Digital Commons Network^™

Birth Rights And Wrongs Extended, Reuven Brandt

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

Dov Fox’s Birth Rights and Wrongs offers a largely compelling argument for expanding the scope of legal actions and remedies available to those whose reproductive choices are wrongfully frustrated by the actions of others. The dominant focus of the book is individuals who, due to the negligence and/‌or malice of medical professionals, suffer harms arising from reproduction imposed, denied, or confounded. A serious examination of these kinds of injuries is certainly appropriate given that medical professionals are increasingly involved in individuals’ reproductive plans and that serious harms may arise when desired medical interventions are improperly implemented. I will not take …

Birth Rights And Birth Wrongs Through A Common Law Lens: Why The No Liability Regime Is Likely To Endure, Richard A. Epstein

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

Dov Fox’s recent book, the aptly named Birth Rights and Wrongs, is, as its title suggests, a study of the stark conflicts that arise in the highly contested area of reproductive rights. Fox makes the powerful case that the legal protection of reproductive rights, in all their protean forms, is systematically under-protected relative to two key benchmarks: the standards of ordinary decency, and social expectations. In my view, he has an acute awareness of these failures. But his greatest strength is also his greatest weakness, as he systematically ignores the great successes wrought through the current system, as disjointed …

Family Planning And Its Limits, Dov Fox

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

A doctor botches a vasectomy. Or says it’d be dangerous to keep a healthy pregnancy. Or misses a risk of passing along disease. Our laws do little to deter such reproductive negligence or compensate its victims. Some of this misconduct leaves people without the baby they desperately want. Other times, it foists on parents a child they’d set out to avoid. Or one with meaningfully different traits than what they were led to believe.

I call these three harms procreation deprived, procreation imposed, and procreation confounded.

Thousands of fertility patients were deprived of biological parenthood when their …

Joint Action, Intended Meaning, And (Statutory) Interpretation, Richard Ekins

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

Smith and Jones (singular) is an exporting firm, an agent. It is formed by two partners, Smith and Jones (plural), acting jointly and is thus a small purposive group. Mary is the firm’s employee. She forms part of the group insofar as her acts will be acts of the firm. Mary acts on written instructions, which means that Smith and Jones jointly direct Mary by way of instructions to which they both agree, the agreement of each partner being signified by each signing a memorandum.

Smith and Jones jointly stand to Mary as superior to inferior. The firm has a …

Multimember Legislative Bodies And Intended Meaning, Jeffrey Goldsworthy

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

Intentionalists agree that the meaning of an ordinary communication is either identical to or depends heavily on what the speaker or author intended it to be. But the “or” marks a disagreement between “subjective” intentionalists, such as Larry Alexander and Richard Kay, and “objective” intentionalists such as me.

Subjective intentionalists claim that the meaning of any communication is whatever its speaker intended it to mean. Objective intentionalists find this dubious because it seems possible for the meaning that people intend to communicate to differ from the meaning they do communicate. It surely cannot be the case that, whenever we speak …

(Hypothetical) Communication In (Hypothetical) Context, Gary Lawson

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

I will start with the second of our two “group minds” problems, involving potentially differing understandings of fruit, because I think it is conceptually simpler, or at least more amenable to an answer, than is the first problem.

The precise question is how I would handle the problem of application of the fruit tax to tomatoes and kiwi if that problem came before me as a judge. That specification of interpretative role is crucial.

At the outset, we need one very important piece of information that is not provided: What is the governmental form of Lex? If Lex is a …

Using A Firearm, Using A Word: What Interpretation Just Is, Walter Benn Michaels

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

My response to these hypotheticals is going to be useless, although, I hope, in a useful way. It’s going to be useless because I’m an English teacher, not a lawyer, and I have no idea what Mary or the judge should do. But, of course, Larry Alexander and Steve Smith already knew this when they asked me to contribute. Presumably, it’s in my capacity as a theorist of interpretation and in particular (since the hypotheticals might be understood to raise particular difficulties for intentionalists) as an intentionalist theorist that they asked for my views. But, as an intentionalist theorist, I …

Plural Agents, Private Intentions, And Legal Interpretation, Scott Soames

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

The chief problem posed in Multimember Legislative Bodies and Intended Meaning is one in which lawmakers pass a tax bill supported by two equal groups with conflicting interpretations of the bill’s content. One believes it taxes imported tomatoes, among other things; the other believes it exempts tomatoes. They disagree because they received supposedly authoritative, but in fact conflicting, information about the meaning of “fruit” in the bill’s text. One group was told it is used with its biological sense, which includes tomatoes as edible seed-bearing reproductive parts of a plant. The other group was told that “fruit” is used with …

