Digital Commons Network^™

Advancing Reproductive Equality Through Anti-Discrimination Law, Rebecca J. Cook

Denver Journal of International Law & Policy

This article explores various understandings of anti-discrimination law and how different national apex courts, regional human rights tribunals and international human rights treaty bodies have applied them in abortion decisions, particularly in the Global South. Recent jurisprudential and theoretical innovations in anti-discrimination law range from direct discriminatory treatment against individuals to indirect discrimination resulting in disparate impact on groups to systemic forms of discrimination that address underlying gender hierarchies and prejudicial constructions of women, girls and pregnant persons. Whatever form of anti-discrimination law is applied, they all have a role in improving access to essential abortion services and improving the …

303 Creative For Everyone?, Mark Satta

West Virginia Law Review

Does the holding in 303 Creative v. Elenis give businesses open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to provide expressive services for interracial couples’ weddings, interfaith couples’ weddings, or for couples’ weddings in which one or both partners are disabled? As indicated by questions raised during oral arguments, this is one of the troubling new legal questions created by the Supreme Court’s 303 Creative decision where the Court held that a Colorado web design business had a First Amendment free speech right to refuse to provide wedding website services for same-sex couples’ weddings. Understandably, both the Court’s conservative …

Litigating Loper Bright: Interpretive Challenges And Solutions For The Post-Chevron Era, Eric R. Bolinder

West Virginia Law Review

This Article arrives at a critical juncture in Administrative Law and comprehensively answers two burning questions about Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the case that overturned Chevron deference. First, what did Loper Bright change about review of agency action? Second, how should lower courts implement the decision? This Article engages in a first-of-its-kind, exhaustive review of the major circuit court decisions citing Loper Bright and analyzes how influential judges, scholars, and justices have characterized the impact of the decision. The Article defines what role Skidmore “deference” and the major questions doctrine should play in judicial review—while seriously questioning the long-term …

Foreshadowing The "Stop Campus Hazing Act": Education, Prevention, And University Liability, Gregory S. Parks, Victoria Surati

West Virginia Law Review

On December 23, 2024, President Joseph R. Biden signed into law the Stop Campus Hazing Act (the “SCHA”). The SCHA amends the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1092(f), a subsection of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (the “Clery Act”). The SCHA defines “hazing” and “student organization,” expands the current Annual Security Reporting requirements, calls for a new form of reporting, and requires policies relating to hazing. It also requires each covered institution of higher education to publish a policy statement regarding hazing awareness and prevention programs that includes a …

Asylum Eligibility: A Circuit Split Between The Second And Fourth Circuits Based Upon Death Threats Rising To The Level Of Persecution Per Se, Taylor Cochran

West Virginia Law Review

Asylum eligibility requires applicants to satisfy a three-pronged set of requirements in order to be granted admission into the United States. In a July 2024 decision, the Second Circuit court issued a decision that challenged a line of precedent established by the Fourth Circuit—specifically examining whether death threats rise to the persecution threshold set by the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”). The Second Circuit now holds that the receipt of death threats alone is insufficient to establish persecution, thereby making alien petitioners who have received such threats ineligible for asylum or related forms of relief from removal. In contrast, the …

"Tik Tok" On The Clock: It's Time To Amend Section 230, Mackenzie G. Howe

West Virginia Law Review

The Communications Decency Act (“CDA”), enacted in 1996, was designed to support the rapid growth of the Internet, advancing access to political information, educational resources, culture, entertainment, and news. However, Section 230 of the CDA includes a key provision that grants nearly absolute immunity to online platforms such as Facebook, X, and TikTok. This provision states: “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” Despite the Supreme Court’s apprehension to reexamine Section 230, the Third Circuit took a novel approach to potentially …

Request For Modification 25-031 To The Long-Term Monitoring And Maintenance Plan Of The Mixed Waste Landfill And The Resource Conservation And Recovery Act Facility Operating Permit Renewal Request, Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico, Epa Id Nm5890110518, Sandia National Laboratories/Nm Snl

