Congress to Administrative Agencies: Creator, Overseer, and Partner

Ultimately, all questions of administrative law, judicial review of agency action, and the degree of congressional oversight revolve around attempts to discover where the true congressional intent lies. All of our congressional oversight activities seek to advance an administrative agency outcome that most reflects congressional understanding of the dictates of law. In our system of government the non-legislative branches all pursue the same goal-determining and ultimately following congressional intent. The system affords each branch a great deal of leeway to pursue its own view of congressional intent, and naturally each branch seeks to assert its own perspective as much as possible. In the author\u27s opinion, from the vantage point of a congressional subcommittee chair, some views should be granted greater deference than others

FOREWORD

On October 29, 2021, the Western New England Law Review hosted its annual Symposium: Post Pandemic Digital World: Platforms, Algorithms, Cybersecurity, and Justice. This event aimed to begin a larger conversation about approaches to regulation of digital platforms, at a time when they are rapidly gaining significance, and the issues they create are becoming increasingly complex. Today, people are more dependent on technology to work and communicate with one another. Social media and financial platforms are at the center of these financial communications. While these platforms, on their face, are a brilliant way to connect the world, many of these platforms have become ground zero for breeding intolerance, misinformation, ignorance, violence, theft of personal information, and other criminal activity. Demand for self-regulation and government regulation from across the political spectrum has led to congressional hearings and debates on how to best address the spread of this activity. However, efforts to combat these issues have reached an impasse, leaving many platforms with only limited regulation. The Western New England Law Review would like to thank U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey for his contribution to our event. Senator Markey is leading the way in telecommunications technology policies, and he joined us to speak about these issues and one potential solution: the Algorithmic Justice and Online Platform Transparency Act

Psychometric Profiles of Patient Populations with Excessive Daytime Sleepiness

Patients with narcolepsy have more psychiatric symptoms than normal controls as measured by psychometric tests. However, it is unclear whether these findings are specific to narcolepsy, as some studies have suggested, or related to excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) or to chronic illness. We compared a group of 56 narcoleptics to age- and sex-matched controls with EDS. A group of 48 individuals with normal sleep architecture was also used as an additional control group. Both the narcoleptic group and the EDS-control group had significantly greater scores on Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory scales hut were not different from each other. Our data suggest that the psychopathology associated with narcolepsy is not specific and may be generalized among patients with disorders of excessive sleepiness

Modulation of nucleosome dynamics in Huntington's disease

Transcriptional dysregulation and aberrant chromatin remodeling are central features in the pathology of Huntington's disease (HD). In order to more fully characterize these pathogenic events, an assessment of histone profiles and associated gene changes were performed in transgenic N171-82Q (82Q) and R6/2 HD mice. Analyses revealed significant chromatin modification, resulting in reduced histone acetylation with concomitant increased histone methylation, consistent with findings observed in HD patients. While there are no known interventions that ameliorate or arrest HD progression, DNA/RNA-binding anthracyclines may provide significant therapeutic potential by correcting pathological nucleosome changes and realigning transcription. Two such anthracyclines, chromomycin and mithramycin, improved altered nucleosome homeostasis in HD mice, normalizing the chromatin pattern. There was a significant shift in the balance between methylation and acetylation in treated HD mice to that found in wild-type mice, resulting in greater acetylation of histone H3 at lysine 9 and promoting gene transcription. Gene expression profiling in anthracycline-treated HD mice showed molecular changes that correlate with disease correction, such that a subset of downregulated genes were upregulated with anthracycline treatment. Improved nucleosomal dynamics were concurrent with a significant improvement in the behavioral and neuropathological phenotype observed in HD mice. These data show the ability of anthracycline compounds to rebalance epigenetic histone modification and, as such, may provide the rationale for the design of human clinical trials in HD patient