Digital Commons Network^™

Tiktok The Tortfeasor: A Framework To Discuss Social-Platform Externalities And Arguments Favoring Ex Ante Mitigations, Karan Lala

University of Chicago Law Review

In recent years, social media platforms have grown increasingly complex in how they invite, intersect with, and influence third-party speech. This complexity lies in stark contrast to the simplicity of the statute that governs those very platforms: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Although Section 230 has cabined liability for platforms in the past, some have advocated for activist judges to deploy tools available to them to hold platforms accountable and mitigate harm to users as research documenting the negative impact of social products on user well-being has matured

This Comment reviews Section 230 jurisprudence to develop a novel …

Rethinking The Pharmaceutical Knowledge- Economy: Patents, The Trips Agreement, And Skewed Utilitarianism In The Evolving Ideological Paradigms, Morris Odeh

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The TRIPS Agreement introduced a unique globalized pharmaceutical patent economy. This article examines the social costs of this patent regime in low-income countries and makes three contributions. Firstly, it highlights how, in the early development of the patent system, nations perceived patents as privileges and displayed considerable reluctance in protecting pharmaceutical products and processes. This allowed net importers of technologies to replicate foreign innovations without the constraints of IP rights, and in some cases, invalidate unnecessary patents. However, this took a different turn towards the tail end of the 20th century when the patent norms and rules were harmonized and …

Examining Factors Affecting The Implementation Of Restorative Practices In Elementary Schools: Supporting And Challenging Aspects For Principals, Salma Hussein

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research seeks to gather information that will be useful for successfully implementing Restorative Practices from Minnesota elementary school principals. Elementary Principals have been interviewed to share their experiences with implementing Restorative Practices. It specifically focuses on identifying the successes and challenges, particularly in efforts to reduce racial disparities in discipline data.The study also examines how principals apply these practices in their elementary schools to create caring communities. Restorative Practices have emerged as more schools and states move towards non exclusionary discipline practices to better support students and build caring school communities. This research seeks to provide insights into …

Reflections On Influential Stem Experiences For Childhood Science Identity Development From East And Southeast Asian(Americans), Ellie Hechter

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Asian(Americans) are considered overrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), but disaggregating demographic data shows that Southeast Asian(Americans) are underrepresented, underrecognized, and actively marginalized in the STEM workforce and degrees. The falsely monolithic view of Asian(Americans) has resulted in Southeast Asian(Americans) being unaccounted for in equity and inclusion initiatives. To better understand how to support Southeast Asian(Americans) in STEM, this study focused on childhood science identity development. A weak science identity is a significant barrier that can affect a student’s engagement and persistence in STEM and can be affected by numerous psychological, institutional, social, and cultural experiences. This study …

Too Much Gloss For The Boss?, Martin S. Flaherty

Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 37 and later (2023–present)

Book review of Historical Gloss and Foreign Affairs: Constitutional Authority in Practice, by Curtis A. Bradley

What's (Fundamentally) Wrong With Privatization?, Alexander Volokh

Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 37 and later (2023–present)

Book review of Reclaiming the Public, by Avihay Dorfman and Alon Harel, and The Privatized State, by Chiara Cordelli

Regulating Crypto Intermediaries, Eric D. Chason

Faculty Publications

Early 2024 produced a dramatic rebound in cryptocurrency markets as Bitcoin hit an all-time high price in March 2024. This surge was fueled in large part by judicial and regulatory action. After years of denials and a high-profile defeat in court, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally approved the first exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for Bitcoin in January 2024. Many believe that these approvals will lead to a greater shift of investment funds into crypto. Crypto regulation is not, however, ready for this shift. While ETFs have clear treatment under current law, other institutions lack the same clarity or …

Breaking Free: Strategies For Governments On Terminating Investment Treaties And Removing Isds Provisions, Ladan Mehranvar, Martin Dietrich Brauch

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Our report, "Breaking Free: Strategies for Governments on Terminating Investment Treaties and Removing ISDS Provisions," is a guidebook for government officials and policymakers on the reform or exit of the investment treaty regime that is currently impeding climate action and other national and global goals. The report includes the following: (1) strategies for exiting or reforming investment treaties and the legal consequences that follow; (2) eliminating ISDS exposure in national investment laws and contracts; (3) withdrawing from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Convention and the minimal legal consequences of such action; (4) examples of country- and …

Screening For Responsible Investment In Agriculture And Food Systems: Guidance And Tools For Government Officials, Anna Bulman, Jesse Coleman, Ella Merrill, Esther Akwii, Madeleine Songy, Yannick Fiedler

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Strong screening processes help to identify and avoid or mitigate risks associated with larger-scale investments in agriculture and food systems at the early stage of the investment assessment process before any commitment has been made, costs incurred, or harms suffered. This publication, Screening for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems: Guidance and Tools for Government Officials, seeks to unpack the “what, why, and how” of screening.