Commentary, Stanley Fish

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

Suppose you are walking in the corridors of a law firm and you hear a person in one of the offices say “You have no consideration.” What do you take the speaker to have said or meant? You might reasonably assume that you have overheard a snatch of a conversation between a lawyer and a client who is being told that he cannot allege breach of contract because in the conversation he reports between himself and the one he would accuse there was an absence of reciprocally offered inducements of the kind “if you do X, I will do Y” …

Intentional Procreation, Robin L. West

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

Dov Fox’s book Birth Rights and Wrongs makes the case for the development, through judicial decision-making, of various torts that would respond to the disruption of intentional conception, contraception, gestation and childbirth, where those intentions are thwarted because of the negligence of professionals employed to assist or guide consumers of their services in reaching their reproductive goals.

Formalist Textualism And The Cernauskas Problem, Larry Alexander

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

In a recent article, Tara Grove distinguishes between what she calls “formalist textualism” and “flexible textualism.” Formalist textualism is really another term for literalism, in which statutory and constitutional language is given its semantic meaning—presumably its meaning at the time of enactment—in its “semantic context.” Grove illustrates the latter by pointing out that the phrase “domestic violence” appears in a statute that also mentions “insurrection,” thus suggesting that domestic violence there refers to acts similar to insurrection rather than to spousal abuse.

Flexible textualism, on the other hand, looks beyond the semantic meaning of the text and its semantic context …

Using Facies Analysis And Reservoir Characterization Of The Albian-Cenomanian Nanushuk Formation To Assist In Better Understanding Interactions Between Shoreface, Deltaic, And Fluvial Systems On The North Slope, Alaska, Andrea Smoot

Theses and Dissertations

The Albian-Cenomanian Nanushuk Formation located on the North Slope of Alaska is the result of fluvial, deltaic, and shoreface processes and has been the focus of recent petroleum exploration activity in the Colville Basin. The Nanushuk and underlying Torok formations together contain an estimated 8.7 billion barrels of oil and 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves within the resource-rich North Slope. The Nanushuk Formation is composed of sediment sourced from the Chukotka Peninsula to the west and deposited axially within the Colville Basin. High sedimentation rates led to rapid progradation of shoreface and deltaic systems, which effectively filled …

Front Matter And Table Of Contents

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fear, Loathing, And The Hemispheric Consequences Of Xenophobic Hate, Ernesto Sagás, Ediberto Román

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

“When you have fifteen thousand people marching up . . . how do you stop these people?” “You shoot them” [crowd member shouts] [chuckling, Trump responds:] “[O]nly in the Panhandle can you get away with that thing.”¹
President Donald Trump

“Thousands of criminal aliens. They’re pouring into our country.”²
President Donald Trump

“They’re not people, these are animals.”³
President Donald Trump

“Take a look at the death and destruction that’s been caused by people coming into this country caused by people that shouldn’t be here.”⁴
President Donald Trump

“ [We] have millions and millions of people …

Falling Through The Cracks Of Education: A Comparative Analysis Of Canada’S And The United States’ Use Of Standardized Testing Within The Realm Of Public Education, Micaela Baldner

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The education system is foundational to society. Public education is based on the concept of equal educational opportunities for all. Although the purpose of standardized testing is the elimination of bias to prevent certain segments of society’s students from receiving unfair academic advantages, there is little empirical verification that suggests that standardized testing actually achieves its intended purpose. In fact, the evidence indicates that standardized testing negatively impacts low-income, marginalized, and English-learning students, as achievement gaps for these groups have remained the same or have even grown with the increased use of such tests. This article will discuss the intended …

2021-12-16 Caudill Connection, Morehead State University. Caudill College Of Arts, Humanities And Social Sciences.

Caudill Connection

Caudill Connection newsletter for December 16, 2021.

Nature-Based Solutions In Environmental Planning: Ecosystem-Based Adaptations, Green Infrastructures, And Ecosystem Services To Promote Diversity In Urban Landscapes, Lorena Alves Carvalho Nascimento

Dissertations and Theses

Nature-based solutions encompass strategies that explore ecosystem-based adaptations, green infrastructures, and ecosystem services in environmental planning and landscape management. However, nature-based solutions do not always consider ecological values and perspectives from Black, Indigenous, and Global South population. This dissertation has three independent papers that explore the application of ecosystem-based adaptations, green infrastructures, and ecosystem services in communities unheard by environmental planning agencies. The first paper is a conceptual framework that used literature review and observations of current human-nature interactions to reflect how the criminalization, acculturation, and cultural appropriation of cultural ecosystem services have burdened Black and Indigenous identities. Recommendations for …

