Digital Commons Network^™

Public Accommodations Laws, Free Speech Challenges, And Limiting Principles In The Wake Of 303 Creative, Michael L. Smith

Faculty Articles

In 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act's prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation violated the First Amendment rights of Lorie Smith, a website designer who refused to make wedding websites for same-sex couples. This Article argues that the Court's ruling rested on a vision of state control over speech that was divorced from the law before it. Using this framing of the law to conjure up inapplicable hypothetical scenarios of state-mandated expression, the Court found in Smith's favor. And yet, in responding to the dissent's concerns that the …

A Haven For Traffickers: How The United States Provides A Legal Safe Haven For Businesses That Rely On Forced Labor In The International Supply Chain, Ramona L. Lampley

Faculty Articles

Congress enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act ("TVPRA" or "Act") in 2000, which, through its amendments, gives victims of human trafficking, including forced labor or slave labor, a private right of action against those who knowingly benefit from the abusive labor practices perpetrated on them. Even though slave labor, particularly child labor, is a perceived evil in the foreign supply chains of many domestic companies, courts appear uncomfortable with the some of the civil-liability provisions of the TVPRA. This Article examines recent cases brought under the TVPRA, and how, in some cases, courts have eviscerated the private right of action …

Language Models, Plagiarism, And Legal Writing, Michael L. Smith

Faculty Articles

Language models like ChatGPT are the talk of the town in legal circles. Despite some high-profile stories of fake ChatGPT-generated citations, many practitioners argue that language models are the way of the future. These models, they argue, promise an efficient source of first drafts and stock language. Others make similar claims about legal writing education, with a number of professors urging the acknowledgment of language models. Others go further and argue that students ought to learn to use these models to improve their writing and prepare for practice. I argue that those urging the incorporation of language models into legal …

The Evolution Of Race-Based Admissions In American Higher Education, Chenglin Liu

Faculty Articles

This Article examines the Supreme Court’s evolving position on race-based admissions policies over the past 127 years. Between Plessy and Brown, universities used race-based policies to exclude black applicants from white universities. Brown shifted admissions policies from blocking black students to accepting them. As affirmative action gained momentum, universities escalated from merely accepting minority candidates to proactive recruitment by using quotas and lowering their admissions standards. The Court in Bakke set the ground rules for race-based admissions during that period. In 2003, Grutter upheld the university’s pursuit for a “critical mass” of minority students in its entering class. Two …

Corporate Takeover: A New Clash In The Old Struggle Between Corporate Rights And Public Health, John J. Locurto, Rachel Radke, Xyruz Villariz, Jasmine Ann Castillejos

Faculty Articles

Corporations have used the federal courts to secure many of the same constitu­tional rights as individuals. As corporate rights proliferate so does corporate power to influence and resist laws that protect the public. One such law is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—legislation that reformed health insurance coverage with important implications for public health.

The ACA has been a frequent target of litigation. Recent corporate lawsuits have invoked the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to challenge the ACA’s preventive care mandate, which requires health plans to cover preventive services without cost sharing. In Braidwood Management, Inc. v. Becerra, a …

Consumer Privacy And The Dobbs Disruption, Mason R. Clark

Faculty Articles

The right to reproductive privacy is under attack in the United States, and it is losing ground. Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the Supreme Court's 2022 decision that overruled Roe v. Wade's constitutional protection of abortion and jeopardized privacy rights by proxy, reflects this losing posture. Scholarship in reproductive privacy varyingly critiques federal privacy initiatives, evaluates regulatory interventions, and proposes civil rights frameworks in response to Dobbs. This Article, however, pinpoints how Dobbs created a gaping hole in state consumer privacy laws even as they propagated across the United States. Currently, there are no state consumer privacy laws that …

Late Discovery: Student Experiences With Late Learning Disability Diagnoses, Margot Moffa

