating sex work. These principles, if upheld on appeal, will inform the constitutionality of both current and prospective bylaws regulating sex work in Canadian cities. In Bedford, Justice Himel concluded that the constitutionality of laws regulating the sex trade must be determined in a legal context which recognizes the violence faced by sex workers. She confirmed that laws that indirectly make sex work more dangerous and harmful must be consistent with those principles that our legal system, through …

The Dynamics Of Integrate-And-Fire: Mean Vs. Variance Modulations And Dependence On Baseline Parameters, Joanna R. Wares, Todd W. Troyer

Department of Math & Statistics Faculty Publications

The leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) is the simplest neuron model that captures the essential properties of neuronal signaling. Yet common intuitions are inadequate to explain basic properties of LIF responses to sinusoidal modulations of the input. Here we examine responses to low - and moderate-frequency modulations of both the mean and variance of the input current and quantify how these responses depend on baseline parameters. Across parameters, responses to modulations in the mean current are low pass, approaching zero in the limit of high frequencies. For very low baseline firing rates, the response cutoff frequency matches that expected from membrane integration. …

The Case For Dividend Deduction, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Amir C. Chenchinski

Articles

The December 2010 compromise between President Barack Obama and the Republicans extended the 15% tax rate on dividends through the end of 2012. At that point, however, the rate may revert to the Clinton administration rate-39.6%-or be raised to 20%-as proposed by the Obama Administration. Thus, the United States may either abandon corporate-shareholder integration, maintain partial integration, or perhaps even adopt the George W Bush administration's 2003 proposal to exempt dividends altogether-as advocated by some Republicans in Congress. Given this uncertainty and the likelihood of additional Congressional action, now may be a good time to revisit the integration issue. Another …

Competition And Regulation In The Insurance Sector: Reassessing The Mccarran-Ferguson Act, Susan Beth Farmer

Faculty Scholarship

This article was presented at a symposium entitled “Public and Private: Are the Boundaries in Transition?” sponsored by the American Antitrust Institute on June 24, 2010. It proposes a different paradigm, which more precisely describes regulation and competition in the insurance sector. This relationship is the shifting boundary between state and federal regulation instead of a boundary between the public and private sectors. The McCarran-Ferguson Act was adopted to protect firms acting in the business of insurance from federal antitrust scrutiny, but its language and impact goes far beyond federal competition law. So broad is the exemption that the modern …

On The Evolution Of The United Nations’ 'Protect-Respect-Remedy' Project: The State, The Corporation And Human Rights In A Global Governance Context, Larry Cata Backer

Faculty Scholarship

The advent of contemporary economic globalization has substantially altered the regulatory environment in which economic enterprises operate. Once assumed to be creatures of the states that recognized and regulated their existence, economic enterprises today are increasingly capable of arranging their activities beyond the regulatory scope of any state or groups of states. That gap between operational and regulatory capacity has produced a sustained reaction at the national and international levels. States have sought to extend their power over corporations beyond their borders. International organizations have sought to develop supra national legal governance frameworks. This paper examines one of the more …

Why It's Called The Affordable Care Act, Nicholas Bagley, Jill R. Horwitz

Articles

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (“ACA”) raises numerous policy and legal issues, but none have attracted as much attention from lawyers as Section 1501. This provision, titled “Maintenance of Mini-mum Essential Coverage,” but better known as the “individual mandate,” requires most Americans to obtain health insurance for themselves and their dependents by 2014. We are dismayed that the narrow issue of the mandate and the narrower issue of free riding have garnered so much attention when our nation’s health-care system suffers from countless problems. By improving quality, controlling costs, and extending coverage to the uninsured, the …

