Digital Commons Network^™

Trump V. Tiktok, Anupam Chander

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

How did a Chinese big tech company beat the president of the United States? When then-President Donald Trump sought to ban TikTok, ostensibly because of its Chinese roots, US courts came to TikTok's rescue. Rather than deferring to the president's claims of a national security emergency justifying the ban, courts held that the president lacked statutory authority to ban TikTok. This Article chronicles the Trump administration's attempt to either ban TikTok or to compel its sale to a "very American" company, preferably one led by a political ally. The TikTok affair thus demonstrates what Harold Koh calls the National Security …

The Law And Politics Of Ransomware, Asaf Lubin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

What do Lady Gaga, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the city of Valdez in Alaska, and the court system of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul all have in common? They have all been victims of ransomware attacks, which are growing both in number and severity. In 2016, hackers perpetrated roughly four thousand ransomware attacks a day worldwide, a figure which was already alarming. By 2020, however, ransomware attacks reached a staggering number, between twenty thousand and thirty thousand per day in the United States alone. That is a ransomware attack every eleven seconds, each of which …

Discredited Data, Ngozi Okidegbe

Faculty Scholarship

Jurisdictions are increasingly employing pretrial algorithms as a solution to the racial and socioeconomic inequities in the bail system. But in practice, pretrial algorithms have reproduced the very inequities they were intended to correct. Scholars have diagnosed this problem as the biased data problem: pretrial algorithms generate racially and socioeconomically biased predictions, because they are constructed and trained with biased data.
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/="/">This Article contends that biased data is not the sole cause of algorithmic discrimination. Another reason pretrial algorithms produce biased results is that they are exclusively built and trained with data from carceral knowledge sources – the …

The Role Of Departments In The Design Of The Federal Government, Jack M. Beermann

Faculty Scholarship

Reviewing Blake Emerson,The Departmental Structure of Executive Power: Subordinate Checks from Madison to Mueller, 38 Yale J. Reg. 90 (2021)

Adherents to the unitary executive theory, which posits that the Constitution grants the President complete and absolute control over the execution of the law, claim that their view is required by the text of the Constitution, especially Article II’s vesting clause which proclaims that the “Executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” As Justice Scalia put it, “this does not mean some of the executive power, but all of the …

Bridging The Computer Science – Law Divide, Azer Bestavros, Stacey Dogan, Paul Ohm, Andrew Sellars

Faculty Scholarship

Many pressing societal questions can be answered only by bringing experts from different disciplines together. Questions around misinformation and disinformation, platform power, surveillance capitalism, information privacy, and algorithmic bias, among many others, reside at the intersection of computer science and law. We need to develop institutions that bring together computer scientists and legal scholars to work together on issues like these, and to train new innovators, thought leaders, counselors, and policymakers with hybrid training in both disciplines. In Universities, the disciplines of Computer Science (CS) and Law are separated by many wide chasms. Differences in standards, language, methods, and culture …

Balancing Rights And Responsibilities: The Role Of Government And Citizens In Combatting Gun Violence, Michael Ulrich

Faculty Scholarship

Congress passed the first federal legislation on firearms safety in decades at nearly the same moment that the Supreme Court issued its first major Second Amendment decision since 2008. It will take time to assess the effects of these actions on both gun safety and Second Amendment rights, but, with gun violence skyrocketing across the country, it is clear that finding a balance between rights and safety is desperately needed. The public is ill-equipped to protect itself against the broad harms of gun violence, so the government has a central role to play in addressing those harms and the racial …

Digital Services Trade And Trade Agreements, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Trade agreements have become the main forum for the regulation of digital services trade issues over the past decade. This chapter provides a comprehensive examination of the regulation of digital services trade in trade agreements, first reviewing the rules in the World Trade Organization (WTO), then comparing the approaches between the United States (US), the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and the European Union (EU), and explaining the reasons for their deep differences. This chapter further analyzes such provisions in trade agreements in Asia and the Pacific, which has become one of the most dynamic regions in terms of new …

The Investment Chapter In The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership: Enhanced Rules Without Enforcement Mechanism, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This Chapter examines the legal rules in the investment chapter in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). It starts with an overview and summary of the main provisions in the chapter, followed by an assessment of the rules by comparing established free trade agreements (FTAs), especially the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership. In particular, it notes that the chapter, whilst largely following the established approaches to investment in other FTAs, also includes important twists to the common rules to favour the host states. The last part discusses the conspicuous absence of an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, its pros and cons, …

Book Review: Mediation Ethics: A Practitioner's Guide Edited By Omer Shapira Ed, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

