The Law Comes to Campus: The Evolution and Current Role of the Office of the General Counsel on College and University Campuses

Much has been written in the literature of higher education on the history and current role of presidents, provosts, and deans. However, higher education scholars have, for the most part ignored the role of institutional in-house attorneys on college and university campuses. Those who have written on the subject of institutional counsel have proffered the idea that in-house general counsel offices were established as a result of the increased regulation of higher education by state and federal governments, and litigation resulting from the faculty and student rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s. This project seeks to provide a detailed justification for the rationale for the proliferation of counsel offices, and to provide a base-line qualitative, interview-based approach to the current role of college and university attorneys. Using a historical, document based approach this dissertation provides a comprehensive exploration of the argument that the establishment and growth of offices of the general counsel on college and university campuses was rooted in litigation. This dissertation further builds on the notion that as colleges and universities became larger and more complex, federal and state governments increased regulatory and reporting demands and accountability on institutions. A second issue that this dissertation covers is the way in which modern day institutional counsel view their roles within a college or university. Using Oral History Methodology, three attorneys were interviewed about their perceptions of their roles. Based on those interviews, this dissertation proffers the idea that an institutional counsel’s view of his or her role is linked to the nature of the individual campus and its leadership, and the structure of the office in which the attorney works. This dissertation also puts the role of the institutional counsel into the context of institutional actors by comparing it with the role of the academic dean. In addition to showing that the role of the institutional counsel is institution dependent, the results of this project indicate that the role of the institutional general counsel is an area ripe for additional study

Do residents of food deserts express different food buying preferences compared to residents of food oases? A mixed-methods analysis

Background: Many people lack access to food stores that provide healthful food. Neighborhoods with poor supermarket access have been characterized as “food deserts” (as contrast with “food oases”). This study explored factors influencing food buying practices among residents of food deserts versus food oases in the city of Boston, USA. Methods: We used the mixed-methods approach of concept mapping, which allows participants to identify, list, and organize their perceptions according to importance. Resulting maps visually illustrate priority areas. Results: Sixty-seven low-income adults completed the concept mapping process that identified 163 unique statements (e.g. relating to affordability, taste, and convenience) that influence food buying practices. Multivariate statistical techniques grouped the 163 statements into 8 clusters or concepts. Results showed that average cluster ratings and rankings were similar between residents of food deserts and food oases. Conclusions: The implication of this study pertains to the importance of community resources and emergency food assistance programs that have served to minimize the burden associated with hunger and poor food access among low-income, urban populations

Sparse regular subsets of the reals

This paper concerns the expansion of the real ordered additive group by a predicate for a subset of $[0,1]$ whose base-$r$ representations are recognized by a B\"uchi automaton. In the case that this predicate is closed, a dichotomy is established for when this expansion is interdefinable with the structure (\mathbb{R},1}. In the case that the closure of the predicate has Hausdorff dimension less than $1$, the dichotomy further characterizes these expansions of $(\mathbb{R},<,+,0,1)$ by when they have NIP and NTP$_2$, which is precisely when the closure of the predicate has Hausdorff dimension $0$.Comment: 25 page

Population Trends and Variation in Body Mass Index from 1971 to 2008 in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort

Objective: We examined body mass index (BMI) across place and time to determine the pattern of BMI mean and standard deviation trajectories. Methods: We included participants in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) Offspring Cohort over eight waves of follow-up, from 1971 to 2008. After exclusions, the final sample size was 4569 subjects with 28,625 observations. We used multi-level models to examine population means and variation at the individual and neighborhood (census tracts) levels across time with measured BMI as the outcome, controlling for individual demographics and behaviors and neighborhood poverty. Because neighborhoods accounted for limited BMI variance, we removed this level as a source of variation in final models. We examined sex-stratified models with all subjects and models stratified by sex and baseline weight classification. Results: Mean BMI increased from 24.0 kg/m2 at Wave 1 to 27.7 at Wave 8 for women and from 26.6 kg/m2 to 29.0 for men. In final models, BMI variation also increased from Waves 1 to 8, with the standard deviation increasing from 4.18 kg/m2 to 6.15 for women and 3.31 kg/m2 to 4.73 for men. BMI means increased in parallel across most baseline BMI weight classifications, except for more rapid increases through middle-age for obese women followed by declines in the last wave. BMI standard deviations also increased in parallel across baseline BMI classifications for women, with greater divergence of BMI variance for obese men compared to other weight classifications. Conclusion: Over nearly 40 years, BMI mean and variation increased in parallel across most baseline weight classifications in our sample. Individual-level characteristics, especially baseline BMI, were the primary factors in rising BMI. These findings have important implications not only for understanding the sources of the obesity epidemic in the United States but also for the targeting of interventions to address the epidemic

Taxing Sugar-Sweetened Beverages: Not a “Holy Grail” but a Cup at Least Half Comment on “Food Taxes: A New Holy Grail?”

