Third Circuit Confusion: NCAA v. Christie and an Opportunity to Defend Federalism

NCAA v. Christie will determine whether a federal statute that prevents a state legislature from repealing a previously enacted state law violates the anti-commandeering doctrine. In 2014, New Jersey passed a state law repealing state prohibitions against sports wagering in Atlantic City. Five sports leagues sued New Jersey in federal court. The leagues asserted that the new state law violated the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (“PASPA”), a federal law. New Jersey claimed PASPA violated the anti-commandeering doctrine and was accordingly unconstitutional. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that PASPA does not violate the anti-commandeering doctrine because it does not command states to take affirmative actions, and it does not present a coercive binary choice. New Jersey disagrees. This commentary argues that PASPA, as interpreted by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, does in fact violate the anti-commandeering doctrine established by the Supreme Court and that there is no meaningful difference between forcing a state to pass a law and forcing them to retain one. In both instances, the state’s legislative branch is being commandeered by Congress to advance Congressional policies and purposes. The Supreme Court has found such commandeering unconstitutional in the past and should do so yet again in this instance

Rebranding the Brooklyn Navy Yard: Market + Place

Historically, market and place had continuity. Market was defined by place - a commercial program shaped by its surrounding social and cultural environment.1 Market was realized at the overlap of commerce and religion, markets and feasts; all were interrelated. However, as we switched to a consumption based economy the coherence between the two diminished. Markets no longer were shaped by the surrounding micro-cultures, but by temporal consumer trends. When assessing current branding strategies this separation between market and place is also apparent. In one instance, market branding includes creating corporate identities through product, image/semiotics, and built form. This brand identity does not address place, but is sculpted to exist anywhere and everywhere. Its brand is universally iden tifiable. Yet, its consumer environments, when compared, are undiscernible. Conversely, place branding strategies are concerned solely with place and its many identities. Place branding involves reassembling , repositioning, and reformulating the identities of a place to produce a succinct image to the public. 2 As Zukin states, it is now within this tension of market and place that new [architectural] brand development must be established .3 The estab lishment of such an architectural brand development has the capacity to reintegrate market and place. Within this integration new approaches will emerge that accomplish commercial pursuits cohesively with place based issues. The site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, one that is currently at the interface of the public and private realm, is a rich local to hypothetically demonstrate this reintegration. The Brooklyn Navy yard is a 300 acre, water-front site, located in Brooklyn, NY, along the East River. Established in 1801, the site was home to one of the nation\u27s first five naval shipyards. During its peak in World War 11, the yard employed as many as 70,000 men.4 After WWII however, the shipyard was sold off and left largely vacant from the 1980\u27s forward. Today however, the site houses a large industrial park, with initiatives underway to transform the yard into an innovative hub for new industry. So far, 334 tenants, ranging from small design manufacturing firms and entrepreneurial startups to large fi lm studios, own space in the wharfs.5 Thus, a rebirth of design and manufacturing is presently occurring in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. However, it is occurring within the closed walls of the yard, at a bu ilding by building renovation basis. The entire function of the yard is being reconceived, but its new identity is internalized within separate warehouses, dispersed throughout a 300 acre site. In order to transform the Brooklyn Navy Yard into an element for economic and urban development, the yard needs to be rebranded as a holistic identity to the city - not only redefining BNY\u27s market identity as a new manufacturing hub, but place branding it as an integrated commercial/ civic network that reconnects with its surroundings

The effect of acute negative affect on approach biases to alcohol cues in coping-motivated drinkers

Drinking to cope with negative affect has been linked to greater alcohol consumption and consequences of use. The combination of negative affect and implicit cognition, or unconscious processing has been theorized as a potential mechanism by which individuals become dependent on alcohol or other drugs. Literature has demonstrated stronger implicit cognitive biases toward alcohol cues in those who drink to cope but has not examined if this effect extends to approach biases to alcohol cues. 63 drinkers classified as high or low in coping motivation were randomized to either a negative affect induction group or a neutral affect control group. Approach biases were assessed both before and after the affect manipulation. It was hypothesized that coping motivated drinkers in the negative affect induction condition would show greater increases in implicit biases to alcohol cues compared to coping motivated drinkers in the neutral affect condition, and non-coping motivated drinkers in either affect condition. Results of testing a hierarchical linear regression model showed that neither coping motivation nor affect condition was associated with approach biases to alcohol. Results from this study have implications for future research on the effect of negative affect on implicit cognition, specifically in terms of the developmental course of implicit biases