Governments are the gatekeepers to investments. They can, in consultation with stakeholders, decide which investors are allowed to conduct business in their country and what types of investments are permitted. This gatekeeping role …

Climate Change Adaptation Through Economic Democracy, Shriraksha Mohan

Student Papers in Local and Global Regional Economies

As global climate change poses a serious threat to humanity's survival, equitable and just climate change adaptation has become the focus of several climate movements, social justice groups, governments, and international organizations. Climate sciences and studies have concluded that climate change not only impacts the planet's natural ecosystems, but also has cascading negative consequences on society and the economy. The existing paradigm of economic development has created vast wealth and resource inequality. The inequality further exacerbates the ill effects of climate change and makes vulnerable communities bear a disproportionate amount of the burden of climate catastrophes. This necessitates replacing the …

Metals-Based Additive Manufacturing Methods And Systems With Thermal Monitoring And Control, Michael Cai Wang, Rasim Guldiken

USF Patents

A metals-based additive manufacturing machine and method are disclosed. The machine and method include a hybrid temperature monitoring system. The hybrid temperature monitoring system includes a Raman spectrometer, a single-element ultrasound transducer, and a phased-array ultrasound pair. The hybrid temperature monitoring system can generate a real-time three-dimensional temperature map of the melt pool and optionally a portion of the metal powder base and/or a formed portion of a desired artifact. The real-time three-dimensional temperature map can be used for optimizing the metals-based additive manufacturing process in real-time or during subsequent process runs.

Real-Time Monitoring Of Covid-19 Progress Using Magnetic Sensing And Machine Learning, Manh-Huong Phan, Kee Young Hwang, Valery Ortiz Jimenez, Baleeswaraiah Muchharla

USF Patents

A breathing monitor that includes a contactless sensor that uses magneto-LC resonance technology is provided. The breathing monitor collects breathing data from a patient that indicates a breathing pattern of the patient. A model trained using machine learning using breathing patterns collected from patients known to have different stages of COVID-19 is used to process the collected breathing data and to determine whether the patient has COVID-19. The model further determines the stage of COVID-19. The breathing monitor can identify likely COVID-19 infections faster than existing tests and requires no contact between the patient and a medical professional, which is …

Methods Of Using Protein Palmitoylations Inhibitors, Robert Deschenes, Arunava Roy, Ahmed Ramadan, Subhra Mohapatra, Marcello Giulianotti

USF Patents

The present disclosure relates to methods of using palmitoylation inhibitors for reducing or treating enveloped virus infections.

Proceedings Of Wmu Maritime Week 2024 Beyond Horizons : Maritime Sustainability, World Maritime University, Korea Maritime Institute, Korea Research Institute Of Ships And Ocean Engineering

WMU Maritime Week 2024 Beyond Horizons: Maritime Sustainability

This proceedings is the output of the WMU Maritime Week 2024 Conference, which was held from August 27 to 30, 2024, at WMU in Malmö. As the first conference of WMU Maritime Week, it focused on themes such as the IMO World Maritime Day theme 2024: 'Navigating the Future: Safety First!', Maritime Sustainability, Digitalization, Decarbonization, Maritime Business and Logistics, and Capacity Development. A total of 42 experts in these fields presented across 8 sessions. This proceeding provides a summary of the presentations from all the speakers.

The Cycle Of Delegitimization: Lessons From Dred Scott On The Relationship Between The Supreme Court And The Nation, Jonathon J. Booth

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

This Article examines how Chief Justice Taney’s opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford sparked a cycle of delegitimization that parallels contemporary debates about the Supreme Court’s legitimacy crisis. Part I explicates how one family’s fight for freedom in Missouri reached the Supreme Court, the resulting radical decision, and the nation’s reaction to show the initial stages of this cycle. Part II examines the impact of Dred Scott on politics and law during the James Buchanan administration (1857–1861). During this period, the federal government, Southern states, and some Western territories swiftly implemented the decision, for example by expelling free Black residents. …

How American Society And Law Continue To Undermine People With Disabilities Seeking Education And Employment, Angelica Guevara

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Our Founders specifically identified education as necessary to economic success and full participation in our democracy and society. However, the Supreme Court held in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez that education in America is not a constitutional right; instead, it is a commodity that few can afford. Then, in 2023, Biden v. Nebraska exposed the direct result of that ruling: the average American––regardless of their disability status––struggles to pay back their student loans, even when they have a well-paying job. The student debt crisis significantly impacts the economic future of students with disabilities, who make on average sixty-six …

Will The New Roberts Court Revive A Formalist Approach To Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence?, Roger Antonio Tejada

