Digital Commons Network^™

Coyote America: A Natural And Supernatural History, David D. Vail

Human–Wildlife Interactions

No abstract provided.

Special Topic: Wildlife And Wing Energy: Are They Compatible? Introduction, Michael Hutchins, Bruce D. Leopold

Human–Wildlife Interactions

No abstract provided.

General Jurisdiction 2.0: The Updating And Uprooting Of The Corporate Presence Doctrine, Edward D. Cavanagh

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

For well over a century, state courts have exercised personal jurisdiction over foreign corporations if they engage in commerce within the state “not occasionally or casually, but with a fair measure of permanence and continuity.” This assertion of judicial power, referred to as general jurisdiction and also as the corporate presence doctrine, permitted courts to entertain claims that had no nexus with the forum state against foreign companies “doing business” within that state. The United States Supreme Court, however, sent this line of cases “careening into the abyss” in Daimler AG v. Bauman, wherein the Court held that …

Employing Trafficking Laws To Capture Elusive Leaders Of Destructive Cults, Robin Boyle Laisure

Faculty Publications

In the 1970s and ‘80s in the United States, American newspapers raised public awareness about cults. Capturing headlines were articles about women, and later men, who followed Charles Manson to the extreme length of committing “Helter Skelter,” a cold-blooded killing spree. Cult activity continued to exist, out of sight and unobserved, until culminating in tragedy when it would, again, become the topic of a news story. Even when cults did not achieve “front-page” status in the news, they continued to recruit adults and raise children born into the group.

Destructive cults are the focus of this paper. Cults continue to …

American Legal Education, Skills Training, And Transnational Legal Practice: Combining Dao And Shu For The Global Practitioner, Michael A. Simons, Margaret E. Mcguinness

Faculty Publications

Transnational law subjects have become an integral part of U.S. law school curricula, and international students are vital members of our law school communities. However, to adequately prepare lawyers more effectively for global legal practice, law schools must integrate skills training into the teaching of transnational law. This essay discussing one comparative approach follows a recent symposia addressing current issues facing global legal education, and China’s reform programs for legal education.

Expanding The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Schools (K-12) And The Regulation Of Cyberbullying, Philip Lee

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In a tragic case that received international attention, 15-year-old Phoebe Prince killed herself after being bullied—both physically and online—by some of her classmates. Phoebe had moved to Massachusetts from a small town in Ireland, enrolling as a freshman at South Hadley High School. After a brief relationship with a popular boy in the senior class, the taunting by her classmates began. Some students called her an “Irish slut” and a “whore,” knocked things out of her hands, and sent her threatening texts. Some of the students used Facebook and Twitter to speak badly about her. Phoebe suffered this treatment …

"Connected" Discovery: What The Ubiquity Of Digital Evidence Means For Lawyers And Litigation, Gail Gottehrer

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

More than ten years ago, the Zubulake case raised awareness of the importance of digital evidence in litigation. At that time, for many lawyers, the discovery process consisted of collecting paper documents, manually reviewing those paper documents, and responding to document requests by producing paper documents. Digital evidence existed, but was more limited in scope and volume than it is today. Back then it was often overlooked or not recognized as a potential source of valuable evidence to be obtained in discovery.

Lawyers’ Obligations When Representing Clients With Diminished Capacity, Elissa Germaine

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Lawyers have a significant role to play in protecting clients with diminished capacity from financial exploitation. PIABA members, in particular, see the issue from a unique vantage point – usually after a person with diminished capacity (or a family member or concerned third party) notices a drop in value in his or her brokerage account and approaches the lawyer to help figure out what happened in the account and, if appropriate, to pursue a claim to recover damages. As such, members must understand their own obligations as lawyers to clients with diminished capacity, obligations that apply in the context …

Digital Direction For The Analog Attorney-Date Protection, E-Discovery, And The Ethics Of Technological Competence In Today's World Of Tomorrow, Stacey Blaustein, Melinda L. Mclellan, James A. Sherer

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Over the past twenty years, the near-constant use of sophisticated technological tools has become an essential and indispensable aspect of the practice of law. The time and cost efficiencies generated by these resources are obvious, and have been for years. And because clients expect their counsel to take full advantage, savvy attorneys understand that they must keep up with ever-evolving legal technologies to stay competitive in a crowded marketplace.