Stress and alcohol use: An experimental investigation of cognitive mechanisms

Research suggests that exposure to stressors is associated with greater alcohol consumption, more alcohol-related problems, and a greater likelihood of Alcohol Use Disorder. Theory suggests that cognitive processes, particularly unconscious cognitive processes, are key in determining a coping strategy but both alcohol and chronic exposure to stressors may interfere with these processes. The current study tested one such process, attention bias to alcohol cues, as a mediator in the stressor-alcohol relationship. Thirty-nine participants who endorsed hazardous alcohol consumption patterns were recruited from the community; eligible participants were randomly assigned to a stress-exposure or non-stressful control condition. Participants completed assessments of stress response and alcohol craving before and after exposure to the stressor, and an assessment of alcohol attention bias following stress exposure. Outcome measures were change in alcohol craving and ad libitum alcohol consumption. Analyses included ANCOVAs to test for group differences in outcomes by condition, and serial mediation models to test the stress response and alcohol attention bias as serial mediators using path analysis in Mplus with the model indirect command. Results revealed no significant differences in alcohol outcomes by condition and no significant serial mediation effect of the stress response and alcohol attention bias on the stressor-alcohol relationship. The direction of the coefficients were largely in the anticipated direction, which may suggest a lack of power to detect significant effects due to small sample size. Alternative explanations for null findings include reliability of the measurement of attention bias and sample characteristics, which highlight important considerations for future research

Synthesis and anti-HIV activities of symmetrical dicarboxylate esters of dinucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors

Three nucleoside analogues, 3′-fluoro-2′,3′-dideoxythymidine (FLT), 3′-azido-2′,3′-dideoxythymidine (AZT), and 2′,3′-dideoxy-3′-thiacytidine (3TC) were conjugated with three different dicarboxylic acids to afford the long chain dicarboxylate esters of nucleosides. In general, dinucleoside ester conjugates of FLT and 3TC with long chain dicarboxylic acids exhibited higher anti-HIV activity than their parent nucleosides. Dodecanoate and tetradecanoate dinucleoside ester derivatives of FLT were found to be the most potent compounds with EC50 values of 0.8–1.0 nM and 3–4 nM against HIV-1US/92/727 and HIV-1IIIB cells, respectively. The anti-HIV activity of the 3TC conjugates containing long chain dicarboxylate diester (EC50 = 3–60 nM) was improved by 1.5–66 fold when compared to 3TC (EC50 = 90–200 nM). This study reveals that the symmetrical ester conjugation of dicarboxylic acids with a number of nucleosides results in conjugates with improved anti-HIV profile. [Refer to PDF for graphical abstract

Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of 5′-O-Dicarboxylic Fatty Acyl Monoester Derivatives of Anti-HIV Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors

A number of 5′-O-dicarboxylic fatty acyl monoester derivatives of 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine (zidovudine, AZT), 2′,3′-didehydro-2′,3′-dideoxythymidine (stavudine, d4T), and 3′-fluoro-3′-deoxythymidine (alovudine, FLT) were synthesized to improve the lipophilicity and potentially the cellular delivery of parent polar 2′,3′-dideoxynucleoside (ddN) analogs. The compounds were evaluated for their anti-HIV activity. Three different fatty acids with varying chain length of suberic acid (octanedioic acid), sebacic acid (decanedioic acid), and dodecanedioic acid were used for the conjugation with the nucleosides. The compounds were evaluated for anti-HIV activity and cytotoxicity. All dicarboxylic ester conjugates of nucleosides exhibited significantly higher anti-HIV activity than that of the corresponding parent nucleoside analogs. Among all the tested conjugates, 5′-O-suberate derivative of AZT (EC50 = 0.10 nM) was found to be the most potent compound and showed 80-fold higher anti-HIV activity than AZT without any significant toxicity (TC50 \u3e500 nM)

