Digital Commons Network^™

Opioids Delay Healing Of Spinal Fusion: A Rabbit Posterolateral Lumbar Fusion Model, Nikhil Jain, Khaled Himed, Jeffrey M. Toth, Karen C. Briley, Frank M. Phillips, Safdar N. Khan

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background Context

Opioid use is prevalent in the management of pre- and postoperative pain in patients undergoing spinal fusion. There is evidence that opioids downregulate osteoblasts in vitro, and a previous study found that morphine delays the maturation and remodeling of callus in a rat femur fracture model. However, the effect of opioids on healing of spinal fusion has not been investigated before. Isolating the effect of opioid exposure in humans would be limited by the numerous confounding factors that affect fusion healing. Therefore, we have used a well-established rabbit model to study the process of spinal fusion healing that …

Predictive Modeling Of Hip Dislocation: Assessment Of Surgical And Patient Factors To Reduce The Occurrence Of Hip Instability And Adverse Clinical Outcomes, Daniel N. Huff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Instability and dislocation remain leading indications for revision of primary Total Hip Arthroplasty (THA). Many studies have addressed the links between implant design and propensity for dislocation, however a comprehensive review of the ability of modern THA constructs to protect against joint instability is needed.

Accordingly, the objective of this study is to provide objective data about THA risks to be considered in the treatment algorithm to protect against adverse joint loading conditions and joint instability. Adverse loading conditions were assessed in a population of activities of daily living using data from telemetric hip implant representation in an FE simulation …

Understanding Why Women Stay: Examining Persistence Factors Of Women Majoring In Science And Technology Programs In Public Ethiopian Universities Using A Mixed Methods Design, Meseret Hailu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Amongst African nations, Ethiopia is a unique case in many respects. The country has the second largest population on the continent, is currently experiencing an economic boom, and is a relatively stable nation in the geopolitically volatile "Horn of Africa" region. In the past two decades, the higher education sector in Ethiopia has experienced rapid growth, as evidenced by an increase in both student enrollment and the number of universities. Amongst the various types of higher education institutions, public universities are especially important because they receive the greatest financial support from the Ministry of Education. Moreover, science and technology programs …

Opioid Addiction Litigation And The Wrongful Conduct Rule, Samuel Fresher

University of Colorado Law Review

The United States is facing an opioid addiction crisis. Can our civil courts help? This Comment explores obstacles to recovery for plaintiffs in tort suits against health care institutions and practitioners in opioid addiction litigation. It argues that defenses based on plaintiffs' wrongful conduct, which deny plaintiffs access to civil remedies due to their immoral or illegal conduct, should be eliminated or avoided in suits arising out of addiction. This Comment concludes that comparative fault principles adequately protect the interests of plaintiffs and defendants in drug addiction suits and advance important public policy goals. Finally, this Comment suggests that irrespective …

The Medium Is The Message: Digital Aesthetics And Publicity Interests In Interactive Entertainment Media, Michael K. Park

University of Colorado Law Review

Recent application of the right of publicity doctrine to interactive media has led to inconsistent rulings and uncertainty as to the doctrine's scope when pitted against First Amendment considerations. These recent court decisions have inadequately explained the disparate application of legal principles, raising serious free speech concerns for expressive activities with other emerging interactive media platforms such as virtual reality. However, these recent decisions have unveiled discernible principles that help explain the disparate approach of the right of publicity doctrine to new interactive media.

This Article articulates the assumptions guiding the disparate application of the right of publicity doctrine. This …

Taxpayers For Public Education V. Douglas County School District: The School Choice Movement Soldiers On, Bryce Carlson

University of Colorado Law Review

For nearly a decade, the school choice movement in Colorado has hung in the balance as the fate of the Douglas County School District Choice Scholarship Program worked its way through the courts, even reaching the United States Supreme Court in the process. The main issue at stake was whether Article IX, § 7 of the Colorado Constitution, which prevents public institutions from making any appropriation to a "church or sectarian society," barred students from using a school district scholarship to attend a private religiously affiliated school.

The Colorado Supreme Court in 2015 ruled that the Choice Scholarship Program indeed …

Character Flaws, Frederic Bloom

University of Colorado Law Review

Character evidence doctrine is infected by error. It is riddled with a set of pervasive mistakes and misconceptions-a group of gaffes and glitches involving Rule 404(b)'s "other purposes" (like intent, absence of accident, and plan) that might be called "character flaws." This Essay identifies and investigates those flaws through the lens of a single, sensational case: United States v. Henthorn. By itself, Henthorn is a tale worth telling-an astonishing story of danger and deceit, malice and murder. But Henthorn is more than just a stunning story. It is also an example and an opportunity, a chance to consider character flaws …