A New Class Of Worker For The Sharing Economy, Megan Carboni

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Jennifer Guidry begins her workday at four a.m. She begins by vacuuming her personal car, preparing it to "ferry around strangers" for Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar. Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar are "ride services that let people summon drivers on demand via [electronic] apps." Her phone pings just moments after four-thirty a.m.-an Uber customer requesting a ride to the airport. She accepts immediately, makes a round trip to the airport in just over an hour, and pockets twenty-eight dollars. This does not account for the cost of gas or wear and tear on her car.6 She performs the airport loop a …

The Author Was Not An Author: The Copyright Interests Of Photographic Subjects From Wilde To Garcia, Eva Subotnik

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Toward the end of his dissent in the Ninth Circuit’s en banc opinion in Garcia v. Google, Judge Alex Kozinski remarked that “[w]hen modern works, such as films or plays, are produced, contributors will often create separate, copyrightable works as part of the process.” Judge Kozinski’s characterization of plays (or even films) as “modern works” opens the door to an examination of that claim with respect to another genre of “modern work[]”: the photograph.

As I will discuss, Judge Kozinski’s claim has not been true of the allocation of rights within that medium. It is therefore surprising that …

Re-Shaming The Debate: Social Norms, Shame, And Regulation In An Internet Age, Kate Klonick

Faculty Publications

Advances in technological communication have dramatically changed the ways in which social norm enforcement is used to constrain behavior. Nowhere is this more powerfully demonstrated than through current events around online shaming and cyber harassment. Low cost, anonymous, instant, and ubiquitous access to the Internet has removed most—if not all—of the natural checks on shaming. The result is norm enforcement that is indeterminate, uncalibrated, and often tips into behavior punishable in its own right—thus generating a debate over whether the state should intervene to curb online shaming and cyber harassment.

A few years before this change in technology, a group …

Corporate Wrongdoing: Interactions Of Legal Mandates And Corporate Culture, Vincent Dilorenzo

Faculty Publications

In recent years, enforcement officials have imposed billions of dollars in sanctions on all major U.S. financial institutions and many major financial institutions abroad. Similar sanctions have been imposed on nonfinancial institutions. The sanctions are the result of findings of recurrent violations of law, as well as recidivism. Why have existing regulatory standards and enforcement policies led to repeated violations of law? Will the recent billion dollar sanctions deter future wrongdoing?

This article explores these issues by examining the philosophy motivating regulatory policy and action in the United States and United Kingdom, using financial regulators as a case study. This …

Social Capital In Online Courses, Thomas Mays

Mid-Western Educational Researcher

As colleges and universities increase their online course offerings, student social experiences in online learning environments require further examination, specifically for nonresidential students who may already be less integrated into college social networks. A social capital framework was used to guide this qualitative study of 17 nonresidential students and two faculty from two regional campuses of a public Midwestern university. Student participants reported different experiences in online courses compared to face-to-face (FTF) courses, expressly reporting the development of fewer friendships in their online courses, a lack of a sense of community, and an increase in the mechanical nature of their …

Implementing An Evidence-Based Reflective Teaching Cycle: Using Scholarly Research In Curriculum Design, Rachel Ragland

Mid-Western Educational Researcher

Course curriculum design using a research-teaching connection and reflective teaching is presented. The research-teaching connection is expanded to a three stage research-teaching-research cycle and reflection is expanded to include both faculty and students. Traditional disciplinary educational research was used to inform the design of the curriculum, and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research was used to measure the success of the course design in achieving its objectives for student learning. The objective of the course redesign was to better engage students in applying the authentic disciplinary practices of the field of history teacher preparation. The research project documented how …

Lesson Plan: An Agenda For Change In American Higher Education, George S. Mcclellan

Mid-Western Educational Researcher

Book Review

Epigenetics: The Guardian Of Pluripotency And Differentiation, Marta Gladych, Aleksandra Nijak, Paula Lota, Urszula Oleksiewicz

Turkish Journal of Biology

Multicellular organisms comprise a variety of cell types that have the same genotype but distinct phenotypes. This diversity is possible because of the establishment of a specific epigenetic landscape that stabilizes gene expression profiles that are exclusive for a particular cell type. Accumulating data indicate that the maintenance, loss, and reacquisition of pluripotency are dynamically regulated by epigenetic alterations evoked by a subset of cellular factors. A better understanding of the epigenetic mechanisms involved in stem cell biology and differentiation will improve our ability to use these cells in the clinical context. Here we review current insights into the epigenetic …

Epigenetic Regulation Of Specific Transcription Factors In Osteogenicdifferentiation Of Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Milad Zadi Heydarabad, Mousa Vatanmakanian, Mina Nikasa, Majid Farshdousti Hagh