Facilities-Units

The Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) and Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico (SNL/NM) have requested modifications to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Facility Operating Permit (Permit) for Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico. The requested modifications consist of revisions to the Mixed Waste Landfill (MWL) Long-Term Monitoring and Maintenance Plan (LTMMP), which is incorporated by reference into Permit Attachment M, "Long-Term Monitoring and Maintenance Plan for Solid Waste Management Units and Areas of Concern Granted Corrective Action Complete with Controls." The MWL is also known as Solid Waste Management Unit (SWMU) 76.

The DOE/NNSA and SNL/NM propose to update …

Customer Food Intake: An Empirical Analysis Of Gender, Restaurant Use And Attitude Toward Fast Food Among Adolescents And Young Adults, In Nairobi, Kenya, Gerishom G. Madivoli, Rosemarie Ayuma Khayiya, Beatrice Kamau

Journal of Global Hospitality and Tourism

Fast food is the fastest- growing food category worldwide, providing young people and adolescents with a quick, cost- effective, and easily accessible alternative to home- cooked meals. There has been considerably less research into how gender, restaurant usage, and attitudes influence patterns of fast- food consumption. Moreover, the growth of the fast- food industry in every nation creates a significant environmental impetus for increasing fast food consumption and promoting unhealthy eating behaviours. If this issue is not addressed, the prevalence of lifestyle diseases such as obesity, along with the costs of managing these conditions, will escalate, particularly in Kenya. This …

The “Founder’S Gaze”: How The Fourth Amendment Is A Surveillance Technology That Enables Ai To Scale Control Over The Subaltern, Diego H. Alcalá Laboy

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Much has been written about the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning applications and how the current Fourth Amendment law has been unable to mitigate the privacy harm that these tools produce. This article explores how the development and usage of AI and machine learning models is dependent on the originalism principles of Fourth Amendment Law. Utilizing Critical Surveillance Studies and Anticolonial Theory, I posit that the Fourth Amendment is a surveillance technology that categorizes conduct, persons, and places to impose the material conditions for the subjugation of historically minoritized communities within the United States. Furthermore, this article explores …

(Re)Birth Of A Nation: Reconstruction’S Unfinished Business, Zanita E. Fenton

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

The irony, alluding to the title of the 1915 silent movie Birth of a Nation, seeks to make conspicuous the counter-stories that more authentically account for the “birth” and development of American society. Ku Klux Klan-sponsored propaganda designed to evoke hyper-racist fearmongering and perpetuate sexual paternalism over White women, the plot from Birth of a Nation reflects the paradigmatic race-bait: relentless pursuit of a White woman by a Black man. This storyline was fictionalized, culturally unrealistic and deliberately omitted the very real sexual exploitation of Black women and girls. Birth of a Nation parallels Constitutional history that marginalizes supplemental …

Reasoning From Injustice, Robert L. Tsai

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In a series of lectures at Yale Law School, the Harvard political theorist Judith Shklar critiqued leading models of justice as overly abstract and lacking a realistic account of the social dynamics that perpetuate injustice. In this essay, Professor Tsai builds on Shklar’s account of injustice as a social phenomenon by offering a structural reading of key literary texts that explore the nature of legal injustice—from the Book of Job to Harriett Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Frederick Douglass’s The Heroic Slave. A close reading of these texts permits us to flesh out Shklar’s observations and “give injustice …

An In-Depth Criticism Of Shaw V. Reno, Katherine M. Perez-Oviedo

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

If I have learned one thing from my semester taking Critical Race Theory, it is that the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly issued decisions that directly impede on remedial efforts to address past racial discrimination. When the question of “how can we use the law to instill social change?” is proposed in class discussion, it is difficult to imagine a world in which the Court would support the progressive measures suggested.

