Digital Commons Network^™

Variable Classification Of Drug-Intoxication Suicides Across Us States: A Partial Artifact Of Forensics?, Ian R H Rockett, Gerald R. Hobbs, Dan Wu, Haomiao Jia, Kurt B. Nolte, Gordon S. Smith, Sandra L. Putnam, Eric D. Caine

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

The 21st-century epidemic of pharmaceutical and other drug-intoxication deaths in the United States (US) has likely precipitated an increase in misclassified, undercounted suicides. Drug-intoxication suicides are highly prone to be misclassified as accident or undetermined. Misclassification adversely impacts suicide and other injury mortality surveillance, etiologic understanding, prevention, and hence clinical and public health policy formation and practice.

Objective

To evaluate whether observed variation in the relative magnitude of drug-intoxication suicides across US states is a partial artifact of the scope and quality of toxicological testing and type of medicolegal death investigation system.

Methods

This was a national, state-based, ecological …

2015 Constitution Day Essay Contest: 2nd Place, Diana Burden

Constitution Day Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

Beyond Edmunds: The State Constitutional Legacy Of Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

Does United States V. Windsor (The Doma Case) Open The Door To Congressional Standing Rights?, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In rare cases, a President refuses to defend a statute he believes is unconstitutional. The law is unclear whether Congress or either House of Congress has Article III standing to defend a statute that the President refuses to defend. In United States v. Windsor, the Supreme Court in 2013 addressed the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The Obama Administration took the middle position of not defending DOMA, but still enforcing it despite its view that the statute was unconstitutional to assist federal courts in reviewing the constitutionality of the statute. It was unclear whether an appeal was …

Determinants Of Wind Energy Deployment: Infrastructures, Policies, Resources, Or Economics?, Marc Sydnor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the pattern of deployment of wind power across the United States, focusing on the influence of wind resources, incentives/supportive government and governance policies, supportive/confounding infrastructures, and economic factors. The effects of these factors are considered for 35 states from the year 2001 to 2012. Effects are estimated using fixed effects regression models, forward step-wise between modeling, and lead-lag models. The results indicate that demand, electrical transmission availability, and complementary generation assets, as well as the import-export of electricity are important factors in determining where wind energy deployment occurs. In addition, elevated levels of wind energy deployment are …

The Great Tactician: The Chief Justice, Obamacare, And Walking The Tightrope Of Partisan Politics, Katherine H. Blankenship

Belmont Law Review

This note argues that true judicial restraint is a fictional impossibility. Any practice of judicial restraint is at the very same moment an exercise of judicial activism because a judge cannot approach the law from a truly objective, mechanical position. Every judicial opinion is influenced not only by the political and moral vantage point of the judge, but also the judge’s policy and societal concerns. This thesis is illustrated by a case study of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, and, specifically, Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion regarding the individual mandate and the Medicaid provision of the Affordable Care Act. …

The Work Of The Task Force To Implement Amendment 64: A Case Study, Sam Kamin

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This short essay – taken from a keynote address given at the University of Denver’s Marijuana at the Crossroads Conference – describes the dynamics of marijuana law and policy in the United States with a particular eye toward the federalism implications of marijuana legalization in the states. The essay discusses the history of marijuana regulation in the United States, sets forth a number of possible scenarios going forward, and makes a few, tentative predictions about the future.

The Keyes To Reclaiming The Racial History Of The Roberts Court, Tom Romero Ii

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This article advocates for a fundamental re-understanding about the way that the history of race is understood by the current Supreme Court. Represented by the racial rights opinions of Justice John Roberts that celebrate racial progress, the Supreme Court has equivocated and rendered obsolete the historical experiences of people of color in the United States. This jurisprudence has in turn reified the notion of color-blindness, consigning racial discrimination to a distant and discredited past that has little bearing to how race and inequality is experienced today.