Hyperfunding: Regulating Financial Innovations, Seth C. Oranburg

University of Colorado Law Review

Innovations in corporate finance are driven by frustrations with present regulations and fueled by the internet and social media. Hyperfunding is one such example: Tesla paved the way for an electric vehicle revolution by preselling hundreds of thousands of its Model 3 EV direct to consumers. Unwary consumers may not have realized that they were underwriting Tesla's bold strategy to transform multiple product markets. Risks were not disclosed. Rewards proved illusory. Investors would have been entitled to disclosures and colorable claims of fraud when Tesla missed milestones and deadlines. But consumers can only get their $1000 deposit back, without interest, …

Ecotypes And Killer Whales: A Scientific Concept To Guide The Endangered Species Act's "Distinct Population Segment", Christopher Michael Johnson

University of Colorado Law Review

The Endangered Species Act protects threatened and endangered species, subspecies, and distinct population segments, with species listings guided by the best scientific information available. "Distinct population segment," however, is not a biological term. To date, there is still not a test based on evolutionary theory used to determine distinct population segments. This Comment attempts to change that by introducing the ecotype concept-a scientific theory that has existed for over one hundred years-into jurisprudence. This Comment begins by recounting how the distinct population segment terminology came to be. Next, it argues that the Endangered Species Act has been implemented contrary to …

Compact Compliance As A Beneficial Use: Increasing The Viability Of An Interstate Water Bank Program In The Colorado River Basin, Emily Halvorsen

University of Colorado Law Review

There is a looming problem facing the Colorado River Basin: an increasing likelihood of a compact call on the Upper Basin due to projected climate change and population growth stresses on the Colorado River. To address this problem, water resource managers and natural resource management organizations throughout the Upper Basin have proposed a leading approach of an interstate water bank program. There are three main shortfalls to this though, which do not make the program a viable approach in addressing the problem: (1) legal uncertainty regarding individual water rights; (2) concerns regarding speculation; and (3) lack of incentives for state …

Animal Property Rights, Karen Bradshaw

University of Colorado Law Review

The animal rights movement largely focuses on protecting species whose suffering is most visible to humans, such as pets, livestock, and captive mammals. Yet, we do not observe how unsustainable land development and fishing practices are harming many species of wildlife and sea creatures. Fish and wildlife populations have recently suffered staggering losses, and they stand to lose far more. This Article proposes a new legal approach to protect these currently overlooked creatures. I suggest extending property rights to animals, which would allow them to own land, water, and natural resources. Human trustees would manage animal-owned trusts managed at the …

Identity Harm, Sarah Dadush

University of Colorado Law Review

In September 2015, the world learned that Volkswagen had rigged millions of its "clean diesel" vehicles with illegal software designed to cheat emissions tests. Contrary to what had been advertised, the vehicles are anything but clean. When affected owners learned that their cars were toxic, what were they most upset about? Was it that their cars were now worth fewer dollars? Or that they had been deceived into being hyperpolluting drivers, when they thought they were being green? Coverage of the emissions scandal strongly suggests that affected car owners experienced both kinds of disappointment, economic and noneconomic, and in heavy …

Holding The Harmful Harmless: Lessons From Gold King Mine, Timbre Shriver

University of Colorado Law Review

The disaster at Love Canal focused the nation's attention on hazardous waste sites left behind by years of corporate recklessness and mismanagement. To fill the regulatory gap and prevent future incidents like Love Canal, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). The statute not only empowers the EPA to retroactively hold parties responsible for the mismanagement of hazardous waste, but it also provides a funding mechanism-Superfund-to ensure that the most dangerous sites are cleaned up even when responsible parties cannot be found or, more likely, are insolvent. However, an often-overlooked provision in the CERCLA framework grants …

Semantic Hygiene For The Law Of Regulatory Takings, Due Process, And Unconstitutional Conditions -- Making Use Of A Muddy Supreme Court Exactions Case, Zygmunt J.B. Plater, Michael O'Loughlin

University of Colorado Law Review

An unfortunate amount of semantic confusion currently burdens the constitutional process of balancing private property rights and governmental public welfare protections. The Fifth Amendment contains both a general requirement of "due process," and a corollary protection against unconstitutional "taking" of property. These are two separate protections, not just one. More than a century after the Takings Clause was drafted, an enigmatic decision, Pennsylvania Coal, expanded the clause to say that government regulations could cause such a diminution of private property value that they could unconstitutionally take that property, even with no physical appropriation (which is how the Framers had understood …

Table Of Contents (Vol. 89, Issue 3)

University of Colorado Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Social Identities On Civic Identity, Audrey Hudgins, Gina M. Lopardo

Educational and Organizational Learning and Leadership Dissertations

There is a growing societal need for civic-minded leaders, and undergraduate students are poised to become the future leaders and decision makers for a global society. This dissertation explores the demographics and experiences of undergraduate students and their perceived civic-mindedness at a predominantly White, urban, Jesuit-Catholic, liberal arts university in the Northwest United States. It also examines the relationship between the students’ social and civic identities, suggesting that an identity-neutral Civic- Minded Graduate (CMG) construct fails to account for the role of social identities. This examination of the personal and social identities of gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status on the …

