The Undefeatable Opponent: How the Effective Administration of Water Is an Exception to Predeprivation Hearings Ordinarily Required by Due Process in \u3ci\u3eKeating v. Neb. Pub. Power District\u3c/i\u3e, 660 F.3d 1014 (8th Cir. 2011)

“Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over.”1 [1. Famously attributed to author Mark Twain, but never authenticated.] But what happens when the only opponent is the rightful owner? With closing notices in hand, Gerard Keating and his neighbors asked themselves that same question. The Nebraska Department of Natural Resources issued closing notices to Keating and many other appropriators in Holt County, Nebraska, when stream flow in the Niobrara Watershed had become insufficient to satisfy the water needs of all surrounding appropriators. Instead of taking advantage of the postdeprivation hearing offered by the Department of Natural Resources, Keating and the other appropriators filed suit, claiming that Nebraska’s established water administration system violated their due process rights. Ultimately, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals found no due process violation of the appropriators’ rights, simply because the appropriators do not have a property interest in the waters of the state, which includes the Niobrara Watershed. To clarify the arguments discussed in Keating, this Note first provides an overview of Nebraska water administration, followed by a discussion of the property rights vested in public waters. This Note then analyzes the impracticality of predeprivation hearings for water administration, the state’s interest in quick administration of water use, and the challenge of providing sufficient due process while also preserving the water administration system. This Note then provides an overview of Keating and related case law. Thereafter, there is a discussion of the United States Supreme Court decisions which have ruled that a predeprivation hearing is necessary, and why those situations are inapplicable to the administration of water use. This discussion also describes established exceptions to the predeprivation hearing requirement and how Nebraska’s appropriation system does not violate due process. Finally, this Note concludes with how Keating’s and other similarly situated plaintiffs’ challenges to the water administration system are a result of misplaced expectations in appropriation permits and the minimal property rights held therein

Children of Men\u27s ambient apocalyptic visions

Alfonso Cuarón\u27s Children of Men (2006) is part of the long stream of films that respond vividly to social crisis and the hovering threat of human annihilation and that have sought to reimagine the Judeo-Christian apocalyptic myth. But I will argue that it represents a unique take on this popular genre that I call the ambient apocalyptic. The film\u27s sense of pervasive crisis is not linked to a singular apocalyptic event and it redraws the tropes of many popular post-apocalyptic films. Cuarón intricately builds into nearly every scene referential signals to specific current political realities. He does this, however, without overburdening his film with either apocalyptic literalness or undisturbed certainty. He uses a layered referential style that seeks to create a kind of visionary realis

Assessing quality of care for the dying from the bereaved relatives’ perspective: Using pre- testing survey methods across seven countries to develop an international outcome measure

Background: The provision of care for dying cancer patients varies on a global basis. In order to improve care, we need to be able to evaluate the current level of care. One method of assessment is to use the views from the bereaved relatives. Aim: The aim of this study is to translate and pre-test the ‘Care Of the Dying Evaluation’ (CODETM) questionnaire across seven participating countries prior to conducting an evaluation of current quality of care. Design: The three stages were as follows: (1) translation of CODE in keeping with standardised international principles; (2) pre-testing using patient and public involvement and cognitive interviews with bereaved relatives; and (3) utilising a modified nominal group technique to establish a common, core international version of CODE. Setting/participants: Hospital settings: for each country, at least five patient and public involvement representatives, selected by purposive sampling, fed back on CODETM questionnaire; and at least five bereaved relatives to cancer patients undertook cognitive interviews. Feedback was collated and categorised into themes relating to clarity, recall, sensitivity and response options. Structured consensus meeting held to determine content of international CODE (i-CODE) questionnaire. Results: In total, 48 patient and public involvement representatives and 35 bereaved relatives contributed to the pre-testing stages. No specific question item was recommended for exclusion from CODETM. Revisions to the demographic section were needed to be culturally appropriate. Conclusion: Patient and public involvement and bereaved relatives’ perceptions helped enhance the face and content validity of i-CODE. A common, core international questionnaire is now developed with key questions relating to quality of care for the dying

Good Quality Care for Cancer Patients Dying in Hospitals, but Information Needs Unmet: Bereaved Relatives’ Survey within Seven Countries

Background. Recognized disparities in quality of end-of-life care exist. Our aim was to assess the quality of care for patients dying from cancer, as perceived by bereaved relatives, within hospitals in seven European and South American countries. Materials and Methods. A postbereavement survey was conducted by post, interview, or via tablet in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, U.K., Germany, Norway, and Poland. Next of kin to cancer patients were asked to complete the inter- national version of the Care Of the Dying Evaluation (i- CODE) questionnaire 6–8 weeks postbereavement. Pri- mary outcomes were (a) how frequently the deceased patient was treated with dignity and respect, and (b) how well the family member was supported in the patient’s last days of life. Results. Of 1,683 potential participants, 914 i-CODE questionnaires were completed (response rate, 54%). Approximately 94% reported the doctors treated their fam- ily member with dignity and respect “always” or “most of the time”; similar responses were given about nursing staff (94%). Additionally, 89% of participants reported they were adequately supported; this was more likely if the patient died on a specialist palliative care unit (odds ratio, 6.3; 95% confidence interval, 2.3–17.8). Although 87% of participants were told their relative was likely to die, only 63% were informed about what to expect during the dying phase. Conclusion. This is the first study assessing quality of care for dying cancer patients from the bereaved relatives’ perspective across several countries on two continents. Our findings suggest many elements of good care were practiced but improvement in communication with relatives of imminently dying patients is needed. (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03566732)

A cross-sectional study of the temporal evolution of electricity consumption of six commercial buildings

Current approaches to building efficiency diagnoses include conventional energy audit techniques that can be expensive and time consuming. In contrast, virtual energy audits of readily available 15-minute-interval building electricity consumption are being explored to provide quick, inexpensive, and useful insights into building operation characteristics. A cross sectional analysis of six buildings in two different climate zones provides methods for data cleaning, population-based building comparisons, and relationships (correlations) of weather and electricity consumption. Data cleaning methods have been developed to categorize and appropriately filter or correct anomalous data including outliers, missing data, and erroneous values (resulting in < 0.5% anomalies). The utility of a cross-sectional analysis of a sample set of building's electricity consumption is found through comparisons of baseload, daily consumption variance, and energy use intensity. Correlations of weather and electricity consumption 15-minute interval datasets show important relationships for the heating and cooling seasons using computed correlations of a Time-Specific-Averaged-Ordered Variable (exterior temperature) and corresponding averaged variables (electricity consumption)(TSAOV method). The TSAOV method is unique as it introduces time of day as a third variable while also minimizing randomness in both correlated variables through averaging. This study found that many of the pair-wise linear correlation analyses lacked strong relationships, prompting the development of the new TSAOV method to uncover the causal relationship between electricity and weather. We conclude that a combination of varied HVAC system operations, building thermal mass, plug load use, and building set point temperatures are likely responsible for the poor correlations in the prior studies, while the correlation of time-specific-averaged-ordered temperature and corresponding averaged variables method developed herein adequately accounts for these issues and enables discovery of strong linear pair-wise correlation R values. TSAOV correlations lay the foundation for a new approach to building studies, that mitigates plug load interferences and identifies more accurate insights into weather-energy relationship for all building types. Over all six buildings analyzed the TSAOV method reported very significant average correlations per building of 0.94 to 0.82 in magnitude. Our rigorous statistics-based methods applied to 15-minute-interval electricity data further enables virtual energy audits of buildings to quickly and inexpensively inform energy savings measures