Flooding in the Kashmir Valley: Macroeconomic Effects of a Natural Disaster in India

This paper presents India’s economic growth by comparing it to that of the United States. In addition, this paper analyzes current events in India under a macroeconomic lens as it provides the macroeconomic impacts of said events. More specifically, this paper focuses on the ways in which unexpected severe flooding have impacted Northern India in the short-, medium-, and long-run. Analyses conclude with policy recommendations based on the goals of India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

Prescribing Placebos

The use of placebos in medicine is an area of ethical questioning, but we often do not consider the effect of placebos on daily life. One’s preconceptions on the outcomes of exercise physically affect health. Studies show being aware of the advantages of exercise is beneficial to aspects of health such as blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and depression. This article analyzes how the placebo effect applies to exercise and how it can be taken advantage of to improve health outcomes

The POWER of a Healthier Tomorrow

poster abstractThe Pediatric OverWeight Education and Research Program aims to improve the health of obese children (ages 2-18) and decrease the risks associated with obesity through a high quality, multilevel and multidiscipline clinical program. Through the clinic and outreach in the community the POWER Program works to foster research in the area of pediatric obesity

The Final Girl Grown Up: Representations of Women in Horror Films from 1978-2016

Carol Clover defined a Final Girl as a stereotype of the pure, virginal sole survivor in 1980’s slasher films such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween. But does this representation hold up in 2016 films? Because the horror genre is so broad today, it’s almost impossible to nail down a certain stereotype of the genre, if there even is one. Films like the 1996 slasher parody Scream historically subverted the slasher genre, and since then there has been little to no iconic Final Girls. I argue that this trope is one very much set inside the confines of the 1980’s slasher genre, and instead is being replaced by an older, more responsible Dysfunctional Mother female character that arises from supernatural films of the late 2000’s-2010’s

Cognitively Impaired Human, Intelligent Animals, and Legal Personhood

This Article analyzes whether courts should grant legal personhood to intelligent animal species, such as chimpanzees, with a particular focus on comparisons made to cognitively impaired humans whom the law recognizes as legal persons even though they may have less practical autonomy than intelligent animals. Granting legal personhood would allow human representatives to initiate some legal actions with the animals as direct parties to the litigation, as the law presently allows for humans with cognitive impairments that leave them incapable of representing their own interests. For example, a human asserting to act on behalf of an intelligent animal might seek a writ of habeas corpus to demand release from a restrictive environment where less restrictive environments, such as relatively spacious sanctuaries, are available. Highly publicized litigation seeking legal personhood in a habeas corpus context for chimpanzees is underway in New York, and the lawsuits have garnered the support of some eminent legal scholars and philosophers. Regardless of its short-term success or failure, this litigation represents the beginning of a long struggle with broad and deep societal implications. A unanimous New York appellate court quoted and largely followed a previous article by the author in People ex rel. Nonhuman Rights Project, Inc. v. Lavery (Lavery I), a prominent and controversial 2014 appellate decision addressing (and rejecting) legal personhood for chimpanzees. In June 2017, another unanimous New York appellate court agreed with the Lavery I decision in In re Nonhuman Rights Project, Inc. v. Lavery (Lavery II), and the court addressed an amicus curiae brief by the author in explaining its decision. This Article builds on the author’s previous article followed in Lavery I and supported by the reasoning of Lavery II. The previous article focused on justice arguments based on young children with limited practical autonomy being granted legal personhood status. The New York lawsuits and other significant developments have highlighted important additional issues and nuances since the previous article’s publication. Further, in the previous article, the author indicated that additional scholarship was necessary to address justice arguments based on the recognition of legal personhood for humans with cognitive impairments not related to typical childhood development, such as humans with significant intellectual disabilities or comatose humans. This Article analyzes these comparisons based on cognitive impairments not related to childhood and examines issues presented by the New York lawsuits. The Article concludes that, like comparisons between intelligent animals and young children, comparisons between intelligent animals and humans with cognitive impairments unrelated to childhood do not support restructuring our legal system to make animals persons. Further, the rights of the most vulnerable humans, particularly humans with severe cognitive impairments, would be endangered over the long term if the law were to grant legal personhood to some animals based on cognitive abilities. Thus, courts should continue to reject animal legal personhood in the lawsuits that will likely continue to be filed in numerous jurisdictions for decades. However, legislatures and courts should embrace societal evolution calling for greater human responsibility regarding treatment of animals

(SNP038) Bennie Cupp, with Lula Roach and Hazel Marshall Roach interviewed by Dorothy Noble Smith, transcribed by Sharon G. Marston

Records the reminiscences of Bennie Cupp, his grandmother, Lula Roach, and his aunt, Hazel Marshall Roach, who lived near Rocky Bar, Virginia, an area that became part of Shenandoah National Park. Much of the interview centers around the reminiscences of Lula Roach, who was 95 years old at the time and who recalled many details of everyday life in the Blue Ridge Mountains around the turn of the 20th century. Describes home and family life, school days, farm chores, livestock, wild game and folk remedies. Discusses family gatherings, such as holidays, apple butter boilings, hog butchering and funerals. Other topics include the various means of earning a living available to the local residents, such as bark peeling, cutting poles and ties for the railroads, the apple, chestnut and ginseng harvests and the production of moonshine.https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/snp/1028/thumbnail.jp