Expanding The Diversity Of Mycobacteriophages: Insights Into Genome Architecture And Evolution., Welkin Pope, Deborah Jacobs-Sera, Daniel Russell, Craig Peebles, Zein Al-Atrache, Turi Alcoser, Lisa Alexander, Matthew Alfano, Samantha Alford, Nichols Amy, Marie Anderson, Alexander Anderson, Andrew Ang, Manuel Ares Jr, Amanda Barber, Lucia Barker, Jonathan Barrett, William Barshop, Cynthia Bauerle, Ian Bayles, Katherine Belfield, Aaron Best, Agustin Borjon Jr, Charles Bowman, Christine Boyer, Kevin Bradley, Victoria Bradley, Lauren Broadway, Keshav Budwal, Kayla Busby, Ian Campbell, Anne Campbell, Alyssa Carey, Steven Caruso, Rebekah Chew, Chelsea Cockburn, Lianne Cohen, Jeffrey Corajod, Steven Cresawn, Kimberly Davis, Lisa Deng, Dee Denver, Breyon Dixon, Sahrish Ekram, Sarah C.R. Elgin, Angela Engelsen, Belle English, Marcella Erb, Crystal Estrada, Laura Filliger, Ann Findley, Lauren Forbes, Mark Forsyth, Tyler Fox, Melissa Fritz, Roberto Garcia, Zindzi George, Anne Georges, Christopher Gissendanner, Shannon Goff, Rebecca Goldstein, Kobie Gordon, Russell Green, Stephanie Guerra, Krysta Guiney-Olsen, Bridget Guiza, Leila Haghighat, Garrett Hagopian, Catherine Harmon, Jeremy Harmson, Grant Hartzog, Samuel Harvey, Siping He, Kevin He, Kaitlin Healy, Ellen Higinbotham, Erin Hildebrandt, Jason Ho, Gina Hogan, Victoria Hohenstein, Nathan Holz, Vincent Huang, Ericka Hufford, Peter Hynes, Arrykka Jackson, Erica Jansen, Jonathan Jarvik, Paul Jasinto, Tuajuanda Jordan, Tomas Kasza, Murray Katelyn, Jessica Kelsey, Larisa Kerrigan, Daryl Khaw, Junghee Kim, Justin Knutter, Ching-Chung Ko, Gail Larkin, Jennifer Laroche, Asma Latif, Kohana Leuba, Sequoia Leuba, Lynn Lewis, Kathryn Loesser-Case, Courtney Long, A Javier Lopez, Nicholas Lowery, Tina Lu, Victor Mac, Isaac Masters, Jazmyn Mccloud, Molly Mcdonough, Andrew Medenbach, Anjali Menon, Rachel Miller, Brandon Morgan, Patrick Ng, Elvis Nguyen, Katrina Nguyen, Emilie Nguyen, Kaylee Nicholson, Lindsay Parnell, Caitlin Peirce, Allison Perz, Luke Peterson, Rachel Pferdehirt, Seegren Philip, Kit Pogliano, Joe Pogliano, Tamsen Polley, Erica Puopolo, Lauren Rodriguez, Hannah Rabinowitz, Michael Resiss, Corwin Rhyan, Yetta Robinson, Andrew Rose, Jeffrey Rubin, Jessica Ruby, Margaret Saha, James Sandoz, Judith Savitskaya, Dale Schipper, Christine Schnitzler, Amanda Schott, J Bradley Segal, Christopher Shaffer, Kathryn Sheldon, Erica Shepard, Jonathan Shepardson, Madav Shroff, Jessica Simmons, Erika Simms, Brandy Simpson, Kathryn Sinclair, Robert Sjoholm, Ingrid Slette, Blaire Spaulding, Clark Straub, Joseph Stukey, Trevor Sughrue, Tin-Yun Tang, Lyons Tatyana, Stephen Taylor, Barbara Taylor, Louise Temple, Jasper Thompson, Michael Tokarz, Stephanie Trapani, Alexander Troum, Jonathan Tsay, Anthony Thomas Tubbs, Jillian Walton, Danielle Wang, Hannah Wang, John Warner, Emilie Weisser, Samantha Wendler, Kathleen Weston-Hafer, Hilary Whelan, Kurt Williamson, Angelica Willis, Hannah Wirtshafter, Theresa Wong, Phillip Wu, Yun Jeong Yang, Brandon Yee, David Zaidins, Bo Zhang, Melina Zúniga, Roger Hendrix, Graham Hatfull

Biology Faculty Research

Mycobacteriophages are viruses that infect mycobacterial hosts such as Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. All mycobacteriophages characterized to date are dsDNA tailed phages, and have either siphoviral or myoviral morphotypes. However, their genetic diversity is considerable, and although sixty-two genomes have been sequenced and comparatively analyzed, these likely represent only a small portion of the diversity of the mycobacteriophage population at large. Here we report the isolation, sequencing and comparative genomic analysis of 18 new mycobacteriophages isolated from geographically distinct locations within the United States. Although no clear correlation between location and genome type can be discerned, these genomes expand …

Preventive Dentistry Techniques In The Treatment Of Dental Caries And Biofilm Control: A Review, Tyler R. Oatmen

Honors Projects

This study reviews the biological mechanisms and recent advances in preventive dentistry therapies that prevent the formation dental caries, covering both traditional and novel techniques. The techniques covered prevent the formation of dental caries through two therapeutic approaches, either promoting the remineralization of the hard tooth surface or regulating the level and composition of the oral biofilm present in the mouth. Traditional therapies covered include fluoride and calcium treatments that promote the remineralization of the tooth surface, and antibiotic therapies that attempt to regulate oral biofilm levels, such as chlorhexidine, essential oils, systemic antibiotics, and salivation stimulating therapies. Novel applications …

Pre-Nursing Club: Alleviating Secondary Admission Stress Amongst Pre-Nursing Students, Jenna Martens, Katherine Borum