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

While all Chief Justices leave behind distinctive periods of judicial thought and practice, the quantitative and qualitative data presented in this article show that the Roberts Court in particular stands out in the development of Fourth Amendment precedent. The key cases that shaped the search and seizure doctrine before and during his rise show that, contrary to what many may expect, Chief Justice Roberts will likely oversee limited, pro-defendant decisions that could grant additional legitimacy to the Court’s crime-control jurisprudence. On the other hand, the new Justices’ voting records and writings suggest that there are several potential coalitions that could …

Executive Power And Patronage: Lessons From Puerto Rico, Stephen A. Plass, Naomy M. Rivera

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Conservatives have made reforming the civil service a top priority, and this was exemplified by former President Donald Trump’s open opposition to job protections that federal civil servants enjoy. President Trump and others who advance a unitary executive theory, pledged to reshape the civil service by amassing appointment, disciplinary and removal powers in the president, although this would make a patronage system more feasible. To this end, President Trump issued an executive order that exposed many career federal civil service workers to a spoils system. This came on the heels of other executive orders that reduced existing workplace protections for …

No Need To Wait: Congress Has The Power Under Section Five Of The Fourteenth Amendment To Abolish The Death Penalty In The States, Eric M. Freedman

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Congress has the authority to abolish the death penalty in the states, and good reason to exercise it.

This Article takes as a given the Supreme Court’s view that the death penalty is not itself unconstitutional.

But under existing law Congress would have no difficulty in compiling a record that would support the use of its enforcement power under Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment to enact a statute forbidding the imposition of capital punishment by those states that retain the practice. The statute would be congruent and proportional legislation to remedy and prevent an amply documented history of violations …

Chenery Ii Revisited, Daniel T. Deacon

Articles

Ever since the Supreme Court’s 1947 decision in SEC v. Chenery Corporation, known as Chenery II, agencies have enjoyed wide latitude to develop policy through individual adjudications in addition to rulemaking. Chenery II has never been completely uncontroversial, and in recent years, calls to overturn or limit it have been expressed in increasingly fervent tones. Agency policymaking by adjudication has emerged as a new front in the struggle over the administrative state.

Against the backdrop of such calls, this Article revisits some of the fundamental questions concerning the Chenery II doctrine. I argue in favor of retaining Chenery II’s core …

Saraqib Thobe Identification In The May Weber Ethnographic Collection, Gretchen Rojewski

Department of Anthropology

The artistic tradition of embroidery in communities across the Arabian Peninsula has long served as a means of expressing local identity, values, and craftsmanship through the decoration of garments. Distinctive patterns, stylistic choices, and color palettes allow for the regional identification of embroidered clothing. This research examines a Syrian thobe housed in the May Weber Ethnographic Collection at Loyola University Chicago, using physical analysis and comparative study to identify its origins. By analyzing the garment’s embroidery patterns, construction techniques, and aesthetic details, this study not only determines the likely regional provenance of the thobe but also explores the broader cultural …

Making Plans Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, And Reusable With Data Infrastructure: A Search Engine For Constructing, Analyzing, And Visualizing Planning Documents, Lindsay Poirier, Dexter Antonio, Makenna Dettmann, Tiffany Eng, Jennifer Ganata, Sujoy Ghosh, Mirthala Lopez, Ranesh Karma, Asiya Natekal, Catherine Brinkley

Statistical and Data Sciences: Faculty Publications

Local land-use plans help guide future development, but it is often difficult to compare content across jurisdictions, making regional coordination and plan evaluation challenging. This research reviews federal, state, and local data infrastructure guidance for land-use plans and compares such guidance to compliance with a California use-case. Findings indicate a number of obstacles to fostering data sharing and comparative analysis of plans: there is currently no central repository of land-use plans; plans are not uniform in format and are often out of date; many plans are not machine-readable thereby inhibiting text extraction, and planning language varies so greatly that there …

The Undergraduate Engineering Mental Health Help-Seeking Instrument (Ue-Mh-Hsi): Development And Validity Evidence, Joseph H. Hammer, Courtney J. Wright, Melanie E. Miller, Sarah A. Wilson

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Background: Undergraduate engineering students experiencing distress are less likely than peers to ask for professional help. A population-specific instrument to facilitate the identification of factors that influence mental healthcare utilization could guide development and testing of interventions to increase help seeking.

Purpose: We used mixed methods guided by the Integrated Behavioral Model (IBM) to develop and evaluate the Undergraduate Engineering Mental Health Help-Seeking Instrument (UE-MH-HSI).

