Swimming Up the Stream of Commerce: How Plaintiffs in Products Liability Litigation Are Disadvantaged by Current Personal Jurisdiction Doctrine

The growth of e-commerce has facilitated an increasing number of products’ travel, frequently across state and international lines. This development has subsequently increased litigation between parties who are of diverse residencies. These disputes have challenged the fundamental territorial principles that established early personal jurisdiction doctrine. Moreover, unprecedented corporate expansion—both geographically and economically—has created an environment that has outgrown a doctrine focused on protecting defendants’ rights. As courts are beginning to reform their analysis in products liability litigation towards finding Amazon and others like it strictly liable for injuries caused by products sold on their sites, Amazon will have to find another way out, likely through challenging the presiding court’s adjudicatory authority. This Comment will evaluate whether the Supreme Court of the United States’ interpretation of personal jurisdiction has progressed at the necessary speed to adequately address the issues arising out of Americans’ dependence on Amazon. More generally, it will look at the implications of the Supreme Court’s current understanding of personal jurisdiction and assess whether the current state of the doctrine is sheltering corporations behind new types of business models. By looking specifically at products liability litigation involving goods sold on Amazon, it will conclude that the expansion of e-commerce has challenged the adequacy of current approaches to personal jurisdiction and products liability disputes. The solution to the issues caused by this stagnant nature of law requires simultaneous specific personal jurisdiction and products liability doctrinal reform

ὁ κιχλισμός ποτός: Comedy and Wine in Classical Athens

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College

The effect of multicultural attitudes and perceived intergroup threat on attitudes towards immigrants in Portugal: a polynomial regression with response surface analysis

Supported by the Intergroup Threat Theory (ITT), this study analyzes the effect of multicultural ideology on attitudes towards immigrants mediated by realistic, symbolic, and zero-sum threats. With a sample of Portuguese participants (N = 404)), polynomial regression analysis with response surface methodology was used to test the effects of multicultural attitude (MA) and perceived intergroup threat (PIT) on attitudes towards immigrants (ATI). This study also tested a model in which positive MA leads to a lower PIT, and consequently to more favorable ATI. Four hypotheses were proposed; all of which were confirmed. The results further showed that the direction of discrepancy between MA and PIT can provide a more comprehensive understanding of the complex role of multicultural ideology in predicting ATI. Findings, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Understanding the diversity of maternal microbiota species Bifidobacterium using culturing and genomic approaches

The establishment of the gut microbiota starts at birth, and colonisation of this early-life microbial community has a significant impact during infancy and in later life. It is now appreciated that the maternal microbiota also plays a vital role during pregnancy, with rapid changes in the microbiota composition observed throughout the gestation period. Disturbances in the maternal microbiota have also been identified as a risk factor for many diseases and complications during pregnancy. There has been limited work on the maternal microbiota and its composition, particularly an in-depth characterisation of beneficial genera such as Bifidobacterium. Recently, studies have suggested this bacterial group may modulate maternal health and foetal development, and therefore this project aims to identify which species and strains of Bifidobacterium are present in the maternal microbiota throughout healthy pregnancy, using a combination of culturing techniques and whole genome sequencing. A total of 140 Bifidobacterium colonies were cultured and isolated from 12 pregnant women during 3 timepoints during gestation and 1 post birth. Five Bifidobacterium species were found, with the majority identified in Bifidobacterium longum and Bifidobacterium animalis. The genomes were run through several bioinformatics programmes to identify and visualise both the phylogenetic relationships between the isolates, and several known human milk oligosaccharide clusters and antimicrobial resistance genes; which were found in all 5 species. Although many of the Bifidobacterium animalis strains were shared among participants, all Bifidobacterium longum strains were participant specific. This research offers essential insights into Bifidobacterium species and strains that reside in the maternal gut, and their overall diversity and functional traits that they encode. This data presented here may allow additional studies to further our understanding on how this genus contributes to maternal wellbeing