In this commentary, we argue for the implementation of a sugar- sweetened beverage (SSB) tax as a tool to help address the global obesity and diabetes epidemics. Consumption of SSBs has increased exponentially over the last several decades, a trend that has been an important contributor to the obesity and diabetes epidemics. Prior evidence demonstrates that a SSB tax will likely decrease SSB consumption without significantly increasing consumption of other unhealthy food or beverages. Further, this tax is unlikely to have effects on income inequality and should not contribute to weight-based discrimination. A SSB tax also should raise revenue for government entities that already pay, through health care expenditures and health programs, for the consequences of excess SSB consumption

Temperature Effects on Metabolic Rate of Juvenile Pacific Bluefin Tuna \u3ci\u3eThunnus Orientalis\u3c/i\u3e

Pacific bluefin tuna inhabit a wide range of thermal environments across the Pacific ocean. To examine how metabolism varies across this thermal range, we studied the effect of ambient water temperature on metabolic rate of juvenile Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus, swimming in a swim tunnel. Rate of oxygen consumption (MO2) was measured at ambient temperatures of 8–25°C and swimming speeds of 0.75–1.75 body lengths (BL) s–1. Pacific bluefin swimming at 1 BL s–1 per second exhibited a U-shaped curve of metabolic rate vs ambient temperature, with a thermal minimum zone between 15°C to 20°C. Minimum MO2 of 175±29 mg kg–1 h–1–1 was recorded at 15°C, while both cold and warm temperatures resulted in increased metabolic rates of 331±62 mg kg–1 h–1–1 at 8°C and 256±19 mg kg–1 h–1–1 at 25°C. Tailbeat frequencies were negatively correlated with ambient temperature. Additional experiments indicated that the increase in MO2 at low temperature occurred only at low swimming speeds. Ambient water temperature data from electronic tags implanted in wild fish indicate that Pacific bluefin of similar size to the experimental fish used in the swim tunnel spend most of their time in ambient temperatures in the metabolic thermal minimum zone

Evaluation of a Direct Fed Microbial an an Enzymatically Hydrolyzed Yeast Product Fed Alone or in Combination to Beef Steers Administered Ractopamine Hydrochloride 28 Days Prior to Harvest During Summer Months in the Northern Plains

Study Description: Single-sourced, newly weaned steers (n=256; initial BW=542 ± 3.7lb; n=64 steers/treatment; 8 steers/pen) were blocked by location in a 2×2 factorial arrangement of DFM (Certillus CP B1801 Dry; Bacillus subtilis, Lactobacillus plantarum; 28 g/steer·d-1) and YCW (Celmanax; 18 g/steer·d-1). Temperature-humidity index (THI) was calculated as: THI=0.81×ambient temperature+[relative humidity×(ambient temperature-14.40)]+46.40. On d-1 and 2 and d-21 and 22 on RH, respiration rate (RR) and panting scores (PS) were determined before and after AM and PM feedings (0700h, 1100h, 1400h, 1700h). RR (n=3 steers/pen) was calculated from: 600/seconds required for 10 flank movements. PS utilized this scoring system: 0 (not distressed) to 4.5 (severely distressed)

Evaluation of a Direct Fed Microbial and/or an Enzymatically Hydrolyzed Yeast Product in Diets Containing Monensin Sodium on Feedlot Phase Growth Performance, Efficiency of Dietary Net Energy Utilization, and Carcass Characteristics in Newly Weaned Beef Steers Fed in Confinement for 258 Days

Study Description: Single-sourced, newly weaned steers (n = 256; initial body weight (BW) = 542 ± 3.7 lb) were allotted to 32 pens (n = 8 pens/treatment with 8 steers/pen). Steers were blocked by location in a 2x2 factorial treatment arrangement of DFM (Certillus CP B1801 Dry; Bacillus subtilis, Lactobacillus plantarum; 28 g/steer·d-1) and YCW (Celmanax; 18 g/steer·d-1). Steers were vaccinated and poured at processing and individually weighed on d 1, 14, 42 (end of receiving phase; implanted), 77, 105 (end of growing phase), 133, 161 (implanted), 182, 230 (start ractopamine HCl) and 258. Growth performance and carcass measurements were recorded