Analog Solutions: E-discovery Spoliation Sanctions and the Proposed Amendments to FRCP 37(e)

The ever-increasing importance of digital technology in today’s commercial environment has created several serious problems for courts operating under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure’s (FRCP) discovery regime. As the volume of discoverable information has grown exponentially, so too have the opportunities for abuse and misinterpretation of the FRCP’s outdated e-discovery rules. Federal courts are divided over the criteria for imposing the most severe discovery sanctions as well as the practical ramifications of the preservation duty as applied to electronically stored information. As a result, litigants routinely feel pressured to overpreserve potentially discoverable data, often at great expense. At a conference at the Duke University School of Law in 2010, experts from all sides of the civil-litigation system concluded that the e-discovery rules were in desperate need of updating. The subsequent four years saw a flurry of rulemaking efforts. In 2014, a package of proposed FRCP amendments included a complete overhaul of Rule 37(e), the provision governing spoliation sanctions for electronically stored information. This Note analyzes the proposed Rule and argues that the amendment will fail to accomplish the Advisory Committee’s goals because it focuses too heavily on preserving the trial court’s discretion in imposing sanctions and focuses too little on incentivizing efficient and cooperative pretrial discovery. The Note concludes by offering revisions and enforcement mechanisms that would allow the new Rule 37(e) to better address the e-discovery issues identified at the Duke Conference

Potential applications of randomised graph sampling to invasive species surveillance and monitoring.

Abstract Many invasive plants and animals disperse preferentially through linear networks in the landscape, including road networks, riparian corridors, and power transmission lines. Unless the network of interest is small, or the budget for surveillance is large, it may be necessary to draw inferences from a sample rather than a complete census on the network. Desired features of a surveillance system to detect and quantify invasion include: (1) the ability to make unbiased statements about the spatial extent of invasion, the abundance of the invading organism, and the degree of impact; (2) the ability to quantify the uncertainty associated with those statements; (3) the ability to sample by moving within the network in a reasonable fashion, and with little wasted non-measurement time; and (4) the ability to incorporate auxiliary information (such as remotely sensed data, ecological models, or expert opinion) to direct sampling where it will be most fruitful. Randomised graph sampling (RGS) has all of these attributes. The network of interest (such as a road network) is recomposed into a graph, consisting of vertices (such as road intersections) and edges (such as road segments connecting nodes). The vertices and edges are used to construct paths representing reasonable sampling routes through the network; these paths are then sampled, potentially with unequal probability. Randomised graph sampling is unbiased, and the incorporation of auxiliary information can dramatically reduce sample variances. We illustrate RGS using simplified examples, and a survey of Polygonum cuspidatum (Siebold & Zucc.) within a high-priority conservation region in southern Maine, USA

Workplace Accommodations for Individuals with Arthritis

This brochure on individuals with arthritis and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is one of a series on human resources practices and workplace accommodations for persons with disabilities edited by Susanne M. Bruyère, Ph.D., CRC, SPHR, Director, Program on Employment and Disability, School of Industrial and Labor Relations – Extension Division, Cornell University. Cornell University was funded in the early 1990’s by the U.S. Department of Education National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research as a National Materials Development Project on the employment provisions (Title I) of the ADA (Grant #H133D10155). These updates, and the development of new brochures, have been funded by Cornell’s Program on Employment and Disability, the Pacific Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center, and other supporters

BEDROCK MAPPING OF THE WINCHENDON (1:25,000) QUADRANGLE (MA-NH): EVIDENCE FOR DISCONTINOUS DEFORMATION ALONG THE BRONSON HILL-CENTRAL MAINE BOUNDARY ZONE