A review of the book Mediation ethics: A practitioner's guide, edited by Omer Shapira. Mediation ethics have been consistently featured in mediation training courses and mediation ethical principles have also been encapsulated in mediation providers’ codes of conduct for mediators. However, mediation ethics have probably inspired fewer publications and academic discussions than the popular topic of mediation skills. It is thus timely that Shapira has edited this publication focusing on mediation ethics. Published in 2021, this collection of reflections on mediation ethics has been written primarily for the American mediation profession, with frequent references made to the US Model Standards …

The Hollywood Influence, Hyveth Williams

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Weather And Climate Change Drive Annual Variation Of Reproduction By An Aerial Insectivore, Michael T. Murphy, Lucas J. Redmond, Amy C. Dolan, Nathan W. Cooper, Karen Shepherdson, Christopher Michael Chutter, Sarah Cancellieri

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

For many bird species, but especially aerial insectivores, reproduction depends on weather. Climate change is likely to intensify effects, but with uncertain consequences. We report 22 years of data on Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) reproduction for two populations located in different hygric environments undergoing climate change; mesic central New York, USA, (NY; 12 years) and xeric southeastern Oregon, USA, (OR: 10 years). Laying date became earlier with increasing temperature in the 30-day period preceding laying in identical fashion at both sites, and in years of early laying, clutch size was larger, length of laying season increased, and failed …

Monochromatic Globular Clusters As A Critical Test Of Formation Models For The Dark Matter-Deficient Galaxies Ngc 1052-Df2 And Ngc 1052-Df4, Pieter Van Dokkum, Zili Shen, Aaron J. Romanowsky, Roberto Abraham, Charlie Conroy, Shany Danieli, Dhruba Dutta Chowdhury, Michael A. Keim, J. M.Diederik Kruijssen, Joel Leja, Sebastian Trujillo-Gomez

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

It was recently proposed that the dark matter-deficient ultradiffuse galaxies DF2 and DF4 in the NGC 1052 group could be the products of a “bullet dwarf” collision between two gas-rich progenitor galaxies. In this model, DF2 and DF4 formed at the same time in the immediate aftermath of the collision, and a strong prediction is that their globular clusters should have nearly identical stellar populations. Here we test this prediction by measuring accurate V 606 − I 814 colors from deep HST/ACS imaging. We find that the clusters are extremely homogeneous. The mean color difference between the globular clusters in …

Ambient-Pressure Ozone Treatment Enables Tuning Of Oxygen Vacancy Concentration In The La1−Xsrxfeo3−Δ (0 ≤ X ≤ 1) Perovskite Oxide, Geletu Qing, David Thompson, Mourad Benamara, Clemes Heske, Lauren Greenlee, Jingyi Chen

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Oxygen vacancies in metal oxides can determine their properties. However, it is difficult to reduce the oxygen vacancy concentration in metal oxides without annealing them under high pressure. In this work, we develop a facile approach to control oxygen vacancy content via an ozone treatment under ambient pressure during cooling. This approach is demonstrated for the synthesis of La1−xSrxFeO3−δ (0 ≤ x ≤ 1, 0 ≤ δ ≤ 0.5x) perovskite oxides – an important class of energy-related materials due to their wide range of non-stoichiometry, mixed ionic and electronic conductivity, and the presence …

How I Perform Totally Endoscopic Robotic Mitral Valve Repair., Colin C Yost, Jake L Rosen, Meagan Wu, Caroline M Komlo, Jordan E Goldhammer, T Sloane Guy

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

A sixty-two-year-old male presented with significant symptoms related to severe mitral regurgitation with posterior leaflet flail and prolapse on transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE). Preoperative computed tomography (CT) angiography showed normal caliber thoracoabdominal aorta and patent access vessels. The patient underwent totally endoscopic robotic mitral valve repair (rMVr) with left atrial CryoMAZE procedure.

A Case Of Isolated Cardiac Burkitt Lymphoma Causing Right-Sided Heart Failure, Graham Rector, Stephanie J Koh, Rashed Tabbaa

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

Primary cardiac tumors are rare, as the most common cause of cardiac masses is from metastatic disease. In this article, a unique case of isolated cardiac Burkitt lymphoma causing right-sided heart failure in a 70-year-old man who presented to the emergency department with abdominal distension and lower-extremity swelling is described. The right ventricular mass was initially identified via computed tomographic scans of the abdomen and pelvis. Further workup included transthoracic echocardiogram and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging that showed extension of the mass into the right atrium and pericardium. Staging imaging and bone marrow biopsy revealed no evidence of metastatic disease. …

Missed Pathological Femoral Neck Fracture Undergoes Spontaneous Healing, Stephanie Zarate, Ana Cecilia Belzarena Genovese

All Publications

No abstract provided.