The racial history of the Roberts Court is centrally informed by the context and …

The Compensation Principle, William Simkulet

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

In "Should Race Matter?," David Boonin proposes the compensation principle: When an agent wrongfully harms another person, she incurs a moral obligation to compensate that person for the harms she has caused. Boonin then argues that the United States government has wrongfully harmed black Americans by adopting pro-slavery laws and other discriminatory laws and practices following the end of slavery, and therefore the United States government has an obligation to pay reparations for slavery and discriminatory laws and practices to those who have been harmed by them - in particular, to contemporary black Americans. Here I argue that the compensation …

Legislating Autism Coverage: The Conservative Insurance Mandate, Lori Shealy Unumb

Belmont Law Review

Since 2007, numerous state legislatures have enacted insurance mandates relating to treatment for autism. In the absence of an autism insurance mandate, health insurers typically do not cover “one of the most commonly prescribed therapies” for autism, which is an intensive therapeutic intervention based on Applied Behavior Analysis (commonly called “ABA therapy”). The autism insurance mandates that have swept the nation during the last decade require coverage for ABA therapy and other care that is ordered by a physician and deemed medically necessary to treat autism. This article (1) examines why so many legislatures that traditionally resist insurance mandates embrace …

Restoring The Parameters Of Public Health In A Time Of Hobby Lobby And Ebola: The Case For A Wellness Account, John D. Blum

Belmont Law Review

The genesis of this piece lies in two seemingly unrelated events in law and public health, the governmental response to the Ebola crisis, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, sparked by religious objections to certain employer mandates under the Affordable Care Act. While this essay focuses on the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case and not Ebola, its core premise is that health policy is best served when government authorities focus strategies and responses within the parameters of individual and population concern. This piece will propose an alternative approach to women’s health promotion, a wellness account, …

Drougthscape, Winter 2015, Kelly Smith

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

Director’s report

Central U.S. 2012 report

October-December drought summary

2014 drought summary

Caribbean capacity building

Drought impacts in 2014

California timeline 2014

UC Davis ranching workshop

NASA SMAP data

Global drought info system

Community Capitals

Evaluation and assessment

Indicator-impact research

NDMC on YouTube

Extensions Of Credit By Federal Reserve Banks, Federal Reserve System

Documents

Federal Reserve System Regulation A; Docket No. R-1476

2015 Constitution Day Essay Contest: 3rd Place, Shawn Murphy

Constitution Day Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

Party, Ideology, And Methodological Issues: A Fresh Take On Campaign Finance Reform, Billy Shinn

Theses & ETDs

In recent years, the state of the American campaign finance system has been a salient concern both in academic and popular discourse. Despite an overwhelming perception held by American citizens that “the system” is broken by money that leaves candidates for political office beholden to external interests, no noteworthy attempts to address the issue exist in the U.S. Congress as of this writing. Normative implications aside, several prominent examples of successful campaign finance reform exist in American history, leading to an obvious question: why then and not now? Focusing on the decision-making of members of the 107th Congress, this study …

Until It’S Yours: Childbirth Knowledges And Embodying Cultural [Re]Production, Jessica Wopinski

Theses & ETDs

During a time of vehement debate surrounding Choice and the childbearing body, women in the United States have unprecedented health care options regarding pregnancy and birth. As critiques against the medicalization of standard hospital care are growing in visibility, increasing numbers of women are leaving the hospital for maternal care. This situation has created a divide between natural and medical birthing ideologies, which is exemplified in the Sarasota birthing community. In this thesis, I explore the manners in which women are socialized into these “camps” through childbirth education courses at the local hospital and birthing home, and discuss the political …

Macroeconomic Determinants Of The U.S. Profit Rate, 1949-2001, Tanya Moore

Theses & ETDs

This thesis seeks to uncover determining factors of the behavior of the U.S. profit rate, which has exhibited a persistent downward trend for most of the 20th century. After neoclassical vs. Marxian theories of profit as well as a review of the profit rate literature are presented, a linear regression, utilizing an ARDL framework, tests for the potential impact of various macroeconomic variables. The final significant variables include the GDP growth rate, labor productivity, the interest rate, and the unemployment rate. The thesis concludes by considering the implications of these results for capitalist firms, with particular regard to labor productivity.

