Digital Commons Network^™

Whistleblowers And Trade Secrecy’S Long Shadow, Deepa Varadarajan

Missouri Law Review

Employee whistleblowers expose harmful and unlawful corporate practices, often at great personal cost. Recent examples—including those at Meta, Boeing, OpenAI, Twitter, and Theranos—highlight whistleblowers’ significant societal role. But these examples also showcase the myriad legal uncertainties and obstacles employees face when collecting and disclosing evidence of potentially illegal behavior by their employers.

Not So Freakish After All: Foreseeability And The Limits Of Statutory Compliance, Logan A. Blaylock

Missouri Law Review

When substitute school bus driver Tomika Richardson began her route one October afternoon, the only map she had was a scribbled list of intersections—a rough substitute for the detailed, software-generated route plan with turn-by-turn directions that First Student, Inc. (“First Student”) normally provided to its drivers. The handwritten sheet, reproduced below, was the sole document Richardson received to guide her through a complex urban bus run:

Does Horizontal Shareholding Violate The Federal Antitrust Laws? Outcomes And Considerations In Light Of Texas V. Blackrock, Inc., Thomas A. Briner

Missouri Law Review

To date, the issue of horizontal shareholding has been a purely academic topic. This is no longer the case. Horizontal shareholding—also known as “common ownership”—occurs when an investor acquires shares of two competing companies. For example, take the airline industry. In the United States, there are four main airlines, all of which are publicly traded. Suppose an investor acquires shares of both Delta Air Lines, Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. Because this investor owns shares of these two competing airlines, this investor is a horizontal shareholder. This practice is not uncommon.

The Disability Discrimination Dilemma: Resolving The Circuit Split Regarding Culpability Standards In Education, Brooklyn N. Cross

Missouri Law Review

“Our anger was a fury sparked by profound injustices. Wrongs that deserved ire. And with that rage we ripped a hole in the status quo.” In 1949, eighteen-month-old Judith Heumann contracted polio, losing her ability to walk. Heumann’s parents, German Jewish immigrants to New York, were unaware of the consequences using a wheelchair would have on their daughter’s ability to participate in certain activities. When it became time for Heumann to begin kindergarten, the principal refused to allow the family into the school, stating that Heumann was a “fire hazard.” But Heumann’s mother was tenacious, and the principal eventually admitted …

Fair Use On Trial: Reassessing Market Harm In Ai Training, Emily E. Karr

Missouri Law Review

Technological innovation has consistently reshaped society, revolutionizing how we live, work, and create. Consider the digitization of books and newspapers: it greatly increased accessibility and efficiency but also led to a decline in the printing industry.1 Similarly, VCRs allowed viewers to watch television at any time yet simultaneously threatened the market for reruns, potentially leading to lower TV ratings and revenue.2 These examples illustrate a recurring tension: new technologies bring societal benefits while potentially disrupting established industries.

Taking It Down Or Not Far Enough? Evaluating The Take It Down Act And The Future Of Online Privacy, Camryn Kesselring

Missouri Law Review

Imagine you wake up one morning to notifications from your ex-partner, threatening to post private images of you online. Panicked, you Google your name and are inundated with explicit images of yourself posted to various websites dedicated to “revenge porn.” You reach out to these websites, desperate for removal, but you are met with only automatically generated replies and no assistance from these platforms. At work, you feel the heavy weight of colleagues’ stares. Eventually, calls from clients start to come in, confirming your fears that many are sharing and viewing these images. At the click of a button, your …

Mythbusting The Moment Of Threat: Barnes V. Felix In The Context Of Unreasonable Police Seizures, Coleson Manade

Missouri Law Review

A traffic stop for unpaid toll violations should not end in death. Yet on April 28, 2016, Officer Roberto Felix shot and killed Ashtian Barnes during a routine traffic stop for a non-arrestable offense. The legal battle that followed exposed a fundamental tension in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence: how should courts balance officers’ safety concerns with citizens’ rights when analyzing excessive force claims?