Women in Higher Education: The Challenge Remains, Who Wears the “Pants”

This research was initially done across disciplines and across faculties in one faith-based higher education institution in Australia, to discover the challenges and opportunities faced by women in the higher education sector. It was then expanded to see if these issues were different for those working in secular institutions, as well as other faith-based institutions. A replicated study, it also compares results to a study completed at Rhodes University in South Africa. The results were similar across all institutions. Women are still facing three major issues in the higher education sector: namely, lack of self-esteem, attempting (unsuccessfully) to create life/work balance, and continued hurdles presented by stereotypical gender roles. The present research adds to that of the past by confirming that there are still workplace barriers in place; however, there is a positive view that unconscious biases are changing, and that no longer are lifelong careers only reserved for males in higher education. Although workplace experiences for women are changing, it is proposed that a future vision for women in the higher education workforce should contain formal and informal mentoring as well as role modelling and use of Women’s groups to support and promote women in higher education, thus creating a greater convergence of gender opportunities

Characterization of Ti-6Al-4V Bar for Aerospace Fastener Pin Axial Forging

Ti-6Al-4V warm forged fasteners are a critical part of the aerospace industry, as they are used in vast quantities for mechanical joining of components for the fuselage, wing-skin and aero-engine. These components are produced in vast quantities at rapid production rates through multi-blow axial forging However the rate that they are manufactured means that manufacturers rely upon periodic part conformance testing to understand if the part is within tolerance or if any undesirable manufacturing defects such as cracks or underfilling are present. Thus, a right-first-time manufacturing approach is essential to minimize non-conformant scrap. An analysis of the Ti-6Al-4V supplied raw material for axial forging, in a variety of different bar diameter sizes and from different industrial suppliers, was conducted. This was to attempt to understand whether material property variation or operator variation was the root cause for some material behaving differently during the manufacture route. Experimental testing was performed through microstructure characterization and mechanical testing methods. The volume fraction of the β-phase was noted to be marginally higher in material with good forgeability. The hardness of the inner core of the bar appears to be a critical material property for the Ti-6Al4V bar, with an overly hard bar-core hindering forgeability of the bar. This is believed to be due to the hotter central region malleability being key for forgeability. Micro-void porosity was also noted which could lead to stress concentration locations, or crack initiation, and as such is a deleterious property for forgeability. The experienced forgeability of the Ti-6Al-4V bars have been demonstrated to be sensitive to rather small variation in measured microstructure and mechanical property. It is believed that cumulative impacts of small differences, 1% variation in α-phase volume fraction, small variations in elongation to failure, 1% variation in elastic modulus and microhardness profile variation at the center of the bar of less than 10 HV0.3, can combine to significantly impact the forgeability of Ti-6Al-4V bar

Effect of Trail Running Pack Weight on Lower Extremity Biomechanics

In the sport of ultrarunning there are a variety of ways runners carry the equipment and nutrition that is required. Many of the faster athletes will be seen with handheld bottles or minimal packs, however the size and weight of packs may vary based on the length of the race, nutritional needs, and pacing. PURPOSE: To date, no research has been conducted to understand what biomechanical adaptions occur with packs of varying weight. METHODS: Kinematic and kinetic data were collected using a 16 camera Vicon Nexus System (Vicon Inc. Denver, CO) and the Bertec instrumented treadmill (Bertec, Inc., Columbus, OH) system for 2 female, and 4 male runners averaging 10-30 miles a week. Reflective markers were placed on the lower extremities and chest. Condition 1 consisted of running at no pack weight and then three more conditions of 3, 6, and 9 percent body weight respectively. Participants would run for 5 minutes with a Salomon running vest at each weight. The study will focus on the changes in GRF and moments of the hip, knee, and ankle. RESULTS: The peak ground reaction force (GRF) had a slight increase in all weighted conditions in comparison to condition 1 (2-5%). Anterior and posterior GRF increased by about in 7% in condition 3 and 4 compared to conditions 1 and 2. Hip flexion and extension moments increased in condition 4 compared to all other conditions (13.3% and 11.5%). Knee extensions increased incrementally through conditions 1 and 4. The plantar flexion moment increased 9% in condition 3 and 4 compared to conditions 1 and 2. CONCLUSION: With the increase of weight added into the vest it was hypothesized that biomechanical variables would have incremental changes associated with the change in pack weight. However, each variable was affected differently. Through each variable there was a contrasting point that a significant change was observed. With this evidence, it can be explained that each joint excepted and balanced the weight differently. Evidently, the hips were affected more at the higher weights and the ankle was affected at the lower weight. Condition 2 had little to no effect on biomechanical variables and may not negatively affect performance

