Digital Commons Network^™

Scaleup And Hydrodynamics Study Of Gas-Solid Spouted Beds, Shreekanta Basavaraj Aradhya

Doctoral Dissertations

"A thorough understanding of the complex flow structure of gas-solid spouted bed is crucial for design, scale-up and performance. Advanced gas-solid optical probes were developed and used to evaluate different hydrodynamic parameters of spouted beds. These optical probes measure solids concentration, velocity and their time series fluctuations. Since solids concentration needs to be converted to solids holdup through calibration, for meaningful interpretation of results, a novel calibration method was proposed (which is inexpensive and reliable compared to the current reported methods) and validated in the present study. The reported dimensionless groups approach of spouted bed scale-up was assessed and was …

Shear And Fracture Behavior Of High Performance Concretes, Mahdi Arezoumandi

Doctoral Dissertations

"Concrete is the most widely used man-made material in the world. Like other materials, it has been improved over time. Nowadays, with continued development of science and technology, a new generation of concretes is produced and is termed high performance concretes. A review of previously published work indicates that very few studies (in some cases none) have addressed the structural behavior of full-scale, high performance concrete elements. This study investigated the shear and fracture behavior of two types of high performance concrete - high-volume fly ash concrete (HVFAC) and self-consolidating concrete (SCC). The HVFAC incorporates up to 70% cement replacement …

Accepting The Limits Of Tax Law And Economics, Alex Raskolnikov

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the limits of tax law and economics, attributing them to the unique complexity of the tax optimization problem. Designers of the optimal tax system must account for the impossibility of deterring socially undesirable behavior, provide for redistribution, and minimize social costs on the basis of assumptions that are laden with deeply contested value judgments, pervasive empirical uncertainty, or both. Given these challenges, it is hardly surprising that economic theory has a much weaker connection to the content of our tax laws and their enforcement than it does to the content and enforcement of many other legal regimes. …

A Conversation With Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Gillian E. Metzger, Abbe Gluck

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Gillian Metzger: Katherine, thank you for that wonderful overview of all that the Justice has achieved and the history of Columbia Law School. And I want to apologize for those to whom I am showing my back, but this will allow us to have more of a conversation with the Justice.

Justice, thank you so much for being with us today. It is a real privilege for us to get to talk to you this way, and we know for the entire audience. You have had – as you have now heard (LAUGHS) – an amazing and just tremendously …

The Presumption Of Constitutionality And The Individual Mandate, Gillian E. Metzger, Trevor W. Morrison

Faculty Scholarship

Every American law student learns that there is a difference between a statute's meaning and its constitutionality. A given case might well present both issues, but law students are taught that the questions are distinct and that their resolution requires separate analyses. This is all for good reason: the distinction between statutory meaning and constitutional validity is both real and important. But it is not complete. Any approach to statutory interpretation depends on a view about the appropriate role of the judiciary (or other institutional interpreter) in our constitutional system; "[a]ny theory of statutory interpretation is at base a theory …

State Hazard Mitigation Plans And Climate Change: Rating The States, Matthew Babcock

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Climate change is affecting and will continue to affect the frequency and severity of natural hazard events, a trend that is of increasing concern for emergency managers and hazard mitigation agencies across the United States. Proper response to these hazards will require preparation and planning. Unfortunately, states are not required to include analysis of climate change in their State Hazard Mitigation Plans, which leads to uneven treatment of the issue and missed opportunities for mitigation planning. This survey identifies those state plans that address climate change and climate-related issues in an accurate and helpful manner and those that do not. …

Fracking And Federalism Choice, Michael Burger

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

In response to David B. Spence's "Federalism, Regulatory Lags, and the Political Economy of Energy Production," I offer a set of constructive challenges to his article. In Part I, I argue that fracking’s federalism-choice question has already been answered, and that but for the outdated and underjustified exemptions mentioned above, fracking is already under the jurisdiction of federal regulators. In Part II, I conduct an alternative federalism-choice analysis that adds to Professor Spence’s analysis in three ways. First, I balance his analysis by examining rationales commonly used to justify decentralization, rather than federalization, of environmental law. Second, I argue that …

Environmental Law/Environmental Literature, Michael Burger

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

What, is truly "environmental" about environmental law? This Article is the first attempt to answer this question by integrating Law & Literature scholarship with the study of environmental law. I argue that competing narratives of nature and culture common to the American environmental imagination play a more significant role in environmental law and litigation than previously acknowledged. These competing narratives, communicated through a known set of environmental stories and tropes, are used by attorneys to establish, frame, narrate and argue their cases, and they are absorbed, reimagined, reframed and retold by judges in their written opinions, making environmental law a …

The (Re)Federalization Of Fracking Regulation, Michael Burger

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

The purpose of this Article is to defend environmental law's federalism choices from the insinuation that they do not match fracking's environmental impacts and to demonstrate that fracking does indeed belong under the umbrella of federal law. The Article proceeds in four Parts. Part I establishes the federalism-choice analysis framework and applies it to both state and federal regulation of fracking. Part II buttresses the conclusion that federal regulation of potential impacts on underground drinking-water supplies is appropriate through a fresh and extensive examination of the statutory scheme and legislative history of SDWA. Part III offers further support for federal …

The Impact Of Imprecision In Hcv Viral Load Test Results On Clinicians’ Therapeutic Management Decisions And On The Economic Value Of The Test, Roberta M. Madej

