Digital Commons Network^™

On The Social Validity Of Teaching Children To Give A Polite Response, Nancy V. Ramirez

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Some children, including individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), may respond rudely when expressing their opinions about nonpreferred gifts or aspects of someone else’s appearance (Bergstrom et al., 2016; Saarni, 1984; Talwar et al., 2007; Xu et al., 2010). One proposed solution discussed in the literature to decrease rude responses in children involves teaching children to tell a socially appropriate lie, often referred to as prosocial lies, as an alternative response. These types of lies are defined as “lies that have some benefit for the lie recipient and are not intended to cause harm to another individual” (Popliger et …

Transgenerational Effects Of Stress On The Plasma Proteome Of A Marine Mammal, Emily Voelkner

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The physiological stress response enables animals to respond to changes in their environment, and is mediated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in mammals. Increased activation of the HPA axis by repeated stress during critical life stages like reproduction could affect fitness. Information about a stressor can be communicated to offspring via hormone signals prenatally, or postnatally via milk, and affect offspring development and stress reactivity. Experimentally activating the HPA axis by adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) administration results in the synthesis of the major glucocorticoid hormone cortisol, which has well-studied far-reaching effects on growth, metabolism, and immunity. Beyond cortisol levels alone, biomarkers …

Early Technology Exposure And Academic Performance In Generation Alpha: Reduced Attention Span And Ability To Multitask, Sanjana Gupta

UROP Posters

The increasing prevalence of handheld devices in the lives of young children inspired this research, particularly regarding their potential impact on attention spans and cognitive development in Generation Alpha. Early exposure to tablets and smartphones before the age of seven coincides with critical periods of neuroplasticity, during which the brain is highly receptive to environmental influences. This matters because attention and cognitive skills formed in childhood lay the foundation for academic success and long-term personal development, and the shift toward digital learning platforms in schools may have significant consequences.

This study aimed to investigate whether early exposure to handheld devices …

Archiving Digital Marketing: Examining Preservation Of Dynamic Content On The Web Through The Lens Of Online Advertisements, Christopher Rauch, Alex H. Poole, Travis Reid, Michele C. Weigle, Michael L. Nelson, Faryaneh Poursardar, Mat Kelly

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The transition to digital marketing has revolutionized advertising, reflecting and shaping societal norms and trends. The “Saving Ads” project addresses the challenges of preserving these ephemeral digital artifacts, essential for understanding the evolution of advertising and its socio-cultural impact. The initiative focuses on technical solutions for archiving dynamic online ads and enhancing access to these critical resources for future scholarship. By examining the preservation of online advertisements and suggesting improved approaches for archiving dynamic online content, this project contributes to the documentation of digital history.

Mud Acoustics, Charles W. Holland, Stan E. Dosso, Jason D. Chaytor

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Imaging the ocean requires an understanding of how different seafloor sediments interact with sound waves.

On Remand In Cantero, The Second Circuit Should Reject Bank Of America's Preemption Claim And Hold That New York's Interest-On-Escrow Law Applies To National Banks, Arthur E. Wilmarth Jr.

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In Cantero v. Bank of America, N.A., 602 U.S. 205 (2024), the Supreme Court vacated and remanded a decision of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Bank of America argued that the National Bank Act preempts New York General Obligation Law (NYGOL) § 5-601, thereby exempting the bank from any duty to comply with § 5-601. The Second Circuit agreed with Bank of America’s preemption claim.

NYGOL § 5-601 requires national banks and other mortgage lenders operating in New York to pay at least 2% annual interest on funds deposited by borrowers in mortgage escrow accounts. The Second Circuit held …

Putting Lipstick On A Pig: Biogas, Methane Digesters, And The Greenwashing Playbook, Randall S. Abate

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Industrial animal agriculture pitches biogas and methane digesters as solutions to the outsized methane footprint of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), yet these efforts merely seek to convey to the public that CAFOs’ operations are environmentally responsible. In reality, quite the opposite is true because biogas and methane digesters more deeply entrench these facilities into the status quo of unsustainable production and disposal methods at CAFOs. This article first describes industrial animal agriculture’s impacts on climate change, with a focus on methane emissions. It then addresses biogas and methane digesters as ineffective solutions to the methane emissions from CAFOs. Next, …

A Financial Case For A Medical-Legal Partnership: Reducing Lengths Of Stay For Inpatient Care, Barak D. Richman, Breanna Barrett, Riya Mohan, Devdutta Sangvai

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

While Medical-Legal Partnerships (MLPs) have improved the health and well-being of the people they serve, most healthcare institutions will only invest in an MLP if they are convinced that doing so will improve its balance sheet. This article offers a detailed estimation of the cost savings that an MLP targeted toward the most acute legal needs would accrue to an academic medical center (AMC) in North Carolina.