There Goes The Neighborhood: Racial Politics From The Good Neighbor To The New Jim Crow, Patrick Bon Tonissen

Theses & ETDs

After the rhetoric of Franklin D. Roosevelt rebranded U.S. foreign relations through the anti-imperial Good Neighbor policy, challenged the racial hierarchies of "Nazi tyranny," and established post-war aims of self-determination and human rights for "all the men in all the lands," the denial of African American human rights undermined the moral legitimacy of the United States to be a model for modernity in the post-colonial world. In order to "outsell Communism" in a decolonizing world, the Truman administration embraced racial liberalism and a "Second Reconstruction" to ameliorate the image of U.S. race relations. In response to Truman‘s racial liberalism, southern …

Where Modesty Meets Anxiety: A Cross-Cultural Study On Self-Effacing Behavior Among Americans And Filipinos, Marina Garcia

Theses & ETDs

Previous cultural research has shown that there lies a disparity in the way people of Western, individualistic cultures and the way those of Eastern, collectivistic cultures interpret socially anxious and self-effacing behaviors (e.g., being modesty or shy in a group, playing down achievements, attributing achievements to luck). The current study aims to investigate cross-cultural variations in self-reported social anxiety, as well as interpretations of self-effacing behaviors among nonclinical samples in the United States (an individualistic society) and the Philippines (a collectivistic society). Participants were recruited through the social media website of Facebook and completed an online survey via SurveyMonkey. The …

Spicy Curry And Racist Salad: Representations Of India And Indian Americans In U.S. Sitcoms, Kyna Patel

Theses & ETDs

This thesis examines the origins of specific stereotypes and preconceived notions of India and people of Indian descent in the United States and how they are manifested today in American sitcoms. I analyze how some Indian and Indian American characters’ identities are more strongly informed by race, ethnicity, and nationality, which can play a role in perpetuating stereotypes. By looking at story arcs, character development, jokes, and dialogues, I show how varied or homogenous the characters are in the depictions of their identities and to what extent these identities are integral to the series’ comedy.

Walk With Us On The Path Of Progress: The United States And Russia, Perceptions, Attitudes And Policy, 1867–1933, Michael Twillman

Theses & ETDs

This thesis examines the development of American perceptions and attitudes of Russia and Russians from 1867–1933 and how they came to impact policy decisions. It explores the origins of an essentialist view of Russian national character and how these ideas were adopted and adapted by American Russia “experts”, observers and policy makers. In addition, it seeks to illustrate that American views of Russia, while continually changing over time in response to different circumstances, were taken from a common fund of ideas about Russian national character. Americans wanted Russia to become a more modern and democratic society and spoke positively about …

Transforming Health Professions' Education Through In-Country Collaboration: Examining The Consortia Among African Medical Schools Catalyzed By The Medical Education Partnership Initiative., Zohray M. Talib, Elsie Kiguli-Malwadde, Hannah Wohltjen, Miliard Derbew, Yakub Mulla, David Olaleye, Nelson Sewankambo

Health Policy and Management Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: African medical schools have historically turned to northern partners for technical assistance and resources to strengthen their education and research programmes. In 2010, this paradigm shifted when the United States Government brought forward unprecedented resources to support African medical schools. The grant, entitled the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) triggered a number of south-south collaborations between medical schools in Africa. This paper examines the goals of these partnerships and their impact on medical education and health workforce planning.

METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the Principal Investigators of the first four MEPI programmes that formed an in-country consortium. These …

Something’S Happening Here: Popular Music Education In The United States, Bryan Powell, Andrew Krikun, Joseph Michael Pignato

John J. Cali School of Music Scholarship and Creative Works

Although the number of opportunities to learn popular music in the United States continues to grow, popular music education (PME) programs remain exceptional at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of institutionalized music education. This article provides insight into the unique characteristics of a number of PME initiatives currently operating in the United States. A historical background is established to provide context regarding the history of PME in the United States. Additionally, a focus on an expanding landscape for American PME is included, as is an examination of six specific initiatives that are particularly noteworthy. This review of popular music programs, …

Cragin Watershed Protection Project Cave And Karst Survey, 2015, Kyle Rowinski, Joseph S. Sadorski

KIP Data Sets and Technical Reports

Geological Society of America 
 , GeoCorps America Program Cragin Watershed Protection Project, Cave and Karst Survey, 2015 BY Kyle Rowinski and Joseph Sadorski Project Mentors: Polly Haessig Carl Beyehelm Open Access - Permission by Author(s) See Extended description for more information.