Brehm Scholars Research

My research focuses on the experiences of students who were diagnosed with a learning disability in high school or college. I conducted a qualitative study including eight interviews. Findings after the study showed that participants were never identified without seeking help independently. Additionally, living with an undiagnosed learning disability left negative impacts on participants' mental health, resulting in the development of coping strategies to mask their symptoms and experiences. This research is critical as getting diagnosed with a learning disability later in life can be detrimental to a student's learning experience. Struggling in school and not understanding is extremely frustrating …

Incidence Of Cardiovascular Surgery Following Pediatric Posterior Sternoclavicular Dislocation: Evaluating The Necessity Of Cardiothoracic Surgeon Standby During Operative Treatment, Ryan Lebens, Christian Leonardo, Rigel Hall, James Barsi

Introduction: Posterior sternoclavicular (PSC) dislocations are rare events, most commonly occurring after high energy injury such as motor vehicle accident or contact sports. While rare, PSC dislocations can be life threatening due to risk of posterior displacement of the medial clavicle impinging the great vessels leading to the heart. As such, patients with sternoclavicular dislocation are at risk for intimal tears and hemorrhage. Traditional orthopedic surgery teachings state closed reductions for PSC dislocation should have cardiothoracic (CT) surgeons on standby in the event intimal tears need repair. Despite this, there lacks conclusive evidence and literature about whether CT surgeon standby …

Perioperative Continuous Glucose Monitoring In Diabetic Patients Undergoing Primary Total Joint Arthroplasty, Dorian Cohen, Mei Lin Chan, Abdullah Y. Hassan, Anna Lei, Joseph F. Lacomb, Igor Kravetz, James Nicholson

See article.

Can Artificial Intelligence Create Research Hypotheses For Patellofemoral Instability?, Claire Parker, Sofia Hidalgo Perea, James Barsi

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to elucidate if artificial intelligence (AI) can generate novel research hypotheses regarding patellofemoral instability (PFI) in the pediatric population that have not previously been investigated. We hypothesized that AI would be able to generate new hypotheses that have not yet been presented or published.

Methods: In December of 2023, Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer-3.5 (ChatGPT) was used to create a list of 25 research hypotheses about PFI in both the adult and pediatric population. The prompt used to generate the list of hypotheses was: “List 25 detailed and reproducible research ideas regarding …

Biomechanical Evaluation And Intraoperative Strategies For Addressing Suture Anchor Failure In Osteoporotic Bone, Richard Marchese, Samir Baig, Sofia P. Hidalgo, Jaclyn Brunner, David E. Komatsu, Edward D. Wang

Purpose: When aiming to enhance the strength of a suture anchor construct, typically in osteoporotic bone, it is often suggested to employ a method referred to as "under-tapping" (UT). A comprehensive assessment of tapping protocols for anchor placement was conducted to ascertain if this contributes to the prevention of anchor failure. Further, supplementary fixation techniques were examined to offer methods for secure fixation in the event of unanticipated failure.

Hypothesis: Under-tapping can increase load to failure compared to standard tapping (ST). If the initial fixation fails, using larger diameter anchors or bioabsorbable Trim-IT pins (TIP) via cross-pinning can provide stable …

Intraoperative Nerve Stimulation As A Functional Assessment Of Acute Stretch Injury In The Rat Median Nerve, Matthew Gluck, Pierce J. Ferriter Jr., Christoph A. Schroen, Christina M. Beck, Zachary L. Bernstein, Todd A. Rubin, Michael R. Hausman, Paul J. Cagle

Introduction: Peripheral nerve injuries (PNIs) are common complications of upper extremity injuries, yet few clinical options exist to quickly and accurately assess motor nerve function intraoperatively. PNIs are a significant source of not only disability to the patient, but also cost. This study’s purpose was to evaluate the utility of intraoperative nerve stimulation in an
animal model.