Coastal Migration With Dignity: Safeguards For Vulnerable Communities, Randall S. Abate, Aashini Choksi

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Comment proposes to apply social justice-oriented safeguards to vulnerable communities in the climate migration context, focusing on recommendations to diminish the vulnerability of communities in two climate migration case studies in the United States. Part I describes the troubling realities of climate gentrification in Florida as well as forced displacement from coastal areas for native communities in Alaska. Part II addresses the existing federal and state legal frameworks in these contexts, and how gaps in each framework exacerbate the vulnerability of these overburdened communities. Part III proposes law reforms to address these concerns. It first recommends adjustments to the …

Enhancing Protection Of “Climate Refugees” In Destination Hubs: A Comparative Analysis Of Legal Mechanisms And Governance Challenges In The United States And India, Randall S. Abate, Chhaya Bhardwaj

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The plight of climate refugees is a global crisis that requires global cooperation and regional responses. The United States and India are important regional destination countries for climate refugees. “Climate refugees” are not recognized as a category of people entitled to protection in either country; however, legal mechanisms in both countries can be applied to cross-border displacement due to climate change. Part I of the article introduces the challenge of defining the term “climate refugees.” Part II addresses legal mechanisms in India that can be used to protect people displaced across the border as refugees or protected persons, and Part …

Sex, Lies, & Videotapes: Denial Of Wrongs Against Women, Laurie S. Kohn

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

“He totally denies it . . . he says it didn’t happen.” With that, former President Donald Trump dismissed all allegations against then-Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore for sexual misconduct with minors. While in office and since then, Trump has repeatedly displayed the power of denial in the face of allegations of wrongdoing toward women. Trump is largely right that denial works. He is not alone in considering an accused’s denial as the end of the story, even in the face of strong contradictory evidence. In doing so, Trump merely echoes a dominant attitude in the United States. Our culture …

Testimony Of Jessica Tillipman Associate Dean For Government Procurement Law Studies, The George Washington University Law School, Before The Senate Committee On Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Safeguarding The Homeland: Examining Conflicts Of Interest In Federal Contracting To Protect America’S Future, Jessica Tillipman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This testimony, presented before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, examines longstanding deficiencies in the regulatory framework governing organizational conflicts of interest (OCIs) in federal contracting. While acknowledging recent legislative progress, including the enactment of the Preventing Organizational Conflicts of Interest in Federal Acquisition Act, the testimony highlights how current Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provisions are outdated, inconsistently applied, and ill-suited to modern procurement practices—particularly in advisory and consulting services with national security implications. The testimony argues for a balanced and modernized approach to OCI reform that enhances clarity, strengthens compliance and disclosure obligations, and provides …

Rocketship Education: An Exploratory Public Policy Case Study, Vladimir Gresham Ivanovic

Dissertations

This dissertation is an exploratory case study of the finances of the Rocketship charter school chain, especially those related to real estate. Rocketship is a not-for-profit charter management organization, one of the first in Santa Clara County, California. This study seeks to determine if the financial transactions related to Rocketship charter schools yield profits for investors, despite Rocketship itself being a non-profit entity, and if they do, how and where do they do so. In order to characterize fairly and completely the profits of Rocketship Education itself and Rocketship-related entities, this study uses publicly available documents to track money flowing …

In Their Words: Voices Of High School Graduates Who Were Labeled English Learners, Yolanda K. Jimenez

Dissertations

This research captures the experiences of high school graduates who were labeled English Learners while they were enrolled in a public high school in the greater Sacramento area of California. The study examined what these bilingual high school graduates report as beneficial and detrimental experiences faced while completing the course requirements for high school graduation. This study builds on research that includes secondary classroom teachers and their perceptions of English Learners, classroom teaching and learning, and experiences of emergent bilingual students. The study expands the body of research and informs praxis pertaining to supporting emergent bilingual students as they attempt …

How Can We Do Better? Understanding Student Experiences And Support Needs During And After The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kevina M. Brown

Dissertations

This dissertation study aimed to provide opportunities for students at San José State University (SJSU), to share about their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic and to provide feedback and recommendations regarding resources and culturally engaging supports on campus. The research inquiry involved survey and interview methodology to gain insights into student experiences pertaining to financial and mental health challenges and academic disruption and social isolation during the beginning, middle and end of the pandemic, as well as their engagement with resources and supports provided on campus. Recruitment was done by flyer distribution throughout campus and via email distribution to students …