Mobility Interrupted: A New Framework For Understanding Anti-Left Sentiment Among Brazil’S “Once-Rising Poor”, Benjamin Junge, Sean T. Mitchell, Charles H. Klein, Matthew Spearly

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

How do sequences of upward and downward socioeconomic mobility influence political views among those who have “risen” or “fallen” during periods of leftist governance? While existing studies identify a range of factors, long-term mobility trajectories have been largely unexplored. The question has particular salience in contemporary Brazil, where, after a decade of extraordinary poverty reduction on the watch of the leftist Workers’ Party (PT), a subsequent period of economic and political crises intensified anti-PT sentiment. This article uses original data from the 2016 Brazil’s Once-Rising Poor (BORP) Survey, using a 3-city sample of 822 poor and working-class Brazilians to analyze …

Towards The Detection And Analysis Of Performance Regression Introducing Code Changes, Deema Adeeb Alshoaibi

Theses

In contemporary software development, developers commonly conduct regression testing to ensure that code changes do not affect software quality. Performance regression testing is an emerging research area from the regression testing domain in software engineering. Performance regression testing aims to maintain the system's performance. Conducting performance regression testing is known to be expensive. It is also complex, considering the increase of committed code and developing team members working simultaneously. Many automated regression testing techniques have been proposed in prior research. However, challenges in the practice of locating and resolving performance regression still exist. Directing regression testing to the commit level …

Paid Sick Leave's Payoff, Jennifer B. Shinall

Vanderbilt Law Review

Perhaps paid sick days have never been more valuable than during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet even before COVID-19, seventeen states and the District of Columbia began passing legislative mandates that employers provide employees with paid sick leave (“PSL”) days. Most of this legislation requires employers to provide up to one week of PSL for both full- and part-time employees, which they can utilize with few notice or documentation requirements. Using the 2017–2018 American Time Use Survey Leave and Job Flexibilities Module, I first demonstrate that workers in PSL states are less likely to go to work sick, which may, in …

Executive Capture Of Agency Decisionmaking, Allison M. Whelan

Vanderbilt Law Review

The scientific credibility of the administrative state is under siege in the United States, risking distressful public health harms and even deaths. This Article addresses one component of this attack-—executive interference in agency scientific decisionmaking. It offers a new conceptual framework, “internalagency capture,” and policy prescription for addressing excessive overreach and interference by the executive branch in the scientific decisionmaking of federal agencies. The Article’s critiques and analysis toggle a timeline that reflects recent history and that urges forward-thinking approaches to respond to executive overreach in agency scientific decisionmaking. Taking the Trump Administration and other presidencies as test cases, it …

Can't Really Teach: Crt Bans Impose Upon Teachers' First Amendment Pedagogical Rights, Mary L. Krebs

Vanderbilt Law Review

The jurisprudence governing K-12 teachers’ speech protection has been a convoluted hodgepodge of caselaw since the 1960s when the Supreme Court established that teachers retain at least some First Amendment protection as public educators. Now, as new so-called Critical Race Theory bans prohibit an array of hot button topics in the classroom, K-12 teachers must either preemptively censor themselves or risk running afoul of these vague bans with indeterminate legal protection. This Note proposes an elucidation of K-12 teachers’ free speech rights via a two-part test to assess the reasonability of instructional speech. Rather than analogizing K-12 teacher speech to …

Optical Properties Of Macetch-Fabricated Porous Silicon Nanowire Arrays, Kyle G. Tezanos

Theses

The increasing demand for complex devices that utilize unique, three-dimensional nanostructures has spurred the development of controllable and versatile semiconductor fabrication techniques. However, there exists a need to refine such methodologies to overcome existing processing constraints that compromise device performance and evolution. Conventional wet etching techniques (e.g., crystallographic KOH etching of Si) successfully generate textured Si structures with smooth sidewalls but lack the capabilities of controllably producing high aspectratio structures. Alternatively, dry etching techniques (e.g., reactive-ion etching), while highly controllable and capable of generating vertically aligned, high aspect-ratio structures for IC technologies, introduce considerable sidewall and lattice damage as a …

Societal Impact Assessment Of Depression, Mohammed Salah Almazrouei

Theses

Depression is a mental problem characterised by unusual changes in the mood of a person, accompanied by a temporary different emotional response to everyday changes in the phenomena (WHO, 2020). Affected people suffer greatly, hence functioning poorly in the workplace, school, or at home in a family setup. Even though the public is well aware of its existence, there is little going on to combat this condition. Amongst the various stumbling blocks towards achieving an effective approach to address the problem include limited resources and associated well-trained personnel to help the victims.