Multi-Generational Biases Perceived By Women To Senior Leadership Positions In Non-Profit Higher Education, Regina Watkins, Deanna R. Davis

Journal of Research Initiatives

Women remain underrepresented in senior leadership in both public and private industry and in non-profit postsecondary education. One reason that has been identified for the gender disparity in senior leadership positions is second-generation or implicit biases. The problem addressed in this study was the existence and persistence of second-generation biases that contribute to the lack of active senior women mentors, potentially inhibiting junior women from Generation X and millennials from achieving senior leadership status in non-profit higher education. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study was to gain a deeper understanding of the significance of perceptions of second-generation biases, …

Boundless Possibilities: Reimagining Blackness In Wilson Kwamogi Okello’S On Blackness, Liveliness, And What It Means To Be Human, Duane Ebesu

Journal of Research Initiatives

Wilson Kwamogi Okello's *On Blackness, Liveliness, and What It Means to Be Human* theorizes the inheritances of systemic anti-Blackness while affirming Blackness as a site of creativity, vitality, and world-making. Okello examines how Western humanism and the coloniality of knowledge have excluded and restricted Black life both socially and within educational systems and epistemology. The volume is composed of three parts and critiques the regulative logics of higher education, the aesthetics and relationality of Black life, and the pervasive reach of carceral systems. At its core, Okello proposes a reconceptualization of Blackness in terms of "liveliness," viewing it as a …

“Small” Voices, Big Wins: Analyzing Remedies In Children’S Climate Cases, Maria Antonia Tigre

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Children’s climate litigation has emerged as a powerful tool to address the climate crisis, with young plaintiffs around the world taking governments and corporations to court to demand climate action. This Article examines successful cases — those in which relief sought by the applicants was fully or partially granted — across five continents, providing an “around the world” perspective on the evolution and impact of youth-led climate litigation. Focusing on landmark cases in Australia, Colombia, South Africa, South Korea, and the United States, this analysis highlights the arguments presented by young plaintiffs and the judicial reasoning that supported the relief …

Society Of Vascular And Interventional Neurology (Svin) Stroke Interventional Laboratory Consensus (Silc) Criteria For Training Standards And Maintenance Of Certification In Neurointervention, Ossama Y. Mansour, Kaiz S. Asif, Roberta Novakovic-White, Boris Pabon, Santiago Ortega-Gutierrez, Atilla Ozcan Ozdemar, Alicia Castonguay, Brijesh Mehta, Dileep R. Yavagal, Ameer E. Hassan

School of Medicine Publications

The global shortage of neurointerventionalists presents a challenge to timely stroke care, particularly in low‐ and middle‐income countries. The Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology Stroke Interventional Laboratory Consensus criteria aim to standardize training and certification in neurointervention to address these disparities. This white paper reviews existing training standards in various regions, identifies gaps, and proposes a structured framework encompassing entry requirements, program structure, and certification processes. The Stroke Interventional Laboratory Consensus criteria further outline requirements for training centers and program directors. By establishing global standards, the Stroke Interventional Laboratory Consensus criteria seek to improve patient outcomes and expand access …

Silent Damage, Early Signals: A Narrative Review Of The Evolving Role Of Cardiac Biomarkers In Oncology-Driven Cardiotoxicity, Aura Calderon, Luis Salcedo, Jose Loayza, Catherine Matos, Ivan Mogollon, Francisco Arias, Everardo Cobos

School of Medicine Publications

Advancements in cancer therapy have led to improved patient survival but have also introduced an increasing risk of cardiotoxicity, particularly with agents such as anthracyclines, trastuzumab, and various targeted treatments. Cardiotoxic effects may present as myocardial injury, systolic or diastolic dysfunction, or heart failure (HF), often developing insidiously before clinical symptoms become evident. Early detection is therefore crucial to preserve cardiovascular health in oncology patients. This narrative review examines the expanding role of cardiac biomarkers; including high-sensitivity troponins, natriuretic peptides, Galectin-3, soluble ST2, and novel molecular markers like microRNAs, in identifying and monitoring chemotherapy-induced cardiac injury. It also highlights how …

Building A Novel Question-Answering System Using Retrieval-Augmented Generation For The California Fair Political Practices Commission, Saanvi Dua

Master's Theses

The California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) receives a high volume of inquiries via email from public officials, the general public, and other agencies, which currently requires staff to manually search through informational documents and manuals to provide timely responses. This process is both labor- and time-intensive.