Systemic And Metabolic Control Of Liver Regeneration, Lingzhi Hong, Alessandro Di Federico, Bolun Liu, Alissa J Cooper, Joao V Alessi, Phoebe Clark, Waree Rinsurongkawong, Chingyi Young, Hui Li, Kang Qin, Muhammad Aminu, Valentina Santo, Yasir Elamin, Boris Sepesi, Jeff Lewis, Don L Gibbons, Ara A Vaporciyan, J Jack Lee, Xiuning Le, Jia Wu, Sinchita Roy-Chowdhuri, Mark J Routbort, P Andrew Futreal, John V Heymach, Mark M Awad, Adam J Schoenfeld, Jianjun Zhang, Biagio Ricciuti, Lei Deng, Natalie I Vokes

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The liver possesses a unique regenerative capacity, driven by mechanisms that extend beyond classical growth factor signaling. Recent studies underscore the importance of metabolic reprogramming, mitochondrial adaptation, and signaling metabolites in promoting tissue injury repair. Dynamic crosstalk between hepatocytes, non-parenchymal cells, and other organs governs the regenerative process. Spatial compartmentalization within the liver and systemic cues from adipose tissue, the pancreas, the gut, the brain, skeletal muscle, and other organs play critical roles in shaping regenerative outcomes. In this review we discuss how the liver's tissue microenvironment and inter-organ communication networks regulate liver regeneration, providing new insights into the complex …

Routine Transfusion Of Rh(D)-Positive Rbcs To Rh(D)-Negative Patients Designated As Do Not Resuscitate Conserves Rh(D)-Negative Red Blood Cell Inventory, Julie Katz Karp, Jovanna Everetts, Juliana Guarente, Angelica Vivero, Tiffany Bohr, Mary Harach

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Background: A minority of blood donors are Rh(D)-negative, and Rh(D)-negative red blood cell (RBC) products are often overutilized. As such, Rh(D)-negative RBCs may be difficult to maintain in blood bank inventory.

Study design and methods: We changed our blood bank laboratory policy to approve non-alloimmunized Rh(D)-negative patients to receive Rh(D)-positive RBCs for routine transfusion under defined criteria. Those criteria included Rh(D)-negative males (all ages) and females (aged >50 years) who were designated as do not resuscitate (DNR), either with or without intubation, in the electronic medical record.

Results: From August 15, 2024 through August 15, 2025, a total of 204 …

Variation In Chronic Automated Red Cell Exchange Practices For Sickle Cell Disease: Insights Into Isovolemic Hemodilution Use, Jennifer M. Jones, Fatima Aldarweesh, Nicole Aqui, Aleh Bobr, Patricia Brunker, Mischa L. Covington, Juliana Guarente, Robert Hagar, Matthew Karafin, Divjot Singh Lamba, Grace Lee, Wen Lu, Ethan A. Mack, Gagan Muthur, Saadiya Nazli, Halima Olaniyan, Chinelo P. Onyenekwu, Jay S. Raval, Divya Setya, Yvette C. Tanhehco, Mamie Thant, Angelica Vivero, Yanyun Wu, Edward C. C. Wong, Nalan Yurtsever, Yan Zheng, Patricia A. Shi, Jennifer Webb

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Prior surveys of chronic automated red blood cell exchange (RCE) for patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) have identified considerable procedural variability, especially with the use of isovolemic hemodilution red blood cell exchange (IHD-RCE). We conducted a survey of chronic RCE practices among American Society for Apheresis (ASFA) members to identify opportunities for practice harmonization and future studies. The ASFA SCD Research Subcommittee developed a 72-item survey of chronic RCE practices, with a focus on IHD-RCE. The survey was validated internally and distributed by email to all ASFA members from September 2024 to February 2025. One survey response from each …

The River That Powers Us: A Tribute To Dean Emeritus Kevin R. Johnson, His Steadfast Commitment To Diversity And Excellence, And His Legacy Of Impact, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay pays tributes to Dean Emeritus Kevin R. Johnson’s extraordinary contributions to the growth and successes of full-time Latinx faculty and other faculty of color within the legal academy. To do so, it utilizes the recent, inaugural study of faculty by the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) to situate the legal academy’s progress with the diversification of its faculty within a longer trajectory and then illustrates how such gains over the past three decades are the product of intentional, sustained intervention rather than organic institutional and societal evolution. The Essay begins by tracing the lineage of this progress …

On The Right To Obscurity, Woodrow Hartzog, Evan Selinger

Faculty Scholarship

Tragically, U.S. privacy law has neglected to address a significant dimension of privacy. While lawmakers and judges have routinely recognized intrusions into our secluded spaces and breaches of our confidentiality and secrecy, they have largely failed to protect our most common yet also our most underappreciated form of privacy: the practical obscurity that allows us to live freely and with dignity. Obscurity, which is the state of protection that arises when personal information is difficult for some people to obtain or correctly interpret, serves several vital interests: (1) it safeguards our ability to express ourselves without fear that everything we …