Methods: A 20% stretch injury was induced in right median nerves using a custom-made stretch applicator, while left median nerves served as a control. A Checkpoint surgical nerve stimulator (Checkpoint Surgical, Cleveland, OH) was used to assess baseline nerve function in …

Age-Related Differences In 30-Day Postoperative Complications Following Aseptic Revision Total Shoulder Arthroplasty: A Comparison Of Patients Under And Over 80 Years Old, Rachel A. Loyst, Patricia Cerri-Droz, Stephen H. Liu, Kenny Ling, Dorian Cohen, David E. Komatsu, Edward D. Wang

Introduction: This study investigates the association between patients < 80 years old and patients 80 years old and 30-day postoperative complications following aseptic revision total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA).

Materials and methods: All patients who underwent revision TSA between 2015 and 2022 from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement (NSQIP) database were surveyed for this study. Patient demographics, comorbidities, and 30-day postoperative complication data were analyzed. Logistic regression was used to analyze the postoperative complications associated in patients greater than or equal to 80 years old.

Results: Compared to patients < 80 years old, patients 80 years old were independently associated with a significantly greater likelihood of experiencing any complication (odds ratio [OR] 1.61, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.23-2.11; P < .001), non-home discharge (OR 3.68, 95% CI 2.58-5.25; P < .001), and length of stay (LOS) > 2 days (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.18-2.10; P = 0.002).

Conclusions: Compared to patients < 80 years old, patients 80 years old were independently associated with a significantly greater likelihood of experiencing any complication, non-home discharge, and LOS > 2 days. A better understanding of the age as a risk factor …

Acute Postoperative Pain And Dorsal Root Ganglia Transcriptomic Signatures Following Total Knee Arthroplasty (Tka) In Rats: An Experimental Study, Justice Achonu, David E. Komatsu, Sardar Mz Uddin, Chris Gordob, Martha Kanjiya, Diane Bogdan, Adriana Dibua, Hira Iftikhar, Amanda Ackermann, Rohan J. Shah, Jason Shieh, Agnieszka B. Bialkowska, Martin Kaczocha

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is the final treatment option for patients with advanced knee osteoarthritis (OA). Unfortunately, TKA surgery is accompanied by acute postoperative pain that is more severe than arthroplasty performed in other joints. Elucidating the molecular mechanisms specific to post-TKA pain necessitates an animal model that replicates clinical TKA procedures, induces acute postoperative pain, and leads to complete functional recovery. Here, we present a new preclinical TKA model in rats and report on functional and behavioral outcomes indicative of pain, analgesic efficacy, serum cytokine levels, and dorsal root ganglia (DRG) transcriptomes during the acute postoperative period. Following TKA, …

Early And Late Basilar Artery Thrombectomy Time Window Outcomes., Adam T Mierzwa, Rahul Rao, Sami Al Kasab, Ashley Nelson, Santiago Ortega-Gutierrez, Juan Vivanco-Suarez, Mudassir Farooqui, Ashutosh P Jadhav, Shashvat Desai, Gabor Toth, Anas Alrohimi, Thanh N Nguyen, Piers Klein, Mohamad Abdalkader, Hisham Salahuddin, Aditya Pandey, Zachary Wilseck, Sravanthi Koduri, Nirav Vora, Nameer Aladamat, Khaled Gharaibeh, Ehad Afreen, Syed Zaidi, Mouhammad Jumaa

Neuroscience Articles

IMPORTANCE: Stroke-to-recanalization time is a strong predictor of outcomes in anterior circulation large-vessel occlusion (LVO). The authors aimed to evaluate functional outcomes in early (< 6 >h) vs. late (6-24 h) time windows for thrombectomy-treated basilar artery occlusions.

METHODS: Patients were derived from the Posterior Circulation Ischemic Stroke Evaluation: Analyzing Radiographic and Intra-procedural Predictors of Mechanical Thrombectomy (PC-SEARCH) Registry and retrospectively analyzed early and late basilar artery thrombectomy time windows cohorts. Patients were dichotomized based on the last known well and correlated to 90-day functional outcomes (mRS 0-3). A multiple logistic regression analysis was performed.

