Emotional Distress Claims, Dignitary Torts, and the Medical-Legal Fiction of Reasonable Sensitivity

Can individuals with a highly sensitive temperament recover in tort for intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED)? In 2019, an article in the University of Memphis Law Review raised this question, referring to the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) construct in psychology and asking whether the IIED tort’s \u27reasonable person\u27 standard discriminates against highly sensitive plaintiffs. Following up on that discussion, the present article considers how the law of IIED has historically treated plaintiffs with diagnosed psychiatric vulnerabilities that are either known or unknown to the defendant. The article also extends this discussion to the law\u27s treatment of temperaments, such as high sensitivity, which are distinct from diagnosed psychiatric disorders; presents hypothetical scenarios with respect to undiagnosed but inferred or predicted vulnerabilities; and explores the history of the dignitary IIED tort and the origins of its reasonableness requirement. This discussion acknowledges that scientific advances can allow uniquely vulnerable plaintiffs to assert harm in new ways—while also (1) pointing out that scientific uncertainties regarding the mind and temperamental sensitivity persist today and (2) touching on clinical and criminal law approaches to intentionally inflicted harms, which can emphasize the defendant\u27s conduct as opposed to the plaintiff’s subjective traits or experience for victim-protecting reasons. The purpose of raising these considerations is not to suggest particular reforms or strategies but, rather, to encourage readers to consider the potential impact of focusing on the plaintiff\u27s biology on the one hand, or the defendant\u27s conduct on the other, when deciding how to remedy intentionally inflicted mental harms

Study of Activation of Coal Char

This is the third report on a project whose aim is to explore in a fundamental manner the factors that influence the development of porosity in coal chars during the process of activation. It is known that choices of starting coal, activating agent and conditions can strongly influence the nature of an activated carbon produced from a coal. Interest in this phase of the project turned to characterization of one particular char. Results have been published on Pittsburgh No. 8 char using an entirely different porosity characterization method. The interpretation of the results in that other study is not entirely consistent with what has been observed in this study. In particular, the results of the present study seemed to indicate the opening up of existing porosity, as opposed to creation of new porosity. It is difficult to infer much, based upon the porosity characterizations alone. Instead, attention was turned to the correlation of porosity with reactivity, which can provide a clue as to whether there was actually full accessibility of all of the observed porosity. The conclusion is that the pores are not all fully accessible, and that different oxidizing gases behave differently. The suggestion is that measured porosity is not all accessible to reactants. Also, attempts to correlate reactivity of chars with surface area are likely to be problematic, if different gases behave differently in this regard

Study of Activation of Coal Char

This is the second report on a project whose aim is to explore in a fundamental manner the factors that influence the development of porosity in coal chars during the process of activation. It is known that choices of starting coal, activating agent and conditions can strongly influence the nature of an activated carbon produced from a coal. This work has again confirmed that there is a fundamental difference in char structure that is reflective of the source of the chars. What is new in the present results is a strong indication that this difference is seen, irrespective of the conditions of char preparation. Results were compared for utility combustion chars, all of which were prepared under the very high intense heating conditions of utility boilers, and the laboratory-prepared chars prepared at orders of magnitude lower heating rates. The chars were of very similar nature regardless of the heating conditions that led to their preparation (and despite major differences in level of burnoff). On the other hand, the results from the examination of the laboratory char results do again suggest that the activation conditions play some role in determining porosity, though their effect is decidedly less important than the role of the parent material. This is true despite an enormous range of reactivity exhibited by the activating agents

NOx Control Options and Integration for US Coal Fired Boilers Quarterly Report

This is the ninth Quarterly Technical Report for DOE Cooperative Agreement No: DE-FC26-00NT40753. The goal of the project is to develop cost effective analysis tools and techniques for demonstrating and evaluating low NOx control strategies and their possible impact on boiler performance for firing US coals. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is providing cofunding for this program. This program contains multiple tasks and good progress is being made on all fronts. Various subsystems of BYU's Catalyst Characterization System (CCS) were upgraded this quarter. Work on the CCS hardware and software will continue in the coming quarter. A preliminary test matrix of poisoning experiments in the CCS has been drafted that will explore the effects of at least three poisons: sodium, potassium and calcium. During this quarter, we attempted to resolve discrepancies in previous in situ measurements of catalyst sulfation. Modifications were made to the XPS analysis procedure that allowed analyses of uncrushed samples. Although the XPS and FTIR results are now more consistent in that both indicate that the surface is sulfating (unlike the results reported last quarter), they disagree with respect to which species sulfates. The CEM system for the multi-catalyst slipstream reactor arrived this quarter. Minor modifications to the reactor and control system were completed. The reactor will be shipped to AEP Rockport plant next quarter for shakedown and installation. In a parallel effort, we have proposed to make mercury oxidation measurements across the catalysts at the start of the field test. Pending approval from DOE, we will begin the mercury measurements next quarter