To address this challenge, we design a question-answering (QA) system that drafts responses to emailed questions by retrieving relevant information from the FPPC’s manuals using a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) framework. Although the current implementation focuses on a single manual, the system is designed to be adaptable to the broader set of FPPC documents. …

Dietary Intake And Changes In Body Composition Over The Course Of One Season In Ncaa Division 1 Football Players, Blayke W. Harrison

Master's Theses

Energy intake and macronutrient composition of an athlete’s diet is highly important when considering performance. Additionally, having a favorable body composition (i.e. low levels of fat mass and high levels of lean body mass) is crucial in high-level athletes.The role of nutrition-related support personnel is highly needed by many collegiate athletics programs to achieve these outcomes, yet this resource seems to be undervalued and underused in many settings. The present thesis investigates the effects of providing nutritional support to improve dietary habits and compare changes in specific body composition metrics over the course of one season (pre- and post-season) among …

Elevating Entrepreneurship With Generative Artificial Intelligence, Yaojie Li, John Kirk Ring, Dan Jin, Saleh Bajaba

Management and Marketing Faculty Publications

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) transforms the entrepreneurial landscape by providing contextual information, identifying viable opportunities, and facilitating entrepreneurial decision-making. Despite the growing acknowledgment of its use in entrepreneurial activities, this field lacks a robust theoretical framework and practical implementation. This study seeks to fill this gap by drawing on information behavior literature to explore the effect of GenAI across the entrepreneurial spectrum. By leveraging large language models and prompt engineering patterns, we examined how GenAI could generate accurate, relevant, and inspiring content through various interaction scenarios. Our findings suggest that GenAI significantly mitigates early-stage entrepreneurial information asymmetry and supports sophisticated …

Resisting Islamophobia: “Westophobia” In Social Media, Peter O'Brien, Jordan Nelson

Comparative Civilizations Review

Both the practice and study of Islamophobia repose on the concept of comparative civilizations. Purveyors of Islamophobia use what Roger Westcott calls a “denotative” understanding to posit an objective conflict (or “clash” à la Samual Huntington) between Western and Islamic civilizations. Scholars who analyze Islamophobia tend to take what Westcott calls a “connotative” approach that views civilizations as subjective, social constructs (à la Edward Said’s “Orient”).

Despite many advantages, the latter approach tends to dismiss the agency of Muslims to resist Islamophobia. This article counters that trend by exploring Islamist resistance to Islamophobia, to which we give the shorthand label, …

Academic Civilization: Expansion And Development, Inbar Gotlib Gotlib-Rivkin

Comparative Civilizations Review

The concept of academic civilization was developed out of and in relation to that of modern civilization. Prominent characteristics of modern civilization are reflected in institutions of higher education, and they can therefore be regarded as constituting a civilization. The six main characteristics of institutions of higher education that render them a civilization include expansion in terms of scope and growth, flexibility and institutional diversity, center-periphery relations, academic culture, autonomy and academic freedom, and the monopolization of professional training and the professional middle class. This paper addresses the first characteristic — expansion of institutions of higher education — and …

Towards The Systematic Cross-Civilizational Comparison: How Civilizations Work - Case 1: The Monotheistic Civilization, Liah Greenfeld

Comparative Civilizations Review

The purpose of this essay is to offer several hypotheses based on the concept of civilization and the conceptual scaffolding for the study of the cultural reality, proposed in the Spring 2024 CCR paper, regarding the three civilizations coexisting in the world today: the monotheistic, the Sinic, and the Indic. It introduces the modal dimensions along which civilizations may differ on the level of the individual mind — cognitive (pertaining both to the structure and contents of thought), moral, and emotional; and that of the society (separate institutions and institutional systems) and history.