RESULTS: A total of 405 patients …

Mangrove Sediments-Associated Bacterium (Bacillus Sp. Sw7) With Multiple Plant Growth-Promoting Traits Promotes The Growth Of Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum), Mahideen Afridi, Balamurugan Sadaiappan, Amna Saood Nassar, Henda Mahmoudi, Munawwar Ali Khan, Sunil Mundra

All Works

Global food production intensification presents a major hurdle to ensuring food security amidst a growing world population. Widespread use of chemical fertilizers in recent decades has risked soil fertility, compounded by the challenges posed by climate change, particularly in arid regions. To address these issues, adopting plant growth-promoting (PGP) bacteria stands out as a promising solution, offering multifaceted benefits to arid agroecosystems. We isolated a bacterial strain, SW7, from mangrove sediment, characterised the entire genome followed by phylogenetic analyses, and evaluated its in-vitro PGP activity. Subsequently, we examined its impact on tomato seed germination and plant growth. The strain SW7 …

A Reputation-Based Aodv Protocol For Blackhole And Malfunction Nodes Detection And Avoidance, Qussai M. Yaseen, Monther Aldwairi, Ahmad Manasrah

All Works

Enhancing the security of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) improves the usability of their applications. Therefore, finding solutions to various attacks, such as the blackhole attack, is crucial for the success of WSN applications. This paper proposes an enhanced version of the AODV (Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector) protocol capable of detecting blackholes and malfunctioning benign nodes in WSNs, thereby avoiding them when delivering packets. The proposed version employs a network-based reputation system to select the best and most secure path to a destination. To achieve this goal, the proposed version utilizes the Watchdogs/Pathrater mechanisms in AODV to gather and broadcast …

‘Heavy’ Life Satisfaction: Unveiling The Intricate Relationships Between Obesity And Well-Being In Abu Dhabi, Masood Badri, Mugheer Alkhaili, Hamad Aldhaheri, Saad Yaqeib, Guang Yang, Muna Albahar, Asma Alrashdi

All Works

The study investigates the intricate relationship between obesity and well-being among residents in Abu Dhabi. Obesity is recognized as a significant public health concern worldwide, with potential implications for individuals' overall well-being. Understanding the complex associations between obesity and various aspects of well-being is essential for developing effective interventions to promote healthier lifestyles and improve overall quality of life. The research employs path analysis to explore the direct associations between obesity and multiple well-being indicators. Data is collected from residents in Abu Dhabi, focusing on subjective health, subjective mental health, life satisfaction, physical exercise, and satisfaction with social relationships. Path …

Digraph Enabled Digital Twin And Label-Encoding Machine Learning For Scada Network's Cyber Attack Analysis In Industry 5.0, Nabeel Al-Qirim, Anoud Bani-Hani, Munir Majdalawieh, Hussam Al Hamadi, Mohammad Kamrul Hasan

All Works

False-Data Injection Attack (FDIA), Remote-Tripping Command Injection (RTCI), and System Reconfiguration Attack (SRA) on SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) networks impact industry 5.0 enabled smart grid components such as intelligent-electronic-device (IED), circuit-breaker, network-switch, and power transmission lines. Since the SCADA-network-based cyber-attacking flow is not in digital-twin form, it is impossible to simulate the effects of the attack. Furthermore, the string nature of these affected components' data makes it challenging to incorporate into machine-learning-enabled intelligence (CTI) processes. To visualize the attacking flow of FDIA, RTCI, and SRA cyber-attacks on SCADA networks, this paper presents a novel "Digital Twin and Machine …

Fraud Detection In Medical Insurance Claims Using Majority Voting Of Multiple Unsupervised Algorithms, Mohamed Ahmed Abo El-Enen, Dina Tbaishat, Ahmed T. Sahlol, Amril Nazir, Khalid Almaymun, Mustafa Abdulrazek, Reem Muhammad, Fatima Adlan, Ravishankar Sharma