Breathing Air With Heft: An Experiential Report On Environmental Law And Public Health In China, Erin Ryan

Scholarly Publications

This article explores the gritty intersections of daily life and environmental law in modern China, an industrial powerhouse still struggling to reconcile economic opportunity with breathable air, clean water, healthy food, and safe products. With comparative perspective on analogous challenges in the United States, the article reports on these critical domestic challenges for China at a pivotal moment in its reemergence as a dominant world power. China’s continued geopolitical rise may well hinge on its ability to respond successfully to the environmental causes of growing social unrest. In 2011, in the midst of this maelstrom, I brought my husband, young …

Snapshots Of Confinement: Memory And Materiality Of Japanese Americans' World War Ii Era Photo Albums, Whitney J. Peterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The US government's incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II denied over 120,000 people basic rights and civil liberties. Limits on owning cameras inflicted unique hardship as people were unable to photographically document their lives as they had before the war. My research focuses on photographs that people managed to take and acquire in the camps, investigating the role of snapshot photography in remembering and understanding World War II experiences of incarceration. The photo albums I researched are housed in museum collections at two former sites of confinement: Manzanar National Historic Site in the Eastern Sierra of California and …

The Food Babe Fearmonger: Transcending Spheres Of Argument Through The Dual Use Of Personal And Pseudo-Technical Expertise, Abigail Shew

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This thesis examines the public figure Vani Hari, aka The Food Babe, and her influence on public dialogue about food, nutrition, and diet. Using the theoretical framework of spheres of argument as originally described by G. Thomas Goodnight, this thesis analyzes Food Babe as an expert within the personal, technical, and public spheres. Both verbal and visual arguments will be considered throughout the analysis of Food Babe as both a personal sphere rhetor and pseudo-technical expert. This thesis argues that Food Babe simultaneously uses personal sphere evidence and argumentative strategies to legitimize herself as a pseudo-technical expert within the technical …

Voltage Regulation Of Unbalanced Distribution Network With Distributed Generators Through Genetic Algorithm, Islam Ali

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Energy demand has rapidly increased since the manufacturing revolution in the 19th century. One of the higher energy demands is electricity. The great majority of devices in the manufacturing field run on electricity. The vertically integrated grid paradigm has to be changed to supply the increase in the electrical demand residentially and commercially. Distributed generators (DG) such as Photovoltic (PV) is used to supply the increase in the electrical demand. Photovoltaic (PV) is one of the fast growing distributed generators (DG) as a renewable energy source. However, installing many PV systems to the distribution system can cause power quality problems …

The Moral Motivations Of Negative Attitudes Toward Transgender People, Hailey Annette Hatch

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Transgender individuals are at higher risk for experiencing sexual assault and police brutality than the general population (National Coalition for Anti-Violence Programs, 2013). These brutal acts are likely the result of negative attitudes. Negative attitudes toward transgender people are related to individual differences in psychological authoritarianism, political conservatism, religiosity, and low personal contact with sexual minorities (Norton & Herek, 2013). This study explored underlying moral mechanisms that may also contribute to negative attitudes toward transgender people – specifically mechanisms involving generalized disgust (i.e., purity) and harm. Moral foundations theory (Haidt & Graham, 2007) suggests that disgust is the underlying mechanism …

The Bone Reader, By Mab Morris. Reviewed By J. Brice Odem., J. Brice Odem

Mythprint Book Reviews

Mythprint is the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local discussion groups.

Theresa Maybe In Brexitland, By Madeleina Kay (Author And Illustrator). Reviewed By Joe R. Christopher., Joe R. Christopher

Mythprint Book Reviews

Mythprint is the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local discussion groups.

On Elemental Phenomenology: Sallis And Dzogchen Buddhism, Schwartz, Michael

Journal of Conscious Evolution

John Sallis’ volumes on the Force of the Imagination (2000) and Logic of the Imagination (2012) constitute, in the field of contemporary Continental thought, a novel philosophical view of the elementals. Tibetan Buddhism has a more than a thousand-year old tradition of teaching about and practicing with the elements. This study is a preliminary exploration of the cross-currents of these two elemental teachings.

Uncovering The Lost Knowledge Of The Imagination In Films, Seda, Daniel A.

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Films have forever changed the way in which humans perceive reality and have provided significant opportunities to spread knowledge in ways that are both entertaining and deceptive. Uncovering the lost knowledge of the imagination shifts an individual’s perceptions of a shared experience and exposes film’s persuasive power to penetrate the psyche. This paper explores the constitutions of reality and how humans are able to tap into other realms of consciousness through mediums of creative expression. Topics such as the origins of life, the hidden knowledge of secret societies, and the burgeoning full disclosure movement for truth are discussed as a …