End Matter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Minimal Risk Animal Research And Education Ethics Application Form, Munster Technological University, Ireland

Policies & Procedures Documents

Researchers and educators are required to ensure that no direct interaction with animals, i.e., interaction beyond the ethics screening level, will be initiated until Animal Research and Education Ethics Committee (AREEC) approval is received. Depending on the nature of the study described below, the study may require a preliminary review by the AREEC Chairperson and may be subject to further clarification. Please note that all questions requiring either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer must be completed –if you fail to do so, or leave them blank, your form will be returned.

This form is applicable to university researchers and educators.

Full Ethical Review Animal Research Education And Ethics Application Form, Munster Technological University, Ireland

Policies & Procedures Documents

Researchers and educators are required to ensure that no direct interaction with animals, i.e., interaction beyond the ethics screening level, will be initiated until Animal Research and Education Ethics Committee (AREEC) approval is received. Depending on the nature of the study described below, the study may require a preliminary review by the AREEC Chairperson and may be subject to further clarification. Please note that all questions requiring either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer must be completed –if you fail to do so, or leave them blank, your form will be returned.

This form is applicable to university researchers and educators.

Animal Research And Education Ethics Committee Terms Of Reference, Munster Technological University, Ireland

Policies & Procedures Documents

The University’s Animal Research and Education Ethics Committee (AREEC) facilitates the statutory required formal ethical review of all research and educational activities that involve animals as subjects considered sentient beings prior to commencement of the study. Researchers and educators are also required to liaise with the Animal Welfare Body (AWB) in respect of animal interactions. The AWB manages the wider context of animal welfare in accordance with Animal Welfare legislation.

Kentucky Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (Mmucc) Sixth Edition Report Card, William Staats, Nikiforos Stamatiadis, Eric Green, Nathaniel Swallom

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (6th Edition) (MMUCC) in 2024. This updated version of the MMUCC contains recommendations for improving and standardizing electronic crash data. Its guidelines address the collection and presentation of 105 data elements and 1,056 data attributes. To facilitate a possible redesign of Kentucky’s crash reporting process, Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) researchers reviewed the updated criteria and evaluated the degree to which the state complies with its recommended methods of gathering, storing, and presenting crash data. At the level of data elements, Kentucky is 25 percent compliant; for data …

The Law On Deposits In Singapore, Tiong Min Yeo

Singapore Law Journal (Lexicon)

This article traces the development of the law of deposits in Singapore and reviews the restatement of the law in the 2024 landmark decision of the Court of Appeal in Li Jialin v Wingcrown Investments Pte Ltd, as well as some of the issues left open by the decision. It is argued that while the decision has clarified that deposits are not subject to the penalty rule but instead subject to the common law test of reasonableness—with the practical consequence that, with clear drafting, contracting parties can rely on the validity of reasonable deposit clauses without the complication of …

A Settlement By “Any Other Name”: Evaluating The Sustainability Of Settlement Mechanisms, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Singapore Law Journal (Lexicon)

Private settlements have been consistently encouraged by the Singapore civil justice system. Depending on the context, the settlement may take on many forms, including consent orders and settlement agreements. This begs the question of whether the exact form of settlement matters, or whether a settlement “by any other name” suffices. This article proposes the concept of “sustainable settlements” – comprising the measures of ease of enforcement, finality, and confidentiality – to holistically appraise the effectiveness of settlement mechanisms. The assessment of six settlement mechanisms using these measures clearly indicates that not every mechanism is equally sustainable. Exploring settlement amidst the …