Overreach on the High Seas?: Whether Federal Maritime Law Preempts California\u27s Vessel Fuel Rules

This Comment addresses whether California’s Vessel Fuel Rules, which require all foreign and U.S. flagged vessels traveling within twenty-four miles of California\u27s coastline to use low-sulfur content fuels, is preempted by the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. More specifically, this Comment addresses whether the Clean Air Act, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), the Submerged Lands Act, and/or general principles of federal maritime law prohibit the California Air Resources Board from enforcing its Vessel Fuel Rules against vessels engaged in maritime commerce in navigable waters, particularly waters beyond the three-mile band beyond the California coastline which marks the state\u27s territorial boundary. This Comment argues that the Clean Air Act and MARPOL may preempt California’s regulations, but that the Submerged Lands Act does not. It further proposes that the Submerged Lands Act informs the analysis of whether general principles of maritime law - a federal common law that prohibits state regulation from interfering with the uniformity of federal maritime law in its interstate and international relations - preempt the Vessel Fuel Rules. It concludes that the Rules are likely preempted by the general maritime law because they substantially interfere with the federal interest in a uniform maritime law. This Comment argues that the Ninth Circuit’s panel decision in Pacific Merchant Shipping Association v. Goldstene, 639 F.3d 1154 (9th Cir. 2011), erred by affording California’s regulations a presumption against preemption because such a presumption is not generally afforded where state regulations bear upon maritime commerce. This Comment provides a comprehensive lens through which to view the application of case precedent and federal maritime law principles to state environmental regulations where such regulations are enforced in navigable waters beyond state boundaries

A Small Molecule Screen on Zebrafish Embryos Identifies Pathways Vital to Hypaxial Muscle Precursor Migration

Hypaxial muscles form through long-range migration of muscle precursor cells (MMPs) from the somites. In zebrafish, the MMPs migrate in three compact streams to generate four muscles - the sternohyoideus muscle, homologous to mammalian neck and tongue; the posterior hypaxial muscle; and the two pectoral fin muscles, homologous to mammalian limbs. Several factors, such as Six1/4, are known to promote this migration; however, many aspects of guidance, pathing, and modulation of these streams are still unknown. To fill this gap, we conducted a small-molecule screen. This pharmacological approach allows us to identify molecules that cause pronounced changes in the normal pattern of MMP migration. Using a transgenic zebrafish line, six1b:lyn-GFP, we are able to visualize MMPs during development under treatment with pools of bioactive molecules and observe their effects. Fish are treated from 24 hours post fertilization (hpf), prior to migration, through 48 hpf, when the migrating cells begin to specify and generate muscle fibers. So far, we have tested over 800 small molecules and identified a dozen that cause promising effects. The screen has successfully generated new hypotheses concerning new cues - estrogen signaling, cholesterol synthesis - and new roles for known factors in development of these muscles - retinoic acid. In this thesis, I report the overall results of the small molecule screen and the new models developed using our findings

Employment and Quality of Life in Adults who are Deaf

Research shows that work is closely related to self-esteem (Walter, 1993). Yet many young people who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) are choosing not to work. How does this affect their self-esteem and overall quality of life? Quality of life (QoL) is the satisfaction one feels about his current situation. Using the Comprehensive Quality of Life Scale-Adult (ComQol-A5) (Cummins, 1997), the perceived QoL of eleven pairs of matched participants(N=22) from a State School for the Deaf was measured. Data were used to analyze the impact that employment had upon their perceived QoL. The results indicated no significant differences in the two groups. The unemployed participants appeared to be just as happy as those who were employed. This was an unexpected finding, and possible reasons for these results are discussed. Several significant correlations were found between the seven life components of QoL. Suggestions for future research are offered

Language and Reading Progress of Young Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children.