Bedrock geology of the Winchendon quadrangle is divided into two zones based on structures and lithology. The eastern zone consists of tightly folded Silurian Rangeley and Paxton metasediments and pegmatites. Planar, NNE-SSW striking, W dipping foliations are characterized by alternating phyllosilicate-rich and leucosome layers. Fold axes of tight to isoclinal upright and recumbent folding are parallel to SSW-NNE shallowly plunging sillimanite, quartz and muscovite lineations. In the western zone Rangeley schists were intruded by Devonian Hardwick and Coys Hill and Fitzwilliam plutons. Planar NNE-SSW striking foliations dip shallowly to steeply west. Fold axes of tight-to-isoclinal asymmetric to recumbent folds plunge shallowly to steeply SSW, parallel to elongate quartz and feldspar lineations. Fabrics in both portions developed in by greenschist facies mineral assemblages Asymmetric porphyroclasts and S-C/C’ fabrics from both areas display dextral asymmetry. Lateral extrusion as the result of pure-shear dominated E-W shortening and N-S extension is recorded by structures that exhibit strong contractional strains, accompanied by stretching fabrics. A 2-3 kilometer wide belt of deformation named the Bronson Hill-Central Maine Boundary Zone (BHCMBZ) correlates with the Conant Brook Shear Zone. This creates a zone of deformation that widens to the north and separates Ordovician plutons of the Bronson Hill zone from units of the Central Maine zone. North of Winchendon, retrograde deformation is absent and Acadian metamorphism and structures are preserved. This creates an inconsistency in along-strike deformation the length of the inferred terrane boundary. A larger terrane, composed of the Bronson Hill and Central Maine zones is proposed to account for the discontinuous deformation along strike

Speaking ourselves: The intersections of women educators\u27 personal and professional lives

This paper presents findings from interviews conducted with 33 women educators working at varying levels of education and in diverse fields, and who varied in terms of age, ethnicity, race, family structure, geographic location, and sexual orientation.i Semi-structured interviews, building on variants of this question, Does who you are as person influence what you do as an educator and are there ways being an educator influences your life outside of work?, were conducted, tape recorded, and inductively analyzed. The themes uncovered suggest that women educators function as whole persons, aware of multiple intersections between their personal and professional lives. In a time of teacher-proof, scripted curricula, standardization, and other socalled reforms in the field of education, these findings remind us that teaching cannot be reduced to curricular guidelines and generic texts mandated from above. Rather, the diversity that teachers bring to the profession argues against a one-size-fits-all model and for a contextualized pedagogy that cannot be limited to mere content dissemination

Colorblind Policies And The Discourses That Uphold Them: The Social Construction Of Bullying

This research explores the relationship between the social construction of bullying and race in K-12 schools using Crenshaw’s (1991) theory of intersectionality. The central research questions are: In what ways is the bullying discourse connected to race and racialized discourses in PK-12 settings? How do bullying discourses and policies offer protection to some students while portraying/positioning others as bullies? In what ways do bullying discourses and policies privilege and afford institutional protection for some students while marginalizing others? Twenty high school seniors will be interviewed. Ten participants attend an alternative high school because they have been expelled from mainstream schooling. They are primarily students of color from low-income backgrounds. The other ten students attend a college-preparatory high school where they have must have high grades and few behavioral infractions. They are mostly white, middle-class or wealthy students. Critical discourse analysis will be used to analyze the data. This data will inform policy and school practices around bullying

“Love, What Have You Done to Me?” Eros and agape in Alfred Hitchcock\u27s I Confess

Despite its pre-Vatican II setting, Alfred Hitchcock’s I Confess (1953) has retained a notable relevance in the twenty-first century. Although the titular act of confession is unsurprisingly significant, the diegesis actually foregrounds Matrimony and Holy Orders – two sacraments that remain under the spotlight during a tumultuous era for the Catholic Church. Alongside the traditional Hitchcockian theme of “an innocent man wrongly accused,” the plot really hinges on love – a subject that is intelligible to people of all religions and none. While examining the mise-en-scène of the director’s most Catholic film, this article offers an exploration of I Confess as a cinematic reflection on the complexities of eros and agape for both the laity and the priesthood