All Works

This paper addresses the critical challenge of fraud detection in medical insurance claims, a pervasive issue causing significant financial losses in healthcare. The primary goal is to develop an advanced fraud detection approach by integrating multiple unsupervised machines learning algorithms, leveraging their collective strengths through a majority voting mechanism, where labelling of data is unavailable. Central to this approach is the ensemble of 18 novel unsupervised algorithms, specifically, anomaly detection models. The novelty lies in the majority voting system employed to aggregate the decisions from these diverse algorithms, enhancing the reliability and accuracy of fraud detection. To validate the effectiveness …

Potato Leaf Disease Detection Approach Based On Transfer Learning With Spatial Attention, Rima Grati, Emna Abdallah, Khouloud Boukadi, Ahmed Smaoui

All Works

No abstract provided.

Academic Integrity In The Framework Of A Student’S Sustainable Anti-Corruption Stance: Insights From Sociological Analysis, N. G. Chevtaeva, O. V. Bobrova, E. Coll

All Works

Introduction. The process of fostering a sustainable anti-corruption stance among students faces a significant challenge: the disconnect between publicly stated condemnations of corruption and the behaviours exhibited in daily life. Aim. The present research aimed to conduct a sociological analysis of the development of a stable anti-corruption stance among students, focusing on three key parameters: cognitive, value-based, and behavioural. Methodology and research methods. A sociological survey was conducted among 572 university students in Ekaterinburg (n = 572) studying Economics and Management. The survey was administered online using the Yandex platform, and the results were analysed using the statistical software SPSS. …

Cross-Temporal Hierarchical Forecast Reconciliation Of Natural Gas Demand, Colin O. Quinn, George F. Corliss, Richard J. Povinelli

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Local natural gas distribution companies (LDCs) require accurate demand forecasts across various time periods, geographic regions, and customer class hierarchies. Achieving coherent forecasts across these hierarchies is challenging but crucial for optimal decision making, resource allocation, and operational efficiency. This work introduces a method that structures the gas distribution system into cross-temporal hierarchies to produce accurate and coherent forecasts. We apply our method to a case study involving three operational regions, forecasting at different geographical levels and analyzing both hourly and daily frequencies. Trained on five years of data and tested on one year, our model achieves a 10% reduction …

Just Don’T Do It: Why Cannabis Regulations Are The Reason Cannabis Businesses Are Failing, Edward Adams

Articles

Part I will provide a historical overview of the cannabis plant and our country’s experience with it prior to the election of President Richard Nixon. It is at that point, the early 1970s, that the current federal cannabis scheme began to take shape. Sections I.A though I.C will discuss the inception of the War on Drugs during the Nixon Administration and examine the subsequent social movement that led President Reagan to revamp and expand the War on Drugs throughout the 1980s.

The legal framework for federal cannabis regulation has largely remained stagnant since the Reagan Administration. Nevertheless, the federal stance …

Xuebijing Improves Intestinal Microcirculation Dysfunction In Septic Rats By Regulating The Vegf-A/Pi3k/Akt Signaling Pathway, A-Ling Tang, Yan Li, Li-Chao Sun, Xiao-Yu Liu, Nan Gao, Sheng-Tao Yan, Guo-Qiang Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: This study aims to explore whether Xuebijing (XBJ) can improve intestinal microcirculation dysfunction in sepsis and its mechanism.

METHODS: A rat model of sepsis was established by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). A total of 30 male SD rats were divided into four groups: sham group, CLP group, XBJ + axitinib group, and XBJ group. XBJ was intraperitoneally injected 2 h before CLP. Hemodynamic data (blood pressure and heart rate) were recorded. The intestinal microcirculation data of the rats were analyzed via microcirculation imaging. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits were used to detect the serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), …

Statins Are Rarely Prescribed For Incidentally Discovered Covert Cerebrovascular Disease: A Retrospective Cohort In A Large Electronic Health Record (Ehr) Identified Using Natural Language Processing, Lester Y Leung, Eric Puttock, David F Kallmes, Patrick Luetmer, Sunyang Fu, Chengyi X Zheng, Hongfang Liu, Wansu Chen, David M Kent

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction: While incidentally discovered covert cerebrovascular diseases (id-CCD) are associated with future stroke, it is not known if patients with id-CCD are prescribed statins.