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

The Forgotten Victim: Fighting Sex Trafficking By Addressing The Effect Of Sexualized Culture On Costumers’ Demand, Becca Nixon

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Race, Body, And Sexuality In Music Videos, Erika Vandyke

Honors Projects

Previous research has demonstrated that women are objectified and sexualized in music videos, and that Black characters are underrepresented in most genres. This content analysis addressed the question of whether the bodies and sexuality of women in music videos were portrayed differently based on their race. Music videos (n=47) were coded for women’s character roles, body size, and visual performances of sexuality, and for Black women’s Afrocentricity. Videos were also coded for specific ways women’s bodies were objectified or sexualized through camera shots and angles. Implications include the idea that Black women may internalize video messages about beauty …

Asperger Syndrome: A Review, Trevor J. Essique

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Social Media Marketing Program For Grand Rapids Symphony, Peter Wolfgram

Honors Projects

According Grand Rapids Symphony Marketing Manager Jacalyn Wood, it is the Symphony’s goal to build relationships that lead to attendance at Symphony events (personal communication, April 7, 2011). This marketing plan will use the Symphony’s current target audience for its current Facebook Page to address this goal. It will include men and women of all ages living in West Michigan. Women aged 35-65 will be a sub-target. This audience will be the same for all the relationship-building activities outlined in the following program, even those outside of Facebook.

Helping Your Nonprofit Organization Stay Viable During Tough Economic Times, Bradie Sheehan

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Hip And Shoulder Range Of Motion On Shoulder Function, Alison Reddick

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Healthcare Between Nicaragua And The United States And The Feasibility Of Naturopathic Medicine, Alyssa Neph

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Prenatal Yoga: The Right Choice For Mother And Baby, Devon Neumann

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

The Bison: 2011: Part 1, Howard University

Howard University Yearbooks

This digital object was funded in part through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The digitalization of this object was part of a collaborative effort with the Washington Research Library Consortium and George Washington University.

The Bison: 2011: Part 2, Howard University

Howard University Yearbooks

This digital object was funded in part through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The digitalization of this object was part of a collaborative effort with the Washington Research Library Consortium and George Washington University.

Inherently Female Cases Of Child Abuse And Neglect: A Gender-Neutral Analysis, Suzanne D'Amico

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Tabitha Walrond was a young mother who was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide after her two-month-old son died from malnutrition. This Comment examines how the portrayal of Ms. Walrond by the defense and prosecution, and in the media reflects gender stereotypes in the criminal law and society. The Comment posits the notion that Ms. Walrond was portrayed as either a good or bad mother and once so labeled, the judge, jury and prosecution view her as such, while ignoring her specific situation. As a result, a defendant such as Ms. Walrond may be treated either too harshly or too …

New York’S Fight Over Blight: The Role Of Economic Underutilization In Kaur, Kaitlyn L. Piper

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This note discusses the issues raised by the policy of seizing land through eminent domain by saying that a certain property is "blighted". The author of the note feels that blight should be limited and not merely a way of saying that economic interests of the city are better served by seizing the property through eminent domain. Part I of this Note describes the background of eminent domain and, in particular, the elimination of blight as a qualifying public use. It summarizes the history of the “public use” requirement in the federal and state context and how economic underutilization fits …

Nondebtor Releases In Chapter 11 Reorganizations: A Limited Power, Elizabeth Gamble

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This note concerns the ability of bankrupt companies to file Chapter 11 reorganization plans that contain provisions releasing the liabilities of parties other than the companies themselves. One such mechanism, used in conjunction with the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is a trust releasing a financially-troubled company from liability to certain types of tort claimants. The author argues that although bankruptcy courts do have the power to approve such plans, such power should be carefully limited when companies seek to grant releases to insiders and insurance companies.

School Districts As Weathermen: The School's Ability To Reasonably Forecast Substantial Disruption To The School Environment From Student's Online Speech, Samantha M. Levin

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Note concerns the issue of school officials punishing students for online speech and the precedential value of the Supreme Court's landmark school speech case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) in the internet era. Because off-campus, "intangible" internet speech does not easily fit into the Supreme Court's framework, the author proposes a new standard for internet school speech cases and analyzes how a new standard might be applied to the specific context of "parody profiles" created by students on social networking sites.

Public Use In The Dirigiste Tradition: Private And Public Benefit In An Era Of Agglomeration, Steven J. Eagle

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Dirigisme is the "policy of state direction and control in economic and social matters. This Article examines dirigisme as it relates to state control of land use. It also analyzes the development of eminent domain law and the requirement that takings be for public use. The author argues that the New York Court of Appeals "subordinates constitutional protections for private property to centralized development," specifically examining the recent Goldstein and Kaur opinions. The Article also discusses the implications of condemnation for transfer for private redevelopment, including lack of transparency, secondary rent seeking, possibilities of corruption, and the inefficient use of …