The host galaxies of Compact Steep Spectrum and Gigahertz-Peaked Spectrum radio sources

I will review some of the developments in studies of the host galaxy properties of Compact Steep Spectrum (CSS) and GigaHertz-Peaked Spectrum (GPS) radio sources. In contrast to previous reviews structured around observational technique, I will discuss the host galaxy properties in terms of morphology, stellar content and warm gas properties and discuss how compact, young radio-loud AGN are key objects for understanding galaxy evolution.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, Invited review at '4th Workshop on Compact Steep Spectrum and Gigahertz-Peaked Spectrum Radio Sources', to appear in A

‘Communication is difficult’: Speech, language and communication needs of people with young onset or rarer forms of non-language led dementia

BACKGROUND: People with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body dementia, posterior cortical atrophy and young onset Alzheimer's disease may experience language and communication difficulties. However, the role of speech and language interventions for people with these non-language led dementias has received little attention. AIMS: This study aimed to explore the experiences and perspectives of people living with these conditions, and their families, regarding their language and communication difficulties and how speech and language therapy could address these needs. MATHODS: This study employed a qualitative design to explore the experiences of people living with or caring for somebody with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body dementia, posterior cortical atrophy or young onset Alzheimer's disease, and to understand their opinions about speech and language therapy. Participants were recruited from a support service connected to a dementia clinic to attend one of five focus group meetings. Videorecorded focus groups and interviews were transcribed, and reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse data from people affected by each type of dementia. RESULTS: A total of 25 participants were recruited to the study, with representation across the different forms of non-language led dementias. The four main themes identified were: (1) communication difficulties as a key difficulty, (2) loss and loneliness, (3) speech and language therapy, and (4) the role of the caregiver. Sixteen subthemes were also identified which highlighted individual issues across disease types. DISCUSSION: Although all the forms of dementia studied here are not considered to be language-led, people with these conditions and/or their care partners identified speech, language and communication as common challenges. These communication difficulties were reported to have a negative impact on their social participation and mental health and participants felt speech and language interventions could help. There is a need for research exploring speech and language interventions developed for and with people with non-language led dementias and their care partners, to ensure they meet the needs of the people they are designed for

Origin and evolution of the octoploid strawberry genome.

Cultivated strawberry emerged from the hybridization of two wild octoploid species, both descendants from the merger of four diploid progenitor species into a single nucleus more than 1 million years ago. Here we report a near-complete chromosome-scale assembly for cultivated octoploid strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) and uncovered the origin and evolutionary processes that shaped this complex allopolyploid. We identified the extant relatives of each diploid progenitor species and provide support for the North American origin of octoploid strawberry. We examined the dynamics among the four subgenomes in octoploid strawberry and uncovered the presence of a single dominant subgenome with significantly greater gene content, gene expression abundance, and biased exchanges between homoeologous chromosomes, as compared with the other subgenomes. Pathway analysis showed that certain metabolomic and disease-resistance traits are largely controlled by the dominant subgenome. These findings and the reference genome should serve as a powerful platform for future evolutionary studies and enable molecular breeding in strawberry