Queer A.F.: Queer Educators In Affinity Family Personal-Professional Development, James Egisto Aguirre

Dissertations

Scholarship shows that affinity groups are spaces of support, learning, and healthy career development that are responsive to the needs of a particular marginalized community. The concept of heteroprofessionalism– the implicit or explicit pressure/s queer educators feel to fit within the proverbial cisgender/heterosexual (cishet) box–is but one of a myriad issues and pressures affect queer educators across the nation. This study brings queer educators from one school district together to unpack their experiences through the lens of heteroprofessionalism. Via queer theory, qualitative, written response data was collected and subsequently analyzed in three, half-day sessions offered in spring 2024. Thirty participants …

Bystanders To A Public Health Crisis: The Failures Of The U.S. Multi-Agency Regulatory Approach To Food Safety In The Face Of Persistent Organic Pollutants, Katya S. Cronin

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”) are devastating our food systems and our health. Recent studies link even small exposure to PFAS to a host of adverse health outcomes, including cancer, autoimmune diseases, thyroid disease, liver damage, childhood obesity, infertility, and birth defects.

Food consumption is a primary route of PFAS exposure. PFAS are omnipresent at dangerous levels in our marine and agricultural environments, including in water, soil, fertilizers, compost, and air. From there, they can find their way into virtually every plant, fish, animal, and animal product, and ultimately (in the greatest concentration) into the consumer. In addition, PFAS-laden food …

Extraterritoriality, Francesca Bignami, Giorgio Resta

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This chapter argues that the competing American ballot-box and European fundamental rights paradigms of regulatory law have marked the specific domain of digital regulation. These regulatory paradigms and their associated state interests are projected extraterritorially through the market power of Silicon Valley, on the one hand, and the privacy rights of European Union (EU) regulators, on the other hand. This chapter also analyzes recent developments in the EU, where there is now a state effort to make digital markets and, relatedly, an emerging preference for some data localization to promote both fundamental rights and economic and security interests. In China, …

Why Sustainable Procurement? Read All About It, Steven L. Schooner

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

As procurement professionals (knowingly or unknowingly) await regulations promulgated in an effort to adapt to and mitigate climate change, significant opportunities exist within current federal regulations and policy to affect change. For now, the burden to stimulate innovation falls upon procurement professionals, individually, and collectively. In that context, information is power. What better place to start than with a good book?

With an eye towards informing productive conversations across the federal acquisition community about evolving expectations, practices, and policies in sustainable procurement, this article suggests some reading from the massive and diverse body of work related to climate change.

This …

We Need A New Glass-Steagall Act To End The Toxic Symbiosis Between Universal Banks And Shadow Banks, Which Professor Corrigan Has More Fully Revealed, Arthur E. Wilmarth Jr.

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Patrick Corrigan’s recent article highlights the abuses of securitization by universal banks during the subprime lending boom that led to the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–09 (GFC). Professor Corrigan’s article focuses on what Zoltan Pozsar and other researchers have called “internal” shadow banking—namely, the origination and securitization of hazardous loans by universal banks through nonbank affiliates, including broker-dealer subsidiaries and off-balance- sheet securitization vehicles. I agree with Professor Corrigan that the enormous credit risks generated by universal banks and their “internal” shadow banking affiliates played a major role in precipitating the GFC.

Professor Corrigan’s article gives less attention to what …

Protecting The U.S. National Security State From A Rogue President, Laura T. Dickinson

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The presidency of Donald Trump revealed weaknesses in the U.S. constitutional structure and its legal rules, weaknesses that had been covered over for most of our history because presidents of all political parties voluntarily obeyed norms of behavior that kept the presidency within the bounds of constitutional democratic governance. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that such norms have been permanently restored. Thus, scholars, policymakers, and judges must consider now how to protect the rule of law from a rogue president, rather than waiting for the next crisis to occur. This Article provides a comprehensive set of achievable reforms targeted specifically …

China's Anti-Secession Law: Background, Legal Significance, And Recent Developments, Donald C. Clarke

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

What is the significance of China’s 2005 Anti-Secession Law (ASL) specifically as a legal document? In other words, how if at all is it different for any practical purpose from a policy announcement? Would anything be different if it did not exist at all? What was the point of having the National People’s Congress issue it instead of, for example, the State Council (whose Taiwan Affairs Office in 2022 issued a White Paper)? What was the point of calling it a law, instead of something like “An Announcement to Taiwanese Compatriots,” as the NPC Standing Committee had done in 1979? …

Guardians Of Ethics For The Profession Of Arms: Judge Advocates Assisting Commanders To Choose The Harder Right Over The Easier Wrong, Lisa M. Schenck