Methods: Patients age ≥50 with id-CCD on neuroimaging from 2009 to 2019 with no prior ischaemic stroke, transient ischaemic attack or dementia were identified using natural language processing in a large real-world cohort. Robust Poisson multivariable regression was used to assess statin prescription among patients without prior statins.

Results: Among 2 41 050 patients, 74 975 patients (31.1%; 4.7% with covert brain infarcts (CBI); 29.0% with white matter disease (WMD)) had id-CCD. 53.5% (95% CI 53.2 …

The Enact Network Is Acting On Housing Instability And The Unhoused Using The Open Health Natural Language Processing Toolkit, Daniel R Harris, Sunyang Fu, Andrew Wen, Alexandria Corbeau, Darren Henderson, Jordan Hilsman, David Oniani, Yanshan Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Housing is an environmental social determinant of health that is linked to mortality and clinical outcomes. We developed a lexicon of housing-related concepts and rule-based natural language processing methods for identifying these housing-related concepts within clinical text. We piloted our methods on several test cohorts: a synthetic cohort generated by ChatGPT for initial infrastructure testing, a cohort with substance use disorders (SUD), and a cohort diagnosed with problems related to housing and economic circumstances (HEC). Our methods successfully identified housing concepts in our ChatGPT notes (recall = 1.0, precision = 1.0), our SUD population (recall = 0.9798, precision = 0.9898), …

Three Essays On Digital Health: Online Communication, Health Information Seeking, Complementary Medicine Use Among Older Adults And Vulnerable Populations, Daria Turavinina

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Through three empirical essays, this work explored how information and communication technology (ICT) use shapes population health behaviors and outcomes, with a particular focus on older adults. The first essay critically investigated whether online communication can serve as a substitute for in-person social contact in mitigating loneliness among late middle-aged and older persons. The study finds that while excessive reliance on digital interaction correlated with higher loneliness in the general older adult population, it could potentially serve a protective function for those in poor health by reducing social isolation. The second essay investigated how online health information seeking behavior and …

‘Hoa Gio’: The Development Of A Modern Vietnamese Architectural Element Beyond The Ventilation Block, Kat Huynhson

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This research examines the development of 'Hoa gió,' a traditional Vietnamese architectural element, from the precolonial era, through colonial adaptations, to its reinterpretation in modernism. 'Hoa gió' offers sun shading, ventilation, privacy, and aesthetic value, fitting well with Vietnam’s climate, and was a key feature of the “golden era” of Vietnamese modernism. Although there is scholarly interest, studies on 'Hoa gió' are limited and often view it as a Western adaptation. This study examines how 'Hoa gió' was adapted and reinterpreted as a "traditional-turned-modern" component, interacting with external currents. Using a qualitative approach, this research analyzes 'Hoa gió' across historical …

Investigation Of Information-Seeking Behavior Of Secondary School English Teachers In Batam City, Indonesia For Lesson Plan Preparation, Rayhan Musa Novian

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This thesis examines the information sources chosen by secondary school English teachers for lesson planning, alongside their information awareness and the constraints encountered. A lesson plan acts as a teacher's guide, detailing student learning objectives, associated resources and activities, and ensuring compliance with local and national curricula. This qualitative research employed semi-structured interviews with 15 English teachers from secondary schools in Batam City, Indonesia, using the Zoom platform. Thematic analysis was applied to analyze the data. Results reveal a three-stage pattern in teachers' selection and use of information sources: primary, secondary, and tertiary stages. Initially, teachers rely on formal internal …