Carbocyclodipeptides as modified nucleosides: synthesis and anti-HIV activities

A new class of nucleoside analogues were synthesized using cyclic dipeptides and modified 2′-deoxyfuranoribose sugars to introduce flexibility by peptides in place of common nucleoside bases and to determine their biological properties. The synthesis was carried out by coupling of a protected ribose sugar with synthesized dipeptides in the presence of hexamethyldisilazane and trimethylsilyltriflate. The final products were characterized by NMR and high-resolution MS-TOF spectroscopy. The compounds were evaluated for anti-HIV activities. 1-(4-Azido-5-(hydroxymethyl)tetrahydrofuran-2-yl)-3,6-diisopropylpiperazine-2,5-dione (compound 14) containing 3- and 6-isopropyl groups in the base and 3′-azide (EC50 = 1.96 μmol/L) was the most potent compound among all of the synthesized analogs

Rebranding the Brooklyn Navy Yard: Market + Place

Historically, market and place had continuity. Market was defined by place - a commercial program shaped by its surrounding social and cultural environment.1 Market was realized at the overlap of commerce and religion, markets and feasts; all were interrelated. However, as we switched to a consumption based economy the coherence between the two diminished. Markets no longer were shaped by the surrounding micro-cultures, but by temporal consumer trends. When assessing current branding strategies this separation between market and place is also apparent. In one instance, market branding includes creating corporate identities through product, image/semiotics, and built form. This brand identity does not address place, but is sculpted to exist anywhere and everywhere. Its brand is universally iden tifiable. Yet, its consumer environments, when compared, are undiscernible. Conversely, place branding strategies are concerned solely with place and its many identities. Place branding involves reassembling , repositioning, and reformulating the identities of a place to produce a succinct image to the public. 2 As Zukin states, it is now within this tension of market and place that new [architectural] brand development must be established .3 The estab lishment of such an architectural brand development has the capacity to reintegrate market and place. Within this integration new approaches will emerge that accomplish commercial pursuits cohesively with place based issues. The site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, one that is currently at the interface of the public and private realm, is a rich local to hypothetically demonstrate this reintegration. The Brooklyn Navy yard is a 300 acre, water-front site, located in Brooklyn, NY, along the East River. Established in 1801, the site was home to one of the nation\u27s first five naval shipyards. During its peak in World War 11, the yard employed as many as 70,000 men.4 After WWII however, the shipyard was sold off and left largely vacant from the 1980\u27s forward. Today however, the site houses a large industrial park, with initiatives underway to transform the yard into an innovative hub for new industry. So far, 334 tenants, ranging from small design manufacturing firms and entrepreneurial startups to large fi lm studios, own space in the wharfs.5 Thus, a rebirth of design and manufacturing is presently occurring in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. However, it is occurring within the closed walls of the yard, at a bu ilding by building renovation basis. The entire function of the yard is being reconceived, but its new identity is internalized within separate warehouses, dispersed throughout a 300 acre site. In order to transform the Brooklyn Navy Yard into an element for economic and urban development, the yard needs to be rebranded as a holistic identity to the city - not only redefining BNY\u27s market identity as a new manufacturing hub, but place branding it as an integrated commercial/ civic network that reconnects with its surroundings

Case Study: Strident Property Services

Alex Jacobs has taken over the family business from his father. The company had grown in size and faced challenges that Alex must overcome for the company to remain a leader in the region. Challenges included working with a management team that was there prior to Alex’s arrival, poor customer service, low professionalism, and a divided employee base. His attempts (i.e., identifying problems and informing staff; threats to demote or fire staff) to correct the problems were mostly unsuccessful. The only bright spot was exhibited by Joe Flack, the director of IT, who was able to make successful business decisions with the contacts provided by Alex. Alex needed to act quickly because more and more clients were not resigning contracts with Strident. In fact, the company’s portfolio has decreased from over 200 properties to less than 100. Students are challenged to develop workable strategies to overcome some of the problems mentioned in the case, including a strategy for turning the situation around, if possible