We examined the language and reading progress of 336 young DHH children in kindergarten, first and second grades. Trained assessors tested children's language, reading, and spoken and fingerspelled phonological awareness in the fall and spring of the school year. Children were divided into groups based on their auditory access and classroom communication: a spoken-only group (n = 101), a sign-only group (n = 131), and a bimodal group (n = 104). Overall, children showed delays in language and reading compared to norms established for hearing children. For language, vocabulary standard scores were higher than for English syntax. Although delayed in language, children made expected gains based on hearing norms from kindergarten to second grade. Reading scores declined from kindergarten to second grade. Spoken-only and bimodal children had similar word reading and reading comprehension abilities and higher scores than sign-only children. Spoken-only children had better spoken phonological awareness and nonword reading skills than the other two groups. The sign-only and bimodal groups made similar and significant gains in ASL syntax and fingerspelling phonological awareness

Work Attitudes of Students who are Deaf and Their Potential Employers

This study examined the attitudes held by high school students who are deaf and their potential employers regarding employees who are deaf. The subjects of this study were 30 employers from a large metropolitan area in the southeast and 30 high school students who are deaf. Subjects responded to a Likert scale that focused on how each group perceived the others\u27 opinions of work-related issues and attitudes. Results indicated three individual areas of significance (i.e., writing, intelligence, and inability to use a telephone) and one significant aggregate group (i.e., communication). The authors discuss these results from the perspective of providing information to professionals preparing high school students who are deaf for the world of work

The Effects of Parental Behavior on Infants' Neural Processing of Emotion Expressions

Infants become sensitive to emotion expressions early in the 1st year and such sensitivity is likely crucial for social development and adaptation. Social interactions with primary caregivers may play a key role in the development of this complex ability. This study aimed to investigate how variations in parenting behavior affect infants' neural responses to emotional faces. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to emotional faces were recorded from 40 healthy 7-month-old infants (24 males). Parental behavior was assessed and coded using the Emotional Availability Scales during free-play interaction. Sensitive parenting was associated with increased amplitudes to positive facial expressions on the face-sensitive ERP component, the negative central. Findings are discussed in relation to the interactive mechanisms influencing how infants neurally encode positive emotions

No straight lines – young women’s perceptions of their mental health and wellbeing during and after pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-ethnography

Background: Young mothers face mental health challenges during and after pregnancy including increased rates of depression compared to older mothers. While the prevention of teenage pregnancy in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom has been a focus for policy and research in recent decades, the need to understand young women’s own experiences has been highlighted. The aim of this meta-ethnography was to examine young women’s perceptions of their mental health and wellbeing during and after pregnancy to provide new understandings of those experiences. Methods: A systematic review and meta-ethnographic synthesis of qualitative research was conducted. Seven databases were systematically searched and forward and backward searching conducted. Papers were included if they were from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries and explored mental health and wellbeing experiences of young mothers (age under 20 in pregnancy; under 25 at time of research) as a primary research question – or where evidence about mental health and wellbeing from participants was foregrounded. Nineteen papers were identified and the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist for qualitative research used to appraise the evidence. Following the seven-step process of meta-ethnography, key constructs were examined within each study and then translated into one another. Results: Seven translated themes were identified forming a new line of argument wherein mental health and wellbeing was analysed as relating to individual bodily experiences; tied into past and present relationships; underpinned by economic insecurity and entangled with feelings of societal surveillance. There were ‘no straight lines’ in young women’s experiences, which were more complex than dominant narratives around overcoming adversity suggest. Conclusions: The synthesis concludes that health and social care professionals need to reflect on the operation of power and stigma in young women’s lives and its impact on wellbeing. It adds to understanding of young women’s mental health and wellbeing during and after pregnancy as located in physical and structural factors rather than individual capacities alone

Late adoptions:Attachment security and emotional availability in mother-child and father-child dyads

A growing body of research suggests that a history of neglect, abuse and institutionalization can negatively affect late-adopted children's attachment representations, and that adoptive parents can play a key role in enabling adopted children to earn secure attachments. Still, only a few studies have explored the quality of caregiver-child interaction in adoptive families. The present study aimed at verifying both the concordance of attachment in adoptive dyads (mother-children and father-children) and the relationship between attachment representations and parent-child interaction. The research involved 20 adoptive families in which the child's arrival had occurred between 12 to 36 months before the assessment, and where children were aged between 4.5 and 8.5 years. Attachment was assessed through the Adult Attachment Interview for parents and through the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task for children. The emotional quality of parent-child interaction was assessed trough the Emotional Availability Scales. Our results pointed out the presence of a relation between attachment representations of late-adopted children and their adoptive mothers (75%, K = 0.50, p =.025). In addition, we found that both insecure children and mothers showed lower levels of EA than secure ones. Some explanations are presented about why, in the early post-adoption period, child attachment patterns and dyadic emotional availability seem to be arranged on different frameworks for the two parental figures