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article provides an explanation of the unique and critical role of members of the Service Judge Advocate General’s Corps, not only as attorneys providing legal services to commanders, staff, personnel, and family members, but also as Guardians of Ethics for the military, the Profession of Arms. Moreover, military lawyers are key leaders who are responsible to lead or guide others to the right ethical decision. And when Judge Advocates are not present at the table to provide sage, educated, measured, advice—or fail to speak up and address potential ethical issues that arise or they are ignored— military leaders do …

Modern Military Justice: Cases And Materials (4th Ed.) (2024) (West Academic), Lisa M. Schenck

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This textbook comprehensively covers the modern military justice system of the United States, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. This text is appropriate for all students, with or without prior military experience. It covers court-martial procedures, substantive criminal law, and nonjudicial punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, in addition to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which gives federal courts jurisdiction over certain acts committed abroad. Materials from every Service within the Armed Forces show how the military justice system addresses all criminal offenses, ranging from minor infractions to serious offenses, such as the misconduct of soldiers at …

Copyright And The Training Of Human Authors And Generative Machines, Robert Brauneis

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

There are many limitations on copyright of which human authors can and do take advantage as they are learning. However, there is no blanket fair use immunity for use of copyrighted works to educate human authors, even though those authors typically do not go on to create substantially similar works. Human authors typically end up paying, directly or indirectly, for most of the copyrighted works from which they learn. Should it be different when human beings use copyrighted works to train generative AI models? This article concludes that it should not, in spite of two prominent arguments to the contrary. …

Policy Brief: On Remand In Cantero, The Second Circuit Should Uphold New York's Interest-On-Escrow Law And Reject Bank Of America's Preemption Claim, Arthur E. Wilmarth Jr.

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In Cantero v. Bank of America, N.A., 144 S. Ct. 1290 (2024), the Supreme Court vacated and remanded a decision of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Bank of America argued that the National Bank Act (NBA) preempted New York General Obligation Law (NYGOL) § 5-601, thereby exempting the bank from any duty to comply with the New York statute. The Second Circuit agreed with the bank’s preemption claim.

NYGOL § 5-601 requires national banks and other mortgage lenders operating in New York to pay at least 2% annual interest on funds deposited by borrowers in mortgage escrow accounts. …

The Implications Of Section 230 For Black Communities, Spencer A. Overton, Catherine Powell

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act generally immunizes online platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, and Uber from liability for third-party user content (e.g., posts, comments, videos) and for moderation of that content. This article addresses an important issue overlooked by both defenders and critics of Section 230: the implications of the law and proposed reforms for Black communities. By relieving tech platforms of most legal liability for third-party content, Section 230 helps facilitate Black social activism, entrepreneurship, and artistic creativity. Further, Section 230 also relieves platforms of most legal liability for content moderation, which boosts platforms’ freedom to …

The Overton Window And Privacy Enforcement, Alicia Solow-Niederman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

On paper, the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection authority seems straightforward: the agency is empowered to investigate and prevent unfair or deceptive acts or practices. This flexible and capacious authority, coupled with the agency’s jurisdiction over the entire economy, has allowed the FTC to respond to privacy challenges both online and offline. The contemporary question is whether the FTC can draw on this same authority to curtail the data-driven harms of commercial surveillance or emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

This Essay contends that the legal answer is yes and argues that the key determinants of whether an agency like the …

The Cost Of Justice At The Dawn Of Ai, Michael B. Abramowicz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Justice isn’t free, but it might soon get much less expensive. Policies concerning issues such as arbitration, class actions, and plea bargaining depend on how much legal services cost, but the legal literature has generally ignored past and future cost trends and their implications. The result is a legal system that may change dramatically because of economic forces without active consideration of potential responses. Part of the reason for the lack of attention is that changes in legal productivity can be difficult to measure or forecast. Some commentators have concluded that the legal sector has become more expensive in recent …

The Old And The New Governors: Efforts To Regulate And To Influence Platform Content Moderation, Dawn C. Nunziato

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The era of “Hands off the Internet” is clearly at an end. Fueled by conservatives’ charges of platform bias, state governments have enacted, and the federal government has proposed, regulations to control platforms’ discretion in moderating content. Justice Thomas recently provided a roadmap for such regulation, suggesting that governments impose common carrier or public accommodation regulations on platforms to limit “viewpoint discrimination.” States like Texas then enacted regulation prohibiting “viewpoint discrimination” in content moderation, and this regulation was upheld by the Fifth Circuit. Florida enacted similar legislation, but such this statute was largely struck down by the Eleventh Circuit. This …