Court-Ordered Law Breaking: U.S. Courts Increasingly Order The Violation Of Foreign Law, Geoffrey Sant

Brooklyn Law Review

Perhaps the strangest legal phenomenon of the past decade is the extraordinary surge in U.S. courts ordering individuals and companies to violate foreign law. The very concept of court-ordered law-breaking is a strange one. Indeed, until fairly recently, it was virtually unheard of for a U.S. court to order the violation of foreign laws. Over the past decade, however, this phenomenon has increased at an exponential rate. A full 60% of all instances of courts ordering the violation of foreign laws have occurred within the past five years. What happened? In its 1987 Aérospatiale decision, the Supreme Court set forth …

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker: Years Ahead Of Her Time., Dre M. Irizarry, Bs, Nicole Salomone, As, Karen A. Chojnacki, Md, Charles J. Yeo, Md, Scott W. Cowan, Md, Linda J. Bogar, Md

Department of Surgery Gibbon Society Historical Profiles

Women phsycians in the United States were virtually nonexistent in the early to mid-1800s. Traditional medical schools still did not accept women, and few secretarian or eclectic medical schools were beginning to open their doors to female students. In 1849 at Geneva College, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to achieve a medical degree in the United States.1 At the time of the Civil War, the few women who had managed to obtain medical degrees mainly served as nurses in the war, because society was not yet ready to accept the female physician.2 Dr. Mary Edwards Walker would help change …

African Americans Speak To Spectacle Lynchings, Mary Beth Mathews

Cultural and Philosophical Inquiry Articles

Donald Mathews’s “The Southern Rite of Human Sacrifice” both describes southern lynching as a lived interpretation of Christianity and claims a role for the religious study of lynching. Relying largely on historiography, Mathews contends that white southerners created this religion and ignored obvious parallels between lynched black men and the death of Jesus on the cross. But missing from this and other interpretations is a key voice: that of contemporary black evangelical pastors.

The Three C'S Of Jurisdiction Over Human Rights Claims In U.S. Courts, Chimène I. Keitner

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

The legal aftermath of the Holocaust continues to unfold in U.S. courts. Most recently, the Seventh Circuit dismissed claims against the Hungarian national railway and Hungarian national bank for World War II-era crimes against Hungarian Jews on the grounds that the plaintiffs had not exhausted available local remedies in Hungary or provided a “legally compelling” reason for not doing so. More broadly, heated debates about the role of U.S. courts in enforcing international human rights law have not abated since the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., which restricted but did not eliminate federal …

An Unfinished Journey: The Evolution Of Crime Measurement In The United States, Daniel J. Patten

The Hilltop Review

This article traces the history of crime measurement in the United States beginning with the U.S. census in 1790 while exploring several key pieces of history that influenced how crime is measured today. After discussing the origins of the U.S. census and its contributions to measuring crime, the Chicago School of Sociology is observed for its monumental influence on early criminology in America. Next, the division of sociology and criminal justice into two distinct fields had major implications for measuring crime. How crime is measured is often attributed to the ideological differences between these academic fields. Then, the three primary …

What About Protection? A Content Analysis Of Reducing The Risk, An Evidence-Based Sex Education Curriculum, Julia Desangles

Theses & ETDs

In this thesis, I analyze Reducing the Risk: Building the Skills to Prevent Pregnancy, STD & HIV (RTR). As one of the first evidence-based curricula in the U.S., RTR is now one of the numerous programs funded by the U.S. government. While this curriculum has been evaluated twice for its ability to influence student sexual behavior, messages found in the inclusion of abstinence and protection has not. Using an open coding method, I delve into this curriculum and find a disconnect between the stated goal of RTR—to provide students with the skills to abstain and use protection—and the material presented. …