Turkish Journal of Biology

An abundance of experiments have been performed to clarify the differentiation process of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Osteogenic differentiation and in vitro conditions favoring these cell lineages have attracted the attention of many researchers. Moreover, the gene expression profile during MSC differentiation toward its main specialized cells (bone, cartilage, and adipose cells) has been mostly understood. In the last decades another layer of investigation has attempted to clarify the epigenetic mechanisms underlying MSC differentiation into its specialized cells. It has been shown that as MSCs progress through the differentiation process, more nonspecific genes undergo DNA methylation to prevent differentiation into …

Comparison Of The Osteogenic Differentiation Capacity Of Adipose Tissuederived Mesenchymal Stem Cells From Humans And Rats, Seçi̇l Erden Tayhan, Şeyma Taşdemi̇r, Sai̇me İsmet Deli̇loğlu Gürhan, Erol Mi̇r

Turkish Journal of Biology

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be found in many types of adult tissues such as the bone marrow, adipose, placenta, liver, and periosteum. Recently, adipose tissue-derived MSCs (ADMSCs) have become one the most preferred MSC types because of their fast proliferation rate, abundance, and high plasticity for variable cell types. It is known that ADMSCs are able to differentiate into various cells, including osteoblasts, so they are quite promising for orthopedic clinical trials. The present study aimed to compare the osteogenic differentiation conditions of MSCs from human adipose tissue (hADMSC) and those of MSCs from rat adipose tissue (rADMSC). Therefore, …

Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells Differentiation Into Epidermal Cells And Interaction With Human Keratinocytes In Coculture, Alexandra Gaspar, Daniel Constantin, Ana-Maria Seciu, Lucia Moldovan, Oana Craciunescu, Elena Ganea

Turkish Journal of Biology

Current procedures used for skin injury reepithelization have yet to improve. At present, stem cell-based therapies provide great potential in repairing different damaged tissues due to the multipotent character of these cells. This study aimed to investigate the in vitro differentiation capacity of human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) into epidermal cells and to evaluate their interaction with HaCaT keratinocytes in coculture experimental models that mimicked the living environment of human skin. The mesenchymal phenotype of isolated stem cells was indicated by their spindle-shaped morphology and the expression of specific surface markers CD73, CD90, and CD105. After 21 days of cultivation …

Investigating Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure By Banks From Institutional Theory Perspective, Wafaa Salah, Iman Mohamed Arafa

Business Administration

Previous research on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has mainly focused on the companies operating in different industry 􀏐ields. Yet, a limited number of research has investigated the CSR practices at the banking sector. Accordingly, this study attempts to add further knowledge to this domain by measuring and comparing the extent and quality of CSR practices and its components which are: Employees, Community, Environment and Corporate governance at a larger geographical scale. Moreover, the relationship between institutional environment and the CSR and its components will be empirically examined. Secondary data provided by CSRHUB database is used for a sample of 231 …

Composite Model Representation For Computer Aided Design Of Functionally Gradient Materials, Fangquan Wang

Masters Theses

"Functionally Gradient Materials (FGMs) feature smooth transition from one material to another within a single object. FGMs modeling is considered to be one of the new challenges in Computer Aided Design (CAD) area. To overcome this challenge, this thesis presents a composite approach to model FGMs. The input in STL format can be meshed and voxelized in FGMs modeling system. The material composition in each voxel can be generated from multiple different types of control features. And LTI filters including Gaussian Filter and Average Filter are applied to blur default material features in order to generate FGMs inside models. The …

Bacterial And Phage Interactions Influencing Vibrio Parahaemolyticus Ecology, Ashley L. Marcinkiewicz

Master's Theses and Capstones

Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a human pathogenic bacterium, is a naturally occurring member of the microbiome of the Eastern oyster. As the nature of this symbiosis in unknown, the oyster presents the opportunity to investigate how microbial communities interact with a host as part of the ecology of an emergent pathogen of importance. To define how members of the oyster bacterial microbiome correlate with V. parahaemolyticus, I performed marker-based metagenetic sequencing analyses to identify and quantify the bacterial community in individual oysters after culturally-quantifying V. parahaemolyticus abundance. I concluded that despite shared environmental exposures, individual oysters from the same collection site varied …

Year-Round Management Of High Tunnel Production Systems: Spinach And Tomato, Connor Eaton

Master's Theses and Capstones

As high tunnel production is relatively new to the Northeast, this research has helped understand knowledge-gaps in common warm and cold-season crop systems in the region. High tunnels increase crop yield and quality and extend the growing season, and are most commonly used for tomato in the warm-season and spinach in the cold-season.