Antipsychotic Medication Administration In Oregon Assisted Living/Residential Care Settings: Analyzing An Action Situation, Sarah Dys

Dissertations and Theses

Antipsychotic medication use (APU) in assisted living and residential care (AL/RC) settings is an under-studied and controversial health policy issue. APU in older adults with dementia is associated with an increased risk of falls, hospitalizations, and early mortality. I operationalize the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework using a situational analysis approach, an extension of grounded theory methods, to explore the APU in Oregon AL/RC settings. Regulatory deficiency citations, Oregon AL/RC population data, and semi-structured interviews suggest that staff role clarity, organizational characteristics, and perceived agency influence decision-making around APU. AL/RC providers and caregivers are forced to simultaneously balance and prioritize …

Intracavity Phase Interferometry Based Fiber Sensors, Luke Jameson Horstman

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

Intracavity Phase Interferometry (IPI) is a detection technique that exploits the inherent sensitivity of a laser's frequency to the parameters of its cavity. Intracavity interferometry is orders of magnitude more sensitive than its extracavity alternatives. This dissertation improves on previous free-space proof-of-concept designs. By implementing the technique in fiber optics, using optical parametric oscillation, and investigating non-Hermitian quantum mechanics and dispersion tailoring enhancement techniques, IPI has become more applicable and sensitive. Ring and linear IPI configurations were realized in this work, both operating as bidirectional fiber optical parametric oscillators. The benefit of using externally pumped synchronous optical parametric oscillation is …

Climate Mitigation Through Biological Conservation: Extensive And Valuable Blue Carbon Natural Capital In Tristan Da Cunha’S Giant Marine Protected Zone, David K.A. Barnes, James B. Bell, Amelia E. Bridges, Louise Ireland, Kerry L. Howell, Stephanie M. Martin, Chester J. Sands, Soto A Mora, Terri Souster, Gareth Flint, Simon A. Morley

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Carbon-rich habitats can provide powerful climate mitigation if meaningful protection is put in place. We attempted to quantify this around the Tristan da Cunha archipelago Marine Protected Area. Its shallows (<1000 m depth) are varied and productive. The 5.4 km2 of kelp stores ~60 tonnes of carbon (tC) and may export ~240 tC into surrounding depths. In deep-waters we analysed seabed data collected from three research cruises, including seabed mapping, camera imagery, seabed oceanography and benthic samples from mini-Agassiz trawl. Rich biological assemblages on seamounts significantly differed to the islands and carbon storage had complex drivers. We estimate ~2.3 million tC are stored in benthic biodiversity of waters <1000 m, which includes >0.22 million tC that can be sequestered (the proportion of the carbon captured that is expected to become buried in sediment or locked away in skeletal tissue for at least 100 years). Much of this carbon is captured by cold-water coral reefs as a mixture of inorganic (largely calcium carbonate) and organic compounds. As part of its 2020 Marine Protection Strategy, these deep-water reef systems are now protected by …

Blended Language Learning: The Decision-Making Process In Designing A Blended Portuguese Course, Camellia Hill

Theses and Dissertations

This study identifies how content specialists, instructors, and instructional designers made decisions about what content to teach in person and what to teach online for a second year Portuguese university course. Qualitative vignettes around three course design participants highlight emergent themes and course artifacts from their interviews that show how they made decisions about what learning opportunities to do online and what to leave in person. The blended language course involved Canvas learning management system with two additional main technology tools used in development: GoReact and H5P. The results are subdivided to reflect the views of the instructional designer, the …

A Peer Feedback Process To Improve Assistant Nurse Manager Job Satisfaction, Juanita A. Jularbal-Walton

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Problem

Healthcare organizations offer different methods of training for emerging and newly hired Assistant Nurse Managers (ANM). Without sufficient orientation to what the role requires, new ANMs receive many requests without adequate guidance on how to respond to patient, staff, and leadership requests. This experience creates unhealthy work environments with low job satisfaction and high turnover rates.

Context

Peer feedback provides an opportunity to reflect on the purpose of the Assistant Nurse Manager role. With sufficient orientation and peer feedback, front-line assistant nurse managers develop competency and role satisfaction, as evidenced by reduced turnover and improved retention.