Aggregation And The “Universal” Injunction, Portia Pedro, Adam Steinman

Faculty Scholarship

A crucial function of judicial review is not only “to say what the law is,”¹ but also to provide the remedies to vindicate that law.²  Judicial review plays an especially important role when government officials act in ways that violate federal law, including when they violate the Constitution.³  When government officials violate the law, the judicial review function supports a remedy that requires officials to comply with federal law by ceasing to pursue the illegal policy or practice.

Such “compliance” injunctions have been given the label “universal” or “nationwide” injunctions insofar as they go beyond giving “complete …

The Colonial Borders Within: Racial Profiling, Language, And Civil Juries, Jasmine Gonzales Rose

Faculty Scholarship

This Article builds on the scholarship of Kevin R. Johnson, whose work has long illuminated how immigration law and constitutional doctrine have enabled the subordination of Latines through racial profiling,2 language discrimination,3 and exclusion from civic institutions, like juries.4 His analyses of juror exclusion and the importance of a diverse judiciary underscore how the composition of civil and criminal factfinders shapes both recognition of harm and the remedies afforded.5 Long before the current period of intensified, abusive immigration enforcement, his scholarship traced the historical roots of these practices, examined their contemporary manifestations, and revealed the ways in which the law …

Initial Injury Type And Violent Reinjury, Nicholas Szoko, Daphne Lew, Taylor Kaser, Zoe M Miller, Matt Vogel, Michael A Mancini, Lindsay M Kranker, Christopher Behr, Vicki Moran, Rachel Ancona, Kristen Mueller

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Violent injuries are the leading cause of death among children and young adults in the United States. Violent injury may increase the risk of subsequent injury (ie, violent reinjury), but it is unclear how this risk varies across different injury types (eg, blunt assault, stabbing, firearm).

OBJECTIVE: To describe patterns of violent reinjury across different injury types to inform tailored prevention strategies.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This multicenter cohort study included patients who presented with violent injuries to 2 adult and 2 pediatric level I trauma centers in St Louis, Missouri, from January 2016 to December 2023.

EXPOSURES: Violent …

Viscoelastic And Morphologic Changes In The Lumbar Intervertebral Discs Of The 5xfad Mouse Model Of Alzheimer's Disease, C E Gonzalez, C A Schurman, K A Wilson, B Schilling, L M Ellerby, S Y Tang

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Chronic low back pain, commonly associated with intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration, is highly prevalent in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the severity of the pain is correlated with the severity of the dementia. While incidences of both afflictions increase dramatically in the elderly population, it is unknown whether AD exacerbates the health of the IVD.

AIMS: The aim of this study is to examine how AD-related mutations affect the structure and mechanics of the IVD.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Utilizing one-year-old male and female 5xFAD mice that constitutively express human APP and PSEN1 transgenes with five AD-linked mutations, we …

Early Results Of Sotatercept Treatment In Patients With Severe Pulmonary Hypertension And A Potts Shunt, Manish A Aggarwal, Kelly Merrill, Delphine Yung, R Mark Grady

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Twelve patients with severe pulmonary hypertension (PH) who had a pulmonary artery-to-descending aorta (Potts) shunt were treated with the novel PH drug sotatercept for an average of 12 months. Overall, the group showed significant improvement in a number of clinical parameters with no serious complications. Thus, a trial of sotatercept could be considered prior to an invasive intervention in patients with severe PH. Similarly, it may also be useful in patients with Eisenmenger-like physiology.

Use Of Wearable Sensors To Measure Improvements In Real World Upper Extremity Activity After Brachial Plexus Reconstruction, Arakua N Welbeck, Catherine E Lang, David M Brogan, Christopher J Dy

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSE: Current functional assessments after brachial plexus (BP) reconstruction, including surgeon-graded active range of motion and strength scores, and patient-reported outcomes (PROs), have limitations. This study evaluated the feasibility of wearable sensors to quantify recovery and functional outcomes following BP reconstruction. We hypothesized that sensor-derived measures of daily upper-extremity use would correlate with PROs and that real-world upper-extremity use would improve.