Method: First, we adapted existing measures of mental health help-seeking intention and mechanisms (i.e., attitudes, perceived norm: injunctive, perceived norm: descriptive, personal agency: autonomy, personal agency: capacity). Second, we coded qualitative interviews (N = 33) …

‘More Love Letters, Please!’: Portuguese Love And The Literary Legacy Of Sincere Feeling, Manuela MourãO

English Faculty Publications

This essay traces the formation of the myth of Portuguese Love, and demonstrates both its transcultural reach and its importance for literary history. Sparked by the tragic love of Pedro and Inês de Castro, the notion of Portuguese Love was crystallized in seventeenth-century France by Lettres portugaises, influenced European letters for centuries, and became an enduring myth in Portuguese culture. Anchored by Roland Barthes’s critique of the contemporary disparagement of sentimental love, the essay argues that Portuguese Love’s continued affirmation, from nineteenth-century literary iterations to current manifestations, demonstrates the power of a discourse of genuine feeling to counter ideological …

Gender And Education Practice In Kenya, Meredith Kozak, Eva Ireri Muluve, Ruth Nanjekho Wafubwa, Lina López-Lalinde

Gender Equality and Equity

The Kenya Gender and Education Roadmap is a series of four evidence briefs designed to provide a comprehensive analysis of the gender and education landscape in Kenya. Drawing from a variety of key data sources, including the Population Council’s Evidence for Gender and Education Resource (EGER) Database, DHS and national-level datasets, and recent literature from East Africa the series provides data-driven insights into gender-related barriers to schooling, especially for girls. By combining needs assessments, current evidence, and practice-based research, the series sheds light on the alignments and gaps in Kenya’s efforts to achieve gender equity in education. This brief assesses …

Unrealized Potential: South Africa’S Bill Of Inaccessible Rights: What Three Cape Town Human Rights Activist Have To Say About The Adequacy Of Three Clauses In South Africa’S Bill Of Rights, Saylor Wilkes Donaldson

South Africa: Multiculturalism and Human Rights

The South African Constitution is often referred to as the most progressive constitution in the world by both locals and international academics. Its establishment would come after decades of racial abuse and discrimination which called for political and social rights for a population that had been neglected for years. Although, this sentiment quickly comes into question as soon as an individual travels more than ten kilometers outside of the Cape Town city center. This is where informal settlements and their lack of basic necessities such as clean water, proper housing structures, and consistent education become visible. The South African Bill …

In God’S Time: Pastoral Care And Migrant Faith In Mexico And The Borderlands Of The United States Of America, Katherine Rocky Marshall

Mexico: Migration, Borders, and Transnational Communities

Katherine Marshall, a student of Religious Studies, responds to the following question by recounting a series of interviews with professors and pastoral care practitioners from Mexico and the United States of America: “With a focus on the Catholic Church, what is the importance of pastoral care for people migrating through Mexico to the United States of America?” Pastoral care is a part of many religious traditions, but, in a Christian context, it is a practice that involves becoming a physical reminder of God’s constant presence. Pastoral care practitioners make deep listening the core of their work, responding to various needs …

Madhesi Dalit Women’S Experience With ‘Development’ And Its Limitations In Nepal, Chloe Peyton

Nepal: Development, Gender, and Social Change in the Himalaya

In the study of development, the thoughts, viewpoints, and overall experience of beneficiaries contribute a humanitarian viewpoint to an often abstracted and speculative realm of study. This research focuses on Dalit women in the Madhesh province of Nepal and their experiences with development, thereby providing context to beneficiaries' and non-beneficiaries expectations and desires regarding development, as well as the unresolved challenges faced by Dalit women despite development efforts. Madhesi Dalit women are the focus of this research as their intersectional identities place them in a uniquely challenging position to attain equal treatment and opportunity, and these women, in particular, are …

The Approaches And Implications Of English Medium Of Instruction In Nepal’S Private Schools, Vivian Ko

Nepal: Development, Gender, and Social Change in the Himalaya

In this report, I discuss how English Medium of Instruction (EMI) is approached by private schools in Nepal and its implications on larger society. Nepal’s increasing demand for EMI, and thus private schools, has contributed to a variety of social issues including inaccessibility and a dying culture. By situating EMI in Nepal’s education system, I explore how the privatization of schools and the wide implementation of EMI is both a result of neoliberalism and a contributing factor to such ideologies. Observations of EMI classes and non-academic spaces on school grounds, in addition to interviews and focus groups with students and …

Unpacking Migration: Education, Livelihoods, And Local Choices In Nepal’S Ilam District, Katherine Lipman

Nepal: Development, Gender, and Social Change in the Himalaya

This research examines labor migration in Nepal, focusing on the Ilam district within Koshi Province, an area with high rates of outward migration. Drawing on a background in Industrial and Labor Relations, the study seeks to understand why some individuals choose to remain in communities characterized by extensive labor migration. By analyzing the impact of the "three U's"—unskilled, uneducated, and unaware—on migration decisions, the study investigates how local education systems, skill-building opportunities, and labor market alignment shape these choices. The research methodology blends qualitative and experiential approaches, including interviews with educators, community members, and workers, alongside immersive observation of daily …