A mental disorder associated with social stigma and …

Acupuncture For Curious People: A Needle Healer's Manual, Kaz Wegmϋller

Trade & Scholarly Monographs

Welcome to the art of needle healing! In this handy manual designed for the lay reader and seasoned healer alike, acupuncturist Kaz Wegmϋller presents his art in a format that is clear, concise, instructive, philosophical, and practical. In a field dominated equally by clinical jargon and metaphysical Orientalism, Kaz’s approach is refreshingly down-to-earth. He starts by expanding acupuncture’s usual definition to encompass “a unique way of engaging with the mystery of existence,” and goes on to guide the reader in an exploration of this ancient art that centers on touch, curiosity, sensitivity, and humanity.

Assessment Of Infectious Diseases Risks From Dental Aerosols In Real-World Settings, Shruti Choudhary, Tracey Bach, Meghan A Wallace, Daniel C Stoeckel, Martin H Thornhill, Peter B Lockhart, Jennie H Kwon, Stephen Y Liang, Carey-Ann D Burnham, Pratim Biswas, Heidi M Steinkamp, Michael J Durkin

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Infectious diseases physicians are leaders in assessing the health risks in a variety of community settings. An understudied area with substantial controversy is the safety of dental aerosols. Previous studies have used in vitro experimental designs and/or indirect measures to evaluate bacteria and viruses from dental surfaces. However, these findings may overestimate the occupational risks of dental aerosols. The purpose of this study was to directly measure dental aerosol composition to assess the health risks for dental healthcare personnel and patients.

METHODS: We used a variety of aerosol instruments to capture and measure the bacterial, viral, and inorganic composition …

All The Brain's A Stage For Serotonin: The Forgotten Story Of Serotonin Diffusion Across Cell Membranes, Paul W. Andrews, Catherine Bosyj, Luke Brenton, Laura Green, Paul J. Gasser, Christopher A. Lowry, Virginia M. Pickel

Biomedical Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

In the conventional model of serotonin neurotransmission, serotonin released by neurons in the midbrain raphe nuclei exerts its actions on forebrain neurons by interacting with a large family of post-synaptic receptors. The actions of serotonin are terminated by active transport of serotonin back into the releasing neuron, which is mediated by the serotonin reuptake transporter (SERT). Because SERT is expressed pre-synaptically and is widely thought to be the only serotonin transporter in the forebrain, the conventional model does not include serotonin transport into post-synaptic neurons. However, a large body of evidence accumulating since the 1970s has shown that serotonin, despite …

Oregon State Rank Assessment For Cascades Frog (Rana Cascadae), Eleanor P. Gaines

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Oregon state conservation status assessment for Cascades frog (Rana cascadae) using NatureServe methodology, 2022.

Magnetism In Doped And Hybrid Two – Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides, Nalaka Kapuruge

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, spintronics has gained increasing interest due to the possibility of storing and processing information through the manipulation of both the charge and spin of an electron. Dilute magnetic semiconductors are ideal for the fabrication of such devices as they display carrier-mediated ferromagnetism which allows the electronic control of magnetism. Transferring these properties into the two-dimensional (2D) realm is very attractive for both fundamental research and novel applications. The recent discovery of long-range magnetic order in 2D materials has attracted a growing effort in the search for new functional 2D materials that can display ferromagnetic properties at room-temperature. …

Regulating Global Stablecoins: A Model-Law Strategy, Steven L. Schwarcz

Vanderbilt Law Review

Digital currencies have the potential to improve the speed and efficiency of the payment system. The principal challenge is retail: to facilitate day-to-day payments among consumers as an alternative to cash, both domestically and across national borders. Two models of digital currencies are becoming viable: central bank digital currencies and nongovernment-issued currencies that are backed by assets having intrinsic value (stablecoins or, when widely used internationally, global stablecoins). Because they are not government issued, global stablecoins present complex and novel cross-border regulatory challenges, including managing the costs of complying with a multitude of national laws and ensuring international legal enforceability. …

Two Specialists, Two Recommendations: Discordance Between Urologists' & Radiation Oncologists' Prostate Cancer Treatment Recommendations, Rebecca K Delaney, Brittany L Sisco-Taylor, Xuechen Wang, Karen Scherr, Peter A Ubel, Benjamin Haaland, Valerie C Kahn, Daniel Hamstra, John T Wei, Farrah Madanay, J Kelly Davis, Taylor U Greeno, Angela Fagerlin

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Objective: To examine the treatment recommendation patterns among urologists and radiation oncologists, the level of concordance or discordance between physician recommendations, and the association between physician recommendations and the treatment that patients received.

Method: The study was a secondary analysis of data from a randomized clinical trial conducted November 2010 to April 2014 (NCT02053389). Eligible participants were patients from the trial who saw both specialists. The primary outcome was physician recommendations that were scored using an adapted version of the validated PhyReCS coding system. Secondary outcomes included concordance between physician recommendations and the treatment patients received.

Results: Participants …