METHODS: Traumatic BP injury patients wore bilateral wrist accelerometers for 7-day periods at 3- to 6-month intervals. Data were grouped relative to timing of reconstruction. Duration and magnitude of upper-extremity activity were expressed as ratios of injured to uninjured …

Activation Of The Human Β3 Gabaa Receptor By Combinations Of Receptor Protonation With Chemical Agonists And Gain-Of-Function Mutations, Allison L Germann, Spencer R Pierce, Joe Henry Steinbach, Gustav Akk

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Native GABA

Early Neurodevelopmental Outcomes In Children With Congenital Heart Disease, Mike Seed, Cynthia Ortinau, Caroline Lee, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Neurodevelopmental impairments are common in children with congenital heart disease.

OBJECTIVES: To compare neurodevelopmental outcomes by cardiac diagnosis and identify associations between medical and social factors and early neurodevelopmental outcomes among children with congenital heart disease.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional analysis used neurodevelopmental follow-up data obtained between May 1, 2019, and June 30, 2022, and entered into the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Collaborative (CNOC) registry, with linkage to the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium registry. Children younger than 30 months from 25 CNOC sites were studied. Data analysis was performed between January 2023 and December 2024.

EXPOSURES: Patients …

Noninvasive Enrichment Of Circulating Tumor Biomarkers In A Mouse Model Of Diffuse Midline Glioma Using Focused Ultrasound, Dingyue Zhang, Yimei Yue, Yan Gong, Leqi Yang, Kevin Xu, Jinyun Yuan, Hong Chen

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Diagnosing diffuse midline glioma (DMG) through invasive tissue biopsies is challenging due to the tumor's eloquent location at the pons. Liquid biopsies offer a promising noninvasive alternative; however, their limited detection sensitivity and lack of information on the source of biomarkers pose great challenges. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and safety of using focused ultrasound (FUS) with microbubbles to enrich circulating DMG tumor biomarkers in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) using a mouse model.

METHODS: Murine DMG cells, transfected with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and firefly luciferase (Fluc) genes, were orthotopically injected into the mouse brain. …

Biomedgraphica: An All-In-One Platform For Joint Textual Biomedical Prior Knowledge And Numeric Graph Generation, Heming Zhang, Shunning Liang, Tim Xu, Wenyu Li, Di Huang, Yuhan Dong, Philip Miller, Peter Goedegebuure, Marco Sardiello, Jonathan Cooper, William Buchser, Patricia Dickson, Ryan C Fields, Carlos Cruchaga, Yixin Chen, Michael Province, Philip Payne, Fuhai Li, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

MOTIVATION: Multiomics data analysis is essential for scientific discovery in precision medicine. However, translating analysis results of omics data analysis into novel scientific hypotheses remains a significant challenge. Human experts must manually review analysis results and generate new hypotheses based on extensive and interconnected biomedical prior knowledge, which is subjective and not scalable. While large language models can accelerate the discovery, their reasoning improves when grounded in structured, auditable, and comprehensive biomedical prior knowledge. However, biomedical knowledge is scattered across heterogeneous databases that use diverse and inconsistent nomenclature systems, making it difficult to integrate resources into a unified format for …

Quantitative Assessment Of Cardiac Phosphocreatine Metabolism Under Physiological And Pharmacological Stress Using Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Qi Huang, Caleb Berberet, Ryan Wahidi, Todd Pavek, Cihat Eldeniz, Liya Dai, Rong Guo, Yang Yang, Scott Bugenhagen, Linda R Peterson, Thomas H Schindler, Pamela K Woodard, Jie Zheng

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Phosphocreatine (PCr) exhibits a distinct chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) resonance at ∼2.5 ppm with slower exchange kinetics and lower pH sensitivity than creatine. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility of quantifying myocardial PCr-dominated concentration ([PCr]

METHODS: Phantoms with varied concentrations of PCr and Cr were scanned to characterize PCr CEST signals under physiological conditions. Experiments were conducted at both room temperature and 37 °C with full Z-spectra acquisition. For the study in vivo, CEST imaging was performed in normal canines (n = 13), at rest and after regadenoson vasodilation, and during dobutamine stress (n = 5). In addition, …