Theses and Dissertations

Clinical laboratory test results are integral to patient management. Important aspects of laboratory tests’ contributions are the use of the test information and the role they have in facilitating efficient and effective use of healthcare resources. Methods of measuring those contributions were examined using quantitative HCV RNA test results (HCV VL) in therapeutic management decisions as a model. Test precision is important in those decisions; therefore, the clinical use was evaluated by studying the impact that knowledge of inherent assay imprecision had on clinicians’ decisions. A survey describing a simulated patient at a decision point for HCV triple-combination therapy management …

Two To Tango: A Dyadic Analysis Of Links Between Borderline Personality Traits And Intimate Partner Violence, E. Maneta, S. Cohen, Marc S. Schulz, R. J. Waldinger

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Although research has shown links between borderline personality and intimate partner violence (IPV), few studies have examined how each partner’s personality traits may influence the other’s behavior(Hines, 2008). This study incorporated dimensional assessments of borderline personality organization (BPO) in both partners into a dyadic model that examined associations with IPV. In a community sample of 109 couples, Actor-Partner Interdependence Modeling was used to examine links between BPO traits in each partner and victimization and perpetration of IPV. Men’s level of BPO traits was associated with more IPV towards and more victimization by their partners. Women’s level of BPO traits was …

Efficacy Of A New Postpartum Transition Protocol For Avoiding Pregnancy, Thomas Bouchard, Richard J. Fehring, Mary Schneider

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Introduction: The postpartum period is a challenging time for family planning, especially for women who breastfeed. Breastfeeding delays the return of menses (lactational amenorrhea), but ovulation often occurs before first menses. For this reason, a protocol was developed to assist women in identifying their return of fertility postpartum to avoid pregnancy.

Methods: In this prospective, 12-month, longitudinal cohort study, 198 postpartum women aged 20 to 45 years (mean age, 30.2 years) were taught a protocol for avoiding pregnancy with either online or in-person instruction. A hand-held fertility monitor was used to identify the fertile period by testing for urinary changes …

Using Problems To Teach Quantitative Damages In A First Year Torts Class, Paul F. Figley

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article suggests an exercise that demonstrates to beginning law students the complexity of calculating damages in personal injury litigation. It shows the straight-forward method of calculating the lost future earnings of an injured working adult, and the greater complexity of calculating the lost future earnings of an injured child. It explains how to use life expectancy tables and work-life expectancy tables to calculate lost future income. It shows how to use future value tables to compute the amount of money needed today to replace a flow of income for a set period in the future. It provides examples of …

Hamdan V. United States: A Death Knell For Military Commissions?, Jennifer Daskal

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In October 2012, a panel of the D.C. Circuit dealt a blow to the United States’ post- September 11, 2001 decade-long experiment with military commissions as a forum for trying Guantanamo Bay detainees. Specifically, the court concluded that prior to the 2006 statutory reforms, military commission jurisdiction was limited to violations of internationally-recognized war crimes; that providing material support to terrorism was not an internationally-recognized war crime; and that the military commission conviction of Salim Hamdan for material support charges based on pre-2006 conduct was therefore invalid. Three months later, a panel of the D.C. Circuit reached the same conclusion …

Verbal Abuse Of Pediatric Nurses By Patients And Families, Ann Truman, Myra Goldman, Carlee Lehna, Jill Berger, Robert V. Topp

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which nurses practicing in a pediatric hospital encounter verbal abuse by patients and families and their reactions to this abuse.

Background: Verbal abuse, the most common type of workplace violence against nurses results in declining morale and job satisfaction, and can negatively impact nurse turnover and quality of patient care.

Methods: The study employed a concurrent triangulation strategy using mixed methods. The 162 nurses who volunteered completed a 3-part questionnaire, and a subgroup participated in one of three focus groups.

Results: Eighty-two percent of subjects reported verbal abuse …

Engaging Student's Learningthrough A Blended Learning Environment, Andrew Stuart

Conference papers

Within the furniture manufacturing industry a high proportion of occupational accidents are as a result of non-compliance to machining regulations and incorrect work practices. Safety training plays an important role in reducing accidents and promoting a safety culture within this sector. This article details an action research study undertaken during the first year of a new Degree in Timber Product Technology, which set out to evaluate the impact a blended learning environment and reusable learning objects (RLOs) could have on promoting safe work practices and a safety culture amongst students. A constructivist approach was taken and the module design was …

What Is The Meaning Of Like: The First Amendment Implications Of Social-Media Expression, Ira Robbins

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Everywhere the Internet goes, new legal problems are sure to follow. As social media expands and infiltrates our daily lives, society must grapple with how to extend the law to modern situations. This problem becomes increasingly pressing as more and more of our social interactions take place online. For example, Facebook has become a colossal gathering place for friends, families, co-workers, frenemies, and others to disseminate their ideas and share information. Sometimes Facebook replaces old institutions; other times it augments them. Where once a neighbor would show allegiance to a political candidate by staking a sign on the front lawn, …

Punitive Preventive Justice: A Critique, Bernard E. Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter identifies the origins of contemporary preventive endeavour in the work of the RAND Corporation in America, which developed highly technical studies of crime prevention based upon systems analysis. It suggests that RAND promoted a decidedly punitive style of prevention based upon policing and punishment that is replicated in modern ‘punitive preventive measures’. It criticizes these measures, emphasizing the perils they pose and the weakness of their empirical foundations. Most worryingly, these measures typically claim an apolitical, neutral emphasis on efficiency that fails to engage with the political values underlying them. In so doing, it tends to displace much …