Spinach was grown in unheated high tunnels throughout the cold-season to evaluate the effects of cultivar and planting date on yield and sweetness (Brix° levels). Cultivar and planting date had a significant effect on yield, where earlier planting dates resulted in higher yields. Cultivar had a significant …

Iron Uptake In Symbiosis: The Role Of Siderophore In The Association Between Vibrio Fischeri And Euprymna Scolopes, Evan Dasilva

Master's Theses and Capstones

Iron acquisition is well studied in pathogens, and successful virulence is often attributed to iron acquisition by siderophore and heme uptake; however, the role of iron uptake in mutual symbiotic interactions is not as well understood. The mutual symbiosis between Vibrio fischeri and the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, is a well-characterized system in which iron uptake has been implicated as a symbiotic factor. Four studies have implicated iron uptake in the symbiosis: 1) A TnLux reporter assay revealed that siderophore is more highly expressed by V. fischeri in the light organs of juvenile squid compared to V. fischeri in …

Carotid Intima Media Thickness Evaluation By Ultrasound Comparison Amongst Healthy, Diabetic And Hypertensive Pakistani Patients, Waseem Mirza, Vaqar Bari, Mirza Kazim, Kainat Fatima, Zafar Sajjad, Aziz Jiwani, Nadeem Ahmad, Mubashir Arain, Arif Ali

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Objective: To compare carotid Intima media thickness and atherosclerosis burden amongst healthy, diabetic and hypertensive Pakistani patients.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at the Department of radiology and family medicine, Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi from April 2014 to July 2015. Bilateral carotid ultrasound was done in 133 healthy adults, 65 hypertensive, 31 type-2 diabetic and 37 hypertensive with type-2 diabetes patients. Normal adults were matched for age and gender. Mean intimal media thickness was measured for common and internal carotid arteries. Presence or absence of atherosclerotic plaque was also identified. Height, weight, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and other …

Flaviviruses As A Cause Of Undifferentiated Fever In Sindh Province, Pakistan: A Preliminary Report, Erum Khan, Joveria Q. Farooqi, Kelli L. Barr, Dhani Prakoso, Amna Nasir, Akbar Kanji, Sadia Shakoor, Faisal Riaz Malik, Rumina Hasan, John A. Lednicky

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Arboviral diseases are expanding worldwide, yet global surveillance is often limited due to diplomatic and cultural barriers between nations. With human encroachment into new habitats, mosquito-borne viruses are also invading new areas. The actual prevalence of expanding arboviruses is unknown in Pakistan due to inappropriate diagnosis and poor testing for arboviral diseases. The primary objective of this study was to document evidence of flavivirus infections as the cause of undifferentiated fever in Pakistan. Through a cooperative effort between the USA and Pakistan, patient exposure to dengue virus (DENV), West Nile virus (WNV), and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) was examined in …

The Choral Music Of Daron Aric Hagen And A Conductor’S Analysis Of Flight Music, Jay B. Aiken

Theses and Dissertations

Daron Aric Hagen is an American composer, educator, pianist, conductor, librettist, and stage director of contemporary classical music and opera. He has written nine operas and is currently commissioned to produce a tenth. While he is most noted for his operas, he has composed numerous choral works. Flight Music, a six movement piece for treble chorus is the topic of this study. It is about the ultimate flight of Amelia Earhart. This document will provide a conductor’s analysis of Flight Music and show how Hagen used this choral piece as a precursor to his opera Amelia. A biography of …

Wide Field Measurements Using A Spatial Heterodyne Raman Spectrometer For Transmission Raman Spectroscopy And Standoff Detection, Kimberly A. Fessler

Theses and Dissertations

Our group recently developed a new type of Fourier transform Raman spectrometer, the spatial heterodyne Raman spectrometer (SHRS), for planetary exploration. The SHRS is a high spectral resolution, high throughput, compact dispersive interferometer, similar in design to a Michelson interferometer, where the mirrors are replaced by stationary diffraction gratings. The SHRS has no moving parts and does not require an entrance slit, making the throughput of the system orders of magnitude larger than a typical dispersive spectrometer. The wide field-of-view (FOV) of the SHRS enables wide area measurements without loss of sensitivity or spectral resolution and offers advantages such as …

Virus Particles Provide Nanotopographical Cues For Osteogenic Differentiation Of Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Kamolrat Metavarayuth

Theses and Dissertations

One key aspect of tissue engineering is to develop biomimetic scaffolding materials that can modulate the proliferation, self-renewal and differentiation of multipotent stem cells into different lineages. Bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) can differentiate into several target cells such as osteoblasts, chondrocytes, adipocytes, and smooth muscle cells. BMSCs are commonly used for in vitro osteogenesis studies in bone tissue engineering field. However the mechanisms and signaling pathways that these cells use to recognize and response to biomaterial surface are still unclear. This dissertation focuses on investigating the effect of chemical and physical cues introduced by virus nanoparticles on …