Synergistic Effects Of Diabetic Neuropathy And Kidney Function Decline On Second Metatarsal Skeletal Health And Foot Function: A Pilot Study, Victor A Cheuy, Saghi Sadoughi, Hasung Moon, Jalen Ellis, Rodney Gross, David R Sinacore, Mary K Hastings, Richard B Souza, Galateia J Kazakia

2020-Current year OA Pubs

A discouraging increase in diabetes-related nontraumatic lower-extremity amputations (NLEA) has occurred over the last decade. Individuals with diabetic neuropathy (DMPN) and CKD are at the highest risk for NLEA. Despite the critical implications, little is known about the factors that initiate the cascade of events leading to NLEA, limiting early and effective interventions. We aimed to develop and implement a technique for quantifying metatarsal bone density and microstructure using HR-pQCT. Twelve participants were enrolled:

Expanding The Omop Common Data Model To Support Extracorporeal Life Support Research, Clemens Rieder, Ahmed Said, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

OBJECTIVE: Despite the increased availability of electronic health records, open-source standardized data collection to facilitate high-resolution data during extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is lacking. This project aimed to assess the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model (OMOP CDM) for interoperability to store data sufficiently generated in the context of ECLS and to develop a custom data model expansion in case the OMOP CDM proved insufficient.

DESIGN AND SETTING: The OMOP CDM was analyzed qualitatively by expert consensus for its capability to capture data relative to ECLS as well as the presence of fitting ECLS-related concepts. Database entries necessary to …

Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes And Prevalent Cardiovascular Disease Among An Urban Cohort In Haiti, Wheytnie Alexandre, Anju Ogyu, Rodney Sufra, Kelly Celestin, Reichling St Sauveur, Catherine Bennett, Lily D Yan, Vanessa Rouzier, Zainab Mahmoud, Laura C Alonso, Monika M Safford, Margaret L Mcnairy

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) have been linked with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in high-income countries, but evidence from low-income countries like Haiti is limited.

OBJECTIVES: The authors investigated the cross-sectional association between APO and prevalent CVD using the Haiti CVD Cohort.

METHODS: This analysis included all female participants who completed a reproductive health questionnaire at their annual visit, which captured detailed pregnancy history. We analyzed the relationship between APO and prevalent CVD (defined as heart failure, myocardial infarction, or stroke, as a composite outcome and separately) on enrollment using Poisson regression models, adjusted for traditional risk factors.

RESULTS: This analysis …

Neural Plasticity Across Hormonal States In Females: From Modulator To Dynamic Regulator, Takahiro Sasaki, Christine Nwaigwe, Sayaka Inoue

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Ovarian sex steroid hormones play a critical role in regulating fertility. In addition, these hormones influence behavior and mood across the lifespan in females. Converging evidence from rodent studies and human neuroimaging shows that ovarian hormones dynamically regulate neuronal excitability, synaptic efficacy, and structural remodeling across menstrual/estrous cycles, puberty, and reproductive aging. Estrogen and progesterone reorganize network dynamics and gate plasticity eligibility rather than uniformly scaling synaptic strength, with additional contributions from glia, the extracellular matrix, and neurosteroid signaling. Here we synthesize recent cross-scale advances that link structural and functional changes to cellular and circuit mechanisms, and relate these dynamics …

Anatomical Localization In The Age Of Investigations: The Skill That Still Defines A Neurologist, Wajid Jawaid

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences (PJNS)

No abstract provided.

Seizure Spectrum In Children With Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis: A Cross-Sectional Study From A Tertiary Care Center, Naveed Anjum, Faisal Zafar, Muhammad Tariq Aziz, Arif Zulqarnain, Aysha Fayyaz, Amir Hanif

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences (PJNS)

No abstract provided.

Long-Term Follow-Up Of A Child With Hypermanganesemia With Dystonia, Polycythemia And Cirrhosis, Durray Shahwar, Jay Kumari, Prem Chand

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences (PJNS)

Hypermanganesemia with dystonia, polycythemia and cirrhosis (HMDPC) is a rare but treatable inherited metal deposition syndrome, which occurs due to mutation in SLC30A10 gene. This leads to increase in manganese (Mn) levels in the blood and its deposition in the brain, muscles and liver which results in extrapyramidal symptoms, polycythemia and/or liver cirrhosis. This case report describes a five-year follow-up of a child with HMDPC treated with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) as chelation therapy. This case also highlights the importance of early recognition and initiation of treatment for children with HMDPC and emphasizes the need for screening of siblings for early …