Intervention

This project …

Restoring Polyhyrdoxybutyrate (Phb) Depolymerase Expression In A Bald Mutant Of Streptomyces Sp. Sfb5a, Youmna Moawad

Honors Projects

Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) is a biodegradable, plastic-like polymer produced by some bacteria and degraded by others. The filamentous bacterium Streptomyces sp. SFB5A degrades PHB for growth using an extracellular PHB depolymerase, encoded by the phaZ gene. A morphological mutant of this bacterium, bld4, cannot form aerial filaments and cannot produce PHB depolymerase, despite having the phaZ gene. The inability to synthesize PHB depolymerase may be due to a mutation in a gene encoding one of its transcriptional regulators. A gene (lrp) coding for a potential transcriptional regulator is located 2,700 base pairs upstream from phaZ. Our goal …

Molecular Mechanisms Of Aberrant Protein Glycosylation In Pancreatic Cancer Stemness And Metastasis, Frank Leon

Theses & Dissertations

A myriad of genetic and other abnormal changes underlies the aggressiveness and dissemination properties observed in pancreatic cancer (PC). Aberrant protein glycosylation is a commonly observed feature in PC. The modification of protein O-glycosylation is mediated by glycosyltransferases, which attach and sequentially elongate monosaccharides on Serine/Threonine (Ser/Thr) motifs. Aberrant glycosylation is recognized as an emerging hallmark of cancer where a disruption in normal glycosylation results in irregular O-glycans.

This dissertation research has investigated the consequences of aberrant protein glycosylation on stemness and enhancement of metastatic properties in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Several publications have reported aberrant O-glycosylation increases in oncogenic …

Wmu Board Of Trustees Formal Session December 16, 2021, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

Acceptance of the Agenda

Approval of the Minutes (November 4, 2021 and November 16, 2021 Meetings)

Remarks by the Chair

Remarks by the President

Updates by the Faculty Senate President

Updates by the Western Student Association President

Updates by the Graduate Student Association Vice President

Community Policing: Campus Safety through Service-Oriented Operation

Annual Presidential Assessment

Public Comments Regarding Action Items

Action Items

• Approval of Capital Expenditure for WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine
• Presidential Compensation

Consent Items

• Curriculum Proposals
• Personnel Report
• Revised WMU Duty to Report Criminal Acts Policy
• WMU Lease Agreement with FedEx Office and Print Services
• Annuity …

Identifying And Evaluating Common Subgenres In Asymmetric Virtual Reality Games, Miah Dawes

Theses and Dissertations

Recent years have seen a significant growth in what designers and players call asymmetric virtual reality (AVR) games. This dissertation creates a framework that defines the relevant characteristics of AVR as a genre and describes five common genres of AVR games, including David(s) and Goliath, Hide and Seek, Perspective Puzzle, Order Simulation, and Lifeline. The core features of each subgenre are expounded. These subgenres are then evaluated using design workshops to observe novice game designs use these subgenres in their game design process. An analysis of the workshops found that the AVR subgenre framework may benefit novice game designers in …

Does The Lack Of Binding Precedent In International Arbitration Affect Transparency In Arbitral Proceedings?, Emily F. Ariz

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

This note explores how the lack of binding precedent in both international commercial and investment arbitration affects transparency in arbitral proceedings. As arbitration increases in popularity, its deficiencies have become more apparent. The lack of binding precedent in arbitration is convenient in some ways, but problematic as it leaves arbitrators an immense amount of discretion when deciding cases. With many decisions unpublished to maintain confidentiality and those decisions that are published sometimes lack reasoning to support the award, transparency in arbitral proceedings is practically nonexistent. In recent years, there is a trend toward more transparency in certain types of arbitral …

Ramirez V. Lum

All Decisions

No abstract provided.

Contextual Considerations Of Green Stormwater Infrastructure Siting, Dexter H. Locke, Amanda K. Phillips De Lucas, Colleen Murphy-Dunning, Dawn Henning, Giovanni Zinn

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Green infrastructure increasingly is used to ameliorate water quality and quantity problems caused by runoff in cities. Studies show how the spatial distribution of these Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) sites are unevenly distributed relative to socioeconomic and demographic groups. Often this is described as an indicator of perpetuated environment injustice, given the purported social and environmental benefits of GSI. To assess equity, researchers often examine either who gets what with respect to environmental ‘goods’ such as tree canopy and other green infrastructures, or investigate the procedures, decision making processes, and power structures pertaining to planning processes. This paper uses both …

The Lived-Experience Of Novice Nurse's Actualizing Clinical Reasoning In Academic Simulation, Mary Catherine Brinker

Dissertations

The purpose of this existential-phenomenological study was to address the first-person perspective of what it is like to experience clinical reasoning during a simulation. It was not known how a novice nurse would describe the experience of actualizing clinical reasoning during the academic simulation experience. In order to maintain the firstperson perspective, all presuppositions were eliminated. There were no instruments used in the data collection process, and no theories or models that guided this research. The researcher integrated Amedeo Giorgi's method of analysis to discover the psychological acts of the first person (novice nurse) to address the unknown. The research …